360 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [1791, 792, 79& 



Without Carbonic Acid. 



Silica, with a few grains of sand .... 61.071 65.242 



Potash 5.118 5.530 



Soda 0.390 0.416 



Lime 13.004 13.860 



Magnesia 4.886 5.208 



Brown Oxide of Manganese 1.577 1.681 



Peroxide of Iron 0.132 0.141 



Alumina 4.299 4.539 



Phosphoric Acid 1.083 1.154 



Sulphuric Acid 0.839 0.894 



Chloride of Potassium 1.388 1.479 



Carbonic Acid 6.328 



100.148 100.148 



791. This analysis shows the Pine Straw to contain notable quantities of all 

 the mineral ingredients required by useful crops, there being a remarkable 

 deficiency only of Soda. The conclusion is therefore inevitable, that by means 

 •f Pine Straw properly applied, we can replace the drain on the soil caused by 

 crops. Taking for instance, the ingredients withdrawn from the soil by a 400 ft> 

 bale of cotton lint (if 490), we shall find that the potash and phosphoric acid 

 contained in the latter will be returned to the soil in about 1400 pounds of Pine 

 straw, while of the other ingredients, except soda and chlorine, even a surplus 

 will thus be given back. It would therefore appear that the producing powers 

 of a field for cotton could be sustained, and the soil even improved, if for every 

 bale of cotton raised we should return to it 14 to 1500 pounds of Pine Straw, 

 and a few handfuls of common salt ; provided only, that the stalk and seed be 

 conscientiously returned (1T490, ff.). 



792. The replacement of the drain caused by cropping with corn, wheat, and 

 oats, would require a somewhat larger amount of straw, and the addition, 

 besides the salt, of 10 to 25 pounds of superpliospate of lime; while the 

 replacement of the ingredients of the sweet potato, to which these soils arc found 

 to be best adapted, would be effected by straw with a larger dose of common 

 salt than that required by cotton — say ten or twelve pounds to each ton of 

 straw; the quantity required for replacement being, however, in all the cases 

 Mentioned, considerably greater than in the case of cotton, when the seed and 

 stalk are returned (1T490) — it being understood in all these cases, that the 

 freshly fallen straw is referred to ; for that which has lain on the ground,, 

 exposed to the weather for a length of time, has already lost a portion of its 

 nutritive ingredients. 



793. Mode of Applying Pine Straw to Land. — A great deal of the disappoint- 

 ment experienced in the use of Pine Straw, has no doubt been owing to the 

 manner of its application. The analysis shows that the idea current with some, 

 that Pine straw renders soils more sandy, is unfounded ; the 65 per cent, of 

 silex which the ash contains, could produce no effect of that kind in a soil con- 

 taining 93 per cent, of the same (If782). It is very evident, however, that in 

 the light, unretentive soils of the Long-leaf Pine Region, raw, undecayed straw 

 turned in, and that too by shallow plowing, will not be under circumstancss 

 favorable to its decay, and may increase the openness of the soil to an injurious 

 extent, while unable to promote its fertility by decay. The remedy, then, is 

 Tery simple ; the straw must be allowed to decay, before being plowed in, on the 

 compost pile ; and such substances as will promote decay, and among these 

 especially lime, or calcareous marls (^468), ashes, and the like (but not plaster 

 of Paris in any large quantity) ought to be mixed with it. Pine hollow muck, 

 marsh-mud, such clays as those at Burnett's Bluff (1f302), etc., will also be 

 useful in composting. 



