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both for fuel, and afterwaidi for manure. The adies of the 

 fward, or what is pared from the furface of heaths and com- 

 mons by the cottagers in many parts, as about Bedford, 

 are, he fays, of Httle value, when compared to thofe above 

 mentioned. It is probable that Berkdiirc is the only diftrict 

 of Great Britain, where peat afhes, without the mixture of 

 any other fubftance, are at prefcnt generally ufed as manare. 

 The afhes of peat, dug from extenfive meadows in that county, 

 have been proved, by the experience of fixty or feventy years, 

 to be a mod excellent manure, when ufed as a top drefling on 

 almoll all kinds of crops ; as oats, wheat, barley, turnips, clo- 

 ver, faiiifoin, meadows, paftures, &c. The quantity generally 

 ufed is about twenty budiels, more or Icfs, as the condition 

 of the land feenis to require ; and the price about three- 

 pence or four-piince a bufhel. To ftich an extent is this 

 mode of manuring carried on in tiiat county, that the 

 proprietors often receive tvi'o or three hundred pounds the 

 acre for the liberty of cuttmg and carrying off peat 'to the 

 depth of five or fix feet. It would be abfurd to fuppofe, 

 fays he, that the peat afhes of Berkfhire are fuperior, as 

 manure, to thofe in every other part of the ifland ; and as 

 their effects in that country, when applied to the foil, have 

 been confpicuous for a great number of years, it is certainly 

 a circumllance meriting the attention of thofe who refide 

 where peat is the only fuel, to afcertain whether peat afhes 

 in fuch dittriCts do not pofTefs all the fertiUzing qualities of 

 thofe in Berkfliire. The experiment is eafily made ; all that 

 is neccffary being to keep the afhes dry, and under cover 

 during winter ; and to fprinkle them with the hand over the 

 crops in fpring, at the rate that has been juft mentioned. 



Lord Dimdonald, in his Treatife on the Connedlion of 

 Agriculture with Chemiftrj', however, remarks, that the 

 afhes procured from peat in the neighbourhood of Reading, 

 in Berkfhire, feem to pofTefs a fertilifing power intiiiitcly 

 greater than allies obtained from mofl other peat. They 

 certainly, he believes, contain no alkaline falts ; and in an 

 hafty analyfis made fome years fincc, no faline matter, fays 

 he, is recollected to have been got from them, but a fmall 

 proportion of Epfom fait. Had thefe afhes, however, been 

 anaiyfcd with more care, and when newly made, they pro- 

 bably would, he thinks, have been found to contain a hefmr 

 of /ime, a fait which is foluble in water ; whilft gypfum, to 

 which it reverts on expofure to the air, is infoluble. To 

 this hepar, therefore, fays he, may the fertilizing power of 

 thefe afhes mofl: probably be attributed. And the writer of 

 the Survey of the County of Middlefex fuggefts, that as 

 the hills on each fide of the meadows which produce the 

 Newbury peat afhes, confiil of chalk, eafily ditfolvable by 

 heavy rains, which wafhes it off the ridges, down the fur- 

 rows, ditches, and flreamlets, to the low grounds, where, 

 mixing with th? floods, it is floated over the meadows, and 

 depofited with thepeat; confequently the peat of that dif- 

 triA differs from that of molt other.-, by the quantity of 

 chalk which it contains, and that when dug, dried, and 

 burnt, the fire ri.duces the chalk to line, and the refl to 

 afhes. Hence Newbury afhes are a mixture of lime and ve- 

 getable afhes ; and it is vej-y probable, he thinks, that any 

 common peat-afhes, or the alhcs of rough grafs laud, of 

 turf, heath, furze, ling, wood, &c. produced by the ope- 

 ration of paring and burning, being mixed with chalk-lin-.e 

 in due proportion, would be equally fertilizing as thofe 

 noted afhes. It has indeed been long fincc obferved by Mil- 

 ler, that thefe allies are greatly bettered by being mixed 

 with lime before they are put on the land. Thefe aihes are 

 produced from land that is black and crumbly at top, under 

 which hcs the peat to the depth of feveral feet. They do 

 uot burn the peat in the field by choice, becatife the pest 

 8 



is burnt for afhes, when it cannot be dried for fale ; and then 

 it is burnt in large heaps, with a fmothering fire, as is likewife 

 the fuperficial black earth, or moory foil, together with 

 the refufe of the peat : the afhes of thefe are laid up in 

 round or long heaps, rifing at top like the ridge of a houfe, 

 in order to throw off the rain and keep them dry till they 

 are fold. Sometimes they are laid under diy fheds or in houfcs 

 to fave them from wet, which they cannot be wholly pro- 

 tefted from by laying them up in ridges expofed to the wea- 

 ther, into which the rain penetrates for fome inches deep ; but 

 thefe afhes are never fo good manure as thofe that are kept dry. 

 Near the furface of the peat earth there is fometimes a bed 

 of wliitifh earth called wauni, which is a compofition cf 

 earth and very fmall fhells of the periwinkle kind ; this 

 is alfo burnt to afhes for manure, and the quantity of it in 

 fome places is fo great, that the allies are of a whitifh colour, 

 while thofe from the peat or moorifh earth are reddifh. 

 The white are efteemed to be as good manure as the red ; 

 and being a kind of fliell-marl, would make good manure 

 without being burnt ; as indeed they rarely are thoroughly, 

 though they feldom lay them upon land till they iiave palled 

 the fire, or are mixed with the allies of the peat-earth. 

 The afhes of the peat fold for fuel, and burnt in chimnics, 

 are much flronger manure than the aflies burnt in the field ; 

 and if care be taken to keep them diy, are fold for nearly- 

 double the fum of the field allies. Mr. Farey Hates, in 

 the Annals of Agriculture, that he has found field afhes to 

 improve the chalky foils about Dunftable ; but on the wet 

 lands, or cold fwards, and hot fandy lands, they did httle 

 good. They may be employed on the fame kinds of crops, 

 and in the fame way as coal afhes, and alfo on the wheat crops 

 about April. But Mr. Middleton fays, that he has tried 

 the Newbuiy peat-afhes on wheat, tares, feeds, and mea- 

 dows, in various quantities to the acre, without producing 

 any fenfible effect. In Norfolk, afhes are not in eftimatioa 

 as manure ; even thofe of the hearth are in fome degree 

 neglefted. But the meadows and fens abound with peat- 

 bogs, which in fome places would be confidered as inefli- 

 mable fources of manure ; and the peat-earth in fuch 

 meadows, vi-hcn burnt, would no doubt afford an ample 

 fupply of afhes. In many places, much advantage has been 

 fuppofed to arife from the practice of mixing hme with 

 peat-aflies before they are applied to the ground. 



The refufe, or aflies, remaining after the burning of differ- 

 ent green vegetable matters from which the alkaline fait 

 called pot-afh has been extracted, is a kind of afhes which 

 has been found of great fenicc to moll forts of land ; but as 

 they have been in a great meafure deprived of their fahne 

 property, it is neceflary to lay them on much thicker than 

 any other fort of afhes. Mr. Bradley affeits that a bufiiel and 

 a half of tliefe may be ufed in the room of a bufhel of frefh 

 afhes ; and that they Ihould always be mixed with fome 

 other light ingredient which may be ufed in any quantity 

 when laid on veiy ItifT land ; but if the land be not over 

 ftiff, they may be laid on it with lefs mixture. As in places 

 far removed from the means of improvement, a fubftitute for 

 common manures, that is of eafy carriage, and can be had at 

 a moderate expence, mull be valuable, pot-alh may be em- 

 ployed ; for, from experiments that have been made, it ap- 

 pears that two hundred pounds ©f it are fufficieiit for an acre 

 of Icrong land. For lighter foils much lefs is required, if 

 laid on by itfelf ; on thefe, however, a compofl of this and 

 train or refufe oil incorporated with mould, will be the beft 

 way of employing it. Upon llrong clays and deep loams 

 however, it ought always to be applied by itfelf. Whea 

 the expence of carriage is confidered, this will often be 

 found a cheaper manure than lime j and in one refpe<ft it 



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