CHAPTER II. 



ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 



GENERAL. REMARKS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASH OF PLANTS, AND ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF 

 THE ELEMENTS OF PLANTS. PREPARATION OF THE ASH FOR ANALYSIS. MODE OF ANALYSIS : INORGANIC 

 AND ORGANIC. ANALYSIS OF SEVERAL KINDS OF POTATOES IN COMMON USE ; TOMATO. ROOT CROPS : CARROTj 

 BEET, RUTA BAG A, SWEET POTATO, CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE POTATO. 



The analysis of the cultivated, as well as of those vegetables which grow without culti- 

 vation, is a necessary work, and is especially promotive of agriculture in its present state. 

 Modes of culture, preparation of the soil, and treatment of the growing crop, have reached 

 a very perfect stage, and but little more can be expected from methods which are usually 

 called improved. It has now become interesting to inquire how the produce may be in- 

 creased, by improving the quality and excellence of the crop, by a systematic application 

 of matters which the crop requires^ by administering them in new modes and forms, and 

 at times more in accordance with the period when peculiar elements are deposited in the 

 seeds, grains or straw. 



The possibility of bringing about improved results from the modes here alluded to, rests 

 upon experimental knowledge of the constitution of the bodies we have under culture, and 

 also upon the progressive changes and progressive accumulation of nutritive matter during 

 the periods of growth. We obtain the knowledge necessary to secure the ends in view, 

 by the analysis of the ash of the perfect and mature plant, and by successive analyses 

 during its progress to maturity. 



That the inorganic matters vary at the different stages of growth, is now well established ; 

 that organs differ in composition, and that the same may be said of parts, is no longer to 

 be questioned. I shall maintain that these variations are not accidentally produced, but 

 are results founded upon a law which regulates the distribution, and directs the final de- 

 stination, of every particle of nutritive matter received into the tissues of; a vegetable. If 

 the distribution of nutritive matter had been left to chance, we might as frequently find 

 the gluten and casein in the straw and chaff, as in the grains ; the phosphates of magnesia, 

 lime, etc. in the chaff, rather than in the kernel. Such a result has never been met with ; 

 the kernel being known as the principal storehouse of food, from the experience of the 

 whole cycle of ages which has elapsed since their cultivation and use by man. 



This law is one which may be expressed, so far as direction is concerned, by an upward 



