236 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Much of the standing grain was seven feet 

 high, and none of it lodged. In the process of 

 burning, all the ammonia in the wood was driven 

 off; that in the soil, to a certain depth, was 

 also expelled, and the rains which followed, dis- 

 solved the potash contained in the hundreds of 

 bushels of ashes. This potash set free much 

 of this ammonia in the soil; for wood ashes 

 contain the very alkalies which the chemist uses 

 in his analysis to separate the ammonia from 

 the other substances with which it is in combi- 

 nation. 



In the above named case there was a most 

 abundant supply of potash, and apparently a 

 scarcity of ammonia. Which of the two sub- 

 stances was the " solvent and vehicle" for sup- 

 plying the enormous quantity of silica required 

 for this large product of straw and grain? 

 Common sense, if interrogated, would answer 

 the probability is all on the side of the " potash 

 theory." 



On the banks of our rivers and smaller 

 streams we find the alluvial to the depth of 

 several feet made up almost entirely of silicious 

 sand, upon which is annually grown a fair crop 

 of red-top grass. This, when properly cured, 

 has the appearance of being the very first qua- 

 lity of fodder. But when fed to cattle in the 

 winter they reject it, and nothing but extreme 

 hunger will tempt them to eat it. The rejec- 

 tion is owing to the great amount of gritty or 

 silicious matter contained in the texture of 

 the stems and leaves. The soil, or alluvial, 

 forming the immediate banks of the streams 

 are made up of sand, which mostly consists of 

 particles of quartz, felspar and mica. The two 

 last contain silicates of potash and soda. In 

 the dry, hot weather of summer there is a rapid 

 evaporation of water from the depths of the 

 lower soil. This, as it rises through the po- 

 rous sand, dissolves the potash in the felspar 

 and mica. The potash, in turn, renders solu- 

 ble the silica, which being abundant, the grass 

 takes up so large a quantity, that it is rendered 

 hard and wiry, thus making it difficult for the 

 cattle to masticate it, while at the same time it 

 is innutritious and tasteless for lack of a due 

 proportion of organic matter — of nitrogen, in 

 particular. 



There can be no question but that ammonia 

 freely applied to such soil, would not only add 

 to the growth of the grass, but vastly add to 

 its nutritive qualities. Professor Way has 

 shown by his experiments that sand does not 

 possess the power of fixing the salts and gases 

 of manures; and, by the same rule, it does not 

 possess the faculty of fixing the ammonia that 

 fall in the rains. But, admitting Mr. H.'s po- 

 sition, these embankments ought to contain the 



greatest amount of ammonia in order to afford 

 so abundant a supply of soluble silex ! 



In the case above cited (and the facts can be 

 proved by hundreds of our farmers) the chances 

 are again altogether in favor of the "potash 

 theory." 



In Silliman's Journal for July, 1852, 1 find 

 a paper on the analysis and character of the 

 soil in the Scioto Valley, Ohio, by David Wells, 

 of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He examined 

 a soil which "has been cultivated fifty-one 

 ( years; forty-five crops of corn and two or three 

 of wheat have been taken off from it : it has 

 also been a few years in grass or clover. It 

 has scarcely diminished in fertility, and now, 

 with the most ordinary culture, yields, on an 

 average, one year with another, eighty bushels 

 of corn to the acre," and all this without ma- 

 nuring. What an amount of ammonia must 

 have been fixed in the fodder and grain of these 

 fifty-one years cropping ? And for every pound 

 of ammonia fixed in the plant there was a de- 

 struction — so says this new theory — of at least 

 five pounds of ammonia ! It strikes one that 

 this soil must have originally contained more 

 ammonia than Dr. Krocker ever" - talked about ; 

 and that the rains must have anftually brought 

 down to each acre more than Liebig ever 

 dreamed* of. Will Mr. Harris explain this 

 matter ? Will he inform us from what source 

 or sources this inexhaustible supply of ammo- 

 nia has been derived? 



The scouring rush (gun-bright) and mares- 

 tail (equisetum) are plants that grow most lux- 

 uriantly in wet, silicious or sandy soils. The 

 plants, when mature, dry, and carefully burned, 

 leave from eighteen to twenty per cent, of ash, 

 mostly silica. How much ammonia does it 

 require to dissolve and convey twenty pounds 

 silica from the soil into these plants? Mr. 

 Lawes, in some of his experimental plots of 

 ground, applied at the same time 300 pounds 

 of potash, 200 pounds of soda and 150 pounds, 

 each of sulphate and muriate of ammonia. 

 Potash and soda are each stronger alkalies, 

 and possess «iuch greater solvent powers over 

 organic or inorganic matter, than ammonia. 

 Now did the wheat plant take from the soil 

 only such silica as was dissolved by the ammo- 

 nia, and reject that dissolved by the potash and 

 soda ? Did it make use of the ammonia only 

 as the "vehicle" for conveying from the soil 

 all the silica required by the plant? If so, it 

 must be confessed the wheat plant possesses 

 very nice discriminating powers, indeed ! 



As a scientific and practical question, these 

 different theories have much interest, but should 

 the "new theory'* prove the true one, it will 

 also prove that Liebig, Johnson, Norton, Jack- 



