

NITROGEN. 43 



will go to supply the wants of plants, based on 

 the experiments of distinguished chemists. 



In 1855 and 1856, Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, 

 at Rothamstead, England, collected on a large rain 

 gauge presenting a surface of Woo of an acre, 

 the entire rain-fall (with dews, etc., included), for 

 those years. Prof. Way, at that time chemist 

 to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 analyzed the waters, and found that the total 

 amount of ammonia contained in them was 

 equal to Tibs in 1855, and 9 Jibs in 1856, for an 

 acre of surface. These amounts were yielded 

 by 663,000 and 616,000 gallons of rain water 

 respectively. In the waters collected at Inster- 

 burg, during the year ending March, 1865, 

 Pincus and Roellig obtained 6.38 fts of ammonia 

 per acre. Bretschneider found in the waters 

 collected at Ida Marienhuette, from April, 1865, 

 to April, 1866, 12ft>s for an acre of surface. 



One hundred pounds of wheat, with the straw, 

 require two and a half per cent, of nitrogen, 

 equal to more than three per cent, of ammonia. 

 The reader can see at a glance, how inadequate 

 this amount of ammonia is to supply an ordinary 

 crop with this element; 25 bushels of wheat, 

 with the straw, will require 451bs of ammonia; 

 so that if the plant could assimilate all the 

 ammonia of the rain water, 401bs additional 

 would have to be added or applied to an 



