362 
consider my crops have derived immediate and permanent advantage from 
the practice. If wheat is the first crop taken on a piece of newly broke land, 
patches may be seen here and there, where the fires have been, without 
any plant, these bare spaces are surrounded by a belt of tall-growing 
luxuriant wheat, which remains comparatively green when the rest of the 
field is ripe, and is almost invariably so much infested with rust as to 
produce a worthless grain; this loss might be easily avoided; the ashes 
which in quantity act as a poison, diminishing the produce to some ex¬ 
tent, and injuring its quality, might, if spread abroad, have contributed to 
the health and vigor and increased the produce of the entire crop. Many 
experiments have been made with charcoal of late years, more especially 
by gardeners, and with very beneficial results. Peat is now extensively 
charred in Ireland for the purpose of mixing with and de-odorising offen¬ 
sive animal manures. The chief value of charcoal is probably owing to 
the remarkable power it possesses of absorbing and condensing gases 
within its pores. “Light porous charcoals, such as those obtained from 
the horns and hoofs of animals, and from certain kinds of wood, as the 
willow and pine, absorb of ammonia 95 times their own bulk, of sulphu¬ 
retted hydrogen 55 times, of oxygen 9 times, of hydrogen nearly twice 
their bulk, and of watery vapor so much as to increase their weight from 
10 to 20 per cent. They also separate from water any decayed animal 
matters, coloring substances, &c. This action is so powerful that port 
wine is rendered perfectly colorless, and a decoction of hops becomes 
tasteless when filtered through a well prepared charcoal. In or upon the 
soil, charcoal will act in the same manner. From the air it will absorb 
moisture and gaseous substances, and from rain and flowing waters 
organized matters. All of which it will yield up to plants that grow 
around it, when they are such as are likely to contribute to their 
growth.”— Johnston. 
The black vegetable matter of a soil possesses similar properties, but in 
a less degree, it has the power of retaining the volatile ammonia carried 
down from the atmosphere by rain, and partly in consequence of this 
property, I consider that if it were applied alone on sandy soils, it would 
exercise a beneficial influence on the growth of plants. 
Recent experiments of Professor Way have also shown that clay also 
has the property of abstracting a certain quantity of ammonia from wa- 
A 
