PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 453 



It must be remembered that no manure acts at all until it is 

 positively in solution. A plant cannot take it up and bite it as 

 we would a cracker, and it is, therefore, important to reduce Avhat 

 you have into that soluble state as speedily as practicable. 



ASHES. 



It is very common to hear farmers say that leached ashes are 

 nearly as good as unleached. That is only true when the land is 

 already fully supplied with potash ; for twenty cents worth of 

 potash upon land that needs it, produces a marked effect the first 

 time it is used. Leached ashes have no value, as now treated by 

 the best operators, other than for the phosphates not taken out 

 by the soap-makers ; potash is taken out almost perfectly. But 

 unleached ashes have many times the value usually attributed to 

 them. I have paid twenty cents per bushel for the ashes from a 

 spoke factory in Newark, where the chips used in running the 

 engine all happen to be of the best kinds of hard wood. And I 

 would pay seventy cents per bushel, to have these ashes delivered 

 at my farm, rather than be without them. They are worth it to 

 any farmer in the land. I have yet to find the first piece of soil 

 that would not be benefited by the application of such ashes, the 

 phosphates and the potash of unleached ashes. 



All the constituents of these ashes are ready for use. They 

 have been in organic life. They have formed part of a tree. 

 They have been in a state of liquefaction, and have been selected 

 by the roots from the soil, and are returned in exactly the state 

 to be re-appropriated. 



With the leached ashes, you must remember that a large quan- 

 tity of other material is added to them. In some Western ash- 

 eries the leaching is sometimes badly performed, and there will 

 be potash remaining just in proportion, as they do not understand 

 their business, but when leaching is properly done, the potash is 

 taken out ; the other inorganic constitutents are not of so valu- 

 able a kind, and particularly the silicious portion. 



Mr. Carpenter. — Are ashes good for all soils ? I have heard 

 that they are good for light soils, and not for clay. 



Prof, Mapes. — That is only true in degree. On sandy soils, 

 incapable of holding ammoniacal products of decomposition, 

 ashes assist in that office. But clay soils already have that 

 power; and if that were the only office of ashes, the saying 

 would be true. But it is not always so. My soil is a heavy 

 clay, and the effect of potash can be readily seen upon it. There 



