234 
CAPACITY OP SOILS FOR ABSORBING FERTILISING MATTER. 
CAPACITY OF SOILS FOR ABSORBING- FERTILISING 
MATTER. 
The property of earths for absorbing the pun¬ 
gent gases and offensive matter in foetid water, 
shows most conclusively their capacity for ab¬ 
sorbing and retaining the fertilising ingredients 
mixed with them. Anything which is undergo¬ 
ing decomposition, or giving off putrid odors, 
is immediately rendered innocuous by placing 
a thick covering of earth over it. The stench 
from a polecat, the smoke of brimstone, or a 
decaying carcass, is immediately absorbed and 
rendered imperceptible, when brought into close 
contact with the earth. It is in fact, the grand 
deodoriser of nature; and in this capacity, it is 
doubly beneficial to the human race, and to the 
herds and flocks subsisting upon its surface; 
first, by absorbing all these pestilential efflu¬ 
via ; and second, by turning them to the best 
account in her laboratory. In consequence of 
the addition of these, she gives increased luxu¬ 
riance to vegetable, and fuller development and 
maturity to the seeds and crops that contribute 
to the support of innumerable races of animated 
creation. By the aid of these, she is enabled to 
lend a more unsullied white to the lily, and to 
add a deeper blush to the rose ; and from them, 
too, she stores within the petals and calyx of 
every flower, the nectar that feeds the bee, the 
humming bird, and a countless throng besides. 
When, therefore, Abraham said to the sons of 
Heth, “ give me a possession of a burying place, 
that I may bury my dead out of my sightand 
again, when the Israelites were required to 
carry a paddle when going without the camp, 
they acted only in accordance with the very 
best practices of modern agriculture. 
But the earths possess this property in very 
different degrees. Silicious sands and gravels, 
have only the slightest hold upon foreign mat¬ 
ter; while clays, and clayey loams seize upon 
them, almost with the avidity of charcoal, or 
animal black, and retain them with a still firmer 
hold, when they have once entered into a chemi¬ 
cal union. If, however, alkaline substances, 
as lime, magnesia, soda, or ashes be added to 
the silicious earths, or if they become enriched 
by the addition of vegetable manures, their ab¬ 
sorbing capacity is immediately and largely 
augmented. This is one of those beneficial re- i 
suits, always necessarily attached to good hus- j 
bandry, which is fully exemplified, in the! 
vantage ground, voluntarily conceded by his 
lord, in the gift of an additional pound, to the j 
thrifty servant, whose “ one pound has gained ! 
ten pounds.” The soil that is in the best con- j 
dition as to fertility and tilth, is in the very best j 
possible state, also, to draw in and retain the j 
floating elements of fertility, existing in the at- j 
mosphere. 
To show some of the striking effects of the 
properties in soils, above alluded to, we sub¬ 
join some of the experiments and remarks of 
Professor Way on this subject. He passed 
through a filtering jar containing more than 9 
inches depth of fine white sand, a quantity of 
cow’s urine taken from a tank in the country. 
The liquid was so far altered by the filtration 
that the turbidity was removed, as it would be 
by filtration through paper, but the color and 
disgusting smell remained in all its intensity. 
Sand, therefore, obviously was not the active 
ingredient in soils in respect to the power under 
discussion. The same must be said of the dif¬ 
ferent forms of gravel, which were only coarse 
sand. The other great idgredient of soils was 
clay, and to this Mr. Way attributed the power 
in question. As an experiment, comparative 
with the last, he would pass the same tank wa¬ 
ter through sand, mixed with one fourth of its 
weight of white clay, in powder, and they would 
observe the result was very striking. The 
liquid coming through was clear and free from 
smell; indeed, it was hardly to be distinguished 
by its external characteristics from ordinary 
water. There could be no doubt, then, that the 
property of soils to remove coloring matter, 
and organic matter yielding smell from solu¬ 
tion, was due to the clay contained in them. 
Filtration was only a method of exposing the 
liquid in the most perfect form to the action of 
the clay, but it was not necessary to the success 
of the process. In proof of this, Mr. Way 
stirred up a quantity of soil with putrid human 
urine, the smell of which was entirely destroyed 
by the admixture, and upon the subsidence of 
the earth the liquid was left clear and color¬ 
less. It appeared, therefore, that the clay of 
soils had the property of separating certain an¬ 
imal and vegetable ingredients from solution, 
but was this property the only one exhibited ? 
Mr. Way had found that soils had the power of 
stopping, also, the alkalies, ammonia, potash, 
soda, magnesia, &c. If a quantity of ammonia, 
highly pungent to the smell, was thrown upon 
a filter of soil, or clay made permeable by sand, 
the water first coming away was absolutely free 
from ammonia. Such was the case also with 
the caustic or carbonated alkalies, potash, or 
soda. A power, he remarked, is here found to 
reside in soils, by virtue of which not only is 
rain unable to wash out of them those soluble 
ingredients forming a necessary condition of 
vegetation, but even those compounds, when in¬ 
troduced artificially by manure, are laid hold of 
and fixed in the soil, to the absolute pre¬ 
clusion of any loss either by rain or evapora¬ 
tion. 
But he had found that this propert}^ - of clay 
did not apply only to the alkalies and their car¬ 
bonates, but to all the salts of these bases with 
whatever acid they were combined. Here again 
was a beautiful provision; sulphate of ammo¬ 
nia, when filtered through a soil, left its ammo¬ 
nia behind, but the sulphuric acid was found in 
the filtered liquid—not, however, in the free 
state, but combined with lime, thus sulphate of 
lime was produced, and brought away in the 
water. In the same w*ay muriate of ammonia 
left its ammonia with the soil, its acid coming 
through in combination with lime, as muriate of 
that base. The same was true of all the salts 
of the .different alkalies, so far as he had yet 
tried them. Thus lime, in the economy of na¬ 
ture, was destined to one other great office be¬ 
sides those which had already been found for 
