442 The Neglect of Chemistry by Practical Farmers. 



and was not published till the commencement of this present year, 

 in the ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture ;' but by some means or 

 other he has, I think, made a serious error, in calculating from 

 his results the quantity contained in an acre, which I have taken 

 the liberty of correcting in this table. 



In those analyses, when the amount of alumina greatly exceeds 

 that found in similar soils, it may generally be inferred that the 

 portion of the soil insoluble in acids has been submitted to 

 analysis, which would also probably increase the relative amount 

 of the other constituents when compared with other soils ; but in 

 the majority of cases in these tables the matter insoluble in acids 

 is included with the sand and silica. 



In the second series of soils I have collected too:ether various 

 analyses that bear upon particular questions of interest to farmers, 

 in order to see whether any light would be thrown upon them by 

 chemistry, as they have confessedly puzzled all practical farmers. 

 But, for the reasons stated above with respect to the method of 

 analysis adopted by chemists, should but little light be thrown 

 upon these subjects by the analyses in question, chemistry must 

 not rashly be condemned. The soils formed from disintegrated 

 rocks are interesting, as showing the relation that exists between 

 the original rocks (by reference to that table) and the soils formed 

 from them. 



Table Q. — This last table is intended to show, by an example, 

 the practical use to which the collection of analyses contained 

 in these tables may be applied. 



The question asked in this case was, " What amount of oil- 

 cake, per acre, must be annually purchased in order to supply the 

 loss of mineral ingredients incurred by the sale of all the grain 

 only, when either of the rotations mentioned in the table are fol- 

 lowed, no other manure being purchased ?" 



The answer obtained is, that 5 cwt. per acre would amply 

 supply the loss of mineral ingredients incurred in either case. 



But let it be understood that by this example I do not mean to 

 infer that it would be necessary to import that quantity of oilcake 

 upon a farm in order to maintain its fertility ; this is a question 

 only to be determined by practice in the present state of our 

 knowledge, since the amount of active ingredients stored in the 

 soil may vary immensely on different farms ; and for that reason 

 I have in this example placed at the head of it the quantity of 

 soluble ingredients contained in one acre of a soil, on which the 

 application of alkaline salts alone was found not of the slightest 

 service to the crops, whilst the soluble phosphates, applied in 

 the shape of bones dissolved in sulphuric acid, exerted the greatest 

 influence on the crop, which consisted of hybrid turnips, as by 



