No 144.] 249 



statistics of the exports of ashes at hand, but I have no doubt that 

 a coaiputation from tliese data would show that the waste from 

 this source alone exceeds that from all other exportations. But, 

 sir, when we compare the exports of bread materials with the 

 home consumptions of the same, and remember that of the inor- 

 ganic constituents of the bread and meat consumed at home al- 

 most nothing finds its way back to the field, the exports of grain 

 appear to be of very iusignificant importance. 



The burning of the primitive forest, and the gathering up of the 

 ashes and the selling of them to the asheries for ten or twelve 

 cents a bushel, is an evil that ought to be corrected. If the voice 

 of this organization could reach to every farmer in the land, I am 

 sure, sir, it would say to him, " Don't sell the ashes for this mere 

 pittance ; they are worth a great deal more to you than that." 

 This evil is not entirely confined to the exportation, for the inso- 

 luble residue has accumulated in heaps around the asheries until 

 of late enterprising men have found that it will pay to carry on 

 this manufacture, and depend for profit on the leached ashes alone 

 for manure. 



It is probable that the fertility of Western lands is due to the 

 decay and combustion of the annual growth of grass, furnishing 

 them with a top-dressing of strong ashes every year. If with some 

 great plow, such as Milton's angels might have used, the Eastern 

 forests had been turned under one hundred and fifty years ago, 

 we should have had a soil equal to the Western States. Alluvial 

 deposits along our rivers prove this. 



But we have seen, sir, that notwithstanding all this waste, our 

 crops are still increasing, and increasing, too, faster than the im- 

 proved lands from which they are produced. 



What are the compensating influences that are producing this 

 result 7 Is it the imports of guano into this country. During the 

 period which these statistics cover that importation was insignifi- 

 cant. Was it the return of a very small portion of the inorganic 

 matericxls of the crops from the city to the country? That was 

 but a drop in the bucket, and a very small drop, sir, between 

 1839 and 1849. The result must be attributed to great natural 



