The Brunswick times-call. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1900-1902, 1901-06-02
FERTILIZATION FACTS
OBSERVATIONS OF
AN EXPERIENCED AGRICUL-
TURAL CHEMIST.
PLANT LIFE is ANALYZED
Valuable Information Learned From
the Books and From an Extensive
Practical Experience.

To Georgia Farmer: Iwrote you last
year 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 fertl-
lizers, propose now to write you q Sc
ries of letters on that subject, giving
you the benefit of what 1 may have
learned from books and from my ezper-
fence as an agricultural chemist
AS the prime object Of farming and
Of fertilization 10 the raising Of crops,
we win begin by considering briefly
plant life.
What is plant9 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 1t 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 q specially constructed
glass vessel and setting it in the sun.
you could prove to your own satisfao-
tion that the cause Of tho loss In 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 III drops,
which you could collect and weigh; and
If you were provided with sufficiently
delicate Instruments, you would flnd
the weight Of this condensed wat r
from the cotton plant was exactly
equal to the loss In weight which it
sustained after boing badly wiltod.
Young plants and vegetables FREE
quently contain as much as nino-tenJhs
of their weight of water.
In making hay we dry out the water
of the grass in the sun, and when the
grass has lost all the water it viii in this
way, it is said, be cured, and becomes
hay. This air dry grass or hay still
contains from to II per cent of water
which can be driven out Of it by heating
ii to the temperature of boiling water.
If 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 general
way that it 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 in smoke is derived very
largely from the air, and is gaseous in
its nature.
IT, now, we were to analyze these
gases which escape on burning the
plant, and then analyzo the ash which
was left, we should find that, besides the
nine tenths water which the original
plant contained, the remaining tenth
contained these administration, hy-
drogen, oxygen, nitrogen, potash, mag
nesia, lime, iron phosphorus and sulphur
rs essential elements; that is to say, we
should certainly find all those clements
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 q
few other clements. though none of
these last are absolutely necessary to
the growth and Developments of plant
life.
These ash elements, as we may call
them, are all derived from the soil.
Ninety-tive per cent of the dry matter
of the plant comes out of the air and ia
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
a very small part Of the original plant.
but yet it is just as essential 10 the life
and growth of the plant as any or all
of the others.
HOW'S PhlSf
We Offer One Hundred Doliar5 Re
ward for any NEsp of CALaFFn THAT 090-