Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-04-09
Wood Ashes as ~ Fertilizer.

NNOOu Ahhth as ~
How can 1 best utilize that big heap of
ashes ont by the wood2 This is question
which we have no doubt that hundreds of
the some odd thousands of farmers who
read this paper have suggested to them
selves, now that the milder weather rem
ders drafts on the wood pile 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 ungallant on our part to venture a
suspicion as TO its outlay. Still, we dis
like to see these ashes 90 to the soap boiler,
and perhaps a word as to their value to our
| farmer friend may cause him to think as
we do; so with word of apology to both
madame and the soap man for our unwar-
rantable interference with their little traf-
fic, we venture TO suggest that those ashes
are very much more valuable as fertilizer
than for I've.
| 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 vege-
tables 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, phosphorus,
| lime, potash, and several others, to be re-
| placed varies according to the vegetables
cultivated. Thus potato crop from seven
and a half acres of land takes away the
seed constituents of four wheat crops, be-
Igi1 ol,A m.
average turnip produce of the same area
removes the seed constituents of four
wheat crops and about l goo pounds of pot
ash. Similarly also grapes, clover, peas,
beans, lucerne, and nearly all legumnous
vegetables remove potash in immense
| quantities. 1t is evident that in such cases
| potash is the material which the land most
requires to produce a new crop. To buy
| potash and add it to the soil would be ex-
pensive; true, it may be procured in COM
bination with other substances in various
fertilizers, but there is a much simpler
source for it, and that source is the ash
heap, which otherwise tho soap man pur-
| chases.
| Professor Storer, whose recent paper on
the fertilhing properties of wood ashes we
find in the Bulletin of the Bussey Insttu-
ton, gives the latest information on the
value of this most useful material. lie
says that the analysis of thirteen samples of
house ashes show a range of from to 1913
per cent of potash, and from O4 to 4'6 per
cent O phosphoric acid. The lowest per-
centages of potash, G to 6-5, were from ashes
of a mixture OF maple, oak, and white pine
wood, collected by soap boiler in coun-
| try village. The highest percentages, 10 to
| 1913, 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 "a to 0'5, the
average of them, as well as that of all the
| thirteen samples, being about 81 per cent.
This, 1t must be borne in mind, is the chem
lists potash or oxide of potassium, and cor
responds to about l0l per cent of the potash
of commerce, which is an impure carbon
ate and hydrate of potassium. The aver
age of phosphoric acid in dry commercial
! wood ashes, whether unleached or leached,
is about two per cent, much less quantity
than would be inferred from the compost
ton of the "pure ash" of many woods.
This phosphoric acid is also a valuable
fertilizing material in the majority of soils.
The balance of the elements contained in
the ash, namely, silica, alumina, iron and
manganese oxide, lime, soda, etc., are OF
no or little account, so that, on what the
potash, first, and the phosphoric acid, Sec
ond, contained, mainly depends the value
of wood ashes as fertilizer. The material
is besides a useful dressing for the ground
about orchard trees, as it not only improves
the soil, but prevents in considerable de-
gree the inroads of insects in the roots and
bark.
1t only remains for us to show that there
is not merely a loss TO the land effected,
but that a direct expenditure of money is
the result of using ashes in a manner 9TH
erwise than we have pointed out. In or
der TO thrive, the farmer must keep his
land in producing condition, and, as we
have already remarked, to soils which re-
quire potash, potash must be returned.
Potash is worth about six cents a pound,
and phospboric acid is sold in the New
York markets for about l2l cents for the
same quantity. A barrel of wood ashes is
bought by the soap maker for say twenty
two cents, and it weighs 125 pounds. These
ashes contain on an average, as we have
already shown, S per cent, or 10 pounds of
potash, and besides include two per cent,
or two and a half pounds of phosphorlc
acid. According TO the above prices, the
total value of these substances is 81 cents,
and therefore barrel of ashes il intrin-
Sically worth as fertilizer nearly five
times the amount for which IL can be sold
to the soap manufacturer.
"Ashes," says the Rural New Yorker,
"contain essential components of all crops.
They should not be mixed with compost
There is no gain in so mixing them) but
applied broadcast directly to the soil,
whether it is grass or arabic land We
never knew a farmer who could get moro
ashes than it was profitable to apply to his
land. One hundred bushels per acre are
not too much to apply to old cultivated
lands. Especially are ashes excellent for
orchards. They should moi be heared right