46 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
FIRES FROM ASHES. 
The records of our Fire Insurance offices show that 
the most common cause of fires is the use, or rather abuse 
of stoves; and the next in frequency is the deposit of 
ashes in wooden vessels, or other unsafe places. Strange 
as it may seem, not one-half of the dwelling houses in 
this country are provided with safe places of deposit for 
the ashes daily accumulating from our wood fires, and in 
a majority of them a barrel or box performs the office 
that should devolve on an ash house of brick or stone. 
This wooden depository is not unfrequently placed in the 
wood house, or some other of the out-buildings, ready at 
any time to ignite, or if disturbed by winds, to furnish 
the spark that will kindle a destructive conflagration. It 
is generally considered the extreme of prudence, if the 
ashes, when taken from the hearth and glowing with red 
hot embers or coals, are placed in holes dug in the center 
of the surface of the cold ashes, and slightly covered with 
them, and not allowed to come in actual contact with the 
sides of the box or barrel. To us it seems most strange 
that under such circumstances fires from ashes do not 
more frequently occur, and the great danger of such a dis¬ 
position of ashes would prevent its recurrence were the 
evil fully understood. 
Almost every family that is unprovided with an ash 
house of brick or stone, and that is in the habit of using a 
wood substitute, must have met with cases in which, in 
spite of all their care in depositing their ashes, serious 
danger from fire has arisen, the boxes have been burned, 
charred, or destroyed, greatly to the wonder of the par¬ 
ties interested. Houses are burned, and the misfortune 
is placed to the account of the incendiary, when it should 
he placed to the account of the ash box. There are some 
facts connected with this subject that should be more ge¬ 
nerally known, as they might have the effect of placing 
house keepers and house builders more on their guard. 
Not long since a friend of ours on taking possession of 
a place which had been unoccupied for several weeks, 
when he came to take up the first ashes made from his 
fires, found that his predecessor had used an old hogs¬ 
head, and on examination this was found about half full 
of*ashes, covered so as to exclude the rain. A hole was 
made in the center of these old ashes and the new ones 
deposited. The next day there was an alarm of fire, and 
the hogshead was found in flames. Fortunately the fire 
occurred in the day time, or his buildings, valuable as 
they were, would most certainly have been destroyed. 
This occurrence is not an unsual one, and the frequency 
of losses from this source, induced Prof. H. of Vt. to en¬ 
ter upon a series of experiments to ascertain the eause. 
From instances that had fallen under his notice, he was 
induced to believe that when embers or live coals are 
placed among dry ashes, no matter what may be their age, 
or how long they have been deprived of fire, a second 
ignition takes place, which sometimes does not cease un¬ 
til the whole mass has been burned over, although it is 
frequently arrested before it has reached this extent. 
Boxes filled with cold ashes, had a quantity of red hot 
embers and live coals from the hearth placed in their 
center, and then carefully covered and closed. It was 
found that the heat gradually increased, the fire extended 
through the whole mass, the box became charred on the 
aiside, and when air was admitted combustion ensued at 
‘»nce. The same result took place when the box wa-* 
burned through to the outside. In order to determine 
whether the combustion of the ashes took place in conse¬ 
quence of the coals which are usually left in ashes, boxes 
filled with sifted ashes were tried in the same way, and 
ignition took place as before; proving either that a suf¬ 
ficient quantity of fine particles of coal remained to sup¬ 
port combustion, or that a sufficient amount of nitrous 
matter was obtained from the atmosphere to allow igni¬ 
tion to take place. In either supposition, the manner in 
which numerous fires annually take place seemed clearly 
established, and the danger of placing ashes in wood ves¬ 
sels of any kind clearly shown. Nothing but absolute 
necessity should allow the practice of having barrels or 
boxes of ashes about our dwellings or out-houses. A safe 
ash house is as indispensable as a kitchen, and no house 
should be built where this receptacle is not provided. To 
the farmer, ashes are of great value, and to waste them or 
sell them as many do, is the worst kind of prodigality. 
Leached, or unleached, they are one of the best promo¬ 
ters of fertilization, and should be saved with great care; 
but never at such frightful risks as the destruction of the 
farm buildings. Of this there is not the least necessity; 
the cause of the danger once understood it can be readily 
guarded against, and if insurance companies would look 
to this matter in their policies, the evil might be arrest¬ 
ed without difficulty. 
MR. PELL’S FARM AND DR. UNDERWOOD’S VINEYARD. 
At a meeting of the New-York Farmer's Club, a spi¬ 
rited and valuable association, Mr. Meigs made the fol¬ 
lowing statements respecting the farm of Mr. Pell of Ul¬ 
ster co., and the vineyard of Dr. Underwood, at Croton 
Point, Westchester co. We copy in substance from the 
Report given in the N. Y. Tribune. 
Mr. Pell uses lime extensively on his farm; has used 
300 bushels per acre, prefers oyster shell lime. He has 
used charcoal at the rate of 52 bushels per acre. With 
this charcoal dressing he last year obtained wheat at the 
rate of 78 bush. 24 qts. per acre. [For Mr. Pell’s ac¬ 
count of this wheat, see Cult, for 1843, p. 197.] Mr. Pell 
had cut wheat so early that milk would be forced from 
the berry by the pressure of the thumb and finger. This 
wheat weighed 64 lbs to the bushel, and was of the most 
beautiful quality. Mr. P. had cut clover and housed it 
on the same day, sprinkling about a bushel of salt over 
every load. This clover retained its color, and was pre¬ 
ferred by cattle to that cured in the old way. Mr. P. has 
20,000 apple trees in full bearing. He has sent to mark¬ 
et 4,000 barrels of apples in a year, many of which are 
sent abroad and sold at the rate of eight or nine dollars 
per barrel. He kills the apple tree caterpillar by touch¬ 
ing a sponge dipped in ammonia to the worm nests, and 
has banished them from his orchards. In dry weather 
he applies lime about the roots of his trees, and finds 
trees so treated retain their verdure and grow better in 
dry seasons than those not so treated. Mr. P. had 10,000 
trees grafted by a company from Vermont. Two sawed 
the branches, two made the incisions, two inserted the 
grafts, and two more applied the wax composition. Of 
20,000 grafts not one failed. The expense was $150. 
Dr. Underwood’s vineyard contains 20 acres of Isabel¬ 
la and Catawba grapes, bearing as much fruit as the Dr. 
pleases to have remain on the vines. It is one of the 
finest vineyards in the United States. He has also on 
his farm, 1,700 apple trees, 2,700 peach trees, large 
quantities of the finest quinces, and many other fruits. 
His apples are of the best and choicest varieties, and 
command the highest prices in the New-York markets. 
These are only a few of the farms and orchards, which 
will well repay an examination by the lingering traveler, 
along the margin of the noble Hudson. 
ADVANTAGES OF MARL FOR COTTON. 
Mr. J. H. Hamond furnishes to the South Carolina 
Ag. Society, a statement of his experiments in the use of 
marl, from which we gather the following: 
Experiment No. 2.— Very light sandy soil, 1843. 
Unmarled acre,. 361 lbs. Seed Cotton. 
100 bushels do. 451 do. Increase 90 lbs. 24-9 per cent 
200 do do. 384 do. do. 23 6-3 “ 
300 do do. 173 do. decrease 188 52* u 
The land being very old, is bare of vegetable matter 
for marl to act on, to which, more than to the texture of 
the soil, inferior as it is, I attribute the failure of any 
great improvement from it. I make the statement, how¬ 
ever, because it is valuable in many respects. It shows 
the danger of heavy marling on worn land, without pre¬ 
vious rest or manure. The acre with three hundred 
bushels has been destroyed. There is one rich spot, the 
bottom of a small basin in the center of it, which pro¬ 
duced nearly all the cotton gathered. On the rest of it 
the weed mostly died as soon as it came up—one hun¬ 
dred proves a better quantity than two hundred bushels, 
and perhaps a little less would have been still better on 
this soil. 
