The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1885-12-19

L l
Soil Produces
Irishnen Deprived Of Shelter BY tn
4 Wholesale Destruction Of For
1 est Growth.
In a late issue of the Dublin Freeman
the following article appeared showing
Ihow the. native soil of Ireland is i'm
4 poyerished by the taking from it of its
natural elements of life and strength:
! We have seen, at leastfap
how immense has been the robbery
from the soil Of Ireland Of that i'm
portant and necessary constituent
phosphate of lime. There is another
constituent of soils equally important,
/ viz. potash, of which the country has
been deprived for even i longer period
lin large quantities. Nearly every kind
Of rock. and all soils, contain potash.
It's often the most abundant mineral
constituent in large family Of plants,
| the solanacea, which includes the po-
tato and tobacco, and tits abundant in
trees and other plants. In the wool Of
the sheep it is found Id nlarge quantity,
while it forms a portion of the flesh Of
lall animals. Both granite and trap
rocks contain potash in the mineral,
| felspar, common to both; but rocks
take a long time to become soils, some
times thousands Of years, so that the
supply of potash or any other mineral
from granite and other rocks could not
be depended on. So if the soil is robbed
Of certain necessary mineral constitu-
ents it may take centuries before its
fertility can be practically restored.
We say practically, because capitalist
can, by unstinted expense, restore a
piece of land to a fertile state. But
this is not practical agriculture, which
looks to profit from its operations. Po-
tash forms from 20 to 81 per cent. of the
ashes of oil our cultivated crops that
is, of the ashes of those parts of them
used as food for man. The potato tuber
contains GIG of potash; pea pods, As. a;
beans, 42.5; oat grain, 81 .4s, and so on.
No one can therefore ignore the inn
portance Of this mineral. And yet there
is scarcely any artife feiaf manure, except
kainit, that contains any potash; and
until few years ago there was gem
eral neglect in returning any to the soil
from which it was continually taken.
Iet.us see the yarrouaa -rr.yz, IN. .Hl,icl.
the soil Of Ireland has Tbeen robbed d /
this valuable constituents.
When Ireland was fist colonized and
ffo1 rssa.lrz by ffa1 the
greater part Of it was covered with a
thick growth of wood-in fact, it was,
till about 200 years ago, among the best
wooded countries in the world. Heating,
in the first chapter Of his history says:
An cheud ainam tugadh ar Eirinn, inis
ma bh-fiodhbhadh, eadhan, oilean ma
g-coillteadh. The first name that was
given to Erin was Inis ma bh-
Hodhbhadh, that is, Island Of the
Woods" Mention is made frequently
in our early annals of clearances of
woods for the purpose of cultivation.
But notwithstanding these clearances,
it was not till Queen Elizabeth's time
that the wholesale destruction of forest
growth began to be made. This was
continued by the English in the time of
James, Cromwell and William, in order
to deprive their Irish opponents Of
shelter during the operations Of the
English armies against them. The
Irish poetry Of the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries contains frequent
mournful references to the destruction
of the forests. Now, what was the re-
suit of this destruction, which was
mostly consummated by fre2 In the
first place, the accumulations of thou
sands of years Of valuable organic mat
ter was dissipated into the atmosphere.
But not only did this happen to the vo-
latile or organic matter of the trees de-
stroyed, but also to the greater portion
of the potash they contained. Potash
differs in this respect from most other
mineral substances, that many Of its
compounds volatilize at high tenn
perature, such as is obtained by setting
file to number Of trees cut down and
lying on the ground. This is why in
the production of pearl ash the heat
must be moderated if the ashes left are
to contain any large proportion of po
tash. Accordingly the destruction
wholesale of her magnificent oak, elm,
ash and pine forests by fire was the first
method by which the soil Of Ireland
was deprived of its potash. The amount
of this deprivation it is impossible now
to estimate, but it must have been en-
ormous. Land was cleared of timber
in quite adiferent way in England and
Scotland. so that the potash was not
dissipated. When it is remembered
that it is to the centuried growth Of
heavy timber that the black earth Of
Central Russia owes its present great
fertility, that the same may be said Of
many parts of America and of other
countries. the loss effected By the rapid
destruction. principally during the last
century, Of Ireland's tree-groWth can
be better understood.
We next come to the loss Of potash