The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1901-07-18
FERTILIZATION FACTS
~ INTERESTING OIi>FRV rIONS or
IN s,X 'ERtkN, ED AGRICUL-
IURAL CHEMIST.
PLANT LIFE is ANALYZED
Valuable Information Learned From
the Books aud From AN Extensive
Practical Experience.

CASA0SiNCIy 10 euo IoeuLuB Oh i've SGOCks
the preparation of scientific rations and
co the general principles underlying the
scientific feeding of stock. AS you have
asked me SO many questions about ferei-
hzers, propose now to write you q Sc
rles OF letters on that subject, giving
You the benefit of what / may have
learned from books and from my exper-
fence as an agricultural chemist
AS the prime object of farming and
OF fertilization is the raising of crops,
we will begin by considering briefly
plant life.
What is 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
precautlon to weigh the plant when you
first pulled it up and then weighed it
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 i'll weight
was due to the loss of water The wa
ter in the plant 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 i'll weight which il
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 out the water
grass has lost ali the water it will in this
way, II Is said, be "cured, f" and becomes
hay. This air dry grass or hay still
contains from to IL 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 i'll general
way that 1t is composed of two kinds of
bodies, one of which will burn, or the
combustible, and another kind which
will not burn, the incombustible or the
ash. That part of the plant which burns
or goes up i'll 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 the 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.
toned, however, we should also find in
the ashes of the plant silica, chlorine.
soda and manganese, and sometimes a
few other elements. though none of
these last are absolutely necessary To
the growth and development of plant
life
These ash elements, as we NAV call
them, are all derived from the soil.
Ninety-five per cent of the dry matter
of the plant comes out of the air. and is
derived from the gases which exist in
the air, the remaining per cent of the
dry matter being the ashes which come
out of the soil. So you. see the mineral
part, which comes from the soil, is only
very small part of the original plant.
but yet II is just as essential TO the life
and growth of the plant as any or all
of the others.
Perhaps you would like to know how
it was discovered that the air furnished
large part of the dry matter of the
plant. An experiment like this was
made. Some white sand was thor.
oughly burned, 20 destroy the combusti
bic matter there might be in it, and
then thoroughly washed with acid and
water to remove any soluble mineral
matter and just leave pure sand. This
being put into box, seed of corn is
planted and watered with diStilled MO