Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1855-06-28
farmers Department
From the Ohio culiivator
CHEMISTRY AND AGRICULTURE.

lis said that oVery farmer is a working chem
ist, but they do not all know ii Who does
not envy Liebig his intellectual enthusiasm,
when he tells US that be could read on his trial
plots the effects II his manuTial applications,
'ss on the leaves ef book : 'IhSI the de6cI.
euey or excess Of phosphate Of lime, Of alkalies
for root crops, ofalkalne earths for clover, Of
alkali silicates for the cereals, was plainly re-
vesled in the growth Of these plants." But as
very few farmers have their lot cast on 80 bar
reu a spot as Liehig's experimental farm, 'tis
doubtulWheIher the same applications would
be SO marGed by each specific component Of the
manure applied TO il for Liebig himself tells
US, that he had previously made the same ap-
plicdtlons 10 his gar den, when owing TO the
richness Of the soil, the effect was lmpsrcep-
tible.
When the chemist hears a farmer say that
plaster, lime, wood ashes, or some other soil
ingledlent, are good for nothing as manure he
knows at once that the farmer improves at least
a ssmi-ferule farm, from which the inorganic
elements Of plants have not yet been enIIrey
exhausted by previous crops and he makes
due allowance for the ignorance Of the same far
mer in relation to the needs Of worn out soil
How much better and more respectable
would be the condition Of that farmer, if he
could only exchange his egotsm for passion
to learn the causes why his soil is not beaut.
fed by such mauurial applications, and also
Ehy the organic part ofanimal and vegetable
manures, the nitrogen and carbon, are requi.
red in so much greater excess By the crop, than
the mineral ashes left asa. reslduum after the
organic partE exhausted by the plant, or es
capped to the air.
| 1t must be admitted thLt there can be no true
farming which is not in accordance with na-
ture's laws, yet how many farmers blindly
pursue u system Of hereditary recipes, with lit
tie heed or reference to the altered condition
Of the soil since such recipes were given. or tC
the peculiarly Of the season, either Of which
perhaps might require modification in man.
ufacturingi tng, and culture. True, given
recipe will enable a house wife to make flour
into a raised loaf but il she knew how much
of the flour is destroyed or converted into that
carbonc acid which raises the loaf, she would
also know that the tighter the bread is iu con
sistancy. the less It's weight, and the less nu-
triment it contains hence, if an economical
woman, she would be careful how she raised
her dough too much, How much more i'm.
portant 1t is to the farm,r to understand the
composition and chemical action Of manufes, in
order that he may kow the most economical
mode of making, saving and applying them to
his soil and crops, so that bis plants may be
economi cally led, and at the light time, with
their appropriate food.
There is a mistaken notion among farmers
generally, that much study is necessary to in
'tiate them into the understanding and practice
Of agricultural chemistry, when The fact is that
very knowledge Of org,nic chemistry is re
Iquired the names of about fifteen simple sub
stances, with little study into their various
ahinties for and combinations with each other,
comprise the whole secret as agricultural chem
lstry, by the aid Of which the farm soon be.
comes chemical laboratory to the farmer,
where his abors and his exp, riments are salts
factory, because they are IN accordance with
natures laws s, WILLIAMS.
Waterloo, " Y.