THE ELEMENTS. 15 



drops of water, separated into their two elements, 

 would give us two quarts of hydrogen and one quart 

 of oxygen. They may be caught and kept confined 

 in a tight glass vessel in this form as long as you 

 please. Without outside impulse they will not 

 combine chemically, but remain a mixture of gases. 

 When ignited, however, the two substances rush 

 into each other' s arms as in a sudden passion. We 

 have a violent explosion, a chemical combination, 

 and as a result, two quarts of steam, which when 

 condensed, again appears as the few drops of water 

 with which we started. 



In oxygen and hydrogen we have two elementary 

 bodies, or simple substances which cannot be fur- 

 ther separated into other substances. Modern 

 chemistry knows between sixty and seventy such 

 elements; and all existing matter, whether organic 

 (matter which has performed functions of life, or is 

 the result of such functions) or inorganic (anything 

 which is and has been without life, and is not the 

 result of functions of life), is made up of these 

 elements, in various proportions, and in all sorts of 

 combinations, which give us the diversified and in- 

 numerable forms of matter. 



The farmer is most deeply interested in a know- 

 ledge of the elements which go to make up vegetable 

 and animal products, and it is a wonderful fact, 

 that of those nearly seventy elementary bodies, 

 only twelve or fourteen are of sufficient importance 

 to deserve the farmer's consideration, and that the 

 g^^^^ bulk of all agricultural pro- 

 ducts consists of the four elements, 

 carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. These 

 are the organic constituents of plants; all others are 

 inorganic elements, and consist chiefly of calcium. 



