Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1857-04-30
Agricultural Items.


/ plant are adapted to form another plant oil
; the same kind, after the first plant is de-
composed by rotting.
The carbon locked up in the form Of
carbonate of lime, would cover the whole
globe with stratum Of pure coal four
hundred feet deep.
The stock of available carbon in the
soil, is continually consuming and renew
ing. When crops rot on the ground they
renew the carbon.
/ Sixteen parts oxygen, combined with
six of carbon, form twenty-five parts Of
carbonic acid. This acid is formed by all
dec imposition of vegetable matter, fer
mentation and breathing
When animals or plants are undergoing
decomposition, hylrgen combines with
nitrogen to fourteen Nitrogen, forming am
monia
+ The first ten inches of earth, is called
soil; the next ten inches is called sub soil.
The soil on an acre weighs one thousand
tons; of this four and a half per cent Is
hydrogen: one and three fourths of one
per cent. oxygen, and one fourth of one
Fer cent. Is ammonia; or putting in wei sht,
thirty six tons carbon, two tons hydro gen,
twelva tons ofoxys 8, two tons ammonia.
This is the analysis of good wheat land
One hundred parts of soil, give six thous-
and seven hundred and eishty-nine of
dry combuslibe mold.
One thousand pounds of wheat yield
twenty -tonr pounds of nitrogen. In the
forma ion Of five tons of clover, two hunl-
dreJ and forsy pounds of nitrogen are con-
sumed.
Wheat straw yields only one-eighth as
much nitrogen as wheat
The proportions given above are not
chemically exact, but sufficiently SO for ali
practical purposes.
Before a soil can produce good wheat
or other crop, it must contain in an availa
bic condition. every substance consumed
or required in forming the stems and seeds
of the plant.
1t the fertility of land depended on the
amount of vegetable matter in the soil,
then black muck would be the best for
wheat, instead Of the poorest.
Light, sandy soils, almost destitute of
mold. have been made to produce good
crops of wheat AMI corn by the application
"f plaster and lime This shows that
plants can draw oxygen, hydrogen aud
carbon from the atmosphere.
There is probably not an atom on the
face of the globe, capable of organiza ion.
that has not many times, been imbued
with vitality.
Ammonia is worth ten cents a pound,
for mailing wheat.
Sky seven per cent of the ashes of
the straw of wheat, rye, oats, barley, maize
and sugar cane, is pI'e flint.
The s;,. d east of The Alleghenies, is the
debris Of i5neous rocks. West of these
barren, The latter productive, being ami
NAL remains.
Sand land is productive in proportion to
the amount Of fossils in the rocks of which
the sand is made; but it is in all cases
leachy and requi. es lime. clay and ashes
to puddle it, otherwise manure will do but
little good.
Zuydcr Zee, lake in Holland, some /
forty miles in circumference, has been
drained by the Government, and made til
liable. The soil at the bottom. has ten per G
cnt. red oxyde Of lon, and four of lime--
1t is very productive.
Four per cent. Of lime would be forty
.ons per acre.
Carbon, oxygen. hydrogen and nitrogen
ire indispensable to the growth Of plants.
1t is generally characteristic of strong
soils to abound in the peroxyiIe. or red :
'ust of iron.
Ii sJil has one per cent. of potash.
here are ten tons To the acre.
There is usually about two per cent, or
wei.ty tons to the acre. !:
-
Two lines of types. ndugent friend,
Just fills thus column to the end. 81