40 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
a h'ettc-r method is to drop the whole upon a bed 
of peat, or muck, or even of loam, prepared 
upon the field which is to he planted next season. 
One load of these wastes, to four or five of muck, 
makes a powerful fertilizer —The box is emptied 
by pulling the plugs. Connecticut. 
-<•<-—-- «-- 
Scientific and Practical Talks about 
Manures—II. 
In the previous chapter it was shown that the 
great bulk of all plants, comes from the air— 
that the charcoal in a tree or plant, for example, 
cannot come from the soil, because it does not 
exist there. (By plant we here mean all kinds 
of plants that grow—grasses, grains, trees, etc.) 
We know that some air-plants have no roots 
reaching to the soil, to extract food therefrom, 
and that they must .necessarily draw their sus¬ 
tenance from the air. With respect to most 
plants, there is a difference of opinion as to the 
relative amount of food taken in through the 
leaves directly from the air, and the proportion 
received indirectly through the roots. Some even 
contend, that while the plant food comes mainly 
from the air, yet that it is all first washed down 
into the soil by rains and dews, or absorbed from 
the air circulating in the surface soil. Without 
discussing this point, we may say that all agree 
that a portion of the plant’s food is absorbed 
through the roots. The object of manuring is to 
increase the amount of food in the soil to be taken 
up by the roots, for it is evident that, so far as 
field crops are concerned, it is not practicable to 
materially add to the amount in the air, to be 
taken in directly by the leaves. It is then per¬ 
tinent to our subject to inquire : What kinds of 
food are taken into the plant through the roots ? 
Where and how are these materials to be ob¬ 
tained most economically 1 In what form, and 
how, and when, are they to be applied 1 To answer 
these questions, we must first consider 
Wn at Plants ‘are Made of. —Take ten 
pounds of dried wood, or straw, or of any vege¬ 
table substance whatever; heat it away from 
contact wiih air, and the result will be four to 
six pounds of charcoal (carbon.)* A piece of 
flesh heated in the same manner, will give a 
like result, as is seen in the charring of meat. 
Cover a pile of wood as in a coal-pit, and burn 
only enough of it to heat the rest, and while you 
drive off only watery vapor, with a little of an in¬ 
visible gas (nitrogen,) you will have nothing but 
pure charcoal remaining, except a little earthy 
material (ashes,) which would be left if the char¬ 
coal were afterward burned in the open air. Pre¬ 
cisely the same result would be obtained if you 
put in the place of the wood, a quantity of straw, 
or grain, or leaves, in short of any organic (ani¬ 
mal or vegetable) material. The whitish vapor 
escaping is nearly pure water, as will be found by 
catching some of it in an inverted vessel, as it 
escapes, or by holding a cold glass or metal over 
he coal pit to condense the vapor. This vapor is 
called smoke, but—except when the upward cur¬ 
rent of air is so great as to carry up unconsumed 
particles of charcoal, which give a darker color— 
the so-called smoke is chiefly water, while, as 
before remarked, only charcoal is left. Burn or 
* Carbon, an element entering largely into all living sub¬ 
stances, v\ helper animal or vegetable, is seen in its nearly 
pure state in common charcoal - Oxygen, an element con¬ 
stituting fully halfof the entire substance of the globe, min¬ 
eral as well as organic, is never seen in its pure, uncombin- 
eil state, for in this state it is a transparent gas, like air. It 
enters into combination with other substances, arul be¬ 
comes invisible, just as lime is invisible when combined in 
mortar.—H ydrogen, which forms one-ninth part of wa¬ 
ter, and enters largely into many organic substances, is 
also an invisible gas, when not combined with some other 
element — Nitrogen, which forms seventy-nine hun¬ 
dredths of common air, and also enters into many or¬ 
ganic substances is likewise an invisible gas when in its 
-tre state. 
char a piece of meat in a covered frying-pan, and 
you get a bulk of charcoal about as large as the 
original piece of meat. The same is the case 
with over-toasted (charred) bread, potato, etc. 
These illustrations show that all organic sub¬ 
stances—-all vegetable and animal matters ex¬ 
cept the bones—are really and truly made up al¬ 
most entirely of charcoal and water, with a small 
quantity of nitrogen which is itself one of the 
component parts of air—the air we breathe being 
made up of about 79 parts (by weight) of nitro¬ 
gen, united with 21 parts of oxygen. 
But water is itself a compound body, being 
made up of 8 parts (by weight) of oxygen, united 
with 1 part of hydrogen. Now as vegetable sub¬ 
stances when heated, are converted into charcoal 
(carbon), water, and air, and as air is made of 
oxygen and nitrogen, and water is made of oxy¬ 
gen and hydrogen, we arrive at the inevitable 
conclusion that, with the exception of the ashes, 
all plants are chiefly made up of four simple sub¬ 
stances, viz : 
Oxygen — Hydrogen — Nitrogen—Carbon (charcoal.) 
This is an interesting fact, one which has been 
proved a thousand times ; and it is a fact of im¬ 
portance in considering how to feed (manure) 
plants. The unscientific reader will find it hard 
to believe that (with the exception of the ashes), 
wood, leaves, straw, grain, flowers, in short, all 
vegetables, are made out of only four hinds of 
materials; and stranger still, that these four ma¬ 
terials are really only charcoal, air, and water. 
Yet such is the unquestionable fact. 
Illustrliaon .—That so many kinds of plants, of 
such varied forms and colors, can be made from 
so few materials, is scarcely more incredible 
than that ar. architect is able to construct such a 
variety of buildings with only wood, iron, 
bricks and mortar. To secure the diverse 
forms, he uses different proportions of the same 
few materials, and puts them together different¬ 
ly. Just so, a few elements, differently propor¬ 
tioned and put together, make up the endless 
variety of plants and animal organisms. 
Take a piece of granite rock, which has in it 
neither charcoal nor nitrogen, and pulverize it to 
a fine soil. Then sow some seeds in this soil, 
and they will produce plants, made up chiefly of 
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and charcoal. The 
oxygen and hydrogen may come from the water 
in the soil or in the air; the nitrogen and char¬ 
coal (carhon) must come from the air, for there is 
none of them in the granite soil. In such a soil 
the plants will grow to perfection, and mature 
their fruit or seed, though they may, perhaps, be 
of slow growth, and be dwarfed in size. Sup¬ 
pose we now try to hasten the growth, and to in¬ 
crease the bulk or yield of the plants, or of their 
seed, which is a chief end aimed at in cultiva¬ 
tion. How shall it be done 1 Why, just as we 
would secure increased growth of flesh in an 
animal—feed it, give it more elements, more ma¬ 
terials, out of which to manufacture flesh. 
To feed a plant, we manure it—we furnish it 
with materials to assist or promote its growth. 
We place at its roots such substances (ma¬ 
nures,) as will supply it with oxygen, hy¬ 
drogen, nitrogen, and carbon ; and, perhaps, also, 
a little of earthy material, required for its ashes. 
(Some of the scientific teachers of the present 
day claim that the atmosphere supplies every¬ 
thing but the ashes, and that the earthy elements 
are the chief things to provide for in ma¬ 
nuring. Hence the stress laid upon phosphatic 
and other mineral manures. We believe this to 
be erroneous, in part at least, and one object of 
these articles is to counteract such teachings, 
and save to cultivators the large sums now ex¬ 
pended for such fertilizers. Of this further on.) 
If,( besides the ashes), only oxygen, hydrogen, 
nitrogen, and carbon (charcoal), are needed by 
the plants, the next question is, whether a ma¬ 
nure, to be useful, must contain all of these 
four elements. Theory would indicate that the 
abundance of water (moisture) in the soil would 
always furnish plenty of oxygen and hydrogen ; 
and experience seems to confirm this opinion ; 
so we will only look after the supply of carbon 
and nitrogen. 
The decay and burning of plants, and the 
breathing of animals, are always furnishing a 
supply of carbon to the air, in the form of in¬ 
visible carbonic acid . As this substance is readily 
absorbed by water, theory would indicate that 
the water in the soil will gener^ly supply the 
requisite amount of carbon to the roots of the 
growing plant. And this is partly confirmed by 
experience also. Yet it is probable that car¬ 
bonaceous materials, such as straw, etc., when 
decaying in the soil around the roots of a plant, 
do really furnish additional supplies of carbon, 
and hasten growth. Hence one may reasonably 
conclude that all vegetable substances con¬ 
taining carbon (charcoal) are useful as manures, 
wdien they rot or decay in the soil so that their 
elements can be taken up and appropriated by 
the roots of plants. And here let it be noted, 
that, since all kinds of plants contain similar pro¬ 
portions of carbon, any one plant will furnish car¬ 
bon for any other plant. So we manure any plant 
with any kind of vegetable matter most conveni¬ 
ent, if it be matter that will decay and yield up 
its carbon to the growing plants. 
We will next refer to the fourth and last organ¬ 
ic element in plant food, viz.: Nitrogen, which 
is, we think, the most important one to be con¬ 
sidered. 
(To be Continued.) 
--- 
Where the Hogs are Raised. 
Some idea of the immense number of hogs 
raised and slaughtered at the West, and of the 
places where they are raised, may be gathered 
from the table below. The figures will be in¬ 
teresting also, as showing the number slaughter¬ 
ed and packed at the several points named. 
The table is made out for the year 1858. The 
reports for 1859 are not yet complete. It is es¬ 
timated, however, that there will he a decrease 
of 50,000, as compared with the previous year, 
though there is a considerable increase at a few 
of the towns, including Cincinnati, Lafayette, 
St. Louis, Milwaukee, Madison, etc. The largest 
falling off is at Louisville, Nashville, Alton, 
Olney, and Chicago : 
HOGS PACKED IN 1858. 
Cincinnati.3S2.826 
Louisville.288,590 
Chicago, III. 172,000 
St. Louis, Mo. 57,500 
Madison, Ind. 54,000 
Keokuk, Iowa. 53,600 
Quincy, Ill. 49,000 
Muscatine, Iowa. 47,000 
Peoria, III. 45,000 
Palmyra, Mo. 39.980 
Indianopolis. Ind. 33.000 
Burlington, Iowa- 32,300 
Alton, III... ,. 32,000 
Milwaukee, VVis. 32,000 
Connersville, Ind — 25,000 
Gallatin and Nash¬ 
ville, Tenn. 25,000 
Alexandria, Mo. 18,610 
Shelbyville, Tenn- 17.800 
Chillicothe, O. 16,000 
Lexington, Ivy. 15,0! 0 
Circleville, 0. 14,373 
Clarksville, Tenn.... 13,973 
Olney, III. 12,785 
Delphi, Ind. 12,500 
Eugene, III. 11.768 
Lafayette, Ind. 11,653 
Shawneetown 111.... 11,400 
Princeton, ind. 10,879 
Pekin, III.... .... 10,400 
Owensboro, Ky. 9,513 
Lacon, Ill. 9,500 
Total. 
Places. 
Weston. Mo. 8,650 
Chattanooga, Tenn... 8.500 
Rock Island, III. 8,100 
Hunstonville, III. 8,000 
Xenia, Ill. 6 ,500 
La Grange, Mo. 6.160 
Davenport, Iowa_ 6.153 
Frankfort, Ky. 6,135 
Lebanon. Ky. 5.764 
Mount Vernon, Ind... 5 459 
Attica, Ind. 5,100 
Clinton, Ind. 4 961 
Eddyville, Iowa. 4.955 
Armiesburg, Ind. 4.789 
Washington, Ind. 4,760 
Mount Pleasant, Ind. 4,660 
Pittsfield, Ill. 4,500 
Barry, III. 4.200 
Grayville, lil. 4,000 
Oregon, Ky. 4 .000 
Petersburg!!, Ind. 3.78.5 
New Boston, III. 3,360 
Newburg, Ind. 3.335 
Marion. Ind. 3.300 
Carlisle, Ind. 2,900 
New Harmony, Ind.. 2.6S3 
Covington, Ind. 2,052 
Dublin, Ind. 2,5,25 
Rockford, Ind. 2,500 
Hagerstown, Ind. 2,300 
Lodi, Ind. 1,400 
I 619,254 
