O F A G R I C U L T U R E . 11 



Chemistry, and various Agricultural Reports of the 

 Patent Office. 



The author hereby acknowledges his deep and 

 lasting obligation to Dr. Eugene AY. Hilgard, formerly 

 Geologist of the State of Mississippi, and now Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the University of that State, 

 at Oxford, for his kindness in revising the Chemical 

 part of this work, and for the information and aid 

 received from his able and interesting Report of the 

 Geology and Agriculture of Mississippi, made in 18GO. 



The author also expresses his gratitude to Dr. 

 Smith, the Analytical Chemist for the State of 

 Mississippi, for his kindness in comparing the 

 analyses of the plants contained in this work, with 

 the analyses of the same plants as published in 

 Professor Liebig's recent work on agriculture, and 

 not yet translated into the English language. 



Hoping to meet the almost universal demand for 

 information on the subject of agriculture at the 

 South, the author respectfully submits this book 

 to the reading and thinking farmer, and to the 

 public at large. 



CHAPTER II. 



SOURCES FROM WHICH PLANTS DERIVE THEIR NOURISH- 

 MENT. 



It has been ascertained by analysis that plants are 

 composed of two sets of elements : the "organic ele- 

 ments," which are volatile, and disappear during com- 



