WOOD, PEAT AND COAL ASHES. 53 



red-ash coaL Of course, much depends upon the place you get 

 coal ashes from, or the way in which the coal is used. If your 

 ashes are obtained from kitchen fires, kindled every morning, 

 you see, of course, that you get a large amount of wood ashes ; 

 but if you get them from a furnace where the fire is kindled 

 the first of November, and does not go out until the next May, 

 and not a stick of wood is used during all that time, you get, 

 of course, no wood ashes, only coal. 



My last experiments were made with coal ashes obtained 

 from such a source, where no wood was used, and I must say, 

 that beyond serving a good purpose as an absorbent, I do not 

 believe they were of any value ; and as an absorbent, they were 

 no better than sand would have been. But then, it may be, as 

 Prof. Chadbourne has remarked, that they act mechanically upon 

 the soil, and therefore may be used to advantage in some places. 



I pass to peat ashes. These are generally regarded as of little 

 value, because it is supposed that they contain very little pot- 

 ash ; but I use peat ashes with very great advantage, and I 

 would pay something for them. I use them as an absorbent. 

 I put them into privies, to absorb the liquid, and then mix 

 them with muck, and use them in this combination with very 

 gratifying results. 



Now, to return to coal. I cannot agree with Mr. Thompson 

 in regard to the use of coal ashes upon grass land ; or I should 

 say that they do not have that effect upon the lands about Bos- 

 ton that they have down in Nantucket. I have used them upon 

 grass land, and noted the results very carefully ; I have used 

 them on wet land and dry land, and I could not see a particle 

 of difference in the grass. If I use wood ashes, I can write my 

 name in the grass almost, and I can bring in white clover where 

 there did not seem to be a particle of it before, so that it would 

 do your eyes good to see it. Coal ashes never produce such a 

 result with me. 



One word in regard to salt. I have tried salt to some extent, 

 and I agree fully with what Col. Wilder has said, that salt is of 

 no sort of use with us about Boston, and I have great fears 

 about using it. I have seen it applied to asparagus, so that not 

 a single living thing could grow in the bed but asparagus, and 

 the soil seemed scorched and barren ; and yet that asparagus 

 did not do nearly so well as my friend Moore's, where he uses 



