(116) 



Of this 27.14 parts are soluble at once in water, and 

 leached ashes are deprived of it, and the balance, 172.86; 

 parts, are insoluble, but act slowly on the soil, freeing 

 various substances in the process of time. Coal ashes con- 

 tain these same ingredients in a much less degree, or if soil 

 is entirely deprived of its vegetable mould, it is tdentieal 

 almost with coal ashes. Each hundred pounds contain eight 

 that are at once valuable to the farmer, and another portion 

 has a prospective value. Coal ashes are worth a good deal 

 simply as a mechanical loosener of the soil. Mixed with it^ 

 in even small proportions, it renders the soil friable and 

 easily worked. 



Having now explained that there is a principle called 

 mould or geine, and that this principle is necessary to fer- 

 tility, and, also, that this principle, to be in an available 

 form, must be reacted on by salts, it remains to inquire the 

 best form in which these elements are united. Practically 

 every farmer in the country will at once answer stable 

 manure. And, as is generally the case, practice has long 

 found out what science seeks a reason for. A careful 

 analysis of cow manure, which is generally accepted as the- 

 unit of value, shows that cow dung consists, not to go into> 

 an ultimate analysis, of 



Per cent. 



"Water 83.60 



Salts 0.95 



Geine 15.45 



This seems to be a small proportion of valuable matter^ 

 only one-sixth of the whole amount. But' let us see what a 

 careful farmer can do by saving for a year. In an experi- 

 ment, conducted carefully and published a few years ago,, 

 an average cow was selected, and everything she ate or 

 drank was carefully weighed, as well as all the voidings of 

 dung. This experiment lasted seven days, and from a cal- 

 culation, this cow would have made in one year 4,800 pounds 



y 



