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• AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEE, HI. D., Editor.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1859.
AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS.
The Editor of this department of the Field
and Fireside will deliver an agricultural ad
dress, in Marietta, Ga., on the first Tuesday of
this month, October 4th, at the Court House.
—^
PATENT OFFICE AGRICULTURAL REPORT.
IFOR 1858.
We are indebted to our associate of the hor
ticultural department of this journal for a copy
of the Agricultural Report for 1858, emanating
from the United States Patent Office. It is a
public document that deserves, from the agri
cultural press, more than a passing notice; and
we shall attempt to do something like justice to
its peculiar merits.
In his letter addressed to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, bearing date Febru
ary 25, 1859, with which this Report was sent
to Congress, Commissioner Holt thus describes
a material part of the labors of “the eight
days’ session of the Advisory Board of Agri
culture of the Patent Office
“ The remainder of the sessions of the Board
were chiefly devoted to the revision of a series
of interrogatories previously prepared by this
Office, for eliciting information directly from the
farmers of the country, and to the reading of
papers on agriculture, several of which, as well
as the former, appear in another part of the
present volume.”
Hoping to find something new and valuablo
from the Agricultural Clerk of the Patent Office,
when assisted by an “ Advisory Board ” of his
own selection , employed at the public expense,
we turned at once to “ the series of interroga
tories" which the “Board” spent days in
“ revising.” ThesG questions have the initials
of D. J. Browne at the end of them, and num
ber in all seventeen hundred and ten. This, we
believe, is about sixteen hundred and ten more
“ interrogatories ” than all the agricultural
questions asked at the last U. S. Census; and
they are all classed under the head of “ Statis
tics.” These so-called statistics are to be gath
ered, not by anything like a census, but solely
by very wise and skillful-— guessing. The follow
ing is Question 16G6:
“ What are the number and’value of Geese
produced in your State per annum ? ”
Who will undertake to answer this statistical
goose question in its application to the State of
Georgia, for the enlightenment of the “ Advi
sory Board of Agriculture of the Patent Office ”
in general, and of Mr. D. J. Browne in particu
lar ? Wliat is the value of the geese annually
produced in Georgia ? and what is their number?
Is it not obvious that no ono can answer the
above questions in away that will be worth
printing in a national document —and that to
ask such ridiculous “interrogatories” betrays
extreme silliness in “D. J. B." ? Five other
questions are propounded relating to the breeds
of geese, the cost of roaring goslings, &c. —
Turkeys, ducks and other poultry are made the
subjects of like queries, which are unanswera
ble except by a perfectly worthless guess.
The following is question 1689:
“ What has been the ratio of increase or de
crease in the amount of beeswax and honey
produced in your State since the last census ? ”
Who can draw a 6ee-line on this interrogatory?
Let us turn to the middle of this catalogue of
most astute agricultural investigations. Ques
tion 850 reads as follows :
“ What has been the ratio of increase or de
crease in the production of raspberries in your
State since the last census ? "
It is, perhaps, needless to remark that the
last census was silent on the raspberry ques
tion, as it was on the rearing of goslings; but
we live in a very progressive age.
Question 875 reads thus:
“In rotation, between what crops does the
blackborry best succeed ? ”
Many “ interrogatories ” are devoted to sor
gum and silk-ivorms , in which the Agricultural
Clerk and his “ Advisory Board ” shine with
dazzling brilliancy. What notions of the mean
ing of “statistics” must this Board have, to
apply that matter-of-fact word to seventeen
hundred nonsensical questions, all of which
must be guessed at, or laughed at in silence?—
What vwmld be the use of any national census
at all, if any one could state the number of
men, turkeys, women and geese which exist in
a county, district, or State? The very idea of
this Patent-Office enumeration is absurd, if not
contemptible. Instead of increasing knowledge,
it giv'es ignorance a factitious consequence. In
addition to the usual number of copies, it is
stated in the book before us, that Congress or
dered two hundred and ten thousand extra
volumes printed, or some five hundred heavy
cart-loads, to be carried free all over the United
States, bankrupt the Post-Office department by
the enormous expense, and compel the denial
of mail facilities to tens and hundreds of thou
sands of families in the more remote and se
questered parts of our extended confederacy.—
Never was the head of a Bureau more perfectly
taken in and deceived by a subordinate than
was the present Postmaster General when he
was led to endorse and commend th'e scheme
of an “ Advisory Board of Agriculture of the
Patent Office,” which is a body wholly unau
thorised by law—a mere white-washing com
mittee in the service of Mr. Browne. The
influence of the latter is shown in the following
remarks of Commissioner Holt, in his letter to
Speaker Orr of the House of Representatives:
“ The experiments with the Chinese Sugar
cane have proved eminently successful through
ought portions of the southern, middle and
western States. One hundred thousand acres,
by estimate , having been occupied by it the past
season (1848), attended with at least a, nett profit
of two million dollars, in fodder, sugar and
syrup, and other economical uses.”
wmm mxs&d m© vxiubsxiis.
If the manufacture of syrup and sugar from
this new broom com has been so “ eminently
successful,” how does it happen that one cannot
find a barrel of this sugar or syrup for sale in
any city in the United States? Can there be a
reasonable doubt that Mr. Holt was sadly mis
informed by interested parties when he made
the above public statement on the 25th of Feb
ruary of this year? Wo were told recently, in
Washington, that Mr. Browne’s friends had
tned to persuade Congress to give him one hun
bred thousand dollars for being only a few
months behind seed-dealers, in bringing the
seed of the Chinese cane from France for public
use in this country. The seed first used by
Senator Hammond, Mr. Peters and Mr. Red
mond, came not from the Patent Office, but
Boston seedsmen, who imported it. A year
after Senator H. and Mr. P. had proved, by la
borions experiment, that sugar can not be
economically made from sorgum , and after hun
dreds of others had reached the same conclusion,
a committee of the U. S. Agricultural Society,
of which Mr. Brow&e and Mr. Olcutt were
members, reported in favor of giving Mr. Bo
ring (a sugar refiner of Philadelphia) a medal,
as a reward for stating in substance that “ sugar
can be made from the Chinese sugar-cane about
as easy as one can make a pot of mush, and
easier than apple-butter can be made.”
The medal of the Society was given; and
thousands, having confidence in this national
Society and in Patent-Office Reports, bought
sugar mills and costly boiling apparatus, and
planted the new broom corn extensively;—
Finding the whole statement a sheer humbug,
many cursed the Society, tlio Patent Office, and
all agricultural papers that had favored the im
position, because they lost a good deal of hard
earned money.
Government is too much in the hands of un
principled speculators; and it is time for all hon
est men to demand a thorough reform. The
systematic plunder of the public treasury lias
become a trade, and almost a learned profession.
It so happens that we have seen some of the
bills paid for the pictures in Patent-Office re
ports, and how men get rich on very small
salaries.
SMUTTY WHEAT.
Please inform me through the The Cultivator ,
whether smutty wheat will raise smutty wheat?
I have somo that I find it impossible to get the
smut all out. Will you, or some of your read
ers, be kind enough to inform me whether it will
grow or not, and what will prevent it?
[Smutty seed produces a smutty crop. The
seed of the smut fungus, when examined by the
most powerful microscopes, are found to be
much smaller than the vessels or sap pores of
the plant, and are doubtless carried through
them. The experiment has been jnade by sow
ing good grains taken from a smutty crop, and
which were no doubt well dusted with the fun
gus seeds. A portion was planted without any
preparation, and the crop had many smutty
heads in it. Another equal portion of seed was
repeatedly washed in water, and the number of
smutty heads was many times less. A third
portion was washed in brine, with a still more
favorable result. The best way is to wash first
in water, then in brine, and then roll the seed
in slacked or powdered lime. This process, if
care is taken to prevent the seed from becoming
tainted from foul bags or other sources, will
nearly extirpate it.] —Country Gentleman.
Too little pains are taken to destroy rust in
wheat, oats and -other cereals. Most farmers
prefer bluestone to common salt as a preventive
of this malady. Clean cultivation by sowing
wheat in drills, and weeding the crop by a liorse
lioe, very much as cotton is worked to kill
weeds aud grass, tends to check the injury done
by this pafasite. It is still more advantageous
to the full development of the wheat. Land
that is rich enough to bring a good crop of this
grain, when sown this autumD, is likely to be
covered with grass and a rank growth of weeds,
which nothing but a first-rate turning plow and
a double team can properly bury in the soil.
Defective plowiug has much to do in causing
defective wheat, and a small yield per acre. If
covered with earth a few inches and cut up by
the plow, grass and weeds soon rot and form
rich food for young wheat plants; but, if left,
either green or dry, on the surface of the
ground, the decay comes too late, or not at all.
Any plow that lacks a sharp share and well
shaped mould-board, is totally unfit to prepare
grassy land for seeding to wheat. There is no
mistake in the matter, when we say that many
men who pretend to raise wheat have not a de
cent turning plow on their farms. They cannot
till the earth properl}’, because their implements
of tillage will not permit good work to be done.
The soil should be deeply and finely pulverised,
and the seed should not be covered with too
much earth. And by all means see that the
seed is not only free from smut, but without
presence of one seed of rye, cockle, chess or
cheat. Sow nothing but clean wheat on clean
land, and your crop will pay well for a little
extra pains. Do not sow too late, nor put too
much seed on the acre; but give the young
plants a chance to tiller and spread. Guard
against the washing of the soil during the
heavy rains of winter and spring.
Mr. Richard Peters, who has a large herd
of blooded Devons to provide for, writes us in
a letter received by the last mail, “lama strong
advocate for orchard grass, having this year
seeded in March sixty acres with it and red
clover.”
Mr. P. lias been trying grasses fifteen years,
and one year, to our knowledge, he had over
100 acres in the Chinese and other foreign canes.
If be will treat his orchard grass and clover
properly, it will do to mow the first of May to
feed working animals, or any others kept in
stables or yards. Where land is as plenty as it
is in the South, it is sheer folly to be without
fifty acres of meadow land, on a farm where
ten mules and as many cows and oxen are kept.
In the fall, winter and spring, one should grow
all the forage he needs to last his stock the year
round. Prepare the land and sow the seed at
once, any time before December. Although
seed which we had sown in December
and January last, came up well, and is now
growing finelv. Seed sown in hot weather, in
May, June and July, is apt to germinate and be
killed before it attains any length of root. From
this or some other cause, seed that we furnished
Mr. De Laigle, ofthis city, lias, we fear, entire
ly failed. It was sown in midsummer, as an ex
periment. Twelve acres that we had sown in
August, in Clark county, is doing well—all re
cent rains being in favor of the grass. By the
way, permit a hint to save all crab-grass, hay,
pea-vine* and other forage possible; for much
corn fodder is damaged and some ruined.
THE BEST PLANTS FOR SOILING.
J. J. Shannon, Esq., of Paulding, Miss., re
marks in a private letter that, “ for several years
the oat crop has failed here from rust, and we
need some green food in June, July, and Au
gust, for mules and other stock. Which is best?
I have not tried corn broadcast for fodder, but
intend giving it a fair trial. The most fear I
have had about it, is that it would be difficult to
cure, and if the weather should turn wet, it
could not*be saved. Do you think the German
better than the Chinese sugar cane, or
Douro corn for jrreen, for stock in summer?”
Tho German millet is one of the best plants
known for cutting green for forage purposes;
and the Chines) broom corn, (miscalled sugar
cane) is decidetly tho poorest plant for feeding
horses or cattle that wo ever saw, or read of,
that was growi for feeding livo stock. We
have had no ei >erience with the Douro corn,
and therefore c.n say nothing of its value.
The remarks if our correspondent about the
difficulty of ciung a luxuriant crop of broad-cast
corn, havo mu h force. We have just had a
pretty severe t’ial in attempting to cure large
corn plants in vet weather. Somo of them are
badly damaged and worse than]they would have
been, could the writerjhave been at home all the
time, instead ot being much of it in the office of
this paper. N>r is the difficulty of making good
pea-vine hay, vliere the crop is stout, and the
weather bad, very slight. Indeed, rainy weath
er in any kind if harvest, whether cotton, hay,
or grain, tests tae skill and judgment of the far
mer by the most severe ordeal. Where it is
practicable, out had best wait for fair weather,
and not cut bread-cast corn, cornstalks, green
peas, or millet, aor pick cotton. Lueern sown
on very rich laid that has been well plowed
and subsoiied, will yield a large quantity of food
for mules in June, July and August; and it has
this important advantage over oats, com rye,
and millet—tha: once seeding will last ten or
fifteen years. Our friend can havo good Eng
lish hay grown on his own farm, and better than
any sent South from the North by the middle of
May. Why not, then, raise hay for horses,
mules, oxen, and oows?
EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL FAIRS.
One of the happiest effects of our Agricultural
Fairs is the social intercourse and enjoyment
which they bring about between tho people of
all sections of the State. They are sometimes
pronounced grand humbugs, but nothing is a
humbug that by a very slight expenditure of
money and time, adds largely to the aggregate
of happiness. Even if these Fairs did not im
prove the agricultural interest and the breed of
the stock, which will scarcely be pretended by
any one, even if it were possible that an assem
blage of farmers from different sections of the
country could come together and pass a week
in each other’s society, without imparting to or
deriving from each other any valuable fruits of
their mutual experience and knowledge, the ben
efits of the community, in a social aspect, would
more than compensate for the time and memory
expended upon them. Whilst the life of the
agriculturist has advantages and pleasures su
perior to those of an}’ other vocation its great
drawback is its solitary and monotonous char
acter. To break this monotony aud keep the
humane and social qualities from rusting, a man
ought to be thrown, at least now and then into
a crowd—and magnetized and invigorated by
contact with his fellow-men. The Agricultural
Fairs in this respect, are much more desirable
than the old militia musters, which afforded
at best, a means of selfish enjoyment—a frolic
in which none but male members of the family
could participate, and which was often carried
beyond the limits of innocent enjoyment.
Whatever makes men happier makes them
more contented with their condition, with them
selves and each other, more disposed to make
others happy, to that extent improves also their
moral condition. Moreover, annual trips of this
kind tend to enlarge and liberalize the views of
those who participate in them, and to weaken
the pride of opinion which a man is apt to in
dulge in who does not mingle much with his
fellows. In fine, it makes us all feel more that
we belong to a common brotherhood of human
ity, as well as of the commonwealth, and thus
strengthens the bonds of fraternity and patriot
ism Surely these effects, over and above those
which flow to the agricultural interests, are
enough to inspire the hope that the agricultural
may be kept up among a people who have, at
any rate, few festivals of any kind, and who,
living generally on farms, require some oppor
tunity, such as these fairs present for *nutual in
terest and improvement.— [Richmond Dispatch.
mi
The Cotton Trade of the United States.
—The exports of cotton from this country last
year amounted in value to $131,386,561, which
sum will be considerably surpassed this year.—
The present crop is estimated by the most know
ing ones, at 3,850,000 bales, and at an average
of ten cents a pound, or fifty dollars per bale of
500 pounds, will be $192,500,000. This is the
value ot but a single Southern product.
— > ■ >
Cheap Salt for Manure.— Mr. V. W. Smith,
Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Works,
Syracuse, N. Y., announces, for the benefit of
those farmers that are disposed to make use of
salt as a fertilizer, that it can be had in any
quantity at Syracuse for seventy-five cents per
barrel; or at a price not exceeding eleven cents
per bushel, shipped loose on the canal boats at
that place. Mr. Smith says it will afford him
great pleasure to attend to any orders for the
salt, gratuitously, so far as his personal services
are concerned. Those who wish to sow salt on
their wheat this fall, can now obtain it at a very
! cheap rate. A barrel per acre, sown broadcast,
I is the usual quantity.
THE STUDY OF SOUS.
BY THE EDITOR.
Chapter IV.—The Critical Study of the Elements
of Fertility in Soils.
Having taken a general view of mould, sand
and clay, and incidentally explained the origin
and chemical composition of soils, we propose
in this chapter to investigate the science of fer
tility, in order to discover what portion of the
constituents of plants the farmer should husband
with the greatest care, and what part nature
will supply in water and air to his needy crops.
To be a skillful husbandman, one should know
what to husband, and why he husbands it. The
true principles of agriculture are found to be
simple, like all the operations of nature, when
fully comprehended. In forming a new plant
or animal, no one has reason to suppose that a
particle of new matter is created for the pur
pose. Whatever may be its weight, or form, or
substance, every atom in its system existed be
fore the life in the seed of the plant, or in the
egg or young of the animal, had a being; and
when its life ceases, and its body is dissolved
into its original elements, not an atom will be
annihilated. Having satisfied ourselves that in
the growth of plants and animals nothing really
new is created, we may reasonably assume that
nature always consumes the same kind of ele
mentary bodies to form the flesh and blood,
bones, nerves, fat, and cellular tissues of ani
mals; and hence that their food should always
contain substantially the same elements of nu
trition.
If we examine the skeletons of the human
family as preserved in mummies for thousands
of years, and the fossil bones and shells of in
ferior animals met with in rocks which appear
to have been thirty or forty thousand feet in
thickness, there is abundant evidence that the
minerals used for making shells and bones are
the same now that they were in the be
ginning; nor does it require any elaborate
research to satisfy one that all the so-called or
ganic substances in plants and animals, such as
starch, sugar, gum, gluten, albumen, oil, fat,
muscular and nervous tissues, have ever had the
same chemical combinations which exist at this
day. It is inconceivable how plants and ani
mals can be organized and live, if formed of
other elements than carbon, oxygen, hydrogen,
and nitrogen, which alone the Creator has fitted
to display all the complex and wonderful phe
nomena of vegetable and animal life. The
things that feed and nourish plants and animals,
that constitute their weight and substance, are
substantial and ponderable matter. If these
things were equally abundant in all soils, and
equally consumed in forming all crops, then all
laud in the same climate would be equally fer
tile. But soils are not of equal fertility, nor are
the elements of plants consumed in equal quan
tities, or supplied in equal parts.
Hence the study of soils in their connection
with cultivated plants and domestic animals pre
sents a wide field for experiment and critical re
search. The six most valuable elements of all
crops, and valuable only so far as they chance
to be deficient in any soil, are ammonia, phos
phorus. sulphur, potash, chlorine and lime. It
may happen that lime is abundant, and magne
sia is lacking, or that potash is more abundant
than soda, and sulphur may be less lacking than
soluble silica. When the facts are fairly consid
ered that a soil only five inches deep contains
some 500 tons of earthy matter to the acre, and
that 200 pounds of guano will often add two
tons to the weight of dry matter in a crop of
corn, and nearly as much in several other crops,
it seems but reasonable to conclude that the 500
tons of earth lack some elements which corn
plants greatly need, and that guano supplies the
lacking ingredients. The analyses of the fer
tilizer, of corn, and of soils, lead to this conclu
sion. If this reasoning be sound, then it is the
guano in soils and in crops that the farmer
ought to husband with the greatest care; for
guano sells in market at $5 for 200 lbs., or at
the price of good flour, aud is brought by the
cargo 10,000 miles for no other purpose than to
feed hungry plants now starving in the soils of
the United States. Phosphoric acid, ammonia,
and potash are doubtless the most important el
ements in guano, and these substances are least
abundant in nearly all cultivated lands.* If wo
study the natural products of the earth in con
nection with the elements of fertility, we shall
find that large, long-lived, and thrifty forest
trees grow only in soils which are rich in pot
ash. When the farmer has occasion to bum
maple, elm, oak, walnut, hickory, beech, and
other hard-wood forest trees, he finds them rich
in this alkali; and he also finds that soils which
produce this kind of timber are always good for
agricultural purposes. Their productiveness is
not to be ascribed to potash alone, for all the
other elements of crops are equally present in
an available form; but the existence of an abun
dance of magnificent forest potash-yielding
trees, will never deceive the farmer as to the
natural capabilities of the soil. Hence, when a
farmer can learn what amount of potash 100
pounds of his soil or subsoil contains in an
available condition (for this alkali exists
in combination with flint or silicic acid in an
insoluble form), he may judge with considerable
safety of the natural resources of his land. This
alkali exists in some soils in a proportion as
high as two per cent. —a quantity, however,
rarely found —and in others, ten thousand parts
of earth yield not one of potash. Such soils are
always nearly barren. How far soda can per
form the functions of potash in the growth of
cultivated plants, there are no data in the prac
tice of agriculture sufficient to settle the ques
tion. There is reason to believe, from a few ex
periments, that it may serve as a substitute in
many cases; but to what extent, and in the or
ganization of what crops, future experiments
must decide.
To obtain a clearer idea of the importance of
this element in farm economy, let us briefly ex
amine the amount of it in good soils, and the
quantity taken therefrom in ordinary crops.
The report of the Geological Survey of Canada
for 1849 and 1850, made by W. E. Logan, esq.,
provincial geologist, (the analytical part of
which was performed by T. S. Hunt, esq.,) con
tains the tollowing among other analyses of
soils. First sample is taken from a rich clay
soil, having an unusual quantity of vegetable
mould; the original forest was maple, elm, and
birch:
Band • .. 49 2
Clay - - - - 23.4
\ egetablc matter ...... 20. S
Water 66
100.0
•The London Gardener's Chronicle of April 19,1851,
after stating that 18,000 tons of guano were imported in
1850 more than the year previous, adds: “Mr. Way has
demonstrated. In the Journal of the Agricultural Society,
that the money value of a ton of good Peruvian guano
was in 1549£122b. 5d.; the ammonia being worth £9*l4s.,
the phosphate of lime £llßs. #d., and the potash 14s.
Bd.
When wheat Is worth ss. a bushel, a pound of ammo
nia Is worth 6d. for making a bushel of wheat. A pound
of bone earth Is worth about a cent and a half, and one
of potash over six cents.
* -V ” 4 .
One hundred parts of this soil gare to hydroehlolie
acid:
Alumina ....... 4,330
Oxide of iron ... .... 8.240
Lime (part carbonate) 1.088
Magnesia (part carbonate) .... .749
Potash - .438
Soda - - - - - - - ' - - .795
Chlorine - ... .... qBO
Sulphuric acid - - - - * - . .144
Phosphoric acid . -s . . . . .557
Soluble silica ....... .075
The quantity of ammonia is not stated; but,
as the organic matter is large, there is doubtless
a fair supply of this element of fertility. The
above is an excellent soil. Wheat growing
upon it would be subject to fall and to rust,
from the lack of soluble silica or flint, and from
the excess of mould. In a good climate, it
would be remarkable com land. Owing to the
excess of organic matter, an acre of this soil a
foot in depth would not weigh much over 1,000
tons. In that quantity, there would be over ten
tons of lime; seven of magnesia; four of pot
ish; nearly eight of soda; sixteen hundred
pounds of chlorine; about one and a half ton of
sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol;) five and a half
tons of phosphoric acid; and fifteen hundred
pounds of soluble silica. One hundred parts of
this soil gave to distilled water .186 of soluble
matter, principally organic. By burning, it left
.104 of alkaline ash. 100,000 parts of this ash
gave 8 of chlorine, a small portion of nitrates,
and a trace of sulphates.
The soluble bases were potash and soda, lime
and magnesia. The next sample of soil analyzed
was at the other extreme in point of vegetable
matter, containing “ bnt a trace.” Rough ana
lysis gave:
Band ........ 56.0
Pebbles ........ 8.0
CUT - 27.8
Water - - 8.2
* 100.0
One hundred parts of this soil gave to hydrochloric
add the following substances:
Alumina ....... 1.440
Oxide of iron - - - - , - - - 8,780
Lime ....a... .600
Magnesia ........ 1.036
Potash .... .... .276
Soda - r .840
Chlorine ........ .184
Sulphuric acid - - - - - - .084
Phosphoric acid ...... ,215
Soluble silica .80
The above analysis shows a soil in which veg
etable mould became exhausted sooner than the
mineral constituents of crops. It contains less
oil of vitirol (sulphuric acid) than of any other
ingredient. Gypsum and clover turned in with
the plow, will bring up the land with good prof
it. Gypsum is a compound of lime and oil of
vitriol. 2,000 parts of the above soil gave I of
soluble matter, three-fifths of which was in
combustible, consisting mostly of the chloride
and sulphate of lime, magnesia and the alkalies.
No trace of nitrates was detected. Organic
substances favor the formation of nitrates. The
small per centage of alumina in this soil is a de
fect.
Soils too poor to grow clover to any advan
tage in Canada, have been brought up by the
aid of peas and gypsum. A similar result has
been attained in the United States—a fact that
should be universally known.
.Soils in which alumina predominates are
usually richer in the incombustible constituents
of plants after the mould is consumed by exces
sive tillage, than such as contain but little of
that mineral. The following facts stated by Mr.
Hunt, at pages 81 and 82, elucidate this point:
“ On the farm of Major Campbell, the original
layer of vegetable mould has, by long til
lage, entirely disappeared. The general char
acter of this clay seems to be nearly the
same for the depth of five or six feet, except
that it is a little lighter on going down—a differ
ence, perhaps, due to the fact that organic mat
ters have not iufiltrated thus far. When brought
to the surface, it breaks into hard angular frag
ments ; but, by the influence of the weather, it
crumbles down into a comparatively mellow
soil—still, however, becoming hard and dry in
the heat of summer. In laying out a railroad, a
bank of clay was cut down and uncovered to a
depth of six feet. The surface thus exposed
(denuded) was entirely free from any organic
matter; but was found, after a dressing of plas
ter, to yield an excellent crop of peas and clover
upon the clays, generally.” 100 parts of this
clay yielded to hydrochloric acid the following
snbstances:
Alumina ..... 12.420
Oxide of Iron .... 7.820
Lime - - - • ■ • .697
Magnesia .... 1.490
Potash ..... .691
Soda - . - - .281
Phosphoric acid .... .890
Sulphuric acid «... .022
Soluble silica .... .105
One may take the best authorities, and exam
ine the analyses of soils in this country, England
Scotland, France and Germany, and he will
hardly find one sample in a hundred that yields
so much alumina as the above. When associat
ed with a good deal of the oxide of iron and si
licious sand, it lays the foundation for an endur
ing and excellent soil. When combined with
exceedingly fine sand and little iron, the earth
becomes altogether too compact and impervious
to air and water. Exhausted or naturally sterile
lands usually lack phosphoric acid or other es
sential elements. The following is a case in
point, (analysis by Professor Way, consulting
chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society, Eng
land) :
Water ..... 20.54
Vegetable matter - - - • - 6.17
Clay and Sand .... 59.00
Phosphoric acid - - - ' -
Carbonate of lime .... 5.49
Magnesia - ....
Oxide of iron and alumina - . . 7.90
Potash ..... 0.81
Soda - .... oJ2
100.00
The above was a “ worn out soil ” on Mr. Pu
sey’s estate, and yet it has an abundance of veg
etable matter, lime, and the usual amount of pot
ash and soda. In clay and sand, iron and alu
mina, the proportions are such as we find in many
good soils ; but as not a plant can grow with
out phosphoric acid, and few without magnesia,
the absence of these ingredients induces steril
ity. Instances of this kind might be multiplied
to almost any extent; but their repetition is deem
ed unnecessary. To suppose that one can pro
duce a root, tuber, seed, or stem from other in
gredients than such as Providence fitted for the
purpose, is to assume that there is no difference
between lead and gold ; or that an atom of wa
ter and one of iron are the same thing. Find
ing, as we do, many different elementary bodies
in all fertile soils and in all cultivated plants, and
that they are the same in both, it is alike un
philosophical in science and unsafe in practice
to assume that any one mineral can perform the
functions of other minerals in the economy of
plants and animals. We may bo profoundly ig
norant of the office performed by an atom of
lime, iron, sulphur, carbon, phosphorus, chlo
rine, nitrogen, potash, or magnesia, in any of the
phenomena of vegetation or animal life : yet di
rect experiment and universal experience have
proved the necessity of having all these sub
stances in ihe soil, as well as silica in a soluble
- - 23.4