1857.] The Raw Material 201 



now too often wasted, when a very little labor would return them to 

 the soil which has such great need of them ; and his method has the 

 advantage of returning them in a condition fit for immediate ap- 

 propriation and assimilation by the plant. — Ed. 



THE RAW MATERIAL, 



CONTINUED PROM PAGE 117. 



Water forms a large part of all living things. It is abundant not 

 only in the soft succulent peach or melon, or other luscious fruit, 

 but more than three-fourths of the strong tough muscle, are water ; 

 this can only be thoroughly expelled, by a temperature somewhat 

 above 212° ; the boiling point. Chemists have shown great ingenuity 

 in extracting all the water from bodies ; and this is the first oppera- 

 tion to which they are subjected when they are to be analyzed. 

 Were a man weighing 150 pounds thus completely desiccated he 

 would probably weigh only 40 pounds. 



Succulent vegetables and fruits lose much more than this. One 

 hundred pounds of melons would furnish only six pounds of solid 

 matter. 



The hard woody stems of shrubs and trees lose much less in dry- 

 ing, still their loss is great, frequently exceeding fifty per cent. 



These facts and figures show in a startling manner the necessity 

 of an abundant supply of water for all organisms. To supply this 

 demand, from thirty to sixty inches of rain usually fall in this re- 

 gion, which, penetrating the loosened earth, is seized in the ever 

 open mouth of the rootlets, and thence, ascending the stem, it reaches 

 the leaves and escapes into the air. 



In its upward progress it carries with it many earthy salts, which 

 are deposited in the stem. A portion of the water itself is decom- 

 posed and converted into the various secretions peculiar to the plant. 



Water that is chemically combined can be often freed or changed 

 by the application of heat; thus bread, a day or two after it is 

 baked, loses its rich taste and becomes apparently drier ; but put 

 that same bread into a close vessel and heat it and it becomes as 



