ACTION OF ELEMENTS OF SOIL. 63 



ble portions of sulphate and phosphate of lime, not only in 

 the grain, but in the straw. Smut and ergot show free 

 phosphoric acid. Cotton gives 1 per cent, of ashes, of which 

 0.17 are phosphates of lifiie and magnesia. The cotton con- 

 sumed weekly, in the Lowell Mills, is 400,000 lbs., contain- 

 ing G80 lbs. of phosphate of lime, and this would furnish 

 the bone-earth for the bones of seventeen horses, allowing 90 

 lbs. to each skeleton, of which 40 lbs. would consist of phos- 

 phate of lime. That beautiful yellow powder, shed by pine 

 forests, the pollen of its flowers, wafted about in clouds, and 

 descending with the rain, covering the surface of water with 

 its sulphur-like film, is composed of 6 per cent, of phosphates 

 of lime and potash. The ashes of all wood contain sulphate 

 and phosphate of lime. Garget contains in its leaves beau- 

 tiful crystals of phosphate of lime and ammonia; and every 

 exact analysis of the ashes of trees, shrubs and plants of 

 every kind, cultivated or wild, shows the presence of phos- 

 phoric acid 



