334 QUART ERLYJOURNAL. 



I 



organic principles of the blood in the organism of the plant, are 

 connected by the strongest ties with the presence of the alkalies 

 and phosphates. j 



We should suppose that even with the introduction of the great»'i| 

 est quantity of carbonic acid, of ammonia and of the sulphates, 

 which furnish the sulphur, the organic principles of plants would 

 not be produced in the form appropriate to their conversion into 

 blood, if the alkalies and phosphates by which we always find them.13 

 accompanied were wanting. 



But even admitting that they might also be produced in the o^ 

 ganism of the plant, without the concurrence of these substance 

 they could not be converted in the body of the animal into eithc 

 blood or flesh, if the mineral principles of the blood were wantii 

 in the part of the plant given as food. 



Apart from all theoretical considerations, the judicious agricul 

 turist should then, with relation to the objects he has in vie^ 

 proceed precisely as if the production of the organic principles' 

 depended on the presence of the inorganic principles of the blood 

 (the phosphates and alkalies) ; he should give his plants all the 

 principles necessary to the formation of the leaves, stems, and 

 seeds ; and if he wish to attain on his fields a maximum of blooc 

 and flesh, he should add in greater quantity those of their princi- 

 ples which the air cannot furnish. 



Starch, sugar, and gum contains carbon and the elements 0: 

 water : they are never found associated with the alkalies ; they dc 

 not contain phosphates. It may be believed that in two varietie 

 of the same plant, by the addition of an equal quantity of thi 

 mineral elements, very unequal quantities of starch or sugar ar< 

 formed, that from two equal surfaces of land prepared in precisely 

 the same manner, and sowed with two varieties of barley, W' 

 might collect on one, one and a half, or even twice, the weight 

 seeds on the other ; but this excess of product can have relatioi 

 only to their non-nitrogenous, and not to their sulphuro-nitroge 

 nous principles : for an equal quantity of the inorganic principle 

 of the blood added to the soil and passed into the plant, ther 

 should be formed in the seeds a quantity of inorganic principle 

 which corresponds to them ; in short, it cannot be found more ii 

 one than in the other. 



It will be only the introduction of a less quantity of nitrogei 

 into a plant during the lapse of time given, which will produce ; 

 difference : it will be owing to the want of ammonia that a cor 

 responding quantity of the inorganic principles of the blood wil 

 not find employment. 



Of two kinds of different plants which we cultivate on a fiel< 

 of the same nature, that one will remove from the soil the greatjj 

 est quantity of the inorganic principles of the blood (phosphates)|| 

 in the organization of which will be produced the greatest quan|i 



