Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-15
AGRICULTURAL PAPERS.
SERIES PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR
TIE "RECoRD-UEIoN."
Presenting instruction Contained in Lect-
ures from the Chair of Agricult-
ure, State University.
FOURTEENTH PAPER

Very few are aware of the amount of
matter extracted from the air by plants
and which is directly assimilated by them.
It is an established fact, and beyond
dispute, that from 80 TO 95 per cent. of the
entire matter of plants is directly assimi-
lated from the atmospheric air. Such be.
ing the case one could hardly imagine the
consequences if this power of administering
to the life and growth of plants were sud
denly withdrawn from the medium which
surrounds US. Then the soil, instead of
being called upon for only from l to 3 per
cent. of the materials necessary to the
building up of the vegetable kingdom,
would find that it was responsible for all of
the nutritive matter needed by plants.
When we see how rapidly the fertility OF
many soils is decreased by this compare
lively small drain upon their substances,
we can hardly conceive of the difficulties
which the practical farmer would meet
with in endeavoring to maintain the fer
tility of the soil, had not benefcent ma
ture impaired to the atmospheric air, as
one of its functions, that of contributing
the lions share of all plant food. It has
been, and probably is yet to some extent,
the opinion of many that plants derive
their whole frame and contents from the
soil. Thinking thus, they cannot be
greatly surprised when the soil begins to
weaken and to "wear out" Believing as
they do, it is no great wonder that they
have natural reluctance to endeavoring
to retain the fertility of the soil by manur-
ing and fertilizing; for they cannot but
conclude that to do this they must add
nearly as much, bulk for bulk, to the soil
as they have distracted from it by the sea-
sons cropping. As long as farmers con-
tinue ignorant of the proportions of the
essential ingredients Of agricultural prod
ucts and the sources from which the plant
assimilates them, they must necessarily
fail to make any marked advance in the
methods and results of their farming. But
the time is coming when all agriculturists
will and must recognize the paramount
necessity of maintaining the fertility OF
their soils by regular
APPLICATIONS OF FERTILIZER
With due reference to the needs OF the
soil. They will see the improved results
obtained by the farmers who have in a
greater or less degree mastered the princi-
pies of agricultural chemistry which under
lie all rational practices of husbaudry and
which have been Understandings and sue
cessfully applied by the few more or less
enlightened men. It will only be step
more until they will have reached the
point of copying to some extent, after the
practices they have seen applied so sue
cessfully at the same time endeavoring 10
master for themselves the why's and where
fores of their educated neighbors' sue
cess. In order to show more clearly the
relative amounts of matter extracted from
the atmosphere and from the soil, we shall
present the per cent. of ash ingredients of
several Of our more common agricultural
products, together with the relative pro.
portion of the principal ash ingredients,
and from these shall compute the respect
i've amounts of each of those ash ingredi-
ents in an average crop per acre. Our
source of these data is the compendious
tables in the appendix of Johnson's Sc How
Crops Crow" which are well worthy Of
engaging the serious consideration of any
intelligent agriculturist. Before beginning,
it will be well to briefly explain why the
ash ingredients of plants represents the
matter extracted from the soil. This de-
ponds upon the fact that, as we have said
before, alllplants are made up of q volatile
and non-volatile part that is, part which
volatilizes and disappears in the atmos.
phere when the plant is subjected to COM
bustion and a residue, which is the non
volatile part. By numerous analysis this
has been found to be made up of organic
materials and elements not found in the
atmospheric air, and which could, there
fore, not have been derived from the air.
They must of necessity have been derived
from the only other source of supply at
hand, namely, the soil in which plants
grow. On the other hand, the volatile
part of plants is made up of the elements
which are always present in available forms
in the atmospheric air. For instance, the
amyloids sugar, etc.-are composed
of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, or they
may be said to have been manufactured
from carbonic acid and water. The prim-
tive elements and compounds are always
present in considerable quantities in the
air which surrounds plants. Woody fiber,
likewise, consists of the same three ele-
ments put together in somewhat differ
ent form. But all of the volatile constit-
uents of plants are made up of elements
and substances which are invariably con-
tanned in the atmospheric air which we
breathe. From one and the same source
of supply, and oftentimes from the same
elemental bodice,
THE ORGANISM OF THE PLANT
Constructs many different kinds of sub
stances, each for the performance of some
particular function, just as the goldsmith,
from a common supply of gold, silver and
gems, makes innumerable articles of luxury
and usefulness, all of which have the same
composition, but at the same time differ
most materially In their other properties.
The average per cent. of ash in seventy
eight analyses made of wheat was found to
be 07-that is, for every 100 pounds of
wheat there were 207 pounds of ash ingre-
dents. This 2.07 per cent. of ash was
made up of potash, soda, magnesia, lime,
phosphoric and sulphuric acids, and silica.
The three principal ingredients of the ash
of wheat are phosphoric acid, potash and
magnesia, of which there were 46.2 ,, 3l.l
and - , per cent. respectively. In 100
pounds Of wheat there would therefore be
$50 OF pound OF phosphoric acid, Ga of
potash and % of magnesia. The rest of
the 2.07 pounds Of ash was divided between
soda, lime, sulphuric acid and silica. Cal
culating on the basis of bushels, we find
that bushel of wheat contains about 81
OF pound of phosphoric acid, SO of pot
ash and Is Of magnesia. Ii now we con-
slider thirty bushels of wheat as an average
crop, we md that each year are removed
from each acre of ground, in the thrashed
gram, about Il pounds of phosphoric acid,
II of potash, and ) to ). 0 of magne.
STA. Of these three it is only
necessary to supply the soil with the
first two, for magnesia is a substance
which is rarely absent from soils, and it is
very seldom, indeed, that it needs to he
artificially applied. We thus see that
crop of wheat, of so bushels per acre, re.
moves approximately but 30 to 25 pounds of
those three substances from the soil; and
but from As to 50 pounds in all, when Won
take account of the soda, lime, sulphuric
acid, and silica OF the ash. OF the /. 500
pounds OF the gross yield from an acre, we
see that there are but about 80 pounds
taken from the soil, while the other /, $50