THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



00 



and which are found again in the ashes of plants, j ministers to the nourishment of the plants; bat if 

 are thei? true food; that they are the conditions of this artificial supply of ammonia is not given, they 

 vegetable life." can derive all the required- nitrogen from the at- 



mosphere." — Ibid 517. 



These quotations require no comments Mr. 

 Lawes is severely censured for supposing that 

 Liebig taught that theory which ascribes the 

 effect and value of manures to the inorganic 

 constituents of plants which they contain. 

 Liebig thinks Mr. Lawes has read only one 

 sentence of his book, and misund 

 one. Let us see, therefore, 

 or to mean. 



"The fertilizing power of manure can he deter- 

 mined by weight, as its effect. is in direct ratio io its 

 am<nmi fa the mineral dements of ike food of pla.Us." 



This is certainly explicit. The following argu- 

 ment is to the same effect : 



"jf these elements (the ashes x>£ plants) a*'e pres- 

 nfieient quantity and in appropriate pro- 



cnt in i 

 portior 

 render 

 acid ar 

 naustn 

 eleinec 

 Qrsants 



the soj 



V.OWi 



contains the 



sapabic of absorbing ca 

 from the air, w hich is an 

 se for thepi, and render* 

 of being assimilated by 



□on 

 ine: 

 the 

 the 



solid, and it 

 be increased 

 I one, 'such as 

 •us plants a; 



the elenn 

 But its ferti 

 •apply of ani 

 not only rem; 

 by a stinnl\ 



01 



the 

 2ta- 



I other i 

 is/ies. Asnes represent the w-iole 

 ich vegetables receive from the soil, 

 em in sufficient quantities to our 

 ve to the plants growing on them 

 idenslng and absorbing carbon and 



the effect of the solid and 

 k arc the ashes of plants and 

 lies are Liebig's] in the bo- 



Withdrawn, its fertility decreases, 

 remains uninij 

 excrement:!, fit 

 the same, but 

 mineral substa 

 combustion of 

 bles, namely, 

 nourishment w 

 By furnishing I 

 meadows, we ; 

 the power oi c 

 ■ nitrogen by their sur 

 "Must net, we as!< 

 fluid excrements, wh 

 grains hwrncd [the it 



• dies of animals and of man, he dependent .upon 



• the same cause? Must not the fertility resulting 

 from their application be, to a certain extent,* 

 independent of the ammonia they contain 1 Would 

 not the effect be precisely the same in promoting 

 the fertility of cultivated plants, if we had evapo- 

 rated the urine and dried and burned the solid 

 excrements before adding them to the soil 1 Sure- 

 ly the cerealia and leguminous plants which we 

 cultivate must derive their carbon and nitrogen 

 from the same source whence the graminea and 

 leguminous plants of the meadow obtain them. 

 No doubt can be entertained of their capability to 

 do so." Letters on Chemistry, last London edition, 

 page 514. 



''Nothing can be more certain than the fact that 

 an exportation of nitrogenized products does not 

 exhaust the fertility of a country ; inasmuch as it 

 is not the soil, but the atmosphere,. which furnishes 

 its vegetation with nitrogen. It follows, conse- 

 quently, that we cannot increase the fertility of our 

 fields by a supply of nitrogenized products, or by 

 salts of ammonia alone ;f but rather that their pro- 

 duce increases or diminishes in a direct ratio with the 

 supply of mineral elements capable of assimilation. 



• * * If we supply along with the ammonia all 

 the conditions necessary for its assimilation, it 



*Wc are now quoting from the lait edition of Liebig's 

 Familiar Letters on Chemistry, published in 1851, subse- 

 quent to the publication of Mr. Lawes' results. Thisqual- 

 if'ying clause, xoas not in the former editions, where the 

 sentence reads ''Should not the fertility resulting from their 

 application be altogether independent of the ammonia they 

 Contain? '' 



f tjere, again, this qualifying clause wag not in the for- 

 mer edition?, whir!) read — "We cannot increase the fer- 

 tility of our fields by a supply fit* nftfi ogenized manure, 

 or by salt of ammonia." The change of the word manure 

 to products isi also 



nderstpod that 

 tat others have 



tuersLC 

 Sulliv 



od Lit 



KB-, m 1 



mixtur 

 _obje< 



eiierjai 

 ensue 

 of an. 



gnifiiariti 



mnwies 07 tnc f arm- says : 

 ire of caustic lime with night soil 

 jcted to on the ground of the 

 .up Sition -which would thereby 

 5 consequent evolution and waste 

 1 gas; but we nave the high au- 

 :o:g for stating that the eSicaey 

 of human fceces as manure does not depend 

 on their ammonia or nitrogen. Hence, in de- 

 priving night soil of smell, we do not dimmish 

 its value as a fertilizer." In other words, dri- 

 ving off the ammonia of manure does not de- 

 crease its fertilizing value. 

 • Dr. We.* sen born, writing from Weimar to the 

 London Farmers' Magazine, vol. 15, 373 r 

 says: 



" The great rule ot Prof, Liebig's new system of 

 manuring is the following : Let the fields not be 

 manured with stable dung, nor with ariy sort of 

 dang whatever that contains organic (vec.elablc or 

 animal) substances along with its organic (mineral) 

 principles. This mineral manure the farmer has 

 to procure either by incinerating all the vegetable 

 substances that he has reaped, and which he can- 

 not profitably sell or consume on his farm, espe- 

 cially by burning the straw; or by applying to a 

 chemist with a view of having both he soil to be 

 manured and the ashes of plants to be cultivated 

 duly analysed, and of getting prepared, conforma- 

 bly to the result of such analyses, an artificial ma- 

 nure (mineral manure — manure of ashes) contain- 

 ing the very mineral food that the plant wants, and 

 that is not already contained in the ground. * * * 

 The farmer saves (by the new -system of manuring) 

 almost the whole of the expenditure for transport- 

 ing manure to the fields, as the weight of the mine- 

 ral manure he w r ants is only 28 percent, of that of 

 the stable dung hitherto used." 



In one of his lestures, Mr. Karkeek adverted 



"to the doctrine recently introduced by Prof. Lie- 

 big, which under estimated the influence of organic 

 manures in the soil and attached the more impor- 

 tance to the inorganic constituents of plants, by- 

 keeping a supply of which in the soil, he is of 

 opinion that the carbon and nitrogen which am 

 necessary for the growth of plants will be supplied 

 thr&ugh the atmosphere. This is a theorv altogether 

 opposed to the experiments which he (Mr. Kar- 

 keek) had placed before them that day, and it was 

 also opposed to Liebig's previous teaching ' — Far. 

 Mag., vol. xv. 20'). 



Prof. El N. Horsford while with Prof, Lic- 



/ 



