' ■•'■iMSM^-"- { THE JOHN . CRAIG LIBRARY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. „ Cornell University Library Elements of scientific and practical agr 3 1924 003 324 807 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003324807 ELEMENTS Scientific and Practical ISEICULTUEE. ADAPTED TO THE REQUIEEMENTS OF SCHOOLS AND THE AGEICtJLTUEAL PUBLIC. Late Examiner 0/ Public Schools, Allegany County, Met. BALTIMORE, MD.: The Baltimoke PuBLisHiNa Company, Pbinteks, No. 106 E. Baltimore Street. 1887. "7%e fundamental principles of plant-growth and tillage, if not occupying more than an lumr a week in the school, would exert a ieneficial and powerful educational influence, and add untold riches to the wealth of our people." — Dk. p. M. Hexamee. "But it is not the mere practical utility of these agricultural truths which is of importance; their influence upon menial cuh iure is most benefleial, and the new views acquired by the knowledge of them enable the mind to recognize in the phenomena of nature proofs of an infinite wisdom, for the unfathomable profundity of which, language has no expression." •^Babon Liebig. PREFACE. In the following treatise it has been the aim of the author to render the Tarions investigations as simple, natural, and easily- understood as possible, and to establish and illustrate them in a plain and familiar manner, without descending to more puerility. He trusts the methods by which he establishes the processes causing the first soil on the face of the earth, the formation of the secondary rocks, and succeeding formations, and the modes he has employed in explaining the theory and practice of farm cultivation, as well as the causes of the different kinds of soils, etc., will direst those subjects of much of the mystery that has long enveloped them. In like manner, using freely what has been done by previous writers, he has endeavored to simplify those elementary prin- ciples which underlie the Various operations of practical and profitable husbandry. Much absolute novelty, except in the mode of exposition, cannot now be expected in a work on the Elements of Scientific and Practical Agriculture. Some of the matter, however, the author thinks, is entirely new, while others are for the first time systematically arranged, clearly developed, and fully explained in famiUar languagBi With regard to the Useful application of the Bcienoe of agri- culture to practical farming, there is no difference of opinion among men of sound judgment, and it is only with that subject this elementary work has any concern. The Use of technical terms has been avoided as much as possible. The derivation and meaning of a few wordsj which may not be familiar to all) ha-N'E been given at the end of the VI PREFACE. book for the convenience of those who may not have a dictionary at hand. Questions have also been added, which are merely suggestive. When the work is used for a, text-book, the teacher should be particular to bring out the salient points of each subject, and encourage the pupil to amplify and illustrate his statements in his own words, bearing in mind that the most interesting subject becomes dry and irksome if not thoroughly understood. It may be assumed as self-evident that agricultural instruc- tion, to be a national benefit, must be accessible to the people, especially the cultivators of the soil. It may also be assumed that this end can be best attained through the public schools, by means of a suitable text-book. With this end in view, this work is given to the public. How successful the author has been in supplying the need, the people must judge. The desire of the author has been to supply a useful, reliable, and comprehensive book at as moderate a price as possible; and he believes he has given in this work a very large amount of matter in proportion to its size. Cumberland, Md., February, 1887. CONTENTS, FIRST DIVISION. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. The Chief Object of Agriculture, ... 11 II. The Growth of Plants, 13 III. The Germination of Seeds, .... 15 IV. How Plants Take Their Food, ... 17 V. Substances Found in Plants 18 SECOND DIVISION. VI. The Organic Compounds, .... 19 VII. The Inorganic Substances, 20 VIII. Plant Pood, 22 IX. How Plants can be Grown Without Soil, . . 24 X. How Plants Feed, 27 XI. The Soil and Its Characters, .... 28 XII. Geological Influences on National Character, . 31 XIII. The History of the Soil, 33 XIV. Analyses of Primitive Eocks, .... 35 XV. Agencies Which Eeduce Eoek to Soil, , . 3G XVI. The Pulverizing of Rock in Which There is Kolron 38 XVII. Keduction of Rock to Soil Condition, , . 40 XVIII. , PhysicaLComposition of the Soil, ... 43 THIRD DIVISION. XIX. Capillary Attraction,- 45 XX. • Physical ■Condition- of Soils 47 VIU CONXEIflS. FOURTH DIVISION. CHAPTER. PAGE. XXT. Chemical Analyses of Soils, . . . . 48 XXII. Agricultural Chemistry, . ^ . 49 XXIII. The Beneficial Effects of Drainage, 53 XXIV. The Beneficial Effects of Drainage, . 53 XXV. Objections to Drainage, . . . . . 58 XXVI. Organic Constituents, .... 63 XXVII. How to Remedy Some Bad Characters of Soils, C4 xxym. Analyses of Different Kinds of Soils, CO XXI?. '^'he Great Value of the Double Silicates, . 68 3PXX. The Beneficial Effects of Tillage, . 70 XX^I. The Work of the Plow 73 X^II. Lime Pans, and Other Field Pans, 74 XXXIII. Agricultural Implements, .... 76 xxxrv. Preparations for Seeding, . . . . 77 . FIFTH DIVISION. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII. XXXIX. Elements of the- Soil,' . ■ . . . .79 The Organic Elements, .... 81 The Metallic Elements, 83 Binary Compounds, 83 The Atmosphere, 85 SIXTH DIVISION. XL. XLI. XLII. XLIII. XLIV. XLY. The Dissolution of Plants and Animals, . 87 The Exhaustion of the Soil, ... 89 Substances Used by Vegetables, ... 91 The Quantity of Substances Used by Different Plants 93 Remedies for Exhaustion, .... 94 Fallow Crops, 97 XL VI. , Rotatioi; of Crops, 98 CONTENTS. is SETENTH DIVISION. of CHAPTER. PAGE. XL VII. The Great Remedy for Exhaustion, . . 100 XLVIII. Farm-yltrd Manure, 103 XLIX. How to Increase the Fertilizing Power Manure, . ' L. Experiments With Farm-yard Manure, LI. Compost Heaps, LII. Uses of Calcareous Manures, , LIII. Summary of the Virtues of Lime, LIV. Artificial Manures — Guano, Bone, LV. Phosphatio Manures, LVI. Nitrogenous Manures 118 104 107 108 110 113 114 116 EI&ETE DIVISION. tiVII. Agricultural Plants, 121 LVIII. The Germination of Seeds— Wheat, . . 123 LIX. The Germination of Seeds— Pea, Turnip, . 125 LX. The Uses of the Eoots of Plants, &c., . 126 LXI. The Uses of the Stems and Leaves, . . 128 LXII. The Duties of the Flower in Plant Economy, 130 LXIII. Wheat, Pea, and Clover Flowers, . . .183 LXIV. The Attractiveness of Flowers, ... 133 NINTH DIVISION. LXV. The Utilization of Agricultural Plants, LXVI. Botanical Order of Agricultural Plants, LXVII. Wheat and Corn Crops LXVIII. Barley, Oat, and Eye Crops, LXIX. The Hay Crop, LXX. Clover Hay— Sheltering of Young Plants, 13S 187 140 141 144 146 CONXEITTS. TENTH DIVISION. CHAPTER. PAGE. LXXI. Implements for Harvesting Crops, , . 148 LXXII. The Reaping and Binding Machine, . . 151 LXXIII. Toints of Economy of a Machine, . ', . 152 ELEVENTE DIVISION. LXXIV. Pests of the Farm, . . . : . 154 LXXV. Insect Pests 156 LXXVI. Miscellaneous Information, . . ; . 159 Questions — ^Pirst, Second, and Third Diyisions, . . 165-6 " Third, Fourth, and Fifth Divisions, . 166-7 " Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Divisions, 167-9 Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Divisions 169-70 " Eleventh Division, 170 VOCABULAEY, 173-9 e: L £] 2^ £] isr T s SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. CHAPTER I. CHIBI' OBJECT OF AGEIOULTUEAL SCIENCE. The various operations employed in cultivating the land, so as to make it yield vegetable food abun- dantly, is called Agriculture. The great object of jigriculture is to produce from a given space the greatest quantity of certain kinds of vegetation, with a due regard to the quality of the produce, at the lowest cost, without exhausting the soil. The sciences of Chemistry, Botany, and Geology are of great value and importance to the cultivator of the soil, as they furnish the means of knowing the different classes of agricultural plants, how they feed, the quantities of the different substances each kind of plant requires, from whence they obtain their food, from whence the soil came in which they gi'ow, and how the farmer can best aid the plant in getting an ample supply of food. We propose to call to our aid only so much of these sciences as may be deemed necessary for the correct understanding of the growth of plants, the tillage of the soil, and the reasons for the practice of intelligent farmers. 12 ELEMENTS OF Metaphysics and the fine arts were carefully studied by the Greeks and Eomans, in which they reached a high standard of perfection; but the natural sciences, the offspring of the inductive system, were ignored by them. Until 1830 (Sir Humphrey Davy) and 1840 (Baron Liebig) agriculture had no scientific basis; it was a mere experimental art. Effects were ascertained, but causes were unknown. Happily, chemical analysis and philosophic sagacity at last shed light on the sub- ject. To science we owe most of the comforts of life — such as health, clothing, literature, and locomotion. There is no good reason why the production of our greatest necessity — food — should be excluded from its influence. Agricultural labor, beyond any doubt, develops man's physique; but it has also been said that it develops the muscles at the expense of the brain. Under the scientific and practical system of farming, no such charge can be maintained; because both brain and muscle are stimulated to activity by the multi- plicity of operations, and the varied intellectual inquiries necessary to bring the cultivation of the soil and the growing of crops to a successful issue. Sach is thus accorded fair play, and both attain a well developed proportion. The Bible says: "The sleep of a laboring man is sweet." If the farmer could but realize how greatly blessed he is in this particular, by the character of his labor and surroundings, he wOuld not desire to exchange places with the nferve-strained sons of commerce, or the followers of the phantom. Dives — the merchant princes of the cities, or the brokers of Wall street. 'Ho one leads a life more in harmony with the divine com- mand given to our first parents than the tiller of the SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUBE. 13 soil; and no one can follow a more peaceful, enjoy- able, and healthful pursuit, or lias a freer and fuller opportunity for the profitable exercise of intelligence and contemplation of the wonderful goodness of God. CHAPTER II. THE GROWTH OF PLANTS. Plants can only grow when they have a proper supply of the materials they need for building up their various parts; they, like animated beings, require food; and although in a wild state, they can obtain all the nourishment they require from the air, and from the soil in which they grow; yet, when we produce them in particular places, and in great quantities, for the use of man, we must take great care that they be supplied with food proper for them, and sufficient in quantity. We shall endeavor, in this work, to explain clearly the prmciples which regulate the supply of food to the plant, and the way by which the farmer ia able to assist the plant in obtaining it. The prime object of agriculture, then, is to grow and multiply plants; therefore, it will be necessary for us to inquire, at the outset, what plants are com- posed of, and how they grow. It will be observed that all agricultural plants, such as wheat, clover, beets, potatoes, etc., consist of two principal parts. The root, which is pale colored, growing downward into the soil, and irregularly branched; the stem, or top, which is generally green, grows up into the air, sending out branches in a more regular manner, and produces leaves, flowers, and fruit. Some plants are grown by the farmer for their roots, 14 ELEMENTS OP as turnips; others for their leaves and stems, as clover and grass; and others for their fruit and seeds, as corn, wheat, heans, and peas. The farmer, therefore, talks of root crops, green crops, grain crops, and fruit crops. Some roots are thick, and grow straight downwards, sending off slender branching fibres, as carrots and beets; others are entirely fibrous, as the grasses. The uses of the roots are to take in nourishment, and fix the plant in the soil. Boots are sometimes much longer than the stems. The roots of wheat have been traced to a depth of seven feet, and those of corn have been known to extend a distance of fifteen feet from the stem. The ends of the root-fibers are fine and deli- cate, and covered with minute hairs, into and through which the nourishment of the plant enters, and finds its way up into the stem. The stem generally grows upward into the air; but in a few the stem lies on the surface, and in others it runs partly underground. The potato is, in reality, a thickened part of an underground stem, the eyes of which are simply buds. The stem is sometimes hollow, as in wheat, and is always made up of bundles of long cells and vessels, through which water and other substances, taken in from the soil by the roots, pass up into the leaves. The most important organs connected with the life and growth of all plants are their leaves. A leaf is a thin layer of minute cells spread out to the air, strengthened with ribs or veins, m9,de up of stouter cells or vessels, and covered on both sides with a fine membrane, nearly transparent. In these membranes are minute openings, called pores, through which the plant takes in air and gives off water and gases. When a. plant is fuU gi'own, flowers appear upon its, branches. Some plants, as the carrot and turnip, take SCIEKTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 15 two years to produce their flowers. The first year the root grows thick and fleshy, the tops hearing only leaves. The second year the plant pushes forth a strong stem; it is then said to have "run to seed." The store of nourishment laid up in the fleshy root, during its first year's growth, is consumed in producing the flowering stem, fruit, and seed, after which the root will be found stringy and spongy, and useless for food. All agricultural plants put forth flowers, hut some are very small and dull colored. When the out- side of the flower falls ofi", the middle part grows into fruit, which contains the seed. A grain of wheat is properly a fruit containing one seed; a bean-pod is a fruit containing several seeds. CHAPTER III. SEEDS AND THEIR GEKMINATION. A SEED contains the young plant and suf&cient nourishrtieiit, usually consisting of starch or oil, to support the young plant until it is able to support itself. The embryo consists of a plumule, or young bud, from which the stem will grow up into the air; a radicle, or young root, from which the main root will grow. down into the soil; and one and sometimes two seed-leaves, which push up above the soil and become the first green leaves of the plant. Three things are necessary to enable a seed to begin to • grow: (1) Moisture, which is absorbed by the seed, causing it to enlarge and burst its hard outside case; (2) Warmth, of which some require much more than others in the first stage of germination; and (3) Air, 16 ULEMEITTS OS from which the seed derives oxygen and carbonic acid gas. When a seed, therefore, is kept moist and -warm in the air, it -will begin to grow, no matter whether it be placed in the soil or not; but, as it has to obtain most of its food from the soil as soon as its own store is exhausted, it is best to sow it in the soil at once, being particular to see that it can obtain enough moisture, warmth, and air. The seed then becomes swollen, the young bud enlarges and bursts through the outer skin, the plumule rises into the air, carrying , with it the seed-leaf or leaves, or opening out its young green leaves to the sunlight while the radicle descends into the soil, sending off minute branching fibers. The oxygen of the air acts upon the stored-up food in such a way that the oil and starch are converted into a kind of sugar. That solid substances can be dissolved in water, is difi&cult for the learner to realize; yet we see instances of it every day in the case of easily dissolved substances, as sugar and salt. A lump of sugar put into a glass of water soon disappears; still we know it is there, and its presence is easily detected by the taste. Most of the sparkling spring water which we drink has lime, magnesia, iron, and other substances in it; yet it looks clear and bright to the eye. All the sub- stances which constitute the food of plants must be dissolved in water, in this clear and complete manner, before they can be taken up by the root- lets of plants. SCIENTinC AlfTD PBACTICAL AaEICrLTUEB. 1'? CHAPTER IV. ROOTS OE PLANTS AND HOW THEY TAKE IN FOOD. If you loosen the earth around and under the root of any young plant, and carefully pull it up, wash off the soil gently in a pan of water, and then examine the root, you will observe it to consist of a aumbei* Of whitish fibers, growing finer and whiter towards the tips. These fibers, put under a strong magnifying glass, will be seen to be hollow tubes, closed at the ends, and having very thin walls. It is through the delicate skin of these hairs on the root-fibers that the plant absorbs the clear water in which its food is dissolved. As the roots grow older and thicker, they lose their hairs, and their outermost layer becomes hard and forms a rind or bark, while the taking in of the water containing the food is carried on by the hairs and cells, upon newer fibers, branching out and spread- ing wider and deeper into the soil. In poor soils root-hairs are found to be more abundant than on fibers growing on good soil, because more effort is required to be put forth by the plant in finding food from the thinly distributed nourishment than in good soil, where all the materials required arc at hand in abundant supply. But the young student naturally asks : If no openings exist in these hair-fibers, how can the water get in? The following experiment will remove any doubt that may exist on this point: Take a small glass funnel and tie tightly over the mouth of it a piece of bladder or very thin India rubber, such as is used for children's 16 ELEMEKTg Otf balloons; now pour into it some water, in wliicli sugar or salt is dissolyed, and dip the covered end into a tasin of clean water. After a time it will be found that the liquid in the tube has risen, and, on tasting the water in the basin, some of the sugar or salt will be found to have penetrated the membrane. Thus it is proved that fluids, separated by a membrane, are able to pass through and diffuse into one another, though there are no holes to be found in the dividing membrane, even by the most powerful microscope. CHAPTER V. WHAT PLANTS ABB COMPOSED OF. We shall now examine into the composition of plants, and ascertain what becomes of the water and substances, held in solution, which they have drunk up or absorbed. In a green growing plant the most abun- dant substance is water. Fresh meadow grass contains from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent, of water, while in turnips more than ninety per Cent, is found. There- fore, one hundred pounds of fresh grass, when made into hay, will weigh about twenty-five pounds; and, if completely dried in an oven, will weigh only about fifteen pounds. The water contained in the plant is not stationary, but is passing through the plant, from cell to cell, until it reaches the leaves, where, being spread out to the air, it is quickly evaporated through the minute openings, which we before explained as abounding in ita covering membrane. A healthy medium sized cabbage has been found to evaporate nearly a pint of water in twelve hours; and it has been calculated that an acre of SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACSlCAt AGBICULTUEE. 1§ cabbages will give out in the course of twelve hours, by evaporation, more than ten tuns of water. The frame-work of the plant, of which the walls of the cells are made, consists of a substance called cellulose, the most familiar form of which we see in paper or hornets' nests. We may consider, then, the plant to be constructed and built up of an infinite number of minute paper boxes, closed on all sides; and the water, with its contents, oozes through the sides of these boxes, from one to another, till it reaches the leaves; and on its way back from the leaves, each retains that portion of the nutriment which it needed and passes the rest on to its neighbors. Another very abundant substance is starch. This is in the form of minute grains, stored up in many of the small boxes or cells, which are often packed full of them. A potato consists almost entirely of cells packed and crowded full of starch granules. Starch can be very easily converted into sugar, and in many plants sugar is very plentiful, as in the sweet fruits, sugar cane, in the cells of the beet-root, and sap of the sugar maple. When barley is made into malt, the warmth and moisture cause the starch to be turned into sugar. CHAPTER VI. THE ORGAKIO COMPOUKDS. All the substances mentioned in the former chapter, namely, water, cellulose, starch, sugar, and oil, are found by chemists to be composed of three ele- ments, or simple substances, viz., carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen; cellulose, sugar, starch, and oil are each so ELEMEKTS OV composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and, in the plant, are often changed from the one to the other. There are two substances in the plant which must be specially mentioned, and which are made up of four elements, viz., carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The first of these substances is called protoplasm, a kind of jelly-like material found in all living cells, which, under the microscope, is seen to turn round and round in its cell, and is really the life substance in the plant; and the second is called chlorophyll, or leaf-green, which is formed out of protoplasm by the action of sunlight, and is found in all the green parts of the plant. If a plant is kept from the light it turns yellow and then white. Tou have all witnessed this in the growths made by potatoes in the cellar, and the blanched stalks of celery, which is caused by earthing them up; because, in the absence of light, no leaf-green is formed. All the substances of the plant which we have been considering, whether formed of three elements or four, are called organic compounds, because they go to make up the principal part of all organized beings — that is, plants and animals having special members or organs. ^ CHAPTER VII. THE INORGANIC SUBSTANCES. If we take a plant and dry it, and then burn it, all the organic substances disappear and mingle with the air, again to be used by other plants; and the inorganic, or fixed substances, remain as ashes, which are, in reality, the mineral mattors contained in the plant; and these, when analyzed, are found to consist SCIEKTIFIO AKD PBACTICAL AGEICULTUBE. 31 of a number of compounds whicii are found in many minerals as well as in animals and plants. The following table shows the materials found in plants: ORSAHIC. INORGfAKIC. NON-NITBOGENOUS. SUica. Carbon, Oxy- gen, Hydro- gen only Starch. Gum. Ceflulose (or woody fiber). Phosphoric Acid. Oil. Potash. Soda. Lime. Carbonic Acid. Sulphuric Acid. NiTBOGENOUs. Magnesia. Carbon, Oxy- gen, Hydro- gen, and Ni- trogen Oxide of Iron. Chlorine. Albumen. Fibrine (gluten). Casein (legumen). Most of these are the common names of substances with which you are familiar. Potash is so called because it was first obtained by burning, plants in a pot, then leaching the ashes and evaporating the water. Iron oxide is the rust seen upon iron when exposed to the air. Silica is the substance which we see in white sand, flint, and quartz-crystals. Ammonia is so called from its having been obtained from the camel-yards near the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, where the worshipers of that idol had congregated for many years; it is also called harts- horn, because of its having been obtained from the horns of the deer. All the inorganic substances named above contain oxygen, except chlorine and ammo- nia. Chlorine, when liberated from its compound, is a yellow, choking gas, but in the plant it is combined with potash or soda; Avhen combined with the latter, it is called chloride of sodium, known to every person Note.— Ammonia la composecl o£ Nitrogen BUd Eydrogeti, and beloagS to tlie organic elements. 22 ELEMENTS OF as common salt. From the strong affinity which chlorine has for water, if it be set free in a cellar which is damp and mouldy, it will destroy the mould and render the cellar sweet and healthful. If an earthen vessel, with about two pounds of common salt, be placed in a cellar, and an ounce of sulphuric acid poured over it, the chlorine will be set. free from the soda and fill the cellar, which should be tightly shut up for four or five hours. You must be careful not to breathe the gas, and to aerate the cellar thoroughly before entering it. A drink of water is the antidote to the eff'ects caused by inhaling the gas. The acids named in the table, when found in the plant, are combined with minerals, and are what chem- ists call phosphates, sulphates, and carbonates. Silica, also, sometimes forms an alliance with minerals, and these compounds are called sUicates. We have, therefore, phosphate of potash, phosphate of lime, a very important compound, which constitutes the chief value of bone as a fertilizer; also, we have the sulphate of potash, sulphate of magnesia (epsom salts), sulphate of lime (gypsum and plaster of paris), corbonate of soda, and carbonate of lime (marble and chalk). CHAPTER VIII. PLANT FOOD. We may now take up the subject of plant food. All these substances, found in plants that have grown from very small seeds, must have been obtained by them from without; and, to enable them to grow and be thrifty, they must be in reach of these substances. SCIEKTIFIO AND PEACIICAL AGEICULTUEE. 33 As soon as plants have used up the nourishment provided for them in the seed, they require a supply of the following organic materials to build up their soft parts, viz. : Oxygen, hyclrogen, carbon, and nitrogen; and the inorganic materials, to build up their frame- work or skeleton, viz.: Potash, soda, magnesia, lime, iron, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, silica, and chlorine. Full-sized, healthy plants have been grown to com- plete maturity, without any soil at all, by suspending them, with their roots dipping, into a vessel of water in which has been dissolved a supply of all these articles of plant food. Some exceedingly interesting experiments have been made in growing plants artificially, with food specially prepared and dissolved in water. Some may be desirous of trying the experiment, and, as it will be instructive as well as interesting, we shall describe in the next chapter one of the best modes of procedure, which has been success- fully tested. It is of great importance to keep in mind the sources from which plants derive their food: First — Air. The air is mainly composed of two gases, nitrogen and oxygen, with a small portion of carbonic acid gas, which is itself a compound of oxygen and carbon, and still smaller quantities of ammonia and nitric acid; the former of which contains nitrogen and hydrogen, and the latter nitrogen and oxygen. Careful experiment has shown that none of the free nitrogen of the air is taken in by plants, and that, small as the carbonic acid is in the air, it is the source of almost all the carbon found in plants. The leaves absorb car- bonic acid from the air, and then, under the influence of sunlight upon the leaf-green, the carbonic acid is separated into its elements (carbon and oxygen); the 24 ELEMENTS OF carbon is retained by the plant, which uses it in forming cellulose, starch, sugar, and other substances j while the oxygen is given out to the air. Oxygen is also, *at times, absorbed from the air, especially when the plants are growing rapidly and coming into flower. The ammonia and nitric acid are washed down into the soil by the rains, and then taken in by the roots, supplying the plants with a small portion of nitrogen. Second — Water. Pure water is a combination of oxygen and hydrogen. When water is used by the plant, its duty is chiefly to convey other matters, which it holds in solution, to the root; but some of it is divided up and used by the plant in forming the starch and other organic matters. Eain water is the purest natural water known, having nothing dissolved in it but what it has washed down out of the air; but, as soon as it enters the soil, it begins to dissolve the mineral matters there, and carries them to the roots of plants. Third — ^The soil. We have now seen what plants obtain from air and water; the rest of the nitrogen, and all the mineral or inorganic substances, must be obtained from the soil and brought to the roots clearly and completely dissolved in water. CHAPTER IX. EXPEEIMENT WITH WATER CULTURE OF PLAKTS. In order to make the experiment of growing a plant to perfect maturity, without being planted in the soil, take a wide-mouthed bottle, capable of holding one or two quarts. It must be fitted with a cork, and a hole SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTUIiE. 25 made in the centre of tlie cork, say half an inch in diameter, and an opening cut from it to the circum- ference, 60 that the plant may be glided out and in easily when required. You will next cover the bottle with stout paper, and top or neck with black sealing wax. It is a most important matter that darkness be secured, for plants feed through the roots best in the dark, as well as to prevent any fungoid growth within the dining-room of the plant. We have next to see to the preparation of the bill of fare, and there are many of such bills. We shall select the following one, as suitable for the purpose, which has been successfully used by a celebrated English chemist: Take finely powdered burnt bone (three hundred grains), put in a glass flask with water (pint), and to it nitric acid is cautiously added, so as to dissolve the bone, the flask being heated. After this has been done, a solution of carbonate of potash is added to the hot liquor, until it becomes slightly turbid. This represents the only troublesome portion of the cooking arrangements, for it now only needs the three following bodies to be added: Mtrate of potash, one hundred and seventy grains; crystallized sulphate of magnesia, one hundred and seven grains; and chloride of potas- sium, forty-six grains, with water sufficient to make it up to a quart. We have thus prepared a very large supply of plant food; for although in its concentrated condition it only represents a quart, yet it will really give about ten gallons when properly diluted. When we are going to use the food for plants, we take about two table- spoonsful, and add it to a quart of distilled water, and mix in with it one drop of a strong solution of perchloride of iron. This weak and delicate liquid 26 ELEMEIfTS OF now represents a very yaluable plant food, and in this condition it is ready for nse. The seed having been sprouted in sand, the young plant is washed and then suspended in the hole of the cork, by the aid of cotton, wool, or other similar soft substance, with its roots reaching down to the water and its leaf in the air. Until a green leaf appears, clean water is supplied; but on the appearance of the green leaf, the cork and plant are removed from the bottle, the water is poured away, and the bottle filled with the properly diluted food. When the growth of the plant is slow, there need not be any fresh supply of food for fully fourteen days ; but in hot weather, when the growth is active, it is necessary to give fresh supplies every seven days. On these occasions the bottle is emptied and an entirely fresh supply of the diluted food is given. In this way you will produce a perfect plant without putting it into the soil. The experiments which have been carried out go far to prove that plants take their supplies in a very dilute form, and yet these homeopathic quantities are really necessary. Take, for example, the one drop of iron solution added to a quart of water, being a ratio of about one to twenty thousand, and yet this minute supply was absolutely necessary. It was discovered by the same chemist that, when this iron was omitted, the young plant became yellow and sickly; but it quickly became green, and assumed a luxuriant growth, when this minute quantity of iron solution was added. In the preparation of these watery solutions it is necessary to use distilled water if we want to arrive at accurate conclusions, because all natural supplies of water hold in solution more or less of the materials Vrhich plants require for food. SCIEHTII'IC AND PRACTIOAI, AGKICULTUEE. 3? CHAPTER X. HOW PLANTS FEED. Spring waters are sometimes sufficiently charged .with the substances they have dissolved in their passage among rocks and soils, so as to be capable of main- taining the growth of plants. Eain-water is also more or less impregnated with matters taken from the air as it falls, so that it cannot be considered perfectly pure. The lesson we may learn from these facts are, that plants take in their mineral food in an exceedingly dilute condition and in a beautifully bright form; likewise we learn that if they do not receive all the materials they require, they soon show that they have some want by presenting a sickly appearance, which will, ere long, result in a cessation of growth, and ulti- mately in untimely death. Some experiments which have been carried out by these trials of water culture have led to the belief that silica is not always necessary to the growth of a plant; but it is safe to conclude, that all these substances fovmd in a plant when grown naturally in a fertile soil, and which are constantly produced there in the highest perfection, are desirable for the plants. It will be always safest for us to accept the constant pres- ence of substances found in the largest and best crops of any cultivated plant, as a sure indication that those substances are desirable for complete growth. It has been proved that many of these substances are absolutely necessary, and, as a matter of prudence, the farmer should regard a complete supply as being needful, and make provision accordingly. 38 ELEMENTS OF In the right and proper use of these researches, made in the growth of plants by the aid of these solutions of suhstances found in them, a Taluahle lesson is learned, which may be profitably utilized by all cultiTators of the soil. The delicate and clean character of the food receired by the plants, and the bright and transparent stream of water which conyeys the food into the roots, indicate some great changes taking place in the soil; when, for example, farm-yard manure has been used upon the land, the most offensive materials are often applied, and wisely so, too; but the plant does not feed upon them until, by changes carried on in the soil, they are passed into the circulation in a condition as bright, clean, and odorless as the water which sparkles in the goblets on our dining-tables. CHAPTER XI. •^ She soil and its chaeacteeS. OS the three sources of plant food, viz., air, water, and soil, the soil requires from the farmer the most attention, and may be said to be the only one under his control; because air and rain-watef can generally be obtained by plants without aid from man, and are the same quality and contain the same properties all over the earth, while soils differ greatly, containing in some places little plant food, and in others the greatest fertility. The cultivation of the soil is now considered by all intelligent men as a manufacturing business of the highest importance to the welfare of nations. Farm experience may justly be recognized as the rudder which controls the course of the agricultural Scientific and peactical AaRicuLxuRE. 39 vessel, and we may also very properly regard agricul- tural science as the farmer's compass and chart, directing his vessel to the desired port. These, when skillfully nsed, become of infinite value to the farmer. It would be as foolish for the farmer to reject the help of agricultural science as it would be for the mariner to throw the compass and chart overboard; and, on the other hand, it would be as perfectly unreasonable for agricultural science to ignore farm experience as it would be in the mariner to unship his rudder and send it adrift. Of what avail would chart and compass be if the rudder (farm experience) be ignored. We have spoken of the cultivation of the soil as a manufacturing business; the soil, therefore, we must regard as the raw material from which the cultiva- tors have to prodtice the goods which are in demand, possessing those qualities necessary to bring the highest price in the market. Other manufacturers, who produce goods from raw material, such as wool, cotton, timber, iron, or clay, bring to their aid every appliance that scientific inves- tigation has discovered, with a view to economy in labor and the making of the very best fabric capable of being produced from the material used. It must be clearly evident that those who are to make the cultiva- tion of the soil their business should have a thorough knowledge of the particular soil which they have to cultivate. Every farmer must bring science and skill to his aid if he may hope to draw from his land tlie largest amount of produce, of the greatest Value and lowest cost, and at the same time keep his land up to the highest state of fertility. The soil is generally regarded as merely earthy matter, devoid of all Interest, except as a plant- growing source. If we observe closely, and form an so ELEMENTS 01' acquaintance with our soils, we rery Soon detect eYidences of character, which closely approximates animated existence, such as tempers, wills, and dispositions. The farmer's success frequently turns upon hia familiar acquaintance with these points of character, yet few stop to inquire into the causes of these varia- tions; but when the inquiring farmer traces out these variations, thereby becoming more intimate with them, the soil becomes interesting, and seems to become invested with new attributes of life. Often have we been delighted and instructed by the conversation of the farmers who were the originators of the Eandolph County Agricultural Society, in Illinois — men who had spent their agricultural apprenticeship in the pluvial climate of Scotland — while talking of their farm practice, each applying to his different fields distinct characters, as if they were living realities. One had a field that was always hungry; another a field that was sick and needed rest; another had one that was always grateful, responding kindly for the labor given; another had one that was thin-skinned and shy ; another had one that was stiff and stub- born; another had one that was sour and sulky and never kindly, etc. Each had tried his particular experiment for each peculiar character, keenly watch- ing effects and searching for causes. It is not to be wondered at that these men succeeded in making an ample competence, as all cultivators of the soil are sure to do who take the same lively interest in their land, and become familiar with its character. SCIBITTII'IO AND PBACTICAL AaSICUlTUKE. 31 CHAPTER XII. GEOLOGICAL IH^FLUEN-CE OJT SOIL AND NATIONAL CHABACTEE. The soil has a history as well as a character, extend- ing over yast periods of time, and has seen many ups and downs; indeed its history gives ns a series of inci- dents of thrilling interest, and, to contemplation, a subject full of wonders and an endless, awe-inspiring theme. The history of the human race records the rise and decline of nations and the progressive develop- ment of man's mental faculties; that of the soil, the gradual evolution of that part of creation which made it possible for the inhabitants of the world to attain their present physical condition. Had the exterior crust of the earth been subject to no modifying causes since its first formation, there Avould have been no soil on its surface. There has been, however, a continuous series of changes going on, occasioned by the untiring and incessant operations of the various forces in nature, such as the rending of the earthquake, the upheaving of the volcano, and the universal Operations of chemical and electrical agencies. "We find, by the testimony of the rocks, the record of the progressive work of creation, and the study of geology unfolds to the mind the indubitable proof of a design infinitely more provident and far-reaching than is possible for the highest human intelligence to fully comprehend or realize. 83 ELEMEKTS OI' The history of the rise and decline of nations cannot be fully understood by any one "who is ignorant of the long chain of eyents which had transpired, and slowly, but ineyitably, prepared the conditions which sur- rounded them, without any act or design of theirs, and which controlled them to an extent which was entirely overlooked by them. The controlling influence of the distant past can be no longer ignored. We must recognize how the physical condition of the earth's structure has in- fluenced political boundaries, and how the rise and fall of great empires, as well as their civilization and mental development, have been the unavoidable results of geological causes. A chain of geological events has shaped the destiny of the people of the United States to take the front rank of the great nations of the earth, both morally, mentally, and physically; with a capability of sur- passing those of the Old World, in proportion to its richer soil, vast mineral deposits, and more ex- tensive domain. Whatever the future may have in store for the American nation, it may be set down as an incontro- vertible fact, that its destiny was part of the plan of creation, when its foundation was laid in primeval and lifeless seas: that built it up layer by layer with all the elements of wealth and power; enriching it at one time with valuable metalliferous deposits; at another period with lime or marble; at another with coal; and at another With stratified rocks; that raised mountains to give Variety to its scenery and climate; that denuded the mountain peaks and cold uplands atom by atom to furnish a fertile soil in a hospitable climate for the agriculturist; and that caused the great rivers to flo-n^ in the fruitful valleys to furnish highways for travel and commerce. SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTUEB. 33 Creation to the geologist no longer means but a single act of illimitable power. It gives him a grander and sublimer view. The testimony of the rocks, when rightly interpreted, gives him evidence of a creation that is continuous, unfolding a design that is as illimitable in its origin as its final consummation transcends all human speculation. In short, geology reveals to man the Great Designer as a Being infinite in knowledge, wisdom, power, justice, good- ness, and truth. CHAPTER XIII. EISTOET OF THE SOIL AND VTHENCE DERIVED. The knowledge of the character and history of the soil will give the farmer instruction which he may utilize with great advantage, as the same forces are operating now as then which did the work. We have now come to that part where the questions naturally present themselves : From whence came the first soil? How was it formed? It will now be our task to answer these questions plainly and clearly. Soil is the result of the breaking down of rocks, with only one exception, that formed by vegetation, and com- monly known as peat. All over the world a continual change is going on by which the whole surface of the land is being gradually washed down into the val- leys, or deposited along the level banks of rivers, or in lakes, or finally washed quite down into the seas. The wearing down of the stone work of our buildings fairly represents the mode in which rocks decay, and thus the fine mealy, earthy matter is produced 34 ELBMEKTS OS which constitutes tlie soil. Through long geological periods, which human inYestigation cannot name by figures, Avith any pretension to accuracy, this decay of the rocky surface has been going on without inter- mission, and is still going on, so that we have now an abundance of this earthy matter all oyer the face of the globe, amply sufficient for the wants of mankind. Geology further informs us that at one time, very far back in the world's history, the surface of the earth consisted only of rocks, which are called primitive rocks. There are large masses of these still remain- ing, which enable us to know exactly their nature and character. The surfaces of these rocks were pulver- ized by the gases existing in the air, just as they are pulverized now — which was the first soil upon this world's surface. Since then a series of changes have taken place, which geology reveals to us in part. It tells us that that first soil has been formed again into rocks, which again were reduced to soil, and again turned into rocks, and these changes have been taking place over and over again, as proved by the various geological formations. In the age in which one kind of primitive rock was soil, portions of that soil intermingled with portions from different primitive rocks, and in this manner soils have been modified in character; and these again have been greatly changed in their physical condition by animal and vegetable life. So you see the soil of the field has a descent and an antiquity very extraordinary and wonderful indeed, and full of instruction, especially to the cultivators of it. Now, as these reconstructions took place in this manner, we should find in the primitive rocks the identical materials which we have in the soils of our fields, aa these primitive rocks were the magazines SCIENTIFIC AND PBACTICAL AGBICULTUEE. 35 from which all the Bupplies were obtained, and the various rocks, which were formed at later periods, are but reconstructions of the original materials. V CHAPTER XIV. CONSTITUENTS OF PKIMITIVE E0CK3 AND HOW BROKEN TO SOIL. Primitive rocks consist of three tolerably distinct groups, and are named by geologists as granite, syenite, and trap ; and by analyses are found to con- tain the following materials: GRANITE. SYENITE. TRAP. Silioa 73. 59.8 43 Aluminia 16. 16.8 14 Ferreous Oxide 1.5 7. 15.3 Lime 1.5 4,5 13.1 Magnesia 5 3.6 9.1 Potash 6. 0.6 1.3 Soda 3.5 1.8 3.9 Phosphoric Acid, Sulphur, and Man- ganese Traces. Traces. Traces. Moisture None. 1.4 1.3 100. 100. 100. The composition of the original- earthy matter, you will perceive, varied a good deal in character, and, accordingly, by the mixing of these materials, the character of the reconstructed rocks was affected; likewise marked variations in the soils, which were finally produced, are to be found and thus accounted for. It will be well now to notice how the crumbling of rocks is accomplished. The agencies are easily under- stood, and are at work now. It is very important that 36 ELEMENTS OF the fai-mer should know these agencies, as they are, even at the present time, his valuable friends and helpers. Every person has noticed the beautiful, bright polish of the mould-board of a plough after it has been at work for a time, particularly in sandy soil. When it is left in the field for a day or two, the beautiful polish becomes dim with rust. This rust is caused by the action of the air on the iron. Chemists investigated the matter, and solved the mystery, and discovered the depredators. They find it to be a very busy body, known to us by the name of Oxygen, who is at the bottom of the mischief; they also discovered a companion of his, who is an able helper, and is known to us by the name of Carbonic Acid. These two companions are as invisible as air, "and are called gases. They not only attack iron, but they operate on rocks; it makes no difference to them how hard and tough they be. Now rub the rust off the mould-board and examine it carefully; notice what a fine powder it is; this shows how powerful the operators are who did the work. The red rust contains iron, which was taken from the mould-board by these two agencies. Had the greatest force known to human skill been exerted on this metal, it could not have so completely powdered it as these two gases have done, without noise and almost without observation. Now, you will not be astonished when we tell you that they are equally mighty in pulverizing the hard granite. CHAPTER XV. AGENCIES WHICH EBDUCE KOCKS TO SOIL. The action of water, and the change of tempera- ture, work also together in pulverizing the hard rock. SCIENTIFIC AJSrD PKACTICAL AGBICULTUBB. 37 These agencies, by being combined, their power to break down is amazingly increased. To demonstrate clearly to your mind the processes by which all these agencies do their work so minutely, so completely, and with a power beyond any resistance, we propose to take a piece of granite, and watch, and record the pro- cess. It will be necessary, in order to give the work- men a fair chance to show their powers, that we allow them an opportunity to reach it, and all that is neces- sary is simply to bring it to the surface. The instant it is there the workmen begin the attack on all sides. If you will examine the table giyen in a former page you will see that granite, with all its density and hardness, contains two elements within itself which cannot withstand the agencies existing in the air. These two elements are iron and potash, and are generally known. The oxygen and carbonic acid immediately begin their work on the iron and potash, and, after a time, we see a rusty mark on the surface of the granite. You may easily verify this fact by visiting a cemetery in which there is a granite monument of a few years standing. After the work has gone on for years we find small holes in the granite. These agents, like miners, have been driving "headings," and working out "rooms," and sending off what they have mined, thereby making the granite ready for the operations of the other two agents, water and tempera- ture. The water penetrates the openings made by the "powers of the air;" then frost comes. You remember what he did with the pitcher filled with water when he went forth one frosty night — so he does with the granite pitchers; because water possesses the quality of grow- ing bigger when it freezes, and bursts the walls enclosing it. The little fragments are held there till a thaw comes, when they are washed down from 38 ELEMENTS OF their former position;, the openings are thus enlarged, making room for a greater number of the airy work- men; and thus the work goes on with redoubled capacity and with energy untiring. N"o resting with these miners to take a smoke, or retiring from the work to take refreshments. CHAPTER XVI. HOW BOCKS AKE CRUMBLED WHICH HAVE SO IKON MATTER Ilf THEM. You may say, "Now I understand how oxygen and carbonic acid, assisted by frost and water, are enabled to break down and pulverize granite and similar first rocks, but I cannot see how they can effect a like result with rocks in which there is no iron to enter into an alliance with them to accomplish the work of demolition, no traitor in the camp, if we be allowed the expression." We know of no rock besides fire-clay rock which, when blasted in the mine, is nearly as hard as whinstone, that is so free from iron particles. This rock is valuable just in proportion as it is free from all iron matter, consequently the atmospheric agencies have not an opportunity of entering into an alliance with their old colleague — ^iron. Having long heard of the Mt. Savage fire-brick, so greatly famed for its ability to endure intense heat in furnaces without crumbling or fluxing, which it could not do if even an appreciable quantity of iron were present, upon a late occasion we visited the mines from which the "clay" is obtained for the purpose of testing this very subject. By the kindness of Mr. Findlay, foreman of mines, we were taken a long dis- tance under ground, entering the opening in the side SClElifTMIC AND PEACTlCAt AflSICULTTJRE. 39 of tlie mountain in a tram-way car, the tram-way run- ning nearly horizontal to the "face" of the rock, where the miners, with drill and sledge, were diligently making holes in which to put powder to blow it out from its ancient bed, where it had been sleeping quietly for so many ages. The sharp chinking sound made by the steel drill and sledge, gaye testimony to the hard- ness of the rock. We examined the fine dust taken from the drilled hole, and, rubbing it between the thumb and finger, easily detected its fragmentary condition, by its fine gritty feeling. We were there shown a stratum of rock, which was so free from any trace of iron as to be pronounced by the chemists "pure fire-clay rock." We procured a specimen from this stratum, and, after submitting it to the rains and the frosts for about two months, it was completely reduced to atoms; on testing it between the thumb and finger, it felt as smooth and fine as the particles com- posing grease. There was no fragment, no grit — the demolition was complete. Although no ferreous matter was present to join in conspiracy with the oxygen and carbonic acid of the air, yet water found an entrance, and permeated the specimen entirely, which we had taken for a test; and as water will not be restrained from growing bigger when it freezes, so the water in the specimen froze, and, in its eff'ort to grow bigger, separated the rock particle by particle. We also visited the brick works of the same company in the Tillage of Mt. Savage, Md., to examine the rock- crushing process. Mr. Cliff'ord, foreman of the works, very kindly showed and explained the operation. The rock is subjected to the crushing force of an iron roller of immense weight. When it is of sufiicient fineness it falls through a sifter into a receptacle below, and taken 40 ELEMENTS OS from there by an elevator, and passed on to undergo the operations of mixing with water, moulding, drying, and burning. So complete, apparently, is the rock broken down, that the clothes of the men attending the crusher are as white as those of a miller; yet when that which was brought up by the elevator was examined, it was found to be chiefly fragmentary. In the contemplation of this work we cannot refrain from exclaiming: Man's works, how powerful they are! But they fade into insignificance when contrasted with the complete and perfect work of the quiet operators appointed to do the will of the Great Designer. CHAPTER XVII. THE BEEAKIN G- DOWK OP KOCKS TO SOIL. Some may think that this breaking down of the primitive rocks could only take place to a very limited extent; but if we reflect for a moment and bring before our mind the time when "dry land" first appeared, and there was no soil, and think of the immeasurable surface presented to the air agencies, and the vastly greater quantity of carbonic acid in the air then than now, together with the other agencies, water and temperature, we shall undei>stand, in a measure, how illimitable the power was. The work went on much more rapidly with the secondary rocks and later formations, they being much softer; and, as the work of demolition went on, the rocks got covered more and more, and presented less and less surface to the air, and were placed beyond the influence of all the pulverizing agencies; thus the work of breaking down gradually decreased, and finally stopped, till again thrown up into the air. SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAt AGEICtTLTTIEE. 41 As soon as there was sufficient soil made for "man to till and dress it," and employ his skill and knowl- edge in the production of food, and all things necessary for his comfort, the reduction of rocks gradually diminished because the work was sufficiently advanced to meet the necessity of the case. It now remains with the intelligence and skill of the farmer "to make the soil fruitful and bring forth abun- dantly." We may mention another agency which helps to break and pulyerize some kinds of hard rocks. If a piece of polished marble be covered with clean sand, and a few seeds of mustard, or other seeds, be placed in it, and then put in a moist, warm atmosphere, the seeds will soon germinate ; after allowing the young plant to grow for a short time, and then clean everything from the marble, minute, holes will be found in it, which were made by the acid sap of the young roots eating into it to obtain food. The roots of trees, too, entering crevices of rocks, frequently split off great blocks as they expand in thickness; even paving-stones have been known to be broken by the growth of tree roots under them. The broken and powdered rocks formed in these various ways are washed down the slopes of the moun- tains by rains into the rivers; in many flat plains the rivers overflow frequently, and spread their material over the land. In this case we see a sorting and dis- tributing action taking place. When a river rushes down as a torrent it carries with it mud, sand, gravel, and even large stones. But when the descent becomes less, so does the swiftness of the current, and the large stones are first dropped, afterward the gravel, then the sand, and, lastly, the fine mud is distributed over the plain, and only deposited where the current has almost 43 ELBMEOTS OP or quite ceased. In this way beds of gravel, sand, and clay are formed, thus producing soils differing from each other. Great quantities of the same materials have been carried into the sea, and apparently lost; but beds which were formed in that way, many ages ago, have been since lifted up by earthquakes or other movements equally powerful, and from these beds many of our soils are formed. When we recognize the power of nature's forces exist- ing in the air, including temperature and moisture; the action of the roots of plants themselves; the tread of animals; the rushing rivers causing rocks to grind each other; the glaciers, these ice-rivers fed by the ever-accumulating snow, descending mountain gorges, with slow but irresistible force, smoothing, grinding, and striating the rocks in their way; the volcano, throwing out the molten lava and ashes; and the icebergs of the glacial period, which, when the land was being elevated by some internal force, were arrested in their course, and descended the mountain sides, smoothing hills and valleys among which they passed, and finally melting and leaving their debris, as mounds of sand, gravel, or boulders; all these gave their contribution ; and the varied particles thus inter- mingling, the formation of the different classes of soils ceases any longer to be a subJQCt of wonder. CHAPTER XVIII. I -^ THE PHYSICAL COMPOSITION OF SOILS. "We have now learned that some soils have been carried a long distance from the place where they were formed, and may, therefore, be very different from SCIEKTIPIO AND PEACTICAL AGRICULTUKB. 43 the rocks underlying them, wWle others have been more quietly spread out by the rain upon and among the rocks from which they are derived. These are called native or local soils (soils in situ) ; the former are said to be transported soils. The great variation in character renders it neces- sary that Ave should be able to distinguish soils, so that we may be able to describe them 'vyith some degree of accuracy. For this purpose sand and clay have been selected for the sake of contrast, to enable us to divide them into two distinct groups. In the sand on the seashore we have the one in per- fection; and ill the clays used for pottery we have the best specimen of the other. The one, when it is mixed with water in a vessel, falls to the bottom rapidly; the other, when it is mixed with water, falls to the bottom slowly, rendering the water muddy for a considerable length of time. There are other marked differences in their character; for example, sand, when it is wet, is hard to the touch; it has little cohesion; it cannot be formed by the hand into any definite shape; it is gritty; it allows water to pass through it rapidly, and is firm to the foot. Clay, on the other hand, when it is wet, is the direct opposite in all these respects; it is soft to the touch; it has great cohesion; it can be moulded ^nto any definite shape; it is soft and smooth; it holds water u.pon its surface, and is slippery to the foot. If a soil consists of more than three-fourths sand, it is called a sandy soil; if, on the other hand, more than three-fourths of its weight is clay, it is called a clay soil. A mixture of about half sand and half clay, it is called a loam. If there is rather more than half sand, it is called a sandy loam; if rather more than half clay, it is called a clay loam. All these soils may have 44 ELEMlUtS OB a small quantity of lime and yegetable matter, making them "rich." A soil which contains nearly a quarter of its weight of lime, is called a marl; if the rest of the soil is mostly sand, it is called a sandy marl; if mostly clay, it is a clay marl. Soils which contain a large quantity of lime are calcareous soils. A soil which con- tains a large portion of vegetable matter, is called a peaty soil. These differences among soils may he tabu- lated as follows: Sandy Soils j^™^ | sand to all sand. ■' (.bandy marl f sand to J lime. ClaySoils 1^^^ V f "j^y 1° all clay. ■' \ Clay marl f clay to J lune. [■ Sandy loam J sand to \ clay. Loam Soils -j Clay loam | clay to J sand. (Sandyloam | sand to \ clay. Calcareous soil \ lime to all lime. Peaty soil \ humus to all humus. Each of these soils can be again divided into poor, middling, and rich, or fertile, according to the quantity of the other matters contained in it. Thus, a loamy soil, containing lime and vegetable matter, as well as sand and clay, is richer than one containing sand and clay only; and, generally speaking, the most fertile soils — ^that is, those yielding the greatest amount of plant food — are those which are composed of a fair mixture of all the four constituents. A cubic foot of dry sand weighs about one hundred and ten pounds, while the same bulk of dry clay weighs only about seTenty-five pounds; yet a farmer calls a sandy soil light, and a clay soil heavy.* His judg- ment is based upon the ease or diflElculty of working the soil more than the actual weight. The par- ticles of sand are comparatively large, with no tendency to stick together, or to the implements with Avhich it is worked, so that a plough easily moves between the. ecIENTIMC AISTD PEACTICAL AGEICULTUKB. 45 grains; and the soil is called light because it makes light work. In a clay soil, however, the particles are so fine, and have such a tendency to stick to one another, and to tlie inaplements passing between them, that much difficulty is experienced in moving and separating them; this is heavy work; therefore, this kind of soil is said to be heavy. CHAPTER XIX. CAPILLAEY ATTEACTIOK AS AFFECTED BY THE PHYS- ICAL CONDITION' OF THE SOIL. The power of holding moisture by the soil is another important subject for the farmer, Avhich we will now briefly investigate. If one end of a fine glass tube be dipped in water, the water rises in it; and the finer the tube the higher above the surface the water rises. This is called capillary attraction, because of the hair- like fineness of the tube. The same action takes place wherever there are small spaces between substances, as in a sponge, the wick of a lamp, or a lump of sugar — all of which have the power of drawing and holding water in the little spaces they contain. This is a very impor- tant property in soils. The water in a saucer under a flower-pot containing soil is taken up in this way, rising up to a greater height if the spaces are small, and to a less height if the spaces are large, and staying there without falling back. In coarse sand it would not rise far; but in clay, where the particles are finer and closer, the capillary attraction is greater, and tlie water rises much higher. Now suppose one hundred pounds of dry sand to be placed in a vessel, with holes in the bottom, it will be 46 ELBMEKTS OF found to receive and hold twenty-five pounds of water before it begins to drop; tlien fill it with the same quantity of loam, and it will be found to hold forty pounds; if filled with clay loam, it will hold fifty pounds; and if filled with clay, it will be found to hold seventy pounds of water before beginning to drop. Clay soils likewise absorb more moisture from the atmosphere than sandy soils. If one hundred pounds of sand be spread out when the atmosphere is moist, but rainless, for twelve hours in the night, it will absorb only a few ounces of water ; if clay loam, two and a-half pounds; and if clay, nearly four pounds of water. The influence of capillary attraction is beneficially felt during the period of the growth of plants. How- ever well a soil may be supplied with the food required for a crop, plants only can make use of it in a liquid form; the presence of water to carry the food into the circulation is just as necessary as having the food there. During the summer months, when the sun's rays are shining strongly upon vegetation, large quanti- ties of water are needed, and it is at such times that this syste'm of attraction proves its utility, by bringing up to the roots refreshing supplies of water, finely divided, like a diffused mist in the soil, which enables the growth to push on luxuriantly. But it may reasonably be asked by some, who may think of drainage in this connection: What is the use of draining water from the soil if it be carried back by this capillary attraction ? We shall try to give you light on that subject in another chapter; but, in the meantime, we shall ask you to reflect, and find out the reason for the flower-pot having a hole in the bottom, and what would be the consequence if no hole was there. SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGBICULTUBE. 47 CHAPTER XX. PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE SOIL. The influence of the mechanical or physical condi- tion of the soil is a subject fraught with the greatest importance to the agriculturist. We may take it for gi-anted that all acknowledge the need of air, warmth, and moisture to enable a plant to grow. In order that the seeds may have aii*, a loose condition of the soil is necessary. For this condition sand is better than clay, because the spaces between the grains are larger, and thus allow the air to enter. But if these spaces are too large, there cannot be enough of water retained in the soil, and the young plant will consequently suffer for want of moisture. Again, if too much moisture is retained in the soil, it not only shuts out the air, but it' becomes cold, and deprives the plant of warmth, thus preventing the plant from receiving the second requisite necessary for its growth. From these facts we are forced to the conclusion that the best kind of soil, in regard to its physical condition, for a seed-bed, is a mixture of sand and clay — that is, a loam, not so close and fine in its grains as to prevent the free access of air and warmth, and not so open as sand, allowing the water to run through it too quickly, or having little power of capillary atti-action. We may now conclude this subject of the physical condition of soils by briefly referring to the other two agencies that have contributed matter found in our agricultural soils. In all cultivated soils you will observe a black substance intermingled with the 48 ELEMENTS OF mineral matters; it is generally known by the name of "yegetable mold" or "humus;" this is contributed chiefly by the air and the sea. It will be learned from the above that the physical condition of soils is entirely due to the proportions in which sand, clay, lime, vegetable matter, and mineral fragments enter into their compo- sition. CHAPTER XXI. CHEMICAL ANALYSES OE SOILS. There is another section of the work which treats of the composition of the soils, and this shows us what bodies are found in them, in what proportion, and in v/hat conditions of solubility. These are determined by chemical analysis, which is very diflQcult even for professional chemists to do. It is generally looked upon as something which may be easily done, but it is one of the most complicated and troublesome analysis which has to be carried out. The information thus to be obtained is of immense value to the farmer, provided it be carried out in an exact, correct, and proper manner. Among the iirst things we learn by this examination of the soil is, that a very small portion of the best soils is really ready with food for the immediate use of plants. That which is ready for immediate service is called the active portion of the soil, whilst the remaining store is known as the dormant or sleeping portion. Here then we get' our first chemical division of the soil, viz.: The active matter and the dormant matter. Tlie dormant matter is only sleeping, and while in that condition it is valueless, yet it is really of great value. It awaits the intelligent farmer to arouse BCIBNTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUIiE. 49 it from sleep, when it will become as the reserve forces of an army, to bo called to duty when the active forces are becoming exhausted. It would be imprudent to allow those on active duty to be completely exhausted before calling up the reserves; but on very many farms the reserves are never called up, and the land in consequence is completely worn out and exhausted, while yet containing a vast amount of fertile matter, which has beea permitted to remain in peaceful slumber in the soil. The chemical analyses of soils have been very gener- ally carried out, as if all the fertilizing matters present in them were at the service of the growing crops. It was thought that if a farmer knew what his crop wanted, and also what he had in the soil, it would be an easy matter to supply the wants by a manure con- taining the particular ingredients needed. In that hope he was bitterly disappointed, because the analysts disregarded the well known fact above mentioned, and analyzed the soil as if the active and dormant matters were in the same condition, and were all ready for the use of plants. If a farmer is to be benefited by an analysis of his soil he must know what he has there that is avail- able for his crops ; there must be a distinct line drawn between the active and dormant portions of the soil; then he may get information which will be valuable for his guidance. v/ CHAPTER XXII. AGEICULTUKAL CHEMISTEY — NECESSITY FOE DEEP PLOWING. You have been shown that plants require a great rariety of different kinds of food for their full and 50 ELEMEKTS OP perfect growth. Not one of these bodies is available as plant food, unless it is in such a condition as to be easily dissolved in water, aided by some organic acid. Thus water, aided by a weak acid, is the vehicle by which the food passes from the soil into the plant. Solid matter which will not dissolve in such water may be useful mechanically in giving an abode to the plant, but cannot enter its organism. It is of the utmost importance to the farmer to inform himself as to the possibility of making the dormant matter take the active form. This is quite possible, and under good cultivation it does take place to a large extent. The friendly helpers are the atmospheric agencies, which were so effective in break- ing down the rocks into soil. Having increased the amount of surface soil by deep cultivation, we find the rain water carrying its supply of oxygen and carbonic acid, persistently bring- ing plant food into solution, and passing it over to the safe custody of the silicates in the soil. In this way large quantities of insoluble matter are brought into an active state, and in good soils we find it well and carefully preserved until the growing crops demand the supply. It must now be evident, that just in pro- portion to the extent that we allow these atmos- pheric agencies to act upon the soil and subsoil, so we shall the better enable them to change the dormant matter, with which it is permitted to mix, into a condi- tion available for plant food. These agencies accom- plish a work which is equivalent to the purchase of so much manure. It is, therefore, very desirable for the farmer to give them every opportunity for working in his interest. The farmer can best facilitate this work by a thor- oughly good and timely cultivation. of the soil. SCIEN'TII'IC AND PBACTICAL AGEICULTUKE. 51 Let us compare, for the sake of making plain and clear, what we mean, two fields having similar soils — say heavy, clay soils, similarly located or side by side. In the one case, we will suppose the field has heen deeply plowed in the fall, and laid up as roughly as possible, so as to expose as much surface as may be attainable to the action of the sun and air. In the other case, the plowing has been postponed till spring. In the one case, we will see that the friendly helpers have been at work, promoting the change of any sour matter, converting it into wholesome plant food, bring- ing some of the dormant matter into an active form, and making the soil loose and friable — ^these being all favor- able to the growth of vegetation. All this has been done by the action of the oxygen and carbonic acid in the air, assisted by water and temperature. In the second case, no effort Avas made to let these. agencies bring about the same changes; but, as the soil lay in its solid bed, and probably water-soaked, it was really becoming less fit for plant growth. In the one case, the land was plowed up in the spring tough and sour, requiring more labor than the other; yet it was not brought into such a productive condition. In the other case, we have a luxuriant growth of crops, at a smaller expenditure of work; while in the other case we have the work of nature's agencies rejected, and the result is far from gratifying and very expensive. It is well that we should value highly these friendly helpers, and that we should do all we can to give them the best opportunity to do their work. The advice of the old farmer is directly to the point: "Marry the air and the soil, my son, for unless they be allowed to intermingle and join with each other freely, the soil will not bear abundantly." 52 DLEMBiTIS OS CHAPTER XXIII. BKAIKAGE A MEANS OF GETTING AIK INTO THE SOIL. The drainage of the land is another means adopted to admit the atmosphere to the soil. The common idea, that land is drained simply to remove water, is too limited; it does a great deal more. The first effect we gee, of course, is the running away of the water; but water would not flow away if air is not admitted. This may be easily proven by the tapping of a barrel of cider, or any other liquid, near the bottom; in order to draw it, a hole must be made at the top of the Tessel into which the air will rush as long as the liquid flows. The drains, therefore, allow the water to run away^ because they can draw air into the soil; conse- quently we drain land as much for getting air into the land as for taking water out. The benefit arising to the soil is apparent; for wherever air is admitted, its oxygen and carbonic acid immediately commence work, and go silently on day and night, changing the dor- mant matter in the soil to its actiye form. The farmer who treats his land to thoroughly good eultiyation and drainage, will be amply rewarded with the rapidly improved fertility of the soil. Subsoilihg the land produces the same condition, by stirring up the soil which lies beneath. This is a means whereby the passage of water through the soil is rendered more easy, which is followed by the air, and, as a consequence^ more of the soil comes under its influence, provided, SCIElTTlEIC AifD iPEAOTtCAL AGEICULTUBE. 53 always, that the great agz'icultural flower-pot has a hole in the bottom. Another advantage arising from the passage of the air is, that it sweetens the soil by changing the sour and unhealthy decaying vegetable matter in it, to the higher form of carbonic acid, which is one of the farmer's friends. The yellow oxide of iron, which is a poison to plants, becomes, by the action of the oxygen in the air, another helping friend to the farmer. In addition to all these, there is yet another servant ready to aid him, and that is the ammonia in the air. This is a very expensive substance to purchase; yet it exists in the air, and a very considerable supply can be gathered from it by the soil, if it is properly aerated. Now, you will see that there are many servants wait- ing to help the farmer to make his land more fertile, if he will but receive their ever ready and willing assistance. These ask no wages; they require no rest; but day and night they are ready to work if they are permitted to do it. Water-soaked land repels all these friendly helpers, as well as solidified land. CHAPTER XXIV. tHE ACTION 01? HEAT AND OTHEK ADTAKTAGES OB DRAINAGE. In order to understand the beneficial effects of drain- &,ge more clearly, we shall investigate the laws governing the action of heat, because we may not be able to 54 ELEMBKTS OF grasp the ideas satisfactorily unless we start with d, knowledge of first principles. Substances that are warmer than their surroundings, communicate their excess of heat in three distinct ways: (1) By conduction. (3) By conYection. (3) By radiation. To demonstrate the conduction of heat, hold one end of a brass wire between the thumb and finger, and the other end in the flame of a lamp; the experiment will terminate suddenly. Now take a piece of dry wood the same size, and hold it in the flame; it will become red hot and blaze without burning the fingers. The heat is led along the brass wire; it makes no difference whether it be held to the flame upwards, downwards, or sideways; the wire is, therefore, said to be a good conductor, and wood a bad con- ductor. The conducting power of difierent substances varies considerably. Metals are good conductors. Silver is recognized as the best conductor, water the lowest, and clay the next. The ratio of their con- ducting power may be stated thus: Silver, 1,000; water, 1; clay, 4. Convection is the conveying of heat by the air, gases, or liquids. The common notion, that heat ascends, is based upon the action of heat by convec- tion. Water, as we have stated above, is one of the very poorest conductors of heat; yet we all know that heat is transmitted through it, as when we boil water in a pot. If, however, we placed water in a fire-clay pot, and apply the heat to the top, which is the way heat is applied to the soil, that "waited-on pot" would be long in boiling. The upper film of water receiving the heat would remain lighter than the rest. SCIENTIFIC AND PKAOTICAL AGEICULTUEB. 65 and retain its position; and, being a poor conductor of heat, it parts slowly with its heat to the water heneath, which remains cold. Its warmth is not increased very much by the pot, because its material is also a poor conductor. When the heat is applied to the bottom of an iron pot, the hot metal of the pot heats the bottom film of water by direct contact; this film expands, becomes lighter, and rises through the water above it, warming it by contact, and speedily causing the "pot to boil." Radiation is a flinging off of heat in every direc- tion. Bright, shining surfaces are profligate radiators and poor absorbers of rays of heat; they, therefore, cool quickly. The soil is one of the best absorbers of heat when it is drained of superfluous water; but if, however, stagnant water has to be evaporated from it, the heat is carried away and the soil remains cold. That evaporation has a cooling influence, you may easily prove to your own satisfaction by wetting your finger with water in a warm room and hold it up; you will feel the cooling influence; if made wet with Spirits, the evaporation will be more rapid and produce a cooler feeling; and if ether be used, which almost instantly evaporates, it will produce a still cooler feeling. Ice may be produced by evaporation, so great is its power of carrying away heat. According to the natural laws governing the effect of heat on water, it contracts gradually in volume until its temperature is about thirty-nine degrees; below this it begins to expand until it reaches thirty-two degrees, when, under ordinary conditions, it becomes solid, and, in doing so, undergoes a greater expansion, eight volumes of water becoming about nine of ice. 56 Elements ob The expansion of water below thirty-nine degrees has very important results. It prevents all our water supplies being frozen up. If water contracted continuously till it reached the freezing point, we should haye all the water in our lakes reduced to that temperature before freezing commenced on the surface, and a very brief continuance of freezing weather would solidify the whole mass; but, as it is, the water at thirty-nine degrees, being most dense, sinks to the bottom and there remains; while the water at thirty-two degrees, being the lightest, remains on the surface, and ice, being a bad con- ductor of heat, preserves the too rapid cooling of the water beneath. We have, consequently, a gradual freezing of the surface downwards. We understand now how a proper system of drainage favors the passage of water through the soil, and passes it away to some lower level. It will also be easily un- derstood that the passage of warm air through the soil must, of necessity, raise its temperature by its heat being transferred to the land. This is a very constant source of heat during the months when the crops are in a very active state of growth, and is a means of making a distribution of the heat to a greater depth and more equally throughout the soil. The warm rays of the sun falling on land soaked with stagnant water, or the warm breezes passing over it, do not warm it, as they would drier land. The stagnant water has to be made to pass away as a vapor before the warmth of the sun or the warm breezes can exert a stimulating influenca on the soil. The cause of this will be easily understood when we remember what a quantity of heat is required to change water into vapor. The consequence is that wet and undrained SCIENTIFIC AKD tEACIICAL AGEICULTUKE. 6'? land is found to be cold and unproductive; the crops are always kept back in their growth, and are much later in coming to perfection than those grown upon drained land. The attraction by the soil, where drainage keeps it comparatively dry, for the heated rays of the sun is proven to be very great. On the fallow the portion of the air coming in contact with the soil becomes expanded and struggles upward through the superin- cumbent cooler air in visible wavy lines. The soil ia also a slow radiator as well as a good absorber of heat. On this account the herbage on drained land is much less liable to be injured by spring frosts. This property enables it to keep up its temperature and prevents its being reduced to the freezing point for a considerable length of time. The power of the soil for absorbing a great quantity of heat and parting with it slowly has long been recog- nized by the farmer. When he takes a journey in his wagon or sleigh on a cold winter's day, he does not heat a block of iron or wood to keep his feet warm, because he ia aware that, although he can warm these materials to a high degree, they would part with their heat so rapidly that their usefulness for heating pur- poses would soon be gone; but he takes a brick, which is simply soil compressed and burned, and heats it up to a high degree, then rolls it up in a piece of carpet, and his feet are kept comfortable for a long time, because the brick parts slowly with the heat stored up in it. The following table is taken from Jamison's prize essay "On the Action of the Atmosphere in Newly Deepened Soil in Scotland," showing the increased temperature of the soil and subsoil, being 58 ELEMENTS OB important as affecting vegetation, and likewise yaluable because it is reliable and instructive on this subject: TAKEK IK PEEFECTLY FIXE WEATHEE. Elevation ol tem- perature by the Mean Temperature. sun's rays on a Earth's Surface. Air In Shade, drained surface. Degrees. Degrees. Degrees. January 54.1 24.6 29.5 February 86.3 43. 43.3 March 99.5 46.6 53.9 April 131.6 61.7 59.9 May 131.3 67.3 63.9 June 139.8 75.3 64.6 July 146.3 81.3 65. August 130.1 68.9 61.3 September 119.8 68.0 51.8 October 80.8 43.8 88.0 November 73.7 40.1 32.6 December 59.3 35.6 23.0 The beneficial effects of drainage for soils naturally water-soaked, need no further comment, and may be briefly summed up. The temperature of the soil is raised; porosity for moisture, though not for wet, in- creased; disintegration is affected, and nutritive solu- ble substances liberated; atmospheric gases absorbed; injurious substances changed so as to be positively beneficial to vegetation; and the wasteful surface flow from fertile fields reduced to the minimum. CHAPTER XXV. OBJECTIONS TO DRAINAGE, AND THEIR FALLACY. Objections have been made to underdrainage, which will now occupy our attention briefly : (1) It is urged that the water is carried away from the land too SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUEE. 69 quickly, causing the overflow of rivers. (2) Because ib is not allowed to remain long enough on the land to percolate down through the soil to supply springs. If we reflect for a moment, we cannot fail to see how erroneons is the first objection; underdrainage increases greatly the capacity of the soil to hold water by giving it a larger area for dis- tribution. A field which is nnderdrained, therefore, holds more water before reaching the point of satura- tion than a field of the same character can possibly do without being nnderdrained; hence, a less flow of water from the drained land in propo'rtion to the amount of rain falling upon it than from the undrained land. When the Ohio Eirer overflowed its banks a few years ago, and wrought such great destruction, drainage was held responsible in a great degree; but when reflec- tion had time to assume its sway, it was discovered that all the water flowing from tile drains into the river and its tributaries, would not have much more than filled a good sized mill-race. These, we consider, to be sufficient to dispose of the first objection; and as for the second, the groundlessness of it will be apparent when we remember how small the area which is, and always will remain, undrained by artificial means. The clearing away of the forests, and the surface flow from undrained lands, may be set down, without fear of successful contradiction, as the chief causes of destructive floods, and, we may add, excessive droughts. Just in proportion to the pro- tection of the earth's surface by trees from the sun's rays, so is the gradual melting of the winter's snows; without this protection, spring thaws are rapid, and torrents ensue. 60 ELEMENTS OF The Bun's rays in passing throngli the air do not heat it; the air is warmed by radiation from the earth's surface; and the greater the degree of heat which the air reaches, the greater is its capacity to hold moisture; therefore, if air be saturated with moisture to the point of precipitation, and afterward passes in summer over a denuded surface, it being greatly heated by radiation from the bare sur- face, its capacity to hold moisture is increased, and no longer remains at the point of precipitation, but passes away to descend as rain Avhere the radiation i% modified by the forests and the land well covered by vegetation. The farmers in the prairies will tell you mournfully, "that the showers, when most needed, take to the timber and follow the creeks." This is an observation frequently made by the prairie farmers. Another important benefit is brought about by thorough drainage, which of itself is sufficient reward for all the labor and cost in the construction of di'ains, and that is the healthful and salubrious condition of the atmosphere. Where is the country which abounds with malaria, bilious fevers, and agues? It is not in the mountains where the land is drained by nature, and the sparkling waters gush forth from the drains of nature's own making, and the "living waters flow;" but all these ills of life prevail in the country v/here the land is water-soaked, having no hole in the bottom of the great agricultural flower-pot, and where water stagnates in sloughs and ponds. The health of man, and beast, and herb, are all benefited by drainage. The approved method of draining is: (1) Bore and dig the ground to ascertain the kind of soil to the depth of three or four feet, so as to know how far SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 61 apart the drains should be. (2) Take the necessary levels. (3) Lay off the lines of main and minor drains. (-1) Make a map of the proposed work. To put straw, brush, or stones on the top of the tiles when placed in position in the drain, is bad practice. Fine earth should be closely packed on top of the tiles to cause the water to enter the drain at the bottom. The greater the quantity of soil that water has to percolate through before it enters the drain, the better is its opportunity to pass over to the safekeeping of the double silicates the plant food it holds in solution. Water from such drains, when caused to overflow a meadow that is itself well drained, will add little or no plant food to it. This was at first doubted, and a case has been cited where a meadow was overflowed with water from the drains of a field on a higher elevation, which was sufQ- cient to keep up the power of the meadow to produce good crops of hay without its receiving any other fertilizer; but upon investigation it was discovered that some of the drains tapped springs at their source, and conducted the water directly to the meadow, which gave up the plant food it held in solu- tion to the soil it had to pass through. You will remember what we before told you that some kinds of bright, sparkling, spring water hold the elements of plant food in solution in sufficient quantity to fertilize the land through which it percolates. The springs in this case were enriched with the inorganic substances of plant food, and thus fertilized the soil, which accounted for this drain water enriching the land. The surface flow of water from a fertile field which spreads over another field well drained will carry an ample supply of fertilizing substances to it, which will make it yield abundantly; but water, 62 ELEMENTS OE after percolating througli a loam or clay loam soil into drains, is deprived of its fertilizing ingredients by the double silicates, and is thus rendered worthless as a source of plant food. The surface flow of water from cultivated fields is the maximum of evils to Amer- ican husbandry of the present day. CHAPTER XXVI. OBGANIC COirSTITUENTS OP THE SOIL. We may now consider the organic constituents of the soil. The quantities existing in the soil differ consider- ably; but they are present in all good soils. If a portion of soil be burnt on an iron plate, a smoiie will be produced from it; and if weighed before and after burning, we will find that it has lost weight by the burning. The loss represents the water dried out, and the organic matter burnt off. If we examine the new soil produced by the atmospheric agencies from the rocks, we shall find very little organic matter in it, and in some cases none. The fact is, that only the lower orders of vegetation grow in it; but as these die, their remains mix with the soil in which they grew. After this has been going on for successive years, the soil becomes somewhat enriched by the remains, when it becomes fitted to produce plants of a higher order, and these add still more vegetable matter to the soil, so that it finally becomes mixed with a great deal of organic matter, which was produced upon its surface, and is thus prepared in a natural way for growing a crop. The term organic matter is generally applied to those portions of the soil which at some time or other SCIENTIFIC A3S^D PEACTICAL AGBICULTPEE. 63 have been organized, and have performed functions of animal or vegetable life. Organic matter con- sists chiefly of. substances drawn from the air, and the carbonic acid is the chief contributor. As we carry on the ordinary processes of cultivatioii we increase the quantity of this organic matter. In fact, the general tendency of cultivation is in the direction of adding to the soil organic matter. Some crops are especially valuable, because of the organic matter they add to the soil, such as clover and green buckwheat, when plowed under. An ordinary observer, in looking at a grass sod, can gee the numberless small roots with which the turf is so full, and the black color gives evidence to the expe- rienced eye of earlier supplies of rootlets which had decayed in the land. We shall now examine into the benefits which the soil derives from this organic matter: (1) It has a tendency to give a freedom to the soil, which enables the roots to penetrate it in search of food. Stiff clays which, from the extreme fineness of their particles, have a tendency to become firm and com- pact, are greatly benefited by the intermixture. In the case of sands it discharges an equally useful duty. In these soils there is no difi&culty of the root penetrating the land; but there is a want of firmness, and in such cases the increase of organic matter is very valuable; in short, in every kind of soil the intermix- ture of organic matter is beneficial — excepting peaty soils, of course. (3) It increases the power of any soil for absorbing moisture and gaseous matter from the air. Nor must we overlook the fact that such organic matter is one of the means whereby manure and plant food are held in the soil, particularly sandy soils, when the previous condition of the land would 64 iLjiirENTS Of have allowed it to be washed away and gone beyond the roots of the plants. It has hecome the practice with intelligent cultivators of the land, who have light soils having little power to hold the food in a soluble condition, to apply the farm- yard manure to the young clover, which encour- ages a strong, rich growth, and thus it preserves the greatest portion of the plant food, which would other- wise have been washed away from the soil. The great amount of rich clover roots which decays gradually during the growth of the following crop, yields up a large store of fertilizing matter, just as it is needed by the crop. CHAPTER XXVII. BAD CHABACTEES OF SOILS AN^D HOW TO REMEDY THEM. We may now consider the characters of soils, to which we alluded in a former chapter. This is very impor- tant, because these characters of fields indicate certain opinions of intelligent practical farmers. We shall endeavor to show what the farmer means by say- ing that a certain field has a hungry soil. Because a particular field is always in want of nour- ishing materials, the farmer says of it that it is hungry. Sands and gravels belong to this class, because they have little or no power in holding the soluble portions of the manure. They are generally known by an absence of the double silicates and ferric oxide, as well as having a small supply of organic matter; soils also whose surface is liable to be washed or floated away by every heavy shower are always in need of a supply of manure. The common mode of curing the disease ia the sandy or gravelly soils is to add clay and encourage the SCIEHTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 65 accumulation of humus in them; and to cure the washing away of the surface soil, deep tillage and subsoil draining will reduce the surface flow to a minimum. Just in proportion as these means are applied, so will the land cease to hare that character applied to it. Another class of soils is known as tough and obsti- nate. This class is found to contain a large quantity of clay; but in a majority of cases it displays , these points of character when under bad management. When individuals or animals have such an unfortunate character, skill in treating them so as not to arouse the had propensities proves the master mind ; it is the same with the soil, because if treated with skill it will be rendered yielding and kindly. If a farmer unskilled in the management of a clay soil ploughs it in the spring, in preparation for a crop, it is likely to become cloddy, tough, and obstinate, and to need a great amount of labor to reduce it to a fitting condition for a good seed bed. If, on the other hand, such a soil had been well drained, and ploughed np in the fall, and exposed to the influences of air, water, and frost, we would see a kindly, mellow soil, in the very best condition for a seed bed. This condition is infinitely better and more complete than any state we could bring it to, by any amount of manual or horse labor, when treated to spring ploughing. Just in proportion as the farmer has more organic matter mingled through such a soil, and timely culti- vation given, so Avill it be cured of those bad points of character, and show less temper in its m.anagement. We have also kindly and grateful soils, yielding good and abundant returns for labor and manure intel- ligently applied. As a rule, these are loamy soils, having sufl&cient sand and organic matter in them, well mixed, to enable them to be worked easily, and having 66 tlLEMBNTS OI* sufficient clay- to preserye and hold in readiness the plant-food deriyed from the manure they receive. These are the most pleasant soils to manage. E"ext comes the invalid or sick soil. It is with soils as with indiyiduals; there are many causes for being in an unhealthy condition. Soils generally become sick either from the presence of some objec- tionable matter in the soil, or something is absent which the plant wants. Drainage and deep autumn cultivation will generally meet the difficulties of the first case; in the other class, we have seen in a former chapter that if the plant has not all the materials it requires, it shows it by a sickly appearance. The bill of fare of a plant is Very long; and, like the weavef working on a fabric requiring many colors, if he runs short of one color, the Whole work is stopped; if he wants a red-oolOJfed yarn, and has all the other Colors in abundance, the work is at a standstill, and cannot proceed until the proper color is supplied; so with the plant, if one of the dishes named on its bill of fare is wanting, it makes no difference how much of the others it may have, it cannot proceed in its growth. Hence that law of agricultural science which tells us that it is those portions of the plant food which are least abundant in the soil, which measure its fertility, and not those portions which are most abundant. Like a chain, it is the weak link which measures its entire etrengthi J CHAPTER XXVIII. ANALYSES OF FIVE DliTEEENT KI^-DS OS' SOILS. The soil may be regarded as a mixture of many different substances, each having its own peculiar prop- SCiEN-TIFIC! ANO PBACTICAt AGBICtrLTUEB. ^1 erties, and eacli giYing its own influence to determine the ^general character of the soil. These substances were obtained from different sources, and are frequently mixed in very irregular proportions; for these reasons we must depend upon the chemist to separate the several substances which compose it, and determine their respective quantities and their condition. In this way we may learn what materials are in the soil, and thus find out its capabilities. The following table represents the chemical analyses of five diflerent kinds of soils. The word "trace" means that so small a quantity of the ingredient was found that it could not be weighed by the chemists who performed the analyses: FertUe Soil. Potash 1.03 Soda 1.97 Ammonia 06 Lime 4.09 Magnesia 13 Peroxide of Iron 35 Protoxide of Maganese. 9.04 Protoxide of Iron 29 Alumina 1.36 Phosphoric Acid 47 Sulphuric Acid 90 Carbonic Acid 6.08 Chlorine 1.34 Soluble Silica 3.34 Insoluble Silica 57.65 Insoluble Silica (sand) Organic matter 12.00 Water or loss 1.00 It Avill be noticed that the list of substances found in soils is greater than those found in the primi- tive rocks; but we must remember the fact, that, in 5 Barren Rich Good Calca- Sou. Clay. Loam. reous. Trace. 2.80 .80 Trace. 1.44 1.50 Trace. .83 1.28 52.33 Trace. 1.03 1.12 ■) • 2.00 4.87 3.41 . 2.86 Trace. 2.80 ..80 .50 14.04 3.58 Trace. ..24 .38 Trace. Trace. .09 .09 Trace. .92 44.70 .01 .01 Trace. 96.00 01.20 1 81.26 ■ .26 1.50 8.55 2.43 4.91 3.37 68 ELEMEN'TS 01' addition to tlie rocks, the atmospliere and the sea contributed in course of time to the soil, and in this, they were assisted by the operations of animal and vegetable life. You v,'ill notice the great amount of silica in all the soils, except the calcareous, but especially in the barren one. Silica may be looked upon as forming the main bulk of all sandy, loamy, and clay soils, to ■which the potash, soda, etc., give fertility. Phosphoric acid, like silica, is a weak acid at low temperatures; but when heated it becomes exceedingly powerful. It rarely amounts to more than ,5 per cent, of our richest soils, and many fertile soils contain a much smaller supply. Its value as a constituent of good soils has long been acknowledged, and all our cultivated plants require a supply. It looks as if it were a provision of nature to enable our crops to be of proper feeding value in the support of animal life; for the plant makes as powerful a claim on the soil for phos- phoric acid as the animal does on the plant for this material, which is a necessity to it for the formation of bone. CHAPTER XXIX. DOTTBLB SILICATES AND THEIR VALUE IS THE SOIL. In the above analyses silica and alumina are given separately; but in the soil a part of the silica is com- bined chemically with a part of the alumina, forming a silicate of alumina. This substance is the essential ingredient in pure clay — such as the fine white clay used by the potters in making china. Alumina does not enter the plant at all. You will discover that it is the only substance given in the analyses of the soils SCIEITTIFIC AITl) PRACSldAli AGEICULTUEE. 69 which does not occur in the ash of plants. Although alumina thus remains outside the plant, yet it is found to serve a very useful purpose by acting as a kind of waiter, holding, the plant food in readiness for the use of the plant. It does this by combining with silica, and at the same time with some other svibstance of plant food, forming what is called by chemists double silicates. The chief double silicates are these: Silicate of alumina and soda. Silicate of alumina and lime. Silicate of alumina and potash. Silicate of alumina and ammonia. It is found that the silicate of alumina combines more readily with ammonia than any of the other change- able components, the next fayorite being potash, then lime, and lastly soda. Therefore, if a silicate of alumina and soda meets in the soil with lime, the soda is giren up, and the lime takes its place. In the same way, lime is rejected for potash, and potash given up for tlie greatest favorite, ammonia. K"ow, ammonia is the most useful to plants, potash next, lime next, and soda the least of all. The great use of the double silicates in the soil, there- fore, is their power of receiving and holding in chem- ical union ingredients from the air and the decaying organic substances, the most valuable kind of plant food, which they give up to the plant when required. The roots of plants have a greater con- trol over the changeable components of the double silicates than the silicate of alumina has itself; so that they are able to take from it the materials they require, and the silicate of alumina then seeks some more of that valuable plant food, ammonia, potash, etc., which % ELEJIEltTS OS the plant utilizes again when it needs it. This action of the double silicates we shall find to he of great importance when we come to consider the action of manures. CHAPTER XXX. TILLAGE AND ITS BENEFITS TO THE SOIL. The successful growth of crops depends upon the soil containing a sufficient supply of plant food in a soluble condition; we have shown you that a soil may be unproductive even if it has plenty of plant food, by that food being in a dormant condition, or some poisonous substance being present. That the soil be suitable to the crop, is one of the chief conditions of success. The farmer has no power over the climate, but he can choose such crops as he finds most suitable for it. Thus, some kinds of wheat grow best in the North, others best in the Middle or Southern States; also, some kinds of corn are suited for a short season, and others for a longer season, and so on. But, granting the plant food in any soil to be suffi- cient, iajurious matters absent, and the climate suitable, we yet require a proper tillage of the soil to develop its capabilities, and to make the most of all these con- ditions, so as to produce the greatest yield of crops at the least expense, and yet leave the land in as good, or better, condition for the next crop. Baron Liebig compares the work performed by the plow to the mastication of food by those special organs with which nature has endowed animals. The comparison is most felicitous, and conveys the true idea clearly. "We all know that food, unless it be well mas- ticated, or gi'ound down by the teeth, or other means, SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTUEB. 71 gives up very little nourishment to the body; so it is Avith the Boil, unless it be well broken down, thoroughly pulverized, and well mixed, the plant will not be fully sustained. The natural agencies are always ready to assist. Weather — including frost, snow, and rain^s of prime importance. Eain is absolutely necessary to supply the water which enters so largely into the growing plant, and into which the plant food is dissolved. Without rain a country becomes a desert, unless water is brought from a distance and spread over the land by overflow, as in the basin of the Nile, or by artificial irrigation. In the winter the rain takes the form of snow, and is then useful as a covering for young plants. Frost, also, is a great friend to cultivation by its acting upon the moisture in the soil, bursting asunder the tough clay, and exposing immense surfaces to the. action of the air. Ammonia consists of nitrogen and hydrogen chem- ically united, and exists in the air. You will remember that plants cannot absorb nitrogen from the air, although four-fifths of the air consists of this gas; to be of use to the plant it must be united with other elements, as in ammonia and nitric acid. The flashes of lightning cause the nitrogen of the air to unite with the oxygen and form the nitric acid, which is washed down into the soil by the rain. Another friend of the farmer is the common earth- worm. This worm lives by swallowing earth contain- ing vegetable matter, from which its digestive organs extract nourishment; the soil it then brings up and casts out in a finely divided state. Darwin calculated that in many places more than ten tons of earth on every acre of ground pass annually through their 73 ELEJIElirTS OF bodies, and are thus brought to the surface. The worm- burrows, too, which are often five to six feet deep, assist in draining the soil, and form passages into which the air and roots of plants can enter. Spade cultivation may be set down as the model, to which we r^iay strive to attain, as near as possible, by such means as are within our command. The advantage of this cultivation is the greater extent of feeding ground for the crop without ex- tending the boundary lines, and likewise the easier search for food. We must do our best to reach these ends; but it is hardly possible, with our present appliances, to come up to the efficiency of the spade. Steam cultivation is a very valuable agency in this direction, and, when used in the fall of the year, it goes far towards giving the land that thorough working which the spade accomplishes. The steam plow turns a furrow twelve to fifteen inches deep, and twelve acres a day, in the tough clay soil of Scotland. The work of the steam plow in the large prairie fields of the Western or prairie States would be of incalculable benefit to the tillers of that soil. In addition to the work being better done by a deeper tillage, causing better drainage, increasing the feeding ground, and enabling crops to better withstand the drought, as well as a prolonged and steady growth by the deep anchorage, and a gradual perfecting of the crop instead of a hasty mushroom growth, the relief to men and horses, who are required to toil to exhaustion in the hottest season of the year, plowing and harrowing for the winter wheat, would far exceed the cost. It is no wonder that farmers become prematurely old, when their toil so frequently brings them to the verge of exhaustion, and for all their toil getting unsatisfactory returns. The inventors of the reaping and binding machine conferred a great boon to 6CIBNTIFI0 AND PKACTIOAL AGBICULTURE. 73 the farmers of the broad prairies by making it possible for them to care for a large extent of wheat at the mini- mum of cost. In like manner, the •inventor of a steam plow, which will be as practically useful, will be entitled to the warmest gratitude of farmers — especially the prairie farmers, whose soil is peculiarly adapted by its nature to be benefited exceedingly by it. "We hope, before the end of the present decade, that a steam plow will be a familiar sight in the Valley of the Mississippi. CHAPTER XXXI. IHB WOEK OF THE PLOW AKD PLOW-PANS. One of the foundation stones upon which a good tillage of the soil must rest is a thoroughly com- plete fall cultivation. A satisfactory cleaning of the land, and the judicious deepening of the soil before winter, will greatly favor an increased production, and assist in rendering the work more economical, and the soil more easily prepared for a good seed-bed. Various kinds of plows are made to which horse- power is applied. In ancient times the plow was simply a pointed and forked piece of a tree, and this was dragged through the soil. After a time, the point entering the ground was shod with iron to give it a greater power of endurance; then the whole point was made of iron, and a "mould board" was added, of such a shape as to receive the layer of soil under which the point has entered, and to raise and turn it to one side. The plow has been improved in strength and design, so that a very high standard of every quality is reached. The plow of the present day represents the thoughts of -generations of intelligent plowmen. 74 ELEMENTS OB With the plows adapted to horse-power we go about five inches deep, and throw the soil in ridges, so as to expose as much surface to the weather as possible. By continually plowing in this manner, and to this depth — the horses and men walking along the furrow, and the sole of the plow eliding and pressing down the subsoil — that soil is often squeezed and hardened into a dense layer, through which the roots of plants can pass with difficulty, and sometimes not at all, and through which the water cannot penetrate, and of course stagnates. There is too much of this pan now in the prairies. This hard layer is called a "plow-pan." To break up this pan, and stir the subsoil, and make a way out for the water, another kind of plow is used to follow the ordinary one, called a subsoil plow, which breaks and stirs up the subsoil without bringing it up to the top. Some Scotch farmers use one of their old plows for this purpose; the mould-board is taken off, and the "shear" well poiated; in this condition it is found to mate a very satisfactory subsoil plow. Another plow for breaking up the "pan" is sometimes used; it is made like the ordinary plow, but stronger, and going much deeper, and brings up the subsoil to the surface; but in this case so much power is needed to break, lift up, and turn over this great depth of soil that steam power must be employed to draw it. CHAPTER XXXII. OTHEK "pans" and SUBSOIL PLOWING. Pans may be due to other causes besides constant surface plowing. In some districts, especially where the soil is formed from the breaking down of the red SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 75 sandstone which contains a large quantity of iron oxide. As this gets washed into the soil it forms a kind of cement, binding the materials together into a hard cake, which is called an iron pan. The cementing power of iron rust is yery great, as may be satisfac- torily proTed in old roads in the neighborhood of abandoned iron furnaces, where iron ore has been hauled in carts; the particles of ore sifting through the openings of the carts, and mixing with other substances, it incorporates the whole in one mass. There is a complete illustration of this cementing power of iron particles in an old wagon road in the neighborhood of the Mt. Sayage furnaces, now for several years unused, where a cake is formed as solid looking as pig-iron, but light in weight in proportion to its size; thus showing how small a quantity of iron oxide is necessary to form a "pan." In other soils where there is much lime naturally, or where lime has been put on the land too freely, it has sunk into the soil as far as it has been stirred, and there formed a hardened cake, called a lime pan. In all these cases the use of the subsoil plow comes in place to break up the pan and open, up the subsoil. But in all soils, whether a pan is formed or not, the occasional use of the subsoil plow for stirring up the underlying earth is beneficial, as it then admits air, and allows the deep roots to penetrate the subsoil to obtain nourishment, which is one of the objective points of good cultivation. 76 ELEMENTS OF CHAPTER XXXIII. THE USES OF DIPFEEENT KINDS OF AGKICULTUEAL IMPLEMENTS. In addition to the plow, the chief implements used in cultiyation are the cultivator, the hoe, the harrow, and roller. These are used principally for clearing the land of weeds, and for preparing the sur- face for receiying the seed. The cultiTator consists of several tines slanting down- ward and forward. These, when drawn through the soil, help to turn oyer and break down the clods, and draw out the weeds to the surface. Various kinds of hoes and harrows are used for turning over and breaking down clods, dragging out weeds, and covering seeds that have been sown. The hoe is chiefly used for clearing the land of weeds, or for ridging up the soil around the roots of some crops, such as corn and potatoes. Sometimes this is done by hand, as with a garden hoe, but when the crop is large, and sown in regular rows, the horse-hoe is used. This is drawn between the rows by a horse, and generally con- sists of several blades, fixed in a frame at the proper distances apart, so as to throw up the soil against the plants on each side, and at the game time cut off or root up the weeds in the spaces between the rows. Harrows are made of various sizes and patterns. Heavy harrows, or drags, are used for turning over and breaking the clods on plowed land, or for stirring land which has been lying fallow. Lighter harrows are used for bringing weeds to the surface and collecting them; SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 77 and lighter ones still, made of chain work, are used for covering seeds which have just been sown, and for lightly stirring among grass and young wheat or oats. The roller is principally used for pressing the soil around the seeds or young plants, so as to keep them moist, and enable the fine roots to take hold of the soil. A rough kind of roller, with projecting points and notches, called a clod crusher, is sometimes used to break down the hard lumps of soil, so as to expose a greater surface to the atmosphere. There is yet another clod-crusher, which is considered by many the most perfect form of all. It consists of a series of wheels, alongside each other, each having an independent action. It is very heavy, and was designed to grind and crush up intractable clods, and reduce heavy clay to a fine tilth. They are, however, of equal, if not greater, value as compressors of light soils, before wheat sowing, to roll winter crops in the spring, and consolidate the land where the crops are attacked by the wire-worm. CHAPTER XXXIV. peepaeation op the seed-bed and seed sowing. OuE next important subject is the preparation of the land to form a suitable seed-bed, in which the seeds will have the best chances of procuring moisture^ warmth, and air, which are so necessary for their growth; The preparation of the seed-bed will vary with the nature of the soil, and with the size and charactei' of the seed. But there are some points which must always'be carefully attended to. In the first place, it is necessary to procure plenty of room for the roots of the plants to reach downward into the soil. By deep 78 ELEMENTS OP plowing and the use of the suhsoil plow, especially in clay soils, the soil is loosened to a good depth and the roots enabled to penetrate it in search of food. The roots of winter wheat have been traced to a depth of seven feet in a loose soil forty-seven days after sowing. For securing germination in its healthiest form, the regular admission of moisture into the seed is a matter of the utmost importance. Special provision has been made for carrying this moisttire into and throughout the seed. We find a series of irrigating channels in the seed used for this purpose. Thus, water supplied to the surface of the seed does not simply moisten the surface," and so penetrate more and more deeply into the seed, but, under healthy conditions, the water is carried through the seed by those irri- gating channels, and thus a more equal distribution takes place — consequently a more uniform swelling of the seed. If the seed becomes "dirty," the entrance to those irrigating channels are largely closed up, and, as a consequence, an irregular distribution of mois- ture, resulting in an irregular germination and a weak and sickly plant. The next point of consideration is the depth to which the seed should be sown; this depends upon the supply of air and moisture. If the seed lies too far below the surface of the soil it might be kept moist enough, but it will not obtain sufficient air to supply it with the oxygen it requires. Again, upon the other hand, if it is too near the surface, it may get alternately wet and dry with the rain and the sun. This prevents the steady growth of the plant, which injures its healthy develop- ment. The farmer has to judge by the nature of the soil, and the climate, and size of seed, how deep he will place it. Scientific and pkactical ageioultuee. 79 Then, again, it is necessary for the support of the yonng plants, or seedlings, that the soil should lie close around them, Avithout excluding the air from the roots. In some soils it is necessary to sow the seed immediately after plowing, and then to roll it at once, to press the earth close to the seeds; in others it must be left two or three weeks for the moisture to rise to the surface, by capillary attraction, before the seeds are sown. Wheat requires a firm support around its young roots, and yet the soil must not be hard and close, or the roots will not be able to grow into it freely in search of food. The best preparation for a seed-bed for wheat is to grow a crop of clover upon the land just before the wheat is sown. The reason for this will come up with the subject of rotation of crops. CHAPTER XXXV. ELEMENTS OF THE SOIL EXPLAINED. Having treated of the cultivation and formation of the soil, the next subject which presents itself is the exhaustion of the soil; but, in order to fully com- prehend this subject, we will take another chapter in chemistry. "We wish to impress upon your minds the important fact that chemical knowledge, to be useful, must be exact. You must endeavor to get a clear conception of the facts we are about to take up, and not pass them over till they are all thoroughly under- stood. It has been ascertained that the whole world, and all that is in it, as far as known, is built up of about sixty-three elements, some of which exist in great abundance, and others are very rare and in small quantities 80 Slemekts 01' Some of these elements exist in a free state, so that we can easily see them and handle them; while others are united with one or more other elements, and are then different in appearance, and e?en qualities, to the elements of which they are formed. Of the sixty-three known elements forty-eiglit are metals, such as gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron; and some are yery rare, and unknown except to the chemist. The other fifteen elements are not metals, but act a more important part than the metals in the construc- tion of the earth and the sustaining of its inhabitants. Neither one of the twb classes, however, could do much without the other. The list of the fourteen ele- ments given below are of importance to agriculture, with which we must become familiarly acquainted in order that we be exact in our knowledge. The non-metallic substances are oxygen, hydro- gen, carbon, and nitrogen, and are classed as organic elements; sulphur and phosphorus are classed as sec- ondary organic elements; also silicon and chlorine. The metals are: Potassium, sodium, calcium, mag- nesium, aluminium, and iron. The first four on the list are called the organic elements, because the softer and more important parts of plants and animals are made up of particular compounds of these elements, and can be made from no other. It is also true that these same elements enter into and make up a large part of the inorganic world, as stones and earth; so you see you must be careful not to be misled by the term organic- It means that animals and plants are dependent in an especial manner upon these elementary substances for the sup- port of their organized soft parts. SCIENTIFIO AND PKACTICAL AGEICtJLTtTEE. 81 CHAPTER XXXVI. ^ ORGANIC ELEMENTS. Carbon forms the chief bulk of all plants. If you burn a plant in a close vessel, admitting no oxygen, the black substance which remains is carbon, ■which is familiarly called charcoal. When oxygen is freely admitted to it, it combines with the carbon, and forms carbonic-acid gas. Oxygen, in its free state, is an inTisible gas; it forms one-fifth of the bulk of the atmosphere, and, in a com- bined state, forms seven-eighths of the weight of water, and nearly half the substance of the whole soUd globe. It unites with nearly all the other elements to form oxides. Nitrogen, when free, is also an invisible gas, forming four-fifths of the bulk of the atmosphere; but its most beneficial service to agriculture is in combination with hydrogen in forming ammonia, and with other elements in the form of nitrates. Hydrogen, when free, is the lightest of all gases. Combined with oxygen it forms, by weight, one-eighth of water; and, when combined with nitrogen, it forms the valuable compound, ammonia. Sulphur and phosphorus are called secondary organic elements, because they are not used to so great an extent in building up the structures of animals and plants as the four elements before named. They enter also inttf the composition of many inorganic sub- stances, and form sulphates and phosphates. Silicon combines with oxygen to form silicates — ^the most plentiful constituent in all soils, except peat soils. Fine white sand, flint, and quartz are nearly pure silica. 8^ ELEMENTS OE Chlorine is a greenish, clioking gas, when free; but we generally find it combined with sodium, which then forms common salt, which is found in all plants. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE METALLIC ELEMENTS. Ieon is probably the only well known metal named among the elements in the foregoing list. It is always found in the bodies of animals and plants. Potassium is the metal contained in potash. Sodium is the metal contained in soda and com- mon salt. It looks almost impossible that a bright silvery metal can exist in the crystals of common salt or soda, or in white powdery chalk, and yet it is the fact. It is an easy matter for you to satisfy your- self. You may procure at a chemist's a piece of mag- nesium wire (about ten cents a foot) ; you will find it a dull whitish metal, but it is quite bright when newly made; it quickly attracts oxygen from the air, and becomes tarnished. Take one end with a pair of pincers, and hold the other end in the flame of a lamp or gas burner, the metallic wire takes fire and burns with a brilliant light. The metal, magnesium, is now combined with the non-metallic gas, oxygen, and forms the compound magnesia, which falls down from the dazzling flame in the form of a white powder— the very same which is used for medicine, under the name of calcined magnesia, which must contain the metal disguised in this curious form. Calcium is contained in lime. Magnesium is contained in magnesia and epsom salts. And aluminium is contained in alum and clay. SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTUBE. 83 It is wonderful to learn, also, that lime contains the silvery metal called calcium; and the dirty looking substance, clay, (when pure, however, it is white), contains the golden looking metal alumimuro, used so much now in making watch-cases, chains, cheap jewelry, and mathematical instruments. From what we have now seen, you will readily under- stand that some elements easily combine to form com- pounds. It is a strange fact that elements most unlike combine most readily, and that their com- pounds are very unlike any one of the elements from which they are formed. CHAPT ER X XXVIII. THE BINAEY COMPOUNDS AND THE FOEMATION OF THE SALTS. When two elements combine it is called a binary compound. These are very important to agriculture. They are generally divided into two groups — acid oxides and bases. Water lies between the two groups, and acts as an acid oxide to the bases, and as a base to the acid oxides. COMMON NAME. FORMED FROM. Carbonic Acid Carbon and Oxygen. Sulphuric Acid Sulphur and Oxygen. Phosphoric Acid Phosphorus and Oxygen. Nitric Acid Nitrogen and Oxygen. Silica SUicon and Oxygen. Water Hydrogen and Oxygen, Ammonia Nitrogen and Hydrogen . Potash Potassium and Oxygen. Soda Sodium and Oxygen. Lime Calcium and Oxygen. Magnesia Magnesium and Oxygen . Alumina Aluminium and Oxygen. Iron Oxide Iron and Oxygen. Acid Oxides. 84 ELEMENTS OE An acid "joined with a base forms a salt. For example^ carbonic acid ■with the base, lime, forms the gait carbonate of lime; so, nitric acid combines with the potash to form nitrate of potash, commonly known as saltpetre, and so on. We will now take into consideration the most impor- tant Baits of interest to the agriculturist; The chief of these are the carbonate of potash, forming the greater part of the ashes of burnt wood; the chloride of potgiSh, which is the principal sub- stance in the manure called kainit; and nitrate of potash. Carbonate of soda occues in the ash of many plants, and nitrate of soda is Chili saltpetre, often used for manure. The commonest soda salt is the chloride of sodium, or common salt. Unlike most salts, this is formed by the direct union of chlorine and sodium. When the carbonate of lime is roasted in a kiln, the carbonic acid is driven away, and lime only is left, which is called quick-lime; it is then very porous, and has a metallic ring. When water is poured on it a chemical action takes place by its combiaing with the lime; it then produces great heat, and forms the hydrate of lime, or slaked lime; but if it is left exposed to the air, the carbonic acid, which was driven from it, seeks to reunite, and brings it back to its original condition. Masons are well aware of this fact, as when they slake the quick-lime they immediately cover it with sand to keep it from the air, or rather the car- bonic acid in the air. Another useful salt of lime is gypsum, which is a sulphate of lime. But the most important of all the salts is the phosphate of lime, because of its enter- ing so largely into the economy of both animal and vegetable life. SCIENTIFIC AND PBACTICAL AGBICULTURE. 85 The silicates form an important class of salts, as it is principally by their aid that the crops are supplied with silica, as well as with the base with which the silica is combined. Thus the silicate of potash supplies both silica and potash j silicate of lime, both silica and lime, and so on. You may refer to what is said about the double silicates in a former chapter. ^/ CHAP'TER XXXIX. THE ATMOSPHEBE. The atmosphere is so important to the growth of plants that it is necessary we should haye a distinct knowledge of its nature and composition. The great bulk of the air consists of oxygen and nitro- gen, in the proportion of one of the former to four of the latter, only mixed, not chemically united. To give you a clear idea of what we mean by mixed, but not chemically united, let us take some lard and put a little water into it; we can so thoroughly mix them that it will be diflScult to detect the water, but still the two substances are only mixed; we will now put some potash into the mixture, and they become immediately united chemically. Of those two gases it is only the oxygen which is active, entering plants by their roots, and it is also combined with many other substances in the air and in the soil, where, you will remembei', it is to be freely admitted, by means of deep plowing and drainage, to give it the opportunity of rendering poisonous matters nutritious by its acti&n. It is found by careful inves- tigation, as we have before stated, that free nitrogen does not enter the plant at all; and as nitrogen is 86 ELEMEKTS OP one of the necessary organic elements, the plant must obtain it in some other way. The nitrogen in the air acts only as a regulator to the oxygen, pre.venting its too violent action. Besides the oxygen and nitrogen, the air has always mixed with it four substances, which are good friends of the farmer. These are watery vapor, nitric acid, carbonic acid, and ammonia. Although these exist in the air in very small quantities in proportion to the general bulk, yet if we take into consideration the vast extent of the atmosphere, we shall discover that there is really a large supply of these substances. The carbonic acid in the air is the great supply of carbon to the crops. The nitric acid and ammonia are washed down into the soil by the rain, and, as they are very soluble, they become at once suitable for the nourishment of the plant. The power of the soil to absorb ammonia (nitrogen and hydrogen) is not confined to periods of rain, is not even confined to the periodical recurrence of dews; so often as the air is charged with carbonate of ammonia, and comes in contact with a surface of soil, so often will this soil be enriched by ammonia to the extent to which the air contains it. For this reason the soil should be open, loose, and porotis, so as to make it accessible to the aeriform fertilizers. This explains why cultivating frequently between root and corn crops is so beneficial. It has been estimated that an acre of land receives in these ways every year about eighteen or nineteen pounds of nitrogen. The other ingredient found in the atmosphere is watery vapor. This is simply water in the form of an invisible steam or gas. It is of use to the crops when it descends in the form of rain or dew. SCIENTIFIC AJJTD PRACTICAL AGEICULTUKE. 87 CHAPTER XL. THE DISSOLXITIOK OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. When a plant or animal dies, the softer parts soon decay and separate into simpler chemical forms. This dissolution is caused by the growth of tiny liying things, the germs of which are always floating in the air, except in keen frosty weather, which, with the aid of oxygen, break up the organic substances (which, we before learned, consist of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon,) into the simpler substances, water, car- bonic acid, and ammonia, each of which is only a binary-element compound. If the animal or plant decays in the air, these gases „ escape or fly away in the air, causing an ofiensive smell; but if the decay takes place in the ground, the soil has the power of absorbing these gases. Clay soil has the greatest power of absorption, especially that portion of it which has taken the form of double silicates. On account of this peculiar property, dry pulverized clay is one of the very best disinfectants, and makes an excellent dressing for "angry" wounds, because of its power to absorb the corrupting matter, and render the sores calm and clean. The mineral or inorganic substances likewise fall to pieces in the soil, where they remain as carbonates, phosphates, and sulphates, ready to supply inorganic food to succeeding generations. Thus you will perceive the unceasing round of change going on in the air, in the soil, in plants, and in animals, which the intelligent cultivator will wisely consider and utilize whenever possible. 88 ELfiMEKTS OJ' In soil wliere there is a good portion of humus, it abounds "with life. Many living creatures can he seen with the naked eye, but many more are revealed by the aid of the microscope. Grubs of insects feed upon roots of vegetables left in the soil, and they change their food into ammonia, and carbonic acid, and water, which is taken up by the soil. Some grubs, however, attack growing crops, and are, consequently, hurtful to them; but most of the grubs do more good than harm. Growing plants which produce real flowers and seeds, cannot feed upon decaying matter directly; it must be changed into carbonic acid, nitrates, and ammonia before they will accept it as food. There is, however, a set of plants called fungi, but which are sporatic, belonging to the mushroom or toad-stool family, which possess the power of feeding upon vegetable matter directly, like animals. The;^ exist in the soil, and are friendly helpers in prepari^^. food for the higher classes of plants. In the days of witches, "fairy rings," which abound in old pastures, were an object of superstitious awe, and were long a puzzle to scientists; but the mystery was at length solved; they were found to be caused by fungi, which, commencing to grow in one spot, converted the humus into nitrates, causing the grass to grow in that spot a dark green tuft. The fungi spread out from that centre, continuing their work in a circle, thus feeding a small ting of grass, which grows greener than the rest; and so the "fairy rings" extend, growing larger and larger. For the best conditions of forwarding these chemical changes in the soil, so that the farmer may be benefited by them, four things are absolutely necessary: (1) The presence of oxygen. Here we see the reason for deep cultivation and drainage, (stagnant water will never do), SCIEN-TIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICTTLTtTRE. 89 by which the air, with its oxygen, can enter. (2) Mois- ture in moderate quantity must be present, such as is obtained by capillary attraction, as in a flower-pot. (3) Warmth, for the purpose of oxidation, which is more active in summer than in winter. (4) The pres- ence of some base in the soil to unite with the oxygen to form nitrates. The best substance for this purpose is the carbonate of lime; the base, lime, unites with the nitrogen to form nitrates of lime. The lime is next dis- carded, and potash preferred, which then forms nitrate of potash, which, you remember, is very useful for the growth of the crops. CHAPTER XLI. THE CAUSES AJfD EEMEDIES OF EXHAUSTIOIf OE THE SOIL. In this elementary work we first considered the structure of the plant, and the manner in which it takes its food ; we next took up the formation of the soil, and saw from whence it came; also its physical and chemical composition, from which much of the plant food is derived; next the best methods of cultivating that soil, so as to get the food ready for the use of the crops in sufiicient quantity to sustain them to their full maturity; and next the chemical properties of substances. We are now prepared to consider the exhaustion of the soil, and the best remedies for that exhaustion. When a soil has been cropped until one of the sub- stances of plant-food has been used up, so that it con- tains no more in a condition to be acceptable to the plant, we say the land is exhausted. 90 elbMekts of We have already seen that the Avhole of the plant food in the soil is never in a condition to be acceptable to Tegetation. The soluble parts only are suitable for plant food, and that portion only forms a Tery small part of the soil. The rest of the soil may contain a large quantity of these substances, but they are held in reserre, to be called into active duty, by the action of the oxygen and carbonic acid of the air. The awakening takes time; therefore the necessity and advantage of turning over the soil as much as possible, and as long a time as possible, before the crops require the food, so as to give the air time and opportunity to act upon the dormant portion to make it soluble, and consequently available for the plants. Should it happen that this opportunity is not allowed, or perhaps neg- lected, it may occur that one crop will use up nearly all the active matter of one particular kind, so that the next Crop can only get a partial supply — that crop will suffer because the land is exhausted. You must note, how- ever, that an exhausted soil tnay be quite a good one, if it only has the opportunity to recover itself, and also given time to change its sleeping matter into an active condition by the friendly helpers in the air. Some soils, however, are so deficient in some of the elements of plant food, that even if all the food in them Was brought into an active condition, it would last but a short time, and the land would then be thoroughly exhausted, and could again be rendered fertile only by a supply of the substances it had lost. In some portions of the Southern States the soil has been so long cultivated with one or two kinds of crops — as much as possible of cotton or tobacco being taken, and little or nothing put in — -that large tracts of land have been exhausted and abandoned. SClENilFIC! AND tUACTlfiAt AGRICtJLTtJEE, &1 So, also, in the Northern States, immense crops of corn, Avheat, and oats were grown by the first settlers, year after year, until the land would no longer produce these crops in paying quantities. These settlers moved farther West, and cultivated new soil, which in time became exhausted, and was abandoned in its turn. But this is very wasteful, and cannot long continue. Before we go on to state how fertility can be restored to the exhausted soil, we must inquire what sub- stances, and how much of each, have been taken from the land by the crops which have been grown upon it. CHAPTER XLII. ^ SUBSTANCES USED BY VEGETATION. We learned in a former chapter, that the organic substances were those forming the softer parts, and the inorganic substances were those contained in the ashes left behind when the plant was burned. You had better now refer to them and commit them to memory. It has been found by careful experiment, that of the inorganic substances named there, that some are not absolutely needed for every kind of plant; yet they are always found in plants when grown in a natural Avay. It IS, therefore, safe to say, that they are beneficial to their healthy and complete growth. In the forest planted by nature there is no exhaustion; neither is there any exhaustion in an uncultivated prairie; for as the trees and plants decay, their branches and leaves go back to the soil, and return to it the same substances taken from it by their growth, in addi- tion to the carbonic acid and ammonia which they had collected from the atmosphere. The long roots bring 93 SLEMEKTS Ol' up nourishment also from the subsoil, which they leave in the form of decaying matter, or humus, on the surface soil, and must, for this reason, become richer for their growth. Even if a large portion of the growth is eaten by wild animals, it is only laid up for a time in their bodies, to be given up again to the earth when they die. But it is a very different case when we grow great quantities of corn, wheat, cotton, or tobacco, and carry it away for human use. In this case the inorganic matters are carried away entirely from the land from which it was derived. Even should it be a grass field, in which cattle or sheep have been turned to graze, though they give back some of the mineral matters in their droppings to the soil, yet their bodies, which have been built up by the grass they have eaten, are .at last taken away to be consumed elsewhere. You "can easily understand now, that if crops are constantly drawn from the soil, to be used by men and animals elsewhere, the materials of plant growth will be carried away little by little, until one or more of them, which is especially wanted by the crop, gives out, and the soil is thus exhausted. It is the ingredient which is least abundant that determines the fertility of the soil, as before remarked; it is the weak link in a chain that determines its entire strength. Exhaustion may be delayed for a long time by returning to the soil as great a quantity as possible of the plants grown upon it. To sell milk, cheese, beef, straw, or hay from the land will surely impoverish it, because of the mineral ingredients they contain, as may be determined by the amount of residue shown when they are burned; but if you sell butter or fat, and keep all the rest on the farm, your land will get better; because if you burn butter or fat, you SClElTTIPid AND tEACTiCAi, AGEICULTtJRE. S3 will find no residue; from -which fact we ascertain that their constituents came from the air, and not from the soil. . CHAPTER XLIII. SUBSTANCES EXTEACTED PROM THE SOIL BY DIFFEEENT CEOPS. The substances taken from the soil differ greatly in quantity. One kind of crop takes proportionately a great deal of potash, as turnips ; another very much lime, as clover; a third, much silica, as wheat. Each crop has its own pattern, so to speak, which requires a special set of substances to complete its construction. To enable you to have a clear conception of the ingredients, and the quantities of each kind required, we shall give you a table, prepared by several eminent chemists, which will be quite instructive upon this important topic : inobganic matter taken feom an acre of land b? a crop of grain, roots, and clover. Wheat. Stbaw. Turnips. ClovebHat. 25 Bushels 3,000 Lbs. 20 Tons (i Tons 2 Tons. Grain. Bulbs. Tops. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Potash 7.49 18.21 135.73 75.95 53. Soda 97 .90 33.98 16.33 7. Magnesia 8.07 4.11 13.27 9.37 35. Lime 85 9.84 37.87 69.81 111. Phosphoric Acid. 11.87 8.15 31.11 37.87 20. Sulphuric Acid.. .08 5.83 43.26 86.56 13. Silica 84 101.83 11.64 2.58 10. Peroxide of Iron. .20 1.23 3.71 3.58 3. Common Salt 03 .33 38.69 88.15 8. Carbonic Acid 21.71 21. Total 25. 150. 840. 800. 859. 94 ELEMENTS OV If a crop is larger or smaller, tlie number of pounds will vary in proportion to the quantity produced. This table, however, gives us a very good idea of the quanti- ties of the different materials which are drawn from the soil. We see that turnips require much more inorganic matter than clover, and that clover requires more than wheat; Ave see, also, that all the different kinds of crops require nearly an equal share of phos- phoric acid. The other cereals, such as oats, rye, and corn, resem- ble wheat closely in requiring nearly similar quantities of inorganic substances. All the leguminous or pod-bearing plants, such as beans, peas, and vetches, resemble clover, in requiring a large proportion of lime and magnesia. The analysis of turnips may also be taken to repre- sent the root crops, including mangels and potatoes, although these belong to a different order of plants. CHAPTER XLIV. EBMEDIES FOB EXHAUSTION. We have now seen that each kind of crop draws upon the soil for its own particular kinds of food, and in different quantities. It will be evident, then, that if wo grow the same kind of crop in succession for a number of years in the same soil, some of its soluble substances will ultimately become scarce, and the land becomes exhausted. But besides the mineral mat- ters, plants also depend upon the soil for a good deal of their nitrogen. This very important element is carried down into the soil by the rain in the form of ammonia and nitric acid; but a store of nitrogen is in SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUBE. 95 all fertile soils, contained in the dead, roots of former plants, and in the decaying vegetable matter, or humus, -which gives the dark color to the soil. The nitrogenous portion of the humus, like the inorganic matters, are liable to be exhausted by the continual cropping of the same kind of plants on the soil. "We have now come to the very important subjects: The remedies for the exhaustion of the soil, and hDw to prevent it. There are three ways by -which these ends can be attained: (1) By giving the land rest. (2) By a change of crops. (3) By the use of manures. Fallo-W is a very old Saxon word, whose prime meaning is pale yellow or reddish yellow, and is applied to lands plowed, not for the purpose of raising a crop, but preventing the growth of any plants what- ever, thus keeping the color of the field a pale or reddish yellow, and not green with crops. The land is then said to rest. The atmosphere during this rest has time to act upon the soil, if we let it; the rain, and snow, and frosts of winter break down and crumble the hard particles of soil, which affords the oxygen and carbonic acid an opportunity to work upon the dormant matters, and bring them into an active or soluble state, and a new supply of potash and other food will be got ready for the crop when the time of rest is over. It is very important that the soil be kept open during the period of rest; for this purpose it should be occasionally plowed, harrowed, and worked over by the cultivator to keep open the soil to the air and to pre- vent the growth of weeds, which are sure to spring up from seeds already in the soil, or carried there by the wind. These weeds would feed upon the prepared food, and would produce large quantities of seed, which 96 ELEMENTS OE would give the farmer no end of trouble for years. For fallow, then, to do its very best, the land must be kept, as its name indicates, reddish yellow, and not green with plants of any kind. An agricultural chemist found that after a crop of beans there was in the soil 19 J pounds of nitrogen per acre; but after the same field had been fallow, the next year it contained 48 J pounds per acre. Another field, which had been sown with wheat, without manure, contained, when the wheat had been removed, 2} pounds of nitrogen per acre; after a year's bare fallow, it con- tained 33 J pounds to the acre. The great danger to a bare fallow, especially on light soils, is that these nitrates and other soluble food would be washed away, the sandy soil not having the double silicates to take up and hold in store the soluble plant food. The great danger to prairie and timber lands is the washing away of the surface soil into the rivers and creeks. Although the double silicates abound in these soils, yet, by the nearly impervious condition of the subsoil, the water is compelled to flow away from the surface, and carries with it the silicates and the fertilizing substances they contain, thus rendering the land unproductive. Drainage, to aerate, and allow the water to percolate through the soil and pass the fertil- izing matters over to the safe keeping of the silicates till needed by the plant, will give a high per cent, of profit to the farmer for his outlay. In order to reduce the dangers to light soils of a bare fallow to a mini- mum, fallow crops are grown, which take up this soluble food and make it into green fodder or roots, which are plowed in or eaten on the land. BCIEIfTIFIC AND PfiACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 97 CHAPTER XLV. FALLOW CROPS. The practice of giving the land rest is yery old. TVe find the giving of the land rest enforced by the law of Moses, which requires the land to rest every seventh year. Crops which are grown in rows wide apart, to permit the use of the one-horse plow, cultivator, and horse-hoe between the rows, are called fallow crops, because a great portion of the surface can be stirred and culti- vated, and cleared of weeds, and exposed to the atmos- phere almost as well as if no crop was grown upon it, and, at the same time, the soil is being profitably utilized by the growth of a supply of food, making a paying return. The United States has so many different kinds of soils and climates within its borders, that it is nest to impossible to enumerate all the crops that may be useful as fallow crops. We shall attempt, however, to give a few which have come under our own observation. In the New England States, the Northern and North- western States, the principal fallow crops may be tur- nips, mangel-wurzel, or beets, potatoes, and corn. The farmer must be governed by the nature of the soil and climate which he may use. The roots of these crops bring up plant food from the subsoil, or their broad loaves gather in great stores of food from the air, and thus fresh humus is formed, containing nitrogenous matter, which is left in the ground for the next crop. In the Central States, including Southern Illinois, the 98 ELEMENTS OF castor bean and corn make good fallo-w crops. The castor beam probably surpasses all others for this climate; it is a rank-growing, deep-rooted, and broad- leaved plant, and three-fourths of what is sold of this crop from the farm is oil, whose substances came from the air, and not from the soil. The land, by this crop, is enriched and left in prime condition for the profit- able growth of wheat or any of the cereals. For the Southern States cotton plants make a good fallow crop, and will not impoverish the land under a good system of cultivation. The cotton fiber, when burned, leaves proportionately a small residue, and the oil contained in the seed did not come from the land; therefore the soil will remain fertile if the cotton-seed cake is returned to it. The washing away of the surface soil from fallows, whether bare or cropped, may be set down as the prime cause of the farmer's difii- culty in maintaining his land in a profitably fertile condition. Drainage, assisted by deep cultiva- tion, will reduce the difficulty to the minimum. CHAPTER XLVI. EOTATION OF CKOPS. We shall now consider the second way to prevent exhaustion of ,the soil. Farmers generally feel that they cannot let the land rest more than is absolutely necessary; therefore, instead of having the land fallow, they make a set of changes of crops, called a rotation, or round. You have learned that the different kinds of plants grown for a crop use the same substances, but they show a great variation in the quantity required by SCIENTIFIC AKD PBACTICAL AGRICULTUKB. 99 each; therefore, if one kind of crop be grown on the same field for successive years, it is likely to nse up one or more of the particular substances needed; the supply will, in consequence, become inadequate, and the crop then shows it by becoming yellowish, weak, and sickly. But if a different kind of crop be grown on the land, it may not require so much of that kind of food as the for- mer crop did, but draws a different set of substances, and thus gives time for the others to accumulate in the soil in a soluble condition, until the first crop comes round again, when it will find a supply of its food ready for its nse. But a good farmer does not wait till his land becomes sick of a crop before he changes it; he gives a regular round, or succession, of crops to prevent this. The principle to be kept in view, in fixing on a rota- tion of crops, should be the succession which is best suited to draw from the soil the largest net return, while the capabilities of the land are at the same time maintained and increased. There is a rotation common in England called the Norfolk course, from which we may get some instruc- tion by investigating the reasons for its being a general favorite in many localities: First year Turnips. Second year Barley. Third year Clover. Fourth year Wheat. Let us examine this course by the table given in a former chapter. Turnips take out of the soil large quantities of potash, soda, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, and chlorine. The second, barley is soAvn, which requires much less potash, soda, sulphuric acid, etc., but requires much more silica. The third year comes the clover, requiring a moderate amount of potash and sulphuric acid, very little silica and soda, but a large 100 ELEMEIifTS OP supply of lime and magnesia. In the fourtli year comes wheat, requiring a large amount of silica, but a small portion of the other substances. By this time the soil has been able to recover itself; the potash and other substances required in large quantities by turnips have been rendered soluble, and have accumulated, and the land is again in order to begin the course anew. The rotation practiced by many intelligent farmers in the United States is: First year, clover; second year, ■wheat;- third year, corn; and fourth year, oats; then comes clover again. The practical considerations in favor of a rotation of crops are the cleanliness of the land; the con- tinuous supply of food; the distribution of labor throughout the several seasons of the year; and the consolation, if one kind of crop fails, the farmer will not be in the "slough of despond." The adaptation of our farm products to the general wants of the people, as well as the varying climatic conditions, argue also in favor of a variety of crops. The alterna- tion of green crops and root crops with cereal crops may be set down as an axiotn of good and im- proved agriculture. CHAPTER XLVII. MANURES — THE GEEAT EB^Df FOB EXHATTSTlOlS'. Wb have now come to the great remedy for the exhaustion of the soil, brought about by any cause; it is the use of manure. The term Inanure, in its modem meaning, includes etery substancej whether of vegetable, animal, or min- ersil <3rigin> which, when applied to the soil, has the SCIEKTIHC AM'D PBACTICAL AGEICUITUKB. 101 effect of increasing its fertility. Its ancient meaning was: Worked over by hand. In this sense it was applied to the manual labor -vvhich made the land fertile. Shakespeare uses it with this meaning in "Othello" by the mouth of "lago," when speaking of a garden. He says: "Either to haye it sterile with idle- ness, or manured with industry." There are three principal modes in which ma- nures act upon the soil so as to enable it to grow more and better plants. (1) They supply deficiencies in the soil, by giving to it substances which were wanting. (2) They act mechanically on the soil, by render- ing clay lands lighter and more open; or supplying sandy soils with humus, by giving it a closer body, thus enabling it to hold plant food, and encouraging capillary attraction. (3) Some act as a stimulant. They do this by causing the soil to give up for immediate use the reserve store of plant food, instead of adding more. They drive the soil to do more work in a given time, as a horse is driven by the spur. Some lands of manures serve all three purposes; some two of the three, and others only one. The various manures used at the present day may be considered as belonging to the following classes : 1. Green manures. 3. Farm-yard manures. 3. Calcareous manures 4. Artificial manures. The term green manure is applied to the system of growing a crop for the purpose of plowing it into the land. If a crop grown upon a field is returned to it, it looks like giving back to the land that which was only its own; but the advantage gained becomes palpable i02 ELfiMEiTTg 01' when we consider how much deeper the roots of hardy plants go down for their food than those of the more delicate kinds cultivated for a crop. Thus the plant food is brought where it can he used, which was before beyond its reach. Two very opposite classes of soil are benefited by this system. If a hardy crop, such as buckwheat, is sown upon a thin soil, and turned in just at the time it begins to flower, a large increase of organic matter is thus added to the soil. The advantages are very soon apparent; for the soil is enabled to hold larger supplies of moisture, and can take in more gaseous matter from the atmosphere. The growth of clover is one of the most general means of improving the soil. It matters not whether it be on light lands, or heavy, or lands of the intermediate classes; in each case we see the fertil- izing powers of all these soils being improved and increased. The clover crop is, in some respects, an exceptional one, because it is allowed to stand for a longer period before being plowed in. In the meantime, it is not only making growth above ground, but also deep into the subsoil. We must not forget the fact that the growth beneath the surface is pro- portioned to the growth above the surface; therefore, if the growth above the surface is eaten down, the extension of the root suffers in proportion. BCIBUTIEIC AND PBAOTIOAL AOBIOULTUBE. 103 CHAPTER XLVIII. C0NCEE2*ril>rG SAEM-TAED MAIfUEE. Faem-taed manure lias long been acknowledged as the best manure used on the land. The manure produced by different animals is not of the same quality; its yalue is also affected by the food the animal receives. From full-grown animals the manure is rich in nitrogen and phosphates. From young animals and cows giving milk it is much poorer, because much of the food goes to build up the bones and flesh. The milk also contains nitrogenous matter and mineral sbbstances ; the manure, therefore, is poor in these sub- stances. The quality of manure, as we just now said, is greatly affected by the kinds of food the animals receive; thus, animals which receive a ration of oil- cake will produce veiy much better manure than those fed upon straw, grass, or hay, because the oil- cake contains a large amount of nitrogen, phos- phoric acid, and potash. Farmers, on this account, often find it profitable to buy oil-cake to feed to their animals, the manure being then richer and more valu- able to the land. A ton of farm-yard manure contains about one thou- sand, five hundred pounds of water, about four hundred and fifty pounds of solid matter, and about fifty pounds of soluble fertilizing substances, mainly ammonia, silica, phosphate of lime, lime, magnesiaj potalh, soda, common salt, sulphuric acidj and carbonic acid. We have here, then, all the substances required by plants. 104 ELEMEISTTS OF You will notice the large quantity of water and insoluble matter in farm-yard manure, and will be inclined to think tliat it is both unprofitable and laborious to haul two thousand pounds to supply only fifty pounds of fertilizing matter. Yet, for all that, the intelligent farmer finds it to be one of the most economical and useful manures that can be used. Its bulk is useful to most soils; for it acts physically by binding light loose soils, and upon heavy soils by sepa- rating them and making channels for air and water to penetrate. Upon either light or heavy soils it is also very valuable, because of the carbonic acid generated by the decay of the vegetable substances it contains, which acts upon the dormant matter already in the soil, and changes it into soluble plant food. Its great value consists in the fact that it returns to the soil the very substances whicli were taken from it by the plants; therefore it pays back to the soil part of the loan made by it. Any farmer who neglects his farm-yard manure, thinking to make up the loss by artificial manures, will find himself most egregiously in error, and will be ready to join in the exclamation: "He that trusts to artificial manures, expecting them to supply all the requirements of the soil, will find such trust a delusion and a snare!" CHAPTER XLIX. How TO INCREASE THE FEKTILIZING POWEKS OP MANtJEE. The superior quality and value of the manure of animals fed iipon rich foods, such as oil cakes, as a means of producing meat, has been fully tested. The SCIENTIFIC AND tEAClICAL AGEICULTUEB. 105 inyestigation of this subject by Lawes and Gilbert, of England, places facts before us of immense value. It is shown by the scientific inquiry of these gentlemen that it is possible to obtain from a ton of each of- the following named foods a manure enriched with fertil- izing substances valued as follows: BASE OF VALUES. If one ton (2,340 lbs.) of pure guano be worth $60 00 Then manure from 1 ton decorticated cotton-seed cake is worth 33 50 Then manure from 1 ton rape cake is worth 24 50 " 1 " hnseed cake is worth 23 12 " " " 1 " undeoorticated cotton-seed cake is worth 18 75 Then manure from 1 ton bran is worth 13 50 " 1 " clover hay is worth 1150 " 1 "oatsisworth 8 75 " " " 1 " wheat is worth 8 25 " " " 1 " corn meal is worth 8 00 " " " 1 " meadow hay is worth 7 00 " " " 1 " oat straw is worth 3 50 " " " 1 " wheat straw is worth 3 00 " " " 1 " potatoes is worth 175 These results represent a gi-eat amount of labor and skill, and give information of real value to farmers in any country. When farm-yard manure is placed in a heap it fer- ments. This fermentation is caused by the growth of immense numbers of tiny plants of the nature of fungi, the same as those found in fermenting wine or cider. These spores, or seeds of these plants, are always floating about in the air, and attaching themselves to any dead animal or vegetable matter, where they find the food they require, and begin to grow and multiply with great rapidity. As they feed upon the organic matter of the farm-yard manure, they break it up into water, car- 106 ELEMENTS OP bonic acid, ammonia, and other organic acids, by tlie aid of the oxygen of the air. A great deal of heat is then produced; and if the mantire is kept moist, and not allowed to get too hot, the organic acids combine with the ammonia and hold it; but if it gets dry and too hot, the carbonic acid is formed too rapidly, and combines with the ammonia, forming carbonate of ammonia, which is yery vola- tile, and flies off in the air. On the other hand, if it gets too wet, the water filters through, and the organic acids and ammonia flow away into the streams. An intelligent farmer will study to ayoid these losses. A strong pungent smell gives him notice of the waste of ammonia in the air, and black streams from the heap give him warning of the waste of organic acids and ammonia running away to a lower level. To cure the first, he should moisten the heap with its own drainage; to prevent the second, he should try to keep it drier by sheltering it from the rains, or he may collect the black drainage into a tank and use it on the land. A thrifty farmer will be as careful about the shelter of manure as of any animal or implement on the farm; he will also see to it that the heap rests on a floor that is impervious to water. Without this, the shed will be worse than useless, because the urine will be lost by soaking away; the manure, in consequence, heats, and its virtues fly away. Ammonia is a coy fairy, and is easily caused to vanish in the air. SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTUEB. 107 V CHAPTER L. EXPEEIMENTS WITH FAKM-YAKD MANUEE. We wish to impress upon your minds the great superiority of manure stored up in covered sheds, "with tight floors, over manure kept under the ordi- nary conditions. The following experiments will tend to convince the most skeptic upon this subject. Lord Kinnaird, a Scotch land owner and farmer, in order to test the merits of manures kept in these two ways, measured off four acres of good soil; two of them were manured with the ordinary kind, and the other two with an equal quantity from a covered shed. The whole was planted in potatoes, with the following results : RESULTS FBOM THE OEDINABY FAEM-YABD MANURE. RESULTS FEOJI THE COVERED MANURE. First acre 272 bushels. Second acre 293 " First acre 443 bushels. Second acre 471 " Total., 564 Total.. 913 The difference in favor of the two acres supplied with the covered manure is three hundred and forty- nine bushels; but the advantage does not end here. The same land was next sown in wheat, and produced as follows: WHERE THE ORDINARY MANURE WAS USED. First acre 41 bushels. Second acre 42 " Total 83 WHERE THE COVERED MANURE WAS USED. First acre... 55 bush. ("ilS^iif'") Second acre 58 " Total 113 " 108 ELEMENTS OF The difference again in favor of the land which was fertilized with the covered manure was thirty bushels. The yield of straw was also one-third more upon the land to which the covered manure was applied than on that where the ordinary farm-yard manure was used. Upon light lands, which have little power of retaining the soluble matter contained in the manure, a great difficulty has been long felt; but very good results have been attained by applying well-rotted manure to the land while it was carrying a crop capable of rapid growth, it being able to use the solu- ble portions of the manure quickly. The clover crop has been preferred for this purpose, to which the manure is applied at various periods of its growth. The results secured were the changing of the farm-yard manure into a living crop, and afterward making that crop yield plant food to the soil by plow- ing it in, which, by its slow and steady decay, gives nutriment to the wheat plant progressively. The wheat is then as fully benefited as if the soil -had acted as the guardian of the store of plant food, On light soils, then, manure should be applied in a well broken down condition at the time the plant needs it — that is, in the spring— or applied to a vigorous kind of plant while it is in active growth. CHAPTER LI. COMPOST HEAPS AKD THOUTEKAl S PROCESS OF PKO- DTJCING NITRATE OE POTASH. Compost heaps are the means of making a very valuable manure for applying to the surface of the soil. They are composed of vegetables of various kinds mixed with earth and quicklime, with or without BCIENTIFIO AKD PRACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 109 salt; and, if properly and carefully made, will produce a good supply of the nitrate of potash. This sub' Btance is not purchased for use as an artificial manure, because its employment for the manufacture of gun^ powder gives it a very high value. Wood ashes contain a considerable quantity of potash. The means of producing artificially a cheap supply of the nitrate of potash was discovered in France by Monsieur Thouvenal in 1776. At that time there was a great desire in that country to get a supply of this substance independent of any foreign country, and the result was that enormous quantities were produced by Thouvenal's method, It may not be uninteresting to state here that Thomas Harris, in England, was granted a patent in 1741 for the production of saltpetre, or nitre, upon a plan similar to that of the Frenchman, for which he received a prize. And as early as 1630, David Eamsay, of Scotland, procured a patent "to mul- tiplie and make saltpetre in an open fielde in fower acres of ground, sufficient to serve all our dominions." The art of war stimulated the inventors— not the arts of peace. Th^ principle upon which these nitre beds were formed is a matter of interest to the cultivator of the soil, because, by his practice, he has been producing nitrate of potash without knowing it, or the cause of a success which results so satisfactorily to him. The nitre beds are simply compost heaps, formed as follows: Good earth is enriched by the addition of sheep manure, liquid manure, and quicklime ; the heap should be occasionally turned over; the nitrate of potash is formed within the heap, and is easily separated after- wards by washing the earth, and then evaporating the water. 110 ELEMENTS OF The changes which take place are these: The nitro- genous matters in the manure decompose so as to form ntiric acid; whilst the lime releases the potash from its combination in the soil; and, by the vmion of the nitric acid and potash so produced, we have the valuable fertilizer, nitrate of potash. The system of plowing farm-yard manure into the soil, and then ecattering lime on the surface, and harrowing it in, thus mixing the earth and quicklime, which finally mixes with the manure, brings about the condi- tion favorable for the formation of the nitrate of potash. If the lime and manure should mix on the surface, much ammonia would be formed and escape in the air. Success in a certain mode of culture has directed many a farmer into a system which gives good returns, even when the why and wherefore is yet unknown to him. CHA PTER LII. THE USES OF CAICAREOTTS MAKUEES. Limb, chalk, marl, and gypsum are all classed as calcareous manures. They act in three different ways: (1) They supply plant food themselves. (3) They set free other substances in the soil, thus fitting them for plant food. (3) They act mechanically upon the soil. Marly or calcareous soils would not be benefited by the addition of more lime; but clay soils, with a good supply of humus, are much improved by an occasional dressing — say once in five years. Lime and chalk, as we find them, are united with carbonic acid gas. There seems to be a strong aflOinity between them; they are, therefore, very diflBcult to SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICUITURE.' Ill separate, and it can only be done by submitting them to a strong beat. Wben tbey haye been separated by driving away the carbonic acid gas into the air ■with the heat, they lose no opportunity of uniting again. This fact enables us to understand more clearly much that is peculiar to lime. The farmer is a great loser if he is careless in protecting his quicklime from the air, just the same as a builder would be who neglected to corer his slacked lime to be used for mortar; his loss would be discoverable to the eye, because it would haye lost its power to make a good bond^hat is, to crystallize — and would crumble out of the joints; but the farmer's lime, going into the land, he cannot so easily discover the loss, and he supposes something else is in fault. Intelligent farmers know the value of quicklime, and carefully avoid such waste. All plants require lime in their food. Turnips and clover need a very large supply. A crop of two tons of clover uses one hundred and eleven pounds of lime, as will be seen by referring to the table given in a former chapter. The best form of lime intended for plant food is the carbonate. In the case of meadow land it is found after a top dressing of carbonate of lime, that the sweeter and better kinds of grass will spring up where it would not grow before. By the decay of the vegetable matter, too, the inorganic substances, which formed part of the dead plant, will be set free in the condition just right to the new crop. You must bear in mind, however, that lime applied to the land, without manure, will be chiefly a stimulant; hence the truth of the old adage: "Lime and lime without manure, Will make both farm and farmer poor." US liLEMENTS 0^ CHAPTER LIII. SUMMAEY OF THE VIETXJES OF LIME. The great yalue of the double silicates in the soil we noticed in a former chapter. We shall now endeavor to discoTer what is the first step in their formation, and how the farmer can forward the work. The application of lime in a caustic condition seems to have the power necessary to begin this chemical change; it displaces some of the alumina, or soda, if it happens to be present in combination with silica and alumina, and forms the first of the double silicates, Tiz. : Silicate of alumina and lime. The first step being attained by the energy of the caustic lime, the formation of the others follow in due order. The following is the analysis of limestone found on land near Cumberland, Md., belonging to the Hon. William J. Eead: Carbonate of lime 80.93 per cent. Combined silica and alumina 14.43 " Alumina and oxide of iron 8.60 " Moisture 1.04 The constituents of this lime, it will be observed, make it very desirable as a fertilizer for either clay or sandy soils. On clay soils it encourages the formation of the double silicates, and renders the soil more open and friable, which favors the admission of air; and, on sandy soils, the alumina gives them increased plasticity, and the lime and iron promotes the cohesion of particles, which, in turn, increase the power of the SCIE2SrTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTURE. 113 sandy soil to hold moisture by capillary attraction, as well as forming the double silicates. The soil is thus enabled to hold plant food and moisture to an extent it never could do before. By this treatment the hungry and the stubborn soils are, to a great extent, cured of their bad propensities. The action of lime in the soil may be summarized as follows: (A) In its caustic state, as a hydrate of lime, it works out five distinct results: (1) It acts rapidly on the organic matter in the soil by promoting decomposition, which changes nitro- genous matters into available ammonia. (3) It neutralizes deleterious organic acids in "sour" land, and improves and sweetens the quality of the herbage. (3) It favors the formation of nitrate of potash in the soil. (4) It decomposes the silicates of the inorganic matter in the soil, setting free the alkalies (potash and soda), and thus changes dormant matters into those of an active character. (5) It promotes the formation of the double silicates. (B) When applied to the soil, in its milder form, as carbonate of lime: (1) It contributes a supply of plant food. (2) It neutralizes organic acids. (3) It exerts a beneficial influence on sandy soils, by impacting a certain amount of tenacity ; on heavy soils, by opening up and dividing it; and on peat soils, by breaking down their vegetable fibrous tissues. Marl is a mixture of carbonate of lime and clay and siliceous matters — all of which act beneficially on the soil. Marls are so variable in their Composition— the lime constituent being in some only eight per cent., and 114 ELEMEKXS OF others from eighty to ninety per cent. — that it is very difficult for the farmer to know their Talne, as he can have no certainty as to their composition. Green marl generally contains about six per cent, of lime, and thirty-two per cent, of silica. Gray marl contains about forty-two per cent, of lime and twenty per cent, of silica. Chalk marl contains about fifty per cent, of lime and about eight per cent, of silica. It is, therefore, no surprise that the experience of those using them has been very- varying in results. The custom of using marls for fertilizing the soil is of great antiquity. Its utility was proven many cen- turies before the reason was known. Gypsum is a sulphate of lime, often mixed with the carbonate in many marls and chalks. It supplies both sulphur and lime to the crops; but it has not the value of the carbonate in causing chemical changes in the soil. CHAPTER LIV. THE ARTIFICIAL MANURES — GUAKO AND EOKES. Artificial manures are substances employed to supply special wants of the plant, which may be absent or not abundant enough in the soil; and they are called artificial because the art of man is employed to import or manufacture them. Their introduction is of a comparatively recent date; but their use as special fertilizers has become very general. It seems scarcely credible that within a period of less than fifty years these manures should have been brought to the notice of farmers, and to have secured such a universal acknowledgment of merit from them in every country where farming is a business, and not SCIEIiri^IFic! AND PKAdTldAL iGEICtJLTtJRE. 115 merely a perfunctory occupation. It is proof positive that these manures have met an important want, hitherto unknown. Baron Liebig, guided by a careful study of the elements of the food of plants, in 1840 pointed out the properties of guano as being the most infallible of all manures for supplying the cereals with food peculiarly adapted to their enrichment, and urged farmers to use it. The first introduction of guano into England was a consignment of thirty bags to a merchant in Liver- pool, in 1839; and when the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England held a meeting in 1841, a sample of guano was placed on exhibition as a novel curiosity. Peruvian guano has always been accepted as the best; the first cargoes were exceptionally rich, and contained, on an average, seventeen per cent, of ammonia and from twenty to thirty per cent of phosphates. This manure is the excrement of sea fowls, and their bodies added, which have accumulated for centuries and remained uninjured by rains. It was found on the rocky cliffs of islands off the coast of Peru in great quantities; indeed, some of the deposits accumulated to such an extent as to become two hundred feet deep. The richest deposits were first used; that in the market now is of less strength, and consequently of less value. The influence of the first Peruvian guano upon strong clay was unequaled by any competing manure ; upon light soils it did not do so well, yet it was found to be very valuable. Guano is adulterated by mixing it with yellow clay, gypsum, ground bones, chalk, common salt, sand, and powdered coprolites. A bushel of guano should not weigh more than fifty-six or sixty pounds, and should contain not more than two per cent, of sand and fifteen per cent, of moisture. 116 EiiSMENlS 65 The first step towards the use of artificial manure was the use of bones — a practice which dates from the commencement of the present century. The constituents of bones difier according to the age of the animal — those of the young containing less earthy matter than those which are older. In full grown animals the earthy matter is about sixty-seyen per cent, in thoroughly dry bone, the other thirty-three per cent, being the organic matter. The earthy constituents are lime, phosphorus, magnesia, and soda; the organic part is composed of sulphur, carbonic acid, and ammonia. The analysis of the earthy matter in bone is: Phosphate of lime, fifty-eight; lime, four; phosphate of magnesia, two; soda and common salt, three pounds in eyery hundred pounds. CHAPTER LV. PSOSPHATIC MAlTURl3i PfiosPHATES are combinations of phosphoric acid with a base. Phosphate of lime is by far the most yaluable; it forms nearly half of the substance of bone. Phosphorus itself is found in combination with blood, flesh, milk, and brains. It has been estimated that each cow on a farm makes a demand for about eighty pounds of phosphates yearly, and thirty gallons of milk contain about one pound of the phosphate of lime. It is no wonder, then, that the use of phosphates has become an established and remunerative practice. Superphosphate, or monocalcic phosphate, is too solu- ble, and apt to produce yegetation of an unhealthy character. The mixture of lime with it will remedy SClEljTIFIC! AND PEACiTlOAl, AGBICrLTtJE:^. 117 tliis injurious action by bringing it back to a bicalcic, or more slowly soluble state. Phosphates may be used with advantage on light loams, well-drained lands, pastures for dairy- purposes, pastures where young stock graze, and the forcing of the germination of seeds, when it is desirable to push them past the period when insects are destructive. The demand for phosphatic manures has been so great that the supply of bones is inadequate; therefore supplies from other sources had to be sought, and _ chemists set about the work of discovery. Sir J. B. Lawes, of England, was the successful investigator, and made the valuable discovery that phosphate of lime could be obtained from certain kinds of rocks, as well as from bones. Many doubted his ability to do so for some time; but facts are stubborn things, and, by actual demonstration, he established the truth of it beyond all cavil. It can hardly be estimated how enor- mous the advantage of this discovery is to the farmer. The new product is known as mineral superphos- phate of lime. The supply of phosphatic rocks may be had in various parts of the world, and thus causes an active competition, which keeps the price reasonable. The mineral phosphate of lime, in its crystalline form, closely resembles the beryl or emerald ; so slight is the difference, that mineralogists have been frequently deceived by it; for which reason it received the name apatite — a name derived from the Greek word apafeoe: to deceive. Another supply of phosphatic manure has been recently discovered by Professor Wrightson and Dr. Munro, of Downston College of Agriculture, in Eng- land. The basic-cinder, obtained in the dephosphoriza- tion of iron in the process of making steel, is found to 118 ELEMENTS OF contain from fifteen to twenty per cent, of pliospliorlc acid united with lime, iron, and alumina. This cinder, Avlien finely pulverized, and liberally applied to the land, is found to he as good for the crops as the other well-tried phosphates. If a soil contains little carhonate of lime, gi'ound bones may be used, because the carbonic acid in the air and soil will soon change it into the slowly soluble bicalcic state, and form at the same time a carbonate of lime. Superphosphate is an excellent manure for turnips, or other rapidly-growing crops, and acts not only as a stimulant, but also as a food. For wheat crops, and all grasses which are a long time in the ground, bone dust or bone ash is best, particularly if the ground seems deficient in phosphoric acid. The adulteration of bone manure, when the bones are in fragments of a good size, is dififlcult. Bone meal is commonly mixed with oyster shells, the enamel of which can he ea,sily detected with a magnifying glass; sand, chalk, and salt, are also added to increase the bulk and profit, not to the farmer, but the manu- facturer. As a rule, bone manure is now professedly mixed with powdered coprolites and other phosphatic substances, thus forming valuable combinations, which are often profitably applied to the land in conjunction with guano. CHAPTER LVI. NITKOGEJfOUS AND OTHER MANURES. We shall next consider the nitrogenous manures. TJie two substances, ammonia and nitric acid, with other nitric compounds, when applied to plants, are SCIENTIFIC AKD PKACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 119 taken up in a very dilute form by the roots, and help to form the nitrogenous part of their substance, viz.: Albumen, gluten, and casein. Nitrates can only be applied profitably in the spring, "when there is a growing crop to use them. If applied in the fall or Avinter, they would be washed out of the soil. Salt is sometimes applied to the soil for its soda, but its most important influence is in checking plant growth ; it shortens and strengthens the straw of wheat, and, when used on crops which are too luxuriant, it is found to act beneficially by giving the plant time to elaborate and bring up the necessary mineral supplies, and thus increase the production of grain. Soot is another manure used as a "top dressing," and is valuable for the ammoniacal salts it contains. Tanners' bark is not generally valued as a manure; its best use is in the compost heap in conjunction with lime and earth, or with farm-yard manure, being prin- cipally composed of carbonate of lime and silica — sub- stances existing almost everywhere. It is generally on this account neglected as a manure. V Saw-dust is useful only as a vehicle for taking up liquids; but in itself it is of little value as a manure. Mixed with dilute sulphuric acid it is one of the best materials for fixing ammonia in stables. Gas-waste consists of ammoniacal liquor, which fur- nishes sulphate and muriate of ammonia. Gas-lime, or gypsum, is useful; but it should never be applied to the land in a fresh state on account of its sulphur. Gas-tar, which might furnish carbonic acid, is now put to a much more valuable use in the making of various perfumes and dyes. Before closing the subject of special manures, Ave think it proper to call your attention to the following 130 ELEMENTS OF facts, as they are worthy of the farmers' best con- siderations : Do not forget that manures are only a supple- mental plant food; the natural source of plant food is the soil itself. To pay large sums of money for expensive manures, and neglect the soil, ia bad policy for the farmer. Do not forget the good effects of deep, thorough, and timely cultivation; let the air and soil inter- mingle. Do not forget the good effects of a suitable rota- tion of crops. And, finally, do not forget that a farmer can sell and permanently alienate only that portion of the produce of his farm which has been supplied by the atmosphere. The production of bntter does not ex- haust the soil, because it is constituted of substances which came from the air. On the same principle, the putting of fat on full-grown animals, and afterward selling them, does no injury to the soil; but the pro- duction of milk and cheese is very exhaustive — also, the rearing of young stock. The soil requires a restitution of the mineral substances which have been taken away, such as the phosphates, and likewise the feeding of oil-cake. A field from which no mineral substance is abstracted without being given back, must increase in pro- ductive powers. This may be set down as one of the most valuable of farmers' axioms, as it expresses the whole groundwork of rational farming. SCIEITTIFIC AND PBACIICAL AGBICULTUKE. 121 y CHAPTER LVII. BOTANY — AGEICULTUEAL PLANTS — THEIR GEEMIKA- TION. In the beginning of this book we had a few chapters describing a plant as the chief concern of all cultiva- tion; we saw how plants feed upon the carbonic acid, and the nitrogen of the air; and also how they feed upon the organic and inorganic matters existing in the soil, or carried into it by the rains. We learned that these substances must reach the roots of the plants and their leaves either in the form of gas or perfectly and clearly dissolved in water, in which state it is drunk up by the tiny fibers, or the minute hairs, which abound in the young roots; we likewise learned that the entire plant was made up of wee, tiny cells, which were com- pared to very minute paper bags or boxes, shut up on all sides, and filled with a fluid we generally call sap. This fluid contains the food of the plant, which was in perfect solution, when taken in by the roots, and passes from bag to bag until it reaches the leaves, where the water is exhaled into the air; and those substances which were held in solution become plant nourishment under the influence of the light of the sun exerted upon the green matter in the cells of the leaves. We may now go a little deeper into the mysteries of the growth of plants, particularly those which are cul- tivated for a crop. We shall begin with the seed, and closely watch the process of its development up to the maturity of the plant.. . It must be. clear to your mind that if we would- 132 ELEMENTS OP have a perfect plant we must have a perfect seed, otherwise the young plant will be defective, or the seed may not sprout at all. They should also be fresh-^- that is, they should not be exposed to the extremes of heat and cold, or heated in the shock or bin, and should be taken from the crop preceding the planting or sowing. Seeds which have a delicate outer skin, such as wheat, lose their moisture very easily, and become lifeless in a few years, and are, consequently, unfit for being sown or planted. Turnip seed is an exception to the general rule. Farmers, in places where the turnip crop is important, have found by experience that it makes a better crop of bulbs and less leaf by beuag two years old when sown. When new turnip seed has been used, it has been found that the tops are larger and upper growth so vigorous that many of the plants make the effort to "run to seed" the first year. Each seed has a germ, or embryo, which fills the whole seed in some kinds, as the pea and turnip; in others, as wheat, corn, oats, and the like, the germ occupies only a small portion of the seed, the rest of the seed being filled with materials provided for the support of the germ untU the plant is developed enough to gather and manufacture its own food from the air and the soil. CHAPTER LVIII. GEEMINATIOK OF SEEDS. All plants depend upon the seed for their nourish- ment in the earliest stages of their growth. All seeds contain starch, gluten, and oil. In the first process of germiuation the gluten is changed by the oxygen SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTURE. 123 derived from the atmosphere into a soluble substance, which the chemists call diastase. This substance next acts on the starch or oil, and changes it into grape sugar, and, finally, into cellulose. Cellulose forms organized cells, 'which, in their progress of develop- ment, produce the first little shoot. You will find it interesting and instructive to make an experiment in the germination of seeds, as follows: Take twelve peas, a like number of grains of wheat and corn; place them between the folds of a piece of flannel, and give them a supply of air, warmth, and moisture; or, if it be summer time, place them in & warm and moist corner of the garden, and mark the place of each seed; then, every twenty-four hours, take up one of each kind and notice the changes taking place. The moisture, as we stated in a former chapter, will find its way Into and throughout the seed by a series of irrigating channels provided by nature for this purpose. Thus watei? penetrates morS deeply into the seed, giving a more equal distribution, consequently a more equal swelling of the see^' If the seed becomes "dirty," or partially coated with any sticky substance, the entrances by these irrigating channels will be Obstructed ! Consequently there is an irregular distribution of moisture and faulty germinai' tion. Here, then, we have the why and the wherefori for a long established practice of every gooa farmefi Without the guidance of science, farmers look upon a dry seed bed as an essential condition for succesSj particularly where the soil is a clay or clay loam; the seed does not then become "dirty," and a perfect germination takes place. We again return to our seeds. The moisture finds its way into the seeds, causing them to swell and enlarge; the oxygen of the air, entering at the same time, causes 134 ELEMEKTS OF those chemical changes to take place, before mentioned, leading to the growth of the germ into a complete plant. By the swelling of the seed the outer skin is riTen and the young root appears, pointing downward; then the plumule shows itself, pointing upward, and soon appears above ground. Here we see a great difference between the pea and the wheat. Near the hlunt end of the wheat is the germ, consisting of seed leaf, plumule, and radicle; all the rest of the grain is filled with the white substance, chiefly starch, which is the food that is to sustain the young plant until some other means are provided. This substance, starch, you will remember, is insoluble in water, becomes changed into a white, sweet fluid by the chemical action of the oxygen, which takes place during germi- nation, and then becomes easily soluble in the water which penetrates the seed; and then, with the other food substances which have been subjected to the same action, it passes from cell to cell, till it reaches the young plant, and supplies it with perfect food. We examine the seed again, and find it further advanced; we observe three root fibers coming forth from the blunt end of the wheat root, and, after awhile, again we see that the fibers have increased in number and length, which are now covered with tiny things looking like hairs; at the same time we find the plumule has advanced upwards into a green shoot. The plant is now ready to begin life on its own account. It can now absorb nourishment from the soil, and pass it on upwards to the leaves, which are now ready to do their appointed share of the work. BCIEKTIFIO and PEACTICAL AGBidtfLTUEE. 125 CHAPTER LIX. GEKMIKATIOK OP SEEDS — PEA AND TUENiA We may now observe the germination of the pea. The arrangement in this seed we find to he very dif- ferent to that of wheat. In the first place, there is no separate store of food, as in wheat; but, instead, we find two thick, fleshy leaves filling up the hull or case, and shaped like hemispheres, which come apart; between these two leaves lie the plumule and radicle. When it germinates, and the seed-leaves swell up with the moisture and the oxygen which enter the irrigating channels, the starch and other substances which they contain become sweet and soluble, and so pass through the cells to the plumule and radicle. These then begin to grow — the radicle growing down- wards and .the plumule upwards — until the tiny root- liairs appear, and the first green leaves spread out to the air. The young plant is now able to get food for itself, and has no further need for the seed-leaves, which perish underground. There is another difference in the germination of turnip seed. The embryo, like that of the pea, has two seed-leaves, but they are small, and hold only a small supply of food. But they push quickly up into the air, throw off their seed-case, spread themselves out to the air, and become green, and begin almost at once to draw in food from the soil and the air, and thus make up for the very limited supply furnished by the Another difference in the turnip seed is that the store of nourishment Consists chiefly of oil, instead of 126 ELEMENTS OF starch; but you will remember that both substances are composed of the three elements, carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and that both can be changed by ger- mination into a sugar-like substance. You -will like- wise notice that in the germination of wheat the radicle gives out several fibers from a sort of sheath or blunt end; while in the pea or turnip the radicle itself elongates and goes down into the soil, forming a "tap-root." These are the principal modes of ger- mination among all ordinary plants. Barley, oats, rye, and all the grasses, germinate like wheat; beans, clover, and all the legumes like the pea; cabbage and mustard, like the turnip. CHAPTER LX. CONCEENING THE ROOTS OF PLAITTS. We are now prepared to take up the subject of the roots of plants, and inquire into their uses in the economy of vegetable growth. The food of plants con- sists of various mineral matters completely dissolved in water in the soil, and of certain gases, especially car- bonic acid gas, which exists in the air. We have likewise learned, in a former chapter, that the water carrying the food in solution passes through the hair- like membranes of the roots into the cells of the plant on its way to the leaves. Let us now inquii-e how plant-roots go down into the soil. It cannot force its roots down into the soil as you would force a stick into the ground. The root stretches down into the soil by the growth of new cells near the tips of the rootlets. SCIBKTIS'IO AND PBACTICAL AGEICULTURE. IS? The tip of the root grows into the little spaces it finds between the particles of soil, and then the cells just aboye the tip multiply very fast, by each cell dividing into two, each of which becomes as large as the first cell when it is again ready to divide; as this goes on in hundreds of cells, and these all become swollen with moisture, absorbed from the soil, the rootlet grows rapidly in length and thickness, creeping into the spaces lower and lower down into the soil, and making these spaces wider by forcing away the particles on every side. If the subsoil is very hard and close, and the fibers find no spaces to grow into, they either cease to grow, or spread out sideways among their neighbors, and thus, becoming crowded, they get an inadequate supply of food. One of the benefits of deep cultivation, you will perceive, is the loosening of the subsoil, thus allowing the tips of the roots to grow into it freely in their search for food. The roots of some plants grow down to a great depth in their search for food. Lucerne, a kind of clover, has been known to send its roots more than fifteen feet in an open soil. Wheat and red clover also send their roots down to a depth of seven feet, if the subsoil is favorable; barley and grass spread out their roots near the surface ; corn is a vigorous grower, and sends its rootlets far and wide, but not deep; they have been traced a distance of thirteen feet from the stalk. The thick, fleshy roots of tiirnips and beets show a difierent economy to the plants we have been consider- ing. They collect food from the soil, pass it upwards to the leaves, where nature's laboratory is located, and it goes back from the leaves in the form of sugar and other organic matters, to be stored up in the bulb until the second year, for the purpose of supporting the plant, while it is bringing forth flowers and seeds. 128 BLEMEITTS OF These kinds of plants are called biennial plants, because they require two years to complete the round of their existence. Eoots possess the power of absorbing carbonic acid and ammonia^ and of employing these in their organism in the same way as if the absorption had taken place through the leases. V CHAPTER LXI, USES 01' STEMS— LEATE9, THE LABOBATOEY OE KATU&E. The stem grows from the tiny plumule, or bud of the seed, up into the air. One of its important uses to the plant is to lift up its leaves to air and light; another use is to convey to the leaves the dissolved food which the roots have absorbed from the soil. The stems of wheat are hollow, and have no branches; those of potatoes are solid and branched; while turnips and beets have very short stems the first year of their growth; the leaves seem to grow at that period from the top of the root; but all are built up alike of minute cells, some short and round in shape, others elongated and narrow, through which the sap passes on to the leaves. The principal organs which assimilate the food, or make it like the substance of the plant itself, are the leaves. Stop here and consider the wonderful and importanj); duties of a leaf. From the simple sub- stances, water, carbonic acid, ammonia, potash, and the other substances given in a former chapter, -are pro- duced the complicated substances, starch and cellulose, of which the plant is built Up. The leaf is the factory in which this work goes on; therefore, if a plant be stripped of its SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAt AGEICULTUKE. 139 leaves, it cannot live. The exact chemical process by which these wonderful results are produced have, up to the present time, eluded the search of man; but the general process has been made out pretty clearly. The leaf is composed of layers of soft green cells, strengthened with ribs consisting of long hard cells. These ribs are sometimes called veins, but they are not hollow like the veins of animals. The ribs strengthen the tender leaves, and convey sap from the stem. The upper and lower surfaces of the leaf consist of thin, transparent skins, having a great number of minute openings, like pores in the skins of animals, through which the carbonic acid and other gases are taken in from the air, and watery vapor and oxygen gas given out. This water and oxygen came up from the roots of the plant with what was held in solution; and as they are breathed out, the other substances which it con- tained are retained in the cells of the leaf, and are in some marvelous way assimilated by the help of the protoplasm and chlorophyl into organic substances, especially starch, with a small amount of mineral matter. From the starch, by the same mysterious agency, sugar, oil, and cellulose are formed. All these contain carbon, which is chiefly gotten from the car- bonic acid of the air, so hurtful to man and animals; but the leaves give back to the air the oxygen which is so beneficial to animal life. The substances composing the food of the plant having been thus assimilated by the mysterious action of the leaves, pass back into the stem from the leaves, and are used there at once, or are stored there or in the root for future use. To accomplish this, mysterious chemical changes take place that we can only in part know. Take, for 130 i!LEliE3^TS 6i' example, a potato plant; starch is formed in the leaves, "vvhich substance is insoluble in water, and, therefore, in that state ib cannot pass through the walls of the cells to return to the stem; a change takes place whereby the starch is made into a kind of sugar, which we all know is soluble; it then passes down the stem of the plant to side branches below the surface, where it is again changed back to starch, and forms the tubers (potatoes), for which the plant is cultiyated. These tubers are really short, thick branches, filled principally with starch, and the eyes are merely buds. In the turnip the same mysterious changes take place, only the store is deposited in the root, which thus becomes thick and fleshy. In the beet plant the starch formed in the leaves changes into grape sugar; then it passes back down the leaf-stalk; then into the root, and there changes into cane sugar. In wheat the assimilated materials in the leaves pass back to the stem, and then it passes upward and into the ear, to become fruit and seed. You must remember there is no continuous system of vessels to carry these substances, as in the animal economy, but they pass from cell to cell towards any part of the plant, which, in active growth, requires the supply. CHAPTER LXII, THE FLOWEE. Yotr may have observed that all plants with which you are acquainted have flowers; some are bright col- ored, and some dim colored — ^not easily seen; some are large, as the pea and the clover, and others small, as SCIENXIFIO AND PBAOTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 131 those of the wheat, the grasses, and the beet. The flowers, however, whether large or small, are all con- structed on the game principle, perform the same functions, viz.: They bring forth seed, and, there- fore, increase and multiply their kind. Suppose we take a few flowers and examine them, and see how they are constructed and fitted for the duties assigned them. You will be more interested if you do this, each one for himself, and try to make out the different parts of each flower you may find. Take first the flower of the cabbage, the turnip, or the mustard, and you will see that they are all nearly alike. You may, perhaps, not be able to meet with either of these as conveniently as you can a single wall-flower, which is very nearly like them, and it is found in almost every garden. First, pull off the four outside green leaves of the flower, which form the calyx; next the four bright colored leaves, called the corolla, which, you will observe, are arranged in the form of a cross, from which fact the whole of these plants, and all others like them, are classed by the botanist in the order cruciferee. These parts you have stripped off seem designed to protect the inner organs, and probably to attract insects, the use of which we shall examine hereafter; the inner organs are the most important parts of the flower. You will now see six upright stalks, called filaments, two of which are a little shorter than the rest — all having knobs at the top, called anthers, which, upon investigation, you will discover to be hollow, and bear- ing a fine yellow powder. These are called stamens, which consist of filament and anther. In the centre, surrounded by these stamens, is the pistil, which would, if the flower had been allowed to complete its course, become the seeds or fruit. Before this can 132 ELEMENTS OF happen, however, it is necessary that some of the yellow powder, which is technically called pollen, should fall upon the top of the pistil, when it would penetrate to the OYiiles contained in the pistil; they are, by this means, caused to grow until they hecome perfect seed. This action of the pollen is called fertilization, hecause it causes the plant to become fruitful, and bring forth seed and fruit. CHAPTER LXIII. THE ELOWEES OF THE PEA — WHEAT AND CLOVEE, Suppose we now take the flower of a pea, and try to make out some of its parts. We find the colored part of these flowers to be of a peculiar winged shape, similar to the wings of a butterfly; therefore, plants of this family are said to be papilionaceous; they likewise form part of a large order of plants which bear pods ; the order on this account are called leguminosce. In this flower you will flnd ten stamens, nine of them being joined into a tube-like vessel around the pistil. The pistil consists of one cell containing several ovules, which will increase in size and become the pea-pod with its peas. In clover, upon examination, you will find a large number of flowers, similar to those of the pea, each having its stamens and pistil, but bunched together, forming what is called a compound flower. We shall now examine a flower of wheat, because it will be a fair representative of the grass family. We must look for the flower when the leaves are very green. You will see many tiny yellow bodies hanging out of SCIENTIFIC AND PBACTICAL AGRICULTUKE. 133 each ear; these are the stamens. You will also find the ear to be composed of several rows of these tiny- flowers arranged around a central stalk. Take one of these flowers; instead of bright-colored leaves, as in pea, clover, or wall-flower, we find the flower to be inclosed in small, chaflfy-like leaves, having the stamens, with fine thread-like stalks and hanging heads surrounding the pistil, which has but one ovule. At the top of the pistil are two feathery arms which receive the pollen of the stamens, and convey it down into the pistil; the ovule is then said to be fertilized. Corn has a somewhat difierent arrangement. The "tassel" at the top of the plant produces the pollen in great abundance, and in its season fills the air, and the "silk" projecting from the ear conveys it to the ovules; but on account of the distance between the "tassel" and the "silk," if a stalk of corn grows up with no near neighbors, but few of the pistils will receive the pollen, and the ear will, consequently, be found to have but few grains on it. CHAPTER LXIV. FLOWERS — THE EEASON OF THEIB ATTRACTIVENESS. You have many a time observed in a field of clover, or other kinds of plants having bright flowers, how active bees and other insects are flying from flower to flower, searching for honey, which they find secreted by the flower, and held generally at the very bottom of it. In trying to reach this sweet liquid, the insects brush against the stamens and get covered with the pollen. They carry this to the next flower, where some of it is rubbed off against the top of the pistil, thus insuring the fertilization of the ovule. 134 ELEMENTS OF It has been proved by experience that most plants produce more and better seed when they have been fertilized, with the pollen from another flower of the same kind, than if each flower had been supplied with its own pollen. We, therefore, have come to the conclusion that honey-gathering insects benefit the farmer greatly by insuring the cross fertili- zation of the flowers of such plants as need it; thus benefiting the flowers as much -as the flowers benefit the bees by supplying them with the Hquid sweets. This, in fact, seems to be the reason why so many plants have showy and attractive flowers, with a delicious smell, and sweet liquid, as all these qualities are very attractive to the honey-gathering tribe. This law of nature bids us be careful not to grow plants of the same order contiguous to each other, if our object is to get seed from them for sowing. For example, if cabbages and turnips, which belong to the order cruciferoe, be grown for their seed in adjoruing plots, insects will convey the pollen of the one to the other, and the turnip will be fertilized by the cabbage, and the cabbage by the turnip. The seeds of both will then be rendered worthless for the purpose of growing a crop from them, as they will produce neither the kind of cabbages nor turnips we wish to grow. We once planted some early amber sugar-cane seed, which had been grown next to a "corn patch;" both belong to the order gramina; the result was we had neither corn nor sugar-cane. It looked well enough while growing, but when the time of harvesting came, the stalks were light, like those of corn, and almost worthless for the object for which it was planted. Wheat and other plants with dull, inconspicuous flowers do not require the help of insects, because they axe either plentifiiUy supplied with their own pollen. SCIENTIFIC AITD PEAOTICAL AGEICULTUEB. 135 or the ■wind scatters and mixes the pollen among the neighboring plants. You may also notice the fact, that when the ovule is fertilized the gay-colored parts, together with the stamens, having performed their functions in the economy of the plant, and being no longer needed, begin to wither, decay, and drop off. The pistil, with its ovules, however, enlarges, and brings forth the seed and fruit. The seeds of the turnip, wall-flower, and other plants of the same family, are produced in a double kind of pod, which opens below, on each side, and has two rows of seed. The fruit of the pea, and other leguminous plants, is produced in the well-known single pod or legume, with one row of seeds. In wheat and other plants of the grass family the fruit is called the seed, because the covering or case fits it so closely that it cannot be taken off without destroy- ing the seed. This outer covering is the bran which comes off in thin pieces when the grain is reduced to flour in the process of milling. The fruit of the potato is the green plum — a fleshy fruit growing on the vine above ground, contain- ing the seeds. They are of little importance to the farmer, as he produces his crop by planting the tubers, which are really short, thickened knobs of underground branches with buds. J CHAPTER LXV. HOW AGRICULTURAL PLANTS ARE UTILIZED. The whole object and aim of the entire life of a plant is to bring forth seed, thereby insuring the continuance of its kind through future generations. 136 ilLEMENTS OS We have spoken of the seed and its germination, and have come around to it -again. All plant life seems tO round off in a circle, and the farmer breaks into that circle at whatever point it suits his needs. Thus, when he wants the green leaves and stems, as he does in grass and clover, he encourages green growth by proper manures, and cuts them down when leaf and stem are at their richest. When he wants the laid up stores of the plants, which they put away for their own use, as he does in the case of the turnip and beet, he manures accordingly, and utilizes the crop at the end of the first year, when the plant has accumulated all the food it is capable of doing. When he wishes the seeds, as in the grain crops, he discourages the growth of too much foliage, and allows the plant to run the full round of its life, and cuts it down and secures it when its seed arrives at maturity. You must bear in mind that the seed in all cases contains an accumulation of food both suitable and sufficient for the next year's young plant while in the process of germinating. Likewise, the seed, in many cases, makes excellent food for man and the animals used by him. The farmer grows seed for two purposes, viz.: For food and for sowing again. By selecting the seed carefully, and choosing the best every time, he can improve both the quality and quantity of his crops, if the land be in proper condition. By continuing this process for years, we come to estab- lish the good, points of quality; such seeds are then called pedigree seeds. It was the carrying out of this process of selection, that all our cultivated plants were improved up to the standard of excellence we now find them, from the plant growing in a wild SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGEICITLTUEE. 137 state. By selection, wheat, rye, and oats have been derived from the grasses; cabbage and turnips from plants, even now gi-owing wild in Europe; and the beet from the worthless-looking sea beet, which abounds on the seashores of England and Ireland. It is important that the farmer should not overlook the fact that it is the same with plants as with animals. Development does not eradicate constitutional traits and tendencies? therefore, beneath all is the craving for the primeval condition of life, and so the best success with plants of any kind will assuredly be attained by those Avho can give them the nearest approach to the soil, climate, food, and culture suggested by their native haunts and habits. Wetness is not favorable to plants generally grown for a crop; but abundant and continuous moisture is an absolute necessity. Soil naturally deficient in this, and which cannot be made drought-resisting by deep plowing and underdrainage, is not adapted to growing crops. The beet still craves for the briny spray of the sea; the strawberry for vegetable mold; and the gooseberry for the cool shade. CHAPTER LXVI. AGKICULTUEAL PLANTS AND THEIR BOTANICAL ORDER. We have now learned how crops grow; how seeds germinate ; how nourishment is collected by the plant; how plants bring forth seed, and thus reproduce and multiply their kind. It will be well now to learn how crops are grown, so as to produce the greatest quantity of food in the best condition for man and beast, with the least labor and least 138 ELEMENTS OS expense to the farmer. The crops may he classified as grain crops, fodder crops, and root crops. It may be of interest to state, that ont of the many orders of plants which are found in the United States, six orders contain nearly all the ciiltivated plants grown on the farm generally for a crop; and the greatest numher of these are confined to three great families, yiz. : Grasses, legume, and cruciferse. The six natural orders are these: (1) Gramina, or grass family, such as wheat, corn, oats, barley, and rye. (2) Leguminosfe, or pod-bearers, as clover, beans, peas, and vetches. (3) Cruciferse, or cross-bearers, as turnips, mustard, and cabbage. (4) Chenopodeoe, or spinach family, as the beet and celery. (5) Umbeliferse, having umbel flowers, as the carrot and parsnip. (6) Solaneas, or nightshade family, as the potato, tobacco, and tomato. The word cereal is derived from the Latin word Ceres, which was the name of a heathen goddess, who was believed by her worshipers to preside over the interests of the agriculturalist. Crops which are chiefly culti- vatsd for their seeds, as wheat, corn, oats, and rye, are called cereals. Of all the cereals, corn may be set down as the most important. If the farmer should be successful in pro- curing a good crop of corn, although every other crop should fail, he may be considered in a comparatively comfortable condition. "Famine begins at the etall." There is no fear of such a crisis if the corn crop be abundant, because it is valuable both for fodder and grain. It may be considered the sheet-anchor of the farmers of the United States. Just stop for a moment aud think of the marvelous wealth coming from the corn crop of the United States. Upon an average of one hundred days from the time the seed is SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAL AGEICULTUKB. 139 planted till the grain is matured, its production has a money yalue of over $600,000,000, averaging over $6,000,000 daily of actual wealth each day of its life. No other product from any other soiarce in the Union can compare with it. And think again, that with proper tillage, without increaging the acreage, or very much augmenting the labor, the crop may be doubled. There are many varieties of corn, which have been developed by careful selection of the seed and by growth in different localities and climates. Some kinds are peculiarly adapted to short seasons, and others to longer seasons. The best soil for corn is a rich clay loam; but it will grow with fair success upon any moderately fertile soil, where the climate and variety of seed is suitable in the "United States. There is no crop responds better to deep cultivation and frequent stirring of the soil while the plant is making growth. If the stalk and leaves are designed to be utilized for fodder, it must be cut before frost affects it, carefully cured, and protected from the elements. There is no food better relished, nor more healthful for all kinds of stock, such as horses, cattle, and sheep. Ailments arising from the iise of corn fodder are unknown, if it has been well cured and protected from the weather. Let the same care and labor of storing be employed in providing the winter supply from this plant, as for ensilage, and it will give more satisfaction and cost less, with no risk, than the silo can possibly be expected to do in our dry atmosphere. Corn was unknown to the people of the Old World until the discovery of America by Christo- pher Columbus in 1493. 140 ELEMENTS OB CHAPTER LXVII. THE WHEAT CKOP. ' The next cereal in importance is wheat. It is most probably a native of Europe, or Southwestern Asia, but it has been cultivated for very many years in every country of the world. By careful selec- tion, many kinds have been produced, such as the white and red wheat, the smooth and bearded,- and the winter and spring wheat. It is the habit of wheat to penetrate deeply into the soil in search of food. The best soils for wheat are the reddish clay soils of timber land and a clay loam. The wheat raised on timber land is generally plumper in the berry, smoother, brighter, and thinner skinned than that grown in the prairies, and brings the highest price. The usual order of wheat, in the rotation of crops, is after clover. The clover is turned under and the wheat drilled amongst its inverted roots, which gath- ered their nourishment from the subsoil, and gives that firmness to the seed-bed which wheat requires without allowing it to become baked. When the seed has germinated, and the root-fibers grown out from the sheath, little buds sprout out around the young plant, and several stalks grow up. This is called tillering usually; in the Western States it is called "stooling out." As many as forty stems have been known to tiller out from one seed in good soil, and having plenty of room. Wheat for milling purposes should be cut as soon as the milky juice in the grain sets firm, so as not to SCIENTIFIC AND PKACTICAt AGKICULTUBB. 141 run out between the fingers when squeezed. If it be allowed to remain until ripe, it is liable to "shell out" when harvested, and the hull, or bran, becomes thickened. After the fertilization of the flower the plant takes little or no nourishment from the soil. The growth of the seed is due to the movement of the substances already in the leaves. These sub- stances move up the stem and into the grain, and these movements go on just as well after the Avheat is cut. In manuring for wheat, it is best to apply slowly- acting manures to the previous crop. If the plant is not sufficiently vigorous in the spring, a top-dressing of a stimulating character, such as nitrate of soda, or a mixture of guano and bone meal, may be applied to encourage growth for a time, after which the energies of the plant should be devoted to filling and ripening the seed. If the growth be too vigorous, an application of between two and three hundred weight of common salt per acre will be found beneficial, as it discourages its too luxuriant growth. The average crop in this country is very low, being less than ten bushels per acre; but, by proper cultivation and intelligent management, the average crop may be raised to twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre, if the season be fairly propitious. CHAPTER LXVIII. BARLEY, OATS, AND KYB CKOPS. Theeb are several varieties of barley — the two-rowed and four-rowed. That mostly grown is the two-rowed, or spring variety. It should be sown as early in the spring as possible. Great care must be taken to have a good powdery seed-bed ; but it need not be so firm 143 ELEMENTS OF as for wheat. The roots of barley spread out near the surface of the soil. For malting purposes the crop must be dead ripe before it is cut. So great is the difference of barley in value for malt- ing, that the kinds sold for feeding purposes are worth in the market only fifty or fifty-five cents per bushel; while that for brewing purposes brings more than a dollar per bushel. For malting, the best is grown in Northern localities, where the ripening process is gradual, slow, and complete. Hot climates grow barley suitable only as food for stock. Herodotus is credited with the statement that the people of Egypt, being without vines, "made their wine from barley." Pearl barley is the grain decorticated, and is principally used for making Scotch broth. Sick persons have been suc- cessfully brought through a fever by the cooling and nourishing diet of drinks made from pearl barley. As we travel along a road in early summer, and look over a field of growing barley, and notice the soft, silvery sheen of the light and shade, which seems a visible song, as the breeze passes over the silky, green, and waving surface, so charming is this sight that the wanderer invariably stops, pausing in his walk to view the undulating picture. The pause is involuntary — much the same as when a rambler in the time when the "Genial spring, wi' balmy breath, gars verdure spring anew, And illca blade o' grass kep its ain drap o' dew," hears the song of birds in a cosy grove, as his sense of hearing first catches the sound of nature's joyous chor- isters. In either case, the sense of sight or hearing derives a pleasure which, to bo fully enjoyed, commands a pause beyond the ordinary emotions of life. A change of seed is beneficial; that is, seed should be obtained from a crop grown in a different district, SCIEIfTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGBICULTUBE. 143 as it has been found to succeed better than that taken from a preyious crop on the same farm. This is proven to be true of all cereals. Experience tanght ns this very important truth. The average crop of barley is nearly twenty bushels; but, by proper tillage and good management, it may be raised to double that quantity. The oat crop is one of the most hardy of the cereals. It is the chief cereal of Scotland, where it is grown to great perfection. The oat has its flowers and grain hanging from little stalks which branch out and around the main stem. More seed per acre is required for this grain than either wheat or barley, because it does not tiller so much as either of these. Oatmeal forms an important part of the food of the yeomen of Scotland. Upon this fact Dr. Johnson based his definition of oats. "Oats," he says, "food for men in Scotland — in England for horses;" intimating that the Scotch fed on the kind of food which the English only fed to horses. But the Scotchman, it is generally considered, got the advantage of tlie doctor's sneering definition by appending the humorous finish to it: "And where find such men, and such horses." Although Sydney Smith said it required a surgical operation to get the point of a joke into the head of a Scot, yet it may be granted that he has some humor, which, when employed by him, is very caustic and complete. Oatmeal contains more fat and more nitrogenous substances than wheat, and is proved to be the very best food which can be used for children and per- sons having to work in exposed situations in a cold climate. By analysis it is found to be the best bal- anced food derived from any of the cereals; that is, it requires less animal food to make up any 144 ELEMENTS OF deficiency it may lack than bread made from wlieat, which requires much animal food to make up and com- plete the balance of the nourishing substances neces- sary for the body. Oat straw is more valuable than that of any of the cereals as a fodder, being often as nutritive as hay, especially if cut before it is quite ripe. The average crop is about thirty-five bushels to the acre; but sixty or seventy bushels may be grown by good tillage and propitious weather. Eye is also a hardy kind of grain, and may be grown upon poor, sandy soils, which would produce very little of anything else. It is often grown by farmers for green cutting and for a temporary pasture. Eye flour makes good, healthful bread, which is highly esteemed by the peasantry of Germany. It produces about thirty bushels per acre; but the production may be gi'eatly increased by deep and thorough tillage. CHAPTER LXIX. THE MANAGEIiENT OF THE HAY CEOP. We now come to the grasses grown for their herbage. There are many kinds of grasses indigenous to the land in the United States. It is now a well-established fact, that while the flowering stems are shooting up, every species of grass abounds with saccharine matter; but, as the seeds approach to ripeness, the sugar is converted into woody fiber, while the gluten goes to form the seed. From this fact we arrive at the conclusion, that all grasses intended for hay lose their nourishing qualities if permitted to form their seed. By the digestive organs of ruminating animals the woody fiber is supposed to be reconverted SCIENTIPIC AND PRACTICAL AGKICULTUKE. 145 into the substances from which it was formed, and thus becomes nutritive. Boiling food for cattle is also con- sidered an unnecessary and profitless labor, because of the digestive organs being capable of cook- ing the food in a manner more suitable to the rumi- nating animals' requirements than can be done by the art of man. The proper time to cut meadow grass for hay is, undoubtedly, while it is in bloom, as the saccharine juices are then most abundant. If the cutting be delayed, the grass becomes withered at the bottom of the stems; the roots are thus injured, the after-growth is very niucli lessened, and the land greatly impoverished. The great object to be attained in this work is, to have the hay preserved in the condition as nearly like the grass as possible, using great care in having it retain all its soluble matters in their completeness. In the process of making hay it will he of advantage to pay particular attention to the following points: (1) Preserve as much as possible from rain and dews; for the soluble matters are easily washed out of hay. (2) Do not disturb it in wet weather; alternate wetting and drying makes hay worthless. (3) Scorching destroys its virtues, fragrance, and color, and causes it to become woody and brittle. (4) It is necessary that the hay be dry, to prevent heating; the sugar is then changed into alcohol and carbonic acid, which may be detected by an odor coming from the stack resembling that from a brewery. Ensilage is grass or provender of any kind preserved in a green state with all its juices complete. The green plants are generally chaffed, and placed in an air- tight pit or building, called a silo, and are packed down 146 ELEMENTS OF solidly, as they are being put into the pit, layer by layer. The ensilage is then covered tightly with boards, upon which a heavy weight is placed. The most convenient weights for this purpose are empty barrels, so arranged as to distribute the weight evenly, and then fill them with water. The chief point aimed at in this process is to com- pletely shut out the air, with its oxygen, to pre- vent fermentation. The utility of the silo to the practical farmers of the United States is, to say the least, very doubtful. It may be safely left to amateur farmers to experi- ment with, who do not farm for profit. The farmer who will bestow as much labor and expenss in sheltering his fodder from the weather as he would have to do in filling a silo, will be amply rewarded with the results. In Great Britain and Ire- land it may prove valuable to the farmers, because of the difficulty they experience in drying the hay in their dropsical atmosphere; but with the dessi- cating air of this country, the conditions are (juite difiFerent. CHAPTER LXX. CLOVEE-HAY AlfD THE SHELTER OF YOUNG GRASS. Olover is an important fodder plant. There are several kinds, such as the red clover, the white clover, the Italian or crimson, the Swedish or Alsike, and the giant clover. A mixture of grasses and clover is frequently sown for pasture, or to be made into hay. Eed clover is grown to precede wheat; its roots go deep into the soil, and bring up valuable plant food. SCIBITTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGEICULTUEE. 147 The roots have a most excellent effect upon the mechanical texture of the soil; binding its particles together, if too loose, and separating them, if too close; thus giving firmness without hardness— a con- dition so needful for the roots of "wheat. The manure, also, from animals feeding on clover hay is nearly double the value for the land as that from timothy hay. We do not generally recognize the full value of this crop in its advantages to the soil. The time is approaching when the proper cultivation of the clover crop will be recognized as one of the greatest impor- tance for the successful and profitable cultivation of the soil. Clover hay is made in the same way as grass; but great care must be taken not to shake or handle it much after it is dried, as the leaves are then very brittle, and much of the fodder may thus be lost. Before closing the subject of grasses, we may give a successful experiment made by an English farmer, which contains some valuable information. He observed how freely vegetation is continued through the winter or early spring when the surface was shielded by any loose material lying upon it. He found that if a board, or any other loose material, was supported within an inch of the Surface, an increase of growth resulted. Straw, bushes, or any other similar material, produced the game result. Wheat straw applied over young grass, at the rate of about a ton or a ton and a-half per acre, in a very short time will increase the growth of grass to a wonderful extent. One of the experiments was as follows: COVEKED LAND. UNCOVERED LAND. Produce Per Acre. Produce Per Acre. Grass cut May 15 5,870 pounds. 3,307 pounds. Clover cut June 3 3,400 " 900 " 148 ELEMENTS 0¥ An increased number of experiments tended to con- firm the preceding results. We may give another example showing the beneficial efiecta of shielding the soil, when the young clover plant is growing, from the fierce rays of the summer sun. Frederick Tepe, of West Elizabeth, in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, became the owner of a piece of land near that place which had been plowed and cropped by its previous owner until its producing power was gone. The land was hilly and the soil a stiff clay overlying limestone. The seeds sown would germinate well enough; but the hot rays of the sun killed all the vegetation on th'e land. Mr. Tepe set about preparing this land for a crop, and labored diligently to obtain a good seed-bed. His neighbors kindly tried to dissuade him from the attempt, assuring him that it would grow nothing; and, nodding their heads to one another, pitied "the foolish Dutchman." He heeded them not; he had faith in all he was doing; and, with the patience and tenacity of purpose characteristic of his nation, he kept on in the even tenor of his way. When he was ready, he sowed his clover seed, and afterwards began collecting all the straw he could find, which he spread thinly but evenly over the field. This shelter to the young plant proved to be suflScient, and he was rewarded with a generous crop of clover and the restoration of his land to a fertile condition. CHAPTER LXXI. IMPLEMEKTS FOE HARVESTING CEOPS. Laboe-savikg implements for securing crops are very numerous. Those of American contrivance and SCIEKTIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGKICULTUEE. 149 make are famed the world oyer for their excellence and adaptability to perform well the work for which they are designed. The limits of this work will not permit ns to enter into the subject to the extent we would desire. We shall, however, devote a chapter or two to the history of the "Eeaper and Binder" machine, because of its being entirely the invention and production of American farmers and mechanics, and also because it is the one labor-saving machine which has made it possible for the farmers of this country to compete successfully in the economical production of wheat with all the nations of the earth. Every nation which rose, or has risen, to importance since Eome was mistress of the world, has experimented with machines for reaping the cereals, but never suc- ceeded in making a practically useful one. To Cyrus Hall McOormick, of Rockbridge county, Va., and Oden Hussey, of Baltimore, Md., belong the honor of producing the first practically useful mowing and reaping machines in the world. From these all reaping and mowing machines of the present day are evolved. The father of McCormick was en- gaged for several years experimenting with a reaping machine of his own invention, and tried it on his own wheat crop. This machine was pushed along in front of the horses, like the Scotch machine of Bell, which was brought out in 1826. McCormick improved on his father's inventions, and brought out a machine about 1833 that had the following features: (1) The horses were in front, and the Cutting apparatus pre jected at the side. (2) The cutter was a reciprocating straight sickle, moved laterally by a crank. (3) Fingers projecting forward supported the grain while being cut. (4) The standing grain was leaned to the sickle 150 ELEMENTS OB and finger-bar by a revolving wheel. (5) The grain was received on a platform, and raked from there in bundles. (6) A divider at the extremity of the finger- board separated the grain to be cut from the standing portion. Nearly all these features were original in this machine. The first public trial of reaping machines was made in the neighborhood of Richmond, Va., in 1843, between the McCormick and Hussey machines, the only practically useful reaping machines then in the world. Through the kindness of a friend we are enabled to present to you a drawing of the original Hussey machine. The merits of these machines were very quickly recognized, and were without competitors for several years. THE 0KI6INAL HUSSEY BEAPEK. The restless spirit of enterprise and advancement inherent in the American breast at length was turned to consider the faulty points, such as the unbalanced side draft, the narrow swath, the galling weight on the neck, and the heavy draft, which, in a few years, were all remedied by several inventors. The machine, thus improved, did good work; but it was faulty in its economy; it required one raker, generally seven or eight binders, two shockers, and one driver, to secure about twelve acres per day. Think of the great labor to the SCIENTIFIC AKD PRACTICAL AGRICULTUEE. 151 farmer's wife, and the expense of feeding all these hands through harvest. CHAPTER LXXII. THE REAPING MACHINE. Less manual labor to secure the harvest became the necessity of the day. One inventor produced a reaper 'which cut off the heads of wheat with a few inches of straw. It was called a header. But it proved to be wasteful, and was entirely inoperative in tangled and reclining grain, and was soon generally abandoned. Another brought out a self-raker, which was successful, so far as the saving of One hand was concerned. Another made a machine which carried the binders, and, by an ingenious contrivance, the wheat was brought to the two binders, where they stood on the platform attached to the machine provided for that pur- pose, who were sufi&ci,ent to do the binding, thus making a greater saving in labor than any preceding reaper. We cannot wonder that the farmers considered this machine, at that time, perfection. The restless spirit of the inventors, however, were not yet satisfied; the investigation was continued, and, after much thought and labor, their efforts were finally crowned with success; and they have now brought out machines which both reap and bind the grain better than it was ever done by hand; and, by them, the necessity of manual labor was reduced to the minimum. One man with a team of horses can reap and bind with this machine from fifteen to twenty acres each day. The material at first used for binding was wire; but it was objectionable for two reasons: (1) In threshing the grain some of the wire was broken into small pieces 152 ELEMENTS OF by the threslier, and got among the straw, which proved hurtful to the stock which fed at the straw stack in winter. (3) Small fragments of the wire also got amongst the grain as it came from the thresher, which caused much annoyance to the miller by getting between the burrs. These faults were completely overcome by changing the binder, so as to use cord instead of the wire. The farmer can now procure a reaping and binding machine which will do satisfactory work, and reduce the cost of harvesting to the lowest point possible, if he exercises skill in selecting it, and afterwards in its management. ^ CHAPTER LXXIII. IMPORTANT POINTS OF ECONOMY IN A MACHINE. In reaping machines, as in every other implement for use on the farm, there are some superior to others. In selecting a machine the farmer should be careful to see that it is adapted to the land upon which it is to be used. If his land be hilly and uneven, a low-down binder may serve him best, because its centre of gravity is nearer to the ground than one whose works are high, and is, on this account, less liable to tilt on the hillside, and will also operate with less strain of the gearings on an uneven surface. If, on the other hand, his land be level, he may choose an elevator binder, with a breadth of cut suitable to the horse-power at hia command. It will be to his interest also to satisfy himself iTpon the following essential points of the machine at the time he selects it: (1) That the best material in every part of its con- struction has been used, bearing in mind that the weak part of any machine determines the strength and dura- bility of the whole. SCIBNTIEIO AND PRACTICAL AGEICULTUKE. 153 (3) That the mechanical principles are correct, and the workmanship, to the minutest detail, is 'vvell done. Correct mechanical principles produce simplicity, and minimize friction. (3) That the cutting apparatus, and the machinery to take the grain to the binder, is suited for the ■yvork. (4) That the gearing is well protected from mud and straw. (5) That the knot-tying apparatus is durable and exact in its work. (6) That the machine can make bundles, any size desired, automatically. (7) That it can be adjusted to suit short or tall grain without waste. (8) That the machine is well-balanced throughout. There are other points of economy worthy of the farmer's attention — for example, in the quantity of cord used in binding, and the amount of travel required to do a certain amount of work. The cord, when around a bundle, takes the form of a circle 5 the saving in twine, by a machine which binds a certain sized bundle, over one which binds according to the space traveled, without regard to the close or scattering condition of the stand, will be made evident when we solve the following problems : (1) How much more water will flow from a pipe with an opening one inch in diameter than from a pipe one-fourth inch in diameter? Answer. Sixteen times as much. (2) How much more wheat can a string bind which makes a circle having a diameter of two feet than a string having a diameter of one foot? Answer. Pour times. (3) If horses have to travel two hundred miles to cut one hundred acres, with a machine cutting four feet 154. ELEMEKTS OF wide, how far will they require to travel to cut the same number of acres with a machine cutting five feet wide? Answer. One hundred and sixty miles. (4) If, in twenty-four miles travel, a machine cutting four feet wide reaps twelve acres, how many acres will a machine cut in traveling the same distance reaping five feet wide? Answer. Fifteen acres. If a farmer selects a reaper and binder, in which the above points of quality and economy are combined, he will be relieved from much vexation, and derive both pleasure and profit; even if he had to pay more money for it, at first, than for an inferior one, it was economy to do so. We cannot close this chapter without noticing the mowing machine, which also has been greatly improved in late years, and is a valuable labor-saving machine. A few years ago many deplorable accidents happened to the drivers every haying season, when the cutting apparatus was placed behind -the driving-wheel, by being accidentally thrown from the seat, and falling in front of the knives. The seat of the driver is now placed in the rear of the driving-wheel, and the cutting apparatus to the front; consequently, if the driver should be accidentally thrown from his seab, he falls behind the knives, and the deplorable result is avoided. CHAPTER LXXIV. SOME OF THE PESTS OF THE FAEM. We will now consider some of the enemies of the farmer, which injure his crops. The animal and vegetable kingdoms bring forth pests, which re- quire the farmer to be on the alert and wage constant SCIENTIFIC AND PEACTICAL AGKICULTUKE, 155 and unceasing war ■with them or they will frustrate every endeayor of his to make farming pay. Weeds and fungi are his vegetable enemies. As dirt is matter out of place, so a weed is a vegetable growing in the wrong place. Weeds require light, air, and plant-food; therefore, if they grow with the crop, they become competitors for all these things; and as weeds are generally stronger, broader^leaved, and longer- rooted than the plants of the crop, they ai'e able to overcome them, and cause them to become weak, sick, and worthless ; in short, weeds are robbers. Some weeds tell the farmer by their presence that the soil is thin and poor, as wire-grass and pennyroyal; others, that the land needs lime, as sorrel; others, that the soil is wet and requiring to be drained, as rushes, sedges, and buttercups; while others tell the people who pass that way that the occupant of the land is lazy and thriftless, such as the nettle, the dock, the jimson, and the thistle. Weeds should never be allowed to ripen their seed. They should be cut down or uprooted at once. The weeds, against which the farmer has to war, form a very large army, and belong to different families. Fungi are plants of the same order as the mush- room, but they are so small that we can only see their individual form by the microscope. Mould, mil- dew, smut, bunt, and rust are simply fungi. Mould and mildew form dark spots and rust red spots on the plant, which cause it to sicken, droop, and die; bunt and smut fill the ears of wheat and other cereals with a black powdery substance in place of the grain. Fungi are generally encouraged by damp and shade. The seed of wheat is generally steeped in a weak solution of the sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) before sowing, to rid it of fungi spores, which may be attached to it from the previous crop. 156 ELEMENTS OF Land subjected to a good rotation of crops is kept comparatively clean, and the labor of the farmer is greatly lessened in clearing his land of weeds by a judicious course of crops. CHAPTER LXXV. THE INSECT PESTS OE THE FABM. The great majority of the animal pests of the farm are insects. Birds do a great deal more good than harm. In places from -whence birds had been banished insects increased, and the birds are now universally protected and encouraged to remain. The cut-worm is very destructive to young plants; it is the grub of the fly known generally as the "jenny spinner." It is best to push the young plant by giving it a stimulating fertilizer, such as guano, or any nitro- genous manure, to get it past the period when its young roots are just beginning to get food from the soil. The wire-worm is one of the most destructive of all the insect tribe, as it lives several years in the soil, and destroys the roots of every kind of crop. It is the grub of the small "click beetle," so named from its ability to right itself by making a spring with a sharp click when turned on its back. The grub is stiff, hard, and shiny, like a wire; hence its name. It has three pairs of legs near the head. By these six legs it is distinguished from other grubs, such as the thousand- legged grubs, which do no harm. After they have fed on the crops for three or four years, they change their state and come out "click beetles." The most effective remedy is deep cultivation and applying the heavy roller in the spring. SCIENTIFIC AND PEACXICAL AGEICULTUBE, 157 The turnip flea is the most destructive insect to turnips and young cabbages. They are little, shiny black beetles, having strong wings and legs, and can hop a long distance; hence their name. They feed upon the young seed-leaves of cabbages and turnips. When none of these plants are convenient, they feed upon others of the same family growing wild about the fences. Thus, again, we are reminded of the need of cleanliness in every part of the farm, the keeping down of weeds, and the clearance of every waste matter from the fields. A good moist seed-bed and a stimulating ■ manure will enable the plant to get out of their way, The "chinch" bug ia probably the most destructive insect to the wheat snd corn crops in a large portion of the Middle and Western States, These insects appear early in spring, and are sometimes found in myriads at the junction of the stem and root of the young wheat. They first appear as wee, tiny mites, when they are of a reddish brown color; they afterwards grow darker, and then mature to a brown-like midge. When bruised they give forth a very offensive odor, like the insect generally known as the bed-bug; hence their name. Before they get wings they are very destructive to corn and wheat by feeding on their juices. We have seen whole crops rendered nearly worthless by these pests. N'o remedy has yet been discovered to stop their progress when they have once taken possession of a crop. They are found wintering among the blue grass in the hedge-rows, and among leaves and straAv. Here again we are reminded of the necessity of thorough cleanliness all around the fields, and the advantage of a wire fence, which, we believe, is destined to become the fence of the future. Many otlier causes, as v.ell as the pests we have named, render farming . unprofitable — ^some of which 158 ELEMENTS OF may be summarized as follows: Not iiiiderstanding the business of farming; insufficient capital for the number of acres farmed; extrayagance in personal expenditure; buying on credit; not suiting crops to soil and climate; too many weeds; too little hoeing; too shallow culti- vation; too little purchased food; using antiquated and improper implements; insufiScient shelter for live stock; too little experience and too much prejudice; selling produce on credit to unsafe persons; carelessness in the selection of seeds; being behind in tillage, sowing, and the general work of the farm; and not taking and read- ing a reliable agricultural paper, or any literature on the subject of his business. Finally, by deep and thorough tillage, and drainage where necessary; a judicious rotation of crops; a wise selection of ripe, clean, and healthy seed, suitable to soil and climate; clearing the land completely of weeds, old straw piles, and rubbish of every kind, and giving them back to the soil as a manure; the judicious application of manure; the careful manage- ment of the barn-yard manure heap, and never over- looking he wants of a crop from the time it is put into the ground till it is harvested, the farmer may expect, with almost absolute certainty, to realize pleasure and profit, and secure the blessings of Ceres, as expressed in the inimitable language of Shakespeare: "Earth's increase, foison plenty, Barns and garners never empty. Vines with clustering bunches growing, Plants with goodly burthen bowing; Spring come to you at the farthest In the very end of harvest ! Scarcity and want shall shun you, Ceres blessing so is on you." SCIEirXIHO AND PEACIIOAL AGBICULTUEE. 159 CHAPTER LXXVI. MISCELLANEOUS. VENTILATION', DUEABItITT OV TIMBEE, WEIGHTS, AND MEASUEES. Although the construction of farm buildings does not come within the scope of this work, we shall ven- ture a suggestion on the very important subject of ventilation, the value of which cannot be overestimated. Men and animals absorb oxygen from the atmosphere, and give off carbonic acid. Plants absorb carbonic acid and give off oxygen. That which would be death to the one gives life to the other. The health of ourselves and our animals requires a system of ventilation which permits the carbonic acid to escape. To destroy the equilibrium of the atmosphere in a building, and then control its efforts to equalize^ are the objective points to be reached, in order to obtain a plentiful and healthful supply of air. There can be no robust health enjoyed by animated beings where the air is stagnant; and, on the other hand, the health of animals is endangered if they be exposed to drafts of air; therefore the neces- sity for procuring the admission of fresh air and the egress of impure air without a perceptible draft. Farmers in building a barn, as a general rule, believe that they have secured a sure and reliable ventilation by an elevation in the roof, whose sides have louvre boards to keep out the rain, and admit air freely. Let those who believe that they have thus accomplished the task go up and examine, and they will find that the 160 ELElTEKXS Of ■wind passes straight through, while the air below the bottom board of his ventilator is stagnant. But let him put in a dividing-board, or partition, extending ver- tically from the top to about one foot below the lowest opening of the ventilator, and the change will astonish him. On the one side he will feel the cool air coming in and descending, and on the other side he will feel an ascending current of impure air making its escape. No such action takes place in an undivided opening, and no such ventilation is secured without draft. DTJEABILITT OF TIMBEK. The durability of timber is also of much importance to the farmer. A few observations on the subject may not be out of place. All plants consist of two sub- stances — ^the one cellular, the other fibro-vascular. The former is composed of roundish cells, the latter of long tubes; both are termed tissue by physiologists. The cellular tissue is brittle, like the pith in the elder; the fibro-vascular is tough and strong, as in hemp fiber. Timber consists of these two tissues intermixed, and when it grows slowly is more cellular than fibro-vascu- lar. There is never expansion of the fibro-vascular parts; their aggregate number is only increased. For example, suppose a stick an inch in diameter to con- tain five hundred tubes; if the conditions for its growth had been so favorable that it had grown twice as fast, it would not have expanded those tubes, but would have added five hundred more; therefore, fast-grown timber is not weak because it grew quickly, and it would not have been stronger if it had grown more slowly. Spring felling of timber, especially of deciduous trees, is highly injurious to the durability of the lumber; for the tree is then full of sap, which makes the process of seasoning not only very tedious, biit, when dried, the SCIEKTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTUBE. 161 germs of fungi find the conditions in it very favorable for their development, and cause decay, which is known commonly as "dry rot." Durability depends greatly on the time of felling the tree, the kind of soil on which it grew, the nature of its growth, and general management. Pruning, early and judiciously per- formed, will increase the quality, dimensions, and ulti- mate value of the tree. Thinning will insure "the survival of the fittest." ■WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. In England the unit of all weights was originally a grain of wheat taken out of the middle of the ear and dried, thirty-two of which weighed a silver penny; the pennyweight was afterwards divided into twenty-four equal parts, still called grains. There are 5,760 grains in a troy pound, and 7,000 in an avoirdupois pound. A cubic inch of rain-water weighs 252.458 such grains, when the temperature is sixty-two degrees by Fahren- heit's thermometer and the barometer thirty inches. In measuring lines, the brass rod made by Bird in 1760, now in the custody of the clerk in the House of Commons, in England, is the standard from which all the lineal measures are taken in this country. It is thirty-six inches in length, each inch being the 394 part of a pendulum vibrating seconds of mean time in a vacuum at sea-level, with the thermometer at sixty-two degrees and the barometer thirty inches. It is a remarkable coincidence that a pendulum vibrating seconds corresponds almost exactly with the French metre. If all the standards of weights and measures were lost,, they could be restored by the pendulum vibrating seconds under the above conditions. The standard, measure of capacity is a vessel holding ten pounds {avoirdtipois) of rain-water, which contains 163 SLEiitiirTg 6f one gallon, or 277.2738 cubic inches. The gill weigts five such ounces, and contains '8.664:9 cubic inches. Farmers wish sometimes to know how many plants, or corn hills, or trees an acre will contain when placed certain distances apart. The process of finding the number -is easy. Multiply the distance one plant is from another in the row by the distance between the rows, and divide the area of an acre by the product; the quotient will be the number sought. Suppose we wish to know the number of plants in an acre, the plants being placed one foot apart; or the number of corn-hills, placed three and a-half feet apart; or the number of trees, placed thirty feet apart in the rows, and forty feet between the rows. The answers will be found as follows: Square feet la an acre. 43560 ~ (1x1) 1 = 43560 plants in an acre set one foot apart. 43560 -f- (3Jx3J) 13i = 3555 com hills in an acre set 3J feet apart. 43560 -r- (30x40) 1300 = 36 trees in an acre set 30 feet from each other in the row, and the rows 40 feet apart. GOVEKKMES'T LAKDS, The lands of the United States are suryeyed into rectangular portions, bounded by lines running with the cardinal points of the compass. A parallel of latitude and a meridian are first estab- lished. Lines are then run six miles apart each way, which division constitutes a township, and contains generally thirty-six square miles. A line of townships extending north and south is called a range. Eanges are designated by their number, east or west of a certain principal meridian. Townships in each range are designated by their number north or south of tha parallel of latitude, called a base-line. Scientific and PRAdiiCAii AGEictfLTttiiEi 16^ Townships are sub-divided intd sections, half sec- tionsj quarter sectionsj half-quarter sections, and quarter-quarter sections; Diagram No; 1 shows the sub-division of a township into sections) and how they are numbered. Diagram No. 3 shows the division of a section, and how they are designated. A township equals six miles by six iniles=thirty=six square miles, or 33,040 acres. A section is one square milei=640 acres. One-half section =320 " One-half of J section 160 " One-half of } " = 80 " One-quarter of J section = 40 " The earth's surface is convex. The principal me- ridians, therefore, converge as they extend northward, which tends to throw townships and sections out of square, and necessitates occasional lines of offset, called correction lines. w. TOWNSHIP. N. 6 7 18 19 30 31 5 8 17 20 29 33 4 9 16 21 28 33 3 10 15 33 27 34 3 11 14 23 36 35 1 13 13 24 25 86 SECTION. N. Jof i i 'i Va, J of Sec. s. The S. }i ot sec. The N.W. a of sec. The N. H 01 N.E. K of sec. Ttieg.£^ otN.E.;!iotsec. QUESTIONS IN TEE FIRST DIVISION. QUESTIONS ON THE PLANT. What is the meaning of the term Agriculture? Give its derivation. Give the derivation of Horticulture. What sciences aid farmers in their business? What knowledge does each of these contribute? Do plants obtain all their food from the soil ? Prom what source do they obtain the rest of their food ? Describe a root and tell its uses. Describe a stem and give its uses. How does a plant take in nourishment ? Describe a leaf. What is a potato? When do flowers appear on a plant? Describe a flower. What is organic matter? What is inor- ganic matter? Can a plant be grown to perfection without putting it into the soil? Tell how you would do it. What three things are necessary to enable seed to grow? Describe a seed. Can solid substances bo dissolved in water? Give familiar examples. How can you prove that one kind of liquid, although separated from another by a thin membrane which has no hole in it, pass through the one into the other? What is the most abundant substance in a growing plant? What per cent, of water is in grass? In turnips? In cabbage? Is water in a plant stationary ? Describe its passage through the plant, and how it gets out of the plant. Tell what you know about starch, sugar, oil, cellulose. Are these substances inter- changeable — that is, can starch become sugar in the plant? Tell us in what plant starch becomes sugar, and again changed back into starch. What is protoplasm? What is chlorophyl? Give the derivation of these words. Of what elements are they composed? Why are these substances called organic? SECOND DIVISION. How can you separate the organic and inorganic substances composing a plant? Which part goes off in the air? What becomes of the other? Prom whence were the organic sub- stances derived ? From whence the inorganic ? Name the ele- 166 ELEMENTS OF ments composing each. What is the composition of pure air? What other substances are generally mixed in it? What is the chief duty to a plant performed by water? How can mineral substances be taken by a plant ? Do plants feed direct upon the offensive matter put into the soil? Of what use is it then? From whence did the soil come ? Give its history. Describe the first soil that appeared on the earth's surface. Tell us how rocks can be pulverized by nature's agents which have no iron in them. Describe soils according to their chemical condition. Explain capillary attraction. How are crops benefited by this natural law? Give some of the characters of soils. What is the best soil as to its physical condition for a seed-bed? Describe soils according to their physical condition. What is humus? How do you account lor there being sandy soils in one place, gravel in another, and clay soils in another? THIBD DIVISION. How may the analysis of the soil be advantageous to a farmer ? What do you understand by the active and dormant portions of the soil ? How can a farmer render the dormant portion active ? Explain how this is brought about. How can a farmer increase the feeding ground of plants without extending the boundary lines ? What other means beside tillage is adopted to get air into the soil? What are theeflfects of drainage upon clay soils? How is the atmosphere warmed ? What increases the power of the air to hold moisture ? What effect has this natural law in the summer time upon a country having a bare surface? State the chief objections which have been urged against subsoil drainage. Give your reasons for considering these objections untenable. How can the bad character of soils be cured or made better? What are the virtues of the double silicates? What kind of vegetation can only grow upon soil newly formed from rocks ? What substance are found in a fertile soil that are not found in the primitive rocks ? Where did they come from, and how did they get in the soil? Why does soil lose weight when burned? What does the lost weight represent? Explain how the first soil was prepared for the higher class of vegetation. Why are clover crops valuable to the soil? How is a sandy soil benefited by clover? How is a clay soil benefited by clover? What is the best method of applying manure to light soils? SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 167 FOURTH DIVISION. What substance in our soils is most abundant? Why are the phosphates so valuable to all soils? What substance is generally found united with silica? Is it found among the ashes of plants? Then what is its use to vegetation ? Suppose plant food to be abundant in the soil, poisonous matters absent, and climate suitable, what is yet required to develop the capa- bilities of the soil ? Explain what you moan by proper tillage. To what has Liebig compared the operation of the plow? What agencies are always ready to help the farmer, which require neither pay nor i-est ? Explain the action of each. Do plants receive any free nitrogen from the air? How does the common earth-worm benefit the farmer ? Give your reasons for taking spade CTiltivation as the model. Describe a plow pan ; a lime pan; an iron pan. What does the Scotch farmer some- times use as a subsoil plow ? Give your reasons in favor of a steam plow. What other implements are used in cultivation? Explain the use of each. What are the three essential require- ments for the germination of seed ? Explain these. Give your reasons for the necessity of a dry seed-bed. Why should the fine soil be closely pressed around the seed 1 FIFTH DIVISION. Of how many elements is the world and all that is therein built up? How many of these are metals? What are the other fifteen ? How many elements are of importance to agri- culture ? How many of these are metals ? What clement forms the chief part of all plants ? What element forms nearly half the substance of the whole globe? What proportion of the air is nitrogen ? Which is the lightest of all the elements 1 Name the metals useful to agricultural crops. How are acid-oxides formed ? Name the bases. How is a salt formed ? What salt is formed by the direct union of two elements? What is quick- lime? How is quicklime affected when exposed to the air? Why do masons cover lime after slaking it? What is the most valuable salt that can be applied to the land ? Give your reasons. What causes dissolution of plants and animals after death? To what substances are the softer parts reduced? If decay 168 ELEMENTS OF takes place on the surface, what becomes of the gases? If in the ground, what becomes of them? What becomes of their mineral substances? Do plants feed upon decaying matter direct ? What changes must it undergo before they will accept it ? What plants feed upon decaying matter direct ? Describe a "fairy ring" and tell what causes it. How can a farmer aid the chemical changes in the soil ? • SIXTH DIVISION, When is a soil said to be exhausted? Give the causes of ex- haustion. How can fertility be restored ? Why does exhaustion not take place in forests and prairies planted by nature ? How may exhaustion be delayed for a long time ? How many pounds of inorganic matter are removed from an acre by an average of wheat, turnips, or clover? What are the remedies for ex- haustion? What is meant by fallow? Why is it not advan- tageous to keep a light, open soil fallow? What arc the most profitable crops for this location ? What is meant by a rotation of crops? Give a four years' course, and your reasons for its selection. What principles must guide you in determining upon a rotation of crops? What practical considerations favor a rotation of crops? SEVMNTE DIVISION. What is the great remedy for exhaustion? What do you understand by the term manure ? What are the three principal modes in which manure acts? Give the special advantages derived from green manure, barn-yard manure, lime manures, artificial manures. Does the sheltering of barn-yard manure pay? What is its great feature as a manure ? How much solu- ble plant-food is in a ton of barn-yard manure ? Do artificial manures meet all the requirements of the soil? How may barn-yard manure be enriched? What informs the farmer that the manure heap is losing ammonia ? State how he can avoid the evil. Give Lord Kinau'd's experience with sheltered and unsheltered manure. What is a compost heap ? Give Thouve- nel's method of producing the nitrate of potash. What would be the efiect of applying lime and barn-yard manure together on SCIENTIFIO AZsTD PKACTICAL AGIUCULTUEE. 169 the surface of the land? Give a suramaiy of the oiloots of lime to the soil. What are artificial manures? "What is guano? Prom what other sources besides bones do we get phosphates ? "What manures supply plants with albximen, gluten, and casein ? What is the most important influence of common salt ? Why- is tanners' bark not valued by farmers ? How can sawdust be rendered very serviceable? With what is guano generally adulterated ? With what is bone-meal adulterated ? IIow can the adulteration be detected? maSTH DIVISION. What qualities should seed possess? Wliy is turnip seed better for a crop when it is two years old than one year old ? Explain how moisture finds its way into seeds. What is the eflEect of seed becoming "dirty?" Trace the germination of a grain of wheat till it becomes a plant able to get food for itself. Trace in the same manner the germination of a pea, and a tm'nip seed, and state what is peculiar to cacli. Give the uses of roots to plants, and tell how they go down into the soil. What is the effect of a hard and close subsoil? What does this teach the farmer? Describe the stem and its uses. What organs prepare the food taken in by the plant for assimilation ? Describe a leaf and its uses. Can we tell how u. leaf manufac- tures the food for assimilation ? Describe the manufacture of sugar in a beet. Describe the fl.ower of a turnip, a pea, and wheat. What is meant by cross-fertilization ? Why do some plants have bright flowers ? What is the end and aim of the entire life of a plant ? NINTH DIVISION. When are the stem and leaves of a plant at their richest ? Name some plants which tlie farmer allows to complete their round of existence, and some which he does not. What is meant by pedigree seed? To what family do wheat, corn, oats, rye, and barley belong? To what family do the cabbage, turnip, and mustard belong ? To what family do the beet and celery belong? To what family do the carrot and parsnip belong? What is the derivation of the word cereal? What 170 ELEMENTS 0? orop may bo considered the sheet-anchor of American farmers? Why? Describe tlie habits of the wheat plant. What }g the best cultivation fqr it? Explain the process of tillering. When is the best time to out wheat for milling purposes? When for seed? Give your reasons. When is the best time for manuring for wheat? What is meant by a change of seed? When is the best time to cut grass for hay? Why ? Give four particular points that 3hould never be overlooked by a farmer in making hay. What is a silo ? What is ensilage ? What js the use of the silo ? In what countries may it prove profitable ? Why may it not be profitable to the farmers of the United States? Give some points of excellence obtained by the grow- ing of a clover crop. Eelate the experience of a farmer who covered the young grass lightly with straw in winter. TENTH DIVISION, POE what are American agricultural implements noted every- where ? Who produced the first practically ' useful reaping machines ? Trace the improvements of these machines to the present day. Give your reasons for believing that the reaper and binder machine is the most yaluable implement ever given to the American farmer. When should a farmer select a low- down reaping machine? What should govern a farmer in selecting .a reaping and binding machine as to its breadth of cut? Name some of the points of excellence never to be over- looked in selecting a reaper or any other farm implement. What particular point must the farmer not overlook in selecting a mower? Why? MLEVUNTB DIVISION. Name some of the pests of the farm. To what kingdoms do they belong? What is a weed? Explain how weeds injure crops. What do some weeds tell the farmer? What weeds tell people who pass a farm that the occupant is lazy and tl^riftless? What are fungi ? What encourages their growth ? Why is seed-wheat sometimes steeped in a weak solution of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) before sowing? Are birds friends or enemies to farmers? Give your reasons. How can SCIEKTIFIO AND PEACTICAL AGaiCULTUKE. 171 we best escape the ravages of the out-worm ? Describe a wire- worm. What is the most effective remedy for protecting crops against damage by insects? When may a farmer reasonably hope to be rewarded with good and profitable crops? Name some of the causes which render farming unprofitable. What is ventilation? Why is it a necessity in every building ? Why is an undivided elevation in the roof worthless ? How can you remedy the fault? When is the best time to cut timber? Why? Why shoxdd it not be cut in the spring? If all the standards of weights and measures be lost, how could they be restored ? Explain how you could restore the inch ; the pint or gallon; the pound. VOCABULARY. Absorb, (absoriere, to swallow oi- drink up.) To drink np as a sponge. Agricultuee, {aijer, a field; colere, to till.) The cultivation of a field. AcctTMDLATED, {ac, to ; cumulus, a mound or heap.) Collected into a heap. Aerated, (aer, air.) Exposure to the free access of air; filled with air by force. Alienated, (alienare, to remove; ate, to make.) Transferred to another; as the mineral substances contained in the wheat that is sold, being derived from the soil, are alien- ated or transferred. Alleviate, (al, to; levis, light.) To make a burden lighter or easier. Alliance, {alligare, to bring together.) The union between individuals or substances. Analysis, (Gr. analuo, to unloose.) The resolving or sepa- rating of substances into their elements. Animated, [animus, life ; aled, made.) Possessing life and voli- tion ; able to move from place to place. Artificial, (ore, art ; /occre, to make ; oZ, belonging to.) Any- thing made by the art or skill of man. Arable, (arare, to plow; We, fit to be.) Land capable of being plowed. Assimilate, {as, to ; similis, like ; ate, to make.) To make into a like substance ; as food is converted into the likeness of the component parts of the animal or vegetable taking it. Automatical, (Gr. automates, self-acting; al, pertaining to.) Machinery which controls its own movements is said to act automatically. Avail,. ((X, on; vahre, to be strong.) To be strong, so as to give help ; to be of advantage. Biennial, {hi, two; annus, a year; al, belonging to.) Pertain- ing to two years; a plant which completes its course of existence in two years. Blanched, {hlanc, white.) "Whitened, as the leaves of a plant when light is excluded. Calcareous, {calx, lime; ous, abounding with.) Abounding with lime. 174 VOCABULABY. Capillary, [capillus, a hair; ary, pertaining to.) Kesembling a hair ; a tube with an opening minute in diameter, though long, as in the hair of the head. Chaeqed, literally means to lay on a load; loaded. Cargo, car, carriage, cart, chariot, etc., come from the same root, and convey a similar notion. CnAET, (Gr. i-aWcs, paper made from the Egyptian papyrus.) A writing. [Tlis term is applied to a marine map, having ports and places on the coast located with precision.] Chemical, (Gr. Jcumikos, concerning juices.) When different bodies unite, not mix, as sugar and water, they are said to be chemically united. Chlobophtl, {chloros, light-green; phulon, a leaf.) Vegetable- green, caused by the action of the sun upon the jelly-like substance found in every living plant. CoxjuxoTiON, {con, together ; junctum, joined. ) Joined together, or closely connected. Continuous, (core, together ; iensre, to hold. ) Holding together ; uninterrupted succession. CosvEETED, {vertere, to turn.) Turned or changed from one substance into another ; as starch is turned to sugar in a plant by a process of nature unknown to man. Cbedible, (creiiere, to believe ; 5?e,fittobe.) Pit to be believed; worthy of belief. CkucifebJe, (crux, a cross ; fetre, to bear.) Plants having the four petals of their flowers in the form of a cross ; the turnip and cabbage belong to the family cruciferae. Cultivation, (cultum, tilled ; tion, the act of doing.) The vari- ous processes employed to break and mix the soil to enable the air to enter it and render available the plant food in it, and also to enable the roots to grow in all directions with- out hindrance in their search for nourishment. Decade, (Gr. deha, ten.) A period of ten years. Decay, [de, down; cadere, to fall.) The falling down of a body, either animal or vegetable, in its progression to dissolution. Deciduous. Palling down. Trees which shed their leaves in autumn are known as deciduous trees. Deleterious, {delere, to destroy; ous, full of.) Very destruc- tive ; anything hurtful or injurious. Delicate, {delicia, pleasing to the senses.) Beautifully fine. Demolition, {de, down; Sax. moSl, meal.) Reduced to fine- ness, like meal. Mould, mill, melder, (Ger. miiller,) melt, etc., are from the same root and convey the same notion. Descends, {de, down; scandere, to climb.) Passes from a higher to a lower place. VQGABULARY. 175 Desiccating, {desiceare, to dry up.) Drying up; as air, not having its due proportion of moisture, absorbs water. Destructiok, {desiruciio, a pulling down.) The changing of the form of a body into another form. [In referring to the soil and animal or vegetable bodies, it never means annihi- lation, as it does when speaking of laws and constitutions.] Dextrine, {dexter, the right hand.) The clear, gum-like sub- stance made from starch; so named because its solution directs a polarized ray of light to the right hand when it passes through it. (C. C, H. 10, 0. 5.) Diastase. A substance which is developed by germination, which has the remarkable property of changing starch into dextrine, and, ultimately, into sugar. The great aim in the malting process is to produce this diastase. Malting barley should contain abundance of starch and the germ largely developed. Diffuse, {diffuniere, to scatter.) The spreading of a liquid in every direction; as water, in a well-drained clay loam soil, is diffused in that kind of soil like mist or fog in the air. Diminish, [diminuere, to lessen.) To become gradually less. Disinfectant, {dis, not; infectum, tainted.) That which de- stroys poisonous exhalations or germs, such as sulphur fumes, chlorine from salt, and the silicates in clay. Dissolve, {dissolvere, to take to pieces.) To change a solid sub- stance to a hquid form by water, acid, or heat. Dormant, (