Divisibility of Mai 11 



must be multiplied by 10 used as a factor 23, 22 and 21 

 times respectively in order to express them. 



7. Molecules and Commercial Fertilizers. It is a very 

 strange fact that 100 to 500 pounds of commercial fertil- 

 izers applied to a poor soil will produce such marked ef- 

 fects upon the growth of plants when these small amounts 

 are spread over an acre of ground and then dissolved in 

 and distributed through the soil water of perhaps the en- 

 tire surface four feet. To know, however, that the mole- 

 cules of these fertilizers are so extremely small and that 

 there are such immense numbers of them in a single pound 

 enables the mind to better comprehend how such marked 

 effects are possible. 



The surface four feet of good field soil when well supplied 

 with moisture may contain the equivalent of 10 inches of 

 water on the level. This amount of water expressed in 

 cubic feet per acre is 36,300. The experiment with an- 

 iline indicates that a single gram has been divided into not 

 less than 5,120,000,000,000 parts. Let us compute how 

 many parts this number would give to each cubic inch of 

 the 36,300 cubic feet of soil-water in the upper four feet 

 of an acre. 



5,120,000,000,000 _ 



We see, thru, that a single gram of aniline may be di- 

 vided enough to place 81,624 parts in every cubic inch of 

 moisture of an entire acre of good soil to a depth of four 

 feet. 



But one gram of sodium nitrate would contain, accord- 

 ing to Maxwell's results, 



NaNO 3 :2 O:: No. of O molecules : No. of NaNO 8 molecules 

 or 85:32 :: 1, 339(10) 22 : x 



whence x = 51(10) 2s =d3, 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 



