AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



ash or ashes. This varies in different plants from less than 

 1 to over 12 per cent, of their whole weight. It also varies 

 with the different soils upon which they are found, with the 

 different parts of the same plant, and in the different stages of its 

 maturity. Thus plants which grow on peaty or low, wet soils, 

 give a less proportion of ashes, than those which mature upon 

 soils that are dry or rich in the silicates and salts. The bark, 

 leaves and twigs, give much more ashes than the trunks of 

 trees and stems of plants ; and in their early growth, they 

 yield a larger proportion, than after they have attained matu- 

 rity. 



The following table, constructed from several reliable sour- 

 ces, but principally by Sprengel, arranged in part by Johnston, 

 will shew the relative quantity of ashes found in some of the 

 more important objects of cultivation : 



Included in Potash. 



In the foregoing table, the grain, beans, peas, straw and hay are estimated after 

 they have been dried in the air; the roots as they are taken from the field. The 

 clovers and grass lose from 55 to 75 per cent of their entire weight when full of sap, 

 lessening, of course, as they approach to the state of ripening their seed. The 

 potato loses in drying, 69 per cent of water; the turnip, 91 ; carrot, 87; the turnip 

 leaf, 86; the carrot leaf, parsnep and parsnep leaf, each 81; and the cabbage, 93. 



There is much variation in the different specimens of the above substances sub- 

 jected to examination, according to the peculiar variety, the different circumstances 

 and various stages of their growth. The oat is the most variable of the grains, one 

 specimen sometimes containing three times the quantity of ash afforded by others. 

 The roots also sometimes vary as three to one in their quantity of ash. As 

 the grain and most of the other crops approach to maturity, the quantity of 

 some of the principles constituting the ash' diminish, as of potash and soda, their 

 presence being no longer necessary in the sap to aid the formation of the various 

 products of the plants. 



