SUMMER MEETING. 103 



asmuch as plants spring from the soil, it is manifest that the enumer- 

 ated earthy or ashy coustitaents must be furnished by the soil. And 

 as in the soil, these substances are present in combination with silica 

 and alumina, the origin of the soil thence becomes manifest. It has 

 arisen from the disintegrated primary rocks, all of which contain more 

 or less potash, soda, lime, magnesia, manganese and iron, besides phos- 

 phoric and sulphuric acids; also chlorine, fluorine, silica and alumina. 

 Now as all the enumerated earthy materials, with the exception of 

 silica and alumina, enter into the crops that are taken away from the 

 field, it is clear that they must be replaced. If we desire normal and 

 healthy crops, and that men and animal living on them should find in 

 them all that is necessary for their bodily sustenance, it will not suffice 

 to merely restore the potassa, phosphoric acid and nitrogen ; other 

 things are imperatively demanded." 



It is very evident that there is more at stake in the manner in 

 which we treat the soil than is generally conceded. The physician 

 diagnoses the case and decides what the system needs; he does not 

 try to hold it up with a stimulant. Where the soil has been almost 

 exhausted of the elements that nourish plants through the cultivation 

 of years " the original natural strength cannot be restored to it by 

 means of medicines and single chemicals, but this can only be effected 

 by supplying new soil out of which nothing has grown and the strength 

 of which is therefore intact." 



Potash, soda, lime and magnesia are called bases ; one-fifth of the 

 amount of these, silicic acid ; one-twentieth, chlorine ; one-sixth, phos- 

 phoric acid ; but sulphuric acid only one-fourth of the weight of the 

 phosphoric acid. Granite rock is the full complement of this combina- 

 tion. 



How do we fertilize our plants and trees? Chlorine is constantly 

 administered through liquid manure. Chlorine is not found in wheat, 

 rye, barley, oats, millet, apples, pears, plums or gooseberries, nor in 

 the wood of any trees. Why should we ever administer chlorine ? 

 Why stimulate the soil for a time, but give nothing to the plant ? But 

 a more serious question arises — the effect of fertilizer on the fruit 

 gathered. Hensel contends that stable manure produces grain that 

 has no firmness, in grinding would^mear the stones ; barley which the 

 brewers would reject. If it be true that " animal bodies have no con- 

 sistency without earth," then man or beasts have no business eating 

 anything forced with stable manure. This becomes a demonstration 

 when we consider that ammonia takes the places of the fixed alkalies, 

 potassa, soda, lime and magnesia. 



