Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1862-03-22
farmers department.
tfrcin the "Coontry Gentleman.nl
Value Of Wood Ashes.

Nine years ego, while on n visit in Fair.
field coanty, Con-, ] observed some fields
that produced very poor crops OF both grain
and gross: and seeing heavy crops on those
very fields this season, 1861, / tbongbt it
worth while TO look up the proprietor and to
inquire what kind of manure he had used to
restore those impoverished fields to such q
state Of fertility? "Notbihg but wood ashes" 4"
was bis reply. 81 purchase" said be, "all the
ashes | can obtain at eighteen cents per
bushel, within convenient distance OF my
farm, aud it pays well, not OILY for grass, but
FOR Indian corn and potatoes" On some soils
where Indian corn is raised, and where hand.
ful had been applied to each bill, a stranger
! would end no difficulty in determining at
once where the ashes were applied, and where
there had been none applied.
Ashes cannot fail TO be very valuable on
most kinds Of soil, in localities where the
price per busbel is not more than five or six
cents, although we seldom perceive such m.
mediate and lasting effects as We met with on
such soils as we find in Connecticut-sandy ,
and gravelly loans.
My own experience with wooden ashes,
both leached and unlesched, is, that it is far
more profitable to SOW them on meadows 10
the spring, or SOW them on any kind Of cereal
grain, or potatoes. than 10 sell them, ss most
farmers are in the habit Of doing. Unleached
| ashes are far better than leached, not only for
grain and grass, but for young trees or roots
-turnps and potatoes.
When we have sowed wheat or any other
kind of grain, where there has been log heap
or brush heap burned down, why does the
! straw or grain keep erect before it is harvest.
ed, much better and longer than it does in
other parts of the field Because there is an
abundance If potash in the SOIL which is an
indispensable ingredient in the formation Of
straw; and where there is little or no potash
the straw is almost always very slender, ami
the grain lie very liable to fall down before it
is ready to be harvested.
Mediterranean wheat is very liable, on old
land in Central New York. to fall down few
days before it is ripe; and it is owing many
times to the want of sufficient amount Of pot.
ash on the soil, to give that degree o! stiffness
to the straw, which is so important to keep it
erect until it is fit to cut.
1t is a very great mistake among multi.
tudes Of pretty good farmers, that there is
little or no efficiency in wood ashes. Coal
ashes, although by no means ns valuable as
wood ashes, are worth saving and applying
TO grass land. l have seen corn growing
most luxuriantly on poor sandy loan coil,
which had received a large handful Of coal
ashes per hill and man showed me heavy
piece of grass in Greenwich, Conn, which had
received only top dressing Of coal ashes,
where the grass in 1860 was hardly worth
moving Ashes, either wood or coal, leached
or unleacbed, should be carefully saved and
sowed on meadows. In years past, when the
sleighng was good, my team has hauled a
great many loads OF leached ashes five miles
| But it is doubtful whether it will pay to haul
eaehed ashes as far as that, except to be ap-
piled to certain kinds of soil. But where
eached ashes can be obtained within about
two miles. for nothing but the expense ol
hauling them, it will pay we'll to draw them
But should prefer to pay six or eight. and
under certain circumstances, eighteen cents
per bushel, for unleached ashes, than to haul
leached ashes for nothing. Their value, for
the most part, depends upon the amount OF
potash in them; and there is little potash in
ashes that have been leacbed.
S. EDWARDS TopD.