BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 345 
which constitutes good tilth. In presence of the alkaline carbon- 
ate, the particles of earth cohere in such wise that the furrows made 
by the ploughshare will neither fall down to powder on drying nor 
break up to powder when a harrow is dragged across them. In 
the words of Professor Hilgard: ‘‘ The result (of ploughing and 
harrowing) was a seed-bed of soil-clods ranging from the size of a 
pea to that of a billiard-ball, but no tilth.” 
But it is plain that on land naturally so loose and porous that it 
stands in need of being compacted, the presence of a small propor- 
tion of the alkaline carbonate — i. e. a just and proper proportion 
— would do good by enabling the soil to hold more water in its 
pores, and to hold it longer and more firmly than could have been 
done if none of the alkali were present. The idea is simply that 
many an open, leachy soil will be improved if its particles can by 
any means be held together a little more tightly than they are held 
naturally, so that water may be retained more forcibly or perhaps 
lifted more readily. It was presumably on this account that the 
farmers of Norfolk County in England laid so much stress on hay- 
ing their light soils trampled down firmly by means of cattle or 
sheep that were fed upon the land, and that the Scotch long since 
resorted to the use of heavy rollers upon light land. Looking at 
the matter in this way, it may perhaps be said with truth of some 
of the alkali-soils that the trouble is that they contain too much of 
a good thing. 
But even if the alkali-lands of California had never been studied 
it would still be known tolerably well from practical experience 
with wood-ashes that carbonate of potash can ‘‘ bind” light soils. 
It is a familiar fact of farming experience here in New England 
that wood-ashes are most highly esteemed — because they do their 
best service — precisely on light, leachy loams, such as often over- 
lie the coarse gravel of the drift. 
It has long been known moreover that wood-ashes do help the 
soil to retain moisture, and this point has been insisted upon in 
the following terms by Mr. Lorain,* one of our earlier agricultural 
writers. When land is cleared, ‘‘ the fallen timber is cut up into 
proper lengths, hauled or rolled together, heaped up and burned. 
The brambles and sprouts, toge'her with the bark, brush, chips, 
etc., are gathered by hand and raked into small heaps and also 
burned. It often happens, however, that the ashes arising from 
* John Lorain, ‘‘ Nature and Reason Harmonized in the Practice of Hus- 
bandry,” Philadelphia, 1825, p. 87. 
