102 



MANURES. 



The Committee on Manures have not received any applica- 

 tion for the premiums offered for the most exact and satisfac- 

 tory experiments in the preparation and application of ma- 

 nures, Avhether animal, vegetable, or mineral. 



This is to be regretted, inasmuch as the successful prose- 

 cution of agriculture lies in a knowledge and supply of those 

 ingredients to the soil which are found, by oft-repeated ex- 

 periments, to be most conducive to the full development of 

 cultivated plants. 



The discoveries of chemistrj^ show that all plants are built 

 up of organic and inorganic materials. Their organic part 

 consists of about nine-tenths of their weight, or that part 

 which can be consumed by fire, and the inorganic that which 

 remains in the ash. 



Their organic elements are derived from the atmosphere, 

 viz., carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Over these 

 man has no control, for when the present harvest is consumed, 

 or decays, these elements, without loss, return to the atmos- 

 phere, and are laid up for future use. Hence it is seen, that 

 in the divine economy the same materials are Avorked over 

 and over aijain, in the annual harvests forever. 



But it is the inorganic elements of plants with which the 

 cultivator has to deal, and over which he has control ; for the 

 living plant draws from the dead earth those materials which 

 are indispensable to its healthy growth. 



If, therefore, certain plants require in their growth, potash, 

 soda, lime, sulphuric acid, or any other inorganic constitu- 

 ent, and the farmer, repeatedly raises the same crops, upon 

 the same ground, without returning the inorganic matter 

 which he removes in each successive harvest, it is obvious 

 that his crops must diminish from year to year, for it has been 

 found that however small the inorganic matter which a plant 

 requires, if it cannot be found in the soil, the plant sickens 

 and dies. 



