202 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
July 
Mulder has thrown out the idea, that organic bodies 
in the progress of decomposition, produce ammonia, not 
alone by parting with their nitrogen in this form, but by 
causing, through the molecular action attendant upon 
the decomposition, the union of the nitrogen of the air 
with the hydrogen of the organic body, or of water de¬ 
composed at the same time. Berzelius, even, says that 
if iron filings be placed in the bottom of a jar, they will 
oxydate at the expense of oxygen of water, producing, 
by the union of the hydrogen thus set free with the ni¬ 
trogen of the air, ammonia. 
Professor Will, of the Giessen Laboratory, has shown 
by the most conclusive experiments, in opposition to the 
latter most distinguished chemist, and to M. Rieset, 
who entertained a similar view, that nitrogen unites 
with hydrogen under no such circumstances; and Mul¬ 
der’s view fails in quantitative experiment of its support. 
Indeed, the experiments of the Dutch chemist, detailed 
in the last Jahrs-Bericht, having a qualitative purpose 
merely, have not won the conviction of Berzelius. 
Ammonia, Liebig maintains, is a body not indebted 
to organism for its being; that it is to be classed with 
iron and potash, and soda and oxygen, whose quantity 
within the organism of plants and animals, and with¬ 
out, is, in general terms, constant. He holds, that 
when the required physical properties have been given 
to a soil, and the necessary inorganic ingredients, in 
suitable solubility, the ammonia and carbonic acid, with 
healthful falls of rain, will provide themselves. 
Muck serves so eminently well in giving the requi¬ 
site porosity to a soil, that a wide-spread conviction 
prevails in America, that somehow, it becomes dissolved, 
and passes, according to Mulder’s view, directly into 
the vegetable economy, without first becoming carbonic 
acid, ammonia, and water. 
I found ammonia in the “glacier-ice that comes down 
from the summit of Mt. Blane. 
The quantity, though small, was determinable by the 
balance, and the fact is established, that even at these 
elevations, this ingredient does not fail. 
I herewith send you the determinations of my friend 
Dr. Krocker, now Professor of Chemistry and Physics 
in the Agricultural Institute of Breslau, m Silesia. 
TABLE 
Of the Ammonia Contained in Soils, by Dr. Krocker. 
Name of Soils Examiner. 
Soils Examiner. 
Clay soil before manuring, 
Clay soil. 
Surface soil, Holienheiro,. 
Subsoil of the same,. 
Clay soil before manuring, 
Clay soil, “ 
Soil for barley,. 
Clay soil before manuring, 
Loam,.. 
Loam. 
Illinois prairie soil,. 
Cultivated sandy soil, __ 
Excavated loam earth, ... 
Cultivated sandy soil, .... 
Nearly pure sand,. 
Varieties of Marl,.. .. 
1 Ammonia ia 100 
1 parts of air-dried 
| soil. 
- 
Specific Gravity. 
Pounds of Ammo¬ 
nia in a soil of one 
Hectare in area, 
0.25 metre deep | 
0.170 
2.39 
20314 
0.163 
2.42 
19723 
0.156 
2.40 
18720 
0.104 
2.41 
12532 
0.149 
2.41 
17953 
0.147 
2.41 
17713 
0 143 
2.44 
17446 
0.139 
2.41 
16749. 
0.135 
2.45 
16537 
0.133 
2.45 
16292 
0.116 
2.18 
12644 
0.096 
2.50 
12000 
0..08S 
2.50 
11009 
0.056 
2.57 
7023 
0.031 
2.61 
4045 
f0 0988 ] 
! 
11952 
0.0955 
11552 
1 0.0768 
! 
9283 
] 0.0736 
2^42 
8904 
0.0579 
1 
7004 
| 0 0077 
! 
931 
10.0047 J 
i 
568 
A metre is 39.37 inches; so 0.25 metre are a little 
more than ten inches, or five-sixths of a foot. 
A hectare contains two and a half English acres. I 
nave converted the last column into English values, and 
adjoin them. 
Clay soil, before manuring, 
Clay soil,. 
Surface soil from Hohenheim, 
Subsoil from the same field, 
Clay soil before manuring, 
Clay soil 
Soil lor Barley, 
Clay soil before manuring. 
Loam 
Loam 
Illinois prairie soil 
Cultivated sandy soil, 
Excavated loam earth, 
Cultivated sandy soil, 
The “ excavated earth ’’ was taken from a depth be¬ 
low all traces of organic matter. The Illinois prairie 
soil was brought by a returning German, in paper, from 
a field that had been cultivated without manuring 
already ten years I think. 
Now, what farmer ever carted from his manure yards 
8000 pounds of ammonia to an acre of land ? One may 
almost say, what farmer ever carted the tenth, or even 
the twentieth part of this amount. 
It is obvious that the ammonia spread on fields in the 
ordinary distribution of barn-yard products, is of no mo¬ 
ment. The quantity, with usual falls of rain, greatly 
exceeds, in the course of a season any conceivable sup¬ 
ply by human instrumentality. These results put the 
question of the sources of ammonia or of nitrogen out of 
all doubt. 
But if, with the manure heap and the liquid accumu¬ 
lations of the barn-yard, transported to the fields, the 
ammonia be not the chief ingredient, or an important 
one, to what are we to attribute the unquestioned value 
of stable products and night soil ? Prof. Liebig has 
shown, that if plants be manured with the ashes of 
plants of the same species, as the grasses of our western 
country are when burned over in the fall, they are sup¬ 
plied with their natural inorganic food. He has shown 
the truth of the principle in a great variety of wavs. 
Among others, he has been feeding some grape vines 
with the mineral matters of their ashes, in the propor¬ 
tions in which analyses have shown them to be present; 
and their development has been luxuriant in the most 
remarkable degree, though the soil upon which they 
have been grown is little better than sand. He made a 
variety of experiments with grains, roots, flowers. &c.. 
which I had last year the pleasure of following, and this 
spring he has commenced them upon a more extended 
scale. 
Let us consider what these ashes are, and what ma¬ 
nure is. 
Herbivorous animals derive their nourishment from 
the vegetable kingdom exclusively, their food being 
grass, grains, roots, &c. These, with their organic 
and inorganic matters are eaten. A portion of them is 
assimilated, becoming bone, muscle, tendon, fat, etc. 
Another portion is voided in the form of exerementitious 
matter. In process of time, the bones and tissues 
follow the same course. What to-day forms the eye, 
with its sulphur, and its phosphorus, and carbon, 
&c., will have accomplished its office, and left the or¬ 
ganism to mingle with the excrements, or escape as 
carbonic acid and water from the lungs. At length, all 
