38 OF THE ASSIMILATION OF CARBON. 



Other considerations of a higher nature confute 

 the common view respecting the nutritive office of 

 humic acid, in a manner so clear and conclusive that 

 it is difficult to conceive how it could have been so 

 generally adopted. 



Fertile land produces carbon in the form of wood, 

 hay, grain, and other kinds of growth, the masses 

 of which differ in a remarkable degree. 



2920 lbs. of firs, pines, beeches, &c. grow as wood 

 upon one Hessian acre of forest-land with an average 

 soil. The same superficies yields 2755 lbs. of hay. 



A similar surface of corn-land gives from 19,000 

 to 22,004 lbs. of beet-root, or 881 lbs. of rye, and 

 1961 lbs. of straw, 160 sheaves of 15.4 lbs. each, — 

 in all, 2843 lbs. 



One hundred parts of dry fir-wood contain 38 

 parts of carbon; therefore, 2920 lbs. contain 1109 

 lbs. of carbon. 



One hundred parts of hay,* dried in air, contain 

 44.31 parts carbon. Accordingly, 2755 lbs. of hay 

 contain 1110 lbs. of carbon. 



Beet-roots contain from 89 to 89.5 parts water, 

 and from 10.5 to 11 parts solid matter, which con- 

 sists of from 8 to 9 per cent, sugar, and from 2 to 

 2i per cent, cellular tissue. Sugar contains 42.4 

 per cent.; cellular tissue, 47 per cent, of carbon. 



22,004 lbs. of beet-root, therefore, if they contain 

 9 per cent, of sugar, and 2 per cent, of cellular tis- 

 sue, would yield 1031 lbs. of carbon, of which 833 

 lbs. would be due to the sugar, and 198 lbs. to the 

 cellular tissue ; the carbon of the leaves and small 

 roots not being included in the calculation. 



One hundred parts of straw,! dried in air, contain 



* 100 parts of hay, dried at 100° C. (212° F.) and burned with oxide 

 of copper in a stream of oxygen gas, yielded 51-93 water, 165*8 car- 

 bonic acid, and 6-82 of ashes. This gives 45-87 carbon, 576 hydrogen, 

 31-55 oxygen, and 682 ashes. Hay, dried in the air, loses 11-2 p. c. 

 water at 100° C. (212 F. ) — {Dr. Will.) 



t Straw analyzed in the same manner, and dried at 100° C, gave 

 4637 p. c. of carbon, 5-68 p. c. of hydrogen, 43-93 p. c. of oxygen, and 

 4-02 p. c. of ashes. Straw dried in the air at 100° C. lost 18 p. c. of 

 water. — (Z)r. mil.) 



