The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-05-12
Mixing Ashes with Dung.

Mixing Ashes with Dung.
A. c., Bradford, VT, sends us the
following, cut from the Homestead, and
asks the agricultural EDITORS views on
the subject: " Under no circumstances
mix wood ashes with manure, unless it
is to be used at once, or is largely mixed
with earth. The ashes liberate the am
monia in the manure, and unless it is in
the soil or well mixed with earth the
ammonia is lost" Average stable ma
nure is not well-balanced fertilizer.
An analysis of New York stable manure
(probably nearly all from horses is
given on page forty-three of the Con-
necticut Agricultural Experiment Sta
TONS report for 1880, and is there stated
to agree closely with the German
chemist VOLTS average of moderately
rotted stable manure. In this analysis
the potash, phosphoric acid and nitro
gen are shown to be very nearly equal
(.633, go, .693), while properly bal
anced fertilizer would have about twice
as much potash and five or six times as
much phosphoric acid as nitrogen. In
fresh stable manure there is no ammo
mia, the nitrogen existing as an element
of various organic or quasi-organic COM
ds-albuminoids, urea, etc. Nor
do these compounds yield ammonia in
large quantities as the manure decays,
unless the decay has been rapid and ac-
companied with considerable heat. OF
the total nitrogen in the manure an
alyzed by the Connecticut Station only
us was in the form of ammonia out of
total of .693, and yet this was proba-
bly, nearly all horse manure, which
heats very readily.
This small percentage of ammonia in
manure is partly free, being as a gas
merely absorbed by the water of the
manure or by the decayed vegetable
matter, but most of it is combined with
the acids of the manure, which, in the
presence of the potash of ashes, would
abandon the weak alkali, ammonia, to
combine with the stronger alkali, pot
ash, thus leaving the ammonia free in
the mass. This, at least, is the theory
But even should this occur, it does not
necessarily follow that the ammonia
would escape into the air and be lost.
Unquestionably much the larger part
would remain and be absorbed by the
moisture of the manure. We have fire.
quently tried the experiment of incor-
porating strong wood ashes with ma
nure, and have failed to get even a
slight Whit of ammonia as reward for
our pains. When, however, ashes is
mixed with sulphate of ammonia, and
the mixture wet with water, the am
monia escapes freely. Here the theo-
retic reaction has free play, which is
not the case in the manure heap. Not
withstanding the HomeStead'S advice
Though that is the accepted view of the
matter), we should have no hesitancy
in mixing ashes with stable manure
toincrease proportion of potash suffi-
GENTLY to make it so far correctly pro-
portioned. To do this it would be nee
essary to add only about seven-tenths
of one per cent of potash, or fourteen
pounds to the ton, and as good UNI
leached hardwood ashes has about six
per cent of potash, this would be
effected by mixing 233 pounds of such
ashes evenly with ton of manure. AT
the same time, in order to correct also
the deficiency of phosphoric acid in
proportion to the other constituents,
it would be necessary to add to each ton
of the manure something containing II
pounds of phosphoric acid. This can
be had in the water-soluble form in
about 500 pounds of plain superphos.
plate made from South Carolina rock
or in the so-called insoluble form in
about 300 pounds of ground raw bone,
or in the same quantity of ground South
Carolina rock. The fertilizer thus pre-.
pared would have its plant food pro-
portioned about the same as in good
complete commercial fertilizer, and il
the plain superphosphate were used the
1888 pounds would correspond in fer
tilizing value to $50 pounds of good
| comnlete fertilizer-that is nv so com