330 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
ble to return a first swarm when an increase in swarms 
is not desired ?”--This is a good, practical question, and 
the entire space given to the ‘'Notes” might be profita¬ 
bly used in answering it. In my home apiary about oue- 
half of my hives are boxed, and the rest are extracted. 
Those extracted seldom swarm, no matter how populous. 
When a swarm issues from a stock that is boxed, I re¬ 
move part of the combs filled with brood, and after re¬ 
moving all the queen cells from the remainder, fill the 
place of those taken away with em ty frames, and re- 
turn the swarm. In most seasons this will prevent, further 
swarms; if plenty of box room be given.- The combs of 
brood removed may be given to lighter swarms for ex¬ 
tracting. 
To make Bees Work in Boxes.—" How can I in uce 
my b es to work in boxes?’'—Fasten pieces of white 
comb in each box, and if strong with bees and plenty 
of forage, there will usually be no trouble. 
Swarms going Back.—" One hive of bees has attempt¬ 
ed t i swarm four different times, and each time returned 
to the old hive. What was the cause ? Without doubt 
the old queen had a poor wing, and being unable to fly, 
returned to her hive, when the bee's returned with her. 
Non-swarming Bees.—" My bees collect surplus honey, 
but do not. swarm. Why is this ? ’’—Bees often gather so 
much honey early in the season, and the combs are so 
filled with it, that space is not left for a sufficient amount 
of brood to be reared, and, in consequence, colonies do 
not become populous enough to swarm. In such cases, 
the Extractor for emptying the combs is invaluable. In 
other seasons stocks may be very populous, and a lack of 
honey will hinder swarming. 
Straight Combs. — " How can I manage to secure 
straight combs in my frames? ”—If a frame or two filled 
with combs were placed in each hive, they would assist 
in securing straight combs. Recent experiments impress 
me that the comb foundation, which is being largely 
manufactured, may prove serviceable in this direction. 
The Best Hive. —“ All things considered, which is the 
most desirable hive?” —I use the "New Qninby.” 
Would change, if I knew of a better one, 
Alsike Clover. —“Will this alone produce a good 
crop for stock ? ’’—Not the best. If I were to carry on 
farming in connection with bees, I should sow it each 
year, as it yields honey abundantly and of a fine quality. 
It does not stand severe winters well. 
Time for Putting on Boxes.— “ Does it make any 
difference in the amount of surplus honey, if the boxes 
are put on before the bees have filled the hive below ?’’— 
Yes. if a card of brood be placed in the hive when the 
bees are put in to keep the queen from entering the box¬ 
es, and the yield of honey be good. I would put boxes on 
at once. It the brood is not furnished,-1 would put box¬ 
es on in a couple of days. 
“Do Bees need Salt?” —It is not essential to them. 
Science Applied to Fanning.—XXXIII. 
Wood Ashes, tlieir Composition and Uses as 
Fertilizers—Ashes vs. Pliosphatcs and Guano. 
I had quite a talk with a farmer friend in Ver¬ 
mont, recently, about aslies and phosphates as fer¬ 
tilizers. He had been using both, the superphos¬ 
phate, of good quality, costing about $50 per ton, 
while fresh ashes could be had at 43 to 15 cts., and 
leached aslies at 10 to 13 cents per bushel. He was 
in doubt as to whether the phosphate paid, but was 
quite certain the ashes vvere profitable. I thought 
the ashes cheap and the phosphate dear, and ad¬ 
vised him to use the ashes, and very freely. I be¬ 
lieve practical experience and correct theory jus¬ 
tify this advice. 
Very common experience shows that wood ashes 
are an excellent, reliable, and lasting fertilizer. 
Hundreds of farmers will recall places where a 
brush heap or an old log has been burned, and a 
luxuriant vegetation has followed and lasted for 
years. In this section it is an old saying that “ the 
land never forgets ashes.” Many of our best farm¬ 
ers in Connecticut use leached ashes, imported 
from Canada, at a cost of from 18 to 28 cents or 
more per bushel, in preference to all other fertilizers 
except barn-yrvl and stable manure. Mr. T. B. 
Wakeman, of Westport, one of the most successful 
farmers in the State, says : 
“ The farmers here have used ashes for more than 
thirty years; the cheapest manure we can buy. 
Over "O.OOO bushels were sold here last year, be¬ 
sides 400 tons of bone,’which is next to a«hes as a 
fertilizer. We know that ashes and bone-dust pay, 
and more than three times over. We can put that 
down as a fact, and prove it, too. If any one 
doubts it, will call and see our crops, when grow¬ 
ing, he will admit its truth.” 
This good effect of ashes is very easy to explain. 
The trees from which they come subsist in essen¬ 
tially the same way as the cultivated crops. Both 
require the same materials for food, though in some¬ 
what different proportions, and obtain them from 
the same sources—atmosphere and soil. The 
ash that is left after the wood is burned, includes, 
practically, everything that the tree took, and the 
plant requires, from the soil, except nitrogen, and 
the ingredients are in very available forms. Further, 
while the ashes do not supply nitrogen themselves, 
they are very active agents in rendering the nitro¬ 
gen of the soil available to crops. Our ordinary 
soils contain this precious ingredient largely in ex¬ 
cess of the needs of the crops. But the larger por¬ 
tion of it is in such forms that plants can not ap¬ 
propriate it for food. This is the case in partially 
decayed vegetable matter, as roots, stubble, humus, 
etc. Ashes induce chemical changes' by which the 
nitrogen is rendered available. They do the same 
for the other soil ingredients of plant-food also. In 
the fragments of minerals and rocks contained in ev¬ 
ery ordinary soil are locked up stores of potash, lime, 
magnesia, phosphoric acid, and so on. The ashes 
liberate these, and work them over into forms fit 
for the support of plants. These changes of plant- 
food from inert to active forms, are going on in the 
soil all the while. It is in virtue of these processes 
that our soils are enriched by tillage and fallowing. 
Ashes, by accelerating these changes, enable the 
soil to feed the crops it bears more rapidly, or what 
is the same thing, more bountifully than it other¬ 
wise could. 
Again, ashes may be useful as a mechanical 
amendment to the soil. On a portion of one of the 
fields belonging to my friend alluded to, ashes had 
been applied. On comparing this with an ad¬ 
joining strip where no ashes had been used, a 
great difference in the texture of the soil, a some¬ 
what sandy loam, was noticeable. Where the ashes 
were, the soil was soft and yielding to the step. We 
could run our fingers down into it several inches, 
and dig up large handfuls with ease. Where no ashes 
had been applied, it was harder and more compact, 
and it was with difficulty that we could force our 
fingers into it more than an inch or two. An ac¬ 
quaintance was telling me, recently, of some of the 
farming land in New Jersey that has been so won¬ 
derfully improved by the application of marl. He 
said he could tell the so I where the marl had been 
put, by the tread, when walking over it, even in the 
darkest night. The marl he referred to was some¬ 
what similar in composition to leached ashes, and 
its application produced analogous effects. 
And, finally, ashes are usually applied in large 
quantities. Of course, none of their constituents 
can escape into the air. The loss through leach¬ 
ing away in the water which percolates through the 
soil is very slight. They therefore remain, furnish¬ 
ing the crops with plant-food, and improving the 
condition of the soil for years, until they are them¬ 
selves consumed. Hence their lasting usefulness. 
t>,i nre figures by Wolff, representing averages 
of ..opean analyses (mostly German) of wood 
ashes. Analyses of ashes of peat and anthracite 
coal are also given, for comparison. 
The above analyses of wood ashes differ some¬ 
what from those of the ashes ordinarily produced 
in household and furnace fires. The percentages 
of phosphoric acid, particularly, are much higher 
than those of common wood ashes.* * The amounts 
* The reason of this is that the analyses refer more to the 
nsh as prepared lor investigation, by careful,burning in Ihe 
laboratory, so that all the phosphorus of the wood remains 
of phosphoric acid, as well as of some of the other 
c nstituents of ordinary wood ashes as obtained 
from household fires in this country, are illustrated 
by the following analyses by Prof. Storer.*' Nos. 
I and II were “from soap boilers’ stores,” and, of 
course, mixtures of various kinds as gathered pro¬ 
miscuously from houses. The rest were carefully 
taken from stoves and furnaces in private dwellings 
in New England, except IX and X, which were 
from Illinois. 
WOOD ASHES, (TJnleached.) 
Sources, Kinds or Wood, etc. 
100 16 s. contain. 
| j’G'i 
^ bsi fj* 
1 Ill'll 
$ te a 
tbs ilbs.ltbs. Ibs. 
Soapboiler’s ashes. 
I.—Collected from Houses. 
II.- “ “ “ . 
From hot-air furnaces in houses. 
III. —Beech, Birch, and Maple, mixed... 
IV. —Hard Wood, chiefly Oak. 
VI.—RockMapl . 
6.3^ 8.4I .... 
.6.11 3.0 .... I- 
10.4 1.5 25.4 1 5.9 
8.5 1.7 21.9 14.1 
8.8 2.0 28.7 1.3 
8.6 2.0 30.7 7.8 
8.4 1.8. 
9.5 2.8 : .... .... 
.9.0 2.2 23.4 11.9 
7.4 0.7 20.3 5.1 
9.1 0.4 28.3 2.7 
10.8 4.2. 
From house stoves. 
V.—M stlyRedOak. (open tire.). 
VII.-Maple and Apple. 
VIII.—Be ch... 
IX.—Pin Oak, (green wood.)... 
X.—Pin Oak, (dry wood.).. 
XI.—Apple, (old trees.). 
XII.—Pitch hue.. 
Leached ashes differ from unleached chiefly in 
containing less potash and more water. Below are 
some analyses by Prof. Johnson.f 
From the above analyses and other data, which 
we have not room to discuss here, we may assume 
the following figures as expressing accurately 
enough for practical purposes the average per¬ 
centages of the valuable ingredients of plant-food 
in wood ashes as obtained from household fires, or 
commercially, in this country. 
Wood Ashes. 
100 lbs. contain 
on the'averagc 
Potash 
Ibs. 
Lime 
Us. 
Mag ne 
s>a. 
Its. 
Phosph’c 
Acid. 
It'S. 
Sulphu¬ 
ric Acid. 
fts. 
Ilnloached.... 
Irached. 
Tfo’Tl 
£2 
1 25 
5 
8)< 
2 
1 X . 
1-5 
A bushel of unleachcd ashes weighs, on the aver¬ 
age, about 48 lbs. A “ struck ” bushel of leached 
ashes will average 6ome 57 lbs., and a “heaped 
bushel ” about 71 lbs. A dressing of 50 bushels of 
unleached ashes to the acre, at 48 ibs. to the bush¬ 
el, would give some 200 lbs. of potash ; 70S lbs. 
lime ; 120 lbs. magnesia ; 4Slbs. of phosphoric acid, 
and 36 lbs. of sulphuric acid. A manuring of GO 
bushels of leached ashes, at 60 lbs. to the bushel, 
would furnish about 54 lbs. of potash ; 900 lbs. of 
lime; 126 lbs. of magnesia; 54 lbs. of phosphoric 
acid, and 7 lbs. -of sulphuric acid. Either of these 
would cost but little more, and, in many places, not 
nearly as much a= an ordinary dressing of guai.o.or 
superphosphate. The main value of the guano or 
superphosphate would be in the nitrogen and phi 
phoric acid it contains and supplies directly to the 
plant. The ashes would contain about as much 
phosphoric acid and would supply nitrogen indirect¬ 
ly, as explained above. In addition to tin's, the 
ashes would yield a large quantity of potash, of 
which the guano would contrdn little and the phos¬ 
phate probably none, considerable magnesia, and a 
in the ash as phosphoric acid. In ordinary fires a good.dom 
of.tjie phosphorris of the wood is lost, hy being volaiili.zt -d 
and carried away in the draft, or changed to other forms ol 
combi'n tion than phosphoric acid. Honschol l and furnace 
ashes also-contain considerable coal sand and other impuri¬ 
ties, which do not occur in the samples prepared in the 
laboratory. Wolff's figures, above given, evidently make 
allowance lor these latter contaminations, however. 
* An exhaustive treatment of this subject by Prof. Storer 
maybe found in the “Bulletin of tin- Bussey Institution of 
Harvard University,” Vol. I page 101. See also accounts of 
composition and fertilizing effects of aslies in other part- of 
same work. 
t From Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture, 187?, p. 417. 
The original samples varied in the percentages of water, lint 
the analyses are calculated on a basis of 37 per cent, which 
is probably a fair average. The last sample had an admix¬ 
ture of anthracite coal ashes. 
