Ashes are the remains of a substance which has undergone combustion, and are as various in their components as are the bodies capable of being burnt. Whatever be the substance burnt, the process should be made to proceed as slowly as possible, for by such regulation more carbon or char-choal is preserved in the ashes, which is the most valuable of their constituents. The simplest mode of effecting a slow combustion is to bank it over with earth, leaving only a small orifice to admit the air sufficiently to keep up a smouldering fire.

Ashes have been usually recommended as a manure most useful to heavy soils, but this is a decided mistake. As fertilizers they are beneficial upon all soils, and they can never be applied in sufficient quantity to alter the staple of a too tenacious sod. To thirty 5 square yards, twenty-eight pounds 19 an average application, and they cannot be put on too fresh. Peat ashes contain -

They are an excellent application to lawns, turnips, cabbages, potatoes, and peas.

Coal ashes contain carbon, silica, alumina, sulphate of lime, iron and potash, carbonate of lime, and oxide of iron. They are a good manure for grass, peas and potatoes. Sprinkled half an inch deep on the surface over beans and peas, they hasten the germination of the seed, and preserve it from mice. They are also used for forming dry walks in the kitchen department.

Soap-boilers' ashes contain -

1 hey are good tor all crops but especially grass and potatoes.

Wood ashes and the ashes of garden weeds generally contain silica, alumina, oxides of iron and manganese, lime, magnesia, potash, partly in the state of a silicate, soda, sulphates of potash and lime, phosphate of lime, chloride of sodium, and carbonates of lime, potash, and magnesia, with a considerable portion of charcoal. They are a good application to cabbages, potatoes, and peas.

Turf ashes contain silica, alumina, oxides of iron and manganese, lime, magnesia, sulphates of potash and lime, phosphates of lime and magnesia, common salt, and charcoal. They have been used beneficially to grass, onions, carrots, beans, potatoes, and beet root.