STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 147 



"As to potash in our ashes. My observations have been con- 

 fined mainly to its effects upon the products of our gardens, as 

 potatoes, corn, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, etc. I selected 

 one of the richest places I have seen on our prairies, and applied 

 year after year, principally to the surface, all the ashes made from 

 several fires ; and my garden stuffs used to be much larger in 

 quantity and better in quality than any raised by my neighbors. 

 The ash of oak is rich in the following constituents : potash, soda, 

 lime, magnesia, phosphoric acid, with other substances in smaller 

 quantities, such as silica, oxide of iron, gypsum and common salt, 

 all of which are readily taken up by the growing plant. Like salt 

 and lime, ashes run out the poor grasses and destroy the weeds. 

 Their effect is quite lasting. Many believe that ashes should be 

 first leached before applied. This is a serious mistake. They 

 lose on an average not far from two-thirds of their strength. 

 Ashes can be made valuable in the place of gypsum in our com- 

 post heaps, and in tanks for collecting the liquid excrements of our 

 domestic animals. 



When oats lodge, as they are apt to do upon manured lands, an 

 application of ashes usually saves the crop. While the potash in 

 the ashes is directly absorbed by the plant, it is a powerful agent 

 in dissolving silex or sand, so that it is fitted to be used by the 

 crop and give strength to the straw. Every bushel of ashes is 

 counted worth a half dollar in this county for fertilizing purposes, 

 and the mode of best applying them should be better understood. 



In noticing, in the next place, the use of vegetable and animal 

 manures, I would not forget that in all probability the plowing 

 under of dung mixed with straw, is the most profitable use we can 

 make of these materials in certain classes of soils. Take our stiff 

 clays or clay loams, and, in addition to strong fertilizers, they 

 need the fermentation of our fresh barn-yard manures in contact 

 with their particles. The heat and the chemical action caused by 

 this process not only pulverizes the heavy soil, but prepares its 

 constituents to be taken up by the roots of the plants. Besides, 

 these coarse manures hold up several inches of the ground, so that 

 the atmosphere can penetrate it and supply it with such gases as 

 oxygen, nitrogen and carbonic acid, to be imparted to the crop 

 grown upon it. The sunlight is also able to act at some depth, 

 much better upon the soil, and upon the delicate fibres of the 

 plants growing upon it. * * * 



We now reach the question, what are the best modes of apply- 



