Anthracite Coal Ashes.---Crops for foiling, 
aas 
sowed millet on the Whole piece, at the rate of half a 
bushel of seed to the acre. It came up well, and on 
that part where the gas house cinders Were spread, the 
crop of millet Was as luxuriant as the heart of man 
could desire; but, to a line, where the cinders stopped, 
the plant Was as thin as its growth was stinted and 
poor—-scarcely worth cutting. This difference in pro 
duct we ascribed to the utter impossibility of the roots 
of the plants deriving any benefit from the air, and but 
partial from the rain, as the baked condition of the clay 
almost precluded the operation of percolation, and the 
water stood in puddles on the surface, although this 
part of the ground was the most elevated. Our object 
being to get the piece, in timothy, as soon as we cut 
the millet, we spread 20 bushels of anthracite coal 
ashes on the 10 upper perches described, plowed it in 
about four inches, rolled and harrowed, and left it in 
that way until it was time to prepare the whole for 
the timothy. We then had the whole plowed 7 inches 
deep, rolled, and harrowed until We had pulverized it 
as well as it was susceptible of being made so. On 
the upper 10 perches, we spread 20 bushels more of 
anthracite coal ashes, which we harrowed in well. 
We then sowed a peck and a half of timothy seed on 
the whole piece. It all took equally well, and yielded 
luxuriant cuttings of fine grass, there being no diffe¬ 
rence on the piece except that the part where the coal 
ashes had been appled, had a good carpet of white clo¬ 
ver, whereas there was but little or none on the rest. 
“ Finding that its action as above described had an¬ 
swered our expectations, in the spring of 1837, we top- 
dressed an acre of clover with it. It grew on a piece 
of cold red clay, in bad tilth. The piece consisted of 2 
acres. One half of the remainder of the piece was 
plastered, at the rate of a bushel to the acre. Where 
the anthracite coal ashes and plaster were sown, the 
clover was as fine as we ever saw, but on the remain¬ 
der of the lot, it was poor enough in all conscience. 
We subsequently put this lot in spring wheat, turning 
in the clover sward the previous fall, late, and sowing 
the wheat early, the ensuing spring; the product was 
good on the whole, but better where it had been plas¬ 
tered and ashed, and much the best on the latter part. 
The subsequent year we put the whole piece in Mer¬ 
cer potatoes, manuring all alike and well, in the fur¬ 
rows ; the product was good, but decidedly best where 
the ashes had been applied. 
“ In the spring of 1838, we put in 3 acres of corn, 
in a lot, manuring the whole , at the rate of 20 double 
horse cart loads of stable and barn-yard manure to the 
acre. On one acre we spread 100 bushels of leached 
ashes, on another we spread 100 bushels of anthracite 
coal ashes, and on the third, nothing. The soil was a 
sand, inclining to loam, resting upon a clay bottom. 
'The corn proved a fair yield, but much more product¬ 
ive on the ashed part, which yielded at least one-fourth 
;more. It grew faster from the start, looked greener 
and healthier, and made more and larger ears. 
“In the spring of 1839, we planted a small bed of 
the famed •' Tree Corn’ in our garden. The plot on 
which it grew lay low, and was too wet in rainy sea¬ 
sons for corn, but as it was the only spot which we 
could appropriate to it, we thought we would overcome 
its inadaptation by heavy manuring. We spread on 4 
inches in depth of stable manure, had that trenched in 
9 inches deep, then had 2 inches of cow-dung spread 
thereon and turned in 4 inches deep, raking the ground 
well after each spading. We then spread on 2 inches 
of street dirt, which we thoroughly raked in, so as to 
incorporate it with the soil. We then laid off our beds 
in furrows 3 feet apart, and dropped the corn 2 feet 
asunder in the rows. It came up well, but owing to a 
succession of cold rains, the plants turned yellow and 
appeared evidently dying. Judging that it was owing 
to the cold, and that it would be necessary to impart 
heat to the soil, so as to counteract the effect of the 
cold, We applied half a pint of anthracite ashes to>each 
hill, working it in with the prongs of a small garden 
hoe. The consequence was, that it acted like magic, 
changing the color of the plants in a few days, from a 
sickly hue to a dark healthful green. The plot of Tree* 
corn yielded a tremendous crop, the which We, in chief, 
ascribed to the plentiful dose of manure which we gave 
it, but at the same time, we believed that the anthra¬ 
cite coal ashes rescued it, at the onset, from the fate 
of stunted corn, and performed its office in its subse¬ 
quent growth. 
“We used them in a compost of barn-yard and stable 
manure in 1839, at the rate of 100 bushels of ashes to 
20 cart-loads of manure, with which we dressed an 
acre of sugar beets. The crop was a good one—the 
soil a rather moist clay loam, resting on hard till.” 
We shall be pleased to add further experi¬ 
ments of their utility, which we have no 
doubt can be furnished from our immediate 
neighborhood. These ashes make a large 
item in the waste of our city. They might 
be saved with the least possible trouble, by 
having a large box with a lid, in the centre 
of every block on the pavements by the gut¬ 
ter, in which every citizen should be com¬ 
pelled to put his ashes, instead of throwing 
them into the street, and these might be sold 
by the season or quantity to farmers who 
would gladly buy them at a round price. 
CROPS FOR SOILING. 
We have been repeatedly called upon by 
persons residing in this vicinity, who keep 
cows for the purpose of supplying the city 
with milk, and fat a few sheep and other ani¬ 
mals for market, making inquiries as to the 
best system of pasture and soiling, as land is 
too dear in the neighborhood, and it takes too 
much of it laid down in common pasture, to 
keep their animals with much profit. As 
well as we are capable of giving advice, our 
method for soiling would be this: 
When the land is suitable for rye, we 
would sow it early in September, so as to 
have it get a good start before winter. This 
would come forward a fortnight, if not three 
weeks earlier than any clover or grass, of 
which we have any experience. If the soil 
suits wheat better than rye, then we would 
sow wheat for this purpose. It comes for¬ 
ward quite as quick in the spring as rye, and 
is considered better green food; but after 
the cattle are withdrawn from it, the wheat 
does not grow and head as well as the rye, 
and it is consequently not so good a crop to 
harvest, or turn hogs on to when the grain 
has ripened. 
After the rye and wheat fields had been 
pastured about three weeks in the spring, we 
