372 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



the dangers attending the loading at Ichaboe, and 

 other islands on the west coast of Africa, from the 

 setting in of rollers. 



A discovery of this description, at a time when 

 so many vessels are lying unemployed at San Fran- 

 cisco, and so many others, idle or seeking, in the 

 Australian colonies, and also in India, we look up- 

 on as a means of profitable employment which 

 many others will be likely to take advantage of. 

 The island, it is said, is at present unclaimed by 

 any government, and the British flag was the first 

 banner planted upon it. 



For the New England Farmer. , 



CHEMISTRY--- VEGETABLE PHYSIOLO- 

 GY. 



In a few remarks which I recently transmitted 

 for your valuable and instructive columns, I made 

 allusion to the comparative advantage of a knowl- 

 edge of the sciences of chemistry and of vegeta- 

 ble physiology to the practical farmer. The opin- 

 ion was then expressed that the latter science had 

 been too much overlooked, and the former made 

 too prominent, in most of the writings and discus- 

 sions upon scientific, and improved agriculture. 

 AVith your permission I desire to pursue the sub- 

 ject of the application of chemistry to agriculture 

 a little further. And ] intend here to start a 

 question more for the purpose of having it resolved 

 by some learned chemist, than with any establish- 

 ed conviction in my own mind on the point. I 

 believe you will concur with me in considering the 

 questi >n I shall propose of sufficient importance 

 for a full and scientific explanation. The science 

 of chemistry is certain. Its results are not ques- 

 tionable. It is an exact science. But in its ap- 

 plic ition to agriculture, whether to soil or vege- 

 table, there is room for error or mistake. And 1 

 make a question here, not of the truth and accu- 

 racy of chemical knowledge, but of the logic by 

 which the chemist is guided in his application of 

 chemistry. His reasoning is this. The plant is 

 constituted, in part, of lime ; therefore, lime must 

 be supplied to the soil, for the aliment of the plant. 

 The grasses and grains are composed in large 

 part of silica, in their stems therefore, silica must 

 exist in the soil of your wheat and grass lands, or 

 your crop fails. Now the chemistry of the two 

 propositions is undoubted, but, to my mind, the 

 logic is very questionable. The conclusion does 

 not lawfully follow from the premises. Let us try 

 it by two or three examples. The seeds of plants 

 are largely composed of starch ; — the tubes of po- 

 tatoes contain a great proportion of the same in- 

 gredient. Therefore, starch must be supplied to 

 the soil for all plants, especially for potatoes. 

 Most plants contain sugar; therefore, the farmer 

 must administer sugar to the soil. The cow con- 

 tains in her vessels a large quantity of milk ; there- 

 fore, she must be fed on milk. I think these ex- 

 amples are sufficient to show where, in my view, 

 the uncertainty which I mean to indicate lies. 

 If lime or silica do not exist in form in the soil, 

 the constituents which compose them, or which, 

 when assimilated in the economy of the plant, 

 will compose those substances, do exist there 

 separately, and will they not, separately, form 

 appropriate aliment for the plant? The tissues of 

 the plant constitute a laboratory wherein lime, 

 and starch, and sugar are made, by the assimilat- 



ing function of the vegetable life, as the vessels of 

 the cow form a laboratory in which milk is, in 

 like manner, made. 



The elements of all life, animal and vegetable, 

 exist in the earth. No element has yet been dis- 

 covered by the scrutinizing analyses of the chem- 

 ist, which does not exist in the earth. Science 

 proves the declaration of scripture that man was 

 made of the dust of the earth. The elements en- 

 tering into his physical nature are all there. And 

 so are there found in the earth all the elements of 

 all created things, of all the animal and of all the 

 vegetable world : of all organized matter. Man's 

 bones are composed mostly of lime. But he does 

 not eat lime; — nor is it necessary, in order to 

 sustain his life, or preserve his health. The ali- 

 mentary organs of animals and vegetables take up 

 the elements, no matter whether connected in the 

 particular form, or existing separately, — and after 

 they are so taken up, they are separated, and 

 made to pass into different parts of the system, as 

 in man the lime into the bone, the iron into the 

 blood, and so on, entering into new combinations 

 as they are received into different parts of the 

 frame. Is not the analogy between the animal 

 and vegetable world complete in this point? Is 

 there any more necessity for feeding plants with 

 lime than cows with milk? Is not the reasoning 

 in this matter erroneous and illogical ? 



I have suggested this view with a two-fold ob- 

 ject. If my question has anything substantial in 

 it, it will show, that the science of chemistry is 

 not entitled to the very prominent, not to say ex- 

 clusive importance, to the working farmer which 

 has been claimed for it : — and secondly, if my 

 view is incorrect, I hope it will, at least, bo con- 

 sidered of sufficient interest to receive an explana- 

 tion at the hands of some learned chemist. You 

 will agree with me that it is highly important 

 that our working farmers should not be led into 

 error by the guides to wdiom they look for instruc- 

 tion. 



To my mind, a sufficient explanation of the 

 doubt here raised is not found in the fact that the 

 substances are of a different nature. This will be 

 the ready answer : Starch and sugar are vegeta- 

 ble products, and milk is an animal product ; but 

 lime and silica are earthy, mineral, and, as com- 

 monly designated, unorganized matter. 



But my view of the processes of natm % e forbids 

 me to be satisfied with that answer. By the sys- 

 tem of permutation and combination, the fifty-five 

 elements of nature, as they become united in dif- 

 ferent proportions, form different compound bodies. 

 The same elements, united in the same proportion, 

 that form lime, cannot form anything else ; and 

 whenever and wherever they become combined they 

 form that substance. They must form it equally 

 in the earth, in the vegetable tissue, and the ani- 

 mal frame. A synthetic process is constantly go- 

 ing on within the earth by which the different ele- 

 ments become united, and by which union, accord- 

 ing to the proportions entering into the combina- 

 tion, lime and other compound bodies are formed. 

 Now when the same elements become united in 

 the same proportion, as, by the same synthetic 

 process, they may, in the tissues of the plant, 

 they must there form the same substance, and are 

 incapable of forming any other. Is it not so ? Up- 

 on this view I base my system of cosmogony. The 

 vegetable creation, "whose seed was in the earth, 



