THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



HORTICULTURE. 



SEPTEMBER, 1844. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Notes on Agricultural and Horticultural Chemis^ 

 try. By Robert Carmichael, Newton, Mass. 



I AM happy to see that Agricultural and Horticultural 

 Chemistry is beginning to engage the attention of a numer- 

 ous class m this advancing country. The advantages to 

 be derived from a knowledge of chemistry, as applied to 

 horticulture, were surprisingly manifested to me by the 

 many excellent and conclusive experiments which came 

 under my observation, during my residence in the London 

 Horticultural Society's Garden. The society, feeling the 

 importance of the subject, appointed a chemist, in 1841, for 

 its investigation; and entrusted Mr. Edward Solly, Jr. to 

 conduct the experiments in such a manner, that their re- 

 sults might be unquestionable, and furnish trustworthy and 

 valuable information. 



The first object was, to trace out the connection between 

 the various vegetable productions and the soils on which 

 they were grown, by a chemical analysis of both; by this 

 means they were enabled to ascertain the quantity of earthy 

 or saline matter, which different plants contain, and the 

 different proportions of organic and inorganic substances 

 which enter into their composition. It was necessary to 

 ascertain, by a careful analysis of the soil previous to crop- 

 ping, its chemical composition also; and the same process 

 was necessary after the crops were removed, in order to 

 ascertain if the amount of matter taken from it bore an ex- 

 act proportion to the first analysis, as deduced from the 

 quantity found in the vegetable productions, arising from 

 the soil, whose constituent parts were first ascertained. 



VOL. X. — NO. IX. 41 



