1847. 



GENESEE FARMER 



83 



f. ■ There is but little doubt that the casein or curd 

 ;in milk is held in solution by the presence of 

 soda, which being neutralized so soon as lactic 

 acid is formed in warm weather, the curd be- 

 comes thick, and whey is evolved. The sal. 

 soda of the shops is cheap, and the addition of 

 a few drams in a p-an of sweet milk, will keep it 

 so for 8 or 10 hours after it would become sour 

 and coagulated without some chemical check. — 

 Soda does no injury v/hatever either to butter or 

 milk, for tea or coffee. 



Where cream is cliurned, its temperature should 

 be about 55 degrees ; if all the milk is churned, 

 its temperature should be ten degrees higher. — 

 Considerable care is necessary to separate all the 

 butter from the butter milk. By evaporating the 

 latt'?r to dryness, and testing for butter,, we often 

 find a quantity which, if saved, would add con- 

 siderably to the products of the dairy during a 

 season. Still greater care is necessary in making 

 cheese, not only to coagulate all the casein, 

 (cheese,) but to save from running into the whey 

 the oil or butter in the curd. Cheese is apt to 

 be injured by an excess of rennet, an excess of 

 salt, or those of a bad quality. 



"Farmer's Agricultural Chemistry." 



We have received a long and fairly written 

 defence of the above work from its author, in re- 

 ply to our criticism, which we should gladly 

 publish, if we could do so injustice to the many 

 pressing demands on our columns. The subjects 

 discussed relate to abstruse points in chemical 

 and geological sciences. Dr. Rodgers has quite 

 as good a right to entertain and express his opin- 

 ions on these questions as we have ; but neither 

 has a right to fill this journal with disputes, to the 

 exclusion of matter of a more useful, and practi- 

 cal character. Our criticism. Dr. R. will live to 

 acknowledge, has done both him and his book an 

 essential service — for it has prompted him to re- 

 examine all his authorities, extend the sphere of 

 his research, and correct whatever his maturer 

 judgment shall regard as doubtful, or erroneous. 

 This is precisely what we desired — not to give 

 pain to him, nor to injure the sale of his book.^ — I 

 He says : 



" The second edition of my book, enlarged and corrected, 

 will be forthcoming, and I will send you a copy, which, iif 

 it passes through the Jire, may come out unscathed, and 

 with a better reputation than its not unlucky predeceswr. ' 



We ask the author to consider us as his friend, 

 to weigh well our present remarks on the most 

 important points in his communication now be- 

 fore us, which we copy : 



" On page 49 of my book it reads, ' As the carbon and 

 nitrogen are derived from the atmosphere, the benefit of manur- 

 ing consists exclusivehj in the supply of the salts, and soluble 

 earthy matters essential to the development ofplatits.' You say, 

 ' This carries theory farther than facts and experience will 

 wafrant.' On this subject I will give you the conclusion of 

 Liebig in his own words. Agricultural Chemistry, page 5, 

 he says : ' The carbon must be derived from other sources ; 

 and as the soil does not yield it, it can o7dt/ be extracted 

 from. the atmosphere. The facts which we have stated in 



the preceeding pages, prove that the carbon of plants must 

 be derived exclnsivelij from the atmosphere.' Again, p. 12, 

 ' Plants, and consequently animals, must therefore derive 

 their nitrogen from the atmosphere.' Page 14. ' Dy means 

 of manure, an addition is only made to the nourishment 

 which the air supplies.' Page 15. ' No conclusion can have 

 a better foundation than this, that it is the ammonia of tti>- 

 atmosphere that furnishes nitrogen to plants.' 



" My position, then, is sustained upon the authority of » 

 (•heraist who stands second to no man living as an analyst 

 and experimenter." 



The above is your strongest evidence against 

 the soundness of our criticism. It devolves on 

 us to show tliat ^-^ou wholly mistake the meaning 

 of your " authority," or that Dr. Liebig as well 

 as Dr. Rodgers is mistaken. 



That plants and animals naturally die and rot 

 on the surface of the earth, will not be denied 

 by any one. Nor will it be disputed that v/hile 

 decaying, they load the surrounding atmosphere 

 with various gases, chief among which are car- 

 bonic acid and ammonia. Water has a strong 

 affinity for both of these gases. A common 

 smelling bottle will give the unlearned reader 

 fome idea of what ammonia in water is; and a 

 glass of foaming soda water, some notion of car- 

 bonic acid gas escaping from water when liber- 

 ated from the great pressure of a soda fountain. 

 The ni'ins, snows, and dews alike bring to the 

 earth more or less ammonia and carbonic acid, 

 and as the water enters the roots of growing 

 plants, the gases named pass with it into the cir- 

 culation of these living beings, which re-organ- 

 ize the elements of former plants and animals, in 

 their various tissues. So far we all agree. — 

 Now for the matter in which we disagi-ee. Dr. 

 R. says " the benefit of manuring consists exc/?i- 

 sively in the supply of the salts, and soluble 

 earthy matters essential to the development of 

 plants." We say, " this carries theory farther 

 than facts and experience will warrant." 



Manure is vegetable or animal matter in the 

 process of decomposition. A sound, healthy an- 

 imal or plant is not manure ; nor is a ton of 

 sound grain, flesh, hay, or wood, manure. Sup- 

 pose a farmer has a ton of rotting straw mixed 

 with a like weight of the dung and urine of his 

 horses, cattle, and sheep, duly spi-ead and plowed 

 in, so as to be in contact with the roots of an 

 acre of growing corn. Will Dr. Rodgers tell 

 us how he can prevent the water that falls from 

 the clouds from taking up the carbonic acid and 

 ammonia liberated from the manure, and con- 

 veying this food of plants into the circulation of 

 the growing crop ? 



Again, dare you affirm that the open pores 

 (spongioles) in the roots of plants can not imbibe 

 gaseous nutriment as well as their leaves 1 Did 

 you never hear of a plant being quite inverted, 

 making its roots put forth leaves in the atmos- 

 phere, and its branches roots in the ground? 



To assert that all dead plants and animals, all 

 manures, discharge into the air all their carbon, 

 nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen, to have these 

 elements of plants fall elsewhere on the eartk 



