1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



239 



The Constituents of Plants. 



Messrs. Editors : — From a perusal of ihe Genesee 

 Farmer for the last six months, I find it is considered im- 

 portant for us, if we would insure good crops, to return a 

 full equivuleiU to the soil for the elements our crops take 

 iherejruin. 'I'his, 1 infer, is not only important, but may 

 be deemed the great principle, founded upon experience, 

 and firmly established by extensive experiment ; in fact, 

 the true basis of a successful rotation of crops. 



But the questions arise— 1st. How are we to obtain a 

 knowledge of the simple elements which the different 

 crops take from the soil? — and 2d. of the best manner of 

 incorporating these elements with tlie soil ? 



It is R'Ot probable that the raas.s of as can consult the 

 scientific works of Liebig, Johnston, (fcc. ; but if we 

 should receive through the Farmer, mofe analytical and 

 synthetical items on the subject, would they not be con- 

 ducive of the happiest result, by enabling us intoiligcntly 



iO " PAY OUR DKBTS." 



A Subscriber. 

 Bloomfifld, Ontario Co., Sept., 1848. 



Remarks.— Our correspondent is searching 

 for light in the proper direction. Practical 

 Agriculture is wholly indebted to Science for a 

 knowledge of the " elements" which nature 

 must have to form each plant, seed and fruit 

 grown on the farm or in the garden. We have 

 known a kernel of corn this season, in Georgia, 

 to produce 1000 kernels equal in weight to itself. 

 The matter in the parent seed could form but 

 one ivernel, leaving that contained in the other 

 999, as well as that which exists in the stems, 

 leaves, roots and cobs, to be derived from the 

 substance of the earth, air and water. Now, 

 wh}'^ should one kernel of seed corn give a har- 

 vest of 1000 kernels in one soil ; and a harvest 

 of only 100 in another ? The same degree of 

 sunshine, dews and rains ; the same atmospheric 

 gases and meteoric influences affect both corn 

 plants alike. But if you analyze the soils criti- 

 cally, one will be found to abound in the ele- 

 ments consumed in organizing a large yield of 

 this important grain ; and the other will show a 

 lack of some one or more of the things which 

 God has appointed to make corn of. For years 

 have we labored to convince our readers and 

 hearers not only that a good crop of the fruits 

 "of the earth can not be formed out of nothing ; 

 but that each plant mast have its appropriate 

 constituent elements within reach of its living 

 germ, in d^ie quantity and in an available form. 



A wise farmer husbands all of these raw ma- 

 terials, out of which his grain, grass, ix)ots, 

 apples and other fruit ars literally made. He 

 studies to accumulate in his soil the substances 

 known to be indispenasble to produce bread, 

 meat, milk, wool and cotton. To render land 

 more and more fertile, is better than to deposit 

 money in increasing sums in any bank in the 

 "world. A rich soil has an intrinsic value fbr 

 hungry human beings that appertains neither to 

 gold nor any other precious metal. The fer- 

 tilising of whole farms as a general practice will 

 never obtain in the United States, till our chil- 

 dren are taught a knowledge of those Natural 

 Laws, by the operation of v/hich poor soils may 



j be transformed into fertile ones ; and rich soils 

 changed into sterile fields. The growth o{ plants 

 j is governed by laws as fixed and enduring as 

 i those which cause daj/- and night, winter and 

 summer, rain and snow. Why will not Ameri- 

 Ican farmers believe this simple truth, and per- 

 j mit their sons to study tillage, the formation of 

 j crops, and the improvement of cultivated earth 

 ;as a science? If plants must be well fed to be 

 fat, as well as animals, and their food must come 

 from somewhere, why not learn how to feed 

 the germs of corn, wheat, potatoes, oats and 

 apples with the highest attainable skill and 

 I economy? Experience demonstrates that bone 

 'earth, or bones ihemselves, sulphur and lime or 

 j gypsum, chlorine and soda or common salt, and 

 I other elements of crops, serve to augment the 

 harvest. There are millions of tons of the ele- 

 ments of bones and flesh wasted in this country, 

 before they are organized in any living plant as 

 food for man or beast. This waste accrues from 

 'a defective system of husbandry — one that per- 

 mits no inconsiderable share of the dissolved 

 ' minerals and organic matter in good soils to run 

 I with the water that holds them in solution, into 

 creeks, rivers, lakes and the ocean. This loss, 

 more than the removal of crops, often exhausts 

 I plowed and hoed land. The loosened soil is 

 ' washed and leached till the food of corn and 

 wheat, potatoes and turneps, in an available 

 shape, becomes scarce indeed. The substances 

 I in the earth which form crops are lime, pota.sh, 

 iron, soda, magnesia, silica, sulphur, phosphorus, 

 ' chlorine, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. 

 Every vegetable that grows takes up from the 

 I soil through the pores in its roots most, if not all 

 of these elementary bodies, and fixes them in its 

 : organized tissues. Cultivate a field and permit 

 no plant whatever to grow therein, and both its 

 vegetable mould and earthy salts of lime, pot- 

 ash, &c., will be slowly dissolved and washed 

 away. Partial, if not complete sterility can be 

 ; induced by tillage without cropping at all. 

 Nature renovates poor soils by constantly aug- 

 menting the annual yield of vegetation. This 

 she does without the aid of tillage or manure of 

 any kind applied from abroad. The farmer 

 should study nature while at work in drawing 

 the food of plants from the subsoil and the at- 

 mosphere to be organized and decay to enrich 

 the surface soil. 



This is one way to improve land. Another 

 is to carry on, and spread over it just such things 

 as are known to be indispensable in forming the 

 crop. What are they ? They are sails voided 

 in the liquid and solid excretions of all animals, 

 from man down to the bottom of the list. These 

 salts come from our daily food which took them 

 from the soil. In cities and villages these ele- 

 ments of crops accumulate in stables and privies ; 

 because all tillers of the earth send something 

 from the soil to market. Go then to the nearest 



