ALKALI. 



ALKALI. 



" The woodcutters in the vicinity of Heidel- 

 berg have the privilege of cultivating the soil 

 for their own use, after felling the trees used 

 for making tan. Before sowing the land thus 

 obtained, the branches, roots, and leaves are 

 in every case burned, and the ashes used as a 

 manure, which is found to be quite indispen- 

 sable for the growth of the grain. The soil 

 itself, upon which the oats grow in this dis- 

 trict, consists of sandstone ; and although the 

 trees find in it a quantity of alkaline earths 

 sufficient for their own sustenance, yet in its 

 ordinary condition it is incapable of producing 

 grain. 



"The most decisive proof of the use of strong 

 manure was obtained at Bingen (a town on 

 the Rhine), where the produce and develope- 

 ment of vines were highly increased by ma- 

 nuring them with such substances as shavings 

 of horn, &c., but after some years the forma- 

 tion of the wood and leaves decreased to the 

 great loss of the possessor, to such a degree, 

 that he has long had cause to regret his de- 

 parture from the usual methods. By the ma- 

 nure employed by him, the vines had been too 

 much hastened in their growth; in two or 

 three years they had exhausted the potash in 

 the formation of their fruit, leaves, and wood, 

 so that none remained for the future crops, his 

 manure not having contained any potash. 



"There are vineyards on the Rhine, the 

 plants of which are above a hundred years old, 

 and all of these have been cultivated by ma- 

 nuring them with cow-dung, a manure con- 

 taining a large proportion of potash, although 

 very little nitrogen. All the potash, in fact, 

 which is contained in the food consumed by a 

 cow is again immediately discharged in its 

 excrements. 



"The experience of a proprietor of land in 

 the vicinity of Gottingen offers a most remark- 

 able example of the incapability of a soil to 

 produce wheat or grasses in general, when it 

 fails in any one of the materials necessary to 

 their growth. In order to obtain potash, he 

 planted his whole land with wormwood, the 

 ashes of which are well known to contain a 

 large proportion of the carbonate of that alkali. 

 The consequence was, that he rendered his 

 'land quite incapable of bearing grain for many 

 years, in consequence of having entirely 

 deprived the soil of its potash. 



"The leaves and small branches of trees 

 contain the most potash ; and the quantity of 

 them which is annually taken from the wood, 

 for the purpose of being employed as litter, 

 contain more of that alkali than all the old 

 wood which is cut down. The bark and foli- 

 age of oaks, for example, contain from 6 to 

 9-per cent of^this alkali; the needles of firs 

 and pines 8 per cent. 



" With every 2650 Ibs. of fir-wood, which 

 are yearly removed from an acre of forest, 

 only from 0-114 to 0-53 Ibs. of alkalies are 

 ? Vtracted from the soil, calculating the ashes 

 a '0-83 per cent. The moss, however, which 

 covers the ground, and of which the ashes are 

 known to contain so much alkali, continues 

 uninterrupted in its growth, and retains that 

 potash on the surface, which would otherwise 

 so easily penetrate with the rain through the 

 64 



I sandy soil. By its decay, an abundant provi- 

 sion of alkalies is supplied to the roots of the 

 I trees, and a fresh supply is rendered unneces- 

 sary. 



" The supposition of alkalies, metallic oxides, 

 or inorganic matter in general, being produced 

 by plants, is entirely refuted by these well- 

 authenticated facts. 



" It is thought very remarkable, that those 

 plants of the grass tribe, the seeds of which 

 furnish food for man, follow him like the do- 

 mestic animals. But saline plants seek the 

 sea-shore or saline springs, and the Chenopo- 

 dium* the dunghill from similar causes. Sa- 

 line plants require common salt, and the plants 

 which grow only on dunghills, need ammonia 

 and nitrates, and they are attracted whither 

 these can be found, just as the dung-fly is to 

 animal excrements. So likewise none of our 

 corn-plants can bear perfect seeds, that is, 

 seeds yielding flour, without a large supply of 

 phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, sub- 

 stances which they require for their maturity. 

 And hence, these plants grow only in a soil 

 where these three constituents are found com- 

 bined, and no soil is richer in them, than those 

 where men and animals dwell together ; where 

 the urine and excrements of these are found 

 corn-plants appear, because their seeds cannot 

 attain maturity unless supplied with the con- 

 stituents of those matters. 



"When we find sea-plants near our salt- 

 works, several hundred miles distant from the 

 sea, we know that their seeds have been car- 

 ried there in a very natural manner, namely, 

 by wind or birds, which have spread them 

 over the whole surface of the earth, although 

 they grow only in those places in which they 

 find the conditions essential to their life. 



"The first colonists of Virginia found a 

 country, the soil of which was similar to that 

 mentioned above ; harvests of wheat and 

 tobacco were obtained for a century from one 

 and the same field without the aid of manure, 

 but now whole districts are converted into un- 

 fruitful pasture land, which without manure 

 produces neither wheat nor tobacco. From 

 every acre of this land, there were removed in 

 the space of one hundred years 1,200 Ibs. of 

 alkalies in leaves, grain, and straw; it became 

 unfruitful, therefore, because it was deprived 

 of every particle of alkali, which had been 

 reduced to a soluble state, and because that 

 which was rendered soluble again in the 

 space of one year, was not sufficient to satisfy 

 the demands of the plants. Almost all the cul- 

 tivated land in Europe is in this condition; 

 fallow is the term applied to land left at rest 

 for further disintegration. It is the greatest 

 possible mistake to suppose that the temporary 

 diminution of fertility in a soil is owing to the 

 loss of humus; it is the mere consequence of 

 the exhaustion of the alkalies. 



" Let us consider the condition of the country 

 around Naples, which is famed for its fruitful 

 corn-land ; the farms and villages are situated 

 from eighteen to twenty-four miles distant from 

 one another, and between them there are no 



* Ckenopodinm album, called in the United Statei 

 Lamb's Quarter, a troublesome weed about gardens and 

 bouses. 



