MANURIAE VALUE OF ASHES, "MUCKS," ETC. Jl 



A favorite way of applying wood ashes is as a top dressing to 

 mowing or pasture lands. This encourages the growth of clover 

 and some of the better grasses, with a tendency to crowd out 

 inferior kinds of grasses, weeds and moss. 



The presence of an alkali seems to favor the growth of potato 

 scab. On land free from scab fungus, ashes are beneficial for 

 potatoes. Leached ashes depend chiefly upon the phosphoric 

 acid and lime for their value. Coal ashes have no fertilizing 

 value and any effect they may have depends upon their mechan- 

 ical condition. 



A bushel of average unleached hard wood ashes weighs about 

 48 pounds. This would contain 



Potash about 4 pounds, worth 20 cents 



Phosphoric acid " ip 2 " " 3 " 



Lime "18 " " 7 " 



Wet ashes are not much more compact than dry, A bushel of 

 wet ashes weighs considerably more than a bushel of dry ashes, 

 but this difference is chiefly due to the water. A bushel of wet 

 or leached ashes contains about 50 pounds of dry matter or prac- 

 tically the same as a bushel of dry ashes. 



Canada ashes as sold in car lots in this State carry from 3 to 7 

 per cent of potash, and would at the valuation thus used be 

 worth from 18 cents to 28 cents a bushel. Average dump ashes 

 at the same valuation will be worth about 13 cents, and average 

 mill furnace ashes about 15 cents a bushel. In buying, the cost 

 of carting and applying needs to be taken into account. 



"Muck." 



The correct use of the word muck, w r hich means dung in a 

 moist state, has been entirely lost in New England and is applied 

 without much discrimination to any bog earth derived chiefly 

 from decaying vegetable matter. The term as used includes 

 materials ranging from a bog meadow mud to quite perfect 

 peats. Large deep bogs containing true peat are comparatively 

 few in New England, but small, shallow depressions, containing 

 impure peats, occur everywhere. The gravelly soils of New 



