00 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
food and dishes, amounts to 28 miles extra walking 
every year, all of which may be saved by a slight 
ehange in arrangement. These are small matters, 
hut these have much to do in making a “ conve¬ 
nient house.” 
Other Mouse Plans, both cheaper and 
more costly, will appear in future numbers of this 
journal, to meet the wants of the many who are 
always asking for information on this subject. 
Any one intending to build a house, even if it cost 
only a few hundred dollars, can hardly fail to get 
information and hints enough from any of the pop¬ 
ular works on architecture to well repay the cost of 
such a book. There are several plans, with much 
minute and practical information, in the American 
Agriculturist volumes for 1870 and 1871, and in the 
numbers for March, 1869, and March 1867. The 
volumes for 1870 and 1871, are especially desirable. 
These volumes can be obtained bound, or in num¬ 
bers unbound, as noted on another page. 
-■■ .e . i— - 
Science Made Easy. 
Few grown up people had opportunity in their 
school-days to study chemistry, and if they had, 
this science has made such great advances within a 
few years that what we learned only a few years 
ago, is insufficient for present use. Prof. Atwater 
is giving some important chapters on the applica¬ 
tion of Science to Agriculture, and to help to the 
understanding of those articles, as well as to aid 
our readers in perusing much that is written in 
books and papers now-a-days, we condense here a 
few explanations, which we hope every one will 
study so well, that they will understand and re¬ 
member the whole. 
An Organic Substance, in general terms, means 
anything that grows, or is the product of animal or 
vegetable life. All p>arts of the human or animal 
body, as lean meat or muscle, fat, blood, bone, 
milk, etc., are organic substances. So are wood, 
leaves, grain, straw, roots, etc. But stones, sand, 
clay, potash, lime, etc., are inorganic substances. 
If we bum an Organic substance, most of the ma¬ 
terial passes off in the form of invisible gas, and is 
diffused through the air. The small part left as 
Ashes is called inorganic , though it was collected 
in the organic substance during its growth. 
All organic substances, whether animal or vege¬ 
table, are composed of but few elements, and the 
great bulk of them are made up of only four of 
these—just as buildings of a thousand kinds and 
forms are made out of wood, brick, sand, lime, 
nails, and paint, combined in various ways, and in 
different proportions. Thus, if we separate into 
its parts, that is analrjze, a potato, or some hay, or 
wheat, or a piece of meat, or cheese, or some blood, 
or oil, or any one of a thousand other organic sub¬ 
stances, we shall find them very largely composed 
of four simple elements, which the chemists call 
Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon. (A 
moment’s thought would tell any one that plants, 
grains, and roots, must have the same composition 
as flesh, because human or brute animals eat 
them, and change them into flesh.) 
Oxygen, in its natural condition, is an invisible gas, 
(or air-like substance,) but it combines with most 
other substances, to form solids or liquids. It con¬ 
stitutes 8 lbs. of every 9 lbs. of water. It makes 
up 2 lbs. in every 10 lbs. of air ; 4 lbs. in every 11 
lbs. of pure dry clay ; 8 lbs. in every 15 lbs. of pure 
white sand; 1 lb. in every 3 lbs. of dry wood. It 
is the rapid uniting of the oxygen in the air with 
the carbon and hydrogen of wood or coal, that gives 
out the heat in the fire. By a slower process of the 
same kind in the body, the oxygen of the air drawn 
Into the blood through the lungs, unites with the 
carbon and hydrogen absorbed into the blood from 
the food in the stomach and intestines, and gives 
out heat to the body. 
Hydrogen. —This, like oxygen, is in its natural 
state a gas, which also combines with other ele¬ 
ments, and forms solids and liquids. Every 9 lbs. 
of pure water contains just 8 lbs. of oxygen and 1 
lb. of hydrogen, and nothing else. Hydrogen forms 
a part of the composition of many other substances. 
It is, when alone, the lightest substance known. A 
barrel full, or 32 gallons of water weighs 266i lbs., 
or 4,264 ounces. If the barrel be filled with air, 
the air weighs 5i ounces ; if with oxygen gas, the 
oxygen weighs 5} ounces, while if the barrel 
were filled with hydrogen, the 32 gallons of hy¬ 
drogen would weigh only one-third (i) of an ounce, 
or more than twelve thousand times less than water. 
Nitrogen is another gas, in its natural state. 100 
lbs. of pure air contain 77 lbs. of nitrogen, mixed 
with 23 lbs. of oxygen; 100 gallons of pure air 
consists of 79 gallons of nitrogen, and 21 gallons of 
oxygen. If we change the proportions and unite 
14 lbs. of nitrogen with 40 lbs. of oxygen, and add 
9 lbs. of water, we have the powerful acid called 
“ aqua fortis ” (or nitric acid.) Nitrogen is an im¬ 
portant substance in the animal and vegetable 
economy, as it enters into and forms an essential 
part of nearly all animal and vegetable substances. 
Without nitrogen we can have no muscle or lean 
meat, no cheese, no clover, indeed we could have 
very few of our common articles of food, and with 
no food containing nitrogen, we should have very 
little strength. « 
Carbon .—This is not naturally a gas, but a solid. 
Pure charcoal is nearly pure carbon, so is the min¬ 
eral or stone coal we bum. But carbon is not al¬ 
ways black. The diamond is pure carbon in a crys- 
taline form. Heat the purest white sugar slowly to 
drive off the other substances, and you have a mass 
of black carbon left. White wood burned or heat¬ 
ed away from the air, leaves our charcoal or carbon. 
It was in the white wood before, and only took the 
black form when we drove off most of the other 
substances. The so-called black lead of our pen¬ 
cils is graphite, a form of carbon, with a little iron 
in it. No organic substance is without carbon, and 
with few exceptions, all contain hydrogen and oxy¬ 
gen also. Now to show how largely the above four 
elements enter into the things around us, look at 
the following table: 
-CONTAIN ABOUT- 
100 POUNDS 
OF 
Car¬ 
bon, 
Oxy¬ 
gen. , 
Hydro¬ 
gen , 
Nitro¬ 
gen, 
TVa- 
ter, 
Other 
Sub¬ 
stances. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
Pure Water. 
S8% 
113a 
Pure Air.. . 
23 
77 
Oats. 
4334 
3114 
C34 
1.9 
14.1 
3.5 
Peas. 
40 
3334 
534 
3% 
14 
23f 
Wheat. 
37 
5 
3 
1434 
2 
Potatoes.... 
11 
11 
Wi 
M 
75 
1 
Hay . 
38X 
32 
434 
IX 
15X 
8 
Albumen.... 
53)4- 
2234 
7 
1534 
IX 
Starch. 
44 % 
4934 
6 
Lean Meat.. 
1234 
534 
iYi 
3X 
75 
2 
Fat Meat... 
71X 
10 
11 
7 
1 
Sand. 
5334 
4634 
Cook’g Soda 
14 ; i 
4734 
ioii 
27X 
The above are only a few samples. The sixth 
column, of “other substances” is chiefly what is 
found in the ashes after burning the wood, flesh, etc. 
Chemistry tells us what things are made up of, 
and in what proportions ; how one thing can be 
changed into another by changing the elements of 
which they are composed, or by combining them 
differently, etc., etc. Feeding the bodies of men 
or animals, as well as feeding plants, is a chemi¬ 
cal process. The chemist analyses, or takes to 
pieces the food of animals and plants, and the 
plants themselves ; he finds out what they are made 
of, finds out what kinds of food contain the things 
most wanted in the bodies of men or animals, what 
kinds of manures (or plant food) contain the 
things most wanted in plants, and thus learns what 
are the best foods to produce muscle or lean flesh 
to make one strong, what elements of food to pro¬ 
duce warmth, or form milk, or butter, or fat (tal¬ 
low, lard), what manures (or plant food) are best for 
feeding grain, roots, etc., etc. What we have said 
is enough to show that chemistry can be of great 
practical use in agriculture, in feeding animals, etc., 
though one who has not studied this science can 
have only a slight idea of its wonderful results 
and practical use. But chemists are learning to 
state these results in a way that unlearned people 
can use the teachings of science in daily practice, 
to very great advantage. 
A few Helpful Explanations: A great number of 
substances, such as fats (tallow, lard, butter, etc.,) 
woody fiber, straw, sugar, etc., are mainly made up 
of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen described above. 
These are sometimes, for short, called “ Carbo-Hy¬ 
drates .” The principal ones we have to do with 
in fanning, gardening, and feeding animals are: 
Carbo-Hydrates : 
Oils, Butter, Starch, 
Fats, Woody Fiber (or Cellulose), Gum. 
Tallow, Sugar, 
The above substances contain little or no nitrogen 
in their pure state, and they arc in Agricultural 
Chemistry, often called either Carbo-Hydrates, or 
non-nitrogenous substances. 
There is another class in wbicli Nitrogen is an es¬ 
sential part, such as lean flesh, or muscle, curd of 
milk, albumen or white of egg, etc. As Albumen is 
well known, and is found in many other things as 
well as in the white of eggs, those substances which 
contain nitrogen largely are called Albuminoids. 
Here is a list of a few of the 
Albuminoids : 
White of Eggs, or Albumen; Gelatine, or Glue; 
Curd of Milk, or Caseiue ; Gluten of Grain, or 
Muscle, or Lean Meat; “ Wheat Gum ; ” 
Vegetable Fibrine. 
Ogden Farm Papers—No. 61. 
BY GEORGE E. WARINO, JR., 
I have received lately an unusually large number 
of letters asking for information about underdrain¬ 
ing. In most cases the writers offer to pay what¬ 
ever charge I may make for the service asked. In 
hardly one of these letters is there a point raised 
that is not fully discussed in my book “ Draining 
for Profit, and Draining for Health,” published by 
the Orange Judd Company, and sold for less than I 
should be obliged to charge for a single letter, if I 
made any charge at all, which I rarely do. The in¬ 
creasing interest in the subject, and the apparently 
widespread ignorance as to the existence of the 
book in question, must be my excuse for calling at¬ 
tention to it in this way. 
While the general principles, and most of the de¬ 
tails of the practice of underdraining, are laid 
down in the book, there have been some slight im¬ 
provements made since it was published, and I re¬ 
alize now, as I did not when I wrote it, how exten¬ 
sively draining operations are carried on by men so 
situated that they cannot procure draining tiles at 
a reasonable cost. This makes it worth while to 
give some general consideration to the subject here. 
The most striking, and, I think, the most valuable 
suggestion that has been made in connection with 
draining during the past few years, comes from Mr. 
Wilkinson, of Baltimore, who recommends that 
where tiles cannot be procured, the conduit be 
made with gravel. The ditch is to be cut very nar¬ 
row, especially at the bottom, regularly graded, as 
if for tiles, and then filled to a depth of from six to 
ten inches with gravel, covered with shavings or 
leaves, but only a very little of these, just enough 
to prevent the earth, during the filling, from rat¬ 
tling down into the gravel. There might be some 
danger, if the quantity used were large, that on its 
decomposition, it would work down into the gravel 
and cause obstructions. After the covering is put 
on the gravel, the ditch is to be filled, the earth be¬ 
ing well packed, as is recommended in tile drain¬ 
ing. The gravel may be coarse or fine, but, what¬ 
ever its quality, it would be better that the finest 
and the coarsest parts should be screened out, so 
that that which is used may be of uniform coarse¬ 
ness, and more porous than if all were mixed to¬ 
gether. I am disposed to attach very great impor¬ 
tance to this method of draining; where gravel can 
be cheaply obtained, it must be very economical; 
as there can never be a very rapid current of water 
passing through the conduit to abrade the sides of 
the ditch, there will be little danger of silting up ; 
and, as the gravel will lie snugly together, there is 
no danger of its misplacement, or of the injurious 
entrance of vermin. The drain would be every¬ 
where open to receive the infiltration of water, and 
for all lateral drains the arrangement seems very 
nearly perfect. Doubtless a channel of gravel av- 
