wine, and beer casks, as well as vinegar pipes, with 
which all are familiar. 
The housewife, to keep the vinegar on the increase, 
adds wine, or whiskey, or cider, or maple sap, or mo¬ 
lasses. All these contain sugar or alcohol. The sugar 
is resolved into alcohol and carbonic acid. The alco¬ 
hol, however, does not continue as such, if the liquid 
be exposed to the action of the air, but goes into vine¬ 
gar, or acetic acid. 
These decompositions have now been so much and 
so clearly studied that the results are perfectly under¬ 
stood. The causes ®f the decomposition are still mat¬ 
ters of discussion. 
To return. The carbonic acid, to whose addition, 
the increase in weight of the potash apparatus is to be 
attributed, speaks a certain amount of sugar, from 
which it was derived. The larger per cent of carbonic 
acid corresponds to a larger per cent of sugar. 
I will add the analyses of the ashes. From them you 
may see one of the parts that sulphate of lime plays in 
the development of clover. » 
You may remember that Franklin, anxious to con¬ 
vince our countrymen of the efficacy of gypsum as a 
manure, strewed a few handfuls of it in the form of 
large letters upon a clover field. In a few weeks the 
plants that had received the benefit of this manure, 
had so far outgrown, and had taken on a color so much 
deeper and richer than the others around, that the won¬ 
der of passers by was naturally excited. 
It was the ashes of this plant that I analyzed. 
Of the whole plant in its green state, the earthy in¬ 
gredients or inorganic constituents, equal, mere¬ 
ly,. 1.83 per cent. 
Of the leaves,.. 1.75 per cent. 
Of the stems,.. 1.40 per cent. 
The water in the green clover, deter¬ 
mined by two experim’ts, gave, 83.55 and 83.58 pr.ct. 
Of the dry plant altogether the per cent. 
of ashes was,...11.18 per cent. 
Of the leaves, ....10.69 percent. 
Of the stems,. 8.52 percent. 
No. 1. Ingredients < 
Ko*.= 12.164 = 
Na. = 1.414 = 
Nao. = 30.757 = 
Cao. = 16.556 = 
Mgo.. = 6.262 = 
Po 8 +2fe a 0 3 = 0.506 = 
Cl.= 2.159 = 
Po 5 . = 2.957 = 
So 3 .= .801 = 
Sil.. = 1.968 = 
Co 2 . = 22.930 
Sand and coal 1.244 
)f the ashes. No. 2. 
Potash,. = 16.101 
Sodium,.. = 1.874 
Soda,. = 40.712 
Lime,. = 21.914 
Magnesia,. = 8.289 
Phosphate Iron,. = .670 
Chlorine,.= 2.856 
Phosphoric acid, = 3.915 
Sulphuric acid, . = 1.063 
Silica,.= 2.605 
100.000 
99.718 
The first table contains the direct per cent results of 
the analysis. Table No. 2, the per cent results, deduct¬ 
ing the carbonic acid, coal, and sand. 
In glancing at the results of the analysis, we see how 
large a part is made up of potash, soda, and lime. The 
sulphuric acid is there. Without its presence in the 
* To those unacquainted with chemical symbols, it may be as 
well to remark, that the signs “ Ko,” “ Na,” &c., are explained 
by the terms “ Potash,” “ Sodium,” &c.— Ed. 
soil it could never have gained a place among the 
tissues of the plant. If it be an essential irreplaceable 
ingredient, as phosphoric acid is in the seeds of -wheat 
and corn, it is readily seen how Franklin’s selection 
of clover may have been peculiarly happy. I do not 
pretend to say it is indispensible. A series of experi¬ 
ments and accurately conducted analyses only, could 
settle such a question. 
The sand was probably spattered upon the stalks by 
rain, and a certain amount of coal remained, with the 
most careful and long continued burning. 
The large proportion of carbonic acid is particularly 
worthy of attention. Comparing it with the sum of all 
the other acids—the phosphoric, sulphuric, silicic, 
hydrochloric, of which the chlorine is given, we see how 
far it exceeds them. Again, glancing at the per cent, 
of bases, we see how very large the proportion when 
compared with the sum of the inorganic acids. This 
surplus of base was most of it united to organic acids. 
These, in the burning of the plant, have been destroyed. 
Their place has been taken by carbonic acid, or for the 
most part. Here is nearly 23 per cent, of carbonic 
acid. 
In an analysis of the ashes of sugar cane, made here 
last summer, there was not a trace of carbonic acid. 
Such is the difference. In the sugar cane, the percent¬ 
age of silica was large. Timothy grass ashes gave also 
no carbonic acid, but a large per cent, of silica. 
Setting together some of the results of this little in¬ 
vestigation— 
The moisture of green clover amounts to 83.5 per 
cent. 
The clover contains a certain amount of su ar—a body 
capable of fermentation. 
What hints come to the farmer from these two facts? 
If the clover be taken to the mow ; with this weight 
of water, the fluid among the fibres of the stalks and 
leaves, will permit that intestine motion necessary to 
fermentation; and not only will the sugar be lost, but 
vinegar will be formed, souring the whole mass, and 
rendering it unpalatable for stock. 
If it be properly dried, on the other hand, the sugar 
as such, will remain with the vegetable fibre, and go to 
nourish the stock, furnishing horses and cattle with an 
element whose combustion serves to keep them xvarm.* 
But again—leaves contain 10.69 per cent, of ashes, 
while stems contain 8.52 per cent. 
Now, as these inorganic matters are more or less 
serviceable in the animal economy, the leaves contain¬ 
ing most of them should particularly be preserved, and 
as the ashes of the whole plant, including the head, 
have 11.18 per cent, of ashes, it is clear that the preser¬ 
vation of the heads and leaves are decidedly more im¬ 
portant than that of the stems. 
Hence the farmer cuts the clover, and instead of 
parching it in the sun, as in many places, cocks it for a 
few hours, that the vapour evolved from within in the 
process of drying, shall keep the stalks and leaves with¬ 
out, from becoming too suddenly dried and unnecessa 
rily brittle. 
In closing this communication, I will state one of the 
* The discussion between Dumas and Liebig relative to the 
formation of fat from sugar, has been settled in favor of the latter, 
by a repetitioiij on the part of Dumas, of the experiments made 
several years since by Liebig. 
