AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
179 
terminad by a power inherent in 
nature. What to some may seem no less 
strange is, woody fiber is also composed of 
the above mentioned elements, nothing more 
nor less, differing from sugar and oxalic acid 
only in the proportion in which the three in¬ 
gredients are combined.'* No one supposes 
plants derive their woody fiber from the soil 
ready formed ; equally absurd is it to sup¬ 
pose that sorrel can only flourish in fields 
abounding in acids. When some agricultural 
chemist first suggested that acid plants 
could only grow upon an acid soil, and de¬ 
duced therefrom the supposed fact that, con¬ 
sequently, alkalies would destroy sorrel, the 
press almost everywhere [not everywhere.— 
Ed.] gave utterance to the opinion, and thou¬ 
sands considered the idea plausible and sup¬ 
posed the deduction sound. There are many 
plausible ideas and opinions in the world that 
are not correct, and many deductions that 
seem logical that are not legitimate. He 
who receives every plausible idea as truth, 
without due investigetion, has no security 
against error. Much of disrepute that has 
been brought upon scientific agriculture has 
its origin in disappointment, arising from the 
practice of teachings derived from false de¬ 
ductions based upon plausible theory. In 
the case under consideration, though the 
idea that lime and ashes destroy sorrel, by 
neutralizing the superabundant acid in the 
soil, is doubtless incorrect, yet there is, 
probably, no harm done to practical agricul¬ 
ture, for the above mentioned substances are 
in nearly every instance desirable manures. 
The writer once applied old mortar and soot 
to fruit trees, where sorrel was abundant, 
with decided benefit to the trees, but the sor¬ 
rel only grew the more luxuriantly ; hence, 
though one desired object was not obtained, 
yet no harm was done. 
In conclusion, we would briefly indicate 
the source from which plants derive their el¬ 
ements of growth. The only constituents 
of vegetable production, are carbon, oxygen, 
hydrogen, nitrogen, and a few metalic salts. 
Water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen; 
air is composed of oxygen and nitrogen, and 
carbonic acid, though not a part of it, always 
exists in the atmosphere. Hence, except 
the minute proportion of metalic salts, air 
and water contain all the elements of vege¬ 
table growth and nutrition. Many' eminent 
chemists, the distinguished Liebig among 
them, have claimed that the earth contrib¬ 
uted comparatively nothing to vegetable pro¬ 
duction ; that air and water were the great 
store-houses from which the renovation of 
nature was accomplished. 
This opinion is probably not wholly true. 
he carbonic acid of the atmosphere, furnish¬ 
es to plants the greater portion of their car¬ 
bon, yet no inconsiderable portion is genera¬ 
ted by the decomposition of vegetable mat¬ 
ter in the soil; being absorbed by water, it is 
carried, through the roots of plants, to the 
leaves, there decomposed, the corbon retain¬ 
ed and the oxygen liberated. Vegetation de¬ 
rives its oxygen and hydrogen principally 
from water, which it possesses the power of 
decomposing ; in fact, these elements exist 
'Sugar can even be made from chips by the addition of 
sulphuric acid. 
in plants in precisely the same proportion 
that they are found in water. Hydrogen 
may also be derived from ammonia, which 
exists in the atmosphere and in all ferment¬ 
ing manures, and both oxygen and hydrogen 
from vegetable mold. Nitrogen is derived 
from ammonia, which exists as above men¬ 
tioned. 
The metalic salts are all derived from the 
earth, with water, absorbed through the roots 
and introduced into the circulation. Out of 
these simple elements, vegetables manufac¬ 
ture all their peculiar principles ; their wood, 
leaves, flowers, and fruit. 
From the above, in the process of vegeta¬ 
ble growth, it will be seen how little is de¬ 
rived from the earth proper; decomposing 
vegetable matter in the earth, furnishes its 
quota. Hence will be seen the importance 
of manures, which are valuable only as they 
furnish compounds from which may be ex¬ 
tracted the elements above mentioned. 
Perry, Lake Co., Ohio. O. C. GIBBS, M. D. 
GREEN-CORN FODDER-AG AIN. 
Last week our leading article was upon 
the value of soiling cattle upon green corn 
during the drier summer months. Our 
views are supported and confirmed by the 
experience of hundreds. From a number of 
articles before us we select the following, 
which we find over the signature of “ A 
Practical Farmer,” in the last number of the 
Germantown Telegraph : 
In 1853, I broke up, early in the autumn, a 
piece of good grass land, which, at the time 
of plowing, was burdened with a heavy after- 
math. About two tuns of hay had been cut 
on it, principally white clover and herdsgrass. 
In the spring, the land was rolled and thor¬ 
oughly harrowed, and about four bushels of 
plaster and two bushels of unleached wood 
ashes sown '; the corn planter was then in¬ 
troduced, and the common horse-tooth corn 
planted in drills eighteen inches apart in the 
rows, and the hills about six inches, one ker- 
nal being dropped in a place. The plants 
came up well and were cut quite early as a 
feed for cows, which were kept up with the 
exception of an hour in the morning and an 
hour in the afternoon, when they were per¬ 
mitted to walk in the yard for exercise and 
the benefit of the open air. They required 
but very little water, produced an abundance 
of rich, yellow milk, and were far more ac¬ 
tive than when permitted to range in the 
pastures. They were thus fed until the 
frost came, when their diet was changed to 
turnips, rasped and mixed with chafed corn 
stalks, corn and cob meal, slightly seasoned 
with salt, and moistened with tepid water. 
This feed was continued till spring, varying 
occasionally by a feed of rasped carrots or | 
pumpkins, and now and then a feed of un¬ 
ground grain. 
At first the change of regimen produced a 
slight diminution of milk, but this was of 
but temporary continuance, and after the 
first week, the flow was as copious as it had 
been when the animals were fed on green 
fodder. 
The time required to cut and feed the corn 
to the animals was but slight, and was per¬ 
formed before meals, in the morning, at noon, 
and night One boy 16 years of age, and 
another of 10, performed the work, and also 
attended to the other details of barn manage¬ 
ment. The manure produced by five cows 
tended in this way, was equal to the amount 
ordinarily produced by twice the number 
pastured. All the litter supplied, which was 
of straw and woods’ leaves, was, by the ac¬ 
tion of the urine, converted into excellent 
manure, but it was kept distinct from the 
solid excrement, and thrown into a pile in the 
manure shed, where it was sprinkled daily 
with gypsum, and suffered to decompose by 
itself. In this way, severt.1 cords were 
made. The solid voidings were wet daily 
with dilute sulphuric acid, and covered with 
fine loam and gypsum. A little charcoal 
dust was added daily, and the whole protect¬ 
ed from the action of the sun and air by an 
efficient covering. 
I have made many experiments in agricul¬ 
ture,but none that resulted more satisfactori¬ 
ly than this. There appears to me to be but 
one serious obstacle in the way of the general 
and universal adoption of the soiling system 
in this country, and that is the high price of 
labor. In Europe where the case is the re¬ 
verse, the soiling of cattle is pursued on the 
score of economy, not only as regards the ex¬ 
pense of feeding, or the materials used in 
feeding, but in the time required to supply 
the food. 
Buckwheat, and various other kinds of 
grain are frequently sowed for soiling pur¬ 
poses, but we think that, taking into consid¬ 
eration the amount of yield, and the superior 
nutritiousness of the corn plant, it possesses 
a value superior to any other product for 
soiling purposes. Grass has been recom¬ 
mended and used with great success by 
many ; but unless the land is very rich, the 
extent of surface, and the labor of cutting, 
carrying and feeding will be great. Green 
fodder, of all descriptions, is of great weight 
in proportion to its bulk ; it should therefore 
be produced, when practicable, in the imme¬ 
diate vicinity of the barn where it is to be 
used, and no more should be cut at once than 
is required to suffice the immediate wants of 
the animals to be supplied. Clover is 
another article highly rec onmended for this 
purpose ; but clover, although highly nutri¬ 
tive and salutary in its effects, lasts but a 
brief time, and when ripe, loses its vaiue as 
a soiling article. It may do good service 
when used as a change ; but to rely solely on 
it as the main material or resource of an en¬ 
tire season, would be preposterous in the 
extreme. 
CULTIVATE WELL. 
In the present and prospective season of 
scarcity, it is the duty of every cultivator— 
a duty which he owes alike to his country 
and his fellow man—to produce as large a 
surplus of grain and provisions as possible. 
In doing this his own interest will also be 
subserved. But we are not of those who 
believe the desired result will be best at¬ 
tained by planting largely, without abundant 
time and means to prepare the ground prop¬ 
erly and fertilize and cultivate sufficiently 
to insure profitable returns in autumn. Nei¬ 
ther do we consider it the duty or interest of 
farmers to raise large crops one year at the 
expense of succeeding ones : in other words, 
they should not impoverish the soil, or 
change an advantageous course of rotation, 
for temporary gain. 
Nor is it wise to attempt to grow the more 
profitable crops on unsuitable, barren or un¬ 
productive soils. Because wheat, for in¬ 
stance, is now selling at a remarkably high 
figure, that is no reason why people should 
attempt to grow it on soils, or in sections, 
which experience has time and again demon¬ 
strated can not produce it profitably, even 
with all the accessories of improved culture 
and science. Hence, the course of those 
who wrongly and blindly, if not wilfully, ad¬ 
vise what is certainly unprofitable, if not 
impossible, can not be too strongly depre¬ 
cated. For example, a late number of the 
N. Y. Tribune—the largest circulated and 
vegetable 
