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150 • 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