Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-11-07

WHAT IS Practical FARMINGs-In our last
we noticed the more important relations of
carbon or charcoal, to the composition of veg
etable matter, aud remarked that it constitutes
about one half of their organic combustible
parts. The remainder of the organic matter
consists of three gases-hydrogen, oxygen,
and nitrogen; which, in the construction of
the plant, assume, of course, a solid FORM
Two of these gases, hydrogen and oxygen, ex-
ist largely in nature, as water, which they en-
tirely compose. We know this, because we
can combine them and form pure water, or we
can decompose water, aud produce, as re-
suit, simply oxygen and hydrogen. Plants
perform such analysis, and and are thus ena-
bled to obtain the required amounts of these
gases; consequently, they are never taken in
to consideration in applying manures to the
soil, and need not occupy our present atten-
ton.
The remaining gas, nitrogen, is Of the ut
most Importance in cultivation, and to supply
it is one of the most imperative duties Of the
good farmer. Nitrogen in its pure form, COM
poses about four-hfths OF the atmosphere, yet,
from the present teachings of science, it seems
that plants obtain no nutriment from this
source. They must depend for their supply
entirely upon some of the compounds of the
nitrogen. The most common of these is am
nlonia, which consists of nitrogen and hydro
gen combined. Ammonia is familiar to all as
the fumes of hartshorn. The same odor may
be perceived around stables and other places
where animal matters are undergoing decom-
position, and throwing their resultant gases
into the atmosphere Nearly all animal sub
stances contain nitrogen, which. on their fer
mentation, unites with hydrogen and passes
off in a gaseous form, as ammonia. From the
decomposition going on all over the world, the
atmosphere always contains greater or less
quantity of this gas, which is one of the direct
sources Of vegetable food. When organized
bodies, such as wood flesh, &c., are burned,
or otherwise decomposed, their nitrogen takes
the form of ammonia, constituting Temporal
~ impurity of the air.
The tendency Of ammonia to eyaporate is
matter which every practical farmer should
fully understand as its proper management
Is one Of the most essential items of good Gull
tiyation. But comparatively few farmers,
however, know anything about it, and still
fewer who pay the least regard to its manage
ment.
Every man who has travelled in our rural
districts must have observed that it is the
common custom Of the country farmers to
have their manure in open yards, exposed to
the action of the weather, often for many
years, paying not the least regard to the losses
thereby incurred. In this connection we will
notice only the loss of ammonia. Every part
of recent manure Especially urine) contains
! more or less nitrogen, which the animal pro-
| cured from its food. This nitrogen is part of
| the capital stock of the farm. The world
would ridicule the merchant who should in
vest portion of his capital in camphene, or
other volatile substance, and then expose it
| to the action of the air and sun until it should
! all eyaporate; yet the world views with COM
| placency similar waste of the most impor-
tant ingredient Of vegetable nusriment.-
Nearly every barn-yard III America pays a
heavy tribute to the ignorance and improve
dence Of its owner. The manures therein ex-
posed are constantly during mild weather.
undergoing an incipent or active fermenta-
ton, whereby their nitrogen is resolved into
ammonia, which almost universally passes IN
to the atmosphere, efforts for its retention be-
ing vain After its evaporation it is not lost
to the organic world, but it is essentially so to
the producer, inasmuch as it is more polite,
under our present social system, to keep our
dollars within our own Golfers, than to turn
them into common fund for the public good.
In a future number on the treatment of ma
nures, we shall endeavor to show in what
way this almost universal waste of valuable
material may be arrested. The subject is one
of more than usual Importance in political
point of view, as the ammoniacal wastes of
the United States are of more pecuniary con-
sequence than her whole custom house reye-
nue.. Whoever doubts this may find convic-
ton in the actual facts connected with our less
than half civilized system of agriculture.