Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-04-10
;faynlers 9epartnent,
Alkaline Phosphate.

can be best giver. by making few state.
ments Of what we believe to be ascer-
tanned facts in reference 10 manares in
general.
The active capital of the soil is the
available quantity of plant food it con-
tains. We say arailable quantity, be.
cause there is in every soil very con-
siderable amount of plant food which is
not available. For example, the alum;na,
which used to be considered = totally inert
substance chemically, and to be. valuable
only as comforting certain physical quail
ties upon the soil, is now conceded to be
very energetic chemical agent. 1t stores
up in the arabic crust of the earth the
important ingredients, ammonia. potash
and phosphoric acid 1t withdraws them
from circulation, to borrow phrase from
the bankers, and locks them up as an liz
vestment Consequently, every soil, in
process of time, becomes more or less
charged with these comparatively inert
combinations of materials essentially ne
cessary to the growth of plants. They
are thus carried back to condition analo-
cous to that iusoluble mineral state from
which they emerged by the aid of the de-
composing force of cir and atmospheric
water. Upon these forces they must
again depend for their restoration to ac-
tivity.
How rapidly this locking up is accom-
plshed, we know from Ways admirable
researches upon drainage water That
distinguished agricultural chemist di~cov-
cred that the water drained off from land
heavily manured, season after season,
with salts of ammonia and super-phos-
pha.e of lime, contained more trac, 8 of
ammonia and phosphoric acid. 1t appears,
therefore, that much Of our manure is
thus invested year after year. Now,
such combinations as these are not availa-
BILE for the support of vegetable life; thus,
in the process of tillage, combinations of
comparative insoubility are in constant
process of formation. 1t is true that
these are not lost. but may be rendered
available by merely increasing the taclli-
ties for decomposition; for example, by
deep ploughing or finely pulverizing the
soil.
1t plainly then is necessary, if we would
maintain our lands in uniform condition
of fertility. that we must steadily manure
them year after year. Every year
portion of the active capital is thus with.
drawn and transmitted into reserve
fund. Hence we arc obliged to keep ad.
ding to our stock of active capital in the
way of manure, even although We take
off each year less than we put on.
1t is very evident that we must add the
three substances whichalumina withdraws,
viz, ammonia, potash and phosphoric
acid. But tortiori, we should also add
those materials which alumina does not
retain, and which, therefore, pass away
with the Drainage water or sink into the
subsoil below the roots of the growing
plants, such as soda, sulphuric acid, chlo-
rine, &c. Every one of these substances
has its Use in the economy of vegetation,
and csnnot be dispensed with. 1t is Idle
to say that one element of fertility is
more important than another. They are
all, in their relative proportions, of equal
value. A chain is only as strong as its
rranvsv itnn.--IS; So ~~----r.s,, -,.;i hr,
nitrogen enough, availablefor the purposes
of the growing crop, to furnish forty
bushels of wheat to the acre, but has only
potash enough for ten bushels, ten bushels
will be the limit of its production although
everything else may be present in suffi-
cient quantity for the larger yield.
1t is plain, then, that no man can ma,
nure iudiciously who confines himself to
two or three ingredients, and trusts to na-
ture to furnish the rest. He must put
back at least rs much as he sends away,
or his soil will grow steadily poorer. For
this reason we are glad to see some atten-
tion paid, by the manufacturers of con-
centrated fertilizers, to other substances
besides ammonia and phosphoric acid.
When alkalies are introduced, in connex-
ion with ammonia and phosphoric acid,
twofold advantage is obtained. In the
first place, there is given to the soil sup
ply of indispensable plant food to furnish
the growing crop, and to substitute that
portion of the available capital OF the
soil which has been retired during the
past season. Secondly, there is added to
the reagents already present in all fertile
land, another promoter Of that dccomPo-
sition which brings out the constituents of
the rocky fragments that form the basis
of soils, and which renders them fit to
play their part in the development of
vegetable organization. 1t cannot be too
strongly impressed upon the minds of
farmers, that every ingredient of soil
is, in its relative proportion, equally in
dispensable, and that if they confne
themselves to few, under an impression
that they are of paramount importance.
they are pursuing ruinous policy. 1t
may be true that the soil contains large
quantities of those neglected elements of
fertility; but even if it does it is mani
fest that the removal of them in the crop,
without sedulously returning them, is
surely and steadily, though it may be
slowly, impoverishing the land -Ameri-
can Farmer.
Prov DEEp.-In urging deep plowing,
we are not advocating that it shall be
done with turning plows, except where
vegetable matter is to be covered, and