1847.] Bistrihxdion of Inorganic Matter in Vegetables, 205 



thirty per cent in the shuck. Now, where fruits are removed and 

 consumed, it is easy to see that the soil will deteriorate, notwith- 

 standing the roots continually extend themselves into new soil; 

 for, in the course of a few years, all the important sustenance 

 must be derived mainly from the outside roots, and the exhaustion 

 of the central part of the area will be unavoidable. When, how- 

 ever, the fruit of trees, together with their leaves, are sulfered to 

 remain and decay upon the ground, there will be not only no ex- 

 haustion of the soil beneath the tree, but rather an accumulation 

 of food. The alkalies and phosphates are brought up from the 

 deep parts of the soil, and are mixed necessarily with the surface 

 soil. In this single effect of a forest upon the distribution of the 

 inorganic matter of the soil, the most important results may be 

 said to flow. In a deep soil, a large amount of the most essential 

 elements must accumulate near the surface; hence the forest pre- 

 pares the soil for tillage, and the pursuits of civilized life are pro- 

 moted by the organic laws which govern the vegetable kingdom. 



It is stated by Liebig, that trees of the same species, although 

 they may give different alkaline bases, still they will give an equal 

 quantity of oxygen in their several alkaline bases.* The in- 

 stances cited prove the position Liebig has taken; and yet the 

 amount of oxygen required to saturate the bases of the alkalies 

 belonging to the inside and outside wood, is quite different in al- 

 most every instance. 



The distribution of oxygen, considered in the light presented 

 by this distinguished chemist, will be found in excess in the en- 

 velopes of the wood, that is, in the bark. In the Ostrya virginica, 

 the ash is greater in an equal weight of the inside green wood, 

 than in that of the outside. This greater w^eight is due to the 

 presence of potash; but in this instance the oxygen is greatest in 

 the outside wood, and still greater in the bark. 



It is well known that silica, in the monocotyledonous plants, is 

 distributed through the outer layers of the envelope of the plant; 

 something quite analagous occurs in the dicotyledonous plants. 

 Thus there is 7.7 per cent of silica in the bark of the red cedar; 

 19 percent in the bark of the yellow pine growing upon the sand 

 plains near Albany; 6 per cent in the outer wood of the same 

 tree; and 8 per cent in the outer wood of the white pine: and, 

 according to Poleck, 11.7 per cent in the ash of the Pinus picea. 



Some woods which are rich in lime, burn with great intensity, 

 and emit much caloric. Hickory is an instance of the kind. 

 Other substances, rich in potash, burn slowly, and with difficulty. 



• See Chemistry in its application to Agriculture and Physiology : The 

 New World Edition, p. 16. 



