220 
EXHAUSTING PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO. 
EXHAUSTING PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO. 
Our Maryland and Virginia friends will not 
be surprised to learn, from the rapid exhaustion 
of their tobacco fields, that this paltry weed re¬ 
quires more mineral manures, (salts,) to sup¬ 
ply itself, than any other grown. The pro¬ 
portion abstracted is enormous, and shows 
conclusively, the necessity of constant and 
heavy manuring with special manures , to sustain 
the highest fertility of the land. By special 
manures, we mean such as are designed by their 
composition, to supply the appropriate food of 
plants, in the requisite proportions. 
We have, for instance, in 800 lbs. of tobacco 
leaves taken from a field, 160 lbs. of mineral 
ingredients, (ash,) of which the soil is abso¬ 
lutely robbed, and which it has no means of 
again acquiring, but by direct application. This 
amounts to 20 per cent., or one fifth of the en¬ 
tire crop, and is composed,, according to the 
analysis of Professor Johnston, of 
Potash, 12.14 
Soda, 0.07 
Lime, 45.90 
Magnesia, 13.09 
Chloride of sodium, 3.49 
Chloride of potassium, 3.98 
Phosphate of iron, 5.48 
Phosphate of lime, 1.49 
Sulphate of lime, 6.35 
Silica, 8.01 
100.00 
To supply these materials, ordinary farm¬ 
yard manure is insufficient; so, too, is lime or 
plaster or salt or any one article. It needs a 
combination of several, which are in a great 
measure to be found in ashes, combined with 
the ordinary manure of the farm yard. But if 
an application of special manures is sought, 
they will be appropriately found in the follow¬ 
ing proportions of the subjoined materials :— 
Bone dust, sulphuric acid, 23 lbs. 
Carbonate of potash, (dry,) 31 lbs. 
Carbonate of soda, (dry,) 5 lbs. 
do magnesia, 25 lbs. 
do lime, (chalk,) 60 lbs. 
144 lbs. 
ANALYSIS OF COPROLITES—FOSSIL OR MINERAL 
GUANO—ITS VALUE FOR AGRICULTURAL 
PURPOSES. 
This substance, existing in layers of rock or 
stone, and generally associated with others of 
various composition and texture; or sometimes 
as pebbles or coarse gravel, and more frequent¬ 
ly mixed with other substances, forming marl, 
is beginning to be fully appreciated by the 
agricultural world. An analysis by T. J. Here- 
path gives, of water, 3.4; silica, 13.24; carbon¬ 
ate of lime, 28.4; phosphate of lime, magnesia , 
iron , <Spc., 53.7, (equivalent to phosphoric acid, 
26.6); sulphate of lime, 0.7, in every 100 parts. 
This shows an invaluable manure, and about 
as rich in phosphate and carbonate of lime as 
the recent bones of the ox, when perfectly dry 
and deprived of their fat. These yield phos¬ 
phate of lime, 56.75; phosphate of magnesia, 
3.25, equivalent to phosphoric acid, 26.7. 
English farmers are procuring and applying 
coprolites in large quantities, wherever obtain¬ 
able. We have no doubt, valuable deposites of 
this mineral manure will be found in various 
localities in the United States, whenever our 
legislatures find time and money to train up 
and employ throughout the country, full and 
efficient corps of enterprising young geologists. 
If one tenth, or even one fiftieth the amount of 
men and money were devoted to this object, 
which are now employed in the arsenals of 
Springfield and Harper’s Ferry, the U. S. naval 
depots, and dock yards, in forts, camps, vessels 
of war, &c., we should soon have our fields 
groaning under their ripened harvests. But the 
time for the supremacy of sense and humanity— 
the higher destiny of our race, is not yet. We 
patiently bide our time, when Flora, Ceres, and 
Pomona shall bury Mars as deep under ground 
as many of the coprolites now lie. 
This mineral is supposed to be the excretions 
of carnivorous reptiles, resembling our croco¬ 
dile, myriads of which once occupied the cha¬ 
otic waste of mingled mud and water,, anterior 
to the creation of man, but which for ages have 
probably been extinct. 
The presence of this decomposed phosphate 
is undoubtedly the cause of the great fertility of 
many portions of our western country, the val¬ 
leys of the two Miamis, in Ohio, and those rich 
hemp, corn and grass-producing regions of 
Kentucky and elsewhere. 
VALUE OF BONES. 
It is sometimes said, that pasturing invariably 
improves the soil. This is not true, though it 
frequently does partially restore it, after severe 
cropping, to the extent, at least, of enabling it 
to bear better crops than the last taken from it. 
But that one or more of its fertilising ingredi¬ 
ents may be abstracted, even to the extent of a 
considerable degree of impoverishment, is con¬ 
clusively shown in the extensive grazing fields 
of Cheshire, England. 
This is a favorite dairy region, which has given 
an enviable character to the cheese that bears 
its name. It has, for hundreds of years, been 
devoted to the pasturage of cows, whose milk 
has been converted into cheese, and sent to a 
distant market. Few persons would suspect, 
that the daily removal of those portions of the 
soil convertible into milk, must be felt in the 
soil, even after the lapse of centuries. Yet, the 
phosphate of lime, of which milk contains con¬ 
siderable proportions, is abstracted in such 
quantities, that the productiveness of those rich 
feeding grounds have been materially lessened. 
The comparatively recent application of 
bones as manure, has been made on some 
of these fields, and with the most astonish¬ 
ing success. Professor Johnston says, that pas¬ 
tures which before this application, rented at 5s. 
per acre, have since paid 40s., and left the tenant 
ample remuneration for his labor. It is thus 
that the oft-derided discoveries of science, so 
richly repay their advocates. 
