552 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



body of snow during four months of the 

 year succeeding a fruitful season ? Here 

 is matter for inquiry and reflection, fellow- 

 farmer. How wonderful!}' accurate is the 

 action of God's ^reat laws of compensa- 

 tion — of supply and demand ! 



We have hitherto been talking of the 

 07'ganic parts of plants — those parts that 

 burn away, of which nothing visible re- 

 mains after combustion. Those parts which 

 remain in the form of ashes are called the 

 inorganic — are derived by the plant from 

 the earth, and when the plant is decayed 

 become earth again — were obtained from 

 the soil, and have become soil again by 

 combustion. The inorganic parts of plants 

 are in small proportion to the organic, and 

 yet they are numerically greater. 



Let the reader remember that carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen are the 

 four kinds of matter comprising the greater 

 and organic portions of the plants ; and 

 yet the inorganic portion, though smaller, 

 consists of nine or ten different parts. 

 We are now to consider these. We may 

 learn something new, and digressions will 

 be in order if we find it for the interest of 

 the reader to extend our science to its 

 practical application. It involves the ma- 

 nure question at every point, and here we 

 may discover, possibly, whether the rich 

 and so-called exhaustless (/) virgin soil of 

 the prairies, will need to be prostituted by 

 the application of the foul stuff called 

 barn -yard manure. 



Burn a plant, a mass of weeds, a stack 

 of wheat or other straw, reader, and how 

 little of it is left! this you have noticed. 

 How small in proportion to the bulk con- 

 sumed, and the bulk of ashes that remain ! 

 This is the inorganic part; very seldom 

 amounts to twelve or fifteen per cent, of 

 the weight of the vegetable substance 

 burned If it be straw you have burned, 

 the weight of the ashes will seldom ex- 

 ceed four or five per cent, of the weight 

 of the straw consumed. Yet this part of 

 the plant is as important as any other, 

 comes from the soil and must exist in the 

 soil, so that the plant may take up the 

 proportions required in its structure — in 

 its growth. 



Burn a ton of straw, weigh the ashes, 

 and you, who return nothing to your fields 

 in the shape of manure, estimate the 

 amount of inorganic matter you take from 

 your farm annuall}', saying nothing of the, 



ashes, or inorganic part of the grain the 

 straw yields. How long can you co-n- 

 tinue to crop your land without impover- 

 ishing it, by this no-return process? We 

 want you to have time to ponder upon the 

 figui-es you may make, by calculating that 

 five( per cent, of every ton of wheat-straw 

 you take from your farm is actually taken 

 from the soil, and must be supj)lied in 

 some manner, and if you are not supplying 

 it, you are growing poorer. Let the figures 

 tell you how fast you are growing poorer. 

 When you have aroused yourself from the 

 stupor of insensibility, you will be in fit mood 

 to search into the character of these several 

 inorganic parts of plants; for it is not re- 

 garded by moderns as " stealing trash" to 

 steal our purse. 



Having sufficiently pondered on the 

 amount of inorganic matter taken from 

 the soil in every ton of straw, and which 

 must be replaced or the soil is constantly 

 impoverished, let us inquire what are these 

 inorganic parts? Potash is an alkali — one 

 of the four alkalies found in the ashes of 

 plants. It is found in most plants. Fill 

 a barrel with wood ashes, and leach witlj 

 water — the ley contains the potash of the 

 ashes. The pearlash of commerce is only 

 potash and carbonic acid, a union of the 

 two produced by the exposure of the former 

 to the air, and if the quantity of carbonic 

 acid is increased, saleratus is the result. 



Many of our readers, perhaps, have had 

 experience in the manufacture of pearl- 

 ash. In early days, when the heavy for- 

 ests of the North and East were being 

 cleared, it was no unusual thing for the 

 settler to turn a penny by the rustic man- 

 ufacture of this alkali into an article of 

 commerce. We have not unfrequently 

 I found it in the large open fire-places of the 

 I borderers, and secured it for the good 

 j dame's use, by using the "poker" amon^ 

 the ashes. 



! Plants, trees, and animals require pot- 

 ash in their construction. Hence it must 

 be found in the soil, and supplied if crop- 

 ping has diminished the supply. 



The importance of this supply in the 

 'soil will be seen when the reader under- 

 stands that every acre of wheat ab- 

 ! sorbs over thirty-two pounds of potash 

 I from the soil, barley over sixty-eight 

 pounds, red clover over one hundred and 

 forty four.pounds, and other common crops 

 in different proportions. How is it to be 



