24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



Now, how did each of these several constituents affect the 

 soil from which the stalk was nourished? The starch, sugar, 

 oil and fiber came from the air and water ; that is, they are 

 made up of three elements, — carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, 

 — and these are taken, the first from carbonic acid, which is 

 present in the air, and from water, which may come from 

 the air or soil. Thus it is evident that neither the pocket- 

 book of the farmer nor his soil is the poorer on account of 

 the starch, sugar, oil or fiber produced ; the elements from 

 which they are made come to us free in the winds that blow 

 and in the rain and snow. It is also true that eighty-five 

 per cent of the albuminoids are made up of the same ele- 

 ments ; the remaining fifteen per cent is nitrogen, and for 

 this we pay fifteen cents per pound when we buy fertilizers. 

 There has always been a great deal of discussion about the 

 supply of nitrogen for plants. Great men have claimed that 

 plants take nitrogen from the air, and great men have 

 claimed that plants cannot take nitrogen from the air ; and 

 between the two opinions I am free to say that I do not 

 know whether plants take up nitrogen from the air or not, 

 and I doubt very much if any man does know. 



There is a part of the plant, however, that does not come 

 to us free ; it is the ash. The ash of plants is not contained 

 in the air, and must come from the soil. In this bottle you 

 see the amount of ash that the roots of that single stalk of 

 corn took up, and you may be sure that it came from the 

 soil in which it grew. 



Question. What amount of these various constituents 

 were there? 



Answer. I will give you the amount per acre ; for we 

 found the yield to be twenty tons per acre when cut. It is 

 as follows : — 



Pounds per acre. 



Water, 32,800 



Albuminoids, 440 



Fiber, 1,800 



Sugar 1,520 



Fat 200 



Starch, 2,800 



Ash, 440 



40,000 



