330 



iN E VV ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRILSO, 184) 



in appropriating nutrition. Some difference of 

 opinion eceins to exist among chemists in relation 

 to peine. One has denied its e.\i.stencc further 

 than its being a developement of carbon; and 

 another has discovered that it is compounded of r.t 

 least ten different substances, some of which arc 

 compounds, and prefers to use the names of its con- 

 stituents as far as they are known — crcnic and 

 apocrenic acid, SiC. — leaving the remainder in "an 

 unknown" and uiidcnominaled state. This may 

 be all well lor mere theorists ; hut as it proposes 

 no change of measures to the practical man, in re- 

 gard to the use, or affecting the value of the sub- 

 slance it.self, it offers im inducement as an equiva- 

 lent for rendering the subject more complex and 

 obscure, by a formidable array of technic;il terms, 

 of which time alone it seems will develope tlie 

 full number. 



It is highly desirable that this matter should be 

 divesled of all unnecessary drapery, and left as 

 timple and plain as may be, to insure clear views 

 and correct practice ; for the practical farmer has 

 but little interest in the support of mere theory, 

 and is likely to he more bewildered than beneliled 

 by " wondrous technicalities," and however proper 

 it may be to "call things by their right names," 

 he will doubtless prefer to use the simple term 

 fCeint, until it is shown to lead to error in practice, 

 or some practical benefit is promised by the change ; 

 for the same reatjn" that lie will prefer to call a 

 certain kind of grain, wheat, rather than attempt to 

 designate it by naming its components — starch, 

 gluten, &c. — merely because these substances 

 happen to exist in the different varieties in ever va- 

 rying proportions. 



Dr. S. L. Dana, of Lowell, whose incidental re- 

 searches in agricultural chemistry are resulting in 

 the highest benefit to the State, by advancing the 

 science of agriculture, has rendered invaluable ser- 

 vice by )iis discoveries relative to the nature and 

 <|ualities of geine. His definition of it includes 

 all decomposed organic matter, or all decomposed 

 substances that have once possessed either vegeta- 

 ble or animal life. 



In speaking of geine in connection with the 

 earthy constituents and soluble salts of soils, he 

 says: " the earths are the plates, the salts the sea- 

 eoning, the geine the food of plants ;" and de- 

 scribes geine as being a brownish black powdery 

 mass, tlie result or product of the putrefaction or 

 decomposition of organic substances, "existing in 

 two Elates, soluble and insoluble : soluble geine is 

 the food of plants ; insoluble geine becomes food 

 hy air and moisture." "Geine forms the basis of 

 all tlie iiourisliing part of all vegetable manures." 

 " It is the principle which gives fertility to soils:" 

 " it absorbs and retains nearly its own weight of 

 water wilhojl =«?Miiing moist ;" and "continually 

 subjected to air and moisture, it is finally wholly 

 dissipated in air, leaving only the inorganic bases 

 of the plant with which it was once combined." 



It has long been a conceded point, that the pro- 

 duction of a plant is not a new creation, but merely 

 a new arrangement or new combination of pre-ex- 

 isting particles of matter. But the changes which 

 this matter undergoes previous to those new combi- 

 nations, and after they are broken up, have been 

 mostly unknown until the discoveries of Dr. Dana 

 have supplied those links in the chain of evidence 

 which were necessary to trace in connexion its cir- 

 cling history, through its ceaseless round of cease- 

 less changes. 



These discoveries, with the other facts adduced, 



give evidence that geine comprises all the nutritive I stock kept ; the second is generally abundant, it''' 

 food which plants draw from the earth, and is fur- in many places exhaustless ; and the principU 

 nished by the decomposition at the earth's surface, the third are coextensive with the atinospher|'> 

 of vegetable or animal substance.s, the elements of | self, and for aught that appear."!, have energy 

 which all originated frotii the primitive sources of j unimpaired as when, in the beams of the first m 



ing, they were appointed the basis of all fo 

 vegetable and animal growth. 



It will readily be seen that it is difficult to 



fertility existing in nir, water, and the rock forma^ 

 tions. 



Evidence is given also that all plants draw a 

 portion of their subsistence from the primitive 1 the exact relative value of these substances, or 

 sources of fertility, and to the extent that they do i exact expense of obtaining them, as more or 

 this, they are capable of augmenting the (juantity | of variation in different cases, may always be foi 

 of geine in any soil on which they grow, by being | in both these particulars. An approximatio 

 covered in the soil, the reservoir which nature has the truth in the case, as to a general proposil 

 provided tn protect from dissipating atmospheric in- 

 fluence, and yield as they demand it, this concen- 

 trated or condensed nutrition which is necessary 

 for the perfection of grain-growing and fruit-bear- 

 ing plants 



is therefore all that can bo expected, and may 

 all that correct practice will require; and for 

 purpose there are facts and data that may pvrY 

 be deemed sufficient. 



There is doubtless more generally a fixe< 



jgettt 



!)eiti 

 KOli 

 • fow 

 ktoc 

 tleii 



Important evidence is given also in regard to definite idea of the value of farm-yard manure 

 the nature of geine, which shows that precisely at | a fertilizer, than of any other enriching substan ''"' 

 the period when it is reduced to a soluble state j it may therefore be considered a better type of i ^^ 

 and prepared to be taken up by the roots of plants, | niires, or standard for comparison, than any oil 

 if exposed to the atmosphere, it assumes a gaseous Dr. Dana, taking his own analysis in connect •*! 

 form and escapes. That which was of a!rial origin with that of others in other places, estimates a pP" 



— leaving the earthy parts or elaborated salts to 

 mix with and measurably fertilize the earth — re- 

 turns to the atmosphere and mingles with kindred 



of green cow-dung to yield three hundred and V 

 pounds of dry solid geine, calling all its hay insa wH 

 i/« geine. He says "it rapidly changes to f il»! 



atoms, to range the etherial expanse with pristine state : its passage through the animal, like hoili' 1" 

 freedom, or fertilize other fields, if perchance it i has put it in a state to become geine much soor ij' 

 comes within range of the appropriating powers of than hay would chnngc, if buried in the soil." Jt! 



their growing plants 



If these evidences are correct, it follows that all 

 substances, are valuable as food for plants, in pro- 

 portion to the amount of geine which they will 

 yield, making due allowance for expense of bring- 

 ing it to a soluble state ; and plant.", to be grown 

 as fertilizers, are valuable in proportion to the 

 amount of the elements of geine they gather from 

 the atmosphere during growth ; and the exposure of 

 soil, containing soluble geine, to the sclivo influ- 

 ence of midsummer atmosphere {as in the case of 

 deep cultivation among growing crops, or of naked 



Kstiinating the value of common farm-yard n Ift 

 nure at one dollar per ton, and allowing a ton oD '» 

 to give the same quantity of geine that is given *> 

 a ton of solid green cow dung, (few would plac^ ill 

 so high,) and geine from this source can be obtai" I'Jn 

 ed at a fraction less than 33 cts. for 100 lbs. 



To ascertain the value of tiwamp muck, thr I 

 samples from a small swamp in Northampton, we I 

 forwarded to Dr. Dana for analysis. These sai k 

 pies were taken from different depths, to give 

 near as could be, an average quality of the 

 deposite. Samples from other swamps silualB 



summer fallows,) however necessary it may bo for i from thirty rods to three miles distant from tb 



the destruction of weeds or grass, inevitably re 

 suits in the loss of fertilizing properties. 



These facts, duly considered, appear sufficient to 

 direct in the choice of the most economical mea- 

 .'-ures to restore fertility, and the most efficient mea- 

 sures to preserve it. 



Having ascertained that geine is the substance 



were olso forwarded, which proved more or le 

 rii'h in geine, and gave an average quality near 

 equal in value to the three samples first nientioni 

 The average of the three samples, after beW 

 drained of water equal to one third of the weigi 

 of the muck when first dug, which it will readil 

 lo, if piled up a few weeks, gave at the riite 



requisite to restore fertility to exhausted land, the ] four hundred and Ihirtyfour pounds of geine to th 

 next ))oiiit for consideration is to find the most eco- ton. The cost of digging and piling muck, n her 

 nomical method of obtaining it ; and this leads to ' it can be thrown up with a shovel or hamlily n) 

 an estimate, as far as may be, of the comparative out with a barrow, will not commonly cxcrod 2 

 value and expense of materials producing geine. l cents per ton, in its half dry state; and al!o«in| 

 These are various, including all vegetable and aui- ! the ton to give 434 lbs., will furnish geine in al 

 inal substances. Substances purely animal, al- acid state or mingled with acids, for somelliinj 

 though jiossessing intrinsic value pcrliaps the high- less than (! cents for 100 lbs. 



est in the scale, and worthy of great consideration Muck or peat when first dug, is, from its soilT- 

 where acres or half acres only are concerned, are ' ness, so unfriendly to vegetation, that it cannot b« 

 too limited in quantity to affect materially the employed with advantoge in any case, except p^r- 

 whole subject of exhausted lands, and therefore , haps in small quantities and on a dry soil, unleil 

 their consideration, as well as that of some other it he subjected to some process for neutralizing ttt 

 enriching substances, may, in this view of the sub- , acidity. To effect this object, various procatMl 

 ject, be omitted. I have been proposed ; all of them however seen- 



Farin-yard manure, peat or twanip muck, and ingly loo expensive ; and for a cheop procewt 

 the elements of gcine, obtained from the atmos- i which is doubtless attainable, the farmer must y»i 

 phcre hy the agency of grasses or other plonts, to ' look to the practical chemist. 



plow under, are generally all within the reach of' In the absence of a better method, take that pur- 

 every owner, and taken together doubtless alTord , sued by Mr I'hinney, of Lexington, who, after re- 

 ample means to sustain the feriility of the fertile, pealed experiments with compost made of two parti 

 and enrich every aero of exhausted, land. The peat mud to one of green stable manure, all well 

 first is limited in quantity to the amount of farm ; mixed and fermented, says: " A load of this com- 



