AND HORTICULTUUAL REGISTER. 



^ 



POBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (AoaicuLToaAL Wabehoube.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL.. XIX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 19, 1841. 



[NO. 46. 



N. E. FARMER 



LIEBIG'S ORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF AGRI- 

 CULTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



The British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, requested Dr. Justus Liebig-, of Giessen, 

 to prepare a report upon the state of Organic Chem- 

 istry ; and his report furnished Sept. I, J840, con- 

 stitutes the body of tlie work named at the liead of 

 this article. Prof. Webster, of Cambridge, under 

 whose superintendance an American edition has 

 just been issued, prefixes an introduction, compri- 

 sing definitions of chemical terms, and appends 

 some opinions held by Dr. S. L. Dana, of LoH-eJl, 

 and Dr, C. T.Jackson, of this city. Our Massa- 

 chusetts chemists here named, both of whom pos- 

 sess and deserve the confidence of our community, 

 as sagacious and expert analysts and reasoners, 

 are not ready to endorse all the opinions of their 

 ■ transatlantic co-laborer; nor do they harmonize 

 , entirely with each other in opinion. This disa. 

 ' greement among doctors, while it shows their praise- 

 y worthy independence and freedom in scientific re- 

 ! searches, tells us tiiat there are important matters 

 in agricultural chemistry yet undiscovered, or if 

 ' discovered, yet unproved to the satisfaction of the 

 scientific generally. This fact, while it properly 

 renders the practical man cautious in adopting any 

 : new principles advocated in the laboratory, should 

 not deter our intelligent farmers from making 

 themselves acquainted with the opinions entertain- 

 ed by men of profound scientific research. 



The work which has just made its appearance 

 among us in such form as to be obtainable by all 

 who may desire to know its contents, will receive 

 much attention. The novelty and boldness of Lie- 

 big's views, give to the work an uncommon charm. 

 But if we call it romance, it is the romance of sci- 

 ence and logic. The book must bo read with at- 

 tention and study to be understood by common 

 minds ; and yet the greater portion of our reading 

 and reflecting common farmers are capable of un- 

 derstanding the important portions of the work. 



One leading view advanced with peculiar dis- 

 tinctness in the volume, exhibits a striking mani- 

 festation of the wonderful economy of Providence, 

 in furnishing a supply of nourishment for the vege- 

 table and animal creation. Plants are nourished, 

 as Liebig maintains, mainly by carbonic acid ; and 

 their supply of carbon conies from the atmosphere. 

 Animals by the process of breathing and by their 

 decay, arc constantly filling the air with this acid. 

 The vegetable world uses up the impure gas which 

 tlie animal is generating every moment. We and 

 the animals feed the plants. They in turn give 

 food to brutes and to men. And their contribu- 

 tions to our necessities are not made solely in the 

 way of furnishing articles of food — but in their 

 processes of taking up carbon from the atmosphere, 

 they give out large quantities of pure oxygen for 

 us to breathe. We unconsciously fit the air for 

 tlieir use, and they fit it for ours. This view is so 

 beautiful and interesting that one is predisposed to 

 hope that it may prove correct. To a very conside- 



rable extent it is undoubtedly sound; but whether 

 the author has not carried it too far, time and more 

 extensive observation must determine. 



In future numbers we shall extract from this 

 treatise, probably appending our opinion of the 

 correctness or inaccuracy of his leading positions. 

 At present, we only quote the paragraphs contain- 

 ing the view above presented. — Ed. 



"In attempting to explain the origin of carbon 

 in plants, it has never been considered that the 

 question is intimately connected with that of the 

 origin of humus. It is universally admitted that 

 humus arises from the decay of plants. No primi- 

 tive humus, therefore, can have existed; for plants 

 must have preceded the humus. 



" Now, whence did the first vegetables derive 

 their carbon ? and in what form is the carbon con- 

 tained in the atmosphere? 



"These two questions involve the consideration 

 of two most remarkable natural phenomena, which 

 by their reciprocal and uninterrupted influence, 

 maintain the life of the individual animals and veg- 

 etables, and the continued existence of both king- 

 doms of organic nature. 



" One of these questions is connected with the 

 invariable condition of the air with respect to oxy- 

 gen. One hundred volumes of air have been 

 found, at every period and in every climate, to con- 

 tain twentyone volumes of oxygen, with such small 

 deviations, that they must be ascribed to errors of 

 observation. 



" Althimgh the absolute quantity of oxygen con- 

 tained in the atmosphere appears very great when 

 represented by numbers, yet it is not inexhaustible. 

 One man consumes by respiration 45 Hessian cu- 

 bic feet of oxygen in 24 hours ; 10 centners of 

 charcoal consume .58,112 cubic feet of oxygen dur. 

 ing its combustion ; and a small town like Giessen 

 (with about 7000 inhabitants,) extracts yearly from 

 the air, by the wood employed as fuel, more than 

 1000 millions of cubic feet of this gas. 



"When we consider facts such as these, our for- 

 mer statement, that the quantity of oxygen in the 

 atmosphere does not diminish in the course of ages 

 — that the air at the present day, for example, does 

 not contain less oxygen than that (ound in jars 

 buried for 1800 years in Pompeii — appears quite 

 incomprehensible, unless some source exists whence 

 the oxygen extracted is replaced. How does it 

 happen, then, that the proportion of oxygen in the 

 atmosphere is thus invariable .' 



"The answer to this question depends upon 

 another; namely, what becomes of the carbonic 

 acid, which is produced during the respiration of 

 animals, and by the process of combustion ? A 

 cubic foot of oxygen gas, by uniting with carbon so 

 as to form carbonic acid, does not change its vol- 

 ume. The billions of cubic feet of oxygen ex- 

 tracted from the atmosphere, produce the same 

 number of billions of cubic feet of carbonic acid, 

 which immediately supply its place. 



"The most exact and most recent experiments 

 of De Saussure, made in every season, for a space 

 of three years, have shown, that the air contains on 



an average 0.00041.5 of its own volume of carbonic 

 acid gas; so that, allowing for the inaccuracies ol 

 the experiments, which must diminish the quantity 

 obtained, the proportion of carbonic acid in the 

 atmosphere may be regarded as nearly equal to 

 1-1000 part or its weight. The quantity varies ac- 

 cording to the seasons; but the yearly average re- 

 mains continually the same. 



" We have no reason to believe that this pro- 

 portion was less in past ages ; and nevertheless, 

 the immense masses of carbonic acid, which annu- 

 ally flow into the atmosphere from so many causes, 

 ought perceptibly to increase its quantity from year 

 to year. But we find, that all earlier observers 

 describe its volume as frorii one half to ten times 

 greater than that which it has at the present time ; 

 so that we can hence at most conclude, that it has 

 diminished. 



It is quite evident that the quantities of carbonic 

 acid and oxygen in the atmosphere, which remain 

 unchanged by lapse of time, must stand in some 

 fixed relation to one another; a cause must exist 

 which prevents the increase of carbonic acid, by 

 removing that which is constantly forming ; and 

 there must be some means of replacing the oxygen, 

 which is removed from the air by the processes of 

 combustion and putrefaction, as well as by the res- 

 piration of animals. 



" Both these causes are united in the process of 

 vegetable life. 



"The facts which wo have stated in the prece- 

 ding pages prove, that the carbon of plants must be 

 derived exclusively from the atmosphere. Now, 

 carbon exists in the atmosphere only in the form of 

 carbonic acid ; and, therefore in a state of combi- 

 nation with oxygen." 



[From 'Transactions of the Essex Agricultural Society.'] 



ON THE DAIRY. 



The Committee on the Dairy are happv to re 

 port : 



That the dairy women of the county have done 

 more to enrich our show the present season than 

 on former years. There were ten regular entries 

 for premiums on butter, and several pjircels were 

 found not entered. The quality of the butter gen- 

 erally, was quite good ; much of it was superior. 

 The committee have had not an unpleasant, but a 

 difficult labor to decide who are best entitled to 

 premiums. Between the June butter offered by 

 Dean Robinson, of Newbury, and that by Daniel 

 Putnam, of Danvers, there was little if any diffe- 

 rence ; but the committee decided, after awarding 

 the September premiums, to recommend that your 

 first premium, of eight dollars, be awarded to Dean 

 Robinson, of West Newbury ; the second, of six 

 dollars, to Daniel Putnam, of Danvers ; the third, 

 of four dollars, to Jesse Putnam, of Danvers. A 

 firkin of June butter offered by William R. Put- 

 nam, of Wenham, was very good, and inferior by 

 very little to that which is recommended for the 

 third premium. There were also, specimens of 



