JOHN S. GOULD'S ADDRESS. 625 



Two great practical questions, therefore, present themselves 

 to the practical farmer. How shall he replace the elements of 

 the substances abstracted from the soil by the crop in the most 

 economical manner? How shall he cause those elements to 

 combine most easily, so as to cause the greatest amount of 

 growth and nutrition for the crop ? 



These questions must not be confounded with each other. 

 It is possible to have an abundance of food in the soil, yet if 

 it is not in such a state as to afford nourishment to the plant, 

 the soil might as well have been barren for all practical pur- 

 poses. The farmer's wife may have plenty of flour in her 

 pantry, and since flour is food, she may truthfully say she has 

 an abundance of food in the house ; but if she neglects to pre- 

 pare it for the stomach, by converting it into bread, her family 

 may perish with hunger, in the midst of the elements of plenty. 

 As an illustration of this, you will please to remember, that 

 both potash and silica are constituents of the corn plant. 

 Silica may exist in great abundance in the soil, yet the plant 

 cannot obtain a particle of it for its necessities, so long as it 

 remains as simple silica. It must first be combined with pot- 

 ash, forming a soluble silicate of potash, before it is available 

 as food for the plant. Now silica requires one-half its weight 

 of potash to convert it into a soluble silicate, and little more 

 than one-quarter of its weight of potash is found in the plant. 

 It follows, therefore, that unless there is a greater amount of 

 potash in the soil than is absolutely necessary for the plant, 

 it must be literally starved for lack of silica. Again, there 

 may be enough of potash in the soil, yet if it is combined with 

 bodies for which it has a greater affinity than it has for silica, 

 it can perform no useful office towards the plant in the supply 

 of silica. 



It is not enough that an amount of food is contained in the 

 soil just sufficient for the crop. In such a case, all the ener- 

 gies of the plant are directed towards procuring its food; 

 hence too little of its powers can be expended on its assimila- 

 tion, to return a remunerative crop. It is necessary that the 

 food should be supplied in such abundance, that the plant can 

 obtain it easily and without eflbrt. In this case all its energies 

 are expended, as they ought to be, on the production of grain. 



It follows from what has been said — 1st, that all the ele- 

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