The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-10-07
FARM and HOUSEHOLD.
Experiments with Anthracite and Btu.
minOuS Coal.

1t is generally thought in the country
that the ashes of mineral coal are not
only useless as fertilizer and improver
of the soil, but that, on the contrary,
they are hurtful. Hence, we see the
farmers reject these ashes, greatly to the
detriment of agriculture, while quaint
ties of them might be procured from the
iron works with no other cost than that
Of gathering them.
1t is, therefore, interesting to report
an experiment undertaken by cores,
pondent of the Journal de L Agricul-
ture. He filled in the Fall three flower
pots with pure bituminous coal ashes
without mixture of any kind, and sowed
in the first wheat, in the second oats,
and in the third some strawberry seed.
These pots were buried in bed in his
garden and left to themselves.
The termination took place success
fully during the winter, and in March
following the plants presented a fine
appearance. In April, the wheat, oats,
and strawberry plants were in fine
growth. The wheat and oats ripened
perfectly: the berries were large, clear,
very well filled, and heavy. The wheat
straw attained hight of more than
tifty-four inches; that of the oats forty
three inches. As to the strawberry
plants they came on finely, and contin-
ued to grow we'll until October, when
it became necessary to transplant them.
Set out in the open ground, they are
now the greenest, the strongest of all
the seedlings.
Thus it is seen that, without the
addition of either soil or manure, coal
ashes were sufficient in itself, according
to this trial, to nourish and bring to
maturity both wheat and oats, and to
support the growth of strawberry plants
during a year. Coal ashes, from its
nature, should effect division of soil,
and be very useful in overcoming the
stiffness of compact lands; it would,
then, at the same time, act as a manure
and an improver.
This, moreover, should be the case
Judging, not only by this experiment
just described, but from analysis made
by several chemists, among them Davy,
who found that these ashes contained,
in proportions varying with the locali-
ties whence the Goals came, sulphates of
potassa and lime, carbonate of lime,
clay and silica.
The above experiments have been cor
roborated, in part, in my own experience.
l have found it to pay well the trouble
and expense of hauling coal ashes a
distance of four miles. The ashes
should be screened before spreading on
the fields. The clinkers and cinders are
of more service on roads than on cult
waited land. Stiff soils are benefited
more by coal ashes than any others
Their application tends to loosen them,
which alone would make them more
productive, if they did nothing else On
an acre, sown with oats, applied coal
ashes, and the yield of grain was better,
and the straw much ranker than ON any
other part of the field.
Though it has generally been alleged
that these ashes possess no fertilizing
properties, experience, as we'll as science,
clearly proves it to be erroneous. They
do possess enough to make it pay to
gather them in large quantities. Espe-
cially are coal ashes in towns and cities
valuable. because some proportion of
wood is always consumed with the coal.
They can always be had for the trouble
of hauling, and in the winter months
the expense of doing so is not great,
because teams then have little to do
They should be used for top-dressing
grass-lands and meadows, and all other
soils that are tough and stiff
Experimental Farm Journal.
DEsULToRY JoTTINGs BY A FARMER
There is no better preventative of vicious
habits in youth than steady attention
to useful business. The whole world
knows well that idleness and Incidence
are the parents of vice, even where the
mind has been trained to high moral
culture. Young men who are carefully
educated to some practical and useful
employment seldom ever become i'm.
moral. Many persons are idle because
they were not taught to labor, and know
nothing of the proud consciousness Of
enjoying the fruits of their own industry
They would become attached to good
habits as we'll as bad, if they had grown
with their growth and strengthened with
their strength from youth up to man.
hood, and when once had become Injured
to industry, would cling to it not unfre
quently after the ability to practice il
had ceased.
The powers of the memory can dc
very little towards the advancement Of
any useful science 1t can be disciplined
to such point as to be abe to perform
very extraordinary feats, but such feats
are of no intrinsic value without tie
help of writing. The great achieve
ments of the memory should be ranked
with the exhibitions of rope dancing
and tumbling, which are much the same
thing; for of the two performances one
is an abuse of the powers of the body
and the other is an abuse of the powers
of the mind. Both may excite wonder
but neither is entitled to much respect
Journal Of tile Farm.
TIE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL GRAPE
CuLTURE.-At an Agricultural Society
out in Ohio, the committee asked the
man who took the prize for the finest
grapes if he would be kind enough tc
inform the society of the secret of his
method of cultivation, by reading before
it paper on Grape Culture The man
said he would. So, at the next meeting
he related that his grandmother had
died early in the previous Spring, and
being managing sort of-a-man, he
determined to realize on her. He planted
her at the foot of his grapevine, and
leached her with wood ashes, and dug
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