686 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



enterprise not at all difficult to carry out, 

 by a proper combination ot knowledge, 

 skill and pecuniary means. I am more 

 and more convinced that no one thing 

 would so greatly contribute to increase and 

 maintain the productiveness of our fields, 

 as a thorough knowledge and application 

 of the principles that are stated or sug- 

 gested in the previous pages. We should 

 thereby secure the proper basis for the 

 chemical melioration of the soil by means 

 of manures, and as thus one most fruitful 

 source of the failure of fertilizers would 

 be removed, we should have reason to 

 hope that the vexed question concerning 

 them would be brought to a solution, and 

 out of the present confusion of agricultu- 

 ral opinions and practices, would be evol- 

 ved a system having in it some signs of 

 harmony and completeness. 



Thai between these different characters 

 of the soil and circumstances in which it 

 may be found an intimate connection ex- 

 ists, is perfectly obvious. In these pages 

 the writer has endeavored to show this 

 connection to a sufficient extent ; much 

 more, however, might l)e written regard 

 ing it — much space might also be occupied 

 with the discussion of the characteristics 

 of special soils, but it would be necessary 

 in so doing, in the deficiency of experi- 

 mental data, to trust more to speculation 

 than is desirable in cases complicated with 

 so many comlitions. The subject is there- 

 fore commended to the careful study of 

 the j'armer, in full confidence that he will 

 here and there be able to derive practical 

 benefit from it. In conclusion it must not 

 be neglected to repeat, that in addition to 

 these physical characters, the chemical 

 properties and relations of the soil (includ- 

 ing the theory of manures), are concern- 

 ed in determining the fertility of soils, and 

 a comprehensive view of the whole sub- 

 ject is indispensable to the highest success 

 in making a practical application of sci- 

 ence. 



For the full elucidation of the chemis- 

 try of 'the soil, and for the theory of tho.-e 

 mechanical operations, as drainage and 

 tillage, which, serving greatly to improve 

 the physical condition of soils, also mate- 

 rially influence its chemical character, the 

 reader is referred t j Johnston's " Lectures 

 on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology," 

 or to Stoeckhardt's " Chemical Field Lec- 

 tures." I 



Boes Sunshine tend to Extinguish Fire? 



The common opinion that the sun shi- 

 ning on a fire tends to extinguish it, and 

 that consequently the embers must be 

 shaded, if we would preserve them alive 

 in a fire place, was made the subject of 

 experiment in the year 1825 by Dr. Thomas 

 McKeever, of England, and the results 

 seemed to show a real foundation for the 

 opinion that solar light does actually retard 

 the process of combustion. These results 

 were copied by the contemporary scientific 

 journals, and even the great Gersnan 

 chemist, Leopold Gemelin, in his Hand- 

 book of Chemistry, announces Dr. McKee- 

 ver's conclusions, without expressing any 

 misgivings in relation to their accuracy. 

 Sunshineis an agentwhichiscertainly capa- 

 ble of producing very remarkable effects; 

 but the disagreement of this with other 

 facts, has recently led Dr. John LeConte. 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 

 South Carolina College, to repeat the ex- 

 periments of McKeever, but using greater 

 care; and the results obtained, as detailed 

 by him at the late meeting at Montreal, 

 tend to overthrow the idea, and prove that 

 light has no influence whatever on the rate 

 of combustion. 



The fire employed in both the sets of 

 experiments was simply a wax candle. 

 McKeever found it to burn about 12 per 

 cent faster in the dark; but LeConte finds 

 the light of the sun, even when concen- 

 trated by a large lens produces no effect 

 except by heating. If the air in the dark 

 be heated to the same extent, and the air in 

 each case be kept equally quiet, the can- 

 dle burns at precisely the same rate. 

 McKeever's experiments indicated that the 

 candle burned from 5 to 11 per cent faster 

 in the dark than in common sunshine. He 

 supposed that the chemical rays exercised 

 a'deoxidizing power which, to some extent, 

 interfered with the rapid oxydation of the 

 combustible matter, and by trying the 

 candle in different parts of the colored 

 spectrum (produced by decomposing a ray 

 of light in passing it through a prism,) his 

 experiments appeared to indicate that a 

 taper burned more rapidly in the red than 

 in the violent extremity of the solar spec- 

 trum. 



The whole subject cannot as yet be con- 

 sidered definitely settled, as the recent 

 paper is regarded as merely prelimiinary 



