(96) 



Of this 27.14 parts are soluble at once in water, and leached 

 ashes are deprived of it, and the balance, 172.86 parts, are insolu- 

 ble, but act slowly on the soil, freeing various substances in the 

 process of time. Coal ashes contain these same ingredients in a 

 much less degree, or if soil is entirely deprived of its vegetable 

 mould, it is identical almost with coal ashes. Each hundred 

 pounds contain eight that are at once valuable to the farmer, and 

 another portion has a prospective value. Coal ashes are worth a 

 good deal simply as a mechanical loosener of the soil. Mixed with 

 it, in even small proportions, it renders the soil friable and easily 

 worked. 



Having now explained that there is a principle called mould or 

 geine, and that this principle is necessary to fertility, and, also, 

 that this principle, to be in an available form, must be reacted on 

 by salts, it remains to enquire what is the best form in which these 

 elements are united. Practically, every farmer in the country will 

 at once answer stable manure. And, as is generally the case, prac- 

 tice has long found out what science seeks a reason for. A careful 

 analysis of cow manure, which is generally accepted as the unit of 

 value, shows that cow dung consists, not to go into an ultimate 

 analysis, of 



Per cent. 



Watar 83.60 



Salts 095 



^^ 15.45 



This seems to be a small proportion of valuable matter, only one- 

 sixth of the whole amount. But let us see what a careful farmer 

 can do by saving for a year. In an experiment, conducted care- 

 fully and published a few years ago, an average cow was selected, 

 and everything she ate or drank was carefully weighed, as well as 

 all the voidings of dung. This .experiment lasted seven days, and 

 from a calculation, this cow would have made in one year, 4,800 

 pounds geine, 71 pounds bone dust, 37 pounds plaster, 37 pounds 

 lime, 25 pounds common salt, J5 pounds sulphate potash. This, 

 carefully saved, furnishes salts of lime equal to four and a half 

 bushels of corn daily, or 1,662 annually. Not only is this amount 

 saved, but in addition the nitrogen that is in it, by chemical affin- 

 ity, creates a large amount of ammonia, that is fixed and amounts 

 in a year to 677 pounds. To the nitrogen is due much of the ex- 



