148 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
THE ATMOSPHERE. 
A knowledge of the constituents of the atmosphere, and ot the 
various and important offices which it performs in animal and ve¬ 
getable economy, is valuable to the farmer, not only as serving 
to aid him in all his rural, money making operations, but as offer¬ 
ing a source of high intellectual enjoyment. Although the sub¬ 
ject may be deemed too abtruse for our humble columns, we con¬ 
sider it fraught with so much useful instruction, that we doubt not 
it will be read with interest by hundreds of our young patrons ; 
and we would fain hope that it may lead some of them into a 
course of study, in physical science, which will not only benefit 
them individually, but ultimately become beneficial to man. The 
Creator has endowed us with power to become acquainted with 
many of the wonderful phenomena of nature, and of rendering them 
subservient to our wants ; and, in this country, the humblest indi¬ 
vidual is furnished with leisure and ample means to pursue the in¬ 
quiry. The time and means that are usually devoted, in early life, 
to frivolous, and often deleterious pleasures, would suffice to lay 
in a stock of useful knowledge, which would become a blessing 
and a treasure in after life. But it should never be forgotten, that 
in all our undertakings, application and perseverance are the on¬ 
ly sure means of success. With these views and hopes, we shall 
briefly describe the principal constituent parts of the atmosphere, 
and some of its more important offices, that seem most likely to 
interest the agriculturist. 
The atmosphere is composed principally of two invisible gases, 
termed oxygen (sometimes vital air) and azote, or nitrogen, in 
the proportion of about four-fifths of the latter and one-fifth of the 
former. This proportion is found to exist, with trifling modifica¬ 
tions, in all latitudes and at all elevations. Although these elements 
are invisable in the atmosphere, they both assume liquid and 
solid forms under many and various circumstances. 
Nitrogen abounds in animals, but seldom to a great extent in 
plants. It is however found in wheat, in what is termed the glu¬ 
ten, and it is this which gives to that o'rain its prominent value. 
It abounds in the urine, but seldom in the dung of animals. “ It 
is the base of ammonia and nitric acid (aquafortis) and appears 
to be the substance which nature employs in converting vegetable 
into animal substances.”— Fourcroys. Its principal office seems 
to be, to neutralize, in some measure, the properties of oxygen, 
and to render it fit for respiration and combustion. 
Oxygen enters more or less into all animal and vegetable mat¬ 
ters j—it constitutes 88 parts in 100 of water,—forms from 40 to 
70 per cent of all vegetable acids,—more than 40 per cent of the 
wood of the oak and beech,—about 50 per cent in starch, the prin¬ 
cipal nutritious property afforded by grain, pulse and roots—and 
64 per cent in sugar. It is essential to animal and vegetable life ; 
it is necessary to fermentation, to combustion, to the germination 
of seeds, and the development and maturity of plants; and com¬ 
bining with the carbon of the blood, it produces the greatest pro¬ 
portion of animal heat. It also combines with metals and forms 
oxydes, or, in common language, rust. 
Nitrogen and oxygen are called simple bodies, because they are 
incapable of division or decomposition. 
Carbonic acid gas, also, is found to constitute about one thou¬ 
sandth part of the atmosphere, and in winter, it has been found to 
amount to one five hundredth part. This is a compound substance, 
composed of two parts of oxygen and one of carbon, the latter 
being found pure in the diamond, and forming the substance of 
mineral and wood coals. This gas is produced in abundance by 
fermentation, respiration and combustion, is absorbed and decom¬ 
posed by the leaves of plants, which retain the carbon and give 
off the oxygen, and constitutes a large portion of the woody mat¬ 
ter of plants. The causes which produce it, sometimes, in con¬ 
fined situations, give it in such excess as to render it prejudicial 
to animals ; but the free access of atmospheric air soon restores 
the equilibrium. It constitutes the proper food of plants. Thus 
animals and vegetables are mutually benefited, through the wise 
provisions of the Creator, by their proximity to each other—plants 
giving off oxygen, necessary to animals—and animals giving off 
carbonic acid gas, the pabulum of vegetable life. 
Water also exists in the atmosphere in the form of an elastic 
fluid. This fluid is found to form, at the temperature of 50° Fah¬ 
renheit, about one-fiftieth of. the volume of the atmosphere, in the 
dryest time in summer, and is increased with the increase of tem¬ 
perature—heat accelerating evaporation from the earth’s surface. 
When the temperature of the air is diminished, the aqueous fluid 
is condensed, and appears in the atmosphex-e in the form of vapor, 
or clouds, and is copiously deposited, in summer, in the form of 
dew. This water is retained principally in the lower regions of 
the atmosphere. It is so slightly united with the other elements of 
the atmosphere, that a change of temperature produces a change 
in its proportions ; whilst nitrogen, oxygen and carbonic acid pre¬ 
serve, always, nearly the same relative proportions. 
“Independently of those bodies which essentially constitute the 
atmosphere,” says Chaptal, “there are mingled in it the exhala¬ 
tions constantly arising from the earth ; these are again disengag¬ 
ed from the air, and precipitated, as soon as the heat or any other 
cause which occasioned their ascension, ceases to act upon ihem. 
These exhalations modify the properties of the air, [by the car¬ 
bonic acid, &c. disengaged from animal and vegetable matters in 
a state of putrefaction] and affect its purity. The oxygen and the 
water of the atmosphere become impi’egnated with the pai-ticles 
of the exhalations which are deposited with them upon the surfa¬ 
ces of other bodies, where they remain in contact, or enter into 
combination, with them. The origin and dissemination of many 
maladies may be traced to this source ; the gei-m of them is car¬ 
ried through the air by the aqueous fluid. And for the same rea¬ 
son it is, that intermittent fevei’s are endemic in those situations, 
where large quantities of animal and vegetable matter are under¬ 
going decomposition, as upon the boi’ders of ponds aixd marshes ; 
and that the miasm, which arises from numerous animal remains, 
in a state of decomposition, becomes a fruitful soui’ce of disease. 
It is for the same reason also dangerous, under some circumstan¬ 
ces to breathe the evening air ; the aqueous fluid contained in it 
is loaded with the noxious pi’inciples which the heat of the sun, 
during the day, had caused to ascend into the atmosphere. The 
disagreeable odor, conveyed to us in mists, is owing to the power 
of the aqueous fluid in transmitting the exhalations arising from 
the earth. The manner in which the air conveys to us the per¬ 
fume of plants, and the odor which it contracts from the exhala¬ 
tions of bodies in a state of decomposition, indicate clearly its 
influence in producing maladies, and still more plainly its power 
of propagating those that are outrageous.” 
We shall not, at present, speak of the other matters which com¬ 
mingle in the atmosphere, as light, heat and electricity—but pro¬ 
ceed to the improvement, and the application to rural affairs, of 
the facts alx-eady established. 
WE MAY PROFIT BY THESE TRUTHS, 
1. In selecting sites for our dwellings —taking care to have them 
remote from marshes, ponds and stagnant waters, which vitiate, by 
the exhalations they give, the atmosphere we breathe, and gene¬ 
rate disease. The air in a small close room soon becomes vitiated 
by respiration and combustion, particularly if crowded or heated by 
a close stove. 
2. In the structure of our dwellings —in const ructing ample apart¬ 
ments, open to ventilation, and in avoiding such as are low, moist, 
or inaccessible to the direct and healthful influence of the atmosphe¬ 
ric air. 
3. In improving our domestic habits —in improving cleanliness, an 
ancient, if not a modern virtue ;—in avoiding the deleterious influ¬ 
ence of the night air, especially in autumn in well ventilating our 
apartments when the weather is favorable, particularly early in sum¬ 
mer mornings, when the air is pure and salubrious ;—in graduating 
the temperature of our rooms, which should not be suffered to rise 
above 64° of Fahrenheit;—in avoiding hot sleeping apartments, in 
which the temperature often varies from 40 to 50 degrees, between 
the hours of going to bed and the hour of rising, a transition too 
trying for the most robust constitution ;—in abandoning the use of 
foot-stoves, which transform our wives and daughters into delicate 
green house plants, poison the air they respire, and beguile them 
into indolent and inactive habits, as detrimental to their health as it 
is to their usefulness;—and in inducing our females to go warmly 
and tidily clad, even to the ball room and soiree. How many human 
constitutions are ruined, in our cities, by indulgence in habits which 
these truths teach us to reform. 
4. In multiplying shade trees about our dwellings, which serve to 
purify the air, abate the fever of summer heats, by carrying off a 
portion of the caloric with the moisture they exhale, and which are 
withal an embellishment and an evidence of good taste. 
5. In the construction of our stables and cattle sheds —Farm stock, 
except perhaps the hog, are as sensitive to good air and cleanliness 
