THE CULTIVATOR. 
363 
Straw of 
Ashes of 
Beans. 
Peas. 
Potatoes. 
Clover. 
Hay. 
, 29.38 
12.43 
4.34 
31.63 
3.0 
39.50 
47.81 
43.68 
41.61 
6.9 
. 6.43 
5.15 
5.73 
11.80 
40.8 
. 6.66 
4.37 
7.82 
0.91 
— 
.. 12.40 
10.15 
— 
2.23 
8.84 
• - 
— 
— 
— 
21.8 
0.28 
4.63 
2.8 
2.27 
3.06 
— 
— 
— 
12.7 
from which the plants draw their carbon, if in the ma¬ 
nure, the mineral substances are provided which are ne 
cessary for the assimilation of the carbonic acid. These 
are the substances which together give fertility to the 
soil; but although each of them may, under certain cir 
cumstances, (viz., where the soil is defective in it, or 
where it is not indifferent to the plant to take up one 
instead of the other, as, for instance, may be the case 
with soda instead of potash,) increase the fertility, no 
one of them can be regarded as manure, according to the 
common meaning of the word, for the simple reason 
that only all of them in certain proportions, will fulfil the 
purpose for which the common manure is applied. 
This purpose is the restoration, or an increase of the 
original fertility, and by manure we must replace all the 
elements of the plants which have been taken away in 
harvest, or which are contained in the plants which we 
are desirous to cultivate. 
What, then, are the constituent elements of the soil 
which we remove by the straw, seeds, tuberculous roots, 
stalks, &c., of our plants of culture? It is obvious that 
we must know these first, in order to restore them in suf¬ 
ficient quantities. To this we answer, by giving the 
analysis of the ashes of plants and their seeds. Hundred 
weights of the ashes of the following plants contain 
Alkaline Carbonates,. 29.38 
Carbonate of Lime,. 39.50 
Phosphate of Lime,. 6.43 
Phosphate of Magnesia, 
Sulphate of Potash or Soda. 12.40 
Magnesia,. 
Chloride of Sodium or Po 
tassium,. 0.28 
Phosphate of Iron,. 
Phosphate of Alumina, &c 
In these analyses Silica has not been taken into account, 
as it is found in all soils, and need not be supplied. One 
hundred weight of the ashes of potatoes, and the seeds of 
the following plants, contains 
$ Potatoes. 
Alkaline Phosphates. 15.75 
Phos. of Lime and Magnesia, 9.00 
Phosphate of Iron,. . 
Sulphate of Potash,. 15 07 
Carbonate of Potash and Soda. 51.70 - - 
What is wanting in the 100 of the above analyses is 
sand, coal, or loss. From these researches it appears, 
that for stalks and leaves we require other elements than 
for seeds. The former contain no alkaline phosphates, 
but they require for their development and growth a rich 
supply of alkaline carbonates and sulphates. On the 
other hand the carbonates are entirely wanting in the 
seeds, but the latter are very rich in phosphates. It is 
sufficiently obvious that a rational farmer must supply 
both, as well as all the others. If he supplies only phos 
phates, and does not restore the alkaline carbonates, his 
soil will become gradually barren—it will be exhausted 
in those necessary elements for the development of stalks 
and seeds, without which no formation of seed can be 
expected. If he supplies the alkalies, lime, and sul¬ 
phates alone, in a given time he will get no more grain. 
All constituent elements of the manure, if they are sup¬ 
plied alone, have that great defect, that by them the soil 
is impoverished in other equally important elements. 
No one of itself can maintain the fertility. Keeping this 
in view, we may easily judge of the comparative value 
of artificial and natural manures, and all the various arca¬ 
na which have been praised as panaceas for exhausted 
soils. 
It is not less easy to understand why the farmers have 
such different opinions on the relative value of the con¬ 
stituents of manures—why one whose farm is rich in 
phosphates, produces an uncommon fertility by the ap¬ 
plication of nitrate of soda, or the supply of alkalies, 
while another does not see any favorable effect at all— 
why bones (phosphates of lime) produce in many fields 
wonders, and are not of the slightest benefit to others, 
which are deficient in alkalies or alkaline salts. From 
the composition of animal manures, it results with cer¬ 
tainty, that by applying the latter, (solid anil fluid excre¬ 
ments of men and animals) we supply to the soil not one 
but all the elements which have been taken away in the 
Wheat. 
52.98 
38.02 
0.67 
Beans (Vicia faba.) 
68.59 
28.46 
1.84 
harvest. Fertility is perfectly restored to the field by a 
corresponding supply of this manure, and it may be in¬ 
creased by it to a certain limit. This will be the more 
intelligible, if we compare the mineral elements of the 
urine of horses and cattle with the mineral elements of 
herbs, straw, roots, &c., of our cultivated plants. It will 
l,e found that in their quality they are perfectly identi¬ 
cal. 
Urine of a Horse. Of Another. Of Oxen 
Carbonate of Lime,. 
... 12.50 
31.00 
1.07 
“ of Magnesia, .. 
... 9.46 
13.07 
6.93 
k ‘ of Potash,. 
“ of Soda,. 
.. 46.091 
.. 10.33] 
40-33 
77.28 
Sulphate of Potash,. 
.. 13.04 
9.02 
13.30 
Chloride of Sodium,. 
.. 0.55 
— 
0.30 
These salts in the urine of horses amount to nearly 4 
per cent.; in that of oxen to 2^ per cent, of their weights. 
If we compare the composition of these different sorts of 
urine with the composition of the straw of peas, beans, 
and potatoes, of clover and hay, it will at once be obvi¬ 
ous, that in stable dung we replace by the urine, the al¬ 
kaline carbonates which we have removed in harvest. 
What in this urine, is wanting in phosphates and car¬ 
bonate of lime anti phosphate of magnesia, forms the 
principal constituent elements of the solid excrements of 
animals; both together (solid excrements and urine) re¬ 
store the field to its original composition, and thus a 
new generation of cultivated plants meet with the mine¬ 
ral ingredients necessary for their development. If we 
farther compare the guano and the fseces of men with the 
composition of the animal urine, the analysis shows (rf. 
my book on agriculture) that both are entirely defec¬ 
tive in alkaline carbonates —they contain phosphates and 
sulphates as well as chloride of sodium, but no free alka¬ 
li—they contain phosphate of lime and phosphate of mag¬ 
nesia, in short their elements are in quality identical 
with the important mineral elements of the seeds of 
wheat, peas, beans, (rf. the analysis.) The urine of 
swine is in its composition intermediate between the 
urine of man and horses. 
Analysis of the urine of swine. 
Carbonate of Potash,. 12.1 
Phosphate of Soda,. 19.0 
Sulphate of Soda,. 7.0 
Chloride of Sodium,.^ 53 1 
The solid excrements of Swine 
contain principally phos¬ 
phate of lime. 
of Potassium, 
Phosphate of Lime,.1 Q Q 
of Magnesia,... 1 
Traces of Iron,. j 
What the practical results of a knowledge of the com¬ 
position of these manures are, is clear. If it were pos¬ 
sible to provide our fields with the dung of swine in suf¬ 
ficient quantity, we would replace by it, in a soil which 
contains silica and lime, all the remaining elements of 
the plants—the field might be made fertile for all kinds 
of plants—we have in it not only alkaline phosphates, the 
principal elements of the seeds, but also alkaline carbon¬ 
ates, which are required by the leaves, stalks, and roots. 
This purpose cannot be attained, however, by manuring 
with guano or human excrements alone, but perfectly so 
by stable manure, from its containing alkaline carbonates. 
If I have said that stable manure conlains the mineral 
elements of the nurture of the plants, exactly in a state 
and condition in which they are furnished by nature— 
that a field manured by it resembles the primitive state 
of America and Hungary, this assertion will not be found 
exaggerated. It is certain that stable dung contains no 
alkaline phosphates, but nature does not furnish to the 
plants these elements even in the most fertile soil, al¬ 
though we find them in large quantity in all the seeds of 
wild plants. It is obvious, notwithstanding their ab¬ 
sence from the soil, that the phosphates are formed in 
the organism of the plants, and that they originate from 
the phosphate of lime and magnesia and the supplied al¬ 
kalies, by an exchange of the elements of both. The 
alkalies are necessary for forming alkaline phosphates, 
which cannot originate in the phosphate of lime alone. 
Both together are present in stable dung. In human ex¬ 
crements, and in guano, the alkaline carbonates are en¬ 
tirely wanting. The practice of the farmer, in some 
places, of supplying to the field not pure guano, but a 
mixture of it with gypsum, shows clearly that the phos¬ 
phates of alkaline bases are really formed in the organ 
