ON CHEMISTRY. 
45 
How wonderful that the pure, limpid, tasteless sap of the plant, 
should be converted into the elements of the soil! I say the ele¬ 
ments, for who could venture to assert that any plant, living and 
growing, endowed with the vital principle, contains, de facto , the 
substances of charcoal, flint, clay, chalk, and iron ? Many are apt 
to assert that, the products of analysis must exist ready formed in 
the vessels of plants; hut this is repugnant to the evidence of the 
senses; and contrary to assured fact; a being endowed with life, is 
one whose structure and organization qualify it to fulfil its allotted 
part in the scheme of Creation. But when life becomes extinct, it is 
made subject to the play of chemical affinities; and then, it affords 
substances which are the result of decomposition. Terms are want¬ 
ing to convey a clear idea of what has been effected : in fact we are 
obliged to confess our ignorance; and, therefore, it is only safe to 
conclude that, the Elements of the new products resided in the plant. 
I was lately much struck by the reperusal of an article in the first 
Vol. of the Horticultural Register, p. 347, upon the Native Soil 
being changed by the application of manure produced from land of 
an opposite nature , by Mr. S. Appleby ; and I extract the following 
paragraph. 
“The subsoil of my friend’s kitchen-garden is a hard rock sand, 
and the surface-soil formerly consisted of light sand, with the most 
trifling admixture of loamy earth, being such as commonly abounds 
in the vicinity of that extensive forest.” (Sherwood.) The manure 
for his garden was carted from his clay farm, and was used unspar¬ 
ingly for two or three seasons, during which period, the soil grad¬ 
ually changed from the light sand I have mentioned, to a loamy con¬ 
sistence. He has continued to apply the same kind of tillage from 
the stable or fold yard of the clay farm, to the present time, and the 
original sandy soil of his garden, now approximates to the clay soil 
of his farm. I beg to observe that the tillage referred to was applied 
in a rotten state, and had no appearance of being impregnated with 
anv particle of clay, but consisted entirely of ordinary manure, the 
produce of clay land.” 
Many considerations of importance are involved in the fact thus 
detailed. Was the manure really farm yard dung with straw P—if 
so, was that straw produced solely on the clay farm P Were weeds 
from the land,—such as the couch-grass of the field, made use of—if 
they were, much of the adhering soil must have been carried to the 
heaps. Other questions of the like import might be brought forward ; 
and all such facts demand, and really merit very close investigation. 
I know, and have spoken, that weeds when decayed, and manuring 
