1855. 



NEW ENGLAND F.VKMER. 



271 



experience, that we supply the elements necessa- 

 ry fur the new crop. If, instead of this, how- 

 ever, we were to return to the land the hay it- 

 self, and the corn and tlie potatoes in their un- 

 changed forms, and spread thorn on the surface, 

 or plow them in, we should expect no such bene- 

 ficial results. And why should we not? The 

 manifest reason seems to be that the hay and 

 the corn and the potatoes, though possessing all 

 the required elements for a new crop, are not in 

 the form in which the plants can appropriate 

 them readily. It is not enough, then, that we 

 apply to the soil merely the elements of which 

 the required crops are composed. There must be 

 reference always to the form in which these ele- 

 ments exist. 



We readily sae the absurdity of literally fol- 

 lowing out these theories, although we often 

 avail ourselves of them, to great advantage. — 

 We see our cows, sometimes, chewing bones. 

 We say, the poor animal needs phosphate of 

 lime, she has been milked a long time, and milk 

 contains lime, and so we give her some bone 

 dust, which contains the phosphate of lime, and 

 she eats it, and is cured of her determination to 

 choke herself. So far, theory and experience 

 eeem to run together. But your heifer does not 

 grow well. You know what a heifer is composed 

 of, and according to the theory of supplying the 

 very elements essential to the growth, suppose 

 you offer her a quarter of beef! She ought to 

 eat it, and thrive upon it, but she knows better. 

 The beef has all the elements, or many of them, 

 in it which she requires, but not in the right 

 form. 



These illustrations, absurd as they may, at 

 first, seem, point to an important truth, and they 

 make sugi^estioiis to which the chemist can give 

 no satisftictoiy answer. 



Chemical analysis may give us the elements of 

 plants and of soils, but it fails often to give us 

 information whether or not these elements exist 

 in a form to be readily taken up in the growth 

 of the crop. A diamond and a piece of pure 

 charcoal of the same weight, give by chemical 

 analysis, precisely the same results. There is 

 known to chemists a class of substances called 

 Isomeric, (from the Greek, meaning, literally, 

 equal parts.) denoting bodies composed of the 

 same elements in the same proportions, but of 

 different appearance and properties. The theory 

 most commonly received as to tliis matter is this. 

 Every substance is composed of small particles, 

 which lie in contact with each other, and are 

 called atoms. Between these atoms are inter- 

 stices or pores. In light bodies, the atoms are 

 not so close to each other, and are not so Avell 

 fitted together, as in heavy bodies. In steam, for 

 instance, the atoms occupy 1700 times as much 



space as in water. These atoms, if they really 

 exist, are so small that they cannot be seen by 

 the most powerful magnifying glass. 



We have a familiar illustration of the different 

 forms assumed by the same substance, when we 

 slowly cool a solution of saltpetre made in hot 

 water, which will take the shape of crystals, 

 Avhereas if suddenly cooled, it will assume no 

 such forms. By what mysterious power Nature 

 thus compels these particles to arrange them- 

 selves in a fixed order, and to assiime these regu- 

 lar and beautiful shapes, the choiaist does not 

 pretend to understand. 



Professor Mapes, in the April number of the 

 Workinr/ Farmer, has well illustrated this sub- 

 ject in its application to fertilizers. Although, 

 perhaps, the strongest rdvocate of soil analysis, 

 and specific manures among us, he shows us the 

 danger of relying on the chemist alone, for an es- 

 timate of the value of manures. 



"The chemist tells us by analysis, that blood 

 is composed of certain materials and water. All 

 these materials exist in rocks, and may be sepa- 

 ted from them. 



Now let us suppose ten square yards of soil to 

 be fertilized by 10 lbs. of bullock's blood, and 

 anotlier ten square yards of soil to be fertilized 

 by the constituents which analysis shows to ex- 

 ist in 10 lbs. of blood, and that these constituents 

 shall not only undergo the greatest degree of me- 

 chanical division by grinding, but they shall ab- 

 solutely be placed in solution and applied to the 

 soil, still, notwithstanding this groat mechanical 

 sub-division, the ten yards fertilized by the blood 

 will yield double the amount of crop of that fer- 

 tilized by the same constituents taken from the 

 rocks. 



As another instance. Should we fertilize one 

 piece of land with the bones of an animal, pre- 

 viously heated to redness, so as to drive off the 

 gelatine, fatty matter, etc., and leave phosphate 

 of lime only, dissolving it before its application 

 in sulphuric acid, and should fertilize another 

 similar piece of land witli the same amount of 

 phosphate of lime taken from the rock as at the 

 location at Dover, N. J., or Crown Point, Lake 

 Champlain, and dissolve this also in sulphuric 

 acid, we should find that the portion fertilized by 

 the dissolved bones would yield a crop much 

 larger than that arising from the use of dissolved 

 phosphate from the rock. 



This gives rise to the question. Doos matter 

 by its entering into animal and vegetable organ- 

 isms, undergo any changes which are important 

 for after progression, but wliich changes are not 

 discoverable by chemical test or microscopic in- 

 vestigation ? All experiments seem to prove that 

 isomeric compounds, although chemically alike, 

 so far as analysis is cajiable of discovering con- 

 ditions, really do dilfcr in their adaptability for 

 appropriation in organic lilo, and thus the ingre- 

 dients I'ound in the blood or bone of au animal, 

 I)et\veen tlie time of its leaving the original rock 

 and becoming blood or bone, nuiy have occupied 

 place in vegetable or animal iil'e a thousand 

 times, at each of xohich assimilation, yrowth, and 



