734 FARMERS' REGISTER— PRODUCTS OF PUTREFACTION UNDER WATER. 



quickly consumed, and vegetation becomes more 

 rich in proportion. It has thence been concluded 

 that hnie acts, partly in exciting the plant to great- 

 er activity, and partly in rendering more soluble 

 the principles of the soil, which are absorbed by 

 the roots when dissolved in the water which the 

 earth has imbibed. Lime is not then a true [or 

 alimentary] manure. It contributes only to pro- 

 mote and hasten the absor|)tion of the principles 

 which serve to nourish the plant; and that lime 

 may be serviceable, it is necessary to introduce 

 into the soil, improved by lime, materials proper 

 to furnish new quantities of mould. The lime, or 

 the alkali contained in ashes, acts also in hastening 

 the change of organic matters to mould. 



It is known by experience, that gypsum also 

 augments the fertility of the earth, especially when 

 leguminous plants are cultivated. It is not proba- 

 ble that this neutral salt acts in the same manner 

 as lime, and we are ignorant of what is its mode 

 of acting. 



Soil [terre vegetaW] possesses the property of 

 being able to retain as much as three-fourths of 

 its weight of water without appearing moist, and 

 like charcoal, it condenses atmospheric humidity. 

 It owes this property to the geine which it con- 

 tains, which is one of the substances which, of all 

 known, absorbs moisture with most energy. 

 Mould [terreaa'] can absorb double its weight of 

 water, without appearing moist; and after being 

 dried, it draws from the air, in less than twenty- 

 four hours, a quantity of water, which may vary 

 according to the humidity of the atmosphere, from 

 SO to 100 per cent, of its weight. This property 

 depends upon its light And dust-like consistence; 

 and geine, of which the fracture becomes vitreous 

 from its course of chemical treatment, is deprived 

 of this physical property, which is of the utmost 

 importance to vegetable lite. For, in consequence 

 of this property, mould retains water in the earth 

 and obstructs its evaporation; and it is probably 

 this water which maintains the extremhies of the 

 roots in the state to perform their functions. 



It is usual to divide soil into fertile earth, and 

 acid earth.* The first is very common — the se- 

 cond presents itself but rarely. It produces no- 

 thing, unless it be mosses: it is in marshy places 

 that it is ordinarily found. It is in general com- 

 posed in the same manner as fertile earth; but 

 whilst in the latter the geine is united with lime, 

 and perhaps with other bases besides, it is, in the 

 acid earth, combined with acids, which, according 

 to Einhof, are the phosphoric and acetic acids. It 

 is for this reason that it has the property of rcd- 

 denmg vegetable blues, and that it gives, by cal- 

 cination, ashes which contain phosphoric acid. 

 To dry distillation, it yields a great quantity of an 

 acid liquid, containing the acetate of ammonia; 

 and Avhen it is distilled, after having mixed it with 

 water, a liquid product is obtained which reddens 



* It is not a little strange to say it is "usual [dajis 

 Vasage'\ to divide soils into fertile earth and acirf earth," 

 when the acid nature of any, has been treated by Ber- 

 zelius as a new discovery, and of wfiich the truth is 

 not admitted by all of those who had taken the sub- 

 ject into consideration. If this division liad indeed 

 been usual, there would liave been no want of numer- 

 ous authorities (whatever might be their value) for 

 the acidity of soil. 



vegetable blues, and likewise contains acetate of 

 ammonia. In opposition to Emhof, Sprengel af- 

 firms that the acid geine is produced only for the 

 want of bases, and that its acid action proceeds 

 only from the geic acid which it contains, and not 

 from the presence of a foreign acid. De Pontin 

 has made the analysis of an arid* soil taken from 

 the plain of Eckerud in the government of Elfs- 

 burg in Sweden, and found that the geine had 

 there combined with the malic, acetic, and phos- 

 phoric acids. The dissolving of the soluble prin- 

 ciples of the soil in boiling water, left to be de- 

 posited, when the hydrate of lime was mixed 

 therein, these acids as well as geine, so that there 

 was found afterwards in the water only traces of 

 the acetate and hydrate of lime. But when a 

 current of carbonic acid gas was made to pass 

 through this precipitate steepedin water, the geine 

 remained, without dissolving, in combination with 

 the carbonate of lime produced, while there was 

 formed a solution slightly yellowish, which left, 

 after evaporation, a residue of calcareous salts. 

 This residue was treated by alcohol, which took 

 up a certain quantity of acetate of lime, and left 

 a salt of lime of a gummy appearance, which was 

 soluble in water, and possessed the properties of 

 the malate of lime. In burning the geate of lime, 

 and taking up the residue by muriatic acid, there 

 was obtained a solution which, when treated by 

 ammonia, gave a small precipitate of phosphate 

 of lime. The greater part of the acid geine was 

 dissolved in the carbonate of ammonia. Hydrate 

 of lime was poured into the solution, which pre- 

 cipitated the geine without leaving in solution a 

 salt of lime. But when after having washed the 

 precipitate, it was calcined, and the residue treated 

 with muriatic acid, there was obtained a solution, 

 which, after the expulsion of the carbonic acid, 

 gave with ammonia an abundant precij itate of 

 the phosphate of lime. These experiments con- 

 firm those given by Einhof. 



An arid* soil becomes fertile when there is 

 mixed with it lime, or ashes and earth, inasmuch 

 as the soil consists principally of geine. The re- 

 port of Sprengel, according to which, it [this cha- 

 racter of soil] is produced in consequence of the 

 absence of the bases which are found in fertile 

 earth, is certainly true; but it does not follow from 

 that, that it owes its acidity solely to the acid na- 

 ture of the geine. The ashes of arid* soil always 

 contain a great quantity of silex. 



Products of putrefaction under water. 



When fresh vegetable matters, not bruised or 



their thin texture broken, are plunged under water, 



they resist putrefiiction for a long time. We have 



examples in stakes buried beneath tJie water, of 



*This is still more strange, that so abrupt a transi- 

 tion should be made from acid, to and soils — and in such 

 manner as to induce the behef that the change was not 

 owing to the author — but to an error of the press. But 

 though this mistake would be as likely to occur in 

 French as almost any other, (only one letter be- 

 ins: different in the words acide and aride — ) still it is 

 difficult to believe that this same error should have 

 been made and left to stand three times in tliis and the 

 next page, where "arid" soils are named, and are 

 marked * as above. The French translation is said to 

 contain numerous typographical errors. I leave others 

 to decide whether these are among the number or not. 



