THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 135 



nourishment of plants, and are decomposed in the stems 

 of grasses and cereals. The silica goes to make 

 vegetable bone, to keep the plant upright, while the 

 potash and soda go back to the earth to dissolve as 

 before." 



Organic Elements of Wheat. 



I come now to speak of the organic elements of the 

 wheat plant, which form ninety-six or seven per cent. 

 of its substance. Water and its constituents, oxygen 

 and hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, are the four ele- 

 mentary ingredients of all cultivated plants, beside their 

 minerals. As there is no lack of water or of its ele- 

 ments, oxygen and hydrogen, our attention will be con- 

 fined to obtaining a full supply of carbon and nitrogen. 

 These are indispensable, and fortunately nature has pro 

 vided an amount of carbon and nitrogen in the air, if 

 not in the soil, more than equal to all the wants of veg- 

 etation. A large portion of the fertilizing elements of 

 vegetable mould in a rich soil is carbon, and a small por- 

 tion is nitrogen ; both of which are usually combined 

 with other substances. These important elements are 

 often nearly exhausted in fields which have been un- 

 wisely cultivated ; and I have paid much attention to 

 the subject of cheap and practicable renovation. 



By the aid of clover and buckwheat dressed with 

 gypsum, ashes, lime, or manure, and ploughed in, when in 

 blossom, much can be done in the way of augmenting 

 the rich vegetable mould so desirable to a certain degree 

 in all soils. Straw, corn-stalks, leaves of forest trees, 

 and swamp muck made into compost with lime and 

 ashes, are of great value. Charcoal, well pulverized 



