1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



353 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



DRY COAL ASHES AS AX ABSOKBENT. 



In some of the advertisements of Earth Closets, 

 sifted coal ashes arc recommended as a substitute 

 for loam. In tlie report of the committee of the 

 Worcester North Agricultural Society on Poultry, 

 (see abstract, Flint's Report, 1870-71, page 208,) 

 dry coal ashes are also recommended as an absorb- 

 ent and disinfectant m hen houses. 



Now can you tell me how they would work as 

 an absorbent of urine under cattle, in winter, when 

 the stock of dry material collected in the fall has 

 given out, as was the case with myself? Would 

 there be any danger of their rendering the soil so 

 hard as to be impenetrable to plant roots ; or, if 

 applied to the surface in top-dressing grass lands, 

 would they retard the absorption of heat and 

 moisture ? If the last named diingcr was likelj' to 

 occur, it could be used beneath the surface. In 

 my opinion, rotten turf is a better material ; but 

 sometimes, — as was the case with me last fall, 

 when I was at work clearing up a piece of new 

 ground, — other work prevents the securing of such 

 materiiil, and a substitute is needed. f. 



Remarks. — Coal ashes probably always contains 

 more or less wood ashes, as wood is used for kind- 

 ling the coal. But there would scarcely be enough 

 of wood ashes to leach and injure the cattle by 

 lying upon it. In other respects it seems to us 

 that coal ashes — not cinders — would well answer 

 the purpose of an absorljent under cattle, and 

 would not be injurious to the soil to which applied. 



We employ the ash, annually, of what falls 

 from about twenty tons of coal; a considerable 

 portion of this is in the hen-house, and the re- 

 mainder as a top-dressing on the driest uplands 

 we have. 



There is so much coal used now, in the country 

 as well as city, and consequently such a quantity 

 of its ashes at command, that, if good for agi'icul- 

 tural purposes, it is important that all should 

 know it. There are many instances recorded 

 where it has proved highly beneficial. 



Dana, in the Muck Manual, says that from four 

 to eight pounds in every one hundred are valuable 

 to the farmer. This undouljtedly refers to their 

 nutritive properties ; but in addition to these quali- 

 ties, they exercise an important influence in a 

 mechanical point of view. If applied to a compact 

 soil, they tend to separate the particles, and open 

 them to the air and sun, and have an important 

 ameliorating effect upon its producing powers. 



In the English Gardener's Magazine, some in- 

 teresting experiments are given as follows : Three 

 rows of Swedish turnips were sown on the loth of 

 May. The rows were sixty feet long, and three 

 feet apart, and the plants fifteen inches from plant 

 to plant. No. 1 was manured with well-rotted 

 dung. No. 2 with the tops of cabbages just come 

 into bloom. No. 3 with coal ashes. They vege- 

 tated about the same time, but the row with the 

 cabbage tops seemed to suffer most from the 

 drought, the season being hot and dry. The row 

 manured with coal ashes had, all alon^, a more 

 luxuriant appearance than the other two. In har- 

 vesting the crop, No. 1, weighed seventy-eight 



pounds; No. 2, eighty-eight pounds; No. 3 one 

 hundred and twenty-eight pounds. 



In his Scientific Agriculture, Norton says coal 

 ashes should not be neglected. There are always 

 cinders enough to pay for sifting, and when sifted, 

 soap-makers are usually willing to paj^ a small 

 price for them. Thia shows that they contain sol- 

 uble matter enough to be well worth saving. Ex- 

 aminations show small quantities of phosphates in 

 anthracite ash, and about two per cent, of sub- 

 stances soluble in water. Such facts all show that 

 these ashes should be preserved, and applied either 

 as a top-dressing upon grass, or ploughed in as a 

 part of composts. They would have much of the 

 beneficial mechanical effect of common ashes, and 

 are also good for sowing with portable manures. 



Complaints have sometimes been made that coal 

 ashes when placed around trees have proved in- 

 jurious. This shows that they have something of 

 a caustic character, and that when used in proper 

 quantities they are beneficial. Valuable manures, 

 like guano for instance, which are highly beneficial 

 in small quantity, may in large quantity be perfectly 

 destructive to vegetation. 



THE BYFIELD CROP OF CORN. 



It seems to me that Mr. Poor in his communica- 

 tion puljlished in the Farmer June 24, has got 

 things a little mixed, when he refers to a crop of 

 corn 116 bushels to the acre having Ijcen raised on 

 the B.v field Town Farm, in 1847 or 8. I was the 

 Superintendent of that farm at that time, and 

 though I sJKnild lie very glad to have the credit of 

 a crrip as large as that, and have been trying for 

 the last twenty-five years to raise a large crop, and 

 have been considered by my neighbors as a very 

 successful com grower, j'et I have never in my ex- 

 perience raised over sixty bushels to the acre, — 

 the average being about fifty bushels. Hence I 

 never raised or reported that amount as having 

 been grown by me, and I think that Mr. Poor had 

 better look over his statistics and give credit where 

 it is due. 



I agree with Mr. Poor in regard to the value of 

 the corn crop, cspeciall.y on large farms. I know 

 that it requires a good deal of labor to grow it, but 

 then much of the work can ))e done at a season of 

 the year when it can be very well attended to. It 

 is planted in the spring when not much else can be 

 done ; it is hoed before haying, and harvested, with 

 me, after all other crops are gathered. To my eyes 

 eight or nine hundred bushels of nice, bright, sound 

 ears of corn in the bins are a rich sight. The fod- 

 der of seven or eight acres of corn is of considera- 

 ble importance in a stock of cattle; being worth, I 

 believe, in a crop of fifty or sixty bushels, as much 

 as a ton of English hay. 



SPREADIXG MAXURE IX THE WINTER. 



One word about spreading manure on the snow 

 in the winter for a crop of corn. The old adage 

 that one swallow does not make a summer, holds 

 good here as well as any where else. I had occa- 

 sion to view a piece of corn last year where a part 

 of it was treated that way, and it was estimated 

 that the crop was one-half less than where the 

 same amount of manure was applied in the spring. 



IRRIGATION OR DRAINAGE. 



Still another word al)out undcrdraining light, 

 porous soils. I would like to ask "A Fire-side 

 Farmer" whether the better quality of his crop on 

 that sandy laud through which he conducted water 



