Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1853-10-20

bushels TO the acre.
Another instance cite, to show the val
ue OF subsoiling, under scientific direction.
The farm of Robt. Bonnie was deficient in
It's surface soil. Its subsoil by analysis
proved to be rich in substances not contain
ed in the surface soil. He prescribed sub
soiling and a thorough mixture of upper
and lower soils. The proceeding crops
were fifteen bushels Of corn and sixty BUSH
els of potatoes 10 the acre, but the succeed
ing one hundred and fifty bushels of ears
OF corn and three hundred and fifty bushels
OF potatoes. Once more: field Of gen.
J tleman in Maryland had become barren un-
der culture. 1t was reduced TO yield Of
one bushel per acre. He applied TO dis
tinguished chemist, who on analysis, de-
tected the absence of but one element of
fertility--phcsphoric acid. That element
was supplied and the product was twenty
nine bushels of wheat to the acre. 1t is
needless'to multiply examples estab-
lish the connection between science and ag-
riculture-but the union must be more COM
plete.
value at a high rate the practical skill
obtained by long course of observation,
possessed by many of our farmers--com-
mon sense, sound judgment, have done much
for the soil, aided by little exterior informa-
ton; and the light of Science will never dis
pense with the use Of such qualities; but we
cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, under
our present system of culture, the soil o f
country is undergoing exhaustion. Its
richness, in the Valley of the Mississippi,
will postpone the ultimate period of barren
ness, but it must be witnessed by those who
shall live upon the earth when we have
passed away, unless the process of exhaus
ton be arrested. The law of Supply and
demand, explains both The evil and its cure.
That law is the great, primary law of Ma
ture. Why does this noble river, on whose
banks we stand, roll in ceaseless and per-
petual flow on to the ocean? Whence comes
its eternal supply? Ask the sea and the
sun and the cloud, and they will answer
In this invisible air around us, are four ele-
ments, without which there can be no living
thing-neither vegetable nor animal. With
out them there must be universal DEATH
Every moment in our lives we must have
them, and so must every plant. The vege-
table and animal Kingdoms are the active.
ceaseless, consumers of those commodities.
Whyare they not exhausted? Why is it
that the atmosphere, everywhere, still furn-
ishes supply to this never ending demand?
u Go to Pompeii-dig up from its ruins a
vase which has been covered by the lava of
Vesuvius for eighteen centuries -analvze
the air it holds-and you will find in it the
I, exact amount of oxygen contained IN the same
volume of atmosphere that plays around the
|, highest peak Of the Alps. Whence is this
universal supply? The answer is: every
animal that breathes, at every breath, alb
serbs oxygen and gives out carbon, while
'ieyery plant in its respiration, takes in car
bon and gives out oxygen. The indestruc-
hblIlty OF matter, perpetuates this exchange
Of the two Kingdoms through an eternal cir
} Gle. This is the operation of organic life,
but decay and death are pledged TO the same
office of restoration. Burn plant in flame,
and it disappears-all save its ashes. In
life its substance was mainly composed of
The Tour elements-oxygen, carbon, hydro
gen and nitrogen-and these it drew from
the air, while it contained also small Dor
lions of several substances which it did not
get from the air. Now in the process of
combustion, death comes, and at the moment
OF dissolution every element is set free, and
what is beautiful each element knows its
place, and whittier it must go. The ele.
ments Of air have gone to their home, and
what came from the earth is left upon it.
In regard to the laws regulating the sup
ply OF nitrogen-an element which in the
form of ammona-is so intimately connect
ed with vegetable life, as to claim the spe-
cial attention Of the practical farmer-there
Is more uncertainty. Whether the atmos-
phere be its primary source as most chemists
conclude, or whether Liebeg be right in his
conclusion, that sit is a part-a prin,aru
constituent Of the globe itself''-all chemists
are able TO trace the various secondary
sources of supply of this essential fertilizer,
and all concur in showing, that upon man
depoires a large portion Of the york of resioj
ration. 1t is the great office of science TO
distinguish between the cases in which ma
ture does, and does not, need the aid of man.
Her processes are of themselves sufficient
for her purposes--she can clothe the earth
in vendurc-and by decay and death she
renders that verdure perpetual-but man
tasks her powers, and by continual drafts on
her fertility, he may reduce her to barren
ness. To prevent this, what she demands
of man, is, that after he has used what he
has taken from the earth, he shall bring it
back to her exhausted bosom, or if he will
not do that, let him go to her magazine of
supplies, wonderfully and bountifully pro-
vided, TO meet the exigences of his pro-
violence. The immense coal fields which lie
embedded in the earth, of vegetable origin,
furnish sample of her proudest forecast
and care. The nitre beds of India and
South America, are other instances-and in
onr own country, on the shores of Lake
Champlain, in New Jersey and New York,
beds of phosphorite have been discovered,
more valuable than mines of gold. To sup
ply what they furnish England expends
half million of pounds sterling every year.
She sends her ships abroad, to other coun-
tries, and digs for bones on the field of Wa
terloo. And nearer to us the Mammoth
Cave in Kentucky, constitutes an inexhaus-
tlble nitrate reservoir. | venture 10 pre-
dict, that one of the proudest achievements
of science will ha IN convart fba ,,ot md