SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
63 
ASHES AS A MANURE. 
Messrs. Editors: — The question has often been asked, 
but ne-ver to my satisfaction has it been answered, 
why so little, if any, difference is found in the value as 
manure between ashes leached and unleached, when ap- 
plied side by side, on the same land and crop, and under 
precisely the same circumstances 1 In other words, what 
is the use, and what becomes of the large quantity of al 
kaline and other matters found in unleached ashes, to the 
virtues of which have long been ascribed their power 
and value in the fructification of the crop and extra yield 
of produce, and to preserve which from the influence of 
climdie and consequent deterioration, it has been the aim 
of almost every one, by preserving them in close rooms 
and water-tight casks or cisterns, under the cenvietion 
that even by evaporation would their value be rendered 
less, by weakening their efficiency as a dressing to the 
land when applied to any description of crop, and by 
which careful preservation their immense and universally 
acknowledged superiority to other articles, especially as 
a top-dressing, is ascribable. But in the midst of all this 
seemingly proof-positive, comes the testimony of those, 
who declare that they have demonstrated by oft-repeated 
experiment, that leached ashes are as efficient in their ef- 
fects, as those that have been thus carefully preserved 
and applied by immediately covering them, so as to pre- 
vent the escape of the volatile gases into the atmosphere. 
This I consider a subject of great importanee, and worthy 
the closest examination, and as few of my friends in my 
humble walk of life may be aware of the enormous quan- 
tity of ash and alkali contained in some of our crops, 
made manifest by their incineration, I beg leave to offer 
for re-publication, the following table of the produce in 
ashes and alkali, of one thousand pounds of the follow- 
ing woods and weeds, which I find in an agricultural 
journal of some years standing, the correctness of which 
1 presume may be depended upon, and on the perusal of 
which I am led again to ask, “what is the use, and what 
becomes of the alkaline and other matters found in un- 
leached ashes, to the virtues of which have long been as- 
cribed their power and value in the fructification of the 
crop and extra yield of produce I” B. W. 
Table of the produce in Ashes and Alkali, of 1000 lbs. of 
the follov)ing woods a.nd weeds. 
Yield of Ashes. Of Salt or Alkali. 
Salts of Corn 
. 88.6 
17.5 
Sunflower 
. 57.2 
20. 
Vine branches 
. 34.0 
5.5 
Box 
. 29.0 
2.26 
Sallow or Willow. 
. 28.0 
2.85 
Elm 
. 23.5 
3.9 
Oak 
. 13.5 
1.5 
Aspen, or Poplar . . 
. 12.2 
0.74 
Beech 
. 5.8 
1.27 
Fir 
. 3.4 
0.45 
Fern, in August... 
. 36.46 
4.25 
Wormwood 
. 97.44 
73.0 
Fumitory 
.219.0 
70-0 
[Boston Cultivator. 
Revenge is longer lived than gratitude. Indorse Mr. 
Smith’s note to keep him from bursting, and he forgets all 
about it in a month. Pull Mr. Smith’s nose, and he will 
cherish a secret desire to burn your house down for the 
remainder of his life. Revenge is a passion. Gratitude 
appears to be only a sentiment. We can all hate ; but it 
is only one man in a hundred that possesses goodness 
enough to be thankful. 
The man who is attached to the soil, will be always 
bettering it by kindness. 
CAUSES OF FERTIEITY. 
In a letter to the New York Farmers’s Club, Prof, S, W. 
Johnson, of Yale College, says : 
The labors of chemists, to discover positively all the 
causes of the fertility of soils, have not yet met with con- 
clusive success. The mechanical structure of soil is of 
primary importance. Naked rock grows lichen — the 
same rock crushed into coarse grains, grows a much 
higher order of vegetable — pulverized fine, the cereals 
grow in it. Geology, chemistry, botany, physiology, 
meteorology, mechanics, hydrodynamics, heat, light and 
electricity, are all intimately combined in the grand pro- 
cess of vegetation. There are sandy soils in our Eastern 
States, which, without manure yield meagre crops of rye 
and buckwheat ; but there are'sandy soils in Ohio, which 
without manure yield on average eighty bushels of Indian 
corn an acre, and have yielded it for twenty to fifty 
years in unbroken succession, the ingredients of these 
soils being by chemical analysis the same. At present 
no difference is known between them, except the coarse- 
ness of the particles — the first being coarse, while the 
Ohio sand is an exceedingly fine powder. The power of 
soils to|attract and imbibe moisture and oxygen, was well 
shown by Schubler, o‘ Hoffen, 40 years ago. Of 13 dif- 
ferent soils, quartz sand absorbed in thirty days, 11,000 
parts of oxygen and no moisture, while humus absorbed 
13 of oxygen and 120 of moisture. 
The Fastest Time on Record. — Porterh AS';?m^says 
the fastest time ever made by an American horse was 
made by Pryoress, in her running for the late Cesarewitch, 
in England, over the Newmarket Heath. The distance 
run was two miles and a quarter and twenty-eight yards, 
and the time in which it was run was three minutes and 
fifty-six seconds, the mare carrying 107 pounds. This is 
at the rate of 1 minute 45 3-4 seconds, or say 1 minute 46 
seconds to the mile, two miles at the rate of 3 minutes 
and 32 seconds, and if carried out at the same rate, the 
Goodwood Cup distance in 4 minutes and 25 seconds, 
and a four mile heat in 7 minutes 4 seconds. The two 
mile rate, however, having been done, is that which may 
fairly be compared with the two mile time performed by 
American horses in this country. The “ American Rac- 
ing Calendar and Trotting Record‘d gives the time of 
Hagira, a four year old, which ran a two mile heat at 
New Orleans in 1850, with catch weight, in 3 minutes 
34 1-2 seconds — the best two mile time in this country ; 
consequently, the 3 minutes 32 seconds of Prioress is in 
every way better, and deserves to head the American 
record. 
Sheep in Texas. — Wool growing is steadily increas- 
ing in Texas, and the State will soon number its flocks by 
hundreds of thousands. The San Antonio Herald says 
that Captain Sweet, late of Laporte, Indiana, has just 
returned from Mexico, whither he went last fall to pur- 
chase sheep. Capt. Sweet went with others, and the 
whole number of sheep brought out was about 4,000. 
His portion, about 1,000 head, he has placed on a ranche 
on the head of Curry’s creek, Blanco county. The Cap- 
tain is delighted with Texas, and is sanguine of the ex- 
ceeding profitableness of the sheep busines. The Ledger 
says that the wool growers about San Antonio are bring- 
ing their wool into market, and mentions several lots. 
At San Antonio this wool brings from fifteen to thirty- 
five cents per pound, according to cleanliness and quali- 
ty. That paper says, for the benefit of wool growers, 
“ tie each fleece in a separate bundle by itself, and take 
pains to wash the fleece well before shearing. Clean 
wool brings from thirty to fony cents more than dirty.” 
