Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-10-04
Ultimate Benefits of Droughts and the
Mode In Which They Act to Improve
Land.
BUFFALO SPRINGS, !
MECKLENBURG COUNTY, VA.


BUFFALO SPRINGS, !
| MECKLENBURG COUNTY, VA.
September 5, 1881
Editors Dispatch: I read many year
ago new and ingenious theory of tn,
beneficial effects of droughts on soils il
bringing to the surface a fresh supply
of Inorganic constituents, by DR.. Hig.
gins, of Baltimore. To day I looked i
up and send to you for publication. /
may be consolation to those who hav,
felt the influence of protracted and ex-
cesslve dry weather to know tha
droughts are one of the natural cause!
to restore the constituents of crops anC
renovate cultivated soils. He says:
1.-THE diminution of the mineral mat
ter of cultivated soils takes place from
two causes:
First. The quantity of mineral mat.
ter carried of in crops and not returned
to the soil in manure.
Second. The mineral matter carried
off by rain-water to the sea by means
of fresh-water streams.
'"These two causes, always in opera
ton, and cOunteracted by nothing,
would, in time, render the earth 6 bar
rem waste, in which no verdure would
quicken and no solitary plant take root.
A rational system of agriculture would
obviate the first cause of sterility, by
always restoring to the soil an eauiva.
lent for that which is taken off by the
crops but as this is not done in all
cases, Providence has provided a way
OF its own to counteract the thriftless-
ness of man, by instituting droughts at
proper periods to bring up from the
deep parts of the earth food on which
plants might feed when rains should
again fall. The manner in which
drOughts exercise their beneficial influ-
ence is as follows: During dry weather
a continual evaporation of water, takes
place from the surface of the earth, which
is not supplied by any from the clouds.
The evaporation from the surfnce creates
a vacuum (sO far as water IS cOncerned),
which is at filled by the water rising up
from the sub-soil of the land, the water
from the sub~soil is replaced from the
next stratum below, and in this manner
the circulation of water in the earth is
the reverse to that which takes place in
wet weather. This progress of the wa
ter in the earth to the surface manifests
itself strikingly in the drying up of
springs and streams which are support.
ed by springs. 1t is not, however, only
the water which is brought to the sur.
face of the earth, but also all that which
the water holds in solution.
'These substances are salts of lime
and magnesia, of potash and soda, and
indeed whatever the sub-soil or deep
strata of the earth may contain. The
water on reaching the surface of the
soil is evaporated and leaves behind the
salts here enumerated-viz.,
lime as air-slacked lime; magnesia, as
air Stacked magnesia; phosphate of
lime, or bone earth; sulphate of lime,
or plaster of Paris; carbonate of potash
and soda, with siIicate of potash and
soda. and also chloride of sodium, or
common salt.
"A]l these are indispensable to the
growth and production of plants which
are used for food. Pure rain water, as
1t falls, would dissolve but very small
of some of these substances,
but when it becomes soaked into the
earth it there becomes strongly imbued
with carbonic acid from the dec6mpo
sition of vegetable matter in the soil,
and thus acquires the property of read.
lily dissolving minerals on which before
it could have very little influence"
led to the consideration of the above sub.
jects by finding on the re-examination
of soil which 1 analyzed several years
before a larger quantity of a particular
substance than I at first found.
AS none had been applied in the mean
time, the thing was difficult of explana
ton until remembered the late long
and prOtracted drought of 1854 then
also remembered that in Zacatecas and
several other provinces in South Amer
ica soda was obtained from the bottom
Of ponds which were dried in the dry
and again filled up in the rainy season.
AS the above explanation depended on
the principles of natural philosophy, l
at once Instituted several experiments
to prove its truth.
Unto glass cylinder was placed a
small quantity of chloride of barium in
solution this was then filled with a
dry soil, and for long time exposed to
the direct rays of the sun on the sur
face. The soil on the surface of the
cylinder was now treated with sulphuric
acid, and gave cOpious precipitate of
sulphate of baryta.
1.-THE experiment was varied by sub
chloride of lime, sulphate of
soda, and carbonate of potash for the
of barium. and on the proper
re agents being applied in every in
stance the presence Of those substances
was detected in large quantities on the
surface of the soil in the cylinder.
Here, then, was proof positive and di-
rect, by plain experiments in chemistry
and natural philosophy, of the agency,
the ultimate, beneficial agency of
droughts.
IT am happy to state that Professor
Henry. of the Smithsonian Institute,
has fully indorsed the above views"
The above was written by DIR. Higgins
in 1859, and published in the Southern
Planter in 1860. If his theory is correct,
what we now regard as calamity may
be blessing in disguise; and that
droughts renew the storehouses of
plants in the soil, and furnish an abun~
dant supply of nutriment for future
crops. "The world is wheel and will
always come round right" said En-
dymion. And what we now consider a
disaster may be source of fortune.
Il. D. J.