Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-07-12
NUMBER 2O3.
From the Baltimore Sun.
Ultimate Benefits or Drought, and the
Modes In which they act to Improve
Land. ,fg..f I..t tst,.- ~.
or SrATE CHEMIsr,

IL 5rH I'll #stafFo = N r I ae
LABORATORY or STATE CREMIsT,
No 20, Exchange Building
Il may be a consolation to those who have felt
the influence Of the late long and protracted dry
weather to know that droughts are one of the nat
ura restore the constituents Of crops and
renovate cultivated soils. The diminution of the
mineral matter Of cultivated soils takes place from
two causes. 3
lst. The quantity of mineral matter carried on
In crops and not returned to the soil in manure.
Cd. The mineral matter carried off by rain water
to the sea by means of fresh water streams.
These two causes, alwaysin operation, and coun-
teracted by nothing, would in time render the
earth barren waste, in which no verdnre would
quicken, and no solitary plant take root. ra.
tiona system Of agriculture would obviate the first
cause Of sterility, by always restoring to the soil an
equivalent that which il taken off by the crops;
but as this Is not done in oil cases Providence has
provided way OF its own to counteract the thrift
lessness of man, by insttuting droughts at proper
periods to bring up from the deep parts of the
earth food on which plants might feed when rains
should again fall The manner In which droughts
exercise their beneficial influence is as follows: FL
During dry weather continual evaporation Of
water takes place from the surface Of the earth,
which is not supplied by any from the clouds. The
evaporation from the surface creates vacuum $50
far as water Is concerned) which Is at once filed
by water rising up from the subsoil Of the land:
the water from the subsoil Is replaced from the
next strata below and In this manner the circula.
ton of water in the earth is the reverse to that
which takes place in wet weather. This progress
to the surface of the water in the earth manftsts
itself strikingy In the drying up Of springs and Of
rivers and streams which are supported by springs
1t Is not however, only the water which is brought
to the surface OF the earth but also all that which
the water holds In solution. These substances ar,
salts oflime and magnesia ofpotash and soda and
indeed Whatever the subsoil or deep strata Of the
earth may contain. The water on reaching the
surface Of the SOIL Is evaporated and leaves behind
the mineral salts, which VIII here endmerate, viz:
Lime as ar-slacked lime magnesia, az air-slacked
magnesia; phosphate Of lime, or bone earth sui
phate of lime, or plaster of Paris; carbonate OF
potash, and soda with silicate Of potash and soda
and also chloride Of sodium or common salt All
indispensable to the growth and production Of
plants which are used for food Pure rain water
as 1t falls would dissolve but very small propor.
tion of some OF these substances but when 1t be.
comes soaked into the earth, it there becomes
strongly imbued with carbonic acid from the de-
composition of vegetable matter in the soil, and
thus acquires the property of readily dissolving
minerals on which before II could have very littlf
influence 6a ta
was first led to the consideration of the above
subjects by finding, on the re-examination of soil
which analyzed three or four years ago, a larger
quantity of a particular mineral substance thansI
at first found, as none had been applied in the,
meantime. The thing was difficult OF explanation
until l remembered the late long and protracted
drought then also remembered that in Zacato-
cas- and several other provinces in South America
soda was obtained from the bottom of ponds, which
were dried in the dry, and again filed up in the
rainy season. As the above exrlanative depended
on the principles of natural philosophy, at once
instituted several experiments to prove its truth.
Into glass cylinder was placed small quantity
of chloride of barium in solution; this was Their
filled with dry soil, and for long time exposed
to the direct rays Of the sun on the surface. Tn
soil on the surface Of the cylinder now treated
with sulphuric acid, aud gave acopious preciptatA
of sulphate Of baryta. h8 ar y
The experiment was varied by substituting chic,
ride of lime, sulphate Of soda, and carbonate oil
potash, for the chloride OF barium, and on the
proper reagents being applied in every instance,
the presence Of tho,e substances were detected n
large quantities on the surface OF the soil In the
cylinder Here, then, was proof positive and di.
rect by plain experiments in chemistry and natu.
raj philosophy, of the agency, the ultimate, bene
fetal agency, of droughts.
We see, therefore, in this, that even those
things which we look upon as evils, by Proyi.
dence are blessings in Disguise and that we should
not murmur even when dry seasons affiict us for
they too are for our good. The early and the
later rain may produce at once abundant crops
but dry weather Is also benefcent dispensation OF
Providence In bringing TO the surface food for
future crops, which otherwise would be forever
useless. Seasonable weather is good for the pre-.
sent but droughts renew the storehouses of plants
in the coil, and furnish an abundant supply OF nu.
timeut for future crops
n JAMES HIGoIss,
State Agricultural Chemist