370 USE OF SEA-WEED. 



compound is, perhaps, better than either alone would 

 be. So potash, added to peat mud, makes a valuable 

 compound. 



In this connection allusion might be made to the 

 practice of burning sea-weed as a manure, and spread- 

 ing the ashes upon grass and pasture land. They form 

 a very useful and powerful stimulant, but the process 

 of burning causes the loss of some of its most fertiliz- 

 ing qualities. The most common and efficient mode of 

 application is to carry it directly upon the grass as a 

 top-dressing. The coarse rock-weed and kelp decay in 

 a much shorter time than the fine sea-weed, and are no 

 doubt far better than this. 'Sea-weed is best on sandy 

 or gravelly soils, where from twenty-five to thirty, or 

 even forty cart-loads to the acre, are sometimes applied. 

 Peat ashes form, in some cases, a very valuable top- 

 dressing for grass and pasture lands. In Holland, where 

 every fertilizer is preserved with care, peat ashes, as 

 well as wood and coal ashes, are highly esteemed. The 

 great value of the first is well known to many, and if 

 those who have them will spread them upon grass, at 

 the rate of fifteen or twenty bushels on the lighter, and 

 thirty or forty on the heavier soils, they will be abun- 

 dantly repaid. 



If what has btsen said be true, — and it is the result of 

 many experiments, some of which have come directly 

 under my own observation, — farmers would do better to 

 buy ashes, on the return of every spring, than to sell 

 them, as is often done in some sections of the country. 



Of the use of gypsum, or plaster of Paris, the most 

 contradictory opinions have been expressed. So far as 

 my observation goes, — and I have both seen and tried 

 many interesting experiments on old pasture soils and 

 mowing lands, — the application to moist soils has been 

 satisfactory. It has been said that plaster does not 



