ASHES FOR SOILS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1250, 9 March 1878, Page 3

ASHES FOR SOILS.

[From the " New York Herald."] Ashes are among the most economical manures, as they are produced by almost even household. Not a pound of ashes should be wasted, but all should be saved and applied to the land. Where they can bo had at reasonable rates they should be purchased for manure. They can be drilled into the soil with roots and grain, sown broadcast on meadows of pastures, or mixed with the muck heap. Potatoes, turnips, and all roots; clever, peas, beans, grain, and the grasses, are great exhausters of the Baits, and they are consequently much benefited by ashes. In connection with bone dust they are used with decided advantage from the above crops. From twenty to thirty bushels per acre should be used upon light soils; for rich lands or clays give a heavier dressing—say, fifty bushels per acre. Do not forget that repeated dressings of ashes, lime or gypsum, without a corresponding addition of barnyard or vegetable manure, will exhaust tillage lands of thencarbonaceous and organic matters. This is not the case with meadow lands, for this very obvious reason. The whole surface of the soil is covered with vegetable agents, employed in drawing carbon from air and soil and storing it up in stubble and roots. Thus carbon is constantly increasing in well managed pastures, and, for a time, in meadows. The ashes of bituminous and authracite coal are inferior to those made from vegetables and wood, but are still valuable. The ashes of seaweeds are peculiary rich in soda and very valuable to the farmer. If it is inconvenient to carry the weeds to the soil they can be burned on the coast. Peat, when thoroughly dried, may be reduced to ashes, which can bo applied as a dressing with great profit. EXPERIMENTS WITH POTATOES SETS. [From the Opinion.''] A French agricultural journal, the " Bassopour," describes the result of some experiments in potato-growing recently conducted by scientific men in Gormany. The principal conclusion'to which these sages have come seem to be two in number. The first of them is, that the vigour of the potato plant is always in direct proportion to the weight of the tuber used for sets —a theory which certainly finds some support in common sense alone, considering that the young shoots for some time draw their sole nourishment from the mother potato. The second conclusion is that there is a great variety in the productive power, not only of different tubers, but also of different eyes in the same potato. It is found that the eyes at the top of the potato produce a much more vigorous offspring than those in the lower part, and the consequence is that those agriculturists who cut their potatoes in half before planting them are not well advised in cutting vertically, but should always divide them horizontally, planting the upper half and using the other as food for cattle. But the best' plan of all is to plant; the tuber whole, cutting out, nevertheless, all the eyes except those in the top part. Experiments were conducted in a garden soil by Brqfesspr Gantz, the amount of crop produced by several different settings of potatoes being accurately estimated iu statistical tables. It appeared that from tubers divided vertically o»ly five, tons were produced,

per acre, and from the whole potatoes 7£ tons. The third sort were potatoes horizontally divided, which are set down as having produced 9J tons. In this particular, however, some of the other professors do not agree with Herr G-antz, but maintain that, other things being equal, the whole potatoes will produce more than halves, however cut. On the fourth result, however all agree, and that is, that the whole potatoes from which the lower eyes have been cut out produce Hi tons per acre, or more than double the result shown by the sets first mentioned. MAKING BUTTER HARD. The fallowing method is practised to effect this object among the best butter-makers of England for hardening or rendering butter firm and solid during the hot weather : Carbonate of soda and alum are used for the purpose, made into a powder. For twenty pounds of butter one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda and one teaspoonful of powdered alum are mingled together at the time of churning, and put into the cream. The effect of this powder is to make the butter come firm and solid, and to give it a clean, sweet flavor. It does not enter into the butter, but its action is upon the cream, and it passes off with the buttermilk. The ingredients of the powder should not be mingled together until required to be used, or at the time the cream is in the churn ready for fencing. POULTRY. A correspondent of the "Southern Poultry Journal" (American) makes the following useful remarks on the diseases to which poultry are liable : Notwithstanding we have a large number of treatises upon the diseases of poultry, and hundreds of infallible (?) recipes circulated by the public prints for all the ills to which our feathered friends are subject, yet these dreaded chicken diseases run riot in nearly every portion of the country. Now, probably, the worst feature of all this doctoring is, most of these remedies are empirically prescribed upon the kill or-cure principle. If the constitution of the fowl is sufficiently strong to recover from the disease, in spite of the medicine, the latter invariably gets credit for the work. I would not for a moment have the reader to infer that I ignore all remedial treatment, but I would have the symptoms of the disease studied, and the remedies rationally prescribed. According to the writer's observation, we have too much "doctoring," and too little attention paid to an observance of those hygienic conditions upon which health depends. We need more prevention and less cure. By way of illustration, there is a person who becomes interested in poultry; takes a liking to some fancy breed ; sends for a sitting of eggs, or a trio at a big price ; take special pains with them as long as the novelty of the thing lasts, but, finally, interest is lost in them, other matters engross all the attention, and the fancy puts are left to shift for themselves. Sometimes they are fed, at other times they are compelled to seek a precarious living. Their roosting quarters are allowed to become foul and filthy, and filled with vermin, emitting an intolerable stench. For a time the chickens bear up under it, but finally they become diseased from the poisonous emanations of the filthy premises, and die of cholera. This is no fancy sketch, but a real picture of 50 per cent, of the average poultry breeders. Often their fowls are allowed to roost in trees and take the air, along with the rains, storms, and snows, are neglected, improperly fed, their bodies covered with vermin, become weakened, and unable to resist disease, when the "fell-destroyer" steps up and cuts off the whole Hock. It is a truth, admitted by every one who is at all familiar with stock-raising, that no stock can possibly thrive without care and attention. These requisites are the foundation of success. Poultry raising is no exception. If we wish to succeed with our fowls, we must endeavor to place those agencies, upon which their health depends, in the very best condition. First and foremost comes cleanliness. The roosts should be cleaned of all manure every morning. Nothing should be allowed to accumulate that might decompose and generate poisonous gas. The diet 3hould be clean and varied —not the same thing every meal. Fresh water must always be kept within reach, and the drink ing vessels kept scrupulously clean. Fowls drink very often, and if dirt and filth are suffered to collect around the sides of the vessel, they must necessarily imbibe a great amount of impurity. Washing out the vessels with a weak solution of carbolic acid will destroy all animacuhe formation. During the past season the writer has raised between 400 and 500 chicks, and had not a single case of disease, while all his neighbours were losing their chickens by the score with cholera and other diseases. He attributes his success to careful attention, and by giving his chickens the best conditions to maintain their health. Hence, let me urge upon all poultry breeders the importance of observing the old maxim—- " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."