Vol. XIV. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., AUGUST, 1853. 



Fo. VIII. 



i 



THE FARM AS A MANUFACTORY. 



NUMBER FOUR. 



In the last number we considered the effect of a judicious system of rotation on the 

 inorganic matter of the soil. This inorganic matter consists of ten different elements. 

 It will therefore be necessary, for a right understanding of the subject, to examine the 

 effect of cultivation on the separate elements of which soils are made up, and which 

 compose the inorganic matter of all agricultural plants and animals. It was stated that 

 a crop of wheat and straw, of 30 bushels per acre, contained 144 lbs. of inorganic mat- 

 ter. This 144 lbs. of ash is composed, in round numbers, of the following substances : 



In Grain. In ^raic, Chaff, dte. 



Silica, 1 83 



Phosphoric acid, •. 12 7 



Lime, ^. 1 5 



Magnesia, 3 4 



Potash, 8 11 



Soda 0}^ 1 



Sulphuric acid, — f 



25^ 113 



The phosphoric acid and potash amounts to ft^r-fifths of the whole mineral matter 

 removed in the grain. The silica, sulphuric acid, lime, potash, &c., contained in the 

 straw, need not divert our attention, as they are all retained on the farm. In maize, 

 barley, and oats, the same ftict is observed — nearly all the mineral matter contained in 

 the grain is phosphoric acid and potash, while a very large quantity of silica, sulphuric 

 acid, lime, potash, &c., is contained in the straw, stalks, cobs, &c., but which is also 

 retained on the farm. Of the 198 lbs. of mineral matter in a ton of dry clover, we have 

 seen that not more than 5 lbs. js necessarily lost in passing through the animal. This 

 5 lbs. is principally phosphoric acid, lime, and potash ; four-fifths, we believe, is phos- 

 phate of lime. In good commori farming, then, the only minerals that arc removed 

 from the farm to any great extent, are phosphoric acid and potash, and much ' more 

 phosphoric acid is removed than potash. 



Although many thousand dollars and much valuable time have been spent in soil 

 analyses, we are yet, nevertheless, grossly ignorant of the composition of average wheat 

 growing soils. In by far the largest proportion of analyses published, the phosphoric 

 acid is left (Jut. Thus, in the "Agricultural Survey of the County of Madison," in the 

 H. Y. State Trans, for 1851, there are given thirty-one analyses of soils, in thirty of 

 which the quantity of phosphoric acid is not determined. It is so in other cases we 

 could mention. It is not easy to ascertain the quantity of phosphoric acid in a soil, or 

 in any other aluminous substance. We have worked a whole week in trying to deter- 

 mine the phosphoric acid in a soil, and could not rely on the analysis when done ; and 



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