pa 
pe nn 
nn 
water, contain silicate of potash in exactly the 
same proportion in which it is contained in 
straw; they also contain considerable quantities 
of phosphates,—those of oak 4 or 5 per cent., those 
of firs and pines from 9 to 15 per cent., those of 
hazel 12 per cent., those of poplar 16? per cent., 
and those of beech about 20 per cent. ; they give 
to the soil out of every four hundred pounds of 
their weight from oak, or out of every one hun- 
dred pounds from beech, as large an amount of 
phosphates as is yielded from every 460 pounds 
of fresh night soil; and they, in consequence, not 
only correct or neutralize into useful salts a large 
proportion of any acidity which may exist in even 
the sourest land, but vigorously exert the very 
same manurial power which is possessed by farm- 
yard dung, or by the richest composts. A seri- 
ous practical error, however, is, that almost all 
farmers employ wood ashes without any discrim- 
ination of the sorts of timber from which they 
are obtained ; and an important theoretical error 
into which the discriminating few are liable to 
fall is, that the comparative superiority of differ- 
ent kinds of ashes depends more upon the pro- 
portion of phosphates than upon that of potash. 
Trees of different genera, and even of different 
species, differ widely from one another in the 
proportion of potash which they yield by incin- 
eration; and were they classified and always es- 
timated according to that proportion, and those 
yielding large quantities of potash burnt separ- 
ately from those yielding small quantities, farmers 
would be able to make both a more judicious and 
a more economical application of their ashes to 
the soil. Trees, in a general view, make a plen- 
tiful yield of potash, somewhat in the degree of 
their hardness, their heaviness, and the closeness 
of their texture; and the chief of them may, 
upon this principle, be distributed into four 
classes,—first, the oak, the ash, the yew, the 
beech, the chestnut, the pear, the crab, the 
blackthorn, and the broom,—second, the elm, the 
maple, the hornbeam, and the whitethorn,—third, 
the pines and the firs,—and, fourth, the birch, 
the alder, the poplar, the hazel, the alder, and 
the willow. When six loads of the ashes of the 
first class are sufficient for an acre of land, ten 
or twelve loads of the ashes of the fourth class 
may be required ; and when twelve loads of the 
fourth class have been used with good effect, 
twelve or even ten loads of the first class might, 
in a dry season, exert so caustic an influence as 
to destroy or at least seriously damage the crop. 
Ashes of furze obtained from respectively the 
lime kiln and the brick-kiln, ought also to be es- 
timated and employed in the same proportional 
manner as the ashes of different classes of tim- 
ber. A considerable portion of the limestone in 
the lime-kiln, and of the clay in the brick-kiln, 
is calcined and reduced to powder by the action 
of the fire, and falls to the bottom, there to mix 
with the ashes of the furze faggots ; and just in 
| the degree in which calcined lime is a more 
ae a 
powerful stimulant than burnt clay, ought the 
proportion of matter mixed with the ashes in 
the lime-kiln to be estimated above the propor- 
tion mixed with them in the brick-kiln. Every 
farmer, in fact, ought to ascertain as closely as 
possible the comparative alkalinity and causticity 
of the kind of wood ashes he employs, and both 
to proportion the quantity and modify the uses 
of the manure according to its power. He who 
treats all wood ashes alike is always a spend- 
thrift, and occasionally a depredator. 
Peat Ashes—The ashes of peat, dried bog, de- 
cayed and fossil moss, or the lower strata of 
morass-turf, differ very widely in general chemi- 
cal character from those of wood ashes, and yet 
are scarcely, if at all, inferior in importance to 
agriculture. They possess great adaptation and 
value for turnip fields, sour meadows, and all 
kinds of artificial grass lands, principally applied 
as a top-dressing ; they are prepared in large 
quantities in various parts of England, especially 
at Newbury in Berkshire, for the uses of the 
farmer; and they are very extensively made in 
Holland, for general use throughout that king- 
dom and Belgium, and even for exportation into 
Great Britain and other countries. They owe 
their fertilizing power—not like wood ashes, to 
potash and the phosphates—but principally to 
gypsum or the sulphate of lime, partly to car- 
bonate of lime, partly to calcareous and alumin- 
ous earths, and subordinately to small quantities 
of the sulphate of potash, and the chloride of 
soda or common salt. Sir Humphrey Davy found 
that the peat ashes of Newbury contained from 
33 to 25 per cent. of gypsum, that those of Stock- 
bridge in Hampshire contained a still larger pro- 
portion of gypsum, that those of Wiltshire con- 
tained a considerable proportion of gypsum, and 
yet that those of various districts in Wales, Scot- 
land, Ireland, western England, and nofthern 
England, contained no such quantity of gypsum 
as could be useful, but abounded in oxide of iron, 
and in silicious and aluminous earths. He re- 
marks, however, that “ vitriolic matter is usually 
found in peats; and if the soil or substratum is 
calcareous, the ultimate result is the production 
of gypsum.” The existence of even a compara- 
tively small proportion of oxide of iron in any 
peat ashes instantly reveals itself to the eye by 
the redness of their colour. 
Irish peat contain a noticeably large quantity of 
sulphate of potash. The ashes of some very cele- 
brated peat ashes, brought not many years ago 
from Holland, were found by Professor Brande 
to yield 32 per cent. of silicious earth, 12 of gyp- 
sum, 6 of sulphate and chloride of soda, 40 of 
carbonate of lime, 3 of oxide of iron, and 7 of im- 
purities and loss; some peat ashes from Bassy 
in the department of the Marne, were ascertained 
by Berthier to yield 26 per cent. of gypsum, 224 
of silica, alumina, and oxide of iron, 514 of car- 
bonate of lime and magnesia; and some peat 
ashes from Fichtelgebirge were found by Fiken- 
The ashes of some | 
te el 
