



— BMP— ■!!■■! IF lllllltbllli 1 III H M 



Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. X. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — MAY, 1849. 



NO. 5. 



farm tjnsbanuru. * 



PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION OP MOLD IN SOILS. 



Few subjects are more interesting than the natural 

 laws which govern the production and consumption 

 of organic matter in soils. By the terms "organic 

 matter" the unlearned reader will understand a 

 stance, which was once a part of some living vegeta- 

 ble or animal, and was organized by vitality. 



On all lands covered with forests or other growing 

 vegetation, the production and consumption of mold 

 are constantly in progress. When production ex- 

 ceeds consumption there is of course an increase of 

 vegetable matter on the surface of the earth. On 

 the other hand, if from any cause the decomposition 

 of mold is larger than the additions to it, a diminu- 

 tion of the amount of organic matter ensues. 



The quality and agricultural value of mold depend 

 mainly on the character of the plants by the decay 

 of which it has been formed; and by the length of 

 time which the vegetable debris has been washed and 

 leached by rains, since the vegetables ceased to live. 

 Plants and forest leaves that abound in azote or nitro- 

 gen, in sulphur, phosphorus, lime, potash, soda, mag- 

 nesia and chlorine, yield a far richer mold than such 

 as contain very little of the elementary bodies named. 

 One hundred pounds of wheat, oats, corn, peas, 

 beans, clover, and cabbage, will produce in rotting, 

 better mold for all agricultural purposes, than a like 

 weight of pine wood, rye straw, or other vegetable 

 substance which is poor in bread and meat-forming 

 elements. Common wood and all plants lose a por- 

 tion of their earthy salts, (which appear as ashes 

 when they are burnt) if long soaked in water. Old 

 and long weathered cornstalks, grass and straw will 

 have parted with more or less of their fertilizing 

 atoms by protracted exposure. Hence, after plants 

 cease to live and begin to decompose, the sooner they 

 are plowed in, and mingle with the earth, the less 

 they lose, and the more valuable they are to enrich 

 the soil. The process of disorganization ia^governod 

 by chemical laws as certain and uniform, as those 

 which regulate the re-organization of the same or 

 similar atoms, in developing the germs of a new gen- 

 eration of vegetable existences. 



The elements of wate •, oxygen and hydrogen, 

 which exist in all plants, separate and pass off faster 

 in mold than carbon and azote. It is carbon, or the 

 great element of coal and lamp-black, that renders 



muck and mold darker colored than were the vegcta- 

 before they began to undergo any chemical 

 change. I I and moisture hasten the decom- 



position of all vegetable and animal tissues, and the 

 consumption of their remains or mold on the surface 

 of the earth. The same natural agen ■; fa- 



vor the growth of plants, and the re-organization of 

 mineral matter to sen imals. The 



tillage and cropping of the husbandman, being pure- 

 ly artificial operations, are extremely liable to de- 

 stroy the balance in organic nature, to the injury of 

 the soil. 



Tillage greatly promotes the decay of organic ele- 

 ments in soils, and the solution Gf the before nearly 

 insoluble salts of silica, lime, potash, magnesia, 8tc, 

 that furnish aliment to all crops. Vegetable and ani- 

 mal substances when rotting, evolve gases, which 

 attack insoluble compounds of flint and lime, potash, 

 soda and magnesia, and render all these minerals 

 available to growing plants, which imbibe them 

 through their roots, and fix them permanently in 

 their tissues. In nothing is the wisdom of God 

 more perceptible, than in regulating the solubility of 

 mold and the minute particles of rocks, which to- 

 gether, form all the diversified soils on our planet. 

 Without this admirable adjustment for hourly, daily 

 and annually feeding plants, which in turn feed ani- 

 mals, both would soon cease to be on the earth. How 

 shall we make'plain to the comprehension of a child, 

 the science of feeding plants — the art of accumula- 

 ting bread, meat and fruit in the soil ? 



In 100 parts of fresh, lean meat there are 77 parts 

 of water which may be expelled by drying. In 

 100 parts of perfectly dry beef there are 4.23 of ash, 

 or incombustible salts. Muscle contains about 15 

 per cent, of nitrogen: and nearly 52 of carbon. The 

 other constituents are oxygen and hj r the 



elements of water. Lean meat, like the seeds of cereal 

 plants, contains sulphur, phosphorus, lime, iron, and 

 all the elements required to form bones, brain, nerves, 

 skin, &c. Hence, a dog or other carnivorous animal 

 ubsist on lean meat, or on bread and water alone. 

 A good cow extr i the soil in her food, some 



40 or 50 lbs of I; u in the course of a year. 



Thirty pounds of this will be given in her milk, 

 which will be sold, probably, in cheese, and the bal- 

 ance will be in her urine and dung. In 100 lbs. of 

 wool there are live pounds of pure sulphur. In 100 

 lbs. of gypsum there are some 20 of sulphur. Gyp- 

 sum aids in making clover, peas and beans, and they 

 make wool ; and old woolen rags will form rich mold. 



