Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1856-10-22


much the same that has long been practised in this
country in the culture Of corn. and at later date OF
cotton only he would discard manure altogether as
too filthy substances to be employed in the produc-
ton Of what is to be used for food and he would
apply the method OF process Of poughing or horse
hoeng with some kind of coulter or cultivator to
the crops, where each plant occupies much smaller
space than does stalk of corn or cotton, as IN the
case of turnips and wheat OF course, when the
ground is to be stirred between rows which are so
much nearer together, it becomes indispensable that
those be perfectly straight and true their dis
tances from esch other exactly equal and that the
whole business be conducted with the utmost care
and precision. Tull contributed indirectly, there
FORE to the neatness and beauty of the agriculture
of Great Britain and the perfection Of the methods
now in use there The turnip crop, in particular,
which receives so much attention there thrves won
derfully under this kind of management, and If in
troduced into the smaller patches that are seen at
this season of the year somewhere about every
plantation in North Carolina, would have an excel
lent effect. With the same expenditure of manure
q crop of equal goodness would be produced over
much larger surface, and We should have better
supply of an article which to feed our wives and
daughters during the winter. Tull represented q
rotation of crops to be unnecessary at least If lot
utterly useless.
Men of better sense and sounder Judgment dis
carding the WITNESSES of Tull, avaed themselves Of
his reasonable suggestions They continued to col.
iect preserve, and apply their manures as they had
done before, and at the same time adopted his
methods of careful tillage and his great panacea for
so many of the ills of agriculture, for
those crops to which it is especially applicable. The
farming of England underwent a gradual though
slow amelioration The great agent, the science
that to carry it forward to perfection, the at
tainment of which had hitherto been regarded as i'm
practicable, was as lyet unknown-was yet to be
called into being
The origin of the modern chemistry dates no fur
ther back than a single century. In l756 DR.
Black published his "Thesis de Magnesia Alba, in
which he showed that, besides the air we breathe,
there is at least one other kind with properties
wholly different and it became probable that there
others still not improbable that there are many
other such substances. Chemists entered with ar
dor into the field of investigation that was in
such manner laid open to them, and the constitution
of vegetable matter became so far as relates to the
great facts and principles connected with it. pretty
well understood Vegetable fibre Of every kind, as
seen in trees in grasses and the other products OF
cultivation, is composed mainly of three substances
viz: oxygen and hydrogen, which are the constitu
ent elements of water and carbon, the coal that
is seen at the blacksmiths shop. Water is present
every where in favorable season, SO that We can
very we'll understand, whence that its procured by
vegetables of every kind. But with regard to the
carbon, it is at first sight by clear whence
it is that it comes. Take, for example, field of
corn at er-pulling time. There is a large bur-
then of carbon in tin the stalks the blades, and
the ears There is often very nearly If not quite
as much carbon in the soil that late in the season
there was in the spring. From whence. then, has
this constituent of the crop been derived? It was
at length ascertaned very fully by long course Of
periments instituted by different philosophers, be-
tween the years ITO and 1900. from what source
is that vegetables supplied with the larger part
of the carbon they contain that it exists in state
Of combination, united to another elementary sub
stance, in gaseous state dfused in small proper
tons through the atmosphere. This gas, or air,
bearing the name Of carbonic acid is, far as the
wants and necessities of animals are concerned to
be regarded an mpurity in the substance We
breathe. If it exceeds a certain proportion or limit
the air containing it becomes positively noxious and
deadly 1t is what is sometimes used, especially
by females for the purpose of suicide in Paris and
elsewhere. 1t is product of respiration, of COM
bustion, Of the slow decay of animal aud vegetable
matter, and other agencies. It is absorbed by the
leaves Of the plants decomposed under the influence
of the light of the sum- the carbon retained for the
use of the vegetable and the pure, vital air. which
is one of its constituents, given out. The leaves
with which the forests are clothed in summer have
no other use or purpose far as has been hitherto
ascertained, than the accomplishment of these
changes The grove around the University furnishes
an experiment large scale, illustrative and con-
rmatory Of the truths that have just been stated The
soil contains almost no carbon under any form. The
leaves when they fall, at this season of the year,
are mostly swept off by the wind during the winter.
and what few remain are burnt at the opening Of
the spring. Yet the quantity of carbon in the
trunks and limbs Of the trees is evidently ncreas-
ing from year to year. An additional, and It is by
no means an inconsiderable quantity of carbon is
accumulated in the leaves Themselves which, as has
just been stated, either swept off by the wind or
burnt. There is no other source from which all
this carbon can by any possibility have been derived
but the atmosphere.
The effect Of animal life, therefore, is to contami
nate the air We breathe so far as its relations to
their heatfui existence is concerned, and at the
same time to charge it with nourishing food for
vegetables whilst on the other hand vegetables rob
the air of what is most grateful and congenial to
their own appetites, and restore it purified and
cleansed to meet the wants of the animal.
This was a prodigious step in advance in cur
knowledge of organized nature revealing to US much
in the economy of the vegetable and animal world
which it was most desirable to know, and furnish
ing explanation to certain extent of the uses of
putrcscent manures; but the information so acquired
was with reason good deal more priced by the
vegetable psychologist than by the agriculturist.
Indeed, the latter cared but little for it, he could
make very little use of it.
For If vegetables, the crops cultivate and raise,
are composed of the elements Of water, which they
can easily procure, which we can supply if they are
so in want that there is absolute necessity for
and if carbon which they got from the arr all they
can possibly want is soil of almost any sort in
which to obtain foothold and raise themselves up
SO as to place themselves under the genial influence
OF the atmosphere and the suns rays. Why then
should there be difference in sosa Why should
not one be as good as another? For a long time we
were unable to assign any satisfactory reason. One
class of men-one profession was as much in the
dark about the matter as another. There was
mass offacts to which was given by courtesy rather
than because they had any valid title to it. the name
OF agricultural chemistry. It not, in fact, enti
tied to the name, and for a number of years was
accustomed to deny that there was any such science
as agricultural chemistry. In the year 1872, or A
years ago. Sir Humphrey Dayy at the instanca of