Elements of Soil. 17 1 
ELEMENTS OF SOIL. 
BY DR. E. EMMONS. 
Of the fifty-eight elements of matter, only about fifteen enter 
into the composition of vegetables, if we disregard marine plants. 
These fifteen elements are all found in soils, and are all necessary 
and essential parts of it. Each may be said to have its peculiar 
function: it may be entirely useless so far as it is considered an 
element of a particular vegetable, but highly important in impart- 
ing a certain condition to the soil. The office of these elements 
is two fold: first, as performing a specific function in the organi- 
zation of a living body; and secondly, as giving a particular 
state or condition to the soil: the first office is vital, the second 
mechanical. 
We have been considering elements, by which is usually meant 
a simple undecomposed body, as iron, gold, silver, oxygen, chlo- 
rine. This is not the state, however, in which they enter into 
the soil, or into plants; in their uncombined state, they are unsuit- 
ed to either place. Hence we always find iron combined with 
some other element; and so also of sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, 
carbon, etc. The diamond, (pure chrystalized carbon,) reduced 
to an impalpable powder, would be totally valueless as food for 
plants. Oxygen must at least be diluted with nitrogen, else it 
destroys rather than promotes the healthy functions of organic 
bodies; and as respects nitrogen by itself, we have no proof that 
it is ever received into the constitution of an organic body. We 
shall therefore consider the elements of soil in their compound 
state. Elements in this state act as simple bodies; they are homo- 
geneous; and when they enter into combination, it has the force 
of a simple substance. Every particle, however minute it may 
be conceived to be, is still composed of the same matter. In car- 
bonic acid, the pure carbon of the particle is inert: it is the oxy- 
gen which combines and brings about the result. 
The elements, as now explained, may be divided into two 
classes: 1. Those which are essential to all organized bodies, and 
hence are called organic elements; and 2. Those which compose 
the inorganic world, and hence have received the name of inor- 
ganic matter. The first class number only four elements, namely, 
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon. The second class com- 
prises eleven elements, namely, silex, alumina, lime, magnesia, 
potash, soda, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, iron, and perhaps 
manganese. 
Oxygen. When free it is a gas, or an invisible aeriform body. 
Its weight is a little greater than that of atmospheric air. Its 
