64 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
all but the initiated in Short-horn-lore, the pages of the 
Herd Book are as a sealed volume in all that relates to 
their.origin, history, and present condition. Names of 
animals are often inserted without any reference what¬ 
ever, apparently for no other purpose than to establish 
them as “ Herd Book Cattle.” It will be otherwise in 
this. Interesting facts and illustrations will accompany 
pedigrees as they may occur, throwing light and infor¬ 
mation, such as to place every thing relating to this no¬ 
ble breed of cattle in the most attractive fonn, and de¬ 
velop in the best manner their advantages to the Ameri¬ 
can farmer. 
In all cases where the parties are unknown to the 
subscriber, either personally, or by correspondence, they 
will please to give the name of some distinguished 
breeder, or citizen of their own, or a neighboring 
State, as a reference. This is not required through any 
suspicion of the entire integrity of any gentleman who 
may offer his cattle for registry, but as a rule for the 
mutual protection of each one who desires a true and 
unimpeachable record of short horns, (as far as it goes,) 
in America. 
As the magnitude of the work (in pages,) will not be 
known till the materials are all collected, the price can¬ 
not be exactly stated: but at all events it will not exceed 
three dollars per copy, as noted in the prospectus last 
May, deliverable as there stated. 
All pedigrees, &c., are requested to be transmitted, (if 
by mail, post paid,) to me at Black B.ock, N. Y., or if 
more convenient to the parties, to A. B. Allen, at the of¬ 
fice of the Am. Agriculturist, 205 Broadway, N. Y. city, 
or to Caleb N. Bement, American Hotel, Albany, N. Y., 
who will duly forward them to me. The terms for re¬ 
gistry will be one dollar for a single animal; and fifty 
cents each for any larger number; to persons having 10 
ol more animals, with simple pedigrees, a liberal deduc¬ 
tion will be made from this last price, according to num¬ 
ber; the money to be enclosed with the pedigrees. Ac¬ 
companying the pedigrees, the number of volumes sub¬ 
scribed for is also requested. 
All papers to be forwarded as soon as possible; at all 
events, before the first of April next, as the work will 
be put to press to be delivered to subscribers by the first 
day of June ensuing. 
The insertion of this notice is respectfully requested in 
the Agricultural papers generally, one of which to be 
sent to me, for which a copy of the book will be pre¬ 
sented, and any gentleman who feel an interest in this 
subject will do a favor by giving information of this pro¬ 
posed publication to any neighboring breeder of short 
horns, who may not otherwise obtain it. 
Lewis F. Allen. 
Black Rock, January, 1845. 
“ BALANCE OF ORGANIC NATURE.” 
V he Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organic Na¬ 
ture—an Essay , by M. J. Dumas and J. B. Boussin- 
gault, members of the Institute of France. Edited by 
D. P. Gardner, M. D., Lecturer on Agricultural 
Chemistry, New-York. Published by Saxton & Miles, 
1844—12 mo. pp. 174. 
This excellent little work which opens new fountains 
of knowledge, practical as well as theoretical, appears to 
nave been delivered as a lecture by M. Dumas, on con¬ 
cluding his course at the Ecole de Medecine in Paris. It 
contains the opinions and result of the joint labors of Du¬ 
mas and Boussingault in chemical and physiological in¬ 
vestigations. What is meant by “ The balance of organic 
nature ,” we learn from page 61, where the author makes 
the following summary of his doctrines: 
“ If we recapitulate we shall see that the primitive at¬ 
mosphere of our globe has formed itself into three great 
parts or masses; one constituting the atmospheric air of 
the present time; a second, represented by plants; a 
third by animals.” 
“ Between these three masses continual changes are 
effected; matter descends from the air into vegetables, 
penetrates in this way into animals, and returns to the 
air in proportion as they consume or apply it to their 
purposes.” 
“ Green vegetables constitute the grand laboratory of 
organic chemistry. They are the agents which, with 
carbon, hydrogen, azote, water and oxide of ammonium, 
slowly form the most complex organic substances.” 
“ Under the form of heat, or of chemical rays, they 
receive from the sun the force which enables them to ac¬ 
complish this great work.” 
“ Animals assimilate or absorb the organic substances 
which plants have formed. They alter them by degrees; 
they destroy or decompound them. New organic substan 
ces may arise in their tissues, in their vessels; but these 
are always substances of greater simplicity, more akin to 
the elementary state than those they have received.” 
“ They decompose then, by degrees, the organic mat¬ 
ters created by plants. They bring them back by de¬ 
grees towards the state of carbonic acid, water, azote and 
ammonia, a state which admits of their ready restoration 
to the air.” 
f< In burning or destroying these organic substances, 
animals always produce caloric, (heat) which radiating 
from their bodies into space, goes to supply that which 
vegetables had absorbed and fixed.” 
“ Thus all that the atmosphere yields to plants, plants 
yield to animals , animals restore to the air. Eternal round , 
in which death is quickened, and life appears, but in which 
matter merely changes its place and its form!” 
“ The crude and formless mass of the air, gradually 
organized in vegetables, passes without change, into an¬ 
nuals, and becomes the instrument of sensation and 
thought; then vanquished by this effort, and as it were 
broken, it returns as crude matter to the source from 
whence it had come.” (p. 61.) 
This carries us back to the Creation, Ev to die 
beginning, when {t God said let there be light, and there 
was light.” It accounts philosophically for the succes¬ 
sion of events as related by Moses. With light came heat, 
and heat developed vegetation, and vegetation prepared 
the way for the subsistence, and the after creation of ani¬ 
mals. 
But our business is not with speculation, but with prac¬ 
tical affairs. The food of plants, and the best method of 
giving them a vigorous growth, are the subjects which 
are most interesting and most important to farmers. 
“ Every plant (says Dumas) fixes nitrogen during its life, 
whether it obtains this element from the atmosphere, or 
from manures added to (he soil.” 
And again, 
ee One of the first problems in agriculture, is to pro¬ 
cure supplies of nitrogen at a cheap rate. With regard 
to carbon, there is no cause for solicitude; nature has 
provided that in ample abundance; the air, and every 
shower of rain are charged with it. But it is otherwise 
with reference to nitrogen; the azote of the air may be 
unassimilable, and the ammoniacal and nitrogenous salts 
which rain-water contains may not be in sufficient quan¬ 
tity. It is indispensable therefore, to surround the roots 
of almost every plant whose culture is of importance to 
mankind, with manures rich in azote, as enduring sour¬ 
ces of ammonia or of nitric acid, which the plants appro¬ 
priate in proportion as they are produced. To do this, 
as is well known to all, is one of the grand causes of ex¬ 
pense in agriculture, one of the grand obstacles to its 
progress; for we are generally dependent upon, and have 
only access to, the manure we can severally produce. 
But chemistry is so far advanced in this direction, that 
the problem requiring the production of a purely nitro¬ 
genous manure, cannot long remain unresolved.” (p. 43.) 
It is elsewhere shown by our author that plants also 
fix carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and certain earthy parti¬ 
cles or ashes, (p. 37) as well as nitrogen, as a constituent 
element in their composition. It is therefore doubtful 
whether a “ purely nitrogenous manure ” be necessary. 
All compost heaps composed of animal and vegetable 
substances, furnish nitrogen, and other ingredients capa¬ 
ble of promoting vegetation. It would be better there¬ 
fore to give to our cultivated crops a composition con¬ 
taining various materials congenial to plants, than to of¬ 
fer them one only. How many have been disappointed 
in the use of lime alone, or salt, or saltpetre, and other 
