The union Democrat., 1870-02-19
science Applied to Agriculture.

correspondent to the Carrollton Ky. Dem-
ocrat under the above head SAYS:
| In all organic bodies. that's, in animal and
vegetable substances, we recognize two forms
of matter-the volatile and the fixed The
one is dissipated, o. apparently destroyed by
com bustion the other remains in the form
| of ashes. The former is usually designated
! as aLimal or vegetable matter, an3 the latter
as mineral. The former. and by far the
greater part has disappeared as a gas or va
por, bot il has not been DESTROYED or annihi-
lated it has only changed its form. Human
| power cannot anaihilate the smallest particle
| of matter. To illustrate: if an hundred
pounds of wood. hay. grain, or animal flesh,
or bones. ,Sc. be thoroughly burned, the ash
es remaining will weigh but few pouads,
and the quantity and composition of these
ashes will differ according to the substance
burned. One hundred pounds of IndGn corn,
thoroughly dried and burned, leaves from a
pound to o pound and y half Of ashes cobs,
the same; wheat, one and three-fourth pounds;
potatoes, three pounds; hemp. four and q
half pounds; turnips. seven and halfpounds;
clover hay. nine and half pounds; tobacco,
from fourteen to twenty-five pounds. That
the composition Of these ashes is very differ
ent any one may satisfy himself, by compar
ing the taste of the ashes of corn-cobs or cat
straw with the ashes of pine, or other resin
Gus woods, or bv attempting to make soap
of the latter lie will find scarcely trace
of potash in the latter. while the former is
nearly one-third potash. and will make
much stronger I've than the best of hard wood
ashes.
| This brings us to the iirst fact that we wish
to illustrate; that. as the whole combustible
part of plants, by burning, is changed into
gas or vapor, and mirgles with the atmos-
pheIe, this must constitute the storehouse
from which plants draw the larger portion of
the elements which fora their structures.
What are these volatile elements, which are
set free in such abundance bv the combustion,
or by the decay of vegetable matter? A few
simple experiments will inform us. When
you light your lamp tonight, observe how
the chimney becomes bedewed with moisture,
which continues to becloud it until it grows
hot enough to evaporate the drops. Burn a
| splinter Of wood, or anything else that will
produce flame, In the same way and water
will be the result. The gases that enter into
combustion and produce fiab;e from burn
ing body, are the oxygen of the air, the same
that supports our life by breathing. and that
supports the combustion of the wood and coal
in our CRATES, and hydrogen, the gas used in
initiating balloons. These two, when united
in combustion. form water and when water
| is decomposed into it's elements they are
found to be oxygen and hydrogen.
Could we always keep matter in its place,
our fields would never lose their fertility we
might 60 on perpetually raising the most OK
uberant crops, and yet our lands retain their
fertility. But unfortunately this is not the
case. We are perretually putting matter
out of place, and hence result disease and
death to man, and sterilitv to the soil. Were
everything drawn from the soil in the form
of crops, restored to it again, after having
suhserved the uses of man, exhaustion Of the
soil would be ossible-indeed. its fertility
would continually increase. The mineral
| elements necessary to the production of plants
being all restored to the soil. the vegetable or
gaseous compounds resulting from decay
would continually increase, and thus con
tnually increasing amount Of food for plants
would be stored up in the soil. 1t is true
;hat nature has made provision for bringing
within the reach of plants, in abundant sup
ply, all the compounds of carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, and nitrogen. which they may re-
quire, and these, as we have said, constitute
| by far the largest part of what goes to form
the organic structure. The laws OF nature
decree that when plant or an animal dies,
its elements shall return to its original state;
the mineral elements TO the soil on which it
decays. and the gaseous to the atmosphere,
to be difused over the world and to become
the property of those who will appropriate
them. In this way, one farmer may reap the
benefit of his neghbor's manure pile. If his
land is thoroughly powed and pulverized. so
as to render it entirely 2ervious to the fertil-
izing gases and showers of heaven if the
mineral elements of fertility are in the soil
in abundance, and if it's growing crops are in
a condition to appropriate them. the winds
and clouds of heaven bring the manure to his
fields, and, without his labor, scatter it broad
cast wherever it may be required, and in ex-
ac. proportion to the demand His fields,
tiekled by the plow. laugh with crops.