ORGANIC AOIDS-PARASITE PLAJfTS-MDreRAiS, &o. 



BoussiNGAULT found that young plants of trefoil wa- 

 tered with solutions of oxalate oi ammonia diluted to 

 600 times its weight, died in the course of eight or 

 ten days; although other plants similarly situated 

 watered with distilled water did -well, and blossomed. 

 As ammonia is known to be highly useful when pure, 

 or in a carbonate, if properly diluted, the bad effect of 

 the oxalate was attributed to the oxalic, or organic acid. 



C^uegiion. Do not parasite plants that grow on 

 the trunks of trees draw their nourishment from jui- 

 ces or sap which was partly elaborated in the organs 

 of the parent, or suffering plant? 



.^itsuer. This is a disputed point. Cryptogamous 

 plants grow on old rails, the roofs of houses, and 

 granite boulders as well aa on living trees. Any 

 nidus, or root-hold that will yield the little mineral 

 salts which the plants require, whether extracted from 

 sti.ne or wood, seem to answer for those that need 

 little beside air and water for their full developement. 



Q. Why do you call air and water minerals, or 

 mineral elements? 



JI. Because water and gases or air, form a large 

 portion of the mineral or earthy crust of the globe. 

 Oxygen gas, which forms 8 parts in 9 of pure water, 

 weighs more in granite rock, and in both clayey and 

 pandy soils, than any other simple element or mineral. 

 Water also exists as one of the constant elements of 

 the hardest and most durable crystals. 



Q. I had thought that oxygen or vital air in the 

 atmosphere, was as different from stone, or granite 

 rocks as one thing can be unlike another. Explain 

 how it happens that the air we breath and granite 

 are to a large e.xtent composed of the same simple 

 element? 



A. In 100 lbs. of the atmosphere there are 21 lbs. 

 of oxygen. If 48 grains of a metalic base called 

 siHcoii be burnt in 52 grains of this gas (oxygen) 

 there will bo formed 100 grains of a mineral called 

 silica which is pure flint sand, such as is used for 

 making glass. More than half the weight of gran- 

 ite is silica which has acid properties and is called 

 by clicmists " silicic acid.'' When crystallised, the 

 mineral is usually called quartz. This silicic acid 

 combines chemically with alumina — the basis of 

 [■lay — and v.ith magnesia, potash, soda, and lime, to 

 form felspar and mica, the other minerals in granite, 

 beside quartz. 



Q. You say that oxygen forms 52 in every 100 

 parts of pure sand. In 100 lbs. of pure alumina is 

 there any of this vital gas; and if any, how much? 



A. In 1 00 lbs. of pure alumina there are, accor- 

 ding to Prof. Kane, 



Aluminum 53.3 



Oxygen 46.7 



100.0 

 Q. Is piire pipe clay, or porcelain clay pure alu- 

 mina; or is it some compound with other minerals ? 

 A. The very purest clay in existence, such as is 

 used for making China-ware, is properly speaking, s 

 salt, or a compound formed by the union of about 60 

 parts of silicic acid (silicia) with 40 parts of alumi- 

 na. Prof. Johnston thus states the composition of 

 this mineral having water in its composition : 



SiUca 46.92 



Alumina -- - 34.81 



Water 18.27 



In the above compound which forms pure clay, the 



amount of oxygen contained in the mineral is greater 

 than the three other elements, silicon, aluminum and 

 hydrogen put together. 



Thus, in the siliira there is 52 per cent 55 pans. 



In the alumina 46.7 per cent 16 " 



In the water 8-9 of the wiiole - .16 " 



87 

 I have omitted fractions. The hydrogen is united 

 with oxygen in the proportion of 1 lb. in 9 to form 

 water. — From Lee's Study of Soils. 



"JUMPING AT CONCLUSIONS "-A^^AIN. 



BY A yoCNG DIGGER. 



Messr.s. Editors: — In the December nnmber of 'he 

 Farmer I made a few remarks on ''Jumping at Con- 

 clusions," to which Mr. J. H. Watts replied in w hat 

 I considered a very bad spirit. 



Mr. W. accuses me of " attacking numerous cor- 

 respondent s,'' (although I made no allusion whatever 

 to any correspondent but himself,) which he appears 

 to think very presumptious for a " youngster.'' I 

 think I " attacked " no one, but merely gave a few 

 hints regarding the too hasty adoption of opinions and 

 theories founded only on single experiments, and with- 

 out due regard to other influences that might have 

 caused, or at least have affected the result. In this 

 I am happy to be supported by the wisest and best — • 

 by both scientific and practical men, who have scon 

 and lamented the evil. Mr. G.^rhutt, in Uie last 

 number of the Farmer remarks that " one or tiro 

 experiments, apparently favoring a theory, should 

 not be taken even as a probaeilitv of its correctness." 

 But Mr. Watts founds his theory on a single exper- 

 iment. Of course he was not of the opinion that 

 digging around and manuring his pear tree would 

 have had a tendency to injure it, or he would not 

 thus have treated it. Mr. W. started in the spring 

 with the idea that good culture was ncccs.=^ary to a 

 healthy tree and fine fruit, and like a sensible culti- 

 vator removed the grass from his tree and gave it a 

 dressing of manure. But, from some cause or other 

 the tree died of fire-blight, and without waiting to 

 repeat the experiment on other trees, in different sea- 

 sons, and under different circumstances. Mr. Watts 

 jumped at the conclusion that his tree died of a sur- 

 feit, and the only preventive was to give trees hard 

 fare and short atloicance. He not only founded his 

 theory on a single experiment, and one conlradicte.i by 

 the experience of nine out of ten (if not the tenth.) but 

 publishes his baseless theory to the world as an impor- 

 tant discovery, and is highly offended that a "young 

 digger'' should presume to question its correctness. 

 How much confidence can there be placed in a theory 

 thus rashly adopted, or in the opinions of a man so 

 hasty in his couclusion? 



Mr. W. savs: "It is no small satisfaction to nie 

 that Mr. Barrt was willing to notice niy article." 

 And it is no small satisfaction to me that Jlr. B's 

 opinion of Mr. Watt.s' theory and my own, arc some- 

 what similar — that it is one of those liasty theo- 

 ries, not very injurious, because not likely to be adopt- 

 ed by men of thought. 



I am called upon for a preventive of the blight. — 

 The matter has been discussed by the best Horticul- 

 tural writers in the country for the last few years, 

 and various causes assigned, sucli as '-frozen sap" — 

 "insects"— " effect of stin," fee, each theory having 

 its advocates. While such men as Hovev, Dow- 

 ning, Barjiy, Uc, disagree, as to the cause, I tliink 



ir 





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