NEW 
“ TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
SERIES. 
VOL. III. 
ALBANY, NOVEMBER, 1846. 
No. 11. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Is 'published on the first of eacji month , at Albany , N. Y ., by 
LUTHER TUCKER, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
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MR. HORSFORD’S LETTERS.—NO. XIV. 
ANALYSIS OF PEAT ASHES. 
Giessen, July 27, 1846. 
Mr. Tucker — I send you below a peat ash analysis, 
which I recently made at the request of Baron Von 
Liebig. This ash is sold extensively at Opladen, and 
enjoys a high reputation as a manure: 
Peroxide of Iron,.. 7.84 
Alumina,. 9.73 
Lime,. 4^58 
Magnesia,. 0.29 
Potash,... 2.45 
Chloride of potassium,. 0.36 
Sulphuric acid,... 3.58 
Soluble silica,.. . 21.24 
Sand and traces of coal,. 51.15 
101.22 
A glance at its constitution, and a recollection of 
the doctrines of the Giessen Professor, will at once ex¬ 
plain its utility. The alumina is doubtless due to the 
soil gathered up with the turf. The absence of phos¬ 
phates might have been expected in the ashes of plants 
where seeds are invisible and which form no part of 
the food of animals or birds. The potash and gypsum, 
sulphuric acid and lime, are in good proportion. But 
the soluble silica is immense. 
When it is remembered that the stalks of grasses and 
grain need silica in order to their strength—in order to 
their standing erect—and how much of grain that would 
otherwise be an excellent crop, is lost because of its 
want of support when the head should be developing’, it 
will readily be seen how such an ash may be valued as 
a manure. 
A friend of mine, assistant to Prof. Will, has been 
employed by a Prussian agricultural society to analyze 
six varieties of soil—for each of which he is to receive 
30 florins, or $72, for the whole. The labor will oc¬ 
cupy him some three or four months, and in the end 
will be scarcely of any value whatever to those who 
employ him. Not because his work will be indifferent¬ 
ly performed,—for he is an excellent chemist,—but 
because it would be unjust in the next year to base farm¬ 
ing labor upon the analysis of soils gathered last year. 
His method is the following: He makes a combus¬ 
tion in oxide of copper, ami another in soda-lime, to 
determine the organic matters and ammonia. Treating 
the whole with water he analyses the soluble products. 
Then with nitric acid he analyses what is soluble there¬ 
in, and then melting with baryta, he determines tha 
absolute amount of potash and soda. To one familiar 
with the conditions of the problem, it will be seen that 
anything short of the course he has proposed to him¬ 
self, would leave questions unanswered to which che¬ 
mistry might have replied. 
A soil is composed, exclusively of the decayed or¬ 
ganic substances, of the rock crust of the earth, more or 
less pulverized. This crust was originally granite, or 
hypersthene, or basalt, or trap, or some other unstrati¬ 
fied, or mixtures of two or more of these rocks. The 
sedimentary rocks are fragments of previously formed 
masses of greater or less fineness, and containing more 
or less remains of organic forms. A mixture of both 
with mouldering animal and vegetable matter makes the 
arable land of our fields. The inorganic materials are 
every day becoming finer and finer. Cold and heat, 
moisture and dryness, carbonated water, animal and vege¬ 
table life, and other instrumentalities are combining to 
reduce the larger to lesser masses; of these there are all 
dimensions. Some are fine enough to be dissolved— 
others that will reach this condition in the coming fall, 
others that will be soluble in another year, others in ten 
years. 
Of these pure water will dissolve some—the carbo¬ 
nates of soda and potash, and the salts of ammonia: car¬ 
bonated water others—the phosphates of the alkalies 
and alkaline earths: muriatic acid still more—the other 
compounds of lime or magnesia, the alumina, the iron, 
and some of the silicates: nitric acid still more; and 
melting with baryta will bring all the silicates into a 
soluble state. Only those portions soluble in carbona¬ 
ted water are immediately available for crops. Those 
soluble in muriatic acid and not soluble in carbonated 
water, may become available next year; and portions 
of those now requiring to be melted with baryta in order 
to their solubility will ultimately become finer and 
finer, and at last soluble in muriatic acid, and then in 
carbonated water—that is to say, more or less—for some 
of these compounds resist the agencies that ordinarily 
act upon rock masses. 
Now all this laborious process is gone through with 
for earth from one cubic foot of soil, while every other 
cubic foot in the field may differ from it; and it reveals 
only the present condition, not what it may be a 
short time hence. The frosts and rains of the coming 
fall and winter will spring apart the larger pebbles, or 
eat away their irregular angles, and other ingredients 
will be presented, while those now soluble will have 
been taken up by plants or washed away by rains. 
Again, the most important ingredients are usually in 
the least proportion—the potash or soda—the gypsum— 
the phosphates and the soluble silica—constitute usually 
but a fraction compared with the sand, alumina, and 
iron; and the former are frequently present insufficient 
quantity for the full development of vegetables without 
their having been recognized. Soils of West India 
cane plantations have been analyzed in Great Britain 
