136 
Analyses of the Ashes of Plants. 
bottom. In many cases the draining at 24 to 30 inches deep was found, 
where tliere were springs, to be quite ineffectual, and has been done 
over again at 4 to 6 feet deep, and 20 yards apart : wooden spouts 3 feet 
long are fitted to the ends of the outlets, to prevent, their being damaged 
by frost, as also by men's spades in cleaning the ditches. 
" Mamire. — Every exertion is made to produce and collect as much 
good manure upon the farm as possible. All the fold-yards are made 
hollow in the centre, and the bottoms water-tight, and the buildings are 
spouted: the principal yards have tanks to receive the liquid manure. 
There is one, likewise, near the slaughter-house, which receives tlie 
blood and entrails of about 10 porkers, 16 bacon-hogs, and 50 sheep, as 
well as dead calves, lambs, jugs, &c. Near to this is a com])ost-yard, 
in which road-scrapings, scourings of ditches, couch, &c., are collected. 
Whenever opportunity offers, and from time to time, the contents of the 
liquid-manure and slaughter-house tanks are mixed with the heap, 
which is occasionally turned over, and forms an excellent top-dressing 
for grass-land. The manure intended for swedes or hybrids is led out 
of the fold-yards after Christmas (direct to the field, if at a distance), 
and built up into a heap 12 feet high, and as compact as possible, in a 
large hollow yard, with a tank and pump in the centre; the contents of 
which are occasionally pumped over the heap, which is never turned. 
The manure for seeds, meadows, &c., is led out after the cattle have 
left the yards, and is treated in the same manner." 
VI. — Analyses of the Ashes of Plants. Third Report. By 
J. Thomas Way and Georgk Ogston. 
Various circumstances, which it is quite unnecessary to particu- 
larise in this place, prevented us from presenting our Third Report 
on Plant-ashes in the last Journal. To one of these causes of 
delay we are, however, anxious to draw particular attention. 
Early in the year 1847 the eminent chemist Professor Rose, of 
Berlin, published a paper in a German scientific periodical, the 
intention of which was to show that all previous analyses of the 
ashes of vegetable and animal substances were open to doubt, not 
on account of alleged incorrectness in the methods of analysing 
these ashes, but rather because the method preparing the ashes 
for analysis was itself faulty and liable to objection. In other 
words, Professor Rose endeavoured to show that the ashes of a 
plant do not actually represent its mineral matter ; that, in fact, 
in burning a vegetable or animal substance we dissipate not only 
the organic portion — the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen 
• — but also a variable though essential amount of the mineral 
matters. 
