18393 



F A R ME R S ' REGISTER, 



460 



the temperature is higher. Great Britain is ofcourse I in water. It is moreover not found to exist in the, 

 one of liie best wheat countries in the world. Corn most productive soils, nor even in ihe richest 

 on the contrary will not arrive at maturity under a I manuiee. Some chemists, not adverlin£f to the 



fess degree ol'heat than from TO'"^ lo SO*^, and iCthe 

 average of the three summer months does not 

 rangebetween 75 and 80, a good crop of corn can 

 hardly be expected. Thus in England corn will 

 never be grownj a law of nature that cannot be 

 broken Ibrbids it. 



tact that carbon is insoluble in water, suppos; d 

 that pulverized charcoal would be an escellt-nt 

 manure. A Dr. Eivell, a native of this sta'c, 

 published, about the beginnini? of tiie present 

 cenlur}', a book in whicii he assertpd, uiih gr<\it 

 apparent confidence, that rii!v€iized charco,;! 

 would be one of the b<:>st of manures. A f'ipnd 



j of mine who was largely engaged in rectiiNing 



that abominable tiling calJed whisl<ej', and c<Ji!-i>- 

 CAUSE OF GREATKR VALUE OF GVPSU31 ON i qucntly Used a large quantity of pulverized char- 



coal, tnaile the experiment, Eui he found that 

 charcoal, though ground as fine as flour was not 

 a manure. He might as well (as Proli-ss;-.;- 

 Armstrong expresses it,) have used pounJcd 

 glass.* But my friend, the recfily-er of whiske\-, 

 was not the only person who made the exjx li- 

 ment. Experiments were niade in various p;ui.s 

 of the world, and all with like success, or railicr 

 want of success. Still, (he question whenc:; do 



LIMED LANI>. 



To the Ediloi- of tlie t'arineis' Register. - 



One of your correspondents, whose communica- 

 tion you published in the July number of the Re- 

 gister, uses the following language, "i can assure 

 you and your readers, that that the use of plaster 

 of Paris, after lime, works strangely and wonder- 

 fully. You may explain why it is so; for me. it is 



sufiicient to see and know that it so." I readdy i vegetai)lps obtain their carbon, remained u! 

 agree with your correspondent that in such a case | answered. At length by a variptv of experinienl.s 

 fact is of more importance than theory; but I sup- j carefully made, by different experimenters, in dif- 

 pose most of the readers of the Register will ad- j ferent parts ol' the world the question was satis- 

 mit that fact and theory together, is better than I litctorily answered. It is from carbonic acid, thai 

 either of them separately. Indeed mnviklnd avsl vegetables obtain their carbon. The roots of tho 

 naturally theorizers; that is, when any thing un- vegetables attract fi'om the soil the water or mois- 

 usual occurs in the natural world, they are dis- ture mixed with carbonic acid, and as the water 

 posed lo inquire into the causes, and however va- thus mingled with carbonic acid passes up throufrh 

 luable the knowledge the liict above may have j the tubes of the vegetable, by a process concealed 

 been, yet when, in addition to the fact, a know- from mortal ken, the carbonic acid is decomposed; 

 ledge of its cause is obtained, it alibrds an exqui- 1 and when the sun sliines on the vegetable, the ox- 

 site pleasure to the rnind. Indeed I have long i ygen of the acid is breathed forth hiio the atmos- 

 been of opinion that one impoitant use of me- j phere and the carbon is retained. This bcaufilijl 

 chanical and chemical philosophy, is, that they | theory is surely as intercsiing as a view of the 

 render much of the common business of liie more I passage of the Potomac tlirough the BUie Rid'fej 

 intellectual, and, on that account, will be njore | which Mr. Jefferson said, vv'as won't a voyage 

 relished by men of cultivated minds. I am far, j across the Atlantic. Nearly or-ie-half, by weight, 

 however, from supposing that this is the only or I of limestone, marble, in .^hort of all carbonates of 

 even the principal use of mechanical and chemi- j lime, is carbonic acid. Quick-lirne, or lime when 

 cal science. But I did not sit down to write a newly burnt, has no carbonic acid, but its! attrac- 

 treaiise on the use of science; but to endeavor to ,■ tion for carbonic acid is so great, that, if exposed 



furnish your correspondent with a theory to ex- 

 plain his fact; lor, notwithstanding his apparent 

 indiflerence about theory, I am disposed to be- 

 lieve that it will afford him considerable pleasure 

 lo be able not only to say that the fact is so; but 

 also to say why it is so. 



1 have long had a theory upon the subject which 

 your correspondent mentions, which, to myself at 

 least, was entirely satisfactory; so that had I been 

 a, neighbor to your corresponijent, and witnessed 

 the fact which, it seems, was to him strange and 

 wonderful, would have been to me neither the one 

 nor the other, but precisely the thing, I would 

 have expected. I will now proceed to explain my 

 theory, ami tlie process by which it was obtained. 



There is scarcely any fact more obvious than 

 this, that the great volume or bulk of all vegeta- 

 bles is ciirbon. Although this fitct was doubtless 

 known from time immemorial, yet it seems to 

 have attracted no attention in a theoretic point of 

 view until modern times. When the attention of 

 modern chemists was turned to the vegetable de- 

 partment of science, they naturally inquired, whence 

 and how do vegetables obtain the cat bon which 

 constitutes so large a portion of their sub- 

 etaiice? This was a question not easily answer- 

 fid. Carbon is a simple substance, and insoluble 

 Vol. VII— G2 



to the atmospiiere, it soon saturates itself with car- 

 bonic acid, and thus returns to the state of a car- 

 bonate. When a man then limes iiis land, he 

 mixes with it an article which possesses not only 

 the various valuable qualities which y<;u, Mr. 

 Editor, have so well pointed out in your invalua- 

 ble 'Essay on Calcareous Manures;' but, also pos- 

 sesses the power of attracting (i-om the atmosphere 

 and retaining in the soil ready for use, the veiy 

 thing which llirnishes their chief food to all vege- 

 tables. 



But the carbonate of lime is a concrete siih- 

 stance, and its carbonic acid is intimately cuinbin- 

 ed with the lime; hence, it will not, we nuiy sup- 

 pose, easily yield its acid to the rains and moisture 

 of the earth, and what it does yield, will be part- 

 ed liom slowly, and in small quantities, i/ut as 

 the carbonate of lime possesses various other pro- 

 perties besides the one I have just meniioned^ 

 when it it first applied to the land, it mav ()ioduce 

 a powerful effect chiefly by those other proj)eriies,- 

 but ultimately becomes citiefly useful as a deposi- 

 tory of carbonic acid. But this acid it parts with 



* See Professor Armstronf:^'s Essay on Vegetable 

 Physiology, July No. of the Farmers' Register, Chap-' 

 ter XVI. ■ 



