50 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 3 



C0BRB8P01VDENCE. 



Nothing could be more gratifying to us than the re- 

 ception of the subjoined letter and the annexed com- 

 munication under the head of 'Scientific Agricul- 

 ture.' It is the bright face of an old friend in a 

 strange land. Who docs not know the sunshine, 

 which such an incident at once pours into the soul. 

 We welcome him to our columns in fulfilment of his 

 promise ; ubligations which so few men are ajA to re- 

 member at a distance of fourhundred miles. We heir 

 to assure our readers that communications from this 

 source will always bo entitled to the highest respect 

 and confidence. Our plainest matter of fact men will 

 not, we hope, be deterred from their perusal. Facts 

 are valuable ; and not less important must it be in 

 many cases to know the reasons of those facts. To 

 search into the causes of things, and if possible, to un- 

 ravel the mysteries of nature, is one of the highest ex- 

 ercises of the human understanding. Our line is lim- 

 ited, but let us net tJiink that we have reached the end 

 of it, while we have the power of trying to go farther. 

 Truth docs not always float upon the surface of things. 

 The pearl-divers of the Indies fearlessly plunge even 

 into the troubled waters, and the most precious shells 

 are often brought up from tho lowest depths. 

 My Dear Sir — 



I beg to hand you the inclosed for your perusal, and 

 if you think fit, for pubUcation in the New Genesee 

 Farmer; if you approve and publish it, I will follow it 

 up, if not I siiall not be in the least disappointed. The 

 reason I write is that although Liebig's work is pretty 

 generally distributed, yet, in order to get our farmers to 

 undei-stand something of the subject, it is necessary 

 to keep the subject continually before them; and I also 

 think that the more the subject of agriciUture, or farm- 

 ing let us call it if you please, is elevated by being 

 yokei.1 to science, the more the practician will feel his 

 mind and his pursuit elevated, and the more ability 

 and dependence on his own judgment and powers vtill 

 result. In other words, the more mind is used in the 

 pursuit, the more will it be raised in general estimation, 

 the more inviting will it become to the general popula- 

 tion of the United States, who, if it be a fault, certain- 

 ly possess that of too often abandoning the mechanical 

 for the mental industry, to the great depression of agri- 

 cultural industry, and the too great elevation of specu- 

 lative or inventive conceits. Yours, J, E. T. 



Boston, February 15, 18H3. 



On Scientific Agricultare.»Lettcr Ist. 



I bog to congratulate you on your assumption of the 

 editorial chair of a publication whose object is t* sup- 

 port and promote the moat important and prominent 

 interest of this great country, Aoriculture ; and 

 while I congratulate you, I feel that I may with equal 

 justice, congi-atidato the agricultural community on 

 the a.ssumption of this iinportant office by one who, 

 sensibly ahve to all the mechanical and practical paits 

 of thw groat science, yet does not lose sight of that 

 mental part of it which is beginning to be developed by 

 the writings and studies of men of the most cultivated 

 intellect of the present day. 



It will be readily imagined that I refer chiefly to 

 those scientific principles of agriculture, the discovery 

 of some of wliich, and the stability imparted to others 

 which had been already broached, will forever reflect 

 honor on the name of Liebig. 



These principles arc not only receiving daily confir- 

 mation by the labors of science in every civilized coun- 

 try, but are also being considerably extended; and as 

 utility is the foundation of all the recent researches on 

 this subject, itisahnost certam that the results of many 

 of them must be of incalculable advantage to the 

 farmer. 



In an admirable discourse lately delivered before the 

 School of Medicine at Paris, Mr. Dumas has discus- 

 sed witli singular ability, the science of the vegetable 



kingdom : with the assistance of tliis and many of the 

 principles developed by Liebi^<T, I propose to address a 

 few letters to the farmers of the United States, cliiefly 

 with the view of enabling them to underst;ind not only 

 these new views, but to follow and judge for them- 

 selves of the application of many future principles 

 which are certain to be hereafter developed, perhaps 

 in rapid succession, from the immense labor now be- 

 stowed on the subject. 



y It is a task, however, which I approach with much 

 j doubt, not, perhaps, so much from want of understand- 

 ing as from a want of power to explain with sufficient 

 simplicity and clearnes.s, a scientific object to unscien- 

 tific minds. Should I succeed in enUghtening a few, 

 my pleasure will be great; should I fail, it is only in an 

 object where thousandj have failed before me. 



The subject proposed is a brief account of vegetation, 

 its wants, and the means of supplying those wants. 



There are a few names in science which require a 

 simple and popular explanation, as these names repre- 

 sent substances of which vegetables ai'o composed and 

 on which they are nomishcd. The first IsCardon' — 

 a solid substance of which the solid parts of vegetables 

 are cluelly composed. When tliis carbon is combined 

 with a gas called oxygen, it also takes the form of a 

 gas, which is called Carbonic acid gas. All the car- 

 bon of which a plant is composed is taken lip by the 

 plant in the form of this Carbonic acid gas ; the plant 

 by its action, separates the oxygen from it, and retains 

 the sohd carbon ; these additions of carbon constitute 

 the growth of the plant, — hence the necessity of a 

 sufficient supply of Carbonic acid gas, which is not 

 only dispersed through the atmosphere in great plenty 

 by the respiration of man and animals, but is also 

 formed, according to Liebig, during the def omposition 

 of humus or geine. 



The next is Azote or Nitrogen — a gas forming 

 part of a substance called aimnonia, or rather of a salt 

 of ammonium, as well as also, of salts called nitrates; 

 this is chiefly used by vegetables in the very early for- 

 mation of all their solid parts before the complete depo- 

 sition of carbon from the carbonic acid. 



Then HycROGES" — a gas which, combined with 

 oxygen, forms water; from the decomposition of water 

 the vegetable obtains its hydrogen gas, which is used 

 by it in the cornposition of the fat and volatile oils and 

 resins which abound in many plants and seeds, and in 

 the bright waxy varnish with which many leaves are 

 covered. 



Oxygen, also a gas — this and hydrogen gas mixed 

 form water, this and carbon mixed fonn carbonic acid 

 gas. Oxygen gas is absolutely necessary for the res- 

 piration of man and animak ; they consume it hourly 

 in large quantities — plants supply it to the air by sepa- 

 ratmg it from carbonic acid when they want the car- 

 bon, and from water when they want the hydrogen of 

 water. Besides these substances, the ashes of plants 

 when burned, contain potash, soda, lime, silex, &c., 

 these are taken up by the roots as watory solutions, 

 and after due evaporation of the water through the 

 pores of the leaves, are left in the plants. 



Some plants require soda, others potash, others Ume, 

 and others silex ; some require one, two or three of 

 these substances in order to flourish luxuriantly. 



We have then, to deal with a vegetable organized 

 out of Carbon, Azote, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and the 

 watery solutions of soda, lime, potash and silex, and 

 from these few substances combined in difjerent pro- 

 portions among themselves, all tho various pieces, 

 gums, stems, leaves, seeds, &c., of plants are formed. 



It will be, therefore, of use to consider these sub- 

 stances separately, and to explain the modo of opera- 

 tion of each in the vegetable system, beginning with 



CARBON. — It has been stated that the carbon re- 

 quired by plants, is obtained entirely by the decompo- 

 sition of carbonic acid, cflccted by the powers of the 



plant itself — that this carbonic acid is derived chiefly 

 from the atmosphere is considered to be proved by 

 manyexperimentSjparlicularly by one of Boussingault, 

 who sowed pease in pure sand and watered them with 

 distilled water; in neither of these could there exist 

 carlionic acid, yet they attained perfect developcmcnt 

 both of flower and fruit. He also inclosed vino leaves 

 in a globe of glass, and then directed a stream of air 

 upon them, from which they abstracted all the carbonic 

 acid. In both these cases the carbon used by the veg- 

 etable was taken from the atmosphere. It is, besides, 

 considered impossible that the earth surrounding a 

 large oak tree, for example, should ever have contained 

 a ten thousandth part of the carbon contained in the 

 tree, so that the chief part of it must have been derived 

 from the atmosphere. 



When this carbonic acid is exposed to light in the 

 leaves, it ports with its oxygen, the carbon remains 

 beliind in the solid shape of wood, vegetable fibre, 

 cells, and various other forms, requiring for this pur- 

 pose simple admixture with water. If twelve parts, 

 called mokcuks* o{ carbonic acid are decomposed and 

 lose their oxygen, they are combined with ten parts or 

 molecules of water, and of this mixture is formed cellu- 

 lar and woo<ly tissue, starch, and dextiinc. 



These substances are then of the same constituents, 

 only they possess a different arrangement of their mole- 

 cules, 



Woody fibre, as well known, is insoluble; 

 Starch coagulates by heat ; 

 Dextrine is soluble in water ; 



And yet these substances are produced by the same 

 elements, combined in the same proportions, only dif- 

 fering in the an'angement of their mpleculcs. The 

 use of Woody fibre is well known ; starch is accumula- 

 ted around buds and the embryos in seeds for their 

 early nourishment; and dextrine is a watery solution 

 conveyed by the sap to all parts of plants for its use. 



How admirable the simplicity of nature, which out 

 of the same substance can form three different ones, 

 which can be converted into each other with the slight- 

 est expense of force, in changing the arrangement of 

 theu' molecules. 



It is also by means of carbon and water that thp 

 sugary or saccharine juices of plants are formed j 

 twelve molecules of carbon and eleven of water, con- 

 stitute the sugar of the cane which chrystalises; 

 twelve molecules of carbon and fifteen of water, con- 

 stitute the sugar of the grape which will not chrys- 

 talise. 

 These woody, amylaceous, (starch) gummy, (dextrine) 

 and saccharine (sugar) matters which carbon, in its 

 nascent state, can produce by uniting with water, play 

 so important a part in the life of plants that, when 

 rightly considered, it is not difficult to estimate the val- 

 ue of truly understanding the decomposition by plants 

 of carbonic acid, which, as is justly obser\'ed, is fur- 

 nished in various ways by nature in such abundance aa 

 not to require tlie care of the cultivator. 



Man, and all animals, cOfisume a large quantity of 

 carbon by slow combustion. The products of the 

 combustion of carbon, whether quick, as when char- 

 coal or anthracite coal, which are only other forms of 

 carbon, are burnt, or slow as when consumed by man 

 and animals, are heat and carbonic acid : the heat pro- 

 duced by the combustion of charcoal or coal, is well 

 known; that produced by the combustion of carbon in 

 the animal frame, is the heat of the body. Man and 

 animals respire and breathe out, therefore, constantly a, 

 large quantity of carbonic acid, being the product of 

 their slow combustion of carbon, this carbonic acid is 

 taken up by plants, the carbon of it forming their 

 growth and a portion of their organized parts, the 



*A moiecule may be explained as ttie BDiallest atom into 

 tvliich a simple or elementary body is supposed lo be capa- 

 ble of being divided, and wliich many philoBophers theoret- 

 ically consider as bslng of certain definite forms. 



