1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



367 



For the New England Farmer. 



OF THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF 

 ANALYSIS OF SOIL. 



BY HENRY r. FRENCH. 



In a former number, some remarks were made 

 by me tending to show the danger of relying en- 

 tirely on theory, in determing the value of ma- 

 nures, because the same substances, so far as 

 chemical investigation can discover, are known 

 to produce very different effects as fertilizers, as 

 well as to differ entirely in appearance and form 



I will now re-publish part of an article fur- 

 nished by myself to the Country Gentleman, in 

 continuation of the same general subject, which 

 is 80 interesting to all reflecting tillers of the 

 soil. The chemist may do much for the farmer, 

 who is already indebted to chemistry, for the 

 greatest improvements in agriculture, which 

 have been made in the last century. But there 

 is a Power beyond and above the reach of science, 

 "that doeth all things well," and "whose ways 

 are past finding out," and it is important always 

 to have clearly in mind, the point where human 

 knowledge stops, and where man must behold, 

 and yet not comprehend the workings of the In 

 finite. The whole matter of the re-production 

 by plants of their like from the seed is as much a 

 mystery to the philosopher as to the child, and 

 we ask the reader of the suggestions below, to re- 

 flect long enough upon the subject of them, to 

 habitually ask himself, as he watches the spring- 

 ing of his grain, and the blossoming of his trees, 

 the thrilling question, What is life 1 



Besides the operations which plants are con- 

 stantly undergoing, and which we refer to chemi- 

 cal laws, there are other phenomena of vegeta- 

 tion, which are by no means so well understood. 

 We have seen that the chemist can detect not 

 only the various substances of which grain, as 

 wheat, for example, is composed, but can tell us 

 the precise proportions in which these elements 

 are found to exist in it. And, moreover, every 

 one of these elements he can find in his laboratory, 

 and he can combine them in the exact propor- 

 tions, in which they exist in the wheat. Then 

 the question occurs, why, with this knowledge, 

 and the materials at hand, why can he 7iot make 

 wheat ? Yet the most skilful chemist that has 

 ever spent a life-time in the laboratory, has 

 never presumed to pretend that all his science 

 could enable him to form a single grain. 



Chemical action is doubtless going on in all 

 animals and plants, living as well as dead, but 

 chemistry by no means solves the mysteries of 

 vegetable growth. In growing plants, the chem- 

 ical forces are subordinated to an invisible, in- 

 tangible, all-controlling essence ; they are under 

 the guardianship of a power higher than they, 

 which modifies all it pervades, and this power is 

 the Life Principle, or Vital Force. 



If we contemplate the turf at our feet, in 

 spring time, we observe not the uniform results 

 which chemical causes should produce, but we 

 see, springing from the same earth, nourished by 



the same soil, watered by the same rain and dew, 

 breathed on by the same air of heaven, plants of 

 different form and size and qualities — the rose, 

 the lily, the crocus and the violet, flowers of 

 dilierent colors and fragrance. 



Whence arises this diversity? Why are not 

 plants thus subjected to the same influences, ex- 

 actly alike in their structure and qualities ? 



To these questions, the Chemist can return no 

 answer, through his science. We can only say, 

 that in every little seed which we deposit in the 

 ground, there is a principle of identity with its 

 kind, — a soul as it were, which commands the 

 elements of the earth, and air and water, and di- 

 rects their curious arrangement into leaf, and 

 stalk, and flower, and fruit, suited to the body 

 in which it shall manifijst its eartlily being, thus 

 ordering, in spite of man's feeble efforts to modi- 

 fy its growth, whether it shall spring up the 

 hyssop on the wall, -or the cedar of Lebanon. 



Human knowledge can make no approximation 

 to a comprehension of this Principle of Life. We 

 take from apples of the same tree their several 

 seeds, and plant them side by side. They spring 

 up, and become fruitful trees, each producing a 

 fruit of different color, and size and taste. The 

 chemist could have analyzed these seeds, and 

 shown us their exact constituent elements ; but 

 think you the power of any human science 

 could, from any investigation, have detected a 

 difference, which should have indicated, or which 

 can at all explain the diversity of the fruit ? 



Through the controlling influence of this Vital 

 Power, new suljstances are consequently formed 

 in plants and animals, which human art can 

 never imitate, such as wood, and sugar and 

 starch in plants, and fat and flesh in animals. 

 In the egg of a bird, the chemist, indeed, may 

 detect the same substances which may be found 

 in the living creature produced from it, but an- 

 alysis fails utterly to show him why, by the ap- 

 plication of (artificial) heat, these substances 

 should assume the form of flesh and bone and 

 feathers, and finally of a breathing, living ani- 

 mal. 



You have heard of the good woman, who 

 called at the eccalaobian in New York, where she 

 had heard they made chickens in some way 

 without the help of hens. She asked to be 

 shown the process. An attendant took her to 

 the room where the heat was applied to the eggs, 

 and began to explain the operation. But the 

 good lady was not fully satisfied. "Make chickens 

 out of eggs," cried she indignantly, "who could 

 not make chickens out of eggs ; I tliought you 

 had found a new way of making chickens !" 



When life ceases, cither in plant or animals, 

 the known chemical laws resume their sway, and 

 soon reduce the lifeless mass to substances of 

 known qualities, again to rise into new life in 

 other forms. 



Of the operation of these laws, enough is 

 known to render them, in practice, highly useful 

 to the cultivator of the soil. Indeed the study of 

 Agricultural Chemietry is one of progress for a 

 life-time, one which from its nature, must per- 

 haps always remain inexhaustible. 



But the question will occur, must the farmer, 

 the gardener, the lady who rears a few flowers, 

 in order to cultivate intelligently, be familiar 

 with all the abstruse mysteries of this science? 



