170 
MANURES — THE FOOD OF PLANTS. — NO. 2. 
MANURES— THE FOOD OF PLANTS.— No. 2. 
The known fact of the existence of the ten or 
eleven inorganic substances in good soils, that 
are always present in the ash of our cultivated 
crops, has led some prominent writer on agri- 
culture, to advance the doctrine, that the appli- 
cation to the soil of suitable portions of the in- 
organic food of plants — potash, soda, &c, were 
the only manures required to produce large 
crops, and keep up the fertility of the soil, and 
that the soil naturally contained, with that derived 
from the atmosphere, and rain and snow water, 
a full supply of the organic constituents, or food 
of plants, viz : carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and 
nitrogen, while others as confidently assert that 
the ammonia in farm manure, night soil, guano, 
&c, is the most important and valuable part of 
the manure. But I shall not here undertake to 
discuss these points, but would say to prac- 
tical farmers, that there are so many well-au- 
thenticated facts of the beneficial action of 
saline and mineral manures, in increasing the 
produce of various farm crops, that no farmer 
can run a very great risk in employing large 
quantities of them in his compost heap, where 
they can be obtained at cheap rates, for I speak 
from experience. 
There are thousands of farmers who reside 
near manufacturing and other villages, that 
could obtain refuse lime from bleacheries, paper 
mills, tan yards, old' lime mortar, oyster shells, 
&c. ; ashes, fresh and leached, from dwelling 
houses, soap works, potasheries, and other 
manufactories ; bones from slaughterhouses, 
or from those who extract the oil from the feet, 
and horn* piths from tanneries. These can be 
broken up, and dissolved in the oil of vitriol, 
and mixed in the compost heap, or they may be 
burned, and then easily broken and powdered, 
by the hammer. Bones supply to plants, phos- 
phate of lime, one of the most needed and im- 
portant substances required upon long culti- 
vated lands and old pastures. Salt and brine 
can frequently be obtained cheap, from stores 
where salt pork, mackerel and Other pickled 
fish are retailed. These will supply soda and 
chlorine. Gypsum furnishes sulphur and lime, 
and on the lines of most railroads can be had 
at a cheap rate. Iron, manganese, silex, and 
alumina are generally found in sufficient quan- 
tities in most soils, and they do not require 
artificial application. 
All the above-named substances should be 
mixed in compost, sometime before applying to 
the land, as there are various chemical changes 
effected in the compost heap, by the action of 
heat, moisture, and the agency of oxygen and 
ether gases, which partially or wholly decom- 
pose these mineral substances, and prepare 
them to be more readily taken up by the plants. 
But, important as ai-e these inorganic sub- 
stances, in the growth of plants, the great 
bulk of all plants and their" seeds are composed 
of four gaseous, elementary substances, viz: 
carbon, (in the shape of carbonic acid gas,) ox- 
ygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen; and they are 
termed the organic constituents of plants. 98 
per cent, of wheat, and 99-J- per cent, of fir wood 
is organic matter, which is dissipated and min- 
gles with the air when subjected to the process 
of burning. The investigations of Liebig and 
other agricultural chemists have proved that 
" by far the greater part, if not the whole of the 
organic growth of plants, is derived from the 
atmosphere. The absorption of carbonic acid 
by the leaf, which is perpetually going on dur- 
ing daylight, invisible as the process is to the 
naked eye, is the main source of that deposit 
which forms the visible bulk of the plant itself. 
Burn it, and the atmosphere takes back that which 
it gave, leaving behind in the form of ash that 
which it did not give. In the act of combustion, 
the earth and the air reclaim and receive their 
own respectively. The organic part returns to 
the latter, the inorganic to the former." The 
above quotation may be correct, as far as it ap- 
plies to the source from which forest trees and 
other natural or uncultivated plants obtain 
their organic elements. But by supplying our 
cultivated plants, (that seem to require a larger 
amount of nitrogen,) with these organic ele- 
ments in a more condensed form than they are 
found concentrated in good manure, their favor- 
able action in the increased growth of the 
plant is indisputable. 
The organic part of the manure, while under- 
going the process of decomposition in . the soil, 
is resolved into its proximate or ultimate ele-. 
ments, assuming a gaseous state. These gases 
form new combinations, and are soluble in the 
water of the soil, which are taken into the cir- 
culation of the plant, by the roots. These are 
important in producing a luxuriant growth, es- 
pecially, the compounds of ammonia, and \h.e 
nitrates, as they readily supply nitrogen to, the 
growing plant. The thousand-and-one re- 
corded facts of the great value of the organic 
constituents of manures render it an important 
question to the farmer, how' he can best save 
and treasure up for the use of his growing crops, 
the gaseous or organic portions of the manures 
usually made upon the farm, as well, also, as 
from what other sources he can obtain materi- 
als to increase his nitrogenous manures. In a 
future number, perhaps, I may attempt to dis- 
cuss these points. Levi Bartlett. 
Warner, jV. H., Feb., 1850. 
butternut sugar. 
Knowing that our common butternut tree 
yields, upon being wounded, a considerable 
amount of sap, I was led to make a trial of it, 
to ascertain whether a sufficient amount of sac- 
charine matter was afforded, to make it an ob- 
ject worthy of the farmer's notice. I accordingly 
tapped several trees that stood in an open field, 
from each of which I procured about four gal- 
lons of sap, which, on being evaporated, yielded 
five ounces to the gallon, of grained sugar. 
This sugar had a peculiar honey-like flavor, 
and wouid make better molasses than any othei 
kind with which I am acquainted. It was ob- 
served that as it evaporated, it had a tendency 
t^pjrm into flakes of transparent jelly, which 
wouid render it necessary to be strained and 
clarified while it was very dilute. 
