BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 391 
the agricultural value of wood-ashes may be rated at 40 cents per 
bushel. 
Another way of looking at the matter would be to contrast the wood- 
ashes with our American potashes. At the present time potashes are 
quoted in the Boston newspapers at five cents per pound. Let us 
assume, for the sake of the argument, that the average commercial 
article has an alkali-power equivalent to from 65 to 70% of pure 
carbonate of potash, account being taken of both the caustic and 
carbonated potash and the carbonate of soda that the potashes may 
contain. Let it be admitted furthermore that American potashes 
contain as much as 60% of real potash (K,O) if all that which is 
present in the form of sulphate and chloride be allowed for.* There 
would be then in a hundred pounds of the potashes three dollars’ worth 
of real potash, — that is to say, as much real potash as would cost the 
farmer three dollars if he were to buy it in the form of the neutral salt 
muriate of potash at its present price,— and the cost of the alkali- 
power of the potashes would be the difference between this sum and 
the price at which the potashes are actually sold. ‘That is to say, the 
cost of the hundred pounds of potashes ($5.00), minus the worth of 
the sixty pounds of real potash contained in them ($3.00), is equal to 
two dollars, the cost of their alkali-power. 
From these data it would appear that ($2.00 + 65 =) $0.031, or 
($2.00 —70—=) $0.029 may be allowed for each pound of the carbonate 
of potash, on account of alkali-power, accordingly as the potashes are 
rated as containing 65% or 10% of that substance; a result which is 
surprisingly like the one just now obtained by the calculation based on 
the price of soda ash. Such calculations are of course to be regarded 
as mere rough approximations or suggestions upon which to found an 
opinion of the real value of ashes; but they go to show that, while the 
price of 80% muriate of potash is no lower than 2} cents per pound, 
American potashes at five cents per pound may be classed as a cheap 
manure. 
It is an interesting question, that needs to be tested by experiment, 
whether mixtures of the Stassfurt potash salts and quicklime can be 
employed as advantageously for making compost as wood-ashes, or as 
* Compare F. Mayer, “American Journal of Pharmacy,” 32. 152; and 
Griineberg, Wagner’s “ Jahresbericht der chemischen Technologie,” 9. 288. 
