102 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
be allowed 10 rot lor a mqnlh, it fully doubles 
its quantity of ammonia. In fact, it would 
have contained more than double the ammonia 
of fresh urine, had not a portion escaped. This 
brings us to our lourth point, the best mode of 
preventing the flying off ol the ammonia when 
this change has talren place. 
Much has been said about tanks, and vats, 
and urine-pits and many plans devised for pre- 
venting the escape of volatile ammonia. But 
■when once the action of ammonia upon mould 
is understood, as we have already pointed it out, 
1 am persuaded, reader, that these tanks, and 
vats, and urine-carts will appear to you not on- 
ly expensive and cumbersome, but useless. 
Your first point is, to save your ammonia, your 
second is, never to use urine in its caustic or 
burning state. If you do, you will assuredly 
burn your crop, as the puddle formed by a cow 
burns the grass upon which she empties her 
watering pot. Here the urine forming caustic 
ammonia acts as would caustic potash, or a 
lump of stone lime, lefi to slake upon the grass. 
You want to change this burning or caustic 
ammonia into mild ammonia, or to combine it 
with some substance which has not only that 
effect, but also keeps it from flying away. Un- 
less you understand, then, the principles ot these 
actions, and apply them too, your labor is all 
vanity, when you attempt to save your own or 
cattle’s urine. 
These principles are, in number, two. First, 
the principle which changes caustic to mild 
ammonia, is carbonic acid derived from air, or 
decomposing mould. Second, the principles 
which render ammonia less volatile, or wholly 
fixed, are certain acids formed in mould, as sour 
mould, or certain salts which give up their acid 
to the ammonia. Plaster ol Paris does this, by 
changing its lime for ammonia. Now let us 
go into the reason of this a little, and see if we 
can understand it. Very slowly and supposing 
moisture present, the oil of vitriol of the plaster 
quits its lime and unites to the ammonia, and 
so changes a volatile into a fixed salt. Now 
this is a change which has been ol late much 
insisted OQ, and the practice recommended of 
strewing the stable and barn-cellars, and even 
the privies, to save ammonia which escapes in 
these places. But it is doubtful whether the 
saving is as great as is usually supposed, for the 
ammonia arising from the urine is caustic^ it 
flies of as caustic ammonia, that has no effect 
upon plaster. To produce this mutual effect of 
ammonia and plaster, the caustic ammonia 
must previously have been made mild. How- 
ever, this plan is applicable only on a small 
scale. Copperas, alum, common salt, potashes, 
and woodashes, all act to fix the volatile ammo- 
nia, and have all been recommended for this 
purpose. But it is easily seen, that, in employ- 
ing some of these substances, is to buy ammonia 
almost at apothecary’s price. These practices 
will be followed, therefore, only by those who 
place the crop and its value upon ammonia. 
This is a limited and narrow view. The true 
and farmer-like, as well as the most scientific 
and natural mode of preserving the ammonia of 
urine, is to fill your yards and barn-cellars with 
plenty of mould; by which I mean truly decay- 
ed and decaying vegetable matter, as well as 
loam. There is no mode more effectual, no 
mode more economical. Consider aow lor a 
moment how mould formed and forming, and 
ammonia act. Have I not said again and a- 
gain, that ammonia hastens decay? makes 
mould more easily dissolved? and cooks the 
food of plants? That action having occurred 
during its progress, acids were formed. The 
ammonia unites with them, loses its burning 
properties, and becomes fixed. The acids hav- 
ing been satisfied, the ammonia is actually im- 
bibed and retained by mould. 
It does not drink it in, like a sponge, but the 
mould forms a peculiar chemical compound 
with ammonia. This peculiar compound, while 
it does not render the mould an easily dissolved 
matter, yet holds ammonia by so feeble a force, 
that it easily yields to the power of growing 
plants. It gives up the stored ammonia at the 
place where, and the time when, it is most want- 
ed. If you remember these actions of mould 
and ammonia, it will be as plain as day, that 
what we have said of the inexpediency and ex- 
pense of vats and tanks, and urine-carts, must 
not only be true, but is confirmed by the ex- 
perience of a host of hard-working, thinking, 
practical men. In connection with urine, the 
dung of birds, for instance, domestic fowls of all 
kinds, and pigeons, may be here mentioned. 
These animals discharge their solids and what 
we may term their liquids together. Their 
urea comes out combined with or forming part 
of their dung. Now reflecting a moment on the 
nature of their food, strongly nitrogenous, being 
seeds, grains, &c., or animals, bugs, grass- 
hoppers, &c., we can understand why their 
droppings are peculiarly rich in ammonia and 
salts. The strongest ot all manures is found in 
the droppings of the poultry-yard. 
But since these form but a small portion of 
the farmer’s stock, and are never regarded as a 
principal source ot manure^ their further con- 
sideration may be omitted. It may perhaps be 
here added, that as from their nature bird-drop- 
pings run quickly into fermentation, with 
warmth and moisture, so they act quickly and 
are quickly done. They are more allied to 
sheep dung than to other manures. Their 
mould not being great, droppings of poultry re- 
quire to be mixed with decayed vegetable mat- 
ter, or loam. To this class belongs the manure 
brought from the Pacific Ocean, under the name 
of Guano, a Spanish word for excrement. New 
England farmers can find cheaper sources of 
salts, to which the main value of guano is ow- 
ing, and therefore, reader, we shall detain you 
no longer on this point. 
Section; Tenth. 
Mineral S'alts or Manures. 
Having thus considered the salts derived from 
the animal, let us now proceed to those derived 
from the mineral kingdom. Among these we 
shall find some whose action is .similar to that 
of the animal salts. That is, they are the true 
nourishers of plants. 
They afford, by the action of the growing 
plant, the same elements as the animal salts. 
Ofthis nature is saUpetre. Now, reader, I want 
you to understand by saltpetre, not only that 
well known substance, but also that which has 
lately been much used in farming. South Ame- 
rican saltpetre. This differs from common salt- 
petre by changing its potash for soda. One step 
more : I want you to understand by saltpetre, 
not one salt, but, in farming, a class of salts ; 
that is, a number, having the same acid, which 
may be eombined with several different bases 
which all act one way. Saltpetre being a salt, 
of course must be composed of an acid and base. 
The acid is always aquafortis or nitric acid. 
The base may be potash, or soda, or lime, or 
ammonia. These all may be called saltpetre. 
In forming saltpetre, it is generally that variety 
which contains lime and aquafortis, which is 
procured. So far as v/e understand the action of 
salts, and this has been fully explained, the ac- 
tion of the varieties of saltpetre is the same ; and 
were it not lor the peculiar nature of the aqua- 
fortis or aciJ of saltpetre, the explanation ot the 
action ofthis salt might be referred to the gene- 
ral laws above set forth. But the acid of saltpe- 
tre is composed of volatile ingredients. It ds 
nothing more nor less than a compound of the 
common air we breathe. Surprising as it may 
seem, reader, yet it is not the less true, the com- 
mon air is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. 
What a bland and harmless, yea, what a health- 
ful blessing is air, not only to us but to plants! 
It is a mere mixture, not a chemical compound, 
a mere mixture. In every hundred parts, eigh- 
ty of nitrogen, twenty of oxygen. Yet if you 
compel, as natural operations are continually 
compelling the air to unite chemically, so that 
fourteen parts of nitrogen shall unite to forty 
parts of oxygen, you will form aquafortis. Now 
I do not mean to trouble your head further with 
the chemistry of saltpetre, than merely to say, 
that having thus shown you the composition 
and origin of tne acid of all kinds of saltpetre, 
you will readily see, that a substance which af- 
tords such an abundance of nitrogen, cannot but 
be beneficial to plants. This nitrogen may and 
probably does lorm some portion ofammonia in 
the soil. It may enter as nitrogen into the 
plants dissolved in water as a very weak aqua- 
fortis. 
We have .said so much upon the action ofam- 
monia and nitrogen, that you will perceive how- 
important a part nitre is likely to play in ma- 
nure. Not only does the nitrogen act here, but 
the oxygen, the other component of the acid, al- 
so acts. It acts upon the mould as air itself 
would. Besides, the mould of soil and manure 
imbibes and condenses this oxygen in its pores, 
and consequently heats a little; so that saltpetre, 
whether added as such to soil, or formed in ma- 
nure, as it is always, helps to warm a little the 
soil, like fermenting manure. So far as these 
effects are desirable, they may be expected from 
the use of saltpetre. But this, reader, if you 
buy your saltpetre, is procuring a small effect at 
a great price. The action of the alkali of salt- 
petre is not different from alkali in other shapes ; 
and therefore if you have money to lay out for 
salts, let me advise you, reader, to spend it rath- 
er lor ashes than for saltpetre. 
(To be Continued.) 
From the American Farmer. 
CLAY AS AN AMENDE R OF SANDY SOIL. 
It is many years now. since w-e first advanced 
the opinion that clay, if added to sandy soils, 
would tend greatly to amend their texture. 
Since then, we have often repeated that opinion, 
and we will now add, that a compost made ot fO 
loads of virgin or unexhausted' clay, and the 
same number of loadsof stable manure, if well 
incorporated together, spread broadcast, plowed 
in, and thoroughly mixed with the soil turned 
up, will go farther, last longer, and produce a 
larger yield throughout a rotation, than wouW 
20 loads of the same quality of manure if applied 
alone. To us the philosophy of this opinion is 
obvious, and its reasonableness will strike any 
one who will take the time to make the necessa- 
ry inquiries and weigh the operating causes in 
his mind. Most virgin clays contain very sen- 
sible portions of potash, a substance indispensi- 
ble to the healthful growth {>f most plants ; there- 
fore, in adding day to sand, we supply a salt 
absolutely essential to successful culture, and 
which does not naturally abound, except in ve- 
ry minute traces, indeed, in soils where silex 
very largely predominates. But this is not the 
only advantage to be derived from the admixture. 
Sandy soils, from their porousness — from the 
absence of the principle of cohesion — lose much 
of the riches o.l the manure which may be ap- 
plied 50 them, by their natural tendency to yield 
to the influence of the sun through the process of 
evaporation. 
Another evil of sandy soils arises from the 
natural disposition inherent in them to infiltra- 
tion, or in other wore.s, to the sinking of the ma- 
nure caused by each succeeding rain. Nor is 
this all; such soils, except when well filled with 
vegetable and animal manures, possess in a ve<! 
ry slight degree the capacity of absorbing and 
retaining food from the atmosphere. This de- 
fect, however, may be cured by the addition of 
clay. However well porous lands may be ma- 
nured, unless the season should be a moist one, 
their products will be comparatively small, be- 
cause of the escape, by evaporation, of the en- 
riching gases, and from their natural tendency 
to give up that moisture without which plants 
cannot prosper. i 
Plowing-in Green Crops. — Laving plants 
contain in their substance not only all they have 
drawn from the soil, but also a great part of 
what they have drawn from the air. Plow in 
these living plants, and you necessarily add to 
the soil more than was taken from it — in other 
words, you make it richer in ‘ organic’ matter. 
Repeat the process with a seconii crop, and it be- 
comes richer still ; and it would be diftcult to 
define the limit beyond which the process should 
not further be carried. 
