~ 
1871 ] ( [ Wood. 
of insoluble silicate, have nevertheless been found one of the best fertilizers 
for wheat; and the unleached, if properly applied, would probably pro- 
ducea much greater effect. This is as yet conjectural; but I have in- 
stituted an experiment which I hope may determine the point. 
In the early Autumn I caused an acre of ground to be prepared for a 
wheat crop. It was divided into three parts, one of which was to be 
treated with fresh ashes exclusively, another with ashes and swamp muck, 
and the third with muck alone. The part treated with fresh ashes ex- 
clusively was first ploughed, and then sown with wheat and ashes, and 
finally. harrowed; the ashes being applied to the surface, so that its 
potassa when dissolved by the rain should be in immediate contact 
with the germinating seed; instead of being ploughed in, as ordinary 
leached ashes are. The second part, after being covered with the muck, 
was ploughed; and the wheat and ashes were applied as before. The 
third part was simply treated with muck, then ploughed and sown with 
wheat. 
The result of this experiment cannot be determined until the time of 
the wheat harvest next Summer; but, thus far, it is decidedly in favor of 
the ashes; the two-thirds which were treated with this material being 
obviously better grown than the part treated with muck alone. A glance 
of the eye is sufficient to show a decided line of demarcation, the ashed 
part being greener and further advanced than the remainder. 
T have little doubt that the same remarks are equally applicable to the 
common potato. This is now a much less certain, and on the whole much 
less productive crop than formerly. I find that the potato stalks contain 
55 parts of potassa in 1000 of ashes; so that the plant requires consider- 
ably more potassa than wheat. If, therefore, fresh ashes are to be a rem- 
edy for the failure of the wheat crop, they are likely to be even more so 
for the potato. The verification of this supposition experimentally I have 
reserved for the next year, when, if living, I propose to try an experiment 
on a large scale. 
An objection to all the foregoing facts, in a practical bearing, is the 
question whence the ashes are to be obtained for carrying the proposition 
into effect on a large scale, and whether enough can be obtained for the 
purpose. An obvious answer to this objection is that, should ashes fail 
in any neighbourhood, recourse can be had to the crude potash of the shops 
derived from the lixiviation of the ashes of forests cleared in the course of 
cultivation, and, when these forests shall have all been destroyed, we may 
resort to the minerals containing pota as to the felspar in granite 
rocks, which contains a large proportion of that alkali. 
But for a long time yet to come, and indefinitely as regards fruit trees, 
ashes can be obtained from the resources of the farm itself. If all the 
falling leaves of the woods and swamps, all the dead and dying branches 
or stems of trees, and all the weeds, trimmings of trees, and other rub- 
bish of a farm be collected and burnt, enough ashes could probably be 
obtained annually, for an indefinite length of time, to keep all the fruit 
trees in full bearing. 
