Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 295 



vegetation. But if he will dig and get pure water it will be just a3 

 healthful though not quite so palatable as Massachusetts water. 



Ashes, Leached ok Unleached. 



Ml'. Calvin Mead, Chittenango Falls, N^. Y., asks which he should, 

 buy, and if old leached ashes are good for anything. 



]\Ir. J. B. Lyman. — The farmers on the line of the IS^ew Haven 

 railroad, in AVestport and Bridgeport, have bought and used both. 

 Their soil is mostly a cool, heavy loam, full of stones, and natural to 

 grass. They find no difference. A field where leached and unleached 

 ashes have been sowed in strips shows no difference in grass. In the 

 locality of which I speak it is generally applied to grass lands only. 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — This may do for the soil of which Mr. L. 

 speaks, but with me, in the upper part of Westchester county, I find 

 leached ashes worth fifty cents a bushel, and unleached not worth 

 more than ten for most crops. 



Mr. N. C. Meeker. — It is so much a question of soil that no general 

 rule can be given. On the reddish light soil of Southern Illinois I 

 have found the leached just as good, but on a different soil this might 

 be reversed. All we can say is try it and give us the results. 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — Is there not some chemist among us who can 

 tell us the essential difference in the two ? Of course we know that 

 leaching takes our potash. Does it remove all the potash or a part 

 onl}^ ? What remains is slacked lime or silica. ]^ow slacked lime is 

 worth about ten cents a bushel. But if the leached ashes have a 

 chemical effect on the soil so as to release plant food from combina- 

 tions in which it was locked up, we would like to know about this. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — Jersey marl contains seven per cent of potash, 

 as ascertained by analj'sis, which is about the same as unleached 

 ashes, and yet n'ot a particle of potash can be obtained from it by 

 leaching. The plant, however, can find the potash, and so it is likely 

 to be with the unleached ashes. 



Chair. — Mr. James A. Whitney will read, in a few weeks, a paper 

 on artificial manures in wliich he will give us the chemical explana- 

 tion we need. He is fully able to instruct us in organic chemistry, 

 and I have no doubt the paper will be a valuable one. 



Mr. AV, S. Carpenter. — We are leaving out of view one important 

 matter in our talk of ashes. I buy a great many every year. In 

 fact it is about the only manure I use on my potatoes, and I buy of 

 the bacon smokeries in J^ew York, because they use hickory wood. 

 I have found hickory ashes a great deal better than pine. 



