AMMONIACAL MANURES. 49 
the non-nitrogenous elements by which the vegetable struc- 
ture is built up, aud sugar is finally produced in the 
ripened juice. Its work is where growth is in pro- 
gress: in the midst of continual transformation it re- 
mains unchanged; the scene of its activity is constantly 
shifted; as soon as development is perfected in one part it 
deserts it for another, and hence it is that but a small per- 
centage of it is necessary for the discharge of its legitimate 
function,—so small that the great bulk of it is found at last 
lodged in the form of gluten in the seed. A tendency to 
continued growth of the cellular structure without a proper 
elaboration of its contents marks the presence of an excess 
of nitrogenous food; hence the reason why the upper part 
of the stem of the Southern cane in Louisiana never at- 
tains maturity, and is always discarded. So too in the but 
partially ripened sorghum, albuminous matter abounds in 
the yet growing upper joints, which it does not desert until 
the seed is fully mature. 
2. Ammonia not only enters into the composition of the 
juice as an organized compound, but generally also may be 
detected in it in the form of a neutral salt, and exerts a per- 
nicious influence. This neutral salt is a compound of am- 
monia with probably oxalic acid. Liebig found it even in 
the comparatively pure juice of the sugar maple, and it is 
a source of great loss and injury to the sugar manufactured 
from the beet. It becomes decomposed by the heat, and 
the ammonia is volatilized along with the steam diffusing 
its powerful odor around; the neutral salt by its loss ex- 
hibits acid properties, and by the free acid thus formed, a 
part of the sugar is converted into uncrystallizable sugar.. 
In some samples of sorghum grown upon land enriched with 
barn-yard manure, not only the peculiar ammoniacal smell 
is emitted on evaporation, but the taste is equally char- 
5 
