ABOUT FRtnrS, FLOWEES AND FARMING. 91 



the properties required by different crops being knowTi — 

 the farmer applies that manure which contains what the soil 

 lacks. Experiments have seemed to show, that, for purposes 

 of tillage, leached ashes are just as good as the ufileached. 

 So that housewives may have all the use of their ashes for 

 soap, and then employ them in the garden. Leached ashes 

 become better by being exposed for some time in the air, 

 absorbing from the atmosphere fertilizing qualities (car- 

 bonic acid ?) 



So valuable are ashes regarded in Europe, that they are 

 frequently hauled by farmers from twenty miles* distance — 

 and on Long Island they bring eight cents a bushel. 



The ashes of different kinds of wood are of very unequal 

 valufr — that of the oak the least, and that of beech the 

 most valuable. The latter wood constitutes two-thirds of 

 the fire-wood of this region, and the ashes are therefore the 

 very best. 



A coat of ashes may be laid, in the spring, over the whole 

 garden and spaded in \^'ith the barnyard manure. 



They may be dug in about gooseberry and currant 

 bushes. 



They are excellent about the trunks of fruit-trees, spread- 

 ing the old each year, and renewing the deposit. 



They may be thinly spread over the grass-plat in the 

 dooryard, as they will give vigor and deeper color and 

 strength to the grass. 



We have usually added about one shovelful of ashes to 

 every twenty in making a compost for flowers, roses, shrubs, 

 etc. 



Ashes are peculiarly good for all kinds of melon, squash, 

 and cucumber vines. This is well known to those who 

 raise watermelons on burnt fields, on old charcoal pits, etc. 

 We have seen statements of cucumbers being planted 

 upon a peck of pure, leached ashes, in a hole in the ground, 

 and thriving with great vigor. The ashes of vines show a 

 great amount of potash ; and as wood ashes afford this sub- 



