1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



719 



preparations of the manufacturing chemist. Yet 

 the extension of his science has enabled him to 

 bear up with a bold front against a depreciation of 

 two, three, perhaps four hundred per cent; and 

 now to produce, with a remunerating profit, chem- 

 icals of a quality far superior to those which his 

 predecessors sold at an enormously high price. 

 Farmers, therefore, while they feel and admit the 

 necessity to adopt every economical measure to 

 insure increased produce, ought to regard the 

 chemist and his art with reverential deference. 

 Even the simple perusal— by a man of discern- 

 ment — of the "Electrical Researches'''' of the ami- 

 able and accomplished Faraday, is amply suffi- 

 cient to prove, beyond a doubt, the scientific chem- 

 ist to be a person of superior order; one to whom 

 the revealment of the wonder-working secrets of 

 nature is intrusted; and his art, the grandest, the 

 most sublime treasure that could be conferred on 

 any created being. That science, legitimately di- 

 rected, is well qualified to assist the farmer, and 

 promote his welfare, for it bears directly upon the 

 agents which he employs in the culture of every 

 one of his crops. 



One other objection to the general ulility of 

 chemistry to agriculture remains to be notieed be- 

 fore I pass to the investigation of Mr. Ruffin's 

 propositions, namely: — it is asserted and freely ad- 

 mitted, that the nature of soils lies open to the in- 

 vestigations of the chemist; but it may too fre- 

 quently occur, mat although experiment can rea- 

 dily detect the components of a soil, point out an 

 antidote for any deleterious substance which may 

 be traced therein, and show that in which it may 

 be deficient, the substance required, either to cor- 

 rect the evil or supply the deficiency, may not be 

 at hand. Thus, a soil may superabound in sand, 

 or exhibit a poisonous salt of iron; but alumen or 

 pure lime may be unattainable, unless at an out- 

 lay which would neutralize the benefit to be de- 

 rived from the use of either. Fortunately, howe- 

 ver, science can go a considerable way towards 

 procuring an artificial remedy, and thus tend to 

 supply the deficiency of the natural one; but as I 

 must recur to this subject hereafter, i shall not 

 dwell upon it now. 



It is somewhat unfortunate that the "Essay on 

 Calcareous Manures'''' was written expressly for 

 America. Mr. Ruffin, it is true, makes frequent 

 allusions to the theories and experiments of British 

 chemists; but his own observations and analyses 

 apply purely to the soils of the United States — to 

 that part at least of which he observes, "no chalk 

 is to be found in our country, and it is only from 

 European authors that we can know anything of 

 its agricultural characters, when nearly pure, or 

 when forming a very large proportion of the sur- 

 face of the land." 



Mr. Ruffin's arrangement, however, of the 

 three principal earths, is clear, precise, and correct; 

 as is also his general conclusion at the end of the 

 before mentioned page, viz. — "the mixture of the 

 three earths, in due proportions, will correct the 

 defects of all; and with a sufficiency of animal or 

 vegetable matter, putrescent, and soluble in water, 

 a soil is formed in which plants can extend their 

 roots freely," &c. &c. 



But he, perhaps, labors under an error in sup- 

 posing that all the earths, when pure, "are entire- 

 ly barren; or that chalk, alone, could give them 

 the fertilizing principle." The only soil which I 



have ever met with, that has appeared to be 

 wholly destitute of calcareous matter, (or, at 

 least, that which affords no trace of it to the mu- 

 riatic acid test,) is a black bog peat; but in this 

 soil, a lew plants will grow with extreme verdure. 

 It does not appear to me that the absence of cal- 

 careous earth is the sole cause of the o-eneral ster- 

 ility of turbary soils: I refer it to the°situation in 

 which they are originally produced, and in this 

 point, a remark made by Mr. Hayward will apply 

 very pertinently. In the paper on the Food of 

 Plants, which precedes the Essay, and in the 

 middle of page 197, it is observed: "if a quantity 

 of the leaves of trees be collected, and immersed 

 in a cistern or pool of stagnant water, and per- 

 mitted to remain undisturbed for three years, they 

 will be decomposed, and in appearance will be in 

 that state which, placed on the surface of the 

 earth, should form a fertilizing substance; yet it 

 will be found so steril, that no plant will orow in 

 it." 



Now the true peat mosses are formed, in the 

 large way, in a manner analogous to the earth of 

 decayed, immersed leaves, above described; that 

 is, a bulk of vegetable matters is burried, and be- 

 comes sndden under water. Now leaves, and, 

 indeed, vegetable substances in general, if burnt, 

 yield a great abundance of carbonate ef lime, as 

 indeed, Mr. Ruffin asserts: therefore, though it 

 may be presumed that, while in a growing state, 

 these substances contain no chalk, properly consi- 

 dered as such, yet the elements of that earth must 

 exist in them, otherwise it could not be revealed 

 by the action of fire. Inert vegetable soils then, 

 may originate in the peculiar action of water upon 

 them, while they are deposited in a situation from 

 which atmosperic air is excluded. This, too, ac- 

 cords with Mr. Hayward's idea, and it appears to 

 be well founded. One of the most energetic loams 

 which I have ever tested, contains merely a hint 

 of carbonate of lime; it is of a fine, ochrous color, 

 a velvety, unctuous texture, and when washed by 

 various effusions of water, yields nearly three- 

 fourths of its bulk of impalpable matters, the re- 

 mainder being a moderately fine silicious sand. 

 When muriatic acid is applied to the fine matters, 

 it produces little effervescence, and detects scarce- 

 ly two per cent, of chalk. This loam is applica- 

 ble to almost every species of plants; far more so 

 than many earths which contain three times the 

 proportiou of chalk named, with double the quan- 

 tity of warm sand. But if calcareous matter be 

 the principal meliorating medium, the quantity re- 

 quired must be small indeed, if that in the loam 

 just alluded to be sufficient to establish the fertili- 

 zing principle.* 



* This soil, containing "scarcely two per cent, of 

 chalk," is abundantly calcareous to have acquired, and 

 to retain all its fertility, according to the theory main- 

 tained in the Essay on Calcareous Manures. Any 

 quantity, however minute, of carbonate of lime found 

 naturally existing in a soil, proves that there had been 

 enough for its use and benefit. The author of the Es- 

 say was far from maintaining that the proportion of 

 carbonate of lime found in any soil, was the measure 

 of its fertility. The quantity originally given to soils, 

 by natural causes, when not excessive, and under like 

 circumstances, might have served to measure the pow- 



