250 
PRESERVATION AND APPLICATION OF MANURES. 
countrymen will more and more desire a mani¬ 
festation of the agreeable about their houses—then, 
should something ornamental combine itself with the 
most important and useful features of the house 
let a verandah be added, which may be adorned, 
not so much with expensive pillars, as with beau¬ 
tiful and fragrant climbing plants. Let the porch 
be made a suitable covering to the principal en¬ 
trances. Let the gables be enriched with simple 
ornaments, and the chimney stacks be built in some 
pleasing forms. These are the first points that 
really demand attention in a farmer’s house, which 
we wish to raise to its highest expression of fitness 
and beauty. Some examples of this kind of rural 
architecture we hope to be able to offer at no distant 
time. These trifling hints may perhaps lead some 
agricultural friend to consider what is essential to 
the character of a farm-house, and thus at least 
prevent his marring the beauty of simplicity and 
propriety.—[From the Transactions of the N. Y. 
State Agricultural Society, for 1845.] 
A. J. Downing. 
Highland Gardens, Newburgh, Jan., 1846. 
PRESERVATION AND APPLICATION OF 
MANURES. 
There is nothing so important, in the art of 
agriculture, as the restoration and preservation of 
the fertility of the soil. As the proper mode of pre¬ 
serving and applying manures contributes greatly 
to this object, nothing should more sedulously en¬ 
gage the attention of farmers. Liebig’s celebrated 
work on organic chemistry contains a great deal of 
valuable information on this subject. But as this 
work is in the hands of but few farmers, I have 
thought I could not render a more acceptable ser¬ 
vice to them, than by collecting, in a more con¬ 
densed form, the highly important suggestions, on 
this subject, of this distinguished writer on agricul¬ 
ture and physiology, which are to be found in his 
work on “ Organic Chemistry,” in its application 
to Agriculture, and on Physiology. 
That I may have the authority of his name in 
support of what I shall say on this subject, I shall 
make frequent references to his work, simply giving 
the page. And I wish it distinctly understood that 
wherever there is a reference without the name of 
the author, it is to the above work. 
Manures may be defined to be those substances 
which are capable of being assimilated by plants, 
and which serve as food to promote their growth, 
and bring them to maturity—p. 53-4. They are 
either of the organic, or inorganic kind. The 
elements of the former are oxygen, hydrogen, car¬ 
bon, and nitrogen. These elements are furnished to 
plants in the form of water, carbonic acid, and 
ammonia—p. 147. The inorganic substances are 
found in the ashes, after the incineration of plants 
—p. 147. These latter are of a fixed nature, and can¬ 
not be lost by evaporation, nor by being transformed 
Into gases. But the elements of the organic manures, 
in an uncombined state, commonly exist in the form 
of a volatile gas, and are, therefore, more subject 
to be lost to the agriculturist than manures of the 
inorganic kind. 
It has, however, been wisely arranged by a kind 
Providence, that these gaseous substances shall 
contribute amply, aided by man’s industry, to the 
nourishment of plants and animals. 
The atmosphere, by which the earth is surround¬ 
ed, is composed of one-fifth oxygen, and four-fifths 
nitrogen, nearly, and contains 1-2500 part, by 
weight, of carbonic acid—pp. 55 (note) and 167. As 
small as this proportion may appear, Liebig re¬ 
marks that, “ it is quite sufficient to supply the 
whole of the present generation of living beings 
with carbon for a thousand years, even if it were 
not renewed.” Here, then, is an ample sufficiency 
of oxygen and carbon, provided plants are capable 
of assimilating these substances. 
Now it has been well ascertained, that all plants 
growing in contact with the atmosphere absorb 
carbon and oxygen, not only by their roots, when 
the soil is kept loose and pulverized, so that the 
air can obtain access to them, but still more abun¬ 
dantly by their leaves, and other green parts—pp 
172-3, 179-80-3. 
Liebig remarks, that by loosening the soil 
which surrounds young plants, we favor the access 
of air, and the formation of carbonic acid ; and on 
the other hand, the quantity of their food is dimin¬ 
ished by every difficulty which opposes the renewal 
of air—p. 106. In the preceding page he says an 
atmosphere of carbonic acid surrounds every par¬ 
ticle of decaying humus.* Hence may be seen 
how important it is that farmers should keep the 
soil about growing plants in a complete state of 
pulverization. 
Water is composed, by weight, of one part of 
hydrogen, and eight of oxygen—p. 122, note. And 
as plants possess the power of decomposing water—. 
p. 122 ; and assimilating hydrogen, one of its com¬ 
ponent parts, they have thus an opportunity of 
acquiring this ingredient of their composition. 
During the progress of growth, plants appropriate 
carbon in the form of carbonic acid and hydrogen 
from the decomposition of water, the oxygen of 
which is set free—p. 125. 
Thus it appears that nature has made ample pro¬ 
vision for supplying growing plants with oxygen, 
hydrogen, and carbon; the second by the power 
which plants possess of decomposing water, and 
the other tw r o by their capacity of absorbing them 
from the atmosphere. Carbon is absorbed so 
abundantly from the atmosphere, that, in the opinion 
of Liebig, plants need none from the soil after the 
formation of their leaves; and, in his opinion, they 
give back to the soil more than they receive from 
it—p. 116. The decomposition of water furnishes 
a full supply of hydrogen, and oxygen is supplied 
not only from the atmosphere, but from water, 
which contains the element in solution—p. 214. 
But although four-fifths of the atmosphere is com¬ 
posed of nitrogen, yet as plants have not the power 
of decomposing it, they can derive no nourishment 
from that source. Yet this element is so essential 
to the growth of plants, that Liebig is of opinion 
they cannot “ attain maturity, even in the richest 
* Humus orgeine, as it is called by Berzelius, includes 
all the decomposed organic matters which are found 
in the dark surface soil of rich lands, in various states 
of combination, such as humic, crenic, and appocrenic 
acid, &c. &c. 
