Enclosure: Notes on Potash and Pearl Ash, 19 February 1795
Enclosure
Notes on Potash and Pearl Ash
Notes on Pot and Pearlash.
a man will cut and burn 2 ½ cords of wood a day.
a cord of wood yeilds 2. bushels of ashes. [neither pine nor chesnut will do]
a bushel of ashes sells for 9. cents.
it will make 6. ℔ of brown salts, which make 3 ℔ to 5 ℔ pearl ash in the common way and 5. ℔ of pearlash in Hopkins’s way.
for a small work, 2 kettles suffice to boil the lie into brown salts and 1. to melt up the brown salts.
¼ cord of wood a day maintains one fire, which will do for 5. kettles.
to keep 3. kettles a going will require the attendance of a man and boy.
there should be 15. or 16. tubs of 100. bushels each.
3. kettles will turn out 1000 ℔ of pearl ash a week.
consequently will require 100. cords of wood a week and 7. cutters to keep them constantly at work.
each kettle costs 24. Doll.
Potash is worth in England the ton, and in America 114⅔D.
Pearlash is worth in England £40. sterl. and in America £40. lawful.
An estimate of the profit and expence of such a work at 3. ft pearl-ash to the bushel of ashes, which is 100. ℔ pearlash a day. And counting 5. days to the week, which would give only 500 ℔. of pearl ash a week, instead of 1000. ℔ the common calculation.
£ | |
500 ℔ of pearl ash a week, is 13. tons a year, @ £40. Virga. currcy. | 520– 0–0 |
£ s d | |
7. cutters hired @ £12. a year, adding maintenance and clothing | 128–16–0 |
a manager for his hire and provisions | 50– 0–0 |
a boy | 10– 0–0 |
implements annually | 10– 0–0 |
a waggon, team, and driver, all expences included | 111–15–0 |
310–11–0 | |
Clear profit in cash | 209– 9–0 |
[@ 4 ℔ pearlash to the bushel, (a very moderate calculation) it would add 5 ton a year, worth 200£. @ 5. ℔ to the bushel £400.]1 | 520– 0–0 |
add to this the clearing 150. acres of land a year, whatever it is worth. |
Note. I was told by Hopkins that ashes burnt in the open field cannot be made into pearl ash in the common way: but answer well for that in his way. This, if certain, is a very important circumstance in Virginia.
MS (ViHi: Stuart Papers); entirely in TJ’s hand; undated; brackets in original. PrC (MHi); endorsed in ink by TJ.
These notes follow closely a similar calculation in TJ’s Farm Book (Hopkins’s way of making potash and pearl ash, see Samuel Hopkins to TJ, 27 June 1791, and note.
, 117). For1. Bracketed text inserted by TJ.