boys’ department. 
353 
order again. M.’s knitting bag and my work 
basket were produced, over which we kept up a 
rambling and discursive talk, apparently without 
connexion, but all tending to the same end—thrift, 
that main spring of a farm. We exchanged pat¬ 
terns, fitted collars, and arranged a new quilt, as I 
have decided not to have my old mouslin de laine 
dresses died, but make them into a nice comforta¬ 
ble for the best bed. They are light and warm and 
much better for that purpose than cotton covers. 
I gave M. an early cup of tea, and she has returned 
to her happy home. I feel well satisfied with my 
day of pleasure; let me now see if my young peo¬ 
ple, whom I hear driving in the gate, will have as 
much reason to be pleased with theirs. 
My experience of to-day has convinced me never 
to be without macaroni, rice, and tomato catchup, in 
my store room, and if I can make up my mind to be 
so extravagant, I will get a box of vermicelli for 
beef soup ; but it must be kept for company—nice¬ 
ly-made noodles will do for common use. 
Boys’ department. 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.—No. 7. 
In my last letter, I gave you a brief description 
of the formation of soils. We will next consider 
their ingredients, or constituents. The earth, like 
the air, is composed of certain elements, some me¬ 
chanically, and some chemically combined, but un¬ 
like the atmosphere, these~elements exist in widely 
different proportions, in different localities, and 
some which are found abundant in one section are 
entirely absent in another. It is this want of uni¬ 
formity in the distribution of elementary substances, 
that occasions the many varieties of soil, you have 
observed each diversity being distinguished by 
different kinds and proportions of elementary 
constituents. 
As the fertility of a soil depends on its contain¬ 
ing a sufficiency of the proper ingredients for pro¬ 
moting vegetable growth, and in suitable propor¬ 
tions, it becomes important to know what these 
ingredients are, and how they may be discovered. 
By the analysis of any plant (which means the 
separation of its elementary constituents), we may 
ascertain what kind of food it requires, or in other 
words, what elements must exist in the soil where 
it grows. Its carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitro¬ 
gen may be furnished by the air, but we will find 
it to contain other elements, which are not found in 
the atmosphere, and which must consequently be 
obtained from the soil. We may find it to contain 
a portion of phosphorus, another of potassium, and 
another of sodium, substances which it could ob¬ 
tain from no other source than the soil. If, then, 
we know what elements are necessary to form the 
plant we wish to cultivate, we may, by analyzing 
our soil, know whether it contains those elements, 
and if it does, we may attempt the cultivation of 
that J^ant with reasonable hope of success, provided 
other things, as climate, location, &c., are fa¬ 
vorably.^ If it does not contain them, or if any one 
of tl^rpys^eficient, it would be a useless and hope¬ 
less ^n^ey^ing to attempt its culture. In this 
case, $ would be for our advantage, either to sub¬ 
stitute some other vegetable, which requires no 
ingredients save those which our soil is capable of 
supplying, or to furnish our soil with a supply of 
those ingredients in which it is deficient. Here 
then you perceive is one of the practical advantages 
of chemical knowledge to the agriculturist. In the 
one case, it enables us to adapt our crops to our 
soil, in the other, our soil to our crops. Thus 
science leads us, at once, to a knowledge of those 
facts which would otherwise only be discovered by 
a long and expensive course of experiment. 
Chemists have devoted much time and labor to 
the analyses and examination of earths, plants, 
minerals, and all other substances found in nature. 
Their investigations ha've led to the discovery of 
fifty-six simple substances, and we have good rea¬ 
sons for believing that few, if any other elements, 
exist in nature, all the various forms which matter 
assumes being produced by the various combina¬ 
tions of some of these elementary bodies. If you 
will turn to page 99 of the present volume of the 
Agriculturist, you will find the names of the most 
disting!'. Vned members of this family, though you 
need not be apprehensive that I am going to weary 
your patience with a description of each particular 
individual belonging to it. 
Some of these bodies are of such rare occurrence 
in nature, and of so little apparent consequence in 
either nature or the arts, as not to merit the atten¬ 
tion of any save professional chemists, and in fact, 
the agricultural chemist is little interested in any 
save those which enter into the composition of 
vegetables. This class includes but sixteen, and 
four of them have already been described, viz : car¬ 
bon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. These be¬ 
long more properly to the air, though they also 
exist in the soil. The remaining twelve are 
the followingSulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, 
iodine, bromine, potassium, sodium, calcium, 
magnesium, iron, manganese, and silicon. With 
two of these, viz: iron and sulphur, you are suffi¬ 
ciently familiar j a description of the remaining ten 
will be given in my next letter. 
J. M‘Kinstry. 
Greenport , Columbia Co., N. Y., ) 
Oct. 1st , 1848. ] 
What is Capillary Attraction? —It is that 
by which water is induced to rise within a tube (in¬ 
serted in it) to a height dependent on the fineness 
of the bore. It is that by which, similarly, water 
rises in a lump of sugar, through the tubular pas¬ 
sage, or pores existing in its substance. And it is 
that by which, in like manner, water will rise 
through the subsoil and soil of land which is wet 
below. Its form depends on the smallness of the 
tube through which it induces the water to rise. 
It is thus greatest in a soil whose particles are fine 
—in a clay soil in fact. And it is dependent solely 
on this fact—not on any other, except in so far as 
it may affect the mechanical texture of the soil. 
The soil is best when it exists in medium intensity 
—when the land is in fact neither too stiff nor too 
free. 
A Sign. —When you see a female rise early, get 
breakfast, and do up her mother’s work in season, 
and then sit down to sew or knit, depend upon it, 
she will make a good wife. 
