30 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Mar. 1845 



and these simple elementary bodies alter they have 

 been organized, to make up the principal bulk and 

 Bvibstance of all plants ami animals. 



When soda, potash, iron, or lime form a part of 

 lean meat, skin, or of any animal or vegetable tis- 

 sue, they are as much organized or organic bodies as 

 the carbon, water, or nitrogen which enter into the 

 composition of the same tissues. Unorganized ox- 

 ygen and hydrogen united in the form of water, are 

 quite as much mineral matter as the chlorine and so- 

 dium which may be dissolved in such water. 



All the elementary substances required by nature 

 to form a perfect plant, exist in a crude, unorganized 

 etate, and are then alike inorganic bodies. So, too, 

 when nature combines these inorganic bodies into an 

 organized being, whether vegetable or animal, they 

 are all alike organized substances. Fermenta- 

 tion, respiration, rotting, and combustion, disorgan- 

 ize the compounds of carbon, oxygen, h}'drogen, and 

 nitrogen, quite as much as those of soda, potash, al- 

 umina, and eilex. 



Plants alone, while acted on by a due degree of 

 heal, light, and moisture, have the power to reorgan- 

 ize crude mineral matter, whether drawn from the 

 earth or atmosphere. Decompose any organic sub- 

 stance, whether animal or vegetable, into its simple 

 chemical compounds, like water, carbonic acid, and 

 ammonia, and no animal can live on, or reorganize 

 its living tissues from these inorganic bodies. 



The foundation of all rational agriculture rests on 

 a knowledge of the constituents of cultivated plants, 

 and on a knowledge of the circumstances necessary 

 to enable seeds, buds, and roots to multiply them- 

 selves to the largest extent at the least cost in labor 

 and in land. To obtain this information, every farm- 

 er should study the science, as well as practice the 

 art of his noble calling. 



As a means of disseminating this invaluable scien- 

 tific knowledge, we commend the Quarterly Journal 

 of Agriculture to the favor of the agricultural com- 

 munity. Price $3 per annum. 



FOOD OF PLANTS, 



From the Maine Cultivator—^^ We have been very 

 much interested in reading an address, delivered by 

 Dr. Lee, of BnfFalo, before the Monroe County Ag. 

 ricultural Society. He there asserts that plants — a 

 field of wheat for instance — obtain 97 per cent, of 

 their food, and consequently 97 per cent, of the 

 amount of the produce is derived from the atmosphere 

 and but 3 per cent, only obtained from the soil. 

 How this fact is ascertained, or how it may be de- 

 monstrated, does not appear." 



The editor of the Cultivator has mistaken the 

 meaning of our remarks upon the above subject. The 

 paragraph to which he alludes is in these words : 



" I regard it as one of the greatest discoveries of 

 the age, that ahout 97 per cent, of the ingredients 

 which make up the whole substance of wheat, rye, 

 corn, barley, oats, peas, and beans exist in the air in 

 inexhaustible quantities. To transmute these aeri- 

 form bodies into the plants above named, and into 

 grass and roots, at the smallest expense, is the object 

 of nearly all your hard work." 



If 100 lbs. of wheat straw be burnt in the open 

 air, it will leave only 3 J lbs. of ash, or earthy mat- 

 ter ; the balance, 96| per cent., will be dissipated 

 through the atmosphere in the form of vapor, car- 

 bonic acid, and free nitrogen. If 100 lbs. of wheat 

 be burnt in the same way, there will remain only 



1 8-10 lbs. cf ash. Now, as 200 lbs of straw, in a 

 good crop, will contain 100 lbs. of wheat, it follows 

 that 300 lbs. of ripe wheat plants, dnj, will yield 

 8 8-10 lbs. of earthy matter, lacking only 2-lOthsof 

 1 per cent, in 300 lbs. of being precisely 3 per cent, 

 of earthy matter. 



In what way does the 97 per cent, of our cultiva- 

 ted plants get back from the air into cur growing 

 crops ? 



When plants rot on the surface of the earth, either 

 with or without passing through the digestive or- 

 gans of animals, the nitrogen which t5iey contain 

 passes into the air in the form ef ammonia, cr tf a 

 carbonate of that volatile alkali. The carbonate of 

 ammonia, ammonia and carbonic aci.!, pre all very 

 soluble in water. The dews, rainr, anj sn( ws b:ing 

 this aeriform food of vegetables down to t'le eaith, 

 and convey it, still held in solution, '"nt » the rcota 

 and circulation of plants. Vegetable moul ', or car- 

 bonaceous matter in the soil, having an affin'ty for 

 ammonia and carbonic acid, retains these vchtile el- 

 ements around the roots of plants, and prevents, in 

 a good degree, their speedy evaporation by the heat 

 of the sun. No solid earthy matter can pcs.-ibly 

 nourish any plant unless it be dissolved in ualer, so 

 that it can enter their roots ; or be in the form of 

 gas or vapor, so that it can enter their leaves. 



In answer to the question, ''How much of a field 

 of wheat or corn comes from the air ] and how 

 much from the soil ?" the author says — 



"I am not prepared to speak very confidently at 

 present in the matter. My impression, however, is 

 that not more than ten per cent, of corn, and twenty 

 per cent of wheat, under the most favorable circum- 

 stances, come from the earth." 



By this is meant, that when the farmer takes 100 

 lbs. of ripe, dry corn from his field, the soil from 

 which it was taken has lost only 10 lbs. of its solid 

 earthy matter ; and in the case of wheat, the soil 

 loses only 20 lbs. of the constituents of that bread- 

 bearing plant. This opinion is founded on many 

 facts, which will be written out in full, and published 

 hereafter. Suffice it to remark at this time, that a 

 good wheat soil need not contain over 5 per cent, of 

 those aeriform bodies— carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, 

 and hydrogen— necessary to form 97 per cent, of 

 a perfect wheat plant. To concede that 17 per cent, 

 of those materials of which the soil contains only 5 

 per cent, come from the decomposition of earthy 

 matter, is an allowance beyond the demand of rea- 

 son, and probably beyond the truth. 



In addition to what nature every where furnishes 

 ready for the use of the practical agriculturist, we 

 are confident that the raw materials necessary to 

 form a bushel of good wheat, in Maine or New York, 

 need not cost to exceed 10 cents. In this state, if 

 we should cast into the middle of the Atlantic every 

 year the raw material ready to coin one million of 

 half-eagles, and save all the elements of wheat, corn, 

 and potatoes now annually wasted, we should be 

 largely the gainers by throwing away gold, rather 

 than human food and raiment. 



No human being, nor any domestic animal, can 

 live without bones ; nor can any of our most valua- 

 ble plants grow to maturity without the presence of 

 phosphorus and lime, the two important elements of 

 bono. Of lime there is no lack in the country ; but 

 of phosphorus the supply is very small, and there are 

 millions of acres of cultivated lands where the crops 

 are greatly injured from the absence of this highly 



