The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-12-09
Now what is this nitrogen. about


the farmers benefit IN these days when
so many more farmers think that such
things are worth rea ling about than in
days when we older men were small
boys' 1t is perrec ly inactive and
harmless gaseous substance, 1t makes
up almost four-Iifths of the air that we
breathe its evident purpoe there is
to tone down the action OF the oxygen
which makes up the remaining one
fifth; and it serves this purpose Just be-
cause it is so utterly W thout any effect
on even the most de icale tissue or
sens tive fluid of plant or animal; and
tn is what is said to make waters
filthy
To talk nitrogen clouds" in the up.
per part of the a mosphere, washed
down by rains. is an absurdlty. Clouds
in our atmosphere are due to the con-
densation Of water, which also in a
gaseous and inv sible for n is always
present ere, into visible form by
fall in temporal g; no fall in tempera-
ture that is even within mans power
to br ne about by artificial means, very
much less any fall naturally occurring
in the air, can MAKE cloud out OF NJ
trogen. gain, there is no more II tro-
zen where ne clio DIS are than at the
surface OF the earth and eve ii there
were It would not DC washed down bv
the rams, because ra.nwater can at the
most take up only very little of it;
and even if it were washed down it
would be Of no use to the farmer.
Nitrogen is what chemists know as
an elementary substance, since by no
operation, however powerful that they
can subject it to, can they break it up
or decompose it into two or more other
substances unlike itself In this free,
elem ntary state, it has not, so far as
our positive knowledge extends at pres
ent, any agrcult lral signiiican or
use whatever for the production of
crops. though it can not be bl oxen up
| into new substances, it can be made 10
| % in chemical combination with other
elementary substances, such as hydro
gen, oxygen or carbon, et,., and form
! he compound substances so often
named N agricuit raj hemcal writing,
ammonia, nitric acid or nltrates, pro-
te or album noids, Mir genous mat
tiers and so on.
In these conditions nitrogen is of the
utmost agricultural importance, and
becomes more AID m re useful to the
farmer, just in proportion a he knows
/ how to handle it make 1t serve his pur-
/ pose. In the form OF animal use, or
other wa tie heterogeneous matters all of
which are mostly wasted protein or al
bumino DIS. or in the shape Of nitrates or
ammonia compounds, h uses Il to
make his crops grow; in the protein of
his crops he uses it to make meat or
milk; and finally when he can work up
its compounds no further, that
is when he has got as much
of it as possible back from the
vast protein of his manure into the
protein or albuminoids OF the grain or
mix wool or meat that he ellis, ne
would find on gong nto the chemistry
of the matter that his nitrogen CON.
sttutes the chief, or aT least very I'M
portant part, OF the money value q
these nished products of his farm.
Chemical decompositions and re-
combinations or tn chemical play
coming oEether IN some form or COM
nation with earh other, and brou hit
a out 10y { power OF the sun in The
presenc Of certain degree of mos-
IN e is the very foundation of crop pro-
duction. IL begins with sprouting OF
seed or tuber or any other wakin up
OF plant activity in spring, and does
not stop for an instant till the crop is
harvested and then, even, it may con-
tinue to feeble extent. but the less the
better If it was possible that the car
bon, oxygen, hydro en- or nitrogen
should su er even but very small
altera ion in the chemic Il properties.
by which tie sun would los any OF his
powe over its combinations, disas-
trous distur ance in crop production
night follow, worse than any G ect of
drought or invasion of inse t. pest or
disease.
The farmer is really the intel igent
agent for bringing these ch mi al CON-
po nds together under such conditions
Of sunsh ne and soil that this g;eat
chemi al work can 90 on. Az icul-
tuIal CHEMISTRY IL lne sclebce vi Nv
tempts to learn all about the chara ter
of tn work. d how be t to make it
move on vigorously and successfully to
the end if acquaintance with any
science can be useful to the agricultur-
list, certainly this can be ike every
science, this one must ha its own Pc
culiar names for the things 1t deals
with, and its own peculiar statements
as to what things are and how they be-
have; correct knowledge OF the mean
ing these names, and Of the first
principles of the science is the very be-
gnnng o armer's chemical wis
dom; and any one who utter such mis-
leading agricultural chemical nonsense
as that quoted above, or without
protest allows such to be reported as
his utterances, does the ause for
which he is supposed to DO working
more harm than good. Dir. q. c. Cald
| avail a, me- ana,