ANALYSIS. 



ANALYSIS. 



and phosphoric acids. Hence, these will be 

 found constituents of all soils. The phosphates 

 have been overlooked from the known diffi- 

 culty of detecting phosphoric acid. Phosphate 

 of lime is so easily soluble when combined 

 with mucilage or gelatine, that it is among the 

 first principles of soils exhausted. Doubtless 

 the good effects, the lasting effects, of bone 

 manure, depend more on the phosphate of 

 lime, than on its animal portion. Though the 

 same plants growing in different soils are 

 found to yield variable quantities of the salts 

 and earthy compounds ; yet I believe, that ac- 

 curate analysis will show, that similar parts of 

 the same species, at the same age, always 

 contain the inorganic principles above named, 

 when grown in soils arising from the natural 

 sition of granite rocks. These inor- 

 panir substances will be found not only in 

 constant quantity, but always in definite pro- 

 portion to the vegetable portion of each plant. 

 The effect of cultivation may depend, there- 

 fore, much more on the intronm-tion of salts 

 than has been generally supposed. The salts 

 introduce new breeds. So long as the salts 

 and earths exist in the soil, so long will they 

 form voltaic batteries with the roots of grow- 

 ing plants; by whirh, the 'granitic sanii ' is 

 decomposed and the nascent earths, in this 

 state i< -Sle, are taken up by the ab- 



sorbents of "the ro.,fs, always a living, never a 

 mechanical operation. Hence, so Ion 

 soil is granitic, using the term as ahove defined, 

 so long is it as good as on the day of its depo- 

 sition ; suits and geine may vary, and must be 

 modified by cultivation. The universal diffu- 

 sion of granitic diluvium will ahvav 

 enough of the earthy ingredients. The t't-rti!-- 

 character of soils, I presume, will not be found 

 dependent on any particular rock formation 

 on which it reposes. Modified they may be, to 

 a certain extent, by peculiar formations ; but 

 all our grantic rocks afford, when dec* : 

 all those inorganic principles which plants 

 demand. This is so true, that on this point 

 the farmer already knows all that chemistry 

 can teach him. Clay and sand, every one 

 knows : a soil too sandy, too clayey, may be 

 d by mixture, but the best possible 

 mixture does not give fertility. That depends 

 on salts and geine. If these views are correct, 

 the few properties of geine which I have men- 

 tioned, will lead us at once to a simple and 

 accurate mode of analyzing soils, a mode, 

 which determines at once the value of a soil, 

 from its quantity of soluble and insoluble 

 vegetable nutriment, a mode, requiring no 

 array of apparatus, nor delicate experimental 

 tact, one, which the country gentleman may 

 apply with very great accuracy; and, with a 

 little modification, perfectly within the reach 

 of any man who can drive a team or hold a 

 plough."] 



A:\ALYSIS OF VEGETABLES. The pro- 

 cess or means by which such bodies are re- 

 solved into their constituent or elementary 

 principles. (See CUEMISTHT, or VEGETABLE 

 CHKMISTHT.) 



CONCENTRATED FERTILIZERS have of 

 late years come into almost universal use among 

 farmers in Europe and the United States, and 



have contributed to resuscitate worn-out farma 

 and double and quadruple the products of land 

 in many impoverished neighbourhoods to which 

 more bulky manures could not formerly be 

 transported at a reasonable rate. Hence it be- 

 comes of the highest importance to the agri- 

 cultural interests that farmers should have 

 some means of ascertaining their composition 

 and estimating their commercial value, and 

 this can only be accurately determined through 

 analysis. 



The chief substances classed as artificial 

 manures have been most ably examined by 

 Professor Samuel W. Johnson, Agricultural 

 Chemist in Yale College, from whose published 

 Essays we take the following estimates of their 

 respective values in their different forms and 

 conditions. 



Comparative commercial value of manures. 



The commercial value of a manure may be 

 quite independent of its real agricultural value, 

 though it usually depends considerably on its 

 reputed agricultural value. The scarcity of a 

 substance, the cost of preparation and trans- 

 portation, the demand for it on account of other 

 than agricultural uses all these considera- 

 tions of course influence its price. It is com- 

 mercially worth what the dealer can get for 

 it, BO much per bushel or ton. 



Valuation <,f m-inures. What substances are to 

 be retarded as commercially important in costly 

 manures. 



In any fertilizer which is sold as high or 

 higher than half a cent a pound, there are 

 but three ingredients that deserve to be taken 

 account of in estimating its value. These are 

 ammonia, phosphoric acid, and potash. Every 

 thing else that has a fertilizing value may be 

 more cheaply obtained under its proper name. 

 If the farmer needs sulphuric acid, he pur- 

 chases gypsum : if he needs soda, common 

 salt supplies him. Everything but these three 

 substances may be procured so cheaply, that 

 the farmer is cheated if he pays ten dollars 

 per ton for a manure, unless it contains or 

 yields one or all of these three substances in 

 considerable proportion. 



<micul condition of manures. 



Nothing is so important to the rapid and 

 economical action of a manure as its existing 

 in a finely pulverized or divided state. All 

 costly fertilizers ought to exist chiefly as fine, 

 nearly impalpable powders, and the coarser 

 portions, if any, should be capable of passing 

 through a sieve of say eight or ten holes to 

 the linear inch. The same immediate bene- 

 fits are derived from two bushels of bones 

 rendered impalpably fine by treatment with 

 oil of vitriol, ten bushels of bone-dust, and 

 one hundred bushels of whole bones. Fine- 

 ness facilitates distribution, and economizes 

 capital. 



Chemical condition of manures State of solubil- 

 ity, $c. Ammonia, potential and actual Phos- 

 phoric acid, soluble and insoluble. 



The solubility of a manure is a serious 

 question to be considered in its valuation. 

 We are accustomed to speak of ammonia as 

 existing in two states, viz., actual and poten- 

 tial By actual ammonia, we mean ready- 

 formed ammonia ; by potential ammonia, that 



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