Notes and Gleanings. 379 



Ashes. — Suds. — A burglar once contented himself with carrying away from 

 a store a heavy bag of specie. It proved to be of copper, and worth about ten 

 dollars. Specie is not the only term that fails to indicate the value of the article 

 it denotes. One of the great wants of vegetation is potassium. It is found 

 sparingly in many rocks that are pulverized by frost and attrition. Most crops 

 carry it away from the soil ; and it is returned, in insufficient quantities, in manure. 

 A considerable part of the potassium in our forests finds its way, after their de- 

 struction, into soap. Much of this is used in washing clothes, and is left in the 

 water in the form of suds. The impurities which they contain add to their value 

 as a manure. All of their fertilizing virtue should find its way to tillable soil, if 

 possible. 



Up to the time of the present generation, a pound of sodium would buy sev- 

 eral pounds of potassium, both being in the form of carbonates. The sodium 

 in salt was not reducible to this form, and all our carbonate of soda came from 

 the ashes of sea-weed. The invention of a mode of manufacturing carbonate 

 of soda from salt wrought a revolution in the chemical arts. A pound of car- 

 bonate of potassa will buy several times its weight of carbonate of soda, and 

 twenty-three pounds of sodium is as efficient as thirty-nine pounds of potassium. 

 We are not, then, to look for potassium in any thing in which sodium can replace 

 it. In "potash "we may find little or none, and none in saleratus used for 

 cooking. You find it in no soap except the soft-soap made in families with the 

 lye leached from ashes. It is not improbable that plants may be able to substi- 

 tute sodium for some part of the potassium they need ; but It is on the same 

 principle that cows on certain islands are said to eat fish. Though the gardener 

 invariably overlooks the difference in the two kinds of suds, the jDlant will be 

 sure to find it out. It fails to find a particle of that element which the soil most 

 needs in suds made from the common bar-soap. 



No one need be told that there is little resemblance between wood-ashes and 

 coal-ashes. Unleached wood-ashes are of great use to the soil ; and, in leached 

 ashes, considerable potassium remains. We all know that it is not so with coal- 

 ashes. It is curious to inquire whether the vegetation which originated the coal 

 contained potassium ; and, if so, what became of it. But it is a much more prac- 

 ticable question, what we shall do with our coal-ashes. How far will frost dis- 

 integrate the cinder or clinker ? Having separated all large solid particles with 

 a sieve, the rest may be used in diluting strong manures or tempering soils ; but 

 there is no point in the range of domestic economy on which ignorance is more 

 universal than on that of utilizing coal-ashes. /. F. H. 



South Malden, Mass. 



LiQUiDAMBAR. — This very ornamental tree, familiarly known as the gum- 

 tree, is hardy as far north as Boston ; though, even there, sometimes winter-killed 

 in exposed situations. For an ornamental tree for street-planting in the city, its 

 elegant habit, fine foliage, freedom from disease, and exemption from the attacks 

 of insects, especially recommend it. 



It may be obtained of most nursery-men, and transplants readily. Should it 

 not be extensively planted ? E. S. R., Jun. 



