94 NITRATE OF SODA. 



No other argument can be necessary to con- 

 vince even the most skeptical of the value of 

 this article as a manure. Its benefits to the 

 individual, as well as to the nation at large, are 

 incalculable; and it only ought to serve as a 

 stimulus to all parties to exert their influence 

 in extending its general use. 



The action of soda and potash on vegetables, 

 and the way in which they act on vegetable 

 life are so similar, that a description of the one 

 will suffice for both. It is intended, therefore, 

 to describe the action of soda only. 



It has been stated in the analysis of various 

 plants, that both these salts exist in almost all 

 plants, generally as carbonates; but potash fre- 

 quently combines with other acids, and is then 

 found in various states. Neither ever exist in 

 the structure of plants as nitrates; this variety 

 being generated only by the process of decom- 

 position of vegetable matter in the soil. 



When the ashes of burnt vegetables, or de- 

 caying vegetable matters in any state, are scat- 

 tered over a field as manure, the salts of soda 

 or potash they may contain are dissolved by 

 the first rain, and carried into the soil, and then 

 are absorbed by the spongelets of the roots of 

 the plants, and here the first process in their 

 assimilation commences. If the salt is present 

 as a carbonate, it is decomposed; the soda 

 being assimilated by the plant in connexion 



of soda is equally rich, as a general rule, in gluten, this cir- 

 cumstance does not at all affect the conclusion we have ar- 

 rived at. 



