THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



469 



tlic air and the hydrogen of decomposing? matters. 

 The same thing takes place as in the natural salt- 

 petre caverns of C(!ylou, witli the exception that by 

 the subsequent action of oxygen, ulniie, humic, geie, 

 apocrcnic, and crcnic acids arc formed, instead of 

 nitric acid. These acids consists of carbon, oxygen, 

 and hydrogen, in dilfcrcnt proportions ; and they 

 form soluble salts with ammonia. By all porous 

 substances, like the soil, ammonia is produced, pro- 

 vided they be moist and hlled with atmospheric air, 

 and arc exposed to a certain temperature. Tt is 

 thus, he states, that moist charcoal and humic be- 

 come impregnated with ammonia." 

 Mr. Darby said he had never seen this view very 

 prominently brought before the public. English 

 chemists, in giving reasons why the land did take 

 so very much from the atmosphere, were, he thought, 

 too ready to fall back upon the old theory, that 

 there was a little carbonate of ammonia in the air, 

 which was washed down by the rain. But it ap- 

 peared to him that the former theory was the cor- 

 rect one. They all knew that the air was filled with 

 manure — at least, with nitrogen ; and it had now 

 been proved by the Ilcv. Mr. Smith, who followed 

 the Lois Wecdon system, that land of the character 

 he farmed might be kept in good condition, and 

 grow corn crops without the addition of a particle 

 of manure. During an experience of twelve years 

 Mr. Smith had found his crops progress rather than 

 retrogress. The system had been tried at other 

 places, but had not answered so well as on Mr. 

 Smith's farm ; but it was considered to be satisfac- 

 torily proved that, if the land was prepared in a cer- 

 tain manner, it would get a large quantity of ma- 

 nure from the ammonia in the atmosphere. Professor 

 Way had paid great attention to the capability of cer- 

 tain soils to attract and retain ammonia, and he had 

 discovered that this varied according to the nature 

 of the soil. In numerous and varied experiments 

 Professor Way has shown that, where a comparatively 

 weak solution of caustic ammonia is passed through 

 a considerable quantity of soil, it invariably loses 

 the ammonia, although previous to filtration it exhi- 

 bited decidedly the peculiar odour of that volatile 

 alkali. When, however, stronger solutions of am- 

 monia were filtered through soil, or when the pro- 

 portion of the latter was greatly diminished, only a 

 portion of the ammonia was absorbed, and the re- 

 mainder passed through the soil with the water. 

 Still more inipoitaut than the facts respecting the 

 rapid absorption of free alkalies by soils, is the ob- 

 servation made by the same indefatigable philoso- 

 pher — that all cultivated soils possess likewise the 

 power of separating the ammonia from its combina- 

 tions with various acids. If, for instance, a solution 

 of sulphate of ammonia of moderate strength is 

 passed through a filter-bed of soil five to eight 

 inches deep, it will be found that the ammonia alone 

 of the sulphate of ammonia is retained, and the sul- 

 phuric acid with which the volatile alkali is com- 

 bined will then be found passing through with the 

 water— generally, though not always, in combination 

 with lime. 1,000 grains of a light red soil from 

 Mr. Pusey's estate absorbed 1,.570 grains of am- 

 monia, 1,000 grains from tlie Dorset Downs 

 absorbed 3,438 grains, 1,000 grains from the white 

 plastic clay absorbed 2,847 grains, 1,000 grains of 



subsoil clay, red with oxide of iron, absorbed 

 818 grains. Mr. Darby continued to observe that 

 they found, from Professor Way's experiments, 

 that the capabilities of different soils to absorb am- 

 monia were very differen't, and this would account 

 for the advantages Mr. Smith derived from the Lois 

 Wecdon system, it not having been experienced in 

 other cases. There was yet another advantage 

 arising from autumn cultivation. Many, he sup- 

 posed all of them, were to a certain extent in the 

 habit of sowing spring feed for sheep, such as rye 

 or early vetches. When this was done, it would be 

 very much better to sow the rye or vetches into 

 barley lands where the stubble had been cleaned than 

 where they were foul. Then, if the land was cleaned 

 in this way, it was not impracticable to have a seed- 

 bed of plants, such as cabbage or kohl-rabi, or even 

 rape plants, to plant out in the early part of Sep- 

 tember, after the land had been surface -rid in the 

 manner described. He recollected an instance, when 

 he was a boy, in Somersetshire, of a farmer, who was 

 rather more enterprizing than his neighbours, grow- 

 ing rape plants on one side, of a field, and as he cut 

 the corn he ploughed the land and put the rape 

 plants in the furrows, and he had a very excellent 

 crop. It had been observed by Mr. Phippard,_at their 

 annual meeting, that it was the custom hi some 

 places to sow stubble turnips. Now, if they vyereto 

 sow kohl-rabi, or cabbage, or rape plants, it was 

 not impracticable on a small scale to have a nice bit of 

 feed for the month of Ma}^ where they had had a 

 good corn crop cut in August. In fact, when they 

 got in the habit of adopting and carrying out this 

 system, it would create quite a revolution in agri- 

 culture, and they might be led to follow the Belgian 

 plan of raising plants in seed-beds, and planting 

 them out after the corn had been harvested. There 

 were many obstacles in the way of its adoption on 

 a larger scale, as autumn cultivation on extensive 

 farms required a great deal of horse-strength, and 

 it was not every one who had the power to carry 

 it out as he could wish. The fine weather was 

 very short, and when they thought they were 

 going to clean and work well, the wet weather 

 might come on, and they could not do half what 

 they intended. This had induced some gentlemen 

 to commence before the corn was carted otF the 

 land ; and it was worth while considering whether 

 or not it was practicable to do so. But they all 

 knew very well that in harvest time it was very 

 busy work, and if they wished to do it they had 

 to attend to the primary thing first— namely, cut- 

 ting and harvesting the corn. Probably, however, 

 before many years there would be a remedy for 

 this in tlie steam plough, which was being brought 

 to such perfection that they might anticipate seeing 

 it in operation upon most of our large farms before 

 long, and then there would be no difficulty in 

 carrying out the system of autumnal cleaning of 

 the stubbles during the fine weather. However, 

 the experience of the Norfolk gentlemen, to whom 

 he had alluded, showed that the main obstacles 

 had only to be encountered at the commencement 

 of the system, and that, after a time, it was far 

 less difl[icult to do the work (Hear, hear). It had 

 often been said that agriculture, to become perfect, 

 mUst approximate to garden culture; and what 



