The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-04-08
Wood Ashes as a Fertilizer.

! How CAN | best utilize that big heap
of ashes out BY the wood-pile? This is a
| question which We have no doubt that
| hundreds OF the some odd thousands of
farmers who read this paper have sug-
| gested to themselves, now that the
milder weather renders drafts on the
woodpile less frequent. In nine cases
out of ten we wager that the speakers
excellent spouse Immediately remarks
that she is about to sell them to the soap
maker; and the money? well, that is her
perquisite, and it would be very ungal-
! liant on our part to venture suspicion
as to its outlay. Still we dislike to see
these ashes go to the soap-boiler, and
| perhaps word as to their value to our
| farmer friend may cause him to think as
! we do; so, with word of apology to both
madam and the soap-man for our I'M
| warrantable interference with their little
| traffic, we venture to suggest that those
ashes are very much more valuable as
| fertilizer than for lye.
We suppose that every agriculturist
nowadays has some general idea of the
| principle of restitution; that is to say,
the elements necessary to the growth of
vegetables must be replaced; and If they
are not the crop either fails utterly, or at
best is deficient in health and growth
The amount of these elements, phospho-
rus, lime, potash and several others, to
be replaced varies according to the veg
etables cultivated. Thus potato crop
from seven and half acres of land takes
away the seed constituents of four wheat
crops, besides about 600 pounds of potash
The average turnip produce of the same
area removes the seed constituents of
four wheat crops and about 1000 pounds
of potash. Similarly also grapes, clover,
peas, beans, lucerne and nearly all
leguminous vegetables remove potash in
immense quantities. 1t is evident that
in such cases potash is the material
which the land most requires to produce
new crop. To buy potash and add it
to the soil would be expensive; true, it
may be procured in combination with
other substances in various fertilizers,
but there is much simpler source for it,
and that source is the ash heap, which
otherwise the soap-man purchases.
Prof. Storer, whose recent paper on
the fertilizing properties of wood ashes
we find in the Bulletin of the Bussey In
stitution, gives the latest information on
the value of this most useful material.
He says that the analysis of thirteen
samples of house ashes shows range of
from to 10.S per cent. of potash and
from 0.4 to 4.6 per cent. of phosphoric
acid. The lowest percentages of potash,
to Is, were from ashes of mixture of
maple, oak and white pine wood, col
lected by a soap-boiler in a country
village. The highest percentages, 10 to
1OS, were in ashes of mixed beech, birch
and maple in one case, and in those of
pitch pine in the other. Eight of the
samples ranged, as to potash, from IA to
80, the average of them, as well as that
of all the thirteen samples, being about
s. per cent. This, it must be borne in
mind, is the proportion of the chemists |
potash or oxide of potassium, and cor
responds to about 10! per cent. of the |
potash of commerce, which is an impure |
carbonate and hydrate of potassium. |
The average of phosphoric acid in dry |
commercial wood ashes, whether I'M
leached or leached, is about per cent, |
much less quantity than would be in
ferred from the composition of the "pure
ash" of many woods
This phosphoric acid is also valuable
fertiliZing material in the majority of |
soils. The balance of the elements con-
tanned in the ash, namely, silica, alumina
iron and manganese oxide, lime, soda,
ETC., are of no or littlesaccount, so that,
on what the potash, first, and the phos-
phoric acid, second, contained mainly
depends the value of wood ashes as a
fertilizer. The material is besides use
full dressing for the ground about orchard
trees, as it not only improves the soil,
but prevents in considerable degree the
inroads of insects in the roots and bark.
1t only remains for US to show that
there is not merely loss to the land ef-
fected, but that direct expenditure of
money is the result of using ashes in a
manner otherwise than we have pointed
out. In order to thrive the farmer must
keep his land in producing condition,
and, as we have already remarked, to
soils which require potash, potash must
be returned. Potash is worth about six
cents pound, and phosphoric acid is
sold in the New York markets for about
twelve and a half cents for the same
quantity. A barrel of wood ashes is
bought by the soap-maker for, say, twenty
two cents, and it weighs 1875 pounds
These ashes contain on an average, as
we have already shown, s per cent, or
ten pounds, of potash, and besides in
ciude 2 per cent, or two and a half
pounds, of phosphoric acid. According
to the above prices the total value of
these substances is ninety-one cents and
therefore barrel of ashes is intrinsically
worth as afertilizer nearly five times the
amount Tor which it can be sold to the
soap manufacturer J.