Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-02-02
4 tep Facts about Soils.

, ture consumes in forming crop of an,
kind. This statement expresses fact 0
great practical importance for the hus
banding Of these fertilizing atoms is th
first step toward arresting the impoverish
ment Of the earth. 1t is the matter in tht
soil which makes crops in one arrangement
Ct its atoms, and forms manure in another
condition Of the atoms, that the farmer
should learn to preserve from waste anC
loss.
Soils of different degrees Of productive
ness, where their mechanical texture and
physical properties are alike, always con
tain unlike quantities Of the food of crops
ltseems to make little difference how small
is the amount Of the lacking ingredient in
the composition Of cultivated plants. It's
absence is fatal to the farther growth Of
the crop after its appropriate aliment fails
in the soil. Is is easy to discover the wis
dom Of tbi, universal law. Suppose nature
should organize grass, grain, and other
plants which serve as the daily food Of all
the higher order of animals, as well with
out bcne-earth phosphate Of lime as with
that mineral-would it be possible for
such grass and grain to yield to the blood
of domestic animals, and of man himself,
that solid earthly matter which impar.s
strength to human bones, and to those Of
oxen, horses, sheep, and swine? Certain
ly not. Although iron is always present
in the food and blood of animals, no far
mer ever killed calf, pig, or an OK,
which had iron for the frame Of its system.
No anatomist ever saw bone in the
body of a person formed of other earthly
atoms than such as Providence had
fitted for that peculiar function in the ami
NAL economy.
The brains and muscles of all animals
contain both sulphur and phosphorus, a.
constituent elements. If their daily food,
derived as it is from the soil, lacked either
sulphur or phosphorus, must not this radi-
cal defect in their nourishment coon in.
duce weakness, and disease, and finally re-
suit in premature death3 To prevent con-
sequences so disastrous and so obvious.
nature refuses to organize plants wishou.
the presence in the soil, IN an available
.form, of those peculiar atoms adapted alike
to the wants Of vegetable and animal vita
fully studied by every one wuu urslruv u
enjoy sound health and long and happy
life. Most Of "the ills that flesh is heir
to- as well as most naladies of plants,
have their origin in the violation Of ra-
tu.e's laws.
The growth and constitutional vigor Of
I'll living beings, not less than the revo-
luton of the earth on its axis, ARE governed
by immutable laws. One of these appears
to be that an atom Of carbon (charcoaD
shall not perform the function of an atom
Of iron nor can an atom Of iron perform
the Office of an atom Of carbon, or that Of
sny other element concerned in the organ
ism Of plants and animals.
There arc only some fifteen kinds Of ele-
mentary bodies used by nature in perfor-
ming every vegetable and animal substance,
produced on the farm, in the orchard, or
in the garden.
The science of rural economy consists
in the systematic study of atoms, and Of
the laws by which they are governed,
whether they exist in solid or crumbling
rocks, in loose earths, in vegetable or ami
NAL mould, in fermenting rnanure, in the
living tissues and cells of organized beings,
or in the form of invisible gases, difuscd
through the atmosphere. Every product
of agricultural labor is either vegetable
or an animal substance ; and in its pro-
duction not an atom of new matter is called
into existence nor is it possible to ami
hiliate an atom when it decays.
In the language Of science, all matter
which is neither vegetable nor animal, in
cluding air and water, is mineral. All
minerals are either solids, like sand, clay,
and lime; or liquids like water, or gases
like common air The farmer deals large
" with atoms in each Of these forms ; and
hence he should be familiar with the sc7er-
al sciences which treat of the natural phe-
nomena witnessed in the mineral, vegeta-
bic, and animal kingdoms. He should
know that plants alone subsist on mineral
or disorganizcd food-that if there were
no plants in the ocean nor on the land,
neither marine nor land animals could
have being In the absence ofall vegc-
ta,iou, it is obvious that oil animals must
be carnivorous, Or cease to consume orga'
nized ali,nent. Being, wholly dependent
on mutual destruction for tue means oi
subsistence, every day would diminish the
aggregate supply of food, and the last AMI
NAL would soon die Of starvation.
From the above reasoning, it is PLAN
that vegetable life is older on this plane
H. ,;,,,I l;fo and that plaDts may