Til K I I? IN G ATI ON AGE. 



331 



HON. ANGUS M. CARMEN, 

 SALT LAKE CITY, (FATHER UTAH LAKE PROJECT.) 



consumed, leaving only a white ash, the rest of the 

 carbon disappearing in the air. It is not lost, how- 

 ever, for by the burning it is converted into a gas 

 which goes by the name of "carbonic acid," which 

 ascends and mingles with the atmosphere, to be again 

 absorbed by plants to manufacture more carbon, or 

 rather a fresh supply of charcoal. This carbonic acid 

 gas is deadly, speedily causing death if breathed. 



Carbon is light and porous and floats on.water, but 

 plumbago, or black lead, and the diamond, which are 

 only other forms of carbon, are heavy-, and dense. Botli 

 black lead and the diamond when blirried in the air at 

 a high temperature, leave only a very little white ash. 

 the rest being converted into carbonic acid and disap- 

 pearing in the air like the common charcoal. 



Of this carbon, all vegetable substances contain a 

 very large proportion. It forms from 40 to 50 per 

 centum by weight of all parts of dried plants cultivated 

 for the food of animals or man, and the part it per- 

 forms in the economy of nature is therefore very im- 

 portant. 



Light, porous charcoals possess several notable 

 properties in plant culture: 



First they absorb into their pores large quan- 

 tities of gaseous substances and vapors which exist 

 in the atmosphere. Thus : They absorb over ninety 

 times their bulk of ammonia; fifty-five times their bulk 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen; nine times their bulk of 

 oxygen; nearly twice their bulk of hydrogen, and 

 absorb sufficient aqueous vapor to increase their weight 

 from ten to twenty per centum. 



Second -They separate from water, decayed ani- 

 mal matters and coloring substances which it may 

 hold in solution. In the soil they absorb from rain, 

 or flowing water, organized matters of various kinds, 

 and yield them up to the plants growing near to 

 contribute to their growth. 



Third They absorb disagreeable odors and keep 

 animal and vegetable matter sweet when in contact 

 with it. For which reason vegetable substances con- 

 taining much water, like potatoes, turnips, etc., are 

 better preserved by the aid of a quantity of charcoal. 



Fourth They extract from water a portion of the 

 saline substances, or salts, it may happen to have in 

 solution, and allow it to escape in a' less impure form. 

 The decayed (half carbonized) roots of grass, which 

 have been long subjected to irrigation, may act in 

 one or all of these ways, on the more or less impure 

 water with which they are irrigated, and thus gradu- 

 ally arrest and collect the materials fitted to promote 

 the growth of the coming crop. 



OXYGEN. 



We know oxygen only in its gaseous or aeriform 

 state, although it may be liquefied, and even converted 

 into a solid form under the name of "liquid air." As 

 a gas it is invisible and possesses neither color, taste, 

 nor smell. When inhaled in a pure state it is stim- 

 ulating and exciting to the vital functions, but xised 

 in excess it causes death. Plants refuse to grow in 

 pure oxygen gas and speedily perish. 



It exists in the atmosphere in the proportion of 

 21 per centum of the bulk of the latter, and in this 

 state and proportion it is necessary to the existence 

 of animals and plants, and to permit combustion every- 

 where on the globe. The amount of it in water will 

 surprise many readers, for every nine pounds of water 

 contains eight pounds of oxygen. A knowledge of this 

 fact will cause the full value of water as an essential to 

 plant growth to be appreciated; moreover, water pos- 

 sesses the power of absorbing still more oxygen from 

 the atmosphere than it contains naturally. Thus, water 

 will absorb from three and one-half to six and one-half 

 parts of oxygen to one hundred parts of water. Rain, 

 spring and river waters always contain an additional 

 proportion of oxygen which they have absorbed from 

 the atmosphere. This is' taken up in the soil, for, as the 



A. G. WOI.FENBERG, LINCOLN NEli. 



