1847. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
203 
the inorganic matters will reappear in the voided pro¬ 
ducts. 
Carnivorous animals satiate their hunger from the 
already developed organism of the herbivora. Their 
food, of course, contains merely what the plants had 
furnished. In their excrements reappear the soluble 
and insoluble inorganic substances, mingled more or 
less, as is the case also with the herbivora, with indi¬ 
gestible matter, such as hair or woody fibre. 
The animal organism has performed the office of a mill. 
Grain was supplied. Instead of appearing as flour and 
bran, and the intermediate meal, it appears after inter¬ 
vals of greater or less length, in soluble inorganic salts 
in the liquid excrements, in insoluble inorganic salts in 
the solid, excrements, and in carbonic acid and water. 
Now after burning a plant, what remains ? It con¬ 
tained when growing, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and 
oxygen, as organic bodies, and water. 
It contained also, in variable proportions, common 
salt, potash, soda, magnesia, lime, iron, phosphorus, 
sulphur, and silica. 
The first four were expelled in the combustion. The 
remaining ingredients, for the most part, remained un¬ 
changed.* 
Had the plant gone into the body of an animal, and 
in the course of its evolutions through the organism lost 
its carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, the re¬ 
maining ingredients would have been the same as be¬ 
fore. 
In the one case, the plant would have been burned in 
the organism; in the other in a # crucible. The ashes 
and the excrements are substantially the same. 
The principle of the rational improvement of soils is, 
then. 
1st. A proper physical constitution for the retention 
of moisture, escape«pf surplus rains, expansion of roots, 
etc. Unless the moisture be detained, the ammonia 
that fell with it will escape; and as the inorganic mat¬ 
ters contained in the soil must be sought, a free and 
wide expansion of the roots is indispensable to vigorous 
growth. This texture will be derived from the plow, 
harrow, spade, and hoe, and admixtures of sand in some 
soils, clay in others, loam in others, and organic refuse 
in most. 
2d. A supply of the inorganic ingredients, which the 
ashes of the plant to be cultivated contains, in such a 
state that they may be readily taken into the vegetable 
system, and yet not so soluble as to be washed away 
by rains. 
I will venture to add a single additional remark to 
this already long letter. 
Seven inorganic bodies included in the ash products 
above mentioned, are absolutely indispensable to the 
growth of plants. A soil wanting these cannot yield 
seed capable of reproducing its kind. 
Here, then, all the mysteries of gypsum being ser¬ 
viceable on some soils, and for a number of years, and 
then being no longer of use,—of its benefiting some 
soils greatly, and others not at all,—the great value of 
quick-lime or of calcareous marl on some lands, and 
their uselessness on others,-—the profit of employing 
bone dust (phosphate of magnesia and lime,) generally, 
—the worth in some instances of salt,—of straw, plow¬ 
ed in,— of poudrette,—of guano,— horn-scrapings,— 
soda,—saltpetre, etc.,—become solved. 
Some soils have already sufficient sulphuric acid and 
lime. Gypsum would not benefit them. Others have 
enough of all the remaining ingredients, but lack sul¬ 
phuric acid. Gypsum supplies the deficiency. 
Two or thre e years’ culture, or ten perhaps, exhaust 
* This is not strictly true. The phoshorous and sulphur would 
K >I ^J )y U11I °" with oxygen, phosphoric and sulphuric acids, 
follow- qUahficatlon ma y be extended to the paragraph which 
another ingredient. Bone-dust possibly supplies the 
want. 
In time, however, still another recurs. Potash or 
soluble silica. Gypsum, in never so large a quantity, 
contains no trace of phosphoric acid, or potash, or silica. 
Soda may be wanting. Salt will supply it. 
The texture—the porosity necessary to retain moist¬ 
ure, carbonic acid, and ammonia, may require improve¬ 
ment. Straw, or leaves plowed in, accomplish the 
end. 
Stable manure contains the ashes of the oat, and corn, 
and hay, with their carbonates, phosphates, sulphates, 
and silicates, with such an abundance of organic refuse, 
that it meets the demands of most soils. 
A drouth prevents mineral matters from being taken 
into plants, and without rains the ammonia is not 
brought down from the air. 
Night soil and guano are the ashes of animal and 
vegetable organism burned in animal bodies. They are 
the ashes of plants—-the essential food of plants. Hence 
their value as manures. 
Explanations of many things, hitherto obscure, pre¬ 
sent themselves to any one after contemplating this 
view of manures. I will notenter upon the subject of 
the rotation of crops, the object of which is, chiefly, the 
renewal of soluble mineral matters by the action of the 
atmosphere, changes of temperature, carbonated wa¬ 
ter, etc. 
I have no doubt that ere long the application of these 
doctrines will reveal in the many, now considered, quite 
exhausted farms of New England, untold sources of 
wealth. You would think me sanguine beyond reason 
if I were to express my honest conviction of the still 
virgin capabilities of the soil of our pilgrim fathers, and 
I will not venture it. We shall see. 
I am, &c., Eben N. Horsford. 
Fine Farming and Great Crops. —James Gowen, 
of Mt. Airy, near Philadelphia, raised, in 1845', a ten 
acre field of corn, which averaged 95 bushels of shelled 
corn per acre. It had been in grass, without manure, 
five years; it was plowed, and the field manured with a 
ton of guano, costing $40. The rows were 3| feet 
apart., and the plants 12 inches. (This distance would 
be too great for small northern corn.) Judicious har¬ 
rowing, in preparation, cleared the ground thoroughly 
of grass and weeds, and it was kept perfectly clean af¬ 
terwards at little cost. There were 7 acres of winter 
wheat, and one of spring wheat, the whole computed to 
average over forty bushels per acre. The spring wheat 
was after an acre of carrots, of 900 bushels, and was 
followed by an acre of turneps of 1000 bushels; the 
whole worth over $500,—from 1 acre in two years. 
The carrot crop the same year was 1000 bushels per 
acre, sugar parsnep 800 bushels, ruta baga over 600, 
potatoes, 3 acres, over 200 each. These were only 
part of the crops. Besides, there were more than 100 
tons of excellent hay, though the season was unfa¬ 
vorable. All on an upland farm of about 100 acres 
which maintained during the summer over 60 head ol 
cattle. So much for manure, subsoiling, fine culture 
draining, rotation, &c. 
Wheat and Clover after Corn. —The Michi 
gan Farmer mentions a case where a sixty acre corn 
field was sown with wheat, while the corn was yet 
standing, and which was cultivated in. Late in the fall 
the corn was taken off, the wheat at the time covering 
the corn handsomely, and it subsequently afforded a fine 
crop. A successful case is also mentioned of sowing 
clover-seed among corn. It was sown immediately be¬ 
fore going through the corn the last time, and followed 
with the cultivator. When the corn was harvested the 
clover was several inches high. 
