WANT OF POTASH. 47 



it." So the value of leached as compared with unleached ashes, 

 depends upon the application you want to make of them. If 

 the thing you want in your soil is potash, then of course you 

 want unleached ashes, because it is the potash that is taken out 

 by leaching. That is a thing that is sometimes almost entirely 

 wanting. On some sandy soil you want that potash ; there is no 

 question about that. But, on the other hand, if you want min- 

 eral phosphates or sulphates, you will get more value for your 

 soil, from the same amount of money, by putting on leached 

 ashes. If you need potash, then what you want is unleached 

 ashes. If you want phosphates, and those things that will con- 

 tinue to fertilize the land for a great length of time, then spend 

 your money for leached ashes. 



Col. Wilder. How is it with the soils of New England, that 

 have been long under cultivation ? 



Prof. Chadbourne. They generally lack potash, as well as 

 other elements. I will say this, that I would buy leached ashes 

 if I could get them, and unleached ashes if I could get them, and 

 all that I could get of both kinds, even if I had to pay more than 

 Mr. Foote does. I used to have them hauled on to my land in 

 Williamstown. I had a great pile there one winter ; they froze, 

 and froze dry, and there came a wind that took them and 

 strewed them right across the field, and the last time I was there, 

 there was a strip clear across the field to the fence where the 

 grass was four times as high as it was anywhere else. 



Col. Wilder. I am of the opinion that there is no mineral 

 manure that we need so much upon our soils here in New Eng- 

 land, that have been long under cultivation, as potash. I 

 would purchase ashes at almost any price at which I could pro- 

 cure them. I should consider them a cheap manure at fifty 

 cents a bushel. I have never used any manure on my soils that 

 would produce such a wonderful effect as ashes. If I wished to 

 have fair and beautiful fruit, I would apply ashes ; and in fact, 

 I have never applied them to any crop that I did not consider 

 them the cheapest manure I could use. I derive this opinion, 

 not merely from my own experience, but from the fact that on 

 all our new, virgin soils we get the fairest crops of any that we 

 grow. I saw that illustrated lately at the meeting of the 

 National Pomological Society at Philadelphia, where the fruits 

 from the new State of Kansas, although that State is not so 



