220 



amount of soluble matter in the soil, and furnish the most plausible 

 explanation of its " poisoning" effect on certain crops. 



In a clay sub-soil, charged with water to the point of saturation for 

 at least a portion of the year, the organic matter which it contains will 

 be converted into humic acid instead of undergoing the usual decompo- 

 sition into carbonic acid, ammonia, and water, which a free exposure to 

 the air will effect. This explains also the fact that crops which draw 

 their nutriment by superficial roots are not unfavorably affected in these 

 spots. By exposure to atmospheric influences the surface-soil loses its 

 humic acid by conversion into soluble humus. 



What this soil needs is, 1st. A thorough underdrainage, which will 

 relieve the sub-soil from saturation during the rainy months and permit 

 the air to circulate through it freely at all times ; and 2d. After the sub- 

 soil is relieved from saturation it should be broken deeply so as to bring 

 it more fully under the influence of the air. Sub soiling, however, will 

 be of no value unless there is first a good underdrainage ; for the rain, 

 saturating the sub-soil, li^ill run it into a mass as compact and as imper- 

 vious to the air as it was before it was broken. The soil contains a high 

 per cent, of lime, but there is scarcely a trace of it in the sub-soil in a 

 soluble form. A heavy dressing of quick-lime, plowed in deeply, would 

 evidently take up a large amount of humic acid, and thus relieve other 

 elements of plant food which are now locked up as insoluble humates. 

 But, without underdrainage, this effect will only be temporary; indeed, 

 the action of lime on a saturated sub-soil tends ultimately to render it 

 more compact and impervious. The use of gypsum will improve this 

 soil by supplying sulphuric acid, an element in which it is entirely lacking. 



We would, therefore, recommend for these " poison soils," 1st. A 

 thorough underdrainage; 2d. Deep sub-soil breaking; 3d. The applica- 

 tion of quick-lime and gypsum in liberal quantities. 



Beet-sugae. — The problem of furnishing sugar to supply the large 

 and constantly increasing demand for it throughout the civilized world 

 is daily augmenting in importance. Sugar, in some of its forms, is 

 widely distributed throughout the vegetable world, and though it is 

 seldom found in chemical combination with other substances, yet it is 

 generally so mixed with a number of other proximate principles that its 

 separation in a crystallizable form is very difficult. 



When it is ascertained that the juice of the sugar-beet contains from 

 10 to 13 per cent, of crystallizable sugar, and that the beet can be pro- 

 duced in unlimited quantities, most persons will suppose that the sugar 

 problem is solved. But beet-juice, in addition to sugar, holds in solu- 

 tion pectose, gum, albumen, asparagin, betain, oxalic acid, citric acid, 

 phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine, and silica. Besides these there 

 are variable i)roportions of potassa, soda, lime, iron, magnesia, rubidium, 

 and manganese, from all, or the greater portion of which, the sngar 

 must be separated before it is fit for domestic purposes. Most of these 

 substances, as compared with the sugar, are present in very minute pro- 

 portions, yet these and their chemical derivations defeat all attempts 

 to procure the sugar by evaporation merely. The efforts to manu- 

 facture sugar from beets or sorghum in this country have failed just at 

 this point; and even in Europe, where the beet-sugar enterprise has 

 been most successful, this question of defecation is far from being satis- 

 factorily settled. 



The albumen will coagulate when heated to 180° F., and in its coagu- 

 lation it will entangle and carry with it many of the less soluble or- 

 ganic substances ; and with this view, an additional amount of albu- 

 men, in the form of eggs or milk, is frequently added. If the juice be 



