Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 303 
der the sun-light is converted into vegetable organism, only that it 
may be taken to pieces again to furnish prepared matter and force 
or forces, to be used again in some other department of nature. 
This matter and force, however, before it is fit for use again, must 
be taken to pieces and otherwise prepared. Hence we are called 
upon here in the vegetable kingdom to witness what we have al¬ 
ways witnessed in the mineral kingdom, namely, the disintegration 
and consequent distribution of one form of matter, to furnish ma¬ 
terial and force for building up other and higher forms. That is, 
we are called upon here to witness the disintegration and decay of 
those beautiful forms - of vegetable matter, to furnish matter and force 
to be used in building up animal forms. 
But while a part of this decomposing vegetable matter, and I may 
add a part of the forces imprisoned in the plant is transferred to 
this higher department of organization, the remainder, and perhaps 
the larger portion, is returned to the soil as soil-forming material. 
And even that which is transferred to the animal kingdom and 
transformed into animal forms, is, when the purposes of life are 
served, returned again to the soil to be worked up into new vegeta¬ 
ble forms. Not only then, of those mineral forms in the mineral 
kingdom, but of those vegetable forms in the vegetable kingdom, 
and of those animal forms in the animal kingdom, it may be said, 
as it was said of man when he first rose from the matter of life, 
u Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return. v 
It is from this dust, with what gaseous matter it absorbs directly 
or indirectly from the atmosphere, that nature forms our soil. But 
this heterogeneous layer of dirt is not of itself plant-food, but the 
material out of which plant-food is prepared. Nor is it so much 
upon the kind of matter forming the soil, as it is upon its condition, 
that the fertilit}' of the soil depends. 
If we watch the process of plant formation, we find that nearly 
nine-tenths of the matter entering into its composition, enter it as 
water and carbonic acid, the remainder as ammonia, potassa, soda, 
lime, magnesia, alumina, oxide of iron, oxide of manganese, silica, 
sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid and chlorine, and it may be one or 
two other compounds of minor importance. The first two—and jus 
I have said, nearly nine-tenths of the whole—namely, water and 
carbonic acid and perhaps ammonia, are derived mostly from the at¬ 
mosphere, partly through the stalk and leaves of the plant, and 
20 a 
