1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER- 



553 



ADVANTAGES OF EDUCATION TO 

 FARMERS. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH, OF EXETER, N. H. 



Soil Analyses — Danger to True Science from False Teachers — 

 Analysis a Nice and DiiBcult Process — Superphosphate of Lime 

 — Affection of Elementary Substances, and their Marriage- 

 No Accounting for Tastes, either in Men or the Elements. 



The subject of soil analyses].?, extremely inter- 

 esting to the farmer. It is so simple and easy, 

 just to be told of what plants are made — to be 

 supplied with the necessary materials which one's 

 land does not contain, and these ideas are so much 

 more satisfactory than the mystery which former- 

 ly hung around all the processes of vegetation, 

 that it is not strange, that even the cultivators 

 of the earth, the last class, usually, to be carried 

 away by new plans of advancement in their vo- 

 cation, should be induced to over-estimate the 

 pi-actical advantages of analyzing soils. 



There i« danger to true science, when men have 

 been imposed upon by false teachers. An erro- 

 neous idea prevails, that it is a very simple and 

 easy process to analyze soils. Many seem to 

 suppose that any farmer who can make an axe- 

 handle, may sit in the chimney corner, and with 

 a laboratory, consisting of a frying-pan and two 

 or three old blacking bottles, may analyze a spec- 

 imen of his soil, while his wife is cooking his 

 breakfast, and having thus ascertained what ele- 

 ment is missing to make up his crop, may go out 

 with his waistcoat pocket full of some patent fer- 

 tilizer, and administer it in homneopathic doses 

 to his sickly plants, and so dispense with the old- 

 fashioned manures. 



A little examination will satisfy us that the ut- 

 most patience and care, with the use of accurate 

 and expensive apparatus — that the nicest skill, 

 and long experience, with profound scientific 

 knowledge of the principles of chemistry, are es- 

 sential to any valuable results in soil analyses. 



A single example will illustrate this part of 

 our subject. If Ave burn 100 lbs. of wheat to 

 ashes, in an open vessel, we have left two pounds 

 of ashes, of which one pound is phosphoric acid. 

 A crop of wheat 30 bus. to the acre, weighing 

 60 lbs. to the bushel, or 1800 lbs. in all, would 

 contain but 18 lbs. of phosphoric acid. This is 

 all that the grain takes from the soil. 



Now, we estimate that an inch of soil over an 

 acre, weighs about 100 tons. The roots of the 

 wheat would extend downwards ten inches at 

 least, so that they would occupy 1000 tons of 

 soil, and from thi's 1000 tons of soil they take 

 the IS lbs. of phosphoric acid. If we can form 

 any idea of the proportion which IS lbs. bears to 

 1000 tons, or 2,000,000 lbs., we can give some 

 istimate of the nicety required to ascertain wheth- 

 «r the elements essential to our crops, exist in 

 the soil. The following remarks from a recent 

 jublication, present another view of the subject, 

 equally striking : 



"We know that on all poor lands, of proper 

 texture, the application of 200 lbs. of guano to 

 the acre will produce fair crops of grain and roots, 

 and this is the difference between a barren and 

 tolerably fertile soil. Now, this guano supplies 

 only G lbs. of potash, 24 lbs. of phosphoric acid 

 and 34 lbs. of ammonia. But the acre contains 

 3,920,000 lbs. of soil, to the depth of a foot. 



Can analysis ascertain one part of potash in 

 600,000 , parts of foreign matter, or one part of 



phosphoric acid in 150,000 parts, or one part of 

 ammonia in 100,000 parts?" 



Practical chemists are divided upon the ques- 

 tion, whether the present power of chemical anal- 

 ysis can reach to so critical examinations as this. 

 When we add, on the authority of Prof. Norton, 

 that from 10 to 15 days of patient, constant toil, 

 are required for a single analysis, and that from 

 two to five years of practice even by an educated 

 chemist, in a suitable laboratory, are requisite to 

 give the necessary tact and skill for the process, 

 we may at least conclude, what I proposed to 

 show on this subject, that an uneducated man, so 

 far from being capable of performing analyses 

 of soils for himself, is not capable even of pro- 

 tecting himself from the grossest imposition by 

 those who pretend, for a few of his dollars, to 

 give him accurate knowledge on these points. 



The study of Agricultural Chemistry, aside 

 from the refinements to which we have alluded, 

 is one of deep interest to every cultivator of the 

 earth. It brings into constant practical use, 

 some of the most curious and mysterious laws of 

 nature, laws which were known to the alchemists 

 of older times, who sought for the philosopher's 

 stone, which should change base metals to gold, 

 renew youth to the aged, and heal every disease 

 — but which have waited for a generation that 

 has chained the shrieking steam giant to its 

 chariot, and bade the lightning carry its messa- 

 ges, — to bring them into useful service for man-- 

 kind. 



Of this kind, are the qualities of bodies known- 

 as the laws of chemical affinities, of chemical com- 

 binations, and the solubility and insolubility of 

 bodies. All these laws are rendered available in 

 daily practice in the manufacture of the new 

 fertilizer known as Si(perphosphate of Lime. 



Everybody who reads a newspaper, especially 

 if it be an agricultural paper, is constantly re- 

 minded of superphosphate of lime. Even the 

 Russia Salve and the Magical I'ain Extractor 

 are scarcely thrust upon our notice more perti- 

 naciously. 



That the true Superphosphate of Lime is a 

 valuable manure — a most powerful fertilizer for 

 many soils, is manifest to all who know its com- 

 position. That the community is in great danger 

 of gross imposition in the sale of spurious arti- 

 cles, under this name, is equally plain. 



W^hether even the true Superphosphate will 

 prove to be cheap enough to warrant its general 

 use, is yet uncertain. 



But my purpose was to describe briefly tbe^ 

 process of making this famous article, to illus- 

 trate how science makes every law of nature use- 

 ful to mankind. 



Chemical combinations take place only in fixed 

 proportions to suit her taste, and, before the 

 temperance times a gentleman could mingle his. 

 brandy and water as he pleased, subject to any 

 quantity of logwood and other nourishing ingre- 

 dients added by the manufacturer ; bwt chemical 

 combinations are not thus managed. 



For instance : Phosphoric acid and lime will 

 combine in two proportions only, and these are 

 — two atoms of phosphoric acid to two of lime,, 

 which make Phosphate of Lime, and secondly,, 

 three atoms of phosphoric acid to one of lime,, 

 which make Superphosphate of Lime. 



Phosphate of Lime is not readily soluble iiX: 



