The Brunswick times-call., 1901-06-12
FERTILIZATION FACTS
INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS OF
AN EXPERIENCED AGRICUL-
TURAL CHEMIST.
PLANT LIFE is ANALYZED
Valuable Information Learned From
the Books and From an Extensive
Practical Experience.


year a series of letters devoted almost
exclusively to the feeding of live stock,
the preparation of scientific rations and
to the general principles underlying the
scientific feeding of stock. AS you have
asked me so many questions about ferti-
hzers, I propose now to write you a Sc
r19s Of letters on that subject, giving
you the benefit of what 1 may have
learned from books and from my exper-
ience US an agricultural chemist
AS the prime object of farming and
Of fertilization is the raising of crops,
we viii begin by considering briefly
plant Life
What is a plant? Let us examine and
make rough analysis of one. Pull up
a green and vigorous plant, brush
the dirt from the roots and throw it
down upon the ground with the rays of
the sun beating upon it. Soon it as
sumes a peculiar appearance, which
we call "wilted." Had you taken the
precaution to weigh the plant when you
first pulled it up and then weighed it
again after few hours, when it looked
badly wilted, you would find that it had
lost weight. By putting the fresh
plant under a specially constructed
glass vessel and setting it in the sun,
you could prove to your own satisfac-
ton that the cause of the loss in weight
was due TO the loss of water. The wa
ter in the piang heated by the sun rises
as vapor, and if you had the special
glass vessel l speak of you could see the
water Of the cotton plant condense in
the cool part Of the vessel in drops,
which you could collect and weigh; and
If you were provided with sufficiently
delicate instruments, you would find
the weight of this condensed water
from the cotton plant was exactly
equal to the loss in weight which it
sustained after being badly wilted.
Young plants and vegetables fire.
quently contain as much as nine-tenths
Of their weight of water.
In making hay we dry ont the water
of the grass in the sun, and when the
grass has lost all the water it will in this
way, it is said, be ''cured, - and becomes
hay. This air dry grass or hay still
contains from to 10 per cent OF water,
which can be driven out of it by heating
1t to the temperature of boiling water.
II we should do that, what was left
would be the ''dry matter" of the plant.
This dry matter of the plant contains
all the valuable elements for which the
plant was grown. If we examine this
dry matter further, we find in a general
way that it is composed of two kinds of
bodies, enc Of which will burn, or the
combusJibie, and another kind which
win not burn, the incombustible or the
ash. That part of the plant which burns
or goes up in smoke is derived very
largely from the air, and is gaseous in
its nature.
Ii, now, we were to analyze these
gases which escape on burning the
plant, and then analyze the ash which
was left, we should find that, besides the
nine tenths water which the original
plant contained, the remaining tenth
contained these elements-carbon. nv.
drogen, oxygen, nitrogen, potash, mag
nesia, lime, iron phosphorus and sulphur
as essential elements; that is to say, we
should certainly find all those elements
present, as no plant could exist without
them each one being Just as necessary
as Toe other to the growth and life of
the plant; and If any one of them were
cut out. the others being present, the
plant could not develop.
Besides those elements just men.
uoued however, we should also find in
the ashes of the plant silica, chlorine.
soda ana manganese, and sometimes a
tow osher elements, though none of
these last are absolutely necessary to
tho growth ana development of plant
life.
These ash elements, as we may call
them, are al derived from the soil.
Ninety five per cent of the dry matter
OF the plaut comes out of the air. and is
derived from the gases which exist in
the mir, the remaining per cent of the
dry matter bong the ashes which come
OCT OF the soil so you see the mineral
part, which comes from the soil, is only
a very small part OF the original plant.
but yer it Is just as essential to the life
ana growth OF the plant as any or all
of the others.