COAL ASHES. 51 



load of say, a quarter of a cord. I find that makes the best 

 potatoes, but, as I say, it is an expensive manure ; therefore I 

 made a compost of one load of kelp, two loads of peat, that I 

 got on my own land, and say a barrel of lime. The kelp carried 

 the salt, and the lime was slacked and dissolved, and it was 

 composted in alternate layers of peat, and kelp and lime. The 

 potatoes produced in the hills to which this compost was ap- 

 plied were as smooth as they could be, and almost all large, 

 where they grew from a cutting of one eye to each piece. It 

 was not a large yield, only twenty-five or thirty bushels of 

 " Early Rose " from one bushel treated in that way ; but they 

 were all large, fair, merchantable potatoes. 



My experience and observation in regard to wood ashes would 

 induce me to give as Colonel Wilder has said, even fifty cents 

 a bushel if I could be sure of getting them at that price. I will 

 say, that the farmers on Long Island send vessels down to the 

 State of Maine to bring up ashes by the cargo, and it is these 

 ashes which have made the lower end of that island into 

 vegetable gardens for the city of New York. 



Mr. Colt. Can't you apply your peat without composting it ? 



Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir, but it would have an injurious 

 effect, because, spread broadcast in the fall, or laid out so that 

 the frost would act upon it, the acid in it would rather have a 

 tendency to retard vegetation. 



Mr. Colt. Then you think the coal ashes take the acid out ? 



Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir ; any alkaline matter would neu- 

 tralize the acid in peat. 



A Member. Have you experimented with coal ashes alone, 

 and if so, with what result ? 



Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir. I do not know that you would 

 call the ashes I have applied coal ashes, because, whenever we 

 speak of the use of coal ashes, we are immediately combated 

 with the assertion that all coal ashes are more or less impreg- 

 nated with wood ashes ; but the amount of wood that is used 

 is so small, simply a few chips to kindle the fire, that I must 

 think the quantity of wood ashes is too small, in proportion to 

 the whole amount, to have any appreciable effect. The whole 

 effect, I think, is from the coal ashes, and it is a good effect. 

 You may put them right on the soil, especially if it is of a clay- 

 ey nature or low ground, and you will see the grass come in 



