Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-07-02

cent of phospboric acid, and therefore more
nutritious than wheat straw, owing to the
quantity of silica being less in proportion, and
a greater percentage of lime, potash and phos-
phoric acid. In this analysis, the farmer dis
covers another very important matter, which
is, that one crop does not require the same
quantity and kind of manure that apother may
need and this being properly understood,
would enable the farmer more profitably TO
manage rotation of crops.
AS we have briefly considered the inorganic
parts of plants, we will now consider another
class of their constituent elements, denomina-
ted the organic clements of plants, and much
more difficult to be understood, without some
knowledge of chemistry, yet very important,
as they said to compose from 90 to 81 per
cent of their substance and the ash, or inor-
ganic matter, is the balance.
Professor J. T. W. Johnson says s'The sol
| id rocks and soils, the atmosphere, the waters
| of the seas and oceans, everything which nei-
| ther is nor has been the seat of life may gen.
orally be included under the head of inorganic
|
| plants and their dead carcases, consist of or
ganic or organized matter. These generally
| exhibit kind Of structure readily visible by
the eye as in the pores of wood and in the fl
bres Of hemp or of the lean of beef.' And
| he also says, s'that sugar, starch and gum, are
formed in plants in great abundance, yet do
not present any pores or ffbres they have
| never been endowed with organs, yet being
produced by the agency of living organs, they
are included under the general name of or
ganic Natter
The seeds of plants have an organized form
in embryo, a part of which organization any
one may see by splitting bean, where the leaf
in embryo, is plain and ready to expand and
enlarge as soon as the vital principle within it
is brought into action, by heat and moisture.
Those substances, taken into circulation in the
plant, with the vital powers inherent in itself,
and assimulated into itself, increasing its bulk,
and structure, and reproduction of germs, may
properly be called organic substances or ele-
ments, and those substances Of deposit, in the
plant, by the vital economy of the plant, as
we may be permitted to say; such as starch,
sugar and gum, may lie called organic matter.
When We burn vegetable, say wood or straw,
nearly all its substance passes off into the at
mosphere, and but small portion is left of
| ash. Professor Norton says, sit is easy to
see that this portion of the plant can only have
been formed from air at first.''
| By chemical experiments, it is now settled
that the organic parts of plants, consists of
four substances. They are carbon, oxygen,
nitrogen and hydrogen; carbon is charcoal
as form wood and other vegetables, and Of
| course is very abundant in nature. All vari-
eties burn freely in the open air, and while
burning the oxygen of the atm o0Pi,Orv, uiiitv1
with its base, and it is converted into carbonic
acid gas. 1t is then suspended in the atmos-
pheric air, and being divided into atoms, is in
| a state to be taken up by vegetables, and con-
vcrted into part oftheir substance. Oxygen,
Hydrogen and Nitrogen in their pure state,
are gasses, different kinds of air. Oxygen,
| it is said, composes one-ifth of our atmos-
| phere, and nitrogen the remaining four-fifths.
1t composes water united with hydrogen,
eight parts by weight of oxygen, to one by
weight of hydrogen. These three gases, or
airs, are without color, taste, or smell; they
chemically combine with a variety of substan-
ces earths, alkalies and metals, forming va
rious compounds, and with each other, some
of which will be hereafter noticed. How won-
derful, that two airs should form water, which
is visible, can bc tasted, and seen while the
airs are invisible, without taste or odor. Not
withstanding this to us, 50 wonderful, there
are irnumerable changes continually going on
in nature, according to the laws of the Great
Creator of the Universe, and it is not less
| surprising, and wonderful, that atoms of earths
and atoms of airs, should become fibres and
nerves in the animal creation subject to vi
tality, and protesting the power of locomo-
ton.
! Conclusion nect lceck.