68 



following result : 100 grains of rice left, after 

 combustion, 1^ grain of ashes, which consisted of 52 

 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 19 of potash, 6 of soda, 

 5 of magnesia, 7 of lime, the rest being silica and 

 a little oxide of iron. From this analysis we find 

 that in 1,000 Ibs. of rice there are present nearly 

 8 Ibs. of phosphoric acid ; and supposing that 

 the average annual yield of an acre cultivated 

 for the last 2,000 years has been at the rate of 

 1,500 Ibs. of rice (although I am convinced that 

 the same land must have yielded originally nearer 

 3,000 Ibs. per acre, for a good soil in Burmah 

 yields even now this quantity), we have withdrawn 

 not less than 24,000 Ibs. of phosphoric acid alone 

 from an acre in the shape of rice ; and what resto- 

 ration has been made up to this time ? What 

 has become of the grain ? and what has become 

 of its ashes, of its phosphoric acid ? The grain 

 has served as food for mankind ; and its ashes, 

 its phosphoric acid, which we find in the refuse and 

 in the bones of man and beast, have been recklessly 

 wasted an irrecoverable loss to the commonwealth 

 of India, which, if continued, must assuredly 

 and inevitably lead to the eventual sterility of 

 the soil. 



The richest soil of the Deccan contains at 

 present only Ib. of phosphoric acid in every 

 100 Ibs. of soil ; the withdrawal, therefore, of 

 24,000 Ibs. of this important plant-food from one 



