ON MANURBe. 125 



those of which we have already treated, may also be allowed 

 to rank tog-ether under the general denomination of mineral 

 manures. Those of coal, wood, and turf, when used for do- 

 mestic purposes, are, in almost all country places, mixed up 

 by the consumers with the dung-hill, and, unless they form an 

 unusual proportion of the heap, occasion but little sensible dif- 

 ference in the properties of the manure; but, when applied 

 alone, as top-dresshigs upon grass, they both strengthen the 

 herbage, improve its quality, and encourage the growth of 

 white clover; they are also generally used for many other 

 crops, both of corn and artificial grasses, but chiefly upon 

 clays and heavy tenacious loams. 



The ashes of coals, and cinders, have, indeed, the very 

 perceptible effect of loosening as well as stimulating those 

 soils, and when they can be procured in sufficiently large 

 quantities, in the neighbourhood of great towns and manufac- 

 tories, they are also ploughed in with great advantage, to the 

 extent of 50 or 60 bushels, or even more of the latter, per acre. 



Those of wood, which forms the chief firing in the interior 

 of this country, are also largely employed by many farmers, 

 who contract with the cottagers for all the ashes they make; 

 drawing home for them in return their faggots. The manure 

 thus procured, being a powerful alkali, has a very considerable 

 effect in correcting any acidity that may exist in the soil, but 

 is, in almost every instance, employed without any distinction 

 respecting the sort of timber from which it is obtained, though, 

 as the trees contain very different qualities, they necessarily 

 yield ashes corresponding, to a certain extent at least, with 

 their original character ; and were they classed, and farmers 

 made acquainted with their relative properties, they vvould be 

 much better able to judge of the due proportion of ashes which 

 it might be expedient to apply to the ground.* 



The ashes of burnt straw have also been found beneficial 



* It is a well-ascertained fact, that the closer the texture of the wood, and 

 the harder and heavier it is, the greater portion of vegetable alkali it will be 

 found to contain. Thus, trees maybe ranged, according to the value of their 

 ashes, as follows :— Oak, ash, sweet chestnut, beech, pear, crab, broom, elm, 

 maple, the pine and fir tribes, birch, alder, sycamore, poplar, hazel, elder, 

 and willow. It therefore necessarily follows, that where the kind of timber 

 which has been consumed can be ascertained, the proportion of ashes to be 

 applied per acre ought to vary accordingly; for if six loads of the best and 

 purest ashes from oak be sufficient, ten or twelve may not be more than 

 equivalent to them when produced from hazel, alder, or willow ; and by the 

 same rule, if ten or twelve loads of oak-ashes were to be sown, because it 

 may have been the custom to use that quantity of hazel, &c., the eflect 

 might be found, in a dry season, to burn up the crop 



