AMMONIA. 27 



is concerned, since water and carbonic acid, ever- 

 present, furnish them in great abundance, and hold 

 them in constant readiness for the use of the plants, 

 the question, how to get hold of nitrogen and make 

 it available for our crops, is a serious one. 



Nitrogen forms about one sixth of all animal 

 tissue, and enters largely into the composition of 

 plants. Under the pressure of natural agencies it 

 enters chemical unions with hydrogen and oxygen, 

 and forms various compounds. 



When we open a bottle containing the liquid sold 

 by grocers and druggists under the name " House- 

 hold Ammonia," a gas escapes which has a most 

 pungent odor, and an acrid burning taste. This is 

 ammonia, a chemical compound of hydrogen and 

 nitrogen, three parts by weight of the former to 

 fourteen of the latter. Water dissolves or absorbs 

 seven or eight hundred times its bulk of it, and 

 thus charged, is put up in these bottles and sold for 

 cleaning purposes. 



This nitrogeneous gas, ammonia, is evolved from 

 all decaying animal substances, dead bodies, solid 

 manure, and urine, and it is also formed during the 

 decay of vegetable substances in the soil. In the 

 morning after a cold night, when stable doors have 

 been kept closed pretty tight, a pungent odor greets 

 us on entering horse and cow stables. This informs 

 us of the presence of ammonia. The gas is very 

 volatile, and easily escapes into the air, where it 

 may be decomposed, losing again its available form, 

 or to be absorbed by moisture and carried down to 

 the soil by rains or snows in equal distribution over 

 fields and woods of good and poor cultivators of the 

 soil, and without inquiring where most needed. 



Ammonia being an alkali, readily combines with 



