Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1846-01-15
VOL. XII, NO. WHOLE NO. 2O4s

take advantage of the solvent powers of the aka
lies, potash, soda and lime to decomnose the silica
or hard coating upon straw, and some kinds Of
coarse grasses Thread and yarn made from flax,
is boiled in lye 10 dissolve the gritty substance and
thereby softens the threads
Where grass has the wash from the barn ward
It frequently lodges before it is nearly ripe. This
is the result of an excess of organic matter, and
deficiency of potash silex-the latter being
needed to give frmness to the grass stems. On
the banks of streams that frequently overflow
ed, and deposits Of fine sand left, redtop grass is
generally found. know of many such spots that
have yielded fair crops for more than thirty years.
The grass when made into hay, has the appearance
oil oelng first rate fodder, yet cattle after being
kept upon IL Tor day or two, refuse to eat it, and
they will nearly starve before they can be made to
feed upon it. This is caused BY having too large
a proportion of inorganic matter From the sandy
and porous nature Of the SOIL and the capillary ac
ton, there is q continual ascent of water; each
particle of water brings with it its particle of pot
ash and slick, and the deposit of this in the grass
renders it hard and wiry and innutrtive, and the
cattle reject it.
Upon our granite and gneiss lodges, where the
soil is but few inches in Depth redtop grass is
found to grow year after year it is short iointed
and very narrow and pricked leaves it is harder
and probably less palatabe 10 cattle than that upon
the banks of streams. The action of the carbonic
acid given off by the roots Immediately upon the
surface of the rock, decomposes the potash and ST.
lex, and 1t is in excess, compared with The other
constituents that are found in the same kind of
grass grown upon good soil, that has been cult
waited and MANFRED.
| Upon spots of land that have the wash from
road, the grass is frequently very heavy and does
not lodge, because in the wash that is sprayed over
the ground by the showers of rain, it receives all
the matters necessary to form the perfect plant
And the same result is produced on our good and
well cultivated soils.
| | cite these cases to show that the mineral and
organic constituents of the soil do materially affect
the same kind of plants, not only physically but
chemically.
For the production of good crop of wheat or
other grain, it is essential that the soil should con-
tain sufficient supply of soluble silica. Upon our
newly cleared and burnt lands, we obtain the
greatest crops of wheat and rye. From the ashes
left after the forest growth has been burned, there
is an abundance of soluble silica. The straw upon
burnt land has more strength and is much less apt
to lodge, and not so liable to mlldew or to rust,
it is upon highly MANFRED land.
| Every farmer who has sown wheat upon highly
MANFRED land, knows how liable it is to be laid by
the winds and rain, and how frequently the straw
is rusted and the grain shrlvelled upon such soils.
In the London Gardeners Chronicle Of Aug. 9th,
there is very interesting article by Prof Johns
! ton, upon the use of slllcate OF soda as manure
for the wheat crop, rather its application to the
straw. The article is altogether too lengthy to
copy even to give an abstract. But he says;
lit is still an open question, then, whether not
we have 1t IN our power at our pleasure to strength
en- the straw of our grain plants-whether it would
be useful to apply the soluble silicates to all our
sos-whether there are any to which they may
be applied with advantage and profit as an ordinary
manurei" BY the analysis of four different soils,
analysed in his labratory for the purpose of
tanning the quantity of soluble silica in them he
comes to the conclusion that it is mol necessary to
apply it, as there was in the soil that had the least,
enough to supply the wants Of 900 crops of wheat"
and the soil that yielded the most, "contains
four times much, it would provide silica for
5000 crops"
From some experiments and facts, | am of the
opinion that the farmer has it in his power to
strengthen the straw of his wheat upon highly ma
rured soil, so as very much to guard against rust,
and its being laid or lodged.
But potash is found in the ash of plants in COM
bnation with other substances besides slick; it is
always in combination with suphuric, phosphoric,
and other acids and it is so universally present
in the ash of all land plants, it has important part
to perform in vegetable and animal life, and we
cannot but recognize that all-wse Providence that
has treasured up such abundance of it in the
granite rock, and the soil derived from it, and yet
has rendered it SO insolubler in water-but has
made it sufficiently soluble, when acted upon by
carbonic acids, and the roots Of plants to supply
to them in natural state all that they require and
as in such situations generation of plants after
another mature and decay. the inorganic matters in
theisol are continually upon the Unreasonable
upon our cultivated land, we are annually removing
them from the soil in our crops. The interest then
Of the SpeE. requires that he should in some form
retur1 Prof Lebeg, believe, has advanced
the dovV 05t the fertility Of the soil can be
kept up, w. lining to it the mineral, or inorganic
matters carried off in the crops. Whether that
is true or not, time and experiments may determine
l.. b.