THE PRINCIPLES OF ARTIFICIAL MANURING. 



71 



Wliat is wanting in the 100 of the above 

 analyses is sand, coal, or loss. From these 

 researches it appears that for stalks and leaves 

 we require other elements than for seeds. 

 The fonner contain no alkaline phosphates, 

 but they require lor their development and 

 growth a rich supply of alkalme carbonates 

 and sulphates. Ou the other hand the car- 

 bonates are entirely wanting in the seeds, 

 which, however, are very rich m phosphates. 

 It is sufficiently obvious that a rational iarmer 

 must supply both, as well as all the others. 

 If he supply only phosphates, and do not 

 restore the alkalme carJDonates, his soil will 

 become gradually bairen — it will be exhaust- 

 ed in those necessary elements for the devel- 

 opment of stalks and seeds, without which no 

 formation of seed can be expected. If he 

 supply the alkalies, lime, and sulphates 

 aloue, in a given time he will get no more 

 grain. All constituents of the manure, if they 

 are supplied alone, have this great defect, 

 that by them the soil is impoveri.shed hi other 

 equally important substances. No one of 

 itself can maintain the fertihty. Keeping this 

 in view, we may easily judge of the compara- 

 tive value of artificial and natural manures, 



and all the various arcana which have been 

 praised as panaceas for exhausted soils. 



It is not less easy to understand why the 

 fanners have such different opinions ou the 

 relative value of the constituents of manures 

 — why one, whose farm is rich in phosphates, 

 produces an uncommon fertility by the appli- 

 cation of nitrate of soda, or the supply of al- 

 kalies, while another does not see any favor- 

 able effect at all ; why bones — phosphates of 

 hme — produce in many fields wonders, and. 

 are not of the slightest benefit to others, 

 which are deficient m alkalies or alkalme 

 salts. From the composition of animal ma- 

 nures, it results with certamty, that by apply- 

 ing the latter — solid and fluid excrements of 

 men and animals — we supply to the soil not 

 one but all the elements which have been 

 taken away in the harvest. Fertility is per- 

 fectly restored to the field by a correspond- 

 ing supply of this manure, and it may be in- 

 creased by it to a certain limit. This will be 

 the more intelligible, if we compare the min- 

 eral elements of the urine of horses and cattle 

 with the mineral elements of herbs, straw, roots, 

 &c., of our cultivated plants. It \vill be found 

 that m their qualitj' they are perfectly identical. 



Constituents. 



Carbonate of Lime 



Do. of Magnesia 

 Do. of Potash . . . 



Do. of Soda 



Sulphate of Potash 



Chloride of Sodium 



These salts in the urine of horses amount 

 to nearly 4 per cent. ; in that of oxen to 2^ 

 per cent, of then- weights. If we compare 

 the composition of these different sorts of 

 urine with the composition of the straw of 

 peas, beans, and potatoes, of clover and hay, 

 it will at once be ob'vious that in stable dung 

 we replace by the urine the alkaline carbon- 

 ates which we have removed in harvest. 

 ^Vhat m this ui-ine is wanting in phosphates 

 and carbonate of lime and phosphate of mag- 

 nesia, fonns the principal constituents of the 

 Bolid excrements of animals ; both together — 

 solid excrements and urine — restore to the 

 field its oi-igmal composition, and thus a new 



Analysis of the 



Carbonate of Potash 12-1' 



Phosphate of Soda 19 



Sulphate of Soda 7-0 



Chloride of Sodium } „ 



Do. of Potassium i ^"^'^ 



Phosphate of Lime } 



Do. of Magnesia \ 



Traces of Iron 



What the practical results of a knowledge of 

 composition of these manures are, is clear. 

 If it were possible to provide our fields with 

 the dung of swine in sufficient quantity, wc 

 would' replace by it, in a soil which contains 

 silica anu lime, all the rorraining elements of 

 the plants — the fiel<l might be made fertile 

 for all kinds of plants — we have in it not only 

 alkaline phosphates, the principal elements 



(167) 



generation of cultivated plants meet vrith the 

 mineral ingredients necessary for their devel- 

 opment. If we farther compare the guano 

 and the fsEces of men with the composition 

 of the animal urine, the analysis shows that 

 both are entirely defective in alkaline car- 

 bonates — they contain phosphates and sul- 

 phates as well as chloride of sodium, but no 

 free alkali — they contain phosphate of lime 

 and phosphate of magnesia ; in short, their 

 elements are in giifj/iYi/ identical with the im- 

 portant mineral elements of the seeds of 

 wheat, peas, beans. The urine of swine is ia 

 its composition intermediate between tha 

 urine of man and horses. 



Urine of Swine. 



(The solid excrements of swine contain prin- 

 cipally phosphate of lime. 



of the seeds, but also alkaline carbonates, 

 which are required by the leaves, stalks and 

 roots. This purpose cannot be attained, how- 

 ever, by manuring with guano or human ex- 

 crements alone, but perfectly so by stable 

 manure, from its contfiining alkaline carbon- 

 ates. If I have said that stable manure 

 contains the mineral elements of the nurture 

 of the plants, exactly in a state and conditioa 



