1846. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



15 



The rapidity of the eiTects of phosphate of lime on the growth 

 of plants depends upon its greater or less solubility. Its 

 amounlof glue (gelatine) diminishes this solubility if the 

 soil is rich in vegetable matters, which furnish carbouie 

 acid by tlioir deeomposiiion, and whieh acid is required for 

 rendering the phosphate of lime soluble in water and inlro- 

 ducing it into the organism of the plants. In the calcined 

 state the bones act sufficiently quickly ; but in those soils 

 in which this cause of solubility is wanting, their action is 

 Blower. In my work I had recommended the addition of a 

 certani quantity of sulphuric acid, both in order to render 

 the bones more soluble and to change the neutral phosphate 

 of the bones into gypsmn, and into a phosphate which con- 

 tains more acid (superphosphate of lime.) I have been 

 informed that this advice has been most extensively adopted, 

 that the superphosphate of lime has been found to be a 

 mosf ellicacious manure, and that it forms already a most 

 important article of commerce. A second earthy phosphate, 

 not less important, is the Phosphate of Magnesia, which it 

 is well known enters in a still larger proj-.ortion than the 

 ■phosphate of lime into the composition of the grain. 



The Alkaline Phosphates, although not originally found in 

 nature, are important elements of the seeds of grain, of 

 peas, beans, &c. A rational farmer must provide them in 

 sufficient quantities to those plants which require them for 

 their dcvelopemenl, from knowing that human excrements 

 increase the produce in grain in a far greater proportion be- 

 cause they rotitain alkaline phosphates, than the animal 

 excrements, in which they do not exist. 



The Alkalies (potash and soda) must be constituents of 

 every rationally composed manure, because by them the 

 original f itile condition of the field is preserved. A soil 

 which contains the alkalies in too small a quantity, is per- 

 haps, fertile for grain ; but is not necessarily so for turnips 

 or potatoes, which require a great quantity of alkali. By 

 supplying an alkaline manure, fallows, or the cultivation of 

 those plants which are grown during the time of fallowing, 

 becomes less necessary. 



Sulphate of Potash is a constituent of all plants, although 

 in smtiil quantity, as well as coinmon salt and chloride of 

 Potassiiiin which are found in milk in rather a large propor- 

 tion. The salts of lime, especially gypsum, are important 

 nourishment for the leguminous plants. Silica is never 

 wanting in all sorts of soils — it is a constituent of all rocks, 

 by the decomposition of which all productive soils are form- 

 ed, and the eercalia find it ev'ery where in sufficient quanti- 

 ty, and in a form capable of being taken up by the plants, 

 if the alkalies tire provided wherever they are present in too 

 small quantity. 



Salts of Ammmiia. — It can be regarded as certain, that the 

 azote of the plants is derived, either from the ammonia of 

 the atmosphere, or from the manure which is provided in 

 the shape of animal fluid and solid excrements, and that 

 azotic compounds exercise an effect on the growth of plants, 

 only in sa far as they give up their azote in the form of 

 ammonia during their decomposition and decay. We may, 

 therefore, profitably replace all the azotic substances with 

 compoimds of ammonia. 



Decaying vegetable matters, which contain carbon, are 

 useful to the fields in so far as they provide a source of car- 

 bonic acid ; but they are not quite indispensable in manure, 

 if the latter be rationally combined, as the atmospheric air 

 is an inexhaustible source of carbonic acid from which the 

 plants draw their carbon, if in the manure, the mineral 

 subs'.ances are provided whieh are necessary for the assimi- 

 lation of the carbonic acid. These are the substances which 

 together give fertility to the soil ; but although each of them 

 may, undtr certain circumstances, (viz., where the soil is 

 defeciive in it, or where it is not indifferent to the plant to 

 take up one instead of the other, as, for instance, may be 

 the case with soda instead of potash,) increase the fertility, 

 no one of them can be regarded as manure, according to the 

 comiTii/n meaning of the word, for the simple reason, that 

 only .?// '>/ them, in certain proportions, will fulfil the pur- 

 pose iln- which the common manure is applied. This pur- 

 pose is the restoration, or an increase of the original fertility, 

 and by manure we must replace all the elements of the 

 plants which have been taken away in harvest, or which 

 are cout:;ined in the plants which we are desirous to culti- 

 vate. 



What, then, are the constituent elements of the soil 

 which we remove by the straw, seeds, tuberculous roots, 

 stalks, &c., of our plants of culture ? It is obvious that 

 we must know these first, in order to restore them in suf- 

 ficient ijuanlities. To this we answer, by giving the ana- 



lysis of the ashe.s of plants and their seeds. Hundred 

 weights of the ashes of the following plants contain 



Straw of Ashes of 



Beann. Peas. Potatoen. CloTer. Hay 



Alkaline Carbonates, 29.38 12.43 4.34 31.63 3.0 



Carbonate of Lime, 39.50 47.81 43.68 41.61 6.9 



Phosphate of Lime, - 6.43 5.15 5.73 lOO 40.8 



Phosphate of Magnesia, 6.66 4.37 7.82 0.91 



Sulphate of Potash or Soda, 12.40 10.15 2.23 8.84 



Magnesia, 21.& 



Chloride of Sodium or Potas- 

 sium, , --.- 0.28 4.63 2.8 2.27 3.0G 



Phosphate of Iron, } jo_7 



Phosphate of Alumina, &c, J 



In tliese analysis Silica has not been taken into account, 

 as it is found in all soils, and need not be supplied. One 

 hundred w eight of the ashes of potatoes, and the seeds of 

 the following plants, contains 



Potatoes. WTieat. Beans ( Vicia faba. ) 

 Alkaline Phosphates, . . _ - ~ 15.75 52.98 68.59 



Phos. of Lime & Magnesia 9.00 38.02 23.46 



Phosphate of Iron, 0.67 



Sulphate of Potash, 15.07 1.84 



Carbonate of PotashttSoda 51.70 



What is wanting in the 100 of the above annalyses is 

 sand, coal, or loss. From these researches it appears, that 

 for stalks and leaves we require other elements than for 

 seeds. The former contain no alkaline phosphates, but 

 they require for their development and growth a rich sup- 

 ply of alkaline carbonates and sulphates. On the other 

 hand the carbonates are entirely wanting in the seeds, but 

 tlie latter are very rich in phosphates. It is sufficiently ob- 

 vious that a rational farmer must supply both, as well as all 

 the others. If he sujjplies only phosphates, and does not 

 restore the alkaline carbonates^ his soil will become gradu- 

 ally barren — it will be exhausted in those necessary ele- 

 ments for the development of stalks and seeds, without 

 which no formation of seed can be expected. If he sup- 

 plies the alkalies, lime, and sulphates alone, in a given 

 time he will get no more grain. All constituent elements 

 of the manure, if they are supplied alone, have that great 

 defect, that by them the soil is impoverished in other equal- 

 ly important elements. No one of itself can maintain the 

 fertility. Keeping this in view-, we may easily judge of the 

 comparative value of artificial and natural manures, and all 

 the various arcana whicli have been praised as panaceas for 

 exhausted soils. 



It is not loss easy to understand why the farmers have 

 such different opinions on the relative value of the constiu- 

 ents of manures — why one whose farm is rich in phosphates, 

 produces an uncommon fertilit.\M}y the application of nitrate 

 of soda, or the supply of alkalies, while another does not 

 see any favorable effect at all— why bones (phosphates of 

 lime) produce in many fields wonders, and are not of the 

 slightest benefit to others, which are deficient in alkaliea 

 or alkaline salts. From the composition of animal manures, 

 it results with certainty, that by applying the latter, (solid 

 and fluid excrements of men and animals) we supply to the 

 soil not one but all the elements which have been taken 

 away in the harvest. Fertility is perfectly restored to the 

 fieldby a con-esponding supply of this manure, and it may 

 be increased by it to a certain limit. This will be the more 

 intelligible, if we compare the mineral elements of the urine 

 of horses and cattle with the mineral elements of herbs, 

 straw, roots, &c.. of our cultivated plants. It will be found 

 that in their quality they are perfectly identical. 



Urine of a Horse. Of Another. Of Oxen. 

 Carbonate of Lime,... _ 12..50 31.00 1.07 



" of Magnesia, 9.46 13.07 6.93 



;: "!: p°r^^- f^'-!i:' ? 40.33 77.28 



" of Soda, 10.33 \ 



Sulphate of Potash,---. 13.04 9.02 13.30 



Chloride of Sodium, . . . 0.-55 0.30 



Tliese salts in the urine of horses amount to nearly 4 per 

 cent. ; in that of oxen to 2.J per cent, of their weights. If 

 we compare the composition of these different sorts of urine 

 with the (Hjinposition of the straw of peas, beans, and po- 

 tatoes, of clover and hay, it will at once be obvious, that in 

 stable dWng we replace by the urine, the alkaline carbonates 

 which we have removed in harvest. What in tins urine, is 

 wanting in phosphates and carbonate of lime and phosphate 

 of magnesia, forms ih(! principal constituent elements of tha 

 solid excrements of animals ; both togHher (solid excrements 

 and urine) restore llie field to its original composition, and 

 thus a new generation of cultivated plants meet with the 



