AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. _WASHINGTON. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M., 
CONDUCTING EDITOR. 
Published Weekly by Allen &Co., No. 189 Water-si. 
I UNDER THE JOINT EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 
( A. B. ALLEN & ORANGE JUDD. 
vol. xill. NO. is.] NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 10, 1855. [NEW SERIES.-NO. 70 . 
JTar fJrospecttts, STtnna, Ut., 
ISP SEE LAST PAGE.^S) 
UST" Every one writing to the Editors or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices ,” on last page. 
IMPORTANCE OF SUPPLYING AMMONIA TO 
GROWING CROPS. 
(Continued from last number.) 
The writer before alluded to, quotes and 
joins together, entirely independent of then- 
appropriate connections, several extracts 
from Leibig, to bolster up some of his false 
positions, as follows : 
“ It must never be forgotten, that if plants 
are supplied either from the soil or in the 
manure, with the indispensable mineral salts, 
namely, the alkalies, silica, phosphates, sul¬ 
phates, lime, and magnesia, they will supply 
themselves with ammonia from the atmo¬ 
sphere.” “ The nitrogen of vegetables is 
derived chiefly, if not exclusively, from am¬ 
monia, which is supplied to them in rain.” 
“ The soil itself, like all porous bodies, pos¬ 
sesses the property of absorbing ammonia, 
and therefore will attract it from the atmo¬ 
sphere. Alumina, peroxide of iron, and 
humus, all absorb ammonia powerfully.” 
“ Ashes represent the whole nourishment 
which vegetables receive from the soil. By 
furnishing them in sufficient quantities, we 
give to the plants the power of condensing 
and absorbing carbon and nitrogen by their 
surfaces. May not the effect of the solid 
and fluid excrements, which are the ashes of 
plants and grains which have undergone 
combustion in the bodies of animals and 
men, be dependent upon the same cause l 
Should not the fertility resulting from their 
application be altogether independent of the 
ammonia they contain 1 Would not their ef¬ 
fects be precisely the same in promoting the 
fertility of cultivated plants, if we had evap¬ 
orated the urine and dried and burned the 
solid excrements I Surely, the ceralia and 
leguminous plants.which we cultivate, must 
derive their carbon and nitrogen from the 
same source whence the graminea and legu¬ 
minous plants of the meadow obtain them. 
No doubt can be entertained of their capabil¬ 
ity to do so.” “ The leaves, the acorns, the 
chestnuts, are rich in nitrogen ; so are coco¬ 
nuts, bread-fruit, and other tropical produc¬ 
tions ; this nitrogen is not supplied by man. 
Can it, indeed, be derived from any other 
source than the atmosphere!” “ In what¬ 
ever form the nitrogen supplied to plants 
may be contained in the atmosphere—in 
whatever state it may be when absorbed— 
from the atmosphere it must have been de¬ 
rived.” “ The fields in the delta of the Nile 
are supplied with no other animal manure 
than the ashes of the burnt excrements, and 
yet they have been proverbially fertile from 
a period earlier than the first dawn of his¬ 
tory. These fields receive from the inunda¬ 
tion of the Nile a mud rich in mineral ele¬ 
ments ; the mud of the Nile contains as 
little nitrogen as the mud derived from the 
Alps of Switzerland. Abundant evidence 
in support of this important truth may be de¬ 
rived from other well-known facts. Thus 
the trade of Holland in cheese may be ad¬ 
duced in proof and illustration thereof. We 
know that cheese is derived from the plants 
which serve as food for cows. The meadow 
lands of Holland derive the nitrogen of 
cheese from the same source as with us; 
that is, the atmosphere.” “It follows con¬ 
sequently, that we can not increase the fer¬ 
tility of our fields by a supply of nitrogenized 
manure or by salts of ammonia.” 
Thus much for Baron Leibig. Now for 
his commentator, who follows with this 
characteristic deduction : 
“ Then, Mr. Editor, the highest authorities 
say the fifty-three per cent of ammonical 
and nitrogenized matter in Peruvian guano 
is worth nothing to agriculture ; that they 
can not increase the fertility of our fields, 
and are, therefore, valueless in agriculture. 
Then surely the select committee of the 
House, at the last session, were in error in 
supposing the ammoniacal and nitrogenized 
guano of the rainless Chincha Islands was a 
valuable manure.” 
It is vastly to be regretted, that so trans¬ 
cendent a genius as Leibig should have given 
the enemies of science such occasion for 
travesty or misinterpretation, as he has done 
by such unguarded assertions as some of the 
foregoing, and others found elsewhere in his 
writings. We can account for it only from 
the weak and reprehensible ambition to 
which human nature, in its best estate, is 
liable, to throw out novel and startling prin¬ 
ciples, and to which he doubtless thought 
himself entitled by his previous brilliant suc¬ 
cess in his popular work on “ Chemistry in 
its applications to Physiology and Path¬ 
ology.” He lias, however, lived to acknowl¬ 
edge and correct his erroneous views; and we 
presume he is among the last of the men of 
science of the present day, who would sanc¬ 
tion the use of his great name to prejudice 
truth or inculcate error. 
He has made the amende honorable, in the 
following comprehensive avowal, which Ave 
quote, with other important admissions, from 
a reprint of the fourth revised and enlarged 
London edition of his “Agricultural Chem¬ 
istry ” : “ It can not be denied that plants 
grow more powerfully and luxuriantly in a 
soil capable of forming nitre, than they do in 
a soil unfit for its formation. The favorable 
influence of such a soil on vegetation is justly 
ascribed to the animal matter contained in it, 
to the alkalies, and to the phosphates exist¬ 
ing in the animal matter. Out of the animal 
matter , also, is formed the ammonia so neces¬ 
sary for the support of vegetation, and with¬ 
out the presence of which, nitric acid could 
not be formed.” 
Again, he says, “All observations in our 
times lead to the conclusion that the nitro¬ 
gen of the air does not possess the property 
of being converted into ammonia.” And, in 
another place, he acknowledges “ We have 
not any direct proof for the opinion that the 
nitrogen of the air is converted into a com¬ 
ponent part of a plant by its vital processes. 
In the present state of our knowledge, indi¬ 
rect proofs are equally wanting.” Then 
comes the positive acknowledgment of the 
utility and economical application of annno- 
niacal manures : “ When we know that 
woolen rags, horn, and hair, in the progress 
of decay, offer a slow but continued supply 
of ammonia, it follows, that we may use 
them wherever their price, in comparison 
with the advantage anticipated, does not ex¬ 
clude their application.” “By strewing ni¬ 
trate of soda over the fields, a greater crop 
has been obtained, particularly on grass 
land. Upon grain-fields, and on roots, it has 
had less influence.” 
Surely we have authority enough already 
quoted from the great agricultural chemist 
himself, for the application of ammoniacal 
forming and ammoniacal yielding manures, 
to justify the unlettered but thrift-desiring 
farmer in using Peruvian guano, containing, 
as it does, “ over 53 percent of organic mat¬ 
ter, ammoniacal salts, and nitrogenized mat 
ter that, with water, will form ammonia.” 
Science and the closest observation, we 
are forced to believe, have failed to detect 
all the sources of food for plants, or their 
manner of appropriating it; but the conclu¬ 
sion is fully established, that vegetable nu¬ 
trition is supplied both by the soil and atmo¬ 
sphere. Another important conclusion irre¬ 
sistibly forces itself upon us, viz., that the 
food derived by the plants from the atmo¬ 
sphere is nearly in the ratio of the fertiliz¬ 
ing properties of the soil in which they grow. 
A fertile soil not only yields abundantly of 
its carbon to the growing crop, but direct, 
reliable, and oft-repeated experiments show, 
that the plants thus made luxuriant, draw it 
proportionally from the atmosphere, that 
abundant storehouse of carbonic acid. 
So, too, of ammonia and its nitrogen af¬ 
forded to all the valuable plants—directly 
valuable in the ratio of their azotized (nitro¬ 
genous) compounds—as in the cereals, peas, 
beans, &c. We will not affirm, or even 
suggest, in the absence of any proof of the 
fact, that plants do, by their stems or bark 
