MANURES. 151 



barn-yard manure would be a most expensive way of 

 keeping up the fertility of such a soil. 



280. Potash, soda, and chlorine are the things 

 wanted. Unleached ashes contain 5 or 6 per cent, of 

 potash, and about 2 per cent, of soda ; and common 

 sa,lt contains 23 parts of soda to 36 of chlorine. 

 Ashes and salt then contain all that is wanted. If 

 now he sow on 10 bushels of ashes to the acre, and 2 

 bushels of common salt, his crops will probably be as 

 much benefited as by a heavy dressing of yard ma^ 

 nure. The one would cost him perhaps three dollars ; 

 the other would be worth thirty. 



281. But it may be said that the cheap dressing will 

 not answer the purpose always. Very true, it will 

 not; for other mineral ingredients will ere long be 

 exhausted, and the organic matter will also be ex- 

 hausted by continued cropping, so that by-and-by a 

 dressing of manure will become absolutely necessary. 

 But, if the land in the mean time will produce heavy 

 crops by means of the ashes and salt, those crops will 

 beget manure in the owner's yard ; he can put it on 

 this land ; and then the land will have manured 

 itself, instead of drawing manure from other parts of 

 the farm. 



282. Should it ever become possible, through State 

 patronage or otherwise, for fiirmers to obtain reliable 

 analyses of their soils, farming would become some- 

 what an exact science. The farmer would know what 

 crop to put on each field, and with what manure to 



