No. 85.] 153 



portion of saiid, to be also absorbed, and transformed into bone. It 

 is in this way that a few ashes applied to a sandy soil, will enable 

 grass and grain to take up the 81 per cent of flint found in their 

 ashes. Lime will do the same thing on clay soils, for the simple rea- 

 son that they generally do not lack potash, soda, and magnesia. 



The quantity of lime and ashes to be applied to an acre, will de- 

 pend entirely on their cost at the place where they are to be used. 

 A few bushels will be of essential service ; but a larger dose will be 

 better. 



I come now to speak of the organic elements of the wheat plant, 

 which as I have already intimated, form ninety-six or seven per cent 

 of its substance. Water and its constituents, oxygen and hydrogen, 

 carbon and nitrogen, are the four elementary ingredients of all culti- 

 vated plants, beside their minerals. As there is no lack of water or 

 of its elements, oxygen and hydrogen, our attention will be confined 

 to obtaining a full supply of carbon and nitrogen. These are indis- 

 pensable, and fortunately nature has provided an amount of carbon 

 and nitrogen in the air, if not in the soil, more than equal to all the 

 wants of vegetation. A large portion of the fertilizing elements of 

 vegetable mold in a rich soil is carbon, and a small portion is nitro- 

 gen ; both of which are usually combined with other substances. 

 These important elements are often nearly exhausted in fields which 

 have been unwisely cultivated ; and I have paid much attention to 

 the subject of cheap and practicable renovation. 



By the aid of clover and buckwheat dressed with gypsum, ashes, 

 lime, or manure, and plowed in when in blossom, much can be done 

 in the way of augmenting the rich vegetable mold so desirable to a 

 certain degree in all soils. Straw, corn-stalks, leaves of forest trees, 

 and swamp muck made into compost with lime and ashes, are of great 

 value. Charcoal well pulverized, and saturated^with urine, I regard 

 as the cheapest and most useful fertilizer that can be applied to a poor 

 soil, for the production of wheat or almost any other crop. 



The earths contained in charcoal, as the analysis of its ash demon- 

 strates, are identical with the earths found in the wheat plant. Coal 

 contains a very large portion of carbon, and will imbibe from the at- 

 mosphere a large quantity of nitrogen in the form of ammonia and 

 its carbonates. Unlike stable manure, the salts of lime, potash, soda 

 and magnesia, it will not waste by premature solution nor by evapo- 

 ration. On the contrary, it is of incalculable value to mix with the 

 liquid and solid excretions of all animals, to alsorb and fix in a tan- 

 gible condition those volatile, fertilizing elements, which are so prone 

 to escape beyond our reach. 



When it is recollected that without nitrogen in some form, it is 

 utterly impossible to grow one kernel of good wheat, and that a pint 

 of human urine or four quarts of that of the cow, or one quart of 

 that of the horse fed on grain, contain nitrogen enougti to supply 

 60 lbs. of wheat, we may begin to understand something of the 

 money value of this animal product. But mind this suggestion 



