DR. SCHLEIDEN'S TIIKOKY 0¥ AGRICULTUUE. 



39 



But the most striking instance is that of Bananas. An acre 

 yields 98,000 lbs. of fruit a-year, which contains about 17,000 lbs. 

 of carbon. For twenty years tlie harvest is repeated without any 

 manure, and the ground, so far from becoming poorer, is every 

 year more rich in iiunuis, from the decay of the large juicy 

 leaves. 



But it may, perhaps, be as well to give some instances nearer 

 home. The following table, by Boussingault, of plants grown 

 in pure quartzose sand or burnt clay, with distilled water, is 

 exactly to our piu'pose : — 



In the first and third cases the experiment lasted 3 months, 

 in the second 99 days. 



lied Clover plants transplanted and similarly treated : — 



* In this and the following table tlie weight is in grammes = •564 dram. 

 The proportions are the same whatever be the measure; we liave thouglit 

 it, therefore, needless to go through the labour of reducing them to English 

 denominations. 



f 156 per cent, in the text, which is elearly wrong, as is 18 per cent, in 

 the next experiment, where the amount of carbon is set down as the weight 

 of the plant. 



