164 FOOD OF PLANTS, AND HOW THEY TAKE IT. 
bv the Farrier, from the Halfpenny a day allowed for each 
horse while on board ship. 
Given at Our Court, at St. James’s, this Fourth day ot 
February, i860, in the Twenty-third Year of Our Reign- 
By Her Majesty’s Command, 
Sidney Herbert. 
THE FOOD OF PLANTS, AND HOW THEY TAKE IT. 
By Dr. John A. Warder. 
* 
A Paper read before the Pomological and Horticultural Society 
*of Southern Illinois. 
(Concluded from p. 113 .) 
In support of the recommendation to apply the manure 
unfermented or fresh, I may again refer to the great loss of 
ammonia that is sustained by fermentation, and also let me 
assure the timid one that he need not be afraid of losing his 
manure spread upon the surface, if the soil have been pre¬ 
pared for its reception. Of all the wonderful things on the 
face of the earth, what is more surprisingly wonderful than 
the soil itself? . . When we find that its chief ingre¬ 
dients possess the power of retaining just the very elements 
that are designed for the food of plants, which it will then 
hold firmly, not allowing them to be leached out by water, 
but ever ready for the roots of plants, we have reason to 
admire the wisdom that has so planned and ordered it. 
Baron Liebig, in his recent work on modern agriculture, 
says : “ There is not to be found in chemistry a more wonder¬ 
ful phenomenon, or one which more confounds all human 
wisdom, than is presented by the soil of a garden or field. 
“ By the simplest experiment any one may satisfy himself 
that rain-water, filtered through a garden or field, does not 
dissolve out a trace of potash, silicic acid, ammonia, or phos¬ 
phoric acid. The soil does not give up to the water one 
particle of the food of plants which it contains. The most 
continuous rain cannot remove from the field, exceot me- 
chanically, any of the essential constituents of its fertility. 
The soil not only retains firmly all the food of plants, which 
is actually in it, but its power to preserve all that may be 
useful to them extends much further. If rain or other water, 
