32 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



bling table salt. But despite its appearance it is not 

 table salt by any means; far from it, as we shall 

 quickly discover from its unbearable taste. It is 

 known as potasb, and it is what makes lye so good 

 for cleaning linen. Furthermore, of the various 

 components of ashes it is the one most essential to 

 vegetation. Every tree, every shrub, every plant, 

 even to the smallest blade of grass, contains a cer- 

 tain proportion of it, sometimes larger, sometimes 

 smaller, according to the kind of plant-life, and there- 

 fore must find it in the soil in order to thrive. Let 

 us add that in growing plants potash is not as the 

 action of fire leaves it after the plants have been 

 reduced to ashes. In nature it is combined with 

 other substances which free it from that burning 

 acridity. In the same way carbon, when combined 

 with other elements, loses its blackness and hard- 

 ness ; in fact, it is no longer common coal. 



"What else is the.re in ashes? A short account of 

 the matter will tell us. In 1669 there lived in Ham- 

 burg, Germany, a learned old man named Brandt, 

 whose head was a little turned and who sought to 

 turn common metals into gold. From old iron, rusty 

 nails, and worn-out kettles, he hoped to produce the 

 precious metal. But he did not succeed in his en- 

 deavors, nor was it destined that he should succeed, 

 for the simple reason that the thing is impossible. 

 Never is one metal changed into another. When he 

 was about at the end of his resources he took it into 

 his head to conceive a crowning absurdity. He 

 imagined that in urine would be found the ingredient 



