1846.] Miscellanies. 167 



MISCELLANIES. 



Theory of Agriculture. — One object of the article in this 

 Journal, entitled the Theory of Agriculture, was to show that the 

 soil contains the food of vegetables, and that, contrary to what has 

 been taught by Liebig and others, it is in a soluble state, or in an 

 available condition. We wished to bring back the attention of 

 agricidturists to the soil — the great storehouse of supply for the 

 vegetable kingdom, or the medium through which the carbon 

 must pass in order to gain access to the secretory organs of plants. 



Dr. Lee has taken exceptions to these views, as we supposed he 

 would. We thank him for his favorable notice of our article and 

 journal, and we certainly have no objections to criticism from 

 him, or any other person. W'e care not where the light comes 

 from, if we can have it: the bed and the bushel were condemned 

 long ago as receptacles for light; therefore, we say, shine forth. 



Dr. L. objects to Dr. Jackson's experiments with crenates of 

 potash and lime, because the benefit may be due to the potash 

 and lime alone. There is no light here, for it may be equally as 

 well that the crenic acid was the element of growth. But the 

 experiment itself shows that it was not exclusively the alkali; 

 the removal of the color showed that. Again, suppose that vine- 

 gar or acetate of potash should not benefit a crop, it would be no 

 proof against crenic, apocrenic acid, or their salts. 



Dr. Lee objects to the Theory of Agriculture on the ground 

 that the combination of the crenates is such that the supply of 

 carbon for wheat or any other crop is impossible. He says, to 

 supply 100 pounds of wheat or corn with carbon at least 250 

 pounds of the crenates must pass through the plant. Well, if we 

 believe in Liebig's theory, how much air must pass through the 

 plant in order to supply it with carbon? Air contains one part 

 of carbonic acid in 2,000. Carbonic acid contains six parts of 

 carbon in 22 of acid. There is no greater probability of excess 

 of alkali in one case than of oxygen in the other. Besides, we 

 did not design to inculcate the doctrine that there is no other 

 source for carbon than the crenates. We know that carbonic 

 acid exists in solution in water in an uncombined state. What 

 we wish to be understood as the true doctrine is, that the food 

 of plants, whatever it may be, is absorbed by the roots mostly, 

 and that the soil is its storehouse; that this is eminently the 

 case with our cereals we believe — else why say so much about 

 exhaustion by crops 1 — and it is now known that it is not enough 

 to supply alkalies, or the inorganic matters; there must be 

 present also, those bodies which contain carbon in some form. 

 Liebig himself, we believe, has abandoned the notion that it is 

 sufficient to supply the inorganic matter. Practice and experi- 



