CONDITION OF ELEMENTS. 239/ 



Chemical reagents make palpable that which vital processes 

 cannot force from their hiding-places. Acids dissolve hard and 

 refractory substances ; the tender spongioles of plants can only 

 seize and appropriate those which arc already in a state of solu- 

 tion. Hence, chemical research may demonstrate the presence 

 in any given soil of the different forms of food which they 

 require ; but if the experimenter authoritatively announces to 

 the farmer that it is fertile and capable of bearing crops, he is 

 in danger of incurring contempt and ridicule, as practical trial 

 disproves his science and his statements. The elements of fer- 

 tility must not only be present in a soil, but they must exist in 

 an assimilable form. To determine the presence and amount of 

 the useful substances is not enough ; research must proceed 

 further, and declare the condition in which they exist. There 

 is very great liability to be misled in analyses of this character, 

 and chemistry has failed to afford much practical aid to 

 husbandmen in this direction. 



I have found that soils holding but very disproportionate 

 quantities of those elements which a particular crop required, 

 would nevertheless produce it in fair abundance. I have to 

 confess to disappointment to false predictions of results in some 

 special instances, and until the true explanation presented itself 

 to my mind, the matter of chemical research in soil analysis was 

 under a cloud. 



What was the explanation ? Why, simply this : the soil, 

 although holding the substance sparsely, yet all of it was in an 

 assimilable condition ; and as there was enough to meet the 

 wants of a single crop, it was sought out and appropriated. 



If the same crop had been repeated the suceeding year, it 

 would have been very nearly or quite a failure. So long as 

 chemical analysis of soils is inadequate to inform us respecting 

 the condition, or how much of the contained plant-food is in a 

 soluble state as required by vegetable organisms, it will be 

 impossible to make any certain predictions regarding its imme- 

 diate or remote productiveness. Analysis must not on this 

 account be discarded as useless or unprofitable in its teaching, 

 as by its' aid a vast number of significant facts have been devel- 

 oped, and many positive principles educed. A soil found to 

 contain none of the constituents which plants require could with 

 safety be pronounced barren ; and if there was an utter 



