Analyses of the Ashes of Plants. 1 43 
The total sulphur in 1000 parts of these specimens is as 
follows : — 
Specimen Specimen 
in llower. in seed. 
Sulphur in 1000 parts dried in the ail- . .0'-197 .. 0-532 
Do. hi the dry substance 0-560 .. 0-fiaO 
No particular remarks occur to us in reference to these analyses. 
In many respects the ash of sainfoin resembles that of clover ; but 
the quantity of it in a given weight of crop is less than in the last- 
named plant. 
The columns of mineral matters in a ton of the specimen are 
sriven. because, as we have elsewhere remarked, this relation is 
the really important point in ash analysis. 
The results exhibited by the 3rd and 4th columns of this table 
are interesting, as showing how little influence comparatively can 
be ascribed to the seeding of such a plant as this in the mineral 
exhaustion of the soil. It is well known that seeds are rich in 
phosphoric acids ; and we might expect that the ash of a plant, 
including the seeds, would exhibit a larger proportion of this acid 
than that of the same plant in flower. It would seem, however, 
that, in proportion to the whole bulk of the plant, the seeds are, in 
this case, insignificant in quantity, and their effects upon the com- 
position of the ash inappreciable. 
These remarks, of course, do not apply to plants that are 
cultivated for their seeds — which, forming a large proportion of 
the whole plant, must be necessarily exhausting to the soil — neither 
do they apply to the general question of exhaustion by seeding, 
but only to that involving mineral matters ; so far also as the 
seeded crop is greater in absolute weight than before this period, so 
will it also remove a larger amount of mineral matters from the soil. 
The following are analyses of Italian rye-grass in flower and 
seeded : — 
This crop was also grown by Mr. Robert Raynbird ; the soil, 
a gravelly loam, tolerably rich in vegetable matter; crop of 1846 
was barley. The rye-grass was drilled on the 5th of JNIay, at the 
rate of 2 pecks with 1 peck of clover per acre. The clover 
failed, leaving a good plant of rye-grass. 
The specimen in flower was gathered June 5th, 1847; that in 
seed, on the 12th of July, 1847. The seed was burnt with the 
rest of the plant. 
The specimens were both of them in the state of natural dry- 
ness; the water and ash were as follows : — 
Water and Ash in specimens of Italian Rye-grass. 
In flower. Seeded. 
Water 11-59 13.10 
Ash C-16 .. 5-56 
Do. calculated on the dry substance 6'97 . . G*40 
