WATER IN AGRICULTURE. 159 



value as plant food than any other substance with 

 which we are acquainted. They exist in a form 

 ready to be again taken up by plants and assim- 

 ilated into the living organism. They differ from 

 the same class of agents found isolated in the hands 

 of the chemist, inasmuch as they have acquired in 

 their passage through vegetable and animal struct- 

 ure, a kind of vitalizing capability, the nature of 

 which is imperfectly understood by chemists. 



But the deceptive nature of bulk in fertilizing 

 agents is not confined to barn-yard manure. Leaves, 

 peat, muck, chaff, etc., need to be carefully exam- 

 ined in order to understand their actual value to 

 the farmer. I have made somewhat extended 

 analysis of these substances in order to test the 

 correctness of some published statements regarding 

 them, and also to learn of how much positive ser- 

 vice they may be to the farmer. A bushel of well 

 pressed dry leaves, as they fall from the trees in 

 autumn, weighs about four pounds ; by further dry- 

 ing, they part with a little more than 30 per cent, 

 of water held in the cells of the leaf structure. A 

 cord of absolutely dry leaves will weigh about 325 

 Ibs., reckoning one hundred bushels to the cord. 

 In weight, then, a cord represents about one twelfth 

 of a cord of wet barn-yard manure, and if they 

 contain the same amount of fertilizing material m 

 the same condition, would be equal in value to 



