THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



165 



mosphere. While Liebig and Boussingault, gene- 

 rally regarded as higher authorities, estimate the 

 proportion derived from the soil to be very small, 

 much less than a third ; at any rate the respective 

 amounts of this element, which are derived from 

 the different sources of supply, are questionable, 

 the definitive proportions having never been accu- 

 rately determined. Nor does Mr. E. attempt to set- 

 tle this point of controversy among agricultural 

 chemists ; but contents himself with giving us a 

 very correct and concise summary of all the facts 

 which the recent progress of science has brought 

 to light, in its relations with this department of 

 agriculture. 



• Having finished his critique upon carbon, he 

 proceeds to expose the errors of a plan, proposed 

 in the address, for improving a compost heap. 

 The plan suggests the interposition of plaster, marl 

 and ashes, between the different layers of the ma- 

 terials of a farm-pen, as an auxiliary means of pro- 

 moting the fixation of ammonia, and of improving, 

 to some extent, the quality of the manure. The 

 review admits that the plaster and marl would be 

 conducive to this end, and so would leached ashes, 

 " but if the ashes be unleached or caustic, the car- 

 bonic acid of the carbonate of ammonia (in Avhich 

 form the ammonia is combined) having an elective 

 affinity for the potash, will unite with it, forming 

 the carbonate of potash, and instead of fixing, will 

 liberate the ammonia, and injure rather than im- 

 prove the quality of the manure." 



We beg leave to dissent from this explanation of 

 the abstruse laws of chemistry, upon which such a 

 result is made to depend ; until it has been shown 

 by a more conclusive method of reasoning, that 

 such would be the effect of an alkaline carbonate 

 under the circumstances indicated. For we attri- 

 bute to the presence of potash, an agency directly 

 the reverse of. that assigned to it, and are support- 

 ed in this view by the authority of Johnston, Mul- 

 der and Boussingault. These writers affirm as the 

 results of their experiments, that decomposing 

 manure-heaps, containing ashes, (caustic ashes,) 

 not only have the power of retaining all the ammo- 

 nia and nitric acid, resulting from the decomposi- 

 tion of the materials placed in compost, but also 

 of drawing upon the atmosphere for an additional 

 supply of its free nitrogen. Composts thus formed 

 are found, after the lapse of a few months, to con- 

 tain more nitrogen than was contained in all the 

 substances composing the heap at the time of its 

 construction. 



The mere heaping together, however, of the or- 

 dinary materials of a farm-pen, is not sufficient to 

 retain the nitrogen evolved from decaying organic 

 matter, much less to attract an additional quantity 

 of this element from the atmosphere. To accom- 

 plish this object, it is requisite that a calcareous 

 or alkaline carbonate should be interposed between 

 the layers of the decomposing materials. A proper 

 admixture of caustic ashes and ordinary farm-yard 

 manure constitutes the essential conditions of an 

 artificial nitre -bed. The ashes furnish the neces- 

 sary alkaline carbonate, and from the decomposing 

 compost oxygen is evolved, which, in its nascent 

 state, is capable of uniting with the azote of the 

 air to form nitric acid ; and this combination con- 

 tinues to be formed at the expense of the free ni- 

 trogen of the atmosphere, as long as potash is pre- 

 sent to combine with the nitric acid thus produced 

 to form the nitrate of potash. Artificial nitre-beds, 

 constructed upon this principle, are common in 

 France and some other countries of continental 



Europe, and the saltpetre thus produced is suffi- 

 cient in amount (when separated from the other 

 salts usually found with it, such as the nitrate of 

 soda, nitrate of ammonia, &c.) to make it a profit- 

 able article of commerce. 



Having concluded his strictures on the philoso- 

 phy of composts, the reviewer now approaches the 

 great and radical error of the address — " the as- 

 tounding theory ! — the oddity let loose !" What 

 constitutes this great and fundamental difference 

 between Mr. E. and his reviewer'? We imagine 

 that the reader will experience a risible sensation, 

 which it may require some effort to suppress, when 

 he is informed that it consists in the assumption 

 on the part of the address, " that a ton of wheat 

 straw must be regarded as containing a larger 

 amount of enriching elements before being fed to 

 cattle than after the process of digestion." To this 

 assumption the reviewer responds in the following 

 language : " Here it strikes me, I. say it respectful- 

 ly, is an oddity let loose — a theory run mad!" 

 Were it merely a question of convenience, or of 

 economizing labor, he says that they might agree ; 

 " but when it involves the point of superior fertil- 

 izing power, we are as opposite as the poles." We 

 see, then, that there is a violent repulsion between 

 the address and the review, so violent that they 

 are repelled unto the opposite extremes of the 

 earth, the one being in the arctic circle, the other 

 is repelled into the antarctic circle. As heretofore, 

 we are again constrained to take our position by 

 the side of Mr. E., with the whole breadth of our 

 planet interposed between us and his reviewer. 

 Having indulged in these emphatic expressions of 

 surprise and astonishment, excited by the assump- 

 tion, that a ton of wheat straw possesses more fer- 

 tilizing power before being fed to cattle than after 

 the process of digestion, the reviewer proceeds to 

 demonstrate its absurdity. He bases his demon- 

 strations upon data furnished by the analyses of 

 Boussingault, Johnston and Von-Thaer ; and proves, 

 by a series of elaborate calculations, that the ex- 

 cretions of a cow fed upon wheat straw, contain 

 nearly seven times as much nitrogen as an equal 

 quantity of straw not fed away. In other words, 

 he shows by figures, (which cannot err,) that a ton 

 of wheat straw in the undigested state, contains 

 only 6 pounds of nitrogen, while the solid and li- 

 quid excrements of a cow, collected during the 

 consumption of a ton of the same substance, con- 

 tain no less than 47 pounds of this fertilizing ele- 

 ment — being a gain of 41 pounds in the dejections, 

 against 6 pounds in the undigested straw. " Here, 

 then," says the reviewer, " are 41 pounds of nitro- 

 gen, the chief fertilizing ingredient of manure, 

 lost to the farmer by carrying out the straw undi- 

 gested." 



If there were no error in the calculations by 

 which he arrived at this singular result, the dis- 

 covery would be of vast importance to agriculture, 

 and would multiply the resources of all the tillers 

 of the earth in a seven-fold degree. For it is the 

 only method yet discovered by which nitrogen, 

 (the most important element in the composition of 

 the food of man and animals, as well as the chief 

 fertilizing agent of putrescent manures,) can be 

 created in any amount — no other having ever suc- 

 ceeded in producing the minutest quantity. But 

 by this process, that is, by feeding cows upon wheat 

 straw, it is not only produced in considerable quan- 

 tities, but with great rapidity. Should it be ob- 

 jected, that no animal is capable of creating nitro- 

 gen by the reviewer's method, then we ask from 



