3 



kingdom in a most apparent way, but the animal kingdom 

 benefits by a similar process under most mysterious circum- 

 stances and peculiar conditions. Dead and decomposed 

 vegetable refuse form the most valuable general food for 

 plants, but it is a problem for science to solve whether the 

 mineral constituents contained in such, or indeed even 

 contained in a given soil, are Sufficient for the production 

 of crops known to contain a preponderance of mineral mat- 

 ter Analysis of soils appears an indispensable operation. 



We have arrived at the following conclusion. De- 

 composed animal and vegetable substances are good for 

 the plant, but except under certain circumstances are poi- 

 sonous to man. Under what circumstances does the animal 

 creation benefit in regard to them. The answer simply is, 

 that by their application as manure to plants the whole 

 mass is transformed the noxious principles undergo che- 

 mical changes, the plant is benefitted and through the 

 pores of the leaves a gas is evolved which is continually 

 vitalizing the atmosphere. Now fora plant to be able to 

 grapple as it were with a poisonous substance and convert 

 it into a life giving one for man and still benefit itself, its 

 vital energy must be vigorous and unimpaired and the 

 soil must come to its assistance with chemical agents, and 

 must be mechanically in a condition to favor, the mysteri- 

 ous process, and it stands to reason that if the plaht is un- 

 assisted thus, that, what would have tended to its pros- 

 perity, must be positively pernicious to it. The soil assist- 

 ed by the atmosphere must as it were cook the food for 

 the plant, and must do so thoroughly, otherwise the proxi- 

 mity of semi-decomposed vegetable matter must be as 

 hurtful to the living plant, as a festering corpse is to a 

 human being. If however the agents necessary for the 

 Complete decomposition of animal or vegetable matter be 

 present, and be assisted by those conditions indispensable 



