4 
PRESENT THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MINERAL MANURES. 435 
Pounds. Ounces. 
NS GE MINMGRIG is SMiid Sens “a ewles BE ELE tk cali ce wove clue 558 28 
PCO OL SUE at hei cn nit coal Sig nie alata bonny sean in amar 
tw 
lal Se 
This corresponds to 12 kilograms,* French. weight, costs three francs, 
and is recommended for an aret of land. All these substances may not 
be wanting in the soil, nor be needed by the crop; hence any one or 
more of them may be omitted, still preserving the formula with the re- 
sidual components. For example, there is the manure without potassa, 
in which is simply omitted the amount of nitrate of potassa; the manure 
without phosphate, in whichis omitted only the superphosphate of lime; 
and so ot the remainder, which class he calls incomplete manures. The 
term complete, as applied to a manure which is intended to contain only 
four out of fourteen necessary elements, is very inexact, and calculated 
to throw discredit on the efforts of Ville. No doubt many lands are 
rich enough in sulphates, chlorides, magnesia, and iron not to need 
those matters which Ville neglects to supply, but that does not lessen 
the necessity for a complete manure containing everything which the 
crop requires; with less than that it is incomplete, as is his second class. 
Ville has applied his manures, complete and incomplete, with results 
which seem to support the views of the school of Liebig. 
The experiments of Kuhlmann, published in 1843, and confirmed by 
subsequent trials of other agricultural inquirers, have amply proved 
that ammoniacal salts and salts of nitric acid (nitrates of alkalies) fur- 
nish nitrogen as abundantly and rapidly as do the nitrogenized princi- 
ples in farm manure, and that they may be used when ammonia is 
needed for a growing crop. , 
Ville has ingrafted on his practice of manuring the idea that ni- 
trogen may be assimilated by vegetation under three forms: 1. In 
the state of ammonia or its salts; 2. In the state of a nitrate; 3. 
in the state of gaseous nitrogen from the air.. Each of these thres 
_ forms presents advantages to certain species.: Thus the ammonia for 
wheat, the nitrates for beet-roots, and nitrogen in its gaseous form for 
leguminous plants, as clover; so that the amount and the form in which 
the nitrogen is supplied may vary with the crop. The sulphate of 
ammonia and the nitrate of soda are the only two salts which can be 
used economically. ‘The sulphate of ammonia yields 20 per cent. of 
nitrogen, and the nitrate of soda 15 per cent. On account of their con- 
centration and ready ‘solubility, they require to be mixed with four or 
five times their-weight of fine dry clay or mold; animal debris may 
replace these salts. By their slow decomposition a loss of ammonia 
occurs equal to 30 per cent., which escapes into the air as nitrogen gas, 
a loss which happens with farm manure. On a hectare of land in 
wheat, those manures were applied with the following result, the weight 
of graiu being in hectoliters:¢ } 
EGU UUCTOAHEEG 2 an... oa non ae ais at nan on oy Cate om cea eatin 39 hectoliters. 
With complete manure, without fime....-.-....-2.-.--2...---6-- 2 “a 
With complete manure, without potassa....-.....22. 02.222. BE 28 7h 
With complete manure, without phosphate ......-....2.22. 2.2. 24 or 
With complete manure, without nitrogen.......----. 2.220. .0.--- 13 as 
Land without manure .......-......-.-.... Ae A, Se sey ae mS ae il i 
This soil already contained, in 100,000 parts, 984 parts of lime, 58 of po- 
tassa, and 45 of phosphorie acid. 
apt BCP t's Nill EEE) Fetes Jt able lh Nat leg SACI INR TINE! Smt Fk 
* Kilogram, 2.20477 pounds. t Are, 0.0247 acre, or 119.6 square yards, . 
t Hectoliter, 2.88782 bushels. ; 
