480 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. • 



♦Organic matter 64.76 



f Mineral matter 35.24 



100 00 



♦Containing nitrogen 1.702 



Equal to ammonia 2.066 



f Including clay and sand (insoluble siliceous matter) 26.04 



A square foot of this soil produced 682 grains of dried clover 

 roots, consequently an acre yielded 3,622 lbs. of roots, or more 

 than twice the weig-ht of roots obtained from the soil of the same 

 field where the clover was twice mown for hay. 



In round numbers, the 3,622 lbs. of clover roots from the land 

 mown once, and afterwards left for seed, contained 51 1 lbs. of 

 nitrogen. 



The roots from the soil after clover seed, it will be noticed, were 

 not so clean as the preceding sample, nevertheless, they yielded 

 more nitrogen. In 64. Y6 of organic matter we have here 1.'I02 of 

 nitrogen, whereas in the case of the roots from the part of the 

 field where the clover was twice mown for hay, we have in 81.33 

 parts — that is, much more organic matter, and 1.635, or rather 

 less of nitrogen. It is evident,- therefore, that the organic matter 

 in the soil after clover seed occurs in a more advanced stage of 

 decomposition than found in the clover roots from the part of the 

 field twice niown. In the manure in which the decay of such and 

 similar organic remains proceeds, much of the non-nitrogenous or 

 carbonaceous matters of which these remains chicQy, though not 

 entirely consist, is transformed into gaseous carbonic acid, and 

 what remains behind becomes richer in nitrogen and mineral mat- 

 ters. A parallel case, showing the dissipation of carbonaceous 

 matter, and the increase in the percentage of nitrogen and mineral 

 matter in what is left beliind, is presented to us in fresh and rotten 

 dung ; in long or fresh dung the percentage of organic matter, 

 consisting chiefly of very imperfectly decomposed straw, being 

 larger, and that of nitrogen and mineral matter smaller, than in 

 well-rotted dung. 



The roots from the field after clover seed, it will be borne in 

 mind, were dug up in November, whilst those obtained from the 

 land twice mown were dug up in September ; the former, there- 

 fore, may be expected to be in a more advanced state of decay 

 than the hitter, and richer in nitrogen. 



In an acre of soil after clover seed, we have — 



