1850, 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
261 
Here too the larger quantity of water, which has 
been already shown to exist in the unripe straw, is 
to be brought into account. This water helps to 
render the food more soluble, and more easily di¬ 
gestible by the animal. We find then that an equal 
weight of the unripe straw and grain, contains 
more nitrogen, more sugar and gum, and also more 
watery so that while it is more nutritious, it is also 
at the same time more easily assimilated and digest¬ 
ed by the animal. This last is a point of more 
importance than is usually imagined. Of two kinds 
of food containing equal quantities of nitrogen, one 
may be vastly superior in its effects when fed, and 
this simply because it can be readily digested; a 
large portion of the other may even pass through 
the body unaltered. 
Dr. Voelcker gives, in addition to his theoretical 
results, two letters from farmers who have seen oat 
hay tried. One of them says, “that when cut fine, 
oat hay goes one-fourth farther than if the oats and 
straw had been allowed to ripen.” 
In many parts of the country, it is very difficult 
to produce good grass for cutting, but easy to grow 
quite tolerable oats, at least so far as bulk of straw 
and appearance of head is concerned. The grain 
may not fill out well if allowed to stand, but still 
would serve a good purpose as fodder when cut 
green and made into hay. There is no loss of the 
grain by shelling when cut in this way, and the hay 
would be highly relished by stock. 
I have no doubt but the same system would do 
well in the case of rye, or other grains; hay made 
from them would also be exceedingly nutritive. 
The facts given in the report of Dr. Voelcker, are 
quite sufficient to warrant my calling attention to 
this subject, and recommending experiments in such 
districts as feel the need of good winter fodder, and 
this of a variety that can be obtained without great 
expense. John P. Norton. 
Action of Soils on Manures. 
Professor Way, consulting chemist to the Royal 
Agricultural Society, has lately made known the 
results of some important, experiments made by him 
for the purpose bf ascertaining the action of soils 
on the constituents of manures. Some of these ex¬ 
periments were repeated before the Council of the 
Society, and the following is the substance of the 
account reported in regard to them. 
On the table were glass filter-jars, containing a 
red soil from Mr. Pusey’s estate in Berkshire. The 
soil, as the gentlemen present would see, occupied 
the jars to the depth of five or six inches. Upon 
one of these Mr. Way poured water obtained from 
one of the sewers of London. To another filtering 
jar he added a quantity of the fetid liquid produced 
in the steeping of flax. Both of these liquids were 
turbid, highly colored, and exceedingly offensive to 
the smell; but when passed through the soil, they 
were no longer the same. The resulting liquid had 
an earthy smell it is true—a smell always accompa¬ 
nying soils—but was no longer offensive to the nose. 
Now to what ingredient of the soil was this meta¬ 
morphosis due? Was it due to the sand acting as a 
filter? It was easily proved that such was not the 
cause; and that there might be no doubt on this 
subject, Mr. Way would pass through a filtering-jar, 
containing more than nine 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 co¬ 
lor and disgusting smell remained in all their inten¬ 
sity, Sand, therefore, obviously was not the active 
ingredient in soils in respect to the power under dis¬ 
cussion. The same must be said of the different 
forms of gravel, which were only coarse sand. The 
other great ingredient of soil 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 water 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 matters, and organic mat¬ 
ters yielding smell from solution, was due to the 
clay contained in them. Filtration was only a me¬ 
thod 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 which, 
Mr. Way stirred up a quantity of soil with putrid 
human urine, the smell of which was entirely de¬ 
stroyed by the admixture, and upon the subsidence of 
the earth, the liquid was left clear and coloi'less. 
It appeared, therefore, that the clay of soils had the 
power of separating certain animal 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, ammo¬ 
nia, potash, soda, magnesia, &c. If a quantity of 
ammonia, highly pungent to the smell, was thrown 
upon a filter of clay or soil, 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. 
This was a very wonderful property of soils and ap¬ 
peared to him as an express provision of nature. 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 ne¬ 
cessary condition of vegetation, but even those com¬ 
pounds, when introduced artificially by manure, are 
laid hold of and fixed in the soil, to the absolute 
preclusion of any loss either by rain or evaporation. 
But Mr. Way had found that this property of clay 
did not apply only to the alkalies and their carbon¬ 
ates, but to all the salts of these bases, with what¬ 
ever acid they were combined. Here again was a 
beautiful provision; sulphate of ammonia, when fil¬ 
tered through a soil, left its ammonia 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 way mu¬ 
riate 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 nature 
was destined to one other great office besides those 
which had already been found for it—it was the 
means by which the salts ministering to vegetation 
became localised and distributed through the soil, 
and retained there until they were required-for ve¬ 
getation. Quicklime, when dissolved in water, is 
removed by passing the water through clay or 
through most soils containing clay; and carbonate 
of lime in solution is so effectually removed, that 
hard water may be softened by the same process. 
With regard to the extent to which these actions 
were capable of being carried. It was not to be 
supposed that we could go on filtering indefinitely 
with the separation of the salts contained in the li- 
