^MmexB JH^titljlg fetter. 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC mfcl.. 



"Those who labor in the earth aue thi; chosen i-eople of God, whosk itnEAsxs hk itAS made his peculiar deposite for substantial and genuine virtue." Jefferson. 



VOL. 8. NO. 8. 



CONCORD, N. H., AUGUST 31, 1846. 



WHOLE NO. 92. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR, 



pur.i.isiu;i) BY 



ISAAC HILL, & SONS, 



ISSUED ON THE LAST DAY Or EVKRY MONTI], 



At Atheuian Building. 



55-GENrBAL Agents.— H. A. Hill, Keene, N H. ; John 

 Mah^h, Washington St. Huston, Mass.; (.'haiu.es Wabiien, 

 Biiiilfy Row, VVorcL'stLT, Mass. 



TERMS.— To single subscrilicrs, Fifli/ Cents. Ten per 

 cont. will be allowed to the person who siiall send more than 

 one subscriber. Twelve copies will be sent for the advance 

 payment of Fire Dullars: twenty-five copies for Ten Dollars; 

 eixly copies for Twenty Dollars. The payment in every case to 

 be made in advance. 



Q:^Mottcij and sul/scrijitions, by a regulation of the Post Master 

 General^ may in all cases be remitted by the Post Master, free oj 

 postaire, 



5:;y~.\ll gentlemen who have heretofore acted as Agents ate 

 requested to continue their Ayency. Old subscribers who 

 come under the new terms, will please notify us of the names 

 already on our books. 



The capacity of mother-Earth not yet JuUy 

 appreciated. 



Professor Horsford, oI' JNew York, travelling 



and resirfent in Europe the last two years, corii- 

 niuiiicates with the editor of the Albany Culti- 

 vator, in successive nuniheis of that papm', inter- 

 estini; information, particularly in relation to the 

 science of Agriculture. In the AiiKust number 

 bf that excellent periodical, the Professor sends 

 the coj)y of a letter from Baron Von Liebig, 

 which if it be estimated by others as it is by us, 

 will be worth to the practical firtner more than 

 the annual price of the best agricultural publica- 

 tion in the country. 



To the editor of the IMonthly Visitor, the ex- 

 ))erience and observation of the last eight years 

 have gradually wrought the conviction, Ihat the 

 farmer may find, lower in his cultivated fiehls than 

 has yet been moved, mineral ijuaiilies of equal, if not 

 greater value than all the viseefable manures that 

 have been collected by human efforts. If it be asked, 

 'rfhat are the peculiar characteristics which de- 

 •,.ote the presence of these valuable aids below 

 the vegetable mould which wc have been habit- 

 uated to consider as the sole source of fertility, 

 we answer, that there is no soil so poor as to be 

 destitute entirely of the elements combining to 

 the growth of the fruits of our mother earth. 

 The essay of Baron Liebig, copied below, will 

 aid the reader in arriving at our conclusions. It 

 will aid the farmer to detect the fallacy that up- 

 on lands considered and taken to be worn-out, 

 as much amount of manures in weight must be 

 carried to them, as vegetation takes away. It 

 will show how the most profitable cultivation of 

 the present year may be made subservient to the 

 better production of a futm'e year. These prin- 

 ciples we wish to be engrafted upon the mind of 

 every practical farmer who tills the grounil, as 

 encouraging him to a pursuit niore pleasing than 

 any other pursuit under heaven. 



From the Albany Cultivaloi. 



• GiESSE>-, April 16, 1846. 

 Mr. Tucker — A few days since, I received the 

 numbers of the Cultivator from August forward. 

 In glancing through them my eye met with nu- 



merous remarks and iiKiuiries, that, I am piir- 

 siiaded would not have found a place in your 

 valuable joiuiial, had the accompanying hotter of 

 Baron Von Liebeg been previously circulated 

 among yom' subscribers. 



In connection with the letter sent to you last 

 year, it seems to me to present in the happiest 

 manner, the great and yet simple truths of ra- 

 ticMial manuring. I beg for it an insertion in the 

 Cultivator. 



Respectfully, voiirs, 



E."N. HORSFORD. 



On the Principles of Artificial Manuring. 



BY EAKO.\ VON LIEBIG. 



If we compare the experience of farmers rc- 

 ganling the fertility of tiie soil and the ((uantity 

 of its produciion.<, we are surprised by a result 

 which surpasses all others in general application 

 and uniformity. 



It has been observed, that in every part of the 

 globe where agriculture is carried on, in all va- 

 rieties of soil, and vviili the most different plants 

 and modes of cultivation, the produce of a field 

 on uliich the same or difU-rent plants have been 

 cultivatc'il during a certain number of years, de- 

 creases more or less in (piaiuily, imd that it again 

 obtains its fertility by a supply of excrements of 

 man and an.imals, which generally are called 

 manure ; that the produce of the fields can be 

 increased by the same matters, ami that the 

 quantity of the crop is in direct proportion to the 

 quantity of the manure. 



In tbrmer times scarcely any attempt was made 

 to accomit for the cause of this curious property 

 of the excrements of man and animals. With- 

 out ttiking into consideration the origin of the 

 excrements, and the relation they bear to the 

 food, it was not astoiiisljiiig that their effect was 

 ascribed to a remnant of' vital power which 

 should qiialily them to increase the vitality in 

 plants. Ascribing their influence on the fertility 

 of the fields loan incomprehensible occult cause, 

 it was forgotten that every force has its material 

 substratum ; thtit with a lever, in a mathematical 

 sense, which possesses no extension and gravity, 

 no effect can be produced, no burden raised. 



Guided by experience, which is the fundamen- 

 tal basis of all inductive science, and which 

 teaches us that for every effect there is a cause, 

 that every quality, as, for instance, the fertility of 

 a field, the nourishing quality of a vegetable, or 

 llie effect of a manure, is intimately connected 

 with and occasioned by something which can be 

 ascertained by weight and ineasun! ; modern 

 science has succeeded in enlightening us on the 

 cause of the fertility of the fields, and on the ef- 

 fects which are exeicised on them by manure. 



Chemistry has shown that these properties are 

 produced by the composition of the fields; that 

 their fitness for producing wheat or some other 

 kind of plants bears a direct proportion to cer- 

 tain elements contained in the soil, which are 

 absorbed by the plants. It has likewise shown 

 that two fields, of unequal fertility contain une- 

 qiial quantities of these elements; or that a fer- 

 tile soil contains them in a different form or state 

 from another, which is less fertile. W the ele- 

 ments are contained in the soils in sufficient 

 quantities, it produces a rich crop ; if it is defec- 

 tive in one of them only, this is shown very 

 soon, by the impossibility of growing in it cer- 

 tain kinds of plants. 



Moreover it has been proved with certainly 

 what relations these elements of the soil bear to 

 the (levelopm(;nt of the plants. Chemical antily- 

 sis has demonstrated that a certain class of these 

 elements is contained in the seeds ; others in dif- 

 fertait proportions, in the leaves, roots, tubers, 

 stalks. They are mineral substances, and as 

 such, are indestructible by fire, and consequently 

 remain as ashes after the incineration of the 

 plants or of their parts. Many of these ele- 



ments are soluble in pure water, others only ia 

 water containing carbonic acid, as rain water; — 

 all were absorbed from the soil by the roots of 

 the plants in a dissolved condition. It has been 

 shown that, if in u field, those elements which 

 remain affer the incineration of the grain or 

 seeds, are piesent in an insullicient quantity, no 

 wheat, no barley, no peas, — In a word none of 

 those plants ctm be cultivated on that field which 

 are grown on account of their seeds. The 

 plants which grow on such afield produce stalks 

 anil leaves; they blossom but do not bear fruits. 

 The same has been observed regarding the de- 

 velopment of leaves, roots, and tubers, and the 

 mineral elements which they leave behind after 

 their incineialion. II', in a soil in which turnips 

 or potatoes are to be cultivated, the elements of 

 the ashes of these roots are wanting, the plants 

 bring forth leaves, stalks, blossoms, and seeds, 

 but the roots and tubercles are imperfect. Eve- 

 ry one of tlie elements which the soil gives up 

 to the plants is in a direct qualitative proportion 

 to the production of the separate elements of 

 the plants. Two fields, which, under otherwise 

 equal circumsmnces, are imecpially rich in tiiiue- 

 nil elements of the grain, pioduce unequal crops. 

 One containing them in larger quantity produces 

 itiore than another containing them in less. In 

 the saine manner, the capacity of a soil to pro- 

 duce tuberculous plants, or such which have 

 many leaves, depends upon its amount of the 

 elements of the soil which are found in the ash- 

 es of those plants. 



It results lioin this with certainty, that the 

 mineral substances which are furnished by the 

 soil, and which are found again in the ashes of 

 plants, are their true food ; that they are in the 

 conditions of vegettible life. 



It is evident, that from a field in which differ- 

 ent plants are cultivated, we remove with the 

 crop a certain quantity of these elements; in the 

 seeds those mineral parts which the soil had to 

 provide for their development, and in the roots, 

 tubercles, stalks, and leaves, those elements 

 which are necessary for their production. How- 

 ever rich the field may be in these elements, 

 there can be no doubt that, by several cultures, 

 it becomes more and more impoverished ; that 

 for eveiy plant a time must arrive when the soil 

 will cease to furnish, in sufficient quantity, those 

 elements which are necessary for a perfect 

 growth. Even if such a field, during many sub- 

 sequent years, produced twenty-five or thirty fold 

 the amount of the seed ; for instance, of wheat, 

 experience shows thai the crop gradually de- 

 creases, until at last the amount will be so small 

 that it approaches the plant in its wihl state, and 

 would not repay the cost of cultivation. 



According to the unequal quantity in which 

 the mineral elements of grain, tubercles, roots, 

 seeds, leaves are contained in a soil, or according 

 to the proportions in which they may have re- 

 nioved in the crop, the land may have ceased to 

 be fertile tor roots and tubercles, but it may yet 

 produce good crops of wheat. Another may not 

 produce wheat, but potatoes and turnips may 

 thrive well in it. The mineral substances con- 

 tained in a fertile soil, and serving as food to the 

 plants, are taken up by them with the water, in 

 which they are soluble. In a fertile field they 

 are contained in a state which allows of their 

 being absorbed by the plant and taken up by the 

 roots. There are fields which are rich in these 

 elements, without being fertile in an equal pro- 

 portion ; in the latter case they are uniled with 

 other elements into chemical compounds, which 

 counteract the dissolving power of water. By 

 the conlemporaneous action of water and air, — 

 of the oxygen and carbonic acid of the atmos- 

 phere, — these compoimds are decomposed, and 

 those of their constituent elements, which are 

 soluble in water, but which had been insoluble 

 by the chemical affinity of the other mineial 



