338 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 11 
Part III. 
What chemical agencies are at work 
changing the soil ? In the first place, 
water is constantly dissolving the rocks, 
and scattering them through the ground. 
We often say that certain substances are 
not soluble in water. Strictly speaking, 
that is not correct, for very few of the 
substances that make up the rocks are 
entirely insoluble, even in rain water. 
As a matter of fact, however, there is 
really little absolutely pure water in na¬ 
ture. Except when refined by delicate 
and powerful machinery, water almost 
invariably contains more or less carbonic 
acid. This substance is produced in de¬ 
cay or ferment, or combustion of vege¬ 
table and animal substances, coal, etc. 
It is absorbed in rain water, and thus 
adds to it a solvent i>roperty which en¬ 
ables it to break up even more com¬ 
pletely, the rocks and stones in the soil. 
This is the same carbonic acid gas which, 
when forced into water held in stout 
tanks, forms “soda water,” which comes 
out with a “ fizz ” and rush, and “ bites ” 
the mouth and throat as it goes down. 
Again, the oxygen in the atmosphere 
has an influence on soil changes. It not 
only helps form this carbonic acid, but 
acts directly on certain rock ingredients 
—chiefly iron. The result is a “rust” 
just as we see on metal exposed to water 
and air, and this rust not only colors the 
soil, but helps to break up rocks of 
which the iron formed a part. 
Animals, too, have had much to do 
with changing the character of the soil. 
All burrowing animals add to this work 
by actually pulling the lower soil out 
to the surface, and by opening passages 
for the admission of water or air. Ants 
bring many tons of the subsoil up to the 
surface, and when dying, add organic 
matter and nitrogen. Earth worms have 
done much to change the soil’s charac¬ 
ter. Darwin estimates that on an aver¬ 
age acre inhabited by these worms, 10 % 
tons of material are annually brought 
to the surface. And so, for ages and 
ages, these forces have been at work 
changing the original rock into soil, 
working it over and changing it about, 
until we now have all the differences 
from heavy clay to light sand. There¬ 
fore, we now understand that the soil of 
your farm is composed of powdered 
rock and vegetable matter, which latter 
has grown and decayed since the rock 
was powdered. But it varies all the 
way from “ heavy clay ” to “ light sand” 
—what makes that difference ? “ Clay ” 
is derived from a certain class of rocks 
like granite, which yield a very fine, 
plastic material. It differs from sand 
somewhat in composition, but chiefly in 
mechanical fineness. A pure clay is 
composed of particles so small that 
water holds them closely together, so 
that the soil is “ sticky.” The propor¬ 
tion of clay in a soil determines its char¬ 
acter as to “heavy” or “light,” except in 
black, mucky soils which are filled 
with vegetable matter. “Alluvial” soils, 
or those along rivers and valleys, are 
generally better suited to farm crops 
than the uplands—chiefly because they 
contain a better mixture of clay, sand 
and vegetable matter. 
We have referred to the great impor¬ 
tance of water in agriculture. A con¬ 
trol of the water supply is of even more 
importance than manuring. In every 
soil of fair composition, with a moderate 
proportion of vegetable matter or humus, 
there are vast stores of plant food. It 
is customary to say that much of this is 
“locked up” in insoluble combinations, 
yet a perfect supply of water would un¬ 
doubtedly leach out and dissolve far 
more of it than is now obtainable. With 
the proper tillage to hold moisture in 
the soil, and a rotation that will in¬ 
clude deep-rooted plants to pump up 
plant food from the lower soil, much 
more of the “locked up” fertility can be 
made available. On many soils, a cer¬ 
tain amount of plant food will be needed 
from year to year—chiefly for the young 
plants and those crops in the rotation 
that have not the strongest root system, 
or which are very rapid growers. Even 
with this plant food, however, the best 
of tillage is required to conserve moist¬ 
ure—which is after all of more impor¬ 
tance than manure. 
A little illustration will show you the 
importance of water in the soil. Take a 
cubic foot of rock, and put it in water. 
There are but six square feet of surface 
for the water to touch. Grind up the 
rock as fine as ordinary soil, and take 
one cubic foot of that. It is now com¬ 
posed of millions of little grains—each 
one a miniature rock presenting its own 
surface to the others. Prof. Whitney 
estimates that these grains in the cubic 
foot of soil present a total surface area of 
50,000 square feet instead of the original 
six. And all over this great area, air 
and water can circulate if the conditions 
are right. The cubic foot of soil is capa¬ 
ble of absorbing half its bulk of water 
without swelling. It would be a bad 
thing for the farmer to have his soil 
completely saturated in this way—for it 
would thus be “ watei’-logged ” and cold 
like a swamp. It is necessary that the 
warm air should circulate through the 
upper soil, and of course this cannot be 
done if water fills all the spaces. The 
ideal condition of the soil is to have it 
slightly moist with a tiny film of water 
around each soil particle, yet with space 
between the particles for air and roots 
to make their way. Later on we shall 
try to show why the roots need this con¬ 
stant supply of water, and what treat¬ 
ment of the surface of the soil best holds 
the water in place. 
The ability of soil water to leach out 
and dissolve the soluble portions of 
rocks, is very evident when we examine 
the contents of sea water. Originally 
this must have been perfectly pure water 
as it was condensed from vapors on the 
cooling of the earth’s crust. The minerals 
now found in it must have been dissolved 
out of the soil and washed through rivers 
and brooks into the ocean. An average 
sample of sea water, contains about %% 
per cent of pure water. Most of the re¬ 
maining 3% per cent consists of common 
salt and different combinations of lime, 
potash and magnesia. The ash of sea 
weeds which are certainly produced 
from sea water, contains quantities of 
iodine, iron, manganese and phosphoric 
acid, showing that these substances were 
at some time washed out of the soil into 
the ocean. Small quantities of copper 
have been found in sea water. As the 
copper sheathing of vessels is gradually 
corroded, it becomes more or less touched 
with silver, which is combined with very 
small quantities of gold. In fact, chem¬ 
ists believe that a very close search 
would reveal almost all the chemical 
elements in minute quantities in sea 
water. This goes to show that there are 
very few of the mineral elements that 
are entirely insoluble in pure water, and 
still less so in water charged with car¬ 
bonic acid. Most of the minerals found 
in sea water, with the exception of pot¬ 
ash, are not considered absolutely essen¬ 
tial to plant life. 
By a wise provision of nature, potash 
and phosphoric acid are held in the soil 
so that while water does undoubtedly 
dissolve them more or less, by proper 
culture and rotation we are able to 
utilize about all that is dissolved in this 
way. It is not so with the nitrogen— 
the most important of all plant food. 
Large quantities of that are undoubtedly 
lost to the plants by being washed out 
into the brooks, or down into the subsoil 
beyond the reach of ordinary plants. 
We expect to take up next this matter 
of nitrogen, showing how it is brought 
to the soil and how it is held or lost. 
One curious thing about the water in 
soils is its power of climbing up to the 
surface through the spaces between the 
soil particles. When the conditions are 
right, the water mounts to within a few 
inches of the surface, and remains there 
to nourish the roots, or evaporates as 
the upper three inches have been pre¬ 
pared. The surface can be so treated 
that this upward flow will be kept up, 
and, of course, the water brings with it 
soluble plant food from the lower soil 
which otherwise the roots might not 
reach. This matter of mulching or cul¬ 
tivating the upper surface of the soil to 
hold the soil water near the roots, is 
more interesting than ever in view of 
the last season’s severe drought. An 
excellent article on mulching orchards 
will begin next week, and will bring out 
many of these points. 
gmsTcUanrou# ^dvrvtisinfl. 
A Startling 
Admission. 
In New York City, for five con¬ 
secutive years, the proportion 
of Deaths from Consumption 
has been three in every 
Twenty Persons. 
Epidemics of Cholera, Yellow Fever and 
other diseases of similar character, so ter¬ 
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alarm and receive the most careful consid¬ 
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consumption receives scarcely a thought, 
yet the number of their victims sinks into 
insignificance when compared with those of 
consumption. Comparatively few people 
know what to do for their loved ones when 
they see them gradually lose strength, lose 
color, manifest feeble vitality and emacia¬ 
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