‘crop of clover has been so. 
earlier, heavier, and superior in every respect to 
those which had undergone a top-dressing of 
horse and cow dung. As a top-dressing to the 
second crop of clover, they will be found highly 
advantageous, as by being used this way, they 
‘wonderfully increase the rapidity of growth and 
produce. One of the best proofs of their useful- 
ness is the fact, that while we have frequently in 
this country very backward and light crops of 
clover and grass, in Flanders, where this top- 
dressing is used, such a defection seldom if ever 
occurs. They are therefore likely to be of great 
use to the farmer on the lands which have grown 
sick of clover; and the importance of having a 
good crop of clover is the more obvious, when it 
is considered that, in general, the succeeding 
crop of wheat is only good when the preceding 
Besides fertilizing 
the land, the ashes may be of great advantage in 
| preventing the injuries arising from worms or 
insects; and will no doubt be highly useful as a 
| top-dressing, if regularly persevered in for a cer- 
tain time, in destroying the mosses and lichens 
so apt to injure the lawns and natural pasture in 
this country.” 
Turf Ashes—Turf ashes, as distinguished from 
those of peat, are the residuum of the burning of 
sward, and are usually obtained by the process so 
well known under the name of paring and burn- 
ing. See article Partne. They not only differ 
widely in chemical constitution from any purely 
vegetable ashes, and necessarily contain a large 
proportion of the mineral constituents of the in- 
cinerated sward, but also vary exceedingly and 
' constantly in themselves according to both the 
vegetable and the mineral nature of the parti- 
cular sward from which they are obtained. If 
the soil of the sward be very sandy, the ashes are 
very silicious and of little or no value; but if the 
soil be calcareous or argillaceous, they consist to 
a great extent of calcareous and aluminous bases, 
in combination with various acids, and often con- 
tain a large proportion of exide of iron. Yet, as 
a whole, they are very indeterminate in charac-. 
ter, and are fitted to perplex both the agricul- 
tural chemist and the practical farmer. Those 
of light weight are usually much superior to those 
of heavy weight ; those of a soft, flaky, crumbling, 
and very finely pulverulent kind, somewhat re- 
sembling pure vegetable ashes, are in all cases 
valuable; but those which are gritty and of a 
very reddish-brown colour, evincing by the one 
quality the predominance of silica, and by the 
other the presence of much oxide of iron, are 
usually little better than sheer poison to the soil. 
A specimen of turf ashes, expressly burnt for 
the purpose, was analyzed by Sir Humphrey 
Davy, at the request of the Board of Agriculture, 
and may afford guidance respecting all turf ashes 
of similar origin and appearance. The turf from 
which they were obtained was formed and cut 
upon a chalk soil in Kent, and was taken partly 
from the outside and partly from the inside of a 
ASHES. 
heap, in order that the specimen might be of aver- 
age character. The ashes produced from an acre 
of the land amounted, when dry, to 2,660 bushels 
or a little upwards of 77 tons; they were in the 
form of small lumps, from the size of a pea to 
that of a hazel nut; they were soft and easily 
broken, and had neither taste nor smell; and 
most were of a reddish colour, some were black 
or blackish-brown, and a few were white. When 
treated with acids, a considerable portion effer- | 
vesced ; when treated with pure water, they did | 
not yield to the liquid any alkalinity; and when 
first heated to redness with powdered charcoal, | 
and afterwards treated with diluted acid, they 
emitted a smell of sulphuretted hydrogen. Two 
hundred grains of these ashes contained 80 grains 
of carbonate of lime, 11 of gypsum, 9 of charcoal, 
3 of saline matter, principally sulphate of potash 
and muriate of magnesia, 15 of oxide of iron, and 
82 of insoluble earthy matter, principally alumina | 
and silica. Another specimen of ashes was an- 
alyzed from the turf of a soil in Leicestershire, | 
composed of nearly three-fourths of sand, and one- 
fourth of clay, with about 4 per cent. of chalk ; 
and 100 grains of this specimen contained 82 
grains of sand, clay, and chalk, 9 of oxide of iron, 
6 of charcoal, and 3 of saline matter, principally 
common salt and sulphate of potash. A third 
specimen of ashes was analyzed, from the turf of 
a strong slay soil in Cornwall; and 100 grains of 
this contained 81 grains of clay and sand, 2 of | 
chalk, 7 of oxide of iron, 8 of charcoal, and 2 of | 
common salt and other saline matter. 
Straw Ashes.—The ashes of straw, though figur- 
ing aS manure in some valuable agricultural 
treatises, ought, with all speed and decision, to | 
be banished from the nomenclature of manures. | 
Ashes can, in any circumstances, be obtained | 
from straw, only with enormous loss of true 
manurial matter, and with not a particle of real | 
gain. Straw which has been thoroughly dried at 
a high heat, yields only 4:02 per cent. of ashes, | 
and consists, in addition, of 46°37 per cent. of car- 
bon, 5°68 of hydrogen, and 43:93 of oxygen. No 
matter how rich the ashes may be in the most 
fertilizing salts, the loss of substance for farm- 
yard manure, in the driving away of so much 
carbon and oxygen, is far greater than these salts 
can possibly compensate. 
stubble of corn-fields as preparation for clover, 
owe all their true value to the destruction by fire 
of the rudimental forms of insects, and of the 
seeds and foliage of weeds; and in the degree in 
which they have been effectual, they have re- 
quired the stubble to be long, in order to give 
the fire full power, and have proportionally with- — 
held from the farm-yard the substance which 
forms the chief bulk of its most valuable manure. | 
On the wolds of Lincolnshire, indeed, the very 
straw of thrashed grain has, in some instances, 
been largely burnt for manure, and is reported to 
have, in some comparative trials, been found 
Advantageous experi- — 
ments which have been made of burning the | 
