RURAL ECONOMY,
IN ITS RELATIONS WITH
CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS, A   METEOROLOGY;
CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE.
BY
J. B. BOUSSINGAULT,
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, ETC., ETC.
TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
BY
GEORGE LAW, AGRICULTURIST.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.
PHILADELPHIA 
GEO. S. APPLETON, 164 CHESNUT-ST.
M DCCC L.
OR, 
t 
THE
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
IN the work now published, I present the results of the inquiries
in which I have been engaged for many years, and which were undertaken in the hope of throwing light upon various points of practical agriculture. My first idea was, to confine myself to the mere
re-impression of the several papers which I had communicated from
time to time to different periodicals, with the addition of a quantity
of inedited matter which I had by me. But upon more mature consideration, I was led to believe that I should be doing a useful thing
did I fill up the numerous gaps which must necessarily occur between papers published isolatedly, at dates more or less remote from
one another, and treating of the most dissimilar subjects. I have
thus been led, in addition to my own observations, to give those of
numerous writers on almost every branch of agricultural science,
being only careful to confine myself in each instance to the most
authentic practical conclusions; for it is certain, that practical data
have the most direct interest for rural economy, both in itself and
in its bearings upon the general science of political economy.
I have a further reason for the plan which I have adopted, which
[ am the less disposed to pass by in silence, inasmuch as it may
plead in excuse with those who might be disposed to criticize the
tone, perhaps somewhat too didactic, of my work.
I was invited, in conjunction with several other professors attached
to a great educational institution, to give a course embracing my
views upon the science of agriculture. I consented to this, and
prepared my lectures; but motives, to which I was entirely a
stranger, having prevented the project from being carried out, 1
made up my mind to publish, not the lectures such as I should have 
AUTHOR S PREFACE.
delivered them, but the documents which would have formed the
basis of my teaching.
The first part of this work treats in succession of the physical
and chemical phenomena of vegetation; of the composition of vegetables and their immediate principles; of fermentation; and of soils.
The second comprises a summary of all that has yet been done on
the subject of manures, organic and mineral; a discussion of the
subject of rotations; general views of the maintenance and economy
of live-stock; finally, some considerations on meteorology and climate, and on the relations between organized beings and the atmosphere.
I have endeavored, therefore, to give a summary view of all the
questions of rural economy that admit of scientific treatment. It
may be found, perhaps, that the number of these questions is still extremely small. Nevertheless, in regarding the multitude of inquiries
that have been instituted within a very few years only, in viewing
especially the ever-increasing interest attached to researches bearing upon practical agriculture, we are bound to anticipate progress,
and to hope for conclusions important as regards science, profitable
to practice, and useful to humanity.
iv 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
THE following work is submitted to the agricultural public in the
fullest confidence that it stands in need of no recommendatory
strictures on the part of those who have undertaken to present it in
its present form to the English agriculturist. In the person of its
distinguished author the man of science is happily associated with
the practical farmer-the accomplished naturalist, the profound
chemist and natural philosopher. The friend and fellow-laborer of
Arago, Biot, Dutmas, and all the leading minds of his age and country-M. Boussingault's title to consideration is recognised wherever letters and civilization have extended their influence.
Surely the collected and carefully recorded experience of such a
man, experience by which the conclusions of the member of the Institute have been tested and weighed by the results of the farmer
of Bechelbronn, must have value in the estimation of every educated
mind, and cannot fail to be especially welcome to that class of
readers who are professionally engaged in the practical application
of that noble science which his labors have contributed to illustrate
and advance.
Whe k the following pages were confided to the editor, it was the
impression both of the publisher and himself, that in the course of the
work many points would necessarily arise demanding elucidation,
others calculated to provoke controversy or challenge investigation,
and others again which could be rendered available or instructive
to the British agriculturist only by means of copious explanation,
showing with what modification and under what circumstances the
views advanced might be applicable to the art as exercised in the
climate and soil of this country. But the minute and analytical
perusal indispensable in the operation of investing the Author's
thoughts and expressions with an English garb, has demonstrated
the fallacy of this impression, and if possible has augmented the
admiration of the untiring patience, the vast experience, and the astute, circumstantial, and elaborate accuracy of the accomplished
Author, in whose researches the reader will find the profoundest
sagacity, combined with a childlike simplicity which communicates
to his work a charm not necessarily inherent in the subject.
This is not intended to imply an unqualified approval of the illustrious philosopher's manner of dealing with his own faets and obser
1 
INTRODUCTION.
vations; still less of his style of writing, which is often wandering
and diffuse, and which, in order to render it presentable to the English reader, has required much compression and retrenchment. Still,
however, instead of having, as was expected, to pause at each step
of the Author's progress, and dissert upon his views upon this or
that particular branch of his subject, the observations of the commentator must of necessity be restricted in a great degree to an indication of such parts of the work as in his judgment are the most
valuable and instructive, together with such incidental objections as
appear to be of sufficient importance to require stating at length.
The chemical portion of the work is of inestimable value and conducted with consummate skill and knowledge; and with a minuteness and accuracy perfectly unexampled. At the same time the
results of the writer's researches, as well as the means and processes by which these results were obtained, are displayed with such
absolute perspicuity as to be intelligible and instructive to every
agricultural inquirer, however superficial his previous acquaintance
may be with the details of chemical science.
Nothing from the pen of the Editor could throw additional light
upon the Author's brilliant and most interesting elucidation of vege table physiology: his exposition is at once masterly and complete,
and contains much that is both valuable and new. And even when
the novelty of the facts which he adduces, or the originality of the
inferences deduced and unfolded may admit of question, they are
still deserving of the most respectful attention from the new and
striking lights in which he places them, and presents them to the
agricultural reader, and the clear and convincing way in which he
demonstrates their inter-dependency and their most intimate con nection with many of the most important pecuniary and professional
interests of the cultivator. E:/ery intelligent farmer will find his
account not merely in a repeated perusal of this portion of the work,
but in regarding it as a text-book and manual to be kept by him for
permanent reference and conisultat;on.
The arrangement of the subject, naturally and judiciously adopted
by the writer, presents the consideration of soils as the first topic
for the observations of the agricultural commentator; but on this
head the distinguished author is so thoroughly explanatory and judi  cious, that nothing is left for the Editor but to approve, to acquiesce,
and to recommend him with admiring confidence to the patient con  sideration and study of the intelligent inquirer.
At page 237 the subject of manures is taken up, and discussed
with characteristic minuteness through many succeeding pages.
It may perhaps be objected, that the various theories respecting
the origin, nature, efficacy, and relative nature of the different ma  nures in use, as well as the various modes of their production, con  coction, and application, which M. Boussingault has here collated
and elucidated, contain nothing new; that they have, in fact, under
one form or other, been long familiar to practical men; but without
impugning the justness of this opinion, the Editor has long been
convinced that the subject has receiyed, generally, far less care and
2 
INTRODUCTION.
attention than it so eminently deserves; and, in short, that it is
much neglected by many who are accounted not merely intelligent,
but scientific agriculturists; and while admitting that much valuable
information has been frequently given to the agricultural world by
the repeated experiments of several enterprising individuals both in
Scotland and England, he still most urgently recommends a careful
study of this part of the work, which will probably lead the reader
to the conclusion that the methods and practice recommended by the
Author are, upon the whole, those best worthy of adoption. In
page 260 will be found some very urgent warnings against what
be (M. Boussingault) regards as the prevalent and pernicious custom of turning dung-heaps "frequently."  If, however, by the term
" frequently," a course not exceeding three complete turnings of the
heap be comprehended, the Editor can by no means coincide with
this opinion; a long experience having convinced him that there
are many circumstances under which the Author's recommendations
would be found not merely over-cautious, but positively injurious.
For drill crops, for instance, when it happens that the farm-dung is
somewhat rough, which must generally be the case towards the
close of every season, when the animal dejections are scanty and
the great bulk of the already ripened manure has been carried out
upon the land, and the fresh additions have not had the advantage
of being compounded with matter already concocted, an extra turning is very advantageous.
Every farmer will, of course, turn his heap once, for the purpose
of thoroughly mixing the various ingredients and different qualities
of manure which it contains; the extra turning, even admitting that
it may to a certain extent promote the over-decomposition of the
manure, and dissipate the ammoniacal principles which it is important to preserve, is not attended with so great a loss in this respect
as that which is inevitable from keeping open the drill by the application of coarse dung, which cannot fail to be attended with a most
serious loss of the more volatile principles, sometimes even laying
the manure quite bare, and in the case of turnips, materially obstructing the operation of sowing.
Our Author brings forward the authority of several eminent inquirers in support of his own favorite view of the use of fresh or unfermented manure; but however plausible their theories may appear,
and however just may be their views in the abstract, there are many
intermitting circumstances connected with the general economy of
a farm, which must govern and determine their adoption, and in
which the praotical cultivator must be guided by his own judgment
alone.
To the Author's 6th chapter the reader may be advantageously
referred, as containing a very full and valuable description and discussion, under the head of mineral mrnanures, of the different varieties
of the class usually denominated stimulants, and concluding -:qh a
brief but lucid and interesting account of WATEa, considered as an
agent of vegetation, and of its importance for manuring purposes.
The composition and preparation of liquid manures, as well as the
3 
INTRODUCTION.
various means of procuring and preserving them, will be found to
have engaged much of the Author's attention; and he justly points
to the rapidity of their ameliorating action as a peculiar excellence,
not otherwise attainable; at the same time admitting that in the
great majority of cases, the great and unavoidable expense at
tending their application, however moderate may be the prime-co$t
of the material, has always operated as an insuperable obstacle to
their general adoption. In the justice of this vital objection, most
practical agriculturists who have used them to any extent, will readily concur; and it will not be uninteresting to the reader to learn
that there is reason to believe that it will henceforth be effectually
obviated by the use of a very simple and convenient apparatus, devised by Mr. Smith of Deanston, a zealous and able friend of agriculture, who at the Highland Society's meeting at Glasgow in
autumn last, explained the details of his contrivance; and the Editor has reason to suppose that the particulars will be given in a report
of the proceedings of the meeting, in the forthcoming January publication of the Highland Society's Transactions.
The Editor is anxious to direct especial attention to the Author's
7th chapter, wherein he treats of the organic and inorganic manures,
and of crops-of the elements of manures and of crops with their
relations inter se, &c.-a section of the work which presents, in
synopsis, a more copious and complete body of new, interesting, and
important facts, of a nature more valuable to the practical farmer,
than has ever been collected in any previous treatise on agricultural
science. The great mass of this invaluable information is condensed,
as it were, for practical reference, and displayed in copious and
elaborate tabular data-a form which, though not attractive, has
enabled the writer to comprise within succinct and manageable limits,
a quantity of instruction which, in a more discursive shape, must
have distended the work to double its actual size. The tables ad verted to, present not merely the results of multifarious experiments
in illustration of the important subject of rotation-cropping, but also
these results as especially affected by the application of the various
manures to which the several experimenters had recourse. The
rotations reported may appear strange and curious, and sometimes,
perhaps, even amusing to the farmers of England and Scotland;
but not more so, in all probability, than those which are followed in
many parts of our Island would appear to the cultivators of that
part of Europe where our Author's agricultural speculations have
been carried on, and where the bulk of his analyses have been ob tained: indeed, locality and climate, and their inseparable concomi tants, will in every country be found to prescribe and control the
sorts of crops which may be rendered the most subservient to the
permanent advantage both pecuniary and economical of the hus  bandman. Thus, with regard to the Author's more didactic obser vations and positive directions on the subject of rotations, there is no
reason to doubt that, in relation to the soil, climate, and geographical
position of the east of France, where his experimental course of
rotations has been conducted, they are highly judicious, and have
4 
INTRODUCTION.
not been prescribed and required without mature consideration.
Moreover, they are marked, like the deductions and inferences upon
which they are founded, by his unusual acumen, patience, and sagacity; but in their application to the more circumscribed range of
culture to which the agriculturist is limited in the ruder and more
fickle climates of north and of south Britain, the practice of the cultivator must be governed mainly by his own judgment and experience in the circumstances by which he finds himself surrounded.
The interesting and ample instruction conveyed in the observations of this acute and profound observer upon the food and alimentary treatment of cattle of every species, accompanied as they are
by minute details of the results obtained in the shape of organic and
inorganic elements, cannot be too urgently recommended to the attentive consideration of every one interested in that important branch
of rural economy to which they more particularly relate.
The Author's strictures comprehend the economy of the domestic
animals with the exception of sheep, a subject from which he professedly abstains, for the very sufficient reason, that in his opinion,
his opportunities of obtaining accurate information thereupon have
not been sufficiently ample to enable him to discuss it with confidence
and advantage. His theory in favor of the superior fattening quality of hay and the grasses in general above that which is found in
tubers and roots, (though apparently supported by his usual convincing appeal to experiment,) will be received with considerable allowance by the practical farmer.
We have many instances, in the present day, of theories ably,
plausibly, nay even satisfactorily established, which are nevertheless
met by opposite results in practice; and the hesitation which the
Editor ventures to intimate upon the particular point in question,
will, he doubts not, be readily concurred in by many experienced
feeders. It will be generally admitted that the boiled or steamed
potato possesses a much higher nutritive value than belongs to it
when in the raw state. In the former case, however, it requires to
be mixed with some of the other roots which are not characterized
by the same property, such as beet, turnips, &c.; the Swede, (Rutabaga,) or any of the harder sorts are best adapted for this purpose,
and form a complete counteractive to the dangerous constipating
tendency of the boiled potato when given alone.
There are many different substitutes or equivalents in the shape
of mashes, containing leguminous ingredients which are admitted to
be fully as nutritious as the potato, still there are circumstances
connected with market value which render it a most valuable resource in farm alimentation. The popular notion that (when used
a the feed of horses) the boiled or steamed potato is what is vulgarly called "soft meat," tending to unfit them for active work, is
daily losing ground; for not only is it rapidly getting into more general use among the farmers of England and Scotland, but even postmasters are adopting it for horses employed in road work.
The meteorological section of'the volume will be found no less
instructive to the agriculturist than fascinating to the general reader;
5 
INTRODUCTION.
no equally complete and extensive body of new and interesting facts
has ever before been presented in a collected form to the agricultural
world.
It will be observed that the capital, the all-important subject of
Draining, as the great master-engine of agricultural improvement,
is merely touched upon by our Author in a cursory way; shtild
this incite a feeling of disappointment, it must be borne in mind that
he has accomplished all, and more than all, that he proposed to himself, which was not to write a complete work on practical tillage,
but rather, as his title implies, on " Rural Economy," i. e., the economic production and application of the produce of the soil under
the guidance of chemistry.
Among the faults of execution for which the Translator ventures
to solicit the agricultural reader's indulgence, is the occasional adoption of terms which are rather French than English. Many of
these words are, in the original, not merely technical, but local and
provincial, and are not inserted in any of the dictionaries. Moreover, in the description of certain processes and operations, the
Author has occasionally employed terms for which there is no English equivalent; and the Translator had frequently no other choice
than that of either leaving the sense of the passage obscure and
defective, or, on the other hand, of adopting the barbarisms in question, which not only deform the English of the construction, but
cannot fail to be offensive to the taste and professional prepossessions of the agricultural reader.
With reference to the weights and measures made use of in the
original, it may be proper to state, that (against strong temptation
to let them stand as in the French, merely adding a table of equivalents) they have, at the instance of the Publisher, been reduced into
their corresponding quantities in the English standard.   Grammes,
in the more delicate experiments, have been reduced into grains
troy, assuming the gramme as equal to 15.438 grains; in less delicate experiments, grammes have been converted into pennyweights
(dwts.) and ounces troy.   Kilogrammes are given in lbs. avoirdupois; and where the quantity was large, they are often brought
into tons, cwts., qrs., &c., taking the French kilogrammne at 2.2
lbs. avoirdupois. The Litre, or present French measure of liquids,
has been reduced into pints, calculating the French measure at 1.76
pints English imperial measure. The Hectolitre employed in mea suring grain, is rendered into bushels, estimating it at 22 gallons
English dry measure. The old French Quintal is also sometimes
employed: this measure of weight has been either reduced to its
proper corresponding quantity, 1 cwt. 3 qrs. 24 lbs. English, tir
where odd numbers might be disregarded, it has been called 2 cwts.
The Are, or French superficial measure of quantity, has been cal culated throughout at 120 square yards English: the Hectare at
2.4 acres English.
The labor of reducing these measures into their English equiva lents has been immense; and errors, in spite of the best care which
could be exerted, have doubtless in various instances crept into the
6 
INTROD (iTT ON.
reductions.  Sligoht discrepancies between aggregate sums and their
component quantities will also be apparent here and there, an inexactness which arises from the numl)er of decimal places not having
always been carried out far enough.
Our Author often quotes English agricultural writers, whose
weights, &c., he has always been at the pains to reduce into their
corresponding French equivalents. Not having at all times the
works referred to at command, the Editor was compelled to bring
back the French weight or measure into the corresponding English
one by calculation. Thus from not knowing the precise equivalents
adopted by M. Boussingault, some trivial discrepancy between the
computed and the original weights, &c., may have resulted; but as
the quantities that have been treated in this way are especially important as relative, scarcely ever as absolute quantities, the error
where it occurs can be of no real consequence. Metres, centimetres, and millimetres have been reduced into English feet and inches,
assuming the metre as equal to 39.370 inches.  Finally, and to
conclude our list of reductions, (would that it had been shorter!)
the degrees of the centigrade thermometer have been brought into
degrees of the only scale in familiar use among us, viz. Fahrenheit's.
In the translation the Editor has endeavored (not always with
perfect success) to be as little technical as possible, with a view to
the convenience of the general reader. In a very few places he
has even ventured slightly to condense the style of the original in
order to keep the volume within moderate dimensions, occasionally
throwing the information contained in a table into the text or narrative; and where the Author appeared to him to be forgetting the
rural economist in the mere chemist, as where for example he describes the special modes of preparing and purifying indigo, &c. he
has made bold to retrench details, and give the results or conclusions
only.  All analyses bearing on the practical subject, whether it was
the soil that produced, the crop that was grown, or the animal which
fed on that crop, have been scrupulously retained. In conclusion,
the reader is earnestly recommended to read an admirable little
work, the joint production of Messrs. Dumas and Boussingault, entitled in the original, "Essai de Statique Chimique des Etres organise6s," which has been presented in a clear English translation, under
the title of, "An Essay on the Chemical and Physiological Balance
of Organic Nature," and may be regarded as a most valuable introductory aid to the perfect comprehension of Boussingault's Philosophy of Agriculture, and as a key to the more scientific and technical
portions of the work now submitted to the public,
7 
4 
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF VEGETATION.-VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY — -............. 13
5 II.-Chemical phenomena of vegetation.....................................  25
Gernination............................................................ 6
Germination of wheat..................................................  29
Continued germination of peas..........................................  30
Continued germination of wheat................................ 31
III. -Evolution and growth of plants......................................... 33
Experiment I.-Growth of Red Clover during three months............... -  44
Experiment II.-Growth of peas....................................45
Experiment III.-Growth of wheat.................................... 46
Experiinment IV.-Growth of clover..................................47
Experimient V.-Vegetation of oats..................................48
~ IV.-Of the inorganic matters contained in plants-their origin-of the chemical
nature of sap................................................52
Quantity of ashes contained in the different parts of vegetables, according
to M. de Saussure..............................................53
Composition of the substances found by M. de Saussure................. 55
Alkaline salts and insoluble substances contained in ashes.............. 56
Alkaline salts and insoluble substances of ashes, according to M. Berthier.. 57
Composition of the ashes of several plants analyzed by M. Berthier....... 58
Sap of the Bambusa Guaduas.................................... 68
Sap of the banana plant (.lusa Paradisica)...........................68
Milky s      a       p       s.........................................................69
Sap of the papaw-tree (Carica Papaya).................................. 69
Sap of the cow-Iree.................................................69
Milky sap of the Hura Crepitans (Ajuapar).............................. 71
Milky sap of the poppy (Opium)....................................71
Milk of the Plumeria a/mericana.......................... ——..........72
Sap of the caoutchouc-tree........................................ 72
Gummy and resinous saps...........................................73
Saccharine saps....................................................74
CHAPTER II.
Or THE CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES.................75
I.-Quarternary azotized principles of vegetables.......................... 76
Composition of legumine obtained from different seeds.................... 78
II.-Proximate principles with a ternary composition: of starch o..............0
Inuline-...............................................................  87
Of woody matter and cellular tissue................................87
Density of different kinds of wood, according to Brisson.................90
Of sugar......................................................114
Beet-root sugar................................................121
Palm sugar...................................................126
Grape sugar............................................................  126
Saccharine principles not fermientable.............................. 128
Gumn.........................................................1 ]29
Vegetable jelly: pectine and pectic acid................................. 129 
CONTENTS.
Pag,
Of vegetable acids...................................................... 131
Of the vegetable alkalies.......................................  131
Of fatty substances............................................  134
Of essential oils...................                             141
Of resin....................................................142
Caoutchouc................................................. 143
Vegetable wax...............................................  143
Chlorophylle......................................................... 145
Of coloring matters......................................................145
HII.-Composition of the different parts of plants............................. 154
Roots and tubers.............................................. 154
Barks.................................................................. 161
Leaves................................................................ 164
Seeds......................................................168
Fleshy or pulpy fruits...............-.............................-189
CHAPTER III.
OF THE SACCHARINE FRUITS, JUICES, AND INFUSIONS USED IN THE PREPARATION
OF FERMENTED AND SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS............................. 193
CHAPTER IV.
OF SOILS.... —----- ----------------—..................................................... —--—.- 200
Classification of soils -..................-........................ 223
CHAPTER V.
OF MANURES...- ---- —....-........................................ 237
Excretions of the horse................................... 6......267
Excretions of the cow.................................. 268
Excretions of the pig...........................................  268
Animal excrements........................................... 285
Table of the comparative value of manures, deduced from analyses made
by Messrs. Payen and Boussingault....................................... 297
CHAPTER VI.
OF MINERAL MANURES OR STIMULANTS........ 3...........................03
Calcareous manures............................................. 3)3
Of alkaline salts.............................................. 316
Growth of sainfoin upon soils gypsed and ungypsed in 1792, 1793, and 1794. 321
Comnparative growths of white clover, gypsed and ungypsed, by Mr. Smith. 322
Experimnient with field-beet or mangel-wurzel, opening the rotation with
Inanured soil, 1842............-................................. 327
Mineral substances contained in the crop................................ 32
Of ammoniacal salts.................- -  -............................33
Of w     a      t     e      r.........................................................336
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE ROTATION OF CROPS.......................................... 341
I.-Of the organic matter of manure and of crops.............................  341
Potatoes...................................................... 348
Wheat................................................................ 349
Wheat-straw..................................................349
Red clover............................................................. 349
Turnips............................................................... 350
Oats....................................................... 350
Oat-straw....................................................351
Field-beet or mangel-wurzel....................................351
Rye..................................................................  351
Rye-straw.................................................. 351
.White p                                                    e      as352
Wiepe a          s.....................................................352
Pea-straw..........................352
10 
CONTENTS.
Page
Jerusalem potato or artichoke......................................  352
Dried stems of Jerusalem artichokes............................... *352
Table of the proportions of water contained in different substances.......353
Composition of the same substances dried in vacuo at 230~ F........... 353
Relation of manures to crops..................... - -............... 354
Desiccation of half-made or half-decayed manure....................354
Experiment I................................................ 354
Experiment II................................................ 354
Experiment III............................................... 354
Analyses of half-made manures -- -............................. -........ 354
Composition of the manures analyzed.............................355
Rotation course, No. 1......................................... 357
Rotation course, No. 2.........................................357
Rotation course, No. 3............................................358
Rotation course, No. 4.-..-.................... —..... —................ 358
Continuous Jerusalem potato crop, No. 5................................ 358
Quatrennial rotation, adopted by M. Crud, No. 6........................ 358
Summary................................................................359
~ II.-Of the residues of different crops.................................... 360
Potato tops or haum...............-.-............................361
Leaves of field-beet or mangel-wurzel................................... 361
Comiiposition of dry leaves................... - - - - - - - -  - -....................- - - -  361
WVheat stubble......... - -.... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -   - - -................... - -................ 362
Clover roots-. - -.    -................. - - - - - - - - - - - -........  -.............. -..........362
Composition of the roots................... -........ -- - - -- - - -- -........ - - - - -- -....     362
Oat stubble.  - -.......... - - - - - - - - - - - -........- - - - - - - - - - -........ -.... -................... - - -  362
Summary of the foregoing results- - - - - - - -.....           - -...        -......................... 363
$ III.-Of the inorganic substances of manures and crops....34..............34
Composition of the ashes proceeding from the plants grown at Bechelbronn 366
Mineral substances taken up from the soil by the various crops grown at
Bechelbronn upon one acre --...................................-  -  -... 366
Table of the mineral matters of the crops and manures in the course of a
rotation......-.... —-------- ---   ---  ------........................................-...-......' 369
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE FEEDING OF THE ANIMIALS BELONGING  TO A FARM; AND OF  THE IMME        DIATE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL ORIGIN................... —375
9 [.-Origin of animal principles...................................... 375
Of the food of animals and feeding...................................... 386
Experiments on the maintenance of horses........                            400
Experiment I................................................ 400
Experiment II.-Introduction of Jerusalem potatoes into the ration *....   401
Experiment III.-Ration of hay and potatoes.............................  - -  401
Experiment IV.-Substitution of oats and straw for a portion of the hay   402
Experiment V.-Potatoes substituted for a portion of the hay............ 403
Experiment VI. —Jerusalem potato for a portion of the hay............. 403
Experiment VII.-Introduction of field-beet or mangel-wsrzel into the ration 403
Experiment VIII.-Introduction of the Swedish turnip into the ration and
replacing a portion of the hay.................................       404
Experiment IX.-Introduction of carrots into the ration- - - -................405
Experiment X.-Boiled rye as a substitute for oats..........................  405
Table of the nutritive equivalents of different kinds of forage............ 407
II.-Of the inorganic constituents of food *-.............................: 410
III.-Of the fatty constituents of forage; considerations on fattening-...  -......-  416
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE ECONOMY OF THE ANIMIALS ATTACHED TO A FARM.-OF STOCK IN GENERAL,
AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE  - -   -  - - -...............    - 428
$ ] -Horned cattle................................................ 430
Table of milchi-kine three years of age and upwards- -.. -  -................... -   440
11 
CONTENTS.
Page
II. —Milch-kine................................................ 444
Experiment I.-Two hundred days after calving.......................... 447
Experiment II.-Two hundred and seven days after calving............ 448
Experiment III.-Two hundred and fifteen days after calving...........448
Experiment IV.-Two hundred and twenty-nine days after calving........  448
Experiment V.-Two hundred and forty days after calving................ 449
Experiment VI. Two hundred and seventy days after calving.............. 449
Experiment VII.-Two hundred and ninety days after calving............. 449
Experiment VIII........................................................ 449
Experiment IX.-Thirty-five days after calving........................... 450
Second Series. Experiment I.-Begun one hundred and seventy-six days
after the calving.................................................. 450
Experiment II.-One hundred ad eighty-two days after the calving....... 450
Experiment III.-One hundred and ninety-three days after the calving.... 450
Experiment IV.-Two hundred and four days after the calving............ 451
III.-Fattening of cattle..........................................*.-.. 452
t IV.-Of horses.................................................460
t V.-Of hogs...................................................464
VI.-Of the production of manure.. -  -- -   -- -.................................- - - - - - - - - -- - - -  - --    471
CHAPTER X.
METEOROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS.-............................................ 475
S I.-Temperature................................................475
S II.-Decrease of temperature in the superior strata of the atmosphere.......... 478
S III.-Meteorological circumstances under which certain plants grow in different
climates..................................... 481
Cultivation of wheat, Alsace....................................... 482
Cultivation of wheat in America................................482
Intertropical region-..................................................... 483
Cultivation of barley......................................... 483
Cultivation of maize or Indian corn...................................... 484
Cultivation of the potato - - - - - -......................................484
Cultivation of the indigo plant................................. —-. 485
Ad IV.-Cooling through the night; dew, rain.................................. 486
V.-On the influence of agricultural labors on the climate of a country in lessen       ing streams, &c............................................495
12 
RURAL ECONOMY.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF VEGETATION.-VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.
THE operations of agriculture having for their object the produc   tion of plants which are either essential as food, or useful in the arts
and industrial processes of man, it is well to begin with a summary
view of the principal organs of which vegetables are composed; and
by the instrumentality of which, under certain influences which we
shall seek to appreciate, all the phenomena of their existence are
manifested.
Plants fixed in the soil by their roots, live in the atmosphere by
the concurrence of their green parts under the combined actions of
light, heat, and moisture.  We shall by and by ascertain at the cost
of what elements, and under what conditions, their growth and com  plete development are accomplished.
The seed, which is the final result of vegetable life, and of which
the aim is the reproduction and multiplication of the species, should
first receive our attention. The seed is, if we may so speak, the
starting point of all husbandry; it is with very few exceptions the
first point on which the industry of the farmer exerts itself.
Nature, to ensure the preservation of seeds, has had recourse to
infinite care and foresight, which are in some measure an assurance
of their importance. The seed is often placed in the middle of an
abundant fleshy pulp, which serves to afford it nourishment or ma-.
nure at the time of its future development. Sometimes, as in legu minous plants, it is lodged between thick and tough membranes, or
is covered with hard but flexible scales, as in the gramineous plants;
or again it is enveloped in a woody substance of extreme hardness,
as in stone fruits.
Nature does not show herself less provident in furnishing means
for scattering seeds, and propagating vegetable species at great distances.  There are, indeed, seeds which, furnished with light silky
plumes or wings, flutter in the air, and are transported afar bv the
winds. Others, by means of a viscous, hard, impermeable envelope,
float on rivers, and descend their courses without suffering the slightest change, or losing their germinating power. There are seeds
again of a sufficiently coherent texture to resist the digestive action
2 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.
of the stomachs of animals that feed on the fruits which contain
them, and which are consequently often found deposited at great
distances from the plant which produced them; they are thus frequently dropped to germinate and flourish at the tops of the steepest
mountains. By these admirable provisions of nature, then, the air,
the water,. and even animals themselves become the vehicles by
which the migration of various vegetable species over the surface
of the globe is effected.
We distinguish in seeds the kernel, and the integument which
covers or encloses it.  In the kernel, the embryo exists, which, as
its name indicates, is destined to reproduce the plant of which the
seed is the issue. The embryo is formed of several essential parts:
-1st. of the radicle; 2d. of the gemmule, plumule, or rudiment of
the stem, which by its extension engenders the organs that are to
vegetate above the ground; 3d. of cotyledons, which form the greatest portion of the kernel, and which are destined to support the plant
during the first periods of its existence.
In most cases, the cotyledons are formed of two lobes which separate during the act of germination.  The plumule presents itself
under the form of a little white point which penetrates into the interior of both cotyledons. The radicle is of a slightly conical shape,
and is first seen when it projects externally from the seed.
The seeds of gramineous plants do not separate into two parts at the
commencement of their independent existence. They are, in fact,
seeds which have but a single cotyledon.  As plants which spring from
seeds of one or of more cotyledons present capital differences in
their organization at large, and mode of development, botanists have
established two grand divisions among them-into monocotyledonous
vegetables, and dicotyledonous or polycotyledonous vegetables.
W\hen the seed is gathered in its state of perfect maturity it is
Completely inert, its vital functions are wholly suspended, and it niay
be kept often for a very long time without being made to grow.
The length of time during which seeds may be kept, however,
varies extremely, according to the species.  There are plants, for
instance, the seeds of which preserve for an indefinite period their
germinative power; there are others, on the contrary, which lose it
very speedily.
Fromn various observations which appear to deserve every confidence, the seeds
Of Tobacco have germinated after having been
kept for....................................  10 years.
"Stramonioium..............................25....     "  (Duhamel.)
"the Sensitive plant........................... 60  "
"Wheat....................................  1)0 "  (Pliny.)
"Wheat....................................  10  "  (Duhamel.)
"Melons..................................... 41  "  (Friewald.)
"CCucurhbers...............................17  "  (Roger Gale]
"Haricots.................................... 33 "
"Idem....................................  100  "  (Gerardin.)
"Rape....................................17  "  (Lef6bure.)
"Rye....................................10  "  (Hme.)
"Cucumbers....................................   34
~~~~~~~~~~" dm.................. 10"   Grri.
The seeds of the coffee  plant are perhaps those which lose the Galen
"Rye 140 ~~~~~~~~~(Home.)
The seeds of the coffee plant are'perhaps those which lose the
14 
property of germinating most speedily; planters are well aware that
they must be sown almost immediately after they are taken from
the bush. Oleaginous seeds are generally preserved with great difficulty; so also are those of rubiaceous plants, of the laurels, myrtles, &c.*
In practical agriculture there is always much advantage, and
additional security, in sowing the most recent seed, even of kinds
which are known to be the longest lived. It frequently happens,
even after a very short time, that a certain proportion of these seeds
die: they have, perhaps, not been gathered under circumstances
favorable to their complete preservation.  It is, therefore, only when
he is compelled to do so, that the farmer trusts wheat to the ground
which has been gathered in former years; and experience has
proved that in using such seed, it is necessary to increase very considerably the quantity sown.
The inactivity of the seed ceases so soon as it is brought into
contact with water and the air under the influence of a sufficient
temperature. Sown in moist earth, a seed absorbs water, and swells
considerably; the pellicle which covers it becomes distended, and
ends by bursting; the radicle and the plumule appear, and become
more and more distinct; the root penetrates the ground; the plumule by and by grows into a stalk which gets greener and greener,
increases rapidly, and augments the number of its leaves, so that
the young plant acquires vigor every day. At a certain period,
flowers appear; and these are succeeded by firuit, the final term of
which is the maturity of the seed. Thile phenomena of vegetation
then cease. The whole of the organs of annual plants now wither
and die; the work of reproduction, of multiplication, is accomplished.
Thus begins and ends the existence of the plants which are the
usual subjects of our husbandry.
With regard to biennial plants and trees, which possess more than
this ephemeral existence, things pass differently.'The plant vegetates so long as the temperature of the atmosphere and moisture of
the soil are favorable to it: during the cold season the leaves fall,
and the growth is suspended; but the plant revives anew on the
return of spring. Those vegetables, the stemn of which is generally
ligneous, and whose roots penetrate deeply into the ground, have a
power of resisting cold, and brave the rigors of the winter.   In
these latitudes, the renewal of the vegetation of trees in the spring
presents an obvious analogy to the process of germination: the evolution of the buds represents this process very closely; and the phenomena at large, which we observe in annual plants, are for the
major part reproduced:-there is increase of size in the stem and
root, sprouting of leaves, inflorescence, ripening of fruits, production
of seeds, and then suspension of function.
In the tropics, where the temperature is nearly uniform throughout the year, vegetation goes on without interruption; it only varies
in its vigor, and this is determined by the abundance or the paucity
* Decandolle, Physiology, page 622
15
SEEDS. 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.
of rains and dews. The leaves which have concurred in the production of the fruit, and in perfecting the seed, fall as it were exhausted; but they are soon replaced, and their fall is only perceived
by their presence on the surface of the ground.
The perfect plant, therefore, whether it be studied among annuals,
or among trees that endure for a century, has analogous organs,
destined to fulfil the same functions, to conduce to the same endthe reproduction of the seed. These organs, which we shall study
in succession, are, 1st. The roots; 2d. The stem; 3d. The leaves;
4th. The appendages of the fructification.
When we follow the progress of a seed set in a proper soil, we
observe that from their very first appearance the roots seek or tend
towards the interior of the earth; the plumule, or young stem, on the
contrary, takes a direction diametrically opposite; it grows vertically and seeks the air.
The lateral shoots in herbaceous plants, and the young branches
of shrubs, form various angles with the principal stem or trunk.  The
first tendency of the branches is to rise vertically; but as they gain
length and weight, they bend more or less downward, yielding to the
power of gravitation.  Mr. Knight showed, by a series of ingenious
experiments, that the direction taken by the roots and branches is
mainly due to this force.
This able observer arranged a wheel of wood in such a way that
he could make it turn with different velocities in planes variously
inclined to the horizon. The wheel, which was kept in motion by
a stream of water, could be made to revolve vertically or horizollntally at will.
A number of beans were planted upon the circumference of the
wheel, in circumstances known to be indispensable to their gernlination and growth. By giving the wheel a sufficient velocity, it
was easy to make the centrifugal force greater than the centripetal
force.  In Mr. Knight's apparatus, this happened when the wheel
in the vertical plane performed one hundred and fifty revolutions ip
a minute. The whole of the radicles were then seen to turn their
suckers beyond the circumference in lines which were prolongations of the radii of the wheel, and their growth took place in planes
perpendicular to its axis.
The stems took a completely opposite direction, and after a time
their summits attained the centre or axis of the wheel.
In causing the wheel to revolve in a horizontal plane, the same
effects were still observed, when the rapidity of rotation was sufficient to annul the action of terrestrial gravitation.  But when the
motion was so far diminished, as merely to modify or to lessen the force
of attraction, without entirely annulling it, the plant took a course
comprised in a plane which formed a certain angle with the circumference of the wheel.   With a certain velocity, the roots were inclined 10~ below the horizontal plane in which the wheel moved, and
the stems then formed an angle of the same magnitude above the same
plane. The angle of deviation formed in this position of the wheel was
always smaller in proportion as the ral,idity of rotation was greater.
16 
Now, since gravitation influences the position which vegetables
present, as these beautiful experiments of Mr. Knight demonstrate,
a practical conclusion which seems to follow from the fact is this,
that the number of plants which may be placed upon a certain ex tent of soil, does not depend solely on the extent of surface; and
that the power of production of a field which is very much sloped,
does not exceed its horizontal projection. With regard to creeping
plants, and with reference to meadows, it is clear that this principle
is not rigorously exact: but in so far as plants with isolated stems
are concerned, many agricultural philosophers, and among the num ber Davy,* have admitted it as perfectly indisputable. This opinion,
as M. Corrardt has judiciously observed, is founded on the geome trical Itrinciple, which in itself is perfectly true, that an inclined
plane cannot be cut by a greater number of vertical perpendiculars
of a determinate thickness, than the horizontal plane which serves it
for a base. Thus, says Corrard, as buildings which rest on an inclined plane are raised perpendicularly to the horizon, it has been
concluded that an inclined plane can hold no larger an extent of
building than would the horizontal plane which it covers; so that
inclinations of surface do not actually add to the extent of towns. It
is further a matter of absolute certainty, that as rain falls vertically,
the quantity of water collected upon the eaves of a house is precisely
the same as that which would be gauged in the same place upon a
horizontal surface, equal to that of the building. But we should
very much deceive ourselves, adds Corrard, if upon the same principle we inferred that on the surface of an inclined plane we could
not have a tree more than upon the much smaller horizontal plane
which serves as its base.
For although plants grow perpendicularly to the horizon, and may
in this respect be considered as so many vertical perpendiculars or
laming, still, from circumstances which are peculiar to them, we
cannot here apply with propriety the geometrical principle in question. Because, to make the application exact, it were necessary to
suppose that plants required no space around them to thrive, and that
the whole surface of the ground might be covered with their stems
without any space being left between them, and without this proximity interfering with their growth and vigor.
But such a supposition is impossible, inasmuch as it is absolutely
necessary that plants should have a certain amount of space, both in
the ground and in the atmosphere, in which to extend their roots
and stretch forth their branches.   Supposing, therefore, the inclined
plane to be of considerably greater extent than the horizontal plane
which supports it, it will necessarily afford to a larger number of
plants, the spaces which their roots require for their growth and
nourishment. In other words, upon the inclined surface there will
be a larger quantity of vegetable earth, and more of the nutritious
juices favorable to vegetation; and for these reasons the space which
* Agricultural Chemistry, vol. i.
t B. Corrard, Verhandel. von der Maatsch. te Haarlem, vol. xv. p. 308.
2*
17
STEAIS. 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.
must always exist between plants may be less than on the horizontal
plane. Consequently, all the conditions necessary to fertility being
assumed as equal, the inclined plane will be capable of supporting
a larger number of vegetables having vertical stems than the horizontal plane.
The organization of different parts of plants, so worthy in all
respects of exercising the sagacity of physiologists, need not be
made a subject of minute research in this place. Generalities suffice in our agricultural science.  This organization, however complex it is in appearance, is probably much more simple than is
usually believed; we might perchance find the proof of this simplicity in the readiness with which organs, the most dissimilar in
their external forms and so different in their functions, undergo
modification and transformation one into another, it might almost be
said at the will of the observer. Thus tubers, those fleshy amylaceous bodies, which accumulate on the subterranean stems of certain vegetables, such as the potato, give birth to a plant which differs
in nothing from that which would arise from the seed of the same
vegetable.  Certain leaves,-those of the orange, of the ficus elastica, &c., will do the same. Woody stems, branches severed from
the tree and planted in the ground, produce roots and become independent plants. If the branches of certain shrubs be buried, and
their roots be exposed to the air, these last axre soon seen covered
with buds and leaves; while the buried branches acquire a fibrous
capillary structure, and in no great length of time they both present
the appearance and exercise the functions of roots. This singular
mutation readily succeeds with the willow, and it was upon this plant
that the English vegetable physiologist, Woodward, effected it for
the first time.*
The intimate structure of the roots, trunk, and branches, present
considerable similarity. Divided perpendicularly to their longitudinal
axis, three different zones, so dissimilar that it is impossible to con found them, are discovered in the different concentric layers which
make up their mass; these are the BARK, the wOOD, and the PITH.
A more careful examination shows that each of these zones may be
further subdivided.
The exterior of the bark is covered by an extremely thin, nearly
transparent and porous pellicle, formed by an assemblage of little
adherent scales; this is the cuticle, or epidermis, which encloses the
entire vegetable. As it is extensible within certain narrow limits
only, it gives way and cracks in proportion as the body of the tree
increases in size. The pores of the epidermis are minute openings
or mouths which communicate with the exterior by an oval orifice,
surrounded by a kind of contractile margin. It has been remarked
that moisture tends to close these pores, and that drought and the
action of solar light tend on the contrary to make them open. The
chemical nature of the cuticle which covers the bark appears to in dicate that it is destined to defend the plant against the too direct
* Davy's Agricultural Chemistry
18 
action of external influences. In certain trees, the cuticle is covered
with wax or resin. The most remarkable example of this kind,
which can be quoted, is that of the wax-tree (ceroxilon andicola)
which grows abundantly upon the slopes of the Andes. This tree,
(a palm,) which attains a height of between  130 and  164'English
feet, is covered over the whole surface of its trunk with a mixture
of wax and resin.* In gramineous plants, the epidermis is almost
entirely formed of silica. The bark of the birch-tree is covered
with a pellicle of an unctuous nature, capable under the agency of
nitric acid of yielding a peculiar suberic (the) acid.t
After the epidermis, in going from the circumference towards the
centre, a layer of cellular tissue appears, which is designated by
many physiologists under the name of the herbaceous envelope. In
the cork oak, the cork represents the tissue by which the liber or
true bark is covered, an organ formed of a vascular tissue, which
with care can be separated into numerous very thin flakes or layers,
which have been aptly compared to the leaves of a book.
The origin of the liber, or bark, is found in the most central part
of the trunk; it is the result of the exudation of the woody parts, as
Duhamel, with the same wonderful sagacity which characterizes all
his works, has proved. Having cut away a portion of the bark of
a tree in full vigor, and taken care to preserve the incision from
contact with the air, he perceived that from the surface of the wood
laid bare, and the edges of the bark adhering to it, a viscous matter exudes, which accumulates, acquires consistency, and ends by
becoming cellular, thus regenerating the liber which had been taken
away.  Grew called this viscous secretion cambiumn, a title which it
still retains. It is now generally admitted that cambium proceeds
from the descending sap.
The liber is a very important organ in vegetables; we know
for instance that it is necessary for the success of a graft that its
liber penetrate or be penetrated by that of the tree oii which it is
grafted.
The woody layers are situated under the liber. Those which are
at the greatest distance from the axis of the trunk, although they
present the fibrous structure, and the principal characteristics of the
woody tissue, still differ from it in being less hard and less tenacious; this zone, which at the first glance is easily distinguished
from the wood properly so called, is the alburnum, the soft or false
wood. its fibres are much looser, and its color paler than that of
the wood beneath it, the difference of shade being particularly apparent in the dye and deeply colored woods.
The alburnum becomes harder and tougher with age, and passes
into the woody tissue, the duramen or hard wood, properly so called.
The wood begins where the alburnum terminates, and reaches to
the centre, to the pith or medullary canal.
In dicotyledonous trees, a certain quantity of wood is formed
* Boussingault, sur le Palmier a cire.  Annaeles de Chimie et de Physique, 2 srie,
t. 59, p. 19.
t From the observations of M. Chevreul.
19
BAP,K. 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.
during vegetation at the expense of the alburnum; while on the
opposite side towards the bark, the alburnum increases in about an
equal proportion: so that in our climates, the alburnum grows each
year from a new concentric layer; but in tropical countries, where
the dicotyledonous trees vegetate without interruption, the annual
concentric layers are scarcely perceptible. To prove the conversion of alburnurn into woody tissue, Duhamel inserted a metallic
wire into it in several places. At the end of a few years he found
that the wire had become engaged in the proper woody layers.
The most central zone of the trunk or stem is traversed by the
medullary canal or sheath, which is usually filled with the pith, a
diaphanous spongy matter, consisting almost entirely of cellular
tissue.
The pith sends ramifications towards the external parts of the
trunk. Its use is not exactly determined; and notwithstanding the
high purposes ascribed to it by some physiologists, we have many
reasons for believing that its functions are not of great importance.
Experiment proves, in fact, that the pith may be removed from
young trees without killing them, without even stopping their
growth. One of the least unquestionable offices assigned to the
pith, is that of its being a reservoir for moisture with which it supplies the plant in times of drought, and when the ground does not
furnish a sufficient quantity of water.
The internal structure and progressive development of the stem
of monocotyledonous plants differ essentially from those which
we have just been describing in connection with dicotyledonous
plants.
If a perpendicular transverse section of the trunk of a palm-tree
be examined, the same arrangement of zones which is observed in
the dicotyledonous plants of our climates will not be perceived.
The regions of the outer bark, of the liber or true bark, of the alburnum, and of the wood, forming so many concentric circles round
a canal which is their common centre, are no longer distinguishable.
The trunk of the palm-tree presents a more homogeneous appearance.
The pith is disposed through the whole substance of the stem, and
the woody tissue, presenting a fibrous texture disposed longitudinally, is found intimately mixed, or felted, as it were, with the medullary substance. The bark, if there be any, is always very indistinct; sometimes reduced to a simple epidermis, it is with difficulty
distinguished from other parts of the trunk. In the beginning, and
when it first appears above the ground, a palm-tree puts forth a system of leaves, the adhering extremities of which are attached in the
same plane, and usually surround the niieck of the root. At the
second shoot, a system similar to the preceding one appears, which
throws off the outside leaves, and interrupts their power of vegetating. These leaves wither, bend towards the earth and fall off,
leaving a projecting circular ring on the stem, the only vestige of
their existence. The same phenomenon takes place periodically.
In the centre of the crown of leaves or branches, which terminates
the palm-tree plant, a bud appears which is at first small and blanch
20 
PALMSIS.
ed;* but soon displays the most vigorous powers of vegetation. Its
growth, inflorescence, and progress towards maturity are indicated
bv the decay and fall of the leaves which had hitherto protected it.
The age of a palm-tree, or rather the number of times that it has
fructified, or be come crowned with fresh leaves, is calculated by the
number of woody circles which are found marked on the stem.  Its
power of lasting seems to have no other limits than the resistance
which the base offers to the weight it supports. In these colossal
trees, a sensible diminution in the diameter of the stem is often perceptible towards the top, and in most of the species it is a fact
equally well proved, that the fruit decreases in quantity when they
have attained a certain epoch of their existence.   In the cocoa-nut
tree (lodicea cocus nucifera) the period of this decrease shows itself
at about the age of thirty years, although this tree continues to bear
for nearly a century.t
The leaves, the forms of which are so various, present however
the greatest analogy in their organization: the green membranous
substance of which they are almost entirely composed, is an extension of the parenchyma; the envelope which covers them answers
to the epidermis.
It is in the leaves that the sap is subjected to the action of the
atmosphere; it is there concentrated and peculiarly modified.   According to the position of leaves upon the plant, their under sides,
or those turned towards the ground, are distinguished from their
upper sides which meet the light from above.
The upper side of the leaf is covered with a thick and frequently
shining epidermis; this epidermis is sometimes endued with a substance rich in silicions matter, as in rushes.  In the Steppes of
South America I observed a tree, called Chliapparal, the leaves of
which are so highly silicious, that they are used for polishing metals.
Generally speaking, the covering of the upper surface of leaves is a
matter which is something of the nature of wax or resin. The
epidermis which covers the lower surface is formed in most cases
of a very thin, rough membrane, full of cavities and frequently covered with hairs or down.
The appearance and position of the leaves are not the same during the day and night.  In the dark, simple leaves incline to fold
up; in compound leaves, as in those of the acacia and sensitive
plant, the same thing is still more marked; the effect can even be
produced at will. If during the day a sensitive plant is placed in a
dark room, the leaves immediately close; on lighting the room even
with candles, they open again as if under the influence of the solar
light;I Linnaeus, who first paid attention to this class of phenornena, admnits that plants in the absence of light experience a sort of
sleep.
* This bud, in certain species of palmn-trees, is sought after as food, and is often
spoken of as the cabbege of the pahni-tree.
t Information coimmunicated by Mr. Codazzi. The trunk of certain species of pialmtrees showsv  an enlargement towards the middle of its height, as in the palma barrigoona
of Choco.
+ Observation of Al. de Candolle.
21 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.
The flower is the forerunner of the fruit, the fruit is the medium
in the heart of which the seed is developed. The organs which
constitute the flower are the calyx and the corolla, destined to support, nourish, and protect the pistil and the staminra, which are the
essential parts; the calyx is a green membrane which surrounds the
corolla, and in certain flowers replaces it.
The corolla is rmonopetalous or polypetalous according as it is composed of one or of several pieces   The stamens occupy the interioi
of the corolla; they are terminated by sumrnrits of a vascular texture; these are the anthers; the powder which covers and sticks
slightly to them is designated under the name of pollen.
The pistil placed in the middle of the flower is composed of the
ovary, the style, and the stigma.
The ovary encloses the germ, the embryo of the seed; but this
embryo is only developed by the action of the pollen. The style is
in some sort the tubular prolongation of the ovary; it supports the
stigma, which is the glandular part that receives the fecundating
influence of the pollen.
From what has now been said, the pistil may be considered as the
female organ of the flower, the stamens as the male organs.
Many flowers combine the organs of the two sexes.  These flowers are hermaphrodites; those which only contain one organ, are
called unisexual. Both male and female flowers are produced together on certain plants; in others, the flowers are all only of one
sex, male or female.  Polygamous plants are those which show  a
union of male and female flowers, or which have hermaphrodite
flowers on the same stemn.
In some flowers, the sexual organs at the period of fecundation
acquire the property of motion, so as to facilitate this grand act.
The stamens, for example, are seen in certain plants to approach
the stigma, to deposite their pollen on it, and then to withdraw.  It
occasionally happens again that stamens, which are at first naturally
in a position inclined with reference to the pistil, become suddenly
straightened in such a way as to cast their pollen on the female or gan, after which they resume their original position. In certain
flowers a very considerable evolution of caloric has been perceived
on the approach of the period of fecundation. In some arums, for
example, the temperature has been observed to rise to 40~ and even
50~ cent. (104~ to 122~ Fahr.) It is probable that this phenomenon
is quite general, and that it only varies in point of intensity.
Fecundation accomplished, the office of the flower is at an end.
It collapses, withers, and dies. But the impregnated ovary enlarges
by degrees, until it has attained maturity, when it presents two dis tin(t parts, wlrich by their union compose the fruit: these parts are
the pericarp, and the seed-the husk or shell and the grain.  The
pericarp always surrounds the seed; but it sometimes happens that
it is so thin and delicate that it blends with the seed.
The germination of seeds, the evolution of new plants, is only
accomplished under certain physical conditions which demand our
consideration.
22 
ROOTS, SAP.
We have already said incidentally, that in order that a seed may
germinate, it must be in contact with moisture, have communication
with the air, and be under the influence of a certain temperature.
The same conditions continue to be indispensable after the seed has
sprung, and the plant has been organized; and in addition the access
of light is now imperative.
Roots seek in the soil the moisture which is requisite to vivify
the whole vegetable. These organs are terminated by hair-like
fibres of extreme delicacy, and having spongioles at their extremities:
it is by these spongioles that absorption is effected. The following
experiment is sufficient to prove that this is the case: let such a
plant as a turnip be placed with the hair-like extremities of its root
plunged in water, and the plant will continue to live, although almost
the whole body of the root is in the air; let things be now so ar ranged that the hair-like filaments of the root are not in the water,
but that the bulb or body of the plant is so: the leaves will soon
droop and wither.
The force which brings into play the suction power of the roots,
resides in almost every part of the plant: thus a root deprived of
its spongioles, a stem, a branch, and a leaf, exert this suction power
when plunged in water. But the absorption effected in this way
has a limit, and we soon discover the necessity of making fresh
sections of the extremities, which have no power of renovation like
the filaments furnished with spongioles, which terminate a root.
We are still ignorant of the cause which produces the ascent of
liquids in vegetables, and which carries them to the remotest leaves,
in spite as it were of the laws of hydrostatics. We readily conceive'
how the spongioles of the roots, surrounded by earth abundantly
charged with moisture, should imbibe by the simple effect of porosity. We can also understand how, after having been modified by
the spongioles, the water and the principles contained in it should
be transformed into sap; but the porosity of the extremities of the
roots, and the chemical modification effected by the spongioles upon
the fluid imbibed, give no kind of explanation of the rapid ascent of
the sap. The force which occasions this rise is very considerable,
as was demonstrated by Dr. Stephen Hales in a series of ingenious
experiments more than a century ago.
Hales adapted a tube bent at a right angle and filled with water,
to the extremity of the root of a pear-tree, the point of which had
been cut off; the extremity of the tube opposite to that which was
connected with the root dipped into a bath of mercury. In a few
minutes a portion of the water contained in the tube was absorbed,
and the mercury rose above the surface of the bath to the extent of
eight inches. In the beginning of April, Hales cut off a vine stem
at the distance of thirty-three inches from the ground. The stem
had no lateral branches, and its cut surface, which was nearly circular, had a diameter of 8ths of an inch. To this section, he adapted a reversed syphon: and things being so disposed, he poured in a
quantity of mercury, which after a time, and from the effect of the
pressure exerted by the sap as it escaped, rose in one of the arms
23 
VEGETABLE PIIYSIOLOGY.
of the syphon, and remained stationary at the height of thirty-eight
inches above its original level.  This column of mercury, it is
obvious, represents a pressure very much greater than that of our
atmosphere.
The ascent of the sap in trees takes place by the woody layers.
It is easy to obtain conviction of this by making a plant absorb a
watery solution of cochineal. By making sections in the stem at
different heights, we can readily trace the colored liquid in its progress; it is undoubtedly the course which the natural sap would
have taken. We see no indication of the coloring matter in the pith
nor in the bark, the woody tissue alone is colored, sometimes entirely, but more generally in its younger parts only. The dyeing
which results from this injection of the wood is in lines, and parallel
with the axis of the trunk, like the woody fibres themselves; but
in some cases the sap may deviate from the rectilinear course.
Hales showed this by the following experiment: upon a tree he
made four notches, one above the other; each notch occupied one
quarter of the trunk and reached to its centre.  In this way the
whole of the woody fibres were cut through at different heights, so
that to continue its ascent the sap must necessarily experience a
series of lateral deviation, which in fact took place.
The ascending sap of vegetables, as it has hitherto been procured
for examination, is an extremely watery fluid, holding in solution
very small quantities of divers saline and organic substances.
Having attained the leaves, the sap there undergoes modification,
and becomes concentrated by losing water. It at the same time
experiences, through the agency of the atmospheric air, under the
influence of light, a great modification in its constitution.  Thus
elaborated, the sap takes a descending course; following the liber,
it retrogrades towards the soil, and therefore performs a kind of cir culation in its passage through the plant. The descending course
of the sap is demonstrated by throwing a ligature round the trunk
of a tree; after a time there is formed, above the part that is tied,
an enlargement which is owing to the accumulation of the principles
of the sap; but below it the tree experiences no increase.  T'lhe
descending course of the elaborated sap is no effect of simple gravi ty; because, if the ligature be thrown around a pendent branch, the
enlargement still forms between the ligature and the free extremity
of the branch. The descending sap passing through the cortical
layers must necessarily contribute to their formation; and it is
almost certain, as appears from the capital experiment of Duhamel,
that it is the cambium which is changed into liber, and so concurs in
the growth of trees. The concentration of the ascending sap, which
occurs during its passage through the leaves, by the simple effect
of evaporation, is the phenomenon which is spoken of under the
name of the exhalation of plants: this exhalation of plants, it is
easily understood, is favored by a high temperature, dryness, and
motion of the air.  In favorable circumstances, the water escapes
in the state of vapor.   Hales compared the watery exhalation of  rlants to the perspiration of animals, and made many experiments
24 
EXHALATION.
to ascertain the quantity of watery vapor which they usually throw
off.
Hales planted a sun-flower in an air-tight vessel, the top of which
was sealed hermetically by a leaden cover.  This cover was pierced
by two holes: one for the passage of the stem of the plant, the other
for the introduction of the water necessary to its growth.   For a
fortnight the apparatus was regularly weighed, and our ingenious
experimenter found that the green parts of the sun-flower threw off
on an average about twenty ounces of water in twelve hours of the
day. The evaporation was always increased during dry and warm
weather; moist air lessened it; during the night season, the evaporation was sometimes no more than three ounces, and it occasionally happened that it was nil.
Vegetable life appears to be intimately connected with the phenomenon of evaporation. From the inquiries which I have myself
undertaken on this subject, so well deserving the attention of observers, it would appear that a plant grows only when it transpires, and
that in hindering this transpiration, we in fact arrest vegetation.
We now associate with the phenomenon of exhalation the source
or accumulation of certain substances which are met with in considerable quantity in the organization of plants, although scarcely a
trace of them can be detected in the water with which they are supplied.  The water evaporating, leaves these substances behind; and
as the mass of liquid imbibed by the roots and exhaled by the green
parts is very considerable, it is easy to conceive how they should
finally come to be present in rather large quantity.
A portion of the water which a plant in full vigor absorbs, must
necessarilv enter into its constitution; the water exhaled by the
leaves, therefore, cannot equal the whole of that which has been
absorbed by the roots.  Sennebier endeavored to ascertain the relation which exists between the absorption and the exhalation, and li-e
found in the particular case which hlie observed, that about s of the
water absorbed was fixed, and became a constituent part of the
vegetable.
~ II.-CHEMIICAL PHENOMENA OF VEGETATION.
THE chemical phenomena of vegetation are accomplished by the
concurrence of the elements of the atmosphere, of water, and of
certain organic substances which exist as constituents of the soil.
The action of the atmosphere upon plants presents two phases
perfectly distinct from one another; germination, and vegetation
properly so called, which last comprises the development, the growth,
and the multiplication of species.
3
25 
26        CHEMICAL PHENOMIENA OF VEGETATION.
GERMINATION.
WE have ascertained that a seed, considered with reference to its
organization, consists, 1st. of an embryo which includes the germs
of the root and of the stem; and 2d. of the cotyledon, or cotyledons.
Considered with reference to their chemical compositions, seeds exhibit a certain similarity of constitution.  They contain: 1st. starch
and gum; 2d. a highly azotized matter analogous to the caseumn of
milk and animal albumen; this is the matter which is commonly and
very improperly designated under the name of gluten, and of vegetable albumen; 3d. a fatty or oily matter, rich in carbon and hydrogen.
Seeds contain either fixed oils, such as hemp-seed, rape-seed, &c.,
or volatile oils, as aniseed, cummin-seed, &c. The different print
ciples which are associated.in the seeds vary considerably in their
relative proportions: they also vary slightly in their nature. One
seed, that of the colewort, for example, will contain more than forty
per cent. of its weight of oily matter, while another, such as wheat,
will only contain a few hundredths. Oats may contain ten or twelve
per cent. of caseum  or gluten;  n certain varieties of wheat,
analysis indicates a much larger quantity.  The proportions of starch,
gum, sugar, or mucilage do not vary less. It almost always happens that these different substances are found associated in the same
seed; sometimes one predominates and the others only enter in very
small proportion.
After burning, the ashes of seeds are always found composed of
phosphates, sulphates, and alkaline and earthy chlorides. These
ashes also contain silica, and certain carbonates produced by the
destruction of salts formed by organic acids.
If some seeds, sufficiently moistened, are placed under a bellglass containing atmospheric air confined over quicksilver, all the
signs of germination will soon be perceived. In the course of a few
days, provided the temperature has been sufficiently high, germination will have made a certain progress.  Supposing that the temperature of the bell-glass has not varied, and that the atmospheric
pressure remains the same, we generally find that the air, in which
germination has been proceeding, has not changed its original volume; but it has been modified in its composition: a notable quantity
of carbonic acid has been formed, and a portion of oxygen has disappeared. T he volume of carbonic acid produced, represents for the
most part the volume of oxygen which has disappeared. Now we
know that carbon being burnt in a certain volume of oxygen gas,
produces sensibly an equal volume of carbonic acid gas. It was the
knowledge of this fact that induced M. de Saussure to say, that in
gerlnlnation, carbonic acid is produced by the combustion of a portion of the carbon which enters into the composition of the seed.
Germination and the appearance of carbonic acid, (which is always its consequence,) take place as readily in pure oxygen gas, as
in atmospheric air; but if placed in an atmosphere deprived of oxy.,
gen, seeds cease to germinate. Consequently, germination is out of
the question in azote, in hydrogen, or in carbonic acid, however fa 
GERMIINATION.
vorable they may be in reference to humidity and temperature.
Some formation of carbonic acid is indeed to be observed under
such circumstances, but then this gas is the result of the decomposition and putrid fermentation of the seed.  It is therefore by means
of the oxygen which it contains, that atmospheric air concurs in the
germination of seeds.
Rollo was the first who ascertained the production of carbonic acid,
during the germrination of seeds in an atmosphere of' oxygeni; but it
was MI. Theodore de Saussure, who bv delicate eudioumetrical experiments, demonstrated the phenomena in all their nicety, by proving that the oxygen consumed was replaced by a corresponding
volume of carbonic acid.*
There are some seeds, for instance, peas, and the seeds of aquatic
plants, which have the property of germinating under water.   Some
observers have, from this fact, come to the premature conclusion that
atmospheric air, and consequently oxygen. were by no means necessary to germination. Saussure has explained this anomaly by referring to the constant presence of air in a state of solution in water.
In fact, having placed some seeds of the polygonum amphibium under
water, deprived of its air by long boiling, Saussure proved that germnination could not take place.t
Under like circumistances, the quantity of carbonic acid generated
in a given time, is by so much greater, the larger the quantity of
oxygen in the atmiosphere which immediately surrounds  the gerininating seed.  Carbonic acid gas is, of all the gases which have
been tried, that which is most unfavorable to germination; and one
w\vay of hastening the process is to place under the receivers which
cover the seed, some substance capable of absorbing it as fast as it is
foirmed-quick-lime, for example.  By this arrangement the radicular increase is sensibly accelerated.{
The quantity of oxygen gas necessary to germination, is not the
samine in reference to all seeds; lettuce, the french-bean, and the
field-bean require about 1 oth part of their respective weights; while
TOth less is sufficient for wheat, barley, purslane, &c.  Saussure
moreover came to the conclusion that the carbonic acid generated
by these different seeds in germinating is proportioned to their mass,
and altogether independent of their numiber.{
Inasmuch as seeds during germination yield carbonic acid to the
atmosphere, it is quite obvious that they must lose some part of their
original weight. And this they do in fact; but the loss experienced
by seeds which have germinated is always greater than that which
would have resulted from the destruction of carbon that takes place.
Saussure attributed this excess of loss to the volatilization of a portion of the water which entered into the composition of the seed.[]
According to Saussure, therefore, the phenomena of germination
resolve themselves into the diminution of carbon and of the elements
of water.  It is, nevertheless, doubtful whether the chemical actions
* Sanssure, Recherches chimniques sur la V6getation, p. 10.
t Idem, p. 3.      1 Idem, p. 26.       ~ Idem, p. 13.       11 Idem, p. 20.
27 
CHEMICAL PHENOMENA, ETC.
are so simple as this; we know, for example, that M. Becquerel
considered the organic acid which appears during germination as
acetic acid, whereas it is much more likely that it should be the
lactic acid.  There is certainty of the formation of an acid during
germination; to prove its development it is sufficient to make a few
moist seeds sprout on blue litmnus paper, which speedily acquires
the permanent red tint indicatingi the presence of an acid.
The volume of the air in which seeds germinate is not absolutely
invariable.  On examining, with renewed attention, the action of
germinating seeds on a limited volume of air, M. de Saussure ascertained that certain seeds have the property of diminishing the
bulk of this atmosphere, while others perceptibly augment it.  It
must be admitted, therefore, that during germination, the volume of
carbonic acid produced is now greater, now less, than the volume of
oxygen gas that is consumed. The nature of the results obtained
appears, however, to vary in regard to the same class according to
the stage of the germination.
Elementary analysis appeared to me the most satisfactory means
of investigating the subject of germination.   I shall here recapitulate a few attempts that have been made in this direction, less however with a view to the final settlement of the question, than to point
out the general method of procedure to those who would enter farther upon this interesting portion of physiology.  The experiments
I allude to were made upon the seed of trefoil and on wheat.
The seed, on being dried at a heat of 110~ cent. (230~ Fahr.,) lost
0.120 of water.  Duly moistened, it was placed to sprout on a porcelain plate.  As soon as the radicle had attainied a length of from
4tth to -s th of an inch, each seed was placed in a stove, the temerature of which was sufficiently high to check the growth immediately.
The complete desiccation was then terminated over an oil bath at a
temperature of 110~ cent. (230~ Fahr.)
The seed put to germinate weighed 2.474 grammes, (38.193 grains
troy;) perfectly dry, its weight woull have been 2.405 grms. (37.128
grains troy.) When germinated, the seed, also quite dry, weighed
2.241 grms. (34.596 grains troy.)
Analysis gives us the composition of
THE SEED BEFORE GERMINATION.
Carbon..................... 51.5
Hydrogen......................6.0.
Azote.......................7.2
Oxygen..................... 36.0
100.0
THE SEED AFTER GERMINATION.
50.8
6.3
8.0
34.2
100.0
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT.
Grains troy.         Carbon.    Hydro,ges.    Oxygen.      Asole.
Seed placed to germinate  37.128 containing 18.865           2.223       13.369        2.670
Seed after germination    34.596         "      17.815        2.176      11.840        2.763
Difference-...... -  — 2.532            "    -  1.050    -.047    -  1.529    +.093
The total loss then during germination was 0.164 grm., (2.531 grs.)
while the loss due to the carbon, only amounts to 0.068 grm. (1.049
28 
GERMINATION.
grs.:) the analysis shows besides that in this particular case, the
excess of the loss in the present case over and above that which is
ascribed to the carbon, is not altogether due to the elements of water,
inasmuch as it is partly ascribable to carbonic oxide: for
1.049 grs. of carbon,
1.404"  of oxygen,
Represent -.453"  of oxide of carbon.
Supposing this to be so, and the first period of the germination of
the trefoil to have been conducted in a close vessel, the volume of
atmospheric air would have been increased; because 1 volume of
carbonic oxide -i volume of oxygen=l volume of carbonic acid gas.
It is consequently evident that for each volume of carbonic oxide
produced from the seed, there is one half of this volume added to
the total volume of the atmosphere.
It will not, perhaps, be useless to advert to the circumstance that
the increase of volume, which in the experiment I have just related
must have amounted to about twenty-five cubic inches, would certainly have passed undetected, if the experiment had been conducted
in a close vessel. For inasmuch as several quarts of atmospheric
air must have been used to place 38.193 grs. of seed in conditions
favorable for germination, it may readily be imagined that the increase of volume must have been too small a fraction of the total
mass of air to be appreciated with any certainty.
GERMINATION OF WHEAT.
The wheat employed, on being dried, lost 0.652 grain of moisture.
Thirty-one grains were arranged for germination, which process
was suspended immediately after the appearance of the radicles.
The young stalks were hardly visible. The germinated grain looked
slightly shrivelled: on being crushed, after having been dried, it
scarcely differed in appearance from ordinary wheat reduced to
powder, a considerable quantity of starch being still recognisable.
The wheat, before germinating, taken as dry, and free from ashes,
weighed 2.439 grms., or 37.653 grs. troy.
The seed when germinated and gathered, under the same condition, weighed 2.365 grms., or 36.510 grs. troy.
Elementary analysis gives for the composition of
WHEAT NOT GERMINATED.
Carbon..................... 46.6
Hydrogen.. -...............5.8
Azote...........................-.3.45
Oxygen......................44.15
100.0
GERMINATED  VHEA.T.
47.0
5.9
3.7
43.4
100.0
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT.
Grains troy.        Carbon. Hyerogen.   Oxygen.    Azote.
Wheat placed to germinate  37.653 containing  17.47          2.176     16.56    1.281
Wheat when germinated          36.510      "       17.15    2.145    15.83        1.343
Difelbrence..............    -1.143            — *0.032  — 0.031  -0.073   +0.062
3*
29 
CHEMICAL PHENOMENA, ETC.
0.324 of a grain of carbon +0.432 of a grain of oxygen represent
0.756 of a grain of carbonic oxide; 0.030 of a grain of hydrogen
would require 0.247 of a grain of oxygen to form water. Now, the
oxygen remaining, abstraction made of that which enters into the
formation of the carbonic oxide is 0.282 of a grain.
In the first period of its germination, therefore wheat, like trefoil
seed, experiences a loss which may in great part be referred to
elimination of the carbonic oxide. The chemical composition of
these two kinds of seed at more advanced periods of their germination, no longer presents relations so simple.  We  easily discover
that carbon continues to be eliminated; but the loss no longer corresponds with that which the oxygen of the seed ought to suffer, in
order that the total loss should be represented by a definite compound
of carbon. The phenomenon, in fact, becomes extremely complex;
and we can even perceive that it must be so, when we reflect that
in proportion as the green parts are evolved, a new chemical action
is set up entirely different from that which takes place in the earliest
periods of the germination: the green matter of vegetables having,
as we shall find, the singular faculty of decomposing carbonic acid
gas, and assimilating its carbon under the agency of light.
This action of the green matter begins to be manifested long before the first phases of germination have entirely ceased; so that
during a certain time two opposite forces are at work simultaneously.
One of these, as we have seen, tends to discharge carbon from the
seed; the other tends to accumulate this element within it. So long
as the first of these forces predominates, the seed loses carbon; but
with the appearance of the green matter the young plant recovers
a portion of this principle; finally, when by the progress of the vegetation, the second force surpasses the first in energy, the plant grows,
increases, and advances to maturity.
The presence of light is indispensable to the manifestation of the
chemical force by which the green parts of plants appropriate the
gaseous elements of the atmosphere.  Germination, on the contrary, may take place in absolute darkness; and it would be curious to
inquire into the issues of vegetation begun and ended under such circumstances, in which the organs produced by the seed would have
no power to fix any ofthe principles of the atmosphere to repair the
loss of carbon which the seed suffers.  It is evident that this loss of
carbon must have a limit, which is probably that of germination.
CONTINUED GERMINATION OF PEAS.
Ten peas, weighing together 2.237 grms. or 34.534 grs. troy,
taken as quite dry, were put to germinate in a dusky room, the temperature of which was maintained between 12~ and 17~ cent. (54~
and 63~ Fahr.) The experiment, begun the 5th of May, was ended
on the 1st of July.
The germinated peas, when dried, weighed 1.075 grm. or 16.595_
grs. troy.
30 
GERMINATION.
Composition of the peas:
BEFORE GERMINatION.
Carbon....................... 46.5
Hydrogen.................... 6.1
Azote....................... 4.2
Oxygen...................40.1
Ashes..................... 3.1
100.0
AFTER GERMINATION.
44.0
6.0
6.7
36.9
6.4
100.0
SUMMARY OF THE EXPERIMENT.
Grains troy.  Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen.    Azote. Salts, Earths.
Peas set to germinate... 34.534 cont'ng  16.055   2.115    13.843    1.447           1.064
Peas which had germi nated........ - -...16.595 ".             7.292   1.003       6.128    1.111    1.064
Difference.........-17.939 " -8.763 -1.112   -7.715  -0.336                         0.000
Peas, during their germination, pushed to this extreme term,
therefore, suffered a loss of about 52 per cent., the loss being ref'erable to each of their constituent elements, which are summed up in
carbon, water, and ammonia.
7.7,19 of oxygen taking 0.972 of hydrogen to form water;
0.339 of azote requiring 0.077 of hydrogen to form ammonia;
1.049 which represents as nearly as possible the quantity of
hydrogen eliminated.
In this experiment, therefore, we see that a seed weighing 3.453
grs. troy, suffered a daily loss of about 0.077 of a grain troy of
carbon.
CONTINUED GERMINATION OF WHEAT.
On the 5th of May, 46 corns or grains of wheat, supposed to be
quite dry, and weighing 1.665 grm. or 25.704 grs. troy, were set to
germinate in the dark.
On the 25th of June, the germinated wheat, when dried, weighed
0.713 grm. or 11.007grs. troy.
Composition:
BEFORE GERMINATION.
Carbon......................45.5
Hydrocgen....................... 5.7
Azote........................... spe3.4
Oxvgen.....................43.1
Ashes......................2.3
100.0
AFTER GERMINATION.
41.1
6.0
8.0 supposed.
39.5
5.4 calculated.
100.0
SUMMARY OF THE EXPERIMIENT.
Wheat placed to    
germrinate..... 25.704 containing 11.704   1.466   11.086;  0.879   0.588
WVheat germina ted.......... 11.007 " 4.523  0.343    4.373   0.879   0.588
Difference....-.. -14.697 " - 7.18 -0.803  - 6.713   o.e000 0o.o00
During the germination, continued for fifty-one days, consequently
this wheat lost 57 per cent., and the loss mnay be wholly referred to
31
h. 
CHEMICAL PHENOMENA, ETC.
the elements of carbonic acid and water, i. e. to carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen.*
These results of the elementary analysis of seeds of different
kinds, before and after germination, tend, therefore, to show that the
chemical phenomena which take place in the earliest periods of germination, continue to go on even after the organic matter of the
seed has been changed into a proper vegetable, imperfect, undoubtedly, but still possessing the essential organs of plants,-roots, a
stem, and leaves.  Deprived of light, the blanched vegetable may be
said to vegetate in a negative manner, expending, exhaling the elementary principles contained in the seed whence it sprung.
The general practice of sowing seeds at some depth in the ground,
led to the belief, for a long time, that light was prejudicial to germi~ation. Sennebier had even inferred so tmuch from his experiments,
which appeared to derive confirmation from  those of Ingenhousz,
and which were instituted for the express purpose of discovering the
comparative influences of sun-light and darkness on the germination
and growth of vegetables.t But M. de Saussure showed that the
prejudicial influence attributed to the light was connected with the
drying of the seed, in consequence of its exposure to a higher temperature.  Mi. de Saussure caused seeds to germinate at the same
time under two bell-glasses of equal capacity. One of these shades
was opaque, the other was transparent, and so placed as to receive the diffused light of day.  The temperature was the same in
either.   The  seeds sprung simultaneously under both  glasses.t
Within a few days, the vegetation under the transparent shade was
most advanced; which is exactly what we  should have expected
fiom all that has already been said of the functions of the organized
parts subjected to the action of light.
We are indebted to M. de Humboldt for a number of very curious
observations on the property which chlorine possesses of stimulating
or favoring germination. This action of chlorine is so decided, that
it is apparent even upon old seeds which will not germinate when
placed under ordinary circumstances. The experiments of M. de
Humboldt were made, in the first instance, on the common cress,
(lepidium sativum.)  The seeds were placed in two test tubes of
glass, one of which contained a weak solution of chlorine, the other
common water. The tubes were placed in the dark, the temperature being maintained at about 15~ cent. (59~ Fahr.) In the chIlorine solution, germination took place in six or seven hours; from
thirty-six to thirty-eight were required before it was manifest in the
seeds in the water.  In the chlorine, the radicles had attained the
length of.0585 Eng. inch, after the lapse of fifteen hours, while
they were scarcely visible at the end of twenty hours in the seeds
submerged in water.(
* 1The small quantity operated on prevented any estimates being made of the azote
lost.  Its proportion vwas suopp(seid n,t to have varied.  It is extremely probable, however, that there was some sight diseno.ggem.ent of azote, as in the preceding experi- 
ment.
f SaussuLre, Rech. Chim,ns es, i3. a                   De Saussure, op. cit. p. 23.
inHuboidt, Fl  ora lel'ic- i       tcr'.et, p). 15at6.
32 
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH.
In the botanical gardens of Berlin, Potsdam, and Vienna, this property of chlorine has been made available to excellent ends- by its
means many old seeds, upon which a great variety of trials had
already been made in vain to make them sprout, were brought to
germinate. At Schoenbrunn, for instance, they had never succeeded
in raising the clusea rosea from the seed; but M. de Hunmboldt sueceeded at once, by forming a paste of peroxide of manganese, with
water and hydrochloric acid, in which he set the seeds of the clusea,
and then placed them in a temperature of from 62~ to 75~ cent.
(143~ to 167~ Fahr.) It seems very likely that this discovery of M.
de Humboldt may yet be taken advantage of in our every-day husbandry. It is quite certain that the whole of the seed which we
commit to the ground, does not spring up, especially when we are
forced to have recourse to seed that is two or three years old; the
loss is then frequently very considerable.  But a solution of chlorine, or a mixture which would evolve it, could not cost much, its
use woould add little or nothing to the very trifling expense which is
generally incurred in pickling the wheat that is employed as seed.
~ III.-EVOLUTION AND GROWTH OF PLANTS.
As germination advances, we see those organs acquiring shape
and size \lhichl had appeared at first in the rudimentary state.  The
roots e-tendl in length, and increase in number. and their extremities
)ecoilme  covered with capillary fibres.  The stem as it rises puts
forthi branches in all directions, which become covered with leaves.
The cotyledons which had nourished the young plant during the
first days of its existence, wither and fall.  Under the influence of
the solar light the vegetation progresses amain, and the organic
mnatter, which finally constitutes the plant when it has attained maturity, weighs vastly more than the same matter which existed previously in the seed.   To quote a single instance from the family of
annual plants, a seed of field beet of the weight of.06175 of a Train,
may bv the end of the autumn give birth to a root which with its
leaves shall weigh 162099grs. or upwards of 28Slbs.*
This immense and rapid assimilation can have no other source
than the soil, the air, and water. Without, at this time, pausing to
consider the useful influence which the soil, and the substances it
contains, exert upon the entire development of vegetables, we shall
here assume it as a geniieral principle that water and the air of the
atmosphere alone, are capable of furnishing them with all the elements which enter into their composition, to wit-carbon, hydrogeri,
)xygen, and azote.  In other words, a seed miay germinate, vegetate,
live birth to a plant which shall attain to complete maturity, by the
* Actual weight of a beet-root grown at Bechelbronn in 1841
33 
EVOLUTION AND GlOWTH.
mere concurrence of water and the gases, or vapors which are dlt
fused through the atmosphere. This fact is demonstrated by the
following experiment:
In a sufficient quantity of properly moistened roughly pounded
brick-dust, (which had been heated to redness in order to destroy
every trace of organic matter,) a few peas were sown on the 9th
of May, and the pot was transferred to a green-house in order to
protect the plants from the dust and impurities which always fly
about in the open air.
On the 16th of July, the peas, which looked extremrely well and
healthy, were in flower. Each seed had sent forth one stem, and
each stem, abundantly covered with leaves, bore a flowier.
On the 15th of August the pods were ripe; no more water was
given, and by the end of the month the plants were dry.
The length of the stalks varied from about three feet three inches
to five feet; but they were extremely slender, and the leaves not
more than one third the ordinary size. The pods were 1.3 inch,
by from 0.3 to 0.4 of an inch broad. They generally contained two
peas each; one contained a single pea only, hut this was almost
twice the size of any of the others.
In the course of three months, therefore, these peas came to per.
feet maturity-ripe seeds were gathered. The analysis of the crop
which I shall give by and by, in connection with another questior.
which we shall have to discuss, showed that the harvest obtained
under the conditions indicated, contained a considerably larger proportion of each of the elements found than was originally contained
in the seed from which it sprung.
Carbon being the predominating principle in plants, it is our first
duty to inquire into the origin of so nimuch of this element as is assimilated in the course of vegetation.
Carbon is met with in very small quantity in the atmosphere in
the state of carbonic acid, and as this is one of the most soluble of
the gases which enter into the constitution of the air, water always
contains a considerable quantity of it in solution.  Carbonic acid
nmay therefore be in relation with plants by the medium of the air
amidst which they live, and of the wvater which is no less indispensable to their existence.  We have now to ascertain in what way
this gas evolves and sets free its carbon in favor of living vegetables.
Bonnet, having put some fresh leaves at the bottom of a jar containing spring water, observed that when exposed to the rays of
the sun, they gave off bubbles of air.  He  sought  to ascertain
whether this disengagement of gas was due to the leaves, or to
the liquid in which they were contained. For the spring water, he
therefore substituted water deprived of its air by boiling, and he
found that the leaves exposed to the sun's light inii this water, no
longer gave off any bubbles of air.  Bonnet, therefore, concluded
that the gas which he collected in his first experiment, proceeded
from the water.
In 1771, Priestley discovered, that by emitting oxygen, plants had
the property of ameliorating atmospherical air, which had been
34 
ASSIMILATION OF CARBON.
vitiated by the respiration of animals or by combustion.* This unexpected discovery immediately arrested the attention of vegetable
physiologists.  Nevertheless, Priestley was not yet master, so to
speak, of the capital experiment which he had announced to the
world of science. Hle had not seized all the circumstances which
assure its success. Occasionally the leaves which were the subjects
of experiment did not cause the disengagement of any gas; occasionally, too, the air disengaged, far from being oxygen-far from
ameliorating the atmosphere, was found to be carbonic acid gas. It
was Ingenhousz who made out the influence of the solar light upon
the phenomenon in question. He proved, by a vast number of distinct experiments, that leaves exhale oxygen when they are exposed
to the light of the sun. He perceived, moreover, that in the dark
they vitiate the air, rendering it improper for respiration and combustion. t
But the origin of the oxygen disengaged from water by leaves
exposed to the light of the sun still remained to be discovered.  It
was Sennebier who took this important step, by showing that it was
to the carbonic acid generally contained in water that leaves exposed to the sun's light owed their faculty of evolving oxygen gas.
With this interesting fact, it was easy to render an account of all
the anomalies that had been successively announced: boiled water,
as Bonnet had observed, could not afford any air, and spring water
should usually give more than river water, as Ingenhousz had noticed, for the simple reason that boiled water neither contains
carbonic acid gas nor any other kind of air; and that well water
generally contains a larger quantity of carbonic acid in solution than
river Nwvater.
In giving the grand features in the history of this brilliant discovery of the eighteenth century, it may be said that Bonnet was the
first who observed the phenomenon of the gaseous evolution effected
by the leaves of vegetables;I that Priestley announced that the gas
disengaged was oxygen; that Ingenhousz demonstrated the necessity of the solar light to the production of the phenomenon; finally,
that it was Sennebier, to whom was reserved the honor of showing
that the oxygen gas obtained under these circumstances is the product of the decomposition of carbonic acid.
It was, however, matter of supreme interest to study this decomposition of carbonic acid in its last details.  It was imperative, for
instance, to ascertain what relation existed between the volume of
the oxygen disengaged and the volume of the carbonic acid decomposed.  This was admirably accomplished by M. Theodore de Saussure in a long series of remarkable experiments, of which I shall here
endeavor briefly to state the main results.
The conclusion which follows naturally from the discovery of
Sennebier, was that carbonic acid exercised a favorable influence on
vegetation by supplying plants with the carbon which enters into
*Experiments an, Observations, vol. ii.
t Experiments on V%egettbles.
: Sur l'usae d(t 1imlles dans les plantes, p. 31.
35 
EVOLUTiON AND GRO)WTII.
their constitution. Percival ascertained by direct experinmnt tht
accuracy of this inference by placing plants in a current of atmo
spheric air, mixed with a pretty large proportion of this gas.  By
means of a comparative experiment, he saw that a plant in such
circumstances made much greater progress than one subjected to a
current of ordinary air.* The researches of Saussure, in confirming in all respects those of his predecessors, added this farther very
iimportant fact: that to act beneficially upon vegetables the carbonic
:>id must be mixed with oxygen.
Under a bell glass of the capacity of 398 cubic inches, placed over
,-ercury, with a delicate film of water swimming on its surface, he
introduced three young peas, which displaced about A4. of the inluded air.   The atmosphere was composed of common air and
rl)onic acid gas in different proportions.
The experiments were conducted successively in the sunshine and
in the shade. In the sun, the apparatus received daily the direct
:etion of the light during five or six hours: when the light was too
vivid it was somewhat lessened by shading. In the sunlight the
liants lived for several days in an atmosphere composed of equal
p)arts of air and carbonic acid; they then faded.  But they died
much more speedily in atmospheres which contained two-thirds, or
three-fourths, or afortiori which consisted entirely of carbonic acid.
The young plants throve decidedly when the atmosphere contained(
about- hth of carbonic acid; their growth was evidently more vigorous here than it was in simple air; and at the conclusion of one experiment which extended over ten days, almost the whole of the
carbonic acid was found replaced by, or changed into oxygen: the
peas had assimilated the carbon.
The  smallest quantity of carbonic acid added to the air, ws
found injurious to the plants when they were kept in the shade.
Young peas lived only six days under such circumstances, wvhe
thie atmosphere around them consisted of a quarter of its voliun,n oif
carbonic acid.  They lived ten days when the proportion of this
gas did not exceed a twelfth; but then they scarcely grew at all in
the mixture; they certainly made much less progress than tlihey
would have done in common air.  Saussure concluded, from  these
experiments, that carbonic acid was useful to growing vegetalles
only whenl present along with oxygen, and that it ceases to be
so when the atmosphere contains more than -,~-tli of its voltnume( of
the gas.
To determine the proportion of oxygen set at liberty during the
decomposition of carbonic acid by plants, Saussure composed an
atmosphere of common air and carbonic acid, the latter in the proportionl of 0.075; the mixture was confined under a bell-glass of
the capacity of 5.746 litres or 10.112 pints, standing over mercury
as in the former experiments. Seven plants of the periwinkle were
introduced into the apparatus, their roots dipping into 15 culb. centiam.
oif 5.895 cub. in. of water-the water was limited as much as possible,
i Atan(hef ster  Mcm,.irs. s, a   ii
36 
DECOlIPOSITION OF CARBONIC ACID.
in order that the absorption of carbonic acid, which must, of course,
take place, might be thrown out of the reckoning.  The experiment
was continued for six days, during which the plants received the
direct rays of the sun from five to eleven o'clock in the morning.
On the seventh day, the plants were withdrawn. They had preserved their freshness. All the corrections made fi)r temperature
and pressure, the volume of the atmosphere in which they had lived
was not found changed by more than about 20 cubic centimetres,
7.8 c. in., a quantity which is within the possible errors of computation; but the composition of the air had undergone very notable
changes: the carbonic acid had disappeared, and the eudiometer
proclaimed 0.24 of oxygen instead of the 0.21 which it contained
originally.*
RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS.
c. inches.       Azote.   Oxygen.  Carb. acid.
Before: Volume of atmosphere........... 2257 containing 1650    438.5    169.3
Hfter:      "           "               2257     "     1a0         5 
-dit" lcr~~:  11~~~ +22 57   1                1704      553         0
0            +54   +14.8  -169.3
The periwinkles, consequently, had caused 169.3 cubic inches of
carbonic acid to disappear, and given off upwards of one hundred
and fourteen cubic inches of oxygen. Had the whole oxygen of the
carbonic acid been set at liberty, this volume would have been prec isely e-qutal to that of the acid gas decomposed   but as no more
than one lhundlred and fourteen cubic inches of oxygen were obtained,
it must be inferred that the periwinkles had fixed 54.6 cubic inches
of this las.
'['lis is the conclusion, indeed, to which M. de Saussure came,
ili subsequent experiments  have confirmed  its accuracy.  The
t.'ll,iwiug table contains a summary of five experiments that were
instituted:
c. inches.                    c. iches.
Exp. 1. Carbonic acid disappearing.. 169.3  Oxygen disengaged...114.7
Azotc disengaged - - -.. 54.6
169.3
..121.4  Oxygen, disengaged...    88
Azote disengaged....   33
121
.... 58.5  Oxygen disengaged....47.5
Azote disengaged..... 8.2
55.7
x...120.2  Oxygen disengaged....96.6
Azote disengaged.     7.8
]04.4
.... 72.3  Oxygen disengaged....49.5
Azote disengaged.22.4
71.9
There is one remark which it is impossible to avoid making in surveying this table; it is to the effect, that the azote disengaged rep
* Saussure, Reclhcrcthes chiniiques, 1). 40.
4
37
Exp. P.
Exp. 3.
Exp. 4.
Exp. 5. 
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH.
resents almost exactly the volume of oxygen which it would be
necessary to add, in order that the oxygen collected should represent
the whole of that which entered into the constitution of the carbonic
acid decomposed. It is probable that the excess of azote which appeared in all these experiments was present in principal part in the
air contained and condensed within the interstices of the plants, or
held in solution in the water which bathed their roots. It would be
difficult to assign it any other origin; such, for instance, as that
from changes in the azotized principles of the plants that were the
subject of experiment. In his first experiment, in fact, M. de Saussure fixes the weight of the dry matter of the seven periwinkle
plants at 41.6 grains. Now, from numerous determinations of azote
which I have had occasion to make in regard to plants of very different ages and species, I think I can say that these periwinkles,
taken as dry, did not contain more than.385 of azote; this, in reference to the weight assumed by M. de Saussure, would be 1.042
grs. or 20.8 cubic inches of azote; and the volume of azote disengaged in this first experiment was 54.6 cubic inches. It is proper
further to observe, that the state of health which the plants presented on the conclusion of the experiment does not allow us to suppose a total decomposition of the azotized matters which entered
into their constitution.  These various considerations lead us to infer that the excess of azote collected must have been displaced by
oxygen. We are, therefore, at liberty to presumne, from the experiments now referred to, that the volume of oxygen produced probably
represents the volume of carbonic acid decomposed.
The necessity of oxygen gas in the decompounding action which
plants exposed to the light exert so energetically upon carbonic acid,
leads us to study particularly the phenomena which oxygen exhibits
in connection with growing plants.   When  a number of freshly
gathered and healthy leaves are placed during the night under a bellglass of atmospheric air, they condense a portion of the oxygen;
the volume of the air diminishes, and there is a quantity of free carbonic acid formed, generally less than the volume of oxygen which
has disappeared. If the leaves which have absorbed this oxygen
during their stay in the dark, be now exposed to the sun's light, they
restore it nearly in equal quantity, so that, all corrections made, the
atmosphere of the bell-glass returns to its original composition and
volume.
Leaves in general have the same effect when they are placed alter nately in the dark and in the light; there is, however, a very obvious
difference in the intensity with which the phenomenon is produced,
according to the nature of the leaves.  The quantity of carbonic
acid formed during the night is by so much the less, as the leaves
are more fleshy, thicker, and therefore more watery. The green
matter of fleshy leaved plants, of the cactus opuntzia, to quote a par ticular instance, does not produce any sensible quantity of carbonic
acid in the dark: but these leaves condense oxygen, and exhale it
again like those which are less fleshy, when they are brought into
the sun, after having been kept for some time in the dark.
38 
DECOMPOSITION OF CARBONIIC ACID.
Saussure applied the names of inspiration and expiration of plants
to these alternate effects, led by the analogy-somewhat  remote, it
must be confessed-which the phenomenon presents with the respiration of animals.
The inspiration of leaves has certain limits; in prolonging their
stay in the dark, the absorption becomes less and less: it ceases
entirelv when the leaves have condensed about their own volume of
oxygen gas.  And let it not be supposed that the nocturnal inspiration of leaves is the consequence of a merely mechanical action,
comparable, for example, to that exerted by porous substances generally upon gases. The proof that it is not so is supplied by the
fact that the same effects do not follow when leaves are immersed in
carbonic acid, hydrogen, or azote.  In such circumstances there is
no appreciable diminution of the atmosphere that surrounds the
plant.   The primary cause of the inspiration of oxygen  by the
leaves of living plants is, therefore, obviously of a chemical nature.
W\ith the facts which have just been announced before us, it seems
very probable that during the nocturnal inspiration, the carbonic acid
which appears is formed at the cost of carbon contained in the leaves,
and that this acid is retained either wholly or in part, in proportion
as the parenchyma of the leaf is more or less plentifully provided
with water. A plant that remains permanently in a dark place,
exposed to the open air, loses carbon incessantly; the oxygen of the
atmosphere then exerts an action that only terminates with the life
of the plant: a result which is apparently in opposition to what takes
place in an atmosphere of limited extent. But it is so, because in
the free air the green parts of vegetables can never become entirely
saturated with carbonic acid, inasmuch  as there is a ceaseless
interchange going on between this gas, and the mass of the surrounding atmosphere; there is, then, incessant penetration of the gases,
as it is called. There is a kind of slow combustion of the carbon
of a plant which is abstracted from the reparative influence of the
light.
The oxygen of the air also acts, but much less energetically, upon
the organs of plants that do not possess a green color.
The roots buried in the ground are still subjected to the action of
this gas. It is indeed well known, that to do their office properly,
the soil must be soft and permeable, whence the repeated hoeings
and turnings of the soil, and the pains that are taken to give access
to the air into the ground in so many of the operations of agriculture. The roots that penetrate to a great depth, such as those of
many trees, are no less dependent on the same thing; the moisture
that reaches them from without brings them the oxygen in solution,
which they require for their development. It is long since Dr.
Stephen Hales showed that the interstices of vegetable earth still
contained air mingled with a very considerable proportion of oxygen.
The roots of vegetables, moreover, appear generally to be stronger
and more numerous as they are nearer the surface. In tropical
countries various plants have creeping roots which often acquire
dimensions little short of those of the trunk they feed.
39 
EVOLUTION AND GROWVTH.
If a root detached from the stem be introduced under a bell-glass
full of oxygen gas, the volume of the gas diminishes, carbonic acid
is formed, of which a portion only mingles with the gas of the
receiver, a certain quantity being retained by the moisture of the
root. The volume of the gas thus retained is always less than that
of the root itself, however long the experiment may be continued.
In these circumstances, whether in the shade or the sun, roots act
precisely as leaves do when kept in the dark. Roots still connected
with their stems, give somewhat different results.
When the experiment is made with the stem and the leaves in the
ftee air, while the roots are in a limited atmosphere of oxygen, they
then absorb several times their own volume of this gas. This is because the carbonic acid formed and absorbed is carried into the general
system of the plant, where it is elaborated by the leaves, if exposed to
the same light, or simply exhaled if the plant be kept in the dark.
The presence of oxygen in the air which has access to the roots
is not merely favorable; it is absolutely indispensable to the exercise of their functions. A plant, the stem and leaves of which are
in the air, soon dies if its roots are in contact with pure carbonic
acid, with hydrogen gas, or azote. The use of oxygen in the growth
of the subterraneous parts of plants, explains wherefore our annual
plants, which have largely developed roots, require a friable and
loose soil for their advantageous cultivation.  This also enables us
to understand wherefore trees die, when their roots are submerged
ill stagnant water, and wherefore the effect of submersion in general
is less injurious when the water is running, such water always containing more air in solution than that which is stagnant.
The woody parts, the fruit, and those organs of plants in general
which have not a green color, stand in the same relations to oxygen
as the roots: they merely change thbs gas into carbonic acid, which
is then transported to the plant at large, to suffer decomposition by
the green parts. In this action we observe a displacement, a kind
of translation of the carbon of the lower to the upper parts of
plants.
The decomposition of carbonic acid by plants admitted, we have
still to examine whether, in the phenomena of vegetation, the leaves
decompose the carbonic acid of the atmosphere directly, or the acid
gas, previously dissolved in the water, which moistens the ground,
be conducted by the way of absorption into the tissues of vegetables,
there to suffer decomposition. The quantity of carbonic acid con tained in the air is so small, and the growth of plants, on the con trary, is often so rapid, that it might reasonably be suspected that
the carbon which they require was introduced in great part by this
way of absorption. In that series of beautiful experiments in which
M. Saussure exposed plants to the influence of atmospheres more
or less charged with carbonic acid, the water in which their roots
were plunged was in contact with the mixed atmospheres. It was
therefore possible that the carbonic acid gas entered the vegetables
in the solution by the roots. 
Sennebier made an experiment to show that leaves decompose
40 
DECOMPOSITION OF CARBONIC ACID.
both the carbonic acid which is in contact with them externally, and
that which is dissolved in the water absorbed by their woody tissue.
He took two branches of a peach-tree, and introduced them into a
couple of b)ell-glasses filled with water from the same spring.* The
lower end of each branch dipped into a flask.  One of the flasks
was filled with water charged with carbonic acid; the other contained air: the two bell-glasses were exposed to the light. The
leaves of the branch whose extremity dipped into the solution of
carbonic acid, disengaged 99.4 cubic inches of oxygen gas under
the hell which covered it: the leaves of the other branch only produced 52.2 cubic inches in the same time.
This experiment does not perhaps afford all the sufficient evidence of the decomposition of gaseous carbonic acid as it occurs in
the atmosphere, and mixed with a great nmass of air.  It appears,
however, that the leaves of plants have the power of decomposing
the gaseous carbonic acid which is mixed with the air, and that
even with surprising rapidity.
In the summer of 1840, I introduced into a balloon of the capacity
of about twelve quarts and a half, and filrnished with three tubulures
or openings, the branch of a vine in full growth and bearing twenty
leaves. The woody part of the branch was fixed by means of a collar
of caoutchouc to the lower orifice of the balloon; a fine tube, intended to establish a communication between the interior of the vessel
and the outer air, was introduced into the superior tubulure; the
lateral opening communicated by means of a tube with an apparatus
which measured with great accuracy the quantity of carbonic acid
contained in the atmosphere.
In this experiment the air, before reaching the apparatus for
mneasuringo the carbonic acid, passed through the great balloon containing the vine branch. The rate with which the air passed through
the apparatus was regulated by the flow of an aspirator, and was at
the rate of about twelve quarts per hour.
The apparatus was exposed to the sun; the experiment beginning
at eleven and finishing at three o'clock.
In one experiment it was found, all corrections made, that the attniospheric air, after having passed through the balloon, contained in
volume 0.0002 of carbonic acid gas; the air of the adjoining court
contained at the same moment 0.00045 of carbonic acid.
In another experiment, the air, after having passed over the leaves,
contained but 0.0001 of carbonic acid; the air of the court containing 0.0004 of the same gas. In traversing the space in which the
vine branch, exposed to the light of the sun, was included, therefore
the air was deprived of three fourths of the whole quantity of carbonic acid which it contained.
In operating with the same apparatus during the night, opposite
results were obtained; the air in traversing the balloon generally
acquired a quantity of carbonic acid, the double of that which the
atmosphere contained at the same moment.
* This was corummnon water containing carbonic acid
4*
41 
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH.
I conceive that it is by such a method as this, that the geniera,
phenomena of vegetable respiration in plants still connected with the
soil ought to be studied.
The experiments which I have now related must satisfy every
one, that the leaves of living plants actually assimilate the carbon
which occurs in our atmosphere in the state of carbonic acid; they
also explain the well-known fact that plants thrive better in air that
is in motion, and frequently renewed, than in a perfect calm.
From all wve have seen up to this time, then, we feel authorized
to conclude that the greater proportion if not the whole of the carbon
which enters into the constitution of vegetables is derived from tihe
carbonic acid of the atmosphere.   The experiments cited, show
how the vital force acts at first on the oxygen of the air during germination, and next upon its carbonic acid during vegetation properly
so called. But in none of the experiments which have been quoted,
have we seen any thing which could lead us to suspect that the
azote of the atmosphere was absorbed in sensible quantity.
It is true, indeed, that at one time Priestley, and after him, Ingenhousz, thought that they had observed an absorption of azote
during the growth of plants in confined atmospheres.   But the experiments which have been since performed by Saussure have not
confirmed their conclusions upon this point.   Saussure even thought
that he had perceived a slight exhalation of azote.
Nevertheless, the presence of azote in vegetables being incontestable, and the assimilation of this principle during their growth
being in some sort demonstrated by the fact that seeds are multiplied,
physiologists were led to imagine that the azote was derived from
the soil. And in nature, indeed, the growth of a plant does not take
place at the sole cost of water and the atmosphere. The roots
which attach it to the earth there also find elements of nutrition.
In ordinary circumstances the growth of a plant takes place by the
simultaneous concurrence of the food which the roots encounter in
the ground, and that which the leaves abstract from the gaseoti
elements of the air. As it is further acknowledged that the food
which is supplied by the soil is for the most part azotized, manures
have therefore been regarded as the principal and even as the exclusive source of the azote which is met with in vegetables. The
observations of Hermbstedt, in showing that the grain which was
grown under the influence of the most highly azotized manures
contained the largest quantity of gluten, gave a certain force to this
view.  Nevertheless, there are facts well established in agriculture
which induce us to think that in many cases vegetables find in the
atmosphere a part of the azote which is necessary to their constitution.
The majority of crops exhaust the soil; but there are still some
which render it more fertile.  W\e shall see, by and by, when treating of the rotation of crops, that if, after having cut a field of trefoil
once, the second crop be ploughed down, new fertility is communicated
to the ground, in spite of the considerable mass of forage which had
previously been taken from it. It appears therefore evident, that
42 
ASSIMILATION OF AZOTE.
in ploughing down this second crop we restore such a quantity of
organic or organizable matter, that, all things taken into account,
the ground actually receives more from the atmosphere than was
taken away from it in the first cutting.
Thie latest experiments of physiologists would seem to show that
plants merely take carbon from the air, and appropriate the elements
of water.  But the ideas whi(ch are now generally adopted in regard to
the active principle of manures make it difficult to conceive that the
soil, by receiving non-azotized matters only, could acquire the degree
of fertility which is certainly obtained from the cultivation of those
crops that are called ameliorating, a fertility which enables us to
follow these crops with others, rich in azotized principles.
There is therefore reason for believing that the ploughing in of
certain green crops, and fallowing, are not effectual merely by introducing carbon, hydrogen, and  oxygen, but azote also into the
soil. And it is absolutely necessary that this should be so, in order
that the fertility of those lands may be maintained which, firom their
position, can receive no manures from without.   Let us take, for
example, a farm laid out for the growth of white crops, and the
rearing of cattle. Every year there is an exportation of grain, of
flesh, and of the produce of the dairy; that is to say, there is incessant exportation without any perceptible importation of azotized
matter.  Nevertheless, the soil maintains its fertility; its losses are
repaired ly the principles which, in a good system of cultivation,
pass fiornom the atmosphere into the earth; and among the number of
these fertilizing principles it is beyond all question that azote must
be present, in order that so much of this element as has been exported may be replaced.
The best established facts in agriculture, therefore, concurred in
showing that azote is among the number of the elements that are
fixed by plants during their growth.  Still, as this truth had not been
proved by the experiments of physiologists, the question had to be
considered as yet undecided. It was with thie hope of clearing up
every thing in connection with it that I undertook the series of experiments, the chief features of which I shall now detail.*
I had necessarily to follow a method of inquiry different from any
which had yet been taken; I had no chance of arriving at more definite results than those which had been already come to, had I chosen the old line of investigation.  I therefore called in the aid of
elementary analysis, with a view of comparing the composition of
the seed with the composition of the harvest produced from it, at the
sole cost of water and the air.  By proceedinig in this way I believed
that the problem was capable of solution: without flattering myself that I have completely resolved it, I conceive that something
has been done in the right direction.   The subject is one of the most
delicate imaginable, and lie who enters it requires indulgence.
For soil, I made use of burned clay or silicious sand freed from
all organic matter by proper calcination.  In this soil, moistened
* Boussi:gault, Annales de chimie et de physique, t. lxvii. p. 5, 2e sdrie, annde 1838
43 
EVOLUTION AND GhOWTH.
with distilled water, were sown the seeds whose weight was known
By a number of preliminary trials, the quantity of moisture which
seed of the same kind, of the same growth, and taken at the same
moment, lost by drying, commenced in the stove and finished in an
oil-bath, at 1100 C. (230~ Fahr.) was ascertained. The porcelain
vessels, in which the experiment was conducted, were placed in a
glass house at the end of a large garden. During the whole term,
the windows were kept closed; but the sun shone on the house all
day. To remove the produce, the vessels were dried by a gentle
heat. The roots of the plants then came out readily; to free them
completely from any adhering sand, they were moved about in a little
distilled water, but never rubbed or bruised, for fear of loss; it seemed even preferable to leave a little sand adhering. The harvest was
then dried in the stove, so that it might be powdered; and the complete desiccation was effected in the oil-bath in vacuo.
In ascertaining previously by minuneration the weight of the ashes
contained in the seed, that of the produce, freed from all saline and
earthy matter, became exactly known.
Elementary analysis then proclaimed the composition of the produce; and it was only necessary now to compare it with the composition of the seed, to have ascertained the proportion and the
nature of the elements which had been assimilated during the vegetation.
FIRST EXPERIMENT.
CULTURE OF RED CLOVER DURING THREE MONTHS.
In the beginning of August a quantity of seed was sown, which,
being dry and free from ashes, would have weighed 1.586 gramme,
or 24.48 grs. troy. The crop presented a very good appearance;
the clover was from three to three and a half inches in height.  The
largest leaves could be included in a circle of about two inches in
diameter. The length of the roots varied between two and four
inches. Dried and bruised, the color of the produce was a deep
green.
The plant gathered quite dry, and supposed free from ash, weighed
4.106 grammes, or 63.38 grs. troy; analysis showed it to consist of
.In the Produce.
50.7
6.6
3.8
38.9
100.0
In the Seed.
Carbon..........50.8
Hydrogen...........                          6.0
Azote.............7.2
Oxygen...........36.0
100.0
RESULTS.
Cuarbo. Hydroleen. Oxyren.  Azote.
24.48 grs. troy containing after the analysis     12.44   1.4(6    8.815   1.759
63.38.........  32.141   4.183   24.155   2.408
38.90 _  grs. during cultivation.... +19.70  +2.717  +15.840  +0.649
Thus, in the course of three months, the elementary matter of the,
6eed had nearly doubled, and the azote of the plants gathered shows
44 
ASSIMILATION OF ELEMIIENTS.
an excess of 0.042 gramme, or 0.649 grs. troy, above the azote of the
seed sown.
SECOND EXPERIMENT.
GROWTH OF PEAS.
Five peas, very nearly of the same weight, and together weighing
1.211 gramme, or 18.69 grs. troy, were planted on the 9th of MIay, in
a soil of recently burned clay in rough powder. On the 16th of July
the plants began to bloom, each pea having furnished a stem bearing
a single flower.
On the 15th of August the pods were quite ripe; the stems were
then from 39 to 40 inches in height. The leaves were smaller than
those of the same peas grown in manured earth. The length of the
pods was about 1.27 inch, by a breadth of about 0.43 inch. Four
of these pods each contained two seeds; the fifth had only one, but
it was much longer than any of the others.
The nine peas gathered and dried in the sun, weighed 1.674 gram.,
or 25.84 grs.; after desiccation in vacuo, at 110~ C., (230~ F.,) they
weighed 1.507 gram., or 23.26 grs. troy; on combustion they yielded
0.9 per cent. of residue.
The roots, the stems, the pods, and the leaves, dried at 230~ F.,
weighed 3.314gram., or 51.16grs. troy; and by combustion gave
10 3 per cent. of' ashes.
As the result of several experiments, it was ascertained that peas,
exactly in the condition of those which had been planted, contained
91.4 per cent. of dry matter, and left by incineration 3.14 per cent.
of residue.  Thle five peas planted, taken as dry and free from ashes,
xwolld therefore have weighed 1.072 gram., or 16.54 grs. troy.
Analysis showed in the
Straw and roots.
52.8
6.2
1.6
39.4
1oo.o
Peas sown.
Carbon............... 48.-49-..0
Hydrogen...............6.4
Azote................ 4.3
Oxygen.................41.3
100.0
Peas collec.ted.
54.9
6.8
3.6
34.7
100.0
RESULTS.
Carbon.
Seeds 16.549, containing............. 7.950
Crop 68.560,'i  *.-. —.384-2 36.68                            0
52.09 grs. by cultivation.. -.....+28.73
Hydrogen.A
1.065
4.384
+3.319
From this experiment it appears that 16.549 grs. of seed found in
the air, and obtained from the water with which they had been supplied during their growth, 52.02 grs. of elementary matter in the
course of ninety-nine days' growth, during the warmest months of
the year; and that the quantity of azote originally contained in the
seed was more than doubled in the produce arrived at maturity.
* Peas...-............. -.......... 45.89
Straw and shells...................  22.66
Total weight of the crop........... 68.55
45
6.523
25.930
+19.11
A.t,!.
0.1110
1.559
+0.849 
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH.
THIRD EXPERIMENT.
GROWTH OF WHEAT.
Forty-six wheat corns were sown in burnt sand at the beginning
of the month of August. At the end of September, the stalks were
from fourteen to fifteen inches in height. The greater number of
the lower leaves were yellow. The roots were of very considerable
length, and formed a kind of mat, which made it difficult to wash
and free them from sand.
RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS.
Seeds.
Carbon............   -...... 46.6
Hydrogen................... 5.8
Azot e.......................3.45
Oxygen.....................44.15
100.00
RESULTS.
Grs.            Carbon. Hydrogen.  Oxygen.  Azote
The seed dried.............. 25.38 containing 11.84             ].46    11.19      0.87
The  seed dried.............. 46.65 " 22.47    2.67    20.57                       0.92
Gain byculture.............. 21.27                 +10.63   +1.21 +9.38  +0.05
In the course of three months' growth, therefore, the weight of
the seed had, so to speak, doubled; but the grain azote was scarcely
appreciable. Nevertheless, this experiment upon the wheat had
been conducted under precisely the same circumstances as that
made upon the clover. The two crops grew in the same apparatus;
they were watered with the same water, which they received very
nearly in the same quantity; the seed was even sown in vessels
having exactly the same extent of surface, in order that either crop
might be exposed to the same chances of error arising from the accidental presence of dust in the atmosphere.
The plants produced under the circumstances indicated were far
from presenting the vigor which they would have shown had they
been grown in the open field. After three months of growth, the
clover was much less forward than some which had been sown, for
comparison, in a manured and gypsumed soil at the same time. The
wheat showed the same weakness; and after the second month, I
observed that each new leaf which was developed upward in the
stem, caused one of those at the lower part to droop and grow yellowv. The peas, although they reached maturity, had much smaller
leaves, and both fewer and smaller seeds than similar plants grown
at large.
It is well known that it is in great part due to the fertility of the
soil in which seeds are grown that the health and vigor of young
plants must be ascribed. A celebrated agriculturist, Schwartz, ascertained, for example, that young coleworts or cabbage plants exhausted in a remarkable manner the soil in which they were raised
for transplantation. The good effects of the first nourishment ob
46
C,.P.
48.2
5.8
2.0
44.0
100.0 
ASSIMILATION OF ELEMENTS.
tained in a well-manured soil must extend subsequently to every
part of the vegetable; and it is easily understood that a plant which
has languished in its earliest periods of existence can never acquire
a good constitution afterwards.
It therefore became interesting to carry out experiments of the
nature of those already related, in connection with plants vigorously
organized, and which had been raised in the first instance in a fertile soil.
FOURTH EXPERIMENT.
GROWTH OF CLOVER.
In a field of clover sown in the spring of the preceding year,
several plants as like one another as possible were chosen. The
earth adhering to the roots was removed by careful washing under
a small stream of water; the plants were then made dry between
leaves of blotting paper, and exposed for a few hours in the air.
Three of these plants preserved for analysis weighed when green
6.750 grammes, or 104.20 grs. troy.
Three other plants, weighing 6.820 gram. or 105.28 grs. troy
were set in sand recently calcined and moistened with distilled
water. The transplanting took place on the 28th of May, and the
plants were forthwith protected from dust.
For some days they seemed to languish, but by and by they became remarkably vigorous. In a month the clover had grown to
twice its original height, and the leaves were of the most beautiful
green: the plants had in all respects as fine an appearance as the
clover of the same age which had been left growing in the field.
The flowers showed themselves upon the 8th of July, and by the
15th the flowering was complete: an end was put to the experiment
on the 1st of August.
RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS.
BEFORE CULTURE.
Carbon................... 43.42
Hydrogen...............5.40
Azote.......................3.75
Oxygen... -............ 47.43
100.00
AFTER  CULTURE.
53.00
6.51
2.45
38.14
100.00
RESULTS.
The trefoil transplanted, weighed when dry and freed from ashes.......13.64
After sixty-three days' culture on barren soil, it weighed...............34.96
Gained during culture..            *-*......................21.32
Hydrogen. Oxygen.   Azote.
0.74     6.46       0.50
2.23    13.32    0.864
+ 1.49    + 6.86 + 0.35
Carbon.
The plant contained: before culture.........    92
"             after culture..5.........  18.52
Difference...   +.......86....+ 12.60
Thus in two months' growth at the cost of the air and water, the
clover had, so to say, tripled its quantity of organic matter; and the
weight of azote contained in it was very nearly doubled.
. 47 
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH.
l'IFTH EXPERIMENT.
VEGETATION OF OATS.
I always failed in my attempts to transfer wheat plants from the
ordinary soil in which the grain had been sown to barren sand; they
never survived the transplantation.  It was not different with oat
plants; they also always died. It was at first supposed that the
delicate radicles of'hese plants had been injured in the process of
taking them up and freeing their roots from adhering vegetable soil;
but I soon saw that this could not have been the case, for the same
plants, treated precisely in the same manner, took very promptly
when transplanted to garden mould, and even when they were put
with their roots in pure water.  It was with water, therefore, that
the following experiment was conducted.
June 20th, several oat plants were taken up from a field, and their
roots were washed and cleansed. ~
Three plants preserved for analysis, weighed 159.011grs.
Four plants, the subjects of experiment, weighed 221.844 grs.
troy.  They were protected from dust, their roots dipping into a
vessel containing distilled water, which was regularly kept up to
the same level. By the middle of July the stalks of these plants
had grown to twice their former length; and at this time it would
have been difficult to have distinguished them from those growing
in the open field. By the end of July the clusters had formed; and
on the 10th of August the grain seemed ripe.  It was, therefore,
taken up and dried in the stove, and reduced to powder to complete
the desiccation at 110~ cent. (230~ Fahr.)
ANALYSIS OF THE CROP.
Gathered from the field.
48.0
6.2
44.0
1.7
100.0
Transplanted.
Carbon...............................53.0
Hydrogen...................... 6.8
Oxygen......-................. 36.4
Azote.........................3.8
100.0
SUMMARY.
Hydrogen.      Oxygen         Azote.
1.636         8.770         0.910
The  oats  when transplanted
contained......................12.967
After 48 days of growth in dis   tilled water they contained........  23.157
+10.190
2.979        21.180         0.81 8
+1.343 +12.41 0            — 0.092
The analysis, therefore, indicates a trifling loss of azote.
In recapitulating the conclusions obtained from these experiments,
we find:
First. That trefoil and peas grown in a soil absolutely without
manure, acquired a very appreciable quantity of azote, in addition to_
a large quantity of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
48 
ASSIMILATION OF ELE.IIENTS.
Second. That wheat and oats grown in the same circumstances,
took carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen from the,'  uld water around
them; but that analysis showed no increase of azote in these plants
after their maturity.
The mode of experimenting followed had it in view simply to
determine the assimilation of azote by certain vegetables, without
entering into the question of the means by which this was effected
and, indeed, in reference to the point, I can only offer conjectures.
Azote may enter the living frame of plants directly, or, as M.
Piobert has maintained, in the state of solution ir the water, always
aerated, which is taken up by their roots.* The observations of
vegetable physiologists are not generaly favorable to this view. It
is farther possible that the element in question may be derived from
ammoniacal vapors, which, according to some philosophers, exist in
infinitely small proportion in our atmosphere. These vapors, dissolved by rains and dews, would readily make their way into plants,
and might there undergo elaboration.
It is long since Saussure alluded to the probable influence of ammoniacal vapors upon vegetation. Prof. Liebig has more recently
maintained the same opinion, and has taken particular pains to prove
that rain-water always contains a very minute quantity of carbonate
of ammonia.
To this cause,-which must have the effect of infusing an azotized
principle into the tissues of plants, must be added another, which is
perhaps not the least energetic.   It is this, that under certain electrical influences, of which M. Becquerel has made a particular study,
hydrogen  in the nascent state, in contact with azote, may actually
give rise to ammonia. By means of this view, it becomes easy to
conceive how non-azotized or,ganic substances, under the mere influlence of the putrid fertmentation, might give origin to ammnoniacal
salts, which would then exercise a fertilzing  action on the soil.
During the growth of plants, a portion of the water absorbed by
the roots is evidently assimilated; and this circumstance enables us
to conceive the formation of many of the immediate principles of
vegetables, the chemical compositioni of which is precisely represented by carbon and the elements of water; such as starch, sugar,
etc. We can also utinderstand the presence of those principles,
which have further a certain proportion of oxygen in excess, inasmuch as we have ascertained that during the decomposition of carbonic acid by the green parts of ve,getables, the whole of the oxygen
is not eliminated.  But there are substances elaborated by plants
which, with reference to oxygen, contain a quantity of hydrogen
much greater than is requisite to form water; such are the resins
and other carburets of hydrogen in the cone-bearing trees, and the
fat oils in the oleaginous seeds. This excess of hydrogen led several
physiologists to conclude that water was decomposed in the course
of vegetation,-that there was fixation of its hydrogen and disen gagement of its oxygen gas.
* Piobert, M6m. Ie l'Acad6nie de lMetz, 1E37.
5
49 
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH.
Nevertheless, the presence of hydrogen in excess in certain immediate vegetable principles is no decisive proof of the disjunction
of the elements of water; and if no definitive conclusion has been
come to on the point, up to the present moment, it is because these
hydrogenized principles are produced in plants which live under the
influence of certain organic substances that are met with in the soil,
where they act as manures, their composition being always complex,
and often highly hydrogenized.
The experiments of M. de Saussure do not lead us to suspect
the decomposition of water; inasmuch as by keeping plants for a
whole month, under receivers filled with atmospheric air freed from
carbonic acid, no apparent evolution of oxygen was observed.
Operating in the same manner with air containing a certain proportion of carbonic acid, the quantity of oxygen disengaged was always
less than that which entered into the constitution of the acid decomposed.
This is the place to observe, and in connection with these very
experiments of M. de Saussure, how little satisfactory this partial
decomposition of carbonic acid, which corresponds to no definite
proportion, appears. We already feel the difficulty of conceiving
that this acid should be completely reduced by a living plant; that
is to say, that the whole of its carbon should become assimilated.
The entire separation of a body so greedy of oxygen as carbon from
its most highly oxygenated compound, must needs excite the greatest
astonishment.
The readiest conception suggested by the facts is this; that by
the agency of the solar light, and under the influence of the green
matter, carbonic acid is turned into carbonic oxide by losing a portion of its oxygen. This modification appears more in conformity
with the ascertained principles of chemical and physiological
science. Still it must be allowed, that facts agree as little with
this mode of viewing the question as with that which assumes the
entire decomposition of the carbonic acid. On the first assumption,
the proportion of oxygen set at liberty is too small; in the second,
it is too great.
The negative results of M. de Saussure, in relation to the separation of the elements of water during vegetation, were obtained in
the absence of carbonic acid, whilst the experiments which established the decomposition of this latter body, were necessarily made
under the influence of moisture.  It is possible, therefore, that the
water and the carbonic acid underwent simultaneous decomposition;
and it becomes interesting, taking this view, to inquire whether the
hypothesis according to which carbonic acid undergoes transformation into carbonic oxide does not acquire a certain degree of probability by calling in the effect of the decomposition of water in the
phenomena observed.
One volume of the gaseous oxide of carbon takes half a volume
of oxygen gas to form one volume of carbonic acid.  Reciprocally,
one volume of carbonic acid gas in undergoing transformation into
50 
ASSIMILATION OF ELEMENTS.
the oxide of carbon, will give one volume of the oxide, +-' a volume
of oxygen gas.
Thus, in the hypothesis which we now discuss, for each volume
of carbonic acid that is modified by the vegetation, there will be half
a volume of oxygen gas disengaged.  Any oxygen more than this
half volume which appears, must be regarded as proceeding from
the decomposition of water, the hydrogen of which will have been
assimilated by the planilt at the same time as the carbonic oxide derived from the carbonic acid; and this view would perhaps enable
us to conceive how the volume of oxygen which is disengaged during the process of vegetation, may exceed the volume which ought
to be produced, if the carbonic acid decomposed really passed into
the state of carbonic oxide.
WNe may perchance obtain a more convincing proof of the separation of the elements of water, in analyzing plants grown in a soil
absolutely without any organic matter capable of affording them hydrogenous elements.
In fact, if a plant, which is grown under such circumstances, contains hydrogen in any larger proportion than that which were necessary to transform its oxygen into water, we might conclude, with
some certainty, that the elements of water had been separated; the
objection made on the score of the presence of manure would then
be got rid of entirely.  The analyses which have already been laid
before the reader supply data for this investigation; it has only to
be ascertained whether, in the elements gained in the course of
vegetation, the hydrogen is in excess with reference to the oxygen
or not. The following table presents a summary view of our experiments:
HvdTyroo'en      Hydrogen    Hydrogen
as Esi,m,il'ted. fori   water.  i excess.
2.717          2.362          0.355
3.319          2.392          0.926
1.204          1.173          0.030
1.495          0.849          0.646
1.343          1.343            " "
Oxvfyfen
assimilatedl.
Experiment 1. Trefoil................  18.926
Experiment 2. Peas.................19.096
Experiment 3. Wheat............9.386
Experiment 4. Transplanted Trefoil.. 6.854
Experimient 5. Oats...............12.410
In the four first experiments, the hydrogen gained evidently exceeds very sensibly the quantity required by the oxygen to foirm
water. The experiment with the oats, indeed, presents an exception; but it must be remembered that here a loss of azote was ascertained. These analyses, therefore, appear to indicate an assimilation
of hydrogen in the course of vegetation, in consequence of a decomposition of water analogous to that of carbonic acid, and very probably effected by the same means.
51 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS.
~ III.-OF THE INORGANIC MATTERS CONTAINED IN
PLANTS-THEIR ORIGIN-OF THE CHEMICAL
NATURE OF SAP.
When a plant is burned, there always remains a residue, which is
commonly designated as the ash. Every part of a plant gives a
residue of the same essential kind; but it varies in its quantity
and somewhat also in its composition.   Equal weights  of dry
herbaceous plants leave more  ashes  than woody plants.*   In a
tree, the trunk gives more ash than the branches, and these give
less than the leaves.t The residue left by the combustion is commonly composed of salts-alkaline chlorides, with bases of potash
and soda, earthy and metallic phosphates, caustic or carbonated lime
and magnesia, silica, and oxides of iron and of manganese. Several other substances are also met with there, but in quantities so
small that they may be neglected.
The principles usually met with in the ashes of vegetables are
always found in the soil which exercises the greatest influence upon
the nature and quantity of the saline and earthy matters which remain after the combustion of plants. Those which grow in a soil
derived fiom silicious rocks, yield ashes that are richer in silica than
those that are produced in a calcareous soil. But, according to M
de Saussure, the quality of the manure has a still more decided influence on the nature of the ash than the geological constitution of
the soil; according to this observer, plants of the same species,
which have grown upon a calcareous sand, and upon a granitic sand,
contain the same kind of ashes, if they have been manured with the
same dung; and different species, although growing in the same
earth, do not contain the saline and earthy constituents of their
ashes in the same proportions.;
* Kirwan, Memoirs of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. v.
t Pertutis, Annales de Chimie, Ire s6rie, t. xix.
t: Saussure, Recherches chimiques, p. 283.
52 
ASHES.
QUANTITY OF ASHES CONTAINED IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF
VEGETABLES, ACCORDING TO M. DE SAUSSURE.*
N-AiNIE OF THE PLANT.
Times when taken
* br anlyslris.
10 May
27 September
10 May
May
September
~    *.
*    *.
10 May
23 July
10 May
5 October
~..
~.     o
20 June
20 June
20 June
Oak leaves.....
Ditto  do....
Oak branches barked                              
Bark of these branches.
Oak wood distinct from alburnum.
Alburnumn from same wood.
Bark of same tree...
Liber of the preceding bark..
Leaves of poplar..
Ditto     ditto....
Trunk of ditto...
Bark of trunk of ditto.. 
Spanish mulberry-tree wood..
Alburnum of mulberry..
Bark of ditto.....
Liber of ditto.~
Chestnut-tree leaves                             
Ditto    ditto                          2
Flowers of chestnut-tree                   
Ripe chestnuts                           O
Peas flowering....
Peas in pod.....
Beans in flower....
Ditto  in pod..
Bean straw.....
Beans.....
Jerusalem artichoke in flower
Ditto        in seed..
Wheat straw.....
Wheat......
Bran....
Indian corn straw....
Indian corn.....
Barley straw.....
Barley......
Oats~~~
Pine-tree leaves (Jura)...
Ditto    ditto  (Brocken)..
Pine-tree branches without leaves.
All these estimates of ashes refer to plants dried during several
weeks in a stove heated to 25~ cent. (77~ Fahr.) By such drying,
however, vegetable substances are very far from losing the whole
* Saussure, Recherches chimiques, p. 283.
5*
I
I
53
Asbes.
0,053
0,055
0,004
0,060
0,002
0,004
0,060
0,073
0,066
0,093
0,008
0,072
0,007
0,013
0,089
0,088
0,072
0,084
0,071
0,034
0,095
0,081
0,122
0,066
0,115
0,033
0,137
0,093
0,043
0,013
0,052
0,084
0,010
0,042
0,018
0,031
0,029
0,029
0,015 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS.
of the water which they contain. The quantities of ashes, therefore, mentioned by M. de Saussure, if they be referred to vegetables
absolutely dry, are somewhat too small.
I present a few estimates of ashes from analyses which I have had
occasion to make of some of those plants which arc the usual subjects of cultivation with us. The drying here was always performed
with care in an oil-bath heated to 110~ cent. (230~ Fahr.)*
Substance dried at 230 Fahr.  Ashes.
Wheat straw............... 0,070
Wheat.......................                 0,024
Rye straw........          0,036
Rye....................... 0,023
Oat straw.................. 0,051
Oats...................... 0,040
Potatoes...................                    h..... —--  0,040
Beet-root................... 0,063
Substance  dried at 2i30   Fahr.                 Ashes.
Turnip............... 0,076
Jerusalem artichoke............ 0,060
Stems  of ditto................ 0,028
W hite peas.................. 0,031
Pea straw.................... 0,113
Clover hay............  -..... 0,077
Mleado,w hay................ 0,090
After grass  (meadow)  --- --.... 0,100
We owe to M. Berthiert the following results of the incineration
of different kinds of wood burned in the state in which they are generally used.
Kind of wood.             Ashes.
Poplar bark................ 0,0020
Box wood................. 0,0036
Ol k barked, ash, pine, lirch, &c. 0.0040
Thorn.................... 0,0050
Aspin tree.................. 0,00()60
Oak bark.................. 0,0120
Black wood................0,0149
Mahogany.................0,0160
Ebony -.................... 0,0160
Oak (fagot)................ 0,0220
Fearns...-................. 0,0450
We possess several analyses of ashes from different parts of the
same plants in the researches of MM. de Saussure and Berthier.
As the knowledge of these saline substances may prove highly important in our agricultural applications, and as it further completes,
in some sort, the facts that bear upon the chemical phenomena of
vegetation, I here add a table of the results obtained by the skilful
analysts just quoted:
* Ann. de Chimie, t. i. page 234. 3e. s~rie.
t Traits des Essais, t. i, page 259.
54
I
Ki.d f ..d.
Birch....
False ebony
Hazel
White mulberry.
Saint Lucia wood.
Elder.
Judea-tree -
Oak (branches)
Oak bark - -.. -
Linie-tree... - -
A.h,,.
0,0083
0,0100
0,0125
0,0157
0,0160
0,0160
0,0164
0,0170
0,0250
0,0600
0,0500 
COMPOSITION OF THE SUBSTANCES FOUND BY M
pa
given
along with
the
chloride.
Idelin.
0,020
0,020
0,020
traces.
cc
0,013
0,002
0,035
0,015
K
d~
0,030
0,120
0,140
0,009
0,030
0,002
0,002
0,025
0,003
0,005
0,003
Plant, or particular part which
yielded the ash.
az
4
I11
0,120
0,150
0,060
0,259
0,062
0,445
0,465
0,050
0,036
0,078
0,325
Chestnuts          
MeiIyanthes trifoliata in flower
(buckbean)...
The same cleared of seed
Beans..
Wheat straw.
Selected wheat.
Wheat bran 
Indian corn straw
Indian corn.. 
Barley straw...
Barley in the husk. 
I
I
I
P.
0,280
To,9
0,050
0,320
O,300
0,097
0,475
0)
0,028
'A
r.
d
1.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS.
In his researches upon the same subject, M. Berthier determined
the relation of the insoluble to the soluble matters in each species
of ash examined; and the two kinds of salts were then analyzed
separately.
00
.0.0
o                    -o
.    o
o "     0                      - "  o
* ~.~
, U'   5                c a
v i  E Ha aa;v    Q2v  -
-4
z
1.
;4
0
El
p
H
;A
E.
V
V
V2
W)
w
p
c;D
;D
z
As
-S
0
S
-                                0
SC)               0               C)
-   00      C)li00S  0  
C)    C)
-  C)
C) 0 C) C) N 0.-  05 
56
*    *.....** * * *. * *     *      *     *....
.....       *....... * * *     *...
*... *.      *     *... *.     *     *.. 
Insoluble            Soluble
compounds.          compounds.
;o ~ ~-.:  v':;:  O.v'
O.... >.  ~., ~.   *~. ~-~ 
*;:: *  *  -  *    -:  =. -:
~.... ~::                 2
. -.......
ooooooo
_....c o                                 Horn- beam.
-    lb           ~                    Oak-bark.
-......... Lime-tree.
o -o                - g    o ~ 8,c  8 ooo St. Lucia-tree
(Prunus.)
Elder.
oo   o ~~o >o:  o  o o     Judea-tree.
g - o, t  g  o ~ ~  LimHzel.
cn 1 o  o o      -I  GO       C hines    e nml                                    _r
~J-o     ~  oc   o;o    o bery
w >O  0 s:s    i     og cc        Puu.
~q
r,
t
7p
t,
41
C)
r,
cP
o
o
o
o
o
CD
o
8
] o
i- 
cn
Q
QC
F
i -
c.
oc-I 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS.
COMPOSITION OF THE ASHEI OF SEVERAL PLANTS ANALYIZED
BY M. BERTHIER.
Fern.  Wbeat  Horse-tail  Heath.  Tansy.  Olseervarions.~~ 
Hor se-tail
grass.
0,120
0,114
,.
0,505
0,062
0,144
0,0'22
0,030
,,
Sulphate of potash *        - 
Chloride of potassium
Carbonate of potash. -
Silicate of potash....
Silica...............
Carbonate of lime       2 *..
Sulphate of lime.....
Phosphate of lime...
Ma gnesia............
Oxide of iron........                                   
Oxide of manganese.. I
Observations.
The     whleat
straw was from
a strong calcareous soil.
The tansy was
from a sandly garden soil.
Oxide of msngsnese.. P,,,,,,       0,061    0,002
A remark made by Berthier, and arising out of the preceding
analyses, is the absence of alumina in the constituent principles of
the ashes examined. The results previously obtained by Al. de
Saussure fully confirm this remark; and if in some cases traces of
alumina were detected, the circumstance was attributed to the clay
which might accidentally have adhered to the plants. According to
M. Berthier the absence of alumina is probably owing to its insoltubility in water, and its weak affinity for the organic acids. The soluble salts of alumina with mineral acids are, it is well known, unfavorable to vegetation, and in an arable soil they could not exist along
with calcareous or alkaline carbonates: they would be immediately
decomposed.
However, alumina appears actually to have been observed in the
state of salt in the juices of certain plants: lycopodiumn complanalum,
an infusion of which is employed as a mordant in dyeing, contains
tartrate of alumina;* the same salt has been detected in verjuice; and
as we shall see presently, Vauqutelin found acetate of:lumina in the
sap of the birch-tree.   1 may add, that in a considerable nulmber of
analyses of ashes, produced from plants and seeds of my own growing, I always obtained traces of alumina: but I would  not venture
to affirm that the earth here was not accidental.
Silica is met with in only very small quantity in the ashes of wood.
It is found, on the contrary, in considerable proportion in the ashes
of several annual and biennial plants, and more especially in those
of the cereals. Sir Humphrey Davy found silica in the epidermis
of the Indian rush.
If we conipare the ashes of the same species of wood grown in
soils of different kinds, we see, says M. Berthier, that they may differ very perceptibly; which seems to establish the fact that the soil
exercises a certain degree of influence on their constitution.  Thus
oak-wood from Roque des Arcs, grown in a decidedly calcareous
soil, yielded ashes altnost entirely c()nsistilsg of carbonate of lime,
* Berzelius, Traite de Chimie, t. r. p. 130, French translation.
58
Wbeat
straw.
0,004
0,032
0,130
O,-'15
0,96
0,623
11
11
Fern.
0,007
11
O,-,30
0,248
0,010
0,005
11
Heath.
0,050
0,01,2
0,068
0,575
0,280
0,30
0,010
0,014
0,061
Tansy.
0,033
0,090
0,167
0,Y65
0,434
o,Yoo
0,002
0,007
o,ow 
ABSORPTION OF SALTS.
while those left by an oak from the department of la Somme, contained much magnesia and phosphate of lime.* The ashes from a white
mulberry of Nemours contained more than 0.10 of phosphoric acid,
while scarcely any traces of it were found in those of a similar mulberry from the calcareous soil of Provence. The most remarkable
inference deducible from the analyses of M. Berthier, is that which
is connected with the composition of the ashes yielded by trees
growing in the same soil. It is observed that, for analogous species,
the ashes also bear the closest analogy; and on the contrary, it is
found that trees of very distinct genera yield ashes of quite a different quality; results which lead to this important conclusion, that
plants possess the faculty of selecting in the soil the substances
which are best suited to their special organizations.  This is a point
which we shall have an opportunity of discussing, when we come
to treat of rotations of crops.
The substances composing the ashes of vegetables, are not all in
the state in which they existed in the vegetable tissue.  In plants
there constantly exist organic acids, which, in general, are combined
with mineral bases.  During the incineration of plants these organic
acids are destroyed, and the result of their destruction is an alkaline
carbonate, if the pre-existing acid was united with soda or potash;
a calcareous vegetable salt, again, yields carbonate of lime; and a
mnagnesian salt gives magnresia, from the well-known inability of this
earth to retain carbonic acid at a high temperature.  Thus, the
greater part of the carbonates which enter into the composition of
vegetable ashes, are formed by the mere fact of incineration. The
salts which resist the action of a strong heat, as the phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides, are the only ones which in the ashes retain
the state in which they existed in the living plant.
NVater being the vehicle which must convey the mineral salts from
the soil into the vegetable, we do not always perceive how they can
penetrate.  To explain the presence in plants of a salt so insoluble
as the neutral phosphate of lime, M. de Saussure admits, from satisfactory experiments, that vegetable juices contain the double phosphate of potash and lime, and of potash and mnagnesia.t Besides,
several bodies considered in chemistry as insoluble, are not so absolutely. Silica seems to possess a certain degree of solubility,-at
least, MA. Payen has met with it in considerable quantity in the water of the Artesian well of Grenelle, and in the water of the Seine.
We know, moreover, that several insoluble earthy salts are dissolved in virtue of the carbonic acid always contained in the waters
with which the soil is soaked. Lastly, it is not improbable that
certain insoluble salts have their origin in the plant itself, engender ed there by the successive arrival and reciprocal action of soluble
salts.
It now remains for ius to examine by what means saline substances
are introduced into the tissues of vegetables, and within what limits
* These ashes were from the carbon of the oak; the insoluble part gave 0.14 of
phosphate of lime, and 0.08 of magnesia.
t Saussure, Recherches chimiques, &c. p. 321.
59 
INORGANIC (COONSTITUENTS.
the water, which is essential to livingf plants, may be charged with
them; for it is within what may be called common experience, that
saline solutions of certain degrees of concentration, oftentimes act
injuriously on vegetation.
The spongioles which terminate roots have too close a tissue to
allow any thing but fluids to pass through them. All attempts to
make them absorb solid bodies in a state of minute division, and held
in suspension in water, have been ineffectual. In these attempts the
spongioles have acted precisely like perfect filters, with which those
that we employ in our laboratories cannot be compared. Further,
the weakest solutions are not entirely absorbed by certain roots; a
kind of separation takes place; a portion of the dissolved salt appears to abandon the water at the moment of its penetrating the
spongiole. This follows from the researches of M. de Saussure,
instituted with a view to ascertain, 1st. If plants absorb substances
dissolved in water in the same proportion as they absorb water;*
2d!y. If plants make a selection among different substances held in
solution in the same liquid.t
In solutions severally containing eight ten-thousandths (0.0008)
of each of the following substances-chloride of potassium, chloride
of sodium, nitrate of lime, sulphate of soda, hydrochlorate of anmmonia, acetate of lime, sulphate of copper, sugar-candy, gum arabic,
and extract of humus,l-several entire plants with their roots, of
the polygonum persicariza, (lakeweed or redshanks,) which had lived
for some time in distilled water, until their roots had commenced
growing, were immersed.
The plants lived in the shade during five weeks, throwirng out roots
in one of the solutions mentioned. They languished, without showing any appearance of growth in the solution of hydrochlorate of
amnmonia, and could only be kept alive in the sugared water, wlich
soon became changed, by renewing it frequently. They died at the
end of from eight to ten days, in gum water, and in the solution of
acetate of lime. They held out but for two or three days in the
water which contained sulphate of copper.
Observations precisely similar made on the bidens cannabina pro.
sented the same results, with the sole difference, that this plant lived
for much shorter times than the redshanks.
To estimate in what proportion the substances dissolved were a)bsorbed, relatively to the water, M. de Saussure made use of the
solutions previously employed; but he brought thie experiment to a
close when the plants had taken up precisely half the liquid which
was feeding them. Each solution fed a sufficient number of plants
to allow of this condition being fulfilled in two days. Half of the
liquid remaining after each experiment was analyzed, and the quantity of salt found therein, showed, by the difference between this
and the quantity originally contained, the amount which had penetrated the vegetable.  Representing by one hundred parts thewhole
* SauLssure, Recherches chimiques, &c. p. 247.            t Il)id. yage 253.
T This entered into the solutions only in the 1roportioi ofi tv 9 ten-thousandths
0.0002.)
60 
ABSORPTION OF SALTS.
of the substance originally dissolved, it is evident that fifty of those
parts must enter the plant, if the absorption of the saline substances
be in proportion to that of the solvent.   But the experiment proved,
that in taking up half the volume of the liquid, the polygonum had
absorbed but
15 parts of chloride of potassium,
13   "     chloride of sodium,
4   "    nitrate of lime,
14   "      sulphate of soda,
12   "      hydrochlorate of ammonia,
8   "    acetate of lime,
29   "      sugar,
9   "     gum,
5   "    extract of humus,
47   "      sulphate of copper.
Under the same circumstances the bident took
chloride of potassium,
chloride of sodium,
nitrate of lime,
sulphate of soda,
hvdrochlorate of ammonia,
acetate of lime,
sugar,
gum,
extract of humus,
sulphate of copper.
16 parts of
15   "
8   "1
10   "
17   "'
8   ",
32   "
8    "
6'I
48    "
It follows from these experiments that the plants absorbed some
)itrt of the different substances presented to themr; but without ex(eption, they took up the water in greater proportion than the mnatters dissolved.
On multiplying and varying these experiments, M. de Saussure
alw-ays arrived at the same general results. The plants uniformly
took up more of the alkaline than of the calcareous salts, and more
sugar than gum, though the quantities of the different substances
absorbed varied considerably.
The sulphate of copper presented, in the course of these researches, an anomaly which is readily explained. We see that this
salt, evidently injurious to vegetation, was taken up in a large dose.
This arises from its corrosive action on the roots: sulphate of copper disorganizes the spongioles; and these organs once destroyed,
absorption takes place with more rapidity and in greater abundance.
A root deprived of spongioles is in the condition of a stalk, or
branch, the fresh section of which is immersed in a liquid. Observation proves, in fact, that substances in a state of solution, which
by reason of their viscidity are incapable of making their way into
a healthy root, are, on the contrary, readily taken up by a cut stalk
or branch, in quantity sufficient to dye it deeply, if it was a coloring
mailtter that was presented for absorption.
6
61 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS.
In the preceding experiments, the solution contained only a single
substance. In those which follow, M. de Saussure dissolved in the
water two or three salts, a mixture of sugar and gum, &c., in order
to ascertain whether the plants would make any selection from mixed
solutions.
In 25 fluid ounces of water two or three species of salt were dissolved, the weight of each species being nearly 10 grains troy.
Each ounce of water would therefore contain either 4ths or "ths of
a grain of saline or soluble matter.  As in the preceding experiments, the plants were made to absorb precisely one half of the solutions. Analysis pointed out the quantity and the nature of the
substances which remained in the liquid not absorbed, and conse quently the salts which had penetrated the vegetable.
In reducing this table, which exhibits the results obtained, the
weight of each particular salt in the solution is represented by 100
parts.
W      e sev een      t su b- weral substa nces tak en                 up by  the
I Polygontum  ill  imbibing
Tone half of the solutio          n.
100 parts by weight.
Sulphate of soda effloresced.
Chloride of sodium..
Sulphate of soda effloresced.
Chloride of potassium..
Acetate of lime.
Chloride of potassium.
Nitrate of lime.
Hydrochlorate of ammonia.
Acetate of lime 
Sulphate of copper
Nitrate of lime.
Sulphate of copper
Sulphate of soda.
Chloride of sodium
Acetate of lime.
Gum                                                               2
Sugar                                                             4
M. de Saussure confirmed these results in experimenting on the
common peppermint, (mentha piperita,) Scotch pine, and common
juniper. The substances absorbed in greatest proportion by the
polygonum and bident were also those that were taken up in largest"
quantities by these plants.
I
I
I
I
I
i
Ii
62
i,, th,!
,.i,h,hi,:h h,                            ..d,,.
W,,ight f th..b      t.k,, p by th,
Bide.t i., i,,bibi.g
h.if th
12
22
12
17
8
33
4
16
7
20
10
17
5
16
2
15
31
34
17
34
6
10
traces
26
34
35
39
9
56
13
16
traces
21
46 
ABSORPTION OF SALTS.
The section of the roots, even their destruction, favors, as we
have already said, the introduction of the matters dissolved.  Plants
whose roots had been removed, no longer selected the substances
dissolved in so striking a manner as they did previously; after muti  lation they absorbed them almost indifferently, in larger doses, and
perceptibly in the same proportion as the water which held them
in solution.
Roots with their spongioles entire, therefore, suffer one substance
in solution to penetrate the plant in preference to another. The
chlorides of potassium and of sodium, for instance, find entrance
more readily than the acetate and nitrate of lime; sugar more readily
than gumn; and precisely as when isolated, are these substances,
when combined, absorbed in much less proportion than the menstruum
or water of solution.
M. de Saussure is not disposed to admit that the preference which
plants evince for certain salts, for certain dissolved substances, results
from any particular faculty, from any special affinity. He rather
inclines to believe that it should be attributed to the degree of
fluidity, or of viscidity communicated to the water by the different
substances dissolved; thus the acetate and nitrate of lime, with the
same proportion of liquid, form more viscid solutions, which pass
with more difficulty through a filter, than the alkaline su]phates and
chlorides; and these latter salts in solution were absorbed by vege tables in greater abundance than the calcareous salts.  Gumn, which
imparts more viscidity to water than sugar, is also less capable of
being absorbed. Finally, pure water, more fluid than any of the
solutions tried, was also that which vegetables preferred to any
other.
In the results of the incinerations which we have mentioned, it is
obvious that in many plants salts are met with in very small proportion. This circumstance has induced several physiologists to consider the mineral substances found in vegetables as purely accidental,
and consequently unnecessary to their existence.   M. de Saussure,
however, observes that this scantiness is no true indication of their
inutility, and he mentions that the phosphate of lime, which forms
an element in the organization of an animal, does not probably
amount to one five-hundredth part of the entire mass. We shall add,
that as the phosphate of lime was met with by M. de Saussure in
the ashes of all vegetables which he examined, and as all the analyses
performed since the original labors of this celebrated chemist have
tended to confirm the accuracy of his general conclusionrrs, we have
no ground for supposing that plants could exist without the intervention of saline matter. There are annual plants which, when burned,
leave more than 10 per cent. of residue; and vegetables cultivated
in soils free from saline or alkaline matter, and watered with distilled water, though they will live and ripen their seeds in some
instances, still they never acquire the vigor which they possess when
grown in a fertile soil.
Duhamel ascertained that marine plants languish in soils destitute
of chloride of sodium; and this is so much the more readily con
63 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS.
ceived, as those plants which furnish ashes abounding in carbonate
of soda, always contain organic acids combined with the alkaline
base.   Borage, the nettle, &c., thrive only in places where they
meet with nitrates; and it is easy to discover that plants when dried
contain a notable quantity of either nitrate of potash or of lime.
The vine more especially requires alkaline dressings, in order that
the large quantities of potash taken from the soil in the tartrate of
potash of the grape may be replaced.
The organic acids, so different in their composition and in their
properties, which are met with in the different vegetable families,
are always found combined in the state of neutral or acid salts. The
proportion of base combined in a plant with a vegetable acid may be
readily ascertained from the ashes; for by the effect of incineration
the base passes into the state of an alkaline or earthy carbonate.
The vegetable acids undoubtedly perform important functions in the
organism of vegetables, and their formation probably depends on the
influence of the bases with which they form salts. The nature of
the oxide or base itself appears to be of little importance; it is
enough that it be present in the plant.  It is known that certain bases
may mutually replace each other, equivalent for equivalent.
These principles assumed, Prof. Liebig draws a remarkable inference from the composition of the ashes of different kinds of wood;
namely, that for each vegetable family the sum of the oxygen of the
bases combined with the organic acids will be a constant number;
or, in other words, the species of one and the same family will coln taini the same number of basic equivalents combined with vegetable
acids.
Thus, 100 parts of the ashes of a Breven pine-tree, analyzed by
Saussure, contain:
Carbonate of potash........ 3.60 Oxygen of the potash........  41
" lime........-46.34 " lime..........7.33 9.01 ox.
"   magnesia. —  6.77               magnesia-....1.27
Carbonates...... -.. 56.71
The ashes of a pine from Mount La Salle yielded
Carbonate of potash........ 7.36 Oxygen of the potash........  085  95
lime.......... 51.69 " lime..........8.10            ox.
"   magnesia..... 0.00
58.55
M. Berthier found in the ashes of a fir-tree from Allevard the
following bases:
Potash and Soda............... 16.8 Oxygen.........  3.42)
Lime............        -     ----- —...29.5 "...........8.20 12.82
Magnesia..................... 3.2... "                 -1.20
49.5
One part of the alkalies containing 1.20 of oxygen was combined
with mineral acids, forming sulphates, phosphates, and a chloride
The oxygen of the bases combined with the carbonic acid is consequently reduced to 11.62.
The ashes of a Norway fir, according to the same analyst, con.
taining:
64 
SAP.
Potash          1410 Oygn........................2.40 
Soda.          -.* —*....-20..0. i..... 5.30
~Liioe. ~~' — 3 0     ] —.- 1.3.3 45 184 oxygen.
Magne sia......... 14.35..............-69J
51.45
In this ash the bases belonging to the inorganic salts contain 1.37
of oxygen. The oxygen of the bases of the carbonates, or in other
words of the bases which formed organic salts in the tree, therefore,
becomes 11.47.  The numbers 9.01 and 8.95 on the one hand, and
11.62 and 11.47 on the other, which represent the quantity of oxygen of the whole of the bases in the ashes obtained from plants of
the same species, differ so little, that they may be considered as
identical.
Accurate analyses of ashes of plants of the same species grown
in soils of different kinds, will determine, says Prof. Liebig, whether
the fact, deduced from the composition of the ashes of the pine and
fir-tree, constitutes a definitive law.*
Be this as it may, the utility of alkalies in vegetation cannot be
a matter of doubt; many usages in agriculture prove it in the
clearest manner; and, according to M. Liebig, the fact of the formation of the organic alkaloides in plants affords an additional proof
of it. MI. Liebig thinks that the organic alkalies have a particular
tendency to form in the absence of mineral bases; thus potatoes
which germinate in cellars, under conditions where the soil cannot
supply them with potash, soda, or lime, develop an organic alkali,
solanine, which is not found in the tubers of this vegetable as usually
cultivated.t Inthe cinchonas, quinine and cinchonine are combined
with quinic acid; but there is frequently found quinate of lime also.
According to the same chemist, the latter base holds the place.of a
vegetable alkali in the organism; the more prevalent it is in the soil,
the less r'ich will the cinchona plant be in quinine and cinchonine.1
These ingenious views certainly deserve the careful attention of
physiologists; they are calculated to add new interest to the study
of the chemical constitution of the ashes of vegetables.
The inorganic substances contained in vegetables evidently come
from the soil. By growing seeds, as M. Lassaigne did, in flowers
of sulphur, moistened with distilled water, the plant produced contained neither more nor less saline and earthy matter than was originally present in the seed.
The water absorbed by the roots, then, becomes charged during
its stay in the ground with the various soluble substances which
may be met with there, and which generally contribute to its fertility; suck'. especially are the salts derived from decomposed organic
substances.   Water charged with small quantities of the soluble
substances diffused through the soil, constitutes the ascending sap.
When it has penetrated the plant, immediately after its passage by
the spongi les of the roots, perhaps even while traversing these
* Liebig, Chimie Organique, Introduction, p. cxi.
t Liebig, ideri. p. cxiv.
+ Liebig, ident.
6*
65 
66    TRANSITION OF INORGANIC INTO ORGANIC MATTER.
parts, the organic matters dissolved in the fluid appear to undergo
important modifications; for in the sap substances are detected
which could not have existed in the water which moistened the soil.
During its ascent the sap increases in density, as was ascertained
by Mlr. Kniglht, according to whom, the sap of an acer platarnoides
taken at the level of the ground, has a density of 1.004; at 60 feet
above it this density becomes  1.008, and at 13 feet, 1.012.  From
this MAr. Knight concluded that the sap took up nutritive matter
deposited in the vegetable tissues which it traversed in its ascent.*
\We have already seen that the sap, after being elaborated in the
green parts of trees, takes a route the reverse of that which it followed at first, and we therefore spoke of this modified sap as the
descending sap. It is very possible that in Knight's observations
the liquid examined was a mixture of the two saps.
We should not be over hasty in concluding that the action of the
two species of sap was exerted separately in promoting the development of the plant; it is very probable, as Dutrochet thinks, that the
modified sap, by insinuating itself into the permeable tissue of the
vegetable, is continually mixed with the ascending sap, in order to
concur in promoting the growth of the buds.t The difficulty of
obtaining each particular sap separately, if such a separation is really
possible, prevents the analytical conclusions we have from possessing all the accuracy that seems desirable.
Vauquelin has studied the sap of the birch-tree, of the hornbeam,
of the beech, of the chestnut, and of the elm.
The sap of the hornbeam (Carpinus sylvestris) was obtained in
the months of April and SMay. At this period it is colorless and
clear as water; its taste is slightly saccharine; its odor resembles
that of whey; it reddens turnsole paper.   The  sap of this tree
contains water in very large quantity, sugar, extractive mrnatter,t
and free acetic acid, acetate of lime and acetate of potash, in very
small quantity.
This sap left to itself presents in succession all the phenomena,f
the vinous and then of the acetous fermentation.~
The sap of the birch-tree reddens turnsole intensely; it is colorless, and has a sweet taste. The water which forms the greater
part of it, holds in solution sugar, extractive matter, acetate of
lime, acetate of alumina, and acetate of potash.
When properly concentrated by evaporation, it ferments on the
addition of yeast, and then yields alcohol on distillation. The pre sence of the acetate of alumina may appear extraordinary in this
sap, for this reason, that alumina has not yet been discovered in the
ashes of the birch-tree.
Sap of the beech, (Fagus sylvestris.)  The analysis was made in
March and April. The color of the sap was a tawny red; it had
the taste of an infusion of tanner's bark:it reddened turnsole slight
* Decandolle, Physiologie, t. i. p. 204.
t Dlutrochet, sur la Structure, &c. p. 36
t Probably azotized.
( Vauquelin, Annales de Chimie, t. xxxi. p. 20, 16re s/rie. 
.y. It contained, in very small quantity, acetate of lime, acetate
of potash, acetate of alumina, extractive matter, tannin acetic acid,
and gallic acid.
The sap of the c/hestnut-tree, according to Vauquelin, who, foi
want of a sufEiclent quantity of the fluid, was able to study it but
very superficially, contains  mucilage, nitrate of potash, and the
acetates of potash and lime.
The sap of the elm was examined at three periods; first, at the
commencement of April, then some days after, and lastly, a month
later.  At the beginning of April its color was yellow, its taste
sweet and mucilaginous; it was scarcely acid.  Analysis indicated:
water 1027.90, acetate of potash 9.23, organic matter 1.06, carbonate of lime 0.80.
At the second period it contained a little more extractive organic
matter, and a little less carbonate of lime and acetate of potash.
The last examination showed that these two salts had still further
diminished in quantity. When exposed to the air, the sap of the
elm undergoes decomposition, and becomes alkaline: the acetate of
potash passes into the state of carbonate.
M. Regimbeau found in the sap of the vine,* bitartrate of potash,
tartrate of lime, mucilage, and free carbonic acid.
The sap of thie maple-tree contains a very considerable q(uantity
of sugar. In Canada, this sap, properly treated, yields sugar which
is identical with that of the cane.   The nature of the sap is subject
to variations; and Duharnel states, that at a certain season it loses
its saccharine taste, and acquires an herbaceous flavor.t
Liebig and Will detected the presence of ammoniacal salts in the
sap of the maple and hirch-tree, and in the tears of the vine.  M.
3iot examined the sap of a considerable number of trees, and ascertained that the sugar in them often exists in two different states; in
that of cane-sugar, properly so called, and in that of grape-sugar,
which, as chemists admit, differs from the former only in the possession of an additional equivalent of water. The saps which M.
Biot examined, contained besides some animal matter  (albumine)
and a gummy matter; he found no free carbonic acid. The object
which lie had in view, namely, to study the changes which occur in
the nature of sugar, did not lead M. Biot to notice the minute quantities of salts with organic acids which Vauquelin met with in saps.
TI'he trunk of a walnut-tree, tapped on the 11th of February,
yielded a sap containing some cane-sugar. The saps of the sycamore, of the acer negundo, and of the lilac-tree, contained the same
species of sugar; but that of the birch-tree held in solution some
grape-sugar. In the sycamore and birch-tree, M. Biot observed
an extremely interesting fact. He ascertained, on felling these trees,
that the greater portion of the descending sap was accumulated towards the middle of the trunk. That of the birch-tree was acid
and saccharine; the sap of that portion of the trunk which was
* Journal de Pharmracie, t. xviii. p. 36.
t Annales de l'Agriculture, Francaise, t. v. enie s6rie, p. 339.
67
SAP.
iv 
68    TRANSITION OF INORGANIC INTO ORGANIC MATTER.
butied in tile ground, contained no sugar, but a substance possessing
the principal characters of gum.* It was probably an effect of the
season; for Knight states, that he never could discover the least
trace of saccharine matter during winter in the alburnun either of
the stem or of the roots of the sycamore.t
SAP OF THE BAMBUSA GUADUAS.
The guaduas grows in the hot and marshy countries of the tropical regions; this grass frequently attains the enormous height of
from 65 to 100 feet. Its stem, which is hollow, is divided through
its entire length into joints spaced rather regularly at distances of
from 11 to 12 inches. Each joint indicates the presence of a woody
partition, which seems to divide the stem of the guaduas into so
many super-imposed tubes. On perforating it immediately above a
knot, a clear limpid fluid flows out, which cannot be distinguished
from the purest water. This indeed is a store of water of which
travellers have frequently availed themselves. This sap, as I have
been assured by the inhabitants of the countries where I observed
the guaduas, never completely fills the hollow space included between two joints. Analysis satisfied me that the sap of the guaduas
is almost pure water. Re-agents detected merely traces of sulphates
and chlorides. On evaporating a considerable quantity of it, I was
able to discover, independently of these traces of soluble salts, a
very small proportion of organic matter and of silica; the latter substance is probably the element which predominates in the sap of the
guaduas.
SAP OF THE BANANA PLANT, (MUSA PARADISICA.)
The sap of the banana possesses a well-marked astringent taste;
it reddens tincture of litmus. Immediately after escaping from the
plant, it is limpid and colorless, like water; nevertheless, it possesses
the property of imparting a yellow color to stuffs immersed in it.
Exposed to the air it becomes turbid, and throws down fiocculi of a
dirty rose color. It is to the action of oxygen that this deposite is
owing; for it takes place only in contact with the air. After the
formation of this deposite, the sap no longer colors stuffs immersed
in it. From a chemical examination which I instituted of the sap
of the banana, during my sojourn on the banks of the Magdalena, I
think I may state that it contains gallic acid, acetic acid, chloride
of sodium, salts of lime and potash, and silica.
The sap of vegetables, elaborated during its passage through the
leaves, acquires additional consistence. It generally contains peculiar principles, which are the result of this elaboration, and these
now constitute the liquid which is usually designated by the name of
the particular juice of the plant from which it is procured. This
* Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, t. ii.
, Knight, quoted in Annales de l'Agriculture Francaise, t. v. 2e s6rie, p. 338 
proper juice or sap is generally obtained by making an incision which
penetrates a little below the bark.
The characters and properties of the elaborated or descending sap,
are extremely various. It may, however, be divided into milky sap,
saccharine sap, gummy sap, and resinous sap, according to the nature of the juices dissolved or suspended in the liquid. As several
of the peculiar juices of vegetables contain principles employed in
the arts or in medicine, they have been more carefully studied, and
their history is more complete than that of the ascending saps.  I do
not propose to give a monograph of these juices; in this place I
shall only mention those which have been examined with some care.
MILKY SAPS.
The milky saps, as their name indicates, have the appearance of
milk; they owe this milky appearance to globules of insoluble matter, minutely divided, and suspended in a liquid.
SAP OF THE PAPAW-TREE, (CARICA PAPAYA.)
The carica papaya grows in tropical regions. The sap, which is
extracted from the fruit by incision, is white, and excessively viscous. In a specimen of this sap, which came from the Isle of France,
Vauquelin found water in large quantity, and also a matter having
the chemical properties of animal albumen,* and lastly fatty matter.
I took occasion to verify the correctness of the results obtained by
Vauquelin, on the milk of the fruit of the carica papaya, during my
sojourn at Caraccas, where I examined the sap which flowed from
the trunk of the tree itself.  This sap is less milky, and much more
fluid than that which flows from the fruit; it had the appearance of
milk-and-water.  Its odor is rather nauseating, even when coming
from the plant; its taste slightly sour.  When exposed to the air it
soon coagulates.  It contains a considerable portion of matter, which
may be comipared to animal fibrine, and sugar, wax,  and resin, in
small quantities.
Evaporated and burnt, it leaves a saline residue. This juice is
employed by the inhabitants for medical purposes.
SAP OF THE COW-TREE.
Among the number of astonishing vegetable productions observed
in the equinoctial regions, is a tree which yields a milky juice in
abundance, similar in its properties to the milk of animals. At the
time I left Europe, M. de Humboldt expressly recommended me to direct my attention to the milk of the cow-tree. A short time after my
arrival in the Cordilleras, on the shore of Caraccas, M. Rivero and
myself were able to comply with the wishes of the distinguished
traveller.t
The milk we examined came from the Palo de Leche, the milktree, which is extremely common in the environs of Maracaibo.
* Vauquelin, Annales de Chimie, t. xlix. p. 219, lre srie.
t Rivero and Boussingault, Annales de Chim. et de Phys. t. xxxiii. p. 229, 2e s~rie.
69
SAP.
ir, 
70    TRANSITION OF INORGANIC INTO ORGANIC MATTER.
Vegetable milk possesses the same physical characters as that of
the cow, with this sole difference, that it is, in a slight degree, viscous; its flavor is agreeable, slightly balsamic. WVith respect to
chemical properties, these differ perceptibly from those which are
peculiar to animal milk. Acids do not curdle it; alcohol scarcely
coagulates it.
Under the action of gentle heat, light pellicles are seen to form
on the surface of vegetable milk.  On evaporating it over a water
bath, an extract is obtained resembling fritters; and if the action of
the fire be continued for a certain time, oily drops are observed,
which increase in proportion as the water is dissipated, and ultimately form a liquid of an oily appearance, in which a fibrinous
substance floats, which dries and becomes tough in proportion as the
temperature increases. An odor is then diffused, exactly like that
of meat firying in fat.
By the mere action of heat, then, the milk of the Palo de Leche
is separated into two distinct portions: the one fusible, of a fatty
nature, the other fibrinous, and presenting all the characters of animal substances.
If the evaporation of vegetable milk is not carried too far, t-ie
fattv matter may be obtained unchanged; it then possesses the following properties;-it is white, translucent, sufficiently solid to
resist the impression of the finger; it fuses at 140~ (Fahr.;) boiling
alcohol dissolves it completely; it is equally soluble in potash.
The fibrinous matter presents all the characters of fibrine, obtained
from the blood of animals-; for this reason we have called it fibrine.
In fact, when put on a hot iron, it swells up, fuses, and becomes
carbonized, exhaling the odor of grilled meat.   Treated with weak
nitric acid, it gives out nitrogen gas; by distillation, it disengages
ammoniacal vapors in abundance.
The presence and nature of this animalized matter in the milk
of the cow-tree, explains how this milk acquires the odor of old
cheese on becoming changed. We considered the fatty matter of
the milk as analogous to beeswax; I may even say that we made
wax-candles of it. HIowever, the property of being completely dis solved in hot alcohol, combined with its ready solubility in potash,
establish a well-marked difference between it and the wax of insects.
This is a question which can only be completely cleared up by ele mentary analysis, and we were altogether without the means of
making any minute examination of the wax of vegetable milk.
In the water which holds the wax and animal matter in suspension,
we met with some saline substances and a free acid, the nature of
which we were unable to determine. We did not succeed in detect ing the presence of caoutchouc in vegetable  milk.  According tQ
our researches this milk should contain:
1. A fatty substance similar to beeswax;
2. An animal substance, similar to animal fibrine;
3. Water, salts, a free acid, and a little sugar. 
By incineration, we obtained ashes from the milk in which were
found phosphate of lime, lime, magnesia, and silica.
During their excursions in the Cordilleras, the inhabitants fre
quently drink the milk of the cow-tree.  M. de Rivero and mysell
also used it during our sojourn at Maracaibo.
The tree which produces the milk which we examined, is, accord
ing to M. de Humboldt, the galactodendron dulce, of the family of
the verticas, or fig-trees. But several trees are known in the
mountains along the coast, which yield a milky juice, and which
are often confounded with that just described.  For instance, in the
environs of Maracaibo, according to M. Desvaux,* the clusia galactodeudron yields an abundance of very pleasant vegetable milk;
this milk, however, does not seem to contain much animalized matter;
at least it does not putrefy perceptibly, and instead of the waxy
matter, a substance much less fusible and of a resinous character is
procured from it.
MILKY SAP OF THE HURA CREPITANS, (AJUAPAR.)
The sap of the Aura crepitans is dreaded, and not without good
reason; it is enough to be exposed to the emanations of this milky
juice, when recently extracted, to be seriously affected by it.
The use which is made of it, to poison the water of rivers, in
order to obtain the fish, is a sufficient indication of its pernicious
qualities.t
This vegetable sap would perfectly resemble that of the cow-tree,
if it were not slightly yellowish.  It has no smell; its taste, which
is very little marked at first, soon causes very violent irritation.  It
reddens the color of turmeric; mineral acids produce in it a white
and viscous curd; the surrounding fluid is clear and of a yellow
color. Left to itself, the milky sap of the Aura crepilans yields all
the products of the putrefaction of caseum.  It contains:  1. An
azotized substance similar to gluten, or caseum. 2. A vesicating
oil. 3. A crystallized substance, having an alkaline reaction. 4.
Malate of potash. 5. Nitrate of potash. 6. A salt of lime, (the
mralate?) 7. An odorous azotized principle.
MILKY SAP OF THE POPPY, (OPIUM.)
The milky sap which, by concreting, furnishes the opium of commerce, is obtained by making longitudinal incisions in the capsules
of the poppy. The operation takes place before the fruit is ripe,
and after the fall of the flower.
* Renseignements communiques par M. Adolphe Brongniart.
t Rivero et Boussingault, Annales de Chim. et de Phys. t. xviii. p. 430, 2e snrie.
WVhat 1 shall now- state may give an idea of the energy with which this milky juice
acts on the animal economy: when M. Rivero and myself examined the milk of the
hera crepita,s, we became affected with erysipelas; the affection continued for several days. The milk had been sent to i1s in guaduas by )Dr. Roulin; the messenger
who) brought it was seriously affected by it; and along the road the inhabitants of the
houises where hlie lodged felt the samne effects.
7!
SAP. 
72    TRANSITION OF INORGANIC INTO ORGANIC MATTER.
The concrete sap is brown, firm, of an acrid and bitter taste, and
of a peculiar sickening odor. Opium contains a number of principles,
the study of which has exercised for a considerable time the ingenuity of the most skilful chemists. It was in this substance that
Sertuerner found the first vegetable alkali which was discovered,
morphine. After numerous trials made on opium, it was found to
contain:-1. Morphine, (vegetable alkali.)  2. Codeine, (the same.)
3. Narceine. 4. Meconine. 5. Para-morphine. 6. Pseudo-morphine. 7. Meconic acid. 8. Resin. 9. Fatty matters. 10. Caoutchouc. 11. Gum. 12. Bassorine. 13. Ulmine. 14. Woody substance. 15. Mineral salts with bases of lime, magnesia, and potash.
MILK OF THE PLUMERIA AMERICANA.
The plumeria, when one of its branches is broken, yields a considerable quantity of milky juice. At the time when I examined
this juice, the tree was entirely destitute of leaves. The milk of the
plumeria is perfectly white; it is very fluid when it flows firom the
plant, but soon after deposites a crystalline sediment. The taste is
slightly bitter, and it has an acid reaction. The milk of the plumeria
appears to contain no animalized matter. I was only able to detect
a very large proportion of resinous matter held in solution or suspended in water; and indications of potash, lime, and magnesia,
combined with an organic acid.
SAP OF THE CAOUTCHOUC TREE.
Caoutchouc is found in the sap of many trees, and in that of a
great number of herbaceous plants; but it is the heeya caoutclhouc,
the jatropha elastica, peculiar to South America; the ficus Indica,
and the artocarpus integrifolia, which grow in the East Indies, that
yield the caoutchouc so well known in commerce, and which has
been converted to so many useful purposes in the arts.
The caoutchouc tree is particularly common in Choco and forests
near the equator. To obtain the elastic gum, the Indians incise the
tree below the bark, when there issues a copious discharge of milky
sap, which will remain fluid for a considerable time, if it be kept
from contact with the air.  I have seen it carried to great distances
in wooden vessels hermetically closed. When spread out in thinnish
layers, it soon coagulates, and acquires the singular elasticity which
characterizes caoutchouc. The action of the oxygen of the air may
possibly have  some  influence in producing this coagulation, unless what I am about to state be the effect of a prompt evaporation
of the water of the sap. I have often made a small incision in the
trunk of an hoevea from which milk immediately flowed, and by rea son of its viscidity, trickled down the tree in a stream of a certain
thickness; this milk was at first extremely fluid, but after from one
to two minutes' exposure to the air, it suddenly coagulated, so that
on raising the drop from the lower end, I obtained a long string or
riband of perfectly elastic caoutcho uc. 
In Guiana the Indians fashion the caoutcehouc into the bottles
which are so common in trade: they make  a clay mould, and this
they cover by immersing it in the milk freshly drawvn from the tree;
they allow it to coagulate, which it does very speedily, especially if
it be exposed to the smoke of a wood fire. This first layer being
coagulated, they continue the same process until the desired thickness is attained. The mould is then broken and taken out piece-meal
from the interior of the caoutchouc bottle which has been formed.
The workmen of Quito, who are very dexterous in manufacturing
caoutchouc, make shoes and buskins of it, by applying it in the
milky state over moulds of the proper fashion. They also render
tissues impervious by spreading it in the same state between two
pieces of stuff or cloth; the interposed milk becomes coagulated, and
forms a thin elastic lamina, very preferable to the caoutchouc applied
by the aid of solvents.
The Indians of Choco sometimres procure this substance by felling
the tree, and receiving the milk, which then flows in a stream, into
large wooden moulds, generally formed from a hollow stem of the
guaduas. By keeping the mould open, the milky mass coagulates
after some time. Several of these masses of caoutchouc, which
were brought to me by the Indians of the C/hamin nation, were but
slightly elastic; their color also was extremely deep. It is probable,
that by proceeding in this way, the millky juice is mixed with large
quantities of the internal sap which is much less milky.
Several trees in the valley of the Magdalena which bear the name
of caoutchouc, which, however, are neither the hcevea, nor the jatropha, also yield a coagulable juice, which may be confounded with
the elastic gum; it is, I believe, caoutchouc combined with a large
quantity of wax, and probably also of resin; this caoutchouc possesses but little elasticity.
M. Faraday found in the milk of the hieve-, in 100 parts:
l, a ter........................................... 56
Caoutchouc............-. —--—.. —-.-  32
Bitter azotized matter soluble i w:ster ad alcohol.................   7
A substance soluble in wsrv, t od alc ohol (T)................3
100
As this milk  will rermain fluid for a considerable time, provided it
te protected from the air, advantage has been taken of this property
to convey it to Europe. It is sent in well-filled, hermetically-sealed
bottles.
GUMMAIY AND RESINOUS SAPS.
I place under this head the saps of those trees which yield gum
from incisions in their trunk, as the acacia ve),a and acaciat Arabica,
whichi  grow  in Arabia, and from which  gumn-arabic is obtained;
acacia Senegal, which also furnishes a species of gum.  In general,
in very warm countries, the mimosas produce gummy matters in
abundance.
The elaborated sap of the coniferae and terehinthaceae consists
thiefly of resinous matter, dissolved in an essential oil composed of
7
73
SAP.
r 
74    TRANSITION OF INORGANIC INITO ORGANIC MI OTTER.
-arbon and hydrogen, similar to the essence of turpentine. The
balsams of Peru and Tolu are obtained by incising the bark of the
trees which produce them. In Choco, where I have seen numerous
incisions made in the lower part of the trunk of the Tolu trees, the
balsam flows slowly, on account of its thickness; it does not, apparently, contain any water.
SACCHARINE SAPS.
The sap of the fiaxinus ornus, and that of the fraxinus roturdifolia, yield manna on drying or becoming thick.  The sap of several
palms contains a considerable quantity of saccharine matter. At
Java, for instance, crystalline sugar is extracted from the arenga
saccharifera. In several places, the sap of palm-trees is subjected
to fermentation in order to prepare vinous liquors.
The Cocos butyracea (palma de vino) is very common in the valley
of the Rio-Grande de la Magdalena.   From a superficial examination which I made of it, its sap contains sugar, an azotized matter,
and some soluble salts.
By fermentation, it produces a vinous liquor sufficiently alcoholic
to produce intoxication. In order to procure it, the natives of
Benadillo first fell the tree, taking care, when it is down, to give the
trunk a slight inclination from the summit towards the lower extremity
or foot. They then make a hole towards the base of the trunk sufficiently large to hold from fifteen to eighteen pints, the orifice of
which they plug up with leaves.  The woody tissue, to all outward
appearance, contains but little moisture; but in ten or twelve hours
after the operation, the cavity is found full of a liquid, of a wellmarked vinous odor, and of a sourish taste, owing probably to the
carbonic acid which is disengaged in large quantity. The wine thus
obtained is rather agreeable. A paln-tree of from 50 to 60 feet in
height, and of which the trunk towards the base is from 20 to 24
inches in diameter, will yield from twenty to thirty pints of wine in
twenty-four hours during ten or twelve days. The wine must not
be allowed to remain too long after it has collected, otherwise it
becomes sour.
Sugar is far from being the only useful substance afforded by
palms. There are several of these trees which are truly astonishing
by reason of the many important uses to which they may be applied;
and it is not without reason that the missionaries have styled the
palm, the tree of Providence, the bread of life.  Such mniore especially is the Cocos maurilia, which grows in the plains of the Apure
and Oronoko; its young shoots serve as aliment; from its fruit,
while still green, a farinaceous food may be obtained; and when
perfectly ripe, it yields oil in abundance. Hammocks and various
kinds of cloth are made of the fibrous portion of the bark of this
tree the young leaves serve to make hats, mrats, and sails for ships;
the tissue which surrounds the fruit furnishes the Indians with
clothing; the sap ferments and yields wine; the trunk before fructification contains an amylaceous marrow, of which bread is made;
this marrow, on becoming putrid? produces a vast multitude of large 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
white worms which the Indians value as a most delicate dish; finally,
the woody part of the mauritia affords excellent timber for building.
It is not necessary to enumerate farther the principles produced
by vegetables; we must now study them in reference to their elementary composition.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE CHEMIICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES.
FROM the very first period of vegetable life, during germination,
the immediate principles which constitute the seed are destroyed or
changed. The young plant, in developing its organs, creates new
substances, which are added to the tissues already existing, so as to
complete or extend them.  In order to account for the productions
or changes which take place in the organism of vegetables, it is expedient first to study the intimate nature and general characters of
the materials which compose them.   Unfortunately, in the present
state of science, this study is as yet but little advanced  and, notwithstanding the efforts which chemical physiology has made in
recent times, there still remain numerous and important questions
to be solved.
Carboll, hydrogen, oxygen, azote, combined in some  cases with
minute quantities of sulphur or phosphorus, are the only elements
required by nature to give rise to that almost endless variety of
vegetable substances, so different in their properties, as well as inll
their uses.  In the food which sustains the life of animals, as in the
virulent poison which destroys it, these same elementary bodies are
always found combined in various and dissimilar proportions.
The  immediate  principles of the vegetable  kingdomn  may  be
divided into three groups, if we look to the number of the elements
which constitute these principles as they exist in the several bodies:
1~. Quarternary, containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, azote.
2~. Ternary, containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen.
3~. Binary, containing carbon and hydrogen, or carbon and oxygen, or carbon and azote.
It is by the examination of the immediate principles which exist
in the seed, that we should approach the study of the composition
of vegetables; and this the more, as we shall find these principles
diffused throtughout the organs of plants.   Once we shall have fully
considered their properties and their elementary composition, it will
be sufficient merely to indicate where they are to be met with in
the organism.
75 
76        CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
~ 1. QUARTERNARY AZOTIZED PRINCIPLES OF
VEGETABLES.
It has now for some considerable time been ascertained that
several seeds contain azote, inasmuch as azotized matters, nearly
similar to those obtained from the tissues of animals, can be extracted from them. M. Gay-Lussac expressed this fact in the most
general manner, by laying it down as a law that every seed contains
a principle abounding in azote.*
Azotized animal matters, when heated in close vessels, yield an
ammoniacal product; and to satisfy ourselves of the generality of
the law laid down by Gay-Lussac, all that is necessary is to subject
any seed whatever to dry distillation.
We do not always, indeed, obtain an ammoniacal liquor immediately in this way; rice, for instance, when heated in a retort, yields
a product having an acid reaction; but it is easy to demonstrate in
the acid liquor, the presence of ammonia by the addition of lime,
which at once sets it free. Peas, kidney-beans, in a word all the
legumens hitherto experimented on, yield a liquor directly, having a
highly alkaline reaction.  These differences, in the products of the
dry distillation of seeds, are explained in a very natural way.
Throwing the husk out of the question, we may consider a seed as
formed of two parts; one, non-azotized, possessing a ternary composition, and yielding by the action of heat a liquid with an acid reaction; the other having a quarternary composition, consequently
azotized, and yielding an ammoniacal liquor, so that the acid or alkaline reaction of the product, really depends on the predominance of
one or other of these two distinct ingredients.
M. Gay-Lussac subjected every kind of seed he could procure to
distillation, and all yielded ammonia either directly or indirectly.  I
shall add, that the numerous analyses which I have had occasion to
make for several years back support the generality of the principles
laid down by the above celebrated chemist. M. Payen has come to
the same conclusion, and has further shown that at the period of
germination the azotized matter of seeds is determined towards the
parts that are most recently organized.  Thus the spongioles situated at the extremities of the radicles constantly produce ammoniacal
vapors during their destructive distillation by heat, even thoughll proceeding from seeds which, when distilled, yield an acid liquor wherein ammonia only becomes sensible on the addition of lime.t
The animalized or azotized substance is extracted readily enouffgh
from certain seeds, and has consequently been known to exist in
them for a very long time.  It is found in wheat, for example, in different states, and is obtained with great ease by simply kneading a
mass of dough under a small stream of water by which the starch is
carried off, and by and by there remains in the hand a grayish highly
* Gay-Lussac, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. liii. p. 110, 2e s6rie.
t Payen, M~moire sur la composition chimiqise des v,ghtaux, p. 7.
r — 
AZOTIZED PRINCIPLES.
elastic substance of a peculiar heavy odor; this is the gluten of
chemists. By this simple process of analysis, however, we are en abled in many cases to estimate the quality of a sample of flour with
reference to its richness in gluten, a substance which is rightly
considered as the most essential among the nutritive elements of the
cereals.
The washings collected and allowed to stand, soon become clear:
the starch which was suspended in the liquid subsides, accompanied
by flakes of an animalized matter.  If the clear liquor be decanted
and boiled, a white froth appears upon its surface, which, skimmed
off, is found to have the appearance of coagulated white of egg, and
which, in fact, has all the characters of animal albumen. The water
from which the albumen is solidified, necessarily contains all the
soluble substances of the flour. On evaporation, it leaves substances
similar to gum and sugar, and traces of saline matters.
With the exception of the starch, which contains very little foreign matter, the different substances obtained by this process of
washing are far from being in a state of purity.   I have said that all
seeds contain fatty substances, but in the products of the operation
just described, no oily matter was detected.  As it cannot be discovered in perceptible quantity in starch, nor in the substances soluble
in water, it must remain attached to the gluten; and this is actually
the case.   The gluten, the coagulated albumen then, are not pure
proximate principles; fat or oil may be obtained from them; and
further, by examining common gluten carefully, we learn that it contains several azotized substances, which differ from one another. By
boiling crude gluten wvith alcohol we ultimately obtain a fibrous grayish residue, called by M. Dumas vegetable fibrine. On cooling, the
alcoholic liquor lets fall a substance which in its properties resembles
the caseum or curd of milk. Lastly, if the cold alcoholic solution
be concentrated, a pultaceous substance separates from it, called by
Messrs. Dumas and Cahours glutine.
Analysis, accordingly, indicates the presence of four azotized substances in wheat; and when these are all combined in the mass of
gluten obtained by washing a lump of dough, they retain fatty matters, from which they may be freed by means of alcohol and ether.
The following, according to MM. Dumas and Cahours, is the composition of the azotized principles of wheat, dried at 140 centig.
(284~ F.)* 
c.   Hydrogen.    Azote.   Oxy en, Snlph. and
Phosphorus.
7.0          16.4             23.4
7.1          15.7            20.5
7.1          16.0            23.4
7.2          15.9             23.6
Le,gumine. Some vegetables, particularly some seeds, contain a
substance different from any of those just described. This M. Bra
connot was the first to notice in the seeds of the family of the Legulminose, and it has been since detected by Dumas and Cahours in
* Dumas et Cahours, Annales de Chilinie et de Physique, p. 390, 3e s6rie.
7*
77
Fibrine -.. - -....... -... -.. -.53.2
Albumen..............53.7
C,,seine (caseum) -.. -.. - -...53.5
Glutine.. - -.. - -.. -........, 53.3 
78       CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
many different seeds.   Legumine, which plays an important part in
the nutrition of animals, is obtained by digesting a quantity of pea
or bean meal, at crushed peas or beans in tepid water for two or
three hours; the pulp is then pounded in a mortar, and afterwards
mixed with its own weight of cold water; after one hour's maceration it is pressed.brough a cloth.  On standing, the liquid throws
down some fecutla. Filtration is employed to have the liquor perfectly clear; upon which a quantity of acetic acid diluted with from
eight to ten times its weight of water is gradually added, when a
snowy flocculent precipitate of legumine falls. This is collected in
a filter and washed with water; the ]egumine is then treated with
alcohol, dried, and pulverized, preparatory to digestion in ether, in
order to free it from fatty matters.
Legumine thus prepared has a pearly or lustrous appearance. It
is insoluble in alcohol and ether. Cold water dissolves it in large
quantity. On boiling the watery solution, legumine is coagulated
and falls in flocculi analogous to those formed by albumen under the
same circumstances.  Weak hydrochloric acid throws down legumine from its watery solution like the acetic acid; the concentrated
acid, again, dissolves it, acquiring a violet tint, a character which
also belongs to albumen; but that legumine is actually distinct from
albumen is proved by the circumstance of its being precipitated by
phosphoric acid with three atoms of water, which  albumen  is not.
The alkalies dissolve legumine at common temperatures.
COMIPOSITION OF LEGUMINE, OBTAINED FROM DIFFERENT SEEDS.*
~ _
50.9      50.9
6.7 6.7
18.8      18.6
23.6      23.8
100.0    100.0
50.8      50.7
6.7.        6.        7 6
18.6      18.8 
23.9      23.8 
100.0    100.0   1
These same azotized compounds, or substances differing but little
from them, are very probably those that are now recognised as distributed through the whole body of every vegetable. M. Payen,
after having ascertained the presence of these substances in the
radicles and spongioles, proved it in nearly all the organs. The
examination was extended to a great number of species of different
families. The ascending sap of a fig-tree, (ficus carica,) that of the
lime-tree, of the black poplar, of the vine, have all yielded ammoniacal
vapors under the influence of fire; so also do the buds, the young
leaves, the stigmas, the anthers, &e.t Thus, according to M. Payen,
the nutritious juices which ascend from the extremities of the radicles to the terminal points of the leaves, carry an azotized principle
* Dumas et Cahours, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. vi., p. 423, 3e srie.
t Payen, Memoire sur les ddveloppemens des vtg{taux, p. 36.
. -Z
.z: =
I'
50.7
6.7
18.8
23.8
100.0
7 —
4
50.5
6.7
18.2
24.6
100.0
4
50.7
6.8
17.6
24.9
100.0
Iz
11
4
5O.;-,
,'9
18'2
24.4
100.0
Carbon - - - -
Hydrogen. -
Azote - - - -
Oxygen - - - - 
QUARTERNARY OR AZOTIZED PRINCIPLES.
which accumulates in all the growing organs, at the same time that
it is deposited within the entire extent of the canals which the saptraverses.  It might, therefore, be supposed that in the latter Sit;.
tion the azotized substance was associated with matters of ternH
constitution, so as to form merl)ianes and tissues.   But from t i
various organs of the manyrv species studied, MA. Payen succeeded i
dissolving out, by means of a!kalies, and entirely eliminating thi
animalized substances, without causing the slightest rent or erosiot.
in the.tissues perceptible with the microscope;  whence  it m
fairly be concluded, that if these substances everywhere and always
accompany the young tissues of plants, they still form no integral
part of them.*  The animalized matter seems consequently to preserve a kind of independence with reference to the organs which
secrete, which convey, and which contain it; it preserves a sort of
mobility which allows of its displacement.   And it was in fact necessary that this should be so; for as the period of maturity approaches
we see the azotized substance carried more particularly towards the
generative organs, and finally become fixed, as it were, and accumulated in the seeds.  I have had frequent occasion to satisfy myself
that the trefoil, the red-beet, the turnip, &c., contain much less
azote after ripening their seeds than they did previously; and all
husbandmen know that the straw or refuse of plants that have run
to seed, forms very indifferent fodder for cattle.
The cambium, that peculiar globulo-cellular matter which is constantly found accumulated where the vegetable is forming woody
tissue, contains, according to MM.  Mirbel and  Payen, the same
azotized principle of an animal nature, in conjunction with terna,ry
substances, whose composition, as we shall presently see, is represented nearly by carbon and water.t As the cellular tissue is
evolved at the expense of the cambiutim, the animalized matters showv
a tendency to quit the consolidated organ.   The departure of these
matters at the epoch of the growth of the cells, explains satisfact)orily
wherefore the interiors of old trees contain but a few thousandths of
azote, while all the organs of recent formation always contain
several hundredths. With the assistance of chemical analysis it is
possible to follow the appearance and the remioval of the azotized
matter; thus in the alburnum and wood it is observed to diminish in
quantity from the circumference to the centre; this diminution is
also observed in the branches, proceeding from their extremities to
their point of junction with the trunk.
* Payen, M6moire sur les d6velolpemens des v, gertux, p 42.
t De Mirbel et Payen, Comptes re,d(us de l'Acadlie. des Sciences, t. xvi. p. 98.
7 ',
r 
80         CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
~ II.-PROXIMATE PR]NI IPLES WITH A TERNARY COM                           POSITION.
OF STARCH.
Starch is conitained in the cells of vegetables under the form of
small white granules which have no crystalline structure.
In the year 1716, Leuwenhoeck ascertained that these granules
were globular bodies more or less regular in their contours. He
believed that he could perceive each globule enclosed in an envelope,
a kind of sac different in its nature from the matter which it contained.  M.  Raspail, a few years ago, confirmed  by his own researches the observations of Leuwenhoeck; he further attempted
to measure the diameter of the globules in different kinds of starch,
and came to the conclusion that their capsule is insoluble, and that
it is the internal part alone which is soluble in hot water.* Since
then MIM. Payen and Persoz have ascertained that if the globules
of starch be really surrounded by a capsule, it must be present in a
quantity scarcely appreciable-a quantity not exceeding 4T-th of
the weight of the starch.  These  first researches were followed
by the subsequent observations of M. Payen, who has devoted himself to the study of the arrmylaceous principle with a zeal and perseverance which must secure him the gratitude of chemists and physiologists.
MA. Payen has examined a vast number of fceculae microscopically; the largest granules he observed were obtained from one of
the varieties of potato, from the menispermumn palmatum, and the
canna gigantea.
The globules of starch frequently exhibit a polyhedral appearance,
a figure which evidently results from their mutual pressure as they
have lain in the cells of the vegetable. Notwithstanding a great
general analogy of form, the granules of the starch of different
species of vegetables still present peculiar physiognomies, so that
they can be distinguished in miiany instances by the practised eye.
A character common to the majority of fceculae, however, is roundness of contour, when their particles have not been compressed by
their contact in contiguous cells.
Microscopical and chemical researches alike show that starch is
homogeneous in properties, as in composition; that its globules are
composed of concentric layers, the external of which have exactly
the same characters as the internal layers.t  In the natural state,
starch is insoluble in water and in alcohol; it is very ductile, and
under the influence of certain agents it exhibits a great degree of
contractility.
Feculas retain water with considerable force; the quantity re
* In 1812, Villars, in a paper on the structure of the potato, had already estimated
the volume of the'lobule; of dliffiercat kinds of starch.
t Fritzche, Ann:'es de Poggendort; t. xxxii. p. 129. 
TERNARY PRINCIPLES-STARCIH.
tained varies with the temperature at which the drying was accomplished.  Thus the fecula of the potato, which is moist and porous,
even when subjected to strong pressure, still retains 45 per cent. of
water.  This is the green or raw starch of manufacturers.   Dry
starch is very hygrometric.  If after being dried it is placed in an
atmosphere saturated with moisture, at 20~ centig. (68~ Fahr.) it
will absorb nearly 36 per cent. of water, and its bulk increases in
the ratio of one to one and a half; in this state starch is brilliantly
white, and its grains adhere so closely that they form a mass of
sufficient firmness to take the impress of a seal; starch in this state,
however, pressed upon paper yields no perceptible trace of moisture;
it is too h-ard and adherent to pass through  a sieve; and when
thrown on a metal plate heated to 125~ (257~ Fahr.) its particles immediately unite and form a cake.   The starch of commerce, in the
state in which it is usually found in shops, contains 18 per cent. of
water; it is either pulverulent or readily reducible to powder,
though by slight pressure in the hand, it may be formed into a mass
or ball.  After drying in vacuo at the ordinary temperature, starch
retains no inore than 10 per cent. of moisture; a temperature not
less than 140~ (284~ Fahr) is required  to dry it completely; the
water which it retains at this temperature belongs to its constitution, and cannot be taken from itexcept by combining it with bases.*
iMINI. Coliio and Gaultier de Claubry discovered the important
character of starch, that of yielding a fine blue or violet color on
comln)ioing wiith iodine.t  According to M. Payen, the color is more
intense, nearer to blue and more lasting, in proportion as the starch
is more strongly compressed; the effect of separation is to turn the
blue to shades of violet which approach redness as the substance is
looser.  The same fecula, according to the degree of its aggregation
in plants, is seen to assume shades, which are first reddish, then
violet, and eventually of a more decided blue color, under the action
of iodine.1
MA. Lassaigne has noticed a very curious property of the combination of iodine and starch: if an amylaceous fluid, having the decided
blue color, be heated to 89  or 90~ C. (193~ or 194~ Fahr.) the solution becomes completely blanched; but it resumes its former tint as
the liquid cools.{
This property which starch possesses of striking a blue color with
iodine, renders one of these bodies an excellent test for the other.
HowNever, as the iodine must exist in the free state to produce its
effect, it is necessary, when the blue color does not show itself at
once, in a solution in which iodine is suspected, and to which starch
has been added, to add a few drops of sulphuric acid, so as to decompose the hydriodic acid in cases where it may exist.
It is familiarly known that if raw starch be mixed with boiling
vater, the result will be a thick, paste-made starch.   According to
* Payen, M6moire cito, p. 88.
t Collin et Gauthier de Claubry, Annales de Chimie, t. xc. p. 92
:t Payen, Momnoire cite, p. 105.
~ Lassaigne, Journal de Chijlie Medicale, t. ix. p. 510.
81
r 
82         CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
M. Payen, the change that takes place in the state of the fecula is
owing to a swelling, a rupture, or disgregation of its granules.  By
heating a drachm ef starch, mixed with about a couple of ounces of
water, to about 60~ cent. (140~ Fahr.) the microscope shows us that
the smallest or youngest grains-those possessed of the least cohesion-have absorbed a considerable quantity of water, and that the
expansion of the contents has caused a certain number of the glooules to burst; at this temperature, however, some grains of fecula
are observed, which do not appear to have yet attained their maximrum of enlargement, and whose contents consequently are not yet
diffused through the liquid; it is only between 72~ and 100~ cent.
(161.6~ and 212~ Fahr.) that the maximum of expansion becomes
general, and that the solution acquires its greatest consistency.*
The remarkable property possessed by starch of making a glutinous solution or thick paste with water under the influence of heat,
led M. Payen to conjecture that a contrary effect would be produced
by lowering the temperature-that the starch might be recovered in
its original state of distinct globules by suitable management; and
this he in fact accomplished by an ingenious procedure. Starch
appears to suffer no actual change when diffused in water by exposure
to a temperature of 212~ Fahr.; the granules have only swollen to
about thirty times their original dimensions by the imbibition of a
large quantity of water.
We have already seen how starch may be extracted from wheaten flour; this method, however, is not the one that is usually
followed to procure this useful substance, so large a quantity of
which is consumed in the arts. Formerly, starch was universally
obtained from grain,-wheat; at present the potato furnishes a still
larger quantity than grain.  In the equatorial regions of South
America, starch is abundantly prepared from the Yuca, (Jatropha
manihot,) and from several species of palm.
To obtain starch from wheat, the grain is either coarsely ground
and mixed with water in large tubs; or it is put to steep in sacks
until it is so soft that a process of kneading suffices to set the starch
at liberty.
Starchfrompotatoes.  The potatoes are grated after having been
well washed, and the pulp being thrown on a sieve, the starch is
carried off by the water and deposited in suitable vessels. The
washings in the manufacture of potato starch soon become putrid
by reason of the azotized matter which they contain, and until lately
occasioned much annoyance, until M. Dailly conceived the happy
idea of turning them to account as liquid manure.
Starch of the Yuca, or Jatropha manihot.  The manihot yields
very large roots, rich in starch.  These are taken up a little after
the flowering, when the fecula is most abundant. To extract the
starch, precisely the same process is employed as in the case of the
potato. In South America the manioc is distinguished into yuca
dulce (mild) and yuca brava, (malignant;) the latter epithet applying_
* Payen, M0i:oire cit. p. 96.
F 
TERNARY PRINCIPLES-STARCH.
to the jatropha containing poisonous juice. The two yucas are,
however, but one and the same species; at least a skilful botanist,
M. Goudot, who resided for several years in America, could not
perceive any specific differences between them.   The  poisonous
principle of the yuca brava must be very volatile, or readily destroy.
ed by heat, for the root may be eaten with impunity after it has
been roasted, while the animals who eat it in the raw state soon experience the most distressing effects.
The Indians seldom prepare starch from the jatropha; but the
root frequently constitutes the staple of their food.  It is from the
yuca brava that they obtain the cassava, which supplies the place of
bread with them. Among the Indians in the country near the river
Malta, one of the principal tributaries of the Oronoko, I have seen
the cassava prepared in the following manner: the roots of the
manioc were scraped on a sort of rasp formed of small fragments of
flint stuck into a plank; the pulp wyas then put to drain in a long
strainer made of the entire bark of a species of fig; the juice having
drained away, water was added to finish the washing; the liquid
came out nearly clear and without bringing away any perceptible
quantity of starch. To form the pulp into Makes of cassava, it was
spread out on an earthen dish placed over the fire; the process was
complete when the cassava was dry, and slightly toasted on the outside.  Cassava bread is not very palatable, but it possesses the property of keeping for a long time in spite of heat and moisture, and is
frequently an indispensable article of provision with the South American traveller.  The Indians say that they cannot obtain cassava
from the yt/ca dulce.
Siarch from palms.  In the Moluccas  and Philippine Islands,
and in the plains of Apure, there are certain palms which yield a
species of fecola.  This fecula is found in a soft substance, generally situated in the centre of these trees. The marrow of these palms
is dried, and when sifted presents itself in the form of grains, which
in commerce bear the name of sago.
None of the amylaceous principles or feculas obtained by the
processes which I have mentioned are absolutely pure; even supposing all the soluble substances to have been removed by washing,
they still retain fatty matters, azotized principles, and coloring
substances. Starch is purified by following up the water washings
by the action of alcohol, of acetic acid, and of ammonia. Starch in
its state of greatest purity, and dried at 100~ cent. (212~ Fahr.)
contains, according to the analysis of M. Jacquelain:
Carbon........................................  44.9
Hydrogen................................ 6.3
Oxygen................................ 48.8
100.0*
By slight roasting, amylaceous feculas undergo considerable
changes; they become soluble in water, and then present the properties of gum.t Starch thus roasted, supplies the place of gum in
* Jacquelain, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. lxxiii. p. 181, 2e s,rie.
t Vauquelin and Bouillon Lagrange, Bulletin de Pharmacie, t. iii. p. 54.
83 
84        CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
various manufacturing processes; still it sl..uld not be confounded
with gum in a chemical point of view.  Tile acids act with more or
less energy on starch, and give rise to different products.   Nitric
acid, when it is diluted with water, merely dissolves fecula; but at
a certain degree of concentration it exerts a destructive action.  In
this reaction several acids are formed, among others oxalic acid
By employing very dilute sulphuric acid, Kirchhoff succeeded in
changing starch into a saccharine substance similar to the sugar of
the grape.  The operation may be performed in a leaden or silver
pail, or, what is prcferable, especially when  the process is carried
on upon the great scale, in wooden vessels, in which the liquid mass
is heated by steam. According to M. Couverchel, several organic
acids are capable of changing fecula into sugar in a similar manner;
such are oxalic, tartaric, and malic acids.
The artificial conversion of starch into grape-sugar has not yet
bccn satistfactorily accounted for.  Thile acid eumployed does not seem
to undergo any change; it is found in its original state and qualitity
after the operation.  M. de Saussure thinks that the effect of the
reaction is the fixation of water; thus 100 parts of fecula yielded
him 110.40 parts of sugar.*
M. Couverchel and M. G-ue6rin, on the contrary, state that the
quantity of sugar obtained was less than that of the starch tl-hey
employed.
Gluten exerts a reaction on starch similar to that prodtuced by
acids; Kirchhloff discovered, that under the influence of the azotize(l
nmatters which are met with in flour, the fecula is converted into
sugar.t  Two parts of starch being mixed with four parts of cold
water, on adding twenty parts of boiling water, a thick paste is produced; if into this one part of dry powdered gluten be intro(luce(l,
and the mixture be kept at the temperature of 60( cent. (140~ F'tlir.)
the paste becomes more and more liquid, so that the mixture mav
be filtered at the end of from six to eight hours.  By concentration
a sirup is obtained, in which small crystals of sugar are perceived.
It is well known that during the act of germiniation, fecriticltal)le
saccharine matter is produced.   Kirchhlloff concluded, from his'experiments, that this p)roduction of sugar in germinaLtion is attril)lttble to the reaction of the gluten on the starch.   Germinrati(g grain,
barley-malt, for instance, reacts rapidly and powerfully on alay fecula with whichl it is brough(t into contact; a fitct well knowll to.
and constantly taken advantage of, by manufabcturers of spirits from
potatoes and raw grain, large mashes of which are rapi(dly cotnverted
into sweet fermentable liquids under the action of a little lnalt.
These facts, it is evident, cannot be explained by Kirchhioff's experimnent; in the fermentation of the potato, the Itmass of iecula to be
converted into sugar is too great compared with the quantity of gluten which exists in the malted barley. Further, tihe gluten in grain
which has not germinated, scarcely exerts any appreciable action.
* Saussure, Bil)liotheque britanlliluc, t. lvi. p. 333.
t Kirchhloff, Jotur,::i de Phliarminacie, t. ii. p. 250. 
DIASTASE.
The principle which, in the preceding operations, c inverts the starch
into sugar, must therefore become developed during germination.
This important point in the art of the distiller has been investigated
with great ingenuity by M.  Dubrunfaut;* and  MM.  Persoz and
Payen succeeded in separating the peculiar matter in barley-malt
which possesses the property of converting starch into sugar.   This
matter has been called diastase.
Dilstase exists in the seeds of all the cereals which have germi nated; it is met with more especially near the germs, it seems even
that the radicles contain none of it. Nor is diastase observed in the
shoots or roots of the potato; it is to be met with only in the tubers,
around the eyes or points where the young sprouts are developed,
precisely as M. Payen has remarked, in the place where we should
conceive its presence to be necessary for effecting the solution of
the fecula.  It is also found to exist in the bark and beneath the
buds of trees, always in contact with starch.t Diastase is generally obtained from mnalt, and when carefully prepared, its peculiar
power is such, that one part by weight is sufficient completely to
liquefy two thousand parts of starch. Diastase is solid, white, amorphlous, insoluble in pure alcohol, soluble in water and weak alcohol
The solution very readily undergoes change; it becomes acid, and
then no longer exerts any action on fecula.  When dried, it keeps
much better; still, at the end of two years, it seems to have lost its
distinguishing properties.  Diastase has no action on vegetable tinctures, on albumen, gluten, cane-sugar, gum-arabic, or the woody
fibre. That which more especially characterizes it, is its powerful
action on fecula; it may be advantageously used to separate and
purify the.preceding substances, when they are mixed with starch.
The presence of diastase in malt explains the phenomenon of the
liquefaction of starch effected by the action of a small quantity of
that substance.   This solution is not effected by gluten, nor by hor
leine, as M. DuLbrunfaut had imagined.
By the action of diastase, or of malted barley, the starch on being
liq,(Lefied is not entirely converted into sugar; there are other distinct products to be considered  in this change.  The sirup  obtained by concentrating the liquefied starch, contains sugar capable
of undergoing the vinous fermentation, and a gummy matter, dextrine.
These two substances may be separated by means of dilute alcohol,
which dissolves the sugar and leaves the gum  untouched.  The
relative quantities of dextrine and sugar produced by the action of
diastase are variable, and depend both on the temperature at which
the process is conducted, and on the continuance of the reaction.
In the first period of the process, the dextrine predominates; but it
becomes less and less by degrees, and finally gives place to sugar.
M. Gue6rin ascertained a curious fact, which shows how the diastase developed in plants may act on their starch: reaction takes
place even at ordinary temperatures. In one of M. Gue6rin's experi
* DubrunfaLit, MO moires de la Soci6te Royale d'Agriculture, anne  1823, p. 146.
t Paycu and Persoz, Annales de Chiroie et de Physique, t. liii. p. 73  t. lvi. p. 337,
ie sorie.
8
85
LI,',,
r- 
86        CHEMIICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
ments, at a temperature no higher than 20~ cent. (68~ Fahr.) a quantity of starch, at the end of twenty-four hours, was converted into
sirup, which yielded 77 per cent. of saccharine matter.*
Pure dextrine.  M. Payen freed dextrine from the sugar which
usually accompanies it by precipitating a sirup of fecula previously
dissolved in dilute alcohol, bv means of alcohol nearly free from water. Dextrine well dried, and reduced to powder, has a specific
gravity of 1.51. The specific gravity of pure starch is 1.51, that ot
the sugar of starch 1.61.t
M. Payen found dextrine dried at a temperature of 212~ Fahr. to
consist of
Carbon...................44.3
Hydrogen.....  -...... -...- -...6.0
Oxygen... -...-...-...-..-.....49.7
o100.0+
a composition identical with that of starch.
We have seen that water, acidulated with sulphuric acid, transforms starch into sugar; and that in this respect, the acid acts precisely in the same way as malted barley, like which, the acid first
causes the fecula to pass into the state of dextrine: by checking the
reaction at the proper moment, this substance may thus be obtained,
as was shown by Messrs. Biot and Persoz.~ When starch, for instance, is triturated with concentrated sulphuric acid, if the mixture
be diluted with half its volume of water, and be left at rest for an
hour, alcohol will throw down almost the whole of the starch employed in the state of dextrine.
M. Payen has remarked that starch is never met with in the vegetable tissues while in the rudimentary state; the spongioles, the radicles, the foliaceous buds, the interior of the ovules, contain none of it.
Nor is starch found in the epidermis, nor in the primary cells of the
subjacent tissues. This proximate principle seems to be excluded from those parts of vegetables that are more directly exposed to
atmospheric influences: it is only met at a certain depth; and the
globules which constitute starch increase in number and in size in
the cells most remote from the surface. The subterraneous organs
of plants,-certain bulbs, most tubers, abound in amylaceous matter.
It might be maintained that light modified this substance, at the very
moment that it was subjected to the vital influence, and that it was
only preserved in the dark.
On the globules of soime species of fcecula there is found a point
or hilum, which, according to some observers, serves to fix them t(
the parietes of the cells which enclose them. It often happens,
however, that no hilum can be distinguished, even by the help of the
most powerful microscopes; to render it apparent, recourse must be
had to desiccation, which, by causing the globular mass to shrink,
allows the part carrying  the hilum to project, by reason of its
* Gu6rin, Annales de Chimie, t. Ix. p. 42, 2e serie.
t Payen, Memoires cites, p. 169.                      f Idem, p. 157.
~ Blot and Persoz, Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. lii. p. 73, 2e s/rio.
17 
INULINE.
stronger cohesion. M. Payen does not regard the hilun as a point
of permanent attachment, connecting the grain of starch to the;interior wall of the cell. He considers it as the orifice of the duct by
which growth is effected by intersusception.   In support of this
view, M. Payen observes, that in a great number of vegetable cells,
especially in those of the potato, and of the rhizomas, the globules
of starch are developed in such quantity, that it is actually impossible that each of these should be united directly to the inner wall of
the cell.*
INULINE.
This substance, discovered by Rose in the Inula helenium, presents certain analogies with starch.  It forms the greater part of
the solid matter of the tubers of the Jerusalem Artichoke and
Dahlia, which do not contain starch.  Inuline is dissolved in boiling
water; on cooling it is deposited in globules, which, under the
microscope, appear diaphanous, adhering to one another like strings
of beads; exposed to a temperature of 367~ Fahr. it melts completely and acquires new properties, becoming soluble ill cold water
and in alcohol.  Inuline is transformed into dextrine and sugar by
the mineral acids; but it possesses certain properties which show
it distinct from true starch.  In the first place, it is not colored by
iodine; and then acetic acid, which is without action on starch,
produces with inuline precisely the same effects as the sulphuric,
phosphoric, and hydrochloric acids; finally, diastase, whose reaction
upon starch is so peculiar, so prompt, and so powerful, does not
cause any change in inuline. It is therefore easy to separate these
two substances when they are mingled, by treating the mixture
either with acetic acid, which dissolves the inuline, or with diastase,
which liquefies the starch. Inuline has been analyzed by M. Payen,
after having been dried at 253~ Fahr. and having been melted at
367~ Fahr. In both cases it has the same composition.
Carbon................46.6
Hydrogen.................... 6.1
Oxygen................493
100.0
The composition here is obviously the same as that of starch and
dextrine.
OF WOODY MATTER AND CELLULAR TISSUE.
The most solid part of plants, that which forms in some sort their
skeleton, is the wood in trees, the woody fibre in herbaceous plants.
Woody fibre, as it used to be prepared and considered, viz. by the
reaction of certain agents which have the property of dissolving the
gummy, resinous, and saline substances which are commonly associated with it, consists, in fact, of two substances, one the cellular
substance, constituting the tissue of wood and of all the organs of
* Payen, M~moires citts, p. 183.
87
ok
pq 
88       CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
plants, the other the woody substance, properly so called, filling,
and in some sort consolidating the cells. This distinction between
these two elements of wood was first made by M. Mohl; but M
Payen was the first who fixed the opinion of chemists and of vegetable physiologists upon the true nature of these immediate principles.* By treating the vegetable tissue in its nascent and still
gelatinous state-the unimpregnated kernel of the almond, of the
apricot tree, &c., the membranous matter of the cambium of the
cucumber, the spongioles of radicles, leaves, wood, &c.-with different menstrua, M. Payen obtained the cellular tissue in the state of
purity, and having an elementary composition almost identical, from
whatever source derived; a fact which may be seen from the following table, which gives the composition of cellular tissue from
different sources after having been dried at 352~ Fahr.
Carbon. Hiydrogen.  Oxygen.
43.6      6.1      50.3
44.7      6.1      49.2
44.1      6.2      49.7
43.4      6.0      50.6
44.4      6.1      49.5
43.4      6.1    50.5
43.2      6.5      50.3
44.7     6.4       48.9
44.1     6.5      49.4
44.5      6.0     49.5
44.4     7.0      48.6
44.1     6.3      49.6
44.5     6.7      48,8
Ovules of the almond-tree...
of the apple and pear..
"   of the helianthus annuus..
Pith of the elder.....
Cotton.......
Endive......
Banana..
Leaves of the agave...
Cotton of the Virginian poplar.
Heart of oak.....
Pine-tree..
Perisperm of the phytelaphas 
ilushroom......
The primary tissue, consequently, which constitutes the skeleton
of wood, is still isomeric or identical in elementary composition with
starch. W\ith mineral acids the cellular tissue further undergoes
changes which assimilate it with starch; for on treating it with sulphuric acid it is changed into dextrine and sugar.
The composition of the cellular tissue differs considerably from
that of the woody fibre as it has hitherto been obtained after the
action of solvents, and been examined by preceding chemists.
Pure wood or woody tissue consists of the following proportions of
elements:
* Dumas, Comptes rendus, vol. viii. p. 53.
r 
WOOD.
,, f:,~~              AuLthorities.
Gay-Lussac and Thenard.
Prout.
11
c;
Payen,
I c
Woody tissue of the oak
"         of the beech
"         of tile box
"         of the willow
"         of the oak
of the beech
"         of the aspen
Wood in the natural state:
"  of the oak
"  of the beech
"  of the herminiera
From these analyses it appears that wood in the natural state
contains more carbon than woody tissue obtained in the way of purification, and that this latter substance is also richer in carbon than
the cellular tissue which necessarily forms part of it. In the
purified woody tissue, therefore, the cellular tissue is associated with
the principle which fills its cells, or which incrusts it, and it is
to this matter that M. Payen has applied the name of incrusting
matter; it is wood properly so called; it is that which gives to
wood its hardness, its tenacity; it predominates in hard wood and in
knots; it corresponds with the duramen of physiologists; it constitutes almost the whole of the hard particles which are met with in
woody pears and in cork, and which are hard enough to blunt welltempered steel instruments. As this incrusting matter is friable, in
many instances it may be pulverized and separated from the tissue
which surrounds it, this last tearing or yielding in shreds under the
pestle. By means of the sieve the incrusting matter may in this
simple way be obtained nearly in a state of purity. I'The analysis
of M. Payen shows it to consist of:
Carbon.................. 53.8
Hydrogen..................  6.0
Oxygeun. -................. 40.2
100.0
Deducting resinous matters susceptible of solution in alcohol or
ether, and of gummy and other substances which are soluble in water,
the tissues of vegetables must consequently possess  an elementary
composition which varies between that of the cellular tissue and
that of the incrusting matter; these are the extreme terms, and the
entire composition of the mixed tissues will be by so much the richer
in carbon as they contain less cellular tissue. The incrusting matter being soluble in alkaline leys, it was by treating wood with solutions of soda and potash that M. Payen succeeded in obtaining the
cellular tissue, which is much less susceptible of the action of these
I
89
5.7
5.8
5.6
0.6
6.0
6.0
6.1
6.4
6.2
6.3
5.3
52.5
51.5
50.0
49.8
44.3
49.7
49.4
48.0
54.4
54.4
47.2
41.8
42.7
44.4
44.6
49.7
44.3
44.5
45.6
39.4
39.3
46.9
11
11
11
11 
90        CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
agents.   But treatment of different kinds, which it is not necessary
to enter upon in this place, is required to procure the substance in a
state of perfect purity.*
The facts which have just been exposed, in regard to the chemical composition of wood, corroborate the observations of physiologists.  We now understand  much  better than we did formerly the
changes which the cells of vegetables experience as they grow and
become aged: it is by the appearance of the incrusting woody matter that their walls, thin, transparent, and colorless at first, get thick,
become opaque, and acquire consistence.   By means of the dissections effected by M. Payen with the aid of purely chemical  mneans,
we may obtain assurance that the tissues of all vegetables, whether
phoenogamous or cryptogainous, may be reduced to a single substance,
cellular tissue, having an invariable composition, and forming the
vesicles or bladders of the cellular mass of plants.
This matter exists nearly in an isolated state in the thick walls of
the cells of the perisperms of various seeds, those of the date for
example. From the microscopic researches of M. Payen and A.
Brongniart, it appears that tile matter which is added to the young
cells is not deposited upon the inner sturface of their walls, but that
it penetrates and insinuates itself into their tissue.  The relation of
the cellular to the woody matter in the development of the walls of
cells varies very much, some perispertus containing nothing but pure
cellular tissue, while the stony concretions of the pear and of cork
consist almost entirely of incrusting woody matter.
Wood, in the general acceptation of the word, is the solid part of
the trunk and branches; the properties and aptitudes of the substance
vary greatly, according to the plant which has produced it.  Wood
is of higher densitv than water, and if it floats in this fluid it is only
because of the air with which its pores are filled. Saw-dust, chips,
and larger pieces of wood sink when the air which they contain is
expelled and replaced by water. The specific gravity of the white
woods, such as those of the willow and pine, is about 1.46, that,f
the heaviest woods, such as those of the oak and the beech, 1.53.
DENSITY OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF WOOD ACCORDING TO BRISSON.
Orange.....................0.70
Quince..................... 0.70
Elm, the trunk............... 0.67
Walnut....................... 0.67
Pear......0.........0.66
Spanish Cypress.............. 0.64
Lime * —.......................... 0.60
Hazel......................... 0.60
Willow.....................0.58
Thuya..................... 0.56
P ine........................... 0.55
Spanish white poplar........... 0.52
Pine.....-* —-.....................0.49
Poplar........................ 0.38
Cork.....................   o..... 0.24
* For an account of these, see Payen in proceedings of the Academy of Sciences 
vol. vii. p. 1055.
Pomegranate....... 1.35
Guaiac, Ebony.... 1.33
Box.... 1.32
Oak of 60 years old, the heart.  -  - 1.17
Medlar - - 0.94
Olive - - - - - - 0.92
Spanish Mulberry - 0.89
Beech - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0.85
A,h - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0.84
Hornbeain - - -                                                                                         0.80
YeA,v                                                                                                   0.80
Apple 0.79
Plum. - - - - - - - 0.78
Maple - - -  -   -  - -  -  - 0.75
Cherry - - -  -  -  - -  -  -  - -  -  -  - - 0.75 
It must not be forgotten, however, that age, climate, and soil exert a marked influence upon the specific gravity of the same species
of wsood.
ANood, according to the use for which it is intended, is distinguished
into fire-wood, building timber, and dye-wood.  When first cut down,
all timber contains a cousiderable (quantity of water   100 parts of
w-altnut-tree dried at 212; Fahr. lost 37.5 parts by weight  of white
oak, 41 parts; of miaple, 48.  On an average, the quantity of water
contained in green wood may be estimated at about 40 per cent.;
and drying or seasoning for eilght or ten months will not cause the
loss of more than about 25 per cent. of water. The wood which is
used for burning almost always contains about a quarter of its weight
of moisture, which not only does not assist in producing heat, but
actually dissipates a great deal during its conversion into vapor.  It
is, therefore, highly advantageous in all operations where wood is
the fuel, only to employ that which is thoroughly dry. So well is
this fact ascertained, that in some manufactories the wood is previoulsly dried in stoves before being consumed in the furnace.
The composition of woody matter may be represented by carbon
and water: of carbon the mean  may be stated at 52, of hydrogen
and oxygen, in the proportions which form water, at 48. The definitive products of its combustion ought consequently to be carbonic
acid and water. The heat disengaged during this combustion, necessarily proceeds from the union of the combustible elements of the
wood witht the oxygen of the atmosphere. But in this particular
case, the hydrogen being already present with the proportion of oxygen required for its combustion, it may be regarded as already
burned, the state of condensation in which the oxygen exists being
considered. The heat produced by the wood, therefore, depends
solely on the quantity of carbon which it contains.
Natural philosophers in France agree in designating as unity, in
reference to caloric, the quantity of heat necessary to raise a kilogramme, or 2.2 lbs. avoirdupois of water, one degree of the centigrade thermomneter, (1~.8 F.) The following table, by Rumford,
is intended to show the different calorific or heating powers of diffierent kinds of wood, and its interpretation is this: since 1 kilogramme or 2.2]bs. avoird. of lime-tree gave out 3460 units of heat,
it follows that this quantity of the combustible would suffice to raise
by 1 degree centigrade, (1~.8 F.,) fi)r example, from 10 to 11 cent.
3460 kilogrammes, or 7612 lbs. avoirdunois of wvter
WOOD.
91 
92        CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION OF VEGETABLES.
Lime-tree, dry........               3460
The same, thoroughly stove dried                 3960
Beech, dry, four years seasoned..         3375
The same, well dried in a stove..         3630
Elm, from four to five years seasoned.         3037
Oak, fire-wood........              3550
Ash, dry.........             3075
WVild cherry..                                  3375
Fir, dry..                                 3037
The same, well dried in a stove..         3750
Poplar, seasoned........               3450
The same, well dried in a stove.              3712
Hornbeam..........                  3187
Oak, dry..........                  3300
From the experiments of Clemnent, it appears that the heating
power of charcoal is equal to 7050 units. Dry wood containing, as
we have seen, 52 per cent. of charcoal, its heating power has been
deduced theoretically, as equal to 3666. Mr. Marcus Bull in America, made a series of experiments to determine the relative quantities
of heat given out by different kinds of wood, from which M. Peclet
has been led to conclude that the same weight of dry wood of every
kind has the same heating power, and that this for a kilogramme,
or 2.2 lbs. avoird. of wood dried bv artificial means, is equal to 3500
units, while the same quantity of the same wood having been cut
and seasoned during from ten to twelve months, and containing from
20 to 25 per cent. of water, is no higher than about 260 units.
By way of cotnparison, I shall here add the heating power of the
several combustibles in general use, in contrast with that of wood:
1 kilogrm. or 2.2 lbs. avoird. of wood-charcoal produces 7226 units of heat.
" "                         coal               6000      "
1"        "                    peat              3005      "
1"        "                  - peat charcoal     6400      "
Although the same quantities of wood, brought to the same degree
of dryness, appear to have the same absolute calorific power, all are
not alike adapted to the same purposes. Hard woods burn slowly,
and give out less heat in a certain time than the less compact kinds
of wood. This is the reason why fir is preferred to oak in furnaces
where the object is to obtain the most intense heats.  It were foreign to our object to enter upon any consideration of the various
qualities, or of the adaptation to particular uses, of different species
of timber.  I may, however, add a table of the ordinary dimensions
of well-grown trees of different kinds, such as are commonly found
in these countries.
I
II
II
II
Units of heat
evolved.
Kinds of wood.
77r — 
TREES.
Usual height of    Usual
~~~Trees.  ~Trunk.                     Diameter.
Feet.            Inches.
The spruce fir.                                  26 to  100         471
Larch                                                                  39.3
Poplar..........                                  19 "   65           31.8
Pine..........                16  "  65           34.1
Plane..........                                                       36.1
Oak, Elm........                               31.4
Birch.........                               29.4
Beech..........                   16 "  48            28.2
Lime..........                                                    25.9
Ash..........                                        23.5
Willow..........J                              11.7
Chestnut...3  "  48                         36.1
Chestnut (another variety).                                 28.2
Maple....                   10      48          28.2
Service..........                   13 " 39             17.6
Acacia.....        13" 26              19.2
Hornbeam.........                            )                        21.2
Mulberry..........                   10 "   23           16.5
Wild Pear.........                            14.1
Crab..........6  "   20                              12.9
Walnut..........6  "   16                              36.1
These may be taken as the measurement of trees at their full
growth, and fit for felling. The soil being of the same quality, the
dimensions of trees depend especially upon their age; individual
trees of the same species, however, occasionally acquire extraordinary dimensions.
Every one must have noticed the rapidity with which young trees
grow; but is the growth the same for every period of the existence
of trees, or do they attain a certain determinate size like animals,
and then cease from further increase? We have found that in
those climates where vegetation is suspended for a portion of the
year, the increase in the diameter of trees takes place periodically
by the addition of a concentric layer of woody tissue; so that it is
possible to determine the age of a dicotyledonous tree by the number
of its concentric rings, counted at the bottom of the trunk.  With a
view to ascertain the amount of increase in the woody layers at different periods of vegetable life, De Candolle measured their thickness, and found that if the annual increase presented a certain regularity, it was still very far from being absolute even in the case
of a single species.  The oak especially offered striking anomalies
thus a trunk which had grown slowly in diameter was found to have
increased more rapidly as it got older. He found young trees of
the same species, the growth of which, very slow at first, by and
by became accelerated, and then fell off in a third period of their
existence.  From the whole of his observations, De Candolle con
93
r 
TREES-TIMBER.
eludes that the growth of our common European trees having gone
on with a certain rapidity to the age of from about fifty to seventy
years, then became slower, but continued regular to extreme age.
The inequalities of growth, conspicuous in the different thicknesses
of different rings, he thinks are mainly due to the kind of soil which
the mass of the roots encountered in their progress, or to the removal of other trees which grew in the vicinity.  The diminished
thickness of the rings, after trees have passed a certain age, he
ascribes to the depth to which the roots have now penetrated, and
their consequent remoteness from the air; and further, to the resistance opposed to the expansion of the trunk by the bark, which has
now become thick, hard, and unyielding. Mr. Knight found that
old pear-trees, relieved of their outer bark, formed more wood in a
couple of summers afterwards, than they had made in the twentv
years that preceded the operation.*
The forests of intertropical countries produce a vast number of
gigantic trees, many of which might doubtless be turned to excellent
use; but the information we have on the trees of these latitudes is
very imperfect. In New Granada, the wood which is known under
the name of wood of St. Martha, (astroneum graveolens?) is frequently employed for building purposes as well as for making fiirniture. It is very hard, and more beautiful than mahogany, its color
being deeper.  M. Goudot measured a tree of this kind, which was
1.6 metre or nearly 42 feet in diameter, including the alburimni  and
had 32 centimetres or upwards of 18 inches of heart-wood. Belfries
having supports of this wood  are met with, which have  stood for
more than a century exposed to all the inclemencies of the weatliei.
This tree grows in the dry soils of the hottest regions of Sotiili
America, and seldom at an elevation of more than about fifteeni huntdred feet above the level of the sea.
Cedar (cedrela odorata) is never attacked by insects, doubtless
because of its aromatic odor; this valuable property mnakes it invaluable as building timber.  The tree attains to large dimensions.
M. Goudot measured one in the forest of Quindiu in South America,.
which was upwards of 150 feet in height by miore than 61 feet iII
diameter.  It grows freely through a zone of considerable bireadtli,
from a height of about 3280 to 6560 feet above the level of the sea,
a circumstance which, according to my own observations, would indicate the extreme temperature of the district which it inhabits to
be between 66~ and 76~ Fahr.
There are several other beautiful and useful timber trees of the
Cordilleras-the Nogal (juglans..?) which grows between 6500
and 9800 feet above the sea line; the escob)o, the pino (taxus montana
rilld.) whose region lies between the 2.800 and 11.400 feet of elevation; the arayan and the guayacan,-all are servicealble in one
direction or another.  The caracoli (anacardiumn caracoli) and the
fig (Ignerones) are trees which attain to extraordinary sizes, and
afford light woods that prove useful in various circumstances. Ur.
* De Candolle, Vegetable Physiology, p. 975.
94
F-' 
TREES-TIMBER.
der the tropics, indeed, the trees generally exhibit a luxuriance of
vegetation which strikes European travellers with amazement  M
Goudot, for example, measured a bombax (B. penlandi-urn) no more
than sixty years old, the trunk of which was 8 metres or 26} feet
in circumference, and whose bouglhs covered a circular area of 39
metres or 120 feet in diameter.
There is a beautiful tree which grows in the valleys of Arragua
in Venezuela, the Zamang, a species of mimosa, according to Humboldt, one of which, in particular, is greatly celebrated, and under
the shade of which I rested on the 24th of January, 1823. This
magnificent tree is to be distinguished at the distance of a league
its branches form a hemispherical crown of 187 metres or 613 feet
in circumference, extending like a vast umbrella, the points approaching to within from 10 to 16 or 18 feet of the ground. The
trunk of this extraordinary tree is nearly 65 feet in height and upwards of 943 feet in diameter.  This tree is an object of veneration
with the Indians.  It does not seem to have altered in its appearance since it was first particularly noticed; the earliest conquerors
of Venezuela seem to have met with it in the same state as it is at
the present time. When Humboldt measured the Zamang de Turmero, its branches on one side were entirely stripped of their leaves.
Twenty years afterwards I found it green in every part; but the
leaves and branches with the southern aspect were not so numerous
nor so vigorous as the others.
The dragon-tree of Orotava in the Island of Teneriffe is one of
the oldest vegetable monuments of the present world. Humboldt
gives it a diameter of 17 feet, and its height, as stated by M. Ledru,
is upwards of 65 feet. When Teneriffe was discovered in 1402,
this tree appears to have had the same dim'ensions which it presents
at the present time.
The mahogany (cedrela mahogani) is a very long-lived tree. In
Jamaica it sometimes acquires a diameter of upwards of 6 feet, and
Sir W. J. Hooker has calculated that two centuries at least are required to supply timber of the large scantling which we constantly
see in the yards of our timber merchants and cabinet-makers.
The Hymenaa courbaril, one of the largest trees of the Antilles,
yields, like mahogany, a timber that is hard and in great request
among cabinet-makers and inlayers. It sometimes grows to 19 feet
in diameter.
The Baobab (Adansonia digitata) lives for centuries, and acquires
extraordinary dimensions. Adanson saw one in the Cape de Verdes,
in the trunk of which an inscription was found, which was covered
by three hundred layers of wood; it had been cut by two English
travellers three centuries before.  From positive observations collected by Adanson, a table has been constructed to show the progress and probable age of the baobab:
95 
SIZE AND LONGEVITY OF TREES.
Diameter of the Trunk.
0.10 feet
1.04
2.41
9.84
14.76
19.03
31.99
De Candolle has remarked that this longevity of the baobab is
made the more surprising by the softness and liability of its wood to
decay. But again, it must be considered that the great diameter of
the trunk, in relation to the height, gives the tree a stability which
is possessed by no other-by enabling it to resist violent gales of
wind.
It strikes me that there may very well be some mistake in Adanson's estimates of the age of the baobab. When we see such irregularity in the growth of trees of the same species planted in the same
soil, little reliance can be placed on any deductions drawn from the
size of the trunk when the concentric rings cannot be counted. In
proof of this I here give the measurements of two baobabs planted in
1821 in the Botanical Garden of French Guiana. In 1842 these
trees were found:
feet.                                    feet.
No. 1. Length of stem from ground         Diameter of the base............5.41
to first branches.......... -...... 7.70  Do. at origin of branches...........4.23
No. 2. Do.             8.36 Do.tDiameter of base....1..........8.63
No. 2. Do........................8.36 Do.   at origin of branches...... 1.48
In the tree No. 2 the branches were puny and nowise in relation
with the size of the trunk.
The bald cypress (taxodium distichum) is a tree that is very
abundant in Mexico, and in the southern parts of the United States.
At Chapultepec there is one of these trees called the cypress of Montezuma, which tradition says flourished in the reign of that prince.
In 1831 the tree was still vigorous, and its trunk was 41 feet in circumference. There is another cypress near Oaxaca, under the
shade of which Fernando Cortez is still reported to have rested; the
trunk of this tree is upwards of 39 feet in circumference, and it is
105 feet in height. Michaux measured several taxodiums in the
Floridas which approached these two in their dimensions.
We have only uncertain data in regard to the age which palms
may attain to; their sizes, however, are well known. In Egypt,
according to M. Delille, the date-trees are generally about 65 feet in
height.  In the Andes of Quindiu several ceroxylons were measured,
the trunks of which were from 195 to 230 feet in height!  Martius
assigns the following as the extreme dimensions of the palms of the
Brazils: from 75 to 127 or 128 feet in height, by a diameter of from
6 to about 12' inches.
Among several palms (artea oleacera) planted in the Botanical
Garden of Cayenne in 1821, the tallest twenty years afterwards was
96
Age of the Baobab.
1year,
20
30
100
1000
2400
5150
Height.
5.25 feet
16.40
23-30
30.84
61.68
68-24
76-76 
SIZE AND LONGEVITY OF TREES.
48 feet from the ground to the bottom of the crown, and 3 feet 62
inches in circumfference at the base; at 6f' feet from the surface of
the ground the circumference was only 2 feet 1 inch, and a small
tfraction. As the palms and baobabs will be carefully protected in the
Botanical Garden of Cayenne, an opportunity will be afforded future
observers of following these plants in their growth, with a perfect
assurance of being correct as to their age.
Particular trees of different kinds have occasionally acquired remrarkable dimensions and lived to great ages in Europe. An elm is
mentioned vwhich grew on the promenade of Morges, the age of which,
reckoned from the number of concentric layers, must have been
three hundred and thirtyv-five years; its trunk was above 18 feet in
diameter. The lime is another tree which in temperate countries
sometimes grows to a great size. The one planted at Freiburg to
commemorate the victory of Morat in 1476, in 1831 was 14} feet in
diameter.   Near the same place there is another tree of the sane
kind which must be older than the last, inasmuch as it was already
celebrated for its size a century ago; in 1831 this tree was upwards
of 36 feet in circumference, and about 72 feet in height.   The
lime-tree of Neustadt is scarcely less curious for its size and the
immense spread of its branches than for the historical circumstances
connected with it.  Looking back to old documents, this tree must
already have been of great size in 1229; in a poem written in 1408
we are told that this tree was then supported by sixty-seven props;
in 1654 it had eighty-two stone pillars to support its branches, and
in 1831 the number had increased to one hundred and six.  The circumference of the trunk at 6' feet from the ground measured very
nearly 39 feet.  An old measurement made one hundred and fifty
years before corresponds very nearly with this, a fact which shows
that in the course of a century and a half the trunk of the lime-tree
of Neustadt had not grown perceptibly.  It is said to be from seven
to eight hundred years old.  The old lime-tree of Chaille6 in 1801
was upwards of 49 feet in circumference.
The beech grows rapidly while young; but in more advanced age
with extreme slowness.  In 1818 Deluc saw several beeches near
Geneva, the trunk of which was from 14 to 16 feet in diameter.
De Candolle measured a larch two hundred and fifty-five years
old, the trunk of which was upwards of 54- feet (5.84 ft.) in diameter; and a larch of no more than fifty-four years growth has been
measured which was more than 3-1 feet in diameter.
The celebrated chestnut-tree of Mount Etna has been stated to be
upwards of 206w feet in girth, (about 68 feet in diameter,) and must
therefore be the largest tree described up to the present time; but
the tree has been supposed to be formed by several trunks springing
from a common root which have grown together.  Other remarkable chestnut-trees are mentioned.
The plane is one of the largest growing trees of temperate countries. A traveller, who visited the valley of Bujukdere, near Constantinople, met with a plane upwards of 95 feet in height, and the
trunk of which, hollow internally down to the level of the ground,
9
97 
SIZE AND LONGEVITY OF TREES.
was more than 154 feet in circumference. A plane-tree, which
grew in Norfolk, and was of the age of thirty-one years, was 74
feet in circumference, according to Hunter. Cypress-trees often
attain to a very great age. In the garden of the palace of Grenada
there is one which has stood for more than three centuries. At La
Somma, near Milan, a cypress is shown which in 1794 was 17 feet
in circumference.*
Tradition has it that an orange-tree of the convent of St. Sabina
at Rome, was planted by St. Dontlinic in thile year 1200; this tree
still exists. The orange-tree of Versailles, known under the name of
the Francis I., is rather more than three hundred years old. In 1804,
orange-trees were shown in the green-houses of Bonn three centuries old, and of which the trunks were more than 30 inches in circumference.t In South America I had myself occasion to observe
citron-trees of great age and of very considerable dimensions; the
trunks of several of these trees were nearly 271 inches in diameter.
A sycamore-tree of the village of Trons, in the Grisons, more
than five hundred years old, is at this time between 8 and 9 feet in
diameter.
Many oaks have been described which had survived from eight
hundred to one thousand years. Hunter saw one of these trees still
extremely vigorous which was 1l1 feet in diameter.  Evelyn, who,
in his delightful work entitled Sylva, has given a list of the largest
oaks known in his day in England, speaks of one growing in Welbeck Lane which must have been eight hundred and sixty years old
at least, and the diameter of whose trunk at the base was upwards
of 129 feet.
The olive is one of the trees that reaches a great age; Picconi
describes one of about seven centuries, and a circumference of about
25 feet. 
The cedar of Lebanon grows vigorously and long, especially in r
soils that are sufficiently loose and permeable. According to M.
Paul Vibray, of Sologne, the growth of this tree is more rapid than
that of the coniferi in general. The cedars which grew on Mount
Lebanon, and were measured by Nauwolff in 1574, and again by
Labillardiere in 1787, are generally allowed to be about the age of
one thousand years. De Candolle, however, thinks that this age is
exaggerated, and in contradiction with observations made on trees,
the age of which is positively known. The following are a few of
the measurements which have been reported by different observers:
Feet circumfer.  Observers.
12
7    Thouin.
9.4    Loisele-,T.
16    Hunter
14    Ditto.
36.4     Maundrel.
5    of Vibray.
Age.
Cedar of Chelsea................. 83
" of Paris...................40
"  of ditto....................83
"  Environs of London 20........200                   in
" Ditto.....................113
" of Mount Lebanon.........600
" of Sologne.................30
The yew, as is well known, produces a very hard, close, and en
* De Candolle, Physiologie, p. 994.
98
f Ibid. p. 999, 
AGE FOR FELLING.
during wood, qualities which contribute greatly to the longevity of
trees. Some of the oldest trees known have been yews. Here are
Q few that have been particularly described:
Where they row.                Probable age. Circumference.    O
County of York....................  1220             28.25
Ditto....................         1q20         13.85
County of Surrey...........1287          30.12
Fotheringal (Scotland).............   2580          62.34
County of Kent -.. —.. —.... —   2800             62.60
According to Duhamel it is extremely difficult to fix upon any age
as the best in a general way for felling trees, with a view to obtaining the largest quantity of sound available timber. When the
tree is too young, the timber has not all the excellence which it
would have gained with greater age; when too old, the pores are
obstructed, and it has begun to decay in the parts of oldest formation, so that it is not uncommon to find wood in the centre of the
trunk which is lighter than that of the circumference.   In trees
which have already fallen into a certain state of decay, the worst
timber in them is decidedly that which is taken from the centre at
the base of the trunk; and, indeed, the wood of the centre generally
is then of inferior quality to that of more recent formation.   Very
aged timber always perishes first in those parts which have formed
the most internal layers of the tree.  It is, therefore, an obvious and
grave error to suffer any tree to stand that has given the slightest
indications of decay, inasmuch as that which is ordinarily the most
valuable timber is likely to be altogether lost. Neither the age nor
the dimensions are always the indications of the proper period for
felling trees; exposure, soil, situation, have immense influence upon
their growth, vigor, and general qualities.  Trees ought to be cut
just when they are on the turn; the proper moment is that which
precedes immediately the alteration of the heart; and although the
destructive effects of age are principally felt in the interior, this intestine disorder is nevertheless proclaimed externally; the whole
tree suffers when it has taken place.*
Duhamel has given the following characters, as indicating incipient decay, or decline of vigor in trees:t
1. A tree, the top of which forms one uniform rounded mass, is
not strong; a vigorous tree always throws out certain branches
which surpass the others in luxuriance of growth.
2. When a tree comes into leaf prematurely in the spring, and
particularly when the leaves turn, and fall prematurely in the autumn,
it is a certain sign of weakness.
3. When several of the top or leading branches of a tree die,
even at their mnere extremities, the wood in the centre is beginning
to undergo alteration.
4. When the bark quits the trunk, or becomes cracked here and
there, we may be satisfied that the tree is far gone internally.
5. Mosses, lichens, and funguses growing upon the bark, and red
* Duhamel, Exploit. des bois, t. i. p. 126.
99
Ob.,,,,.
Pennant
Ditto.
Evelyn.
Pennant.
Evelyn.
r.-l
t Idem, t. i. p. 133.
I 
SEASON FOR FELLING.
or black spots appearing upon it, always lead to a suspicion of change
in the wood.
6. \When the sap is observed to flow from crevices in the bark,
the death of the tree is at hand.
In France, the cutting down of the smaller wood, such as is used
for firing, takes place at from twenty to thirty years; in the forests,
the trees are commonly felled at from one hundred to one hundred
and thirty years old, and a few trees are generally left as reserves,
and for special purposes, till they have attained the age of from two
hundred to two hundred and fifty years.
The prevalent opinion among foresters, with regard to the proper
season for felling, is, that it should be done when the sap is in the
state of greatest repose, or when it is present in least quantity in the
trees. The season fixed by the old law of France (1669) was from
October to March inclusive. But the experiments of Duhamel tend
to show that this is not actually the season when trees contain the
smallest proportion of sap, and that fellings made at other times of
the year have had very satisfactory results. All things well weighed,
says the illustrious cultivator, our only safe guide in such matters is
observation; and from numerous experiments he concluded that
there was actually as much sap in trees in winter as in summer, and
that the spring and summer were the seasons most favorable for the
speedy drying of the timber. Trees felled in summer were even
found by Duhamel to yield timber which stood better and lasted
longer than those that were cut down in winter; while he found the
wood of equal strength in either case.  He-I concluded, therefore,
that the season of the year at which timber was felled, had no influence upon its quality or durability.*
There is, in fact, no general rule observed in different countries
as to the period at which timber is felled.  The French still go on
cutting from October to March;  the English fell in the winter.
Convenience of different descriptions  appears often to decide the
question as to season.  In order to procure bark for the tanneries,
an act was passed by the English Parliament in 1603, prohibiting
all felling of oak timber during the dead season, the penalty for in fringement of the act being confiscation of the timber felled, or fine
to the amount of twice its value. An exception, however, was still
made in regard to timber destined for the public service in ship building, &c. The price of bark afterwards rose to such a height,
that it was found most profitable to cut in the spring; and the prac tice then became so general, that it by and by became necessary to
offer premiums to induce proprietors of oak forests to fell timber in
the winter season, for the sake of the British navy. The inhabitants
of the county of Stafford appear at a somewhat early period to have
sought to combine the advantages of the bark trade, with a fulfil ment of the conditions that entitled them to the premium on winter felled imber: they stripped the trees of their bark in the spring,
and felled them the following winter.  And  Buffon and  Duhamel
* Duhamel, op. cit., t. i. p. 400.
100 
INFLUENCE OF SOIL ON TIMBER.
showed subsequently, that by barking trees two or even three years
before cutting them down, the white external wood could be rendered nearly as hard and durable as the heart-wood of the tree. The
recommendation of this procedure by these two distinguished men
has not been followed in France; but ever since 1770 the Dutch
have adopted it, and it is now practised in many parts of England,
particularly in the royal forests.
It is quite certain that the nature of the soil exerts a considerable
inilltencc on the rapidity of growth and quality of the timber.  The
oak, the elm, &c., which have been grown in a damp soil, will not
be so hard and compact as the same trees reared on a dry plot.
Duharnel found, that although the trees which came in swampy bottorns were very sappy and wet, they were still lighter than others
of the same kind which had grown on a dry bank. Their white
wood is thick in comparison with their hard wood; they are brittle,
and do not readily take or keep the shapes into which they are bent
for ship-building or for staves; and then their pores being large and
open, and the whole wood being without that kind of varnish which
impregnates good timber, they are readily permeable and unfit for
the manufacture of vats, &c.-to say nothing of their being much
more perishable.  Such soft and porous timber is altogether improper for out-of-door constructions and for ship-building; but it
answers extremely well for indoor and cabinet work; for the latter
it has even certain advantages, it is easily wrought; and once fairly
seasoned, it is neither so apt to warp nor to crack as harder wood.
It was very probably to guard against any excess of sap in trees, so
prejudicial in a general way to the timber they yield, that the Romnans, according to Vitruvius, surrounded those that were destined to
be cut down with a trench six months beforehand.*
Trees which have grown in a good soil sufficiently drained have
a fine bark, and their white wood is moderate or small in quantity.
Their woody layers, indeed, are apt to be thinner generally, than
those of trees that have grown in a wet soil; but they are much
harder and tougher, their grain is more even and close, and their
pores are filled with an incrusting mnatter. They are consequently
very heavy, even when thoroughly dry, and with time and due
seasoning they become extremely hard, and in the same degree
acquire durability.  Duhamel was led by his experiments to conclude
that the difference in point of density of timber grown in a marshy
soil, and in one that was well drained and dry, was occasionally in
the ratio of five to seven.
The denser, dry-grown timber supports a relatively much greater
weight without breaking than the marsh-grown timber; and when
it does yield, it gives way by a large and splintering surface, while
the softer, less dense wood snaps off short. In brief, there is no
question as to which kind of timber is the most valuable; and measures ought to be taken by landed proprietors and timber-growers at
all times, not merely to grow trees, but to grow them under such cir
* Duhamel, Expl. des bois, t.i. p. 46.
9*
101 
SEASONING.
cumstances as shall ensure their yielding good available timber when
they have come to maturity.
If wet soils then be unfavorable to the growth of timber of the
highest value, in ship-building especially, what has been said must
be taken as of application to those trees only which will grow in a
great variety of soils. Damp and even marshy lands are well known
to be favorable and even indispensable to certain trees, which, by
their nature, delight in the neighborhood of water; but these are
generally kinds which are rather sought after for their height and
lightness, than for their strength and durability.*
Excessively dry soils, on the other hand, have also their disadvantages for forest cultivation. In such ground, trees seldom acquire a sufficient growth to admit of their being applied to any important purpose. It is certain, however, that absolute uniformity is
never encountered in any piece of timber. The woody layers that
have been formed in a wet or a dry year, in a warm or a cold year,
feel and manifest the effects of the varying meteorological influences.
They are of different thicknesses and densities, and, when carefully
examined, are found to present the characters of the timber grown in
soils of the most opposite description in point of wetness and dryness.t
The treatment of trees after they are felled, the drying and seasoning of the timber, are points of the highest importance. Standing
trees contain a large quantity of water in their composition. After
being cut down the moisture is dissipated, rapidly at first, much
more slowly afterwards. This drying process is, of course, favor)ed
or retarded by the varying states of heat and moistness of the atmosphere.  At length  there comes a time when the wood no longer.
suffers any sensible change by longer exposure to the air; or if it
does, the change is now on the one side, now on the other, and
merely in harmony with the hygrometric state of the atmosphere.
Timber has then lost the whole of the moisture which it can get rid
of by this mode of drying; it is now fit for use; it is seasoned, to
use the technical expression.
Timber is sometimes seasoned by previous total immersion in -
water. It has been held that this process favored the thorough drying, by dissolving out certain deliquescent salts which are found in
the sap, and prevented after-shrinking. However this may be, it is
quite certain that in warm countries especially, it is advantageous to
sink fresh-cut timber in water, with a view to prevent it from split ting, apparently in consequence of drying too quickly.  The  old
Venetians sank for a season in the sea, the oak timber which was
destined for the construction of their galleys.   Elm and bee(sh, in
particular, are said to improve greatly by the process of submersion
in salt water, and to dry afterwards perfectly by simple exposure to
the air.$
* We believe, however, that the live-oak, of which the American navy is con.
structed, and which supplies one of the most imperishable kinds of timber known,
grows exclusively in swamps.-ENG. ED.
t Duhamel, t. i., p. 57.
Knowles, Maritime and Colonial Annals, 1825.
102 
Mr. John Knowles, who made a particular study of the means
most generally employed in seasoning timber, has given an account
of a series of experiments undertaken in the arsenals of Deptford
and Woolwich, to determine the rate of drying and ultimate degree
of dryness attained by timber variously treated-unprepared and
prepared by previous submersion in water. The pieces of timber
were placed vertically, now in the position they had occupied in
growing, now in that opposed to this; and it was found that, circumstances the same, they dried more quickly in the former than in the
latter. The general results of these experiments were as follows:
1st. That the pieces of timber were best seasoned by being kept
about thirty months in the air, but in the shade and protected from
wet. 2d. That they lost more oftheir original weight after six
months' alternate immersions and dryings, than by being kept under
water for six months and then dried. Ship-builders are generally
agreed that it is not expedient to make use of timber until three
years after it is cut.*
Duhainel advises strongly, that in ship-building all timber from
trees already on the decline should be rigorously rejected; and this
the rather, that the most careful examination often fails at first to
perceive any alteration in the heart-wood of such trees, although it
never fails to show itself by and by at a sufficient interval after the
felling. This is undoubtedly a precept which it would be well to
bear constantly in mind; but timber does not always carry within
itself the germs of its speedy decay; and that which has been seasoned with the most scrupulous care, and was originally of the best
quality, does not escape the rot when it is placed under unfavorable
circumstances, any more than that which was of inferior worth and
less carefully treated.
Wood appears to perish or decay through three principal a d appreciable causes, which all require similar conditions to con   into
play, viz., stagnant air, sufficient warmth, and moisture. Like the
generality of organic substances, wood, when moistened in contact
with the oxygen of the air, and under the influence of a sufficiently
high temperature, undergoes decomposition of a kind which has been
compared to a slow combustion, upon which we shall find occasion
to say more by and by. It is with a view to escape this kind of decay as much as possible that timber is never, or ought never, to be
employed in the construction of ships and buildings until it has been
thoroughly seasoned.
Besides this first cause of decay, which may be prevented in a
great measure by using certain precautions, wood has still two redoubtable enemies, insects and certain plants of the family of the
cryptogaminie. In one case, the wood perishes because it is fed upon
by certain animals which live and grow at its expense; in the other
it decays because it serves as the soil to one crop of fungus after
another which luxuriate on its surface, while their roots penetrate
deeply into its interior. There is nothing in either accident which
* Dupin, Ann. de Chinie, t. xvii. p. 277.
103
DECAY. 
DRY-ROT.
excites astonishment, now that we know the intimate constitution
of wood.  We  know, in fact, that among the number of soluble
principles which impregnate the woody tissue, there is an azotized
matter analogous in its composition to those that exist so abundantly
in all the ordinary esculent vegetables.  There is, therefore, in wood
ample nourishment for the insects which we find living on it; and
if I state now (reserving to myself the opportunity of demonstrating
the fact) that all organic azotized mnatter becomes an active manure
by decaying, we shall understand how it happens that plants, which
have the power of living in dark, warm, and damp places, wax and
multiply in the joistings of houses, and in the ribs and planks of
ships, causing a dry rot, which separates the integral layers of the
wood, and reduces the strongest beams to dust.
The rapidity with which wood is, in some circumstances, devoured by insects is almost incredible. Some years ago the thermites,
or white ants, spread in such strength through the docks and arsenals of Rochelle and Rochefort, that in a very short space of time
serious damage was done.  A  learned entomologist, M. Audouin,
commissioned by the ministry to take information on the subject,
reported that the ravages committed by these insects had been very
considerable. But it is principally in warmer climates, where the termperature is steady throughout the year, and where there is no winter,
that the thermites occasion the most alarming injury.  At Popayan,
for example, it is difficult to meet in a building, even of recent construction, with a piece of woeo  which is not gnawed and ant-eaten.
The hardest and most compact woods do not always resist the attacks of these insects, which, further, do not spare every kind of
odorous wood, cedar for instance.  In such countries it is altogether
imp: ssible to preserve books and papers.  I remember, in connection vith this matter, that having received instructions to examine
the archives of Anserma, one of the oldest towns in Popayan, in
1830, I found nothing but books illegible and in pieces; nevertheless, the date of the documents, which it was my business to consult,
could inot have been older than the year 1600.
The dry rot, which results from the development and growth of
cryptogamic plants upon wood, is the curse of navies. MAIr. Knowles
is of opinion that this disease of timber has been known from. the
most remote antiquity; he believes that he can even recognise dryrot in the sore called house-leprosy, mentioned in the 14th chapter
of Leviticus. A ship attacked by dry-rot, becomnes in a very short
space of time unfit for sea.  The Foudroyant of 80 guns is often
quoted as an instance of its destructive powers: launched in 1798,
she had to be taken into dock and almost rebuilt so soon as 1802.*
The fuingi which induce dry-rot have been studied by Sowerby.
Mr. Knowles signalizes two species in particular; one of which he
describes under the name of Xylostroma giranteum, the other under
that of Boletus lacrynmans.  The Xvlostroma does not extend beyond
the part where it is developed; but the Boletus, on the contrary, it
* Dupin, Anrn. de Chirr.ie, t. xvii. p.1290.
104 
PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.
propagated with frightfuil rapidity, and disorganizes deeply and to a
great distance around the texture of the wood where it once appears
These fungi are generally found on board ship, between the planking
and the rib)s, in damp situations, and where the air is scarcely, if
ever, changed.*
The temperature most favorable to the development of dry-rot has
been found to lie between 7~ and 32~ cent. or 45~ and 90~ F. These
are the extreme limits: below the minimum vegetation languishes;
above the maximum, the fungi droop. With this piece of information it was hoped that vessels might be freed from dry-rot by raising
the temperature sufficiently.  The trials were made in winter in the
"Queen Charlotte," the air in the lower part of the ship being raised
as hiIgh as 55~ cent. or 130~ F.   But the general result did not answer expec(tations; for although the fungi were destroyed in the lower part of the vessel, it was found that their growth was rather favored in places at a certain elevation above the kelson. The warm
air, in fact, as it rose through the timbers became robbed in its course,
and deposited the greater portion of the moisture which it had taken
up at a lower level. Above the orlop deck, consequently, there was
just about the temperature and the quantity of moisture most favorable to the development of the fungi. The evil was therefore only
transplante(d, not destroyed.  It was  now  proposed  to heat  the
"'tweent decks" at the same time as the hold, making, use of due
ventilation; but this method of proceeding has not been put into practice.
Thle ext; eme slowness of the growth of trees stands in strong contrast with the rapidity of their decay when they are reduced to the
slaf)e of til,il)er and employed in constructions of almost every kind.
In countries well advanced in civilization, every description of in(uStly tends to consume timber, at the same time that an increasing population is every day contracting the extent of forest land,
and diminishing the number of trees grown.   In some countries, indeed, it is certain that the production of wood for all purposes, firing,
&c., &c., is no longer in relation with its consumption. The price
of the article, necessarily high, is therefore tending continually to
rise; and it is not surprising that various measures have been sIluggested and essayed of giving this perishable material greater durability.
The well-known great durability of certain trees, the teak, ebony,
lignum-vitae, &c., naturally led to the conclusion that the fatty or
resinous matters which they contain have the property of preserving
the wood against the greater number of the ordinary causes of decay; and unctuous and resinous matters appear in fact to have been
the means most anciently employed to preserve wood from the air,
from moisture, and from  the attacks of insects.  But it is scarcely
necessary, at the present time, to say that these varnishes only acomplish the object proposed in their application in avery imperfect
vay; paint and varnishes crack, rub, or scale off with the slightest
105
w
* Diipin, Ann. de Chimie et de Physique, t. xvii. p. 291, 2e s6rie. 
PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.
friction; nor do they always remove the causes of internal decay
on the contrary, by preventing more complete dryness, they some
times even provoke or favor them, when applied to tender, that is
imperfectly seasoned wood. Merely laid on the surface. indeed, i
has always been seen that varnishes of any kind were but indifferen
protectors; that a really good preserver ought to penetrate the sub
stance of the wood, and unite with the tissue itself. But herein lay
the whole difficulty; how was the needful penetration to be effected
for the number of chemical substances, from which good effect
might reasonably be anticipated, is pretty considerable,-unless in
deed we find ourselves prevented from using them by the considera
tion of the price; for it is imperative that any preservative proposed
be extremely cheap.
For a long time the only process for effecting the penetration of
timber by substances proposed for its preservation was to macerate
them for a longer or shorter time in a solution of the substance
But this means was found as tardy of accomplishment as it was or
dinarily imperfectly effected; to have got to the heart of logs of
large scantling, years would have been required. Any delay, how
ever, in such circumstances, is of itself a cause of enhanced price
of the article.  By and by a variety of processes, the element in one
being pressure, in another exhaustion, were put in practice, and very
satisfactory results obtained. M. Breant showed, that by means of
strong pressure he could fill the largest logs from one end to the
other with any unctuous or resinous substance proposed, in the course
of a few minutes. M. Moll, a learned German, proposed creosote
introduced in the state of vapor by forcing, as an effectual means of
preserving timber, which it probably would be found; but the high
price of the antiseptic, were there no other objections, would neces
sarily be an obstacle to its general employment. The same objection
applies to the bichloride of mercury, (Kyan's patent;) and arsenic is
inadvisable from its deleterious effects upon the animal economy
Some workmen are said to have lost their lives in consequence of
working timber which had been impregnated with a solution of white
oxide of arsenic.
It had been observed that vessels engaged in the lime-trade lasted
long; and then it was naturally thought that by impregnating the
wood to be used for ship-building with lime it would be rendered
more durable. But the result did not answer expectation; the tim ber treated with lime did not even seem to last the usual time.*
Such was the state of the question when Dr. Boucherie made a
highly important communication to the Royal Academy of Sciences
on the preservation of timber.t Some estimate of its nature may
be formed from the list of subjects discussed in this remarkable
paper.
1. To protect timber against dry-rot and the ordinary wet-rot.
2. To increase its hardness and strength.
3. To preserve its flexibility and elasticity.
* Dupin, Ann. de Chimie, t. xvii. p. 286
t Idem, t. lxxiv. p. 113.
106 
PRESERVATION OF TIMIBER.
4. To counteract its alternate contraction and expansion in consequence of the varying state of moistness and temperature of the
atmosphere.
5. To diminish its inflammability and combustibility.
6. To give it a variety of permanent colors and odors.
In the whole of his experiments M. Boucherie set out from this
proposition, the truth of which appears indisputable and to require
no comment, viz: That all the changes which wood undergoes proceed or depend upon the soluble matters which it contains. In conformity with this idea, the first step towards giving durability to timber
was, either to render these matters insoluble and inert, or to remove
them entirely. M. Boucherie, therefore, in his first trials sought to
render the matters insoluble by charging the wood with a substance
capable of combining chemically and forming a precipitate with the
soluble matter left by the sap. To resolve this problem, M. Boucherie
investigated the reactions between the soluble matter of wood, which
it was his object to precipitate, and a variety of low-priced chemical
agents.  He found that the pyrolignite of iron combined the greatest
number of desirable properties: it is very cheap, the oxide of iron
forms stable compounds with the greatest number of the organic
substances which are found in the sap of vegetables, and, to conclude,
the crude pyroliglnite contains a notable quantity of creosote.
The facts upon which M. Boucherie relies as proving the preservative powers of the pyrolignite of iron flow from numerous experiments performed either on vegetable substances which in themselves
readily and rapidly undergo changes; or upon billets of wood of
different kinds.  A quantity of flour, the pulp of carrots, beet-roots,
&c., impregnated with the pyrolignite resist decomposition in a very
remarkable manner in contrast with the same substances when they
have not been prepared in any way.
The wood which was selected for trial, was generally of the most
perishable kind.  In December, 1838, several empty hogsheads and
barrels made of the best timber unimpregnated and impregnated with
the pyrolignite were placed together in the dampest parts of the great
cellars of Bordeaux. In August, 1839, it was easy to see that the
unimpregnated tubs were already deeply stricken, and after from
two to three years they fell to pieces with the slightest force; the
casks made of the prepared wood, however, were as sound as on
the first day of the experiment.*
M. Boucherie concluded from his experiments instituted with a
view to the settlement of the question, that about 4Lth of the weight
of the wood in its green state of the pyrolignite was adequate to
precipitate and render insoluble all the principles obnoxious to change,
which were contained in the woody tissue.
M. Boucherie, while he regards the pyrolignite of iron as at once
the most powerful, and one of the cheapest preservatives of timber,
nevertheless indicates several soluble salts, which are readily available in consequence of their low price, and also very effectual when
* Comptes Rendus, t. ii. p. 896.
107
r 
11 E ESEIiVATIO'N  OSF  IIBEt,.
the wood, which they are to preserve, is not kept constantly wet.
Solutions of conmon salt, of chloride of lime, the mother-water of
salt marshes, &c., were all tried and found useful: casks, the wood
o' which had been prepared with the chlorides, after having been
long kept in very damp cellars, came out as fresh as those which
had been impregnated with the pyrolignite of iron; the flexibility of
tle wood preserved with these alkaline and earthy salts was further
as treat as at the beginning of the experiment.
H-aving now come to a conclusion in regard to the substances
:,st effectual in preserving wood, tile next business was to make
Jilem penetrate its tissue most intimately. Maceration, M. Boucheic soon found, like his predecessors in the same path, to be insufficient, the substances in solution only penetrating a very little way.
He then tried various processes of injection; but all inferior to that
imnagined by M. Breant, and therefore less effectual.   He then bethought him of effecting the needful penetration of' the wood in the
green state, and before it had been sensibly altered by drying and
seasoning; he asked himself if the force which determines the
ascent of the sap might not be taken advantage of after the tree was
cut down, as a means of determining the entrance of a solution of
pyrolignite of iroin   And all his trials in this direction answered his
expectations fully. M. Boucherie had, in fact, discovered a means
of securing the penetration of the minutest pores of the largest..
by a substance capable of rendering it incorruptible. No one betore
MA. Boucherie thought of taking advantage of an admitted physiological fact for such a purpose. He announces the principle upon
vlwhich he proceeds in these terms:  "If a tall tree be cut down at
the proper season, and the bottom of the trunk be then imii-ersed in
a saline solution, weak or strong, the liquid is powerfully drawo tip
into the tree, penetrates its most intimate tissues, rises to its slmallest branches, and even to its terminal leaves."*
In the month of September, a poplar, upwards of 90 feet high and
nearly 16 inches in diameter, was cut, and the bottom of its bole
plunged in a vessel containing a solution of pyroliglnite of iroiin martking 8~ of the areometer of Beaum; in the course of six days it; hid
absorbed upwards of 66 gallons of the fluid.
In his first experiments,  M.  Boucherie procured  the  nc('dfnl
absorption by placing the bottoms of his trees in vessels contaCiiling
the solution; but this mode of proceeding was obviously full of difficulties and open to many objections: the weight of a green tree ol
large size, with the whole of its top and branches, is often enorimous.
and to raise a mass of the kindi once down again into the perpendicular was no easy task; it implied recurrence to certain mechanical means which are not always at hand, and necessarily expensive.
M. Boucherie, therefore, tried other modes of making the trees
absorb; he adapted a sac of impermeable material to the bottom of
the trunk laid on the ground, and into this sac he poured his solution,
and this method answered very well.  He  next took advantage of
* Ann. de Chittie, t. I5\xiV..,I.
103
F' 
PRESERVATION OF TIM3BER.
one or more of the roots to effect the imbibition.  He next bored a
hole into the bottom of the trunk, still erect; and having brought
the cavity thus made to communicate with a reservoir, he still suIc ceeded.  This last plan was still further simplified in proceeding as
follows: the trunk of the tree is pierced by an auger through nearly
the whole diameter.  Into the auger-hole thus made, a narrow saw
is passed, by working which on either side, the trunk is divided internially to a very considerable extent, and the majority of its sap vessels are thus cut across and made accessible.  An  iriperviolus
cloth is then tied round the trunk, below thile opening, and this is
made to communicate with the reservoir of liquid.*
MA Boucherie was almost necessarily led, in the course of his experiments, to inquire whether the absorbing power of trees differed
at different seasons or not. He ascertained by trials made in the
months of December and February, that though in the oak, the hornbeam, and the plane, the solution of pyrolignite of iron always rises
several feet, and even several yards, yet that in the colder season of
the year, it never rises so high as it does in summner, in spring, and
especiallv in autiumn, the season in which the power of ascent is
mreost i-arkable.  This conclusion is obviously of interest physio1 oicall.  It proves that if winter be a season of repose for the sap,
iL is not so absolutely. There is one reintrkable exception to the
general fact now announced, and this occurs among the resinous
trees that keepl) their leaves till the spring. It has been ascertained,
ly direct experiment, that the ascent of the sap continues through
the whole course of the winter in the cone-bearing trees, and this to
such an extent, that it is always possible to impregnate every part
of their trunk by the way of simple absorption at any period of the
year.  As M. Bouclierie remarks, this fact might even have been
l'o-leseen from the fresh and green state of the leaves of these trees.
It now became important, in connection with the practical application of M. Bouchlierie's views, to ascertain whether or not the
penetration was energetic in the ratio of the vigor of the tree itself,
in proportion as it was more numerously provided with branches,
more thickly covered with leaves.  Experiment showed that the
penetration still takes place after the removal of the greater number
of blranches, provided only the leading bough or terminal crown be
left. A stem furnished with a number of leafy branches continues,
as has been said, to imbibe, though separated from the roots; but
ftr how  long a time will it continue to do so?  This was a capital
point to determine. At the end of September, the bottom of a pinletree, about 14 inches in diameter, was first put into the solution 48
hours after it had been felled; nevertheless the imbibition was coinplete.  In June the same success attended the experiment made on
a plane that had been cut for thirty-six hours.  Still it is certain
that the penetration takes place with so much the more energy as it
is arranged close upon the time of the felling.  The power by which
it is determined declines rapidly after the first day is passed, and by
* Boucherie, Ann. de Chimie, t. Ixxiv. p. 134. 2e srie
10
109
r 
PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.
the tenth day it is almost entirely gone. In favorable circumstances
these ten days suffice to effect the complete impregnation of the
largest stem. In one of his experiments upon a poplar, M. Boucherie
saw the absorbed liquid reach the height of about 95 feet in seven
days.
In the white woods it is found that there is an axis of variable
diameter in different cases which escapes or rather which resists
impregnation. In hard woods the parts which are not penetrated
are the inner or undermost circles of the heart. M. Boucherie, after
having ascertained these facts, explains them thus: in the white
woods, according to the testimony of the workmen, the central part
which resists the penetration is at once the weakest and the most
perishable portion of the log; there is no longer any circulation, any
life there; it is dead wood interred in the midst of the living woody
layers. This absence of penetration of the woody tissue appears,
on some occasions, elsewhere than in the centre of the trunk and
branches; it presents itself under the most various forms and in
different parts of the trunk: it appears to depend, as has been said,
on the presence of wood abstracted from the influence of vital phe nomena, and which, impenetrable itself, presents a barrier or an ob stacle to the passage of the solution to other parts; it is thus that a
knot, or a piece of rotten wood, is generally found as the starting
point of the zones that have escaped imbibition. As to the non penetration of the most central parts of the heart of oak, elm, &c.,
M. Boucherie views it as affording unquestionable proof of the fact
that there the living juices of the tree had long ceased to circulate.
The distinction generally drawn between the white or soft, and
the perfect or hard wood, rests on the differences of color presented
by a transverse section of the trunk.  In the oak, for example, the
external and nearly white concentric layers are held as the soft and
valueless portion of the log, and are commonly hewn away in squar- -
ing it; the darker, more central portions constitute the heart-wood,
the valuable timber.  But, according to M. Boucherie, the distinc tion is different when the fact of penetrability is taken as the guide,
and all that portion of the trunk which imbibes is considered as
alburnum, or soft wood, and all that does not imbibe is regarded as
hard wood.  The alburnum in this way is so much extended that it
may be found constituting three-fourths of the whole mass of the
trunk. Once introduced, the pyrolignite of iron, according to M.
Boucherie, is not only useful in preserving the wood, it also in creases the density of the timber. Impregnated with this salt of
iron, wood becomes so hard as powerfully to resist the tools of the
carpenter and joiner, who even complain of the increased difficulty
with which it is worked.
Flexibility and elasticity in timber are qualities in request for cer  tain purposes, particularly for ship-building. The fir timber of the
north of Europe is much more prized than that of the south, espe  cially for masting, on account of its greater flexibility and elasticity,
qualities which appear to depend in a great measure on the quantity
of moisture retained; to increase these qualities M. Boucherie has
110 
PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.
even introduced by imbibition a deliquescent salt, such as the muri ate of lime, which retains moisture powerfully, as is well known,
and seems to have the power of giving a remarkable degree of sup pleness to wood. The experiments, contrived to show the effects
of deliquescent salts, were made upon deal, which is allowed to be
one of the most brittle woods. After having impregnated it with
concentrated solutions it was sawed into very thin veneers, some of
which I have seen in the possession of M. Boucherie, which after
being strongly twisted and bent in various senses, immediately re gained their original flatness and evenness when they were left
free.
Warping, or shrinking, is occasioned by alternate shrinking and
swelling in consequence of varying hygrometric states of the atmo sphere. When timber is worked before it is thoroughly seasoned, and this is apt to happen in regard to pieces of large scantling es pecially-the shrinking is of course extremely conspicuous when the
time necessary to complete desiccation has elapsed.  It is this in convenience which makes it imperative on builders of all kinds, ship builders more especially, to keep stocks which necessarily absorb
a considerable amount of capital. It has long been a question with
engineers to find a remedy for this state of things.  Seasoning, in deed, is now effected somewhat more quickly by squaring the logs
at the time the trees are cut down; but the loss of time is still very
considerable. The mode of seasoning by the stove or vapor has
been abandoned as too costly.
After having found that the shrinking and separation of pieces of
carpentry did not begin to take place until the timber was upon the
point of losing the last third of the moisture which it contained at
the time of being cut, M. Boucherie thought that to prevent all
warping and shrinking it would be enough to retain this quantity of
water in combination with the woody tissue; in other words, to prevent complete desiccation. Facts have proved the correctness of
this view. Pieces of wood kept at a certain unchanging degree of
moistness by means of a deliquescent salt infused into their pores,
do not change their bulk or form, in spite of extreme variations in
the hygrometric state of the air. Such pieces of wood, however,
exhibit great differences in point of weight under the influence of
different circumstances.
Several planks of great breadth and extremely thin were prepared
with chloride of lime and joined together; some of them were left
unpainted, others were painted on one side, or on both sides; after
the lapse of a year these planks were found not to have shrunk or
warped, while similar planks of the same thickness and kind of
wood, but unprepared, were found to have cast in an extraordinary
way.*
M. Boucherie has done more than this; he has not only had it in
view to preserve wood and to prevent it from warping, qualities so
desirable,-he has made use of the same faculty of imbibition to im
* Boucherie, op. cit. p. 151.
III
t
l 
PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.
pregnate the wood with a variety of beautiful colors, and thus to
give even the most common kinds tints that will admit of their being
used in the construction of costly furniture.  The  pyrolignite of
iron alone Fives an agreeable brown tint that harmonizes excellently
with the natural color of the harder parts of so many trees which
usually resist penetration.   By following up the pyrolignite with an
infusion of nutgalls or oak-bark, the mass of the wood is penetrated
wAith ink. whiclh presents a blackli, blue, or gray color, according to
ci( urcumstances; a solution of another salt of iron succeeded by one
of )riss ate of potash will cause a precipitate of prussian blue in the
wood, &c.; in short, by the numerous  re3ctions of this kind with
wh.ich chemistry is familiar, a great variety of colors may be obt.ined.
Among the number of useful properties communicated to wood by
impregnation with saline solutions, that of being rendered little apt
for combustion ought not to be omitted. M. Gay-Lussac was the
first who thought of rendering vegetable tissues incombustible  by
means of saline impregnations.*   By incombustible, we  are not to
understand unalterable by a red heat; for every one must see that
the protecting power of no salt can extend so far as this; but tissues
which take fire very readily, and burn with great rapidity, cease
from giving any flame, and merely smoulder, after they have been
impregnated with certainii salts; they take fire with difficulty, go
out of themselves, become charred, and are incapable of propagating
fire. And this is exactly what happens with wood which has been
properly charged: it burns, and is reduced to ashes with extreme
slowness, so that two huts exactly alike, built one of charged wood,
and the other of ordinary wood, having been set fire to at the same
moment, the latter was already burned to the ground, when the interior of the former was scarcely charred.t
The ingenious process of impregnating wood by the way of vital
inspiration is not without certain objections.   In the first place, it
can only be performed at those periods of the year when the sap is
in motion, and the trees are covered with their leaves. This time,
however, is limited to a few months of the year, and the usual prac tice being to fell timber in the winter, wont and usage are opposed
to cutting down trees in the spring and autumn.   To  meet these
objections, M. Boucherie engaged in new experiments, which led
him to a means of impregnating timber at all seasons, in winter as
well as spring and autumn, and in a very short space of time; this
second method is applicable to wood that has already been squared
as well as to the round trunk, provided it has been recently felled.
To impregnate timber by this process, the logs are placed verti cally,. and the upper extremities are fitted with an impermeable sack
for the reception of the saline solution destined to charge them; the
fluid enters from above, and almiost at the same moment the sap is
seen to begin running out below. There are some woods which
* Ann. de Chimie, t. xviii. p. 211, 2e snrie.
+ Idem, t. lxxiv. p. 152, 2e sarie.
112 
PRESERVATION OF TIMBER.
include a large quantity of air in their tissues; in this case the flow
does not go on until this air has been expelled; once begun, it goes
on without interruption.  The operation is terminated when  the
fluid, which drips from the lower part, is of the same nature as that
which is entering above.  In my opinion this method must be preferable to that by aspiration.  In the second mode of proceeding, in
fact, we accomplish our object by a true displacement; almost the
whole of the sap is expelled, and the saline solution introduced has
only to subdue or neutralize the very small quantity of soluble
organic matter which may remain adhering to the woody tissue.
By accomplishing such a displacement by means of simple water we
should undoubtedly obtain results favorable to the preservation of
timber, inasmuch as we should have freed it from almost the whole
of those matters which are regarded as the most alterable themselves, and the first cause of rotting in timber. The rapidity with
which the fluid introduced is substituted for the sap which it displaces, and the quantity of this expelled sap which' may be readily
collected, exceeds any thing that could have been imagined before
making the experiment; thus the trunk of a beech-tree about 521
feet in length by 3343 inches in diameter, and consequently forming
a cube of somewhat more than 29 feet and a half, gave in the course
of twenty-five hours upwards of 330 gallons -f sap, which were replaced by about 350 gallons of pyroligneous acid. The liquid which
penetrates in this way acts so effectually in displacing the sap, that
MA. Boucherie says we can readily procure or extract by its means
the saccharine, mucilaginous, resinous, and colored juices contained
in trees. It would, perhaps, be possible, and I beg to suggest this
idea to colonial planters, to apply the method of displacement to the
extraction of the coloring matters of dye-woods. The trade in dyewoods does not extend beyond localities favorably situated for exportation, so that at a certain distance from the shores of the ocean,
or the banks of rivers, it is found absolutely impossible to carry on
a trade, the material of which is so heavy and bulky as timber.
The greater number of the coloring matters found in wood being
soluble, it is possible to export them in the state of extract.  Various
attempts of this kind have already been made, and if they have not
been successful, the obvious cause of this lies in the method which
has been followed, and which has hitherto consisted in treating the
wood reduced to chips by means of boiling water, and then reducing
the colored solution obtained; but it is obvious that in the remote
forests of America, or of Africa, where all mechanical means are
wanting, nothing but failure could attend upon such a procedure
By the method of M. Boucherie, the main difficulties appear to be
got over  there is nothing more to be done, in fact, than to get the
trees into the state of logs, and these are generally readily transportable, after which one or more evaporating pans seem all that
are further necessary.
Dye-zvoods.-The greater number of these woods belong to the
family of leguminosae; the principal kinds met with in trade are
1. Mahogany wood, (hccmaloxy'loi c,mpechianumn) of a reddish
113
0 
SUGAR.
yellow, which becomes brown with age; this wood, besides a variety
of alkaline and earthy salts, of volatile oil and unazotized matter,
contains a particular coloring principle, called hematine, discovered
by M. Chevreul.*
The mahogany grows in the hot intertropical regions of America;
Mexico and some of the West India islands export considerable
quantities.
Pernambuco or Brazil-wood is the name given in trade to the
trunks of several trees of the genus Cesalpinia.  The  Ctesalpinia
crista of Jamaica, the C. sappan of Japan, the C. echinatat of Santa
Martha, afford kinds that are very much prized. In point of chemnical composition Brazil-wood agrees with Campechy wood; the coloring matter which characterizes it has been named Braziline by M.
Chevreul; it is obtained in small crystals of an orange color.
This wood comes to Europe in fagots of about 39 inches in
length. Red Saunders-wood is furnished by the Ptoerocarpus santalinus; it contains a peculiar dye-stuff, santaline, observed by M.
Peltier.t
To conclude, the yellow dye-woods of commerce are Fustic, Rhus
cotinus, of the family of turpentine trees, a native of the south of
Europe, and the Cuba and Tampico woods, which are probably varieties of the Morus tinctoria.
OF SUGAR.
'Sugar is met with in almost every part of vegetables; it has been
found in flowers, in leaves, in stems, and in roots. It is less abundant in seeds; and it may even be said that the quantity of saccharine matter contained in vegetables in general is invariably diminished
at the period of formation of the seed.  Sugar, consequently, as well
as starch, appears to contribute to the production of the seed.
The very characteristic taste of sugar generally suffices to proclaim its presence; nevertheless, it would be a great mistake d'd
we rely upon this character alone for discovering the presence o0
sugar; several substances possess a very decided sweet taste, without being on that account sugar, in the sense which chemists attach
to the name. True sugars, according to chemists, have one property
which distinguishes them from all substances with which they may
have, in other respects, the greatest analogy; this characteristic
property is that of becoming changed, under the influence of water,
a suitable temperature, and contact with yeast, into alcohol and carbonic acid.  It is certain, nevertheless, that certain bodies which do
not belong to the chemical genus, sugar, may, under the influence of
fermentation, yield alcohol. I have already quoted starch as coming
under this head; but it has been distinctly ascertained, as I have also
said, that such substances, under the influence of the ferment itself,
are first changed into sugar, which subsequently undergoes the vinous fermentation.
* Chimie appliqu6e a la teinture, 30e lecon, p. 88.
t Chevreul, Chemistry applied to dying, 30th lecture, p. 94.
114
0 
It is admitted at the present time that fermentable sugars must be
divided into two principal species, in harmony with characters which
are most easily appreciated.   One of these presents itself in the
shape of hard, transparent crystals, and is met with in sufficient
quantity to be profitably extracted from the juice of the cane and the
beet, the sap of the maple and of certain palms; the other is obtained
with some difficulty in the solid state, being most frequently and
readily procured in the form of sirup; the taste of this is less sweet,
less decided; it exists in the grape and the greater number of
fruits. The chemical characters of these two kinds of sugar, which
are designated cane-sugar and grape-sugar, are somewhat different;
and the elegant researches of M. Biot have shown, that from some
of their physical properties, particularly the action of their solutions
upon polarized light, they cannot be regarded as constituting one and
the same species. In the vegetable kingdom, these two kinds of
sugar are frequently met with mixed; and there are certain chemical means which enable us readily to transform cane-sugar into
grape-sugar. The inverse transformation has not yet been accomplished; but there is nothing which leads us to conclude that it is
impossible; and the time, perhaps, is not very remote when the
sugar which is manufactured from potato-starch may be changed
into crystallized sugar, similar to that which is obtained from the
cane.
Crystallized sugar.   Cane-sugar is readily obtained in large
transparent crystals, which are known under the name of sunarcandy.  Sugar is fusible: under the action of a regulated temperature, it acquires a dark-red color, and passes into the state of caramel; a higher temperature effects its decomposition. It is much
less soluble in alcohol than in water; highly concentrated alcohol,
indeed, only dissolves an extremely small quantity of sugar.
Al. lPeligot's analysis of cane-sugar shows it to be composed of
Carbon..................... 42.1
Hydrogen.................... 6.4
Oxygen..................... 51.5
100. 0O*
Such is the composition of sugar dried at the temperature of boiling water; but the substance, like the majority of organic matters,
still contains a certain proportion of constitutional water, which it
abandons when it combines with certain bases. Thus sugar comDines with oxide of lead, and forms a true saccharate, in which the
sugar, deprived of its water of constitution, plays the part of an acid;
this combination, which presents itself to us under the form of white
mammillated crystals, analyzed by M. Peligot, would indicate the
following as the composition of anhydrous sugar
Carbon..................... 47.1
Hydrogen..      -.......  5.9
Oxygen..................... 47.0
100.0
* Annales de Chimie, vol. lxviii. p. 124, 2e s~rie.
115
SUGAR. 
Ordinary sugar, deprived of its water of composition in any othet
way, has the same elementary composition; thus caramel obtained
by heating sugar to 180~ cent., (356~ Fahr.,) until it no longer loses
watery vapor, has, according to M. Peligot, the composition of anhydrous sugar, such as it is found in combination with oxide of lead.
Setting aside all theoretical considerations, it is obvious that to
have anhydrous sugar reconstituted ordinary hydrated sugar, it were
necessary to add to 100 parts 11.76 of water, containing 1.3 hydrogen and 10.46 oxygen; the 111.76 parts then contain, in elements:
Carbon.............. 47.1 per cent.   42.1 common sugar.
Hydrogen   -........    7.2 "                   6.4        "
Oxygen............. 57.46 " 51.5 "
111.76              100.0
Common sugar may therefore be viewed as composed of 100 anhydrous sugar, and 11.8 water.
The whole of the sugar which comes from South America and
the West Indies, and a large proportion of that which comes from
the East Indies, is extracted from the juice of the sugar-cane.
In America three principal varieties of sugar-cane are cultivated,
the Creole, the Batavian, and the Otaheitan. The Creole cane has
the leaf of a deep green, the stem slender, the knots very close together. This species, a native of India, reached the new world
after having passed through Sicily, the Canaries, and the West India islands. The Batavian cane is indigenous in the island of Java;
its foliage is very broad, and has a purple tint; the sap of this variety is much employed in making rum.  The Otaheite cane is that
which is most extensively grown at the present time; it was introduced into the West India islands and neighboring continent by Bou
gainville, Cook, and Bligh, in their several voyages, and is certainly
one of the most important acquisitions which the agriculture of tropical countries owes to the voyages of naturalists.   This variety of
cane grows with extraordinary vigor: its stem is taller, thicker, and
richer in juice than that of the other species. I observed it along
the whole coast of Venezuela, of New Grenada, and of Peru; far
from having degenerated by its transplantation to the American continent, it appears to have preserved all its original qualities without
alteration.
The sugar-cane is propagated by cuttings.  Pieces of the stem
about 18 or 20 inches long, and having several buds or eyes, are
placed two or three together in holes a few inches in depth, and are
covered with loose moist earth. From a fortnight to three weeks
are required for the shoots to show themselves above ground.  The
space to be left between each clump of plants depends much on the
fertility of the soil; in the most fertile soils the distance may be
about a yard, or a little more; and ak)ng the rows the spaces may
be about 18 inches. Where land is of no great value it is found
more advantageouis to give greater space, and so to favor the access
of the air and the light. It is not uncommon to see plantations where
the canes are spaced at distances of between 4 and 5 feet. The
116
'BUGAR - 
SUGAR-CANE.
time at which the setting of the slips takes place cannot be definitively indicated; it depends entirely upon the epoch at which the
periodical rains are anticipated.  But in places where irrigation is
possible, the setting goes on through all the months of the year.
The holes for the reception of the slips are usually dug with a hoe,
and a negro will make from sixty to eighty holes in the course of a
day.   When the ground has been previously ploughed, as it is in
some of the W\est India islands, he will make twice as many. Loose
rich soils, when they have a certain moisture, are the best adapted
to the sugar-cane; it does not thrive in an argillaceous soil, which
drains with difficulty.  In these moist soils the slips are not laid
hlorizoltally and covered, but with one end projecting a little way
out of the goround. When the young shoots are covered with narrow and opposed leaves, watering, is particularly advantageous, and
the plants are repeatedly hoed until they have acquired sufficeient
vigor to choke noxious weeds.  About the 9th month after the plantation of the slips, the shaft of the sugar-cane begins to lose  its
leaves, the most inferior falling first, the othe's in succession, so
that when arrived at maturity, it only presents a tuft of terminal
leaves. The flowering generally takes place with the conclusion
of the year; and the cane is held sufficiently ripe in from two to
three months after this epoch, when the stem has acquired a yellow
or straw color. The planters, however, are by no means agreed as
to the proper period of the sugar-cane hlarvest,-some even insist
upon cutting before the flowering, believing that the quantity of sugar diminishes on the appearance of the flower. It is unquestionable, however, that the period that elapses between the planting and
the harvest, must vary with the nature of the soil, and especially
with that of the climate   while in some places the cane may be cut
when it is a year old, doubtless there are others where it requires to
stanid from fifteen to sixteen months.   In Venezuela, where the Otaheite cane is grown at the level of the sea, and where the mean temperature of the year is between 81~ and 82~ Fahr., the cane ripens,
according t. 7olonel Codazzi, in eleven miionths.  In districts at
greater elevations under the same parallels of latitude, where the
climate is of course not so hot, the cane requires a longer time to
come to maturity; where the mean temperature is about 78~ Fahr.,
twelve months are required; where it is about 74~ Fahr., fourteen
months become necessary; and where it is no more than about 67~
Fahr., sixteen months are requisite.*  The Otaheite cane grows to
very different heights; in very favorable circumstances it will reach
a height of 16 feet and upwards, but its general height may be stated
at from 9,- to 10-  feet.  Great cane plantations  are divided into
squares of from 100 to 120 yards on the side, each of which coming
to maturity in succession, the labor is easily performed, both in regard to field-work and the manufacture of the sugar.
'I'lie cane is cut close to the root, and before being carried to the
mill, the terminal tuft of leaves is struck off. These heads in the
* Codazzi, Geography of Venezuiela, p. 141.
117 
SUGAR-CANE.
green state afford excellent food for horses and cattle; when dry
they are used for thatching houses. After the first cutting, fresh
sprouts arise, which require no other attention than hoeing. In good
soils one planting will yield five or six harvests by successive
shoots; but I have heard planters affirm, that the produce in sugar
diminishes from year to year. In Venezuela, cane-pieces are replanted every five or six years.
The cane with its top struck off is carried to the mill, where the
juice is expressed, and the stems, which are spoken of under the
name of trash, are dried and used as fuel.
The expressed juice contains crystallizable sugar, an azotized
substance analogous to albumen, and some saline matters dissolved
in a large quantity of water, which is dissipated by boiling, and the
sugar finally won by crystallization. The manufacturing process is
conducted with very different degrees of perfection in different
places. In some the produce is obtained almost without admixture
of molasses, in others the quantity of this article which drains away
from the sugar is very large.  It is now generally agreed that molasses proceeds in great part from imperfections in the manufacturing
processes employed, especially to changes which the sugar undergoes in the course of its concentration by boiling at a high temperature. By the employment of what are called vacuum pans of various construction-pans from which the pressure of the atmosphere
is removed either by the air-pump, or the condensation of the vapor
as fast as it is formed, rapid evaporation is effected at a temperature
much below that of boiling water, by which it is found that the relative quantity of sugar to that of molasses is greatly increased. It
was long believed, indeed, and that on the authority of the first
chemists, that there were two kinds of sugar contained in the sugar cane, one crystallizable, the other uncrystallizable, and constituting
the molasses or treacle.   The  researches of M.  Peligot* have
shown definitively that this conclusion is erroneous, that the cane con tains no sugar that is not crystallizable, and that the pre-existence
of uncrystallizable sugar or molasses is entirely chimerical. M.
Plagne had indeed come to the same conclusion some considerable
time ago-as far back as 1826; but his labors were not made known
by publication till 1840. M. Casaseca, professor of chemistry at
Hlavana, has very lately confirmed these conclusions, so important
for the sugar husbandry of the world.t The composition of the
juice of the sugar-cane is therefore less complex than it was once
believed to be; making abstraction of very minute quantities of an
albuminous azotized substance, of several salts and a little silica,
substances which altogether do not amount to more than two or
three hundredths, cane juice may be said to consist of water and of
crystallizable sugar in the proportion of from 17 to 20 per cent:
The Otaheite cane analyzed by M. Peligot actually yielded:
* Ann. Maritimes et Coloniales, Aug. 1842.
t Vide Comptes Rendus, 1844.         1 Peligot, op. cit.
118
r
v 
SUGAR-CANE.
Water....-.72.1
Woody matter................9.9
Soluble matter (sugar)........18.0
100.0
This conclusion was verified by M. Dupuy at Guadaloupe in 1841,
who, operating on the spot, found the composition to be as follows:
Water...........................72.0
Woody matter.............. 9.8
Soluble matter (sugar)........17.8
Salts.......................... 0.4
100.0
The analyses of the Creole cane made by M. Casaseca at Havana
appear to indicate a larger quantity of woody fibre:
Water......................... 65.9
Wood......................16.14
Sugar......................17.7
100.0
The quantity of sugar yielded by the cane, differs considerably.
M. Codazzi assigns 6 and 15 per cent. as the extremes, and 7-L per
cent. as the mean. M. Dupuy gives 7.1 per cent. as the average.
The quantity is, of course, first and most intimately connected with
the quantity of juice obtained. But the produce of juice is extremely
variable. In Guadaloupe, the juice varies between 56 and 62 per
cent. of the cane subjected to pressure. The generality of mills do
not, in fact, enable us to obtain more than about 56 per cent. At
New Orleans the usual quantity obtained is said to be 50, and in
Cayenne only 36 per cent. At Havana, according to M. Casaseca, the riband cane yields 45, the crystalline 35, and the Otaheitan
56 per cent. of juice.
The Otaheite cane was examined by M. Peligot, under a variety
of circumstances of age, growth, part of plant, &c. &c. The following table contains the condensed results of his experiments:
Water.      Souble mat-  Woody fibre.
ters (sugar.)
First shoots.......................   73.4          17.2          8.9
Second do. from original sprouts        71.7         17.8         10.5
Third  do. from second    do.      71.6              16.4         12.0
Fourth do. from third      do.      7    3.0         16.8         10.2
Inferiorpartof cane................73.7        15.5         10.8
Middle part of do................  72.6              16.5         10.9
Superiorpartofdo.            7          2.8          15.5         11.7
Knots       78............................70.8       12.0         17.2
Caneofeight months............... 73.9               18.2          7.9
Cane of ten months................72.3               18.5          9.2
It would therefore appear, making exception always of the knots
which occur in the course of a cane, that the composition of the
plant in its various states and conditions, is almost identical. M.
Peligot's important paper, while it informs us of the average composition of the Otaheite cane, satisfies us that the gummy and mu
119
r 
SUGAR-CANX..
cilaginous substances and the uncrystallizable sugar, the existence
of which was held as demonstrated, are, in fact, unwise constituents
of the sugar-cane.  WVhence we mnay conclude, with M. Peligot, that
every drop of molasses which drains from the sugar is the produce
of the manufacture; an opinion to which I assent the more re-.dily
fiom having myself seen oftener than once the juice of the cane
yield nothingr but crystallizable sugar   These analyses furither de
monstrate, mnore powerfully than could any discussion, the imrnperfection of the processes usually followed in manufacturing sugar.  They
prosve, in fact, that in the mill rather more than a third of tl e whole
juice contained in the cane is left in the trash.  This loss might be
considerably diminished were more perfect pressure employed in
extracting the juice.  But it appears that the planters are indisposed
to crush the trash too much, as by this it is rendered less fit for fuel,
a considerable quantity of whichl, by the present mode of maniufacture, is indispensable. MA. Dupree, however, says that by insisting
on obtaining from 65 to 66 per cent. of juice in all cases, the trash is
still left with all its value as a combustible. The trash on comning
from the mill appears quite dry.  I have seen some which,  after
having beeni pressed twice consecutively, looked as if it were  impossible by any fiurther amount of pressure to express miore liquid.
Nevertheless, it was enough to taste this pressed cane, to be satisfied that it still contained a considerable quantity of sugar.   To
procure this without using more powerful machinery, M. Peligot
proposed to steep the trash in water, and to press it a second tinie.
By this means a weak juice is obtained, which, added to the first
pressings, raises the produce of sugar from  7 to 10 per cent. upon
the whole amount of cane employed. By following this process,
suggested by theory, upon the great scale, M. Dupree has succeeded
in obtaining -ith more than the usual quantity of sugar without making any change in his apparatus, and w ithout finding the trash too
much shaken to be burned under his cop)pers.*  In some circumstances the increase in the quantity of juice which this procedure
implies, might be found an objection on account of the larger qualitity of fuel required for its evaporation; but wherever a supply of
wood is to be had, M. Peligot's method ought undoubtedly to be ap plied.
The very dissimilar quantities of crystallizable sugar obtained from
canes, which as we have seen all contain very nearly the same quantity of this substance, prove that the processes of concentration and
purification of the sap also contribute to the loss which has been in dicated.   M. Peligot has pointed out several causes which concur to
deteriorate sugar; among the number: 1. A viscous fermentation
which renders the sap thick and stringy, like mucilage, by which
the boiling becomes difficult and the crystallization of the sugar
which has escaped change, is rendered imperfect. 2. An acidity
which takes place when the juice is not run at once into the coppers
and boiled, an acidity which requires the addition of lime to destroy
* Peligot, Maritime and Colonial Annals, August, 1842.
120
F 
SUGAR-CANE.
or to prevent it. The alkaline earth, as I have had occasion to say,
is by no means indispensable; its utility under ordinary circumstances is probably confined to assisting the defecation.by forming an insoluble precipitate with some of the organic substances which are
always met with in small quantities in cane juice; perhaps also to
making an earthy soap with the fatty matters which adhere to the
cane and are expressed in the crushing.   When lime is added, to
correct acidity, it forms an acetate or a lactate, salts which are peculiarly soluble, uncrystallizable, and which necessarily retain a
quantity of sugar in the sirupy state. 3. The presence of certain
mineral salts in the cane. Common salt, for instance, in combining
with sugar forms a deliquescent compound, in which one part of salt
is united with six parts of sugar; such a compound as this of course
renders a large quantity of sirup indisposed to crystallize. It is
therefore impossible to be too cautious, according to M. Peligot, in
the choice of manure for a cane-field; that which contains any common salt must needs be injurious in one way, however advantageous
it mav be in another.  The entire absence of this salt in the soil of
plantations which are very remote from the sea shore is perhaps one
of the causes which increases the quantity of sugar obtained from
the crop, and makes it more easily manufactured in such districts.
M. Codazzi reckons the quantity of white sugar produced by a
hectare of land, (2.473 acres,) planted with the Otaheite cane in the
province of Caraccas, at 1875 kilograimres, or 36 cwt. 3 qrs. 9 lbs.
avoir.; which is at the rate of 15 cwt. 1 qr. 10 lbs. per acre.
Taking 71- per cent. as the average quantity of sugar obtained, the
weight of cane brought to the mill must obviously have amounted to
19134 kilog. or 18 tons, 15 cwt. 3 qrs. 10 lbs.; or 7 tons, 11 cwt.
3 qrs. 25 lbs. per acre. Assuming the average composition of the
plant to be
W,ood (dry).....-...................11.0
Sugar  (minimum).....-..............15.5
Water......................... -...-,73.5
100.0
One acre of land will consequently yield a crop of
Tons.  Cwt.  Qrs.
WVood (dry)....................0     16     2
Sugar.............................. 1  3     2
Water..-......................5      11     2
7    ii     3
The trash of the sugar-cane undergoes rapid fermentation: it soon
exhales a distinct smell of vinegar, and almost the whole of the
sugar which is left in it is destroyed.
BEET-ROOT SUGAR
The presence of sugar in the beet was observed by Margraff; and
Achard of Berlin by and by attempted the extraction of this sugar
on the large scale; but it was only during the period of the continental system that the manufacture of sugar from the beet acquired
t 1,~
121
r
r_
Lb.
24
6
12
T5 
BEET AND BEET-SUGAR.
such perfection in France as made it profitable. The beet so generally cultivated at the present time is derived, according to Thaer,
from the Beta vulgaris. The two principal varieties of this root are
the red beet, which has been grown for a very long time in kitchen
gardens, and the white beet. Between these two extremes there
are numerous varieties having a flesh color of various intensity, a
yellow tint, &c. The seeds of the same plant in fact frequently
produce varieties of decidedly different shades of color; the red and
the white beet, however, appear to be the most constant; and Thaer has
said that the intermediate varieties are crosses between them.
The field beet has a large root which grows in great part above
the ground; it is a very hardy plant, which has been cultivated for
a very long time in various parts of the continent as food for cattle,
and is now also very common in England. The root, which has
hitherto been preferred for the manufacture of sugar, is conical, of a
rose color without, and its concentric external layers are also colored; but it appears that the white beet of Silesia is the more productive. The beet thrives in almost all kinds of soil, provided only
they be sufficiently manured. In Alsace it succeeds in light, and in
strong argillaceous soils indifferently. Another precious quality which
t.his root possesses is that of succeeding in the most dissimilar climates; it is grown to purpose both in the north and in the south of
France.
The beet is sown at once in the field, or in a bed and transplanted;
the latter method appears now to obtain a decided preference, inasmuch
as it leaves plenty of time for the preparation of the soil, and especially for accumulating and carrying out manure.
In a piece of ground well broken up by delving or ploughing, and
highly manured, which need not be of greater extent than'oth of
the entire surface to be planted, the seed is sown in lines or drills
as soon as the spring frosts are no longer to be apprehended.   The
transplanting in the east of France takes place about the m1iddle of
MIay, and even in the beginning of June. The plants are generally
set about 15 inches apart.  In the north the beet harvest does not
begin before the end of September, and generally ends in the course
of the month of October. The gathering is delayed as long as
possible, inasmuch as the roots increase visibly to the very end of
the season.  But gathering the beet at a very late period in those
countries where the winter seed has to follow this crop, is attended
with more than one disadvantage. Without speaking of the difficul ties that are incidental to wet seasons, a late seed-time is generally
unfavorable for wheat. To meet this difficulty, I have been accus tomed for some time to take up my crop of beet at the period when
it became necessary to prepare the land for winter seed, that is to
say, more than a month before the general harvest of the root. In
doing so I relied upon the interesting fact ascertained by M. Peligot
in the course of his chemical inquiries, viz: that the composition of
the beet is identical at every age. In this premature or anticipated
beet harvest, a less weight of root is of course gathered thai-i lould have been obtained at a later period  but the nutritious powers of
122 
BEET AND BEET-SUGAR.
these beet roots are the same as they would ever have been. The
grand questions to be determined were, whether the roots would
keep or not, and whether the cattle would eat them from the pile as
freely as from the field.  All this was ascertained in the course of
the winter: the beet kept perfectly, the cattle ate it as freely as ever.
The procedure to be adopted therefore to secure a crop of beet of
average weight, storing nevertheless some considerable time before
the usual period, is simply to transplant somewhat more closely, and
to put less space between the drills.  If experience decides in favor
of this method, the sole inconvenience which attends the cultivation
of the beet in a freshly manured soil, and as the first crop in the
rotation, that, namely, of causing a late and unfavorable seed-time for
winter corn, will be completely got over.
The beet which grows above the ground is best gathered with the
hand; kinds that grow under ground require to be loosened by running a plough along the drill, &c. In Alsace it is the custom to take
away the leaves, and to trim the roots upon the ground; the refuse
thus obtained constitutes a considerable mass of manure, which it is
well to plough in immediately.
To extract the sugar of the beet the plant is washed and rasped,
and the pulp is then subjected to the action of a powerful press.
Like the juice of the cane, the juice of the beet speedily undergoes
a change; it is therefore immediately heated to 70~ cent. or 158~Fahr,
and a little lime is mixed with it to neutralize acid and favor the clarification, by combining with albumen. The liquor is skimmed, and in the
course of an hour becomes quite limpid, and of a pale yellow color.
The liquor is then run upon a filter containing animal charcoal, and
from that is transferred to a boiler where it is properly reduced, the
process being in all respects the same as in the manufacture of cane
sugar.
In France, the produce of each 110 lbs. weight of beet is estimated
at 4.5), or somewhat more than 41 lbs. of white sugar. The amount
of loss in the manufacture may be conceived from the actual comrposition of the beet, which, by the process followed by M. Peligot,*
and which consists essentially in drying a certain weight of the root,
cut into thin slices, and then exhausting the matter with boiling
alcohol of moderate density, appears to contain from 4 or 5, up to 9,
10, 11, and even nearly 12 per cent. of sugar. This analysis of M.
Peligot has been confirmed by the experiments of M.  Braconnot,t
who found the white beet of Silesia to have a very complex composition, comprising as many as twenty-one different ingredients, among
the number crystallizable sugar, albumen, woody matter, phosphate of magnesia, phosphate of lime, oxalate of potash, and oxalate
of lime, oxide of iron, an ammoniacal salt in small quantity, &c.
On an average, the analysis of M. Peligot would lead us to conclude
that the beet contained in one hundred parts
* Recherches sur l'analyse de la betterave a sucre.
t Annales de Chimie, vol. lxxii. p. 442, 2d. series.
123
r 
BEET AND BEET-SUGAR.
Water 8.............................87
Matter soluble in water (sugar)..........8
Insoluble substances, (woody tissue).....  5
100
from which it appears that no more than about -ths of the sugat
contained in the beet-root is extracted. As in crushing the cane, so
in squeezing the rasped pulp of the beet, a part of the loss is owing
to a certain quantity of sugar being left in the expressed pulp. In
fact, with the presses generally in use, while from 60 to 70 per cent.
of juice is obtained, the root actually contains 95 per cent.  The
loss here, however, is of less consequence than it is in the cane, the
trash of which is used for fuel, while the pulp of the beet serves as
food for cattle. The pulp, indeed, is found to possess very nearly
the same amount of nutritive power as the root which produced it.
One of the considerations which is perhaps of highest importance
in connection with the production of sugar from the beet, is inherent
in the difficulty of preserving the root after it is full-grown. Gathered at the end of autumn the root suffers no less from severe frost,
than it does from mild open weather: frost destroys its organization, and in mild winters vegetation continues at the expense of the
sugary principle, which had been formted during the growth.  If the
beet actually contains at every period of its existence the same
quantity of sugar with reference to its weight, there would probably
be a great advantage in not waiting for the period of complete maturity, by sowing somewhat thicker than wont; any difference of
weight would probably be made up, and then there would be no risk
of loss from keeping.
The quantity of beet gathered from a given extent of land necessarily varies with the soil, the pains bestowed upon the crop, and
the quantity of manure that has been used; the following are a few
particulars from official documents:
PRODUCE PER ACRE.
Ton. Cwt.   Lbs.
Pas de Calais.....................................1  9 1   19
Department ofthe North.......................12   10    2   25
Department of Cher..........................15    1   39
but in other departments the produce is considerably smaller, so that
the average for the whole country has been estimated at not more
that 10 tons 9 cwt. 1 qr. 13 lbs. per acre; an average which approaches very closely to that which I have obtained from my own
farm at Bechelbronn, calculated during a period of seven years.
Assuming 4$ths lbs. of sugar to be obtained from every 110 lbs.
of beet, the produce in sugar from an English acre in the course of
seven months will amount in the present state of things to 9 cwt. 2
qrs. and 7 lbs.  By way of comparison I shall here remind the
reader that an English acre of land laid out in Otaheite sugar-cane
yields in the course of about fourteen months, 15 cwt. 1 qr. 10 lbs.
I find from my accounts for 1841, that to manage an English acre
of land under beet-root in Alsace, 45.6 days of a man, and 14.1
124 
BEET AND BEET-SUGAR.
days of a horse was the amount of labor expended. In a document
upon the sugar plantations of Guadaloupe which I have seen, it is
stated that a domain of 150 hectares, or 370 acres, is worked by 150
negroes, which, reckoning the time that the crop is on the ground
at fourteen months, would bring the number of days labor by a man,
to 171.8 per English acre. Such an expenditure of labor must in
the nature of things absorb the greater part of the profits; and,
indeed, in a commission of inquiry into the laws connected with the
sugar trade, it was shown in reference to the plantation in question, that the cost of cultivation ant manufacture was equal to the
value of the produce.   Still the cane presents one considerable
advantage over the beet, that, namely, of furnishing the fuel
necessary to the boiling, an advantage which will be better understood, when it is known that in the manufacture of every 110 lbs.
weight of beet sugar, the consumption of coal amounts to 22 lbs.
In countries where sugar is cheap, it becomes an ordinary article
of diet; in the public market-places of the great towns of South
America, one of the rations commonly exposed for sale consists of
brown sugar and cheese. M. Codazzi estimates the quantity of
sugar consumed by each inhabitant of Venezuela at 110 lbs. In
England it amounts to about 22 lbs.; in Ireland, to no more than
4 lbs. and  40ths; in Holland it is 15~- lbs.; in France it is 88o lbs.;
in Italy, 2;- lbs.; and in Russia, but 1- lb. per head.
Maple sugar.  (Acer saccharinum.)  The maple is very common
in the east of the United States of America. The tree is occasionally met with in clumps of several acres in extent, but it is
more commonly found dispersed in the forest, growing among pinies,
poplars, ashes, &c. The tree grows particularly in rich soils, and
attains the height of the oak; the trunk being often more than three
feet in diameter. The maple becomes covered with flowers in the
spring before the appearance of the leaves.  It is supposed to be in
its prime at the age of about twenty years. The sap of the maple
is obtained by piercing the trunk to the depth of from six to ten
inches. A piece of wood to serve as a gutter is placed in the hole,
and the sap is received in a vessel placed underneath.  It is usual
to pierce the tree first on the side that is towards the south; when
the flow of sap begins to lessen, it is tapped upon the north side.
The best season for making maple sugar is the beginning of spring,
February, March, and April; the sap continues to flow during five
or six weeks. The quantity of sap obtained is found to be largest
when the days are hot and the nights cold; the quantity collected
in the course of twenty-four hours will vary from about half a pint
to thirty pints and more; the temperature of the air has the miost
marked influence upon the flow of the sap; it ceases completely,
for instance, in those nights when it freezes after a very hot day.
The maple does not appear to suffer from reiterated perforation
trees are mentioned which were still flourishing after having yielded
sugar for forty-two consecutive years. In certain cases, which,
however, must be held as exceptions to the rule, as many as 183
pints of sap have been tapped from a maple in the course of twenty                                 11*
125 
PALMI-SUGAR.
four hours, which yielded 44s lbs. of crystallized sugar.  A maple
of ordinary dimensions, in a good year, will yield, on an average,
about 198 pints of sap, producing 5i lbs. of sugar. The sap of the
maple must therefore contain about 2.2 per cent. of its weight of
marketable sugar. It has been found, that with care and attention
the maple becomes more productive; maples around which other
forest trees have been felled, or which have been transplanted into
gardens, yield a sap which is not only more abundant, but also
richer in sugar, which, in fact, contains about three per cent. of
sugar.
The manufacture of maple sugar presents no peculiarity; precisely the same process is followed as in the case of the cane and
beet. Unless very speedily boiled down, the sap ferments, and
undergoes change; in some parts of the United States, indeed, a
vinous liquor is made of the sap, by allowing it to run into spontaneous fermentation.
PALM SUGAR.
The palm which in the southern parts of India furnishes crystallized sugar in large quantity, is the cleophora of Gaertner, and
reaches a height of about 100 feet. Its fruit hangs in clusters upwards of a yard in length.  The natives procure the sap by cutting
short one of the shoots that is about to flower and carry fruit, and
hanging under the cut part of a calabash or other vessel, into which
the fluid distils; in a large plantation such an apparatus is seen
connected with each palm-tree; the sap is removed every morning,
and it is enough to reduce it by evaporation to obtain the sugar,
which differs in no respect from the finest sugar of the cane; in the
unrefined state it is known over the whole of the East under the
name of jaggery,* and is then a kind of mroist and sticky muscovado
sugar. The sap of the palm-tree obtained in the way above indicated, is often turned into a vinous liquor, which is much prized in
many places. The pith of the tree yields sago. The palm-trees
cultivated in India consequently yield three most usefiul productssugar, oil, and the farinaceous article of diet called sago.  In rearing the cocoa-nut palm, those nuts are selected for seed which fall
naturally, and they are dried in their husk. The ground which is
to be sown is dug to a depth of eighteen or twenty inches, and it is
left to settle for three or four days.  Some portion of the surface is
then taken away, and the fresh soil is covered, to the depth of about
six inches, with sand. The nuts are then placed upon the ground
so prepared, and covered over with a little sand and a light stratum
of vegetable mould; they are then watered for three days consecutively.  In the course of three months the young palms are fit to be
transplanted, and they are set at the distance of about twenty feet
every way from one another. For their reception in the permanent
* This is the generic name for sugar, and is obviously either the Latin word sac"harum, or from the same root as the Latin word.  The cocoa-nut tree treated in the
same way as the cleophora yields abundance of sugar, which is also known under the 
name of jaggery.-ENG. ED.
126 
GRAPE-SUGAR, OR GLUCOSE.
plantation, holes are dug of about two feet in depth, in which a
layer of sand, about six inches in depth, is put, upon which the young
plants, still adhering to the fruit, are placed; the hole is then filled
with sand, and the surface is covered with a little earth. The young
trees require watering every day during about three years. The
palm begins to be productive at the age of seven or eight years, and
it continues to yield fruit, or sap for the manufacture of sugar, during
a very considerable period, without causing any further cost for cultivation.* The sap of the greater number of the palms appears to
be rich in saccharine matter; it is obvious, indeed, that every sap
that is capable of supplying a vinous liquor by fermentation, may
also furnish sugar; and if the palms have not generally been grown
with a view to this product, it is because the fruit must then be
given up, and, both in India and South America, the produce in the
shape of oil from the nuts of the palm, is almost always more valuabl-e than that which can be had in the shape of sugar.t
GRAPE SUGAR.
We have already said that starch acted upon by acids, and by
malted barley, is changed into a saccharine fermentable substance,
which, both in regard to flavor and physical properties, differs in
many respects from the sugar which we have hitherto been engaged
in studying. As this substance exists naturally in the grape, it has
been called grape sugar, a name for which the generic term glucose
has been lately substituted in France, this term being used to include
all the sugars that are analogous to grape sugar. Grape sugar occurs in the form of small white and  very soft crystals, grouped in
tubercular masses; it softens at 60~, (140~ Fahr.,) and becomes
quite sirupy at 90~, (194~ Fahr.) Alcohol free from water dissolves
none of it; but diluted alcohol takes up a considerable quantity.
In the grape this sugar is associated with cream of tartar, tartrate
of lime, and several other saline matters.  It is easily extractedl
from the fruit; but the grape sugar of commerce is now universally
prepared from starch; large quantities, indeed, are manufactured oil
the continent for the preparation of spirit, and for the amelioration
of wine, beer, cider, &c., in short, to supply sugar wherever it is
defective in the natural or artificial musts that are subjected to fermentation. In England considerable quantities are also manufactured; but here the law does not allow it to be used in the same advantageous direction as in France and Germany; all that is made is
employed for mixing with adulterating cane sugar, which is an article of higher price.
The sugar that is made from starch, and that is obtained from the
grape are identical in composition, as is that also which is found in
the urine of persons laboring under diabetes.
* Buchanan.  A Journey from Madras, &c., vol. i. p. 155.
t In British India the cocoa-nut palm is beginning to ble extensively cultivated as a
means of producing sugar. A cc,.siderable portion of the East India sugar now brought
to market, is manufactured fril the palm-tree.  It is riot improbable, indeed, that the
palmn of one species or another will one d-y supersedle the sugar-cane and the beetas
the source of,all the sugar consumed in Europe.-ENG. ED.
127
w,r_ 
MANN'AA.
Sugar of Starch.
(Guerin.)
36.          1
7.0
56.9
100.0
Grape Sugar
(Saussure.)
Carbon..-...........36.7
Hydrogen........-..6.8'
Oxygen.............56.5
100.0
Like cane sugar, grape sugar in combining with certain bases
bandons a portion of its constitutional water. In the state in which
t is combined with the oxide of lead it contains
Carbon....................43.3
Hydrogen................... 6.3
Oxygen....................50.4
100.0
From these analyses it appears that crystallized grape sugar consists of
Anhydrous glucose..........-....-100
Water-   —.......................19
On comparing the two kinds of sugar in the crystallized state, it
becomes evident that glucose or grape sugar does not differ from
cane sugar, except in containing a larger quantity of water. In fact
the composition of grape sugar may be represented in this way:
Carbon................42.2)
Hydrogen-.......*. —   6.2>  100 of cane sugar.
Oxygen..*...................51.6)
Water   Hydrogen.........   15.8
Oxygen...........14.0..
115.8 of grape sugar.
The cane, the beet, the palm, the maple, the vine, and starch,
turned into glucose, are the sources from whence all the sugar of
commerce is obtained at the present day, although attempts more or
less successful have also been made to extract sugar from the pineapple, from the chestnut, from the sweet orange, and from the stem
of the maize or Indian corn. It appears that before the conquest
the Mexicans prepared a sirup from the stem of the Indian corn,
which was sold in the market-places. Pallas could not obtain more
than about 3 per cent. of crystallized sugar from maize, but in an
experiment which I made in South America along with M. Roulin,
the quantity of raw sugar obtained fromn this plant was 6 per cent.
SACCHARINE PRINCIPLES NOT FERMENTABLE.
Alanna; mannite.  This saccharine principle is met with in different plants; it has been found in the expressed juice of onions,
and in that of asparagus, in the alburnum of several species of pinetrees, and in different mushrooms. Manna, which is an exudation
from the f?-axinus ornus and larch, contains nearly Aths of its weight
of mannite, and it is therefore from this substance that mannite is
usually obtained, although it can also be had from the juice of the
beet and the onion; btt then it is neccss; ry to destroy the cane or
grape sugar which they contain by pre-: "ous violous fermentation,
128
Di.b,!ti. S.g.,
(Pelig.t.)
36.4
7.0
56.6
100.0 
PECTINE.
and M. Pelouze has even maintained that the mannite thus prepared
is a product of fermentation.*
Mannite crystallizes in very white semi-transparent needles; it
has a slightly sweet taste, and is soluble in water. According to
Tliebig and Opperman it contains:
Carbon........           -.........39.6
Hydrogen.................... — 7.7
Oxygen......................52.7
100.0
Liquorice. This substance, which is obtained from the root of
the Glyciz?rhiza glabra, is too well known to require particular consideration; it is soluble both in water and in alcohol.
GUM.
Gum is a substance very extensively diffused in the vegetable
kingdom; there is, perhaps, no plant which does not contain some.
(Gium is divided into two kinds; gum, properly so called, the type
of which we have in gum-arabic, and vegetable mucilage, such as
we meet in gum-tragacanth.
Gum in dissolving in water produces a thick and adhesive fluid.
It is insoluble in alcohol.  Soime plants contain such a quantity that
upon infusion they seem to give, as it were, nothing else: such are
the althea, the malva officinalis, &c.
Gum does not crystallize, it is met with in concrete masses which
result from the solidification of the drops which flow spontaneously
from the trees that yield it: by long boiling with dilute sulphuric
acid it is changed into glucose.   Nitric acid alters it, and several
new products are the result, among the number of which is mucic
acid.  Gum-arabic, according to the analysis of M. Gay-Lussac and
Thenard, consists of:
Carbon........................................42.3
Hydrogen....................................... 6.9
Oxygen................................................ 50.8
100.0
To obtain vegetable mucilage, a quantity of linseed is treated with
water and expressed. It is also obtained by steeping gum tragacanthl in about 1000 parts of water and pouring off the solution which
covers the mucilaginous mass. The mucilage then forms a jelly
more or less consistent, which diluted with a large quantity of water
forms a ropy viscid fluid. Dried again, this mucilage becomes hard
and translucid; in water it regains its former state.t
VEGETABLE JELLY-PECTINE AND PECTIC ACID.
It is well known that the juice of all fruits contains a gelatinous
substance to which many of them owe the property of forming jellies.
* Aniiales de Clinfie, vol. xlvii. 1. 419, 2(1 scries.-The refuse wash of the distiller,
appreciated  )y the ttste,  ippeoars to coutain a considerable quantity  (f saccharine
matter, whichl iS, probably i,aniite.-ENGo. ED.
t Berzelius, Chemnistry, vol. v.
129 
PECTINE, PECrIC ACID.
This matter may be obtained by means of alcohol. If into a quantity
of currant juice lately expressed, a portion of alcohol be poured, a
gelatinous precipitate is formed after a certain time; this jelly, subjected to graduated pressure and washed with dlkuted alcohol, gives
the gelatinous principle in a state of tolerable purity: this is pectine,
discovered by M. Braconnot.
Pectine dried is in membranous semi-transparent pieces resembling isinglass.   Thrown into about one hundred times its weight of
water it swells considerably and at length dissolves completely,
giving rise to a stiff jelly.  By increasing the quantity of water, a
mucilaginous solution, having a slightly milky aspect, is obtained.
Pure pectine is quite insipid; it does not affect the color of litmus,
the weaker acids have no effect upon it; a slight excess of potash or
of soda does not change it obviously, and nevertheless pectine is
singularly modified under the influence of these alkalies, being changed into a particular body, having acid reaction; for on saturating
the alkali employed, it immediately coagulates into a transparent
gelatinous mass-pectic acid. As pectine acted upon by the fixed
alkalies undergoes so remarkable a change, we may be allowed to
conclude, with M. Braconnot, that the pectic acid which is found
ready formed in plants, has a similar origin; a view moreover which
tends to confirm that formerly announced by Vauquelin, when he
ascribed the development of the acids of vegetables to the presence
of alkalies.*
Gelatinous pectic acid immediately becomes defluent upon the
addition of a few drops of solution of ammonia. By evaporating
this solution in a porcelain dish we obtain an acid pectate of ammonia, which swells in distilled water, dissolves in it, and thickens
a large quantity of the fluid. As ammonia has no reaction upon
pectine, M. Braconnot has taken advantage of this negative property
to determine if pectic acid exists or not, ready formed, in certain
plants.  Thus in treating carrots with cold water, rendered slightly
ammoniacal, a liquid is obtained, from which an acid immediately
throws down a precipitate of pectie acid.t Peetine and petic acid,
therefore, may exist together in vegetables, and M. Jacquelain has
proved that the acid there is often in a state of combination as an
alkaline or earthy pectate.  It is to these pectates that M. Payen
ascribes the origin of the carbonates of the same bases, which are
met with in the ashes of plants, the organic acid having of course
been destroyed by the combustion.s
M. Braconnot has described an easy process for obtaining pectic
acid in large quantity from carrots.~
M. Fremy has published analyses of pectine and pectic acid, which
present this remarkable peculiarity, that the  ne has exactly the
same elementary composition as the other.
* Braconnot, Annals of Chemistry, vol. xlvii. p. 274, Bu series
t Braconnot, op. cit. vol. xxx. p. 99.
1 Payen, Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, vol. xv. p. 907
~ Op. cit. vol. xxx. p. 97.
130
p 
VEGETABLE ACIDS.
Pecti  acid.
42.8
5.2
52.0
100.0
Pectine.
Carbon.................... 42.9
Hydrogen......................  5.1
Oxygen.................... 52.0
100.0
I have thought it right to speak at some length of these two principles, as they appear to play an important part in the phenomena of
vegetable life.  A careful study of pectine and pectic acid will very
probably aid in throwing light upon the metamorphoses which organic
substances undergo in the act of vegetation.  Pectic acid has been
found in every plant in which it has been sought for; M. Braconnot
discovered it in the turnip, carrot, beet, peony, in all bulbs, in the
stalks and leaves of herbaceous plants, in the wood and bark of all the
trees examined, in all kinds of fruit, apples, pears, plums, cucumbers,
&c. M. Braconnot is even very much inclined to think that pectic
acid may constitute the essential principle in the cambium or organizable matter of Grew and Duhamel.*
OF VEGETABLE ACIDS.
In the series of bodies which we have now considered, one only,
sugar, possesses the property of crystallizing. All the others are
amorphous, and their globular disposition and gelatinous qualities
have led to the presumption that they form in some sort the line of
demarcation between things without and things endowed with life.
It was also imagined that these amorphous matters, that these products of the vegetable organization, almost organized themselves,
would alone suffice for the nourishment of animals.   This idea,
however, is not well founded; for if it be true that albumen, caseine,
legumine, starch, and gum, are powerful elements of nutrition, it is
equally so that sugar may perform an important part in this process,
by acting in the same manner as starch, the oils, and other principles
of ternary composition, in becoming like them a useful, often an indispensable auxiliary of azotized alimentary matters.
This disposition to consider the amorphous state of the more important immediate principles of vegetables as a special and distinctive
character, cannot be maintained beside the recent observations of
Mitscherlich.  This illustrious chemist has found, that if the mineral
precipitates which are deposited in liquids, are in many cases formed of crystals more or less regular, they are also sometimes composed of small spheres or aggregated masses, the particles of which do
not unite in a regular way as crystals, but remain separated by a
thin layer of fluid.  Examined under the microscope these masses
present themselves under the form of flocks and of shreds, having a
granular or gelatinous appearance, and which remain soft and flexible like fresh vegetable or animal substances, so long as they are
kept under water; it is only in drying that they become pulverulent
or acquire the vitreous aspect.t
* Braconnot, op. cit. vol. xxviii. p. 171.
t Berzelius, Ann. Report, 1841, p. 20.
131
r 
VEGETABLE ACIDS.
The substances, the chemical constitution of which we have still
to examine, may in general be obtained in the crystallized state;
their individuality seems more decided; they are more stable, better
characterized, and their specific properties often assimilate them to
inorganic bodies. Such, for example, are the acids formed in the
course of vegetable existence.
Vegetable acids present all the general characters of mineral
acids, while they participate in the properties inherent in orgffanic
substances. Thus they form salts by uniting with bases; with
potash, soda, ammonia, they form salts soluble in water; the other
bases produce compounds that are soluble or insoluble, according to
the nature of the acid. These acids, free or uncombined, are very
fieq,.ently met with in fruit, sometimes in the leaves, more rarely
in the seeds and roots; but in combination with bases they are met
with in almost all parts of plants. Already very numerous, they are
increasing rapidly with the progress of discovery; with the exception of a very few employed in the arts, their study forms a subject
of no great interest.  I shall therefore confine myself to a few of the
most extensively distributed of these acids.
Oxalic acid. This acid exists free in the hairs of the cicer or
chick-pea, and united with potash constituting an acid salt, the binoxolate of potash in the wood sorrel and the common or garden sorrel. It is from the former of these plants that the salt called salt
of lemons, but which is, in fact, the binoxolate of potash, is still extracted in some countries. The juice of the wood sorrel is expressed
and yields about 0.003 of its weight of the salt, from which, by ordinary chemical manipulation, the oxalic acid is readilv obtained
At the present time this acid is prepared artificially by the action of
nitric acid upon starch; it is a powerful acid, and its affinity for lime
is such that it takes this base even from its union with sulphuric
acid.
Tartaric acid is met with above all in the grape in the state ol
!)itartrate of potash, a salt which is deposited upon the sides of the
casks in which the wine is kept.  After having been properly purified, it is known in commerce under the name of cream of tartar,
from which the tartaric acid can readily be obtained. Another particular acid, the racemic acid, the composition of which is identical
with that of the tartaric acid, has been discovered in the tartar of
the wines grown on the Upper Rhine.
Citric acid. This acid is found in the juice of many plants, and
abundantly in the juice of lemons, oranges, currants, &c. It is from
the lemnon and the lime that the citric acid employed in the arts is
generally obtained.
Taninc acid.  A certain substance which is met with in the bark
of particular trees, and which has the valuable property of rendering
the hides of animals with which it is combined insusceptible of piutrefaction, is familiarly known under the name of tannin. The art
of the tanner is founded  upon this property of tannin.  A solution
or gelattine being poured into an infusion of taLnic acid, an insoluble
precipitate, f)rried by the uilion of the  i.il with. the animal matter
132
r 
VEGETABLE ALKALIES.
is immediately produced. By macerating a piece of raw hide in a
solution of tannin, the same combination takes place even into the
very interior of the tissue; the whole of the tannin quits the solution by degrees to combine with the gelatine of the skin.
It is not in the bark only that tannin is encountered, it has been
found in different organs of plants. Sir Humphrey Davy has stated
these quantities of tannin as constituents of 100 parts of the follow
ing substances
Nutgalls....   27.4
Oak bark........          6.3
Chestnut bark...    4.3
Elm bark........           2.7
Willow bark.....           2.2
Inner white bark of an aged oak.   15.0
The same of young oaks..   16.0
The same of the Indian chestnut.  15.2
The inner colored bark of the oak.   4.0
Sicilian sumac...            16.2
Malaga sumac...        10.4
Souchong tea...        10.0
Green tea....    8.5
Bombay catechu....  54.3
Bengal catechu....  48.1
Gallic acid.  This acid is found united with tannin in the greater
number of barks, or along with the astringent principles of plants.
Gallic acid appears to be the product of a kind of fermentation undergone by tannin, as the process by which it is prepared seems to
i,licate, and which consists essentially in exposing for about a
iionth a quantity of nutgalls reduced to powder and kept constantly
mnoistened.   The solution of gallic acid does not precipitate gelaline.
I have added in a table the composition of the principal vegetable
aLcids. I shall speak of the composition of fat acids when I comrne to
treat of fatty substances.
The different vegetable acids do not vary essentially in composition, save in a single instance.  With one exception they consist of
definite proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The exception alluded to is the hydrocyanic acid, which contains no oxygen,
but a large quantity, nearly 52 per cent., of azote.
OF THE VEGETABLE ALKALIES.
The alkaline bases which are formed in the course of vegetation,
always contain a certain proportion of azote. Their general properties are those of alkalies; their wvatery or alcoholic solutions restore the blue color of the reddenea tincture of turnsole, and they
onstitute salts by combining with acids.  In their manner of behaving they bear a certain analogy to ammonia.  Like ammonia,
tie organic alkalies combine with the hydrates of the oxacids, and
when they arc deprived of their water of crystallizati(n, they fix the
hlydracids without losing weight.
12
133
r 
FATTY SUBSTANCES.
The discovery of the vegetable bases is due to Sertuerner, who,
in 1804, indicated the existence of morphine in opium. The majority of the vegetable alkalies are insoluble, or little soluble in
water;  all are soluble in alcohol; some of them  are sufficiently
volatile to be susceptible of distillation.
In elementary composition they are all very much alike, consisting of various, but, in each instance, definite proportions of carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, and azote, the carbon varying from about 50 to
75, the hydrogen from 6 to 12, the oxygen from 8 or 9 to 27 and
even 37, and the azote from 1.6 to 12, 28, and even 35 per cent.
OF FATTY SUBSTANCES.
Under this title I comprise all the oily substances, liquid or solid,
and those that are analogous to wax, which are found disseminated
in different organs of plants. A character common to almost all
fatty substances, is insolubility in water. They dissolve in sensible
quantity in alcohol, and especially in ether. Fatty substances may
be divided into two classes: one including those which are easily
modified by the action of alkalies, and which form soaps; the other
not susceptible of this action, not susceptible of saponification, or, at
all events, that are only attacked by alkalies in very particular circumstances.
When a mixture of fat oil and a solution of caustic alkali are
heated, the oil is soon observed to incorporate with the alkaline
liquid.  After boiling for some time, if the alkali is in excess, clots
or flocks appear, and in removing the excess of liquid a white mnass
is obtained which is soluble in water-the oil is saponified; and the
product of the saponification is combined with a portion of the alkali
which has been employed. If into a hot solution of this soap a
quantity of hydrochloric acid be poured, the acid seizes upon the potash or the soda, setting at liberty the fatty body which had been
combined with the alkali, and which collects on the liquid. It is
easy to discover that the fatty matter thus collected is no longer the
same as that which had been originally employed; for example, it is
completely soluble in boiling alcohol, which, on cooling, dejposites
brilliant pearly crystals of a fatty substance possessing acid properties. By evaporating the alcohol from which these crystals are
formed, an additional quantity is obtained, and, when the alcohol is
entirely dissipated, another unctuous body is obtained, having also
acid properties. Three acids having distinguishing characters are,
in fact, obtained by the action of alkalies upon fatty substances: the
stearic, margaric, and oleic acids. The alkalies conscquently transform neutral oily bodies into acid substances, as first shown by the
admirable researches of M. Chevreul, before whose time it was always assumed that soap was the result c f a direct union of fatty
matters with alkalies.  The fatty acids aT; not the only products of
saponification, there are several others, particularly glycerine, which,
however, need not occupy us particularly here.
The experiments of M. Chevreul would lead us to view all fattv
134
rw 
FATTY SUBSTANCES.
matters as combinations of glycerine playing the part of a base with
particular acids; these combinations, analogous to salts if their constitution be merely considered, are generally mixed together in oils
and fats; thus the union of stearic acid and glycerine forms stearine,
which is fusible at the temperature of about 62~ cent. (144~ Fahr.)
Stearic acid melts at 72~ cent., (162~ Fahr.,) oleine remains fluid at
4~ cent., (24~ Fahr.,) and oleic acid is liquid. An oil is, therefore,
by so much the more consistent as a larger quantity of solid fatty
acid enters into its composition, and it is, on the contrary, by so
much the softer and more liquid as this acid is itself more fluid. The
wax of the Myrica cerifera, for example, is sufficiently hard to be
reduced to powder, and is almost entirely formed of stearine. In
the fluid vegetable oils oleine always predominates. It is easy to
separate these different fatty compounds from one another.
Besides the solid and liquid acids which are obtained from fatty
substances, there are others known which are volatile.
Fatty bodies absorb oxygen from the air. This absorption is at
first extremely slow, scarcely appreciable; but once begun, it goes
on with great rapidity; so rapidly, indeed, that if a large surface be
exposed to the air, if, for example, a quantity of rags or tow be impregnated with oil, the mass may take fire.  The consequence of
this oxidation is always a thickening of oil, and there are some which
become completely solid in its course; these are designated by the
title of drying oils, and are in particular request for the manufacture
of varnishes. Nut oil which has remained long exposed to the air
acquires the consistence of jelly, and its unctuous properties have so
entirely disappeared that it no longer stains paper.
The alteration which fatty substances undergo in contact with air
and moisture is still more remarkable. The oils which are inodorous
and without taste soon acquire under these circumstances a strong
smell and a disagreeable flavor. Fleshv fruits which contain a large
quantity of oil, such as the olive and the oleaginous seeds, when
moistened suffer true fermentation, the result of which is the separation of the fatty acids from the glycerine.
Oils subjected to the action of a high temperature are also greatly
modified. The glycerine which they contain is decomposed, and
gives rise to various pyrogenous products: stearic acid is changed
into margaric acid, and oleic acid into sebacic acid, a crystallizable
volatile acid which is soluble in hot water.
The fatty substances of plants are principally accumulated in the
fruit, and particularly in the seed. In the herbaceous parts they are
less abundant, less perfectly elaborated. Oils appear to be included
in the vegetable tissue under the form of globules, or minute drops.
In such an oily seed as the common almond, when it is growing, we
perceive that the cellular tissue is in the first instance full of a colorless and transparent fluid; but as the seed advances, each cell is
seen to become filled with numbers of little oil globules which increase continually in size and number until the kernel is ripe; there
is at the same time a quantity of azotized matter deposited in the
midst of the liquid, which disturbs its transparency; it is this depos
135 
FATTY SUBSTANCES.
ite which thickens the walls of the cells.*  The capillary force
which retains fatty principles combined with the tissue of certain
seeds must be very considerable, for having boiled some rape-seed,
which contained 50 per cent. of oil, in water, there was not a trace
of oily matter perceptible upon the surface of the liquid.  Butter
appears to be kept diffused in milk by something of a similar force,
for milk when boiled yields but a very small quantity of this substance   M. Dumas and I maintain that the oil of seeds is intended
for the production of heat by undergoing combustion at the period
of germination; a series of experiments performed in my laboratory
b)y I. Letellier supports this opinion.
Having ascertained by a preliminary trial the quantity of oily
substance contained in a certain weight of seed, some of the same
kind was put to germinate, and the quantity of oil which it contained
was tested at two periods of the germination; it was found that in
the course of this process a considerable proportion of the fatty substance had disappeared; one gramme or 15.438 grains of rape-seed
before germination contained 0.50 of oil; after the first period of
germination, namely, when the cotyledons had begun to turn green,
the quantity of oil was found reduced to 0.43, and at the end of the
second period, when the cotyledons had become quite green and the
radicles were from 3.9 to 4.6 inches long, the oil was reduced to 0.28.
It would be extremely interesting to ascertain the extreme loss
which the oily principles of seeds sustained in the course of the
commencement of vegetation, and to follow the return of the sanme
principles in proportion as the plant advanced towards maturity.
AI. Letellier is going on with these experiments.
The numberless uses to which oil is put, make its manufacture an
object of the highest importance.   Vegetable oils are generally obtained from olives, from oleaginous seeds, and from the nut of certain palms. Oil is separated by pressure; it may often be extracted
from the seed in the natural state, in which case the produce is of
fine quality, but seldom abundant. The castor-oil bean, for example,
yields its oil under the simple action of the press. In America,
however, to obtain this oil, the seeds are first roasted slightly, and
being bruised they are then boiled in water; the oil readily separates from the roasted seed. - A similar process is sometimes follow.
ed in procuring cacao butter.
In the extraction of oil from the common oleaginous seeds, they
are first ground or bruised in a proper apparatus; the paste or powder which they now form is generally heated, and being put into
woollen sacks, and these enclosed in hair bags, they are subjected to
the operation of the press; after one pressure, the magma which
remains in the bags is crushed anew, heated, and pressed again.
The oil obtained by the second pressing is never so pure as that
procured by the first.
The oil-cake is taken out of the bags, completely dry in appear nee, but it still contains a large proportion of oil-from 8 to 15 pet
* Duiinas, Chemistry, vol. v.
136
roml 
cent. of its weight. It is used in fattening cattle and as manure
Oil, when newly expressed, is always turbid and very mucilaginous;
it becomes clear by standing; but it always retains certain substances which lessen its quality, particularly when it is intended
for burning in lamps.
Greater obstacles are encountered in extracting the oil from some
of the pulpy fruits than from seeds. In extracting olive-oil, the
olives are crushed under millstones; and the paste which results being put into flat baskets of wicker-work, is subjected to the press.
The first pressing yields virgin oil, which is used for the table.
Having removed the baskets fromn the press, their contents are mixed with a little boiling water, replaced, and pressed again, by which
a new quantity of oil is obtained.   But the pulp is not yet exhausted
by special treatment it still yields a quantity of oil of inferior quality,
which is employed in the manufacture of soap.
The fruit of the palm yields the oil which it contains with great
readiness. I have extracted a butter of excellent quality and very
agreeable taste by simply boiling the nuts or berries of the Palma
real in water. The cocoa-nut yields two qualities of oil, according
to the mode of extraction.   To prepare the best kind, the fleshy
part of the fruit is grated, and the pulp being pressed, a milky fluid
is obtained, which yields the oil by boiling. An inferior quality of
oil is obtained by causing the cocoa-nuts to putrefy; when the putrefaction has advanced to a certain stage, the oily pulp is thrown into
copper vessels and exposed to the sun, and the oil which then rises
to the surface is skimmed off. This oil is brown, and has a strong
smell; it contains fatty acids which have probably been set at liberty by the putrid fermentation.
The value of the produce in oleaginous seeds of a given extent
of land, and the quantity of oil which these seeds will yield, depend,
as may readily be conceived, on a variety of causes which it is not always easy to appreciate with precision; such as climate, the nature
of the soil, the system of husbandry followed, &c.  The observations
of M. Gaujac of Dagny on the various plants usually cultivated for
the sake of their oleaginous seeds, will however suffice to give a
notion of their comparative productiveness in oil and cake
MV/hole qu,an.tity I
of Oil obtained
p pe r  Acre i lbs.
avoirld.
875.4
3:20.8
(}41.6
595.8
6;41.6
565.4
54,5.8
275.0
385.0
,5i0.8
~?).0
i     4152.5
Seedl produlced1
Crop.                         per acre 1ll
Cwts.   qrs.      lbes.
WINTER CROPS.
Colewort 9........ 09
Rocket..............       i     a
Rape............    16
SwNedish turnip. -    15
Curledl col,l,ort.    16                                 a
Turnip ciltabba       ise.  13
SPRING CROPS.
Goll of Pleasure      17
Sunflow-er.         a....... 15
Flaix..................5    15
WAhite poppy *-.. 10
liemp.................                                     7
Snuiiitter rape....       1     1
12*
137
OIL.
C.k,,
p,,.t.
54
73
62
62
C2
61
72
80
69
52
70
6.
oil
.bl.i.,d
PI, "?.t.,
40
1 8
33
33
33
33
517
I.-,
22
4 f,
211-1        1
:), 0        1
0
1
1)
1
2
3
1
3
1
1
3
3
15
3
18
5
18
19
16
1412 5
1 a
I
1-1 
M. Matthew de Dombasle made some comparative experiments at
Roville on the cultivation of oleaginous plants. The results obtained bv this skilful agriculturist are much less favorable than those of
MA. Gaujac.  Instead of 19 cwt. and 15 lbs. of colewort seed yielding 875.4 lbs. of oil per acre, M. de Dombasle only obtained 11 cwt.
2 qrs. 21 lbs. yielding 392.3 lbs. of oil; and the other kinds of seed
in proportion.  B3ut as I have said already, the fertility of the soil,
and the labor and pains bestowed upon it, may have contributed to
the differences observed, because here the influence of climate may
be overlooked. There is one circumstance, however, which may
explain the great differences in the quantity of oil obtained, which
is the perfection of the press employed to extract it.  In a general
way oil-presses are so imperfect that they all leave a quantity of oil
more or less in the cake.
Here are two examples: from 2765 lbs. avoird. of fine colewort
seed, gathered in 1842, and weighing 521- lbs. per bushel, I obtained -
lbs.
Of oil.........................1130.5
Of cake............................1384.9
L o s s.............................249.6
2765.0
In other terms, per cent.:
Oil............              --........40.81
Cake......................-50.12
Loss..............................9.07
100.00
but by a careful analysis of the same seed in the laboratory, 50 per
cent. of oil was obtained.
2d. In 1840 and 1841, I made some experiments on the cultivation of the madia sativa, intermixed with carrots in a fertile soil,
well manured with farm dung. The crop of the year 1840 was excellent; it required one hundred and twenty-seven days to come to
maturity.
lbs.
Seed, husks deducted............... 2424
Dried leaves employed as litter..... 7700
Carrots without their leaves-........31966
The seed gave:
Of oil.......................... 635.8
Of cake.......................17067.6
100 of seed gave:
Oil.......................26.24
Cake..........................70.72
Loss..........................33.4
100.00
These results agree pretty nearly with those which have been
published by other agriculturis s; but the seed of this madia, which
in the press gave 26.24 of oil per cent., actually yielded 41 per cent.
by analysis in the laboratory; this difference between practical results and those of the laboratory, shows us how  large a quantity of
oil is generally left in the cake.  When the cake is used for feeding
138
OIL.
El,-r 
cattle, the loss is perhaps less to be regretted, inasmuch as the oily
matter evidently assists in the fattening; but when the cake is used
as manure, the oil which it contains is almost entirely lost.
It is often of importance to the agriculturist to ascertain precisely
the quantity of fatty principles contained in oleaginous seeds.  For
this purpose, it is enough to bruise a given quantity of the seed and
to digest it in successive portions of sulphuric ether. After a first
digestion, the seed is bruised or pulverized anew, and the bruising
is now accomplished without difficulty. The process may be con cluded by boiling with a mixture of equal parts of ether and alcohol.
The ethereal solutions are decanted from the seed into a porcelain
dish, the weight of which is known. The ether evaporates sponta neously and the oil remains, the weight of which is then taken.
The following sums may be taken as a pretty accurate estimate
of the average quantity of oil yielded by the different oleaginous
seeds: colewort, winter rape, and other species of cruciferous plants,
from 30 to 36 and 40 per cent.; sunflower about 15 per cent.; linseed from 11 to 22; poppy from 34 to 63; hempseed from 14 to
26; olives from 9 to 11; walnuts 40 to 70; brazil nuts 60; castoroil beans 62; sweet almonds 40 to 54; bitter almonds 28 to 46;
madia sativa 26 to 28 per cent.
The quantity of oil yielded by any seed subjected to the press is
always considerably less than that which it contains, and the oil retained in the cake appears to be in larger proportion as the starch,
the woody tissue, at?d the albuminous matters are more abundant.
Thus maize, or Indian corn, which contains from 8 to 10 per cent.
of fluid oil, gives mere traces of its presence under the press.
The oily and fleshy fruits, such as those of the olive and the palm,
yield a considerable quantity of oil.  In the southern countries of
Europe, particularly those which are so well protected that their
olive-trees escaped the severe winter of 1789, as many as about
8161 lbs. of oil per acre are obtained, with proper care.   The trees
which were killed during this memorable winter sprouted again
from the roots, and at the present day yield from about one quarter
to one half the above quantity, according to the spaces left between
them, which vary considerably.   Under similar circumstances in
retard to climate, it will readily be understood, that the quantity of
produce will be influenced by the quantity of manure put into the
ground. In some countries the olive is never rr;anured, save indirectly; that is to say, the ground between the trees is only manured
with a view to another crop, which is grown between them; in other
countries, again, in the neighborhood of Marseilles, for instance, it
is the practice to manure the olive plantations, directly, every three
or four years.
The olive enjoys remarkable longevity; I have mentioned one
more than seven centuries old, and the term of the tree's existence
appears only to be limited by the severe winters which cause it to
die, from time to time. The produce must of course depend upon
the age of the trees which compose a plantation. Up to eleven
vears, M. Gasparini shows that an olive-tree still remains all but un
139
OIL. 
productive; and that the capital, and the interest upon the capital
expended in this husbandry, must necessarily exceed the value of
the produce up to the thirtieth year. Yet there are soils which are
favorable to the olive, and which are useful for nothing else; a hole
in a rock suffices it, if the climate be favorable and it receive a
proper dose of manure. But the grand cause of the disadvantages
attending the cultivation of the olive, in France, is connected with
the periodical occurrence of severe winters, which kill it; in an
interval of one hundred and twelve years, from 1709 to 1821, the
olive plantations have suffered three great mortalities, which give a
mean duration of about forty years to each planting.
The cocoa-nut-tree is one of those which yields the largest quantity of oil with the least labor. The tree grows vigorously in all hot
countries, at no great distance from the sea-shore; wherever the temperature is from 78~ to 82~ Fahr., there the cocoa-nut thrives.  It is
also found on the banks of great rivers; and the common practice in
planting the cocoa-nut is to put a little salt in the hole. When transplanted far from the banks of rivers, it thrives best in the neighborhood
of human habitations, which has led the Indians to say that the
cocoa-nut-tree loves to hear men talking under its shade.  It is a
tree which requires a soil impregnated with saline substances, arind
these are never wanting near the habitations of man. The tree
bears its first flowers at the age of four years; it produces fruit the
following year, and continues to fructify until it is eighty years old.
The spikes generally bear about twelve cocoa-rruts, and the number
of nuts yielded by a tree in the course of a year may be taken at
about fifty, which will yield about four litres, or rather more than
seven pints of oil. Somewhere about ninety trees are generally
found upon the acre of land, and these are capable of yielding about
825 lbs. of oil annually.*
The cocoa-nut-tree must, therefore, be regarded as among the
most productive in oil, and also as the plant which requires the least
outlay in its cultivation. Many species of palm yield oils of a very
agreeable flavor for the table, and the produce of all answers admira bly for the manufacture of soap. In the same proportion as agri cultural industry extends in the equatorial regions of the globe, will
the production of palm-oils increase, and this must necessarily in fluence the cultivation of the olive in a very serious way. The cul tivation of the tree being already threatened in Europe by that of
the mulberry, and the prodigious extension in the trade in palm-oil
upon the coasts of Africa in the course of the last few years, justify
this conclusion.   In 1817, palm-oil was considered as among  the
list of mere medicinal substances. At this period a London perfumer
thought of making it into a soap for the toilet-table.   From this time
it became the staple of a bartering trade, which has been by so much
the more profitable to the nations engaged in it, as the purchase is
always effected by manufactured articles, such as cotton and wool
len goods, hardware and crockery, arms, powder, &c.  The future
I Codtzzi, tRe_          -,L: ie lat Geografia de la Venezuela, p. 133.
.
140
OIL. 
ESSENTIAL OILS.
extent of this traffic may be imagined when it is known that in 1817
the importation of palm-oil into  England did not much  exceed
140,000 lbs., and that in 1836 it exceeded 70,000,000 lbs! In taking an acre of surface for unity, I find that on an average the
Spring oleaginous plants yield...................3201bs. of oil.
WVinter oleaginous plants.....................534  5
The olive (south of Europe).....................  534          "
The Palm (Amierica).........................801    "
OF ESSENTIAL OILS.
Aromatic plants owe the odors which characterize them to
certain volatile principles, which by reason of certain properties
which they have in common with fat oils, such as insolubility in
water, solubility in ether and alcohol, inflammability, &c., are generally designated as essential oils. They are met with in all parts
of plants; but in one plant the oil is principally found in the flower,
in another in the leaves, in another in the bark, &c. It sometimes
happens that different parts of the same plant contain oils of different
kinds.  From the orange-tree, for instance, three distinct oils are
obtained, as the flower, the leaf, or the rind of the fruit is treated.
In some cases the volatile principle is so thoroughly imprisoned in
the vegetable cells, that drying does not dissipate it; in others, as
in the greater number of flowers, the oil is formed on the surface,
and is volatilized immediately after its formation.
Essential oils are less volatile than water; nevertheless they rise
with the vapor of water, and it is by distillation that they are generally extracted. The plant is put into a still or alembic containing
water, and heat is applied: the vapor formed is condensed in the
receiver, and the essence, by reason of its less density, is found
swimming on the surface of the water which has been distilled.
Some volatile oils are obtained by pressure, those of the citron and
bergamotte, for example.
The volatile principles of plants present somewhat varied physical
properties. They are generally limpid and lighter than water; yet
there are some which are more dense, and some, such as camphor,
which are solid. With reference to their composition, volatile oils
may be divided into three classes; 1st. Oils composed entirely of
carbon and hydrogen. 2d. Oils composed of carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen.  3d. Essential oils containing sulphur; in addition to
which, the essential oil of mustard seed contains azote.
The essential oils undergo a change by long contact with the air
they absorb oxygen, and many of them become acidified; under the
influence of this gas, the oil of bitter almonds is changed into benzoic acid, the oil of cinnamon into cinn-amic acid; in a general
way, acetic acid is produced. The votatile oil obtained from any
plant almost always contains two distinct principles, which may be
separated by careful distillation; one of these principles is a carburet of hydrogen, the other an oxygenated oil.  Camphor is combined with essential oils in many plants of the labiate family.  It
141 
RESINS.
exudes from certain laurels; it is from the Laurus camphora that
all the camphor of commerce is extracted in the East, the extraction
being effected precisely by the same process as other essential oils.
The chips of' the Laturu.s camphora are put into iron stills, surmounted by earthenware capitals, in the inside of which a number of
ropes made of rice-straw are stretched; the camphor rises and is
condensed on the surface of these cords in the state of a gray pow
der; it is refined by sublimation.
According to M. Dumas, camphor contains:
Carbon..................................... 79.2
Hydrogen..............................10.4
Oxygen................................10.4
100.0
OF RESIN.
Essential oils almost always hold certain substances in solution
which make them viscid or sticky. The balsams which exude from
the bark of certain trees are nothing more than solutions of resin in
essential oils.  When the volatile oil has been dissipated by evaporation, the resin remains in the solid state. There is further a natural relation in point of constitution between essential oils and resins.
The greater number of essences absorb, as we have said, oxygen
from the atmosphere, and by this absorption they become thick, and
are changed into resins; so that in one case the resin may be a
product of the oxidation of an essential oil, in another it may merely
be set at liberty by the dissipation of the essence which held it in
solution.
The resins constitute friable, or soft solids. They are fusible,
extremely inflammable, and fixed.  The resins are inodorous when
pure: any odor which particular resins possess is generally attributed to the essential oil which they still retain. The resins are insoluble, or very sparingly soluble in water; some of them dissolve
readily in alcohol and in ether, and there are some also, such as
copal, which are only soluble in very small quantity. Some resins
show acid reaction; they combine with bases, neutralizing them.
The greater number of resinous matters obtained from plants are
regarded by chemists as mixtures of several particular resins, the
study of which is not yet much advanced. Some resins are much
employed in the arts, such as colophony and copal, &c. Several
balsamis are also in familiar use, particularly as rmedicines, such as
the balsam of tolu, balsam of copaiba, &c.
Colophony, or rosin, is extracted from different kinds of the genus
Pineus. In the Landes, or sandy plains of Bordeaux, it is the maritime pine which yields it. When the tree -is from thirty to forty
years of age, incisions are made in the trunk, beginning at the lower
part, two or three times a week, and these are continued to the
height of from 6 to 10 feet from the ground; the last notch generally reaches this height about four years after the tree has been notched for the first time. After this a new series of notches is begun
on the opposite side, setting out from the ground as before, and in
142
v 
VEGETABLE WAX.
this way the whole circumference of the tree finally presents a series
of notches, so that a tree will continue to yield turpentine during a
period of sixty years.   The  turpentine which  exudes from the
notches is collected in a hole dug in the ground.
Crude turpentine always contains a quantity of intermixed foreign
matters, earth, stones, leaves, &c. It is purified by being mnelted, and
filtered hot through a bed of straw. By distillation it is separated into
essential oil, which is condensed in the receiver, and colophony, or
rosin, which remains in the still. From 250 lbs. of turpentine 30 lbs.
of essence and 220 lbs. of rosin are generally obtained.
Copal is the produce of a tree which is somewhat common in
Madagascar, and which M. Perrotet has determined to be the Hymenesa verrucosa. The balsam or sap which exudes from the bark
solidifies by contact with the air, and the resin is gathered in the
state in which it is met with in commerce.
CAOUTCHOUC.
The caoutchouc which we have mentioned as forming a constituent
in the sap of certain trees possesses some properties which assimilate it with the resins. Thus pure ether, free from alcohol, dissolves it. The greater number of the essential oils also dissolve it,
particularly when hot.  It is a solution of Indian rubber in rectified
coal-tar oil or naphtha, which is now used so extensively for making
stuffs  water-proof.   According  to Faraday  pure  caoutchouc is
composed of:
Carbon........................... 87.2
Hydrogen............................12.8
100
VEGETABLE WAX.
Some plants produce a considerable quantity of a substance which
bears a great resemblance to beeswax, and which in some of its
properties approaches fatty bodies.  Proust discovered that vegetable wax formed part of the green fecula of a great number of vegetables. In the common cabbage it occurs in large quantity. It is
often met with forming a varnish on the surface of leaves, fruit, and
barks; the substance, however, is far from being identical; it almost always results from the combination of several distinct principles which have not yet been sufficiently studied, but among which
there are obviously some true fatty substances, that is to say, bodies
capable of saponification, and matters analogous to the resins. I
shall here mention a few of the vegetable waxes which are best
known.
Wax of the palm. This is the product of the Ceroxylon andicola,
which is very abundant on the central Cordillera of New Grenada.
I believe that I met with the lower limit of the ceroxylon upon the
borders of the torrent of Tochecito, at the height of 7500 feet above
the level of the sea, and I followed it to an absolute elevation of
about 8500 feet. The extreme mean temperatures comprised be
143 
VEGETABLE WAX.
tween these two limits may be valued at from 11~ to 18~ cent.;
51.8~ to 64.4~ Fahr. Towards the superior limit, the ceroxylon is
exposed to a cold during the night, which approaches the freezing
point of water; it is therefore frequently met with in company with
the great oak of America, whose climate it stands very well.
The Indians obtain the wax by scraping the bark of the palmn:
the scrapings are then boiled in water; the wax swims-without,
however, melting; it is merely softened, and the impurities which it
contains are deposited. The matter thus purified is formed into
balls and set to dry in the sun. It is with this substance, to which,
however, a small quantity of fat is often added to render it less brittle, that the loaves of wax and the candles of the country are formed. After it has been melted, the cera de palma is of a deep yellow
color, slightly translucid, as brittle as resin, and presenting a waxy
fracture well characterized.  Its melting point is a little above that
of boiling water. Boiling alcohol dissolves it readily; in cooling,
the solution sets into a gelatinous mass.  Ether dissolves it, as do
the alkalies also.
The wax of the palm consists of two principles; one, fusible
above the temperature of the boiling point of water, has all the
physical properties of beeswax; the other has the properties of
resin. The composition of these substances upon analysis appears
to be:
Wax.       Resin.
C.rbon..................... 81.6 83.7
Hydrogen.................. 13.3         11.5
Oxygen...................  5.1          4.8
100     1 00
Wax of the Myrica cerifera.  This wax is procured  by boiling
the fruit of several species of myrica in water.   The  tree is extremely common in Louisiana  and the temperate regions of the
Andes.   The fruit yields as much as 25 per cent. of wax, and a
single shrub will yield from 24 to 30 lbs. of berries per annumn. The
crude wax is green, brittle, and, to be made into candles, requires
tile addition of a certain quantity of grease. According to M. Chevreul the wax of the myrica is saponifiable.
1Tcaxaofthe sugar-cane.  The sugar-cane, particularly the violet
variety, is covered with a powder or bloom of a waxy nature, which
melts at the temperature of 820 cent. (180~ Fahr.) This wax is so
hard that it can be pulverized; it may be made into candles, which,
for the brilliancy of their light, are not inferior to those of spermaceti. M. Avequin, who directed attention to this subject, found by
his experiments that a hectare (nearly 2- acres English) of the
violet cane would furnish nearly 200 lbs. of wax.   This wax is
entirely soluble in boiling alcohol; ether does not dissolve it in the
cold.  It appears to constitute a perfectly defined inlmmediate vegetable principle, the composition of which, according to M. Dumas,
is the following:
Carbon.................... 81.4
Hydrogen................ 14.1
Oxygen................. 4.5
100
144 
COLORING PRINCIPLES.
CHLOROPHYLLE.
The green matter which colors the leaves of vegetables is so
designated. The attempts which have been made to isolate this
matter, render it probable that it is somewhat of the nature of the
vegetable waxes. Pelletier and Caventou endeavored to procure it
by treating with cold alcohol, the pulp remaining after expressing
all the juices from the leaves of various herbaceous plants. By
evaporation of the alcoholic liquor, a substance of a deep-green color
was obtained, which is chlorophylle, a matter soluble in ether, in alcohol, the oils, and the alkalies. Heated, it softens and is decomposed before it melts.  Acetic acid dissolves it in very appreciable
quantities, so do the sulphuric and hydrochloric acids; water precipitates it from these acid solutions. Berzelius says that chlorophylle
exists only in very small quantity in plants, the leaves of a large tree
will not perhaps contain more than about 100 grains.
OF COLORING MATTERS.
The matters which color the different parts of plants are extremely numerous; they present great varieties of shade, but are in general derived from red, yellow, and green. It is seldom that the coloring matter of a plant exists isolatedly; it is almost always allied
with one or several immediate principles, which are themselves frequently colored. Thus red coloring matters are generally combined
with yellow principles, which having nearly the same properties, one
is with great difficulty separated from another.
Coloring matters are solid, inodorous, and have little taste.  Some
are soluble in water, others only dissolve in alcohol or in ether.
All combine with the alkalies, and several of them unite intimately
with acids; the greater number are powerfully affected, undergo a
true destruction, on exposure to the sun's rays, especially when in
contact with moist air. It is familiarly known that vegetable tissues
of all kinds, beeswax, &c., are bleached by exposure to the sun and
air; a high temperature acts like light: some vegetable colors ale
altered, bleached, when they remain exposed for a time to a temperature of from 334~ to 424~ Fahr. The oxygen of the air, which
so quickly destroys certain colors, develops others under particular
circumstances.
Alkalies and acids, by uniting with vegetable colors, almost always modify their tints and often change them entirely. Many blues,
for instance, become reds, under the agency of acids, greens or
yellows under that of alkalies. By, neutralizing the acid or the alkali, the color generally resumes its original tint.
Several substances, which are colorless in the state in which they
are formed in vegetables, become colored by the united action of
oxygen and an alkali, such as orceine, which is oxidated and becomes blue under the simultaneous contact of air and ammonia.
The greater number of vegetable coloring matters are destroyed
13
145
wV' 
INDIGO.
and bleached by chlorine. Many of the same matters unite intimately with alumina and oxide of tin to form lakes, insoluble compounds in which the colors remain fixed; thus a colored liquid often
becomes colorless when it is shaken with a hydrate of alumina.
Chl-arcoal, in a state of extreme subdivision, acts like alumina, and
is a powerful discharger of colors in every-day use in the arts.
Coloring matters are generally ternary compounds, though some of
them also contain azote; and several of them exhibit the remarkable phenomenon, that in undergoing oxidation in contact with ammonia they assimilate the azote of this alkali. I shall now indicate
the origin and the mode of preparing a few of the more important of
these coloring matters.
Idigo. This substance, so essential in the art of dyeing, has been
one of the great staples of trade with Asia from the most remote
times. For a long while indigo was regarded in Europe as a mineral substance found in India; it used to be designated Indian or In dia stone, whence the name of indigo. It was not until after the dis covery of America that the true nature of this dye-stuff was known,
although before this period indigo had been made in Arabia, Egypt,
and even in the Island of Malta.
Indigo is volatile, so that to obtain it pure, it is enough to put a
small quantity into a platinum capsule, to cover it with a lid and to
expose it to heat. Indigo is volatilized in the state of violet-colored
vapor, and collects in crystals upon the middle part of the sides of
the capsule. Indigo gives nothing to water or to ether. Alcohol
takes up a very small quantity of it; concentrated sulphuric acid
dissolves and modifies it.
All bodies greedy of oxygen appear to reduce or deoxidize this
coloring principle; it changes to a yellow, and becomes soluble in
water in contact with alkalies; by exposing the alkaline liquor charg ed with the uncolored indigo to the air, it absorbs oxygen rapidly, W
and the indigo becomes insoluble and is precipitated with its original
blue color. It is most easy, as said, to disoxidize indigo; it is suf ficient to bring it into contact with hydrogen gas in the nascent state,
a condition which is readily secured by throwing iron or zinc filings
into water containing the coloring matter previously dissolved in
sulphuric acid. The disengagement of the hydrogen has scarcely
commenced before the deep-blue color of the solution declines in
intensity, and by and by it becomes of a very pale gray. When the
discharge of color is completed, and no more hydrogen is disengaged,
the colorless indigo begins to react upon the air, it absorbs oxygen,
becomes again oxidized, and by and by the liquid has resumed its
deep blue. This property of indigo of becoming soluble in alkaline
solutions under the influence of disoxidizing bodies, is taken advan  tage of in our laboratories to obtain indigo in a state of purity, and
in the arts to prepare a dyeing liquid. If a mixture be made of 15
parts of the indigo of commerce reduced to fine powder, 10 parts of
the sulphate of the protoxide of iron, 15 parts of lime, and 60 parts
of water, and it be left for several days in a closed vessel, a color  less liquid is obtained   Tle ii(40lid decanted and exposed to the air,
146 
deposites the whole of its indigo after a time. It is with similar ingredients that the dyer prepares his bath for blue colors.  It is into
the alkaline liquor so prepared that the stuff to be dyed is dipped; it
is then hung up in the air, where it soon becomes blue; it is red-ipped and re-exposed again and again, until it has acquired the
depth of tint required, after which it is washed. The indigo, regenerated b) the action of the air, remains fixed in the stuff, and
proves, as all the world knows, one of the most solid of colors.
Chemists are not agreed as to the true nature oi colorless indigo
which may be obtained in the solid state.  Sonme regard it as indigo
disoxidized, others as indigo hydrogenized.  On the latter supposition, the hydrogen fixed would be derived from the water decomposed, the oxygen of which would be transferred to the bodies greedy
of this element, which are brought into play. The latter of these
views appears to have the ascendant at the present time. However
this may be, the following is the composition of indigo in each of
its states, as determined by M. Dumas:
White Indigo.
73.0
4.5
10.6
11.9
100.0
Blue Indigo..
Carbon...................... 73.1
Hydrogen..................... 4.0
Azote........................ 10.8
Oxygen...................... 12.1
100.0
The plants which have hitherto been cultivated for the production of
indigo with any profit are not numerous; they belong to the genera
Indil,ofera, Isaois et ~erium; it is the genus Indigofera which is most
generally cultivated, and the species designated  argentea is found
to be the most profitable. M. Chevreul has ascertained that in the
living plant the indigo is not colored, and that it is consequently
during its extraction that it becomes blue. The experiments of M.
Pelletier upon the Polygoniam tinctorium have confirmed the old researches of M. Chevreul. After having dried a leaf, Pelletier digested it with ether in a closed flask. The whole of the chlorophylle
was dissolved, and the leaf became completely blanched; by exposing it afterwards to the air, it turned blue if it contained indigo.
II the republic of Venezuela, where I had an opportunity of studying the cultivation of the indigo-bearing plants, I saw that those soils
were preferred which were light and susceptible of irrigation, a
condition indeed which seems to me all but indispensable to the profitable exercise of agriculture within the tropics. Indigo requires a
warm climate; at an elevation of about 3250 feet English above
the level of the sea, where the mean temperature is not more than
from 72~ to 75~ Fahr., the indigo husbandry cannot be carried on with
advantage.  Nevertheless, the Iidigofera sylvestris is met with at an
elevation of about 4900 feet above the level of the sea; but the attempts that have been made to obtain coloring matter from the plant
have proved fruitless. In the valley d'Aragua, where the best plantations are met with, the plant is sowed in lines, the holes destined
to receive the seed being about 1l inch in depth, and somewhat
more than 25 inches apart.   A pinch of seed is dropped into each
14'7
INDIGO.
lr,
r 
hole, and is covered with a little earth. The sowing takes place in
soils that are moist but well drained, or in situations generally which
have no system of irrigation at the period of the first rains. The
seeds shoot in the course of the first week; hoeing is performed in
the course of the month. The first cutting takes place when the
plant is coming into flower; from fifty to sixty days generally intervene between the sowing and this cutting; but the time necessary
for the development of the leaves depends of course upon the climate. In the neighborhood of Maracaibo, where the mean temperature is about 78~ Fahr., the gathering does not take place before the
third month. The second cutting is performed from 45 to 50 days
after the first; and in this way several successive crops are obtained,
until it is seen that the plant begins to degenerate.  In good soils
the indigo will last for two years; in soils of inferior quality the
crop is generally annual.
The indigo harvest is immediately transported to tanks or large
rectangular reservoirs built of masonry, and disposed on different
levels, the superior reservoir or steeping tank being much larger
than the two others.  In the valley d'Aragua, there are some which
are upwards of 20 feet long by 15 feet wide, and 20 inches in depth.
The second, or mashing tank, is narrower and deeper than the former. The third reservoir, or depositing tank, receives the liquor
from the mashing tank, and in it the indigo subsides. In some manufactories the third tank is not used, the deposition taking place in the
mashing tank itself.
The leaves, as the name implies, are thrown into the steeper,
covered with water, and kept down by planks loaded with stones;
fermentation soon begins, and is allowed to continue during about
eighteen hours; and in the management of this first operation lies
much of the art of the indigo-maker.   By continuing it too long
some portion of the coloring matter is destroyed; by stopping it
prematurely, a quantity of indigo is left in the leaves.  The fermen tation judged to be sufficiently advanced, the liquor is run off into
the battery, and vigorously stirred until the grain is deposited. The
fluid is then either let into the subsider, or left in the battery, and
the deposition is complete at the end of about twenty hours; the
supernatent fluid is drawn off, and the indigo paste is scooped out
and placed upon cloths to drain. When sufficiently firm, it is divided
into lumps, and these are set in the shade to dry. In the valley
d'Aragua it is estimated that with a good soil and careful manage ment, each hectare of surface will yield 280 lbs. of marketable indi go,* which is at the rate of about 112, lbs. per English acre.
In Carolina the cultivation of indigo appears to be much less pro. ductive than in the equinoctial regions, and the produce is of inferior
quality. There they sow in drills in the commencement of the
rainy season which follows the vernal equinox, and the first crop is
gathered about the beginning of July; the second  is secured  two
months afterwards, and when the autumn is mild, a third but insig
* Cadozzi, Resuimen de la Geografia de Venezuela, p. 144.
148
INDIGO.
w 
nificant gathering takes place at the end of September. One negro
is allowed to be able to work nearly two acres and a half of ground,
from which about 160 lbs. of indigo are obtained.
In the East Indies, upon the Coromandel coast, the growth of indigo takes place upon sandy soils which are not irrigated, and in
which vegetation is only possible during the rainy season. The
loamy soils that admit of being irrigated are almost always reserved
for the growth of rice. Immediately after the rains have set in, in
December, the land receives two superficial ploughings; the indigo
is sown broad-cast, and the seed is harrowed in by dragging a fagot
of bamboos over the surface, or by treading in by means of a flock
of sheep. The first and principal gathering takes place in March;
any other crop that may be won is purely casual, and entirely dependent on the rain that falls. The crop rarely fails to feel the
effects of the droughts which so fiequently take place upon the
Coromandel coast. It is never abundant, and the plants have little
vigor.  The harvest takes place after the flowering season.  The
crop is dried in the sun; the plant is then beaten with switches, by
which the leaves are detached from the stems, after which hey are
exposed anew to the sun to secure their being perfectly dry. They
are then reduced to coarse powder, and handed over to the indigomaker, for in India the planter is never himself the manufacturer
of the dye-stuff.
On the coast of Coromandel, indigo is always extracted from the
dried leaves, which, bruised and broken, are infused in three or four
times their bulk of cold water during two or three hours; the infusion is then filtered through  a loose stuff made of goat's hair; the
filtered liquor is beaten for two hours, and after this about five gallons of lime-water are added for every 100 lbs. of dried leaves; the
mixture is stirred, and then left to settle. When the deposite has
formed, the supernatent liquor is drawn off, the sediment is washed
with a little boiling water, and being thrown upon a cloth, the indigo
is drained and dried. It is then pressed, and the paste is cut into
cubical lumps which are thoroughly dried in the air, and of which
each weighs nearly 3 ounces.
In the Indian method of manufacturing indigo, all is accomplished,
as appears, without fermentation.  This indigo is little esteemed in
commerce; it is heavy, of a pale blue, without much of the coppery
aspect, rough on the broken surface, and presents here and there
white points and vegetable debris. An acre of land on the Coromandel coast will produce from 48 to 49 lbs. of indigo annually.
In spite of the high price of indigo, so small a quantity would
scarcely cover the cost of production, were not the wages of the
Indian laborer exceedingly low. The whole expense of producing a
kilogramme, or 2;-  lbs. avoird. of indigo, according to M. Plagne,
amounts to 3 francs, 20 cents, or about 2s. Sd.
The cultivation of the indigo plant has been attempted several
times in the south of Europe, particularly in Spain and Italy.
There   is no doubt but that indigo may be grown in Europe in those
situations where for three or four monrths of the year the tempera                               13*
INDIGO.
149
1-- - 
ture is truly tropical; but it seems probable that indigo can never
be advantageously introduced into the agriculture of temperate countries.
Before indigo was so extensive an article of commerce as it is
now, the south of France used to furnish almost all the markets of
Europe with a blue dye, which was the best then known; this was
woad or pastel, the produce of the Isatis tinctoria.
The isatis is sufficiently hardy to stand the cold of winter. In
the south it is sown in March, and the seed springs in from eight to
ten days. When the plant has five or six leaves, it is hoed with
care. The crop is gathered when the leaves have acquired their
greatest size, when they even begin to fade a little. The preparation of woad bears a certain resemblance to that of indigo, and need
not detain us here.
The Polygonum tinctorium has of late attracted the attention of
European cultivators. The plant is a native of China, where it has
been cultivated from time immemorial; it was brought into France
and propagated under the care of M. de Lille. In the course of
three months the plant has thrown out all its leaves, and in the south
of France it neverfails to ripen its seeds. From some experiments
that have been made, the leaves of the polygonum appear to contain
about the five-thousandth of their weight of indigo, and as the acre
of land will yield between 11,000 and 11,900 lbs. weight of leaves
the produce of coloring matter will come to upwards of 561 lbs.
The indigo obtained from the polygonum by the methods generally
practised is not always of fine quality. It contains matters which,
having been dissolved in the water used for maceration, had subsequently been precipitated   M. Vilmorin proposed to adopt on the
great scale and in the manufactory, the methods which are used for
purifying indigo in the laboratory, and which consists, as we have
seen, in reducing colored and insoluble indigo to the colorless and
insoluble state by means of a salt of the protoxide of iron in contact
with an alkali, and subsequently to restore its color, and effect its
precipitation by contact with the oxygen of the air. It is obvious
that this method is perfectly applicable to the treatment of the whole
of the indigoferous plants, and I believe that its adoption would be
a great improvement.
Orchil. This coloring matter, of a deep purple, is prepared from
certain lichens or lung-worts; that which is most prized is the rocella
tinctoria, a native of the Canaries and Cape de Verd islands. The
variolaria dealbata, the var. aspergillia, and the lichen corallinus,
which grow upon the rocks of Auvergne, and on the Alps and Pyrenees, yield a produce of inferior quality.
To obtain the orchil, the lichens are steeped for several days in
their own weight of stale urine. Into the mixture about 5 per cent.
of slaked lime in powder, a small quantity of arsenious acid, and a
little alum, are introduced. Fermentation is by and by set up in the
mass, which soon acquires the characteristic color of the orchil, but
the tint is never complete until the expiration of about a month.
Orchil readily communicates its peculiar color to water and to al
150
ORCHIL. 
ORCHIL.
cohol; the watery solution, which is of a fine crimson, becomes
colorless in a few days when it is kept in a flask hermetically sealed; it regains its color by exposure to the air. The color which is
acquired during the manufacture of orchil indicates that the lichens
which yield it contain principles which are colorless in themselves,
but which possess the singular property of becoming tinted under
the influence of oxygen and ammonia; for in the preparation of orchil, the addition of urine and of lime has no other purpose beyond
the introduction and development of this alkaline base. This view
is shown to be correct, moreover, by the facts brought to light by
MM. Heeren and Robiquet in their inquiries into the chemical constitution of the lichens. These chemists, in fact, succeeded in extracting from several of the lichens which yield orchil a variety of
colorless crystalline principles, in particular orcine, a substance
which may be procured in very regular quadrangular prisms, and
which is soluble in water and in alcohol. The watery solution of
orcine mixed with ammonia and exposed to the air, becomes gradually of a deeper and deeper red until it has the color of blood. The
result of this oxidation of orcine under the action of ammonia is a
coloring principle, orceine, into the constitution of which azote enters, an element which formed no part of orcine; the analyses of
these two substances made by M. Dumas, show this fact very distinctly:
Dry or.inc.
Carbon...................67.8
Hydrogen................. 6.5
Oxygen............25.7
Azote....................                    7.
100.0
The lichens furnish several other principles analogous to orcine in
their property of acquiring color under similar circumstances.
Turnsole. This coloring matter is met with in commerce in two
states, in mass and in thin cakes, and is procured from various
lichens which have not yet been accurately specified; in any case
the substance is obtained by a process which differs little fromI that
used in the manufacture of orchil. According to Mr. Kane, the
coloring principles of turnsole are naturally red: they only become
blue by combining with a base. The coloring matters which predominate in turnsole are erythrolitmine and azolitmine, which are
united with lime, potash, and ammonia, and further mixed with a
considerable quantity of chalk and sand. The analyses of Kane
show these two substances to have the following composition:
Erythrolitmine.         Azolitmine.
Carbon..............55.6                    49.8
Hydrogen............... 8.4 5.4
Oxygen..............*36.0  oxygen and azote  44.8
100.0                 100.0
Turnsole occurs in trade in the shape of thin cakes, made up of
chips, which are colored by the juice of chiroyophoria tinctoria, a
plant of the euphorbiaceous family, and of which the dyeing properties appear to have been known to the earliest naturalists.
151
55.9
5.2
31.0
7.9
100.0 
MADDER.
Madder. The root of the madder plant, so commonly employed
in dyeing, contains more than one coloring matter; but the most im
portant of these, and that which constitutes the most useful element
in the root, is alizarine, which was discovered by M. Robiquet.
This substance is scarcely soluble in boiling water, but it is soluble
in alcohol and still more so in ether, to which it imparts a golden
yellow color. Alkaline liquors dissolve it and acquire a violet shade
extremely agreeable to the eye. Alizarine is sublimed by the action
of heat in the form of brilliant red needles.
Madder, (rubia tinctorumn,) is a native of the south; but as it
stands the winter, it is now cultivated almost all over Europe; the
plant is propagated by seeds, but there are certain advantages in
using the sprouts which it throws out in the spring, and which readily take root. The plant requires a friable soil, sufficiently moist
and highly manured to receive it; the soil must be previously
trenched or have had a very deep ploughing. In the east of France
the planting takes place in April or May. The sprouts which are
to be transplanted must be about 6 inches long. When the plant
has struck root, the ground is cleaned, and fifteen or twenty days
afterwards it is hoed; in the course of the summer, several other
hoeings are required. In Alsace, madder is planted in rows and in
patches, a certain interval between each patch being left, the earth
of which, in the month of March of the following year, is thrown
over the ground that is planted.
In the neighborhood of Haguenau, madder occupies the ground
during two years; the crop is gathered about the middle of November. In some districts the plant remains in possession of the soil for
five or six years. It is generally allowed that the amount of produce
increases with time; but in those countries, such as Alsace, where
the plant is liable to be attacked by frost, it is generally thought
prudent to gather it at the end of two years; the harvest is then
profitable, and in the course of the third or fourth or any succeeding
winter, it might run the risk of such severe frost as would destroy it
entirely.  In southern countries the growers say that a crop of the
fourth year exceeds very considerably one of the third year; but it
might be made a question whether the increase actually compensates
for the longer occupation of the soil. And then when the cultivation
is too much prolonged, a species of fungus is developed around the
root and kills it. The crop of madder is gathered with the hoe, a
laborious and costly process; the roots are then dried in stoves and
sent to the mill, so that it is in the state of powder that madder is
met with in commerce.
In Alsace, where madder remains two years in the ground, the
mean produce per acre is estimated at about 3300 lbs. of dried roots,
which is equal to an annual crop of about 1650 lbs.  In the south of
France, the mean annual produce amounts to something  less than
this, or to about 1560 lbs.;* but the quantity has been estimated 8 a
considerably lower amount still.
* De Gasparin, Agricultural Memnoir. vol. ii.  243.
152
r 
SAFFRON.
Besides its roots, madder yields an abundance of leaves which are
excellent forage.
Reseda luteola, or dyers' weed, is a plant in common use, and owes
its properties as a dye-stuff to the presence of a yellow crystalline
principle, luteoline, discovered by M. Chevreul. This substance is
soluble in ether, alcohol, and alkaline solutions.
Dyers' weed is sown in autumn, stands through the winter, and
ripens in the month of August following. The plant is gathered
when it begins to turn yellow, and it is in a marketable state after it
is dried. An acre of land will produce about 1833 lbs. weight of
marketable dye-weed.
Saffron.  This plant is cultivated in the south of France and
in Austria, but appears to be a native of Asia. Saffron requires a
light and yet fertile soil in order to produce abundantly, although it
may also be cultivated in soils of middling quality. The ground,
trenched one spit deep, is set out with bulbs from an old plantation.
In the south the transplanting takes place in the month of June.
The first flowers appear towards the middle of October; they are
few during the first year. They are gathered, and the pistils removed;
the gathering continues for about a fortnight.  In the course of the
year which follows the planting, the ground receives a surface dressing; it is freed from weeds, and the withered leaves are removed.
The next gathering takes place at the same period as the former,
but the flowers are now much more abundant, and the same process
is continued until the roots are taken up, which they are in France
at the end of the second year; but in Austria the culture is continued for a much longer period in the same piece of ground. The
extraction of the pistils is an occupation in which the whole family
of the saffron-grower take part, and employ their evenings; in the
course of an evening of five hours, eight persons will generally
have drawn 250 grammes or about 8 ounces of saffron   In some
places the pistils are dried in the sun, in others by being exposed in
a sieve over a fire of twigs; the latter process appears to be the
better one.
M. de Gasparin estimates at about 110 lbs. the saffron which is
gathered in the course of two years from about 21-ths acres of land;
this would give a mean annual produce of about 43.7 lbs. per English acre, and the price of saffron being from 27 to 28 shillings per
pound, the value of the produce may easily be reckoned. In Austria, where the crop is allowed to occupy the ground for three years,
the produce has been estimated at about 19-2 lbs. per acre per annum.
Roucou is a dye-stuff extracted from the fruit of the Bixa orellana, a tree which is extremely common in the hot regions of Southern America.
Chica. This and the former dye-stuff are in use among the native Americans for staining the skin. It is obtained from the leaves
of the Bignonia chica, which are of a beautiful green when fresh,
but become red by drying.
Chica has the color of cinnabar: it is without taste and without
smell: a mass of this pigmeont may be compared to a mass of indigo
153 
THE POTATO.
it only differs from this substance in its color. Like indigo, it acquires the metallic polish when rubbed with a hard body. It dissolves in alcohol, and in alkaline solutions; it mixes readily with
grease, and it is with such a mixture that the Indians paint their
bodies. Chica has been employed in cotton-dyeing, and the color is
found to stand the sun perfectly.
~ II.-COMPOSITION OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF
PLANTS
The immediate principles, the history of which has now been
sketched, are met with in greater or lesser quantities in different
parts of plants; some of them are accumulated in the roots, others
in the seeds, the barks, the leaves, &c. To complete the study of
the chemical constitution of vegetables we have still to examine
with reference to their composition certain parts or organs which
present sufficient interest either from their'extensive employment or
their importance in an agricultural point of view.
ROOTS AND TUBERS.
The Potato, (Solanurn tuberosum.)   This plant is a native of
South America. Two English travellers, Messrs. Caldcleugh and
Baldwin, were so fortunate as to meet with it lately in the vild state in
Chili, and not far from Monte Video. It is probable that the cultivation of the potato spread from the mountains of Chili to the chain
of the Andes, proceeding northward and obtaining a footing successively in Peru, at Quito, and upon the plateau of New Granada.
This, as Humboldt observes, is precisely the course which the Incas
took in their conquests.  The potato does not appear to have been
introduced into Mexico until after the European invasion of that
country; and it is well ascertained that it was not known there under the reign of Montezuma, although there are not wanting some
who maintain that the potato was found in Virginia by the first colonists sent thither by Sir Walter Raleigh.  It is said that it was then
brought into England by Drake; but it seems well established that
long before Drake's time, namely, in 1545, a slave merchant, John
Hawkins by name, had introduced tubers of the potato from the
coasts of New Granada into Ireland.   From Ireland the new plant
passed into Belgium in 1590. Its cultivation was at this time neglected in Great Britain, until it was introduced by Raleigh at the
beginning of the seventeenth century.  When the potato came from
Virginia to England for the second time it was already disseminated
over Spain and Italy.  It has been ascertained that the potato has
been cultivated on the great scale in Lancashire since 1684; in
Saxony since 1717; in Scotland since 1728; in Prussia since 1738.*
* Humboldt, Essai Politique, t. ii. p. 4Csl
154
r-,
F —- - 
THE POTATO.
Is vas about the year 1710 that the potato began to spread in Germ.ny, and that it there became a plant in common use; it had, indeed, before this time been cultivated in gardens; and had even
made its appearance at the tables of the rich some time previously.
The severe dearth of the years 1771 and 1772* seemed necessary
to lead the Germans to cultivate this useful plant upon the great
scale. From this time it was shown that it was a substitute for
bread; and once fairly introduced, men were not long of perceiving
the many recommendations which it possesses as an article of food.
In fact, of all the useful plants which the migrations of communities and distant voyages have brought to light, says M. Humboldt,
there is none since the discovery of the cereals, that is to say, from
time immemorial, which has had so decided an influence upon the
well-being of mankind. In less than two centuries it may be said
literally to have overspread the earth, or to have been welcomed in
every country suited to its cultivation, so that at the present day it is
found growing from the Cape of Good Hope to Iceland and Lapland.  "It is an interesting spectacle," adds the illustrious traveller
quoted, "to see a plant, a native of mountains situated under the
equator, advance towards the pole, and growing even more hardily
than the grasses which yield us grain, brave the inclemencies of the
North."t The potato, like all other tubers, is a collection, an exuberance which is evolved upon the subterraneous stems. Its varieties, which are very numerous, present rather remarkable differences
in regard to size, form, color of the surface and of the interior, taste,
and the time which they require to come to maturity.
Next to water, fecula or starch is the principle which predominates
in the potato, but it also contains a certain quantity of azotized matter. Vauquelin has published a detailed account of the soluble matters which are met with in the potato, and which, strange to say,
have been neglected in the greater number of analyses of this useful
vegetable which have been published. In 100 parts of potatoes he
found: asparagine 0.1, albumen 0.7, azotized matter not defined 0.4,
citrate of lime 1.2, and undetermined quantities of citrate of potash,
free acetic acid, phosphate of potash, and phosphate of lime.
In examining forty-eight varieties of potato he found that they
contained in 100 parts: first, from 1 to 12 of pulp; second, from 2
to 3 of soluble or extractive substances; third, from 20 to 28 of
starch; fourth, from 67 to 78 of water.t
In a variety grown in the neighborhood of Paris, Henry found the
following ingredients, viz: pulp 6.8, starch 13.3, albumen 0.9, uncrystallizable sugar 3.3, acids and salts 1.4, fatty matter 0.1, and
water 74.2-100.0.
The proportion of starch varies considerably in the different varieties; M. Payen has ascertained the extent of this diversity in a
certain number of varieties grown in the same soil and under the
* Thaer, Principes raisorn6s d'Agriculture, t. iv. p. 119.
t Humboildt, op. cit. t. ii. p. 463.
: Thenard''s Clhemistry, v,al. v. p. 8.
155 
THE POTATO.
same circumstances. The results are contained in the following
table:
In 100 parts.
Produee per Acre.
Dry
matter. Water.
tons. cwts. qnr. lbs.                       t
14  14   2  16  24.8   75.2
9    8   0  271 31.3   68.7
8   3    2   2  30.2   69.8
14   6    1  23  20.6   79.4
8   3    2   2  28.8   71.2
10   4    2  121 22.2   77.8
10   4    2  12i 21.7   78.3
One of
seed
potatoes
produced.
58
37
32
56
32
40
40
In the particular circumstances under which this experiment was
made, therefore, it is obvious that the Rohan variety contained the
largest quantity of nutritive matter and starch.
Potatoes which have been exposed to a temperature a few degrees
below the freezing point of water, undergo so great a change in their
texture, that it becomes difficult afterwards to extract the starch
w-iich they contain.  They besides acquire so disagreeable a flavor,
as all the world knows, that cattle sometimes refuse to eat them.
After having ascertained that a potato has the same chemical composition before and after congelation, M. Payen examined the starchy
substance under the microscope, and found that the starch obtained
from a frozen tuber presented itself in compound granular masses,
four or five times the size of the largest natural grains of starch.
T'he pulp which remained upon the sieve in the preparation of this
starch, was formed by a collection of cells, for the most part full of'
starch.   It would therefore appear, that in consequence  of tlihe
changes of volume of the fluid successively congealed and liquefied
the adhesion between the cells was destroyed: they beconme separaI)le with the slightest force, and merely part one from another by
the action of the grater without being torn; the larger number remnain unbroken and still filled with starch.  This fact enables us to
ituderstand how potatoes, which have been frozen, will yield nearly
the whole of their starch if they be treated before they are thawed.
't'he cells then sealed up by the congealed water resist sufficiently
to be broken by the teeth of the grater. Potatoes which have been
fiozen, are generally less farinaceous, at the same time that they have
t decidedly sweet taste, which, according to M. Payen, is owing to
vegetation having already made some progress in the tubers before
congelation; and we know that during germination there is always
a formation of sugar at the expense of the fecula. Frosted potatoes
have always a disagreeable taste, and a most unpleasant smell, so
that in many places they are thrown upon the dunghill. The effect
of the frost, in fact, is to set the juices which are enclosed in the
tissue of the potato at liberty, and the higher temperature which accompanies and follows a thaw., exposes thiese juices to be acted upon
I
I
156
S,,,h..9t.ch p, A,.
t... ,,t. q,i,. lb.
1G. 6 ) 9 0 12
23.3 2 3 3 4
22.0 1 16 0                     1
12.3 1    15    1 2
20.5 1 14 0    5
14.0 1              8 2 16
13.6 1              8    0 12
1 The Rohan.......
I-e -reat yellow
-The Scotch shaws
late Iceland
Segonzac
-,,.'he Siberian......
il lc,, Dtivillers 
TIIE POTATO. 
immediately by the air of the atmosphere, the consequence of which
is, that they behave like all other vegetable juices left to themselves,
they become putrid. The putrid odor and the acrimony which are
developed in the frosted potato, are by so much the more remarkable
as a certain layer which exists immediately under the skin, and presents various shades of color, tawny red or violet, is more highly
developed. The tissue of this layer, examined under the microscope, was found by M. Payen to be totally without starch, but it
contains the greater part of the (strong-smnelling) coloring principles.*
These principles, which give such unpleasant qualities to frosted
potatoes, appear to be soluble, or at least destructible by long exposure to the open air.  Thus, if frosted potatoes be spread upon the
ground and exposed to the weather, they dry spontaneously, become
hard, whitened, and they may then be preserved for a very long
time. This method of making use of frosted potatoes has been
several times employed in practice, and it might perhaps be recommended for general adoption, were it only ascertained that by such
treatment the tubers did not lose a great proportion of their most
nutritive principle, viz. albumen. However this may be, it is by a
similar process that the natives of the Andes of Peru preserve and
render more transportable the tubers which form a principal element
in their food. In the steepest parts of the Peruvian Cordillera,
nearly at the superior limit of vegetation, where a miserable field of
barley and of Quinoa is only seen here and there, varioustubers are
collected in the hollows of the surface, such as the Maca, the Oca,
the Ulluco. To preserve these they are exposed for several days to
the alternate action of the frost and of the sun.  At these great
elevations, which are upwards of 13,120 feet above the level of the
sea, it always freezes in clear nights when the air is moderately
calm.  During the day the rays of the sun, which strike with great
force, dry the tubers rapidly, the watery juices of which have been
she4 into the amylaceous tissue by the effect of the preceding night's
trost. Thoroughly dry, they may be kept for more than a year by
being stored and protected from moisture.  Various other modes of
pr eparation are practised in regard to the other kinds of tubers which
have been mentioned.   By previously boiling the common potato,
pealing it, and exposing it alternately to the frost of the night and
the heat of the sun, until it is completely dry, the Indians prepare
one of their most agreeable and wholesome articles of subsistence.
The potato thrives in soils of very various kinds, provided it be
sufficiently fertile, and the climate is favorable.  This crop, like the
beet, is generally planted in freshly manured ground, and is succeeded in the autumn by a winter crop of corn-wheat or rye.  The
potato is set when apprehensions of frost are no longer entertained;
in the east of France the setting is generally ended about the middle of MIay.  In Alsace the cuttings of the potato are dropped  at
the distance of about a foot from each other in furrows made by the
plough, the furrows being from 18 inches to nearly 2 feet apart.
* Payen, Journal of Practical Agriculture, vol. i. p. 498.
14
157
r 
THE POTATO.
When the plants are from 10 to 12 inches high, and the weather is
dry, the furrows are lightly earthed up. In dry soils the earthing
plough must not be carried very deeply; and I may say that in the
elevated table lands of America, where the natural drought of the
climate is often to be apprehended, I have seen very fine crops of
potatoes which had never been earthed up at all. The potato, like
all plants that are hoed, requires considerable care; but this care,
as it is immediately profitable, is still more  so remotely upon the
white crops which are to follow. M. Crud reckons at 58.3 the
number of days work that are required upon an acre of land which
has received between 19 and 20 tons of manure. This is very
nearly what we have found to be the truth at Bechelbronn, where for
the same extent of surface, manured in the same way, we reckon
fifty days labor of a man, and rather better than eleven davs of a
horse.
In Europe the potato harvest takes place at the end of autumn.
In the intertropical Cordillera, where the cultivation depends prin
cipally upon the heat of a very steady climate, the potato remains
in the ground from four to seven months, as it is cultivated at a
greater or less height above the level of the sea; it succeeds best
where the mean temperature ranges between 13~ and 18~ centigrade
(56~ and 65~ Fahr.) In Venezuela, indeed, it is still cultivated in
places where the temperature is not far from 24~ centigrade, (76.5~
Fahr.;) but I am doubtful that the culture is then advantageous. In
warm and moist regions the potato yields a large quantity of top,
and few tubers. I have gathered some very bad ones at Riosucio
de Engurama, a village situate at the distance of about 5900 feet
above the level of the sea, where the mean and constant temperature is about 22~ centigrade, (72~ Fahr.)
The produce per acre, noted by different observers, is as follows: 
Tons.     Cwts.    Qrs.        lbs.
Prussia....
Palatinate, mean of ten years
Austria, mean of thirteen years
Brabant...
West Flanders.. 
Pays de Waes.. 
Pays de Tongres.
England...
England...
Ireland..
Alsace
Alsace (Bechelbronn).
Neighborhood of Paris. 
Venezuela.
There is an obvious relation between the quantity of seed-potato
planted and the amount of the crop. In Alsace from 25 to 30
bushels per acre are usually planted. In some places too much seied
* This is the produce of two harvests, which they gather in the same year.
158
Countries.
5
5
9
11
9
10
6
10
9
9
8
5
11
9
18
7
11
17
13
8
14
2
9
9
14
8
2
16
2
1
3
0
0
3
0
2
0
3
3
1
2
1
1
14
10
2
17
13
25
7
25
14
8
12
13
20* 
JERUSALEMI ARTICHOKE.
is used, in others not enough.  It were very desirable that certain
experiments were undertaken which should fix the proper quantity
of seed-potato to be used for each variety of soil and situation.
The Jerusalem Artichoke, (Helianthlus tuberosus.) This plant is
generally believed to be a native of South America, but M. de Humboldt never met with it there, and according to M. Correa, it does
not exist in Brazil. The property which the tubers of this plant
have of resisting the cold of our winters, and several botanico-geographical considerations, lead M. A. Brongniart to presume that the
plant belongs to the more northern parts of Mexico.
The Jerusalem artichoke rises to a height of from 9 to 10 feet;
Lt flowers late, and I have not yet seen it ripen its seeds.  It is propagated by the tubers which it produces, and which are regarded,
for good reason, as most excellent food for cattle; in times when
the potato was not very extensively known, it also entered pretty
largely into the food of man; when boiled, its taste brings to mind
that of the artichoke, whence the name.
The tuber of the Jerusalem artichoke, from an analysis of M.
Braconnot, appears to contain in 100 parts:
Uncrystallizable sugar........          14.80
Inuline.............             3.00
Gum..............             1.22
Albumen...........             0.99
Fatty matter...........               0.09
Citrates of potash and lime.......         1.15
Phosphates of potash and lime.                     0.20
Sulphlate of potash...                    0.12
Chloride of potassium.........            0.08
Malates and tartrates of potash and lime..    0.05
Woody fibre...........           1.22
Silica..............             0.03
Water.............            77.05
100.00
M. Payen found a larger proportion of sugar in this tuber than that
stated above, and he ascertained that the fatty matter consists chiefly
of stearine and elaine. In the Jerusalem artichoke I myself found:
Of dry matter................- 20.8
Water............................. 79.2
100.0
One trial for azote would lead me to conclude that M1. Braconnot
had estimated the albumen too low in his analysis  or, as is more
probable, that several azotized principles had escaped him. The
dried tuber gave me 0.16 of azote, a number which would indicate
1.0 as the proportion of vegetable albumen. There are few plants
more hardy and so little nice about soil as the Jerusalem artichoke;
it succeeds everywhere, with the single condition that the ground be
not wet. The tubers are planted exactly like those of the potato,
and nearly at the same time; but this is a process that is performed
but rarely, inasmuch as the cultivation of the helianthus is incessant,
159 
JERUSALEM ARTICIHOKE.
being carried on for many years in the same piece; and after the
harvest, in spite of every disposition to take up all the tubers,
enough constantly escape detection to stock the land for the following year, so that the surface appears literally covered with the young
plants on the return of spring, and it is necessary to thin them by
hoeing.  The impossibility of taking away the whole of the tubers,
and their power of resisting the hardest frosts of winter, is an obstacle almost insurmountable to the introduction of this plant, as one
element in a regular rotation. Experience more and more confirms
thie propriety of setting aside a patch of land for the growth of this
productive and very valuable vegetable root.
Of all the plants that engage the husbandman, the Jerusalem
artichoke is that which produces the most at the least expense of
manure and of manual labor. Kade states that a square patch of
Jerusalem artichokes in a garden was still in full productive vigor
at the end of thirty-three years, throwing out stems from 7 to 10
feet in length, although for a very long time the plant had neither
received any care nor any manure.*
I could quote many examples of the great reproductive power of
the helianthus; I can affirm, nevertheless, that in order to obtain
abundant crops, it is necessary to afford a little manure.  I shall
show in another chapter, however, that this is manure well bestowed.
Like all vegetables having numerous and large leaves, the helianthus requires air and light; it ought, therefore, to be properly spaced
The original planting of course takes place in lines, but in the succeeding crops, and those which are derived from small tubers accidentally left in the ground, the order is of course lost; it is only
necessary to destroy a sufficient number of the young sprouts which
show themselves in the spring, to leave those plants that are preserved with a sufficient space between them. When the plants are
somewhat advanced, the ground should receive one or two diggings
with the spade, and a hoeing or two to destroy weeds.
The leaves of the helianthus are used in many places as forage,
the stems being cut a few inches from the ground; the gathering
takes place at different periods of the year, but probably to the detri
ment of the tubers; it may be lucrative to destine the leaves for th(
nutriment of cattle, but I believe we have to choose between thi
green crop and the crop of tubers. It is unquestionable that th,
premature removal of the green stems must prove injurious to thb
roots; in my own farm the leaves are never removed, and my opir
ion is, that it is vastly more advantageous to depend upon the crop
of tubers alone. The tubers are gathered as they are wanted, fo-,
not dreading the frost, they remain in the ground the whole of the
winter; they do not require, like the potato, to be collected and picted at a certain period; they require no particular situation, no par
ticular care for their preservation; the only disadvantage that ac
companies their being left in the ground, is that during very hard
frosts the labor required to get at them is very great. During win
* Schwertz, Culture of Forage Plants.
160 
THE CARROT.
ter the woody stems of' the plant die and dry up, they are theni useful as combustible matter' but a better use of them perhaps is to
make them enter in certain proportions into the litter of the hogstye; the pith there absorbs a large quantity of the liquid manure.
Schwertz estimates the mean quantity of dry leaves and stems at 3
tons, 1 cwt. 1 qr. and 15 lbs. per acre.   The following quantities
of tubers have actually been gathered in Alsace.
Tons.  Cwts.   QOs.   lbs.
Sandy soils...................... 4  3      3       6
Soils of the best quLality........... 10  8  3      13
At Bechelbronn (Iean)..........10    16      0      8
Bechelbronn crops of 1839-40...... 15    16  1     16
The Carrot, (Daicus  carola.) This root is frequently cultivated,
particularly by intercalation; it is frequently grown along with the
poppy, where the seed is raised for the sake of its oil, occasionally also
being sown with white crops in the spring, it comes to maturity after
them in the autumn; it is a plant that is much liked by animals, but
which by no means possesses the very high value as an article of food
which is generally ascribed to it by husbandmen.  The carrot requires
a deep, somewhat loose and homogeneous soil, fresh manure, and
much care in the cultivation.   Schwertz, taking the mean of three
years, estimates the produce per acre at 13 tons, 18 cwt. 1 qr. and
2 lbs. of roots, and about one-third the same quantity of green leaves,
which are valuable as fodder and as elements of manure. In a field
at Beche]bronn where this vegetable had beenl intercalated with the
madia sativa, we obtained upwards of 53  tons of roots in addition to
our principal crop of oleaginous seed. The carrot contains a large
quantity of water in its constitution-87.6 per cent., according to
some of my experiments.
The juice of the carrot contains sugar, albumen, a crystallizable
coloring principle, called cartrotine, a volatile oil, fatty matters, peetie
acid, pectine, star ch, malic acid and alkaline, and earthy phosphates.
The parsnip, (Pastinaca sativa.)  This plant is not very extensively cultivated, yet it has the advantage of standing the winter in
the open field.  It has been recomlmended as very useful in filttenillg
cattle.  In its composition it must assimilate with the carrot aid(
beet.  Drappier obtained as much  as 12 per cent. of cane-sugar
frotm the parsnip.*
BARKS.
Cinchona barks.  The  barks of cinchona, which are employed
with so much success in medicine, are the produce of different species
of a family of trees which grows in the mountains of Soutlh America; the active principle of all the varieties of bark resides in the
vegetable alkalies, quinine, cinchonine, and cinchovatine.
The medicinal properties of bark  vere made known to Europeans
in 1638, on the occasion of an o(bstina,te fever from which the Countess of Chincon, vice-queen of Peru, suffered at Lima in that year.
A corregidore of Loxa, wsho had been cured by the Indians while
*  Berzelius, (           ChemI;istlr  I. v il. p. 199.
14*
161 
CINCHONA BARKS.
affected in the same way, recommended the bark. The medicine
was completely successful; and to show her gratitude, the vicequeen had large quantities brought down from the mountains for
distribution among persons affected with fever. It was from this
circumstance that the bark was at first known under the name of
the Countess's powder. By and by, the members of the college of
Jesuits having been charged with its distribution, it of course became the Jesuits' bark or powder. Lastly, the Cardinal de Lugo
having brought it to Rome, the new medicine was known under tihe
name of the cardinal's powder.
The cinchonas are met with principally in forests at a considerable
elevation above the level of the sea, in a temperate climate, and
growing in a stony soil. The proper period for gathering is known
by the circumstance of the inner surface of the bark, when detached
from a branch, acquiring in a few minutes a red, yellow, or orange
tint, according to the species.
The trees are cut down one or two days before the process of
barking begins, by which the operation is rendered more easy, and
the cuticle is no longer liable to be rubbed off.  The bark of the
trunk and branches is removed by means of a large knife, in strips,
or bands, which are kept as broad as possible. The bark is placed
upon cloths and put to dry in the sun, each piece being kept isolated,
in order to facilitate the drying, and especially to favor the quilling
or rolling up; when the bark is dried in a heap, and when the pieces
touch, it often acquires a most disagreeable odor in consequence of
incipient putrefaction, and the quitlling does not take place.* The
bark, when thoroughly dry, is packed in bullocks' hides and sent to
Europe. From my own observations, and those that have been
supplied me by M. Goulot, the different species of bark appear to be
distributed upon the mountains of New Granada in the following
order:
Heights where
most abundant.  Temperature.
Grav bark, C. lancifolia..............    6560 feet  19 ~ (66~ F.)
White bark, C. ovalifolia............  4264   2l~ (70 F.)
Red bark, C. oblongifolia. -...........  2296 "    2~ (75 F.)
Yellow bark, C. ccordifolia —........... 1968  25~  (77 F.)
Pelletier and Caventou discovered in the gray bark, 1st, cinchoine in combination with quinic acid; 2d, a fatty substance; 3d, red
Aid yellow coloring matters; 4th, tannin; 5th, quinate of lime; 6th,
gum; 7th, starch; 8th, woody matter.   In the yellow and red bark
bese learned chemists found the same principles, and, moreover,
uinate of quinine.
Barks of the willow and poplar. Decoctions of these barks are
often employed with success in the treatment of intermittent fever.
In searching after the active principle of these medicines, M. Roux
discovered the particular substance, salicine, in the bark of the willow, (salix helix,) the medicinal effect of which is analogous with
that of the febrifuge principles of the true barks. M. Braconnot has
* Ruiz, Quinologia.
162 
CORK.
further succeeded in obtaining another crystalline matter from the
leaves of the aspen (poptlus tremula) populine.
Cork. The oak which yields cork is known in Spain under the
name of the alcoreoque.  It forms extensive forests upon the abrupt
slopes of the Pyrenees, where it is often seen growing upon arid and
stony soils, that seem doomed to eternal sterility.  The cork-tree
has flexible and strong roots, which creep over the naked surface of
the granitic masses, turning round blocks, and searching everywhere
for fissures and collections of sand and alluvium, into which they
penetrate deeply, in search of the nourishment necessary to the tree.
At maturity, the alcornoque rises to a height of sixty-five feet, and
its trunk may be three feet and a quarter in diameter.
In the Spanish Pyrenees, the superior limit of the cork-tree region,
is that of the vine, about 1640 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. In France this tree grows luxuriantly in the communes of
Passa, Lauro, &c., the mean elevation of which is 1148 feet. In
Spain, as in France, the soils on which the cork forests grow are of
primitive origin; and it is said, on good authority, that the corktree only grows on soils derived from granite, gneiss, mica-slate, or
porphyry, and never on soils of calcareous origin.
T'he cork-tree is reproduced spontaneously on these silicious soils,
among cistuses and heaths; but the reproduction in this way is so
slow, that art often interferes advantageously to aid it.  There are
many varieties of cork oak; and as that which is covered with a
smriiooth and grayish cuticle, yields the article which is most prized
in commerce, the seeds of this variety ought to be selected for sowing. The acorns of the cork-oak are tumid, of considerable size,
and a sweet taste; the acorns ripen from October to December, and
are much employed as food for hogs. The Catalonians sow the
acorns in a cultivated soil at the same time that they plant the vine,
and for twenty or twenty-five years the produce of the vine compen           -
sates the outlay upon the young cork-trees; but the produce of the
vine diminishes as the cork-tree overshadows it, and finally there
comes a time when the vines die out completely. The cork-tree is
of slow growth, and at four years of age it may be from thirty-six to
forty inches in height, and requires incessant care until the trunk is
from seven to ten feet high, at which time it may be about twenty
years of age; and its total height, including its branches, may be
about twenty-two feet.
The barking of the cork-tree begins about the middle of July, and
ma-ty be continued so long as the sap is in motion. When stripped
off, good cork is formed of from ten to twelve layers, each of which
indicates an annual deposition.  The two outer layers constitute the
cuticle; thie others adhere closely together, and although of variable
thickness they present a homogeneous mass.  The time for removing the cork is indicated by the interior acquirinug a slightly rosy
tint, wb},ch happens about the tenth year.  The barking is performed
by means of an axe, with which a cut is made the whole length of
the tr,nk, care being taken not to wound the woody layers; two
othrk,ross cuts are then made at the top and bottom of the trunk.
163 
TOBACCO.
By means of the handle of the axe, which is shaped like a wedge
forced into the vertical cut, the cork is then loosened and stripped
from the living bark beneath it, the whole covering of the tree being
often taken away in a single piece, although it is more commonly removed in two pieces. The process of barking is very easy when
the sap is abundant.
The cork-tree must be about forty years of age before its bark has
any commercial value; that of a tree of twenty years is always
treated as rubbish.  An oak a century old may furnish 200 lbs. ol
marketable cork; as many as 480 lbs. however have been taken
from a single tree; the mean produce may be reckoned at about 106
lbs. per tree; to fit it for the market, cork undergoes a variety of
preparations which need not detain us here.
LEAVES.
The herbaceous parts of vegetables have all a very similar composition, if they be regarded in the most general point of view. The
leaves and green stems, along with the woody fibre which forms in
some sort their skeleton, always contain albumen or an analogous
azotized principle, saccharine and gummy substances, chlorophylle,
wax, fatty and resinous substances, free or combined acids, and frequently also essential oils. Such is the general constitution which
chemists agree in assigning to clover, hay, leaves, in a word to green
forage of all kinds; nevertheless, to this constitution, which may be
regarded as standard, we have frequently other particular matters
added, some of which we have already studied, and which by their
medicinal properties, or the economic uses they possess, render the
plants that contain them of high importance in an agricultural point
of view. I shall here only speak of two of these plants, tobacco
and tea, the leaves of which, almost in universal use, are a source
of great commercial prosperity to the people who cultivate them.
Tobacco, (Nicotiana tabacum,) a native of America, appears to
have been introduced into Spain and Portugal about the middle of
the sixteenth century by Fernandez de Toledo. Its name is generally believed to be derived from that of the Island of Tobago, one
of the West India islands, at no very great distance from the coast
of Venezuela, whence the first importations were made. Nicot, the
French ambassador to Portugal, first made its use known in France,
whence the name nicotiana.  At the present time, the cultivation of
tobacco appears to have spread almost over the whole surface of the
globe.
Tobacco requires a somewhat friable soil, rich in humus; it consequently succeeds in lands just broken in.  In America the mode
of cultivation and of preparation are almost everywhere the same.
In Venezuela the seed is sown in a very rich loam, and after from
forty to fifty days, the young plants are transplanted in rows, distant
a little more than three feet from one another, the plants being about
two feet apart; the transplanted plant is generally covered with abanana leaf for a few days to preserve it from the burning rays of
164 
TOBACCO.
the sun. When the plant is about eighteen inches high, a bud is
formed at the superior extremity; this bud and any others that may
appear are rermov-ed, as well as any sprouts which show themselves
on the stem.  By this treatment the tobacco becomes bushy and
thick; by and by the leaves acquire a decidedly blue tint, and the
time of gathering is indicated by the appearance of a stain of a deepblue color near the pedicle. The leaves do not all ripen simultaneously, so that the business of the planter, in gathering those that
appear ripe, is incessant for a certain time.
After they are gathered, the leaves are carried under sheds, where
they are disposed two and two upon hurdles arranged for their reception. The tobacco soon becomes yellow and pliant, and the ribs
of the leaves having been removed, they are twisted into a rope
which is coiled up into a mass of the weight of from sixty to eighty
pounds. These coils are placed upon a bed made with damaged
leaves and the ribs which have been removed. The whole is covered, and left to ferment during fortyv-eight hours, a little water being
supplied if the tobacco appears too dry; during the fermentation the
temperature rises, and the process having been carried sufficiently
far, the coils are exposed separately to the air; they are then unrolled, and hung up under sheds to dry completely.
The vertical zone in which the cultivation of tobacco within the
tropics is carried on, is extensive; it reaches from the level of the
sea to an elevation of about 5,900 feet above it.  The time during
which the crop remains on the ground varies according to the mean
temperature of the place; according to M. Codazzi, the leaves are
gathered one hundred and fifty days after the sowing in the hottest
regions of the coast of Venezuela.  In more elevated situations,
where the thermometer ranges from 65~ to 68~ Fahr., the first leaves
are not fit to be gathered until after about seven months and a half
from the sowing.
In Ceylon, tobacco is cultivated almost precisely as in America.
There they also prevent the plant rising in height, and they limit the
number of leaves upon each stem according to the quality of the
tobacco which they desire to grow.  By leaving the plant with no
more than from ten to twelve leaves, the most esteemed quality is
obtained; if eighteen or twenty leaves be left, the tobacco is far
from having the same strength. Lastly, in leaving the plant to itself,
by suffering the stem to run up and to flourish, a large crop is
obtained, but the produce is not esteemed.  The leaves gathered
from the plant in this state of maturity are often held fit for consumption after being simply dried without further preparation. The
tobacco is then yellow, extremely mild, and perfectly suited to the
immoderate use made of it by the Cingalese.
If the mode of cultivation enables the tobacco-grower to obtain a
superior quality at the cost of quantity, it is still indubitable that
climate exercises the chief influence on the quality of the article.
That which is grown in the temperate regions of the Andes, in
Virginia, and in Europe, can in no way be compared with the tobacco
of' the Havana,  of Varinas, of Giron, of the valley of Cauca.
165
v 
The cultivation of tobacco has appeared to me more especially advantageous in localities where the mean temperature does not fall
below 75~ Fahr.
Tobacco is decidedly a plant of a hot climate; there only does it
yield a produce of tie best qulity.  In Venezuela, where its cultivation is followed with great skil, and in. situations where the temrlperature of the climate keeps from 77~ to 80~ Fahr., about five plants
are held necessary to produce 1 lb. of tobacco; and as a mean, 11
cwt. 1 qr. 23 lbs. of the prepared article are produced from an acre
of unmanured land.
In Alsace, tobacco is sown about the middle of March; the transplanting takes place in the beginning of June, and the harvest follows in autumn. The husbandry is very similar to that which has
been already described, each plant being left with eight or ten leaves.
Schwertz reckons the produce at about 15 quintals per hectare of
two and a half acres, which is equal to about 12 cwt. 1 qr. per English acre. Tihaer estimates the produce in Prussia at 11 cwt. 1 qr.
23 lbs. per acre.
The consumption of tobacco has lately increased considerably
throughout the whole of Europe. In France, government sold tobacco in one form or another to the extent of 31,116,340 lbs. in the
course of the vear 1837.  Public documents show that in 1841 there
were in France 8,158 hectares, or 20,175 acres under tobacco,
which yielded 21,261,064 lbs. of the article; the difference between
the quantity produced and the quantity consumed is of course supplied by importation.
I'The virtues of tobacco very probably reside in the volatile vegetable alkali, nicotine, which it contains. The analyses of M. Posselt and Kiemann show the leaf of tobacco to be composed as follows:
Nicotine 0.07, extractive matter 2.87, gum 1.74, a green resin 0.27.
albumen 0.26, gluten 1.05, malic acid 0.51, malate of ammonia 0.12,
sulphate of potash 0.05, chloride of potassiunm 0.06, nitrate and malate of potash 0.21, phosphate of lime 0.17, malate of lime 0.72,
silica 0.09, woody matter 4.97, and water 86.84,-100.00.  During
the fermentation of the leaves, there is always a formation of am moniacal salts.
Tea, the use of which is and has so long been universal in the
Chinese empire, began to be known in Europe in the seventeenth
century, when it was imported by the Dutch East India Company.
In 1669, the importation of tea into England did not exceed 1 cwt.
in 1833, the East India Company set aside for the consumption of
Great Britain alone nearly 24,200,000 of pounds!
The tea plant commonly attains a height of from three to about
five feet. In China it blossoms in the early part of the spring, and
ripens its seeds in December and January. Its branches are cover ed with short thick leaves of a deep-green color and elliptical form.
It is one of the most hardy plants, and thrives from the equator to
the fbrty-fifth parallel of north latitude; but the districts best alapt ed to its growth appear to be comprised between the twenty-fifth
166
TRA, 
and thirty-third degrees of latitude.* Tea requires a moist climate,
and a light and sandy soil. No manure is given, and no attention
is paid to the nature of the soil where irrigation is practicable.
The shrub is propagated firom seed.  Several seeds are dropped
into holes at the distance of from three to six feet apart, and the
plant begins to produlce from the third year: the gathering is done
by the hand, the leaves being picked off; but a few are always left
upon each branch. The number of gatherings made in the same
year varies from one to three, according to the age of the plant.  It
is very seldom indeed that a fourth gathering is practised. In
China the tea harvest begins about the middle of April, a period at
which the leaf buds appear surrounded by a slight cottony down.
The first gathering is very small, but it constitutes the highestpriced tea, the Shou-chun or tea of the first growth. The second
gathering takes place in June, when the branches are covered with
leaves of a pretty deep color; these leaves are very abundant, but
inferior in quality to the buds of the former gathering; they constitute the tea called Urh-chun, or tea of the second growth. The
third gathering is performed a month later, and the produce passes
by the name of the San-chun, or tea of the third growth. The
leaves are now of a deep-green color, tough, and are manufactured
into the most common kinds of tea.
Considerable plantations of tea are now established in Assam, in
British India, and in the Brazils, and it seems not improbable that
the plant may be cultivated at some future day in Europe.
According to Guillemin, who studied the cultivation and preparation of tea in the Brazils, the leaves are dried as soon as they are
gathered. From four to six pounds are thrown into an iron pot,
the interior of which is polished, and which may be somewhat more
than three feet in diameter, by about a foot in depth.  The temperature of the pot is maintained at about the boiling point of water; a
negro stirs the leaves in all directions with his hand, until they become quite soft and pliant, so that they can be moulded into pellets
by movement between the hands. When the leaves are in this
state, they are thrown upon a tray made of bamboo, and strongly
kneaded for a quarter of an hour, so as to force out a green sap of a
disagreeable taste. The kneaded leaves are then returned to the
pot, and dried completely, being all the while stirred about with the
hand, being separated when they stick together, and being continually tossed up in order to prevent them adhering or getting scorched
by remaining too long in contact with the metal.  During this process, which lasts for some half hour, a large quantity of dust is
disengaged, which proceeds from the cottony down with which the
leaves are covered. By this rapid drying, the leaves crisp and curl
up of themselves, and acquire the appearance of the tea that is in
every-day use.  On being taken from the drying pot, the tea is
thrown upon a sieve of a certain mesh, and the leaves which have
rolled themselves up into the smallest compass, and which are those
* Robinson, a Descriptive Account of Assam, p. 131.
167
TEA. 
which proceed from the buds, are separated from the others; these
after having been winnowed, receive a new token of the fire, when they
acquire a leaden-gray color, and constitute the tea of the best quality, which in the Brazils passes by the name of Imperial or Uchim
tea. The leaves which remain upon the sieve are heated, winnowed,
and sifted again, and the produce is fine Hyson tea; and by the
same means other varieties are procured, until at length a kind remains upon the sieve consisting of the leaves that have not become
rolled up, which being added to the broken particles derived from
the winnowing operations, is called family tea, because it is consunmed upon the spot.
During, and for some time after the drying, tea exhales an herbaceous and not very pleasant odor, which however becomes modified
in the course of time. The aroma of the Chinese teas is said to be
communicated to them by a highly odorous plant, which is believed
to be the Oleaflagrans.  It is also said that the green tea is colored
by means of indigo; but it is possible that the shades of color of the
different kinds of tea depend solely upon the degree of roasting
which they have undergone.  Guillemin has said nothing of the
produce of the tea shrub in Brazil. In China, according to a manuscript of M. Carpena, a shrub with care will produce annually
during thirty or forty years from 2 lbs. to 2-1 lbs. of marketable tea.
From the analysis of M. Mulder, tea appears to contain: 1st. A
volatile oil.  2d. Chlorophylle.  3d. Wrax  and resin.  4th. Gum.
5th. An extractive matter. 6th. A coloring matter. 7th. Azo tized substances analogous to albumen. 8th. Woody fibre and inor ganic salts.  9th. A particular crystalline principle,-theine or cof feine, which is ranked among the vegetable alkalies, and which is
also met with, as implied by the name, in coffee: this new principle
crystallizes in colorless needles of a silky aspect and bitter taste.
It is little soluble in alcohol and in ether; water dissolves about 
,,,,th of its weight, and it sublimes without undergoing decomnposi tion; it is by sublimation, in fact, that Mr. Stenhouse proposes to
obtain it from tea.
This is undoubtedly the principle which communicates to tea its
bitter taste, and several of its properties; experiment has shown,
that when administered even in considerable doses it produces no ill
effect on the animal economy; different kinds of tea, as might have
been presumed, contain it in different proportions. Mr. Stenhouse
obtained from 100 parts of
Hyson.................. 1.09 of Cffeie
1.9of Coffeine
Colgou...............1.02 "
Assam...................... 1.37 "
Twankay, green........... 0.98  "
SEEDS.
Wheat. This valuable grain is the produce of several kinds of
triticum?n-winter wheat, and spring wheat, T. hybernum, and T.
testivum, spelter, T. Spelta, and T. monocon.
Wheat is sown either upon a fallow or upon land that has carried
168
,  I D S - 
'WHEAT.
some forage crop, or such a crop as beans and peas. It requires a
stiff rich soil, containing a certain proportion of calcareous earth,
and abounding in organic matter; it does not thrive well in soils
where the sandy element predominates over the clayey. For seed
the best grain is selected; but this and all other precautions do not
uffice to preserve the plant from many diseases, such as smut, rust,
mildew. Farmers are wont, before putting their seed wheat into
the ground, to prepare it in various ways with a view to destroying
the germs of certain parasites which are believed to adhere to it externally. The process is generally called pickling, or liming, because milk of lime, in which the seeds are put to steep for twelve
or fifteen hours, is often employed in its course. Means that are
said to be more efficacious have also been recommended: some
make use of alum, others of sulphate of iron, sulphate of zinc, sulphate of copper, sulphate of soda, and even white oxide of arsenic.
All these means appear to conduce to the same result. We employ
sulphate of copper, which indeed is the custom in a considerable part
of Alsace, and I can assure the reader that our fields of wheat are
never infected.  100 grammes, or about 3x ounces troy, are allowed
to a hectolitre or sack of nearly 3 bushels of wheat; the salt is dissolved in as much water as is held requisite for the submersion of
the grailn, which is steeped in the solution during about three quarters of an hour, after which it is thrown into baskets to drain, and
being then spread out on the fioor it is dried before being sown.
Thie season at which wheat is sown in autumn ought to vary with
the climate, and nothing can be more displaced than those precise
dates which are set down by the majority of writers. The great
point to be held in view is, that the young plant may have got a
certain length before the frost sets in, that the roots may have penetrated to a depth which shall protect them from the severe cold of
the winter. In each district, experience has already proclaimed the
proper time for sowing, and this can rarely or never be departed
from without detriment. In the east of France, in Alsace, the sowing of winter wheat generally takes place in the first week in October; in the southern hemrnisphere, in certain parts of Chili, for example, the wheat is sown in April, and is exposed to the cold weather
of June, July, and August. The quantity of seed sown may vary
from about 7 pecks to 18 pecks and more per acre. Farmers generally agree, however, that we have seed enough when we employ
about 2 bushels to the acre; this is the quantity which is used at
Bechelbronn; but in the same district, and even on contiguous fields,
v-e frequently see proportions of seed employed which vary in the
ratio of from one half to twice the quantity specified, without, so far
as I know, any sufficient reason being given for this parsimony or
prodigality.  It is, however, a question of the very highest importance to ascertain the proper quantity of seed. The question may
be considered in two ways: 1st. with reference to the produce of a
given extent of surface, and 2d. with reference to the produce from
the grain sown. It is quite certain that in sowing thick, a larger
produce per acre will be obtained than by sowing very thin; but on
15
169
1% 
WHEAT.
the other hand, thin sowing yields a larger number of times the
quantity of seed put into the ground. The reasons which should
guide us in determining the dose of seed are numerous and extremely complex; they must evidently be taken in connection with the
value of the ground and of cultivation, the price of wheat and of
straw, the cost of labor and of manure.  Thus in countries where
the rent of land is extremely low it may be a good practice to scatter but a moderate quantity of seed over a large extent of surface.
I remember a field in the neighborhood of Pampeluna, where the
wheat was growing in isolated tufts, all extremely vigorous and very
heavy in the ear: the ground had had but very little preparation;
nevertheless, they expected to gather from sixty to eighty times the
seed. This, without doubt, was a profitable crop; nevertheless, I
am satisfied that it could not have yielded more than from 61 to 7i
bushels per acre.
For the same reasons the first settlers of the United States must
have followed a somewhat similar mode of cultivation.  "An English
farmer," says Washington, in a letter addressed to Arthur Young,
"must have a very indifferent opinion of our soil when he hears that
with us an acre produces no more than from 8 to 10 bushels of wheat;
but he must not forget that in all countries where land is cheap and
labor is dear, the people prefer cultivating much to cultivating well."
In Alsace we do not reckon any crop profitable which yields less
than from 191 to about 23 bushels per acre; and in these circum stances we do not receive back more than from 9 to 10 times the seed.
Nevertheless, it must be allowed, even in these extreme cases in
which the value of ground is so different, inasmuch as it may vary
in the ratio of from 1 to 1000, that there are certain limits with ref erence to the seed which must not be passed; and there is without
doubt an opportunity of making a series of curious and useful exper iments, with the view of ascertaining the true ratios which exist
between the produce and the seed. I am well aware that the results
of experiments of this kind have already been made public; but I
know also that these data have not been deduced from a sufficient
number of facts perfectly comparable with one another, and noted
under a variety of climatic influences; in a word, that they are not
such as they ought to be, to put an end to the uncertainty which still
exists in the minds of the best-informed farmers and rural economists
upon the subject.
In Europe, the wheat that is sown in autumn generally stands
upon the ground fi)r from nine to ten months. The time, however,
varies considerably with the climate; in the Andes, it is in propor tion to the proper temperature of each place.
Wheat, which is now an important article of agricultural produce
in America, was introduced from Europe very shortly after the Con quest The first particles of wheat sown in Mexico before 1530, are
said to have been found by a negro belonging to Fernando Cortez
among the rice destined for provision to the army.* Wheat
* Humboldt's Essay on New Spain, vol. iil
170
r - 
WHEAT.
was brought into Quito by a Fleming, Father Jose Rixi, a monk
of the order of St. Francis. I was shown in the Convent of St.
Francis, the vessel in which the first seed is said to have come from
Europe.
In Mlexico, where the ground can be irrigated, and this, all things
else being the same, always yields the best crops, wheat is watered
at two different periods-when it has sprung and when it is shooting
inito ear. According to M. de Humboldt, who has collected so much
that is interesting upon the agriculture of New Spain, the richness
of the harvest is truly surprising; irrigated soils often yield from
40 to 60 times the seed; 16 for 1 is reckoned a middling crop, and,
taking the whole of Mexico, the mean produce may be estimated at
from 22 to 25 for 1.
The cultivation of wheat is especially lucrative in districts which
enjoy a mean temperature of from 18~ to 19~ C., (65~ to 67~ F.;) yet
it may be pursued amid plantations of coffee-trees and sugar-canes,
although I doubt whether it can there be extremely productive. The
extreme limits of the growth of wheat in the Cordilleras, according
to my own observations, correspond with the mean temperatures of
from 120 to 23.5~ C. (54 to 75~ F.)  M. Codazzi estimates at 37 for
1 the mean produce of wheat in Venezuela.
The hectolitre of wheat in France (22.009 gallons, something less
than a sack of three bushels English) is held to weigh, on an average, 169.4 lbs., or 61.6, say 61~ lbs. per bushel; but this weight
varies according to the quality of the grain between 56 and 64 lbs.
the bushel.
The following is a table of the mean produce of the wheat crop
in different countries, from documents that may be relied on:
Produce per
acre  (seed
deducted.)
Bushels.
26.7
22.0
18.0
~5o.6
15.9
11.0
15.9
34.0
23.0
25.0
29.0
22.3
25.2
21.5
l    35.0
9.0
44.2
f   27.0
44.0
14.0
Germany: Moeglin.....................
Lavanthal..............................
Saalfelden..............................
Lombardy: irrigated lands..............
"       non-irrigated lands..........
is       A;   ~nd...........159                  Ddoo
Average of Venetian Lombardy..........
E,,gloald: the best sils.................
"average......................
Brabant and Flanders...................
France: Alsace (after tobacco)..........
"       "   Bechelbronn............
Environs of Paris........................
"    Oise........................
America: (East of the Alleghanies).....
"      rich lands....................
middling ditto.................
Mississippi: rich lands..................
"       middling ditto..............
Venezuela (Valley of Aragua)...........
"  temperate regions............                   cdzi
Thaer.
Burger.
Lurzer.
Burger.
Da,ndolo.
Verra.
Burger.
Arthur Young.
Arthur Young.
Schwertz.
Schwertz.
Lebel and Boussing.
Dailly.
Official statistics.
>
I
171
11
p
Localiti,,s.
Authorities.
Ilumboldt.
Codazzi. 
WHEAT.
The cereals, besides their principal produce, their farinaceous
seeds, yield another, which is of great importance in rural economy;
this is straw, which no European agricultural establishment could
do without. After having been used as food and as litter for cattle,
it is returned to the ground as manure, and contributes powerfully
in preventing the exhaustion of the soil, which the cultivation of
wheat always produces.  The quantity of straw whic(h can be reckoned on in a farm, is, of course, in proportion to the soil under white
crops. The relative weight of grain and straw, however, varies
considerably according to circumstances; in a wet year, for instance,
the wheat crop contains a relatively large proportion of straw, and
a small proportion of grain; in dry years the contrary relation obtains. Lands recently and abundantly manured, yield a larger
quantity of straw than clover breaks. Thick sowing always yields
a large quantity in contrast with the grain; lastly, climate exerts
the most marked influence upon the two kinds of produce which we
are considering. The differences which are observed between one
year and another, in the same districts, in consequence of very different meteorological conditions, are not less remarkable. I shall
quote a single instance. The years 1840, 1841, and 1842 gave us
crops of grain at Bechelbronn which were far from excellent; in
the first the rains were too abundant, and in the second the drought
was too long continued. In these opposite circumstances, the weight
of the straw to that of the grain was
In 1840-41:: 100: 24
In 1841-42:: 100: 90
The latter harvest, in fact, occasioned a complete dearth of litter in
our establishment. In ordinary years we procure about 38 of grain
for 100 of straw, a relation which agrees with those that have been
reported by different observers, who vary in their calculations froni 33
and 35 to 41, 44, and 50 of grain to 100 parts of straw.
In the cereals the amylaceous matter, which constitutes the principal part of the seed, is surrounded by a flexible perisperm, of the nature
of woody tissue. The object of grinding.is to break this case and to
reduce the interior of the grain to powder. In France, the grinding
of wheat is performed by a succession of operations; in England it is
completed at once. The French mnode, however, appears to yield
the largest quantity of fine flour.
English.   French.
Fine flour........... 58  2 66 4
Second flour......... 14   8
Bran..................2.. 23
Loss —--................... 2     3
The proportion of flour furnished by the cereals does not, however,
depend alone upon the mode of grinding, but also upon the nature of
the grain. Wheat, for instance, of different kinds, yields 78, 83, and
851' per cent. offlour.
Spelter. This grain is so firmly enclosed in the husk that it cannot be freed by threshing; so that, in the countries where this grain
is grown, the mills are provided with an apparatus for husking it.
172 
WHEAT.
Schwertz made many experiments in Wurtemberg to determine the
quantity of flour yielded by spelter, and he found that from 100 of grain
he obtained 90 of husked grain, and 8.7 of bran; there was a loss of
1.3. The quality of the flour always varies according to the wheat
from which it is procured: it contains moisture in variable proportions, gluten in variable proportions, and, finally, various quantities
of woodv matter.  The wheat of the south is harder and tougher than
that of the north, and appears richer in azotized principles; as it contains less moisture, it also keeps better; it is, undoubtedly, in consequence of the large quantity of water which our northern wheats
contain, that we meet with such indifferent success when we attempt
to keep them for any length of time in our granaries. The wheat of
Alsace, for example, frequently contains from 16 to 20 per cent. of
moisture; and I have ascertained, by various experiments, that it is
almost impossible to keep it without change, in vessels hermetically
sealed. To secure its keeping, the proportion of water must be reduced to from 8 to 10 per cent., and this is nearly the quantity of
moisture contained in the hard and horny wheat of warm countries.
I am therefore of opinion that we shall never succeed, in these countries, in keeping wheat for any length of time-in the magazines of
fortified towns, for example-whatever care be taken.
The flour of the cereals, particularly that of wheat, absorbs a large
quantity of water, and forms a paste, which is by so much the firmer
and more elastic, as the flour contains a larger proportion of gluten:
the azotized principle of wheat has, in fact, the remarkable property
of being extensible like a membrane, when it is moist, and this property it communicates to the whole of the paste or dough. In order
to be brought into the state of dough fit for making bread, flour will
absorb friom 55 to 70 per cent. of water. The quantity of bread obtained necessarily depends upon the heat and length of exposure in
the oven; but, in a general way, from 100 of flour, 130 of the best
white bread of Paris is procured. In the country, the bread is
generally less baked than in Paris or London, and therefore retains
more water; so that from 100 of flour, 140, 145, and 146 of bread are
made: thus, admitting 16 per cent. of moisture as existing in wheat
originally, we have of absolute dry matter 64', 57, and 56 in different
kinds of bread.
Bread is by so much the more nutritious as it is made from flour
contai      nin          g a larger   proportion of gluten; to add any starch therefore
is to prejudice the interests of the consumer; nevertheless it is the
practice  to d      o        so almost openly; when potato starch is at a low
price, the adulteration frequently begins with the miller and is extended  under th      e      baker. The quantity of gluten contained in differen        t  kinds of wh ea t  varies greatly.  Vauquelin found in the
Glw en.  Starch.  Su2gar.    Gum    Water.  Bran.
or alextrine.
Flour of French wheat -- -........ 11.0   71.5      4.7 3.3          10.9
- Flour from hard Odessa wheat 14.6         56.5      8.5     4.9      12.0      2.3
Flour from soft Odessa wheat  12.0         62.0      7.6      5.8     10.0      1.2
Flour from the baker's.......10.2         72.8      4.2      2.8     10.0
The method of analysis employed by Vauquelin, whose results
15*
173
L 
WHEAT.
are given above, by means of washing, is however far trom being
very accurate; it is impossible to prevent the loss of some gluten
which passes with the starch, and the vegetable albumen is entirely
lost by reason of its solubility in water: and then to dry gluten is a
very long and delicate process; and if we would pretend to any degree of accuracy, we must ascertain the quantity of fatty matter
contained in the samples.  I therefore thought that with reference
to the azotized principles particularly, the better way would be by
proceeding to ascertain these by immediate ultimate analysis.
The four azotized principles which we have already admitted
have very nearly the same elementary composition; the mean proportion of azote in each is 0.16. With this datum, it is evident that if a
particular sample of flour is found to contain 0.04 of azote, it may be
inferred that this azote represents 0.25 of gluten, albumen, fibrine,
and caseine, dried at 140~ C. (284~ F.,) and as these are the most
valuable elements in flour, I took the pains to ascertain their proportion in a considerable number of varieties of wheat, the whole of
which were grown in the same year, in the same soil, which was
well manured, and under climatic influences that were identical; nor
did I restrict myself to the azotized matters of these samples; I also
endeavored to ascertain the precise relative quantities of bran and
of flour. The following table contains the results of my experiments.
174 
In 100 of the grain.
Character of the grain.
Bran.       Ftonr.
Triticum spelta rufa mutica 
Small spelter, I'. monococon 
Great spelter......
Mecca wheat......
Bearded whleat.                                                88
Winter whlecat, T. hybernum 
Comtnoln wlheat (miouret).. 
Reyel wheat.......
Red Egyptian wheat... 
A large wheat growing in 4 ranks
Fine red wheat of Roussillon.
Red Marcel wheat.....
Dantzic wheat..... 
Whleat from the North.. 
Fitte red whleat (pays de Foix)
Smyrna wheat......
Bengal wheat......
Tangarok wheat....
Hard African wheat...
Cape wheat.......
Russian wheat......
Sicilian wheat....                
Giant St. Helena wheat...
Subernac wheat (Pyrenees)                   
I
I
Variety of whieat.
Bran.
Flour.
small, thin.
middling.
very large.
horny, long.
small, brown.
middling.
reddish.
yellow, fine.
small, hard.
hard.
reddish.
large.
soft.
pretty hard.
soft.
white, hard.
ditto.
small.
gray, hard.
yellow, large.
wrinkled.
small, red.
hard, very large.
well-formiied.
21.9
20.8
26.9
32.0
13.2
38.5
23.5
14.0
15.0
15.0
16.0
21.5
24.0
20.5
18.5
19.0
21.5
23.5
24.5
19.0
18.0
19.5
25.0
20.5
78.1
79.2
73.1
68.0
86.8
61.5
76.5
86.0
85.0
85.0
84.0
78.5
76.0
79.5
81.5
81.0
78.5
76.5
75.5
81.0
82.0
80.5
75.0
79.5
I 1 " " 
The quantity of gluten a-id albumen contained in these samples oi
flour is much larger than that usually indicated; I have given reasons which explain, to a certain extent, this difference.   I ought to
add, however, that the varieties of wheat, the flour of which was
analyzed, were all grown in the rich soil of the garden, a circumstance which, as Hermbstadt has shown, exerts the most powerfu
influence in increasing the quantity of gluten in wheat.
It was already known, from the experiments of Tessier, that the
proportion of gluten in the same species of wheat might vary in the
ratio of from 12 to 36 per cent. of the weight of the flour, according
to the nature of the soil and the quantity of manure. But it was
Hermbstadt who first made truly comparative observations on the
action of the excrements of different animals on the culture of the
cereals.
The excrements made use of by this able cultivator in his inquiries
were always dried in the air at a temperature of 12~ C. (54-  F'.,)
and equal areas of the same soil were sown with equal weights of
winter w-heat, and had a similar dose of mnanure of one kind or Onother spread over them.  One hundred parts of the flour obtained
from wheat thus grown yielded:
Bran, soluble mat t er and moisture.
254.6
623     25.7
25.5
25.5
34.3
24.7
2i1.7
24.6
25.7
24.1
Gluten.
With human urine.............35.1
" bullock's blood.                             334.2
human exrem.ent... -.33.1
"   sheep's dung 22.9
"   goat's ditto 232.9
horse ditto.13.7
"   pigeon's ditto...............2~.~
" cowv's ditto.12.0
S~oil not m~anulred................... 9....2
It is apparent, therefore, that in general, for the exception onl
refers to the pigeon's and the ho-se dung, the wheat grown in groun
manured with the most highly  azotized matters yields the larger. -
quantity of gluten.
By way of adding to and confirming these conclusions of Hermb
stadt, I shall give the results of an experiment of my own, made i,
1836, in which the same variety of wheat was grown in the ope.
field, and in garden ground very highly manutred.   The grain wa.
axnalyzed after having been dried at 110~ C., (2300 F.,) and gave
From the open field.  From the garden ground.
Carbon.................46.10            45.51
Hydro-en *......v............ 5.80 5.57
Oxygen......-..........-*.43.49          43.00
Azote................... 29              3.51
Ashes......-............2.41              2.31
100.00            100. O0
In the produce of the garden there  were 21.94-very nearly 22
per cent. of gluten and albumnen; in that of the open field no more
than 14.31 per cent. of the sanme principles.
Davy was of opinion that the wheat of warm climates was richer
in azotized principles than that oftempe-oaite lands.  Southern coentries are known to pr)t-ot,e  arder, tot-l,eitt grain, the nlotir of which
176
WHEAT.
st.,l,.
39.3
41.3
41.4
42.8
42.4
61.6
63.2
62.3
6(;.7
W-l-'-' 
contains more gluten than the soft and more friable wheat of the
north; and the inquiries of M. Payen appear to bear out the conclusion of the illustrious English chemist.  M. Payen, in fact, found in
the hard wheat of Africa 3.00 of azote, equivalent to 18.7; and in
that of Venezuela 3.50 of azote, equivalent to 21.9 of gluten and
albumen. The experiments quoted above, however, prove that we
may have wheat grown in Europe fully as rich in azotized elements
as any that is grown between the tropics; the influence of the soil
in this direction is probably more than the influence of climate.
In all the analyses of wheaten and other flour published up to the
present time, we find no mention made of the fatty matters which
they containr.; and late views in regard to the special part which
these matters play in nutrition make it very necessary to supply the
omission. A ong with MM. Dumas and Payen, I therefore determined the quantity of fatty matter contained in a considerable number of the vegetables and vegetable substances used as food, from
which it appears that grain of different kinds contains from 2 to 10
per cent. of oil. One hundred parts of winter wheat gathered at
Bechelbronn lost 14.5 of water by drying at 110~ C., (230~ F.,) and
therefore contained 85.5 of dry matter.   100 of this dry wheat gave
13.7 of bran and 86.3 of flour.
Various analyses showed the composition of this wheat and its
parts to be as f)llows:
Dry matter. Gluten and Starch.  Gluco.  G Gum.   Fatty   Woody  Ashes.
Albulmen.        (Sugar.)        matter.  tissue.
Bran..........20.0                    28.8    5.5    45.7
FiSur..........13.4    73.2    5.6    4.2    2.1               1.5
VWheat -....... - - - - -.14.3    63.2  12..'    1.6  7.5
Rye, (Secale cereale.)  Rye is an important article ot food, particularly in the north of Europe, where the people live upon it almost
entirely.  It is a very hardy plant, and will thrive in soils which are
altogether unfit to grow wheat.   In the husbandry of the north this
grain occupies the place of wheat in the south; it requires much
the same treatment, and stands upon the ground for nearly the same
length of time. The bushel of rye weighs on an average about 60 lbs.
avoird. The usual quantity of seed sown is from 10 to 11 pecks
per acre, and the produce per acre, the seed being deducted, has
been stated as follows:
Bushels.
Brabant.......................23.0
Flanders............................32.4
Austria...............................20.6
England......................... 22.0
France............. -............19.0
The German agriculturists say, that the weight of the straw to
the weight of the rye produced is in general as 100 is to 47; others
say as 100 is to 50, and some have taken it even as high as 100 to
33.'Thle elation seems to differ extremely in different years.  At
Beehelbronn, for example, in 1840-41 we had 63 of grain to 100 of
strawv; in 1841-42 we had but 25 of grain to 100 of straw.
Rye yields flour that is not so white nor so fine as that of wheat,
177
RYE.
v 
BARLEY-OATS.
which is in consequence of the woody covering of the grain getting
ground, in great part, in the mill.  If but from 50 to 65 parts per
cent. of flour be taken from rye, it is white and looks well. TI'he
dough made with rye flour is not very adhesive; it contains little
vegetable fibrine, the azotized principle which gives gluten its elastic properties. It is this want of vegetable fibrine which renders it
more difficult to make good light bread of rye than of wheaten flour,
although experiment shows that rye flour of the first quality will form
as large a proportion of bread as wheaten flour; 100 of rye flour
have given 145 of bread.
Rye bread is more hygrometric than that of wheat, and consequenitly remains for a longer time soft and fresh. Rye generally
contains 24 of bran to 76 of flour; by drying at 230 F. it loses about
17 per cent. of water. Analyses of a dried sample grown at Bechelbronn yielded:
Gluten and albumen (azotized principles united)....10.5
Starch *....................................64.0
Fatty matters.................................. 3.5
Sugar (glucose?)............................3.0
Gum............................1.0
Woody matter and salts (phosphates)..........6.0
Loss...-.. -....-............................ 2.0
100.0
Barley, (Hordeum vulgare.) The usual produce of barley varies
much from 15 or 20 to 50, 60, and even 70 bushels per acre; the
average for France is stated at about 43- bushels; and the weight
of the bushel may be taken on an average at about 504 lbs. The
ratio of the straw to the grain varies very much, but may be taken
generally at that of 100 to 50. Barley contains:
Of flour.........................68.6
Bran..........................18.4
Water......................13.0
100.0
100.0
Dried, this grain gave 0.0214 of azote, which represents 13.4 per.._
cent. of gluten and other azotized principles.
Oats, (Avena sativa.)  When oats yield 43 or 44 bushels per acre,
the crop is a fair one. At Bechelbronn we have frequently had upwards of 45 bushels per acre.* Schwertz states the relation between
the straw and the grain as 100 is to 60.
Some oats gathered in 1841-42 yielded 78 of mneal and 22 of
husk per cent.
One hundred parts of these oats lost by drying at 230~ F., 20.8
of water; thus dried, analysis showed that they contained:
Of starch.....................  46.1
"gluten, albumen, &c........... 13.7
"fatty matter...................... 6.7
"sugar (glucose).............. 6.0
"gulm........................ 3.8
"woody matter, ashes, and loss........ 21.7
100.0
s This would be reckoned a poor crop in the North of England and Scotland, when
S0, 90, and even 100 bushels of oats per acre are frequently grown.-ENGo. ED
178 
IMIAIZE.
Maize, (Zea mais.) This is the true wheat of the Americans,
and it is now generally allowed that the plant is a native of the
New World.  It is also well known that maize was introduced into
Spain long before potatoes.  Oviedo states in his work, printed in
1525, that he had seen it growing in Andalusia and the neighborhood of Madrid. The cultivation of this useful plant was observed
eveywhere on the discovery of America by Europeans, from the
most southern parts of Chili to Pennsylvania in the north; and in
the neighborhood of the equator, from the level of the sea to the
hilgh table-lands of the Andes. Garcilasso gives a particular description of the procedure followed by the Incas in the cultivation
of this plant, the kind of manure, &c. At Cusco the Indians manured with human excrement dried and reduced to powder. On the
coasts they employed in one place guano; in others, as the dusty and
sterile soils of Attica, Atiquiba, &c., they made use of the offal of fish.
The uses of maize are very numerous. In America it is made
into cakes, which are a substitute for bread; by fermentation a
vinous liquor is prepared from it called chicha. Before the conquest,
the Mexicans manufactured a sirup from the expressed juice of the
stems. In describing to Charles V. the various articles of provision
that were met with in the march to Tlatclolclo, Cortez says, " They
sold us the honey of bees, wax, and honey from the stems of the
maize plant." Maize when ground and boiled makes a kind of
pudding in universal use, and the ear, when nearly ripe, whether
boiled in water or roasted in the ashes, is held a luxury by all classes. In the tropical Cordillera maize is advantageously cultivated
from the level of the sea to the height of 9186 feet above it; that is to
say, it thrives in temperatures which vary between 14~ and 27.5~ C.
(57.5~ and 81.5~ F.;) this circumstance explains its very general
introduction into Europe.
Maize succeeds on all soils when they are properly manured
I have seen beautiful crops upon the most sandy soils and upon the
stiffest clays; it requires much the same management as our ordinary grain crops; the climate alone should decide as to whether its
introduction into a particular district is opportune or not; a certain
degree of heat is necessary to ripen it, and above all, the cold to
which it is exposed must not be too severe. It is for this reason,
that in the east of Europe the maize is sown in spring, when there is
no longer any apprehension of frost; there would be a real advantage in sowing late, were it not for fear of the frosts of autumn at
the season of ripening.  The susceptibility of maize to frost and
climate generally, appears to me very analogous to that of the vine
and I doubt whether it would be wise to attempt its cultivation on the
great scale where the grape does not ripen in ordinary years.
Maize is sown either with the dibble or with the hand, following
a furrow opened by the plough; I believe that it ought never to be
sown broadcast, for it is a plant that requires room; it is only in the
hottest countries that the drill system is less necessary. In Alsace the
drills are about 2~ feet apart, and the seeds are sown at the distance
of about a foot from each other This very considerable space left be
179 
tween the maize plants app-ars to authorize the general custom that
prevails of interposing somn  other crop in the fields under Indian
corn; that which is most generally interposed is either the dwarf
hlaricot or the potato.   I observed the same custom in the more temperate valleys of the Andes, where it is almost as necessary as in
Europe to leave free spaces between the plants to give them air and
sun; but the plant is cultivated alone in the hotter regions.  Soon
after maize has sprung it receives a first hoeing, and after it has got
to a certain height, a second; in Alsace, for instance, it is customaty to lihoe towards the end of June; but I never saw any operation
of the kind performed between the tropics: the only care they
seem,ed to taklie of their fields of Indian corn, was to pull up foul weeds.
In Europe it is usual to take away the sprouts which rise beside the
principal stem; this precaution is also unnecessary in equatorial
countries where the ground is fertile; the more lateral stems that
rise, the better, as they all become richly laden with grain. I may
also say as much for the system of topping which prevails among us,
that system which consists in removing the extremity of the stem
which bears the male flowers after the fecundation has been effected.
The leaves and heads of stems which are obtained by this operation,
compose a forage by no means to be despised.
The time during which the crop of maize remains on the ground,
is greatly influenced by the mean temperature of the climate; in hot
intertropical countries, the grain ripens in less than three months,
and there are even farms upon which four considerable crops are
gathered in the course of the year.  On the temperate plateau or
table-land of Bogota, the plant ripens in six months; in Alsace about
the same length of time is required, although at Bechelbronn, in 1836,
the maize which was sown on the 1st of June was gathered ripe on
the 1st of October.  Maize is dried either in exposing the spikes
stripped of their covering upon the floor of a well-venitilated granary, or by hanging them up in bunches or sheaves under sheds, or
under the eaves of the house.   In warm countries the dtyiiig is
accomplished by one or two days' exposure to the sun, after which
the spikes are stored. The maize is freed from the stenm with the Ilaid
in small farms, with the flail in larger establishments.   In Asiierica
the operation is never done until the moment when the grain is wanted, as it is said that the grain is less subject to be attacked try
insects ashen it is kept in the ear.  When animals are fed on niaize,
they are accustomed to separate it for themselves.
The produce in Indian corn varies greatly, as appears by the fol]
lowing table, in different countries:
Countries.              Produce in bushetm
per acre.
Lavanthal....................... 81
Carin      thia........................ 55
Austria and Moravia 4...............
Hungary and Croatia................  42
Tuscany............................  (i
France (clim.a,te of Pt,s)............ 29
Alsace............................ 43
Venezuela -*.......................-. 147
180
I,IAIZE
a,r 
By far the finest crops of Indian corn in America are obtained upon
breaks of virgin soil. I do not hesitate to say that the husbandman
gains from six hundred to seven hundred times his seed under such
circumstances. The mode of proceeding upon these breaks, which
I have firequently witnessed, deserves to fix attention for a moment.
The planter chooses the end of the rainy season for cutting down
the trees and the brushwood: every thing remains where it falls
until it is sufficiently dry; fire is then set to the heal), and the burning extends and lasts even for weeks; all the smaller branches are
completely consumed, nothing but the charred trunks of the larger
trees remain. As the rainy season is about to return, a man, with
a pointed stick in his hand, goes over the burnt surface, making a
hole of no great depth at intervals, into which he throws two or
three particles of Indian corn, over which he draws a little earth, or
rather ashes, by a slight motion of his foot. This primitive mode
of sowing terminated, the planter takes no further heed of the crop;
his habitation is often so remote, that he never visits it until harvest
time: the rain and the climate do all the work. It is unnecessary
to hoe, the burning having destroyed all the plants that were indigenous to the soil; nothing rises but the grain which has been sown.
In such fields, stems of Indian corn are frequently seen of the height
of from twelve to fourteen feet.  It rarely happens that more than
three consecutive crops are taken from the burnt soil; and the last,
though still very superior to any thing which we can obtain by our
regular husbandry, is not to compare with the first.  As there is no
want of forest, it is held preferable to make a fresh break.
Taking the seed as unity, it is found, from documents now'possessed, that 1 of seed will yield-in Mexico (an indifferent harvest)
150; in New California (beyond the tropics) 80; Alsace (the plants
very far apart) 190; Venezuela (an ordinary crop) 238.  Besides
the grain and the straw, the husks and the cores of Indian corn are
all extremely valuable upon the farm as forage, and as affording
manure.
Mlaize has been analyzed by M. Payen, and found to contain.
starch 71.2; gluten, albumen, &c., 12.3; fat, oil, 9.0; dextrine and
glucose 0.4; woody tissue 5.9; and salts 1.2; 100.0.  I found
0.02 of azote in a sample of dry maize, which I analyzed, a quantity
which indicates 12.5 of gluten and albumen, a result that coincides
exactly with M. Payen's analysis.
Rice, (Oriza saivca.) Rice is an aquatic plant which can only
be grown in low moist lands that are easily inundated.  The ground
is ploughed or stirred superficially, and divided into squares of from
twenty to thirty yards in the sides, separated from each other by
dikes of earth, about two feet in height, and sufficiently broad for a
man to walk upon.  These dikes are for retaining the water when
it is required, and to permit of its being drawn off when the inundation is no longer necessary.  The ground prepared, thie water is let
on, and kept at a certain height in the several compartments of the
rice-field, and the seedsman goes to work. The rice that is to be
used as seed must have been kept in the husk; it is put into a sack,
16
181
MAIZE.
r 
COFFEE.
which is immersed in water, until the grain swells and shows signs
of germination; the seedsman walking through the inundated filId,
scatters the seed with his hand as uisual, the rice immediately sinks
to the bottom, and may even pence,rate to a certain depth into the
mud. In Piedmont, where the sowing takes place at the beginning
of April, they generally use about fifty-five pounds of seed per acre.
The rice begins to show itself above the surface of the water at the
end of a fortnight; as the plant grows, the depth of the water is increased, so that the stalks may not bend with their own weight.
About the middle of June this disposition is no longer to be apprehended; the rice is no longer so flexible as it was, so that the water
can be drawn off for a few days to permit hoeing, after which the
water is let on and maintained to the height of the plant; in July it
is usual to top the stalks, an operation which renders the flowering
almost simultaneous. Rice generally flowers in the beginning of the
month of August, and a fortnight later the grain begins to form.
It is at this period especially that the stalks require to be supported,
and this is effectually done by keeping the water at about half their
height. The rice-field is emptied when the straw turns yellow.
The harvest generally takes place at the end of September. In the
Isle of France, rice is cultivated in very damp soils, upon which a
great deal of rain falls, but which are not flooded artificially. I
have seen the same process followed in other tropical countries
which I have visited, but I do not think that the produce is so great,
or the crop so certain, as where inundation is employed. In Piedmont, the usual return from a rice-field is reckoned at about 50 for I
of seed.  At Muzo, in New  Granada, the paddy fields, which are
not inundated, under the influence of a mean temperature of 26~ cent.
(79~ Fahr.) yield 100 for 1.
Three kinds of rice yielded, on analysis, the following quantities
of
Piedmont.
90.1
3.9
0.3
0.1?
0.1
5.i
0.4 I
Starch.........................................
Gluten, albumen, &c........................
Fatty matters..................................
Sugar (glucose?)............................
Gum......................................
Woodv tissue -- -..............................               
Phosphate of lime..........................                          0
Chiloride of p)otassium, phosphate of ditto, &c.
100.0      100         100.0
M. Payen's analysis indicates a proportion of azote, the double of
that found by M. Braconnot.  In a trial for azote, which I made
myself, I found 1.2 of this element per cent., which would show the
amount of albumen and gluten to be 7.5, a quantity that corresponds
exactly with M. Payen's valuation.
Coffee, (Coffea Araiica.) The habit of using the infusion of
coffee appears to have been introduced into Europe about the middle
of the sixteenth century. The first public establishments for the sale
of the drink were opened in Constantinople in the year 1554.  The
use of coffee remained for a long time confided to the East; but by
182
w
Ri,,.
86.9
7.5
0.8
0.5
3.4
0.9 
COFFEE.
degrees it spread, and at the present day the consumption of the article
in Europe exceeds 660,000,000 of pounds annually. The greater
portion of coffee consumed in Europe is the produce of America, and
yet it is not more than a century since it was first grown in the New
World.
The coffee-plant thrives between the tropics in situations where the
mean and nearly constant temperature is between 22~ and 26~ C.,
(71.5~ and 80~ F.)
Coffee is rarely sown in a nursery; the seeds are made to germinate
still surrounded by their natural pulp, and wrapped up in leaves of the
banana. The young plants, after seven or eight days of germination, are put into the ground. In the valley d'Aragua an acre of
ground of good quality is generally laid out with about 1040 plants.
The coffee-plant flourishes in the course of the second year; when
left to grow unimpeded it will attain a height of from 23 to 26 feet,
but it is seldom allowed to grow so high, its upward progress being
checked by pruning; the planters of Venezuela generally keep it at
a height of from five to six feet. The shrub receives the care of
the planter during the first two years; the ground must be kept free
from weeds, and the growth of parasites must above all be prevented.
To thrive, the coffee-plant requires frequent rains up to the time of
flowering. The fruit bears a strong resemblance to a small cherry,
and is ripe when it becomes of a red color, and the pulp is soft and
very sweet. As the berries never ripen simultaneously, the coffee
harvest takes place at different times, each requiring at least three
visits made at intervals of from five to six days. A negro will
gather from ten to twelve gallons of fruit in the course of a day.
Two beans are found in the interior of each berry; in order to
free these from the pulp which surrounds them, they are passed
through a kind of mill, and the coffee is steeped in water for twentyfour hours in order to free it from the mucilaginous matter which
adheres to it; it is then dried by being spread out upon a floor under
a shed. In the coffee plantations of Venezuela which I visited, I
saw them proceed in another way.   The berries were exposed to
the sun upon a piece of ground somewhat inclined, and spread out
to about three inches in thickness; the pulp soon enters into fermentation, and a very distinct vinous odor is exhaled, and the juice
altered either flows away or dries up; at the end of a fortnight or
three weeks the berries are all dry and shrivelled, and they then
undergo two triturations, one to obtain the seeds or beans, the
other to detach a thin pellicle which surrounds them. Three bushels of berries will yield fiom 85 to 90 lbs. of marketable coffee.
I)uring the destruction of the sugary matter contained in the pulp
of the berry, a considerable quantity of spirit is produced and dissipated. M. Humboldt, struck with the readiness with which the
berry of the coffee-plant runs into fermentation, expresses his surprise that no one ever thought of obtaining alcohol from it.  In an
old work, however, I find the following passage: " The inhabitants
of Arabia take the skin which surrounds the coffee bean and prepare
it as we do raisins; they form a drink with it for refreshment during
183
w 
COCOA.
the summer."* This vinous liquor appears to enjoy all the exciting
properties which are esteemed in the infusion of coffee.
The coffee-plant continues to produce to the age of forty to forty.
five years; it bears to a co siderable extent even in the third year.
Some shrubs yield from 17:o 22 lbs. of dry coffee beans; but this
is a very large quantity. An acre of land in the valley d'Aragua,
planted with about 1040 shrubs, will yield about 940 or 950 lbs.,
which is at the rate of somewhat less than 1 lb. per shrub.
Coffee contains the same active principle as tea, coffeine, but in
less proportion; the researches of different chemists have also
shown the presence of a particular acid called coffeic acid, of fatty
matters, a volatile oil, a coloring matter, albumen, tannin, and alkaline and earthy salts.
Cocoa, (Theobroma cacao.) The ancient Mexicans cultivated the
cocoa-tree, and with its seeds prepared tablets similar to the chliocolate of modern times. The use of cocoa appears to have been introduced after the conquest into the other parts of the continent;
nevertheless, the cocoa-tree is indigenous in the hot and humid
forests of South America. M. Goudot discovered several species in
New Granada; among others, that which is known at Muso under
the name of the Cacao moit(raz: this cocoa-tree, which attains a
height of from 25 to 30 feet, yields a considerable quantity of fruit;
the natives prepare a chocolate from its beans, which is extremely
bitter, and which they regard as an excellent febrifuge. The wild
Indians still appear to be ignorant of the profit that may be made of
the seeds of the cocoa-tree; they only eat the pulp of fruit which
surrounds them. Cocoa was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, and in no long space of time this production of the New
WNorld became the object of a very considerable traffic.
It is a fact well known to the husbandmen of tropical countries,
that a virgin soil is quite indispensable to the success of a cocoa 
plantation; nothing but failure has followed attempts to replace the
sugar-cane, indigo, maize, &c., with cocoa, a plant which to succeed
requires a rich, deep, and moist soil, heat and shade; nothing suits
it better than a forest brake, the surface of which is susceptible of
irrigation.
All the important cocoa plantations which I visited had a common
physiognomy: they were all situated in the hottest regions, at a
short distance from the sea, near torrents, or on the banks of great
rivers. The cocoa husbandry ceases to be profitable in localities
which have not a mean temperature of at least 24~ C., (75.2~ Fahr.,)
and I have had occasion to take part in attempts that were as fruitless as expensive to cultivate the cocoa-tree in a brake where the
heat of the climate from my own observations did not exceed 22.8"
C. (73~ Fahr.) Under the influence of this temperature, the trees
presented a very good appearance; in the course of a few years
they flowered. but the fruit, which was always small, rarely came to
maturity. When a piece of land has been selected for a cocoa
* MerI, of the Academy of b -.;riptions, vol. xxiii p. 214.
184 
COCOA.
plantation, they begin by establishing a good system of shade. Occasionally a certain number of trees, with large and leafy crowns,
are left standing; but in general certain plants, which grow rapidly,
are had recourse to as a means of procuring shade. In the neighborhiood of Caraccas they shade with the erythrina umbrosa; and
in some plantations they take advantage of the shade of the banana; finally, the two modes of procuring shade are frequently conioined.
In the province of Guayaquil they plant the beans of the cocoa
directly. In Venezuela they prefer raising the plant in a nursery,
which is always selected of the most fertile soil, and deeply trenched.
The seeds are sown immediately before the setting in of the rains,
and germination takes place in from eight to ten days. In a good
soil, at two years of age the cocoa-plant will have attained a height
of nearly 3 feet; it is then pruned by having two of its upper branches removed, and is transplanted. In the upper valley of the Rio
M'agdalena, where there are many valuable cocoa-groves, the sowing is performed in ground well prepared and protected by screens
made with palm leaves; here the young cocoas are transplanted
when they are six months old.  During the whole of the time that
the plants remain in this nursery they continue to be well shaded;
and they are watered once a week by water poured upon the
screens.
The tree seldom comes into flower under thirty months old.   I
have known planters who always destroyed these first flowers, and
who never suffered any fruit to ripen before the fourth year, and
that too under the most favorable circumstances in regard to climate,
in situations where the mean temperature was 27.5~ C., between 81~
aai 8$)~ Fahr.  In less favorable situations it is necessary to wait
six or seven years before gathering the first fruits of a cocoa plantation.  There are few arborescent plants which have so small a flower,
and especially a flower so disproportionate to the size of its fruit, as
tlIe cocoa-tree.  The diameter of a bud, measured at the moment of
its expansion, does not exceed 4 millimetres-0.157 of an English
in( h.  The flowers appear principally upon the trunk of the tree
itself; they rarely show themselves beyond the middle of the larger
ratnchies  occasionally they appear upon the roots which happen to
be above the ground.
To receive the young plants grown in the nursery, the ground
properly shaded is first freed from weeds. Trenches are then cut,
either to season the ground or to irrigate it when requisite The
young plants are set in rows at regular and considerable distances,
which vary, however, with the quality of the soil; and the general
opinion is, that the better the soil the greater should be the space
frioni tree to tree.  Thus in the valley of del Tuy- in the neighborhoodl of Puerto Cabello, the cocoa-trees are set at the distance of
about 16 feet apart in the best soils, and at the distance of about 13
feet only in soils of inferior quality.  In the windward islands, where
the soil is generally less fertile than on the continent, the trees
stand at the distance of from 6 or 7 to 9 or 10 feet apart.   A reason
16*
185 
for this practice may be readily assigned; in the more fertile soils
the trees grow more vigorously, the branches spread further, and
consequently require a larger space.
Once the cocoa-tree is in the plantation, it is regularly pruned to
prevent its branches becoming too numerous. It sometimes happens
that the branches show a tendencv to bend down towards the ground,
in which case they are fastened up around the trunk, until they
acquire strength and a better direction.  The soil around the trunk
is hoed from time to time to the extent of about a yard in circurnmference, and the capillary roots, which spring from the base of the
trunk, are removed in the course of the operation.
From the fall of the flower to the complete ripeness of the fruit
there elapses an interval of four months. The fruit is of an elongated form, slightly bent, and terminated in a point; its length is
about 9 inches, and its greatest diameter, which is near the point of
attachment, is from 6 to 7 inches. Externally, the cocoa-nut pod
is furrowed longitudinally.  Its color varies from a greenish white
to a reddish violet, the latter being the more common tint. Internally the flesh of the fruit is generally white, although it has sometimes
a rose-color; it is sweet and acid, and of a very agreeable flavor.
The seeds are generally twenty-five in number in each fruit, and at
first are white; they are oleaginous and slightly bitter; in drying
they acquire a brown tint. The fruit is known to be ripe by its
color, and particularly by the ease with which it is gathered from
the tree. There are two grand cocoa harvests in the course of the
year, at six months' interval; still, in old and large plantations the
harvest is almost incessant, as it is not uncommon to observe, on the
same cocoa-tree, ripe fruits and fresh flowers.   To obtain the seeds
the fruit is opened with a piece of wood, having a rounded extremity.
The produce is classed according to its quality, care being taken to
throw out all the beans that are not sufficiently ripe or that are
damaged; they are then exposed in the sun.  Every evening the
day's gathering is collected into a heap under a shed, and a brisk
fermentation is soon set up, which would become destructive were it
suffered to continue.  Next day the heap is scattered, and the drying
goes on in the sun, several days' exposure being required before the
drying is complete.   Occasionally the drying is retarded and reniered difficult by the occurrence of rain, and there would certainly
:e many advantages in effecting it by the stove. It has been found
hat 100 lbs. of fresh beans give from 45 to 50 lbs. of dry and mar etable cocoa. In Venezuela, a cocoa-tree which is over seven or
ight years old, will yield annually for more than forty years over
Il lb. (1.65 lb.) of dry and marketable cocoa. An acre of ground,
which in good plantations will be set with about two hundred and
thirty-three trees, produces in a middling year about 383 lbs. weight
The cocoa-tree appears to yield most abundantly when it is abou
twelve years of age, and its produce in the fertile lands of Upper
Magdalena, according to M. Goudot, is greatly superior to what it
is in Venezuela. At Gigante, for example, each adult tree yields
186
COCOA.
lr 
PEAS, BEANS, ETC. 
4.4 lbs. of dry cocoa annually, and the produce of an acre there may
be estimated at 733 lbs.
Cocoa beans contain albumen, a particular principle, theobromine,
analogous to coffeine, a coloring matter, and a large quantity of oil or
fat, which, from experiments made in my laboratory, appears to
amount to 43 per cent. The presence of a large quantity of albumen and fatty matter in cocoa explains its highly nutritious qualities.
It is indeed one of the most wholesome and restorative articles of
sustenance known. Nevertheless, very opposite statements have
been made upon the virtues of cocoa or chocolate, of which the bean
forms the basis. Benzoni, in his History of the New World, declared chocolate to be a drink that was fitter for hogs than men;
and Father Acosta declares the taste for cocoa to be unreasonable.
On the other hand, Fernando Cortez and one of his gentlemen followers are perhaps guilty of exaggeration when they say, "that he
who has taken a cup of chocolate may march the rest of the day
without other aliment!"* Without going the whole of this length
with Cortez, I still allow that chocolate is one of the best articles
for travelling upon, especially in the uninhabited forests of South
America, where it is a matter of the highest moment to have the
bulk and the weight of necessary rations as small as possible.
Seeds of leguminous plants. The leguminous plants that are cultivated as food tor man are beans, peas, haricots, and lentils; vetches
are grown exclusively for the use of cattle.
Leguminous plants scarcely ever open rotations; but they very
often wind them up.  Speakinggenerally, however, they may follow
any crop. In speaking of the Indian corn, I have said that haricots
and beans might be advantageously intercalated.
The meteorological observations I have made in different countries lead me to conclude that to succeed, leguminous plants require
a temperature which in the mean does not fall below from 14~ to 15~
C., (57~ to 59~ F.) Hot climates agree with them perfectly; I have
followed them from the sea-board of the equatorial Andes to a height
of from 8200 to 9800 feet above the level of the sea. Schwertz has
given the following statement of the produce of the different leguminous plants generally cultivated:
Plants.       \eight per   Produce per acre    Weight of dry straw
bushel in lbs.    in bushels.       or haulin per acre.
-#~ ~~   -    -       ~~  Tons. Cwts.  qrs.   lbs.
IHancos..        47.5             66.7
Beans...         65.5            66.2          2     2      2      17
Peas...        57.9             38.5          2     4      2      11
Lentils..  62.3                     39.8
Vetches..            62.3            41.2          2      4     2      11
The analyses we have of leguminous vegetables show the follow.
ing proporticn of elements:
* Humboldt, Travels, vol. v. p. 285.
187 
THE HOP.
I________ ~~Har      icot s               Peas.       Lentils.
Legumine...       22.0          20.4           22.0
Starch....        41.0           47.0         40.0
Fatty matters..        3.0           2.0           2.5
Sugar (glucose?)..        0.3           2.0           1.5
Gum....         4.0           5.0           7.0
Woody fibre, pectic acid           8.0          11.0          12.0
Salts, phosphates, &c.             3.2           3.0           2.5
Water and loss..      17.5            9.6          12.5
100.0         100.0         100.0
Besides these principles, a quantity of tannin has always beent
found in the skin of the seed of all leguminous plants.
The Hop, (Humulus lutpulus.) From its very general use in
making beer, the hop has become an object of great importance,
both in an agricultural and commercial point of view.
The hop mav be cultivated in any soil that is of sufficient depth
and fertility; it thrives especially in rich and turfy loams, such as
those of Haguenau, where there are many beautiful hop-gardens.
The plant is propagated in the spring by setting the sprouts or radicular buds in ground trenched to the depth of 18 inches at least, at intervals of about a couple of yards from one another. Within a few
weeks the young hop-plant is growing lustily; and as it is a climber,
it is trained upon a pole of from 12 to 20 feet in height. The ground
is usually hoed towards the end of June. The first crop from a new
plantation is always trifling in amount; the ground is then manured.
The following spring all the eyes or buds that have become developed near the root are removed, except six or seven, which  are left
to shoot. The hop harvest generally occurs about the middle of
September: the poles are pulled up, the stems are cut, and the
strobiles are picked off into baskets by hand, and immediately carried to the stove or kiln, where they are dried with a very gentle
heat, in order fot to dissipate their fine aromatic particles.
A hop-garden produces very variously in different countries and
districts, and in different years.  The produce of an acre in hop.
has been stated to be:
In Flanders........           13 cwt.
Germany (mean of 10 years,)..    10
France (near Paris,)...    10
"   (Roville, mean of 10 years,)       7"
[England, from 9 to 10, and from 12 to 14 cwt.]
The strobiles of the hop are covered with a yellow pulverulen,
substance, which has been held to furnish in principal part the ex
tractive matter that is so valuable in brewing.   To procure this sub
stance it is enough to sift a quantity of hops after they have beer
dried by a gentle heat. This yellow powder, which appears to be
the useful principle in the hop, and consequently gives it its value
188
W — 
BANANA.
is not found in the same proportion in the produce of all hop-gardens.
This clearly appears from the inquiries of Messrs. Payen and Chevalier. They found, for example, that while 100 parts of the hops of
Belgium contained 18 of yellow substance  and 70 of mere  leaf,
those of England contained no more than 10 of yellow matter and
87 of leaf, and those of Germany the still smaller quantity of 8 of
yellow matter to 88 of leaf.  This yellow pulverulent matter contains wax, resin, gum, a bitter principle, certain azotized principles,
a volatile oil, and salts, among others acetate of ammonia.
FLESHY OR PULPY FRUITS.
The fleshy fruits almost all contain the same principles, but in
very different proportions.  It is consequently the predominating
principle which in some sort characterizes each variety, that gives
it its flavor, odor, &c.: sugar, albumen, gum, starch, acids, fixed
oils, essential oils, woody fibre, are almost invariably found secreted
in their pulps, with a larger or smaller quantity of water. An ingenious classification of fruits has been formed on the basis of the
predominance of the different substances which have just been enumnerated: thus those fruits in which the starchy principle predominates are feculent or amylaceous fruits; those in which the sugar
predominates are saccharine fruits, and so on.
M. Be6rard has analyzed a great number of fruits in the course of
his researches on their ripening.*  It is proper to say, however, that
some of the principles brought to light by modern analysis do not
figure in  I. Berard's list of elements; among the number, pectic
acid, gallic acid, small quantities of volatile oils, and of salts of
potash formed by vegetable acids.
Albumen and  gluten    0.2         0.9      0.9     0.6      0.3      0.2
Coloring matter.   0.1                                0.1
Vegetable tissue.   1.9      1.2      8.0     1.1      1.1      2.2
Gum...   5.1       4.9      0.8     3.2      2.1     2.1
Sugar...  16.5    11.6        6.0    18.1    24.8    11.5
MIlalic acid..  1.80       1.1      2.4     2.0      0.6      0.1
Citric acid..                     0.3                        "
Lime...             0.1     0.3      0.1
Water.,.  74.4    80.2    81.3    74.9    71-0    83.9
I100.00,100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0  o100.0
Banana. Of all the pulpy fruits, the banana is that perhaps which
is most extensively used as food by man. It is the usual nourish
* Ann. de Chimnic, t. xvi. p. 295, 2d se,ies
189
0 
BANANA.
ment of the inhabitants of most of the countries between the tropics,
where its cultivation is as important as that of the cereals and farinaceous roots in the temperate zone. The ease with which it is cultivated, the small space of ground it occupies, the certainty, the
abundance, and the continuance of its produce, the diversity of food
it yields according to the degree of maturity, make the banana an
object of admiration to the European traveller.  In climates where
man scarcely feels the necessity of clothing himself, or of raising a
shed for his protection, he is seen gathering almost without labor
supplies of food as abundant as they are wholesome and varied from
the banana-tree. It is the banana which has given rise to that proverb so consoling and so true, which is frequently heard between the
tropics, viz. "No one dies of hunger in America;" he who is hungry will be welcomed and fed in the very poorest cabin. Botanists
distinguish three principal varieties of the banana: 1st. the Musa
paradisica; 2d. the Musa sapientiumr; 3d. the Musa regia.
The American origin of the banana has been called in question.
Oviedo in his natural history of the Indies affirms that it was brought
from the Canary Isles to St. Domingo by a monk.   Foster adopted
this opinion, which is corroborated, says M. de Humboldt, by the
complete silence of the first travellers who visited the New World
in regard to it.  Nevertheless, the testimony of the Inca Garcilasso de
la Vega proves obviously that the banana flourished in America before the arrival of the Spaniards; in his royal commentaries he
speaks of the banana as constituting the chief food of the Indians in
the warmest parts of Peru.
The banana is everywhere cultivated in the neighborhood of the
equator, in situations at no great height above the level of the sea.
The cultivation is most profitable, the crop is most abundant, and attains maturity in the shortest space of time in low lying districts
where the mean temperature is from 24~ to 27.5~ C., (75.5~ to 82~
F.) Some estimate may be formed of this from the low price of the
banana in such districts; upon the borders of the great river de la
Magdalena, I gave one franc or about 10d. for about 220 lbs. weight
of the fruit. The day's wages of a man being generally about ls. 8d.,
it is beyond all doubt the cheapest food that can be had in the world.
In looking at the cultivation of the banana at different heights in
the equatorial Cordilleras, I arrived at the following conclusions:
Temperature 28~ C. (between 82~ and 83~ F.) the cultivation extremely advantageous; at 24~ C. (between 75~ and 76~ F.) the cultivation advantageous; at 22~ (71~ and 72~ F.) the cultivation middling; at 19~ C. (or between 66~ and 67~ F.) the cultivation disadvantageous.
The banana is propagated by means of suckers or offsets. It requires a rich and humid but well-drained soil, the plantation being
arranged a little before the setting in of the rains.  The earth is
freed from weeds, and dug either entirely or more generally only at
regular distances here and there, where it is proposed to set the new
plant, a space of 6 feet at least being left between each. The plant
throws up several shoots, generally 6 or 7, each of which will be al:-'
190
9 
BANANA.
lowed to grow and to carry fruit; when a greater number make their
appearance, some of them are cut away. The time which passes between planting the slip and gathering the fruit varies according to
the situation; in the hottest districts near the level of the sea the
banana comes into flower about nine months after it has been planted; and in three months more the fruit has formed and become ripe.
In cold situations an interval of four months will elapse between the
flowering and the ripening of the fruit. The care required by a banana plantation is not very great, the principal duty being to hoe
around the young plants. As the banana is renewed by stems which
arise continually from the neck of the root, it is easily understood
that the plant will go on yielding fruit for an indefinite length of
time; when the fructification is complete in one stem, the leaves,
&c., wither and fall, and give place to a new stem. It is thus that
the gatherings from the banana go on successively at short intervals,
and that the same plant presents at one and the same moment fruit
that is ripe, fruit that is half ripe, fruit that is beginning to be formed
flowers, and finally young stems, which are rising as preparations for
the future. Thus no crop is more assuring to the planter than the
banana. Climatic circumstances may sometimes delay, but can never
destroy the hopes of the husbandman. The extraordinary droughts
which under the burning climates of the equator so frequently interrupt
or destroy ordinary herbaceous plants, rarely exert any pernicious
influence upon the banana plantation, the thick shade of which presents a constant obstacle to the evaporation of moisture. During
the dry season, when for whole months the heavens preserve their
purity, and no drop of rain falls to refresh the earth, the soil which
surrounds the banana still continues moist. It looks every morning
as if it had been watered during the night; this salutary effect is
produced by the nocturnal radiation of the leaves into the clear sky.
These leaves, whose extent of surface is considerable, always fall
several degrees below the temperature of the surrounding air, and
thus condense the watery vapor contained in the atmosphere, which
drips down to the foot of the plant.
The produce of a banana plantation depends first upon the distance at which the bananas are placed, and next upon the climate.
It is generally estimated in the very warm climates, that a crop of
bananas will weigh about 44 lbs., and that from an adult plant three
crops will be obtained in the course of a year. In temperate countries, and towards the superior limits of the banana plant, they do
not reckon on more than two crops. According to M. de Humboldt,
the produce per acre, in hot countries where the mean temperature
is about 82~ Fahr., will amount to 75 tons, 8 cwt. 1 qr. 17 lbs.; at
Cauca, where the temperature is about 79~ Fahr., the produce amounts
to 61 tons, 8 cwt. 0 qr. 2 lbs.; at Ibague6, where the temperature is
not higher than about 72~, the produce, according to M. Goudot's estimate, is 26 tons, 17 cwt. 3 qrs. 2 lbs. The pulp of the banana is
surrounded by a pod or husk of some thickness, which is easily detached, and of which account must be taken if we would estimate
the actual weight of the truly alimentary matter afforded. In a
191
w 
BANANA.
general way, and when the banana is ripe, the shell may be estimated
at about 36.8, the edible banana at 73.2 per cent.
The Mutsa paradisica is the variety of banana generally cultivated, and it also yields the heaviest crops. The fruit of the other
two varieties mentioned is miuch smaller; but it is of a much  more
delicate flavor.  The  ripe fruit of the banana is of the consistence
of a pear; it is very sweet, and slightly acid. In the common variety, I found crystallizable sugar, gum, an acid, (probably the rnalic,)
gallic acid, albumen, pectic acid, woody fibre. and alkaline and earthy
salts. Dried in the sun, 1000 parts of ripe banana were reduced to
439 parts; so that they contained 561 parts of water. The green
or unripe banana has a white and almost insipid flesh. In this state
it scarcely contains any sugar; it is starch that predominates.  In
this state, therefore, it is made a substitute for bread, for the potato,
or Indian corn; it may be considered a farinaceous vegetable.
After having removed the  rind, the banana is dressed by being
roasted under the ashes until the outer part is slightly brown; it is
then served up at table, and constitutes a kind of soft bread, very
agreeable to the palate, and greatly preferable, in my opinion, to the
produce so much vaunted of the bread-fruit tree. In the expeditions
which are undertaken into the forest, and when the habitations of
man are to be quitted for some considerable time, the green banana
is always made a principal part of the provision; but then it is previously dried, first to lessen its weight, and then to destroy its vitality so far as to prevent its ripening. This drying is performed in a
baker's oven, into which the green bananas, stripped of their husks,
are introduced, and where they are kept for about eight hours.  On
being taken out, the bananas are hard, brittle, translucent, and l)resent the appearance of horn; 100 lbs. of the green fruit give but 40
of dry substance.  The banana thus prepared is called jifi, and will
keep for a great length of time without clhange.  To prepare it for
food, it is put to steep in water, and then boiled; by adding a little
salted meat, a very substantial and nutritious meal is prepared. I
once made a voyage on the Pacific, in a vessel which was  principally victualled with dried bananas, which were served out to the
companv like biscuit.
When ripe, the banana is no longer farinaceous; as it ripens, its
starch is changed into gum and sugar, and an acid is developed.
But between the farinaceous and the sugary or perfectly ripe state,
there is one intermediate, in which it is generally eaten. Roasted in
the ashes, the banana has then a taste which brings to mind that of
the chestnut; it is also eaten as a vegetable, boiled in the usual way
in water.   Completely ripe, the fruit is eaten raw or dressed, it is
then extremely sweet; a very common practice is to fry it, cut in
slices, in grease.
I have no data upon which to estimate the nutritive value of the
banana, still I have reasons for believing that it is more nutritious
than the potato. I have seen men do a great deal of hard labor upon
an allowance of about 61-l pounds of half-ripe bananas, and two ounces
of salted meated per diem.
192 
193
CHAPTER III.
OF THE SACCHARINE FRUITS, JUICES, AND INFUSIONS USED IN THE
PREPARATION OF FERMENTED AND SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.
THE juice of all the sweet fruits when expressed and left to
itself under the influence of a suitable temperature, presents the remarkable phenomenon of fermentation, in the course of which the
sugar disappears completely, and is replaced by alcohol, the change
from first to last being accompanied by the disengagement of carbonic acid gas.
Sugar alone does not suffice to cause the vegetable juices, which
contain it, to ferment: for example, a solution of pure sugar in distilled water will remain for a very great length of time without suffering the least change; exposed to the open air it would evaporate,
and the saccharine matter would be found in the same state as it
was before solution. If, however, a small quantity of that azotized
principle which we have called albumen, gluten, &c., be introduced
into the solution, fermentation will speedily be set up, and will run
through its usual course; it would, therefore, appear to be upon this
principle that the commencement and continuance of fermentation
depends. Fermentation is not set up immediately in the juice of
fruits; a certain time longer or shorter always elapses before it is
manifested; the reason of this is, that the albumen or gluten which
always enters into the constitution of these juices, must itself have
undergone a certain change in order to act as a ferment. The proof
of this is comprised in the fact that all vinous liquors contain a very
small but constant quantity of carbonate of ammonia, as was shown
by M. Doebereiner. These azotized principles, which in the fresh
state remain without action upon sweet juices, act immediately as
powerful ferments when they are employed after having been evposed for some days to the contact of air and moisture; after, in a
word, they have themselves begun to suffer change. The quantity
of ferment used up or consumed in exciting and maintaining the fermentation of saccharine juices is so small, that we are led to believe
that it really acts by its presence or contact alone. This view appears the more likely, when we know that, after having added an
azotized substance to induce fermentation rapidly in a liquid which,
besides sugar, contains albumen, we find from six to eight times the
quantity of ferment after the phenomena have ceased, which had
been added in the first instance; that is to say, we find the whole,
or almost the whole, of the original ferment, and, in addition, that
which has been produced by the azotized principles pre-existing in
the matter subjected to fermentation; this fact is seen every day in
the process of making beer.
The ferment or yeast thus produced is but little soluble in water,
and in composition bears a remarkable affinitv to the azotized mat                                17 
THE VINOUS FERMENTATION.
ters from which it is derived; M. Dumas has in fact found it to be
composed of:
Carbon...................50.6
Hydrogen..................... 7.3
Azote......................15.0
Oxygen   )
Sulphur....................27.1
Phosphorus)
100.0
Under the influence of ferment, sugar becomes entirely changed
into alcohol and carbonic acid. The composition of grape-sugarwhich appears to be the only one that is susceptible of fermentation,
for cane-sugar before undergoing this process passes into the state
of grape-sugar, as was demonstrated by M. Henry Rose-the composition of grape-sugar is as follows:
Carbon........................36.4
Hydrogen.................. 7.0
Oxygen...........56.6
100.0
and the constitution of the substances which are produced in the
process of fermentation, viz. alcohol and carbonic acid, being as
under:
Anhydrous alcohol.
Carbon................52.19
Hydrogen...........13.02
Oxygen...........34.79
100.0
It appears that the composition of 100 parts of grape-sugar may be
expressed by:
Carbon.
Alcohol........ -.. -.46.16 containing 24.24
Carbonic acid.......44.45 " 11.12
Water.......... 9.09 1.0                                        "
100.00            36.36
Dy which it would appear that during the transformation of hydrated
grape-sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid, the combined water is
set at liberty.
The first fermented vegetable juice of which I shall speak is
cane-wine, or guarapo of the South Americans, a drink which is in
common use wherever the sugar-cane is cultivated. It is prepared
from the juice of the sugar-cane suffered to run into fermentation.
The chicha of South America is a fermented liquor prepared from
Indian corn, and constitutes the wine of the Cordilleras. The grain
is steeped for six or eight hours in water, bruised upon a stone and
boiled; the pulp which results is then diffused through 421 times its
volume of water, and the temperature being from 60~ to 65~ F., a
violent fermentation is soon set up in the fluid, which begins to subside after a period of twenty-four hours, when the chicha is potable,
and now constitutes a liquor of an agreeable and decidedly vinou.
flavor, in high repute with those who have acquired a taste for it
although its muddy appearance and the sediment which it alway
194
w.t.
C.,b..i,,.,,id.
7-27
11.1
88.9
100.0
72.73
100.0
Hyd,.g..
6.05
1.01
7.06
O.yg"..
16.17
32.33
8.08
58.58 
CIDER AND PERRY-WINES.
lets fall in the vessel into which it is received, render it somewhat
unpleasant at first to European eyes. The Indians, however, always
drink it in the muddy state, and even shake the cask before turning
the tap. The truth is, that chicha is at once a drink and a very nutritious food.
Guarazo is another vinous liquor which the Indians prepare with
rice much in the same manner as they proceed with Indian corn.
Cider and Perry.  In countries where the vine is not cultivated,
a substitute for wine is found in the fermented juice of a variety of
sweet pulpy fruits, more particularly of apples and pears. Of the
numerous varieties of apples which are grown in cider countries, the
preference is generally given to one which has a rough and somewhat bitter taste. The fruit is gathered by shaking or beating the
trees, and the few that remain are taken off by the hand; the fruit
is piled up in large backs placed in cellars. It is crushed about two
months after it is gathered, and the pulp is left for ten or twelve
hours to macerate in the juice, in order to give the rusty or yellow
color which is esteemed in cider. The pulp is pressed and the juice
is run into large vats or tuns, in which it undergoes fermentation,
which having gone on for about a month, the temperature being
from 55~ to 58~ F., the liquor is racked off into smaller vessels, in
which the fermentation goes on slowly, and the cider is preserved.
The fermentation of cider is, or always ought to be, slow; still, with
time, the whole of the sugar is transformed into alcohol, if the process be not interfered with.
Wine. Grape-juice contains-Ist. grape-sugar; 2d. albumen and
gluten; 3d. pectine; 4th. a gummy matter; 5th. a coloring matter;
6th. tannin; 7th. bitartrate of potash; 8th. a fragrant volatile oil,
or cream of tartar; 9th. water. It is obvious, therefore, that grapejuice contains within itself the elements necessary for the production of the vinous fermentation. The relative proportions of these
different elements, however, are singularly modified according to the
nature of the vine, the quality of the soil, and especially the heat
of the climate. There are indeed few crops that are so much at
the mercy of the atmosphere as that of the vine; even in the vineyards that are most favorably situated, it is rare that wines of equal
quality and flavor are produced in two consecutive years; and in
districts upon the verge of the productive limits of the vine, under
what may be called extreme climates, where the vine only exists in
virtue of hot summers, its produce is still more variable, more inconstant.   The limits to the culture of the vine in Europe are
generally fixed where the mean temperature is from 10~ to 11~ C.,
(50~ to 52~ F.;) under a colder climate no drinkable wine is produced.  To this meteorological datum must be added the further
fact that the mean heat of the cycle of vegetation of the vine must
be at least 150 C. (59~ F.,) and that of the summer from 18~ to 19~
C., (from 65~ to 67~ F.) Any country which has not these climatic
conditions cannot have other than indifferent vineyards, even when
its mean annual temperature is above what I have indicated. It
ii impossible, for instance, to cultivate the vine upon the temperate
195
r_ 
table-lands of South America, where they nevertheleta enjoy a
mean temperature of from 17~ to 19~ C., (about 62.6~ to 66.2~ F.,)
because that which characterizes the climate of these elevated
equinoxial countries is the constancy of the temperature; the vine
grows, flourishes, but the grapes never become thoroughly ripe. In
these equatorial countries good wine cannot be made where the constant temperature is not at least 20~ C., (or 68~ F.)
In France the vine begins to sprout towards the end of March,
and the vintage generally occurs in the course of October. As the
quality of wine depends mainly on the ripeness of the grapes, of
course the vintage does not take place until this is complete, or until
there is no longer any prospect of improvement.
The must of the grape is procured by treading and pressing the
fruit; the juice is run into vats, and the fermentation takes place in
cellars; different procedures, however, are followed in different
places. The fermentation having subsided in the larger vessels. the
wine is drawn off into smaller casks, which are carefully filled up
from time to time, and in which it is preserved.
WVine may be defective, especially by wanting strength and being
too acid. Sharp wine contains an excess of cream of tartar and
free vegetable acids, and is always the produce of grapes which
have not been completely ripe.  The deficiency of strength  is due
to the same cause; for it is well known that as the grape ripens its
acids disappear and are replaced by sugar. This deficiency of sac.
charine matter in the must, is now habitually supplied by the addition
of a quantity of artificial grape-sugar, prepared from starch. In
warm countries, where the grape always ripens, the quantity of tar tar is small; the sugar then predominates greatly, sometimes to such
an extent that the azotized substance of the must is insufficient as a
ferment, and it is then that we have wines of too sweet a flavor,
such as those of Lunel and of Frontignac. When these musts,
which are so rich in sugar, contain the proper quantity of ferment
they produce very strong wines, in which, of course, the sweet
flavor no longer predominates; such are the dry wines of southern
vineyards, of which that of Madeira may be taken as the type.
There are some wines which participate at once in the properties
that distinguish the two varieties that I have mentioned, or that show
one of them in excess according to circumstances; such are the
wines of Xeres, Alicant, Malaga, &c.  Some of these wines are
what are called boiled wines, that is to say, a portion of the must, as
it flows from the press, is concentrated to a fourth or a fifth of its
original bulk by boiling, and this being added to the rest, the strength
of the resulting wine is increased. Sometimes the concentration
of the juice is effected by drying the grapes partially.  It is in this
way that the celebrated Hlungarian wine, called Tokay, is prepared;
the clusters are left upon the vines after they are ripe, and alternate ly exposed to the cold of the night, which probably d ecomposes to a
certain extent the texture of the grapes, and to the r eat of the sun.
They shrivel and become partially dry. In this state the grapes are
subjected to pressure, and a very sweet must, as may be conceived,
196
WINE.
r 
VWINE.
flows from them. In less favorable climates, where the rains of autumn prevent the drying of the clusters upon the vine stocks, the
same thing is effected by laying the bunches upon straw in open or
well-aired granaries or sheds. It is with the must procured from
grapes so treated, that the sweet and often strong wines, which are
called vins de paille, or straw wines, are obtained. Wines when
stored in the cask always deposite with time a copious sediment, the
lees. This sediment, in which tartar predominates, appears to be
the consequence of an increase in the proportion of alcohol in the
liquor. The alcohol may increase from two causes: first, by the
fermentation which, though nearly insensible, goes on in most wines
so long as there is any sugar left unchanged; and next from mere
keeping. It is well known, in fact, that wine put into the best
casks, and kept in a well-ventilated cellar, loses a very perceptible
quantity by evaporation; it is found necessary to fill up the casks
from time to time: the loss has taken place through the pores of
the wood, in virtue of an attraction exerted between the substance
of the wood and the included liquid; and as this attraction is much
greater between the organic matter and water, than between organic
fibre and alcohol, it is easy to conceive how wine kept in wood
should improve. The very same thing, in fact, appears to go on in
regard to wine in corked bottles: the cork does not oppose  all
evaporation, and it seems probable that it is not merely upon some
new and little known change of a chemical nature in the constitution of the wine that its improvement and mellowing in bottle depend, but also upon the loss of a certain quantity of its water through
the pores of the cork.
Throwing quality, flavor, &c., out of the question, it is well known
that a vineyard, culivated in the same way, year after year, receiv       -
ing the same quantity of the same kind of manure, of which the
vintage is managed in the same manner, the wine made by the same
method, &c., yields a produce which differs greatly in regard to the
quantity of alcohol it contains in different years. The vineyard of
Schma]zberg, for example, near Lampertsloch, which has been
under my management for several years, yields wines of the most
dissimilar characters from one year to another. Some idea of this
may be formed from the different quantities of alcohol which the
wine of different years contains:
Mean temperature.
IOf th  h 1 t ~~Pure  alYears.   Of the whole term of I                      Of the 1hegil~liing of    Wine     Pure  aloe-   cohol
thr growh of thr    Of.the. s.ummr..  Paur.               he faer acr,
vines.                                                   in gallois.  per cent.  in gallons.
deg.     dewg.       deg.      deg.        deg.      deg.
1833       14.7.c.  58.4d F.!17u.3C. 63.1F.    11.4C.  51.5F.                  311          5.0        11.4
1834       17.3    63.1          20.3    68.,          17.0     63              314        11.2         46.3
1835       15.8    60.2          19.5     67           12.3     54              621          8.1         50.0
1836       15.8    60.2          21.5    71            12.2    54               544         7.1          38.6
1837       15.2    59.5          18.7    66            11.9    54               184         7.7          14.0
17*
197 
If we now inquire how the meteorological c~.cumstances of each
of these five years influenced the production of our wine, we see at
once that the mean temperature of the days which make up the
period of the cultivation of the wine has a perceptible influence.
The temperature of the summer was 17.3~ C. (63.1~ Fahr.) of the
year which yielded the strongest wine, and only 14.7~ C. (58.4~
Fahr.) in 1833, the wine of which was scarcely drinkable.
A hot summer is naturally favorable to the vine: the mean heat
of 1833 did not exceed 17~1 C. (63-~ Fahr.;) with the exception of
this year, which must be regarded as one of the very worst, the
three favorable summers, 1834, 35, and 36, show a mean temperature of about 20~ C. (680 Fahr.) It is not, however, with the warmest summer that we find the strongest wine to correspond. Besides
the sustained heat, which is necessary during the whole year's
growth of the vine, it would appear that a mild autumn was a condition necessary to the perfect ripening of the grapes: this is one of
the essential conditions. We see, in fact, that in 1834, the months
of September and October presented the extraordinary temperature
of 17~ C., (62.6~ Fahr.,) while in 1833, the temperature of the same
months did not rise higher than 11.4~ C. (51.5~ Fahr.) I shall
here add, that the year 1811, so remarkable over Europe for the
quantity and the excellence of its wines, was distinguished by the
high temperature of the early part of its autumn; we find, in fact,
from the excellent series of observations with which M. Herrenschneider has presented Alsace, that in this year, after a summer the
mean temperature of which was 19.6~ C. (67.8a Fahr.,) the heat of
the months of September and October was maintained at 15~ C. (59~
Fahr.,) the usual temperature of the months of September and
October not being higher than about 11.5~ C. (52.7~ Fahr.)
If we deduct from these observations the years 1833 and 1837,
which were decidedly bad, it seems that we must conclude that meteorological influences have a greater effect upon the quality of
wines, than upon the whole quantity of alcohol formed; thus, although the wine of 1836 was very inferior to that of 1834, it actually yielded a larger proportion of alcohol from the acre.
In Alsace, in order that a year may be favorable to the vine, the
temperature of those months during which the plant is alive must
be sensibly superior to the mean: a fact which appears from M.
Herrenschneider's long series of observations. In a climate where
the vine requires such a condition to succeed, it is obvious that its
cultivation can never be advantageous; and this, in fact, is the case
the cultivation of the wine would, in,.-eed, be altogether ruinous, were
it not for the circumstance that t e value of wine increased ir a
much greater ratio than its quality, so that one good year often in demnifies the grower for many bad years. Another consideration
is this, that the vine, like the olive, grows and thrives in situations
where it would be difficult to put any thing else.
The produce of a vineyard also depends upon its age; and it
would be curious to examine the progressive increase of the quanti ty of wine yielded. This information I amr able to give in connec
198
WINE. 
tion with a vineyard established in Flanders; I only regret that I
have no means of presenting parallel observations from a country
more favorable to the vine. The vineyard of Schmalzberg was
planted in 1822, with new cuttings from France, and from the
borders of the Rhine. The vines are trained as espaliers, and are
now rather more than four feet in height.  The vineyard began to
yield wine in 1825, and the following table shows the results in the
successive years up to 1837:
Wine per Acre in
Gallons.
68.75
192.0
0.0
115.0
55.9
0.0
153.0
The mean quantity of wine furnished by this vineyard from the
date of its plantation, is 224- gallons per acre. M. Villeneuve
reckons the mean produce of many vineyards in the southwest of
France at from about 146 to 192 gallons per acre, considerably less
consequently than our vineyard at Schmalzberg; and official documents, while they give the mean produce of the vine for the whole
of France as 170.9 gallons per acre, state the whole of the wine
produced over the country at 976,906,414 gallons.
From documents recently published, the whole produce of the
vineyards of the German States brought to market appears to be
59,180,000 gallons.
Pulque. This is a vinous liquor, indigenous to Mexico and some
parts of Peru, and is prepared from the sap of the Ag ave Americana.
When this plant is about to flower, a hole is made into the upper
part of its stem, which by and by becomes filled with juice, and is
removed two or three times in the course of the twenty-four hours;
this sap is very sweet, runs quickly into fermentation, and yields the
liquor called pulque. The flow of sap continues for two or three
months, and a single plant will yield from six to eight quarts per
day. In the neighborhood of a large town, which ensures a ready
sale for the produce, a plantation of Agave is one of the most profitable possessions; in the neighborhood of Cholula there are single
plantations which are worth from ~8,000 to E~12,000.
199
WINE.
Wine per Acre in
Gallons.
Years.
Years.
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
209.9
311.6
413.4
620.0
544.5
184.4
W-1 
SOIL.
(CHAPTER  V.
OF SOILS.
THE solid mass of our earth does not everywhere present the
same physical characters, or the same chemical composition. In
traversing a mountainous country of any extent, we seldom fail to
observe a notable difference in the nature and relative position of the
rocks which compose it; the idea which forces itself upon the mind
in such circumstances is, that these mineral masses have not had
the same origin, that they have been formed and placed in their
several situations at distinct and often distant epochs.
In examining attentively the inequalities which mark the surface
of the globe, we soon perceive that those rocks which generally
form the most elevated points, the axis or skeleton of mountain
chains, result from the agglomeration or intimate mixture of different
mineral substances which may be isolated and separately studied.
These crystalline masses are frequently covered to a certain
depth, and even completely concealed by rocks of more recent formation, the fragmentary elements of which proclaim their origin
from the attrition or breaking down of the strata which support
them. The regular stratification of these superimposed rocks, the
configuration of their minute particles, the remains of organized beings
which are found in them, proclaim them to be deposites which have
taken place successively, and from the ocean. The formation of the
crystalline rocks probably dates from the period at which the crust
of the globe became solid. These elements, intimately mingled by
fusion, combined as they cooled, according to the laws of affinity, to
constitute the mineral species which we encounter; just as it happens that mineral species, identical with those which we observe in
nature, are produced and crystallize during the consolidation of certain scoriae from our furnaces.
The various circumstances which have accompanied the cooling
of the crust of the globe, have doubtless occasioned the differences
which we observe in the distribution of the minerals that enter into
the composition of rocks. Thus granite and mica schist, which present so dissimilar a structure, are nevertheless, and very certainly,
varieties of the same species, and contain quartz, felspar, and mica.
In sienite, the mica is replaced by amphibolite, and in protogenite by
talc. In trachite, a volcanic rock, both of older and more recent
date, quartz is almost entirely wanting; the amphibolite is replaced
by pyroxenite, and the felspar which is encountered, is no longer
identical in its chemical composition with that which enters into the
constitution of granite. The limestone rock, which belongs to the
same Plutonic epoch, is granular or saccliaroid; occasionally the
intervention of magnesia makes it pass into lolomite.
The sedimentary strata do not vary less in their composition.  The
200
r -
r.. 
zauses which segregated the rocks of igneous origin, appear to have
destroyed or removed one or several of their elements before their
new consolidation; one of the most common deposites, sandstone or
grit, is almost wholly composed of grains of quartz, amidst which
particles of mica are frequently encountered; but felspar is extremely rare.  In the oldest sedimentary strata of the series, as in
the greywackes, the igneous elements are met with more complete,
and less altered.  The structure of the calcareous rocks of this
epoch is often compact, clayey; it becomes porous and friable in
deposites of more recent date.
The stratified rocks must have been deposited in parallel superimposed layers and these strata, horizontal in the beginning, have been
forced into the inclined and perpendicular positions which they now
occupy by the tumefaction or rising of the masses upon which they
rest. The organic remains which they present, frequently in such
quantity, proclaim that in the period when the revolutions of the
globe took place that gave them birth, there were already animated
beings and plants growing upon the surface of the earth. The production of sedimentary strata, is an obvious proof that the igneous
rocks of which they are the product, must have been segregated, so
as to form beds of gravel, and sand, and clay.   The elements of all
stratified rocks must necessarily have passed through these different
states before the powerful causes which consolidated them, of the
nature of which we cannot now form an estimate, came into play.
The disintegration of the crystalline igneous rocks proceeds under
our eyes, as it were, from the combined actions of water and the atmosphere.
Water, by reason of its fluidity, penetrates the masses of rocks
that are at all porous; it filters into their fissures.  If the temperature now fall, and the water comes to congeal, it separates by its
dilatation the molecules of the mineral from one another, destroys
their cohesion, and produces clefts which slowly reduce the hardest
rocks to fragments, and then to powder. During the frozen state,
the ice may serve as a cement, and connect the disintegrated particles  but with the thaw, the slightest force, currents of water, the
miere effect of weight, suffices to carry the fragments to the bottom
of the valley, and the rubbing and motion to which these fragments
of rocks are exposed in torrents, tend to break them still smaller, and
to reduce them to sand.
The quantity of earthy matter brought down by streams and rivers.
is considerable: an idea may be formed of it from the thickness of
the slime or mnud deposited by a river which has overflowed its banks.
In many situations, the arable soil is either formed entirely, or is
powerfully ameliorated by such alluvial deposites.  The fertilizing
powers of the mutd of the Nile are well known; according to Shaw,
the waters of this river carry with them about the 132d part of their volume; those of the IRhine, at the periods of its great increase, bring down
more than the lO0th part; and Dr. Barrow, from observations made
:n China, estimates at the 200th part of the volume of the mass of
fuiid, the mud and slime which are carried towards the sea by the
201
OIL.
LiFol 
Yellow river. These fluviatile deposites accumulate ad,he mouths
of great rivers, and gradually encroach upon the ocean; this is very
conspicuous, for example, at the mouths of the Elbe, where, at the
turn of the tide, when there is an interval of calm, the earthy matters which are held in suspension are precipitated, and a sediment
results, which is thrown up by the next waves upon the beach. By
these successive deposites, the beach rises gradually, and an extensive
alluvium is formed which remains dry at neap and ordinary tides.
These new lands, the fertility of which is truly surprising, constitute
the polders of which the Dutch make so much. During spring
tides, and storms from particular quarters, these polders would of
course be all submerged, had not the active industry of the inhabitants raised dykes, which successfully oppose the waters of the
ocean.
Besides the mechanical causes of the destruction of rocks already quoted, there is a chemical action depending upon meteorological influences, which exerts a powerful influence upon the constituent elements of crystalline rocks. Felspar, amphibolite, mica,
and the protoxide of iron suffer decomposition in certain circumstances with surprising rapidity, without our being able to foresee,
and still less to explain, this singular tendency to destruction. In
granite, for example, the felspar and the mica lose their vitreous
and crystalline state, they become friable, earthy, and are transformed into an argillaceous substance, which is known in the arts
under the name of kaoline, and which is extensively used in the
manufacture of porcelain; amphibolite, and pyroxenite, undergo  an
alteration of the same kind. In these minerals the protoxide of iron
passes to the state of the maximumn of oxidation. The air and
moisture appear to exert a great influence upon this alteration, which
frequently extends to a great depth, as we see in the beds of porcelain earth, which are worked in various granite districts, and as I
have myself ascertained, in a bed of decomposed syenitic porphyry
where there are very extensive subterraneous works. In these
works, which are carried on in auriferous strata, the alteration in
the felspar and amphibolite can be followed to a depth of nearly 330
feet. In the midst of the rocks so changed, we every here and there
meet with masses which have resisted the decomposing action, and
still possess all their original hardness and freshness. Historical
monuments also show us unalterable granites; such is that, for in stance, which now forms the obelisk in the square of San Giovanni
di Laterano at Rome, and which was cut at Siena, under the reign
of a king of Thebes, thirteen hundred years before the Christian era.
Such is further the obelisk of the Place of St. Peter, which was
consecrated to the sun by a son of Sesostris more than three thou sand years ago.
The schists, by reason of their structure, wea.r away with much
greater facility.  Calcareous rocks resist atm(,'pherical agencies
somewhat better; but their softness in general suffers them to be
readily attacked by mechanical causes, and water even acts upon
them as a solvent through the medium of the carbonic acid which
202
SOIL.
m 
it always contains. The resistance of the greywackes, and of the
sandstones depends in a great measure on the nature and cohesion
of the cement which unites their particles; their power of resisting,
however, is generally inconsiderable, and these rocks fall down
pretty rapidly into sandy soils.
The modifications experienced by the constituent minerals of
rocky masses, do not happen solely from changes in the molecular
state of their elements; their chemical nature is further deeply
changed, and some of their original principles disappear. The. felspars, for example, into the constitution of which potash and soda
enter, abandon almost the whole of these alkalies, in passing into
the state of kaoline. This is made manifest by a comparison of the
analyses of the mineral in its two states. Besides the alkali which
is lost, we also perceive that in kaoline, the proportion of alumen
relatively to that of silica, is much greater than in the undecomposed
felspar, a fact which, according to M. Berthier, demonstrates that
the alkali is removed in the state of silicate.
The final result of the disintegration of rocks, and of the decomposition of the minerals which enter into their constitution, is the
formation of those alluviums which occupy the slopes of mountains
that are not too steep, the bottoms of valleys, and the most extensive
plains. These deposites, however formed, whether of stones, pebbles, gravel, sand, or clay, may become the basis of a vegetable soil,
if they are only sufficiently loose and moist. Vegetation of any kind
succeeds upon them at first with difficulty. Plants which by their
nature live in a great measure at the expense of the atmosphere, and
whick ask from the earth little or nothing more than a support, fix
themselves there when the climate permits. Cactuses and fleshy
plants take root in sands; mimosas, the broom, the furze, &c., show
themselves upon gravels. These plants grow, and after their death,
either in part or wholly, leave a debris which becomes profitable to
succeeding generations of vegetables. Organic matter accumulates
in the course of ages, even in the most ungrateful soils in this way,
and by these repeated additions they become less and less sterile.
It is probable that the virgin forests of the new world have thus
supplied the wonderful quantity of vegetable  mould, in which the
present generation of trees is rooted. At Lavega de Supia, in South
America, the slipping of a porphyritic mountain covered completely
with its debris, to the extent of nearly half a league, the rich plantations of sugar-cane which were there established. Ten years afterwards I saw the blocks of porphyry shadowed by thick groves of
mimosas; and the time perchance is not very remote when this new
forest wvill be cleared away, and the stony soil, enriched with its
spoils, will be restored to the husbandman.
The chemical composition of the earth, adapted for vegetation,
must of course participate in the nature of the rocks and substrata
from which it is derived; and the elements which enter into the
constitution of mineral species ought to be found in the soils, which,
by the effect of time or human industry, may serve for the reproduction of vegetables. It is on this account that it becomes inter
203
SOIL.
r- - 
SOIL.
esting to know the composition of the minerals which are the most
abundantly dispersed in the solid mass of the globe.
The solid part of our planet, as is well known, occupies but onethird of its whole surface. The ocean occupies two-thirds, and the
majority of the rocks of sedimentary formnation must have been primrnarily deposited at the bottom of the sea. These rocks will therefore be apt to contain the saline substances which are met with in
sea-w-ater, and it is a fact that many of the secondary sandstones
show unequivocal traces of these substances. Deltas and low downs,
left by the ocean, are constantly being brought under tillage, and the
fierce winds of the sea frequently carry saline matters to vast distarnces, even to the centre of great continents; lastly, as we shall
see by and by, the ocean supplies agriculture with powerful manures.
Analysis shows that sea-water contains, besides chloride of sodium
or common salt, hydrochlorate of magnesia, sulphate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, sulphate of lime, carbonate of lime, carbonate of
ma,gnesia, and a quantity of carbonic acid, to which must be added
the substances discovered in the mother waters of salt marshes, and
which occur with reference to the others in quantities so small as to
escape direct analyses of any moderate portions of sea-water: these
sublstances are iodides, bromides, and certain ammoniacal salts.
The minerals most generally found in rocks are quartz, felspar,
mica, amphibolite, pyroxenite, talc, serpentine, and diallage.
Quartz is frequently composed of silica nearly in a state of purity
but I may save time by presenting in a single table the composition
of the principal mineral species such as we find it indicated by the
best chemical analysts:
COMPOSITION.
Minerals.
Felspar of Lomnitz.... 66.8
Ditto Domite........61.0 
Ditto Albite ofFinland 68.0 
Ditto Albite of Arendal 68.7
Si )erian Mica.........    42. (
Mlica from the U. States 48.
Amphil)olite of Pargas. 45.  
White Pvroxenite...... 54.      
Green ditto............ 54.4
Serpentine...........2 42.
Ditto, another kind.... 43.]
Spezian Diallage......7  447.4
Tralc from St. Bernard...2 58.'
Ditto from St. Gothard.. 62.(
r
MI -~
X i L:
- 5  I  _ _
!me. MagLime.   nesia.
1.3
1.6
0.7
traces
26.0
13.8    18.8
24.9    18.0
23.6     16.5
44.2
0.5   40.4
13.1    24.4
33.2
30.5
~.
0.8
4.2
0.2
0.3
4.9
7.3
1.8
4.4
0.2
1.2
7.4
4.6
2.5
If we now compare the analyses of the ashes of vegetables which
we have already given with those just indicated, we see that the
mineral substances which meet us in plants also exist in the soil in
dependently of any addition from manure. We  nay therefore lay it
0
7
0
5
7
6
9
3
1
2
2
0
I
i
204
Alui-iiii,a.
17.5
19.2
19.6
19.9
16.1
33.9
12.2
0.2
0.3
3.7
traces
,4
111
12.0
11.5
11;
I.2z
i 
i .0
T,
11.1
9.1
0.5
races
1.3
0.12
2.0
0.4
7.
II.
3.0
I..5
1.3.3
1.2.5
3.2
3.5
0.5
2.8 
SOIL.
down as a principle that the mineral substances encountered in vegetables are obtained in the soil, and that the whole of these substances
come from rocks which form the solid crust of our planet. I ought,
however, to observe in this place that the phosphates, which are so
constantly present in plants that it is to be presumed they are essential to their organization, do not figure among the elements of crystalline rocks; we only meet with phosphoric acid in the strata of a
more recent geological epoch,-strata the formation of which has indeed followed the appearance of organized beings; so that it would
be quite fair to maintain that this acid had been introduced into
these new strata by the animated beings which are buried in them.
Still the phosphates are by no means wanting in the rocks of igneoUis origin. In metalliferous strata, to quote those of more common
occurrence only, we find phosphate of lead, of copper, of manganese,
and of lime; it is even difficult to discover a ferruginous mineral
which does not contain a larger or smaller dose of phosphoric acid.
And I must here add, that if phosphoric acid has been rarely indicated as a constituent of mineral substances, this is by no means
from its uniform absence there, but because it escaped the researches
of the analyst, in the same way as iodine and bromine for a long time
escaped notice in all the analyses that were made of sea-water.
Chemists. in fact, only discover those bodies readily which exist in
some very appreciable quantity in the compounds they examine.
The substances whose presence is not foreseen, those which only
enter in extremely small quantity into a mineral, are apt to pass the
eyes of even the most skilful and conscientious unperceived.
The ashes of every vegetable examined up to the present time
show us phosphates, and yet these salts have never been detected
in any of the analyses of saps (not very numerous it is true) which
De possess; it is, nevertheless, all but certain that the sap must
contain phosphoric acid in some state of combination or another.
Thaer compares the soil in husbandry to the raw material upon
which the industry of the manufacturer is exercised; the comparison
would, perhaps, be more exact were the soil likened to the mechanical agents he uses; and, in fact, even as the prosperity of manufactures and the perfection of their produce depend upon the perfection
of the machinery employed, so are the quality and the quantity of
crops connected in the most intimate manner with the quality of the
soil.  The highest skill of the husbandman, even under a favorable
climate, and otherwise in the most advantageous circumstances, may
all be made nugatory by the incessantly renewed difficulties which
meet him in a barren soil.
To be truly fit for agriculture the earth ought to present several
essential qualities; a soil, for instance, must be sufficiently open,
sufficiently loose, to permit the roots of plants to penetrate it, and to
prevent the water from stagnating upon it.  The matter of which it
is composed must, further, be of such a kind that the air may insinuate itself into it and be renewed, without, however, too rapid a desiccation following.
A great deal has been written since Bergman's time upon the
18
205
lr
m 
SOIL-SAND AND CLAY.
chemical composition of soils.  Chemists of great talent have made
many complete analyses of soil 3 noted for their fertility; still practical
agriculture has hitherto derived very slender benefits from labors of
this kind.   The reason of this is very simple; the qualities which we
esteem in a workable soil depend almost exclusively upon the mechanical mixture of its elements; we are much less interested in its
chemical composition than in this; so that simple washing, which
shows the relations between the sand and the clay, tells, of itself, much
more that is important to us than an elaborate chemical analysis.
The quality of an arable soil depends essentially on the association
of these two matters. Sand, whether it be silicious, calcareous, or
felspathic, always renders a soil friable, permeable, loose; it facilitates the access of the air and the drainage of the water, and its influence is more or less favorable as. it exists in the state of minute
subdivision, or in the state of coarse sand or of gravel.
Clay possesses physical properties entirely opposed to those of
sand; united with water it forms an adhesive plastic paste, which,
once moistened, becomes almost impermeable. With such characters, it will easily be conceived how it is impossible to work to advantage a soil that is entirely argillaceous. The proper character,
or, if you will, the quality of a soil, depends, then, essentially on
the element which predominates in the mixture of sand and clay that
composes it; and between the two extremes, which are alike unfavorable to vegetation, viz., the completely sandy soil and the unmixed clay, all the other varieties, all the intermediate shades can
be placed.  It is rare, indeed, that arable soils are formed solely of
sand and clay: not to mention certain saline substances which are
generally encountered, although in small quantity, we always find
the remains of organic matters, remains which constitute that part
of a soil which has been designated under the somewhat vague name
of humus. Although a soil which is entirely without humus may be
cultivated by calling in the aid of manure, and as humus, consequently, need not be regarded as indispensable, still this matter generally
enters, in certain proportions, into the constitution of soils.   The
soils of forest lands contain a large quantity of it, and some soils are
mentioned which are very rich in this substance, and which yield
abundant crops of grain for ages, and with very little attention.
In examining a soil, attention ought to be directed, 1st, to the
sand, 2d, to the clay, 3d, to the humus which it contains. It would,
furlther, be useful to inquire particularly in regard to certain other
principles which exert an unquestionable influence upon vegetation,
such as certain alkaline and earthy salts.
Vegetable earth dried in the air until it becomes quite friable
may, nevertheless, still retain a considerable quantity of water, and
which can only he dissipated by the assistance of a somewhat high
temperature.  It is therefore proper, in the first instance, to bring
all the soils which it is proposed to examine comparatively, to one
constant degree of dryness. The best and quickest way cif drying
such a substance as a portion of soil, is to make use of the oil-bath;
a quantity of oil contained in a copper vessel is readily kept at ar.
206
ilr
L 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
almost uniform temperature by means of a lamp. A thermometer
plunged in the bath shows the degree to which it is heated; the
substance to be dried is put into a glass tube of no great depth, and
sufficiently wide; or into a porcelain or silver capsule, if the quantity
to be operated upon be somewhat considerable: these tubes, or vessels, are placed in the oil so as to be immersed in it to about twothirds of their height.  For the desiccation of soils, the temperature
may be carried to 150~ or 160~ C., (334~ or 352~ F.) The weight
of the vessel is first accurately taken, and a given  weight of the
matter to be dried is then thrown into it, after which it is exposed to
the action of the bath.  If we operate upon from 60Q to 700 grains,
the drying must be continued during two or three hours; the weight
of the capsule with its contents, after having been wiped thoroughly
clean, is then taken.  It is placed anew in the bath, and its weight is
taken a second time after an interval of fifteen or twenty minutes;
if the weight has not diminished, it is a proof that the drying was
complete at the time of the first trial.  In the contrary case, the
operation must be continued, and no drying must be held terminated,
until two consecutive weighings, made at an interval of fromn fifteeni
to twenty minutes, show any thing more than a very trifling difference. Davy points out another and much more simple method,
which, although far from accurate, may, nevertheless, suffice in
many general trials.  The soil to be dried is put into a porcelain
capsule heated by a lamp, and a thermometer, with which the mass
may be stirred, is placed in its middle, and shows the temperature at
each moment. Lastly, in many circumstances the marine bath may
suffice.  In drying, the main point is to do so at a known temperature, and one which may be reproduced; for the absolute desiccation of a quantity of soil could not be accomplished except at
a heat close upon redness, and this would, of course, alter or destroy
the organic matters it contains.
The organic matters contained in ordinary soils consist, in part,
of pieces of straw and of roots, which are usually separated by
sifting the earth through a hair sieve; the gravel and stones which
the soil contains are separated in the same way.
The earth sifted is now washed. To accomplish this, it is introduced into a matrass, with three or four times its bulk of hot distilled
water, the whole is shaken well for a timre, the matrass is left to
stand for a moment, and then the liquid is decanted into a wide
porcelain capsule. The washing is continued, fresh quantities of
water being added each time, until the whole of the clay has been removed, which is known by the fluid becoming clear very speedily
the sand which remains, is then washed out into another capsule.
The argillaceous particles, or the clay  and  all the matters held
in suspension in the water, are thrown upon a filter and dried;
the desiccation is completed by the same process, and under the
same circumstances as that of the soil had been. The sand is,
in like manner, dried with the same care.
If we would ascertain the nature and quantity of the soluble salts,
the whole of the water used in the washing must be put together
207 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
and evaporated, which may be don  upon a sand-bath.  The evaporation is pushed to dryness, and tL  salts that remain, having been
previously weighed, are thrown into a small platinum capsule, in
which they are heated to a dull red by means of a spirit-lamp, in
order to burn out the organic salts, and thus distinguish, by means
of a subsequent weighing, between them and the inorganic salts.
The sand may be silicious or calcareous. The presence of carbouate of lime is readily ascertained by treating it with an acid which
wvill form a soluble salt with lime, such as hydrochloric, nitric, or
acetic acid.  Effervescence shows the presence of a carbonate; the
quantity of which may be estimated by weighing the sand dry before
and after its treatment with the acid, particular care being of course
tal,en to n-asht the remaining sand well before setting it to dry.
This, however, is an operation of little use, the great object is to ascertain the quantity of sandy matter.  hlad we a particular interest
in ascertaining the presence and estimating the quantity of the earthy
carbonates contained in a sample of soil, it would be advisable to
make a special inquiry, inasmuch as the finely divided calcareous
earth being carried off along with the clay in the course of the washing, the sand obtained never contains the whole of the carbonate of
lime.
The argillaceous matter procured by the washing is far from being
pure clay; it contains a quantity of extremely fine sand, particles
of calcareous earth, and if the soil contain humus, the more delicate
particles of this substance will also be included.
To determine the quantity of humus, recourse is generally had to
its destruction by heat.  A known weight of dried earth is heated
to redness in a capsule, and constantly stirred fior a time, and when
n1o more of those brilliant points or sparks, which are indications of
the combustion of carbon, are observed, it is set to cool and then_
weighed.  This is the method which has been generally followed by 
Davy and others.  It would be difficult to find a method more  convenient than this, but it is unfortunntely very inaccurate.  Soils
dried at a temperature at which organic matter, such as humus, &c.,
begins to change, still retain a considerable quantity of water in union
with the clay. This water is disengaged at the red heat required
for the combustion of the organic matters; and as their quantity is
estimated by the loss of weight on the subsequent weighing, it is obvious that the loss fiom the dissipation of water is added to that
which proceeds from the destruction of the humus. It is iundoubtedly to this cause of error that we must ascribe the large proportions
of humus mentioned in the soils examined by Thaer and Einhoff; it
is therefore better to restrict the examination to the determination
of the presence or absence of humus than to attempt to ascertain its
quantity by so imperfect a method.
Priestley and Arthur Young were already aware that a more delicate operation was required to determine the quantity of humus.
They recommend calcination of the soil in a close vessel, and that
the gaseous products should be collected. This mode of proceeding,
however, would have but slight advantages over that which I have
208 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
just criticised, inasmuch as the volume of gas collected varies with
every difference of heat employed.
The only miethod in my opinion which we have of learning the
quantity of humus, of organic debris, which is contained in a soil,
is that of an elementary analysis. It is by burning a known quantity of earth thoroughly dried by means of the oxide of copper, aided
by a current of oxygen, that the carbon and hydrogen may be determined.   But the most important point of all is to ascertain the
amount of azote included in the organic remains of the soil; and we
have happily precise means in our elementary analysis of ascertainillg the quantity of azote, from which the amount of azotized organic
matter may be accurately inferred.
It mnay be very useful to determine the presence or absence of
carbonate of lime in a soil; this knowledge would of course guide
us iln Sur applications of lime, marl, &c.'I'wo modes  may be emplo ed for this purpose;  1st. the soil may be treated by nitric acid
slightly diluted with water. Any effeivescence will denote the
presence, in all probability, of carbonate of lime. I say in all probability, because the disengagement of carbonic acid gas under such
cir cumstances generally indicates the presence of carbonate of lime;
it is not, however, a special character, because the disengagement
may be due to the presence of any other carbonate. It is well to
boil the acid solution upon the sample of soil that is analyzed; the
part which is not dissolved is thrown upon a filter and washed with
distilled or rain-water boiling hot.  Into the clear filtered liquor
which results from all the portions of water used in the washing, a
little ammonia is added; if any precipitate falls, it is collected upon
a filter and washed: to the new liquors obtained by this washing, a
solution of oxalate of ammonia is added. If there be any lime present, it is thrown down in the state of oxalate, and the liquor, having
been left at rest for five or six hours, becomes completely clear; the
addition of a few drops of the solution of oxalate of ammonia to this
clear fluid satisfies us whether the whole of the lime has been precipitated or not. The oxalate of lime is received upon a filter, washcd, and dried; it is then thrown into a platinum capsule along with
the piece of filtering paper upon which it was collected, and is heated to a dull red, until the paper of the filter is completely consumed
and no further trace of carbon appears; the capsule is then taken
from the fire or from over the spirit lamp, and cooled; when cold,
the matter which it contains is moistened with a concentrated solution of carbonate of ammonia.
Thle matter is then dried, great care being taklen that nothing is
lost by particles flying out, and the capsule is again heated to a dull
red; when cold, it is weighed accurately, and the quantity of matter
contained then becomes known. This matter is carbonate of lime,
100 of which represent 56.3 of lime and 43.7 of carbonic acid.   I
have said that in arable soil other carbonates may be met with besides that of lime; calcareous soils, for example, very commonly
contain carbonate of magnesia. If we would ascertain the quantity
of this earth, the mode of proceeding which I have just particularly
s18*
209 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
indicated enables us to do so; we have but to evaporate the liquid
from which the oxalate of lime was deposited, and then to calcine
the product of the evaporation in a platinum capsule. Any nitrate
of magnesia which may exist there will be decomposed at a dull red
heat, as well as any oxalate of ammonia which may have resulted
from ammonia added in excess. By treating the residue of the calcination with water we obtain the magnesia, which being washed
has only to be calcined and its weight ascertained by weighing.
2d. If we would be -ontent with a simple approximation, we may
judge of the quantity of calcareous carbonate contained in a vegetable soil by measuring the quantity of carbonic acid which we obtain
from it. We counterpoise upon the scale of a balance a phial containing some diluted nitric acid; we weigh a certain quantity of the
earth to be analyzed, and this is added by degrees to the acid. If
the earth contains carbonates, effervescence ensues.  The liquid is
shaken with care, and having waited a few minutes in order to let
the carbonic acid which is mixed with the air of the phial escape,
the phial with its contents is again put into the balance. If there
has been no disengagement of carbonic acid, it is clear that to restore
the equilibrium it will be sufficient to add to the opposite scale the
weight of the earth which was put into the phial; whatever is wanting of this weight represents precisely the weight of carbonic acid
which has been disengaged. Presuming this acid to have been combined with lime, the weight of the calcareous carbonate can be calculated exactly.
Sulphate of lime is an occasional constituent of soils; to ascertain
its presence and quantity, the following is the method of procedure:
The earth well pulverized is first roasted for a considerable time
in a crucible or platinum capsule, until all the organic matter is cornpletely destroyed; it is advisable to operate on about 100 grammes,
or about 3.2 ounces troy of soil.  After this operation the matter is
boiled in 4 or 5 times its weight of distilled water for some time;
water being added to replace that which is dissipated by evaporation;
we then filter, re-wash, and having added all the liquors, we evaporate in a capsule until the volume of the liquid is reduced to a few
drachms. To the liquid thus concentrated we add its own bulk of
alcohol. If the solution contains sulphate of lime it will be deposit ed, and the deposite being received upon a filter and washed with
weak alcohol, its weight is taken after having been dried and calcined.
This salt is frequently seen deposited in the form of fine colorless
needles on the cooling of the sufficiently concentrated solution; but
the addition of alcohol is always useful, because the sulphate of
lime, which is not very soluble in water, is altogether insoluble in
weak spirit, which on the contrary dissolves certain alkaline and
earthy salts whose presence would interfere with the accuracy of
the result.
It may be matter of great moment to determine the existence and
the quantity of phosphates contained in a soil destined for cultiva tion. Although the search for phosphoric acid may perhaps require
a certain familiarity with chemical analysis, I shall nevertheless
210
,-r. 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
indicate the method of procedure. It is much to be desired that enlightened agriculturists should not remain strangers to manipulations
of this kind.
The soil to be analyzed must be first deprived of all organic matters by calcination. After having reduced it to a very fine powder
it is to be boiled for about an hour with three or four times its weight
of nitric or hydrochloric acid. The solution is then diluted with
distilled water, and filtered; the matter which remains upon the
filter is generally silica or alumina which has escaped the action
of the acid.  After having reduced the washings by evaporation,
and added them to the acid liquor, ammonia in solution is poured
in. Taking the simplest instance, the precipitate which falls upon
the addition of this alkali may contain, 1st, phosphoric acid in union
with the peroxide of iron and lime; 2d. oxide of iron and of manganese; 3d. silica. This precipitate, which is'usually of a gelatinous appearance, is received upon a filter, well washed and dried,
when the precipitate is readily detached from the filter. It is thrown
into a platinum capsule which is raised to a white heat, after which
the weight of the residue is taken. The precipitate after calcination is thrown into a small glass matrass, and dissolved by hot hydrochloric acid.  If there is any silica undissolved, its quantity is
merely estimated, if it be very small; if it be a larger quantity, it is
to be collected upon a filter and weighed. To the new acid solution,
about three times its weight of alcohol is added; the mixture is
shaken, and pure sulphuric acid is then instilled drop by drop until
there is no longer any precipitate.  The precipitate is sulphate of
lime, which is thrown upon a filter, where it is washed with diluted
alcohol; it is then dried, calcined, and the weight of the sulphate of
lime obtained, permits us to calculate that of the lime which formed
part of the precipitate thrown down by the ammonia in the first instance.  100 of sulphate of lime are equivalent to 41.5 of pure lime.
The alcoholic liquor is concentrated in order to expel the spirit;
as it is acid, it is saturated with ammonia until a slight precipitate
begins to be formed, which is not redissolved upon shaking the
mixture. A few drops of the hydrosulphate of ammonia are then
added, upon which the iron and the manganese fall in the state of
sulphurets. As a part of the metals has been precipitated in the
state of oxide by the ammonia added in the hydrosulphate, it is well
to digest for eight or ten hours, because the hydrosulphate of ammonia always ends by changing the metals present into sulphurets,
which being washed, dried, and reduced to the state of oxides by
calcination in a platinum capsule, are weighed.
If the first ammoniacal precipitate did not contain phosphoric acid,
its weight ought to be reproduced by adding that of the lime to that
of the imetallic oxides proceeding from the calcination of the sulphurets. Any loss which is noted after this, is due, if the process
has been well conducted, to phosphoric acid, which had not been
collected, but which has remained in the state of phosphate of ammonia in the liquid treated by the hydrosulphate. To determine
ith precision the presence of phosphoric acid, the liquid in question
211 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
must be evaporated to dryness, and the residue heated strongly in a
platinum capsule. After the dissipation and decomposition of the
ammoniacal salts, there remains watery phosphoric acid, distinguishable by its powerful acid reaction, its sirupy consistence, and its
fixity.
By way of example, I shall give the results obtained in an analysis
of this kind:
From the acid liquor, ammonia threw down of:         grs. troy.
Phosphates and metallic oxides...    8.012
These gave of sulphate of lime.....                     8.768
Equivalent to lime...........              3.612
Hydrosulphate of ammonia  caused  a precipitate,
which, calcined, gave of metallic oxides..      1.620
Lime and metallic oxides together..    5.233
Difference due to phosphoric acid..    2.789
She analysis for phosphoric acid may be simplified by employing
a process conceived by M. Berthier, and which is founded upon the
strong affinity of this acid for the peroxide of iron and the insolubility of the phosphate of the peroxide of iron in dilute acetic acid.
If to a fluid containing at once phosphoric acid, lime, peroxide of
iron, alumina, and magnesia in solution, ammonia be added, the precipitate will contain the whole of the phosphoric acid. The acid
will be in great part combined in the state of phosphate of iron, if the
peroxide of iron be in quantity more than sufficient to neutralize it,
a condition which must be frequently expected in an arable soil;
however, to make sure of this point it is well to add a certain quantity
of the peroxide of iron to the soil which is to be analyzed. Besides
the phosphate of iron, the precipitate may contain phosphate of lime,
phosphate of alumina, and certainly ammoniacal magnesian phosphate. Finally, with these phosphates will be found associated
alumina and oxide of iron, the latter especially if it has been introduced in excess. The precipitate collected upon a filter and washed, must then be treated with dilute acetic acid, which will dissolve
the lime, the magnesia, and the excess of the oxides of iron and
alumina, and there will remain phosphate of iron or phosphate of
alumina, because the latter salt is as insoluble as the former in acetic
acid. Whenever the precipitate in question, therefore, leaves a
residue which is insoluble in vinegar, the presence of phosphoric
acid may be inferred; this residue may consist of basic phosphates
of iron or alumina, or of a mixture of the two salts, and no great
error will be committed if one hundred parts of this residue, calcined,
be assumed as representing fifty of phosphoric acid.
The presence of silica in the precipitate insoluble in acetic acid
may, however, lead to error.  To make sure that the precipitate is
formed by a phosphate it must be redissolved in hydrochloric acid,
and the acid solution evaporated to dryness, so as to render the silica,
which may exist in it, insoluble. By treating the residue with hydrochloric acid again, the phosphates alone will be dissolved. The
212 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
presence of phosphoric acid may otherwise be determined by treating the phosphate of iron in solution in the way which I have already
indicated.
From what precedes, it must be obvious that the most carefully
conducted chemical analysis of a soil, only leads us to the discovery
of certain principles which exist in very small quantity, although
their action is unquestionably useful to vegetation. As to the determination of the relative quantities of sand and loam, this rests upon
simple washing; and a chemist would spend his time to very little
purpose, in seeking by means of elementary analyses to determine
the precise composition of these substances.  The  finest part carried off by the water will always show properties analogous to those
of clay; the sand, which is generally silicious, will exhibit the characters of quartz; and the calcareous fragments, which are mixed
with it, will exhibit those that belong to carbonate of lime. It will
be sufficient then in connection with the mineral constitution of arable soils, to expose very briefly the general properties of clay or
loam, of quartz, and of carbonate of limie, substances in fact which
form the bases of all arable lands. Pure clay composed of silica,
alumina, and water, does not contain these substances in the state
of simple mixture. The inquiries of M. Berthier have satisfactorily
shown that clay is an hydrated silicate of alumina. When we remove a portion of the alumina from clay, for example, by treating it
with a strong acid, the silica which is set at liberty will dissolve in
an alkaline'solution, which would not be the case were the silica
present in the state of quartzy sand, however fine.
Pure clays are white, unctuous to the touch, stick to the tongue
when dry, and when breathed upon give out an odor which is well
klnown, and is commonly spoken of as the argillaceous odor.  This
property of dry clay to adhere to the tongue is owing to its avidity
for water.  It is known, in fact, that dry clay brought into contact
with water, first swells, and finally mixes with it completely.   Duly
moistened it forms a tough and eminently plastic mass.  Exposed
to the air, moist clay, as it dries, shrinks considerably; and if the
drying be rapid, the mass cracks in all directions. It is to an action
of this kind that we must ascribe the cracks and deep fissures which
traverse our clayey soils in all directions during the continuance of
great droughts.
The constitutional water of clays is retained by a very powerful
affinity, and does not separate under a red heat; pure clay has a
specific gravity of about 2.5; but the weight is frequently modified
by the presence of foreign matter, for it contains sand, metallic
oxides, carbonate of limne, carbonate of magnesia, and frequently
even combustible substances from bitumen to plumbago, all of which
admixtures of course modify the properties which are most highly
esteemed in clays, such as fineness, whiteness, infusibility, &c.
Quartz is abundantly distributed throughout nature, and is met
with in very different states in the form of transparent colorless
crystals constituting rock crystals, as sand of different fineness;
finally, in masses constituting true rocks.  Quartz is the silica of
213 
SOIL-ITS ANALYSIS.
chemists, and a compound, according to them, of oxygen and silicon,
in the proportion, Berzelius says, of 100 of the radical to 108 of
oxygen.
Silica in a state of purity occurs in the form of a white powder,
and having a density of 2.7. It is infusible in the most violent fuirnace, but it not only melts in the intense heat which results from the
combustion of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas, but it is even
dissipated in vapor. As generally obtained, silica is held insoluble
in water; still, when in a state of extreme subdivision, it is soluble
and then its insolubility is probably not so absolute as is generally
supposed, for M. Payen has found notable quantities in the water of
the Artesian well of Grenelle, and in that of the Seine. Silica exists especially in very appreciable quantity in certain hot springs
where the presence of an alkaline substance favors its solution;
the water of the hot springs of Reikum in Iceland contain about
T-'4,th parts of its weight of silica; and the thermal spring of Las
Trincheras, near Puerto Cabello, deposites abundant silicious concretions. The water of this latter spring, which is at the temperature
of 210~ F., besides silica contains a quantity of sulphurated hydrogen gas, and traces of nitrogen gas. Rock crystal when colorless
and transparent may be regarded as pure silica; in the varieties of
quartz which mineralogists designate as chalcedony, agate, opal, &c.,
the silica is combined with different mineral substances, particularly
oxide of iron and of manganese, alumina, lime, and water.
Ccrboyiate of lime, considered as rock, belongs to every epoch in
the geological series, and frequently constitutes extensive masses.
When pure it is composed of lime 56.3, carbonic acid 43.7; and its
density is then from 2.7 to 2.9. It dissolves with effervescence
without leaving any residue in hydrochloric or nitric acid. Exposed
to a red heat its acid is disengaged, and quick-lime iemains. Carbonate of lime is insoluble in water, but it dissolves in very considerable quantity under the influence of carbonic acid gas.  When
such a solution is exposed to the air the acid escapes by degrees,
and the carbonate is deposited, by which means those numerous
deposites of carbonate of lime are produced, which we see constituting tufas and stalactites.  The  solubility of carbonate of lime in
water acidulated with carbonic acid, enables us to understand how
plants should meet with this salt in the soil, inasmuch as rain-water
always contains a little carbonic acid.
The mineral substances which we have now studied, taken isolatedly, would form an almost barren soil; but by mixing them with
discretion a soil would be obtained, presenting all the essential conditions of fertility, which depend as it would seem much less on the
chemical constitution of the elements of the soil than on their physical properties, such as their faculty of imbibition, their density, their
power of conducting heat, &c. It is unquestionably by studying
these various properties that we come to form a precise idea of the
causes which secure or exclude the qualities we require in arable
soils. This has been done very ably by M. Schiibler, and his admi
214 
SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF SOIL.
table paper will remain a model of one application of the sciences
to agriculture.*
The researches of M. Schiibler were directed to the mineral substances which are generally found in soils, viz: 1st. silicious sand;
2d. calcareous sand; 3d. a sandy clay containing about Moths of
sand; 4th. a strong clay containing no more  than about 20ths of
sand; 5th. a still stronger clay containing no more than about  eth
of sand; 6th. nearly pure clay; 7th. chalk, or carbonate of limne in
the pulverulent state; 8th. humus; 9th. gypsum;  10th. light garden earth, black, friable, and fertile, and  containing, in 100 parts,
clay 52.4, quartzy sand 36.5, calcareous sand 1.8, calcareous earth
2.0, humus 7.3; 11th. an arable soil composed of clay 51.2, silicious
sand 42.7, calcareous sand 0.4, calcareous earth 2.3, humus 3.4;
and 12th. an arable soil taken from a valley near the Jura, containing clay 33.3, silicious sand 63.0, calcareous sand 1.2, calcareous
earth and humus 1.2, loss 1.3.
The object of these inquiries was to ascertain, 1st. the specific
gravity of soils; 2d. their power of retaining water; 3d. their
consistency; 4th. their aptitude to dry; 5th. their. disposition to
contract while drying; 6th. their hygrometric force; 7th. their
power of absorbing oxygen; 8th. their faculty of retaining heat;
and 9th. their capacity to acquire temperature when exposed to the
sun's rays.
Specific gravity of soils. The weight of soils may be compared
in the dry and pulverulent state, or in the humid state, or the specific gravity of the particles which enter into their composition may
be determined.  This last information is easily obtained by the following method: take a common ground stopper bottle, weigh it
stoppered and full of distilled water; let it then be emptied, in order
that a known quantity of the soil, in the state of powder and quite
dry, may be introduced into it. A quantity of water is now poured
in, and the phial is shaken to secure the disengagement of all air
bubbles; the phial is then filled with distilled water, and when the
upper part has become clear the stopper is replaced; the phial is
then wiped dry and weighed again. The difference between the
weight of the phial full of water plus that of the matter, and the
weight of the phial containing the matter and the water mixed, gives
the weight of the water displaced by this matter. Thus:
Weight of the phial full of water..............................60.0
Weight of the matter..........................................4.0
84.0
Weight of the phial containing the mingled earth and water....  74.4
Difference of water displaced.......................- —.... 9.6
which is the weight of the volume of water equal to that of the
matter introduced into the phial; we have consequently for the specific gravity of the earth 2: -2.5, the weight of the water having
been taken as 1.
* Jchiibler, Annals of French Agriculture, vol. xl. p. 122, 2d serie
215
w 
IIMBIBING POWERS OF SOIL.
This number represents the mean specific gravity of the isolated
particles of the powder which has been examined. But we must
not from this density pretend to deduce the weight of a particular
volume of soil, a cubic foot or a cubic yard, for instance; we should
come to far too high a number.   The weight of a given volume of
earth must be determined immediately by ramming it into a mould
or measure of a known capacity.
From  M.  Schiibler's experiments it appears, 1st. that silicious
and calcareous sandy soils are the heaviest of any; 2d. that clayey
soils are of least density; 3d. that humus or mould is of much
lower density than clay; 4th. that a compound soil being generally
by so much the heavier as it contains a larger proportion of sand,
and so much the lighter as it contains a larger quantity of clay, of
calcareous earth, and of humus, it is possible from the density of a
soil to infer the nature of the principles which prevail in it. In the
course of his experiments M. Scheibler found that artificial mixtures
always gave higher densities than those that ought to have resulted
from the several densities of each of the sorts of substance which
formed the mixture.
Imbibitioti of water.  The power which soils possess of retaining
water or of resisting the too rapid dissipation of their moisture, is
higlhly important in its influence upon their fertility.  This faculty
is measured comparatively in the following manner: a given quantity of soil is taken, say from 3 to 400 grains; it is dried until it
ceases to lose weight; it is then made into a thin paste and thrown
upon a moistened filter; when it has ceased to drop it is weighed.
rThe increase of weight is plainly due to the quantity of water retained by the soil, thus
Weight of the dry soil...........................300.0
Weight of the moistened filter.....................75.0
375.0
Weight of the filter and moistened earth........525
Water absorbed.......................*- * -- 150
In the experiment quoted, 100 of dry earth absorbed or imbibed
50 of water. The following table contains the result of experi ments made on the imbibing power of different soils.
Water absorbed ly
Kind of earth.            100 parts of the earth.
Silicious sand              -- -- -................... -... -25
Gypsum..- -........................ 27
Calcareous sand.....................29
Sandy clay........................ 40
Strong clay............................ 50
Sandty clay........................ 70
Fine calcareous earth................ 85
Humus..........................190
Garden earth..........-............89
An arable soil......................50
Another arable soil.................... 48
It appears, therefore, that the silicious and  calcareous soils an,
the gypsum have the least afilinity for water; the clayey soil re tained by so much the more as it contained a smaller quantity of
sand; the fine calcareous earth retained 15 per cent. more than the
216
lr 
CONSISTENOY OF SOIL.
pure clay; while the calcareous sand retained 41 per cent. less.
This fact proves how much the state of subdivision must influence
the physical properties of soils; and it is easily to be understood
that in noting the presence of calcareous matter in an arable soil
we are carefully to indicate the form and degree of subdivision in
which it occurs; humus, however, is the substance which shows
itself most greedy of moisture, and we perceive from this fact wherefore soils rich in this principle have so strong an affinity for water.
Consistence, tenacity, friability of soils.   The  consistence or
tenacity of soils is an important property which agriculturists indicate when they speak of soils being strong or stiff, and light, the
amount of power expended in ploughing being taken as a measure
of these qualities.  To compare different soils under the point of
view of their tenacity in the dry state, M. Schiibler moulded various
kinds, duly moistened, into equal and similar parallelopipeds.
When these solids were completely dry, he placed either extremity
upon a fixed support, and by means of the scale of a balance hung
exactly from the middle of the prisms, he added weights gradually
until they gave way; the weight, supported by each parallelopipe(d
immediately before it broke, expressed its tenacity.
In working a damp soil we have not only to overcome its force of
cohesion, but further and principally to get the better of its adhesion
to our implements.  This consideration led M. Schiibler to estimate,
always comparatively, the power which it is necessary to expend in
working soils of different descriptions.   As the material which
enters into the construction of agricultural instruments is in general
iron and wood, he did no more than ascertain the disposition of the
soil to adhere to these two substances.  In the experiments, the
results of which we shall immediately detail, two discs were employed, one of iron, the other of beech-wood, having equal surfaces.
The disc was connected with the extremity of the arm of a very
delicate balance; it was then brought into perfect contact with the
moist soil, and when it adhered, the opposite scale of the balance was
loaded until the adhesion was overcome. In experiments of this
kind it is obviously indispensable that the soil in each instance should
have the same degree of humidity; they were tried, consequently,
at the point of saturation with water.
Pure dry clay possessed the greatest tenacity, and its power was
expressed by the number 100; the tenacity possessed by other matters was then compared to that of pure clay.  The following table
exhibits the results of the two series of experiments, viz. those
having reference to the tenacity and those having reference to the
frce of cohesion.
19
217 
TENACITY OF SOIL.
Vertical adheiona
Tenacity of SOl,                                     to  iron  aid to
Kind of soil.      that of pure clay Tenacity express- Cacie,on in the wooad c  a surface
being 100.     ed in weight.       ac:st state.    of 3.937 square,
________________   - inchef.
hikit.                             hit
kil.             kil.             kil.*
Silicious sand........      0                 0.                0.17              0.19
Calcareous sand...... 0.                           0.                0.19              0.20
Fine calcareous earth.            5.0               0.55              0.65              0.71
Gypsum...............  7.3                         0.81              0.49              0.53
Humus...............             8.7               0.97              0.40             0.42
Sandy clay...........   57.3                        6.36              0.35 0.40
Stiff clayey soil....... 68.8                      7.64              0.48              0.52
Strong clay.............83.3                       9.25              0.78              0.86
Pure clay............           100.0              11.10              1.22              1.32
Garden earth.........             7.6               0.84              0.29              0.34
Earth from Hoffwivyll..         33.0               3.66              0.26             0.28
Earth from the Jura...   22.0                      2.44              0.24              0.27
M. Schiibler finds, from his experiments, that a dry soil is very
easily worked when its tenacity does not exceed 10, that of pure
clay being 100 in the moist state.  Soils are further worked with
ease when their adherence to a surface 3.937 inches square is represented by a weight of from 0.15 to 0.30 kil.; i.e. from 0.380 to
0.760, or nearly -3d to -43ths of a lb. avoird.; the latter term passed,
the difficulty of working increases rapidly, and a very considerable
force is required when the adherence to the same surface amounts
to 0.70 kil. or 1.840 lbs. avoird.
The tenacity of a wet soil is not, however, in the direct ratio of
its faculty of imbibition. Loams and loose calcareous soils, which
absorb much more water than clay, are nevertheless much less tena- 
cious; and then water actually makes sandy soils stiffer than they L
are when dry.
Every practical farmer knows how much more friable stiff wet=
soils become from the effects of frost. The water in expanding as
it becomes solid pushes apart the molecules of the soil, and it is to
this action that the advantages of autumn ploughing are with justice
ascribed. M. Schiibler found that the cohesion of a stiff clay which
was equal to 68 fell to 45, when before it was tried the clay was
exposed to the frost.
Disposition of the soil to become dry.  The faculty of throwing
off by evaporation any excess of water with which it may be charged, is as essential to constitute a good soil as is that of retaining
moisture in due proportions. Those soils which throw off too slow
ly the excess of moisture they have acquired during the winter
occasion much trouble to the husbandman. They are perfectly un.
workable in the spring, and consequently can only be sown rely
,ate. M. Schuibler tried the retentive powers of the soil by the
following method.  A metallic disc, furnished with a narrow rim.
was suspended to the arm of a balance.  Over this disc, the soil tc
* The abbreviate kil. in the above table signifies killograinme, a weight equal to 2,
lbs. avoirdupois. As the wveights are principally interesting in their relations to *:k
another, it has not been thought necessary to reduce them to English weights.
218 
SHRINKING OF SOILS.
)e tried and previously brought to the point of saturation with moistare, was spread as evenly as possible. The weight of the disc
Lhus charged was noted, and it was weighed anew, after having
)een kept for four hours in a temperature of 18.75~ cent. (65.75~
Fahr.)  The weight of the water lost by evaporation was obtained
)y a second weighing; the complete desiccation of the soil was then
-ompleted in the stove. The following is the detail of one operation:
Weight of the moist earth............................ 310
Weight after four hours' exposure to the air............... 260
Water evaporated................................... 50
Weight of the moist earth............................... 310
Weight after complete desiccation...................... 200
Whole quantity of water contained in the soil tried....  110
Thus 100 of water of imbibition lost 45.5 during exposure to the
fir for 4 hours at a temperature of about 66~ Fahr. A more severely accurate method might readily be contrived, but that employ3d by M. Schuiibler appears sufficient for ordinary purposes. His
results, in regard to the different kinds of soil he tried, are these:
100 parts of the water
contained in  the soil lose
Kinds of soil.             in the course of 4 hours
at 66 deg. Fahr.
Silicious sand..............................    88.4
Calcareous sand........................75.9
Gypsum.............................. 71.7
Sandy clay............................52.0
Stiffish clay...........................45.7
Stiff clay......... -....................  34.9
P'ire clay............................. 31.9
Calcareous soil.........................28.0
Hunus............................... 20.5
Garden earth..........................24.3
Arable soil of Hoffvyll...................... 32.0
Arable soil of the Jura...................... 40.1
Of all the substances examined, sand and gypsum are obviously
those which allow the water to pass off most rapidly by evaporation.
The calcareous or chalky soil again has a high retentive power:
but it varies much in different instances, apparently in consequence
of different degrees of fineness; it is however surpassed by humus,
and the garden soil which was tried. Humus is therefore at the
head of the list of substances in reference to retentive properties.
All soils shrink more or less in drying, and form cracks, in the
way already indicated; the shrinking has been estimated by means
of prisms of soils measured in the moist state, and after being dried
in the shade:
Kinds of soil.                          100 parts cube
shrink to.
Carbonate of lime in fine powder................. 950
Sandy clay...............................940
Stiffish clay............................... 911
Stiff clay....................................... 886
Pure clay......................................  817
Humus.........................8.................846
Garden earth................................... 851
Arable soil of Hoffwyll.......................... 880
Arable soil of Jura..........................905
219 
HYGROMETRIC POWER OF SOILS.
Gypsum, silicious, and calcareous saiud do not appear in this table,
because they do not shrink in drying   The humus appears to have
shrunk the most; and dry hunmius is liable to swell in the same proportion when it is moistened. This property explains the obvious
elevation of certain turfy or mossy soils at the period of the rains.
Hygrometric property of soils. Agriculturists allow, that those
soils which have the property of attracting moisture from the atmosphere are generally among the most fertile. This hygrometric
property must not be confounded with that in virtue of which moisture is retained.  It appears to depend especially on the porousness
of a soil, and, probably, also, in solnle degree, on the deliquescent
salts which it contains, even in very small quantity. Davy was
disposed to regard the hygrometric property of soils as a certain
index of their good quality; and the experiments of M. Schiibler
upon the point, all tend to confirm the accuracy of this view. In
M. Schuibler's experiments, the increase of weight of dry soils was
ascertained by exposing them for a certain time in an atmosphere
kept at the point of saturation with moisture, and at the same temperature, between 60~ and 65~ Fahr.
500 centigrammes, or 77.165  rains troy, of soil, spread
upon a surface of 36,000 millmetres, or  141.48 square
Kind of soil.                             inchies, absorbed in
12 hours.      24 hours.       48 hours.      72 hours.
Grains.        Grains.        Graisns.        Grains.
Silicious sand............... 0                     0               0               0
Calcareous sand..............154.231.231.231
Gypsum.................  0.077                   0.077          0.077           0.077
Light clay................ 1.617                  2.002          2.156           2.156
Stiffish clay.............. 1.925                  2.310          2.618           2.695
Strong clay................   2.310               2.772          3.080          3.157
Pure clay................. 2.849                   3.234          3.696           3.773
Chalky soil in fine powder         2.002           2.387          2.695           2.695
Humnus.................. 6.160                  7.469          8.470           9.240
Garden earth..............   2.695                3.465          3.850           4.004
Arable soil of Hoffvyll...       1.232           1.771           1.771          1.771
Arable soil of Jura........... 1.078               1.463           1.540          1.540
From the results comprised in the preceding table, we may conclude, first, that the faculty of absorbing lessens as soils acquire
moisture; second, that humus is the most hygrometric of all the
substances examined; third, that the clays which absorb the largest
quantity of moisture are those which contain the smallest proportion
of sand; and fourth, that silicious sand and gypsum do not absorb
rmoisture in any appreciable quantity.
Absorption of oxygen gas by arable soils. Humboldt had already
observed, before the year 1793, that argillaceouis soils, the lydian
stone, certain schists, and humus, deprived the air of its oxygen.
He had also observed that the sides of the large cavities dug in the
salt mines of Saltzburg, absorbed this gas, and thus rendered the
stagnant atmosphere of the workings irrespirable and incapable of
supporting combustion. Finally, this illustrious observer had satis
220 
ABSORPTION OF OXYGEN BY SOILS.
factorily ascertained, at the same period, that earth taken from the
galleries of these mines, only became fertile after having been exposed to the atmosphere for a considerable length of time. I have
quoted these curious observations because they are, so far as I know,
the first which established the necessity of the presence of oxygen
in the interstices of the soil, or, as M. Humboldt then said, and, indeed, as may still be maintained, the utility of a previous oxidation
of the soil.
All our agricultural facts, indeed, confirm this view of the necessity
of air in the interstices of the soil that is destined for the growth of
vegetables.  When, by  ploughing very deeply, for example, we
bring up a portion of the subsoil into the arable layer, in order to increase its thickness, we always lessen the fertility of the ground for
a time; in spite of the action of manures, and of any treatment we
may adopt, a certain time must elapse before the subsoil can produce an advantageous effect; it is absolutely necessary that it have
been exposed to the atmospheric influences, and it is then only that
deep ploughing, which gives the arable layer a greater thickness,
pays completely for the expense it has occasioned.
I am disposed to ascribe the absorption of oxygen gas by clayey
;oils, to the oxide of iron, which they almost always contain, and
which is in the minimum state of oxidation, when the clay lies at a
certain depth. In the performance of some soundings in a tertiary
soil of the department of the lower Rhine, which I performed in
1822, I had occasion to observe that the clays brought up white by
the borer, very speedily became blue by exposure to the air; and
that in gaining color they condensed oxygen. I propose returning
upon this fact to show the important part which this simple superoxidation probably plays in the amelioration of soils.*
M. Schiibler, again, has studied the action of oxygen gas upon the
component parts of arable soils, and, according to him, the absorption of this gas cannot be doubted; it is very trifling in connection
with sand and gypsum, very decided as regards clay, loam, and
humus. As M. de Humboldt and M. de Saussure had already done,
M. Schtibler observed humus to change a portion of the oxygen
which it fixed, into carbonic acid; but, in general, the other substances, or soils, or elements of soils, upon which he experimented,
appeared to absorb the oxygen by the intermedium of the protoxitde
of iron, from which they are never altogether free. Besides this
cause, due to the superoxidation of a metal, M. Schiib]er thinks that
a certain portion of the oxygen disappears by condensation within
the pores of some soils; and in support of his opinion he appeals to
the admirable observations of M. de Saussure, on the condensation
of the gases by porous bodies.  Starting from the fact that the roots
of plants require the presence of oxygen in order to thrive, he
* Austin proved, that during the oxidation of metallic iron under water, there is a
constant production of ammonia. Certain experiments commenced somle time ago, and
which I still continue, will establish in the most precise manner, as I hope, the fact
that this formation of amminonia likewise takes place during the passage of the protoxide of iron to the state of hydrated peroxide.  The theoretical conclusions deducible
fromn this fact, and the economic applications whichl may flow from it, must be obvious.
19*
221 
CAPACITY OF SOILS FOR HEAT.
ascribes a greater power to the gases compressed or condensed
within the interstices of the soil. But the action of the air upon the
roots of vegetables is readily conceivable in soils of a loose nature,
especially if they have been sufficiently worked, without the necessity
of having recourse to such an explanation.
Capacity of soils for heat. The quantity of heat which a soil will
receive, retain, or throw off in a given time, depends upon the conducting power which it possesses. M. Schubler endeavored to
measure this power comparatively by measuring the rates of cooling.
In a vessel of the capacity of 595 cubic centimetres, or 234.2 cubic
inches, filled with the substance to be tried, a thermometer was
placed, with its bulb in the centre. The temperature having been
brought up to 62.5~ C., (144.5~ Fahr.,) the time was noted which
each substance required to fall to 21.2~ C., or about 70~ Fahr., the
temperature of the surrounding air being 16.2~ C., or about 610 Fahr.
Time which 2314.2 cubic
inches of soil required
Power of retuisciug heat,  to coot from 1440 - to700o
Kind of soil.           thot of colcureous    s   Fahr., the temperuture
being 100.        f
e                ~~~~~~of tihe surroundin:ne air
being about 61 o  ahr.
h.m.
Calcareous sand.........        100.0                    3.30
Silicious sand................. 95.6                             3.27
Gypsum...................  73.2                                  2.34
Sandy clay..............-. — 76.9                     2.41
Stiffish clay................... 71.1                             2.30
Stiff clay..................            68.4                     2.24
Pure clay..... -........... 66.7                                2.19
Calcareous sol........... - 61.8                                2.10
Humus...................   49.0                                   1.43
Garden earth..........                 64.8                      2.16
Arable soil of Hoffwyll...               70.1                     2.27
Arable soil of the Jura.o.               74.3                    0.36
The general observations which these experiments suggest, are
that, for equal volumes, calcareous or silicious sand possesses greater
powers of retaining heat than any of the other substances tried.
This fact explains the high temperature and the dryness which
sandy soils maintain even during the night in summer. Humus is
obviously the substance which possesses the highest conducting
powers.
Degrees in which soils become heated under exposure to the sun.
There is no one who has not had occasion to observe the high temperature which bodies acquire when exposed to the rays of the
bright sun.  There are some, such as dry sand, slates, and certain
colored rocks, which become burning hot. It is by the heat of the
sun that the soil, before it is shaded by the leaves and stems of plants,
rises in temperature, and throws off the excess of moisture which it
had imbibed in the winter.   Agriculturists all know how different
the degree in which this heating takes place, even in soils that are
close to one another. A light-colored, moist, clayey soil will heat
much less than a dark-colored, calcareous, or sandy soil. The dif
222 
CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS.
ferences in the heat acquired in various soils depend, 1st, on the
state of their surface; 2d, on their composition; 3d, on the quantity
of water which they contain; and, 4th, on the angle of incidence of
the sun's rays.  M. Schtbler, by a method which is far from being
unobjectionable, bult which may be excused, considering the ditlhculties of the subject, measured the temperature acquired by different
soils exposed to the sun for the same length of time, and in circuunstances as nearly alike as possible; the numbers obtained are given
in the following table:
Highest temperature acquired by the upper
layer, the mean temperature of the atmo           Soils                    sphere being 25~ C. (77~ F.)
The soil moist, de-    The soil dry, de                               grees  centigrade.    grees centigrade.
Silicious sand, yellowish -ray... 37.25 (99~ F.)            44.75 (112~.5 F.)
Calcareous sand, whitish gray          37.38                 44.50
Bright gypsum, whitish gray......    36.25                  43.62
Poor clay, yellowish........... -...36.75                44.12
Stiffclay...................... 37.25                       44.50
Argillaceous earth, yellowish gray    37.38                  44.62
Pure clay, bluish gray............   37.50                 45.00
Calcareous earth, white..........  35.63 (96.1 F.)           43.00 (109~.4 F.)
Humus, blackish gray............ -   39.75 (103~.5 F.)      47.37
Garden earth, blackish gray......  37.50                     45.25
Arable earth of Hoffwyll, gray....   36.88                44.25
Arable earth of the Jura, gray - -- -    36.50               43.75
In comnparing the circumstances which concur in assisting the
action of the sun's rays in raising the temperature of the soil, it
appears that the color and moistness of the soil and the angle of
incidence of the sun's rays are the most influential; they may occasion differences in the temperature acquired of from 14~ to 15~ C.,
(25~ to 27~ F.) The nature of the surface and the composition of
the soil are far from producing such marked differences; although,
according to M. Schuibler, the effect of inclination is very decided,
and may occasion a difference to the amount of 25~ C., (45~ F.)
CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS.
Agriculturists class soils according to their fertility, and the
cropping which they will stand to advantage.' In practice two grand
divisions have been adopted: strong soils, and light soils; every
soil belongs wholly or in part to one or other of these divisions.
In strong soils clay is the predominating element; in light soils it
is sand which prevails. The first are stiff, little permeable, and
slow in drying; the second are loose, dry speedily and readily, are
permeable, and less difficult to labor. Humus always adds to the
qualities of these two kinds of soil, though possessed of properties
so opposite; but its utility is especially remarkable in argillaceous
or clayey soils, the extreme stiffness of which it diminishes.
I'
223 
SOILS.
Stiff or strong soils share in the advantages and disadvantages
)eculiar to clay; they absorb a great deal of moisture, and they do
not dry readily, retaining obstinately a considerable quantity of wa ter. The humus which they contain, and the manures which are
spread upon them in the course of cultivation, remain with them for
a long time, preserved as it were from the too active agency of at mospheric influences; the fertilizing power of these substances is
further rarely interfered with by too great a degree of dryness in the
soil. Nevertheless, in very wet seasons, and in years of extraordi nary drought, the advantages which I have enumerated disappear.
In wet seasons clay lands become immoderately humid, sometimes
they approach the state of mere puddle; and on the contrary, under
severe and long-continued drought, they become so hard that the
roots of vegetables can no longer penetrate them, and then they
crack in all directions, and the roots perish for want of being prop erly covered. I might add that severe frost is the cause of effects
disadvantageous in the same degree; so that very stiff clays are
liable to the same bad effects under the influence of two causes dia metrically opposed: the great heat of summer and the severe cold
of winter.
In such soils all agricultural operations are often impracticable
changed into a liquid mud, neither horse nor plough can be put upon
them, or baked into a mass having the hardness of stone, the share
will not penetrate them.
Light soils rarely accumulate an excess of moisture in their interstices, so that they are liable to suffer under want of rain of even
short continuance. They are worked with infinitely greater ease,
and at much less expense; vegetation upon them is quicker, and
harvests earlier; but manure is less profitable than in clayey soils,
because the rains dissolve and carry it away.
The defects of these two kinds of soils are precisely of a nature
to compensate one another, and it is in fact by a mixture, or that
-which is equivalent to a mixture of these two extreme kinds of soil,
that those lands are formed which are admitted to be the best adapted
to cultivation, and the most fertile of all. Messrs. Thaer and Einhoff,
in submitting to mechanical analysis an immense number of arable
s'ils, and in studying at the same time the system of culture best
adapted to these soils, and to their relative fertilities, have given us
results of great importance, and which may be made the basis of a
practical classification of arable soils.*
An argillaceous or clayey soil properly so called, generally contains about 40 per cent. of sand.  If the quantity of sand be less
than this, the crop from such a soil will be more or less precarious,
and the tenacity will be synch, that considerable difficulty will be experienced and necessary expense incurred in working it; such a
clavey soil, (having at least 40 per cent. of sand,) when it contains
a sufficient quantity of humus and is properly treated, may be regarded as favorable for wheat. Barley succeeds better than wheat, when
* Thaer's Rational Principles of Agriculture, (in French,) vol. ii. p. 115.
224 
CLASSIFICATION.
the quantity of sand is as low as 30 per cent. With less than 30
per cent. oats will thrive. Wheat may still be advantageously cul
tivated upon lands that contain from 40 to 50 per cent. of sand;
beyond this term, when the soil contains from 50 to 60 per cent. of
sand, it is more advantageous to grow barley. Such a soil will not
be completely pulverized by reiterated ploughing, as will that which
contains a larger proportion of silicious matter, and it does not become hard and cracked under drought like lands that are more
essentially clavey, because it retains a sufficiency of moisture; it is
equally well adapted for trefoil of all kinds, for tubers, for plants
with tap roots, and for many other crops of great marketable value,
such as cabbage, flax, tobacco, &c. It is almost always accessible,
a circumstance which allows of the greatest care being bestowed
upon the crops which are raised upon it. In soils which yield on
washing from 60 to 80 per cent. of sand, we cannot reckon securely
on the success of wheat. At 70 of sand, it ceases to be well adapted
to the cultivation oj this grain, except with especial precautions; but
it is still well adapted to barley, and it is in such a soil especially
that rye succeeds best.
Land with such a dose of sand is always easily labored, but it is
more apt to be overrun by foul weeds than a soil that is decidedly
argillaceous.  Manures are speedily consumed in it for the reason
already given; it is, therefore, advantageous to manure such land
frequently, laying on less dung at a time. A soil having 75 per cent.
of sand, is qualified by Thaer as an oat soil, and even up to 85 per
cent. of sand it may be regarded as suitable to this grain; this term
passed, nothing but rye or buckwheat ought to be sown upon it,
and that only after it has had a sufficient dose of manure. The reiterated ploughings which some of these sandy soils require to get
rid of the foul w-eeds which rush up in such quantities upon them,
sometimes rende them so open that rye will not succeed. The best
course is then to lay them down in grass, and allow them to become
consolidated by st.
It is extremely difficult, at least in this climate of ours, to make
any thing of soils that contain 90 per cent. of sand; in times of
drought they become true moving sands. As we have already shown,
calcareous matter may replace silicious sand in the part which it
plays in an arable soil; like sand, calcareous matter tends to destroy the strong cohesion of the particles of clay: but it appears that
chalk or lime, especially when it is in a state of minute subdivision,
besides this effect, really contributes to the amelioration of wheat
lands.
The f!llowing table comprises the results obtained by Thaer and
Einhoff. I must observe, however, and from causes which have
been already explained as influencing the determination of the humus,
that this substance is evidently estimated at much too high a figure
in several of these analyses, which deserve to be made anew under
the precautions that are now familiarly known.
225
A 
SOIL.
Soils according to com-  Usually designated.               - 
X
po~~~~~~~sually designated.  >IH  9 
position.                                     e
n ~
Clay with humus......Rich wheat land......... 74  10    4 11.5
ditto..............  ditto.............81   6    4  8.5
ditto..............   ditto.............79  10    4  6.5
Marty soil.............   ditto.............40  22   36 4
Light soil, with humus..  Meadow land............ 14  49   10 27
Sandy soil, humus......Rich barley land........ 20  67    3 10
Argillaceous land........ Good wheat land.........58  36    2  4 
Marly soil............ Wheat land- -............56  30   12  2
Argillaceous land....... ditto............. 60  38          2
Stiffer argillaceous land.  ditto.............48  50       2
Clay..................  ditto.............68  30            2
Stiff argillaceous land... Barley land of the 1st class 38  60  2
ditto............... ditto      2d class 33  65       2
Sandy clay............      ditto       ditto 28  70       2
ditto........... Oat land................. 23.5 75     1.5
Clayey sand...........  ditto................18.5 80    1.5
ditto............ Rye land................14.85     1
Sandysoil............. ditto.................9   90        1
d      tditto..............ditto............... 4  95  0.75
ditto...ditto.dittditto...............2  97.5  0.5
Schwertz has given a summary of the opinions of Thaer upon the
value of different soils from an eminently practical point of view.
Agreeing with this distinguished agriculturist, that it is well to judge
of the soil by its produce, he also forms a scale of comparison after
thle different kinds of grain, taking as extreme terms wheat and barley, the first succeeding in bad argillaceous soils, the second still
growing in sandy soils of the poorest description. In these extrenme
or boundary soils, wheat and barley succeed very indifferently indeed; but between the two extremes are comprised every variety of
soil which results from the fusion of the strongest or stiffest with the
lightest soils, from the most tenacious clay up to loose sand. Is.
these mixed soils of intermediate qualities, wheat and barley gradually approach one another, taking the place successively of barley,
oats, and buckwheat, until they meet in the middle of the scale in
a kind of neutral soil, upon which every variety of grain may be
grown.
Schwertz arranged his scale in the following manner:*
0. Moving sand........................0. Stiff clay.
1. Rye land..................... 1. Wheat land.
2. Rye and buckwheat land............2. Wheat and oat land.
3. Rye, buckwheat, and oat land........3. Wheat, oat, and barley land.
4. Rye, oat, and small barley land........ 4 WNheat and large barley land.
5. Wheat, rye, barley, a,/ oat land.
The species of soil which suit these different crops are:
1. Light dry sand........................ 1. Cold stiff clay.
2. Moist, very slightly argillaceous sand...2. A lighter moist clay.
3. Argillaceous sand.....................3. A warm dry clay
4. Sandy clay...........................    4. Rich clay.
5. Clay.
* Precepts of Practical Agriculture, (in French,) p. 49.
226 
CLASSIFICATION.
The preceding considerations are more than sufficient to give a
precise idea of what is to be understood in regard to the composition
of arable soils. Nevertheless, with a view to making the subject
more complete, I shall quote a few of the analyses of arable soils,
published by different chemists at a time when a certain importance
was attached to researches of this kind. I may remark generally,
that from the whole of the analyses of good wheat lands which have
hitherto been made, it appears that carbonate of lime enters in considerable quantity into their composition; and theory, in harmony
with practice, tends to show that it is aavantageous to have this
earthy salt as a constituent in the manures which are put upon soils
that contain little or no lime.
Analysis of a soil under the variety of rape called colza, by M.
Berthier:
Silica...................................78.2
Alumina.........................7.1
Peroxide of iron..............., 4.4
Lime......................... 1.9
Magnesia....................... 0.8
Carbonic acid............... 1.4
Water.... -.................      5.8
99.6
This soil was dried in the air, after having been reduced to powder; it lost 34 per cent. by drying. It is remarkable that it contains no trace of organic matter, the rather as it was held favorable
for colewort. M. Berthier believes that this soil would gain in fertility by the addition of a certain quantity of calcareous matter, and
M. Cordier* explains its inability to grow grain to advantage from
the deficiency in lime. The stalk of the grain grown in this soil is
weak, especially in wet seasons, and the seed is particularly apt to
shake out when it is ripe.
If the presence of lime in a wheat soil is a guaranty against loss
by shaking in harvest, M. Berthier's analysis is still far from proving
that the presence of lime in a soil is indispensable, inasmuch as
beautiful wheat crops are grown in the neighborhood of Lisle without
lime. In proof of this fact, I shall here cite the analysis of one of
the most fertile soils in the world, the black soil of Tchornoizem,
which Mr. Murchison informs us constitutes the superficies of the
arable lands comprised between the 54th and 57th degrees of north
latitude, along the left bank of the Volga as far as Tcheboksar, from
Nijni to Kasan, and stretching over a still more extensive district
upon the Asiatic side of the Ural mountains. Mr. Murchison is of
opinion that this land is a submarine deposite formed by the accumulation of sands rich in organic matters. The Tchornoizem is composed of black particles mixed with grains of sand; it is the best
soil in Russia for wheat and pasturage; a year or two of fallow will
suffice to restore it to its former fertility after it has been exhausted
by cropping; it is never manured.
M. Payen found in this black and fertile soil:
* On the Agriculture of French Flanders, p. 232, (in French.)
227 
SOIL.
Organiic matter..............695   containing2.45 pet
Silica............71.56       cent. of azote.
Alumina                        71. 56
Alumina............ -..-.-.11.4
11.40
Oxide of iron...............5.62
Lime.............. 0.80
Magnesia............. * —...-.-.1.2
Magnesia.            1.22
Alkaline chlorides............ 1.21
Phosphoric acid............. a trace.
Loss......................... 1.24
100.00
Bergman gives the following as the composition of a fertile soil it
Sweden:
Carbonate of lime............ 30
Gravel....................30)
Silicious sand............. - - 26  Clay.
Alumina..................... 14
100.0
Several fertile soils of Senegal, examined by M. Laugier, conained:
LOCALITIES.
Rawei.  Doukitt.   Diague.   Roso.   N'Dick.
Silicious sand and silica.......  87.0  72.0     89.0       78.0     91.0
Alumina................... 3.6          10.0       3.0       7.0      1.8
Oxide of iron................   3.4       8.0       3.6       5.2      3.0
Carbonate of lime........... trace      trace      0.5     trace      0.5
Organic matter and water.....   4.4      10.0       3.6       9.0      3.0
Loss........................ 1.6 " 0.3                       0.8       0.7
100.0     oo. 100.0  100.0    100.0     0
M. Plagne, who  has studied the agriculture of the Coromandel
coast, divides the soils he met with there into argillaceous, or clayey,
sandy, and mixed, and gives their several compositions as follows:
Argillaceous.   Sandy.    Mixed.
Silica......................  22.0         82.0       64.0
Alumina............ -...... 59.0         6.5       19.5
Carbonate of lime............  3.5        3.5        2.5
Oxide of iron............... 2.5          4.0         4.0
Phosphate of magnesia....  2.0 t.
Sulphate of lime.............        race
Azotized organic matter —-......- 5.0      "          7.0
Water and loss.............8.0              2.0        3.0
100.0      100.0       100.0
'Ihe soils in which  the tea-plant is grown in Assam  and China,
i,tve been examined by Mr. Piddington;* they contain respectively:
Assam soil.
84.8
4.5
7.0
traces
1.5
2.3
100.1
Silica and sand.........................
Alumina...................................
Oxide of iron............................
Phosphate and sulphate of lime..........             tae
Organic matter..........................
Water.................................      
Sir Humphrey Davy found the various soils most generally cultivated in England, to have the following composition:
* Robinson, Account of Assau, p. 130.
228
i.." ".il.
76.0
9.0
9.9
1.0
1.0
3.0
99.9 
CLASSIFICATION.
5     5.     t.
Disirncti.      5 >   a:  i'E-''II:D                  i   X        Remrks.
County of Kent 66.3 5.2 3.3 4.8  0.8  1.2  8.0  0.5  4.9 5.0 under hops.
Norfolk              88.9  1.7   1.2  7.0..    0.3  0.6..    0.3..    Dittounder
- turnips.
Middlesex 60.0 12.8 11.6 1.           4.4...... Very good
.-~ * —~ ~I  soil, wheat.
Worcestershire                   4.0  5.6          1.2  2.8                             ertile
60.0 1             6.4.                                   I Very
''soil.
Vale   of the Teviot  83.3  7.0  6..         0.8     1.4..Good soil.
soilodwheat.
Excellent
Salisbury             9.1 12.7   6.4 57.3.          1.8.12.7. "                "grazing soil.
M. Gasparin has published analyses of the soils of the south of
France. Instead of destroying the humus and organic matter by
calcination, as Davy and the generality of analysts did, M. Gasparin
dissolved out the humus by means of a strong alkaline solution.
This method of procedure is. however, at least as liable to objection
as the other.
Calca         Districts.          sumus.  reocs. Clay.  Sand.          Remarks.
matter.
From Thor (Vaucluse)              7.5   92.5    6.0    1.5    Middling wheat soil.
Alluvium of the Rhone             3.4     2.3   53.5  42.7    Well adapted for mad                                                    ~ der, wheat & lucern.
From Palus, near Orange           2.5   55.5  43.5    1.0   Bad wheat land.
IGood wheat land, very
Old deposite of the Rhone         5.0   32.5   56.0   11.5   Gooindifferent lr nadd,er.
indiiterent for mladder.
From the plains near Orange       4.0   50.0   48.0    2.0
Neighborhood of Auch.5    3.5  73.0   23.0   Ditto, bad for madder.
There is an important element which must always be taken into
the account in estimating the value of soils, no matter what their
special composition; this element is their depth, or thickness. In
running a deepish furrow in a cultivated field, we generally distinguish at a glance the depth of the superficial layer, which is commonly designated as the mould or vegetable earth; this is a layer
generally impregnated with humus, and looser and more friable than
the subsoil upon which it rests. The thickness of this superficial
layer is extremely variable; it is frequently no more than about 3
inches; but it is also encountered of every depth from 3 or 4 to 12
or 13 inches. It must be held all exceptional and unusual case when
it has a depth of 3 feet or nmore. Nevertheless we do meet with
collections of vegetable soil of great depth, deposited by rivers,
washed down into the bottoms of valleys, or accumulated on the
surface, as in the virgin forests or vast prairies of America. Depth
of mould, or vegetable soil, is always advantageous; it is one of the
20
229 
DEPTHI OF SOIL.
best conditions to successful agriculture.  If wve  have depth of soil
and the roots of our plants do not penetrate sufficiently to derive
benefit from the fertility that lies below, we can always, by working
a little deeper, bring up the inferior layers to the surface, and so
make them concur in fertilizing the soil. And, independently of
this great advantage, a deep soil suffers less either from excess or
deficiency of nmoisture; the rain that falls has more to moisten, and
is therefore absorbed in greater quantity than by thin soils, and,
once imbibed, it remains in store against drought.
The layer upon which the vegetable earth rests, is the subsoil,
which it is of importance to examine, inasmuch as the qualities, and,
consequently, the value of an arable soil, have always a certain relation with the nature and properties of this subjacent stratum.   Frequently, and especially in hilly countries, the mineral constitution of
the subsoil is the same as that of the soil, and any difference that
the former may present is owing especially to tte presence of humus,
and to the looser condition which results from the growth of vegetables, from ploughing, &c., and not from atmospheric influences.
By deep ploughing done cautiously, the thickness of the layer of
arable land may be increased at the expense of the subsoil, and,
when plenty of manure can be commanded, the operation will go on
with considerable rapidity.  Still it is maintained, and indeed in
many cases it is unquestionable, that thile soil loses temporarily some
portion of its fertility by the introduction of a certain quantity of the
subsoil, and that, under ordinary circumstances, several years elapse
before any amelioration becomes perceptible.
In plains, in high table-lands, the analogy, in point of constitution,
between the soil and subsoil is not so constant.  In such situations
the arable land is frequently an alluvial deposite proceeding from the
destruction or disintegration of rocks situated at a great distance.
When the superior strata possess properties that are entirely different from the subsoils, it may be understood how the vegetable earth
may be improved by the addition of a certain dose of the subsoil, and
this is the case in which the amelioration is the least expensive.
The impermeability of the subsoil is one grand cause of the too great
humidity of a cultivated soil. A strong soil, very tenacious through
the excess of clay which it contains, has its disadvantageous properties considerably lessened, if the subsoil upon which it rests is sandy,
1st, from the evident amelioration which must result from an admixture of the two layers, and, next, because it is always a positive
advantage in having a soil which has a strong affinity for water
superposed upon a subsoil which is extremely permeable. The inverse situation is scarcely less desirable  a light friable soil will have
greater value if it lies upon a bottom of a certain consistency, and
capable of retaining moisture; witi this condition, however, that the
clayey layer shall not be too uneven in its surface, that it shall not
present great hollows in which water may collect and stagnate; an
impermeable subsoil, to act beneficially in such circumstances, must
have a sufficient inclination to admit of its draining itself. The most
essential distinction, then, in regard to the nature of subsoils is, into
230 
SOILS IN REFERENCE TO CLIMATE.
permeable and impermeable. Acquainted with the nature of vegetable earth, it is easy to judge of the advantages or disadvantages
which will be presented by subsoil having the faculty of retaining or
of permitting the escape of moisture.
In some situations, particularly upon the slopes of hills, the layer
of arable land is of very limited thickness, and it is not uncommon
to see it lying upon rocks of the most dense description, such as
granite, porphyry, basalt, &c.; in such circumstances the substrata
are unavailable, and there is nothing for it then in the way of amelioration except to transport directly vegetable earth from other
situations. Mica schist is perhaps the least intractable rocky subsoil; the plough often penetrates it, and in the long run it becomes
mingled with the arable layer. It is generally agreed that limestone
rocks form a less unfavorable substrate. There are in fact some
calcareous rocks which absorb water, and crumble away, and the
roots of various plants, such as cinquefoin, penetrate them deeply;
but there are many limestone rocks so hard that they resist all decomposing action for a very long period of time.
The qualities which we have thus far sought to determine in soils,
do not depend solely on their mineral constitution or their physical
properties, nor yet on those of the subsoils which support them.
These qualities to become obvious require that the soils shall be
placed in certain conditions which must not be left out of the reckoning.   Such are those of the climate enjoyed and of the position
more or less inclined to the horizon in one direction or another.
'the precepts which we have laid down are especially applicable to
the arable lands of Germany, England, and France. But in generalizing it would be proper to say that clayey lands answer better in
dry climates, and light sandy soils in countries where rains are frequent. Kirwan made this remark long ago in connection with numerous analyses of wheat lands. The conclusion to which this
celebrated chemist camne was this, that the soil best adapted for wheat
in a rainy country must be viewed in a very different way with reference to a country where the rains are less frequent.  The fertility
of light sandy soils is notoriously in intimate relationship with the
frequent fall of rain. At Turin, for example, where a great deal of
rain falls, a soil which contains from 77 to 80 per cent. of sand is
still held fertile, while in the neighborhood of Paris, where it rains
less frequently than at Turin, no good soil contains more than 50 per
cent. of sand. A light sandy soil which in the south of France
would only be of very inferior value, presents real advantages in the
moist climate of England.* Irrigation supplies the place of rain,
and in those countries or situations where recourse can be had to it,
the question in regard to the constitution of soils loses nearly the
whole of its interest.  Land that can he irrigated has only to be
loose and permeable in order to have the whole of the fertility de veloped which climate and manure can confer. Sandy deserts are
sterile because it never rains. Upon the sandy downs of the coasts
* Sinclair's Practical Agriculture.
231 
SOILS ILV REFERENCE TO CLIM1ATE.
of the Southern Ocean, a brilliant vegetation is seen along the course
of the few rivers which traverse them; all beyond is dust and ster
ility. I have seen rich crops of maize gathered upon the plateau of
the Andes of Quito in a sand that was nearly moving, but which
was abundantly and dexterously irrigated.
A sandy and little coherent soil is by sc such the more favorably
situated as it lies in the least elevated parts of a district; it is then
less exposed to the effects of drought; any considerable degree of
inclination is unfavorable to such a soil, inasmuch as the rain drains
off too quickly, and because it is itself apt to be washed away. It
is to prevent this action of the rains, that the abrupt slopes of hills
are generally left covered with trees; and the deplorable conse quences which have followed from cutting down the woods in moun tainous countries are familiarly known.
Strong soils, on the contrary, are better placed in opposite cir cumstances. A certain inclination is peculiarly advantageous to
them; and, indeed, in working clayey lands that stand upon a dead
level, we  are careful to ridge them in such a way as to favor the
escape of water.
In countries situated beyond the tropics, where consequently
shadows are cast in the same direction throughout the whole year,
the exposure of a piece of land is by no means matter of indifference. In our hemisphere, the lands which have a considerable inclination and a northern exposure, receive less heat and light, and
remain longer wet than those that slope towards the south; vegetation consequently is less forward upon the former than the latter
lands: but, on the contrary, the latter are less exposed to suffer
from want of rain; and it is a fact, now well ascertained from data
collected in Switzerland and in Scotland, that the slopes which descend towards the north, if they be only not too abrupt, are actually
the most productive. This kind of anomaly is explained by the frequlence and rapidity of the thaws which take place upon slopes that
lie to the south.  Frost, when not too intense, is certainly less injurious to vegetables than too rapid a thaw; and it is easy to understand that in situations where, from the mere effect of nocturnal
radiation, vegetables are covered almost every morning through the
spring with hoar frost, a rapid thaw must take place every day immediately after the rise of the sun. With a northern exposure, the
frost occurs in the same measure; but the cause of its cessation
does not operate so suddenly, the fusion of the rime being effected
by the gradual rise in temperature of the surrounding air.  In other
respects, it is obvious that the advantages and disadvantages of different exposures are connected with the nature and the constitution
of soils. The same may be said with reference to means of shelter
from the action of prevailing winds. Stiff wet lands are much benefited by the action of free currents of air; our stiff soils at Bechelbronn remain impracticable for our ploughs during but too long a
period of the spring, when they have not been well dried in the
months of March and April by strong winds from the east. Light
and sandy soils, again, require to be well sheltered. The whole ob
232 
IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS.
ject of studying the soil, is its amelioration; the industry of the
agriculturist is, in fact, more effectually bestowed, and exerts a
greater amount of influence upon the soil than upon all the other and
z~.eatd arents which favor vegetation.
1o iml).ove a soil is as much as to say that we seek to modify its
constitution, its physical properties, in order to bring them into harmony with the climate and the nature of the crops that are grown.
In a district where the soil is too clayey our endeavor ought to be, to
make  it acquire to a certain extent the qualities of light soils.
Theory indicates the means to be followed to effect such a change;
it suffitces to introduce sand into soils that are too stiff, and to mix
clav with those that are too sandy. But these recommendations of
science which, indeed, the common sense of mankind had already
pointed out, are seldom realized in practice, and only appear feasible
to those who are entirely unacquainted with rural economy. The
digging up and transport of the various kinds of soil according to
the necessities of the case, are very costly operations, and I can
quote a particular instance in illustration of the fact: my land at
Becheibronn is generally strong; experiments made in the garden
on a small scale showed that an addition of sand improved it considerably. In the middle of the farm there is a manufactory which
accumulates such a quantity of sand that it becomes troublesome;
nevertheless, I am satisfied that the improvement by means of sand
would be too costly, and that all things taken into account, it would
be better policy to buy new lands with the capital which would be
required to improve those I already possess in the manner which has
been indicated. I should have no difficulty in citing numerous instances where improvements by mingling different kinds of soil were
ruinous in the end to those who undertook them.
A piece of sandy soil, for example, purchased at a very low price,
after having been suitably improved by means of clay, cost its proprietor much more than the price of the best land in the country.
Great caution is therefore necessary in undertaking any improvement
of the soil in this direction,-Iin changing suddenly the nature of the
soil.  Improvement ought to take place gradually and by good husbandry, the necessary tendency of which is to improve the soil.
Upon stiff clayey lands we put dressings and manures which tend
to divide it, to lessen its cohesion, such as ashy, turf, long manure,
&c.  But the husbandman has not always suitable materials at his
command, and in this case, which is perhaps the usual one, he must
endeavor, by selecting his crops judiciously, crops which shall agree
best with stiff soils, and at the same time meet the demands of his
nmarket, to make the most of his land. In a word, the true husbandman ought to know the qualities and defects of the land which he
cultivated, and to be guided in his operations by these; and in fact
it is only with such knowledge that he can know the rent he can
afford to pay, and estimate the amount of capital which he can reasonably employ in carrying on the operations of his farm.
In an argillaceous or clayey soil, which we have seen above is the
best adapted for wheat in these countries, it would be absurd to per                               20*
233 
IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS.
sist in attempting to grow crops that require an open soil. Clayey
lands generally answer well for meadows, and autumn ploughing is
always highly advantageous to them by reason of the disintegrating
effects of the ensuing winter frost.
Chalk occupies a large space in recent formations; as a general
rule, the soil it supports immediately is of no great fertility. Sir
John Sinclair proposed to improve such soil by growing green crops
and consuming them upon the spot. Properly treated, the chalky
soils of England produce trefoil, turnips, and barley, and they are
particularly adapted to cinquefoin. It is doubtful whether in France,
where the climate is not so moist as in Engfland, chalky lands could
be treated to advantage on the English plan.  Recent inquiries have
shown that chalk contains a small quantity of phosphate of lime, a
salt, as we shall see by and by, whose presence is always desirable
in arable lands.
Turf or turfy soils yield rich crops when we succeed in converting
the turf into humus. The grand difficulty in dealing with turf is to
dry it properly, inasmuch as it is generally found at the bottom of
valleys or of old lakes and swamps. By a happy coincidence, turfy
deposites frequently alternate with layers of sand, of gravel, of clay,
and of vegetable earth, which have been accumulated at the same
epoch. By a mixture, by a division of these different materials,
preceded in every case, however, by proper draining, mere peat bogs
may be turned into good arable soil. Pyritic turf, however, shows
itself more intractable, it rarely yields any thing of importance. To
improve such a soil it is absolutely necessary to have recourse to
substances of an alkaline nature, such as chalk or lime, wood-ashes,
&c., which have the property of decomposing the sulphate of iron
which is formed by the efflorescence of the pyrites. Turfy lands
can also be brought into an arable state, with the help of paring and
burning. Scotch agriculturists, who are very familiar with reclaiming land of this kind, hold, that the best method of improving turf or
bog lands, is to turn them into natural meadows.  Where the wet
and soft state of the soil does not allow cattle to be driven upon it,
the crop of hay should only be cut once, the second crop should be
left standing. By proceeding in this way mere bogs have been turned
into productive meadows.* Turfy lands thoroughly drained and improved, present many advantages connected with their natural but
not excessive moistness. In the neighborhood of Haguenau, magnificent hop-gardens are found upon bottoms of this kind; madder
also thrives in it equally well, and for certain special crops it is in my
opinion one of the richest soils.
Sandy soils do perfectly well in countries which are not exposed
to long droughts; their cultivation is attended with little expense,
and they grow excellent crops of turnips, potatoes, carrots, and
rye; but it is well to exclude clover, oats, wheat, and hemp, which
require a soil of greater consistence.  In southern countries, a system of irrigation is absolutely necessary, in connection with the
* Sinclair, Practical Agriculture
234 
MOVING SANDS-DOWNS.
cultivation of sandy soils if they are not watered, they remain nearly
barren; the only mode of making them productive is to lay them
out in plantations of timber.
Those moving sandy plains of great extent, which are found in the
interior of many continents, seem at first sight stricken with eternal
barrenness   Nevertheless, the mobility of the sand of the desert,
which permits it to be swept hither and thither, and to be tossed
about like a liquid mass, depends less upon the total absence of argillaceous particles than upon the want of the moisture necessary to
agglutinate or to fix its grains. The burning steppes of Africa and
America have their oases here and there, the surface of which,
moistened by a spring, is green with vegetation; and whenever
sandy plains are bathed by a river, it is possible to render them fit for
cultivation. In Spain, for instance, in the neighborhood of San Lucar de Baromeda, a powdery soil of extreme dryness has been fertilized by the hand of man. The mammillated downs of San Lucar
are covered on the surface by a layer of quartzy sand, so loose that
it is blown about by the wind; but by a happy disposition of things,
a lower stratum of these downs is kept constantly moist by the waters of the Guadalquiver, and it is only necessary to remove the superficial sand, and to level the surface, in order to have a loose soil
which unites in the highest degree two essential conditions of fertility, viz: openness, and a constant supply of moisture, which penetrates the soil in virtue of its permeability; under the influence of a
fine climate and manure, the market gardens established in the midst
of this desert are remarkable for the rapidity and the vigor of their
vegetation. To avoid great expense, the labor of removing the sand
is only undertaken in places where the layer is least thick; and what
is removed being heaped up as a mound around the soil which is cleared, a kind of boundary wall is formed, which is not without its use
in affording shelter, and which becomes productive itself by the
plantations of vines and fig-trees that are made upon it with a view
mainly to its consolidation. In the same way in Alsace, in the plains
of Haguenau, the soil which was a moving desert of sand, has, in
the course of less than forty years, become one of the most fertile
under the influence of incessant cultivation; in the same way also it
is that in Holland, mountains of sand, which had been accumulated
by the winds, have been fixed. This sand, which rests upon a wet
bottom, draws up the moisture by capillary attraction, and so hecomes fit to support certain vegetables. These downs, which may
be said to have come out of the sea, have a constant tendency in
many places to encroach upon the cultivated lands. To oppose their
progress, the Dutch sow them with the arundo arenaria, the long
and creeping roots of which bind together the moving mass and
imprison the particles of sand within a kind of net-work. These
masses of sand become fixed in this way; but they remain nearly
or altogether unproductive.
It is therefore a problem of the hi,ghest importance in many in stances to fix permanently masses of sand blown up from the sea,
bv covering them with productive plantations. This problem was
235 
DOWNS-ARREST OF MOVING SANDS.
studied and successfully resolved by M. Bremontier, a French engineer, who by sagacity in the choice of means and perseverance in their employment gave a complete and practical solution of
the question among the downs of the Gulf of Gascony.*
The downs formed by the sand which is thrown up by the ocean
between the mouths of the Adour and the Girond, occupy a surface
of 75 square leagues and have a mean elevation of from 60 to 70
feet. They form a multitude of hillocks, which appear connected
by their bases, the crowns of many of them rising to a height of
160 feet and upwards. Under the influence of the prevailing west
winds, these masses of sand move with a mean celerity of about 80
feet per annum, covering forests and villages in their progress. A
part of the little town of Mimizan is already invaded, and it has
been calculated that in the course of twenty centuries, things proceeding at their present rate, the rich territory of Bordeaux will
have completely disappeared.  In their progress these moving masses of sand choke up the beds of rivers, and increase the disastrous
effects they produce otherwise by causing formidable inundations.
The sands of the Gulf of Gascony, like those of Holland and the
Low Countries, are not altogether without moisture; a very short
way below the surface they are moist, and even present a certain
degree of cohesion. This, in fact, might have been predicated, for
otherwise the wind which brings them from the sea would have dispersed them in clouds of dust and to great distances; but no such
dispersion takes place. Downs advance slowly, at the rate already
indicated, and by rolling over, as it were, upon themselves. The
sand driven by the wind creeps up on the flanks of the ridges as
upon an inclined plane; after having got over the summit of the
hillocks already formed, it falls down the opposite slope, and accumulates at the base. The action of the wind is only exerted upon
so much of the sand as is rendered loose and moveable by its dryness; but the moist part is exposed, dried, and swept away in its
turn; in this way the whole mass of sand which was at first deposited upon the west aspect of the hillocks is carried to the east, where
it is in the shelter. By this process, under the influence of a wind
which blew steadily for six days, ahillock has been seen to advance
towards the interior of the country through a space of 31- feet.t
The moisture contained in the sand proceeds from the rains, from
the surface water that filters through it and displaces the salt water
which impregnated it originally. The very slight trace of sea-salt
that finally remains it it has no unfavorable influence on vegetation.
Once aware of the fact that certain plants throve in the sands of
downs, Bremontier saw that they alone were capable of staying their
progress and consolidating them. The grand object was to get
plants to grow in moving sand, and to protect them from the violent
winds which blow off the ocean, until their roots had got firm hold
of the soil.
* Annals of French AgricultuLre, vol. xxvii. p. 145.
t D'Aubuissou, Geognosy, vow ii. p. 467.
236 
ARREST OF MOVING SANDS.
Downs do not bound the ocean like beaches. From the base of
the first hillocks to the line which marks the extreme height of spring
tides, there is always a level over which the sand sweeps without
pausing.  It was upon this level space that Bremontier sowed his
first belt of pine and furze seeds, sheltering it by means of green
branches, fixed by forked pegs to the ground, and in such a way
that the wind should have least hold upon them, viz., by turning the
lopped extremities towards the wind. Experience has shown that
by proceeding thus, fir and furze seeds not only germinate, but that
the young plants grow with such rapidity, that by and by they form
a thick belt, a yard and more in height. Success is now certain.
The plantation so far advanced, arrests the sand as it comes from
the bed of the sea, and forms an effectual barrier to the other belts
that are made to succeed it towards the interior. When the trees
are five or six years of age, a new plantation is made contiguous to
the first and more inland, from 200 to 300 feet in breadth, and so
the process is carried on until the summits of the hillocks are gradually attained.
It was by proceeding in this way that Bremontier succeeded in
covering the barren sands of the Arrachon basin with useful trees.
Begun in 1787, the plantations in 1809 covered a surface of between
9,000 and 10,000 square acres.  The success of these plantations
surpassed all expectation; in sixteen years the pine trees were from
thirty-five to forty feet in height. Nor was the growth of the furze,
of the oak, of the cork, of the willow, less rapid. Bremontier showed for the first time in the annals of human industry, that moveable
sands might not only be stayed in their desolating course, but actually rendered productive.   Like all other inventors, this benefactor
of humanity was soon the object of jealousy among his contemporaries. Doubts were of course entertained at first of the possibility
of consolidating the moving sands of downs; and when this was demonstrated, the honor of originality was denied him. The ingenious
engineer defended himself with moderation, and demanded an in quiry; in the course of which it was satisfactorily proved that noth ing of the same kind had been attempted by others previously to the
year 1788. The labors of Bremontier must be regarded as another
of those remarkable struggles which the industry of man has suc cessfully waged with the elements.
CHAPTER V.
OF MANURES.
WHATEVER may be its constitution and physical properties, land
yields lucrative crops only in proportion as it contains an adequate
quantity of organic matter in a more or less advanced state of de.
composition.  TIhere are favored soils in which this matter, desig
237 
MANURES.
nated by the name of humus, or mould,* exists by nature, while there
are others, and they form the majority, which are either totally des  titute of it, or contain it but in insignificant proportion.   To become
productive, these soils require the intervention of manure; for this
there is no substitute, neither the labor which breaks them up, nor
the climate which so powerfully promotes their fecundity, nor the
salts and alkalies which are such useful auxiliaries of vegetation.
Not that land entirely destitute of organic remains is incapable of
producing and developing a plant. We have already seen that the
atmosphere, light, heat, and moisture, suffice for its existence; but
in such a condition, vegetation is slow and often imperfect; nor
could agricultural industry be advantageously applied to a soil which
approached so near to absolute sterility.
Plants, considered in their entire constitution, contain carbon,
water, (completely formed, or in its elements,) azote, phosphorus,
sulphur, metallic oxides united to the sulphuric and phosphoric acids,
chlorides, and alkaline bases in combination with vegetable acids;
many of these elements form no part of the atmosphere, and are
necessarily derived from the soil. Moreover, the manures most
generally made use of are nothing but the detritus of plants, or the
remains or excretions of animnals, including by the very fact of their
origin the whole of the elements which constitute organized beings;
and although it is very probable that certain tribes of plants are more
adapted than others to appropriate the azote or the ammoniacal va pors of the atmosphere, experience proves that azotized organic lemains contribute in the most efficacious manner to the fertility of the
soil. Besides, we are far from being able to affirm that the carbon
of plants is derived from the carbonic acid of the atmosphere.
Doubtless this acid is its principal source; but it is possible that
certain elements of carburetted dungs may be directly assimilated.
The writers who have treated of manures, have generally formed
them into two grand classes:
1st. Manures of organic origin, in which are again found all the
elements of the living matter.
2d. Mineral manures, saline or alkaline, which are particularly
designated under the name of stimulants, thus ascribing to them the
faculty, purely gratuitous, of facilitating the assimilation of the nutriment which plants find in dung, and of stimulating and exciting
their organs. Such a distinction has no real foundation, and nothing
shows so much how scanty our knowledge upon this subject has
hitherto been as this tendency in the ablest minds to connect vegetable nutrition with the feeding of animals.
All the agents employed by the agriculturist to restore, preserve,
and augment the fecundity of the soil, I shall term Manures. In
my view gypsum marl, and ashes are manures, as much as horsedung, blood, or urine; all contribute to the end proposed in employing them, which is the increase of vegetable production. The best
* JI4ould, or vegetable earth, as the word is generally used, is not exactly humus;
but as it derives its principal qualities from the presence of the humus of the chemist,
I shall generally employ the terms as synonymous.-ENo. ED.
238 
DECAY OF ORGANIC MATTERS.
manure, that which is in most general use, is precisely that which
by its complex nature contains all the fertilizing principles required
in ordinary tillage.
Particular cultures may demand particular manures; but the standard manure, such as farm dung, for example, when it is derived from
good feeding, supplied to animals with suitable and abundant litter,
affords all the principles necessary to the development of plants;
such manure contains at once all the usual elements which enter
into the organization of plants, and all the mineral substances which
are distributed throughout their tissues; in fact, carbon, azote, hydrogen, and oxygen are found therein united with the phosphates,
sulphates, chlorides, &c.
In order to be directly efficacious, every manure must present
this mixed composition. Ashes, gypsum, or lime spread upon barren land, would not improve it in any sensible degree; azotized organic matter, absolutely void of saline or earthy substances, would
probably produce no better effect; it is the admixture of these two
classes of principles, of which the first is derived definitively from
the atmosphere, while the second belongs to the solid part of the
globe, which constitutes the normal manure that is indispensable to
the improvement of soils.
Dead organic matter, subjected to the united influence of heat, of
moisture, and of contact with the air, undergoes radical modifications, and passes by a regular course of transformation into a condition more and more simple. The tissues, so long as they form a
part of the animated being, are protected against the destructive action of the atmospheric agents; in plants and animals this protection is not extended beyond the period of their existence; destruction commences with death, if the accessory circumstances are sufficiently intense; and then ensue all the phenomena of decomposition, of that putrid fermentation which, at the expense of the primitive elements of the organized being, generates bodies more stable
and less complicated in their constitution, and which present themselves in the gaseous and crystalline conditions, forms which are
affected by the inorganic bodies of nature in general.
The mineral substances which had been taken up in the organization become freed, and are thus again restored to the earth. The
organized substances which change the most rapidly, are precisely
those into which azote enters as a constituent principle. Left to
themselves, whether in solution or merely moistened, these substances exhibit all the characteristic signs of putrefaction; they exhale an insupportable odor; and the result of their total and complete decomposition is finally the production of ammoniacal salts.
The water wherein the phenomenon is accomplished facilitates it
not only by weakening cohesion and enabling the molecules to move
more freely, but it assists also by the very affinity which each of its
own principles bears to the elements of the substance subjected to
the putrescent fermentation.  Proust observed that during the decomposition of gluten immersed in water, a mixture of carbonic
acid and of pure hydrogen gas is disengaged, a phenomenon which
239 
MANURES.
he explains by the decomposition of the water; at the same time
are produced amrnoniacal salts, among which are acetates and lactates, whose acids are generated by the very act of fermentation.
As a striking example of the agency of water in the transit of azote
into the ammoniacal state in a quarternary compound, we may take
the putrefaction of urea.
Urea is found in the urine of man and of quadrupeds; its coinpo
sition, according to M. Dumas, is:
Carbon.......................20.0
Hydrogen..............................6.6
Oxygen........................26.7
Azote..........................46.7
100.0
The animal substances dissolved in urine, as the mucus of the
bladder, &c., undergo, on contact with the air, a modification which
causes them to act upon urea like ferments. By their influence the
elements of water react upon this substance, and transform it into
carbonate of ammonia.
Carbonate of ammonia is composed of:
Carbonic acid 56.41, containi  Carbong15.39
Carbon............................. 53
and       ng  Oxygen......................41.02
a Hydrogen................. 7.69
Ammonia 43.59, containing     Azote...........35.90
1Azote.............35.90
But 100 of urea have been found to produce by fermentation 13(0
of carbonate of ammonia.
Carbon.   Hydrogen.  Oxygen.  Azote.
PrevionLs to fermentation, 100 of urea I   20.00  6.60  2.67    46.7
contains....
After fermentation, 130 of carbonate I   2000  10.00  53.3    46.7
of ammonia contains.. 
Difference   0.0     3.4      26.6     0.0
So that during its transformation, the urea has gained 3.4 of hy
drogen, and 26.6 of oxygen.
In water the hydrogen is to the oxygen as 1 to 8. (:: 1: 8.)
Now it is precisely in this proportion that hydrogen and  oxyge
are found to be acquired by the urea in passing into the state of cabonate of ammonia; whence it follows that the elements of wate
are fixed in the process.
The putrefaction of azotized substances is far from always presenting results equally precise; most frequently in decomposing
they pass through a series of changes, still very obscure, before
they attain their ultimate limit, viz. the production of ammoniacal
salts. Thus from putrefying caseum diffused in water, M. Braconnot
obtained, among other products and ammoniacal salts, a very remarkable substance which he calls aposepedine.
Aposepedine when purified is a white crystalline substance, soluble
in water and in alcohol, capable of combination with the metallic
oxides; azote is one of its elements.
This substance, although engendered by the act of putrefaction, is
nevertheless itself capable of putrefying and giving birth to the last
products of the spontaneous decomposition of azotized matter.
One of the most striking characteristics, at least that which is
240 
DECAY OF ORGANIC MATTERS.
most readily remarked, is the fetid odor which animal substances
exhale during putrefaction. It is not always the smell of ammonia
which predominates; that of su]phuretted hydrogen gas is often
very strong; yet that is not the emanation which is most repulsive:
miasmata and nauseous principles are also developed which seem to
be the chauged mratter itself carried away by the gases that are d.sengaged.
Sulphur, like phosphorus, is almost always a constituent of organic bodies; its minute proportion, however, would be insufficient
to give out the hepatic odor so intense as we often find it during
putrefaction. The production of sulphuretted hydrogen is connected with the very curious fact, first appreciated by M. O. Henri,
that sulphates dissolved in a medium impregnated with azotized
matter in decomposition, do themselves undergo an actual reduction,
pass into the state of sulphurets, and immediately give out sulphuretted hydrogen, either by the action of the carbonic acid of the at
mosphere, or by that which is formed during the putrefaction of the
organic matter. It is by a similar action exerted upon sulphate of
lime that M. Henri explains the origin of the sulphureous waters of
Enghien, near Paris; and M. Fontan in his important work on mineral waters has generalized this explanation.
The causes of the destruction of sulphates under such circunstances is easily understood.   During the decomposition of organized substances, the carbon belonging to them forms carbonic acid gas
by combining both with the oxygen of the substances themselves,
and with the oxygen of the water, it is probable that the oxygen of
the sulphuric acid contributes equally to this formation, and that the
sulphur is liberated.
The hydrogen of the decomposed water, as well as that of the
solid matter, in contact with sulphur in the nascent state, combines
with it to form sulphuretted hydrogen, which straightway reacts
upon the base of the sulphate, producing from it, as we know, water
and a metallic sulphuret. This sulphuret being unable to exist when
exposed to the continued disengagement of carbonic acid gas which
takes place in the centre of the mass in putrefaction, yields, as a
definite result, a carbonate on the one part, and sulphuretted hydrogen on the other.
The faculty which azotized organic bodies possess of undergoing
spontaneous decomposition in presence of water, and under the influence of heat, seems to depend upon the tendency which azote has
to unite with hydrogen in order to form ammonia.
This tendency is perhaps the determining cause of the phenomenon of fermentation taken in the most general acceptation of the
term.  Organic bodies void of azote decompose less easily, and the
kind of alteration which they undergo from the action of water and
air, differs in many respects from the putrefaction of azotized matter.  Of this the difficulty experienced in effecting the fermentation
of vegetable substances is a proof.  Nevertheless, the vegetable refuse which goes to the dunghill, all without exception, contains azotized elements, often, it is true, in extremely minute proportions;
21
241 
but we know that there is no example of a vegetable organic tissue
from which thev are completely excluded.
The refuse of plants, the most amply endowed with azote, such as
cabbage, beet-root, beans, &c., are certainly those which are susceptible of the most rapid and complete putrid fermentation; straw,
on the contrary, when alone, undergoes it slowly and imperfectly,
the small quantity of the azotic principle which it contains is changed, and reacts upon the ligneous particles which surround it; but
the effect is soon arrested, and even ceases entirely, unless substances
richer in azote concur. The woody matter of the straw is exactly
in the condition of sugar which has not had a dose of ferment sufficient for its total transformation into alcohol.
Most organized substances, whether they belong to the animal or
vegetable kingdom when placed in certain conditions, undergo the
profoundest changes from the action of hydrogen; these alterations
ought to be studied with all the more care, because in practical
agriculture we are interested successively in fostering or preventing
the causes which produce them, according as our object is to accelerate the decomposition of vegetable refuse for manure, or to adopt
the precautions which experience suggests, in order to preserve
the produce of our harvests unchanged. Organic substances moistened and exposed to the air under a temperature, the minimum of
which (I believe after several experiments) may be fixed at 48~ or 50~
F., seize upon the oxygen and absorb it, in part, in order to form water
with their hydrogen, and carbonic acid with their carbon. When
these substances are accumulated in a mass sufficiently great, the
heat produced is not rapidly dissipated, the temperature rises, and
promotes the reaction to such a degree as to produce active burning,
a conflagration, in place of the slow combustion manifested at first.
It is not very unusual to see hay, which had been gathered in too
damp a condition, take fire in the stack; and the high temperature
acquired by wet rags placed in the fermenting vats of paper mills,
and the copious production of carbonic acid which results, show that
we are right in assimilating this kind of action to the phenomenon
of combustion. This sluggish combustion is not peculiar to azotized
organic substances: it takes place equally in those destitute of azote.
The alteration of organic matters, the combustion which goes on at
a low temperature by the action of the air, differs in its results from
the decomposition which is effected in the midst of a liquid mass.
We have seen, for example, that gluten fermenting under water,
disengages hydrogen gas.   Now  Berthollet has established, and
Saussure has confirmed his observations, that an azotized body in
putrefaction, the whole of whose parts are in contact with the air,
never contributes either hydrogen gas or azote to the confined atmosphere in which it is placed; and on the other hand, Saussuire
has shown, that organic substances which do not emit hydrogen gas
during their spontaneous decomposition in a medium void of oxygen,
do not alter the volume of an atmosphere of which this gas forms a
part; on the contrary, these substances condense oxygen as soon as
242
MANURES. 
DECAY OF ORGANIC MATTERS.
they attain that stage of their alteration in which they give out hy
drogen.
In pursuing with persevering sagacity the study of putrefaction,
M. de Saussure discovered the cause of this condensation; it consists in the fact, that an organic substance in course of spontaneous
decomposition, acts in some respects like the platina sponge placed
in a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gas; we know that platina
recently heated and introduced into a mixture of these two gases,
determines their union in the proportions required to constitute water.
Now by substituting for the metal some moistened seeds, previously
deprived of their germinating faculty, the same effect is produced:
the two gases combine until one of the two entirely disappears.
When this combustion of hydrogen, proceeding from the decomposition of organic substances, takes place in the body of the atmosphere
which contains azote, it is possible that a minute quantity of ammonia
may be produced together with water; nor is it going too far to
suppose, that manures very slightly azotized, take up azote from
the atmosphere during their fermentation; that during the act of
vegetation itself, the hydrogen proceeding from the decomposed
water, or yet more, that which makes part of the essential oils formed by plants, may, in oxidating afresh, introduce atmospheric azote
into their composition.
Dead organized matter, such as wood, straw, or leaves, exposed
to wet, and for a long time to the action of the air, ends by becoming transformed into a brown substance, which when damped is almost black, which falls to powder when dry, and which is commonly
known by the name of humus or mould.
This is, so to speak, the last term of the decomposition of organic
matter; mould appears to belong already to the mineral kingdom;
and whatever may be the diversity of its origin, it presents a sufficient number of peculiar characteristics to be considered a distinct
substance.  In fact, the atmosphere continues to exert its action
upon mould; its inflammable elements are dissipated by a slow and
imperceptible combustion, giving place to water and carbonic acid.
But in this ulterior decomposition, those fetid products which characterize putrid fermentation are no longer observed.
Wet saw-dust, placed for some weeks in an atmosphere of oxygen,
forms a certain quantity of carbonic acid, and the volume of the gas
does not perceptibly dimninish. The wood at the surface acquires a
d(leep-brown color.  Several experiments made by Saussure, prove
that dead wood does not absorb the oxygen gas of the atmosphere;
it transforms it into carbonic acid, and the action takes place as if
the carbon of the organic matter alone experienced the effects of the
oxygen; for the gaseous volume remains the same.  The loss, however, undergone by the ligneous fibre, during its exposure to the air,
is treater than it ought to be if carbon alone were eliminated: whence
Saussure concludes, that while the woody matter loses carbon, it
also lets some of its constituent water escape.
As a consequence of these observations, the relative proportion
of carbon ought to augment in the humid wood changed by the ac
243 
MANURES.
tion of the atmosphere, since we have established that by this action
the woody fibre suffers loss in the elements of water besides what it
loses in carbon.  This is confirmed by the following analyses.  The
first, made upon some oak wood, previously purified by washing in
water and in alcohol, we owe to Messrs. The6nard and Gay-Lussac;
the succeeding one to Messrs. Meyer and Will:
Oak wood.
Carbon............................ 52.5
Hydrogen and oxygen, water....... 47.5
100.0
Id. rotten.
53.6
46.4
100.0
Wood decomposed under water, without being in direct contact
with the air, undergoes a different modification; it is blanched instead of blackened, and the carbon far from increasing is diminished.
Saussure thinks that this kind of alteration depends mainly on the
loss of the soluble and coloring principles of the wood, principles
containing more carbon than the ligneous matter itself: so that pure
woody fibre exposed wet to the action of the air would yield products analogous to those which result from its decomposition under
water.
The damp linen rags which are fermented in paper manufactories
afford a product which is white, and but slightly coherent. The
mass, which heats successively during the operation, loses about 20
per cent. of its original weight. This is exactly what takes place
in wood decayed by the alternate action of water and air, namely, it
becomes white and extremely friable.
Some oak arrived at this stage of decomposition contained, according to Liebig:
Carbon....................47.6
Hydrogen..................... 6.2
Oxygen.....................44.9
Ashes........................ 1.3
100.0
Compared with the composition of oak wood when sound, these
numbers show that during its modification the wood has lost carbon,
and that it has gained hydrogen. The elements of water must necessarily have intervened, and become fixed during the reaction.
Ligneous fibre decaying under water is not thereby completely protected from the atmosphere. Water always holds some air in solution, and the oxygen of that air reacts exactly as if it were in the
gaseous state.
Upon all the phenomena of decomposition connected with fermentation, with putrefaction, or with dilatory combustion, heat exerts
an influence which has certainly not been sufficiently appreciated.
Organic bodies sunk in a large mass of water are not exposed to
changes of temperature so various and abrupt as when they are
placed in the atmosphere; their decomposition is more gradual,
more uniform, and the soluble materials which they contain, or which
are the result of the alteration they are undergoing, are in a greats
measure dissolved. Temperature may also produce great differences
244
Id..tt..
56.2
43.8
100.0 
DECAY OF ORGANIC IMIATTERS.
in the final result of the decomposition. Peat, which is derived, as
we know, from the slow decomposition of submerged plants, does not
appear to be formed in the swamps of warm climates; it has, perhaps, never been encountered in the stagnant waters of the equilioctial regions; there the woody fibre appears to be totally dissipated
in carbonic acid gas, and in marsh gas, the probable source of the
insalubrity of those countries.  Lakes  with peat bottoms  are not
found except on the very high table-lands of the Andes, in localities
whlere the mean temperature does not exceed 49~ or 50~ F.
The alkalies are powerful agents in the decomposition of certain
organic substances, whether in determining or in accelerating it.
There are some, indeed, which experience no change without their
intervention, whatever may be the other conditions favorable to decomposition. Thus, according to M. Chevreul, many coloring substances may be preserved in solution almost indefinitely, without
change, in contact with gallic acid; but the presence of a very small
quantity of free alkali suffices for their immediately acquiring the
power of absorbing oxygen, and at the same time of acquiring a brown
tint. AI. Chevreul observed that 3.087 grs. of hematine dissolved
in potash will absorb 3.857 grs. of oxygen in forming 0.925 of carbonic acid. The oxygen which enters into the carbonic acid, therefore, represents nothing like the quantity which was fixed by the
solution, and it is almost certain that this gas likewise reacted upon
the hydrogen of the coloring matter. The use of the alkalies for
accelerating the destruction of organized matter has been long known
to agriculturists.
Straw, fern, and the ligneous parts of plants are sometimes stratified with quick-lime, in order to facilitate their disintegration, and
consequently their decomposition. The utility of this old practice
cannot be disputed while confined within certain limits; but it is
often abused; for it is beyond doubt that alkalies mingled indiscriminately with manure become in reality more injurious than advantageous for the end proposed in their introduction.
The appearance of a certain brown substance, little soluble in
water, but easily dissolving in alkalies, is a characteristic proper to
all vegetable matter under decomposition; a characteristic which
becomes more marked as the decomposition advances towards its
last stage, namely, the production of humus. This substance is
ulmine, which, on account of some acid properties which it pos sesses, is also named ulmic acid. It forms a part of mould, and M.
P. Boullay constantly found it in the water of dunghills.
In 1797, Vauquelin discovered ulmine united with potash in the
matter of the exudation from the ulcer of an elm-tree.
In 1804, Klaproth confirmed this observation.   M. Braconnot
succeeded in obtaining ulmine artificially by subjecting woody fibre
to the action of alkalies.  This substance is easily procured by
carefully heating in a silver capsule, and continually stirring a mix ture of equal parts of potash and of saw-dust slightly damped. At
a certain time the woody matter softens and suddenly dissolves; the
mass then begins to swell up, and the fire is slaked.   The product
21*
245 
IHUMUS.
obtained dissolves almost totally in water. The solution is of a very
deep brown color, and contains as principal ingredient ulmine combined with potash; the ulmine is precipitated by the addition of a
sufficient quantity of weak  sulphuric acid.   After  having been
washed and dried, ulmine is black and brittle, and resembles jet;
while still wet, it reddens turnsole paper, and its solution in potash
forms with several salts, and by the way of double decomposition,
insoluble ulmates.   M.  Peligot assigns to  ulmine the  following
composition:
Carbon..........................72.3
Hydrogen..................... 6.2
Oxygen.......................21.5
100.0
Dunghills, rotten wood, and mould, always contain a brown substance, which possesses properties very similar to those which characterize ulmine obtained by the action of alkalies upon ligneous
fibre.
Mould which contains this ulmine in abundance, and in the condition most favorable to vegetation, ought on that account to be
examined with attention. Its history has, indeed, been so ably traced
by M. de Saussure, that science at the present day can add but little
to the important deductions of the celebrated author of the Recherches Chimiques.
M. de Saussure defines vegetable mould (humus) to be the black
substance which covers dead vegetables after they have been long
exposed to the combined action of water and oxygen. His experiments refer to mould nearly pure; that is, separated by a fine sieve
from the vegetable remains which are always mixed with it; to
mould which had been gathered on high rocks, or from the trunks
of trees, where it could not have been exposed to admixture or to
any influence, other than that of the spontaneous decomposition by
which it had been produced. All the varieties of mould collected
in this way appeared fertile, especially when they were previously
mixed with gravel, which supplies support to the roots of plants, and
permits the access of the air. That variety, however, must be excepted which was obtained from the interior of trees, and had been
formed in such a situation that the rain-water which entered found
no free outlet; the humus then contained extractive principles, derived in part from the living plant, and which seemed to obstruct the
pores of the vegetable to which it was applied as manure.
In making comparative calcinations in close vessels of different
varieties of humus, and of plants similar to those from which they
had proceeded, and collecting the charcoal on one hand, and the
volatile and gaseous matters on the other, M. de Saussure discovered that they contained, for the samne weight, a larger quantity of
carbon and of azote than the vegetables whence they proceeded.
The larger proportion of azote in the humus seems to imply thatduring their decomposition, vegetables do not throw off this element;
but to this cause must be added that which might be connected with
the spoils of insects which live in humus.
246 
Weak acids have no other effect upon humus than to dissolve out
the metallic, earthy, and alkaline elements which it contains. The
more powerful acids, such as the sulphuric acid, frequently cause a
disengagemrent of acetic acid.  Alcohol scarcely acts upon hum,s,
merely dissolving out of it a few hundredth parts of resinous matte:-,
-lwhich probably pre-existed in the vegetable.  Potash and soda dissolve humus almost completely, causing an evolution of ammonia.
From this solution, acids throw down a brown, inflammable powder,
possessing the characters which we have recognised in ulmine. The
ulmine which is separated in this way, is far from corresponding
with the weight of the matter treated with the alkalies, which is
evidently due to the humus containing principles which are not precipitated from the alkaline solution.
A quantity of humus which yielded no more than one tenth of
ashes by incineration, only lost one eleventh of its weight under repeated treatments with boiling water. The humus thus exhausted,
was exposed in a moist state to the action of the air for three months,
and gave a new quantity of soluble matter under renewed washing
with water; and the same effect is constantly reproduced. By exposing moist insoluble humus to the air, therefore, a quantity of soluble extractive matter is formed. This matter, obtained by evaporating the water which is charged with it, is not deliquescent; it
yields ammonia on distillation. The watery solution, brought to the
consistence of sirup, is neutral to re-agents, and its taste is sensibly
sweet.
It is familiarly known that the alkaline salts, which enter into the
constitution of vegetable juices, but rarely exhibit the reactions that
are proper to them; the plant or the sap must be dried and incinerated before their presence can be ascertained. It is the same with
regard to the salts contained in humus.
Humus, as I have already observed, is the last term in the puitrefaction of vegetable organic matter; its elements have acquired t
stability which enables them to resist all fermentation. M. de Sanssure preserved humus for a whole year in vessels filled with distilled
water, and plunged in mercury, without remarking any emission of
gas.  Still it is unquestionable that the organic portion of humus is
completely destructible when exposed moist to the action of the air;
in the course of time it is dissipated, and by and by there remains
nothing more than the fixed saline and earthy matters which it contained. This fact M. B. de Saussure had already perceived from
his observations upon the vegetable soil that occurs in the country
between Sanri Germano and Turin. This destructibility of vegetable
earth, says M. de Saussure, sen., is a fact without exception; and
as often as agriculturists have proposed to supply the place of manure by repeated ploughings, they have had sad experience of its
truth: the soil is gradually impoverished, and fertile fields ultimately become barren. I may add, that the nature of the climate has a
vast influence upon the dissipation of the fertilizing principles of the
soil, and that Europeans are certainly in error when they object to
the superficial ploughings or hoeings which the land so commonly
247
HUMUS. 
NITRIFICATION.
receives in tropical countries. It is there well known that too much
stirring of the soil is often prejudicial even in irrigated lands, where
consequently the bad effects cannot be attributed to too great a devree of dryness.  The information which has lately reached  the
Academy of Sciences upon the agriculture of the French possessions in Africa, tend to make us perceive that the same cause produces the same effects in Algeria, and that it is not without reason
that the Arabs only work their lands that are preparing for grain
crops, very superficially.
Humus is, in fact, dissipated by a process of slow combustion in
the air: in contact with oxygen, it produces carbonic acid, as is
proved by the experiments of M. de Saussure. Pure humus, moistened with distilled water, confined in bell-glasses placed over mercury, formed carbonic acid, causing the disappearance of the oxygen
of the air. The volume of the acid gas formed, corresponded i -
volume with that of the oxygen which had disappeared. Humus,
therefore, in contact with air, gives off carbonic acid, and the phe nomnenon here still takes place as if carbon were not alone consumed.
The loss experienced is greater than that which ought to occur from
the quantity of carbon which unites with the oxygen; and Saussure
concluded that there is, at the same time, a loss of the elements of
water. The capital fact which results from these experiments of
Saussure, the deduction directly applicable to the theory of manures
is this: that humus is dissipated when it is exposed to the air, and
that during the slow combustion which it undergoes, it is a constant
source of carbonic acid gas.
To complete the views that may throw light on the part played
by manures, I have still to speak of an important phenomenon which
occasionally takes place under the same conditions as those that ac company the decomposition, the putrefaction of animal matters: I
mean the spontaneous formation of nitric acid-the occurrence of
nitrification as it is called. Nitric acid results from the union of
azote with oxygen. Such at least is the constitution of this acid
when it is combined in salts; but in its isolated state, it is always
united with a certain quantity of water.  It has not yet been obtain ed, and it appears indeed not to exist, in the perfectly dry or anhy drous state. The azote, therefore, does not combine directly with
the oxygen; there must be, at all events, the intervention of water,
and to effect the union of the two gases by means of the electric
spark, the mixture, according to Cavendish, must be mnoist. Never theless, the combination of azote with oxygen appears to be singular ly favored by the presence of earthy or alkaline bases, seeing that
in nature the nitrates are met with in a certain abundance; but the
circumstances which determine their formation are still involved is
deep obscurity.
Three distinct origins may be assigned to the natural nitrates;
1st. certain soils, still indifferently studied, show an efflorescence of
nitrate of pctash on their surface, or by lixiviation yield large quan tities of this salt. Such is the source of the saltpetre which is im ported from India.
248 
PRODUCTION OF NITRE AND NITRATES.
According to M. Proust, the soil of certain localities in the neighborhood of Saragossa is an inexhaustible mine of saltpetre. I have
myself seen, near Latacunga, a short way from Quito, upon a soil
formed of trachytic debris, a similar production of nitre taking place
as it were under my eyes.
2d. On the coast of Peru, in the desert of Tarapaca, at a short
distance from the port of Iquique, and in an argillaceous soil of extremely recent formation, there are numerous stratified deposites of
nitrate of soda, analogous to, and perhaps contemporaneous with, the
deposites of common salt which are worked upon the same coast, in
the desert of Sechura, near the equator. This is, so far as I know,
the only instance of a nitrate being dug out of the bowels of the
earth as a mineral mass. The nitrate of soda of Tarapaca, reaches
Europe at the present time in large quantities, and supplies the
place of nitrate of potash in many chemical processes. Various experiments have also been made upon the value of the salt as a manure; but at present these experiments have been very contradictory, and further experience seems necessary before ally definitive
judgment can be come to on the matter.
3d. The greater number of the s9oils that are exposed to animal
emanations-heaps of rubbish proceeding from buildings that have
been long inhabited, the soil of stables, cow-houses, cellars, &c.,
almost always contain a quantity of nitrates. In countries where
rain seldom falls, and where consequently these salts, which are extremely soluble, can accumulate in the soil, in Egypt, for example,
the ruins of ancient cities are at the present time true nitre-beds.
It is with the formation from nitre in such circumstances that we
feel particularly interested.  The presence of the salt is frequently
proclaimed in our agricultural operations; it is formed during the
preparation of our dunghills, in the midst of our cultivated fields,
and we discover it in the plants which we gather.   We  are by so
much the more interested in discovering its existence, and in ascertaining its mode of action, as in the actual state of our knowledge we
are still unable to say whether or no nitre is an auxiliary in the
phenomena of vegetation, and contributes to the production of the
azotized principles which enter into the organization of plants.
To have nitrates formed, the presence of azotized organic matter
is not sufficient; it is further necessary that this matter during its
decomposition be in contact with alkaline, calcareous, or magnesian
carbonates.  It has been observed that rocks of a crystalline structure do not nitrify so readily when they are without the substances
which have just been named.  The calcareous and magnesian rocks
which are most favorable to nitrification, under the influence of animal emanations and of vegetables in a state of decomposition, are
those which are the least coherent, or which are most porous, such
as chalk, tufa, &c. In those countries where the soil does not undergo spontaneous nitrification, certain arrangements of circumstances, known to favor the production of saltpetre, are made: artificial nitre-beds are prepared. In the north of Europe where the
rocks are granitic, in a hut or shed built of wood, a mixture is made
249 
250      THEORY OF THE FORMATION OF NITRIC ACID.
of common earth, of calcareous sand or marl, and of wood-ashes.
This heap is watered with the urine of herbivorous animals, and the
mixture is stirred or shifted from time to time to favor the access
of the air; and with the same view, the workmen are very careful
never to beat or press the heap, which is generally from two to two
and a half feet in thickness, and usually of the whole length of the
hut or shed. Experience has shown that the process of nitrification
goes on best in the shade. In Prussia, the-practice is to wet with
the water of a dunghill a mixture composed of five parts of vegetable earth, and one part of wood-ashes and straw. With this kind
of mortar, solid walls or masses from twenty to four and  twenty
feet in length, by about six feet and a half in thickness, are built,
rods of wood being introduced during the construction in considerable numbers, and in such a way that they can be pulled out when
the mass has acquired sufficient solidity; by this means it is obvious
that a very free access of air is secured to the interior of these
nitre walls, which are always built in damp places, and thatched over
with straw to preserve them both from the sun and the rain. The
mass is watered from time to time, and after the lapse of a year,
the materials are held sufficiently impregnated with saltpetre to be
worth lixiviating.
In these artificial nitre-beds we perceive the object to be, to combine the circumstances under which the nitrates are formed in the
soil of stables, and in the cellars of human habitations. Organic
matters, rich in azote, are, in fact, brought into contact with earthy
alkaline carbonates. The necessity that is felt in the arrangement
of nitre-beds for the introduction of substances of animal origin,
leads us to presume that the greater part of the nitric acid which is
produced, is derived from the azote of these substances. But
whether this azote combines with the oxygen of the air, or with the
oxygen of the organic principles, we do not know-we are still ig norant of the way in which the acidification is effected.
Professor Liebig, setting out from the fact that azotized organic
substances always produce ammonia during their putrefaction, and
next perceiving that during the combustion of ammoniacal gas,
mixed with a large excess of hydrogen, there is always oxidation of
the azote, concludes that nitrification is the result of the slow cornmbustion of the ammonia which is the product of the azotized matters
in progress of decomposition.   The  azote of ammonia is indeed
oxidated under favor of divers conditions which it is easy to secure.
In burning animal substances by means of oxide of copper, it is well
known how many precautions must be taken to prevent the appear ance of nitrous acid; and on the contrary, by taking measures to
favor the production of this acid, for example, by passing a current
of ammoniacal gas over peroxide of iron or manganese in a red hot
tube, abundance of nitrate of ammonia is obtained. The same re sult follows exposure of a mixture of oxygen and ammoniacal gas
to the action of incandescent spongy platinum. The determining
cause of the acidification of the azote, which forms an element of
the ammonia, is probably due to this, that during the combustion two 
DETECTION OF NITRATES IN THE SOIL,
bodies are formed which are capable of combining  immnediately:
nitric acid, on one hand, and on the other water, without which this
acid could not exist. The phenomenon, however, only takes place
in this instance at a considerably elevated temperature. At ordinary temperatures, combustion of the elements of ammonia has not,
as far as 1 know, yet been observed; and in a series of experiments
which I undertook, proceeding all the while upon ideas completely
in conformity with those advanced by Liebig, I did not succeed in
forming any nitrates by enclosing mixtures of chalk, potash, &c., in
an atmosphere composed of oxygen and ammoniacal vapor.
In a communication made to the Academy of Sciences, M. Kuhlilman announces that he had ascertained the presence of nitrate of
ammonia in the products of the putrefaction of animal matter.   If
this announcement be confirmed, if nitric acid be in reality one of
the numerous products of the putrid fermentation, the nitrification of
soils in contact with organic matters would be readily explicable.
I must say, however, that I have sought in vain for nitrate of ammonia in the product of the putrid fermentation of caseum. And after
all, we should still be at a loss to account for the formation of nitre
in many places, where it appears to be produced in the absence of
organic matter, as in the saltpetre soils of India, South America,
and Spain. Dr. John Davy, who visited the nitre districts of Ceylon, and Proust, who long inhabited the Peninsula, have given it as
their opinion that the nitre appears in soils which contain no vestiges
of organic matter. The assertion of Proust, however, is open to
suspicion, inasmuch as in his memoir he affirms that the lands close
to those that produce the nitre are extremely fertile, so that they
yield abundant crops without ever receiving manure. But at the
present day. it is a law that every fertile soil must contain or receive
dead organic matter. In Ceylon, according to Davy, the caverns,
the walls of which become covered with an efflorescence of saltpetre with such rapidity, have a fertile and thickly wooded soil lying
over them, the percolations from which may readily penetrate their
interior. The observations which I had an opportunity of making
upon the nitre soils near Latacunga, were not perhaps of sufficient
precision; but I think I can affirm that the soil was not without humus: patches were perceived here and there that were covered with
turf. It must still be admitted, however, that in the localities which
have been particularly indicated there must exist some peculiar and
permanent cause of nitrification; inasmuch as in other and fertile
soils, saltpetre only appears as it were accidentally, and never in
extraordinary quantity.
Whatever the value of the ingenious but still very imperfect theories of nitrification, it is still of importance to ascertain the existence or absence of nitrates in the soil. Wollaston recommended
a process which enables us to do this very readily. It is founded
on the property possessed by the aqua regia-a mixture of the nitric
and hydrochloric acids-to dissolve pure gold, which, as is familiarly
known, resists the action of either of these acids applied separately.
The soil in which the presence of a nitrate is suspected is treated
251 
FARMII-YARD DUNG.
with boiling distilled water, and thrown upon a filter. The filtered
fluid is reduced by evaporation to a very small quantity, which is
then poured into a test tube, and a little pure hydrochloric acid is
added; some particles of leaf gold are then introduced, and the
Eild is stirred with a glass rod.  If any nitrates have been present,
the particles of gold are speedily dissolved.
Having now described the circumstances which determine, and
the phenomena which accompany the decomposition of dead oranic matter, I have next to treat of manures in particular, of their
preparation, of their  application, and of  their relative values
Speakling generally, the manure which is derived from the dejections of animals, supplied in a farm-yard with abundance of food
and of litter, used with the double object of cleanliness and health,
is the best of all. The principal substances which contribute day
l y day to increase the mass of our dunghills are straw, and the excretions and urine of horned cattle, horses, hogs, &c. These various substances, besides the organic elements which enter into their
composition, further contain the various mineral substances which
are indispensable to the development of vegetables. Animal excrements of every kind, in fact, when they are burned, leave quantities
of ashes which are frequently very considerable, and in which are
encountered the same saline and earthy ingredients that pre-existed
in the forage with which the animals were supplied.  Excrements,
therefore, necessarily vary in their composition according to the
kind of food that is consumed, and the nature and the state of health
of the animal which produced them. Those of the herbivora have
never been sufficiently examined. Thaer and Einhof have merely
ascertained that cow-dung contains an extractive principle, partly
coagulable by heat, and that remains of the food may be separated
from it. All excrementitious matters, in fact, contain a certain
qurantity of the alimentary matter which has escaped digestion,
especially when animals are abundantly supplied with food. Some
allbumiinous matter is also found there; but the substance after vegetable remains that appears to predominate is bilious.*
W_e know that after mastication, the food, mingled with saliva and
the secretions of the mucous glands, passes into the gullet, and from
ith,ence into the stomach.  There it imbibes gastric juice, turns sour
becomes modified, and is finally converted into a kind of pulp which
is called chyme. Once formed, chyme passes into the small intestines, where it encounters the bile and pacreatic juice, which modify
it, and cause it to separate into chyle, which is absorbed by the vessels of the bowels, and exerementitious residue, which descends into
the large intestines, where it becomes a fetid mass that is expelled
trom time to time by the animal.
R The latest inquiries of the physiological chemists would lead us to suspect that
this was not the case. Bile ought only to be an occasional, and even an unnatural
constituent of animal excrement, if these views be well founded.  It seems that the
elements of bile added to the elements of starch supply the precise elements of fat; a
substance so abundantly formed in the process of di;estioin.  The bile that is poured
into the uipper part of the alimentary canal is prob,ab.ty nill ssed up in forming fat.Ail ED,
252 
MIANURES-URINE.
The bile which accompanied the fecal matter is secreted by the
liver, and is familiarly known as a viscid, bitter fluid of a yellowish
green color and a peculiarly nauseous odor. According to M. Thenard, the bile of the ox contains:
Water............................... 700
Picromel*..................................... 69
Fatty matter.................................... 15
Soda, phosphate of soda, chlorides of potassium and? 10
sodium, sulphate of soda.......................  
Phosphate of lime, oxide of iron................... 1
795
Urine is a liquid secreted by the kidneys from arterial blood; it
passes into the bladder by the ureters. Its composition varies according to the animals which produce it.  Urea is its most characteristic principle; and in the water which it always contains in large
proportion, various saline substances and animal matter, which is regarded as mucus of the bladder, are encountered. The urine of the
hlorse, according to M. Chevreul contains carbonate of soda, of lime,
and of magnesia, sulphate of soda, chloride of sodium, hippurate of
sodla, urea, and a red-colored oil.
The urine of horned cattle has a similar compositon, with this difference, that it is much more watery.   In the urine of our cowhouases which had undergone change, I have ascertained the presence
of the alkaline carbonates, of common salt, and of the reddish oil
mentioned above.  Having at various times had occasion to evaporate considerable quantities of the urine of the horse, I always observed that on coming to the boiling point, a quantity of azotized
matter which resembled albumen was coagulated.  I also perceived
inl the urine of herbivorous animals a volatile acid, to which its odor
is probably owing.
In the urine of the camel, M. Chevreul found the carbonates of
lime and magnesia, silica, sulphate of limne, and oxide of iron, in
very small quantities; chloride of potassium, carbonate of potash,
sulphate of soda, in small quantities; sulphate of potash, in large
quantity; urea; an alkaline hippurate; and a reddish oil.
The urine of the rabbit, according to Vauquelin, contains carbonate of lime, of magnesia, and of potash, chloride of potassium, sulphate of potash, sulphur, urea, and mucus.
The urine of birds is distinguished by the large proportion of uric
acid it contains. Food, however, has a great influence upon this
proportion; highly azotized aliments increasing  it considerably.
Wollaston observed that the excrements of a fowl which was fed
* Picromel, discovered in the bile of the ox by M. Thenard, is colorless, and of the
consistence of sirup. It produces upon the tongue an acrid and bitter sensation, which
rapidly changes to a flavor slightly sugary.  The recent researches of MAessrs. Tiedeimann and Glvelin have discovered in ox bile substances which had escaped the first investig-ations.  These chemists found: 1st. a substabnce having the smell of musk, and
which is probably one of the causes of the odor peculiar to the excrement of kine; 2d.
fatty substances; 3di. biliary resin: 4th. a  crystallized substance called taurine; 5th.
biliary sunar, of which c.zottforis one of the elemients.  According to Messrs. Tiedeiailn andl Gmelin, the picroitiol of -l. Thclnard results from the union of sugar and
I)iliary resin.
22
253 
254   lMANURES-THE PUTREFACTIVE FERMENTATION.
upon herbage contained only 2 per cent. of uric acid. That of a
pheasant fed upon barley contained, on the contrary, 14 per cent.;
and that of a falcon which fed upon flesh alone, yielded scarcely any
thing but uric acid. The urine of an ostrich was found by Fourcroy
and Vauquelin to contain uric acid in the proportion of about one sixteenth of its mass.
I have already given the composition of urea. Hippuric acid is
an azotized acid which is readily obtained by adding a little hydrochloric acid to the fresh urine of the horse reduced by evaporation to
about one tenth of its original volume, when a granular crystalline
mass is precipitated.  If the urine have been stale instead of fresh,
benzoic acid and not hippuric acid is obtained; benzoic acid was, in
fact, long admitted as one of the elements of the urine of herbivorous
animals; but it is derived from the transformation of hippuric acid
into benzoic acid and ammonia, the change being produced by contact with the organic matters which putrefy so quickly in urine.
Liebig was the author of this observation; it was in operating upon
unchanged urine that he discovered hippuric acid. The following is
its composition:
Carbon...................... 60.7
Hydrogen....................                  5.0
Oxygen........................ 26.3
Azote.........................8.0
100.0
Uric acid has not yet been met with in the urine of mammiferous
herbivora; but it exists in that of man, having been first discovered
in calculi from the bladder; whence it received the name of lithic
acid.  Liebig's analysis shows it to be composed of:
Carbon......................... 36.1
tilydrogen............................2.4
Oxygen...............................28.2
Azote..........................33.4
100.0
The litter most commonly used to absorb the urine of stall-kept
animals is wheat straw, which consists in principal part of lignine
or woody fibre: like all vegetable tissues, however, it contains an
azotized principle, and substances that are soluble in caustic alkalies.
In the ashes of straw, we have indicated silica as abundant, and various alkaline and earthy salts.  The proportion of azote appears to
vary in the ratio of froni 3 to 6 per 1000. An analysis which I made
of dry wheat straw gave the following elements:
Carbon......................48.4
Hydrogen.....................5.3
Oxygen...............................38.9
Azote........................ 00.4 to 0.6
Ashes....................... 07.0
100
Agriculturists have, in all ages, admitted that the most powerful
manures are derived from animal substances; an opinion or rather a
fact, which, expressed in scientific language, amiounts to this, that 
MANURES-VALUE OF AMMONIACAL SALTS.
the most active manures are precisely those which contain the largest
proportion of azotized principles. It is obvious indeed from every
thing which precedes, that all the substances which contribute to
form farm dung, contain azote; and that into many of them, such as
uric acid, hippuric acid, and urea, this element enters very largely.
When we consider the immediate changes which all highly azotized substances undergo in the process of putrefaction, we can foresee that in their transformation into mranure, they must give origin
to ammoniacal salts; and well-established facts prove beyond doubt
that salts, having ammonia for their base, must be ranked among
the most powerful of all the agents in promoting vegetation. It is
sufficient, for instance, to bear in mind that in the productive husbandry of Flanders, putrid urine is the manure that is employed with
the greatest success; but we have seen that by putrefaction, the
urea of the urine is entirely changed into carbonate of ammonia.
The fields of Flanders are consequently fertilized with a solution
of carbonate of ammonia in water.
Along a great extent of the coast of Peru, the soil, which consists of a quartzy sand mixed with clay, and is perfectly barren of
itself, is rendered fertile, is made to yield abundant crops, by the
application of guano; and this manure, which effects a change so
prompt and so remarkable, consists almost exclusively of ammoniacal
salts.  It was with this fact before me that in I832, when I was on
the coasts of the Southern Ocean, I adopted the opinion which I
now proclaim in regard to the utility of the salts having a basis of
ammonia in the phenomena of vegetation.  I have stated my views
on this subject in a memoir published in 1837.*  Previous to this
publication, however, M. Schattenmann, one of the most ingenious
manufacturers of Alsace, had already directed the attention of husbandmen to this important matter, by reminding them that it is the
custom in Switzerland to add sulphate of iron or green vitriol to the
urine-vats, for the purpose of changing the carbonate of ammonia
into the sulphate, and thus obtaining a fixed instead of a highly volatile salt, liable to escape and to be lost. In a communication made
in 1835 to the agricultural association of Bauchsweiler, M. Schattenmann announced positively that the drainings from  dunghills
thus prepared, applied upon meadow lands, produced very grea
effects.
Such, to the best of my knowledge, are the practical facts whichl
establish the useful influence of ammonia on the growth of plants
far better than the experiments of the laboratory could have done.
Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that long before the dates
above quoted, Davy had shown that water containing -3S th of carbonate of ammionia is singularly favorable to the growth of wheat,
far more so, under circumstances exactly similar, than the hydrochlorate and the nitrate of the same base; and this influence, it is
important to observe, Davy ascribed to the fact that carbonate of
ammonia contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote; in a wcrd
* Annales de Chimie, t. lxv. 2e s6rie, p. 301.
255 
iMANUIRES-PREPARATION OF DUNG.
all the elements that are essential to the organization of plants. The
illustrious English chemist concluded from his experiments, that the
well-known efficacy of soot, as a manure, is due, in part, to the volatile alkali which it contains.
Professor Liebig, in adopting these opinions, has sought to generalize them; he has attempted to show, by very delicate experiments,
that the air which lies immediately over the surface of the ground,
always contains carbonate of ammonia, and that the same salt can
be detected in rain and snow, and in spring water. The ammonia
of the atmosphere, according to Liebig, concurs with that which is
developed in manures, in the formation of the azotized principles
l):oper to vegetables. These ingenious ideas correspond exactly
nith those which M. de Saussure made public in 1802, when he
ascertained that the gaseous azote of the air is not directly absorbed
by plants.  "If azote be a simple substance, and not an element of
water," says this celebrated observer, " we must admit that plants
do not assimilate it, save in vegetable and animal extracts, and in
the ammoniacal vapors or other compounds soluble in water which
they absorb from the soil, or from the atmosphere.  It is imrnpossible," he continues, "to doubt the presence of ammoniacal vapors in
the atmosphere when we see that the pure sulphate of alumina, exposed to the air, ends by becoming changed into the ammnoniacal
sulphate of alumina."*
In agricultural establishments, in which the importance of manure
is duly appreciated, every precaution is taken both for its production
andl(l preservation. Any expense incurred in improving this vital
(ldel)artment of the farm, is soon repaid beyond all proportion to the
outlay. The industry and the intelligence possessed by the farmer,
nmay indeed almost be judged of at a glance by the care he bestows
on his dunghill.  It is truly a deplorable thing to witness the neglect
which causes the vast loss and destruction of manure over a great
part of these countries. The dunghill is often arranged as if it were
a matter of moment that it should be exposed to the water collected
from every roof in the vicinity, as if the business were to take advantage of every shower of rain to wash and cleanse it from all it
contains that is really valuable.  The main secret of the admirable
and successful husbandry of French Flanders may perhaps lie in
the extreme care that is taken in that country to collect every thing
that can contribute to the fertility of the soil.  Our agricultural societies. which are now so universally established, would confer one
of the greatest services on the community if they would encourage
by every means at their command economy of manure; premiums
awarded to those farmers who should preserve their dunghills in
the most rational and advantageous manner, would prove of more
real service than premiums in many other and more popular directions.
The place where the dung of a farm is laid ought to be rather
near to the stables and cow-houses. The arrangements may be
* Recherclies Chimiques, p. 207.
256 
MANURES-TIIE DUNG-HEAP.
varied to infinity, but they ought all to combine the following conditions: 1st. That the drippings from the heap should not run away,
but slouild be collected in a tank or cistern under ground; 2d. That
no' vater, except the rain which falls on the dung-heap, or any water that may be thrown upon it on purpose, should be allowed to
drain into this reservoir; 3d. That the place for the duiinghill be of
size enough to avoid the necessity of heaping the manure to too
great a height. The ground upon which the dung is piled ought to
slope gently one way or another-from each side towards the centre
is best-so that the drippings may be collected in the tank or cistern. It is also desirable that the soil underneath should be clayey
and impermeable; where it is not so, it becomes necessary to puddle, to cement, or to pave the bottom of the dunghill stance as well
as the bottom and sides of the tank or cistern. The water which
runs from the heap should be thrown back upon it occasionally, by
means of a pump and hose, so as to preserve it in a state of constant
moistness. The opening into the tank, which is best placed immediately under the centre of the dung-heap, is closed by means of a
strong grating in wood or iron, the bars being sufficiently close to
prevent the solid matters from passing through.  One very important arrangement, one which, in fact, must on no account be overlooked, is that the drains from the stables and cow-houses be so
contrived, that they all run to the dunghill. The litter, however
abundant, never absorbs the whole of the urine, especially at the
time w-hen the cattle are upon green food; and it would be quite
unpardonable in the husbandman did he not take measures to secure this, the most valuable portion of the manure at his disposal.
The litter mixed with the droppings of the animals, and soaked
with their urine, ought to be carried from the stables to the dunghill
upon a light barrow. The practice of dragging out the manure with
dunL-hlooks, which is often permitted when the field upon which it
is to be spread is at no great distance, ought on no account to be allowved; the loss from the practice is always considerable.
Materials ought not to be thrown on the dunghill at random or
hap-hazard; they should be evenly spread and divided; an uneven
heap gives rise to vacancies, which by and by become mouldy, to
the great detriment of the manure. It is of much importance that
the heap be pretty solid, in order to prevent too great a rise of temperature, and too rapid a fermentation, which are always injurious.
Particular care must also be taken that the heap preserves a sufficient degree of moistness, not only of its surface but of its entire
mass, which is effected by watering it frequently.   At Bechelbronn,
our dung-heap is so firmly trodden down, in the course of its accumulation, by the feet of the workmen, that a loaded wagon drawn
by four horses can be taken across it without very great difficulty.
The thickness of the heap is not a matter of indifference: besides
the convenience of loading, which must not be forgotten, any great
thickness may become injurious by causing the temperature to rise
too high; circumstances occurring which should (compel us to keep
a mass in this state for any length of time, the deco( mposition would
02*
257 
PREPARATION OF MANURE.
make such progress as to occasion very great loss. Experience has
shown that the thickness of a dung-heap ought not to exceed from
about four feet and a half to six feet and a half; it ought certainly
never to exceed the latter amount.
WVith a view to prevent the drying of the dung-heap and its consequences, too great a rise in temperature and destruction of manure,
it is the practice in some places to arrange the dung-heap on the
north side of a building, which is undoubtedly advantageous, but not
always to be realized, especially in connection with a farm of some
magnitude, where the immediate vicinity of a large mass of matter
in a state of putrid fermentation is not only unpleasant, but may be
unwholesome. In the north of France, the dung-.heap is sometimes
shaded from the sun by means of a row of elms, and the shelter thus
secured is vastly preferable to that which it has been proposed to
obtain bv means of a roof or shed, which, besides other inconveniences, would be found costly at first, liable to speedy decay, &c.
If circumstances, such as the smallness of the farm, the permeable
nature of the soil, &c., prevent the construction of a reservoir, there
is risk of the dung-water being quite lost; but such waste may be
prevented by covering the bottom of the pit or stance for the dungheap with a bed of sand, peat marl, or any other dry and porous substance capable of absorbing liquids. This practice is often followed
by the farmers of Alsace.
In some farms, the different kinds of dung are piled apart from
one another in particular heaps; that of the stable being put by itself, as well as that of the cow-house, that of the hog-stye, and that
of the sheep-pen. In great establishments, such a separation is
often one of necessity; but the advantages which are ascribed to it
are questionable at least, and the remarks that have been made upon
it by writers do not appear founded on any accurate observation.
Without denying that certain crops answer better when special manures are employed, it still seems to me more advantageous to pile
every kind of manure together, when the difficulties of the situation
are not such as to make this either particularly inconvenient or expensive.  In this way, indeed, a dung-heap of medium  constitution
is obtained, which is regarded with reason as that, the application
of which to the soil is attended with the greatest advantages in the
majority of instances. The distinction which some have sought to
make between the relative qualities of manures of different origins
is far too absolute; and this is the reason, without doubt, which
renders it so difficult to bring the observations of different agriculturists to agree. Thus, according to Sinclair, the dung of the hog stye is the most active of all, the richest in fertilizing principles;
according to Schwertz, on the contrary, it is the most indifferent
manure of the farm-yard.
The fact is, that manures, which are the produce of the same
animals, often present greater differences in regard to quality, than
manures which proceed from different sources. I shall show by
and by that the value of manure de pends especially upon the feedings,
the age, and the condition in which the animal is placed that pro
258 
PREPARATION OF MANURE.
duces it. It is well known that the dung of cattle, fed during winter
upon straw, is greatly inferior to that which they yield when consoming food of a more nutritious quality.
N-hen the litter mixed with animal excrements is accumulated in
stiflicient quantity in the pit or on the dung stance, fermentation
speedily sets in, and abundance of vapor is disengaged. As carbonate of ammonia is among the volatile products of this decomposition, it is of importance to hold it under control; this is done by
keeping the heap in a state of proper moistness, and in excluding as
much  as possible the access of air.  The daily addition of fresh
quantities of litter from the stables and stalls, contributes powerfully
to impede the dispersion of the volatile elements, which it is so iinportant to preserve in manure; duly spread upon the heap, each addition becomes, in fact, a fresh obstacle to evaporation; it forms a
covering which plays the part of a condenser, at the same time that
it protects the inferior layers from the direct contact of the air.  So
long as the dung-heap is kept up and attended to in this way, the
termentation is limited to the inferior layers of the mass. Thiaer
even satisfied himself that air collected from the surface of a dungheap, undergoing moderate fermentation, does not contain much
more carbonic acid than that which is taken from the mass of the
atmosphere.  Neither does a vessel containing nitric acid, when
l)laced upon the fermenting mass, produce those dense white vapors
which are a certain indication of the presence of ammnonia.  The
slow decomposition which it is of so much importance to effect, is
not readily secured save in masses sufficiently trodden down, and in
a hich the litter of different kinds has been spread as evenly as possible.
It is an important point that the manure should be carried out to
the field before the upper portions recently added begin to undergo
change, otherwise the whole mass enters into fuill fermentation, and
the volatile elements, being no longer arrested by the upper layer,
escape and are lost. One means of preventing this loss in any case
(wshich however can but rarely occur) in which there was a necessity for suffering the mass to become made through its whole thickiess, would be to cover it with a layer of vegetable mould, in which
the volatile principles would be condensed; the layer of earth would
in fact thus be converted into a most powerful manure.
The loss of carbonate of ammonia, during the fermentation of
farm-dung, is further prevented by the use of certain salts which
have the power of changing the volatile carbonate into a fixed salt.
It was with a view of bringing a re-action of this kind into play,
that AI. Schattenmann, the able director of the mranufactories of
B3auchsweiler, proposed to add to dung-heaps, in the course of their
accumulation and preparation, a certain quantity of sulphate of ironli
or of sulphate of lime, either of which is decomposed by the carbonate of ammonia evolved, and a fixed ammoniacal salt (the sulphate)
is produced.* The loss of ammonia from dung-heaps in the course
* Annales de Chimie, 3e serie, t. iv. p. 116.
259 
PREPARATION OF MIANURE.
of regulated fermentation, must not however be estimated too hignly;
when the decomposition is carefully conducted, the mass having
been well trodden and properly damniped, the loss is really very small.
The gentle fermentation, secured by these means, has characters
which differ essentially from those that accompany the rapid putrefaction which never fails to take place when matters are not well
managed.  As an example of the rapid and injurious fermentation
of which I speak, I may cite that which frequently takes place in
piles of horse-dung: every one must have seen such dung-hills
loosely thrown together, left to themselves, without any addition of
water, acquiring a very intense heat in the course of a few days,
and have even heard of their taking fire.  I have seen piles of this
kind reduced to their merely earthy constituents!  Such are never
the results of the moderate and gradual decomposition which farmdung ought never to exceed. When the pit or stance is emptied,
in which a slow and equal fermentation has taken place, the superior
layer is seen to be very nearly in the same state in which it was
when it was piled; the layer immediately beneath this one is chang ed in a greater degree, and sometimes exhales a slight ammoniacal
odor. In the lower strata, the modification is yet greater in degree:
the straw has lost its consistency, it is fibrous and breaks into pieces
with the greatest ease; the mass is also progressively darker in
color as we go deeper, and on the ground it is completely black;
the smell which this part of the heap exhales, is that of sulphuretted
hydrogen, and when it is tested, sulphate of iron is discovered; no
doubt these sulphurous products are all the consequence of the de composition, under the influence of the organic matter, of the sul phates which were contained in the manure. This is the sign by
which I know that farm-dung is duly prepared; the presence of
sulphurets and of the hydrosulphate of ammonia will have no ill
effect upon vegetation; for scarcely is the manure spread upon the
ground, than these products are changed into sulphates, and then
the manure emits that musky smell which is peculiar to it.  Fur ther, there is no doubt but that the state in which a carefully tended
dung-heap is found in the end, is due to the circumstances in which
it has been placed and kept during the whole time of its preparation;
its constituent elements would have gone through a totally different
course in the progress of their modification had they been left ex posed to the open air.  To be satisfied of this, it is enough to re mark the powerful and purely ammoniacal smell which meets us in
a warm stable, especially during the summer season, upon the ground
of which the urine of the animals it contains is left to decompose.
From what has now been said, it will be understood how destruc tive to good manure is the custom which obtains in certain countries
of turning dung-heaps frequently, of airing them as it were, ill order
to hasten decomposition. Treated in this way, stable litter, &c.,
does in fact decompose much more rapidly; but it does so, and I
own that I do not myself clearly perceive the object proposed by it,
at the expense of the quality  for it is very evident that the volatile
260 
PREPARATION OF MANURE.
principles must be dissipated and lost in the same proportion as their
points of contact with the air are multiplied.
The plan of collecting all the litter of the farm into one particular
and appropriate place, is that which is generally adopted. Nevertheless, there are countries in which the dung is left to accumulate in
the cattle-stalls, it being merely covered with fresh straw every day.
The ground thus rises continually utinder the feet of the cattle, so
that it is necessary to have moveable cribs which can also be raised
by degrees. This method is so far convenient, that the necessity
for cleaning out the stable continually is avoided; but little is gained in the end in the matter of labor, for the same mass of manure has
still ultimately to be removed. The fermentation of the manure
would be greatly accelerated by the usual high temperature of the
stables, did not the feet of the cattle tread the mass very closely,
and this and the daily addition of straw together produce the same
effect as I have indicated in treating of the management of the dungheap out of doors: it condenses vapors and volatile particles, and
prevents evaporation.   The fact is, that in stalls and stables in which
the dung is allowed to accumulate in this way, we are not sensible
of any very offensive odor, and the animals which live in them breathe
without inconvenience, it being always understood that all communication with the exterior is not interrupted, which in fact it ought
never to be. even in cases where the stables and stalls are kept perfectlv clean.  This method of proceeding becomes almost impracticable when cattle are fed upon food that is not dry, but on the contrary
that is extremely watery, such as roots, green clover, &c.; the
quantity of urine that is then passed is so considerable, and the
excrements themselves are so copious and so liquid, that an enormous
quantity of straw would be required to absorb the liquid parts; in
spite of any reasonable addition of litter, indeed, the animals would
still be exposed to be kept in the mire, which would doubtless become
a powerful cause of insalubrity among them.
In Belgium, according to Schwertz, manure is accumulated in the
stables i)y guarding against the inconveniences which the last mode
of proceeding generally implies.   The cattle are placed upon a kind
of platform raised above the pavement of the stable, and the droppings being withdrawn from under them, are trodden down and allowed
to accumulate upon the floor.
One inconvenience attending the use of straw, is that it is frequently
dear; it is also scarce in some countries.   In those parts of Switzerland, for instance, where all the available lands are meadows, they
are obliged to economize litter as much as possible, so that they
even wash it, and thus ma.ke it serve repeatedly.  Although it would
be difficult to give a reason for a practice which has the effect of
increasing the bulk of the manure, adding to the expense of transport,
andi at the same time diuminishing its quality; it is, nevertheless, a
fact that this mnode of proceeding has  been long in use in various
Cantons.  We probably only see here another means of securing
even the last particle of the exerementitious matters passed by cattle, the process eriployed being in fact identical with that used by
261 
LIQUID MANURE.
the chemist in his most delicate analyses. In Switzerland, the urine
that is passed by the cattle flows along a gutter which communicates
with a large reservoir containing water, in which not only are the solid excrements diffused, but in which the litter is washed, this being
changed only twice a week.   The  reservoir is constructed under
the floor of the cow-house itself, in order to be protected from the
frost.  The fermentation of a mass so diluted is scarcely perceptible, and, save from leakage, there is no loss of decomposing animal
matter. The liquid manure is raised by means of a pump, and carried to the meadow in tubs placed upon carts. In Switzerland, it is
also the usage to employ the urine of cattle separately as manure,
under the name of pturin; to this liquid manure, a quantity of sulphate of iron is frequently added- with the view of bringing the volatile
carbonate to the state of the fixed sulphate of ammonia, as I have
already said.
Liquid manures have their advantages and their inconveniences.
We shall immediately discuss their value comparatively with that
of solid manures, and we shall be led to adopt the opinion of M. Crud
in regard to them, viz., that the advantages ascribed to them in Switz erland are exaggerated. Whatever the form under which manures
are applied, the question has been warmly discussed, whether it be
to the interest or disadvantage of the agriculturist to employ them
before or after they have undergone fermentation?
Organic substances, however, are in no condition to favor the
growth of vegetables until they have undergone material changes
which modify their nature. One of the results of this change, as
we have seen, is the development of ammoniacal salts. Fresh ma nure, such as it comes from the stable, introduced immediately into
the ground, there undergoes precisely the same changes, and gives
rise to the same products as it does when subjected to preparation in
a dung-heap in the manner already described; there is only this
difference, that being scattered and mixed with a large quantity of
inert matter, the decomposition takes place much more slowly than
it does in the heap. The question which has been so actively dis cussed, therefore, reduces itself to this: is it advantageous to have
the manure fermented in the soil it is intended to fertilize? We
may be allowed to express surprise that such a question should have
been raised in the present day, and still more that the affirmative
answer should have been disputed by agriculturists of distinguished
merit. Some have even gone so far as to maintain that fresh ex crements were injurious to vegetation. Proofs to the contrary are
readily obtained; it is enough to recollect that in the grazing and
folding of sheep and kine, the dungo and urine pass directly into the
ground of our pastures and fields, and who shall say that the land
is not benefited by what it thus receives? Unquestionably fresh
manure in excess proves injurious to vegetables, but as much may
be said in regard to the best-fermented dungs.
MI. Gazzeri, an Italian chemist, has devoted himself with the
most laudable perseverance to inquiries having for their object to
show that the general custom of leaving manures to become de
262 
VALUE OF FRESH AND MADE MANURES.
composed before leading them out to the field is attended with a
considerable loss of fertilizing principles, and that it is therefore
advantageous to use them in the state in which they come from the
stable. To remove all doubts which might yet be entertained upon
the effects of unfermented manures, M. Gazzeri showed that wheat
could be successfully grown in land which had received an extraordinary dose of pigeon's dung, which is regarded as one of the most
active of all manures; and horse droppings, taken at the moment
they were passed, mixed with earth, in the proportion of one-fourth
of the whole bulk, had no injurious effect on the growth of the
cereals. To ascertain the amount of loss which fresh manures suffered from fermentation, M. Gazzeri placed certain quantities, ascertained by weight, to putrefy under favorable circumstances; and
the decomposition completed, he weighed them again. In this way,
he ascertained that horse-dung, in the course of four months, lost
more than the half of the dry matter which it contained before its
putrefaction. Davy, indeed, had already shown that there is a loss
of volatile principles, during the decomposition of fresh manures,
that must be useful to vegetation. Davy's experiment consisted in
introducing manure into a retort, the extremity of which communicated with the soil under turf, and he found that in the course of a
few days the grass which was thus exposed to the emanations from
the retort, grew with particular luxuriance. Although it appears
certain, then, that in conducting the preparation of manure in the
heap with prudence, the volatile and ammoniacal principles which
appear in the course of the putrefaction may be retained, it is nevertheless unquestionable that the employment of manure directly and
without previous fermentation, would most effectually prevent the
loss of matters that must be valuable. Thaer, Schwertz, Mr. Coke,
and others, have consequently admitted the advantages of the latter
procedure. In agreeing with them completely, which I do, it still
remains certain that on the greater number of farms, dung-heaps
must be formed as matter of necessity. Manure is only available at
certain determinate seasons of the year; it cannot be carried out
and spread as it is produced.  In Alsace it is carried out to the fields
on which it is to be spread whenever circumstances will permit, and
without regard to its more or less advanced state of decomposition.
The circumstances which lead to its being kept in the pit for two or
three months, also lead to the manure being half or more than half
matured before it is led out; and this, after all, is perhaps the best
state in which it can be put into the ground. It is then easily incorporated with the soil, and its fertilizing principles are already in that
condition which enables them to act, within a limited time, with
greater energy than they would do were the manure employed quite
fresh. This is the condition in which our manures almost always
are at Bechelbronn when we carry them out: it rarely happens that
they have been three months on the stance before their removal.
Speediness of action is a point which is not without importance.
Fresh dung will always act more slowly than that which has reached a certain point of decomposition, and the advantage which mostly
263 
VALUE OF FRESH AND MIADE MANURES.
accrues to the farmer in forcing his crops, will often induce him to
use manure that has ripened in the pit or stance.
In warm and moist countries, as aiay be conceived, it is almost
matter of indifference whether the dung be put into the ground quite
fresh, or in a state of decomposition further advanced; its deconmposition, aided by the heat of the climate, is always effected rapidly
enough.  But it is otherwise in cold climates, where the temperature which excites and maintains vegetation is often of short duration, and must at once be taken advantage of.  I)uring a great part
of the year, the ground is so cold that organic substances buried in
it are preserved with comparatively little change. Under such
climatic conditions, there is no doubt that manures in a state of forwardness are to be preferred. It is probably from such motives
that the extensive use of liquid manures in Switzerland is derived,
the action of these being, so to speak, immediate; and it is with
such manure that in Flanders the cultivation of various plants that
are of great value in manufacturing processes, is carried on.
When the fermentation of manure has been managed discreetly,
and all the precautions requisite to prevent the dissipation of ammo niacal salts and the loss of soluble elements have been taken, there
is the immense advantage attending it, besides obtaining immediate
action, that a manure is produced of greater value under a smaller
bulk and a less weight.  The dung-heap often loses a third of its
bulk in undergoing fermentation, a circumstance which occasions an
important saving in carriage. A like savingi may be effected with
reference to fresh manures, by drying them in the sun, which I have
sometimes seen done; they are thus reduced to one-third or one fourth of their original weight, and when the distance to which they
have to be carried is great, there may be real advantage in proceed ing in this way.
An objection of some rmoment made to the use of fresh dung to
corn lands is, that it usually contains the seeds of weeds and the
eggs of insects which nothing but putrefaction will destroy.   This
objection of course loses all its weight when the land that is ma nured is to receive a crop which admits of hoeing; and the custom
which obtains with us at Bechelbronn of using manure in every
state of decomposition to the first crop in the rotation, is a guaran tee that fresh manure is really productive of no inconvenience in
practice. Another difficulty pointed out by Thaer, is that of cover ing in dung so long and full of straw as fresh stable or stall dung.
This objection disappears when the manure is laid in furrowns formed
by the plough, as is done in Alsace, by which means the covering in
is effected by a single operation.
If opinions are still divided upon the question whether dun,r ought
to be employed before or after fermentation, they are no less so as to
the mode of spreading it, and the best periods for laying it on the
land. It may be imagined that the conclusion come to upon the first
question necessarily influences the opinions held on the second.
Those who believe that manure may be advantageously used in the  state in which it comes from the stables, are altogether indifferent in
264 
SPREADING OF MANURE.
regard to the times of carrying it out.  They take advantage of every
leisure moment that occurs for performing this necessary work, which
is no trifling advantage; it is the practice which we follow at Bechelbronn —we carry out our manure as we find opportunity.  The
lands which are to be manured in the spring have frequently their
supply carried out during winter when the frost enables us to get
upon them. The dung first shot down in little heaps, at regular
distances, is afterwards spread as equally as possible, frequently
even upon the snow; and I have never seen any ill effect from the
practice. The custom which some farmers have of keeping dung in
large heaps in the field, in order that it may be all spread and worked under at the same time bv the plough, is certainly objectionable
the places upon which these heaps have been laid are evidently too
strongly manured; no manure, save that which is quite fresh and
very long in the straw, or which it is proposed to spread immediately in furrows, ought ever to be laid down in large heaps upon the
'field.
The method which I have recommended, of leaving manure spread
over the surface of the fields exposed to the weather for several
weeks or months, has been severely criticised. By such exposure,
it has been said the dung must lose its volatile elements, and the
rain must wash out and carry off its more soluble parts. Influenced
by such fears, some farmers do not spread their dung until the mo ment of ploughing it in.  Such diversity of opinion among practical
men, all personally interested in deriving the greatest possible amount
of advantage from the manure they employ, must not be thought of
lightly: when different modes of procedure in agriculture are the
subjects of debate, we must not be in too great a hurry to come to
general conclusions. Climate is not without its influence in the
question which now engages us. In Alsace, experience has pro nounced in favor of the practice followed; but in other countries
there- may be very good reasons for not proceeding in the same way.
In Alsace, where the annual depth of rain amounts to 26.7 inches,
no more than 4.3 inches fall during the three months of December.
January, and February. In a district where a larger quantity Jt
rain falls during the winter, the manure would probably suffer from
the procedure followed in Alsace.
The quality of the manure must also be taken into consideration.
A dunghill which contained a large proportion of carbonate of am mnionia, which exhaled a strong smell of volatile alkali, would infal libly lose in value by any unnecessary or prolonged exposure to the
air; but the loss becomes insignificant when the manure, by good
management, is brought to contain but a small proportion of volatile
ammoniacal salts, as happens with manures which have received
additions of gypsum; or otherwise, when the dung-heap has been
carried out fresh, and at a season so cold that it can be kept without
material change until the period arrives for spreading it over or
working it into the ground. NWhen the rains are not excessive,
the soluble parts of manure spread upon the ground penetrate and
remain in its upper stratum, exactly as happens when, instead of
23
265 
ELEMENTARY COMPOSITION OF IMANURE.
being buried, it is spread upon the herbage in full growth. The
plan of top-dressing is often of great use, and is another and a practical proof of how little detriment results fromni leaving manure exposed to atmospherical vicissitudes. The procedure by top-dressing
has arisen from necessity: it was first resorted to with the view of
giviing the land an addition to the inadequate dose of manure which
it had received before it was sown; but it has been found to answer
so well in many districts, that it has been continued. We have employed it at Bechelbronn upon various occasions, even to hoed crops,
and with decided advantage, the main one being, that time was gained
for the production of manure.
In the district of Marck, the practice of top-dressing lands sowed
with winter grain, is rapidly gaining ground; the dressing takes
place when the blade is already above ground; and experience proves
that the passage of the wagons over the field, and the feet of the
horses and the men, cause no appreciable mischief; all traces of
them very soon disappear. Nevertheless it is decidedly better to
take advantage of a hard frost, when the land will bear carts,
&c., for the performance of the process.  This plan, according to -
Schwertz, is found to answer extremely well in Switzerland, for
hemp, and indeed for almost every thing else. In my opinion, topdressing ought to be viewed as a means of giving the soil, already
under a crop, the manure which we had been compelled to refuse it
at an earlier period.  Still, Thaer assures us, and his authority is
always of great weight, that he has too frequently seen the good
effects of top-dressings to beans, peas, and leguminous crops in general, not to be satisfied of the general advantages of the method, in
connection with light soils especially, in which the sowing may have
been late.
The elementary composition of farm-dung is a point which is not
undeserving of consideration. I have made repeated analyses of
that of Bechelbronn, operating upon it in a medium state of decomposition. The animals which had produced this dung were thirty
horses, thirty oxen, and from ten to twenty hogs. The absolute
quantity of moisture was ascertained by first drying in the air a considerable weight of dung, and, after pounding, continuing and completing the drying of a given quantity in the oil-bath, in vacuo, at a
temperature of 230~ F.
The dung prepared in the winter of the year            1837-8 contained.................. 20.4 t per cent. of
1838-9..................... 2...2.2 dry matter.
Prepared in summer of 1839....... 19.6
Medium.............. 20.7
Water................ 79.3
Analysis yielded the following results:
Times ofpreparation.  Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen.  Azote.  Ashes.
Winter of 1837-8    32.4    3.8    25.8    1.7   36.3
"    32.5    4.1    26.0    1.7   35.7
"    38.7    4.5   28.7    1.7   26.4
Spring of 1838    36.4    4.0    19.1    2.4    38.1
"   1839    40.0    4.3    27.6    2.4    25.7
5   "'        34.5    4.3    27.6    2.0    31.5
266 
COMPOSITION OF FARM-YARD DUNG.
On the average, farm-dung dried at 238~ contains:
Carbon............... 35.8
Hydrogen.....................4.2
Oxygen................. 25.8
Azote..................2.0
Salts and earths.......... 32.2
100.0
WVhen moist, its composition is represented by                     Carbon.......... 7.41
Hydrogen............... 0.87
Oxygen.................. 5.34
Azote................. 0.41
Salts and earths.......... 6.67
Water.................. 79.30
100.0
The constitution of dung-heaps must of necessity vary; those,
however, which have a common origin do not seem to present very
great differences in the proportion of their elements. Thus, horsedung, in the south of France, yielded, on analysis, in the dry state,
2.4 per cent. of azote.  This manure contained only 61 per cent. of
m-noisture.
Did we but know the composition and the quantity of the exereLions passed, in the course of the twenty-foitr hours, by the various
animals which contribute to the production of manure, we should be
able to determine approximatively what the elements are which have
been eliminated in the course of the fermentation. It would be sufficient to compare the elementary matter in the litter, or fresh dung,
as it comes from the stable, with that which exists in the fermented
or prepared manure. I have data which I think sufficient to enable
me to institute this comparison. It must always be borne in mind,
however, that the analyses which I shall now detail were made
upon the excremtents of a single individual of each kind. It would
2ertainly have been preferable to have had average analyses of
average qualities; but the object I had in view, when I undertook
hese experiments, was quite different from that which I have now
efore me.
EXCRETIONS OF THE HORSE.*
The horse was fed upon hay and oats.  The urine and the exere-nents together contained 76.2 per cent. of moisture. In twenty-four
iours the excretions weighed-moist, 34.2 lbs.; dry, 8.1 lbs.
Their composition was found to be                                tn  the dry state.   Mitdte
In the dry state.
Carbon............. 38.6
Hydrogen............ 5.0.
Oxygen.............. 36.4
Azote...............   2.7
Salts and earth.......  17.3
Water............... ".1 7
100.0
* The size of the horse was rather below the average usual size of farm horses.
267
M.it ditt..
9.19
1.20
8.66
4.13
4.13
76-17
100.0 
COMPOSITION OF FARM-YARD DUNG.
EXCRETIONS OF THE COW.
The cow was fed upon hay and raw potatoes. The urine and the
excrements together contained 86.4 of moisture. The weight of
the excretions. in twenty-four hours, was-moist, 80.5 lbs.; dry,
10.9 lbs.
Their composition by analysis was:
Dry.
Carbon............. 39.8
Hydrogen............. 4.7
Oxygen...........35.5
Azote.............. 2.6
Salts and earth........17.4
Water                               86........... "
100.0
Wet.
5.39
0.64
4.81
0.36
2.36
86.44
100.00
EXCRETIONS OF THE PIG.
The pigs, upon which the observations were made, were from six
to eight months old. They were fed upon steamed potatoes. The
urine and the excrements lost by drying 82 per cent. of moisture.
The average of the excretions yielded by one pig in twenty-four
hours was: moist, 9.1 lbs.; dry, 1.6 lb.
Composition:
Dry.
Carbon.............38.7
Hydrogen........... 4.8
Oxygen............32.5
Azote.............. 3.4
Salts and earth........20.6
Water                          82......... *
100.0
The litter that is generally employed is wheat-straw. This straw.
in the condition in which it is used, contains 26 per cent. of moist.
ure.
Its composition is:
Oried.     Udtd
Dr,ied.
Carbon.................48.4
Hydrogen..........5.3
Oxygen...........38.9 
Azote...............  0.4
Salts and earth........ 7.0
Water                                 26........... 0
100.0
At Bechelbronn each horse receives daily as litter 4.4 lbs.; each
cow 6.6 lbs.; each pig 4.1 lbs. of straw.
To the stables and the cow-houses together are given every
twenty-four hours 132.0 lbs. of straw for thirty horses; 198.0 lbs.
for thirty horned cattle; 66.0 lbs. for sixteen pigs; making 396.C
lbs. of straw, estimated when dry at 292.6 lbs.
The composition of the materials which constitute the dung produced in one day are set forth in the following table
268
m.i.t.
6.97
0.86
5.85
0.61
87.1
82-00
100-00
U.d,id.
35.8
3.9
28.8
00.3
5.2
26.0
100.0 
COMPOSITION OF FARM-YARD DUNG.
Elements of the dry mter.        Water
Exretins yielded        ight We ight  ostitu   in 24 Ihours by when dry in the wet                                        &  tnt
state.dy                                    Sat&' ting the
staee.  Carb. Hydrog Oxygen  Azote. eths  wetmatter
lbs.     lbs.      lbs.    lbs.    lbs.   lbs.   lbs.    lbs.
ThIirty horses......   245.08  1028.28   94.6012.32   89.10  6.60  4'2.46   783.20
Thlirty hornedl cattle   326.36  2416.48  130.2415.40  116.16  8.58 56.98  2089.12
Sixteen pi -........  2 6.40   146.74   10.12  1.32    8.58 0.88   5.50   120.34
Straw used in litter  292.60   396.00   41.6815.62 113.74  1.10  20.46    103.40
The average or mean composition of this mixture may be taken
is follows:
In the dry state.                                 In the wet state,.
Carbon. Hydrog. Oxygen.  Azote. t  Salts.   Carbon.  Hydrog.  Oxyges.  A,ute.   Salt.  Water.
l  42.3     5.0       36.7      1.9   14.1       9.4 1  1.2         8.2       0.4     3.2   77.6
That of tihe resulting Dung:
35.8     4.2       25.8    2.0   32.2    7.4            0.9      5.3       0.4    6.7  79.3
On comparing the composition of the dung-heap with that of the
different kinds of litter collected in a day, little difference is observed; the larger quantity of saline and earthy matters discovered
in the fermented manure is readily explained from the additions of
ashes incorporated with it, and also by the accidental admixture of
earthy matters proceeding from the sweepings of the court, the
earth adhering to the roots consumed as food, &c.-refuse of every
kind, the residue after cleansing the various kinds of fodder for the
stable and stall, &c., all goes to the dung-heap. Lastly, and with
reference to the elements that are liable to be dissipated in the state
of gas, or which may be changed into water, the azote is perceptibly in larger quantity in the prepared manure than in the unfermented litter and excretions. This is at once seen on comparing
the composition of these two products after the saline and earthy
matters have been deducted.
Carbon. Hydrogen.  Oxygen.  Azote.
The composition of fresh litter, is........49.3    5.8    42.7  2
That of dung............................. -52.8  6.1    33.1    3.0
Dung is, therefore, somewhat richer in carbon than litter, and it
contains less oxygen.  It is the property of lignine undergoing decomposition, that it yields a product which relatively abounds more
in carbon than the original matter, in spite of the carbonic acid
which is formed and thrown off during the alterations undergone;
this is owing to the elements of water being thrown off in relatively
still larger quantity at the same time.
Fermented  dung contains less oxygen than that which comes
from the stable; it ought also to contain less hydrogen: but this
analysis does not proclaim.  It must be observed, however, that the
23*
269 
DURABILITY OF MANURES.
quantity of oxygen (4.6,) the loss of which appears would require
no more than 0.57 of hydrogen to constitute water; and this is a
quantity which  t is impossible to answer for in experiments made
upon such substances without excessive delicacy of manipulation.
This much may be certainly concluded, viz., that manure which has
undergone preparation contains a larger relative proportion of azote
than the substances which have concurred in its production; and for
this reason, it is very probable that upon the whole a very trifling
loss of this element is experienced if the fermentation has been
carefully managed, and the manure has been carried out and distributed upon the land before its decomposition is too far advanced.
This conclusion, which I am particularly anxious to establish, is
partly explained by the interesting researches of Mr. Hermann,
which go to prove that woody fibre in rotting attracts and fixes a
quantity of the atmospheric air.
Azote is in fact the element which it is of highest importance to
augment and to preserve in dung. The organic substances which
are the most advantageous in producing manures are precisely those
which give origin by their decomposition to the largest proportion
of azotized matters soluble or volatile.  I say by their decomposition, because the mere presence of azote in matters of organic origin does not suffice to constitute them manure. Coal, for example,
contains azote in very appreciable quantity; and yet its ameliorating
influence upon the soil is absolutely null; this happens from coal
resisting the action of those atmospheric agencies which determine
that putrid fermentation, the ultimate result of which is always the
production of ammnioniacal salts, or other azotized compounds favorable to the growth of vegetables. While we admit the high importance, indeed the absolute necessity of azotic principles in manures,
then, we must not therefore conclude that these principles are the
only ones which contribute to fertilize the earth.
It is unquestionable that the alkaline and earthy salts are further
indispensable to the accomplishment of the phenomena of vegetation; and it is far from being sufficiently shown that the organic
principles void of azote play a merely passive part when added to
the soil. But with few exceptions, the fixed salts, water or its ele ments, and carbon superabound in manure. The element which
exists there in smallest proportion is azote, which is the one also that
is most apt to be dissipated during the alteration of the bodies that
contain it. For these reasons azote is really the element whose
presence it is of highest moment to ascertain; its proportion is that
in fact which fixes the comparative value of different manures.
Since it is by undergoing modification in the course of their de composition by putrefaction that those azotized substances which are
favorable to vegetation are developed in quaternary compounds, it
will be readily understood that all things else being equal, a manure
which is completely decompoundable into soluble or gaseous products
in the course of a single season, will exert in virtue of this alone
the whole of its useful influence upon the first crop.  It is entirely
different if the manure decomposes more slowly; its action upon the
270 
STRAW, STEMiS, ETC.
first crop will be less obvious, but its influence will continue longer.
There are manures which act, it may be said, at the moment they
are put into the ground; there are others, the action of which continues during several years.  Nevertheless two manures, although
acting within periods so different in point of extent, will produce
the same final result if they severally contain the same dose of
azotic elements, if they are of the same intrinsic value.
The durability of manures, the length of time during which they
will continue to exert their influence, is a matter of great importance. It often depends on their state of cohesion, or on their insolubility, though climate and the nature of the soil have also a
marked influence on their decomposition and consequent effects. It
is not easy in the present state of knowledge to predict with certainty how long the beneficial effects of a given manure will continue to be felt; but we know well enough what will hasten the
decomposition of manure, and what will retard this final result, and
so apportion as it were the fertilizing principles among the different
crops in the rotation. Aware of the importance of azote in manures,
MA. Payen and I undertook an extensive series of analyses, with a
view to ascertain the proportion of this principle in the various matters and mixtures made use of in the improvement of the soil. This
labor enabled us to class manures; and assuming farm-dung as the
standard, to refer each to its place in a comparative scale, I shall
give the conclusions to which we came in the tabular form; but before doing this, I think it necessary to premise a few observations
upon the several manures, or substances usually employed in preparing manures.
Straw, woody stems, haurm, leaves, and weeds. The straw of
corn, the haum and stalks of various plants of farm growth,weeds of
all kinds, and leaves collected in the woods, all contribute to increase the supply of manure.
Straw is the article that is generally employed for litter; its hollow tubular structure, which makes it apt to imbibe urine, renders it
peculiarly valuable for this purpose; and it at the same time supplies a soft and warm bed for the cattle. The weight of the straw
used as litter may be doubled by the absorption of urine and admixture with excrements; but it is by its very nature and of itself a
manure which is not to be slighted, since it contains from 2 to 6
thousandths of azote.
The stems of leguminous plants-bean and pea straw-are much
more highly azotized than the straw of corn; it is certainly best to
consume this article as forage when it is not too woody and hard.
As litter it is often unfit to form a good bed for cattle, and should
therefore not be so employed alone; but it presents the twofold advantage of adding to the manure a large proportion of azotized principles, and at the same time of elffecting a saving of straw. At
Bechelbronn we have found it very advantageous to mix a certain
quantity of the dried stems of the 3Iadia sativa (gold of pleasure)
with both our cowhouse and stable litter.
In forest districts, the leaves of trees are frequently used as lit
271 
LEAVES-BEAN-STRAW.
ter; they perhaps absorb urine in smaller quantities than straw does.
but as they are much more highly azotized, they greatly improve the
quality of the dung. It is desirable that the materials used for litter
would be capable of imbibing a large quantity of liquid; and these
szriie materials are by so much the more advantageous as the proportion of azote which enters into their composition is high.  The
leaves of trees combine both of these conditions, and are therefore
an immense resource in districts where they can be procured in
abundance. Where the woods are strictly preserved, the removal
of the leaves is generally prohibited; and it is doubtless injurious
to deprive the soil of them in young plantations; but where the tinber is further advanced, the objections to their removal are infinitely
less, and it is therefore generally permitted to carry them away
within certain limits. And when it is seen that from natural causes
a great part of the leaves is actually lost to the soil of the forest,
the wind sweeping them into the ravines, whence they are carried
away by the rains, it is evidently far better to allow the poorer cultivators to profit by them. The benefit obtained appears the greater,
as the time and labor bestowed in collecting the leaves is not taken
into the reckoning.
Bean straw, and other stalks of a very hard and thready nature,
make but indifferent litter, they are often so hard that they hurt cattle; and then their cuticle being impermeable, they absorb little or no
urine. It has been proposed to crush them in the mill or to cut them
in pieces, but either of these processes is attended with expense.
The best thing to do would sometimes be to place them where they
would get crushed under the wheels of the farm carts. The use of
woody stems of every description would be attended with unquestionable saving in the useful article of straw, and it must never be
forgotten that to economize straw as litter, is to increase the quantity of available forage. If, for example, it were possible to reduce
to the state of litter the woody stems of the Jerusalem artichoke in
places where this vegetable is grown to any extent, the advantages
would be very decided; the quantity of these stalks collected from
an acre may amount to from four to five tons; the pith of which
they are almost entirely composed is of a very spongy nature and
well fitted to absorb fluids. These stalks are light, and properly
bruised, would probably replace an equal weight of straw, first as
litter and then as an element of the dunghill, instead of being burn ed as at present to heat the oven or to boil the copper, which seems
of all methods the worst to derive any advantage from the woody
haum, whether of the Jerusalem artichoke, the potato, rape, &e.
These substances contain about 4 per 1000 of azote, and are most
profitably transformed into manure. We have found that by placing
them at the bottom of the dung-heaps, they end by undergoing de composition; even the most woody stems of vegetables, indeed, de compose pretty rapidly when they are impregnated with urine and
mixed with the droppings of animals.  Mere moisture without other
addition does not suffice, they then rot with extreme slowness.
The green parts of vegetables buried in the ground with the wa
272 
GREEN MANURES.
ter they contain, undergo decomposition rapidly; the best plan of
using them as manure would therefore be to plough them in at once,
were there not certain objections to this.  In the first place it cannot
always be done, on account of the season and the crops upon the
ground; and then it might be imprudent to return to the earth the
noxious weeds which had just been pulled up, frequently full o.
seeds, which would not fail to make their existence known before
long. It is besides often impossible to bring loads of weeds to the
farmstead; the best thing that can then be done is to change them
rapidly into manure in a corner of one of the fields which has produced them. This is readily accomplished by means of lime; a
bed is first made of the weeds about 14 inches thick, this is thern
covered with a thin layer of quick-lime, from half an inch to an inch
in thickness; another layer of weeds is laid on, and then another
layer of quick-lime, and so on in succession. After a few hours the
action between the dry lime and the moist herbage begins, and it
may be so intense as even to go the length of burning, to prevent
which the pile must be covered with earth or with turf, and every
means used to prevent the access of air. The process is generally
complete within twenty-four hours, and the heap may then be spread
as manure.   Before proceeding to such an operation, however, it
would be highly proper to calculate its cost. All depends on the
price of the lime and the labor; and all things considered, I myself
much doubt whether the plan could be followed with advantage.
Green manures. Under this title I include the green parts of
vegetables which form part of our crops, such as the haum of po tatoes, the outer leaves of carrots, cabbages, beet, turnips, &c.
These articles are at once forage and manure, and it is for the hus bandman to decide in conformity with his position and particular
resources whether he ought to bury them at once, or to use them
first as food for cattle.
From my own experience I should say that the leaves of beet
and of turnips, and potato haum were articles which ought only to
be given to cattle in cases of necessity. It is generally much better
to bury them in the ground immediately after the crop is gathered;
if they be very indifferent food, they are on the contrary excellent
manure, superior in quality even to the best farm dung.  From the
experiments I have made on this subject, I find that the potato tops
from an acre of ground may be equal to 6 or 7 hundred weight of
that manure presumed to be dry; and the leaves of the beet, from
the same extent of surface, are equal to more than 21 hundred
weight of the same manure, also in a state of dryness.  It is amon(r
green manures that we are to class the sea-weed or marine platnts,
which in many places are employed for improving the soil.  These
cry ptogamic plants, which abound in azote, have a fertilizing power
superior to that of common dung, a fact which explains the great
store which is set in Brittany by the sea-weed that is collected on
its coasts.  Sea-weed is employed either fresh and as it comes fromn
the sea, or half dried or macerated, or roasted, and even partially
burned.  It appears to act at once in virtue of the azotized or
273 
GREEN MANURES-SEA-WEED.
ganic matters wlich it contains, of the hygrometric properties which
it possesses, and of the saline substances which enter into its com.
position. The agriculturists of Brittany have employed sea-weed
as manure from time immemorial; and so have the people of
Scotland and Ireland. In Brittany, the sea-weed is gatheredat
periods fixed by law. The first gathering, as well as that which
has been cast up by the waves, is given up to the poor. The gatherings then take place at regular intervals by means of a kind of
cutting rake.  The sea-weed cut from the rocks is piled upon rafts
or thrown into barges, and carried to the shore; and there is a tiade
carried on in the article all along the shores of the channel between
Genest and Cape La Hogue, from the Chansey Isles, and from the
coast of Calrados.
When sea-weed is employed in the fresh state, it is ploughed in
as speedily as possible. For those kinds of crops which require made
manures, the sea-weed is stratified with dung and so left to fermnent.
In some places the sea-weed is roasted or imperfectly burned, by
which, while a large proportion of the vegetable tissue is destroyed,
an azotized product is still left behind. Before burning the sea weed, it is exposed for a time to the air and the rain, and it is then
dried, being frequently turned. In this state, it is even used as fuel
in places where wood is scarce. One great advantage in sea-weed
which has been particularly indicated, is its total freedom from the
seeds of noxious weeds.
Aquatic plants which grow in fresh water may also be employed
as manure; the common reed cut and buried green, decomposes
rapidly. And here I may mention that to destroy reeds which are
often a cause of great annoyance in ponds, Schwertz recommends
lowering the water about 16 inches, cutting the plant, and then rais ing the water to its old level; the water enters the interior of the
stems and they all die in a very short space of time.
Crops which are buried green, for the improvement of the soil,
are also to be ranked in the list of the manures which now engage
us. The plan of burying green crops dates from the most remote an tiquity; it was greatly recommended by the Romans, and is followed
in Italy at the present day. The plants usually grown for the pur pose of being burned green are colza or colewort, rape, buckwheat,
tares, trefoil, &c. The preference, however, is given to one or
other of the leguminous plants, such as tares, lupins, &c., plants
which appear to have the highest power of extracting azotized prin.
ciples from the atmosphere; and indeed the value of the whole pro
cess is founded upon this fact, for otherwise it would be impossible
to give any reason for this long accredited mode of improving the
soil. This, too, is one of the ways in which fallowing becomes use  ful; it is not merely the rest which the land thus obtains, it is also
benefited by the vegetables which grow upon it sfrntaneously, which
come to maturity and die, leaving in this way in the ground all they
had attracted from the atmosphere, or fixed from the water with
which they had been supplied.
Seeds, Oil-cake.  It is in the seed that by fi, the largest propor
274 
OIL-CAKE MANURE.
tion of the azotized matter assimilated by vegetables during their
growth is finally concentrated at the period of their maturity. Seeds
are consequently very powerful manures, and great advantage is
taken of them. In Tuscany, lupin seed is sold as manure; it contains 3- per cent. of azote.  It is employed after its germinating
power has been destroyed by boiling or roasting. The cultivation
of the lupin is carried on in districts, the situation of which is such
that difficulty would be experienced in exporting more bulky crops.
Grains from the brewery would also make excellent manure were it
not generally found more advantageous to use them as food for cattle. In some places, however, where there is no adequate demand
for them in this direction, they are dried upon a kiln, and are then
equal to twice and a half their weight of farm dung; in some places
they are actually sold at a proportionate price. The state of divisio,b of grains admits of their being regularly spread. In some parts
of England, grains are used in the proportion of from 40 to 50
bushels per acre for wheat or barley.*
The refuse of the grape in wine countries contains a large quantity
of azotized matter. The decomposition of the grape stones being
slow, this refuse answers admirably as a manure for vines.
Oleaginous seeds after the extraction of the oil leave a residue
which is an article of commerce, and is familiarly known under the
name of calke.  Oil contains no appreciable quantity of azote; this
principle is contained entirely in the cake, which becomes through
this alone most excellent manure. The proportion of azote which
cake contains, varies from 3- to 9 per cent.  Oil-cake, from its mode
of preparation, contains but very little moisture, and consequently offers great facilities in the way of carriage; it may be taken without
difficulty to situations whither a load of dung could scarcely be carried.
Cake is applied in two modes: 1st. In powder, and by sowing
upon the field, sometimes mixed with the seed. 2d. Mixed in water
or in the drainings of the dung-hill, in which case the liquid containing the products of the decomposition of the cake is distributed over
the land. By putrefaction under water, cake yields a matter of extreme fetor, comparable both in point of smell and of effects on vegetation to human excrement obtained from privies.
Although cake, from the large proportion of albumen and legumen
which it contains, be an excellent food for cattle, it is still found
more advantageous in many districts to use it as manure than for
feeding. England imports oil-cake from all parts of the continent.
France alone, from 1836 to 1840, exported more than 117,860 tons
of the article. Oil-cake has been particularly recommended as
manure for light sandy soils. When the soil is clayey and cold,
Schwertz recommends a mixture of one part of lime and 6 parts of
powdered cake. To me, however, the addition of lime has always
appeared a questionable auxiliary in such manures as give rise readily
to ammoniacal products, as is the case with oil-cake. For clayey
lands, it would perhaps be advisable to employ oil-cake in a state of
* Sinclair, Agriculture, vol. i.
275 
REFUSE OF BEET AS 3I.gNURE.
decomposition and diffused in water; its effects, I imagine, would
not be doubtful.
Oil-cake, as a manure, is employed at very different seasons, according to the nature of the husbandry. It is always well to employ
it in rainy weather. Its effect is always certain, if it comes on to
rain two or three weeks after it has been put into the ground.
Drought suspends its action; it frequently happens, indeed, that the
first crop shows none of its good effects; but these never fail to appear in subsequent crops.   Schwertz remarks very properly, that
this circumstance has led many farmers to overlook the real advantages that belong to this manure.  Cake, in fact,  according to the
dryness or moistness of the season, may act as a manure either of
difficult or of easy decomposition, and so produce more immediate or
more remote effects.  In England about 800 weight of oil-cake per
acre are commonly applied.  Mr. Coke, of Holkham, ploughed in the
powdered cake about six weeks before sowing turnips, but it is helc
more economical and more advantageous to strew it in fine powder
along the furrow with the seed. The latter view, however, must not
be too confidently acted on by farmers; the general recommendation
to sow the fields with powdered cake, either some weeks before or
some weeks after putting it in the seed, and when the plants have
already sprung, appears to be the right one.  We have various observations made by one of our most experienced practical farmers
which prove that oil-cake used dry and without mixture often produces the most injurious effects upon germination.  In September,
1824, M. Vilmorin, desiring to make a comparative trial of different
pulverulent manures, strewed a quantity of powdered colewort-eake
upon a piece of red clover. Upon all the parts of the field which
had received other manures, applied in the same way, the clover
sprung perfectly; but that which had received the oil-cake continued absolutely naked; the cake had been employed in the proportion
of about 800 cwt. per acre. The same result was also obtained in
a trial made with vetches and gray winter peas.* Duhamel, referring to similar facts, recommends the cake to be applied ten or
twelve days before sowing.  In Flanders, from 6 to 7 cwt. per acre
is the quantity generally employed for wheat crops, and it is scattered over the surface before winter sets in, when the grain is already
above the ground.
The pulp of the beet-root which has been employed in the sugar
manufactories of France and Flanders, is an article which as food tfor
eattle is known not to be inferi)r to the root before it has undergone
expression, and it contains nearly the same proportions of sugar, al)Umren. &c.  It is, therefore, always used as food to as great an extent as possible. But the article is kept with difficulty, and the production at times far exceeds the powers of consumption, so that it
has to be made into manure, for which it answers excellently. The
skimmings and dregs which are collected in the process of sugar
making, are also available as manure. They contain about the same
amount of azote or azotized matter as farm dung, and are therefore
I Vilu',.rin, in                            v,ison lhisfique, v1. i. p. 204.
276 
REFUSE OF THE SUGAlt-HOUSE, ETC.
of similar value. The animal charcoal of the sugar refinery, after
it has served its office there, is an admirable manure.  It is, in fact,
bone or ivory-black, mixed with the coagulated blood which has been
employed to clarifv the sirup by entangling impurities, and a very
small quantity of sugar.  This mixture, so rich in azotized princi
ples, used actually to be turned into the sewers until the year 1824,
when MA. Payen showed its value as manure, since which time nearly 10,000 tons have been annually employed in ameliorating the soil,
to the great advantage of practical agriculture.  The  importance
of the trade in this residue of the sugar-house and complaints of the
occasional indifferent quality of the article, attracted the attention of
the department of the Inferior-Loire in 1838, and led to the appointment of an inspector of the manure shipped from the port of Nantz.
I may here observe, that in testing a manure it is by no means
enough to limit attention to the quantity of organic matter which  it
contains. The only sure means is to determine the amount of azote;
it is not organic matter, but the amount of azotized organic matter
upon which almost alone depends the value of the manure.
The residue of the sugar refinery is another of those articles
which presents an occasional anomaly in its application, and which
must not be left unnoticed.  Its effect upon the ground has not only
been extremely variable, but it has sometimes happened that this
manure, laid on very soon after coming from the manufactory, has
been fou)d decidedly injurious to vegetation. Kept for some time,
for a month or two, in a heap before being applied, its effect has not
only been found more certain, but also uniformly favorable.
It is not difficult to explain these divers and opposite influences
the sugar contained in the refuse undergoing fermentation yields
first alcohol, and than acetic and lactic acids. Employed in this
state, the substance must necessarily prove injurious to vegetation.
It is only after it has lain for a sufficient length of time exposed to
the air, to have had the animal matter it contains changed into ammonia, and the organic acids engendered saturated with this base,
that it becomes truly useful to vegetation.  The heap indeed then
shows alkaline, not acid re-action.*
The residue of the starch manufactur?er, the fetid water which is
obtained in such quantity in the process of making starch from grain,
is a powerful manure, and ought not to be suffered to run to waste.
The pulp or residue of the potato which is now produced in c()iisiderablle quantity in the potato starch manufactories, is kinoTl to
be an excellent article of food for hogs and cattle.   To\ r s the
end of the season, however, it is apt to be of very indifferea?t iuality,
and green food having by this time come  in abund:ltti:, it often
goes to the dung-hill.  in the dry state, it is worth ils owni weight
of farm dung; wet, 100 of the pulp may be equal t({ Lt)out 131 of
farm-yard dung. The water which has served fior washing out the
starch from the pulp, as in the case of wheat and other grain, contains an organic substance which when dried constitutes pulverulent
* Payen and Boussingmtit, Aiss. de  timi; c, i. iii. p. 95, 3e serie
1 4
277 
ANIMAL REMIAINS.
manure that is equal to about half its weight  )f -he dry manure pre.
pared from night soil, which the French call pc'drette. M. Daill)
made a comparative trial of these two kinds cf manure, and from
actual experiment fiound that 200 parts of the dep)osite from tbhe starch
manufactory might be used for 100 of poudrette.  Even the water
that is used in the manufacture, and from which the substance in
question is deposited, is an excellent manure when thrown upon the
ground, a circumstance which is by so much the more fortunate that
this water by standing putrefies and throws off most offensive exhalations. By using the liquor to his fields, at once, M. Dailly prevents every kind of annoyance to himself and his neighbors, and
moreover from his great starch manufactory he realizes in this way
an additional profit which he estimates at upwards of ~60 per an
num. Analysis has shown that 100 of this water from the potato
starch manufactory represents 17 of moist farm-yard dung.
In cider countries, the pulp of the apples that have been pressed
is always thrown upon land as manure.  At Bechelbronn we reserve
it for our Jerusalem artichokes; in Normandy it is thought excellent for meadows and young orchards. Analysis of the pulp of apples grown in Alsace shows that when dry it contains a quantity of
azote, which places it on the same footing as farm-yard dung.
Sinclair informs us that in Herefordshire the pulp of the cider press
is made into good manure by being mixed with quick-lime and
turned two or three times in the course of the following summer.
Doubtless the addition of lime will hasten the decomposition of the
woody matter of the pulp; but it strikes me that this will take place
rapidly enough of itself in the ground without contriving any means
of accelerating the process.
Animal remains.  The remains of dead animals and the animal
mnatters obtained from the slaughter house are powerful manures,
which are much sought after in places where their value is properly
appreciated.  Scraps and the refuse of skin, hair, horn, tendons,
bonles, feathers, &c., all form invaluable manure. The flesh of animals which die, and so much of that of horses that are slaughtered
which cannot be used as food for animals, may be dried after having
been previously boiled, and then reduced to powder and applied as
manure. The blood of slaughtered animals is less proper as food
for hogs, although it is often used in this way, than muscular flesh;
it even occasionally gives rise to serious diseases among these animals. It is most easily prepared as manure, however, for which it
answers admirably; it is enough to coagulate it by exposure to heat,
and then having broken it down, to dry it in the air or in the stove.
Liquid blood has been employed as manure, but decomposition then
takes place so rapidly, that the produc~s are exhaled without pro ducing much effect. This objection may be remedied by two means,
either by diluting the blood in a large quantity of water, with which
the land is then irrigated, or by mixing it with a considerable mass
of vegetable earth, which is then applied like ordinary manure.
There is even a pulverulent maniiure of which blood forms the basis,
prepared in special establishments in the vicinity of various large
278 
towns. The large quantity of azote contained in these manures
shows how their value may be such as to permit of their being
advantageously exported to great distances beyond seas.
Bo?zes are employed in agriculture after having had the fat which
they contained extracted from them by boiling. They are crushed
by being passed between the teeth or grooves of a couple of castiron rollers. They must be regarded as a manure, the action of
which is of long duration, because the. animal matter contained in
themni decomposes slowly, protected as it is by the earthy casing
which surrounds it. In England from 50 to 60 bushels of bruised
bones per acre are usually put upon land prepared for turnips
The employment of bones as manure has given rise to the most
various and contradictory observations.  In certain circumstances
their effect upon vegetation has been almost null; in others their
action has been decisive and most favorable. M. Payen has given
a solution of these anomalies which is perfectly satisfactory. According to my learned colleague, bones in their interstices, contain
a quantity of fat of various consistency, which may be renmoved by
long boiling in water; the average quantity of grease obtained from
fresh bones is about 10 per cent. It has been observed that this fatty matter diminishes gradually in bones that dry by long exposure
it even disappears almost entirely when they are dried at a high
temperature. This happens from the water which is disengaged
from the bony tissue by the effect of evaporation, being replaced by
fat melted by the heat. The consequence of this is, that the organic
tissue of bone, which was already sufficiently rebellious to decomposition, becomnies still less alterable when it is impregnated with
grease.  The grease, in fact, by reacting upon the carbonate of
lime of the bone, has formed an earthy soap which long resists atmospherical influences and change under ground.
It will readily be understood that bones in this condition can have
little or no action upon vegetation, unless indeed they be reduced to
very fine powder. This alone will explain how it may happen that
some bones, after having remained four years in the ground, have
been found to have lost no more than 8 per cent. of their weight,
while those, the grease of which has been removed by boiling water,
have lost in the same space of time from 25 to 30 per cent. of their
weight.*
These observations of MA. Payen show how completely Schwertz
was mistaken when he ascribed the indifferent quality of the nia nure prepared from old bones, or from bones that had been boiled,
to the absence of fat, which he regards, I know not on what
authority, as a substance extremely favorable to vegetation.  It is
not very obvious how fatty substances should act as mnanures. I
myself ascertained, from experiments made some years ago with
a view to test the conclusions of an agriculturist who ascribed
the good effects of cake to the fatty matters which it contained,
that rape-oil had no kind of favorable influence upon the growth
* Payen, Maison Rustique, v. i. p. 194.
279
BONES.
01, 
GRAVES-WOOLLEN RAGS, ETC.
of wheat. I have said nothing here upon the importance of tne
earthy matter of bones, particularly of the calcareous phosphate
which they contain, but which is nevertheless acknowledged to be
of great importance.
The refuse from the glue-maker's, washed and pressed, contains
all the animal matters which have resisted the action of boiling
water, such as portions of tendinous and skinny substance, hair,
pieces of bone, of horn, and of flesh, a calcareous soap, and earthy
matters. This mixture putrefies rapidly; but dried, it may be preserved for a great length of time.  Analyzed dry, it yields about 4
per cent. of azote. From 4 to 5 cwt. per acre are employed, but it
is necessary to manure every year.
The refuse of the tallow-melter, graves, as it is called, a residue
co(nsisting in great part of the membranes which have enveloped
the fat of our domestic  animals, mixed with a little blood, some
flesh, and bony matter, and grease, has hitherto been employed
almost exclusively as food for dogs. Of late, however, graves have
been used as manure, and analysis shows that this substance must
be estimated as equal to about 3', farm-dung being fixed  at  1.
Used in this proportion, graves produce  a marked effect.   The
action of graves, which may be thrown on in fragments and dry, or
after having been steeped in hot water, and reduced to the state
of a pulp, will continue for three or four years.
Shreds of woollen rags form a good manure for vines and olivetrees especially, though they are also available in husbandry of
every description.  The large proportion of azote, and the small
quantity of water contained in woollen rags, constitute themn not only
one of the richest manures, but also one of those that is most easily
transported; 25 cwts. per acre of woollen rags, the cost of which, in
France, may be about ~3, have been found sufficient as manure fior
three years. The slowness with which wool decomposes, indeed,
causes its action to be continued during six or eight years. Twentyfive cwt. of woollen rags may be held equivalent to upwards of 40
tons of farn-dung, which, at the price of 5s. 10d. per ton, would cost
~12 16s.  At the end of three years, M. Delonchamps, an excellent
practical farmner, gives his land a dressing of farm-dung for three
years more, when he returns to the wool.  Before spreading rags
they must be cut into pieces, which is effected either by a machine,
or by a piece of scythe-blade fixed in a block of wood. In England,
the quantity of woollen rags allowed to the acre is generally about
13 cwt.  Sinclair says that they are best suited for dry and sandy or
chalky soils, and this because they attract moisture. I have not
found the fact to be so. In the very dry soil of a vineyard manured
with this article, I have found the pieces to decompose with extreme
slowness, and, up to this time, the effect upon the vines has been
scarcely perceptible.
The raspii-gs and shav'nigs of horn form a manure of great power,
that seems applicable to every variety of soil.  In England, about
40 bushels per acre are usually allowed.
Tendons, trimmings of hides, hair, jeathers, d4-c., are manures very
280 
SHELLS-MUD.
analogous to the last, and of which the value may be estimated from
the quantity of azote which they severally contain. This value once
determined, every farmer knows the quantity which he must lay
upon his land; and he thus proceeds upon a much more rational
foundation than when he takes for his guide one or other of those
vague and arbitrary indications that have been given. Sinclair, for
example, would have us lay on nine bushels of feather rubbish to the
acre, and Schwertz recommends from four to five times as much
mnore.  Nothing, in fact, is more arbitrary and uncertain than to
estimate such materials by the bulk; it must be obvious that the
weight of a bushel of hide-trimmings, of horn-shavings, and of
feather-rubbish, must differ very widely, not only with reference to
one another, but also according to the state of division in which each
is measured. As a general rule, it is by weight, and weight alone,
that the quantity of manure must be estimated.
Shells and mud from the sea-shore and the bottoms of rivers, are
matters that are not often very highly azotized; nevertheless they
may contain an equivalent of the all-important element, azote, which
may bring them near to wet farm-yard dung in point of value. The
abundance of such matters in certain situations makes them extremely useful. The alkaline and earthy salts, which they generally
contain in considerable quantity, also add to their fertilizing properties. The sea-saild which is employed in Brittany under the name
of icarl, (merl,) consists, in great part, of the remains of corallines,
madrepores, and shells, mixed with a few hundredths of highly
azotized organic manner.   This marine  marl is found in  great
abundance at the mouths of the river of Morlaix, where there is a
considerable traffic carried on in the article.  It is said to be reproduced, new banks of it being met with from time to time.  It is
obtained by dredging from barges, and the process is only allowed
to go on from the 15th of May to the 15th of October, when the
quays of the town of Morlaix are seen covered with the produce.
It is carted to a distance of five leagues inland.   A  barge-load
weighing seven tons, sells at from 6s. 6d. to 8s.  This same species
of marl is now obtained upon the coast of Plancourtrez and in
the roads of Brest.  It has also been discovered near the mouth
of tl.e river Quimpert.  It appears, finally, that the shell sand so
much employed by the farmers of Devonshire and Cornwall is of
the same essential nature.
In the neighborhood of Morlaix, from five to six tons per acre of
this calcareous sand are employed upon light dry soils; from eleven
to twelve tons are given to clayey lands.  This quantity would
probably be too great for porous and damp soils, inasmnuch as seamarl belongs to the class of warmn manures; that is to say, it under
goes speedy decomposition.  There can be no doubt that sea-marl
acts further, in virtue of the caicareous matter which it contains,
and also of its merely mechanical properties upon the strong argillaceous lands of Brittany, for which sand alone is an excellent improver.  It is also to the carbonate of lime which it contains, that
its good effects upon lands that show an inflorescence of iron pyrites
24*
281 
SHELL-MARL.
must be ascribed. It is well to lay this shell-marl upon the land
shortly after it is taken from the sea; by long exposure to the air,
it suffers disaggregation and loses a portion of its good qualities.
There is another kind of sea-sand called trez, which forms banks
in the neighborhood of Morlaix, and which is known under the name
of tanque on the northern shores of France, which is favorable to
vegetation, particularly after it has been washed and freed from the
greater part of the salt which it contains.  It is thrown uponi the land
in larger quantity than the marl.  The small quantity of animal matter which it contains putrefies and is lost when it remains exposed
to the air for any length of time, so that a distinction has been made
between fresh or live trez, and old or dead trez, the one being the
article as it comes from the sea, the other after it has been exposed
some time on the shore; the article which has been exposed undoubtedly contains a smaller quantity of organic matter than that
which is quite fresh. This variety of sea-sand is particularly available upon close and clayey lands, which sometimes receive as many
as sixteen tons per acre with advantage; lighter lands, of course,
require much less.
Shells, sand, slime, and sea-weed, are not the only useful materials supplied to agriculture by the sea; fish, or their offal, is frequently employed as manure. The practice of manuring with fish
is very old, and is universal wherever it can be had recourse to.
I have already had occasion to say, that at the period of the conquest of America, the Spaniards found it established among the
Indians, on the shores of the Pacific ocean. The lands are occasionally manured with fish along the sea-board of Great Britain
and Ireland, and the low lands of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire,
and Norfolk, also receive occasional supplies of the same powerful manure. The offal of the herring fishery, of cod, of skate, and
of the pilchard, in Cornwall, the dog-fish entire, and other kinds,
that are either less esteemed, or that are caught in quantities greater
than can be consumed as food, are all admirable manures. We have
been recommended to mix the fish or fish-offal with quick-lime; but,
unless in certain circumstances, the practice is very questionable;
the addition is probably only proper where the materials are exceedingly oily, as is the case with pilchards, herrings, &c.: an
earthy soap is then formed which prevents the injurious effects upon
vegetation which wholly oleaginous matters scarcely fail to produce.
One analysis of codfish, which I made along with M. Payen, gave
us a proportion of azote of nearly seven per cent.  This, of itself, is
enough to explain wherefore the flesh, the cartilages, and the bones
of fishes should be found such energetic manures.
The slime deposited by rivers also yields manure which may be
employed to much advantage. Tle Nile, which periodically inundates the plains of Lower Egypt, awes its fertilizing action to the
slime which it contains, and which it deposites before it again recedes
into its bed. On the banks of the Durance, the mud or slime deposited by the river is carefully collected for distribution over the fields
in its vicinity. The waters of this river are frequently turbid and
282 
improper for irrigation, until they have deposited the slime which
they hold in suspension; the waters are therefore turned into canals
for the purpose of deposition before they are let upon the land; and
such is the quantity of slime that is precipitated, that two or three
gatherings of it are made in the course of the year. It is dug out
and thrown upon the banks to dry; reduced to powder, it is fit to be
laid upon the land; and such is its fertilizing power, that a field
which yielded hut four for one, has been brought to yield twelve for
one by its means.*
~Vood and coal soot, and Picardy ashes. Soot has been known
for a long period as a useful manure. M. Braconnot, in the soot of
a chimney where wood had been the fuel, found the following ingredients
Ulmic acid........................... 30.0
Azotic matter, soluble in water.................. 20.0
Insoluble carbonated matter.....................  3.9
Silica..................................... 1.0
Carbonate of lime........................... 14.7
Carbonate of magnesia (traces of)
Sulphate of lime...........................  0.5
Ferruginous phosphate of lime................... 1.5
Chloride of potassium...........................  0.4
Acetate of potash...........................- 4.1
Acetate of lime............................. 5.7
Acetate of magnesia......................    0.5
Acetate of iron (traces of)
Acetate of ammonia...........................  0.2
An acrid and bitter element -................... 0.5
Water....................................12.5
100.0
The analysis which M. Payen and I made of wood and coal soot,
confirms the presence of the azotized principle detected by M. Braconnot.  A considerable trade is carried on in soot for agricultural
purposes in large towns; it is thrown upon clovers and young wheats,
in the proportion of about 20 bushels to the acre.  Some have recommended that it should be mixed with lime; but as soot always
contains salts having a base of ammonia, the practice is evidently
objectionable, unless indeed the object be to get rid of that which is
most useful in the article, which will be effectually accomplished by
adding lime to it. The proper procedure is to employ the soot
without admixture during calm or wet weather. In Flanders, the
colewort beds destined for transplanting are very generally manured
with soot, which is believed to have the property of preserving the
young plants from the attacks of insects.  Ini the neighborhood of
Lisle, they give from 55 to 60 bushels of soot per acre.   Schwertz
appeals to many facts which go far to satisfy us that the effects of
soot upon clovers are particularly advantageous; he says, moreover,
that coal soot is preferable to wood soot.  The superior properties
of coal soot are evidently due to two causes: first, it is more dense
* Belleval, in Annals of French Agriculture, 2d series, vol. xiv. p. 261.  The beds of
many of the oozy-bottomed rivers in Englstid near the sea are inexhaustible sources
of the mnost valuable mianure.  The bed of the Thamies, between London Bridge and
Putney Bridge at low water, is a true gold miniie if it were but rightly used.-ENG. ED
SOOT.
283 
PICARDY ASHES.
than wood soot, and in a given bulk actually contains a larger quan
tity of matter; secondly, I have found that, for equal weights, coal
soot contains the larger quantity of azote.
Picardy ashes are prepared by the slow and imperfect combustion
of the pyritic turf which is dug up in the department of the Aisne
for the manufacture of sulphate of iron and of alum. This turf piled
up, heats, and finally takes fire; the combustion continues for about
a month, abundance of sulphureous vapors being disengaged. The
residue is a gray ash, still containing a quantity of carbonaceous
matter, which is found very advantageous in the way of top-dressingo for meadows. It might be maintained that the utility of such
ashes depends solely on the sulphate of lime which they contain;
but it is ascertained that they are much more active as manure than
this substance employed by itself; analysis, in fact, explains in some
degree the fertilizing powers of these ashes, by showing that they
contain more than 1 per cent. of azote, to say nothing of the saline
matters of which vegetables are so greedy. It is extremely probable that during the slow incineration of the turf, there is a quantity
of sulphate of ammonia produced.
The ashes which remain after the lixiviation of the pyritic and
aluminous lignites which are mined for the purpose of making green
vitriol, are analogous to Picardy ashes, and are employed with equal
success in agriculture. At Forges-les-Eaux, the pyritic earths after
lixiviation are mixed with a quarter of their weight of turf ashes,
and form an active manure which is employed very extensively in
the country around the town of Bray in France: it is equally adapted to meadows and to land under roots, such as potatoes or turnips,
green crops or corn. Analysis shows these ashes to have the fol owing composition:
Soluble organic matter...................  2.7
Insoluble humus........................ -.... 49.8
Sulphate of protoxide and of peroxide of iron...  1.8
Fine sandl.................................39.0
Sulphuret of iron
Peroxide of iron.............................7
100.0
The vitriolic ashes of Forges-les-Eaux are more highly azotized
than those of Picardy; they contain 2.72 per cent. of azote.
The effect of the imperfect combustion of these pyritic turfs, the
product which results from it, explains to a certain extent the beneficial effects of the practice of paring and burning, an important and
widely spread practice, the utility of which it would be difficult to
understand, were it not connected in some way with the production
of ammoniacal ashes.
The useful effects of paring and burning, are, in all probability,
connected with the destruction of organic matter, very poor in azotized principles; in the transformation of the surface of the soil into
a porous, carbonaceous earth, made apt to condense and retain the
ammoniacal vapors disengaged during the combustion; lastly, by
the production of alkaline and earthy salts, which are familiarly
known to exert a most beneficial influence upon vegetation. These
284 
conditions seem so entirely those, the object of which it is to realize
by paring and burning, that in order to make the operation favorable
to the soil which undergoes it, the vegetable matter which it has
produced, must of necessity be transformed into black ashes; when
it goes beyond this, as Mr. Hoblyn has well observed, when the incineration is complete, and the residue presents itself as a red ash,
the soil may be struck with perfect barrenness for the future. The
burning, therefore, that was not properly managed, that led to the
complete incineration of all the organic matter, would, for the same
reason, have a very bad effect in the preparation of the Picardy ashes; which might indeed act in the same way as turf ashes firom the
hearth and oven, but which, deprived of all azotized principles, would
not ameliorate the ground in the manner of organic manures.
I have frequently seen the process of burning pertormed in the
steppes of southern America.  Fire is set to the pastures after the
grass which covers them has become dry and woody; the flame
spreads with inconceivable rapidity, and to immense distances. The
earth becomes charred and black; the combustion of those parts
that are nearest to the surface, however, is never complete; and a
few days after the passage of the flame, a fresh and vigorous vegetation is seen sprouting through the blackened soil, so that in a few
weeks the scene of the desolation by fire, becomes changed into a
rich and verdant meadow.
ANIMAL EXCREMENTS.
Horse-dung. The composition of horse-dung would lead us to
infer that its action must be more energetic than that of cow-dung.
Nevertheless, agriculturists frequently consider it as of inferior quality. This opinion is, even to a certain extent, well founded. Thus
although it be acknowledged that horse-dung covered in before it has
fermented, yields a very powerful manure, it is known that in general
the same substance, after its decomposition, affords a manure that is
really less useful than that of-the cow-house. This comes entirely
from the fact that the droppings of the stable, by reason of the small
quantity of moisture they contain, present greater difficulties in the
way of proper treatment than those from the cow-house. Mixed
with litter and thrown loosely upon the dung-hill, horse-dung heats
rapidly, dries, and perishes: unless the mass be supplied with a sufficient quantity of water to keep down the fermentation, and the
access of the air be prevented by proper treading, there is always,
without the least doubt, a considerable loss of principles, which it is
of the highest importance to preserve. I can give a striking instance
of this fact in the changes that happen in the conversion of horsedung into manure in the last stage of decomposition: fresh horsedung in the dry state contains 2.7 per cent. of azote. The same
dung laid in a thick stratum and left to undergo entire decomposition,
gave a humus or mould, from which, reduced to dryness, no more
than one per cent. of azote was obtained. I add, that by this fermentation or decomposition, the dung had lost nine tenths of its weight.
285
MANURES. 
HORSE-DUNG.
From these numbers every one may judge how great had been the
loss of azotized principles. In practice, however, little care is be.
stowed on the preparation of horse-dung; the fermentation is rarely,
if ever, pushed to this extreme point indeed; but it is not the less
true that it is constantly approached in a greater or less degree; and
that the consequences, although not altogether so unfavorable as
those which I have particularly signalized, are nevertheless extremely
destructive. All enlightened agriculturists have, therefore, long
been aware of the attention necessary to the management of horsedung, which requires a degree of care, that may be perfectly well
dispensed with when the business is to convert the dejections of horned cattle into manure.  To obtain the best results in the management
of horse-dung, it appears to be absolutely necessary to give it a
much larger quantity of moisture than it can ever receive from the
urine of the animal; if it be not watered it necessarily heats, dries,
and loses both in weight and quality; while, by being kept properly
moist, it produces a manure, which half rotted, is of quality superior,
or at all events equal, to the same weight of cow-dung.
M. Schattenmann, who has the produce of stables containing two
hundred horses to manage, follows a process of the most commendable description in the preparation of his manure, and which is
attended with the very best results. His dunghill stance, of no great
depth, is about 440 yards square in superficies, and divided into two
equal portions. The bottom of this stance is so arranged as to present two iinclined planes, which bring all the liquids that drain from
it to the middle, where there is an ample tank for their reception,
furnished with a pump for their redistribution to the dunghill. There
is also another spring-water pump destined to supply the water that
is necessary to preserve the dung-heap in an adequate state of moistness. The latter auxiliary is quite indispensable; the quantity of
water necessary is so considerable when masses of such magnitude
are to be treated, that we cannot trust to any casual source of supply,
The two portions of the area are alternately piled with the dung as
it comes from the stables; it is heaped to the height of 10, 12, or
14 feet; it is trodden down carefully, as it is evenly spread, and
plentifully watered from the spring-water pump. Due consolidation,
and a state of constant humidity, are the two conditions that are the
most indispensable to the successful preparation of horse-dung. M.
Schattenmann is in the habit of adding to the liquid, saturated with
the soluble matters of the dunghill, a quantity of sulphate of iron in
solution, or of sulphate of lime (gypsum) in powder; he also throws
the same salts upon the surface of his heap: the object of this is
evidently to transform into sulphate, the volatile carbonate of ammonia formed in the course of the decomposition, and so to prevent its
escape and loss. By these means a pasty manure, as rich as that
which is yielded by horned cattle, and of a quality, the excellence
of which is proclaimed by the remarkable crops that cover the lands
which receive it, is produced in the course of two or three months.*
* Schattenmann, Annales de Chimie, 3e snrie, vol. iv. p. 117.
286 
HORSE-DUNG.
It is almost useless to add, that great care must be taken not to introduce too large a quantity of sulphate of iron, which might have
a prejudicial influence upon vegetation, into the dunighill or the
drainings from it.  In making use of sulphate of lime there is notliing to fear on this score; this salt in excess would be rather favorable than hurtfuil; in general, gypsum is certainly the preferable
substance, both on account of its never doing mischief, and of its
greatly inferior price.*
Farmers generally advise horse-dung to be reserved for argillaceous, deep, and moist soils; this recommendation is given in connection with the manure that is obtained by the usual imperfect process of preparation. With regard to the horse-dung, prepared in the
manner which I have just described, and as practised by M. Schattenmann, it is adapted to soils of all kinds; and if it differs from
the dung of the cow-houlse, it is only by its superior quality. This
last fact is at once explained by the elementary analysis of the excrements of a horse fed upon hay and oats.
100 parts of the urine of the animal so fed, yielded 12.4 of dry
extract, the composition of which was as follows:
In the state of extract.
Carbon................36.0
Hydrogen................. 3.8
Oxygen...................11.3
Azote.................12.5
Salts..................36.4
Water...1 "
100.0
The droppings of the same horse after drying, gave 24.7 of fixed
matter, the analysis of which indicated:
Moist excrement.
9.56
1.26
9.31
0.54
4.02
75.31
100.00
Dry excrement.
Carbon.......38.7
Hydrogen............. 5.1
Oxygen...............37.7
Azote.................. 2.2
Salts.................16.3
Water.....31...... 
100.o
The dung of horned cattle is often extremely watery; it is especially so when furnished by animals kept upon green food; this extreme humidity renders its preparation easy. Its equivalent number
is higher than that of horse-dung; it is, in fact, less highly azotized,
and consequently less active. If the food have a great effect upon
the quality of the manure, it is quite certain that the circumstances
or states of the cattle have an effect which is scarcely less remarkable. Milch cows and cows in calf always furnish a manure that is
less highly azotized than stall-fed and laboring oxen; and this is
readily understood: the azotized principles of the food are diverted
to secretions, which concur in the development of a new being in
the one case, in the production of milk in the other; for the same
* Every farmer who should have something like a cart or wagon-load of gypsum
brought to the farm every year would find his profit from the practice.-ENG. Ep.
287
I. the liq.id t.te.
4.46
0.47
1.40
1.55
4.51
87.61
100.00 
HIOG'S DUNG-PIlEON'S DUNG.
reason the dejections of young animals, all things else being equal
furnish a manure of less power and value than those of adult animals. I shall have occasion to recur to this important subject,
which has never yet been sufficiently studied.
The urine and excrements of a milch cow, which is giving about
12 pints of milk per diem, have shown upon analysis, the following
quantities of elements: 100 of the urine contained 11.7 of dry extract, and had this composition:
Urine dry.
Carbon...............27.2
Hydrogen................. 2.6
Oxygen..................26.4
Azote........................3.8
Salts...................40.0
Water.................. 30.0
100.0
100 of fresh excrement left on drying 9.4 of dry substance, and in
each state contained:
Excrement dry.    Excrement moist.
Carbon..................42.8        4.02
Hydrogen................. 5.2        0.49
Oxygen..................37.7         3.54
Azote................. 2.3          0.22
Salts..................12.0         1.13
Water................ 0.0          90.60
100.0          100.00
Hog's dung. From all I have seen, I conclude that hogs well
kept and put up to fatten, yield dejections which are highly azotized,
and which must consequently furnish a manure of excellent quality.
Schwertz has, indeed, ascertained that this manure acts more powerfully than cow-dung.
Sheep-dung is one of the most active of manures, a fact which is
confirmed by analysis; for it is by no means watery, and in the
usual state contains upwards of one per cent. of azote.  The mode
of managing sheep generally implies that they manure the ground
immediately.  Schw-ertz calculates that in the course of a night, a
sheep will manure something more than a square yard of surface;
at Bechelbronn we have found the quantity manured to be about 4
square feet. The following are the details of one experiment:
Two hundred sheep were folded for a fortnight upon a rye-stubble,
of an extent which gave as nearly as possible four square feet of
surface per sheep. The manuring thus effected was found to pro duce a maximum effect upon the crop of turnips which followed the
rye.
Pigeon's dung is known as a hot manure, and of such activity
that it must be used with discretion. Pigeon's dung is available for
crops of every description; Schwertz has made use of it for a long
time, and always with the greatest success, mixed with coal ashes,
upon clovers. The Flemish farmers procure pigeon's dung from
the department of the Pas de Calais, where there are a great num  ber of dove-cotes, one of which, containing from six hundred to six
hundred and fifty pigeons, will let for the sum of about ~4 per annutn,
288
U,i.,a liq.id.
3.18
0.30
3.09
0.44
4.68
88.31
100.00 
merely for the sake of the dung; the quantity yielded in this time
may be about a wagon-load. In the neighborhood of Lisle, this
manure is applied particularly in the cultivation of flax and tobacco.
According to M. Cordier, the dung'of between seven hundred and
eight hundred pigeons is sufficient to manure nearly 2' acres of
ground. The dung of three hundred and twelve pigeons, therefore,
would suffice for an acre. The value of pigeon's dung may be estimated from the large proportion of azote which it contains; that
which I analyzed from Bechelbronn gave 8- per cent. of this principle, a result which ought not to excite surprise when it is knownr.
that the white matter that appears in the excrements of birds, consists of nearly pure uric acid. The manure of the hen-house is
nearly or quite as good as pigeon's dung.
Guacio is a manure of the same nature as pigeon's dung, and the
use of which, long familiar on the coasts of Peru, has lately extended to these countries, the article being now imported in large quantities, both from the South American and African coasts. Guano
appears to be the result of the accumulation for ages of the excrements of the sea-fowl, which live and nestle in the islets, in the
neighborhood of the great southern continents of the new and old
world. The mass in many places forms beds of between 60 and 70
feet in thickness. The principal places whence guano is obtained,
are the Chinche islands near Pisco; but other deposites of the substance are known to exist more to the south,-in the islets of Iza
and Ilo, at Arica, and in the neighborhood of Payta, as I had an opportunity of ascertaining during my stay in that port. The inhabitants of Chinche are the principal traders in guano; and a class of
small vessels, called Guaneros, are constantly engaged in carrying
the manure.*
Fourcroy and Vauquelin were the first who fixed attention on the
nature of guano. The specimen which they examined was brought
to Europe by M. de Humboldt, and contained: Uric acid (0.25,) oxalate of ammonia, chlorhydrate of ammonia, oxalate of potash,
phosphates of potash and of lime, chloride of potassium, fatty matter,
and sand.
Since this time Dr. Fownes has again analyzed guano. The
sample upon which he operated was of a light brown color and extremnely offensive smell; it yielded:
Oxalate of ammonia
Uric acid.......6      6.2
Traces of carbonate of ammonia and organic matter
Phosphates of lime and of magnesia...............................29.2
Phosphates and alkaline chlorides, and traces of sulphates.......... 4.6
100.0
Another sample, deeper in color and without smell, contained:
Pure oxalate of ammonia, 44.6; earthy phosphates, 41.2; alkaline
uhosphates, sulphates, and chlorides, 14.2-100.
The composition of guano would confirm, were there any occasion
* Humboldt, Annales de Chimie, vol. lvi. p. 258.
25
289
GUANO. 
NIGHT-SOIL.
for confirmation, the opinion that has beet formed as to its origin.
The islets which supply it are still tenanted, especially during the
night, by a multitude of sea-fowl.  Nevertheless, from the calculations of M. de Humboldt, the excrements of these birds in the course
of three centuries, would not form a layer of guano of more than
one third of an inch in thickness;-imagination stops short, startled,
in presence of the vast lapse of time which must have been necessary to accumulate such beds of the substance as now exist, or
rather, as lately existed in many places; for it is rapidly disappearing since it has become a subject of the commercial enterprise of
mankind.*
The average composition of guano must by no means be inferred
from the preceding analyses of picked samples: earthy matters are
usually present in much larger proportion than they are here stated.
The guano generally imported into England and France yields a
proportion of azote very far short of that which the 25 per cent. of
uric acid which has sometimes been stated to exist in this substance
would yield. In three trials the azote found was 0.14, 0.05, and
0.05; the mean would therefore be 0.08, which represents the quantity of azote in pigeon's dung.
The litter and excrement of the silkworm is used as manure in
the south. Analysis indicates 3 per cent. of azote in its constitution.
Human excrements are regarded as one of the most active ma nures that can be employed. In countries where agriculture has
made real progress, this article is highly prized, and no pains are
spared to obtain so powerful a manure. In Flanders, feculent mat ters form the staple of an active traffic; and in the neighborhood of
large towns, they form an invaluable material for the amelioration
of the soil. The Chinese collect human excrements with the great est solicitude, vessels being placed for the purpose at regular dis tances along the most frequented ways. Old men, women and chil dren, are engaged in mixing them with water, which is applied in
the neighborhood of the plants in cultivation.t The fresh excrement
is occasionally worked up with clay, and formed into bricks, which
are pulverized when dry, and the powder is applied as a top-dress ing. One of the advantages resulting from the almost exclusive
use of this manure in China is this, that the fields seem to grow
nothing but the plant which is the object of solicitude with the
farmer; it is there extremely difficult to meet with a weed. The
quality of feculent matter as a manure depends much on the nature
and abundance of the food consumed by those who furnish it. M.
d'Arcet relates a curious anecdote in connection with this fact: a
farmer had purchased the produce of the cabinet of one of the most
* Dr. John Davy, all whose scientific researches equal in accuracy the brilliant in
vestigations of his illustrious brother, has lately turned his attention to this subject:
he finds that we have collections of guano in Great Britain that are really not to be
despised in some cases. The surface of the ground under old-established rookeries is
a true guano bed; and removed and used as manure in the open field, produces most
excellent effects. See Dr. Davy's paper in Ed. Lond. and Dub. Philos. Mag. Oct. 1,
1844.-ENGA. ED.             6,.ee
t Julien, Annales de Chimie, vol. iii. p. 65, 3d series.
290 
NIGHT-SOIL.
celebrated restaurateurs or taverns of the Palais Royal; encouraged
by the success he obtained in employing this manure, and desirous
of obtaining a larger supply of the article, he rented the produce of
several of the barracks of Paris. The manure which he now obtained, however, he found to produce an effect greatly less than he had
anticipated, so that he lost money by his bargain. Berzelius found
the following substances in human excrements:
Remains of food.................................  7.0
Bile.......................................0.9
Albumen.................................... 0.9
A peculiar extractive matter................... 2.7
Indeterminate animal matter, viscous matter,
resin, and an insoluble residuum...........14.0
Salts.................................... 1.2
Water...................................... 73.3
100.0
The salts had the composition following:
Carbonate of soda.......................29.4
Chloride of sodium...........................23.5
Sulphate of soda.............................11.8
Ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate.............11.8
Phosphate of lime........................... 23.5
100.0
Human urine is one of the most powerful of all manures. Left
to itself it speedily undergoes put, efaction, and devolves an abundance of ammoniacal salts, as all the world knows. Its compositions
according to Berzelius, is the following:
Urea...................................3.01
Ulric acid..............................0.10
Indeterminate animal matter             171
" M.i ~.  -.  -1.71
Lactic acid, and lactate of ammonia 
Mucus of the bladder.................... 0.03
Sulphate of potash.....................0.37
Sulphate of soda.............................0.32
Phosphate of soda............................0.29
Chloride of sodium......................0.45
Phosphate of ammonia........................ 0.17
Chlorhydrate of ammonia..................... 0.15
Phosphate of lime and of magnesia............ 0.10
Silica.................................traces
Water...............................93.30
100.00
The phosphates of lime and magnesia which it contains are extremely insoluble salts, and have been supposed to be held in solution
by phosphoric acid, lactic acid, and very recently by Professor
Liebig, by hippuric acid, which he now states to be a regular constituent of healthy human urine.
From the interesting inquiries upon urine made by M. Lecanu, it
appears that a man passes nearly half an ounce of azote with his
urine in the course of twenty-four hours. A quantity of urine taken
from a public urine pail of Paris, yielded 7 per 1000 of azote. The
dry extract of the same urine yielded nearly 17 per cent.
Human soil as commonly obtained consists of a mixture of feculent matters and urine. It may be applied immediately to the ground
291 
FLEMISH iHANURE.
as it comes from the privy. In some parts of Tuscany it is mixed
with three times its bulk of water, and so applied to the surface. I
have myself seen night-soil as it was obtained, and without preparation, spread upon a field of wheat without any ill effect: so that the
Tuscan preparation may be regarded as a simple means of spreading a limited quantity of manure over a given extent of ground.
It is in French Flanders, however, that human soil is collected
with especial care; it ought to be so collected everywhere. The
reservoir for its preservation ought to be one of the essential articles
in every farming establishment, as it is in Flanders, where there is
always a cistern or cess-pool in masonry, with an arch turned over
it for the purpose of collecting this invaluable manure. The bottom
is cemented and paved. Two openings are left: one in the middle
of the turned arch for the introduction of the material; the other,
smaller and made on the north side, is for the admission of the air,
which is requisite for the fermentation.
The Flemish reservoir may be of the dimensions of about 35
cubical yards. Whenever the necessary operations of the farm will
permit, the carts are sent off to the neighboring town to purchase
night-soil, which is then discharged into the reservoir, where it usually remains for several months before being carried out upon the land.
This favorite Flemish manure is applied in the liquid state (mixed
in water) before or after the seed is in the ground, or to transplanted
crops after they have been dibbled in. Its action is prompt and
energetic.  The sowing completed, and the land dressed up with all
the pains which the Flemish farmer appears to take a pleasure in
bestowing upon it, a charge of the manure is carried out at night in
tubs or barrels. At the side or corner of the field there is a vat that
will hold from 50 to 60 gallons, into which the load is discharged,
and from which a workman, armed with a scoop at the end of a
handle a dozen feet in length or more, proceeds to lade it out all
around him. The vat emptied in one place is removed further on,
and the same process is repeated until the whole field is watered.*
The purchase, the carriage, and the application of this Flemish
manure cannot be otherwise than costly; we therefore see it given
particularly to crops which, when luxuriant and successful, are of the
highest market value-such as flax, rape, and tobacco.
This manure, the sample of it, at least, which M. Payen and I
examined, is of a yellowish green color, and with reference to smell
cannot be compared to any thing better than a weak solution of
hydrosulphate of ammonia.  This salt is undoubtedly present; but
exposure to the air converts it rapidly into the sulphate of the same
base. According to M. Kuhlmann, the quality of the liquid Flemish
manure is to be judged of by its smell, its viscidity, and its saline and
.harp taste. By the fermentation which takes place in the cesspools, which are never emptied completely, the feculent matter, kept
for some time there, does in fact acquire a slight viscidity. When
solid exerementitious matter predominates in the fermented mass
* Cordier, Agriculture of French Flanders, p. 240.
292 
FLEMISH MANURE.
its effect upon vegetation is of longer continuance; but when it is
derived entirely from urine, it acts almost immediately after its
application. In either case, the effect of Flemish manure does not
extend beyond the season; like all the other organic substances which
have undergone complete putrid fermentation, it is a true annual
manure.
Occasionally, a quantity of powdered oil-cake is thrown into the
reservoir. This is either when the manure is supposed to be too
dilute, or when there is little night-soil at command. The following,
according to Professor Kuhlmann, is an example of the empinyment
of the Flemish manure in a rotation which is common in the neighborhood of Lisle, and in the course of which the crops are colza or
colewort, wheat and oats.
First year. In October or November, the land is manured with
farm-dung, which is ploughed in, in the usual way. At this time
a dose of the liquid manure, amounting to about 5000 gallons per
acre, is applied: a second ploughing is given, and the colewort is
planted.
Second year. The colza is gathered, the ground is ploughed foi
autumn sowing; from 1000 to 1300 gallons or so of liquid manure
are distributed, and the wheat is sown.
Third year. The wheat stubble is ploughed down at the end of
the autumn, and about 1000 or 1100 gallons of the liquid manure
per acre are distributed; the oats are sown in the spring. If circumstances should prevent the application of the liquid manure in
autumn, it is laid on in March, and then it has been found that one-fifth
less will suffice; but its application at this season is avoided as much
as possible on account of the havoc that is made by the passage of
horses, carts, and men over the surface of the soft ploughed land. It
is with a view to avoid this disturbance of the surface that in many
places oil-cake in powder is applied to the fields under colza
when the manuring has to be performed after the crop is in the
ground.
For beet, the dose of Flemish manure is carried the length of from
1300 to 1400 gallons per acre; but when the root is intended for the
manufacture of sugar, liquid manure is sedulously avoided, experience
having shown that it has the very worst effect upon the production
of sugar, a circumstance which is very easily explained upon grounds
that have already been given.
The price of Flemish manure at Lisle is 2-d. for a measure con.
taining 22 gallons.  In Flanders, it is held that this quantity, which
will weigh hard upon 2 cwt., is equal to about 5 cwt. of farm-yard
dung. The liquid manure which I analyzed yielded 2 per 1000 of
azote. Farm-yard dung, in its usual state, contains as much as 4
per 1000; it follows, therefore, that the real equivalent number of
Flemish manure is 182, that of farm dung being 100; in other words,
it would require 182 of Flemish manure to replace 100 of farm-yard
manure; a conclusion that differs widely from that which is usually
acted upon. But it must be observed that from its nature, the Flemish manure produces its maximum influence ill the course of the
293 
POUDRETTE.
season in which it is applied. It seems to have no effect on the
crop of the succeeding year. Farm-yard dung, on the ccntrary,
only exerts a portion of the whole amount of its beneficial influence
in the course of the year in which it is laid on; it has still something,
often much, in reserve for succeeding years. To compare liquid
manure with farm-yard dung, with reference to an annual crop, is to
compare this manure to the unknown fraction of the farm-yard dung
which comes into play in the course of the first year, and from such
a contrast no possible inference can be drawn in regard to the relative value of the two kinds of dung. I have insisted upon this circumstance, because it is often involved in the estimates that are
made of the relative values of the different species of manure; and
because, from losing sight of it, unfavorable conclusions are frequently
come to in regard to manures that undergo decomposition very slowly; these manures, nevertheless, acting for a great length of time,
produce both a greater amount and a more durable kind of amelioration of the soil. Rapidity of action, in a manure, is undoubtedly a
quality that is highly valuable in many cases; and Flemish manure
possesses this quality in the highest degree. Nevertheless, it is also
an advantage to possess a manure which elaborates gradually, and
according to the exigencies of vegetables, those principles that
contribute to their growth, and which suspend in a great measure
this elaboration in the course of the winter-which remrain during
the cold and rainy season in an almost inert condition, when any
fecundating matter produced would merely be washed away and lost.
These advantages, to which must be added that of breaking up and
lightening the soil, are all possessed by good farm-yard manure.
They are such, in fact, that this manure, even in Flanders, is still
indispensable; the liquid manures of that country are nothing more
than annual auxiliaries.
The method followed in Flanders of using night-soil is certainly
highly rational; it is the same as that which is adopted in Alsace, in
the neighborhood of towns, with this difference, that our farmers
collect no store of the material; they go in quest of it at the moment
it is wanted. It is applied as in Flanders, or it is incorporated with
absorbent substances, such as straw, or with other more consistent
manures. The night-soil of Paris, which in the course of a year
amounts to an immense quantity, is treated in a totally different
manner, which appears to be in opposition to the simplest notions of
science, of economy, and of all that is conducive to health. I allude
to the mode of preparing poudrette.
In the neighborhood of Paris there are places appropriated to the
reception of the night-soil: it is thrown into reservoirs Of no great
depth, in comparison with their superficial extent, and of an aggregate capacity which is such that they will contain the whole of the
products collected by the night-man in the course of six months.
These reservoirs are arranged in stages, one above another.  Into
the upper one are discharged the matters collected in the course of
the night.   The upper reservoir full, a sluice is opened by being
pushed partially down, which allows the r (,re liquid matters to es
294 
POUDRETTE.
cape into the second reservoir placed under it. Repeated drainings
are effected in this way, and when the second basin is also full, there
is a deposition of solid matter as in the first; the more liquid partic]es are then let off from the second into the third reservoir, and so
on in succession until the last and lowest is attained,from which the
liquid used to be turned into a watercourse; but, of late, these contaminated liquids have been got rid of by means of what may be
called absorbing artesian shafts-deep holes pierced in a dry and
porous soil.
When the deposite in the first reservoir is held to be sufficiently
consistent, it is drained by lowering the sluice more and more; no
fresh matter is added, the new charges being deposited in another
system of reservoirs. The deposite once drained is in the pasty
condition; it is then taken out with the spade, and spread upon all
earthen floor which slopes off on either side, and the mass is turned
from time to time to favor the drying; this process, in fact, is continued until the material has become pulverulent. It is then stored
under sheds, or thrown up into pyramidal heaps, the sides of which
are well beaten in order to enable them to throw off the wet.
Poudrette is of a brown color, and weighs nearly 150 lbs. per
sack. Put into a retort, and distilled with a heat of from 424~ to
930~ Fahr., it yields 52.6 of ammoniacal fluid, and 47.3 of dry nmatter, in which we encounter fixed ammoniacal salts, such as the sulphates, phosphates, hydrochlorates, &c. M. Jacquemart finds that
in 100 parts of poudrette there is 1.26 of ammonia, the greater part
in the state of carbonate; but it contains a quantity of animal matter
besides, which, by dry distillation, yields a nearly equal amount of
the same substance; whence it follows that poudrette contains
nearly 2- per cent. of volatile alkali, or 2 of azote. By direct analysis, I obtained 1.6 of azote.
Poudrette is spread upon the land at the time of ploughing, frout
26 to 34 bushels per acre being allowed. On meadow lands it produces very good effects in the dose of about25 bushels per acre.
The disgusting smell of night-soil is, to a certain extent, an obstacle
to its general use. This obstacle, however, is only felt in places
where agricultural industry, and the manufactures connected with it,
are still in a backward state. One remarkable circumstance is, that
the disgust which naturally arises from the manipulation of such articles, has been more especially got over in countries that are justly
celebrated for their extreme attention to cleanliness and the easy
position of their inhabitants. I quote Flanders and Alsace in proof
of the fact. It has been said, moreover, that certain articles produced in soils manured with human excrement contract a smell and
taste which give rather unpleasant information of the nature of the
manure that has been employed to favor their growth. In the lim ited circle of my own experience on this subject, I can say that I
have observed nothing which favors such a statement.  However
this may be, Mr. Salmon has succeeded in disinfecting night-soil
completely, by mixing it with a kind of animal charcoal obtained by
calcining in close vessels a porous earth impregnated with organic
295 
COMPOSTS.
substances. This is the article which is sold under he name of
animalized black.  Its quality as a manure must depend especially,
I might even say entirely, on the quantity of azotized organic matter
which enters into its composition.
Composts. A great deal has been written, and much has been
said on the advantages of composts, or mixtures, contrived with a
view to the amelioration of the soil. The receipts for these composts are very numerous; they prove that the discovery of a compost
is an easy matter, and requires but a small amount of ingenuity. To
unite different matters in such a way as to obtain a compound that
shall act advantageously, it is only necessary to make it up of substances which of themselves and isolatedly are good manures.   But
that it is possible to supply the scarcity of manure, to create it in
some sort by means of composts, is a subject of dispute.  In fact,
when we look attentively at the numerous mixtures which have been
indicated as leading to this end, we always perceive that the proposal amounts to an extension or dilution of some powerful manure
wvith a substance that is either inert or has little activity. This mode
of proceeding may have its advantages; it enables us to make a
more equal distribution of the manure we have at our disposal, but
it actually supplies us with none.
Earthy substances almost always figure in composts. Turf-ashes,
wood-ashes, marl, and particularly lime, are constant ingredients.
Marl may suit certain soils; lime is a substance of great activity,
and which for this reason must be admitted into composts with caution; it may act in the disintegration of woody parts-of stalks, and
stems, and leaves; but we must be very careful not to follow the
recommendation of Schwertz, who would have us throw quick-lime
into our privies with the view to bringing the matters there contained
into a consistent and readily pulverizable state. By doing so we
should infallibly lose the greater part of the principles that are truly
useful in the soil. Much mischief and great destruction of manure,
indeed, have been the consequence of the insensate and indiscriminate use of quick-lime under all circumstances; the business is
much rather to preserve than to destroy the substances that are used
as manures; the purpose is to fix, not to dissipate the volatile elements
which they contain. One great objection to the extensive employment of composts is the amount of labor they require in the repeated
turnings which are held necessary in their preparation, and in the
large quantity of matter which has to be transported.
The following table will be found useful as giving a comprehensive view of the proportion of azote  uontained in the various kinds
of manures which have been partic ilarly examined, and of their
equivalents, referred to farm-yard du, g as the standard.
996 
MA NURES.
TABLE OF THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF MANURES
DEDUCED FROM ANALYSES MADE BY MESSRS. PAYEN AND BOUSSINGAULT.
Aco      tezot    Quality ac-   Equivalent
o  0 Azote in
il0 of matter.
|              z   100 ot matter. ~~corsdinlg to  according to
Kind of Dung.                                                                 Remark.
Dry.  Wet.   Dry   Wt   Dry. Wet.
.                                                 ~      ~     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.  
Farm.yard dung..  79.3    1.95   0.41  100    100           100   100   Aver. of Bechelbronn.
Dung from an inn yard  60.6   2.08   0.79  107    107           94    51   From south of France.
Duin,g wttter....  99.6    1.54   0.06   78          2     127   68   Washed by the rain.
Wheat straw...   19.3   0.30   0.24   15             6   0 650 167  Fresh, of Alsace, 1838.
Idem...............  5.3 53 53 0.49 27                     122.5 367   82   Old from environs of
Paris.
Idem.........             5.3   0.43   0.41   22    102.5   453 98   Ditto stubble.
Idem....... 9.4  1.42                                         1.33 73 332.5 137  30 Ditto upper part ear
included.
Rye straw...          12.2    0.20   0.17   10      42.5   975  235   Of Alsace.
Idem......         12.6   0.50   0.42   26    105        390   95   Environs ofParis,1841.
Oat straw...         21.0    0.36   0.28      18    70   42  143
a3rleny straw..    11.0    0.26   0.23           13   57.5  750   174
Wheat chaff..  7.6   0.94   0.85           48    212.5 207   47        Of Alsace.
lE'a straw...           8.5    1.95 1.79  100   447.5   100   22
|M.illet strt,w   aw      19.0   0.96   0.78   49    19a    203    51 
Buckwiheat straw.   11.6    0.54   0.48    27 120          61   83
Lentil straw...'  9.2   1.1.12.01   57    250    174    40
1),ied potacto tops  12.9   0.43   0.37    22    92.5   453   108
, itheredmadiadstal ks  14.3   0.66   0.57   33    142.5   295   70   After seeding.
hlemn turn,ed under
while rreen..         70.6   1.53          0.45 79   113    126   89   Before seeding.
,Dried broom..   ~ 10.4   1.37 1.22   70   305             142   33    Stalk and leaves.
~Vithered  leaves  of
beet-root...  88.9   4.50  0.50  230    125               43    80   Of mangel worzel.
Ditto ot pot,toes..  76.0   2.30   0.55  117   137.5    85   73   Withler'dtop&leaves.
)itto ot carrts.    ~    0.9   2.94   0.85  150    212.5    66   47
L,eaves of heather         7.0   1.90   1.74   97    425    103    23   Dried in the air.
Ditto of pear-trees.  14.5   1.59   1.36    81.5 340         127   29
Ditto of oak...  25.0   1.57   1.18   80   293            125   34
Litto of uoplar..   51.1   1.17   0.54    66   134    167   74           Leaves fallen in au )itto of beech.         39.3    1.91   1.18   78   294        102    34        tumn.
Ditto of acacia.53.6    1.56   0.72   80    180    121   56
~Box-treel...      59.3   2.89   1.17  147   293          68   34   Branches and leaves.
Brred clover-roots.    9.7   1-77   1.61   90    402.5   110   25   Dried in the air.
Fucusdigitatus.        39.2   1.41   0.86   72   215    139    46   )
Idem.........40.0   1.58   0.95   81   237.5   123   42                  Dried in the air.
!Fucs, saccharinus.  40.0   2.29   1.38  117    345            85   29
lem......  75.5.    0.54..   135.     74   Fresh.
Bl.nt se.we ed..   3.8   0.40   0.38   20           95     488   105
'Oyster shIells..17.9   0.40   0.32   20         80      488   125
ISea shells.        O.05   0.05    3       13    3750   769   Dried  sea  shells  of
Dunkirk.
Alud of the Morlaix
iriver... 3.7    0.42   0.40   21    100           464  100         e
TVree of RoJscoff roads    02                            9      11    0 
Trezof Roscoffroads    0.5   0.14   0.13    7           32.5 1393   308       Seasand.
.Se.-sidemarl.. ~ 1.0    0.52   0.51   26.5  128       377   78
Salt cod-fish..  138.0  10.86   6.70  557  1675          18    6
Cod-fish washed  and
prossed.... 10.0  18.74  16.86  961   4215           10 28   Dried in the air.
F-ir saw-dust...  24.0    0.22   0.16    11         40      886  2a0   )
ldem.........      24.0    0.31   0.28   15    57.5 *  629  174          Dried in the air.
(-):k sw-dust...  26.0    0.72   0.54    36   135 256   74 
t  lttte lupite seed. 105    4.35   3.49  223   872.5    45   111~ Tuscan, boiled & dried
lalt grais....   6.0   4.90   4.51  251   1127.5    40            9
(;rape husks...,      48.2    3.31 1.71 169 427.5 57    23
il-cake of linseed.13.4    6.00   5.20  307   1300            331    8
Ditto of coleort..   10.5    5.50 -I.92   282,1230        35 8
l)itto ofArachis..    6.6   8.89   8.33 655 208'2.5           21     4~
Ditto ofatie              11.1    5.70   5.06  292   1265       34      8
Ditto of sesae.   6.5  35.93.52  304   1378           33     70
Oil.cke ofl.empseed    5.0    4.78   4.2f'" 245  11052         41 9
Ditto of poppy..    6.0    5.70   5.36  292  1340            34     7
Il)itto of beech mast.   6.2   3.53   3.31  181    828          55   12
Ditto ofwalinuts..   6.0    5.59   5.24  287   1310            1
Ditto of cotton seed.  11.0   4.52   4.02  231   1000          32   10
: 1i.  45.243
297 
ILL~ 
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a 
MANURES.
It is almost unnecessary to give any explanation of the uses that
rnay be made of the preceding table: I shall, however, give a few illustrations from instances which have actually occurred in my experience.
Oil-cake is cheap at this time, (1842;) and the question is, whether
it coul be advantageously employed in connection with the cultivation of wheat. The presumption is, that wheat obtains the whole
of its azote in the soil, that it acquires none from the atmosphere;
and again, I assume that the whole of the azote put into the ground
would be used up by the crop. Under the most favorable circumstances of heat and moisture, this would probably be the case; were
it not so to the letter, the active matter which remained in the
ground would operate advantageously in succeeding years.  The
following, then, are the elements of the question:
1st. In the wheat grown at Bechelbronn there is on an average
0.025 of azote. 2d. In the straw of 1841, I have just found 0.003
of azote. 3d. The oil-cake which I propose to employ contains
0.055 of azote, and its actual price, crushing included, is 3s. 4d. per
cwt. 4th. The relation in point of weight of the grain to the straw
is as 47: 100.
A sheaf or bundle of wheat, 220 lbs. in weight, consists of:
Wheat 70.4 lbs., containing 1.760 of azote, and is worth..........4s. 8d.
Straw 149.6 lbs.      "      0.415                                     i  s. 8d.
Total of azote....... 2.175                Total value....6. 4d.
Difference of value..............-.......5s. 4d.
To grow which, 39 lbs. of oil-cake would be required, of the
value of....-.......................................i. ls.  2d.
So that 39 lbs. of oil-cake, converted into a sheaf of wheat, would
be increased in intrinsic value to the extent of 5s. 2d. Supposing
that but one-half or one-third of this amount, as indicated by theory,
is realized in practice, it is obvious that the addition of the oil-cake
might be made with advantage; and that no means should be
neglected to ensure the success of its application as a manure.*
The production of oil-cake in France, the Netherlands, and other
countries of Europe, is very considerable; ill round numbers, 100
of oleaginous seeds yield 60 of cake; but it has been calculated,
with rare ability, and from authentic documents, by M.  Leroy de
Bethune, that not only is the whole of the oil-cake, which is the
produce of the soil of France, exported, but that likewise of the
oleaginous seeds which she imports from other countries. This M.
de Be6thune looks upon as a very lamentable agricultural fact. I
have shown, indeed, from the example which I have quoted, that
every pound of cake represents a primary material, which, properly
treated, may be transformed into nearly 6 pounds weight of wheatgrain and straw, having a value infinitely greater than that of the
oil-cake originally employed.
* Our author has of course left many other elements very necessary to be included
out of his calculation here, such as labor, seed, rent charge, interest on capital, &c.EN@. ED.
299 
EXPORTATION C F MANURES.
While I agree with M. de Be6thu:le, that it is generally winke to
encourage exportation, I also admit with him that there are substances in reference to which it would be prudent to discourage exportation; oil-cake, this powerful raeans of giving fertility to the
soil, might be placed in the foremost rank of such substances. I am
far from adopting all the principles of economists, which appear to
me to be frequently far too absolute. In my opinion, any exportation,
the consequence of which is the impoverishment of the soil, ought
to be prohibited. I should, for instance, oppose the exportation of
arable soil; and in the same way, to allow an active manure to pass
into the hands of strangers, is, in my eyes, tantamount to exporting
the vegetable soil of our fields, to lessening their productiveness, to
raising the price of the food of the poor; for as much labor is required, as much care and capital must be expended upon an ungrateful soil to obtain a little, as upon a fertile soil to procure an ample
return. To permit the exportation of oil-cake is to hinder the husbaudman from taking advantage of all the circumstances with which
nature presents him; it is as if a chill were to be brought over the
genial climate of France.*
I have shown the advantages of the application of oil-cake in the
growth of wheat. I shall now inquire whether or not it is equally
useful in connection with hay and potato crops; the price of the
article being presumed to be the same as before.
Upland meadows, when they have not been soiled, yield miserable
returns, and their situation renders them difficult of access to carts
oil-cake in such circumstances comes powerfully to our aid.
Taking the price of hay at 5s. per 220 lbs., which is about its
present price in France, and taking into account the composition of
the after-math, we may reckon the azote contained in the hay of
natural meadows at 0.015.
220 lbs. of hay, containing 3 lbs. of azote, will be worth..........5s. Od.
To produce which 56 lbs. of cake (azote 3.3 lbs.) worth- - - -..- - -   s.   8d.
would be required.
Difference in value between the cost and the crop...............3s. 4d.
Upon this showing, oil-cake may be advantageously employed in
the amelioration of upland meadows.  Besides the cost of the manure, however, there are the very necessary additions to be made of
the price of labor and rent.
From the observations which I made at Bechelbronn in 1839, I
* I own I am surprised at this passage in my esteemed author. There is nothing
parallel in the instances he quotes.  Did not the French husbandmen and oil-pressers
profit by the exportation of oil-cake they woald keep it at horie; and the profit of the
farnner and manufacturer is the profit of the whole community.  To export the soil
would indeed be madness: it would obviously be killing the goose that lays the golden
eggs; but to export that which the soil produces in abundance  year after year, is a
totally different affair.  M. Boussingault's reasoning would lead the wine-g-owers of
Bordeaux and Bulrgundy to refuse us a hegshead of their smallest growthl: t,Cy cannot
sesd it to ats without impoverishiog their s,e, any more titan they can let us have a pound
of their oil-cake.  But one half of the vegetables flitht grow, at least, are at work accumulating the materials fromt the atmosphere and water, out of which the other half
are supplied, and so the process of waste and stupl)ly, of destretctiot and reproduction
goes on without limits, and wsithout end.-ENGs. En.
Soo 
USE OF THE PRECEDING TABLE.
find that the relation between the weight of potatoes as they come
from the ground, and that of the tops or haum, supposed to be dry,
is as 100 is to 6.4.
The tubers contain:
Azote 0.0036 per 10000 parts; and 220 lbs. contain 0.729 of a lb. of
azote, and are worth.................................            IS........ls. 8d.
The tops or haum, dry, contain:
Azote 0.0230 per 10000 parts; and 14 lbs. contain 0.330 of a pound
of azote.
Total of azote 1.122.
Now 20.4 lbs. of cake which would be required to produce 220
lbs. of potatoes, contain 1.1 lb. of azote, and are worth......... Os. 71d.
Difference................Ils. Old.
The oil-cake at the price of 3s. 2d. per cwt. may therefore be advantageously used for the production of potatoes: rent, labor, seed,
&c., considered as before. At the price of 7s. 6d. or 8s. 6d. per
cwt., however, to which oil-cake occasionally rises, it would not be
possible to employ it profitably in this way. The cost of the manure
would then amount to nearly as much as the value of the crop.
The equivalent numbers in the table express the relative values
of different manures; they proclaim the proportions in which one
substance must be substituted for another, and when purchases are
to be made, they will show at a glance which is the article that is
really, and in fact, the cheapest. The equivalent number of one
variety of oil-cake, for instance, is 7.25; that of farm-yard dung is
100; which is as much as to say that in reference to mere fertilizing
elements, 100 parts-lbs. cwts. or tons, of farm-yard dung may be
replaced by 71  parts-lbs. cwts. or tons of oil-cake;-2  cwt. of
farm-dung, for instance, by 141 lbs. of cake.  The 2 cwt. of farmdung is valued in the table at 6d., or about 5s. per ton; the 142 lbs.
of cake would cost 53d. It is obvious, therefore, that even at the
above low price of oil-cake, there would be no real advantage in
substituting it generally for farm-yard dung; in situations, however,
remote from large towns, where it is almost impossible to procure
dung, or where the carriage of large masses of dung would be both
difficult and expensive, there would then be advantage in the substitutition.
Woollen rags at the price of about 2s. 10d. per cwt. are more profitable than farm-yard dung at 3d. per cwt. The equivalent of the
rags is 2.22, and this quantity (2.22 lbs. avoird.) of rags is worth
about.d.; by the substitution of the rags for farm-yard manure,
thlerefore, a saving is effected of about 24d. on every cwt. of the
latter that must have been employed. In good farming, however,
it is less wvith reference to the money advantage of substituting one
mnanure for another, that calculations are made, than with reference
to the possibility of procuring either one manure or another at a
moderate price. The estimated value of the dung in one of the
columns of the table gives us at once the price that may be paid for
it; for this purpose it is enough to know the value of standard dung:
let this be as it usually is, 3d. per cwt.; if we would now know
what may be paid for a hundred weight of bones simply dried in the
26
301 
VALUE OF DIFFERENT MANURES.
air, the number designating these being 1554, we have only to make
a simple equation in the following terms:-100: 3d.:: 1554: a, to
have the solution: -3s. 10.ld.
The most careful consideration of the relative value of different
manures under the guidance of the analytical elements which I have
indicated, justifies the preference which is given in practice to one
kind over another, which on simple examination appears tb offer
greater advantages. Thus, by diffusing oil-cake through water, and
leaving the mixture to ferment, a manure is obtained which presents
all the characters, which possesses all the properties of human soil
that has undergone fermentation in privies or cess-pools.  And it is
to this mixture of putrid oil-cakle that the husbandmen of French
Flanders have recourse, as we have seen, when their supply of
night-soil runs short. WVhen oil-cake is low in price, say about 3s.
3d. or 3s. 4d. per cwt., it might seem advantageous to manufacture
Flemish manure with it; expensive carriage and time would be
saved; for night-soil has generally to be fetched from a distance,
and containing but 0.002 (l o-ths) of azote, it is bulky, and its equivalent is in the same proportion high.  Cameline oil-cake contains
0.055 (I-50tths) of azote; to make Flemish manure that should contain 0.002 of azote, it would be requisite to add to every 100 parts
of cake 2,650 parts of water; the cwt. of this manure would then
come to I'd., while Flemish manure prepared with night-soil, would
cost the farmer but 14-d. I have here taken the cake at a low price;
were it 7s. 6d. per cwt. instead of 3s. 9d., which is perhaps much
nearer its usual average cost, it is obvious that the cwt. of manure
prepared from it, would an  1wice /j    D"sDhJ) m)ast
The proportion of azote, the value, and the equivalents of the
several manures are given in the table, both for the substances absolutely dry, and for the condition in which they are commonly employed. This distinction is one of great importance. The water,
the quantity of which is indicated in the first column, is a most
variable constituent; its presence, of course, depreciates the manure in the precise ratio in which it occurs. The reference of all
the elements of each particular manure to that manure in a state of
absolute dryness, is a very important feature in the table. In purchasing manures, the precaution of drying them chemically must
never be neglected, more especially in connection with articles,
which by their nature are capable of absorbing water in considerable, and often in very different, quantities.
302 
LIMING.
CHAPTER VI.
OF MINERAL MANURES OR STIMULANTS.
ALL the organic manures, when burned, leave ashes composed of
earthy and saline substances. The action of these substances upon
vegetation is quite unquestionable, and it is certain that an organic
manure, were it ever so rich in azotized principles, and ever so assimilable, would still be imperfect did it not further contain the truly
mineral matters which plants require to meet with in the soil, in
order to complete their growth and bring their seeds to maturity.
The most active organic manures are always abundantly provided
with inorganic principles. Farm dung (dry) contains about onefourth of its weight of such substances, and the water which is used
for irrigation invariablv holds saline matter in solution.
Nevertheless, repeated cropping will often end by depriving the
soil of the mineral substances which plants require; the salts contained in the manure supplied are sometimes inadequate to meet
the demands of successive crops, and then the return falls off.  It
is consequently necessary in certain cases to furnish the soil anew
with saline matters, in order to supply the continued drain that is
made upon it, or to meet the exigencies of particular crops which
are known to require an unusually large quantity of salts for their
successful cultivation. It is in this way that clover, lucern, and
sainfoin require plaster, (gypsum;) the cereals, silica, and certain
calcareous salts; the vine, potash, &c.
Practice got the start of science in the application of mineral manures or stimulants. If their useful influence cannot be denied, as
it cannot, if the circumstances in which it is advantageous to administer them, if the conditions and the doses in which they ought to be
given to the ground have been the subject of long and careful observation with farmers, it must still be admitted that we are far from
understanding exactly in what way they act; this is another motive
for continuing to study them with perseverance.
CALCAREOUS MANURES.
In certain soils we have said that the calcareous element is either
wanting, or present in very small and inadequate quantity; other
soils, again, abound in calcareous matter, and observation appears to
prove that the presence of carbonate of lime in a soil adds unequivocally to its fertility. The majority of the good wheat lands hitherto
examined have been found to contain a notable quantity of this earth
or earthy salt.
It is usual to put lime into the ground in the state of caustic or
quick-lime; this is liming, properly so called. But it is also applied in the state of carbonate, as when we make use of chalk or
marl, or shell-sand from the sea-shore.
303 
LIMING.
The limestone that is used for burning is seldom pure; it frequently contains clay, quartzy sand, metallic oxides, and occasionally
carbonaceous matter; frequently too it is so largely mixed with
magnesia that it acquires peculiar characters; this is the magnesian
limestone or dolomite. The purest carbonate of lime, by exposure
for some time to a white heat, loses 43.7 of carbonic acid, and consequently contains 56.3 of caustic lime. Limestone is one of the
most common of rocks; in the crystalline and saccharoid state, or
of closer and finer grain, it often constitutes mountain masses, and
is met with in every part of the geological series; it meets us as
chalk in beds of enormous thickness, filling up extensive basins in
the tertiary series; such are the chalk beds of the south and west
coasts of England, extending through the counties of Kent and
Sussex, &c.
The only mineral substance with which chalk, limestone, or carbonate of lime is likely to be confounded, is gypsum or sulphate of
lime.  But it is easy to distinguish either of these salts from the
other: carbonate of lime dissolves with effervescence in dilute
hydrochloric acid; sulphate of lime is insoluble in this liquid.
Carbonate of lime is quite insoluble in water; sulphate of lime is
very sensibly soluble, and a copious precipitate falls on the addition
of a solution of oxalic acid or of oxalate of ammonia. Gypsum is
always so soft that it can be scratched with the nail; limestone,
save in the state of chalk, is generally so hard that it resists the
nail.
The burning of lime for agricultural uses is carried on in the same
way as for building and other economical purposes. Burnt or quicklime is a very different article from chalk or limestone; it is powerfully caustic or destructive of the organic tissue, and instead of
being altogether insoluble, it is now soluble in about 630 parts of
cold water.  All the world knows how lime from the kiln, when
watered, rises in temperature, breaks first into larger and then into
smaller pieces, and finally falls down into fine powder; but every
one is not aware that there is a true chemical union of water with
the earth, and that the resulting powder is in chemical language a
hydrate of lime, a substance which is much less caustic than pure
lime, but still distinctly alkaline in its reaction.
It is generally admitted that the soil which is without a certain,
and that a considerable proportion of the calcareous element, never
possesses a high degree of fertility. This in particular is the opinion of English agriculturists, who apply lime with a kind of profu sion; and the great improvement it frequently produces on the crops
of grain, leaves no doubt as to the advantages of the procedure.
Still it is now generally recognized that liming ceases to be useful
upon lands that are already sufficiently calcareous, or that rest on a
sub-soil of chalk. It is, therefore, by supplying the calcareous ele ment which land requires to constitute it a soil adapted to the growth
of corn, that the application of lirle becomes useful;  liming, in
fact, enables us to make this necess try addition at least cost.  Like
other mineral manures, lime of itself produces little or no effect;
304 
LIMING.
it is in concurrence with organic manures that it becomes truly useful; it is nowise, and never can become, a substitute for these.
The geological constitution of a country is perhaps the best guide
to the necessity or advantages of liming.  Soils that are derived
tfirom plutonic or igneous rocks, in which felspar, mica, or quartz
pre(lominate, are on the face of things likely to be improved by the
introduction of lime. Direct analysis would of course give more
decisive information on the fact. In any case, the measure recommended by prudence is to make a few preliminary trials upon the
small scale; the experimental method is the only safe one in agriculture, when the question is in regard to the adoption of new plans.
In England it is customary in liming clayey lands to allow from
230 to 300 or 310 bushels of stimulant per acre; on lighter soils
the dose may vary from about 150 to 200 bushels, according to their
character. In France the quantity usually employed is greatly less,
from about 60 to 70 bushels being all that is generally thought advisable, and this at intervals of seven or eight years. In the neighborhood of Lisle little use is made of lime, although there the land
is generally any thing but calcareous; perhaps the want of lime is
not felt in consequence of the universal practice of employing the
Flemish manure, which, as we have seen, contains ammoniacal
salts, (and both human urine and excrement contain a large quantity
of phosphate of lime and phosphate of magnesia in addition, the
very salts that the generality of vegetables crave.) In the vicinity
of Dunkirk, however, lime is frequently applied in the dose of between 40 and 50 bushels per acre, and with effects that are said to
continue for ten or twelve years.
The dose of lime introduced into the soil in different countries, is
moreover in a certain relation with the time during which the action
of the earth is believed to continue; as the quantity administered at
once is small, the dose must be repeated more frequently. Near
Dunkirk they use from 40 to 50 bushels per acre every 10 or 12
years; in the department of La Sarthe, according to M. Puvis, they
scatter on some 9 or 10 bushels only; but they do so every three
years.  This would lead us to conclude that soils which really
wanted lime should receive a dose in the proportion of about 3}bushels per acre annually.  But the crops gathered from the ground
every year, certainly do not abstract any thing like this quantity of
calcareous matter; which would induce us to infer, that after a certain time the land will contain such a quantity of lime as to make
any further addition of it unnecessary, or at all events, unnecessary
save at rare and distant intervals.
One of the great advantages which lime has over all the other
forms or kinds of calcareous stimulants employed, is unquestionably
the state of extreme subdivision which it acquires in the quenching.
In                 the course of falling down into this extremely fine powder, lime,
as has been said, combines with a large quantity of water. But the
change experienced does not stop short here; the air alwavs contains
s ome 10,000ths of carbonic         acid gas, for which the hydrate of lime
has a powerful affinity, s     o  that it thsorbs this gas greedily, aban                                   26*
305 
LINING.
doning, at the same time, its constitutional water, by which, in duo
season, the hydrate of lime becomes changed into the anhydrous
carbonate of lime. This process is always slow; more rapid at
first, when the interchange between the carbonic acid and water
takes place freely; it becomes gradually slower and slower as there
is less and less water left in the particles: the affinity of the lime
for the water seems to increase continually in the ratio of the smallness of the quantity which it still contains. It must, therefore, con
stantly happen that in incorporating lime, in powder and partially
carbonated with the soil, we also introduce lime that has preserved
its causticity in some measure; it must be observed, however, that,
once intimately mixed with the soil, this lime must speedily pass
into the state of carbonate, because the soil and the water with which
it is moistened always contain a considerable quantity of carbonic
acid. Though we commence operations with quick-lime, consequently, it is carbonate of lime that is definitively introduced into the
ground. I have thought this a point of sufficient importance to engage our attention for a short time, inasmuch as it simplifies the
view of the end that is to be sought in applying lime; this, as M.
Puvis has most satisfactorily established, is neither more nor less
than the introduction into the ground of that proportion of the calcareous element which it either wanted originally, or which it has lost
in the course of repeated cropping, in order to enable it to produce
abundantly. Quick-lime incorporated with the soil must pass, as I
have shown, very rapidly into the state of carbonate; but, before
attaining to this state, it may, unquestionably, react upon the organic
substances it encounters, disorganize them, favor their decomposition, in a word, behave as it does when used in composts. On the
other hand, in causing the destruction of organic particles already
in a state of decomposition, it must produce an unfavorable influ ence.
Lime, previously quenched and cold, is generally spread by being
raked out from the cart upon the field, in little heaps, from five to six
or seven yards apart, each containing firom half to two-thirds of a
bushel. It is or ought then to be spread immediately as evenly as
possible over the surface. There is only the disadvantage attending
this mode of proceeding, that slaked lime is twice the bulk of lime
in the shell or lump, and that, by slaking, it takes up at least one fifth of its original weight of water. There is saving of labor,
therefore, in distributing the lime unslaked, in heaps, and waiting the
slow process of extinction and pulverization by the moisture of the
atmosphere. The lime is often laid in a corner of the field, and
covered lightly over with vegetable earth to undergo pulverization,
and this plan answers very well. Sometimes the lime, before being
laid on, is worked up into a kind of compost with vegetable mould
and other matters; this is all matter of calculation as to cost. If
our object be to supply the soil with the calcareous elements it wants,
the proper procedure is quite obvious.
The mode of using lime with reference to other improvers of the
soil varies in different places. In one place it is usual to lime and
306 
to dung alternately; in others, the two operations are done together,
or very close upon one another. There are some lands so fertile,
that they produce abundantly under the influence of lime alone. In
laying on lime, one general rule is, that the weather should be dry,
and the ground well drained; the end of summer is probably the
most favorable season. To say nothing of the difficulty of spreading
the lime in wet weather, if it is at all fresh, its caustic qualities are
brought into immediate play by the moisture, and it destroys the
roots of living vegetables, and the organic elements of the soil; and,
again, it is quite certain that lime produces very little effect upon
undrained and wet lands. In England, lime is very commonly used
upon fallows, in the course of the summer, and before sowing the
wheat for which fallowing is always a preparation. When it is given
to land destined for beet or potatoes, it is led out in the spring, and
spread before the young beet is transplanted, in the one case, the
seed-potatoes deposited, in the other.
It is always matter of great moment to have lime spread evenly;
a thorough harrowing and a double superficial ploughing incorporate
it sufficiently. According to M. Puris, who has made a particular
study of the subject of liming, as practised in the department of the
Ain, a quantity of lime, amounting to 8,250 bushels, spread upon
seventy-seven acres of land, in the course of nine years, produced
so decided an improvement that the returns from winter-grain crops
l)ecame the double of what they had been before.
Miarl. Marl, in a general way, may be regarded as a mixture of
carbonate of lime and clay in very variable proportions. Occasionally the clay is replaced by sand; whence the titles, sandy marl, argillaceous marl.  The article, in short, contains from 15 to as many as
90 per cent. of carbonate of lime. It presents numerous shades of
color. Geologically speaking, it is usually met with in fresh-water
tormiations of the latest date-the upper strata of the Jura limestone
are frequently covered with deposites of argillaceous marls, and we
see its formation going on at the bottoms of lakes and ponds, at the
present day.
The distinguishing property of a calcareous marl, whatever admixture of other matters it contains, is that of crumbling to pieces
under exposure to atmospherical influences. Every limestone rock
that has this property may be considered and employed as a marl.
The grand purpose of putting marl upon land is to supply it with the
calcareous element it wants.'I'o marl land, is therefore tantamount
to liming it: the effect is the same.  The value of the article is,
indeed, so well known, that considerable expense is constantly incurred to get at the beds of it that form strata in the crust of the
earth, or that lie at the bottoms of lakes.  It appears to have been
employed from the remotest antiquity.
The reason why marl and marly limestones fall so completely
into powder, is obvious.  If the mass, when wet, form a pasty mass,
it shrinks as it dries, and cracks in all directions; if more consistent,
it is still always porous, and having imrbibed a large quantity of rain
in the autumn, this congeals during the frosts of the succeeding win
KARL.
307 
ter, and the ice, expanding with almost irresistible force, separates
the particles, which cohere, indeed, so long as the frost continues,
but fall away from one another on the first thaw, by which the solid
rock of the autumn and winter becomes a heap of dust in the spring.
In the same way, we see chalk, exposed to the wet and the frost,
fall down to powder, and, in virtue of this property, and its constitution as carbonate of lime, employed with perfect success in lieu of
lime and marl. Wherever there is a bed of chalk at hand, it is needless to go further in search of marl and quick-lime, in so far at least
as the calcareous principle is concerned.
Argillaceous marl and sandy marl must, of course, act in two
different ways upon the soil: in virtue of the calcareous element in
either case: and in virtue of the argillaceous principle in the one,
of the sandy principle in the other; and the kind of soil for which
they are severally adapted can be conceived beforehand. To a stiff,
clayey soil, we would naturally add the sandy marl; to a light sandy
soil we would supply the argillaceous product, and thus effect improvenment by a kind of double tide. It is therefore very important to
distinguish between these two effects produced by marl-one mechanical, connected with the presence of clay or sand; the other
chemical, and depending on the presence of carbonate of lime. It is
to these two effects, separately and combined, that all the influence
of marl is usually ascribed by practical agriculturists. From certain
inquiries common to M. Payen and me, however, it appears that
marl must act in yet another way; our analyses show that it always
contains a certain though variable proportion of azotized matter.
And there is nothing extraordinary in the discovery of this fact; it
is no more than might have been anticipated from the geological cir cumstances attending its production. Marls are, as has been said,
always connected with the most recent formations of the tertiary
series; they are constantly accompanied by remains, which attest
the presence of organic beings, and frequently they consist of little
else than shells, and the disintegrated dwellings and bodies of mo luscas, arid madrepores, and corallines, and other inferior forms of
things that once had life.  It is by no means astonishing, therefore,
that deposites which have had such an original should still contain
evidences of the presence of the softer and more decompoundable, as
well as of the harder and more rebellious constituents of the beings
to whose existence they are due. One sample of marl which we
analyzed, gave 0.002 of azote; another, from the Lower Rhine,
gave rather more than 0.001 of the same element. It were, there fore, very proper, in analyzing marls, chalks, &c., to have an eye tc
their organic or azotic, as well as to their mineral constituents; there
can be very little question of the azotized elements being at the bot
torn of the really wonderful fertilizing influences of the marls of
certain districts.
Marl ought, like lime, to be spread very evenly over the land; i'
is generally laid on in the same way as lime-in little heaps at re
gulari distances, and then scattered abroad.  It appears to be a vert
geera~V~saz {a-tt~dZaH~szi  io228i-Js y~J
308
MARL. 
MARL.
shortly after it is dug from the bed that supplies it; the practice
where its employment is most general, and probably best understood,
is to let it lie exposed through the summer or winter, or even the
whole year before laying it on the land.  It is also held not to be
proper to cover it in marl deeply. Marl is advantageously laid out
in heaps -upon stubbles in the autumn; and in the early spring when
it has been pulverized by the frost, it is spread with the shovel.
VThen it is to be used with winter wheat or rye, it is laid on in the
summer, and spread at the time of ploughing; the latter plan of
proceeding, however, as Schwertz observes, can only be followed
with marl that pulverizes readily. In England it is also laid down
as a kind of principle that marl ought to be exposed for as long a
time as possible to the influences of the atmosphere; that it ought
to have a summer's heat and a winter's cold before it is applied.
And that, in fact, which is at all consistent, and has not been exposed to the frost, scarcely pulverizes sufficiently to he readily miscible
with the soil even under the influence of repeated ploughings; moreover, it produces very little obvious effect upon the crop with which
it is first used. After spreading, a rough harrow is passed over the
surface of the ground, which is then ploughed superficially two or
three times, the harrow being again had recourse to repeatedly to
break lumps, and so bring out the effect of the marl.
The quantity of marl that may be advantageously given varies
according to the circumstances of the district. Marl, it may fairly
be said, is frequently abused. In an excellent paper on the subject,
Al. Puvis lays it down as a principle that the first element in the
calculation of the proper dose of marl, is the quantity of calcareous
matter that is wanting in the soil. He says that every soil which
contains more than 9 or 10 per cent. of carbonate of lime can dispense wvith marl; and that soils in which the lime falls short of this
quantity, may advantageously receive a dose or successive doses of
the substance that will bring them up to the point.   The proper
dose, consequently, depends first on the proportion of carbonate of
lime contained in the soil, and then on that which the marl itself
includes.
Considered from the rational point of view which M. Puvis has
taken, marling is no longer an arbitrary process, but one that may
be conducted on determinate principles. The extravagant quantities that are often laid on without other assignable reason than blind
custom, are shown to be, if not injurious, yet useless: the quantity
of marl to be incorporated is determined by the quality of the substance which is at our disposal, and by the depth of the layer of
vegetable earth taklen in connection with its chemical constitution.
To facilitate the calculation of the proper dose, M. Puvis has drawn
up a table, which, as it may be found useful in practice, I append.
It shows at a glance the quantity of marl in cubic feet that ought to
be put upon an acre of ground, the depth of the arable soil being
considered in connection with the composition of the marl at command:
309 
MARL.
Table of the Number of Cubic Feet of Marl applicable upon an
Acre of Land ploughed to the depth of:
When 100
parts of marl
contain of
carbo)nate oi
lime)
I ho        7
6 -30       1 7i   he         s.
inchLes.     inches.
-.!. —
.50 -15
inchdes.__
554
277
184       22       2          2
13836              1
~~    88 ~    i104      3T-15' 1L~5
92  101
79 l
69                  9
361-       49
62
55 4~0
776
388
258s
194
155 t,
129 I,,
110r6~
97
86 l2,
77 ~o
-       4'-     5t        6~ 7~~8)                     0
M. Puvis does not by any means give the doses in this table as
those that should be invariably employed; the table is one of averages, deduced from practical results, and tested by experience as
most truly useful.' But special cases may occur that would make
departure from these conclusions not only advisable, but advantageous.*
The use of marl produces an unquestionable effect on the productive properties of the soil. According to M. Puvis, the application of the proper dose of a sandy marl, containing from 30 to 60 per
cent. of carbonate of lime, doubled the produce of a piece of parched
land in the department of the Is6ere.  Before the application of the
marl nothing but dwarfish crops of rye were gathered, yielding at
most three for one of the seed; at present, eight for one of seed,
and that wheat, are obtained; and the good effects are found to
continue for ten and even twelve years.
The action of marl is not unlimited any more than that of lime,
as the last sentence will give the reader reason to conclude. With
every harvest, a certain proportion of it is carried off, and the land
is finally left with an inadequate quantity of the calcareous element,
which then requires to be restored. The nature of the crop, however, has the most marked influence on the quantity of lime that is
taken up and carried away from the soil; allowing the broadest
margin, and judging from the composition of the ashes of the plants
that form the subjects of our ordinary crops, we can see that the
quantity of 3L- bushels of marl of the usual composition per acre,
which is assumed as the average quantity to be laid on, is vastly
more than can be absolutely necessary.
Wood ashes contribute to improve the soil. They contain, besides
silica, both phosphate and carbonate of lime and alkaline sulphates,
phosphates, and carbonates. In a general way, every thing derived
* Puvais in Annals of French Agriculture, vol. xxviii. p. 328, 28 series.
I
I
sio
3 1,,!
iiiches.    ii
i
-  -  1
333
166-12
1 1 1
8 3 (,
6 6 l,
55 -L
I 0
47-L
I 0
41-L
37I 0
3
3 3 -f-6
4 ')
inchei-,.
444
222
146
ill
88-L
74I 0
63
1 0
55 A    l 0
49-
1 -PI
44 —'!    1 0
8-Ziinches.
666
333
222
166 '    1 0
133-iill
95-, L,
83'L
741 0
66 "-f-u
888
444
296
222
177 3
-f -6
148
126
ill' 0
98
88-,o
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
so
90
100 
PEAT ASHES.
from plants that have lived must be useful to plants that are about
to live, or that are actually living.  Although the utility of wood
ashes, then, is generally admitted, the numerous purposes to which
they are applied in the arts, and their high price, which is the consequence of this, enable the husbandman to employ them but rarely
on his land; they are almost always lixiviated in order to procure
the carbonate of potash they contain.  In countries which are thickly wooded, indeed, the trees are actually cut down and burned for
the sake of their ashes, just as oxen are run down and slaughtered
in the vast plains of South America for the sake of their hides.
The good effect of wood ashes upon vegetation is known to communities the least advanced in civilization. The Indians of South
America burn the stems and leaves of the maize in order to improve
the soil. The same practice occurs among the natives of Africa:
on the banks of the river Zaire, according to Tuckey, the ground is
prepared by having little piles of dried herbs placed on it, to which
fire is set; and upon the spots where the ashes are collected, they
sow peas and Indian corn; these ashes are in fact the only manure
that is employed.  In England, wood ashes are esteemed as particularly useful upon gravelly soils; about 40 bushels per acre are
applied in the spring, where the article can be obtained.
The lye-ashes from the soap-boiler contain a small quantity of
soluble saline matter which has escaped the lixiviation, mixed with
a large proportion of lime, partly in the state of carbonate, the lime
having been added to bring the carbonate of potash employed in the
manufacture of soap into the caustic state. This ash or refuse is
much sought after, and is administered in quantities that vary from
45 to 70 bushels per acre, a dose in which its action is felt for ten
years or more. In wooded districts, where there is a good deal of
potash prepared, ash of this kind is obtained in large quantity; it is
there employed alternately with organic manures. Ashes are applied in the same way as lime, with this difference, that it is held
better not to plough them in until they have received a little rain.
There are places where the ashes that remain in the lixiviating tub
are thrown on in the dose of 170 bushels per acre.
Turf or peat ashes. Peat is the result of a peculiar spontaneous
change that takes place in vegetables. It is produced in bogs or
swamps, and in connection with stagnant waters; turfy deposites are
also encountered on the banks of rivers, in valleys, at the bottoms
of former lakes, and at the mouths of rivers. Peat is met with
from the level of the sea to the elevated platforms of the Vosges
and Alps; it lies in horizontal beds, frequently divided by strata of
gravel, sand, or clay. It is always a product of comparatively recent formation, a fact which is attested by the thin layers of vegetable soil that lie over it in many places, and the animal remains
and products of human industry that are frequently encountered
in it.
The state of decomposition of the vegetables that form turf or
peat is seldom so far advanced as to make the remains of the plants
which compose it doubtful. It is of different kinds: hard or woody,
311 
PEAT ASHES.
and sofl  o, h( rbaleois peat.  Some of it is extremely compact,
1.lack, and like vegetable mould in appearance; generally speaking
it is light, spongy, mnd of a lighter or deeper shade of brown.
When quite dry, it is often extremely light; a cub c metre, which
is about one-eleventh more I ban a cubic yard, wil, weigh from 5 to 6
cwt.
The circumstances in which turf has been found lead us to infer
that it must contain the elementary insoluble elements of the plants
that produced it.  It appears, however, to contain a somewhat  larger proportion of azote than the average quantity met with in herbaceous vegetables, supposed dry; but we have seen that in the
slow alteration of lignine, azote becomes concentrated, as it were,
in the residue; and that, in fine, mould contains a larger quantity of
azote than the wood from which it proceeds. It appears further
from some experiments very lately performed by Mr. Hermann, that
during the putrefaction of the woody principle, azote is actually taken from the air to concur in the formation of certain products that
are perfectly definite. Mr. Hermann quotes the following experiment:
Twenty-eight parts of wood taken from a log already attacked
with rot, and in which, indeed, there were several points already
decayed, were - moistened and enclosed in a jar containing atmospherical air over mercury. The bulk of the atmosphere contained
in the bell-glass was 262 volumes. The wood was kept there for
ten days at a temperature of 75.2~ Fahr. The apparent volume of
the air continued unaltered to the end of the experiment; but a
large quantity of carbonic acid had been formed:
RESULTS ON THE INCLUDED AIR.
After.
194 vols.
Carbonic acid...... 40  "
28  "
262
The air contained: Azote......207 vol.s.
The moist wood in its decomposition during ten days had consequently caused thirteen volumes of azote and twenty-seven volumes
of oxygen to disappear. And Mr. Hermann found that it now contained principles analogous to those of humus, one of which, nitrolin, is highly azotized, and by the ulterior action of air and moisture,
gives rise to ulmate of ammonia. These experiments. of Mr. Hermann are new, and the conclusions to which they lead are both interesting and important.*
Turf or peat is virtually the woody principle in the last stage of
modification by atmospherical influences; but it appears still to contain, although modified, the usual principles which enter into the
constitution of herbaceous vegetables also. M. Payen detected a
quantity of fatty matter in it, analogous to that which exists in
leaves, and M. Reinsch found it to contain tannin. One sample of
* Vide his paper in JocLrn. far prakt. Chemic, b. xxiii. s. 379.
312
Bf.,,.
Oxygen.. - - 5.1
262 
PEAT ASHES.
turf (from the neighborhood of Moscow, by the way) examined by
Mr. Hermann, yielded of carbonaceous matter, nitrolin and vegetable remains 77.5; of ulmic acid 17.0; extract of humus 4.0; ammonia 0.25; and ash 1.25=100.0   The elementary composition of
these varieties of turf, analyzed oy M. Regnault, gave from 57 to
58 of carbon; 5.1 to 5.6 hydrogen; 30.8 to 31.8 oxygen and azote;
and 4.6 to 5.6 ashes.
Turf or peat has consequently a certain resemblance to mould or
humus; it differs, however, in the absence of substances soluble in
water; and it is easy to imagine that, produced as it is in connection
with water, continually soaked in moisture, soluble matters ought
hot to be expected in it in appreciable quantity. Peat might, in
fact, be likened to the insoluble part of humus left after lixiviation.
And there is this further resemblance, that peat, like the humus
which has been thoroughly lixiviated, if exposed to the air, by and
5y acquires a quantity of soluble nmaterial, the evolution of which is
also hastened by the contact of the alkalies. The employment of
lurf as manure, in some countries, confirms the propriety of this
mode of viewing its nature and constitution; and then it is well
known that bogs consisting of pure turf, when drained and limed,
become tolerably fertile lands, yielding magnificent crops of oats
and turnips especially.
The ashes of turf we might expect to contain the mineral substances usually found in the ashes of plants, and further a certain
quantity of additional earthy matter. But this is not the case: several alkaline salts, indeed, have been discovered in very small proportion; but no chemist, to my knowledge, has ever even suspected
the presence of any of the phosphates; a special search which was
made for them in my laboratory failed to discover them. This is a
fact which, I own, amazed me; some coal ash, and another ash
produced from lignite, gave a result equally negative. We might
imagine the disappearance of the soluble salts; but how the earthy
phosphates should disappear; how the ashes of coal should come
to be without a trace of phosphoric acid, when we see that the iron
ore, in connection with the coal fields, is always more or less phosphorigerous,* is surprising.
Turf or peat ashes are valuable improvers of the soil, and are in
great request among intelligent farmers. Analysis, in fact, indicates
several substances in their composition as calculated to assist vegetation; carbonate of lime, in a state of extreme subdivision; occasionally sulphate of lime, (gypsum;) calcined clay, whose action
upon strong and retentive lands is always beneficial; silica in a favorable state for assimilation; finally, alkaline salts, chlorides, sulphates, carbonates, and, perhaps, in spite of the negative given by
chemical analysis, traces of the phosphates.
The peat of the bogs of Sceaux, near Chiteau-Landon, leaves 19
per cent of ashes, composed, according to M. Berthier, of:
* Our author might have added the fact, that the common bog iron ore of this coun
try is a phosphate of iron.-ENG. ED.
27
31,b 
PEAT ASHES.
Caustic and carbonated lime...........63.(
Clay.......................... 7.5
Gelatinous silica —......................13.0
Alumina.................... 7.0
Oxide of iron...................... 9.0
Care,t rate of potash................... 05
100.0
The peat of Voiv.,nmra, dug upon the frontiers of Bavaria and
Bohemia, contains the remains of trees; it leaves 1.7 per cent. of
ashes, composed, according to M. Fikenscher, of:
Silica..............................36.5
Alumina.......................17.3
Oxide of iron....................33.0
Lime.......................... 2.0
Magnesia........................ 3.5
Sulphate of lime.....................5
Chloride of calcium................... 0.5
Carbonaceous matter not incinerated.... 2.7
100.0
The brown herbaceous peat of the neighborhood of Troyes, leaves
11 per cent. of residue; it contains:
Carbonic acid and sulphur............. 23.0
Lime......................23.0
Magnesia.....................14.0
Alumina and oxide of iron............14.0
Clay and silica....................26.0
100.0
l'he peat of Vassy is compact, and of a brown color; it is mixed
with fragments of chalk. On incineration, it leaves 7.2 of residue
per cent., containing:
Clay........................ 11.0
Carbonate of lime..............  51.4
Sulphate of lime............... 26.0
Oxide of iron.................. 11.5
100.0
The peat of Champ-du-Feu, near Framont, (Vosges,) leaves 3
per cent. of ashes, which consist of:
Silica........................ 40.0
Alumina and oxide of iron...... 30.0
Lime........................ 30.,0
100.0
The peat of the environs of Haguenau (Lower Rhine) produces
12.5 per cent. of ashes, which, according to the analysis made in my
laboratory, contain:
Silica and sand............... 65.5
Alumina..................... 16.2
Lime........................ 6.0
Magnesia..................0.6
Oxide of iron.................. 3.7
Potash and soda...........,., 2.3
Sulphuric acid.............-.  5.4
Chlorine..................... 0.3
0oo3
100.0
Supposing the whole of the sulphuric acid found to have bdpu in 
314 
COAL-ASHES.
combination with lime, this peat could only have contained 4.1 per
cent. of gypsum.
These analyses will show that the composition of peat, or turf, is
very various. The varying and dissimilar effects produced by turf ishes, may probably be owing to this variety of composition.  Turfashes, in a general way, may be used as a substitute for gypsum;
but this is upon the presumption that they contain lime, either in the
state of carbonate or of sulphate.  The Vassy turf-ashes, for ex ample, may be employed for gypsing meadows, inasmuch as they
contain a quarter of their weight of sulphate of lime.
The ashes from pyritic turf ought not to be used without great
circumspection; they usually contain a quantity of iron pyrites
which has not been destroyed in the burning, and which, exposed
to the action of the air, gives rise to the formation of green vitriol,
or sulphate of iron, which may prove prejudicial to vegetation.
These ashes are generally of a red color, and very heavy, in consequence of containing a quantity of the oxide of iron. Good turfashes ought to be white and light; the sack ought to weigh something less than a hundred-weight.   Schwertz recommends us to keep
them from the wet; but at Bechelbronnri, where we use large quantities of peat-ashes, we find no ill effects from leaving them exposed
to the rain; frequently, indeed, we moisten them with water from the
dunghill, in order to add to their properties as a mineral manure, those
that belong to organic manures.   On the whole, however, it is certainly better, for many reasons, to keep them dry; they are more
easily carried, and they are more easily spread.
Turf-ashes of a good quality, that is to say, which include in their
composition a large proportion of calcareous and alkaline salts, are
adapted to crops of every description; but it is upon clover especially
that their influence is truly surprising. This fact is well established
in Flanders; but one must have employed them one's self to have any
adequate idea of the improvement they produce. There is no risk
of giving too large a quantity.  In winter, when we have peat-ashes
at our disposal, we give as many as 60 bushels per acre to our clovers; we scatter them even upon the surface of the snow, and distribute them by means of the rake in the spring. The Dutch use
these ashes in still larger quantity, applying, at two different times,
from 100 to 160 bushels per acre to their clover fields. According to Sinclair, the Dutch also make use of an ash procured from
a turf which during winter is in contact with brackish water, a circumstance which renders this ash particularly rich in alkaline salts.
It is sowed by hand, in the spring, upon clover, and the following
year an abundant crop of wheat is obtained. The same material is
also used in the cultivation of the hop; and it is said that, administered in small quantity to the roots of the vine, they preserve the plant
from the attacks of destructive insects.
Coal-ashes. Coal, like the two last combustible materials, is the
product of vegetables, which, however, have undergone such a
change as to have lost almost every trace of organization. Coal of
different kinds contains from 1.4 to about 2.3 per cent. of ashes, and
315 
ALKALINE SALTS.
about 2 per cent. of azote.   The  ash of a variety of coal of very
excellent quality gave of            Argillaceous matter (silica?) not soluble in acids 62
Alumina...................................    5
Lime................................... 6
Magnesia............................... 8
Oxide of manganese.......................3
Oxide and sulphuret of iron.......      16
100
Coal ash also contains very minute quantities of alkaline salts,
which usually escape analysis when they are not especially inquired
after. One specimen analyzed in my laboratory, gave nearly 00.1
of alkali. Coal-ash is particularly useful on clayey soils; it acts by
lessening the tenacity of the soil; and further, doubtless, by the introduction of certain useful principles, such as lime and alkaline salts.
OF ALKALINE SALTS.
It is impossible to doubt that salts having potash and soda for their
base are useful in agriculture. The influence of wood-ashes, and of
paring and burning is unquestionable; and they are so, in some considerable degree at least, in consequence of the salts of these bases
which they supply, and which always enter into the constitution of
vegetables. There are even certain crops which, in order to thrive,
require a particular alkali; the vine, for example, the fruit of which
contains bitartrate of potash, and sorrel, which contains the binoxalate of the same base, must needs have supplies of potash. The
plants which are grown for the production of soda, the salsola, ac.,
from which barilla is made, must come in a soil that naturally contains a salt of soda, such as that of the sea-shore.
It would appear, however, that the salts of soda or potash, must
not exceed a very small proportion in the soil. All the experiments
that have yet been undertaken with a view to ascertain the action
of different saline substances on growing vegetables, have led to no
very certain conclusion but this, that they must be used very sparingly. M. Lecoq has published an account of some experiments, made
apparently with great care, which go to prove that common salt, in
the dose offrom 1 to 2- cwts. per acre, favored the growth of barley,
wheat, lucern, and flax. Chloride of calcium and sulphate of soda,
he also found to have the same good effects. M. de Dombasle, however, came to conclusions totally opposed to them, with reference
especially to common salt, which, applied in the doses advised by M.
Lecoq, was not found to produce any sensible effect. M. Puvis also
obtained results that were equally negative. It would perhaps have
been well had M. Lecoq begun by determining the proportion of
alkaline salts which existed previously in the soil on which he
conducted his experiments. If he operated on a soil that was either
destitute of these salts, or that contained them only in minimumn
proportion, very probably he did good by adding them.
Nitrate of potash has been repeatedly recommended R an agenc
useful in agriculture.  The conclusions that have been come to,
however, from its use, are far from accordant. In the processes
316 
NITRATE OF SODA.
or modes of using nitre to the soil, it is not uncommon to find it
associated with soot, or with vegetable mould, substances which
require no assistance of any kind to constitute them powerful
manures, and the addition of which is therefore calculated to raise
strong doubts of the advantageous qualities ascribed to nitre alone.
Were the advantages of nitrate of potash much less questioned
than they are, however, the high price of the salt would probably
always oppose insuperable obstacles to its employment. This is
the reason, in a'l likelihood that has turned the attention of English agriculturists, for several years past, to nitrate of soda, a salt
that is imported in quantity from Peru, and of which the price
per cwt. may be about forty shillings; a price which, were it found
really useful, would permit of its being used. Admitting the accuracy of the experiments that have been made, indeed, we cannot doubt the efficacy of nitrate of soda on soil already furnished
with organic manure. The quantity that has been recommended
is about one cwt. per acre.
Mr. Barclay made a few experiments after having heard much of
the nitrate of soda from his neighbors, of the results of which the
following examples will suffice to give a comparative estimate:
Without nitrate.  With nitrate.   Difference in favor of
the nitrates.
Wheat......31 bush. 2 pecks.  35 bush. 3 pecks.  5 bush. 3 pecks.
Straw.......21 cwt. 0 qrs. 19 lbs. 23 cwt. 2 qrs. 26 lbs. 3 cwt. 2 qrs. 7 lbs.
The produce of the land treated with nitrate, however, did not
fetch so high a price at market as that grown without it; and every
item of expense taken into the reckoning, the use of the nitrate was
attended with no commercial benefit.  Still this does not militate
against the fact, that the production of vegetable matter was increased upon land treated with the nitrate of soda. And indeed
much of the information which M. de Gourcy collected in England,
is of a kind that tends to confirm the favorable influence of this salt
on vegetation. Wheat, clover, and Swedish turnips are particularly specified as benefiting from its use. These facts admitted, we
may ask: how does the nitrate of soda act? The chemical constitution of the nitrates is such, that we might conceive their acting at
once as mineral and as organic manures. The important point for
solution was to ascertain whether the azote of the nitrate contributed in any way to the formation of the azotized principles of plants.
Davy, in taking with much distrust the report of Sir Kenelm Digby's
experiments on the influence of nitre in the cultivation of barley,
shows no disinclination to believe that the azote of the salt may
concur in the production of albumen and gluten.* This, however,
is a point in physiology which may be put to the proof by experimrent, and seems peculiarly worthy of being tested in this way. I
have admitted it as extremely probable, that the azote of the azotized principles of plants has its source either in the amrnmonia, which
is the special iltimate product of the organic manure we employ, or
Agricultural Chemistry.
27*
31 
MANURE —-  r SUM.
in the azote of the atmosphere, or in both simultaneously; b,it the
opinion which should maintain that the ammonia derived from the
organic constituents of the soil, passes into the state of nitric a(:id
before penetrating the tissues of plants, would find support nearly in
the same facts which I have quoted as favoring the former view.
We have seen, moreover, in our general considerations on nitrification, with what facility the azote of ammonia undergoes acidification
in certain circumstances, a fact from which an argument of much
potency for the nitric acid theory naturally flows. I shall here add
an observation to which I have, up to this time perhaps, attached
too little importance. When M. Rivero and I examined the higr ly
irritating and poisonous milky sap of the hura crepitans, we had ou
casion to leave a considerable quantity of the water derived from
the sap, after separating the caseum, to itself; by the spontaneous
evaporation of this water, we collected really a considerable quantity of nitrate of potash. Since this time I have had occasion to
note the same salt in the sap of several trees of the tropics. In the
leaves and fruit, however, I have never found more than very minute
quLJ:cities.
Gypsum, sulphate of lime, or plaster of Paris, is a compocnd of
41.5 lime with 58.5 suphuric acid; gypsum generally contains a
quantity of constitutional water, in which case it consists of 79.2
sulphate of lime, and 20.8 water = 100. This hydrate of sulphate
of lime is one of the abundant minerals on the surface of the earth;
it is met with in the crystalline state, and in granular and fibrous
masses in the strata of most recent formation. It has no sensible
taste, but is slightly soluble in water, this fluid dissolving 4' of its
weight of the salt. Exposed for some time to a white heat, it loses
its water of constitution, and passes into the state in which when
ground it is known under the name of plaster of Paris.
Gypsum is one of the most commonly employed of the mineral
manures. Its virtues appear not to have been unknown to the ancients; but until lately its employment was limited to a few circumscribed districts. It was only about the middle of the eighteenth
century that the protestant pastor, Mayer, took up the study of gypsum in the principality of Hohenlohe, proceeding upon certain information which he had obtained from Hehlen of Hanover, in the
neighborhood of which, it was employed as an improver.
By extending a knowledge of the virtues of gypsum, both by his
example and his writings, Mayer did great service to agriculture.
Experiments were soon instituted in all quarters. Tschiffeli in
Switzerland, Schubart in Germany, and Franklin in America, wrote
on its effects, or practically demonstrated them to the satisfaction of
all.  But it appears to be the fate' all useful discoveries, of all
happy applications of principles, to be opposed at first, and only to be
admitted after having been vainly disputed. The use of gypsum
soon aroused formidable opposition; and there is a curious episodq
in the history of the paper war that was long carried on upon hi
subject, which I think worth noting. Among the most strenuous
enemies of the use of gypsum, were the proprietors of the salt-pans.
318 
GYPSUM.
They declared that gypsum was not only incompetent to replace
schlot or the refuse of their pans, as had been proposed, but that it
was injurious; schlot was the only veal improver, the stimulant of
stimulants, for which there was no substitute. But it turned out by
and by, that the schlot of the salt-pan was found to be neither more
nor less than sulphate of lime, than gypsum-the article that was
not only inefficient, but injurious.  These gentlemen were afraid
that the use of gypsum extending, they would want a market for
their refuse.
The use of gypsum once introduced, extended rapidly in France,
particularly around Paris, whence it crossed the Atlantic, and the
fields of North America were actually manured with the produce of
the quarries of Montmartre. The lately cleared lands of America
abound in humus, and the plants indigenous there were most beneficially acted on by gypsum, which really produced remarkable
effects; in both the new and the old world, its power, as one of the
most useful auxiliaries of vegetation, soon appeared to be established.
We must not blind ourselves to the fact, however, that the partisans of gypsum were guilty of exaggeration. They spoke of the
substance as a universal manure, capable of supplying the place of
every other, as advantageous for every description of crop, as appli
cable to every variety of soil. Experience soon set bounds to suel
indiscriminate laudation; it was found that gypsum alone was inadequate to produce fertility, that it always required the concurrence
of organic manures, if the soil did not contain them of itself; that
it only acted beneficially on a certain, and that a very small number
of plants; lastly, that it was upon artificial meadows, constituted by
clover, lucern, and sainfoin, that it produced its best effects; its
action, on the contrary, being scarcely perceptible upon natural meadows, doubtful in connection with hoed crops, and null with the cereals.
These negative results cannot be called in question; they were come
to by parties who were every way interested in having the decision
otherwise.
The best seasoh for spreading gypsum is the spring, and when the
clover, sainfoin, or lucern, has already made a certain degree of
progress; calm and moist weather is the best for laying it on.
Opinion was long divided as to whether it should be applied in its
natural state, and simply ground, or first burned and then ground.
But it is now generally admitted that burning adds nothing to the
qualities of gypsum. Although the usual practice is to sow or powder the meadows with the ground gypsum, it is still acknowledged
that good effects are obtained from incorporating the substance with
the soil. The advantage of the practice of scattering it on in powder, so as to adhere to the wet leaves of the growing plants, I find
explained in the equality of distribution which is by this means
effected.
In some places, the number and extent of which are by no means
inconsiderable, no good effect whatever has attended the application
of gypsum, although it has been administered in favorable conditions,
319 
GYPSUM.
and in connection with crops that elsewhere derive the highest amount
of advantage from its use. This anomaly has been explained by
assuming, without proving experimentally, however, that the fact is
so, that the soil in these districts naturally contains a sufficient dose
of gypsum. It has also been said that gypsum produces no effect on
low-lying and damp soils.
The quantity of gypsum employed in different places, varies greatly: from 1- to 16 cwts. per acre have been recommended. The
quality of the article employed has a great influence on this question,
to say nothing of the price, which in many places is high.
The opinions of practical men, with regard to the advantages and
propriety of applying gypsum, although they agreed in certain determinate circumstances, were still far from being unanimous upon
every point. A particular inquiry into the subject was therefore
held worthy of its attention by the French government, and a comprehensive report on all the information collected, was made by M.
Bose to the Royal Central Agricultural Society of France. This
report shows in a striking manner the advantage that may be derived from the lights of practical men; in a single line or sentence we
frequently find a summary of twenty or thirty years of experience.
It is, however, indispensable to go to these gentlemen for their information; the agriculturists who devote themselves to cultivation,
it is notorious, write very little, and those who spend very little
time in this way, on the contrary, write a great deal. It may be
that the reason for the silence of the one, is that also for the eloquence of the other.
The following series of questions and answers I believe to embrace most of the points connected with the employment of gypsum,
that are of interest.
1st. Does plaster act favorably on artificial meadows. Of 43
opinions given, 40 are in the affirmative; 3 in the negative.
2d. Does it act favorably on artificial meadows, the soil of which
is very damp l Unanimously, no. Ten opinions given.
3d. Will it supply the place of organic manure, or of vegetable
mould. i. e. will a barren soil be converted into a fertile one by the
use of plaster. No, unanimously. Seven opinions given.
4th. Does gypsing sensibly increase the crops of the cereals? Of
32 opinions, 30 negative, 2 affirmative.
The information thus obtained, valuable as it is, cannot yet be held
to embrace every thing that seems desirable. Happily, all that was
wanting has been supplied by the individual inquiries of Mr. Smith
in England, and of M. de Villele in France.
The soil upon which Mr. Smith made his experiments was light,
with a substrate of chalk; the vegetable earth was a yard in depth
at the top of the field, and lessened gradually, in such a way that at
bottom it was but three inches thick.  Every precaution was taken
that the respective breadths contrasted should be as nearly as possi ble in the same circumstances.   The  following table shows  the
results:
320 
GYPSUM.
GROWTH OF SAINFOIN UPON SOILS GYPSED AND UNGYPSED IN
1792, 1793, AND 1794.
Dry              Weight Proportion o
herb   Seed per of total   stalk to
pr acre.  acre.      crop.      seed.
lbs.
419
Crop on the  deeper  ungypsed
soil
Crop upon the contiguous breadth,
which had received about 15
bushels of gypsum in April,
1794......
Difference in favor of the gypsed
breadth...
Crop upon the same soil, of less
depth, and not gypsed..
Crop on contiguous soil, dressed
with about 15 bushels of gyp  suni in April, 1792...
Difference in favor of the gypsed
breadth.....
Crop on the same soil, 3 inches
deep, and not gypsed..
Crop on contiguous soil, dressed
with about 15 bushels of gyp   sum, 17th May, 1794..
Difference in favor of the gyp   sed piece...
Crop on the contiguous soil of
experiment, No. 3, gypsed
with the same dose in May,
1792...
Difference in favor of the crop,
gypsed twice, at an interval of
two years....
I
I
I
II
II
I
p
r
f
I
i
321
lt
F
Remarks.
1
lbs.
3776
100: 12.
582
163
6044
2268
100:10.
2
245 3011
100: 8.
379
134
4760
1749
100: 8.
3
66 2134
100: 3.
I
i
i
i
211
145
5090
2956
100: 4.
4
4310 205 4515
100: 4.
I
i
I
I
139 2381 
GYPSUM.
These results show to what extent gypsum is favorable to tie
production of sainfoin. The cro: from the unplastered breadth being taken as 100, that upon the plastered breadth is 231; it is more
than doubled. The influence of gypsum was also found by Smitt
to extend to grain; assuming the grain crops on the ungypsed land
at 100, those on the gypsed soil were 192  they were nearly doubled,
On comparing the weight of the herbaceous portion of the sain
foin to that of the seed produced, widely different relations are apparent. These Mr. Smith attributed to the different depths of the
vegetable soil in different parts of the field. In the first experiment,
where the relative proportion of seed is highest, the arable soil was
three feet in thickness; the other crops were taken from parts where
the depth of vegetable mould was considerably less. Thus the
gypsed soil produced at the rate per acre
cwts. qrs. lbs.
In the first experiment of    5   0   22 the depth of soil being 3 feet.
In the second experiment of 3   1   15   "        "    18 inches.
Ill the third experiment of   1   3   15  "       "     3 inches.
With this interesting fact before him, Mr. Smith imagined that
soils of little depth wanted some principle essential to fructification,
which gypsum, in spite of the unquestionable assistance it gives, is
yet incompetent to supply. This principle is in all probability or ganic matter, which is naturally mote abundant in the layer of true
vegetable mould which is deepest.
Mr. Smith's observations on white clover were quite as decisive
in favor of gypsum as those on sainfoin, and are confirmatory of the
conclusions of the generality of farmers on the subject. The gyp sum in connection with this crop was applied in the dose of 6 bush els per acre, on the 22d of May, a date at which the clover looked
pale, and seemed to want  sap.  A fortnight afterwards, the effects
of the gypsum were obvious; although no rain had fallen in the in
terval, the clover had become vigorous, and soon formed a covering
thick enough to protect the ground from the scorching rays of the
sun, which burned up all the parts which had not been gypsed.
COMPARATIVE GROWTHS OF WHITE CLOVER, GYPSED AND UNGYPSED,
BY MR. SMITH.
EPRMN.o Seed    wTotal   P
perlacre.   weight of
c. per acre.   the crop.
lbs.           lbs.           lbs.
A. Gypsed.
A. Not gypsed
DifIference
B. Gypsed...
B. Not gypsed.. 
Difference...
I
I
I
I
I
i
322
Herb or
stalk per
acre.
Proportion
of herb to
seed.
EXPERIMENTS.
lbs.
')226
839
1387
2270
500
1770
lbs.
2542
895
1647
2444
561
1883
lb,,.
316
56
260
174
. 61
113
100: 14.3
100: 6.7
100: 7 6
100: 7.0 
GYPSUM.
The mean ot these two experiments shows that the crop of white
clover on the ungypsed land being 100, that on the gypsed is 225twice and a quarter more.
The experiments of M. de Villele m'Ay be viewed as supplement
.ary or complementary to those of Mr. Smith. They were performed in the south of France, in accordance with the routine that
is generally followed, viz: clover-hay, or sainfoin, previous to grain,
upon soils of considerably different nature, and with doses of gypsum that varied from 8 to 3 on the same extent of surface. His
conclusions or crops are stated in the following table:
Z.lo    tea
s. d.. d.
1 7  6   9
27   1 14   0
16'3   5  1
1;
K    IND OF,y   D
SOIL.                      a           no
Light, dry, ex posed to  the                
south, 6 to 9    2 2
inches  deep, 1                         3
and on chalk.) J
Stony clayey,
|moist, about I!
. 16 inch. deep    2
a onastiffclay.
Gyp       sumI
Crop.   per
acre.
cwt.qr.
Sainfoin 6  3
Sainfoin 2    2
Sainfbin 4  4
Clover  4  0
Clover   5  3
40 3 19  20 1 23  20 1 23  33 10  3 2 2 
32227   19 216   13 0 1121   812   5]42
The unquestionable fact of a mineral salt stimulating the growth
of certain plants in so remarkable a manner as to double and even
to triple the usual quantities grown per acre, naturally aroused the
curiosity of mankind to inquire into and endeavor to discover the
cause   Explanations in abundance have been proposed; but so little satisfactory in general, that I do not think myself bound to mention them all. I shall limit myself, indeed, to two; one proposed
l y Davy some time ago, and one advocated by Liebig very lately.
Davy assumes that the plants of artificial meadows simply absorb
sulphate of lime. He assures us that he had found a large proportion of this salt in the ashes of vegetables grown in soil which had
been treated with turf ashes abounding in the substance. He believed that the gypsum entered particularly into the constitution of
the woody fibre. And it is not uninteresting to observe, that the
plants which gypsum certainly favors in the highest degree, are of
very rapid growth; and that in all probability they would find it
difficult to obtain the whole of the sulphate of lime they require from
ordinary or ungypsed soils within the period of their growth. Let
it not be forgotten, however, that if it be true that saline substances
are indispensable to the organization of plants, it is also true that
these substances can only be absorbed within certain limits; a salt
the best calculated by its nature to aid vegetation, would become injurious by its excessive proportion, did the water which moistened
the general soil contain too large a proportion of it in solution: if a
plant languishes when it has sot enough of one or other of its natural saline constituents, it also dies when furnished with the same
Substance in excess.
i
I
1
323
Excess of
the crop
gyp.ed
o,,er the
crop not
gypsed.
ct.qr.lb..
10 2 15
16 1 13
19 3 8
-B;,
4
5.d
,e,
. I
Pk =
116 d,
10
25 0
11 2
Dry crop
on the
gyp,3ed
g,o.nd
per a,,re.
,,,,t.qr.lb..
28 2 6
32 2 27
27 0 1
Dry crop
on mdo not
gyp,,ed,
per acre.
,,t.q,.Ib,,.
18 0 1
16 1 13
17 0 21 
GYPSUM.
Let us now remember that salts can only act on vegetables in the
state of solution, and we shall understand how those only which are
but sparingly soluble, can ever be advantageously employed in agriculture. Water, in fact, having the power to dissolve only a very
limited quantity of the mineral manure, will present it to the growing plant nearly in a constant quantity, so long as the soil contains
any fair proportion of the substance. It is in this way precisely
that gypsum appears to gain its superiority over the generality of
mineral or saline manures; water does not take up more than 41-uth
part of its weight before it becomes saturated; a certain proportion
of the moisture of the earth being dissipated by evaporation, there
is forthwith a precipitation of sulphate of lime; but the moisture
that remains is nevertheless charged as before, neither more nor less,
and in the fittest state, as it seems, to administer to the wants of the
growing plant. If instead of sulphate of lime we suppose some salt
that is much more soluble, sulphate of soda for example, we have
nothing of the same state of equilibrium between the quantity of
moisture and its charge of saline ingredients maintained. Supposing the moisture of the ground to hold 4-}th of sulphate of soda in
solution, and this quantity calculated to produce good effects upon
growing vegetables; suppose now that a drought sets in, which by
dissipating one-half of the moisture, increases the charge of saline
matter to 31th of its bulk, it may very well happen that this proportion, instead of proving beneficial, will be felt as injurious to vegetation.
The hypothesis of Davy, supported by these ingenious views of
M. Chaptal, would therefore lead us to regard gypsum as behaving
to plants in the same general way as the insoluble salts which usually form an element of the soil or of manures, the phosphate and carbonate of lime, in particular, salts which are made apt to enter the
tissues of plants by the carbonic acid which is found in all the water
that falls from the clouds and that moistens the soil, and which has
the property of dissolving small quantities of them.   But while the
strength of these solutions, weak at all times, is liable through atmospherical vicissitudes to vary, when the mere traces of saline
matter which at best they offer at any time are inadequate to meet
the demands of a crop disposed to grow rapidly and luxuriantly,
such as clover, sainfoin, and lucern, the solution of sulphate of lime,
of the same strength at all times and under all circumstances, is
ready to supply the plants with the mineral substance they require,
however rapid and vigorous their growth.
The theory of the action of gypsum proposed by Professor Liebig
is extremely ingenious. He admits, with M. de Saussure, the presence of carbonate of ammonia in the atmosphere, and consequently
in rain-water. This fact established, and it appears undeniable, the
influence of gypsum would consist in its faculty of fixing the infinitely small quantity of carbonate of ammonia which is brought down
by the rain and the dew, and so preventing its dissipation on the
return of drought and sunshine.  Carbonate of ammonia, in fact, as
we have already seen, when speaking of manures, in contact witb
.424 
GYPSUm.
the sulphate of lime decomposes this salt, carbonate of lime and
sulphlate of ammonia being formed.   I shall by and by inquire
whether the reaction that takes place is of the precise nature of that
here stated; but admitting, for the present, that it is, it would still
be compe,tent for us to ask if the quantity of ammonia condensed in
this way was likely to suffice for the production of such decided effects as we frequently witness in connection with the crops that are
assisted by gypsum.
Professor Liebig observes that a pound of sulphate of lime once
converted into sulphate of ammonia, would introduce into the soil a
quantity of ammonia equivalent to that which would be afforded it
by 6.250 lbs. of horse's urine; a showing upon which it would be
easy to demonstrate, taking the composition of sainfoin to be as I
have showni it, that a pound of plaster fertilizing the ground to this
extent, would be adequate to increase one hundred-fold the quantity
of dry fodder produced.
According to my manner of viewing this question, it must be examined on a totally different basis.  It is certain, for instance, that
gypsum has no effect upon natural meadows; positive experience
has satisfied me of the absolute inutility of the substance here; so
that upon my natural meadows at Bechelbronn, I now never employ
a particle of it. But let us review Professor Liebig's theory in connection with the production of sainfoin and clover, which in a general way derive an advantage from gypsum, which no one disputes.
Our harvest of clover, taken as dry, amounts on an average from
strongly gypsed land, to 2 tons 1 cwt. very nearly per acre; and
this quantity agrees pretty well with that which appears common in
Germany. It is generally allowed that by gypsing we double the
produce. It would follow from this, that an acre which had not
been gypsed, would yield no more than 201 cwts. of dry clover; in
fny opinion the reduction would be still greater. Dry clover hay,
made from the plant cut when in flower, contains about 2 per cent.
of azote. The 201 cwts. of forage gained by the intervention of the
gypsum would consequently contain 110 lbs. of ammonia, equivalent
to 134.2 lbs. carbonate of ammonia. This consequently is the quantity of carbonate of ammonia which the gypsum ought to have been
the means of procuring from the rain which falls upon an acre of
land during the time that clover is upon the ground, in order to furnish the azote contained in the increased quantity of the crop.
Now in Alsace, from the time of gypsing in April, to the time of
mowing in July, there falls on an average 3.92, nearly 4 inches of
rain, which would amount in round numbers to 982 tons per acre.
Were the azote of what may be spoken of as the surplus produce,
derived from the rain in fact, all the water that falls ought to contain
I   of its weight of carbonate of ammonia.  It is very questionable, however, whether ally such proportion of ammoniacal salts
exist in rain-water; yet the proportion ought to be very much greater, inasmuch as we have supposed the whole of the rain that fell to
penetrate the ground, none e)f it to run off; but the truth is, that a
very considerable proportion of the rain that falls never sinks into
28
325 
GYPSUM.
the soil; once the surface is thoroughly'..aked, much that ifalls
drains off, passes away by the ditches, and is lost with all it may
contain that would prove beneficial to vegetation. It is in fact altogether impossible to make any approximation, even of the roughest
kind, in regard to the quantity of rain-water. that soaks into and that
runs off the ground; and thus no kind of estimate can be formed of
the relation between the moisture absorbed by plants, and that which
escapes direct by the evaporation, without passing through them at all.
But even in admitting that it was really the ammonia contained
in the rain-water, to which the very considerable increase of the
crop of clover, lucern, and sainfoin was owing, it would still be left
for us to explain wherefore, meteorological and other circumstances
remaining the same, the same relative effects were not produced
upon natural meadows covered with grasses, upon hoed crops, such
as beet and turnips, and upon wheat; finally, the most serious objection that can be urged against this theory is founded upon the
fact, that gypsum has no truly beneficial effect upon artificial meadows, save and except when the soil to which it is applied contains
an adequate proportion of azotized organic manure.  In a moderate ly manured soil, gypsum, as all the world knows, produces no sen sible improvement; and as M. Crud, one of those men whom long
experience has placed at the head of practical farming, said: It is
to throw away both money and trouble to put gypsum upon an un kindly and impoverished bottom. It would seem, however, that if
gypsum really fixes ammonia in the soil, in consequence of its action
upon the rain-water that falls, converting its carbonate into sulphate
of ammonia, the ammoniacal salt once introduced into the soil, ought
to act independently and without the concurrence of another manure.
That it really does act isolatedly, and of its own proper force when
it exists, has been proved by the experiments of M. Schattenmann,
who demonstrated on the large scale the beneficial effects of the
sulphate of ammonia directly applied to natural meadows. It is
obvious, that if the theory which I discuss be true, the greater num ber of practical observations which I have quoted must necessarily
be false; or, on the contrary, these observations being accurate, the
theory must he erroneous.
I have given reasons for maintaining the accuracy of the practical
results; nevertheless, the better to establish this conviction, I have
thought it advisable to add a few facts to the many that are already
extant. I was, therefore, induced to undertake a series of experi  ments with a view to study, independently of all hypothetical idea,
the action of gypsum upon certain hoed crops and cereals.
These experiments were made upon patches of land of 440 square
yards each. Every precaution was taken to render the experiments
strictly comparable one with another.  Thus the ground appropri  ated to each particular crop was divided into three equal contiguous
zones.  The first zone, A, always received gypsum in the ratio of
4} bushels per acre.  The second zone, B, and the third zone, C,
were not gypsed. Each zone was sowed with the same quantity of
seed, or planted with- an equal number of beet plants or potatoes
J6 
MANURE-GYPSUM.
A and C were the surfaces which I proposed to myself to contrast;
the intermediate zone, B, was a kind of neutral ground employed
merely to prevent the immediate contact of the gypsed with the ungypsed zone. I may here remark, that it would be well always to
take such a precaution in making experiments on the effects of different manures.
In 1842 I tried the effect of gypsum upon wheat coming after three
different crops. 1st. After clover ploughed in. 2d. After beetroot. 3d. After potatoes.
The gypsum was applied the 19th of May, at which time the
wheat looked extremely well. The crop was ct between the 21st
and 26th of July, and the following are the results obtained:
Weight ofgrain, corn, and straw.
~Cro~ps..    ~        A. piece gypsed.  B. not gypsed. C. not gypsed.
Wheat after clover................319 lbs.          323 lbs.      327 lbs.
Wheat after mangel-wurzel........195 " 176  "                     158 
VVheat after potatoes..............235  "           158 " 264  "
Average of the three experiments.........250 " 248  "                    250  "
The year 1842 having been unfavorable to wheat in consequence
of the long drought, the experiment required to be repeated.  This
was done in 1843; and it must be allowed, that an experiment could
scarcely be conducted under circumstances of weather more favorable to the cultivation of grain; the results here are given for equal
spaces of three French acres, equal to 385 square yards. The gypsed zones had been treated with 70 lbs. of sulphate of lime each:
Year 1843.      Sheaves.
lbs.
Rye with gypsum.........   516
Rye without.............. 472
Wheat with gypsum....... 462
Wheat without.........51...         510
Wheat without........... 453
Oats with gypsum......329
Oats without...-.......368
Straw, chaff, and was te.
lbs.
379
345
315
254
310
217
255.
From these numbers it is obvious that gypsum produces no appreciable effect upon wheat, oats, and rye, conclusions that agree with
those come to in thfie previous year.
EXPERIMENT WITH FIELD-BEET OR MANGEL-WURZEL, OPENING THE
ROTATION WITH MANURED SOIL, 1842.
The plants were transplanted and watered, and the gypsum was
applied at the time of earthing up; a good deal of rain fell, and
shortly after having been laid on, he gypsum had become incorporated with the ground. The crop vas gathered on the 8th of OctoDer, three months after the gypsing, and from two equal surfaces,
each of 242 square yards in extent, weighed as follows:
Fromn the gypsed ground.................13 cwt. 2 qrs. 6 lbs.
From the ungypsed.................     12 "   2 "  3 "
The gypsum would therefore appear to have had no beneficial
effect; for the difference in favor of the gypsed piece is so trifling
327
G,.i..
,b P.
137
127
147
156
143
112
113 
GYPSUM.
that it cannot be reasonably ascribed to the mineral manure: in fact,
the quantity obtained from the gypsed surface does not exceed that
which we constantly take from fields in the ordinary course of cultivation, and which have received no gypsum.
The action of gypsum, limited as it is to certain crops, will not
allow us to admit that it produces its effect by fixing in the ground
the carbonate of ammonia contained in rain-water; were it connected with any fixation of ammonia, it would be manifested generally,
and not in particular instances only. Davy's theory therefore appears the more plausible, and requires discussion. Did the ashes of
the clover grown in gypsed soils actually contain a large proportion
of sulphate of lime, as affirmed by the illustrious English chemist,
the action of gypsum would be readily understood. The whole
question, therefore, seems to turn upon the composition of the ashes.
I have analyzed the ashes of clover grown at Bechelbronn, without and with the concurrence of gypsim. I shall here give the
conclusions come to in 1841, a year remarkable fo)r the heavy crops
of clover, and those also for the year 1842, when the clover crop
was but indifferent.  The first table contains the results in the order
in which they were registered; the second contains those obtained
after the deduction of the carbonic acid and carbon which had remained in the ashes examined:
Extraordinary Crop of 1841.       Unfavorable Crop of 1842.
Carbon and Carbonic acid                                                                     -
inoluded.                     Ashes of Clover.                Ashes of Clover.
Ungypsed.       Gypsed.         Ungypsed           Gypsed.
Carbonic acid..............           14.2            22.1              21.5             26.8
Chlorine................. -3.4                        2.9               2.5              2.2
Phoisphoric acid................ 8.0                    6.9               5.4              5.8
Sulphuric acid................. 3.2                     2.6               2.4 2.3
Line................... 23.7                          22.4 25.4 26.7
Magnesia.................              6.3             5.1              5.6               7.4
Oxide of iron, manganese;
alumina................              1.0            0.6               0.5           traces.
Potash..................             19.6            27.8             22.5             25.3
Soda...................              1.0             0.7               2.2             0.2
Silica.................... 16.8              7.9              10.0              2.7
L         oss and charcoal.........    2.8             1.0               2.0             0.6
100.0          100.0             100.0            100.0
Carbollic~~~~~~ ~ acd0n0Ls.ddctd
Carbonic acid and Loss drdocted:
4.1            3.8
9.7            9.0
3.9            3.4
28.5           29.4
7.6           6.7
1.2            1.0
23.6          35.         4
1.2           0.9
20.2           10.4
100.0          100.0
Chlorine................
Phosphoric acid.........
Sulphuric acid.........
Limle.. X.................
Magnesia.............
Oxide of iron, manganese;
alumina.............
Potash...............
Soda....................
Silica..................
328
3.3
7.1 -
3.1
33.2
7.3
0.6
29.4
51.9
13.1
100.0
3.0
8.2
3.2
36.7
10.2
traces.
34.7
0.3
3.7
IOO.C 
GYPSUM.
The analyses here do not indicate the modes in which the various
substances found were combined in the ashes; but supposing that
the whole of the sulphuric acid existed in combination with lime,
which it most probably did, the preceding results would meet us in
the following shape: the ashes of the clover grown upon soil without gypsum contain 6.0 per cent. of sulphate of lime; those of clover
grown upon a soil with gypsum, 5.7 per cent.
As it is impossible to answer for so small a difference as 3T-foo
parts in researches of this kind, we must presume that the two ashes
contained the same proportions of sulphate of lime.
Here, however, as in all other agricultural questions, isolated
analyses throw but little light on the subject of inquiry. In order
that they may enable us to arrive at any definite conclusion, two
new elements must be taken into the discussion: 1st. The proportion of ash furnished by a given weight of the forage gathered; 2d.
The quantity of forage yielded by a given surface before and after
the use of gypsum.
I have taken from my own observations the quantity of dry forage
yielded by the two cuttings of 2d year's clover after gypsum, as
amounting to 41 cwt. per acre. The same surface in the 1st year,
and before the use of gypsum, would have produced but 9 cwt. 100
of dry clover gave:
Ashes freed from
Ashes.      carbonic acid
per cent.
12.0           10.3
11.2            8.8
7.0           5.4 
7.7           5.6
MINERAL SUBSTANCES IN THE CROP FROM 2l  ACRES.
c;          r; 
0 ~
o_
I
lbs. I lbs.
24.2 9.6
53.2 20.2
c;
14
a4 8    C4
C'  C'   A                        St~~~~
Fallow unoepsed....                              
Ditto gypsed.........      
Year 1842.
Fallow ungypsed -.-.
Fallow gypped.......
6.6, 15.4   6.6  70.8  15.6  1.3 162.9  6.1
18.4! 50.3  19.8i226.1  62.7  -'213.8  1.7
which followed the application of the gypsum, the soil must have
supplied the plant with very considerable quantities of mineral substance; the crops taken from the gypsed soils contained in fact twe
28*
I
I
I
I
I
329
p,
103 lbs.
89 "
248 "
257 "
Clover un-n-psed........... 1841
Idem... -... -... -...1842
Clover gyp-,-ed... -... -... -.1841
Idem... -... -... -...1842
9 -
Z
e
,.'t
c 6
,r40.
lbs.
3.0
5.9
,= Id
I.
A 11
I
ll)s.
248
594
234
616
r.
11
15
I
u
lbs.
10.1
2'-) - 6
lbs.
70.
174.
lbs.
18.9
39.8
lbs.
58.7
210.3
lbs.
3.0
5.2
Year 1841.
It is therefore obvious, that in
the course of, the three months 
GYPSUM.
or even three times the quantity of these substances which those
grown previously to the gypsing contained. Representing, for example, by unity the quantity of the several bases and acids of the
crop grown without gypsum, we should have the quantities of the
same principles contained in the crops produced upon the gypsed
Phosphoric  Sulphuric      Magnesia and Potash and
Chlorine.    acid. acid.    Lime.  metallic oxide. soda.  Silica.
1841    2.2      2.2       2.1      2.5       2.1      3.5     1.0
1842    2.8      3.3       3.1      3.1       3.7      3.2    1.0
Silica appears to form the only exception here, which would lead
us to conclude that this earth was only absorbed by clover in the first
period of its growth. Potash and lime are the bases which enter in
largest proportion into the mineral constitution of clover; and there
is another fact made evident which deserves particularly to fix attention: it is that the lime assimilated subsequently to the gypsing,
bears no kind of relation to the quantity of sulphuric acid fixed during the same space of time. The excess of acid and of lime obtained from the ash of the gypsed clover over that of the ungypsed, is
for:
1841,    Sulphuric acid  4.8    Lime    47.2
1842,          "          6.0      "       70.6
Supposing further, that the sulphuric acid assimilated subsequently
to the gypsing was taken up in the state of sulphate of lime, we find
that:
In 1841 the gypsed crop absorbed 18 lbs. ofthis salt.
In 1842         "           22 lbs.  "
These quantities are so small as to lead us to suppose that the
utility of gypsing consists in furnishing the plant with the large proportion of lime which it seems to require. Gypsing would then be
equivalent to the application of lime; and in fact, according to
Schwertz, Paris plaster is replaced in Flanders by slaked lime, by
the lye-washed ashes of wood, and by peat-ash, with decided advantage.* Some peat-ash contains sulphate of lime, others none at all.
What is employed successfully, most likely presents sulphuric acid
in the state of an alkaline sulphate.
Wood-ash, which is certainly the best manure for artificial meadows, may contain upon an average one per cent. of sulphuric acid,
and when lye-washed, the proportion ought to be much less; if perfectly washed, it ought to be null; at all events, there is no sulphate
of lime present to fix the ammonia of the rain-water. Independently
of earthy phosphates, so useful to all plants, lye-washed ashes frequently yield more than 80 per cent. of chalk. We thus perceive,
in a general way, that the manures which stimulate the vegetation
of clover are always calcareous, the lime being either in the state
of sulphate or carbonate, which exists abundantly in the crops, combined with organic acids, and freed consequently of nearly the whole
of the inorganic acid with which it was originally associated. As sul-ng that gypsum acts like chalk, it may be conceived that when
* Schwertz, Culture des Plantes fourrageres, p 72
330 
GYPSUM I.
he former is incorporated with the indispensable manure, it is deomposed, and carbonate of lime,'- a state of minute division, and
3r that reason easily absorbed, is the result.  It is only upon this
apposition that I can understand the elimination of the sulphuric
cid of the gypsum; for if the lime really entered the vegetable in
he state of sulphate, the ashes ought to be much richer in that acid
han analysis shows.  This same difficulty occurs in the hypothesis
,f Liebig. If the 56 lbs. of ammonia derived from the atmosphere
,enetrated the plant in the form of sulphate, there must enter at the
tame time 130 lbs. of sulphuric acid, and which ought to be recoverd in the ashes of the crop from one acre. Now, the ashes of 41
wts. of gypsed clover, abstracting the carbonic acid, weigh 2 cwts.
lbs., containing in the 100, 3- of sulphuric acid. But the amount
,f ash, were the acid of the ammoniacal sulphate fixed in the crop,
_ould rise to 3 cwt. 1 qr. 20 lbs., and the ash would then contain
J0 per cent. of sulphuric acid.
Before promulgating this last objection against received theories, I
bought it right to ascertain whether the ashes contain, in the state
,f sulphate, the whole of the sulphur pre-existing in the incinerated
,lant. For it was not impossible that at the high temperature em.loyed, the silica might react upon the sulphates so as to expel a
,ortion of the sulphuric acid. However improbable this expulsion,
)wing to the great excess of potash always present in clover ash,
i seemed expedient to determine the fact.
After having made out as exactly as possible the quantity of ash
eft by the hay, and also the sulphuric acid, I took a certain weight
)f the samne hay, burned it in a platina crucible along with a mixture
)f chlorate and carbonate of potash, and then sought for the sulphuic acid in the product of the ignition.
1000 parts of the plant furnished directly 3 of sulphuric acid, and
jy analysis of the ash, 2.8.
Thus, the alkaline ashes retain all the sulphur pre-existing in the
lant which produced them.
I have laid stress upon the small proportion of sulphuric acid in a
zrop of clover, because there yet remains for consideration a third
theory of gypsing, which I have helped to propagate, although
doubtful concerning the author. This is founded upon the assumption
.hat the proportion of sulphur is much greater in the leguminous
'han in the cereal tribe. Now, as gypsum is generally adapted to
he manurement of leguminous plants, the origin of the sulphur has
)een ascribed to sulphate of lime incorporated with the soil. This
view appeared the more plausible to M. Dumas  and myself, inas-nuch as in accordance with it plants operated-.as reducing agents.
It is, besides, very probable that sulphur, as an immediate constituen
)rinciple of vegetables, is derived from sulphates; but do leguminous
plants really contain more than the cereals. This seems doubtful
Wince careful investigation of the azotized principles of plants has
-hown gluten, caseine, and legumine to be nearly identical in com-)osition.  I moreover find upon analysis of the ashes, that clover
oaricots, and beans do not sensibly contain more sulphur than rye,
331 
AMMONIACAL SALTS.
wheat, oats, and potatoes. There appears to be no doubt, therefore
that the sulphur required by plants is supplied abundantly by the soil
enriched with ordinary manure, as happens in the culture of the
cereals, roots, and tubers.
In a word, it may be presumed that Paris-plaster acts usefully on
artificial meadows by introducing lime into the soil. This is consistent both with the analysis of the ashes of the crops produced and
of the soil; for according to the researches of M. Rigaud de l'Isle,
gypsum operates only upon soils which do not contain a sufficient
dose of lime in the state of carbonate.*
OF AMMONIACAL SALTS.
The last products of the putrefaction of azotized matters being
ammoniacal combinations, it necessarily follows that salts having
ammonia for their base, must act usefully in vegetation. This is
confirmed by the employment of guano, and by experiments in which
ammoniacal compounds have been directly applied as manure. I
have already pointed attention to the observations of Davy relative
to the favorable effect of carbonate of ammonia upon the development of plants, and shall now detail some recent trials made by M.
Schattenmann with the sulphate and muriate of the same base.
These salts were introduced into the soil as a solution marking
one degree of Beaume's areometer, and in the dose of 102 bushels
per acre. In 1843, the effects produced upon wheat by muriate
and sulphate of ammonia were most distinct; as was also the case
with natural meadows, which yielded under the influence of this
liquid manure 82 cwts. of hay per acre, precisely double the crop
afforded by the same meadow land without the salts of ammonia;
but another important fact, and which M. Schattenmnann announces
with confidence as having been proved by repeated trials, is this;
that solution of sulphate of ammonia employed in the same dose, and
at the same degree of concentration, causes no appreciable melioration upon trefoil and lucerne. The result of a solution of sal-ammoniac was equally negative.
These observations agree in certain points with those formerly
made by Rigaud de l'Isle, and more lately by M. Lecoq. But they
are in direct opposition with the experiments of several physiologists
who have studied the action of ammoniacal salts presented separately to vegetables, a circumstance very different from that wherein
ammoniacal solutions are incorporated with arable land. Thus, M.
Bouchardatt has stated that young plants of mentha aquatica  and
sylvestris, and of mimosa pudica die very soon, when made to vegetate with the roots plunged in very weak solutions of muriate,
nitrate, and sulphiate of ammonia.  In offering, some years back,
divers considerations upon guano, I promulgated the opinion that
ammoniacal salts, in order to serve as azotized manure, must always
contain organic acids or carbonic acid. Perhaps the term usefu.
* M6moires de la Societ- d'Agriculture, annee 1844.
t Boucha,dat, Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, tom. xvl.
832 
AMMONIACAL SALTS.
salt may be now restricted to the carbonate alone.  At least, having
watered young plants of trefoil, growr. in silicious sand, with solution of oxalate of ammonia at T —th, I observed them die after the
lapse of eight or ten days. Plants of the same size, sown under
like conditions, but irrigated with distilled water, continued to grow,
and flowered.
In treating of gypsing, I have assigned my reasons against admitting that the azote fixed during the culture of trefoil, proceeds from
the sulphate or muriate of ammonia naturally absorbed. I again
assert, that it is materially impossible that ammoniacal salts combined with inorganic acids, other than the carbonic, can be useful as
manure to plants, when administered separately; they can only become advantageous when their composition has undergone modification.
Two cwt. (220 lbs.) of wheat-sheaves, (straw and grain,) contain
upon an average 2 lbs. 1 oz. 14 dwts. of azote, and leave after ignition 11 lbs. 3 oz. 16 dwts. of ash, into which enter 1 oz. 7 dwts. of
sulphuric acid, and 14 dwts. of chlorine.
In the ammoniacal salts:
100 of azote corresponds to 283 of sulphuric acid.
"   "        257 of chlorine.
Let us now consider sulphate of ammonia, which, according to the
experiments of M. Schatteninann, supplied an excellent manure for
wheat. If the 2 lbs. 1 oz'. 14 dwts. of azote contained in the 2 cwt.
of sheaves be derived from the sulphate absorbed by the cereal, the
sulphuric acid of the sulphate ought to be recovered in its ashes;
and according to the above standard, these ashes ought to contain
6 lbs. 16 dwts. of sulphluric acid.  They afforded by analysis only
1 oz. 7 dwts. 
Applying the same reasoning to muriate of ammonia, we find,
supposing the azote of the 2 cwt. of sheaves to emanate from this
salt, that the ashes should contain 5 lbs. 6 oz. 2 dwts. of chlorine;
whereas they really contain but 14 dwts.
Without doubt, the nitrogenous principles of the cereal cannot be referred solely to the ammoniacal salts in the trials of M. Schattenmann;
the manure given to the soil, and the atmosphere must have contributed a share. The appreciation of the value of ammoniacal salts becomes mnore precise when the results obtained on meadow land are
estimated. There the produce was doubled, and of every 2 cwt. of
hay gathered, 1 cwt. may be ascribed to the action of the salt.
Two cwt. of hay, containing 4 lbs. 16 dwts. of azote, leave 16 lbs,
2 oz. of ash.
If the half (2 lbs. 8 dwts.) of the azote of the fodder comes from
the ammnoniacal salts, the ashes will contain:
lbs.  oz.  dwts.
5     8     4   of sulphuric acid, if the sulphate has been used.
5     2     0               "  if the muriate has been u
Now, the ashes of the hay yielded by analysis:
oz.  dwts.
5     9   of sulphuric acid.
5     4   of chlorine.
33 
AMMONIACAL SALTS.
It is then very probable that if the ammoniacal salts afford azote
to the plants, they enter not as muriate, sulphate, or phosphate, because there is no reason to believe that acids united with an alkali
are eliminated almost in totality during the act of vegetation.  It
necessarily follows, that the anmmonia of these salts, in order to yield
to vegetables its constituent azote, must reach their organs in the
form of carbonate, inasmuch as that is the sole ammoniacal salt
which seems to exercise a direct and favorable agency.
However, if such be the case, how comes it to pass, that ammoniacal salts, as the muriate, phosphate, and sulphate, are converted
into carbonate when once incorporated in the soil. Good arable
land almnost always contains, it is true, carbonate of lime; but there
is no ground for admitting an acid interchange betwixt the calcareous and ammoniacal salts. We know, on the contrary, that carbonate of ammonia reacts instantaneously upon muriate and sulphate
of lime, the products of this reaction being on the one hand muriate
and sulphate of ammonia, on the other, carbonate of lime. The gypsum theory of Liebig is based upon the fact of this double decomposition, whereby the ammoniacal carbonate of rain-water is fixed in
the state of sulphate at the cost of the sulphate of lime put on the
ground as manure.
This reaction of sulphate of lime upon carbonate of ammonia is
incontestable as a laboratory experiment; but in well-tilled grounds
containing just the proper quantity of moisture, the reaction takes
place in the inverse sense. The carbonate of lime reacts upon the
sulphate of ammonia, and there result carbonate of ammonia and
sulphate of lime.
This fact, however singular at first sight, is explained upon principles established by Berthollet in his chemical statics:
When two saline solutions are mixed together, and from the mixture an insoluble salt results, the insoluble compound is formed and
precipitated. This is what happens on pouring a solution of carbonate of ammonia into one of sulphate of lime. But if, instead of
Dringing the two salts together dissolved, they are mixed in a pulverulent state, and just sufficient water is added to promote the reaction without dissolving the products, a volatile compound forms and
is evolved-namely, carbonate of ammonia.
The experimental proof is easy, and not without interest. If chalk
previously washed be intimately mixed with crystallized sulphate of
amnionia, no change ensues, provided the powders are very dry.
Let moist sand be introduced so as to impart to the mixture the consistence of light arable land of the usual humidity; at the very instant vapors of carbonate of ammonia, cognizable by their action on
vegetable colors and their odor, are developed. When water is
added in excess, the disengagement of ammoniacal vapor immediately ceases. The carbonate of ammonia not yet volatilized, dissolves and acts upon the ready formed gypsum so as to constitute
sulphate of ammonia and carbonate of lime. The ordinary reaction
is restored.  Finally, this watery mixture being exposed to the air,
furnishes anew ammoniacal vapors in proportion as the water vapor
334 
AMMONIACAL SALTS.
izes, and the volatile salt is progressively evolved until the mass is
quite dry. In maintaining a similar mixture in a fit and constant
state of moisture we may in two or three days, under the influence
of a temperature of from 68~ to 80~ F., dissipate the greater portion
of the ammonia of the sulphate, and obtain a quantity of sulphate of
lime indicating the progress of the reaction.
It is almost needless to remark that sulphate of lime, placed in a
condition of moisture analogous to that of the chalk, undergoes no
alteration from the carbonate of ammnionia. Thus, in the ordinary
circumstances of humidity of cultivated land, it is at least doubtful
whether the plaster diffused through it definitively retains the ammonia of the rain-water in the state of sulphate.
To estimate the sulphate of lime produced by the reaction between
the sulphate of ammonia and carbonate of lime, the mixture after
having been entirely dried in the air is to be treated with cold water.
The lime of the sulphate dissolved is next thrown down by oxalate
of ammonia, and computed in the state of carbonate.
In order to ascertain the presence of sulphate of ammonia the
mixture is to be digested in dilute alcohol, which dissolves this salt
without taking up sulphate of lime.
MIuriate, phosphate, and oxalate of ammonia comport themselves
as the sulphate. Carbonate of lime decomposes them under the
same circumstances, giving rise to equivalent products.*
The preceding facts may perhaps tend to reconcile the contradictory results obtained in the application of ammoniacal salts as
manure. When muriate, phosphate, or sulphate of ammonia is presented to plants, these salts produce no useful effect; they are ab
* 1. 15.4 grains of crystallized sulphate of ammonia incorporated with five or six
times its weight of chalk, gave after two days' exposure of the moist mixture in the
open air, 12.3 grs. of sulphate of lime. In another experiment 16.0 grs. of sulphate of
ammonia were obtained from 13.1 grs. of calcareous sulphate. Now according to the
proportions of ammoniacal salt there ought to have been obtained 13 grs. and 14 grs.
of sulphate of lime. Thus about 9-10ths of the ammonia contained in the sulphate submitted to experiment had been converted into carbonate.
2. 16.9 grs. of sulphate of ammonia were mixed with 123.2 grs. of chalk, and from
924 to 1071 grs. of silicious sand. The mixture was kept moist and exposed to the air
during four days, the temperature ranging from 68~ to 801 F. The substance, after
being dried by the action of the air, was set to digest in weak alcohol; the alcohol
liquor yielded only an insignificant trace of sulphate of ammonia. There was abou
18.5 grs. of sulphate of lime.
3. A very simple means of determining the reaction in question consists in plungirn
a fragment of chalk into a solution of sulphate of ammonia; the fragment so imbued
on being exposed to the air emits during several days fumes of carbonate of ammonia,
Several bits of chalk moistened in the solution, and exposed by the aid of an asDirat
to a continuous current of air, afterwards washed in muriatic acid, disengaged enougt
of ammoniacal vapor to form in the acid nearly 15 grs. of sal-ammoniac.
4. With a slightly moistened silicious sand were incorporated 30.8 grs. of gypsumn
the mixture then watered with a solution containing 30.8 grs. of carbonate of ammo
nia, was allowed to remain in the air during eight days, having always the consistence
and humidity of arable land.  At the end of this time it was dried, then treated witl
weak alcohol; the alcoholic fluid evaporated left no sulphate of amnmonia.
5. Phosphate of ammonia, mixed with chalk, and kept in a moist state for somf
days, comported itself exactly as the sulphate in the same circumstances; 9-10lOths of
the ammoniacal phosphate were converted into phosphate of lime.
6. The reaction of oxalate of ammonia upon chalk is visible even when the mixture
is well watered; this is explained indeed by the powerful affinity of oxalic acid fog
lime. The totality of the alkaline oxalate is promptly changed into oxalate of lim
ar  carbonate of ammonia.
335 
WATER.
sorbed in limited quantity, like the majority of soluble substances
But if instead of administering them separately dissolved in water,
as was done in the physiological experiments, they are incorporated
with a loose and humid soil, these salts react upon the calcareous
matter almost always existing in the ground, and are transformed
into carbonate of ammonia, which exerts undeniably a favorable influence upon vegetation. From these facts it may be presumed
that the introduction of lime and marl is not merely to supply the
defective calcareous element, but likewise a principle, carbonate of
lime, which produces a particular action upon the manure, changing,
through double decomposition, the unassimilable ammoniacal salts
there present into a carbonate capable of being assimilated, which
transmits to the plant the azote of the organic matter of the dung
and the carbon contained in the calcareous rocks.
These reactions which go on between soluble salts and one that
is insoluble under the peculiar conditions united in arable land, show
that we must not always conclude as to what passes in the ground
from phenomena observed in the laboratory of the chemist, and it
is probable that by extending the study of these singular reactions
to alkaline salts generally, we shall better understand the mode of
action and utility of saline substances in agriculture. Thus, for
example, the operation of common salt as a fertilizer is still very
obscure. Many skilful husbandmen question its efficacy; neverthe less, when moderately employed it seems to do good. In plants
growing on the sea-coast soda is found in a great measure com bined with organic acids, and the chlorine deduced by analysis from
their ashes is nowise proportional to the alkali they contain. The
whole sodium does not enter the vegetable as a chloride, but very
likely as carbonate of soda, and that in virtue of a reaction analogous
to the one which calcareous matter has upon ammoniacal salts.
It is quite certain that chloride of sodium in solution is not affect ed by carbonate of lime; but then it was proved by Clouet that if
into sand moistened with this same solution powdered chalk be put,
and the mixture left in contact with air, an efflorescence of sesqui carbonate of soda ere long makes its appearance. Thus by the
conjoint effect of capillarity and the carbonic acid of the atmosphere,
common salt in the conditions above mentioned undergoes by contact
with chalk a partial decomposition, of which the result is carbonate
of soda, a salt, like carbonate of potash, most favorable to the growth
of plants. Accordingly, in furnishing sea-salt to a soil sufficiently
calcareous, we really enrich it with carbonate of soda. We more over perceive that the same salt diffused through land devoid of
carbonate of lime may not produce any fertilizing effect.
OF WATER.
Water is not only indispensable to the life of plants, but likewise
promotes vegetation after the manner of a manure, on account of
the saline or organic substances it generally holds in solution. Rain
is the source of the soft waters which flow in rivers, spring from
836 
WATER.
the soil, or constitute lakes. Rain-water although nearly pure is
not absolutely exempt from extraneous matters. The air, especially after continued drought, always holds dust in suspension; this
yields to the rain by which it is precipitated, whatever soluble matter it may contain.
It is further ascertained by the experiments of Cavendish and
Seguin, that whenever the electric spark traverses a humid mixture
of oxygen and azote, nitric acid and nitrate of ammonia are produced.
Now this frequently happens; and according to Professor Liebig
storm-rain always contains nitric acid associated with lime or ammonia. Common rain seldom contains nitrates, merely faint traces of
common salt.*
In river and spring-water there necessarily exists a larger amount
of dissolved substances derived from the strata they pass through,
varying in nature according to the geological structure of the locality. From old crystalline rocks, like granite, water issues sometimes
so little impregnated with salts, as to be almost identical with distilled water; that, on the contrary, which rises from a calcareous or
gypseous bed is always contaminated with salts of lime. Notwithstanding the minute quantity of saline or earthy ingredients in spring
and river-waters, they are drinkable, and considered good when
they are limpid, without odor, capable of dissolving soap, and fitted
for vegetable cookery. These two last characters are essential,
inasmuch as proving that the waters contain only infinitesimal quantities of soluble salts of lime.
The action of tests readily indicates the nature of the dissolved
salts.
Water contains:  sulphates or carbonates, if nitrate of barytes
causes a precipitate; a sulphate, when the precipitate is not redissolved by the addition of nitric acid;
Chlorides, if it give with nitrate of silver a curdy precipitate, insoluble upon addition of nitric acid;
Lime, when rendered turbid by oxalate of ammonia;
Magnesia, if when mixed with pure ammonia, and preserved in a
closely stopped vial, a white fiocculent deposite ensues. This test,
however, is only applicable to water that has been boiled sufficiently
long to expel all the carbonic acid in solution, and which would tend
to hold any carbonate of lime dissolved. Carbonate of lime is separated from water by ammonia, after some hours, in the form of granular crystals, which adhere to the sides of the vessel.
In order to render the operation of tests more sensible, the bulk
of the water may be reduced to a half or a fourth by evaporation.
Besides fixed salts, river-water always contains those of ammonia, particularly the carbonate; this fact was first ascertained, relative to the Seine water, by M. Chevreul.t Subsequently, Proiessor Liebig has discovered the same ammoniacal salt in rain-water; and M. Hunefeld has proved, that spring-water likewise con
* Annales de Chimie, t. xxxv. 2e serie.
t Chevreul, Annales de Chimie, t. lxxxii. p. 50
29
337 
tains it.* Lastly, M. Hermann has even determined quantitatively,
carbonate of ammonia in the ferruginous waters of a turf-pit. The
water of the Nile is not exempt from it, judging at least from the
analysis of its mud.   According to Regnault, 100 parts of this mud
dried in the air contain:t
Chloride of sodium, sulphate of soda, and
carbonate of amonioa.................... I
Organic matter............................ 9
Water....................................10
Oxide of iron...........................6
Silica..................................4
Alumina........................... 48
Carbonate of lime.....................-18
Carbonate of magnesia................... 4
100
The beautiful synthetic experiments of M. Dumas demonstrate
that water is formed of:
Oxygen.............................88.89
Hydrogen......................... 11.11
When pure, it boils at a temperature of 212~ F. under a barome
tric pressure of 30 (29.921) inches. It congeals at 32~ F.
All natural bodies dilate, augment in volume, by the action of
heat, and contract under diminution of temperature. Water is
amenable to this law between rather wide limits; it deviates, however, and presents an anomaly as it approaches congelation. As
with all liquids, the density of water gradually increases in proportion as it cools, until its temperature is 39~.38 F.  Setting out from
this point the density diminishes, the liquid dilates more and more,
so that at 320 it occupies nearly the same volume that it did at 49~.
From this remarkable property, it results that during the most intense cold the stagnant water wfi'ci  covers Me meadows rarelay'y -
tains a lower temperature than 39~,whereby the organs of plants
suffer no damage.
Let us suppose, in fact, that at the beginning of winter a sheet of
stagnant water has a temperature of about 54~; in proportion as the
liquid at the surface cools, it becomes denser, descends, and is immediately replaced by inferior layers, which rise in the ratio of their
less density; but these new superior layers, subjected to the same
refrigerating cause, contract and descend alternately.   There  is
then established in the fluid molecules, movements of ascension and
descent, of which the result is the cooling of the entire mass. Let
us now admit that in virtue of this continued mingling of the cooled
superior layers with those below, the temperature of the sheet of
water is lowered to 39~.38; at this degree of the thermometer, the
water acquires its maximum density; in parting with its heat it not
only contracts no more, but becomes lighter. If then a body of
stagnant water at a temperature of 390 is exposed to the chilling
action of the atmosphere, the superior layer, far colder than the in ferior, will no longer descend, since it will become lighter as its
* Liebig, Trait6 de Chimie, Introduction, p. cii.
t Description de l'Egypte, t. ii. p. 406.
338
WATER. 
WATER.
temperature diminishes. Thus it is that the water of a pond or lake
freezes at the surface, while it preserves beneath a temperature
some degrees above 32~. In a situation where the temperature of
the air was 29~, Davy found the thermometer indicate 43~ in tthe
herbage of an inundated meadow completely covered with ice.*
Water is always impregnated with atmospheric air, and a minute
quantity of carbonic acid.  Deprived of air, it is not agreeable to
drink; it is even said, when long continued, to prove unwholesome
if the dissolved gases are expelled by ebullition. River-water usually contains -31th in volume of air, and I th carbonic acid.  In springwater, the amount of the latter is sometimes far more considerable.
The quantity and nature of saline ingredients in drinkable water
vary much: in an agricultural point of view, the study of the contained salts would certainly be useful. The waters which serve as
drink to the cattle of a farm, introduce into the dung-heap all the
matters which are dissolved or held in suspension. At Bechelbronn,
for example, I find that more than 2 cwts. of alkaline salts get into
the dung in this way every year. When a farmer has the choice of
several waters for giving his cattle or irrigating his meadows, he
will do well to select that which is richest in alkaline salts, and still
good to drink. In the steppes of America, it is astonishing with
what discernment the cattle choose waters for allaying their thirst,
containing minute quantities of sulphate of soda or common salt.
I close these considerations with a tabular view of the most recent
analyses. The quantities of salts put down have been deduced from
1)0,000 parts of water for drinking.
* Davy, Agricultural Chemistry, p. 352
',339 
SOURCE OF THE WATERS.    a        O        2    5          a   =    =~    S           cr       5                             a  AUTHlORS OF
5g            0 a  v0 v  ~                                               -E V2  -;v;) E    $ =  2  Q      a THE ANALYSES.
~ O.0                                 t
Of the Seine above Paris.
Marne... 
Oureq at-St. Denis..
Yonne at Avallon..
Benvronne....
Thbe6rouenne....
Gergoge.....
Bi,vre near Paris..
Arcueil..... 
Spring of Roye (Lyons).
Fountain Spring (Lyons).
Rhone at Lyons (July).
Ditto ditto (February).
Spring of the garden of
plants at Lyons...
Of Lake Geueva...
Of the Arve (ill August).
Ditto in February.   
Loire near Orleans...
Loiret......
t
i
i
I
t
I
k
11.3
10.5
17.5
4.3
25.7
26.2
18.0
13.6
16.9
23.8
23.4
10.0
15.0
27.0
7.2
5.2
8.3
1.7
11.9
0.4
0.9
2.0
, o
o.
~ 
* o
0.5
0.6
2.0
1.9
* o
~ o
~ o
Lraces
dem
dem
3.6
3.1
15.3
traces
20.3
2.0
1.5
25.1
16.9
1.4
1.7
0.6
2.0
25.2
2.6
3.2
6.5
3.8
0.6
1.2
7.0
* o
* o
* o
* o
* o
traces
0.7
1.0
I. 
8.5
3.6
1.5
10.9
11.0
I. 
traces
0.7
16.8
~ o
0.8
1.7
4.0
traces
*.
*.
7.
traces
~,
of lime
7.6
~.
18.2
18.0
47.8
7.7
54.5
31.8
21.9
50.8
46.7
26.4
26.6
10.6
18.4
90.8
15.2
12.8
24.3
6.8
28.4
Bouchardat
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto
Colin
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto
Bo,usingaull
Dupasquier
Boussingaull
Dupasquier
Ditto
Tingry
Ditto
Ditto
Guindant
Ditto
traces
idem
idem
idem
*.
~.
traces
idem
idem
idem
strong
traces
0.6
0.3
0.4
traces
idem
0.9
1.2
1.9
1.2
0.2
traces
~A
races
dem
1.6
0.9
0.7
12.6
o,
0.7
0.4
1.2
0.1
0.2
3.1
2.9
6.2
~ o
1.5
5.1
10.2
traces
2.5
C> 
ROTATION.
The water of the Artesian well at Grenelle, near Paris, according
to the analysis of M. Payen, contains, in 100,000 parts:
Carbonate of lime................ -..........6.80
Carbonate of magnesia........................   1.42
Bicarbonate of potash................. - -....  2.96
Sulphate of potash...................... - -1.20
Chloride of potassium......... -..........-1.09
Silicat.. -.......... -................. 0.57
Yellow matter, not defined................. -...0.02
Organic azotized matter...-...-......... -..-0.24
14.30
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE ROTATION OF CROPS;
~ 1. OF THE ORGANIC MATTER OF MANURE AND OF CROPS.
II is known that the atmosphere and the organic matters diffused
through the earth concur simultaneously to maintain the life of
plants; but how far each contributes is undetermined. We shall now
study the theory of the exhaustion of the soil by culture, and the
rotation of crops.
When a succession of crops is grown upon fertile land without
renewal of manure, the produce gradually diminishes; and after a
certain period, if it be grain, the quantity which at the outset was
eight or nine times the amount of the seed, will be reduced to three
times or even to twice the seed. Thus crops impair the fertility of
the soil, and eventually exhaust it.
It has been long admitted that different species of plants manifest
great diversity in their powers of exhaustion. Certain kinds, indeed,
as trefoil and lucerne, far from exhausting it, communicate new
vigor. As a general rule, however, every plant may be said to
impoverish the soil in which it grows. This impoverishment is always manifest when the plant after maturity is completely removed,
but is less sensible when much rubbish is left. Thus, for example,
clover, after yielding two crops, which are generally cut as fodder,
might still yield a third; this last, however, is generally ploughed
into the ground as manure, being buried along with a considerable
quantity of roots. This plan of meliorating the soil by the cultivation of trefoil is what is called manuring by smothering; a method
practised from a remote period in the south of Europe, and which
offers decided advantages in those districts where there is abundance of pasture land. Hence, in smothering trefoil, the soil is
amended at the expense of the nutritive matter it contains.
Thaer, who endeavored to make theory and practice mutually
agree, laid it down as a rule, that the exhaustion occasioned by
29*
341 
ROTATION.
cropping is proportioned to the amount of nutriment in the crops,
estimating the nutritive value according to Einhof's determination.
But the above deduction is founded upon error.
In fact, to adopt the above principle is tacitly admitting that the
whole organic matter of plants originally comes from the soil. This,
no doubt, contributes in a certain proportion to the development of
plants, but so also do air and water.  On the other hand, physiologists, in opposition to the ideas of the school of Thaer, have perhaps
exaggerated the material withdrawn from the air. Thus, M. de
Sanssure relckons that a sun-flower derives from the ground during
its growth not miore than -lth of its weight, supposing the plant dry.
The reasoning upon which he formed his conclusion is based, on the
one hand, upon a knowledge of the extractive matter of gardenmould; on the other, upon the quantity of water a plant like sunflower may absorb in a given time, to return it again to the air by
transpiration.*
Little objection could be urged against the above conclusion, did
not the experiments of M. Gazzeri tend to prove that roots virtually
exercise, by their contact with solid organic matter, an incontestable absorbent action in imparting solubility.t I might refer to an
observation of M. de Saussure, in which he states that plants grown
in garden-mould deprived of its soluble components  by repeated
washing, reached, nevertheless, perfect maturity, although the produce in seed was less abundant than it might have been.1  It is
most probable that both parties have promulgated extreme opinions.
Plants possibly draw from the atmosphere more than agriculturists
commonly suppose, and the soil furnishes, independently of saline
and earthy substances, a proportion of organic matter larger than
certain physiologists admit. There is every reason to believe, from
what I could learn respecting guano during my sojourn on the coast
of Peru, that the greater part of the azotized principles of plants
originates in the ammoniacal salts which exist or are formed in manure.~
In d(liscussing the advantage of one course of crops over another,
the question always hinges upon that of exhaustion. Wherever an
unlimited supply of dung and of handiwork can be procured, there
is no absolute necessity for following any regular system of rotation.
Under such favorable circumstances, it is expedient to ascertain
what kind of cultivation is, commercially speaking, best suited to
the climate and the soil. There is little to fear that by a continued
succession of similar crops, the fields will get infested with noxious
weeds, because this inconvenience may be obviated by labor. Nor
is impoverishment of the soil to be dreaded, since that can be re medied by the purchase of manure.  The whole craft of agriculture
is reducible to comparison of the probable value of the crop with
the cost of manure, labor, &c. Farming of this sort excludes the
* Saussure, Recberches Chimiques sur la Vge6tation, p. 268.
t Annales de l'Agriculture Francaise, No. iii. p. 57.
$ Saussure, Recherches Chimiques, p. 171.
t Annales de Chimie, t. lxv. annee 1837.
342 
ROTATION.
keep and propagation of cattle, and may be strictly regarded mnor6
as gardening than as agriculture.
But where manure cannot be had from without, things must be
reduced to a system; and the amount of produce which it is possible to export each year is fixed within bounds, which cannot be exceeded with impunity.
W~hen by judicious cultivation land is rendered fertile, it is necessary, towards securing its fertility, to supply after every succession
of crops equal quantities of manure. In considering this in a purely
chemical point of view, it may be said that the produce which can
be taken away without damaging the fertility of the land, is the organic matter contained in the crops, abstraction made of that present
in the manure. Indeed, this latter substance must in some form or
other return to the soil to fecundate it anew. It is capital placed in
the ground, the interest of which is represented by the commercial
value of the produce of all the other agricultural operations.
Where lands are extensive, population scattered, and means of
communication difficult, there is less necessity for being tied down to
systematic cultivation. There is always enough for a scanty population. A field yields grain, and after the harvest is converted for a
series of years into meadow-land; such is the pastoral system in all
its simplicity. To this primitive state of husbandry may be referred
those plantations on cleared land in countries covered with forests.
When the trees are felled and burned upon the spot, the soil yields
for long and without manure, crops of maize and of wheat of surprising quality, at the cost of the fecundity acquired during ages of
repose.
But when from increased population the land becomes more valuable, a larger amount of produce is demanded. Imperfect culture
would prove inadequate. Accordingly a triennial rotation of crops
was very anciently adopted in the north of Europe, consisting as is
well known of fallow land frequently ploughed during summer, followed by two years of grain. The fallow land received a certain
quantity of manure to repair the exhaustion occasioned by the two
crops of grain; hence when this mode of rotation is adopted there
should be always sufficient meadow-land to supply manure.
Leaving waste one third of the surface has always been held a
grave objection against triennial rotation. Hence various attempts
have been made to get rid of the summer fallow. Some encourage ment was given to these attempts from what occurs in horticulture,
where the ground is rendered continually productive.* In certain
countries, moreover, tillage is only interrupted by severe weather.
On the other hand, it has been long remarked that it is not always
beneficial to grow grain during several consecutive years in the
same ground, even when it is fertile and manure is abundant, owing
to the almost insurmountable difficulty of destroying weeds. The
fallow was justly considered the most efficient and economic means
of getting rid of these. For this purpose fallow-crops, as they were
* Thaer, Agriculture raisonnee.
343 
ROTATION.
called, were introduced.  Peas, beans, vetchcs were at first tho
only plants used as fallow-crops.
However, it was soon perceived that the fallow-crops occasioned
a very sensible diminution in the produce of corn; to counteract
this inconvenience recourse was had to a surcharge of manure; but
as this cannot always be obtained, it was necessary either to reduce
the cultivated surface or to appropriate a certain amount of meadow.
Still the fallow-crops had this advantage, that they enabled the farmer to derive from land a greater amount of produce in a given time
without prejudice to the raising of corn. Hence the plan of turn
ing the fallow to account was soon generally adopted.
The introduction of clover so modified the system of fallow-crops
as at one time to induce the belief that the point of perfection had
been attained in agriculture.* This was when it was ascertained
that trefoil, which had hitherto been only cultivated in small enclosures, might be sown in spring upon corn land, and occupy next
year the place of the fallow in the triennial rotation. Trefoil, so far
from exhausting the soil, was found to give it new fertility, and the
succeeding corn crop yielded a plentiful harvest.
It may be easily conceived what advantages were expected in
substituting for the unproductive fallow the cultivation of a plant
which did not impoverish the land, and furnished a quantity of excellent fodder that served as food for an additional number of cattle.
It was even alleged that this plant cleared the fields of weeds.
A few years' experience sufficed to show that trefoil did not possess all the advantages attributed to it. On renewing the clover
every third year on the same piece of ground it sometimes failed.
Schubarth, the most zealous and enlightened advocate for its use,
limited the renewal of the artificial meadow at first to the sixth, and
eventually to the ninth year; and finding that it did not completely
destroy the weeds in corn, he had recourse to hoed-crops for that
purpose.
The introduction of trefoil has gradually led to the system of alternate rotation of crops generally adopted at present; and moreover, contrary to the anticipations of Schubarth, it may be renewed
every four or five years on the same parcel of land.
The impossibility of substituting trefoil for the fallow of the triennial rotation was offered as a fresh proof of the principle maintained
from time immemorial by agriculturists, namely, that different species
of plants should be cultivated in succession on the same land, and
that the same species should not recur except at considerable intervals; the earth yielding much finer crops when the same species
do not follow in immediate sequence.t
Attempts have been made at various times to explain this phenomenon.  It was at first thought that different species of vegetables
required a particular nutriment; but it was soon perceived to be
otherwise, and that the organs of each plant derived the necessary
juices from substances which cone r in the nutrition of vegetables
* Thaer, Agriculture raisonnc.
344
t Ibid. 
ROTATION.
generally. In effect, plants the most opposite in botanical character
and properties, alimentary as well as poisonous, will live and flourish
on the same mound of earth, and with the same manure. Moreover
these plants reciprocally withdraw nourishment from one another,
which could not occur did each species need different elements of
nutrition. *
When it was taken for granted that the organs of plants elaborate
a common nourishment derived from the manure, then vegetables of
diverse organizations were supposed endued with the faculty of
searching at different depths for the nutritive matter contained in the
soil, by reason of a more or less considerable extension and development of their roots.  This served to explain how a plant with long
and perpendicular roots could, as a sequel to corn, derive benefit
from manure situate in the undermost layers of ploughed land. It
is possible that an action of this kind may take place under certain
circumstances, but the explanation can never be generally received.
Another explanation of the necessity for alternate crops is based
upon properties assigned to the excretions of the roots, as compared
to animal excrements.
The excretion of roots, first observed by Brugman in the Viola
areensis,t has been confirmed by the recent observations of M. Macaire.  This physiologist obtained the matter exuded from certain
plants by keeping their roots in water; but, strange to say, could not
discover it in silicious sand in which certain vegetables had been
growIIn.t I myself likewise failed in detecting sensible traces of
organic matter in sand which had served as soil during several
months to wheat and clover; a result which renders the fact of
radicular excretion doubtful. The excretion consequent upon imniersion in water is perhaps the effect of disease.
Be that as it may, upon the assumption of the excretion from
roots, Messrs. Von Humboldt and Plenck have explained the cause
of the attractions and repulsions of certain plants.~ More recently
M. de Candolle has reproduced this idea as the basis of a theory of
rotation of crops. If it be supposed, in fact, that the excretion from
the roots represents vegetable excrements, it may be easily imrnagined that these excretions once deposited in the soil may be as prejudicial to the plant which produced them as would be the excrement
of an animal presented to it as food. On the other hand, by change
of species, the plant newly implanted may profit by the excretions of
the preceding crop, absorbing them as nourishment. This ingenious
hypothesis is deficient in the groundwork, inasmuch as the fact of
radicular excretion is not sufficiently established. Again, admitting
the excretion, several facts concur to demonstrate that plants may
ithrive in soil charged with their own excrements.
The culture of corn, for example, may proceed uninterruptedly,
as we find in the triennial rotation. I have seen in the table-lands
* De Candolle, t. i. p. 248.
t Ibid. t. iii. p. 1474.
t Ibid.  t. ii. p. 1497.
~ De Candolle, t. iii. p. J474
345 
ROTATION.
of the Andes wheat fields, which had yielded excellent crops annually for more than two centuries. Maize may likewise be continually
reproduced upon the same ground without inconvenience; this fact
is well known in the south of Europe; and the greater portion of
the coast of Peru has produced nothing else, from a date long anterior to the discovery of America. Further, potatoes may come again
and again upon the same soil; they are incessantly cultivated at
Santa-Fe and Quito, and nowhere are they of better quality. Indigo and sugar-cane may be brought under the same category. In
Europe the Jerusalem artichoke produces constantly in the same
place.* It must be conceded, that if all these plants excrete from
their roots, their excretions are not of such a nature as to interfere
with the progress of vegetation of the species producing them.
But the capital objection to the hypothesis of De Candolle is this,
that it would be very remarkable indeed did any soluble organic
matter, like such secretions, not putrefy when lying in the ground.
In a word, it is difficult to understand how it should resist for years,
as is pretended, the decomposing influence of heat and moisture together.
That there is no absolute necessity for alternation of crops when
dung and labor can be readily procured, is undeniable.   Nevertheless, there are certain plants which cannot be reproduced upon
the same soil advantageously except at intervals more or less remote. The cause of this exigence on the part of certain vegetables
is still obscure, and the hypotheses propounded for clearing it up far
from satisfactory.
One of the marked advantages of alternate cultures, is the periodic
cultivation of plants which improve the soil. In this way a sort ol
compensation is made for exhaustion. The main thing to be secur ed in rotation of crops is such a system as shall enable the husband man to obtain the greatest amount of vegetable produce with the
least manure, and in the shortest possible time. This system can
be alone realized by employing in the course of rotation those plants
which draw largely upon the atmosphere.
The best plan of rotation in theory, is that in which the quantity
of organic matter obtained most exceeds the quantity of organic
matter introduced into the soil in the shape of manure. This does
not hold quite in practice. It is less the surplus amount of organic
matter over that contained in the manure, than the value of this
same matter which concerns the agriculturist. The excess required,
and the form in which it should be produced, must vary widely ac cording to locality, commercial demand, and the habits of people,
considerations wholly apart from theoretical provisions. One point
* To this list might be added, according to the recent researches of M. Braconnot,
the bay-rose with double flowers, and Papaver somniferum. That distinguished
chemist terminates his memoir as follows: "My experiments are unfavorable, as may
be perceived, to the theory of rotation of c-ops based on the excretions of the roots.
These excretions if really occurring in the normal state are so obscure and little known
as to lead to the inference that the general system of rotations must be referred to
some other source."  (Recherches sur l'influence des plantes sur le sol, Annales de 
Chimie t lxxii. p. 27.)
316 
ROTATION.
in theory that should agree with practice is this, that in no case is it
possible to export more organic matter, and particularly more azotized organic matter, than the excess of the same matter contained
in the manure which is consumed in the course of the rotation. By
acting upon another presumption the productiveness of the soil would
be infallibly lessened.
This irrefragable condition as to the term of exportation from a
farm suggests some critical remarks upon sundry notions lately promnulgated. The manufacture of beet-root sugar is an instance.
European agriculture may probably derive certain advantages from
this modern branch of industry, although these have been much
overrated by certain speculators, who contend that sugar may thus
be obtained through rotation of crops without lessening the other
produce of the domain; so that the sugar constitutes an additional
source of income. This seems to me erroneous.
If an estate yields annually 100 tons of beet-root for the support
of cattle, their number must be diminished if the root is to be used
for making sugar. The organic matter of the sugar extracted therefrom, is just so much nourishment withheld from the cattle. To
assert the contrary would be equivalent to saying that potatoes grown
upon a couple of acres of land, and submitted to the process of distillation before being employed as fodder, would feed as many animals
as if eaten directly: assuredly, the organic principles of the potato
converted into alcohol are lost as regards nutrition.
This does not imply that the manufacture of indigenous sugar,
and of potato spirit, is less productive than breeding and fattening
cattle. My sole object is to show that only a limited quantity of
organic matter can be advantageously exported from an agricultural
establishment. It must depend upon local and commercial circumstances whether this is to be exported in the form of sugar, corn,
spirit, or butcher-meat.
The above statement is in apparent contradiction with generally
received notions. Many persons believe that the manufacture of
sugar, instead of injuring, is favorable to the breeding of cattle. It
appears, from a Parliamentary return on this subject, in 1836, that
in certain estates where sugar was made, the number of animals
was increased; the numerical results are no doubt exact, but this
augmentation in cattle is rather to be ascribed to an improved mode
of farming than to the manufacture of sugar. In establishments
where the triennial rotation with fallow was pursued, a rotation of
four or five years with clover and weed-destroying plants has been
introduced; so that it is by no means to be wondered at, that independently of beet-root, there should have been a considerable increase
in other things. The introduction of this root, where it was not
formerly grown, is of itself an important melioration.  But in highly
cultivated countries, where the most productive rotations have been
long followed, the extraction of sugar would not effect such advantageous changes as those announced in the above return. If at
Bechelbronn a time should ever come, and at present it seems far
distant, when it would be deemed expedient to make sugar from the
347 
ELEMENTS OF CROPS.
beet there grown it would certainly be requisite to diminish the
number of cattle, or else to annex more meadow land. It is only
indirectly, therefo: e, that the manufacture of home-sugar can promote the breeding of cattle, and so prove serviceable to agriculture.
From the definition given by me of the most advantageous course
of crops, theoretically considered, it may be inferred how closely the
study of rotations is connected with that of the exhaustion of the
soil. Hence, to discuss the value of divers rotations, we must, in
consonance with theory, compare the quantity of organic matter in
a sequence of crops, with that in the manure expended upon them.
From a well-nianaged farm, where for a series of years an invariable system of culture has been steadily pursued, we nmust look for
data. This I have done, as regards Bechelbronn, determining by
analysis the composition of the manures and crops, and also of the
more ordinary kinds of fodder or food. For a long time, a fivo
years' rotation has been there adopted in the following order:
1st year.-Potatoes or beet-root manured.
2d year.-Wheat sown the autumn of the first year; clover interposed in the spring.
3d year.-Trefoil (clover) two crops; the third crop ploughed in or smothered.
4th year.-Wheat on the clover-break, turnips after the wheat.
5th year.-Oats.
The crop of oats which ends the rotation is generally scanty.
The soil is then brought back to the point of fertility which it had
before being dunged; and it is known by experience that it will not
now yield a crop of any value.
I now proceed to detail the analyses of the different substances
which enter into the rotation, indicating at the same time the average
produce per acre.
POTATOES.
In the rather strong soil of Bechelbronn one acre produces upon
an average about 105 cwts. of potatoes.  This is below the ordinary
rate of Alsace, where the crop amounts to from 155 to 165 cwts.
per acre. The leaves and stems are left upon the ground.
A potato was cut in two, in order to subject it to analysis with a
proportional part of the peel. The half weighed 335.2 grs. Stovedried and reduced to flour, it weighed 289.3 grs.  By absolute (lesiccation in vacuo, at a temperature of 230~ F. it was found that one
of moist tuber became 0.241; 15.4 grs. left of ash 0.039.
The average quantity of azote is 1.2. In 1836, I found 1.8 of
azote. This notable difference, perhaps, depends on the analysis
not having been made immediately after the harvest; or it may be
partly due to meteorological influences. To convince myself that it
did not depend upon any error of analysis, I examined anew the
potato of 1836, preserved in the farinaceous state: it yielded 1.8
of azote. I shall, therefore, reckon the azote at 1.5
Carbon............43.72
Hydrogen................ 6.00
Oxygen..................44. 88
Azote............... 1.050
Ash................. 3.90 
348
If.
43.40
5.60
45-60
1.50
3.90 
ELEMENTS OF CROPS.
WHEAT.
1 analyzed the grain gathered in 1837: one of wheat, dried in
vacuo at 2300 F. was reduced to 0.885; one of dry wheat left of
ash 0.0243:
Carbon...................46.10
Hydrogen................... 5.80
Oxygen.................43.40
Azote.. -...-...............2.29
Ash -    -.......................2.43
100.00
The mean produce in wheat at Bechelbronn varies from 201 to
23 bushels per acre; this variation depends on the drill crop which
commences the rotation. After potatoes the average crop is 19-2
bushels; after beet-root, 17 bushels; on clover-breaks it is 24 bushels.
The average weight of the grain is 63 lbs. per bushel.
WHEAT-STRAW.
I estimate the proportion of the produce in grain to that in straw,
as 44 to 100.
One of straw completely dried in vacuo at 230~ F. becomes 0.740;
one of dry straw leaves 0.0697 of ash:
Carbon...............48.48
Hydrogen................5.4185.21
Oxygen..5.41
Azote..................0.3      0.35
Ash....................6.97.            9.35
6.97
100.00
II.
48.38
5.21
39.09
0.35
69.7
100.00
RED CLOVER.
Clover delights in clayey soils; it thrives generally in good wheat
lands; in light and sandy ground it gets bare and frosted. During
its growth, it always requires the shelter of some other plant. For
this reason, in spring, it is generally sown among wheat, which is
put in the preceding autumn, or barley sown the same spring. We
generally give from 11 to 14 lbs. of seed per acre. Clover is mowed the second year, as it is coming into flower; but when it is not
to be consumed as green fodder, the mowing may take place before
the flowering; this is required from the difficulty of making it into
hay. In fact, in the process of drying clover, there is great risk of
losing part both of the leaves and flower; besides, the drying always
requires a considerable time, during which the clover runs the chance
of being damaged by rain, and clover hay-making is almost impracticable in wet weather. Schwertz proposed to dry the clover
on a sort of parrot-perches stuck into the ground. These supports
are but eight feet high, and capable of bearing a load of 2 cwt. of
green fodder, mowed twenity-four hours, and already withered. This
method, as I have seen it practised in the Duchy of Baden, answers
well, but there is considerable cost for manual labor, and in the first
instance for perches. Schwertz reckons that 2 cwts. of green clover
30
349 
ELEMENTS OF CROPS.
yield 48 lbs. of hay. The relation of green to dry fodder varies
with the age of the plant, and the meteorological circumstances
under which it has grown. Subjoined is the result of some experimnents which I performed on the making of clover hay:
1 ton of clover in flower, 2d year (1841) afforded in hay 7 cwts.
1 ton of clover     1st year (1842)  "       4 cwts. 2 qrs. 24 lbs.
The average produce of this fodder reduced to hay at Bechelbronn is 41 cwts. 3 qrs. per acre.
One of clover hay, after complete desiccation, weighed 0.790;
one of dry hay left 0.078 of ash:
Carbon.................47.53
Hydrogen................ 4.69
Oxygen.....................57.96
Azote.................... 2.06
Ash..................... 7.76
100.00
TURNIPS.
When turnips are cultivated as a second crop, as after rye or
wheat, the produce is very uncertain. Attempts are occasionally
mnade to raise them after wheat which has followed clover.
When cultivated on fresh manured soil, the produce is considerable; in some places it amounts to from 28 to 33 tons per acre; but
as a second crop, we only obtain upon an average 72 tons per acre.
This crop is only counted as a half-crop in the general produce of
the rotation.
Turnip is the most watery root I have examined. A slice weighing 2 oz. 17 dwts. dried in the stove, was reduced to 4 dwts. After
thorough desiccation, one of turnip weighed 0.075; consequently
the root contains 92.5 per cent. of water; one of dried turnip incinerated, left 0.0758 of ash:
Carbon...............*42.80
Hydrogen.................... 5.54
Oxygen..................42.40
Azote..................... 1.68
Ash.......................        7.58
100.00
II.
49.93
5.61
42.20
1.68
7.58
100 00
OATS.
As this grain closes the rotation, the produce is not great.  The
average crop is 37 bushels per acre, at the weight of 331 lbs. per
bushel;* one of oats comrpletely dried weighs 0.792; one of dried
oats leaves 0.0398 of ash.
Carbon.....................50.32
Hydrogen................... 6.32
Oxygen..................... 37.14
Azote.................. 2.24
Ash...................... 3.98
100.00
* This is but a light weight for a bushel of oats.-EsoN. ED.
350
II.
47-19
5.33
37-66
2.06
7.76
100-00
II.
51-09
6.44
36-25
2.24
3.98
100-00 
ELEMENTS OF CROPS.
OAT STRAW.
Oat straw is estimated at about 15 cwts. per acre; one part
becomes, when dried in vacuo, 0.713; one part burned leaves 0.0509
of ash:
Carbon........49.93
Hydrogen............... 5...... 5.32
Oxygen.................39.....3928
Azote................... 0.38
Ash..................... 5.09
100.00
50. 25
5.48
38.80
0.38
5.09
100o.o
FIELD BEET OR MANGEL-WURZEL.
On a freshly manured soil, the average produce of beet at Bechelbronn is 10 tons, 15 cwts. 1 qr. per acre. The worst crops do not
fall below 5 tons, 2 cwts. 1 qr. 14 lbs., and the best do not exceed
16 tons, 7 cwts. 1 qr., results which I took occasion to observe varied
sensibly from those obtained in different places.   I stated that
Schwertz and Tihaer make the average 14 tons, 14 cwts. 2 qrs. 16
lbs. Mcelinger, after taking the mean of ten years, adopts 11 tons,
1 cwt. 3 qrs. 6 lbs.  At Roville, M. de Dombasle speaks of 7 tons,
3 cwts. 26 lbs. as the mean of seven years.
At Bechelbronn, the leaves of the beet are not given to cattle
they are left upon the ground.  A piece of beet-root weighing 1 oz.
16 dwts. was reduced to 4-7', say 5 dwts. after being stove dried.
After complete desiccation, at 230~ F. one part of root became 0.122;
one part of root left upon incineration 0.0624 of residuum:
Carbon...............42.75
Hydrogen................. 5.77
Oxygen.................43.58
Azote.................. 1.66
Ash —................ 6.24
100.00
RYE.
Rve is seldom introduced into the rotation at Bechelbronn. They
reckon its produce at 26 bushels per acre, when it has had a supplementary dose of manure. The bushel weighs fully 58 lbs. I
have taken the proportion of grain to straw as 45 is to 100. One
part of rye, dried at 230~ F. weighed 0.834; one part incinerated
left 0.0237 of ash:
I.
Carbon............46.35
Hydrogen...... -.. —..... 5.38
Oxygen............44.21
Azote............... 1.69
Ash................ 2.37
100.00
II.
45.72
5.70
44.52
1.69
2.37
100.00
RYE-STRAW.
One part of straw, completely dried, weighed 0.813, one part of
which, incinerated, left 0.0368 of ash:
351
412-93
5.94
43.3
1.66
6. 
190-00
Ill.
46.38
5.74
43.82
1.69
2.37
100.00 
ELEMENTS OF CROPS.
Carbn *..................49.88
Hydrogen.............. 5.58
Oxygen.......................40.56
Az    ote............................0.30
A s h.............................3.68
100.00
WHITE PEAS
Raisud on manured land yielded 16 bushels per acre, weighing
fully 62 lbs. per bushel. One part of peas, after complete desiccation, weighed 0.914; one part of dried peas left of ash 0.0314:
I.
Carbon............46.06
Hydrogen.................. 6.09
Oxygen.......................40.53
Azote..................... 4.18
Ash...................... 3.14
100.00
II.
46.94
6.24
39.50
4.18
3.14
100.00
PEA STRAW.
One acre of peas produces about 22 or 23 cwts. of straw; one part
of the straw after desiccation weighed 0.802; one part after incineration 0.1132:
Carbon.................45.80
Hydrogen.....................5.00
Oxygen.......................35.57
Azote...........................2.31
Ash............................11.32
'100.0C
JERUSALEM POTATO OR ARTICHOKE.
In Alsace, Jerusalem artichokes are always grown on one and
the same piece of land, which is manured every two years. At
Bechlelbronn, on a somewhat shallow soil, the produce per acre
amounts to:
Tubers..........................10 tons
Dry stems...................11   cwts.
A tuber which weighed on being taken from the ground 1 oz.
15-o dwts., weighed -  dwts. after it was dried in the stove. After
absolute desiccation, one part was reduced to 0.208; one portion of
the dry tuber left 0.0594 after incineration:
II.
43.62
5.80
43.07
1.57
5.94
100.00
Carbon....................                          43'2
Hydrogen................. 5.91
Oxygen....    -..-..-.. - -....43.56
Azote....................1.57
Ash.....................-. 5.94
100.00
DRIED STEMS OF JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES.
These stems had stood through the winter where they grew, and
were almost wholly composed of pith.  One part after desiccation 
weighed 0.871: one part left of ash 0.0276.
352 
ELEMENTS OF CROPS.
Carbon................................45.66
Hydrogen....................... 5.43
Oxygen...... -.......................45.72
Azote.................................. 0.43
Ash -.....-2.............................2.76
100.00
I fear that in this analysis the carbon and azote are rated too low.
I have collected in two tables the results of the analyses as detailed above. The first exhibits the quantity of dry matter and moisture
contained in each specimen; the other, the elementary composition.
On careful examination of the numbers given in the second table,
certain substances will be found very analogous in composition. If
the ashes be deducted, the analogy becomes complete; for many
substances differing widely both in character and properties, nevertheless appear to possess the same composition; a fact which I do
not undertake to explain.
TABLE OF T'rHE PROPORTIONS OF WATER CONTAINED IN DIFFERENT
SUBSTANCES.
Substances.               Dry matter.
Wheat......................0.855
Rye..........................0.834
Oats.................0.792
Wheat-straw......................0.740
Rye-straw....................0.813
Oat-straw......................0.713
Potato.......................0.241
Field-beet....................0.122
Turnip...................0.075
Jerusalem potato.............. 0.208
Peas........................0.914
Pea-straw.....................0.882
Clover-hay...................0.790
Jerusalem potato-stems.. - - - - -....... - 0.871
SAME SUBSTANCES DRIED IN VACUO AT 230~
FAHR.
Aselnldd                          se   eutd
SUBSTANCES.
Ashes deducted.
,47.2  06.0 44.4   02.4
47.3 0 5.7  45.3  01.7
52.9  06.   38.2  02.3
52.1  05.7  41.8  00.4
51.8  05.8  42.1  00.3
52.8  05.7  41.1  00.4
4.5.9  06. 1  46.4  01.6
45.7  06.2  46.3   01.8
46.3  0 6.0   4 5.9   01.8
46.0 06.2  46.1  01.7
48.0   06.4  41.3  04.3
51.5   05.6  40.3   02.6
51.3  05.4  41.1  02.2
47.0  05.6  47.0   00.4
1
Ashes inclu
4D        i
2
05.8    43.4
05.6    44.2
06.4 1 36.7
05.3  1 38.9
05.6    40.6
05.4    39.0
05.8    44.7
05.8    43.4
05.5    42.3
05.8    43.3
06.2    40.0
05.0    35.6
05.0    37.8
05.4    45.7
u
46.1
46.2
50.7
48.4
49.9
50.1
44.0
42.8
42.9
43.3
46.5
45.8
47.4
45.7
Wheat.........
Rye............
Oats...........
WVheat- straw...
Rye-straw......
O: t-straw......
Potato..........
Field-beet......
Turnip..........
Jerusalem potato
Peas...........
Pea-straw......
Clover-hay.....
Jerusalem pota to-stems......
l~tm....4.    05.    457 0.    284.                564.
30*
I
I
353
w.t,.
0.145
0.166
0.208
0.260
0.187
0.287
0.759
0.878
0.925
0.792
0.086
0.118
0.210
0.129
COMPOSITION OF THE
6
t               15
02.3 02.4
01.7 02.3
02.2 Or4 - 0
00.4 07.0
00.3 03.6
00.4 05.1
01.5 04.0
01.7 06.3
01.7 i 07.6
, 01.6 1 06.0
04.2 1 03.1
02.3 11.3
02.1 07.7
00.4 02.8 
ELEMENTS OF MANURE.
RELATIONS OF MANURES TO CROPS.
The manure employed at Bechelbronn is what is commonly called
farm-yard dung, a compost made up of the excrements of horses,
oxen, and straw litter impregnated with urine. The dung of fowls
and pigeons, anrid the sweepings of the yard, are sometimes applied
to special purposes. The animals whose excrements form the dung
which I have examined were horses, oxen, and swine.
The manure is put upon the ground when it has undergone fermentation in the heap: it is manure half-made: the straw litter is
not entirely decomposed, but is soft and filamentous; in this state
manure retains a great deal of moisture.
DESICCATION OF HALF-MADE OR HALF-DECAYED MANURE.
EXPERIMENT I.
A quantity of manure prepared during the winter of 1837-1838,
which in the state in which it was being put on the ground, weighed
257 lbs after it had been dried so as to be easily reduced to powder,
weighed 57 lbs. The loss of water was therefore about 77.3 in 100
This number comes very near the estimate of several German
agriculturists, who reckon the moisture in farm-yard dung at 75 per
cent. Still this loss does not represent the whole of the water; for
after desiccation at 212~ F. the 57 lbs. weighed 54 lbs.  In fine,
after desiccation in vacuo, at 230~ F. it was found that one part of
stove-&died manure lost 0.039. Thus the manure parted in totality
with 79.62 per cent. of water, and contained in consequence 20.4 of
dry substance.
EXPERIMENT II.
Of the manure prepared in the winter of 1838-1839, 220 lbs. after
being chopped and dried weighed 56 lbs. One part of this manure
was reduced in dry vacuo at a temperature of 230~ F. to 0.872. The
220 lbs. would therefore have weighed when dry 48 lbs.
EXPERIMENT III.
Of the manure prepared during the summer of 1839, 660 lbs.
weighed after desiccation 151 lbs.; of this dry manure reduced to
powder, one part lost by desiccation in vacuo at 230~ F. 0.1461.
The 151 lbs. would therefore have lost 22 lbs.; consequently the
660 lbs. of manure contained 129 lbs. of dry matter, that is, 19.64
per cent.
Subjoined is a summary of the per centage of dry matter:
First experiment.............0.4
Second "..............................22.2
Third'..............................19.6
Av erage.......................20.7
Moisture (average).....................79.3
ANALYSES OF HALF-MADE MANURES.
I. Manure prepared during the winter of 1837-1838:
Matter 0.5595, gave carbonic acid 0.528, water 0.157: C. 32.4, H. 3.8,
Azote 1.7.-1.0 gave ashes 0.462.
354 
ELEMENTS OF MANURE.
II. Manure prepared during the winter of 1837-1838:
Matter 0.575, gave carbonic acid 0.676, water 0.212: C 32.5, H. 4.1,
Azote 1.69.-1.000 gave ashes 0.357.
I1I. Manure prepared during the winter of 1837-1838:
Matter 0.567, gave carbonic acid 0.791, water 0.232: C. 38.7, H. 4.5,
Azote 1..3.-1.000 gave ashes 0.264.
IV. Manure prepared during the spring of 1838:
Matter 0.586, gave carbonic acid 0.759, water 0.208: C. 36.4, H. 4.0,
Azote 2.4.-1.000 gave ashes 0.381.
V. Manure prepared during the spring of 1839:
Matter 0.445, gave carbonic acid 0.643, water 0.171: C. 40.0, H. 4.3,
Azote 2.4.-1.000 gave ashes 0.257.
VI.
Matter 0.427, gave carbonic acid 0.543, water 0.150: C. 34.7, H, 3.9.
"  0.427,    "    "        0.530,  "   0.127: " 34.3, " 4.8,
Azote 2.0.-l.000 gave ashes 0.315.
COMPOSITION  OF  THE
Carbon.    Hydrogen.
32.4         3.8
32.5         4.1
38.7         4.5
36.4         4.0
40.0        4.3
34.5        4.3
.  35.8         4.2
'E       S  ANALYZED.
Azote.   Salts and earth.
1.7         36.5
1.7         35.7
1.7         26.4
2.4          38.1
2.4          25.7
2.0          31.5
2.0          32.2
Mean... 35.8          4.2       25.8      2.0      32.2
In all these analyses, the combustion was promoted by the addition of chlorate of potash; some oxide of antimony was likewise
added. The carbonic acid of the ash was determined and struck off.
The measure of dung in use at Bechelbrorn is the wagon drawn
by four horses. After repeated weighings it was found that this
measure contains nearly 1 ton, 15 cwts. 2 qrs. 23 lbs of moist material,
or 7 cwt. 1 qr. 15 lbs. if that be computed dry. The first course of
the rotation receives 27 loads of this manure, weighing about 48 tons,
14 qrs. 5 lbs., equivalent to 9 tons, 19 cwts. 0 qr. 2 lbs. of dry manure.*
The preceding analyses show that this charge of manure, which
is to fertilize the soil during the course of the rotation five years)
contains:
Carbon...................8027 lbs.
Hydrogen........................ 925
Oxygen.........................5767
Azote....................447
Salts and earth...7............7188
22355
Such are the principles which together form the organic matter
that is to be consumed and in major part assimilated by the crops
* I presume that the quantity above specified is that which is laid on the French
hectare, equal to 2.4 acres English.  To get at the quantity laid on per acre, it would
therefore be necessary to divide by 2 4-10: Thus 48 tons, 14 cwts. 5 lbs. per hectare
'l be equal to 20 tons, 1 cwt. 3 qrs. per English acre.-ENG. ED.
355
E MANUR
O.Yg..
25.8
26.0
28.7
19.1
27.6
27.7
25.8
I.
II.
Ill.
IV.
V.
VI. 
RELAT"; NS OF ELEMENTS
grown. I say partly, because I do not believe that the whole organic niatter necessarily enters into the constitution of the plants
,"hich spring up during the rotation; no doubt a considerable portion of the manure is lost through spontaneous decomposition, or is
carried away by the rain; and another portion may remain a long
time dormant in the soil, to act as a fertilizer at a more or less distant period; just as in the present rotation the manure formerly introduced co-operates with that recently added. One thing is certain,
viz., that the proportion of manure indicated is essential for average
crops; by diminishing it the produce is necessarily lessened. Lastly, it is proved that after the rotation the crops have consumed the
manure, and the earth will not yield its increase unless a fresh quantity be added.
I now proceed to consider the relation subsisting between the
quantity of organic matter buried in the soil as manure, and what is
recovered in the crops. In this way the respective proportions of
elementary matter which various crops derived from the air and the
soil, may be determined approximately, and a knowledge obtained
of those rotations which least exhaust the land, or in other words,
which obtain front the atmosphere the largest amount of organic
matter.
The rotations set down in Tables I. and II. are those definitively
adopted at Bechelbronn, and throughout the greater part of Alsace.
These two rotations, which differ only in the hoed crop introduced,
potatoes in one, beet-root in the other, are almost identical; nearly
the same quantity of dry matter being produced per acre, and nearly
the same quantity of organic material withdrawn from the atmo sphere.
The rotation No. 3 was introduced by Schwertz at Hohenheim;
theoretically, it is one of the most advantageous; it was tried at
Bechelbronn but abandoned, because, from meteorological causes,
peas and vetches fail frequently.
Table No. 4, shows the triennial rotation with manured fallow;
this is disadvantageous in point of theory. The organic consti tuents of the crop exceed but little those of the manure.   Suppos ing that even the whole of the straw were converted into manure,
the farmer would still be compelled to procure manure from abroad,
in compensation for the out-going of wheat. It is thus obvious why
triennial rotation always requires a great deal of meadow land.
In table No. 5, the result of the continuous cultivation of Jerusa lem artichokes is given. At Bechelbronn these are dressed every
two years with about ten loads of dung per acre. Upon an average
20 tons of tubers and about 2 tons of woody stems are gathered in
the course of two years. It will be perceived from perusal of this
table, that the culture of Jerusalem artichokes presents, theoretical  ly, considerable advantages. The organic matter of the crop greatly
exceeds that of the manure. Moreover, in Alsace, where it is very
common, it is held to be most productive. Still, the organic matter
of the stems must be taken into account, which, practically speak  ing, are nearly worthless.
356 
IN CROPS AND MANURE.
Table No. 6 comprises the data relative to a quadrennial rotation,
adopted by M. Crud, and in which are grown successively: 1st.
Potatoes or beet-root.  2d. Wheat.   3d. Red clover.  4th. Wheat.
The first sowing is dressed with about 18 tons of half-wasted farmyard dung. The gain in organic matter obtained by this rotation
surpasses that of the preceding; but as the clover crops are not very
sure when repeated every four years, M. Crud, for reasons which
may be called in question, follows this rotation with one of lucern,
which gets a fresh supply of manure. It cannot be denied that lucern furnishes a great mass of fodder, and in this respect the fertility of the land ought to be vastly enhanced, were this consumed on
the spot; but I can discover no objection to the renewal of clover,
if the lucern succeeds so well as M. Crud says it does. From too
frequent repetition, farmers have gone into the opposite extreme of
cultivating clover only every five or six years. This subject offers
an important field for research.  It is not impossible that the illsuccess depends often on premature mowing of the clover during
the first year, and before its roots have acquired sufficient vigor.
This practice has been abandoned with us for some years, and there
is now every thing to assure us that the second year's crop is thereby secured.
ROTATION COURSE No. 1.
Salts
Years. Substances.                C         a          bn
Years.      Substances.         Crops Crops           b        ydr o-   Oxygen-  Azote. and
per acre.   dry.               Ceo. gen.
i  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~earths.
lbs.     lbs.     lbs.      lbs.      lbs.      lbs.    lbs.
1st   Potatoes....    11733      2828     1244       164     1264       42       113
2d   Wheat....         1231    1052        485       61      457        24       25
Wheat-straw..         2798    2070       1002      110       805        8       145
3d   "Clover.hay...        4675    3693      1750       185      1396      78       284
4th  iWheat....          1521    1300 599              75 564             30      31
YWlheat-straw..       3456    2557       1237      135       995       10      179
Turnips (2d crop).       8754      656      2832       36       278       11       50
5th  lOats.....               1232       975 494             62       358       21       19
Oat-straw...         1650    1176       593       63       458         5       60
Total........        37050   16307    10236       891      6575       229      926 
Manure employed.          4495    9314      3426      391      2403       185    2999
Difference...                 6993      6810     500      4172        44    2073
ROTATION COURSE No. 2.
Cearops Cr o p s            HydroSalts
Years.       Substances.      p(Crops    Crops  Carbon. Hgydro- Oxygen.  Azote.    and
per acre.   dry.               guearth.
lbs.  lbs.  lbs.  lbs.  lbs.      lbs.arlbs.
1st   Mangel wurzel. 
2ld    Wheat....
Wheat-straw..
3d    Clover.hay..
4th   Wheat....
Wheat-straw..
Turnips.              8
5th   Oats.....
ODt.straw...
Total.
I Manure employedI
Difference... |
7505     864       6423      231      975
3426      391      2403      185    2999
I
357
lb,. lb,.
2383 2907
1086 928
2468 1,127
11675 3W3
i,-,20 1300
3456 2,557
8754 655
1232 975
161 —lo 1176
lb'. lbs.
1244 157
42.8 53
883 98
1749 18'
599 7.
1237 135
281 36
495, 62
589 63
lbs;.
1262
403
710
1396
564
995
277
358
458
. lbs.
49
21
7
77
so
10
11
21
5
lb,;.
182
22
128
284
31
179
50
39
illo
4079  473 _
46
2024 
RELATIONS OF ELEMIENTS.
ROTATION COdRSE NO. 3.
Years  Suobstanc     |CrCops               Carbon.   Hydro- Oxygen.  Azote.   ald
Yer.Substances.           e,an,e.d,Y          abn,n 
earths.
llbs.    lbs.    lbs.      lbs.      lbs.      lbs.     lbs.
1st  lPotatoes........    11733    2828           1244      164      1264       42      113
2d    W  heat............ 1231   1054 48a5  61       457       24       25
!Wheat.straw........ 2798 2070 1002 110  805        8      145
3d    Clover-hay... 46a75 3693 1750 185                             1396       78      284
4th! iheat.... 1515 1300 599 75 564                                           30       31
IVheat.straw              34a6    2558      1238       135       995       10      179
Turnips..              8754       656      282        36       278       11       50
5th   Peas (dunged)..        1001      915       425 56             366    138         28
Pea-straw...        2558    2256       1033       112       803       52      255
6th   Rye.....           1539    1278        590        71       565       22      30
Rye-straw...         3420    2780        1387      155      1129        8      100
Total......           148280    21388     10035     1160      8622 323          1240
Manure employed        148285   11176        4000      470      2883      223    3599
Difeibrence...                10212      6035 690           5739      100    2359
ROTATION COURSE NO. 4.
Crop Crops                   fd
Years. |    Substances.         Crop      CrPs  Carbon. Hydro-   Oxygen   Azote.   and
per acre.   dry.               gen.                       earths.
lbs.     lbs.     lb3.      lbs.     lbs.       lbs.    lbs.
1st   Dungedfallow..
2d & 3d Wheat....           3041    2600         ali     l f5     1128       60        62
Straw......              6875    5080       2462      270      1979       20 356
Total......            9916      7680      3413      420 3107            80      418
Manure employed          18330     3795 1358          159        979       76    1222
Difference...         8414    3885       2055      261      2128        4      84
NO. 5, CONTINUOUS POTATO CROPS.
Salts
Years.      Substances.        prCrops    Crops  Carbon. HIydro. Oxygen.  Aznte.   als
per acre.   dry.               gen.
P,                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~arths.
lbs.     lb.   lbs.         lbs.      b.       lbs.    lbs.
1st & 2d Potatoes....    48473    10083    4366            585      4366      161      605
Stalks....    25850    22497   10289    1215 10289                  90      630
Total......            74323    32580    14655 1800          14655 251           1235
Manure employed.    41663          8624     3087      362      2225 172    2777
Difference...                 23956   1156I | 1438    12430            79    1542
No. 6, QUATRENNIAL ROTATION, ADOPTED BY M. CRUD.
IELEMENTARY INGREDIENTS OF THE CROP.
Crops Cropsr
Years.       Crops grown.        per a cr.   dry.                                          Snlts
per acre.  dry.              yo
Carbon.  Hydero- Oxygen.  Azote.   and
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~e.
earths.
lbs.     lbs.    lbs.      lbs. lbs.       lbs.     lbs.
1st   Halfacre of-otatoes         9167    2209      972      128       987      33         88
Ditto of beet-roots.    18333   2237        957     130        970       38      141
2d&4th,Wlheat. 153bushels.         3331    2847     1312      165      1235       65       68
iWVheat:straw...        7333    5243    2537       278      2040       21      347
3d   Clover three cuttings        7333    5793     2746      290      2190      121      446
Total...........45497   18329    8524 991                      7422      278      1110
Mlanure consumed.    40333    8349        2989      350      2154      167    2688
Difference....                   9980    5535 641            5268      111     1578
359 
IN CROPS AND MANURE.
SUMMARY.
Dry manure  |                l
extfend~ed upon Azote con one acre il  taind ill the
i manure.
Gain in organ-|
ic maitter It   Gain in azote
one  year upon   in one year
o ne acre.    upon one acre.
lbs.             lbs.
1996             9
1746             9
2513             17
1565             3
12758            39
2889             28
lbs.         lbs.
3261          46
3 204         46
3564          54
2567          26
16299         125
4582          70
From all that precedes, it is obvious that rotations which include
trefoils, red clover, lucern, and sainfoin, are those that afford considerably the largest proportion of organic matter; a fact, indeed,
which if not legitimately established, has still been long acted on
in that system of cropping which embraces forage plants as an element. Lucerns, too, when they have taken kindly, yield an extraordinary quantity of forage, as every one may see by turning to the
produce of the piece under that crop which in the system of M.Crud
succeeds the quatrennial rotation. At the end of his rotation, M.Crud
always lays on manure in the ratio of 18 tons per acre, which lasts
for six years, and may be said to suffice for the succession of crops
in the appended table:
Crops.                   Produce per acre.   Contents in azot,.
Lucern dry,   1st year..............3080 lbs.      72 lbs.
2 d year............... 9240            215
"   3d year..............11458         269
"       4th year...............- 9240      213
"   5th year......... -.... 7333     172
Wheat,         6th year................ 1448       28
Straw................................. 3645       11
980
Dung employed........................40233       205
Total gain in azote........................................775
Gain in azote per annum and per acre......................130
In glancing at these tables, it is obvious that the azote of the crop
always exceeds the azote of the manure. Generally speaking, I
admit that this excess of azote is derived from the atmosphere: but
I do not pretend to say in what precise manner the assimilation takes
place. I shall only quote the conclusion of a paper which I published
on the subject in the year 1837.* Azote may enter immediately into
the constitution of vegetables, provided their green parts have the
power of fixing it; azote may also enter vegetables dissolved in the
water which bathes their roots, and which always contains it in a
certain proportion. Lastly, it is possible that the air may contain
an infinitely minute quantity of ammoniacal vapor, as some natural
* Annales de Chimie, t. lxix. p. 366.
I
I
e
359
D,y p,.d.,!
i. I ".,
.., ye. P., t.i."l i. e
p,,.d.,,,-.
.i
I
.5
4
lb-,. lbs.
1862 37
1862 37
1862 37
1247 23
3710 86
2087 42
No. I
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
No. 6 
RELATIONS OF ELEMENTS
philosophers* have maintained, and that this assimilated, decomposed, and recomposed anew by the plant, is the source of its azotized
constituents.
~ 2. OF THE RESIDUES OF DIFFERENT CROPS.
The vegetable matter which is produced in the course of a season
is never found entirely in the crop. A certain quantity of it, for
instance, always remains in the ground. It is, therefore, a point of
interest to ascertain what quantity of elementary matter is left in the
soil after each kind of crop in the rotation; precise knowledge of
this description may even be important in calculating rotations, for
it is obvious that the remains of the crop now on the ground must
influence that which is to follow, and in the course of a rotation the
sum of the residuary matters must be regarded as a supplement oi
addition to the manure put into the ground at its commencement.
In the systems of rotation very generally followed at the present
time, the influence of these residuary matters is manifest, and it is
partly by their means that we can explain how a quantity of manure,
frequently very moderate, should suffice for the whole of the crops
-in a productive rotation. The remarkable effect of clover has not
failed to arrest attention even from the most unobserving. The
wheat crop which comes after our drill crop in Alsace, beet or
potatoes, averages from 18 to 20 bushels per acre; but the wheat
crop that succeeds our clover averages from 23 to 24 bushels per
acre.
The improvement of the soil, so obvious in connection with clover,
in all probability also occurs in connection with the residues of other
crops; but as in most instances the residue merely compensates the
loss, or lessens its extent, the effect produced is less remarkable,
and is less, indeed, in amount. All the world acknowledge, then,
that the residues of the crops that enter into a rotation compensate
in greater or less degree for what is carried away in the shape of
harvest, and that in some cases they even add to the fertility of the
soil; for in growing crops that leave a large quantity of residue, it
is precisely as if a smaller quantity were taken from a given extent
of surface. But what is the amount of residue or refuise which is
returned to the soil by such and such a crop. What, in a word, is
the value of this residuary matter considered as manure?   " This is
a point upon which only the Inost vague and indefinite ideas are
generally entertained; and it was with the purpose of substituting
positive facts for mere guesses, that I determined on weighing and
analyzing the vegetable residue of the several crops that enter as
elements into our more usual rotations.
My experiments were made upon breadths of land which varied
from 120 to 500 square yards in extent. The clover roots and
stubble were taken up with the spade, and before being dried, were
freed from adhering earth by washing. The beet-leaves and pota  to-tops were dried at once in the oven; and it was from each of the
* Saussure Recherches Chimiques, and Liebig, Agricultural Chemistry.
360 
IN CROPS AND MANURE.
general masses reduced to powder that samples were taken for ultimate analysis, before proceeding to which, they were carefully dried
in vacuo at 230~ F.
It is not likely that any accurate mean result should have been
come to from an examination of the produce of a single season. I
should even say that the year in which these inquiries were undertaken was little favorable to them, inasmuch as the crops were generally bad; but it is obvious that they form a nucleus, around or by
the side of which the results of other seasons may be arranged, and
an average from larger premises come to.
A piece of land measuring 120 square yards, marked off from a
spot that had suffered from drought, yielded 47.0 lbs. of green tops,
which were reduced by drying to 18.4 lbs. A similar extent of
surface, selected from a part of the field that looked well, gave green
tops 79 lbs., which dried in the air were reduced to 16 lbs. Ve
shoold thus have 23a cwts. of green, and 6-I cwts. of dry tops per
acre. The crop of potatoes in 1839 yielded at the rate of 101-I
cwts. per acre. One hundred grammes, or 3 oz. 4 dwts. 8 grs.
troy, of the top dried in the air, lost 12 grammes, or 7 dwts. 17 grs.
by thorough drying at 2300 F. The weight of the tops yielded per
acre, taken as dry, consequently amounts to 5 cwts. 2 qrs. 14 lbs.,
Carbon *.................... 44.8
Hydrogen....................... 5.1
Oxygen..............30.5
Azote.......................2.3
Salts and earths................. 17.8
100.0
LEAVES OF FIELD-BEET, OR MANGEL-WURZEL.
Upon a surface of 500 square yards, 976 lbs. of leaves were gathered, the weight being taken two days after the roots were pulled up.
55 lbs. of leaves reducible to powder by drying in an oven, were
brought to 6.6 lbs.
3 oz. 4 dwts. of leaves dried and pulverized, lost by desiccation
at 230~ F. 343 dwts. of moisture. The 6.6 lbs. brought to that state
of dryness would have weighed 6.1 lbs.  With these data it is found
that the 9 3 lbs. of green leaves gathered upon 500 square yards
would have weighed when dry 108.9 lbs.; and that the acre produced
8543 cwts. of green and 943 cwts. of dry leaves.  The crop of roots
which answers to that quantity of leaves, was in 1839 but 6 tons, 2
cwts., that is to say, little more than half a crop; for our average
is about 102 tons.
COPSTO2F  R   EVS
COMPOSITION OF DRY LEAVES.
Carbon............................. 38.1
Hyd      rogen..................... -- 5.1
Oxygen................................ 30.8
Azote...........................4.5
Salts and earths...........2..........21.5
100.0
31
36 
362     ORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANV RES AND CROPS.
WHEAT STUBBLE.
From 120 square yards of ground we have obtained 13 lbs. of
stubble dried in the air. The same surface in another field produced
171 lbs.
Thus we have 53 cwts. of stubble per acre; but as wheat recurs
twice in the rotation, the residues must be doubled; say, 111 cwts.
Stubble loses 0.26 of moisture when dried completely at 2300.
In 1839, the wheat after the drilled crop, or after clover, was only
17 bushels per acre.                                             --
I have assigned to stubble the same composition as that of straw.
CLOVER ROOTS.
A surface of 120 square yards gave 44 lbs. of roots, weighed after
being thoroughly dried in the sun; when pulverized after drying in
the stove the weight was reduced to 37 lbs.
3 oz. 4 dwts. of powdered roots lost by drying, at a temperature
of 230~ F., 5 dwts. of moisture. Thus the 44 lbs. of roots dried in
the sun would have weighed 34 lbs., and one acre would have
furnished 123 cwts. of residue perfectly dry.
In 1839, the clover crop when reduced to hay was far below the
average.
COMPOSITION OF THE ROOTS.
Carbon.........................43.4
Hydrogen.......................5.3
Oxygen....................36.9
Azote......................1.8
Salts and earth................-12.6
100.0
OAT STUBBLE.
The residue of the oat crop, whicl.,concludes the rotation course.
does not act upon the present, but on the next rotation; in the same
way as the organic remains left in the ground by the oats which terminated the antecedent course, exerted their influence upon the
present one. In 1839, the oat crop was above the average; it was
as high as 16 cwts. 2 qrs. 18 lbs. per acre.
One French are of the land, equal to 120 square yards English,
yielded 20 lbs. of stubble dried in the air, or at the rate in round
numbers of 8 cwts. per acre.
In the following table I have given a suimmary of the results above
stated, combining therewith the quantity and the composition of the
manure expended in the rotation. 
ORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.
SUMMARY OF THE FOREGOING RESULTS.
,        Elementary matter of the residues.
Xt      a e,rt 
lbs.   I ls~t l~.    lbs.l   lbs.   i   lbs.    lbs.
25312 630i 282    32          189  14         112
9599 e10X0|  410   5a         330    48      236
1283    950  460       50    3659      4       67
18331  1418  615    75        523    26      178
836 5196   299    32         232      2       30
-16182   4664  2066   244    1643    94        617
9314 3335  391    2403   186    2995
fuse or residue of the several crop
Nature  Ntre   f the
the crop.  - 
~ th   rp      -_tlc     residuses buried
in tie soil.
lbs.   lbs. I
Potatoes.   11367  273!! Potatoe tops.
Beetroots.   1 38 1668  Beetroot leaves
Wheat.  2150 1837! Stu,bble
Clover-hay       2'292  1810,  Roots dried il
Oats....        1862 1474i  the suI..
9'    Stbble....
Total...   31349  9527    tu
IIanure       [
employed  1 44995
It therefore appears that the refuse or residue of the several crops
of a rotation represent, both in quantity and nature, somewhat
less than one half of the manure originally put into the ground; I
say somewhat less, because it must be remembered that in the sum
of these residuary matters, the beetroot leaves and potato tops must
not be allowed to stand together, the one crop naturally excluding
the other, or at all events the two hoed or drilled crops not entering
in this proportion into the same rotation.
The large quantity of organic matter restored to the soil by several
ol the crops in the series, consequently explains how the rotation
may be closed without its being found indispensable to supply any
additional manure in its course. It seems indubitable that without
this addition of elementary matter, the fertility of the soil would
decline much more rapidly than it does; the residue of each crop is
nothing more than a portion of the crop itself restored to the ground;
it is as if we only carried off one portion, the larger portion of the
crop, and buried another portion green.
In the five years' rotation, it may be observed that there are two
crops, the hoed crop and the forage crop, which yieldt substances to
the ground that are both abundant in quantity and rich in azotized
matter, and it is unquestionable that these crops act favorably on the
cereals which succeed them. But data are wanting for the appreciation of their specific utility in the general rotation. We see, for
instance, that despite the large proportion of residuary matter left by
the beet or mangel-wurzel, this plant lessens considerably the produce of the wheat crop that comes after it.  The potato, though it
leaves much less refuse than the beet, seems nevertheless to act less
unfavorably than this vegetable. Clover leaves more residue than
the potato, and on this ground, alone, ought to favor the cereal that
follows it; but it has a favorable influence out of all proportion with
its quantity, contrasting this with the residue of either of the hoed
crops; a fact from which we learn that the visible appreciable influ ence of the residuary matters of preceding crops, upon the luxuriance
of succeeding crops, does not result solely from their mass, even
supposing eash to be possessed of equal qualities; this other, this
363 
364    INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.
additional effect, depends especially on an influence exerted on the
soil by the crops which leave them. Had these crops been powerfully exhausting, we should expect that their refuse or residue, however considerable in quantity, could do no more than lessen the
amount of exhaustion produced; in which case, its useful influence,
however real, would pass unnoticed, were it estimated by the produce
of the succeeding crop. If, on the contrary, a crop has been but
slightly scourging, whether in consequence of the smallness of its
quantity, or because it may have derived from the air the major part
of its constituent elements, the useful influence of the residue will
not fail to be conspicuous. When the relative value of different systems of rotation is discussed in the way we have done, we in fact
estimate the value of the elementary matter derived from the atmo
sphere by an aggregate of crops; but the procedure generally followed is silent when the question is to assign to each crop  in
particular the special share which it has had in the total profit. To
reply to this question, of which a knowledge of the various residues
is one of the elements, we must first ascertain the quantity of elementary matter supplied by the soil and the atmosphere, with refer
ence to each of the crops which enter into the rotation; in other
words, the same investigations must be undertaken in reference to
each plant considered by itself, that have been made in reference to
the series collectively. There is unquestionable room, in this direction, for an important series of experiments.
~ 3. OF THE INORGANIC SUBSTANCES OF MANURES  AND CROPS.
We have but just considered the organic matter developed in a
series of successive harvests.  To complete the study of rotations,
to the extent at least that this can be done in the present state of
science, we have still to examine the relations that may exist between
the mineral substances which enter into the constitution of the produce, and those that make part of the manure given.
We have already shown in a general way that certain mineral
salts, certain saline matters or salifiable bases, are essential to the
constitution of vegetables. To the best of my knowledge, no seed
has yet been met with that is without a phosphate; and it is now
known that the alkaline salts powerfully promote vegetation.
Such is their ascertained influence, indeed, that tobacco, barley,
and buckwheat sown in soils absolutely without organic matter, but
containing saline substances, and only moistened with distilled water,
produced perfect plants, which flowered and fruited, and yielded ripe
seeds.*  Whence it follows, that the presence of saline matter favors remarkably the assimilation of the azote of the atmosphere
during the act of vegetation.
The importance of considering rotations in connection with the
inorganic substances that are assimilated by plants was perfectly
well known to Davy.   "The exvr rtation of grain from a country
which receives nothing in exchange that can be turned into manure,
must exhaust the soil in the long run," says the illustrious chemist;           * Liebig, in Journ. de Pharmacie, vol. iv., 3d series, p. 94. 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.    365.
who ascribed to this cause the present sterility of various parts of
Northern Africa and of Asia Minor, as well as of Sicily, which for
a long succession of years was the granary of Italy. Rome unqutestionably contains in its catacombs quantities of phosphorus from
all the countries of the earth.
Professor Liebig, in insisting with the greatest propriety on the
useful part played by alkaline bases and saline matters in vegetation,
has shown the necessity of taking inorganic substances into serious
consideration in discussing rotations.  It is long since I came to the
same conclusion myself; but it strikes me, that to be truly profitable,
such a discussion must necessarily rest on analyses of the ashes of
plants which have grown in the same soil, and been manured with
the same dung, the contents of which in mineral elements were already known.  There is in fact a kind of account current to be established between the inorganic matter of the crop and that of the
manure. Although I give every credit to the fidelity of the analyses
of vegetable ashes that have been published up to the present time,
I have not felt myself at liberty to make use of any of them in the
direction which I now indicate. I have not thought that it would be
fair or reasonable to contrast such heterogeneous compounds, as the
ashes of plants grown at Geneva and Paris, under such dissimilar
circumstances, with those of vegetables produced on a farm of Alsace, where the point to be explained, through the results of this
contrast, had reference to a particular series of agricultural phenomena. And then my business was not merely with the scientific question; the manufacturing or commercial element in the consideration
also touched me. I had to ascertain how I was likely to stand at
some future time, did I presume to act upon the conclusions to which
I came. There was nothing for me therefore but to analyze the
ashes of the several vegetables which entered as elements into the
rotation followed at Bechelbronn, but confining my inquiries to that
portion of the vegetable which is looked upon particularly as the
crop, so much of the plant as remains on the ground and is turned in
again, of course taking nothing from it.
The ashes examined were almost all from the crops of 1841, two
analyses having generally been made of each substance: and here
I ought to say, that in this long and tedious labor, in which I spent
nearly a whole year, I was most ably seconded by Mr. Letellier. By
way of preface, I should say that in these analyses, losses will frequently be apparent, which for the most part exceed the limits that
in the present day are tolerated in the more careful operations of the
laboratory. These deficiencies, which puzzled me a good deal at
first, I by and by discovered to proceed from the difficulty of incinerating certain vegetable substances completely. When they abound
in alkaline salts, they leave ashes that melt so readily, that it becomes
difficult to prevent their agglutination, and the charcoal that is not
consumed is then effectually protected against any further action of
the fire. There is nothing for it in such cases but to incinerate at
the lowest temperature possible, and then a little moisture is apt to
be left; the charcoal, however, is the substance that occasions the
31*
L
r
I 
7.   1 11.3    2.7     1.8
1.6   6.1    5.2      7.0
10.9, 6.0    2.9   10.9
2.2  10.8    1.6       2.3
1.0 147.0  traces    2.9
1.0   3.1   0.6       8.5
1 0  14.9    0.5      3.7
4.1   3.0    4.7      8.3
2.5 6.3    2.6   24.6
4.7 30.1      1.1   10.1
1 3  26.8    0.1      5.8
1.6 34.2    0.7        5.1
51.5  tr. ces
39.0      6.0
33.7     4.1
44.5  traces
29.5 traces
9.2     0.3
12.9      0.0
24.5     4.4
26.6      0.535.3      2.5
49.1      0.0
45.2      0.0
If these analytical results be now applied to the produce of an
acre of ground, we should have the precise quantities of minerasubstances abstracted from the soil by each of the several crops that
enter into the rotation. Here they are in a table:
MINERAL SUBSTANCES TAKEN UP FROM THE SOIL BY THE VARIOUS
CROPS GROWVN AT BECHELBRONN UPON ONE ACRE.
d
C), t:
lbs. Ibs.    Ibs. lbs.
3    2       6    58
9   13       8   82
12F    5     2    19
4       5  135
'a8   4    7
I   l                9    17
0.2  1S     3      5
3     5     1 5   17
7    70     18   77
0.3  3       3 I0
0.1  3      6    25
0.5  3      5    26
Crop.                  a                
lbs. Ilbs. l bs.
Potatoes.....        2828   40    113
Beet-roots...       2908   6.         3            18 3
Halfcrop ofturnips, )
consumed off the5 656  7.6         50
eground,           )
Potato tops....   5042  6.0   303
W heat.....    102  2.4            25
WVheat-straw...      2558  7.0   179
I Oats........        975  4.0    39
Oat-straw....  1176  5.1    60
Clover..............  3693  7.7   284
{ Manured peas..        915  3.1    28
rench beans... 1448  3.5    51
iorse beans...  1944  3.0    58
A
I.-t
To
.p —
C.-) 
I
,5.6
8.0
6.4
13.0
1.3
67.6
53.9
40.0
5.3
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.5   0.7
2.5    4.2
1.2    5.5
5.2    7.6
0.0    2.4
1.0   3.7
1.3   3.0
2.1   2.9
0.3   0.0
traces    2.3
t races    1.1
traces   3.1
Potatoes
langel,wurzel. ~
Turnips..
Potato tops.,
Wheat...
Wheat-straw,.
Oats...
Oat-straw..
Clover..
Peas.....
French beans..
Horse beans., ~
13.4
16.1
14.0
11.0
0.0
0.0
1.7
3.2
25.0
0.5
3.3
1.0
5.4
4.4
4.3
1.8
15.9
5.0
7.7
2.8
6.3
11.9
11.5
8.6
EF'
Acids.
c3
c;
0._
n —
lb1
61
15
a
39
0.4
121
21
24
I,,
0.5
0.6
0.3
'i. 13  6;
IlIs.    lbs.
13       8
11       3
3      5
33       7
12       0.3
5       1.5
6      0.4
1      2.5
18       7
8      1.2
13       0.7
20       0.75
]I,,.
173
44
0.7
16
'is
0.6
1
0.9
traces.
traces.
traces. 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.    367
On looking at this table we perceive that a medium crop of wheat
takes from one acre of ground about 12 lbs., and a crop of beans
about 20 lbs. of phosphoric acid; a crop of beet takes 11 lbs. of the
same acid, and further, a very large quantity of potash and soda.  It
is obvious that such a process tends continually to exhaust arable
land of the mineral substances useful to vegetation which it contains, and that a term must come when, without supplies of such
mineral matters, the land would become unproductive from their ab
straction. In bottoms of great fertility, such as those that are brought
under tillage amidst the virgin forests of the New World at the present day, it may be imagined that any exhaustion of saline matters
will remain unperceived for a long succession of years; for a succession of ages almost.  And in South America, where the usual
preliminary to cultivation is to burn the forest that stands on the
ground, by which the saline and earthy constituents of millions of
cubic feet of timnber are added to the quantities that were already
contained in the soil, I have already had occasion to speak of the
ample returns which the husbandman receives for very small pains.*
Under circumstances, in the neighborhood of large and populous
towns, for instance, where the interest of the farmer and marketgardener is to send the largest possible quantity of produce to market, consuming the least possible quantity on the spot, the want of
saline principles in the soil would very soon be felt, were it not that
for every wagon-load of greens and carrots, fruit and potatoes, corn
and straw, that finds its way into the city, a wagon-load of dung,
containing each and every one of the principles locked up in the
several crops, is returned to the land, and proves enough, and often
more than enough, to replace all that has been carried away from it.
The same principle holds good in regard to inorganic matters, which
we have already established with reference to organic substances.
The most interesting case for consideration is that of an isolated
farming establishment-a rural domain, so situated that it can obtain
nothing from without, but exporting a certain proportion of its produce every year, has still to depend on itself for all it requires in the
shape of manure. I have already shown, with sufficient clearness,
I apprehend, how it is that lands in cultivation derive from the atmosphere the azotized principles necessary to replace the azotized
products of the farm, which are continually carried away in the
shape of grain, cattle, &c. I have now to show how the various
saline substances, the alkalies, the phosphates, &c., which are also
exported incessantly, are replaced. I believe that I shall be able,
with the assistance of chemical analysis, to throw light on one of
the most interesting points in the nature and history of cropping, and
succeed in practically illustrating the theory of rotations.  In what
is to follow immediately, I shall always reason on the practical data
collected at Bechelbronn, and which have already served for the
* The first breaks of the early English settlers in North America are now either very
indifferent soils, or they have only been restored to some portion of their original fertility by manuring; so that the supply of fertilizing elements is not inexhaustibleENG  ED 
368    INORGANIC ELEMIENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.
illustration of other particulars. My farm, I may say, by way of
preliminary, is an ordinary establishment; the lands which have
been brought by a system of rational treatment to a very satisfactory
state of fertility, are not rich at bottom and originally, and they fall
off rapidly if they have not the dose of manure at regular intervals,
which is requisite to maintain them in their state of productiveness
My first business was to determine the nature and the quantity of
the mineral substances contained in my manure; and with a view to
arrive at this information, I burned considerable quantities of dung
at different periods of the year, mixed the ashes of the several in
cinerations, and from the mixture took a sample for ultimate analysis
The mean results are represented by:
Carbonic.............  2.0
Acids  Phosphoric............... 3.0
(Sulphuric................ 1.9
Chlorine........................0.6
Silica, sand..................... 66.4
Lime..........................8.6
Magnesia....................... 3.6
Oxide of iron, alumina.............. 6.1
Potash and soda.-.................... 7.8
100.0
But our farm-yard dung is not the only article we are in the habit
of giving to our land; it further receives a good dose of peat-ashes
and gypsum. I here recall to the reader's mind that the mean composition of peat-ashes is this:
Silica........................ 65.5
Alumina....................... 16.2
Linme.........................6.0
Magnesia........................ 0.6
Oxide of iron..................... 3.7
Potash and soda..................2.3
Sulphuric acid................. 5.4
Chlorine........................ 0.3
100.0
In the system followed at Bechelbronn, the farm-yard dung laid
upon an acre contains 26 cwts. 3 qrs. of ashes. On our clover leas
we spread the first year 7 cubic feet of turf-ashes; and in the beginning of spring of the second year, we lay on as much more, say 14
cubic feet, in all weighing about 2 tons. I do not take the 8 cwts.
of gypsum which, in conformity with usage, the second year's clover
generally receives, because I believe this addition to be perfectly
useless after the very sufficient dose of peat-ash which we emnploy.
The whole of the mineral substances given to the land in the
course of five years per acre is as follows, viz.: Ashes contained in
the manure and in the peat-ashes, 7624 lbs.; consisting of phosphoric acid 90 lbs., sulphuric acid 304 lbs., chlorine 4.5 lbs., lime
532.5 lbs., magnesia 135.6 lbs., potash and soda 339 lbs., silica and
sand 4630 lbs., oxide of iron, &c., 353 lbs.
It is therefore easy to perceive, from the preceding data, that
what with the manure and the ashes it receives, the land is more
than supplied with all the mineral substances required by the several crops it produces in the course of the rotation.  Let us cast a
r 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.    369
glance over these with reference to their mineral or inorganic constituents, as we have already done in so far as the organic matters
are concerned; let us compare, in a word, the quantity and the nature of the mineral substances removed in the course of five successive years, in contrast with the quantity and the nature of the same
substances supplied at the commencement of the series, and we shall
find that the sums of the phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, and chlorine, and of the alkaline and earthy bases of the crops, are always
smaller than the quantities of the same substances which exist in
and are supplied to the arable soil.
I shall institute the comparison with the rotation No. 1, which
begins with potatoes; and further, with a continuous crop which,
as the one that is most common and convenient, shall be Jerusalem
artichokes.  I have not thought it advisable to discuss the rotation
No. 2, in which beet replaces the potato, because the ashes of these
two crops are so much alike, that it may be assumed to be matter
of indifference which of the two enters as the drill-crop element into
the series. With reference to the Jerusalem artichoke, I shall only
remind the reader that the piece of land where it grows receives a
dose of manure every two years, in the proportion of 41245 lbs. per
acre, which manure contains 2776 lbs. of mineral constituent.  F'urther, in the course of each winter peat-ashes, in the ratio of 2700 lbs.
per acre, are laid on the land; and that the stemns are generally incinerated on the spot, and the ashes they contain returned directly
to the soil.
TABLE OF THE MINERAL MATTERS OF THE CROPS AND MANURES IN
THE COURSE OF A ROTATION.
' = 11.i.      ACIDS.
A r,. per    r.
~ -.: "   iPhos-   Sul       phoric Phuric
EOAINNo'ls                                          bs          b.l                     b       Isls
,, -.
I I'  I1S
lb~s.~ lbs.
58      6
15 1
34 1 242
7 7    14 
5     20
17     24
19      3
2-25:310
339 i5049
114 4736
lbs.
113
50
358
284
39
60
50
~ 927
7582
4
7
221
5
27
304
277
s
605
2777
4583
Difrec infvro  h  aue                          8     27!055   1    246
I
i
i
I
i
I
I
I
I
1.
lb,.
6
8
18
18
3
1 ,
5!
56136
79
6
I
Average crop per,,ere.
6
F.
lbs.
13
24
11
18
6
JR
3
762
90
14
lbs.
8
lbs.
3
2
7
3
1
16
32
15
lbs.
2
1
30
70
1
5
5
114
533
417
14
1'239
275
514
500
11
100
27
127
117
!270
219
105
324
52
79
1843
3002
4845
4767
65
65
83
18
13
53
248
301
287
9
17
14
31
20.5
, Difference in favor of the manure — 
370    INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.
It was at one time asserted, that in order to ensure to a crop of
wheat the necessary quantity of phosphates, its cultivation was preceded by one of roots or tubers, or leguminous plants, which were
supposed to contain a much less proportion of these salts.  By reference, however, to the table of mineral substances, removed from
the soil by different crops, the absurdity of such reasoning becomes
evident. For example, beans and haricots take 20 and 13.7 lbs. of
phosphoric acid from every acre of land; potatoes and beet-root
from the same surface take but 11 and 12.8 lbs. of that acid, exactly
what is found in a crop of wheat. Trefoil is equally rich in phosphates with the sheaves of corn which have gone before it, and this
large dose of phosphoric acid withdrawn from the soil, will nowise
diminish the amount which will enter into the wheat that will by
and by succeed the artificial meadow.   It may be readily understood, that if the ground contains more than the quantity of mineral
substances necessary for the total series of crops in a rotation, it is
a matter of indifference whether the crops draw upon the soil in
any particular order, and these succeed according to rules generally
adopted for quite different reasons.  It suits well, for instance, to
begin a rotation with a drill crop sown in spring, and which, consequeiitly, follows in our system the oats which closed the preceding
rotation; it is a great advantage to be able to collect and cart out
the manure during winter. Besides, the order is quite at the farmer's discretion, and there are places where, from particular reasons,
quite another course is pursued.   One part of the produce returns,
as has been shown, to manure, after having served as fodder for the
animals belonging to the farm.  The inorganic matters are restored
to the earth from which they came, deducting the fraction assimilated ill the bodies of the cattle.  Lastly, the whole of the wheat,
and a certain amount of flesh will be exported, and with these a notable quantity of inorganic matter.  Thus, in the above described
rotation of five years, the minimum exportation of saline substances
which must be removed from every acre of land, may be represented by 27- lbs. of phosphoric acid, and from 36 to 45 lbs. of alkali;
this is just so much lost for the manure, and as there is definitively
found at the end of the rotation a quantity of manure equal and
nearly similar to that disposed of at the commencement, it is essential that the loss of mineral substance be made up from without,
unless it be naturally contained in the soil.
In my first researches on the rotation of crops,* I stated that
wherever there are exportable products, it becomes indispensable to
keep a large proportion of meadow land, quoting, as an extreme
case, the triennial rotation with manured summer-fallow.   It is, in
fact, the meadow which restores to the arable land the principles
which have been carried off. This point, advanced upon analogy,
is amply confirmed by the results of analysis.
I have examined, in reference to this question, the ashes of the
hay of our meadows of Durrenbach, irrigated by the Sauer. The
* Memoir communicated to the Academie des Sciences, in 1838
Fl. 
iNORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.    371
analyses were made with ashes furnished by the crops of 1841 and
1842.
I.
Carbonic........ 9.0
Acids     Phosphoric.... 5.3
Sulphuric......   2.4
Chlorine................. 2.3
Lime................20.4
Magnesia..............o.                  6.0
Potash.................3..             1.7
Soda.................1.2
Silica................ —33.7
Oxide of iron, &c.......... 1.5
Loss................... 2.1
100.0
No. 1 yielded 6.0 per cent. of ash.
No. 2    "   6.2  idem.
In admitting as the average yearly return of our irrigated meadows, 3666 lbs. of hay and after-grass for the acre, it appears that
we obtain, from a corresponding surface of land, 223.6 lbs. of ash,
containing:
Carbonic.............. 16.3
Acids    Phosphoric............ 12.1
Sulphuric............6.0
Chlorine.....................5.7
Lime........................ 39.1
Magnesia..................-.. 16.1
Potash and soda................ 52.0
Silica................-...... 70.4
Oxide of iron, and loss............  4.2
221.9*
In reckoning, as I have done, the lowest annual exportation of
mineral substance from one acre of arable land at 5.5 lbs. of phosphoric acid and 8.2 lbs. of alkali, (potash and soda,) there must, in
order to make up for loss, arrive each year at the farm a quantity
of hay corresponding to about 1800 lbs. for every acre of ploughed
land, which would establish between the arable and meadow land, a
relation somewhat less than 1 to 2.
In practice, the relation in question is sensibly less than that deduced from analysis; in some farms the meadow-land only occupies
a fourth or fifth of the whole surface. When rye replaces wheat,
the extent in meadow-land may be still more limited. It deserves
notice, that I have supposed the arable land as destitute of proper
inorganic matter, and that all came from the manure ashes and lime
laid on, which is not rigorously true. There are soils containing
traces of phosphates, and it is difficult to find clay or marl exempt
from potash. Nevertheless, many clear-headed practical men begin
to suspect that meadow has been too much sacrificed to arable land.
In localities placed in similar conditions to those in which we are,
removed from every source of organic manures, which, as I have
shown in concert with M. Payen, are always furnished with saline
* The sum is only too small here from the number of places of decimals not having
been carried out far enough.-ENG. ED.
II.
5.5
5.3
2.9
2.8
15.4
8.3
27.3
.3
29.2
0.6
0.4
100.0
'll:5
11
11
11
11
11
11
Average
7 3
5.4
2.7
2.6
17.9
7.2
21.7
1.8
31.5
0.9
1.0
100.0
r, 
372    INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MIANURES AND CROPS.
principles, an attempt has been made to imitate what is done in more
favored districts, where it is possible, for example, to add animal
remains to the manure. The corn crops felt this new procedure;
nor could it be otherwise. But now there is a reaction in the opposite sense, and I could name most thriving establishments, where
one-half of the farm is in meadow. The ever-increasing demand
for butcher-meat will further this movement to the great advantage
of the soil. In consequence of our peculiar position at Bechelbronn,
nearly half our land is meadow, which allows of a large exportation
of the produce of the arable land. In applying the results of the
preceding analyses, I find that each year, provided there is no loss
the hay ought to bring at least:
1254 lbs. of phosphoric acid,
627 " sulphuric acid,
602 " chlorine,
4155 " lime,
1672 " magnesia,
5456 " potash and soda,
7312  "  silica.
This large amount of mineral substances is supplied by the meadows, which have no other manure than the water and mud thereby
deposited, after flowing over the Vosges' freestone; they receive
no manure from the farm, but are merely earthed with the sludge
and mire borne down by the stream; these are real sources of saline
impregnation. Meadows without running water ought not to be
ranged in the same category, they only give the principles naturally
contained in them; hence, they must be always manured every
three or four years, and indeed, if not situate upon a naturally rich
soil, are, according to my experience, very far from profitable.
The excess of mineral matters introduced into the ground over
those that issue with the crops, an excess that ought always to be
secured by judicious management, enriches the soil in saline and
alkaline principles, which accumulate in the lapse of years, just as
vegetable remains and azotized organic principles accumulate under a good system of rotation. By this, even in localities the most
disadvantageously situate for the purchase of manure, temporary
recurrence may be had to the introduction of such crops as flax,
rape, &c., which being almost wholly exported, leave little organic
residuum in the earth, and at the same time carry off a considerable
quantity of mineral substance; circumstances which determine, as
may be easily conceived, the maximum of exhaustion, and for that
reason tend to reduce a soil becoming over-rich to what may be
called the standard fertility.
In reviewing the chief points examined it will be seen, that as far
as regards organic matter, the systems of culture which in borrowing most from the atmosphere, leave the most abundant residues in
the land, are those that constitute the most productive rotations.  In
respect to inorganic matter, the rotation, to be advantageous, to have
an enduring success, ought to be so managed that the crops ex 
INORGANIC ELEMIENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.    373
ported should not leave the dung-hill with less than that constant
quantity of mineral substance which it ought to contain. A crop
which abstracts from the ground a notable proportion of one of its
mineral elements, should not be repeatedly introduced in the course
of a rotation, which depends on a given dose of manure, unless by
the effect of time mineral element has been accumulated in the land.
A clover crop takes up, for example, 77 lbs. of alkali per acre. If
the fodder is consumed on the spot, the greater portion of the potash
and soda will return to the manure after passing through the cattle,
and the land eventually recover nearly the whole of the alkali. It
will be quite otherwise if the fodder is taken to market; and it is to
these repeated exportations of the produce of artificial meadows
that the failure of trefoil, now observed in soils which have long
yielded abundantly, is undoubtedly due. Accordingly, a means has
been proposed of restoring to these lands their reproductive power,
by applying alkaline manure.* If under such circumstances carbonate of soda would act as favorably as carbonate of potash or woodashes, the soda salt, in spite of its commercial value, might prove
serviceable, and deserves a trial.
The lime manures naturally promote the growth of plants of
which calcareous salts form a constituent; but here a capital distinction must be made. A soil may contain from 15 to 20 in the 100 of
lime, and still be unable to dispense with calcareous manure; because the lime is in some other state than as it exists in chalk, as
in the rubbish of pyroxene, mica, serpentine, and the like.  A soil
of this kind, although replete with lime, might still require gypsum
for artificial meadow, and chalk for wheat and oats. It is from the
carbonate that plants of rapid growth derive the lime essential to
them, as was established by the researches of Rigaud de Lille, researches which have been censured by agricultural writers to whom
they were unintelligible. I advocate the opinion of Rigaud, because in the Andes of Riobamba I have seen lucern growing in augitic rubbish, very rich in calcareous matter, and yet greatly benelited by limning.
The operation of gypsum is to introduce calcareous matter into
plants.  This I have endeavored to demonstrate from the analysis
of the ash on the one hand, and on the other, from the consideration
that finely divided carbonate of lime, as it exists in wood-ashes, acts
with equal efficacy upon artificial meadows. By what means gypsum, if it does not enter the vegetable as a sulphate, parts with its
sulphuric acid, is at present conjectural.  It appears highly probabt)le that calcareous matter is chiefly beneficial from the particular
action it exercises on the fixed ammoniacal salts of the manure,
transforming these successively, slowly, and as they may be wanted,
into carbonate of ammonia. In the most favorable condition, the
earth is only moist, not soaked with water, but permeable to the air.
New researches will perhaps illustrate the utility of ammoniacal vapors thus developed in a confined atmosphere, where the roots are
* Information communicated by M. Schattenmann
32 
374    INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF MANURES AND CROPS.
in operation. At least, it would be difficult to assign any other office
to chalk in the marling or liming of land intended for corn, when
we know how little lime corn absorbs.  If, indeed, gypsum promotes
the vegetation of trefoil, lucerne, sainfoin, &c., by furnishing the
needful calcareous element, it could not fail to exercise an equally
favorable agency upon wheat and oats, did they require it. The experiments adduced prove it not to be so, and their results are in
sorme measure corroborated by analysis. Thus, if we compare the
different quantities of lime withdrawn from the soil by trefoil and
corn, we find them as follows:
The clover crop takes from 1 acre of ground nearly 70 lbs. of lime.
Wheat            ".. 16   "
Oat              "         "             "          6.4    "
With this comparison before us, it seems evident that if the marling and liming of corn lands had no other object than the introduction of the minute portion of lime which is encountered in the crops,
it would be difficult to justify the enormous expenditure of calcareous carbonate which is proved by daily experience to be advantageous.
It may be inferred from the foregoing, that in the most frequent
case, namely, that of arable lands not sufficiently rich to do without
manure, there can be no continuous cultivation without annexation
of meadow; in a word, one part of the farm must yield crops without consuming manure, so as to replace the alkaline and earthy salts
that are constantly withdrawn by successive harvests from another
part. Lands enriched by rivers alone permit of a total and continued export of their produce without exhaustion.   Such are the fields
fertilized by the inundations of the Nile; and it is difficult to form
an idea of the prodigious quantities of phosphoric acid, magnesia,
and potash, which in a succession of ages have passed out of Egypt
with her incessant exports of corn.
Irrigation is, without doubt, the most economical and efficient
means of increasing the fertility of the soil, out of the abundant forage which it produces, and the resulting manure. Plants take up
and concentrate in their organs the mineral and organic elements
contained in the water, sometimes in proportions so minute as to escape analysis; just as they absorb and condense, in modified forms,
the aeriform principles which constitute but some 10,000th parts in
the composition of the atmosphere.  It is thus that vegetables collect and organize the elements which are dissolved in water, and
disseminated through the earth and tie air, as a preparative to their
being assimilated by animals.
ff 
ORIGIN OF ANIMAL PRINCIPLES.
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE FEEDING OF THE ANIMALS BELONGING TO A FARM;
AND OF THE IMMEDIATE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL ORIGIN.
~ 1. ORIGIN OF ANIMAL PRINCIPLES.
IT is now generally admitted that the food of animals must necessarily contain azote; and this circumstance has led to the inference, that the herbivorous tribes obtain from their food the azote
which enters into the constitution of their bodies.
In a general way, the individual consuming a certain portion of
food every day, nevertheless does not increase in his average
weight. This is what occurs with animals upon the quantity of
food which is known to be sufficient for their keep; and it has been
found that the human subject, living very regularly, returns at a certain hour, or at certain hours of the day, to a certain mean weight.
Grooms, farm servants, &c.. are perfectly well aware of the fact,
that with a certain allowance of hay and corn, a horse will be kept
in the condition necessary to do the work required of him without
either gaining or losing in flesh.
Under such circumstances, the whole of the elementary matter
contained in the food consumed, ought to be found in the dejections,
the excretions, and the products of the act of respiration. And assuming that this is so, it might then be maintained that none of the
elements is assimilated, assimilation being taken in the sense of an
addition of principles introduced with the food to the principles already present in the body. Yet is there unquestionably assimilation, ill the sense that the alimnentary matters of the food become
fixed in the system, having there undergone modification or change
and that they replace, or come instead of other elements of the
same kind, which are daily thrown off by the vital acts of the
economy.
During the nutrition of a young animal, and also in the process
of fattening an adult, things go on differently; here there is unquestionably definitive fixation of a portion of the matter contained in the
food: there is no longer balance between the waste and the supply;
an animal then increases in weight notably and rapidly.
Looking at the question of feeding in the most general way, then,
I admit that an adult animal, upon the daily allowance, voids a
quantity of matter in its various excretions precisely equal to the
quantity which it receives in its food:* all the elements, the same
in nature and in quantity, which are contained in the food, are also
contained in the excrements, vapors, and gases, which pass off from
the living body; carbon and azote, hydrogen and oxygen, phospho
* Boussingault, Annales de Chimie, Se serie, t. lxxxi, p. 113.
375 
ORIGIN OF ANIMIAL PRINCIPLES.
rus. sulphur, and chlorine, calcium, magnesium, sfdium, potassium
and iron, as they are all encountered in the food i) are they all encountered in the body, and also in the excretions ecf an animal; and
it seems certain, that no one of these primary or simple substances
can be wanting in the nutriment without the body very speedily
tfeeling the ill effects of its absence. Iron, for example, is a constant principle in the coloring matter of the blood; it also exists in
large quantity in the hair; and he who should live on food that contained no trace of it would certainly, and before long, become disordered in his health.
In what has just been said, I take it for granted that animals do
not absorb or assimilate any of the azote which forms so large a
constituent in the air they breathe; and I am warranted in this by
the researches of every physiologist of any name or distinction. Not
only do animals obtain no azote firom the atmosphere, but they actually exhale it incessantly, as was proved by M. Despretz in the
course of his numerous experiments, and as I myself also demonstrated in the inquiries I undertook to ascertain whether herbivorous
animals obtained azote from the air or not. The azote exhaled, it
was discovered, proceeded entirely from the food consumed by the
animal; a fact which, already of great importance in a physiological point of view and in reference to general physics, hears at the
same time so immediately upon one of the most important questions
of agriculture, that I think it well to give the particulars of one of
the procedures by which it has been established.
The experiments in this case were performed on a milch-cow
and a full-grown horse, which were placed in stalls so contrived
that the droppings and the urine could be collected without loss.
Before being made the subjects of experiment, the animials were ballasted or fed for a month with the same ration that was furnished to
them during the three days and three nights which they passed in
the experimental stalls. During the month, the weight of the animals did not vary sensibly, a circumstance which happily enables us
to assume that neither did the weight vary during the seventy-two
hours when they were under especial observation.
The cow was foddered with after-math hay and potatoes; the
horse with the same hay and oats. The quantities of forage were
accurately weighed, and their precise degree of moistness and their
composition were determined from average samples. The water
drunk was measured, its saline and earthy constituents having been
previously ascei.ained. The exerementitious matters passed were
of course collected with the greatest care; the excrements, the
urine, and the milk were weighed, and the constitution of the whole
estimated from elementary analyses of average specimens of each,
The results of the two experim( its are given in this table:
376 
ELEMENTS OF FOOD AND OF EXCRETIONS.
FOOD CONSUMED BY THE HORSE IN 24 HOURS.
]\Vrrgbt   ~'tr~r dry  Elementary matter illthe food.
Forage.                       t}l  d r,  Crb o      n Hydroget.] Oxygee.  iAeote.          Slses
I    ~         ~         ~        ~       ~~~~~~~~earths.
d'~.....,I......
to,-    -    -     125l0 ~  ~~l6  5  mt  b  O.  w    b  oat
2~~~~~~~~0  17 7   1  o7  0                                    14
l~ttt,6-    -                           2 2      0  3  18   1 10  14   0  1   7   0  2  10
IVaet,                     43-                                                                   0  0   8
Totti,   -    -    ~~~69 ___   22   6   t10   6    1  2   5   8  7   2  0  4   9   1  9  12
PRODUCTS VOIDED BY THE HORSE IN 24 HOURS.
Weight in W              ei,ght in,
Products.  state.  C an. Hydrogetn.  Oxygen.    At                         tott.
the met  the dry    U  b                              ~~~~~~~~~earths.
lb. so. d,ot.  lb. so. dvrt. lb. so. dwt. lb. s., dwt. lb. to. tlmt. lb. so. d,,. lb. 1. dwt.
Trioc -           3        6  15   0       14   0  3  10   0        7   0  1   2   0  1   4   0  3  10
Excreeentet, 38            2   2   9  5   6   3  7  17   0  5  15 3 6  14   0  2  10   1  6  10
Total,       -    -41  8  17  10  3   0   3 11   7   0  6   2 3 7  16   0 3 14   1 10   0
TotI ttmotler  o      9   0   0  22  6   0  10  6   0   1  2   5   8  7   2   0  4   9   1  9  12
the food,
Differeoce,       -;:73 3 12 3 0   6  6  13 10  8   3   4 11   6   0  0  15   0  0   8
WATER CONSUMED BY THE    WATER VOIDED BY THE HORSE
HORSE IN 24 HOURS.                                         IN 24 HOURS.
lbs. to.
With the hay, —-- -----— 2   1  With the..i.e —2    6
With tise "o:LI-          -           0 14  With the exceements,    -   -          23  8
Taken as drink.   - -  -..    35 3
Total consumed,... H   4  To tal voided, —-------— 25  14
Water cootum,~.ed,    -    -.     38  4
Water exholed by pulmonary and cotaneous troospiration, - ---          ---         12   6
FOOD CONSUMED BY THE COW IN 24 HOURS.
Elementary motter of the food.
Weig'ht in Weight i        n               -       -.
Fodder.           the met    the dry    Carbon.  Hydeoges.  Oxyge.              A,.,,,.
state.  tte.a                                     resths.
lb. so. dwt. lb. oz. dwt. lb. so. dwt.! lb. o7. dwt. lb. so. dwt. lb. so. dwt. lb. so. dwrt.
Potatoes,   -    -   40  2  5  11  2   1   4 11   2   0  7  15   4 10  17   0  1  12   0  6  13
After-moth hay,        20  1  2  16 11   0   7 11  11   0 11   7  15 10  17   0  4  17   1  8   6
WVater,    -          160  0  0                                                                   0  1  12
Total,   -  3                   7 28    1   1  12 10  13   1  7   2 10  9  1               4 0  6   9   2  4  11
PRODUCTS VOIDED BY THE COW IN 24 HOURS.
Elementary maotter in, theproducts.
WVeiht in Weight in,. —-,
Peodocts.          the"wet     the dry    Carbon   Hdg              Oye.         As..t..
stole.      state.                                                 -     e s.....
lb. so. sa. dtl b. s..  d     dt.  lb.  o. dm1.t1I to dart. lb. at. dwt. lb..o. dmt.  lb. oz. dwt.
Excrements, -          76  1  9  10  8  12   4  7   0  0  6  13 4  0   9   0  2  19   1  3   8
Urine,.    -   21 11 12   2  6  17   0  8   7  0  0  16   0  8 3 0  1 3 1  0   6
Milk,    P.,        10 10 3 1   0   1  8 3 0 3 3 0 10   6   0  1   9   0  1  16
Total,      -    -  120 11 11  16  4   9   6 11  10  010  12   5  6  18   0  5  11   2  5  10
t"atter of food, 220  3  7  28  1   1  12 10  13  1  7   2  10  9  14   0  6   9   2.4  11
Diff'erence,      - 99 3 16 ill 8  12  1  11 3 0  8  10   5  2  16   0  0  18   0  0 19
WATER CONSUMED BY THE COW WATER VOIDED BY THE COW IN
IN 24 HOURS.                                           24 HOURS.
tbs. so.                                            lbst. oz.
With the potatoes,                          23 12  With the potatoes,                -           5   10
With the hray,            -----             2    9  Wilth thie srine, —-15  14
Token as drink,                       -   132   0  With tihe milk,                               16   3
Total consumed,          -                 158   5  Total voided,-.-.-.-.                        85  11
Water consumer';,-.-.-..   158   5
Water passed off by pulmonary and cutaneous transpiration,    --— 72  10
I
i
I
I
I
.I
I
ii
377
w 
CO?, 7"ESRTION OF CARBON.
From these sui5s it appears that the azote of the excrements is
less by from 339.6 to 455.0 grains than that of the forage consumed.
It appears also that the whole q, antity of elementary matter contained in the excrements is less than that which had been taken as
food; the difference is of course due to the quantities which were
lost by respiration and the cutaneous exhalation.
The oxygen and hydrogen that are not accounted for in the sum
of the products have not disappeared in the precise proportions requisite to form water; the excess of hydrogen amounts to as many
as from 13 to 15 dwts. It is probable that this hydrogen of the
food became changed into water by combining during respiration
with the oxygen of the air.
The loss of carbon, which is very considerable, seeing that in the
two experiments it amounts to nearly 121 lbs., must have gone to
form the carbonic acid, which is known to be so large and important a constituent in the expired air, and which is also exhaled from
the general surface of the body.  Neglecting the latter, it appears
that each of the animals produced in the course of twenty-four
hours upwards of 13 cubic feet of carbonic acid gas, the thermometer supposed at 32Q F., the barometer at 30 inches.*
During respiration, then, or as a consequence of respiration, the
carbon and hydrogen of the food have disappeared and given rise,
by the concurrence of the oxygen of the air, to carbonic acid and
water, precisely as if they had been burned. And an animal may,
in fact, be regarded as an apparatus or system, in which a slow combustion is incessantly going on; there is perpetual disengagement
of carbonic acid gas and of the vapor of water, just as there is from
a stove in which any organic substance, wood, for example, is burning. In either case there is evolution of heat; all animnals have a
temperature above that of the medium which surrounds them, and
the excess of the elevation is in some sort relative to the activity of
the respiratory process, or, in other words, to the intensity of the
combustion.
Under the influence of the oxygen that is taken into the body, the
soluble principles of the blood pass through a series of modifications,
the last of which is carbonic acid, which is exhaled and dissipated
in the air; and it is in this way that a portion of the carbon of the
food is returned to the atmosphere, after having accomplished the
important function of supplying the animal with the heat that is ne cessary to its existence. Far from deriving any thing from the air,
consequently, animals, on the contrary, are continually pouring car bon into it. The food is, therefore, the only source whence animals
derive the matter that enters into their constitution; and, as the
primary food of animals is obtained from vegetables, herbivorous
creatures must necessarily find in the plants they consume all the
* The large quantity of carbonic acid shows the necessity for large and well-ventilated stables and cow-houses.  A cow, if appears, will vitiate 66 cubic feet of air in
a day. It will be observed in the table that the saline and earthy matters of the
ejecta exceed those of the ingesta in both instances.  This is from error in observa
tion, and is owing to the difficulty of determining exactly the quantities of these sub -
stances.  The error is less in the case of the horse than,in that of the cow.
37Q
r 
IDENTITY OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES.   379
elements they assimilate. It might be expected from this, that the
material constitution of animals should approach, and sometimes even
be identical with that of vegetables; and it is found, in fact, that a
considerable number of ternary or quarternary organic comnpounds,
of either kingdomn, present the greatest analogy to one another; their
identity, in some cases, is even complete.   Some fatty substances
of animal origin do not difler in any way from vegetable fats; the
margaric acid which is obtained from  hog's lard has the precise
characters of the margaric acid which is furnished by olive oil, and
the same identity is preserved through the entire series of quarternary azotized principles, as a glance at the following table, which
contains the results of the analyses performed by Messrs Dumas
and Cahours, will show.
FIBRINE.            ALBUMEN.             CASEINE.
Animal. Vegetable. Animal. Vegetable. Animal Vegetable.
53.5         53.7
7.1          7.1
23.6          23.5
15.8         15.7
53.5        53.5
7.0        7.1
23.7       23.4
15.8 16.0
100.0       100.0 I
These principles, to which must be added gelatine, the fats and
several earthy and alkaline salts, constitute the frame-work of the
animal tissues, or the fluids which penetrate them; it is therefore
necessary for us to examine each of them shortly.
Gelatine is met with in almost all the solid parts, in the bones,
tendons, cartilages, skin, cellular tissue, muscular flesh-all contain
it. It is readily soluble in boiling water; cold water only takes lup
a small quantity of it. Two or three parts of gelatine dissolved in
100 parts of hot water, suffice to turn the fluid into a tremulous jelly
when it has become cold. Tannin, or infusion of gall-niuts, precipitates gelatine completely from its solution, the precipitate being very
bulky and perfectly insoluble in water; and it is this chemical coinmbination or principle which lies at the bottom of the art of tanning.
Gelatine is extensively used in the arts, under the familiar name
of glue. Isinglass consists of gelatine nearly pure, and, according
to Mulder, contains:
Carbon................. 50.8
Hydrogen.-.............. 6.6
Azote................    18.3
Oxygen.....................  24.3
100.0
Fibrine occurs in a state of solution in the blood, and forms the
principal ingredient in muscular flesh. It is readily obtained by
whipping a quantity of blood just taken from the veins of a living
animal; the white stringy mtasses that adhere to the rod are fibrine,
-hich, by gentle kneading under water, become colorless.  Fibrine,
arbon...                                         -
y(irogen....... -
x-aen.... - - -.- -
zote.... -.......
52.8
7.0
!23.7
16.5
53.2
7.0
23.4
16.4
100.0       100.0
100.0      100.0
i, 
ALBUMEN, CASEUM.
when moist, is a highly elastic and flexible substance; dried, it loses
about 30 per cent. of water, and becomes brittle, horny, semi-transparent. Thrown into water, it gradually imbibes all it had lost by
drying, and regains its former properties.  Burned and incinerated,
fibrine leaves a quantity of ash, which consists, for the major part,
of phosphate of lime, with which is mixed a small quantity of phos
phate of magnesia and of oxide of iron.
Albtumien exists in large quantity dissolved in the water or serum
of the blood, and in the white of the egg; it is also found in almost
all the animal fluids that are not excretions, or destined to be thrown
off as useless to the system. Albumen, as familiarly known, has
the remarkable property of coagulating or setting into a soft fluid, at
a certain temperature-158~ F.
Caseum, or caseine, is the distinguishing principle of milk. By
combining with acids it forms an insoluble compound; and it undergoes a remarkable coagulation, as all the world knows, in contact
with a piece of the inner membrane of the stomach of a young animal: from a fluid it sets into a soft solid, which by degrees separates
into two portions-whey and curd. The curd, or caseum, always
contains fat, and, when burned, leaves a considerable quantity of
ash.
Physiologists distinguish three principal tissues in the bodies of
animals; the muscular, the nervous, and the cellular.
The muscular tissue consists of an assemblage of contractile fibres,
here disseminated through the masses of organs, there collected into
bundles and constituting the flesh. This is the instrument by which
animals perform all their voluntary motions, and it is that also by
which all the active but involuntary movements of the body are excited. Muscular flesh is always a compound substance, however; it
consists of fibrine, the contractile or proper element, albumen, fat,
gelatine, an odorous extractive matter, lactic acid, different salts and
the coloring principle of the blood.
Put into cold water, so long as the temperature is below from 130~
to 140~ F., little effect is produced beyond the solution of the soluble
salts which it may contain, and of a portion of its extractive matter
and albumen. At from 175~ to 195~, the albumen which had been
dissolved, coagulates and rises to the top as scum, and the fat melts
and floats on the surface. The fibrinous element of the meat, however, preserves its characters even after the action of boiling water
continued for some time.
The nervous tissue constitutes the brain, spinal marrow, and
nerves, distributed to all parts of the body. Brain in its composition
contains a large quantity of water,-80 per cent.-certain fatty matters, albumen, osmazone, phosphorus in combination with fat, sulphur, and phosphates of potash, lime, and magnesia. The composition
of the brain of animals, the dog, the sheep, the ox, appears to be
very analogous to that of the human subject.
Cellular tissue is the general connecting medium throughout the
animal body, and is not only met with, it may be said, everywhere,
but forms a main element in many of the textures of the body, such
380 
BONES, BLOOD.
as the serous and mucous membranes, the cartilages, the bones
themselves, which are in fact only cellular tissue impregnated with
calcareous salts.  Tendons may be viewed as condensed ropes of
cellular tissue; by long boiling in water they melt entirely into gelatine.
BonTes consist of cellular tissue, as stated, resolvable into gelatine,
and of a large proportion of saline earthy matter, consisting principally of phosphate of lime. The presence of this phosphate is not
extraordinary, inasmuch as we have found that it forms an element
in all the vegetables upon which animals are supported.  By boiling
bones even reduced to powder under the usual pressure of the atmosphere, but a small quantity of their gelatine is obtained; but by putting them into a Papin's digester, and subjecting them to a considerably higher temperature than that of boiling water, we can dissolve
the whole, or nearly the whole of the animal matte, and leave the
earthy parts unchanged; or by proceeding in another way, by soaking
bones for a time in dilute muriatic acid, we can dissolve out the
earthy matter, and leave the bone, having its original form indeed,
but as an elastic, pliant gristle.
The relations between the earthy and organic matter of bone,
vary with the species, but especially with the age of the animal. In
early life the cellular element predominates; in adult age the salts
predominate.  We have three analyses of bone, which I shall here
present:
Man.     Ox.     Ox.
Cartilage susceptible of change into gelatine.....33.3    33.3    50.0
Sub-phosphate of lime.........................53.0    57.4    37.0
Carbonate of lime..........................11.8    3.9    10.0
Phosphate of mnagnesia......................... 1.2  2.0    1.2
Soda, and a trace of common salt.............. 1.2  3.4 "
100.0    100.0    98.3
Hair has a very complex composition, no fewer than nine different
principles or substances having been detected in its constitution;
among the number, mucus, various oily matters, sulphur, and iron;
wool, fur, and horn, are all similar in their composition to hair.
Blood, in all the higher animals, is a sluggish fluid, of a deep red
color; in many of the inferior tribes, however, such as insects, crustaceans, and shell-fish, it is limpid, and generally colorless. Under
the microscope, red blood is seen to consist of two distinct portions,
a serum or whey, in which float a multitude of minute, solid, opaque
corpuscles-the globules of the blood of physiologists, particles which
have different characters in different classes of animals.
Blood is a very heterogeneous compound.   Left to itself, after
being drawn from a vein, it sets or coagulates into a soft gelatinous
solid, which by and by begins to separate into two portions, one
watery, of a yellowish color, and opalescent, the water, whey, or
serum; another solid, of a deep red or reddish brown color, the clot
or coagulum. The watery portion contains a large quantity of albumen in solution. M. Lecanu, in his analysis of the blood, speaks of
as many as twenty-five different substances as entering into its composition:
381
F 
BLOOD, MILT{<
Water...............................................v
Oxygen, azote, free carbonic acid
Iron 
Hydrochlorates of soda, potash, ammonia
Sulphates of potash find of coda                         I
Subearbonate of lime and magnesia 
Pho-phates  f sod, lime, and magnesia 
Lactmte of sod,
A so:p, having soda and fixed fat acids fcr its elements
An odorous, voltile salt, a fat acid
A tatty substance, containing phosphorus
Cholesterine
Seroline
Albuilen dissolved in the water.........................
Globules and fibrine.................................1...
67.8
130.8
1000.0
The blood globules consist principally of albumen combined with
a little fibrineeand red coloring matter. Any difference observed
between one sample of blood and another, is connected especially,
almost exclusively, with the relative proportions of the liquid part or
serum, and the solid part or clot. The solids are in larger proportion in males than females, in grown-up persons than in aged individuals and children, in subjects well and abundantly fed than in
those indifferently supplied with food. No analysis that has yet
been made has thrown any true light on the cause of the difference
of color perceived between arterial and venous blood; nevertheless,
it is positively known that it is by the concurrence of the oxygen of
the atmosphere that the arterial blood in the living body acquires
the characters which distinguish it, and that carbonic acid gas is
evolved or thrown off in the course of the action that takes place.
Ox blood, thoroughly dried, has been found to consist of:
Carbon................ 52.0
Hydrogen.................. 7.2
Azote.....................  15.1
Oxygen.................21.3
Ash............. 4.4
100.0
Milk.  This well-known fluid may be said to combine in itself all
the organic principles and mineral substances which enter into the
constitution of organized beings. Caseum, identical with fibrine and
albumen, fatty matters, sugar of milk, and different salts, among the
number of which the phosphates star-d distinguished.
The caseum, the sugar, and a port on of the salts, are in solution;
the fatty matters are held in susper sion in the milk in the form of
globules.  The following table will b: found useful, as giving a comprehensive survey of the compositior of different kinds of milk.
382 
MILK.
Authors of the
R analyses
12.6 IAverae  of  12 Le Bel andBous      analyses at Be-  singault.
chelbronn.      $
13.4  Av erage of 6 an- Quevenne.
alvses in the en-l
virons of Paris.
13.0       Idem.         Henri  and Chev                     alier.
13.2       Idem.         Lecanu.
12.7  An analysis,
Giessen.        IHaidlen.
9.5  Average of 5 an- P,ligot.
alyses.
10.8 Of good quality.    Haidlen.
7.2  Of middling qual- Haidlen.
ity.
Muik.'                                         neart             analyses'
Of the col.. 3.6 4.0 5.0 i 87.4
Of the cow.. 3.8    3.5 6.1 86.6
Of the cow.    4.5    3.1   5.4   87.0
Of the cow..   5.6    3.6    4.0   86.8
Of the cow..   5.1    3.0    4.6   87.3
Of the ass...   1.7    1.4    6.4   90.5
Of woman...   3.1    3.4    4.3   89.2
Of woman...   2.7    1.3    3.2   92.8
Cow's milk always shows slight alkaline reaction; its density is
about 1.03. According to M. Haidlen, it contains no salt formed
by an organic acid, no lactates, and the alkali is in combination with
caseum, the solution of which it assists. It nmay contain about a
half per cent. of ash, the several constituents of which appear to be
very stable, though their proportions vary greatly. In 100 parts
of milk, taken from two different cows, Haidlen found the following
salts:
Phosphate of lime.............2                0.231
Phosphate of magnesia.........0.04 2
Phosphate of iron................0.00             7
Chloride of potassium............0.144
Chloride of sodium..............0.024
Soda........................0.042             0
0.490
-
As cow's milk is that which is by far the most directly interesting
to agriculture, I shall enter somewhat particularly into its history;
having, however, already spoken of caseum, its distinguishing constituent, and albumen, I shall here confine myself to the subject of
the sugar and the oil or butter.
Sugar of milk is prepared for commercial purposes, in countries
or districts where cheese-making is carried on to a great extent,
and the quantity of whey at command is very large. In some Cantonls of Switzerland, sugar of milk is obtained by simply evaporating
whey properly clarified, to the consistence of sirup, which deposites
the sugar in the crystalline form as it cools. This first produce is
brown, and contaminated with various impurities, from which it is
freed by repeated solutions and crystallizations. It then becomes
colorless, transparent, and nearly tasteless, feeling gritty between
the teeth, and having only an obscure sweet taste. It requires from
8 to 9 parts of cold water to dissolve it; in hot water it is more
soluble. According to Proust, it consists of:
383
0.344
0.064
0.007
0.183
0.034
0.045
0.677 
384
Carbon......................40.0
Hydrogen.....             6.7
Oxygen.................-......-53.3
100.0
Buttter. To understand the preparation of butter thoroughly, it
is absolutely necessary to know the physical constitution of the
milk from which it is obtained.  Now the microscope shows us that
milk holds in suspension an infinity of globules of different dimensions, which, by reason of their less specific gravity, tend to rise to
the surface of the liquid in which they float, where they collect,
and by and by form a film or layer of a different character from the
fluid beneath; the superficial layer is the cream, and this removed,
the subjacent liquid constitutes the skim-milk.  This separation appears to take place most completely in a cool temperature from 54~
to 60~ F.
Allowed to stand for a time, which varies with the temperature,
milk becomes sour, and by and by separates into three strata or
parts: cream, whey, and curd, or coagulated caseum. By suffering
the milk to become acid before removing the cream, it has been
thought that a larger quantity of this, the most valuable constituent
of the milk, was obtained; and the fact is probably so; but in districts where the subject of the dairy has been most carefully studied, it has been found that it is better to cream before the appearance
of any signs of acidity have appeared.  When a knife can be pushed through the cream, and withdrawn without any milk appearing,
the cream ought to be removed.*
Butter is obtained from cream by churning, as all the world
knows; by the agitation, the fatty particles cohere and separate from
the watery portion, at first in smaller and then in larger masses.
The remaining fluid is buttermilk, a fluid slightly acid, and of a very
agreeable flavor, containing the larger portion of the caseous element
of the cream coagulated, and also a certain portion of the fatty
principle which has not been separated.
The globules of milk appear, from the latest microscopical observations,t to be formed essentially of fatty matter, surrounded with
a delicate, elastic, transparent pellicle. In the course of the agitation or trituration of churning, these delicate pellicles give way, and
then the globules of oil or fatty matter are left free to cohere, which
they were prevented from doing previously, by the interposition of
the delicate film or covering of the several globules. Were the
butter simply suspended in the state of emulsion in the milk, we
should certainly expect that it would separate on the application of
heat; but this it does not: cream or milk may be brought to the
boiling point, and even boiled for some time, without a particle of
oil appearing. Could M. Romanet show any of these pellicles,
apart from the oil-globules they enclose, it would be very satisfacto ry, and would certainly enable us to explain the effect of churning.
Churning is a longer or shorter process, according to a variety of
* Thaer, Principes, &c., t. iv. p. 341.
t M. Romanet, MSS.
MILK. 
MILK.
circumstances; it succeeds best between 55~ and 60~ F. So that,
in summer, a cool place, and in winter a warm place, is chosen for
the operation. There is no absorption of oxygen during the process
of churning, as was once supposed; the operation succeeds performed in vacuo, and with the churn filled with carbonic acid or hydrogen gas.
On being taken out of the churn, the butter is kneaded and pressed, and even washed under fair water, to free it as much as possible
from the buttermilk and curd which it always contains, and to the
presence of which must be ascribed the speedy alteration which
butter undergoes in warm weather. To preserve fresh butter it is
absolutely necessary to melt it, in order to get rid of all moisture,
and at the same time to separate the caseous portion. This is the
process employed to keep fresh butter in all the warmer countries
of the world.  In some districts of the continent, it is also had recourse to with the same view. The butter is thrown into a clean
cast-iron pot, and fire is applied. By and bythe melted mass enters
into violent ebullition, which is owing to the disengagement of watery vapor; it is stirred continually to favor the escape of the steam,
and the fire is moderated. When all ebullition has ceased, the fire
is withdrawn, and the melted butter is run upon a strainer, by which
all the curd is retained. M. Clouet has proposed to clarify butter
by melting it at a temperature between 120~ and 140~ F., and keeping it so long melted as to dissipate the water and secure the deposition of the cheesy matter, after which the clear melted butter
would be decanted. I doubt whether by this means the water could
be sufficiently got rid of, a very important condition in connection
with the keeping of butter, though certainly all the caseum would
be deposited.
The moisture and curd contained in fresh butter may amount together to about 18 per cent.; at least we find that we lose about 18
lbs. upon every 100 lbs. weight of butter which we melt at Bechelbronn.
The information which we have on the produce in butter and
cheese, from different samples of milk, is very discordant, so that
I prefer giving the results of a single experiment made under my
own eyes. From 100 lbs. weight of milk, we obtained:
Cream......................15.60 lbs.
White curd cheese............. 8.93
Whey........................75.47"
100.O0
The 15.60 lbs. of cream yielded by churning:
3.3 lbs. butter, or 21.2 per cent., and
12.27 "buttermilk.
The  reckoning with  reference  to 100 lbs. of milk  consequently
stands thus:
Cheese..................8.93
Butter....................... 3.33
Buttermilk................... 12.27
Whey.......................... 75.47
100.0
33
385
W 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
Taking the whole of the milk 9otained and treated at different
seasons of the year, I find that 36,000 lbs. of milk yielded 1080 lbs.
of fresh butter, which is at the rate of 3 per cent. From the statement of M. Baude, it appears that near Geneva a proportion of
butter so high as 3 per cent. is never obtained, probably because
there a larger proportion of fatty matter is left in the cheese. In
the dairy of Cartigny, 2200 gallons of milk gave:
Butter.................................... 363 lbs. or about 1.6 per cent
Gruyere cheese.......................... 1515    "      6.9  "
Clot from the whey, obtained by boiling........ -  1140   "  5.2  "
In the same neighborhood, another dairy, that of Lullin, gave from
the same quantity of milk:
Butter-........... -  418 lbs. or 1.9 per cent.
Cheese....- -........ 1485  67.5  "
Clot from whey...... —   968  4.4  " *
OF THE FOOD OF ANIMALS AND FEEDING.
The identity, in point of composition and properties, which appears to obtain between certain substances derived from either kingdom of nature, naturally led to the conclusion that animals do not
form or originate the substances which enter into their organization,
but that they find these ready formed in their food, and merely appropriate them; whence we must conclude, that herbivorous animals
assimilate several of the proximate principles of plants immediately,
causing them to undergo but slight modifications, and that the elements of the animal tissues and fluids pre-exist in vegetables, which
further contain the earthy phosphate that forms the distinguishing
characteristic in bone.t
The food of herbivorous animals must, therefore, always contain,
and in fact always contains, four essential principles, which, by their
combination or reunion, constitute nutritious matter, properly so
called:-1st. An azotized matter, such as albumen, caseine, gluten,
substances which are probably the original of flesh. 2d. An oily or
fatty matter, which approaches more or less closely to fatty bodies
in general. 3d. A substance having a ternary composition, sugar,
gum, fecula. 4th. Certain salts, particularly phosphates of lime,
magnesia, and iron. This mixed constitution, which a forage plant
must needs offer, justifies the general ideas propounded by Dr. Prout
on nutrition. This able chemist has said that milk was to be viewed
as the standard food, and that all alimentary matters must resemble
it in composition, in greater or less degree: that is to say, besides
phosphates, food must contain an azotized principle, a non-azotized
principle, and a fatty body, to stand in lieu of caseum, sugar, and
butter.
The fundamental principle that animals find the several substances
which make up their bodies, ready formed in the substances they
* In all the dairy counties of England, the milk is never required, like the ground, to
give a double crop; it yields either butter or cheese, not both. Hence the greater richness of English cheese in general.-ENaS. ED.
t Dumas and Boussingault.  The Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organic
Nature, post Svo. London. Bailliere, 1843.  (A very usefuil little w  rk.-ENG. ED.] 
386 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
consume, seems very well calculated to assist the practical farmer
in managing the food of the animals upon his land; for if flesh, fat,
and bone exist all but ready formed in the food, it is obvious that
the best kind will be that precisely which, under the same weight,
contains the largest quantity of the various matters of the organization.
It is by no means easy to ascertain precisely the amount of the
azotized constituents, gluten, and albumen, contained in plants; to
do so requires both time and pains. But let it be once admitted that
the nutritive properties of forage increase in the precise ratio of
these matters, this is clearly as much as to say that the value is in
proportion to the quantity of azote contained in the food, and that it
becomes a matter of the highest moment to have at hand a ready
mode of determining the point.  I believe it infinitely better to get
at the quantity of azote immediately, which is easily done, than by
any roundabout and laborious process to ascertain the amount of
albumen and gluten: the quantity of azote ascertained, it is most
easy to deduce the quantity of albumen and gluten-in other words,
of flesh-contained in each particular species of food examined; for,
as a general rule, vegetable food does not contain any other azotized
principle.  It is true, indeed, that all the azotized principles of vegetable origin cannot be considered as nutritious; some of them, on
the contrary, are virulent poisons or active medicines, according to
the dose in which they are administered. But these poisonous substances are not met with in appreciable quantity in the plants which
are commonly grown for the food either of man or beast. Still, all
the truly nutritious articles of food contain an azotized principle.
The experiments of M. Magendie have shown, that substances which
contain no azote, such as sugar, starch, oil, will not support life;
and, on the other hand, it is ascertained that the quality of alimentary
matter, flour for example, increases with the amount of gluten which
it contains.  It is because the seeds of the leguminous vegetables
are richer in azotized principles-that is, in flesh-that they are also
more highly nutritious than the seeds of the cereals.
These several considerations, therefore, induce me to conclude,
that the nutritious principles of plants and their products reside in
their azotized principles, and consequently that their nutritious pow ers are in proportion to the quantity of azote they contain.  From
what precedes, however, it is obvious that I am far from regarding
azotized principles alone as sufficient for the nutrition of animals;
but it is a fact, that every highly azotized vegetable nutritive sub stance is generally accompanied by the other organic and inorganic
substances which concur in nutrition.
In seeking to learn the precise quantity of azote contained in a
great number of articles used as food for cattle, I have had it in
view particularly to find a standard or fixed point for estimating their
comparative nutritive properties. It is long since more than one of
the most distinguished farmers, both of England and Germany,
essayed to resolve this important problem in rural economy. Thus
Thaer and many others have given tables of the quantities by weight
387 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
in which one article of alimentation might be substituted for another
These tables are in Duct tables of equivalents with reference to food.
But it is unfortunate that there should be considerable diversity of,
statement among th ir authors. Yet, even up to the present time,
it could not well have been otherwise, and these discrepancies will
only surprise those who are unacquainted with the difficulties of the
subject.   One grand cause of difference probably exists in the degree of dryness of the article subjected to experiment. The nature
of the soil, a very dry or very rainy season, the climate, &c., must
all be regarded as so many causes influencing the quantity of water
contained ini plants, and in consequence their actual nutritive qualities. The only sure mode of proceeding, in short, appears to be, to
reduce the several articles to a state of complete dryness, and to
make their quantity in this condition the first element in the reckoning.
I may state, that the theoretical data obtained by proceeding in this
way have already been approved by practical applications.
Hay may be assumed as the most common or universally used of
all kinds of fodder: it is in some sort the staple food of the animals
that are particularly attached to an agricultural concern, and may
therefore be appropriately made the standard of comparison for all
other kinds of food or forage.   Hay itself, however, varies greatly
in point of quality: in assuming it as the standard, I have therefore
to state, that meadow hay of good quality is to be understood. The
analyses which I have made of this article at different times, satisfy
me that in the state in which it is commonly used, it contains from
1.0 to 1.5 of azote per cent. In choosing a specimen for analysis,
it is, of course, highly necessary that it be an average specimen
that it consist of equal or rather relative proportions of the several
elements which enter into its constitution, such as stalks, leaves,
flowers, and seeds.   Taking a sample of hay, for instance, weighing
exactly 5 lbs. avoird., I found that it was made up of      Hard woody steims. —-         --...........* —.2.393 lbs.
Bottoms of leaves and very fine stenis.....................0.847
Flowers, leaves, and a few seeds............1.760
5.000
The ultimate analysis of which gave:
Of azote per cent...........................................1.19
Military contract hay of 1840 gave of azote per cent.....................1.21
Hay  made  in Alsace  in  1835  "    "...................1.04
Hay made in Alsace in 1837   "       "                      1.15
Average of azote per 100......1.15
Hay, as it is generally used, contains from 11 to 12 per cent. of
water, which is got rid of by thorough drying. And as albumen,
caseum, and vegetable gluten contain 16 per cent. of azote, we
perceive that the azotized matter which is the representative of
flesh, in hay may be represented by the number 7.2 per cent. Hay
does not, indeed, always contain so much azote; that which is won
from marshy lands (entains much less; and again there are samples
that contain more. After-math, or second-crop hay, is certainly_
more nutritious than first-crop hay, a fact which we have ascertained
388 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
epeatedly at Bechelbronn; but this hay is nevertheless held less
:uitable for horses, probably because, being made late in the season,
L is commonly stacked more or less damp, and suffers change in
Consequence:
After-math hay gave............................ 2.0  per cent. of azote
A choice sample of the best hay................ 1.29    "
The flowser or ear, containing little woody stem....2.1 
These examples suffice to show, that when an animal is to be put
pon another kind of food than hay, it is very necessary to take the
uality of the latter article, which has been employed, into the acount.  In the table which I shall immediately present, I have asumed good meadow-hay, containing 1.15 of azote and 11 of water
er cent. for my standard..'I'he importance of a table of equivalents
or forage has long been felt by farmers; and they who have given
heir attention to the accumulation of data for its construction, de*rve our best thanks. The use of a table of equivalents is extremey simple: the numbers placed underneath the value of hay inicate the weights of the several kinds of forage named in the first
olumn, which may respectively be substituted for 100 parts of hay
y weight.   Thus, according to Block, 366 lbs. of carrots may be
*ibstituted for 100 lbs. of meadow-hay. Pabst holds 60 lbs. of oats
) be equivalent to 100 lbs. of hay. If the question be to replace
.26 or 74- lbs. of oats in the ration of a horse by Jerusalem artihokes, we find in the table that 60 of oats are equivalent to 274
erusalem potatoes, and we therefore infer that 35.2, say 354- lbs.
the weight of the root to be substituted for that of the oats.
Certain information on the nutritive value of the various articles
onsumed by cattle as food, is really of high importance in rural
conomy; it is obviously the only guide fior the feeder in the use or
archase of forage.   Let us suppose, for example, that a measure of
3tatoes (22 gallons) weighing 165 lbs. is worth 10d. at market,
nd that hay is worth 2s. 6d. the cwt.; 2 cwts. or rather 220 lbs.
ould cost 5s.  Let us now admit, on theoretical grounds, that this
aantity of hay is equivalent to 693 lbs. of potatoes; it plainly ap:ars, on looking at the cost of these equivalents, that there would
a positive advantage in using potatoes, inasmuch as they are
orth no more than 3s. 6.1-d. Thlere would indeed be money to be
lade by selling hay, and purchasing its equivalent in potatoes.
The equivalents which I have deduced from my elementary anases, agree on many occasions with the conclusions of practical
.en; in others, they differ notably from them; at the same time it
.ust be observed, that the practical equivalents differ from one
nother in at least an equal degree. TWe see, for instance, that
chnee and Thaer think 220 lbs. of hay will be replaced by 1465
-s. of wheat straw, while Flottow gives 429 lbs. as the equivalent
lmber. According to Mayer, 630 lbs. of turnip are equivalent to
20 lbs. of hay, while Middleton gives 1760 as the equivalent numar of turnips, a number which coincides remarkably with that infer:d from theory. Block assigns 66 as the equivalent number of
was.  Thaer makes it more than twice as high, viz. 145.   Mangel
33*
389 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
wurzel, according to Thaer, is represented by 1012; while Mayer
and Pabst call it but 550,  id M. de Dombasle states it a little higher, viz. 574. However highly we estimate the difficulties of coming to accurate conclusions on the subject of alimentation or feeding,
it is not easy to account for such discrepancies among practical
men; and then, as to the astonishing similarity which their conclusions bear to one another upon many heads, it is impossible to overlook the fact, that the resemblance is far more in appearance than
in fact; for it is notorious, that the generality of those who have
committed themselves to writing have generally copied each other.
Indeed, it is not always very obvious whether the equivalent number
which we find assumed, has been determined by the farmer from his
own observation or experience, or has been adopted from some other
observer. No one who is not a total stranger to the art of making
experiments will ever be brought to believe that eleven experimenters, operating separately, could have fallen plump upon the number
90 as the equivalent for lucern, or even that any five of them could
have lighted upon 600, neither more nor less, as the equivalent numher for cabbage!
The method which I have myself pursued, that namely of inferring the nutritious quality from the contents in azote, is far from
being free from objection; on the whole, it may be said to place the
equivalents somewhat too low, inasmuch as by the process of elementary analysis, the quantity of azote is apt to come out a little too
high, some portion of it being derived from the nitrates present in
vegetables, which are certainly of no avail in nutrition. This is the
source to which I ascribe the anomaly presented by the leaves of
mangel-wurzel. And, then, it is not to be forgotten that in dosing
the azote we have regard but to the flesh contained in the article of
food, which although unquestionably the principle that is of highest
value, and the one which is apt to be most deficient, is still not all.
The neutral non-azotized substances, starch, sugar, gum, oil, are indispensable as auxiliaries in the alimentation of cattle; the three
first undergo changes in the course of the digestive process which
fit them to be absorbed immediately, and the oil is brought to the
state of an emulsion, and so is taken up and adds to the fat. The
woody fibre alone of vegetables appears to have no direct share in
the nutrition of animals; it is discovered almost or altogether un changed in the dejections.
It is therefore every thing but matter of indifference whether a par ticular article of forage contains a larger or a smaller proportion of
starch, sugar, &c., associated with a given quantity of azotized or
truly animalized matter. The potato and meadow-hay brought to
the same state of dryness, contain as nearly as possible the same
proportions of azote-from 1.3 to 1.5 per cent.; in other words, about
82' per cent. of albumen and gluten, i. e., of flesh. But in the pota to, almost the whole of the 91-1 pcr cent. of the remainder consists
of starch; while in hay it is woody fibre, inert matter as we must
presume it, that is present in by far the largest proportion. And
this explains the higher value of the same weight of dry potato as
390 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
an article of sustenance. To give our theoretical equivalents all
the precision that is really desirable, it would be necessary to as certain the quantity of organic matter which escaped digestion with
reference to each particular species of food. This is an inquiry
which it is my purpose to enter upon by and by. The labor com pleted, we should then be in possession of tables in regard to the
proportion of the non-azotized as well as the azotized principles;
and further, to the quantity of inert matter which it would be proper
to deduct from the weight of the ration allowed in each case.
To have determined the azote in an article of food, then, is not
to have done all that is strictly necessary: still azote is the scarce
element in all kinds of vegetable food; starch, gum, sugar, pectine,
oil, are universally present, and generally in adequate quantity. As
articles, as unlike one another as possible, I have mentioned potatoes and meadow hay. Now the theory indicates 300 of the root for
100 of the dried grass; and I can state positively, from long and repeated observation, that it is not advisable in practice to substitute
less than 280 of potatoes for 100 of meadow-hay.
The state of dryness of certain kinds of forage may have a marked influence on their nutritious qualities. They may even decline
in nutritive value by the process of drying, so that analysis of itself
may lead us into error in regard to the nutritive value of dry articles
of food. Breeders have in fact long suspected that green fodder is
more nutritious than dry fodder; that grass, clover, &c., lose nutritious matter by being made into hay. That the thing is so in fact,
appears to have been demonstrated by a skilful agriculturist, well
acquainted with the art of experimenting,* who found that 9 lbs. of
green lucern were quite equal in foddering sheep to 3T3o lbs. of the
same forage made into hay, while he at the same time ascertained
that 9 lbs. of green lucern would not on an average yield more than
2.02 lbs. of hay.  In allowing each sheep 3T3 lbs. of lucern hay as
its ration, consequently, it was as if the animal had had 14.34 or
more than 14} lbs. of the green vegetable for its allowance.
These practical facts are obviously of great importance; they
prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the belief of agriculturists in
general as to the immense advantages of consuming clover and lucern as green meat is well founded.   Nor is this all; it is not merely the absolutely greater feeding value of the crop green than of the
crop dried and made into hay; there is further, the saving of expense in making the hay, and still further, the escape of all risk from
loss through bad weather during the process, by which that which
was valuable fodder but a few days before, may become fit only for
the dung-hill. Still, because 100 of green clover or lucern represent 23 of the same articles dried, it does not follow that the feeding
properties of the fodder in each of the two states can be truly represented by the ratios of these numbers to one another. Messrs.
Perrault find from their experiments that the true relation is 8 to 3.
By assuming 71.5 lbs. as the quantity of dry forage obtained from
* M. Perrault de Jotemps, in Journ. d'Agricult. v. iii. p. 97.
391 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
220 lbs. of greua clover or lucern, the quantity which is actually
obtained on an average, the ratio comes out 8 to 2.6, a number which
falls somewhat short of that which is assumed, but not much. With
regard to the difference in the feeding or nutritive value of green
and dried fodder, the loss may in a general way be ascribed to loss
of the more substantial parts of the plants especially experienced in
the process of drying. This is the conclusion, at all events, to which
M. Crud came; I have myself, however, found that clover-hay,
made in the field and ricked in the usual way, had not the same
nutritive value as a quantity of the same crop carefully dried in the
laboratory.
By way of pendant to the conclusions of Messrs. Perrault, from
their valuable observations, I shall here add the average of some
experiments that were made at Bechelbronn, in 1841, on the conversion of clover into clover-hay. The clover crops of this season
were magnificent; the plant in its second year growing to more than
a yard in height. Green clover on the average may be considered
as consisting of:
Clover-hay..................29.85
Water.................... 70.15
100.00
As extremes in our experiments of 1841, we add:
Clover-hay.........35.7
Water..... -.. -.. -....64.3
100.0
Analysis gave the number 75 as the nutritive equivalent number
of clover-hay. Assuming 76 to represent the moisture lost during
the drying, the equivalent becomes 311 for the same fodder in the
green state, meadow-hay, the standard, being 100.
But practice is not here in harmony with theory; the value of
clover-hay, in point of nutritive power, is found not to differ essentially from that of meadow-hay; and the equivalent of green clover
is generally placed between 425 and 500. And I may say, that
daily experience in the stable tends to show that the theoretical
equivalent of clover-hay is too high, that its nutritious properties are
not so great as they are inferred to be. From a mean of four
weighings, I find that four cows upon green clover consume 2499
lbs., or 624} lbs. each per diem. The usual allowance to one of
our cows, however, is 33 lbs. of hay of good quality; from which
it would follow, that the equivalent of green clover would be 445.
But the animals on the green fodder fattened apace, and every thing
showed that they were very differently nourished than they would
have been with their 33 lbs. of meadow-hay. According to theoretical data, each cow in its 6241 lbs. of green food per day received
an equivalent of 47.3 lbs. of hay; and if it be considered, that during
the season of green forage they have it almost at will, it must be
conceded that during this period the quantity of food consumed ix
actually greater than when it is regularly doled out. Additional ex
392
e5.0
76.0
100.0 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
periments are therefore necessary to decide the question as to
whether forage eaten green is really more nutritious than the same
forage consumed when converted into hay. For my own part, I
should not be surprised, from what I have seen, were it found that
dry fodder, previously moistened and carefully portioned out, was
actually more nourishing than the same food would have been had
it been eaten green.  Green forage, of a very soft or watery nature,
is notoriously possessed of purgative properties, which must lessen
its value as food; but my observation leads me to say, on the other
hand, that animals kept upon dry fodder require more care with regard to watering than is generally bestowed upon them. The absolute necessity of a sufficient degree of moistness in the food, in order
to secure its due and easy digestion, greatly countenances the practice Nlwhich is beginning to be introduced in some places of steeping
hay for some time in water before giving it to cattle. This necessity further explains the great advantages in associating with dried
fodder other very watery articles, such as roots and tubers, turnips
and field-beet, potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.
The oleaginous seeds contain a considerable proportion of animalized matter, similar in composition and qualities to the caseum of
milk; and the cake which comes from the oil-mill retains almost
the whole of this substance.  The proportion of from 0.05 to 0.06
of azote, indicates nearly 42 per cent. of the representative of flesh
in oil-cake.  Theory, in fact, rates the nutritious power of this substance so high, that 100 of hay may be replaced by from 22 to 27
of cake.
The almost universal use of oil-cake in the feeding and fattening
of cattle, is of itself sufficient evidence of its highly nutritive qualities. It has even been found possible to keep sheep and oxen upon
this food almost exclusively. M. Bouscaren finding considerable
difficulty in getting rid of his oil-cake, thought of associating with
his oil-mill an establishment for feeding cattle; and he found that
oxen put up to fatten throve perfectly upon a mixture of the refuse
of the wine-press and oil-cake. Cows, upon a diet of this kind, give
on an average 123' pints of milk per diem. The allowance per head
is about 15 lbs. of oil-cake in three meals, given each time imuleciately after the animals have been watered, and in the interval,
each is allowed about 12 lbs. of straw or chaff.  The cake broken
in pieces is steeped in water, and worked up into a paste of the
consistency of dough.   If the animals show  any disinclination to
this food at first, they are brought to like it by having a ball of it,
the size of the fist, administered to them two or three timnes.
Supposing that the cows fed in this way would be adequately
maintained upon 33 lbs. of hay, and that 13 lbs. of straw are equivalent to 3 lbs. of hay, it appears that in the allowance given, 15 lbs.
of oil-cake will supply the place of 30 lbs. of hay; the equivalent
of the cake, therefore, is 51.5, a number very different from the 22
deduced from analysis   The equivalents of those who have  sought
to appreciate the alimentary value of oil-cake are, however, sufficiently at variance with one another.   It will be seen in the table,
393 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
that the numbers assigned by different authorities are 42, 57, and
108; and M. Perrault, rom direct experiment, found the equivalent
number of colza-cake t, be 36, analysis giving 23 as the theoretical
number. On the whole it may be said, that in practice, the results,
although sufficiently different, still agree in ascribing to oil-cake a
nutritive value inferior to that indicated by theory.
I have thought it important to insist upon the discrepancy which
is here so conspicuous between the inferences from chemical analysis and those arrived at by experience, because it appears to me to
depend upon a particular circumstance which frequently intervenes
in the feeding of cattle, and which it is very important to be aware
of: I allude to the influence of the bulk of the allowance of food.
Vegetable food of every description has nearly the same specific
gravity; it is but little above that of water; the bulk of the allowance therefore depends upon its weight. Every one will conceive
that a ration of highly nutritious food, which for this reason would
occupy but little space, would be open to many objections.   A carthorse. of the ordinary size, from what I have myself repeatedly
observed, requires fiom 26 to 33 lbs. of solid food, and about the
same quantity of water in the twenty-four hours. The bulk of this
allowance, when masticated and brought to the state in which it is
swallowed, will be upwards of 9-L cubic feet. Now, if for the ordi- 
nary forage, one that is five times more nutritious were substituted,
oil-cake, for example, the dry ration, according to the rule of equivalents, would be reduced to 6.6, or a little more than 4' lbs., and its
bulk would not surpass 54 cubic feet. The animal would not feel
satisfied with this allowance, it would still feel hungry, or the food
given in such a concentrated shape would disagree with it. If, on
the contrary, a forage that is very little nutritious were substituted,
such as wheat-straw, the equivalent of which is 500, the ration
would then become too bulky to be eaten in the course of a day, it
would amount to as many as 165 lbs. It is therefore absolutely necessary to take into consideration the bulk of the food allowed: the
belly must of necessity be filled; whatever the nutritive value of
any article, it must be given in a certain quantity; and in the case
of such a substance as oil-cake, the consumption to fill the stomach
would cease to be in any kind of proportion to the nutritive equivalent.
It is extremely difficult to appreciate the precise limits beyond
which an article of forage or a given ration ceases to be nutritious.
Wrhen any addition is made to an allowance known and admitted to
be sufficient, the effect of the extra quantity is scarcely perceptible;
so that, in practice, we are apt to fall into the error of estimating at
too low a rate the nutritious powers of food given in too large quantities. I have had proof of this in a series of experiments on the
maintenance of a number of milch-kine. To a cow which was
receiving the equivalent of 33 lbs. of meadow-hay in dry fodder and
Jerusalem potatoes, an addition was made of 6- lbs. of oil-cake, by
which the allowance of nourishment was doubled theoretically; the
animal only ate the half of the cake, however: still, the quality of
394 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
the milk was not improved. Experience here would compel us to
set down the 34- lbs. of cake consumed as nil; yet it is positively
ascertained that the article is one of the most substantial known.
The hard and husky grain which is given to cattle frequently
escapes digestion, because it has escaped the teeth-a circumstance
which leads to the formation of an estimate of its nutritious qualities inferior to those it actually possesses. To prevent this loss,
oats are now often bruised, as are beans and peas also; or they are
mixed with chopped hay or straw, which the animals are compelled
to chew thoroughly before they can swallow it; or the corn is
steamed or steeped in boiling water before it is put into the manger.
Some experiments that were instituted by order of the French veterinary commission, however, seemed to show, that the loss of corn
from passing through the stomach and bowels unchanged was really
so trifling, that it might be safely left out of the account.
Tubers and roots are invaluable fodder for horned cattle, and in
the cburse of the winter, come instead of hay to a considerable
extent. Our experience at Bechelbronn also enables us to say, that
horses are readily brought to a regimen of the same description,
which, judiciously instituted, becomes the means of great economy
in the maintenance of these animals.
Roots, turnips, and mangel-wurzel, are frequently thrown down
whole before the animals. It is vastly better; nay, it is so much
better that it ought to be made an invariable rule never to give them
save cut into slices and mixed with cut straw or chaff. There is
always a great advantage in combining any very soft and watery
article of food with one that is dry and hard, to say nothing of the
chaff absorbing and rendering useful the juices that would escape
and be lost.
Mangel-wurzel, turnips, carrots, and Jerusalem potatoes, are
always given raw. The potato is frequently steamed or boiled first;
yet I can say positively that horned cattle do extremely well upon
raw potatoes; and at Bechelbronn, our cows never have them otherwise than raw: they are never boiled, save for horses and hogs.
The best mode of dealing with them is to steam them; they need
never be thoroughly boiled as when they are to serve for the food
of man. The steamed or boiled potatoes are crushed between two
rollers, or simply broken with a wooden spade or dolly, and mixed
with cut hay or straw or chaff before being served out. It may not
he unnecessary to observe, that by steaming, potatoes lose no weight;
whence we conclude that the nutritive equivalent for the boiled is
the same as that for the raw tuber. Nevertheless, it is possible that
the amylaceous principle is rendered more readily assimilable by
boiling, and that by this means the tubers actually become more
nutritious. Some have proposed to roast potatoes in the oven; and
there can be little question but that, treated in this way, they answer
admirably for fattening hogs or even oxen. Done in the oven, potatoes may be brought into a state in which they may perfectly supply
the place of corn in the foddering of horses and other cattle.
There is but the expense of the firing to be taken into the account.
395 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
The only mode of ascertaining the favorable or unfavorable influence of any particular system of diet or regimen upon animals, is
by weighing them. In regard to full-grown animals performing
regular work, such as cart a.;d plough horses, and to milch-kine, the
allowance ought to be such as will maintain them at the same or
nearly the same weight. Any thing like stinting is immediately
followed by loss of flesh and of weight, of strength and spirit, in the
animal. The allowance being continued the same, similar effects
will follow any increase of work, any exaction of unusual effort on
the part of the animal. An essential condition, therefore, in all
experiments on the due dieting or feeding of animals, is, that they be
performed under precisely similar conditions of labor. Young animals receiving a sufficiency of wholesome food, increase from day
to day by a quantity which we shall have occasion immediately to
mention; and all changes of regimen are followed at once by notable
variations in the ratio of the growth; if the new regimen be less
nutritious than that which went before it, the balance immediately
proclaims the fact.
Cattle put up to fatten are always supplied with a superfluity of
fodder; the excess may be regarded as an addition to the quantity
requisite to maintain them in health and strength. The increase in
the weight of an animal is often so great within a given time, as to
be very appreciable by weighings made even at very close intervals;
the balance also shows us that the rate of increase varies at different
periods of the interval during which the fattening is going on.  An
animal put up to fatten for the butcher, is not the best subject for
coming to conclusions upon in regard to the nutritive value of dif ferent articles of sustenance; still it is useful, in a practical point
of view, to determine the influence of this and of that course of
regimen on the production of fat. Any misapplication of nutritive
equivalents is speedily proclaimed by the animal's losing weight,
instead of maintaining or gaining upon the amount to which it had
attained.
When the quantity of fodder has been ascertained which an ani mal ought to have in the twenty-four hours to maintain it in full
health and vigor, or that may be necessary to enable it to lay on
additional flesh and fat, it is to be weighed, and the article or nix  ture of articles which it is the business of the experimenter to try,
is to be given in part or in whole. After the lapse of a certain
time the animal is weighed again, and the weight upon this occasion
enables us to say whether the new or amended ration is superior,
equal, or inferior, to that which had preceded it. Such is the pro  cedure generally followed: but in putting it in practice myself, I
saw that it was liable to lead to rather serious mistakes, which I
then used every effort to diminish or to nullify in the experiments
which I undertook on the keep of horses-experiments which I
think interesting enough to deserve being particularly related.
In a considerable number of observations with which I had be   mne familiar, I saw that the course had not always been continued
or a sufficieri length ot' time; so that changes wlvichi were the
1996 
FOOD AND FEEDING.
effect of mere accident must frequently have been ascribed to the
effects of regimen. In a general way, it is acknowledged that an
adult animal, upon the ration that is known to be adequate for its
maintenance, returns at the same hour every day to the yesterday's
weight: this, however, is only strictly true in reference to a series
of weighings continued through a number of days, to make any
irregularity between one weighing and another disappear.
W\ith a view to discovering the amount of variation which an
animal experiences in point of weight when it is fed in the same
uniform manner, is foddered precisely at the same hours, &c., I
weighed a horse and a mare, which were leading the most regular
and unvaried life possible, for they were both employed in working
ani exhausting machine for several days in succession, the weighings
being performed at noon each day before they were watered, and
from four to five hours after their breakfast.  Here are the results
in a tabular form:
Date of the weighings.
Weight of the
mare.
a eied                 ki.       bs.|  a ord
16 December, 1841......................
17......................
18     "       ".
19     "       ".7
20                                                         8      48.0
91   - "s';............
21     "        ".
9-'..................
23     "96.
24                                                         988445             16.
27956495
2 9......................
o8,,,......................
9........................
1 "......................
leain wseights..........................
Malxima...............................
Minimla................................
Greatest difference above the mean    1......
Greatest difference below the mean...... 
Difference between the extreme weights..
Another horse (Old Fox) 12 years old, taken fasting, at four
o'clock in the morning of the 28th of April, 1842, weighed 1051
lbs.; at the same hour of the 29th, he weighed 1060 lbs.; ditto on
the 29th, 1038 lbs.
It is obvious, therefore, that a horse foddered most regularly and
weighed at the same hour, nevertheless presents differences in his
weight that may amount to nearly 30 lbs.  and which, without assurance of this fact, we should be disposed to ascribe to the effect
of our regimen.   This is enough to satisfy us that in all experiments upon feeding, it is absolutely necessary to carry them on for
some considerable time, in order to escape, or at all events to lessen
the errors that would be introduced into the conclusions by these accidental differences of weight. They may vary with reference to
34
I
I
397
Weight of the
horse.
kil. lb..,,.id.
4.53.0 996.6
455.0
456.0
4.54.0
449.0 988.9
449.5
449.0
454.0
454.0 998.8
459.5 1010.9
448.0 985.6
452.0 994.4
454.0
448.0
452.5
452.0 994.4
459.5 1010.9
448.0 985.6
16.5
8.8
7.7
kil.                 lb.
494.0 1086.8
497.0
497.0
497.5 1092.7
487.0
487.5
492.0
496.5
484.5 1065.9
490.5
496.0
491.0
484.0 1064.8
491.0
491.8 1081.9
497.5 1092.7
484.0 1064.8
10.8
17.1
6.3 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
different animals; they are necessarily smaller in amount among
those that are young and small, such as calves and sheep, than in
adult oxen and horses; bt  they do not occur the less on that account, and must, therefore, occasion errors of the same description.
What, then, shall we say ot those small variations in the weight in
a ewe or a ram, amounting perhaps to 1I or 2 lbs., ascertained in
the course of an experiment carried over two or three days, though
conducted with the most scrupulous attention to accuracy in the
world. That they may very possibly have been purely accidental.
Thie first in every series of experiments on the maintenance of
animals, ought in fact to have it in view to ascertain the amount of
accidental variation in the weight of the creatures which are their
subjects; as this variation is now on this side now on that, there is
an obvious advantage in having a certain number upon trial at a
time; any error that occurs will thus be more apt to be corrected;
and the results may be held more worthy of confidence inii propor tion as the numbers have been large from which they have been de duced   Another cause of error, which I had occasion to discover
in the course of my experiments, appears to be connected with the
weight of the allowance. Equal in nutritious value, different allow ances may still have very different weights; it is obvious, that a ra tion of hay and corn will weigh much less than its equivalent in
roots, tubers, or green meat. Animals that have been kept for some
time upon a dry diet, if put on one that is very bulky and watery,
will immediately increase very considerably in weight; and their
increase is both so sudden and so great, that it is impossible to as cribe it to augmented nutrition, to flesh and fat laid on. The ani mnals are simply distended, their paunch and bowels are filled with a,
larger quantity of food than they were before; and the state of dis tension continues, though it suffers accidental variations, so long as
the new course of feeding is persisted in. In opposite circum stances, as when animals that have been long upon soft and watery
food, are suddenly put upon hard diet, they always drop very con siderably in weight. These sudden changes throw disorder and
contradiction into the conclusions, and puzzled me greatly until I
discovered their cause. It is obvious that no kind of reliance can
be placed upon the conclusions which have been come to from single
weighings made at the end of each particular course of alimentation.
To get at results which shall be Worthy of any credit, the animals
that are to be made the subjects of experiment must be fed for sev eral days upon the particular ration that is to be approved, in order
to be brought to the state of body which may be said to belong in
particular to each system of dieting, before being weighed; it is
only when this is attained, indeed, that the experiment can be held
to be properly begun; and then it is to be continued for a sufficient
length of time to lessen the influence of those accidental variations
of weight, of which I have spoken so particularly. It is perhaps
needless to observe, that any increase in weight and the maintenance
of that increase, are not always of themselves sufficient signs for
affirming that the course then followed is superior or equal to the
398 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
one which preceded it. Various other circumstances of divers character must be taken into the reckoning, and in particular the state
of the animals. It is very necessary to have an eye to the state of
the coat, to the spirit or liveliness of the animal, to the nature of the
dejections, the size of the belly, the disposition of draught animals
for their work, the quantity of milk given by milch-kine, &c. Neverthleless, and as a general proposition, it may be said that a stationary condition, or a slight increase of weight, is almost always in
favor of the course along with which it is gained or maintained,
while any loss is almost always an indication of an inadequate allowance or of deficient nutritive qualities in the ration, taken in connection with the work required or the mnilk obtained.
The experiments which I am about to detail were undertaken to
determine the nutritive value of a variety of forages associated with
the ordinary articles in keeping the horse.  The great dearth of forage that was felt in Alsace, in consequence of the extraordinary
droughts of 1840, led us to feel the full importance of researches in
this direction; for then we were compelled to replace by potatoes a
very large proportion of the hay usually consumed in the stable.
And, indeed, by assuming the theoretical equivalent as the basis of
this substitution, I found that I saved money by the course, at the
same time that the health and strength of my draught cattle were
maintained unimpaired.  Still, as every question that bears upon the
keep of the animals attached to a farm is too important to be left to
the decision of theory alone, I thought  it imperative on me to control the inferences of chemical analysis by the results of experience.
The best food for horses has long been admitted to be hay and
oats in combination; neither article alone would have the same
happy effect that the two together produce. A ration of hay alone
would be too bulky; one of oats alone would not be bulky enough.
But the horse is not particular in his food. Barley in southern
countries replaces oats, and answers equally well. I have myself kept horses and mules for long periods of time on maize and
the tops of sugar canes exclusively; and on the elevated tablelands of the Andes, and in the steppes of South America, the
horses, though they do much hard work, are kept wholly on green
meat. Much of course depends on the way in which the animal
has been brought up.
In the circumstances in which we are generally placed in this
country, I do not imagine that there would be any actual advantage
in replacing the ordinary food of our horses by roots and tubers; I
doubt even whether the substitution would have good effects. I
know, indeed, that horses have been kept through the winter upon
potatoes and mangel-wurzel; but it is a different matter to feed an
animal and keep him standing quiet in the stable without work, and
to feed him at the same time that a certain quantity of labor is required of him every day. A horse in full work would scarcely get
through the bulky ration, which should consist of beet-root alone;
his meal-times are restricted; if he has certain hours for his work,
so has he certain hours for his breakfast, dinner and supper also.
399 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
This is one reason why carriers' horses and p, st-horses, horses, in
a word, which have long and severe work to perform, receive the
larger portion of their allowance in corn. Tile inconveniences of
bulky rations are much less felt in the cow-house than in the stable;
not to speak of their particular organization, which actually enables
them to take in a much larger quantity of food than the horse, the
steer and the cow have always a longer time allowed them for their
meals than are regularly given to the horse.
The experience of nearly a whole year having satisfied me that a
cart-horse may have half his ration in roots or tubers, I set out from
this fact in the experiments which I instituted.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE MAINTENANCE OF HORSES WITH MIXED FOOD.
The usual allowance to a horse at Bechelbronn for the twentyfour hours consists of:
Hay.... 22  lbs.
Straw...    5i
Oats....  7i
With this ration the teams are kept in excellent condition.  Two
teams were selected as subjects of experiment, each consisting of
four horses; these I shall distinguish by the titles, Team No. 1
and Team No. 2. Each remained under tile care of the same servant throughout. Team No. I was composed of:
Braun, a mare,       7 years old.
Schimmel, a horse,   7      "
Hans,        do.,   16      "
Gaty,        do.,     8     "
Team No. 2 was composed of:
Old Fox, a mare,
Braun,     do.,
Nickel,     do.,
Hengst, a horse,
EXPERIMENT I.
One half the allowance of hay was replaced by potatoes lightly
steamed; 280 of the tubers being assumed, according to theory, as
equivalent to 100 of hay. The ration, therefore, consisted of:
..  11   lbs.
*5i
.  73
*aoe...     30 8-10
The potatoes were broken down and mixed with chopped straw,
and never put into the mangers until cold.
From accidental circumstances, particularly bad weather during
the course of the autumnal labors, the teams were exposed to very
hard work, an event which of course throws uncertainty over theo
results of this trial. After having been upon the course of food in
400
16 years old,
5        11
14
5
Hay
Straw
Oats.
Potatoes 
MIAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
dicated for a few days, the teams were weighed once, and again
after an interval of twenty-four hours:
Team No. 1.    No. 2.    Both teams.  Mean per horse.
First weighing.......4617.8    4461        9079.4        1134.9
Second weighing..-..4554.0    4334        8888.0        1111.0
In 24 hours......loss  63.8     127        1.91.4        23.9
The loss experienced here authorized me to conclude, that the aliowance under the circumstances was not sufficient. The 30.8 lbs.
of steamed potatoes could not have adequately replaced the 11 lbs.
of hay; it would have been highly interesting to have ascertained
how horses kept on the standard and usual allowance would have
stood the same amount of fatigue. Unfortunately this comparison
could not be made, all the horses in the stable having been put on
the potato regimen at the same time. There is this much to be said
for the particular course tried, however, that the animals did their
work with great spirit, and continued in excellent health.
EXPERIMENT II.
INTRODUCTION OF JERUSALEM POTATOES INTO THE RATION.
Jerusalem potatoes are held excellent food for the horse; they are
eaten greedily, and he thrives on them. In this second experiment,
30:-5ths lbs. of Jerusalems cut into slices were substituted for 11
lbs. of hay, the same theoretical equivalents being assumed for them
as for the common potato. The ration now consisted of:
Hay:
Straw..
Oats      
Jerusalem potatoes
Having been accustomed to this regimen for some days, the
teams were weighed, and having gone on for eleven days they were
weighed again 
Team No. 1. No5     ottem. essprore
Team N.. 1.
First weighing........ 4556
Second weighing....... 4611
In 11 days....... gain 55
A result which leads to the conclusion, that the equivalent assumed for the Jerusalem potato was correct; the animals had done
their work, and gained, one with another,  r-ths of a pound in
weight.
EXPERIMENT III.
RATION OF HAY AND POTATOES.
Eleven pounds of hay, in the usual allowance, were replaced by
30.8 lbs. of potatoes; the whole of the oats and straw, by 15.4 lbs.
of hay.  These substitutions were made upon the supposition, that
100 of hay was equivalent to 280 of potatoes, to 50 of oats, and to
520 of straw. The ration, then, was composed as follows:
Hay *........................ 26.6 lbs.
Potatoes..................... 30.8"
34"
401
N.. 2.
3245
341'-)
loss 33
B.th
8901
8923
gain 22
M,!..- p,, h.,.
1112.7
1113.6
gain 0.9 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
This was a ration which it was the more interesting to try, from
the circumstance of Professor Liebig* having come to the conclu.
sion, from certain theoretical views, that it must be impossible to
keep horses in health and strength upon hay and potatoes exclusively.
The experiment was continued for a fortnight:
Team of No. 1.  No. 2   Both teams.  Mean weight per horse.
First weighing........ 4620    4312       8932          1116.5
Second weighing... - - 4675   4697      9372           1171.5
In 14 days......... gain  55    385       440             55.0
In one fortnight, consequently, the weight of eight horses had increased by an aggregate sum of 440 lbs., or 55 lbs. per head-an
increase at the rate of, as nearly as possible, 3.9, say 4 lbs. per diem;
and allowing the greatest latitude for error, it seems that we cannot
estimate the increase per head at less than 1.76, say 143 lbs. per
diem. The condition of the horses was most satisfactory; the dejections were healthy in appearance; the only inconvenience observed was, the considerable bulk of the allowance, and the additional time which had to be given the teams to their meals. This
inconvenience was particularly obvious in the case of the older
horses. Besides the two experimental lots, other twelve horses
were put upon the same regimen, and with the same good effects.
The equivalents adopted in the composition of the ration, in this
third experiment, may therefore be regarded with perfect confidence
as suitable. Experience, indeed, would rather lead us to conclude,
that the nutritive power of the potato had been estimated at somewhat too low a rate.
EXPERIMENT IV.
SUBSTITUTION OF OATS AND STRAW FOR A PORTION OF THE HAY.
The ration here consisted of:
Hay......................... 11 lbs.
Straw...........................  11  "
Oats..........................12.1
The horses, having been two days on this diet, were weighed.
The experiment was continued for eleven days:
Team No. 1.  No. 2.   Both teams.  Average per horse.
First weighing....... -. -.  4584.8    4348.3    8933.1  1116.7
Second weighing.. 4593.6    4352.7    8946.3        1118.2
In 11 days....... gain  8.8      4.4 13.2               1.5
Under this regimen, consequently, the weight of the teams remained very nearly the same as it was before beginning the experiment; still there was something gained.
In conducting this experiment, we had an opportunity of observing
how important it is to habituate the animals to their new regimen
before weighing for the first time. Had this precaution been neglected, the result would have come out against the ration, for the
animals were found, when first entered on it, to weigh together as
many as 9372 lbs., and two days afterwards no more than 8933 lbs., 
* Agricultural chemistry.
402 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
which would have indicated a loss of 449 lbs.; the difference being
due, however, in great part, or entirely, to the less bulky or weighty
food employed.
EXPERIMENT V.
POTATOES SUBSTITUTED FOR A PORTION OF THE HAY.
The ration made use of in the first experiment looks so well, in
reference to economy of hay, and, indeed, answered so well under
the peculiar circumstances in which it was tried, that I thought it
would be advisable to try it again when the horses were doing ordinary work. The ration consisted of:
Hay.....................11  lbs.
Straw............... 5.5
Oats................... 7.23 "
Steamed potatoes-.............. 30.8 "
The first weighing took place after the horses had been over a
week on the ration, and the experiment was continued for 63 days.
In team No. 1, Braun, from indisposition, had been replaced by
Rapp, a horse nine years old, and weighing 1157 lbs.:
Team No. 1.  No. 2.  Both teams. Average weight per horse.
First weighing........4425  4362     8848         1106.1
Second weighing...... 4501   4428     8929         1116.2
In 63 days......... gain  76   66       81           10.1
In the course of two months, consequently, on a ration in which
11 lbs. of hay were replaced by 30.8 lbs. of dressed potatoes, the
weight of the horses may be said to have been more than maintained.   This experiment seems to show satisfactorily, that the
equivalent of the potato cannot be far from the number 280.
EXPERIMENT VI.
JERUSALEM POTATO FOR A PORTION OF THE HAY.
The horses were brought back to the same conditions as in the
second experiment, 30.8 lbs. of Jerusalems being substituted for
11 lbs. of hay. The team No. 2 was alone subjected to this experiment, being kept on it for 16 days, and first weighed after having
had it for some time:
First weighing.... No. 2.   4395 lbs.   Average weight per horse  1098.9
Second weighing..  "    4396.7"         "         "         1099.1
In 16 days........... gain    1.7                              0.2
This result confirms that which was elicited by the second experiment.
EXPERIMENT VII.
INTRODUCTION OF FIELD-BEET, OR MANGEL-WURZEL, INTO THE
RATION.
Horses readily get accustomed to field-beet. The root is sliced,
and mixed with chaff, (cut straw.) For 11 lbs. of hay, which I retrenched, I allowed 44 lbs. of beet; i. e. I took 400 as the equivaI-nt number of the root. The ration consisted as under:
403 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
Hay.................. 11 lbs.
Straw.......................5.5
Oats......................... 7.2
Beet.......................... 44.0
A horse, after having been kept on this diet for some time, was
weighed; and the regimen having been continued for a fortnight, he
was weighed again:
First weighing....................1014.0 lbs.
Second weighing....................... 1023.0 "
In a fortnight.................. gain   9.4
This horse was all the while doing rather hard but very regular
work; for eight hours every day he was in the shafts of a grinding
mill. He did not alter in condition; the dejections were healthy.
During the winter of 1841-2, our cows ate a considerable proportion of our beet; and, as a substitute for the 33 lbs. of meadow-hay,
which is their usual allowance, we gave 72- lbs. of beet. Tile ration
then stood thus:
Hay........................ 22 lbs.
Beet.-...............-....... 72.6"
Straw...........................  4.4 A
Upon this regimnen, the weight of the inmates of one of our stables
was:
On the 29th January  2.24615   lbs.
On the 21st April......................26488
.... Increase due to births and to growth........ 1837
It thus appears that, in foddering kine, the quantity of beet allowed with advantage may be large; but it is also obvious, that the
nutritive value of the root is not great. At Bechelbronn, at all
events, we found it requisite to replace 9 or 10 of hay by 40 of root.
Our beet, it is true, contains but 12 per cent. of dry matter; in other
places, where the proportion of dry substance to the water is larger,
it is possible that a smaller proportion would be found to answer the
end.
EXPERIMENT VIII.
INTRODUCTION OF THE SWEDISH TURNIP INTO THE RATION AND
REPLACING A PORTION OF THE HAY.
Swedish turnip, combined with some dry forage, answers excellently with the horse. Analysis, indicating 280 as the equivalent
of this article, two horses were put upon the following ration, in
which 11 lbs. of the usual allowance of hay were replaced by Swedish turnip:
Hay........................11 lbs.
Strawv.....................5.5
Oats...........................7.2
Swedes..........................30.8
It was obvious before the lapse of but a few days, that the horses
were falling off upon this regimen, that they were not fed; and on
weighing them, this plainly appeared:
First sweighing.........-.............2283.6 Aver. of each horse 1141.8
Second weighing, 9 days afterwards......2178.0   "         1089.0
Loss in 9 days.......................105.6                  52.8
404 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
The equivalent for the Swedish turnip adopted, had therefore been
too high; the allowance was not sufficient. This led me to analyze
the article again; and I discovered that the true equivalent of the
sample with which I was operating, was at least 676, and not 280
as I had presumed before. Indeed, in another experiment with the
same pair of horses where the equivalent of Swedish turnip was as sumed at 400, I found that though the animals kept up their weight
at the point to which it had fallen, they gained nothing; whence it
may be safely inferred that the No. 400 was still too low, and that
the new equivalent 676 is nearer the truth.
EXPERIMENT IX.
INTRODUCTION OF CARROTS INTO THE RATION.
Horses are extremely fond of carrots; and there is no root per haps, the nutritious qualities of which have been more vaunted or
exaggerated. Yet, analysis appears to indicate that 350 of carrot
are required to replace 100 of good meadow-hay. On one occasion,
in the stable at Bechelbronn, when the potato in one of our rations
was replaced by an equal weight of carrots, the effect was highly
disadvantageous; and even in following the theoretical equivalent
of the carrot (350) we had still no reason to be perfectly satisfied.
I now believe, in fact, that as many as 400 of carrots may be found
requisite to replace 100 of good meadow-hay.
The carrot crop of 1841 having been a failure, I had to limit myself to observations made on a single horse, which was put upon a
ration in which 11 lbs. of hay were replaced by 38.5 lbs. of carrots.
The horse, habituated to this diet,
Weighed.....................1(25.2 lbs.
A fortnight after................ 1014.2
Loss in a fortnight -....... 11.0
Nevertheless he remained in good condition, so that the equivalent
350 is probably not far from the truth.   I ought to say, however,
that the men think this number too low; an opinion in which they
would be borne out, could we but be certain that the loss of weight
of the horse just indicated was not accidental.
EXPEiIMIFNT X.
BOILED RYE AS A SUBSTlTUTE FOR OATS.
It has been stated, that rye boiled till the grain bursts may be
used as a substitute for an equal bulk of oats in the keep of a horse.
The experiment which I made on the point is very far from bearing
out any thing of the kind. By preliminary trials I had ascertained
that rye of good quality swells to twice its former bulk by boiling.
The two horses that were made the subjects of experiment now,
had been kept for some time on a ration formed of:
Hay..........................2.2 lbs.
Oats......................5.5   =8.8 pints.
For the oats, the same quantity by measure, 8.8 pints of boiled
rye were substituted, containing 4.4 pints of raw grain, weighing
4.15 lbs. On the 11th day it was deemed prudent to interrupt tho
experiment, of which the following are the results:
405 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS.
First weighing: Both horses.......2010 lbs. Average of each........10045
Second  i       "~.......        192 7           "       963.0
Loss in 11 days................ - 83                      41.5
In fact, with such a ration as this, in which water was made to
replace solid corn, no other result could reasonably be expected.
In continuing it, the health of the horses would very certainly have
soon been seriously compromised. There is no objection to rye in
itself as an element in the food of a horse; but then it must be substituted in the quantity indicated by the table of equivalents, by
adopting which, Mr. Dailly found that he could keep the post-horses
of Paris in good heart, at a time when the difference between the
price of oats and rye made it advantageous to substitute the latter
for the former. The experiments of Mr. Dailly on the subject were
so decisive and so ably conducted, that I felt myself relieved from
the necessity of inquiring further into it myself.
From these experiments, the particulars of which have now been
given, it may be concluded that the nutritive equivalents of the potato, beet, Jerusalem potato, and carrot, as they come out upon analysis, or as they are inferred from the amount of azote they contain,
may be adopted without detriment to the health of horses. If they
err at all, it is that they assign equivalents somewhat too high,
which is the same as saying that their actual nutritive power is
rather less than these numbers give it; so that a portion of the hay
of the standard ration being substituted for its equivalent of tuber or
root, the diet will be improved.
Thus, 100 of good meadow-hay may be taken, as ascertained by
experiment, to be equivalent to:
280( potatoes-by analysis, equal to.............315
280 Jerusalems.........................311
400 beet..................................548
400 Swede (too little).....................67 6
400 carrot..............................382
In the following table of nutritive equivalents, to the numbers as signed by the theory, I have added those of the whole which I find
in the entire series of observations that have come to my knowledge.
I have also given the standard quantity of water, and the quantity of
azote, contained in each species of food. When the theoretical
equivalents do not differ too widely from those supplied by direct
observation, I believe that they ought to be preferred.  The details
of my experiments, and the precautions needful in entering on and
carrying them through, must have satisfied every one of the difficul ties attending their conduct; yet all allow how little these have been
attentively contemplated, and what slender measures of precaution
against error have been taken. Our equivalent for field-beet is 400,
a number come to by introducing 44 lbs. of the root into the ration,
in lieu of 11 lbs. of hay; had we introduced 56 lbs., the equivalent
number would have come out 500; and it is questionable whether
the final result would have been affected by this substitution. In
my opinion, direct observation or experiment is indispensable, but
mainly, solely as a means of checking within rather wide limits the
results of chemical analysis.
406 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMIALS.
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i 
MAINTENANCE OF ANIMAIALS.
To complete the preceding ample table, I shall still add the equivalents of a few articles of forage that have not yet been examined
chemically.
100 of meadow-hay are replaced by:
From 85 to 90 of sainfoin hay, according to Petri and Meyer.
By 90 of spurry hay               "      Petri.
325 to 500 of green spurry        "      Pabst and Flottow
4-2 to 50 of chestnuts            "      Block and Petri.
By 50 of Indian chestnuts         "      Petri.
62 of turnsole seeds          "       Petri.
109 of rye-bran                "       Block.
In the list of substances there are some which are used almost
exclusively for the food of man, and I have thought it not uninteresting to contrast these different articles with reference particularly
to the quantity of azote they contain. I have composed the following table or list of equivalents on this basis; having assumed wheaten flour as the standard and called it 100. As all herbs, roots,
leaves, &c., may be pulverized after drying, I have spoken of these
articles dry under the name of meal.
Wheat flour (good quality)... 100    White-heart cabbage........ 810
Wheat.................... 107    Cabbage meal................ 83
Barley-meal...............119    Potatoes................... 613
Barley...................... 130    Potato meal - - - -..............126
Rye........................  111    Carrots.................757
Buckwheat................ 108    Carrot meal..............95
Maize...........................138  Turnips.................1335
Yellow peas................ 67   Mealy bananas (Ficus Indica) 700
Horse-beans -............... 44  Manihot (casava plant).......... 700
White French beans............ 56  Nanme? (discorea sativa)..... 300
Rice...................... 171   Apio? (arracacha)..........1050
Lentils....................  57
Judging from the equivalents, leguminous vegetables must be possessed of a much higher nutritive value than wheat; and it is known,
indeed, that haricots, peas, and beans, form in some sort substitutes
for animal food. The difference indicated is so great, however, that
it may surprise those who have never thought of the subject that
engages us.  In a general way we  are all perhaps disposed to regard the articles that enter habitually into our food as highly nutr.
tious.  The fact, however, is, that tubers, roots, and even the seeds
of the cereal grasses are but very moderately nutritious. If we see
herbivorous animals getting fat upon such things, it is only because
their organization enables them to c.,ame them in large quantities.
I doubt very much whether a man doing hard work could support
himself on bread exclusively. I am aware that countries are quoted
where the potato and where rice form the sole articles of food of
the inhabitants; but I believe also that these instances are incomplete. In Alsace, for example, the peasantry always associate their
potato diet with a large quantity of sour or curdled milk; in Ireland
with buttermilk. The Indians of the Upper Andes do not by any
means live on potatoes alone, as some travellers have said they do;
at Quito, the daily food of the inhabitants is lorco, a compound of
potatoes, and a large quantity of cheese. Rice is often cited as one
of the most nourishing articles of diet; I am satisfied, however, after having lived long in countries where rice is largely consumed,
35
409 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF FOOD.
that it is any thing but a substantial, or, for its bulk, nutritious article of sustenance.   This is an important question, inasmuch as in
some departments of the public service rice is sometimes served
out as a substitute for other articles of diet. In the French navy,
for example, 60 grammes, or about 20 dwts. of rice may be substituted for 60 dwts. of split peas or haricots; but I cannot hold such
a substitution to be either fair or reasonable. At a period when ]
had myself the charge of the rations for a detachment of men, I
found that the experience of the country where I was, assigned 3
lbs. of rice as the equivalent of 1 lb. of haricot beans; and analysis
confirms this practical conclusion.
Haricots, in fact, contain about 0.046 of azote; rice no more than
0.014. And if the nutritious properties be really in proportion to
the amount of azote, it is obvious that 3- of rice will be required in
lieu of 1 of the leguminous seed.
We hear it constantly repeated that rice is the sole nutriment of
the nations of the whole of India. But the fact would appear not
to be precisely so; and I may here quote M. Lequerri, who, during
a long residence in India, paid particular attention to the manners
and customs of the inhabitants of Pondicherri. " The food," says
M. L., "is almost entirely vegetable, and rice is the staple; the inferior castes only ever eat meat. But all eat kari, an article prepared
with meat, fish, or vegetables, which is mixed with the rice boiled
in very little water. It is requisite to have seen the Indians at their
meals to have any idea of the enormous quantity of rice they will
put into their stomachs. No European could cram so much at a
time; and they very commonly allow that rice alone will not nourish them. They very generally still eat a quantity of bread."*
II. OF THE INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF FOOD.
We discover in the bodies of animals the several mineral substances, the existence of which we have ascertained in vegetables.
The bones, as we have seen, contain a large quantity of phosphate
of lime; it is requisite therefore that the elements of this salt, phosphoric acid and lime, should form part of the ration or diet-roll; this
is a point upon which all physiologists are agreed; but the point
upon which there is nothing like uniformity yet attained has reference to the precise quantity of mineral matter which must enter into
the constitution of the food. The analyses of ashes which I have given
show that if vegetable aliments all contain nearly the same inorganic
principles, they still contain themn in very different proportions: thus
potatoes, wheat, oats, and beans, contain much less lime than clover,
straw, and peas. The phosphoric and sulphuric acids and the alkalies do not vary less; so that we are led to ask whether a ration
compounded of such and such an article, or of such and such articles, will furnish the animals to which it is supplied with the neces
* The Irish peasantry, who live so much on potatoes, have buttermilk with them
at least, often salt herring; and a laboring man, it is said, will consume 12 or 14 lbs 
per diem!-ENG. ED.
410 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF FOOD.
sary dose of inorganic principles, which must be assimilated daily,
and which is quite indispensable to maintain them in health and
vigor.
It is easy to arrive at a knowledge of the mineral principles which
are necessary as elements of the diet, by ascertaining their quantity
in the ration, which long experience has shown to be sufficient. Yet
as there is reason to believe that in many cases mineral substances
are present in excess, I have thought that it might be useful to de termine by means of analysis the nature and the proportion of the
inorganic elements which are actually assimilated by an individual,
in order to have a minimum which might serve as a basis for any
reasonings or inferences on the subject. My experiments were per formed in two opposite circumstances in which I regard assimilation
as most rapid and most complete: videlicit, a calf in full growth,
and a milch-cow in calf.
The calf was six months old, and weighed 369 lbs. Some days
before being made the subject of experiment it was fed with hay.
During the two days when it had this fodder ad libitum, it ate 19 lbs.
In the course of the 1st day the calf passed 21.49 lbs. of excrements.
2d day        "   20.39          "
41.88
In the course of the two days 5.584 lbs. of urine were collected,
which, evaporated, yielded 2933.2 gt.ains of extract, the animal havmg in the same interval drunk 45.7 pints of water.
Analysis discovered in 100
Of the hay.............Azote 1.6      Ashes 7.6
Of the dry excrements        2.1            12.7
Of the urinous extract       4.0           40.0
Now if we ittquire from these data in regard to the quantity o
half-(rachms.             lhalf-drachms.
In the food, discarding fractions, Azote 69  Mineral substances 328
In the excrements    "          "   50.5          "            214
In the urine         "          "    3.8          "            38
Together    54.3                      252
Therefore, azote fixed or exhaled in 2 days 14.7 half-drachms.
Mineral substances fixed in 2 days —- -^...   76   "
The composition of the ashes obtained from the hay and from the
excrements, shows us approximatively both the quantity and the
nature of the several inorganic substances which had been assimilated. The composition of these ashes is as follows:
Of the hay. Of tile excrements. Of the urine.
Carbonic........9.0           2.0         17.3
Acids    Phosphoric         5.3         5.1          0.2
Sulphuric......  2.4          2.3          7.0
Chlorine................. 2.3          1.9          9.9
Lime..................204 16.0                     0.9
Magnesia................ 6.0           6.5          6.0
Potash and soda.......... 17.3         12.5         57.3
Oxide of iron, alumina.... 1.5         1.0 "
Silesia..................  33.7       51.0          1.2
Loss................... 2.1            1.7 "
100.0      100.0        100.0
411 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF FOOD.
If the hay consumed contained 328 half-drachms of ash or mineral
matter, the excrements and urine 252 half-drachms of the same
matters; the difference between the two sums, 76 half-drachms,*
is the quantity of mineral matter fixed in the course of two days, of
which 200.6 grains were phosphoric acid, and 494.0 grains were
lime.  This quantity of lime, however, is more than four times as
much as is necessary to constitute a subphosphate of lime such as
exists in the bones.  It is true, indeed, that there is always a quantity of carbonate of lime associated with the suibphosphate in bones;
10 of carbonate for 38 of phosphate, according to Fourcroy and
Vauquelin, in those of the ox. Still the quantity of lime assimilated
was vastly more than it ought to have been, had it only gone to assist
in the formation of bone. If there was no error in the observations,
it is probable that the base in question enters into the constitution of
the salts with organic acids which are encountered in all parts of
the animal body.
By a series of weighings, I ascertained that my calf, fed simply
upon hay, increased every day by a quantity equal to 9725.9 grains
troy, in which were included 858.35 grains of mineral substances,
the calcareous phosphate and carbonate of the bones in this quantity being represented by 262.4 grains, or nearly 3 per cent. of the
entire weight acquired in the course of twenty-four hours.
In the experiment with the milch-cow in calf, I limited my inquiries to the phosphoric acid and the lime taken in and given out.
The animal, four years old, was 2-' months gone with calf, and
wei        ghed 1452. 6 lbs.   She had the same allowance during the expe
riment as she had had for several days before, and which for twenty
four hours consisted of
Hay.............. 16.5 lbs.
Cut wheat-straw....  9.9
Beet...............59.4
The experiment was continued for four days, during which th~
excrements, the urine, and the milk, were carefully collected and
weighed, and the ashes, both of the food consumed and of the products rendered, were determined by chemical analysis. Suffice it to
say, that, representing the quantity of mineral matters assumed into
the body in the course of the experiment by 849.9 half-drachnis, the
quantity voided amounted to no more than 556 half-drachms. In the
quantity assumed, there were 100.2 half-drachms of phosphoric acid,
and 203.8 half-drachms of lime; in the quantity voided, there were
but 68.2 half-drachms of phosphoric acid, and 116.8 half-drachms
of lime: this is at the rate of about 8 half-drachms of phosphoric
acid, and 22 half-drachms of lime assimilated in the course of twentyfour hours. Here, as in the case of the calf, the quantity of lime
assimilated is greatly superior to what it ought to be, in order, by
combining with the phosphoric acid, to constitute the phosphate of
lime of the bones.
From these inquiries into the nutrition of a calf and of a cow in
* The exact quantity is 2392.8 grains troy.-ENa. ED.
412 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF FOOD.
calf, it follows that there is a portion of the mineral substance taken
in with the food, which remains definitively fixed to concur in the
growth or in the evolution of the individual.  In an adult animal it
is to be presumed that no such definitive fixation of inorganic principles takes place, or that it is much less considerable; that in the
dejections and several secretions ought to be found the whole of the
phosphoric acid, of the lime, &c., taken in with the food. And this
presumption is confirmed by experience; for on instituting an inquiry
into the matter upon a horse, it was found that the mineral matters
assumed were almost exactly balanced by those discharged. Nevertheless, and granting this to be quite true, which it is, it would be a
grave mistake to suppose that an adult animal could go on for even
a very short period of time upon food that contained no mineral
matter.  Precisely as in the case of organic matter, it appears that
a portion of inorganic matter is also fixed in the living frame, where
for a time it forms an integral element in the wonderful structure;
and a supply of thile latter kind is undoubtedly no less necessary than
is the supply of the former description recognised by all the world.
Were there an inadequate quantity of phosphoric acid, of lime, &c.,
in the food, no question but that the body would speedily feel the
effects of the deficiency, and that disease and death would by and by
put an end to life. So much, indeed, seems demonstrated by the
very interesting experiments of M. Chossat, in which he kept
granivorous animals upon a diet rich in azotized principles and in
starch, but deficient in lime. From some previous inquiries, M.
Chossat had observed that pigeons even require to add a certain
proportion of lime to their ordinary food, the quantity naturally contained in which does not suffice them. Wheat, as we have seen,
though it contains a large proportion of phosphate of magnesia, contains very little phosphate of lime; and pigeons put on this grain,
though they do perfectly well at first, and even get fat, begin by and
by to fall off.  In from two to three months, the birds appeared to
suffer from constant thirst; they drank frequently; the foeces became soft and liquid, and the flesh wasted, and in from eight' to ten
months the creatures died under the effects of a diarrhoea, which
M. Chossat attributed to deficiency of the calcareous element in the
food. And it is neither uninteresting nor unimportant to observe,
that the same thing occasionally occurs in the human subject during
the period when the process of ossification is usually most active.
But one of the most remarkable features of M. Chossat's experiments was observed in the state of the bones of the pigeons; they
became so thin and weak that they broke during the life of the birds
with the slightest force.*  The conclusion from this fact is obvious.
Supplies of all the elements of all the parts of the body are indispensable to the maintenance of health, to the continuance of life.
A pigeon will eat about 463.140 grains of wheat per diem, containing 9.725 grains of ash, in which analysis discovers 4.569 grains
of phosphoric acid, and 0.277 of a grain of lime. But this small
* Chossat, in Comptes Rendus, t. xiv., p. 451.
35*
413 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF FOOD.
quantity of lime is incompetent to maintain the bones in their standard condition. I have thought it of moment to insist upon these
facts, because I see that they may sometimes come into play in practical rural economy.   No breeder or feeder ought to be ignorant of
the influence of mineral substances on nutrition.  It is not only indispensable that the allowance of an animal in full growth be sufficient
to support, and even to add to the soft textures; it must further contain the elements requisite for the nutrition of the osseous system:
and it is not impossible but that, in mnanaging the feeding of young
cattle or young horses in such a way as to reduce to a minimum, or
to give in excess, certain of the inorganic elements of the food, we
may succeed in impressing one character or another upon a race.
It is even possible that the empirical rules which are acted upon
with a view to increase or diminish the quantity of bone, the weight
of flesh or of fat, &c., are all connected with various proportions
of phosphoric acid, of lime, magnesia, &c., in the food. It will
probably be discovered, some day, that Bakewell's art is to be explained through the composition of the ashes of the food.
Wheat is not the only alimentary matter that contains an insufficient quantity of lime; maize or Indian corn contains still less:
and if that which is grown in the tropics contains as little as thal
which is produced in Europe, it would be difficult to explain how
the grain should answer so well as it unquestionably does for food.*
It is true that it is seldom or never consumed alone and without
addition; and in South America, where the animals have it largely,
I have observed that they frequently eat earth. The habit which
certain tribes of the natives have of eating earth, too, which has
been particularly remarked upon by travellers and missionaries as an
instance of depravation of taste, presents itself to me in quite another
light, since I became acquainted with the composition of the ashes
of the ordinary article of diet in the countries where it occurs.t
The calcareous and other salts necessary to nutrition, however, are not derived from the food exclusively; the water that is
generally consumed contains a quantity which is by no means to be
neglected. A horse or a cow, for instance, which drinks from 15
to 45 quarts of water per diem, will even, if the water be as pure as
that of the Artesian well of Grenelle, take in from 35 to 108 grains
of saline matter in which carbonate of lime predominates; water that
is less free from saline impregnation would of course introduce a
much larger proportion; some waters in the quantities above speci fied will contain from 138 to upwards of 400 grains of saline matter,
one half of which may be carbonate of lime. And I am here speak ing of clear or filtered water; that which is muddy or turbid con tains a still larger quantity of earthy matter in suspension than in
solution. In an experiment made for the purpose of getting at the
amount of earthy matter taken by a milch-cow from the watering
* An ash of maize, analyzed in my laboratory by M. Letellier, contained but 1.3 per
cent. of lime to 50.1 of phosphoric acid and 17.0 of magnesia.
t I several times saw children chastised in Indian villages who had been caught
eating earth.
414 
INORGANIC ELEMENTS OF FOOD.
trough in the course of the day, I found that it amounted to about
770 grains troy.
Notwithstanding these facts, it is still doubtful whether the lime
contained in ordinary well-water would prove sufficient to supply a
growing animal with the material requisite to the formation of its
bones; in adults, indeed, changes in the elements of the bones appear to proceed so slowly that a very small quantity of calcareous
matter probably suffices to repair losses; but it is otherwise with
young and growing animals. I have shown that a calf six months
old receives with its forage a quantity of phosphoric acid which corresponds to 555.7 grains of phosphate of lime. A calf a few weeks
old, when it has 17 or 18 pints of milk per diem, receives 802.7
grains of mineral substances, into which subphosphate of lime or
bone earth enters in the proportion of 370.5 grains. It would be interesting to ascertain what quantities of these substances were assimilated by so young an animal, and at a period when the growth
is so rapid that the increase from day to day sometimes exceeds 2
pounds.
The importance of the inorganic principles of the food once recognised, it concerns us to take note of their nature and quantity in
the ratio we allow to our domestic animals. It is in fact this consideration which has led me to determine the quantities of phosphoric acid and lime contained in the various articles of food the ashes
of which have been analyzed. With these data the proportion of
bone earth contained in a given ration is forthwith perceived.
One thousand parts of the forage gathered at Bechelbronn in its
ordinary state contained:
Mineral            Phospho-              Bone
Forage.           suiacs Azote.  Ph~pil            Lime.    erne
Frg.     Substances.           ric acid.            earth.
Hay................   62.33           11.50     3.37    10.04       6.96
Potatoes..............  9.64           3.70      1.09      0.17     0.33
Beet.................  7.70             2.10      0.46      0.54     0.95
Turnip...............  5.70              1.30     0.35      0.62     0.72
Jerusalem Potato.....  12.47        3.75      1.35      029      0.56
Wheat...............20.51              20.50      9.64      0.60      1.16
Maize................ 11.00            16.40      5.51      0.14      0.27
Oats.................  31.74           17.87      4.73      1.17     2.27
Wheat-straw.........  51.90             3.00     1.61      4.41      3.32
Oat-straw............. 35.70           3.00      1.07      2.97     2.21
Clover-hay...........  73.50          21.00      4.63    18.08      9.85
Peas.................  30.00          38.40      9.03      3.03     5.83
Haricots............... 35.00         45.80      9.38      2.03     5.94
Beans................ 30.00           51.10    10.26       1.53     9.27
We seem here to observe a certain relation between the proportion
of azote and that of the phosphoric acid contained in the food; the
most highly azotized are also those that generally contain the largest
quantity of the acid, a circumstance which seems to indicate that in
the vegetable kingdom the phosphates are connected more especially
with the azotized principles, and that they accompany them in passing into the textures of animals. With the assistance of the above
table it is easy to ascertain the quantity of phosphate of lime which
415 
416    FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.
enters into a given ration. Let us take that given to the horses in
experiment 3d, in which the half of the hay was replaced by potatoes, one of the articles that contains the smallest proportion of lime.
and we find in the
26.6 lbs. of hay   632.9 grs. phosphoric acid and 1867.9 grs. of lime.
30.8 lbs. potatoes 387.7   "                 37.0  "
1020.6                     1904.9
numbers which correspond with  1798.5 grains of bone earth, a~ 
978.7 grains of uncombined lime.
In his usual allowance a work-horse at Bechelbronn receives:
Hay  22 lbs. containing 524.8 grs. phosphoric acid, and 1543.8 grs. of lime.
Straw 5.5      "       60.7 
Oats  7.2      "      230.2      "
81.57
In other words, 1735 grains of bone earth, and 864 grains of free
lime.
I have found that very young foals, growing rapidly, and weigh
ing about 374 lbs., consume per diem:
Hay-.... 19.8 lbs. containing of phosphoric acid 463 grs.* lime 1389 grs.
Oats-... 7.2      "           "        231          58.6
which represent 95 of bone earth or subphosphate of lime. As a
consequence of the relation which appears to exist between the
azote and phosphoric acid of an article of sustenance, it comes to
pass that like nutritive equivalents also indicate like proportions of
phosphoric acid; so that by introducing a suitable quantity of hay or
clover, articles that abound in lime, into the ration, we are always
certain of having food favorable to the development of the osseous
system, whatever the nature and quality of the other articles that
enter into the constitution of the allowance.
The relation of the phosphoric acid to the azote approaches the
ratio of 3 to 10, in the more ordinary articles of forage; but the
same relation is no longer apparent in the cereals and leguminous
vegetables; in grain and in peas, beans, &c., the phosphoric acid
amounts to about a fourth of the azote contained. Thus we have:
Theoretical   Phosphoric          Theoretical   Phosphoric
equivalent.    acid in the        equivalent.    acid in the
eqi,l.                           quivalent. equivalent.
Hay......... 100        0.34     Oat-strawv.....380      0.40
Potatoes......320       0.35     Oats  -...........68    0.32
Beet......... 548       0.28     Maize........70          0.38
Turnip.......885        0.31     Wheat.... -... 43        0.41
Jerusalems....273      0.37       Peas. -    25          0.23
Dry clover.....75       0.34     Haricots....... 27       0.25
Wheat-straw...235      0.37     Beans... -..... 23        0.24
~ III. OF THE FATTY CONSTITUENTS OF FORAGE: CONSIDERATIONS ON
FATTENING.
When fat was observed accumulating in the tissues of the animal
body, and it was unknown that the presence of fatty matters in
plants is what may be termed a general fact, men naturally con- 
ceived that the fat was produced from the food in the act of diges. 
FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.   417
tion, that it was composed in the animal body much in the same way
as it is formed in the seed and leaf of the living vegetable.
The inquiries which I am about to present, however, all tend to
make us conclude that fatty substances are only produced in vegetables, and that they pass ready formed into the bodies of animals,
where they may either undergo combustion immediately, so as to
evolve the heat which the animal requires, or be stored up in the
tissues in order to serve as a magazine of combustible matter.
This latter view appears the most simple; but before discussing
the experiments which bear it out, it seems necessary to pass in
brief review the notions that have been entertained at different times
on the formation of fat.  When the great burying-place of the Innocents was emptied, for example, it was commonly imagined that
one of the effects of the putrefactive process was to convert the
flesh, the brain, the viscera, &c., into fat-adipocire, as it was
called; it was not, indeed, till after the researches of M. Chevreul
had been undertaken, and that it was discovered adipocire contained
the same acids as human fat, which had, in fact, only been partially
saponified by ammonia, until the inquiries of M. Gay-Lussac were
made public-that it was acknowledged that muscular flesh or fibrine
subjected to putrefaction leaves no larger a quantity of fat than can
be obtained from it by proper solvents before it has undergone any
change: the effect of putrefaction is to destroy the fibrine, and so to
expose the fatty substance which it contained.
It may therefore be said, that all these fortuitous opinions upon
the supposed formation of fat by chemical processes, have vanished
as they have been successively subjected to careful examination.
Let us now turn to the inferences come to by physiology. The
nodies of carnivorous animals are often loaded with fat; and none
can be detected in any of their excretions. It is therefore in these
animals that it must be most easy to ascertain the source or origin,
and mode of disappearance of fatty matter.
When the progress of digestion is watched in a dog, it is soon
discovered that the chyle is far from being a fluid having uniformly
the same characters and qualities. That which is produced under
the influence of a vegetable diet, abounding in the starchy principle
and in sugar, or after a meal of perfectly lean meat, is always and
alike poor in molecules or globules. The chyle is then nearly transparent, extremely serous, and yields very little fat when washed with
ether. But if the animal have a meal of fat food, the chyle that results from it is opaque like cream, very rich in particles, and, digested with ether, yields a large quantity of fatty or oily matter to that
solvent.
These facts, observed by M. Magendie, and confirmed with more
ample details by Messrs. Sandras and Bouchardat, show that the
fatty principles of our food minutely subdivided or made into an
emulsion by the act of digestion, pass without undergoing any essential change into the chyle, and from that into the blood, whither
they can in fact be followed, and in which they can be shown to
remain for a  longer or a shorter time unaltered, at the disposal of 
418    FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.
the economy, as it were.   Such observations have naturally led
physiologists to conclude that the fatty principles of the food were
the principal, if not the only sources whence animals derive the fat
which is met with stored up in their tissues, or which appears in the
butter of their milk. And this view, so long as the carnivorous
tribes alone are considered, has not a single feature which makes it
objectionable. But when we would extend it to the herbivorous
tribes, two difficulties meet us on the threshold of the inquiry.
1st. Do vegetables actually contain such a quantity of fatty matter
in their structure as will explain the fattening of cattle and the formation of milk.
2d. Is it not more simple to suppose fat and butter the product of
certain transformations undergone by starch and sugar in the animal
economy.
It appears at first sight most opposite to nature to suppose that the
feeding ox finds the whole of the fat he lays on ready formed in the
food he eats; it is only, in fact, after having made repeated analyses
of plants, and discovered fatty matters almost everywhere, and in
quantities generally superior to any that had been suspected in the
composition of plants, that the idea begins to acquire likelihood;
finally, the chemist becomes convinced that it is so when he finds a
regular association of neutral azotized substances and fatty principles
in all the articles usually employed as food for cattle,-in the grasses and cereals, in the leaves and stems and seeds of plants.
Fatty substances appear to be principally formed in the leaves,
where they frequently show themselves under the form and with
the properties of wax. Taken into the bodies of animals, mingled
with the blood, and exposed to the influence of the oxygen of the
inspired air, they will undergo an incipient oxidation, whence will
result the stearic or oleic acid that is found as a constituent of suet.
By undergoing a second elaboration in the bodies of the carnivora,
the same fatty substances, oxidated anew, would produce the mar garic acid which characterizes their fat.  These divers principles,
by a still further degree of oxidation, would give rise to the fat vola tile acids which make their appearance in the blood and in the per spiration. Finally, did they suffer complete oxidation, i. e. combus tion, they would be changed into carbonic acid and water, and be in
this shape eliminated from the economy.
Among the various properties possessed by fatty substances, there
is one which may play an important part in the phenomena of fatten ing; this is the solvent power which they severally possess in re gard to one another; the property of mixing in all imaginable pro portions, still preserving the general features which severally dis tinguish them. In the stomach, in the intestines, in the chyle, and
in the blood, fatty substances of various kinds may form homoge neous matters by their intimate admixture, and become divided into
globules of complex composition, but everywhere the same.
Another property of fatty matters of every kind, which deserves
particular attention, is that of insolubility in water.  We  find, inn
fact, that when an animal eats a soluble substance, that in general it 
FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.   419
is consumed by a true process of combustion, which converts its
carbon into carbonic acid, and its hydrogen into water; or otherwise,
it is simply eliminated without change in the urine.
Fatty matters may, indeed, disappear under the first form; but
so long as they escape remarkable modification, it is certain that
they do not pass off by the urine, and that the quantity eliminated
by the perspiration is insignificant. Their insolubility, therefore,
retains them in the economy once they have entered the blood or
the tissues; and it is in virtue of this quality that they constitute a
kind of magazine of combustible matter in the animal body. This
is the principal reason wherefore individuals supplied with food in
excess get fat, and that those insufficiently fed fall lean; the fatty
matter being deposited in the interstices of the tissues in the former
case, being taken up from them and burned in the second.
This explanation is attractively simple; but in our attachment to
it we must not forget that other explanations have also been given;
and in particular it must be contrasted with a view which has been
formed upon certain inquiries undertaken by  M.  Dumas.   It is
known, for instance, that sugar may be regarded as a compound of
carbonic acid, water, and olefiant gas. Now there is nothing to prevent olefiant gas becoming detached and taking different states of
condensation, to give rise to bodies which by undergoing oxidation
would produce fat acids and consequently fats. Since it has been
known that the oil of potato spirit is also met with in the spirit obtained from the refuse of the grape, and in the spirit procured from
malt, and from the molasses of beet-root sugar, the assurance that
the oil is a product of the fermentation of sugar appears to be complete.
We ought even to be prepared to admit a phenomenon of the same
kind as taking place in plants, when we see the sugar of their stems
disappearing in the same ratio as their seeds or fruits become charged with oleaginous matter: all the palms elaborate sugar before
producing oil.
It is upon chemical views of this kind that the second opinion as
to the source of fat in animals has been formed, and which may be
said to stand in direct contrast with that which assumes this substance as pre-existing in the food, which regards it as produced in
the blood itself, under the influences of the most intimate forces of
animal life. For my own part, I adopt the view which supposes an
animal to be supplied with fat already formed, mainly because it
presents itself to me as more in harmony with the facts which I
observe in our stables. Still I do not deny that it may be possible
for a certain quantity of fat to be elaborated in the bodies of herbivorous animals, under the influence of a special fermentation of the
sugar which forms an element in their food; although I feel satisfied,
from practical facts, that sugar plays no essential part in the fatten ing of cattle.
The formation theory, nevertheless, is not without data of a very
curious and important kind, which require notice. Huber had found
that bees fed upon honey, and even upon sugar, did not lose the 
420   FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD,,AND ON FATTENING.
power of producing wax for a long period. And Messrs. Milne
Edwards and Dumas have lately confirmed the occasional accuracy
at least of this conclusion. Their first experiments were unfavorable to the conclusions of the celebrated bee-master of Geneva. A
swarm fed with lump-sugar yielded very insignificant quantities of
wax; three other swarms, placed in glazed hives, and fed on honey
and water, failed to produce any wax; but a fourth swarm gave a
totally different result.
The procedure by analysis was now instituted. The absolute
quantity of wax contained in the body of a bee, or in the bodies of a
certain number of bees, was first ascertained; second, the quantity
of wax in the combs constructed by the laborers was determined;
third, the quantity of wax contained in the honey consumed was discovered. The final result of the inquiry was, that a swarm of 2005
laborers, after having in the course of a month consumed 12889.43
grs. of honey, had produced 2407 grs. of wax.*
Granting the accuracy of this conclusion, admitting that the bee
fed upon honey has the power of producing wax, I might still ask
whether it was therefore legitimate to conclude that the ox was
endowed with any faculty of the same kind? Still, to the interesting
physiological fact above quoted, may be associated the remarkable
fact of the conversion of sugar into butyric acid, observed by Messrs.
Pelouze and Gelis, a conversion effected by mixing a small quantity
of caseum with a solution of sugar, and adding a sufficiency of chalk
to neutralize acid as it was formed. This mixture, placed in a temperature of from 77~ to 86~ F., by and by passes through a series of
changes, the last term of which is the butyric fermentation.
This butyric acid is a volatile, colorless, and very limpid fluid,
having an odor that brings to mind at once that of vinegar and rancid
butter.  Although it has a resemblance to the acids which prevail
in different kinds of fat, it nevertheless, by uniting with glycerine.
constitutes a fatty body, butyrine, which forms about one-hutn(redtli
part in the constitution of butter, and must therefore be received as
one of the elements of the fats; and the observations of Arthur
Young would even incline us to presume that butyric acid exerts a
favorable influence in the fattening of animals. Comparative experiments satisfied Young that hogs fattened more quickly on food that
had become sour, than on the same food before it had turned. Now
it is very probable that there was production of hutyric acid in the
course of the fermentation.
The question in reference to the formation of fat is of much more
limited interest to the farmer than to the physiologist. The agriculturist, in fact, cares little whether a couple of pounds of honey consumned by a hive of bees will give origin to some 10 dwts. or so of
wax; the matter that concerns him is, as to the degree in which
the roots or tubers that he grows are fattening; and whether or not
he can advantageously substitute a cheaper for a more costly article
in his piggery or stalls: And here. as in so many other places,
* Vide Cornptes rendus de lAcad6iriie des Sciences  t. xvii. p. 131. 
FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.    421
practice got the start of theory; and I own, with perfect humility,
that I think its conclusions are in general greatly to be preferred;
the universal custom of giving oil-cake and oleaginous seeds to our
milchl-kine and fatting oxen and sheep, appears to me to supply an
argument of much greater force than any that can be obtained from
chemical researches pursued in the laboratory.
Such articles as the potato and the banana, which answer admirably for the keep of hogs after they are weaned, are not adequate to
fatten them for the butcher; they contain but very small quantities
of fatty matter, and though the animals will grow rapidly upon them,
and even attain to and maintain a certain condition, all that is required can only be secured by adding some other article to the ration
that is richer in oleaginous or fatty principles. At Bechelbronn,
whatever others have said on the subject, we find that our hogs will
not fatten on potatoes alone; so that I agree with Schwertz when
he says, that while hogs will get into good flesh upon potatoes, and
even seem to fatten for a time, they soon cease from improving, and
only begin to advance again when they receive in addition an allowance of barley or of split peas or beans.
A young pig will consume about 13 lbs. of potatoes per diem, into
which, as analysis of the ashes informs us, there enters but about
17.2 grs. of lime.  But this quantity is probably too small to meet
the demand for bone earth in a young animal in full growth, and
hence the great advantage  of the whey or small quantity of skim
milk which is so commonly added to the potato ration.  It ought to
be laid down as a general rule, that young creatures as well as adults
ought to have a ration which contains the earthy elements of the
bony system, the azotized elements of the flesh, and the fatty matter
of the fat.  From a series of experiments which  I undertook, in
concert with Messrs. Dumas and Payen, it appears that all the articles acknowledged the most powerful as fatteners, are those also
that contain the largest proportions of fatty principles.  The following substances contain the numerical quantities of matter soluble in
ether in 100 parts:
Conon maize............. 8.8 Dr y lucern....................  3.5
Beaked Lombardy maize  --...... 7.8   Meadowhay..............a. 3.8
L.arge white Parisian maize  8.1  African wheat straw......... — - -  3.2
Rice....................... 0.8  Ditto Alsace...............- 2.2
Oats.....................5.5  Ditto near Paris............... 2.4
Ditto...................... 3.3   Oat straw...................5.1
Rye **......i —-.................. 1.8   Bean meal.................. 2.1
Rve floor........... —......... —. 3.5   Beans...................... 2.0
Hardl Venezuela wheat- - - - -........ 2.6  Haricots....................3.0
Hard African wheat —----—.......... 2.1  Peas........................ 2.0
Wheat flour.................. 2.1  Lentils.................... — 2.5
Ditto........................1.4   Potatoes..................... 0.08
Fine bran..... —-- -.............. 4. 8 Ma ngel-wurze l..............0.1
Coarse bran.................. 5.2  Carrots...................  0.17
Dryi clover...................4.0  Oil-cake....................9.0
M. Payen found that the oil was everywhere present in the seeds
of gramineous plants. The embryo contains much, the husk less,
the farinaceous portion still less. But maize and oil-cake contain
about 9 per cent., whence the universally admitted superior fattening
power of these two articles.
36 
422    FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND )N FATTENING.
If we now discuss particularly one or more of the rations or
allowances to oxen put up to fatten, or to milch-cows, we shall find
that they uniformly contain a larger quantity of fatty matters than
the secretions, excretions, and fat which have been produced under
their influence. Thus a cow, in good condition, that produces 72
pints of milk, containing 3.3 lbs. of butter, while she eats 220 lbs.
of meadow-hay, will have consumed more than 6.6 lbs. of matter
soluble in ether-fatty substances.  The quantity of fat contained
in the food, over and above that which is discovered in the milk, has
passed with the excrements, which are never entirely free from substances analogous to fatty matters.
With a view to comparing as accurately as is possible in inquiries
of this kind, the quantity of fatty matter contained in the forage
consumed by a cow, with that found in the milk and in the excrements, the following experiment was made. A cow, Esmeralda,
No, 6 in the stable at Bechelbronn, calved on the 26th of September,
and she was put to the bull again on the 4th of November. Up to
the 22d of January (inclusive) Esmeralda received the usual allow
ante, viz:
After-math hay...............11 lbs.
Oil-cake —.......-.........-22 "
Turnips................... 66"
Wheat chaff. -............. 22 "
and the milk she gave in the course of the month of January,
amounted on the
12th......................
13th......................
14th......................
15th......................
16th.....................
17th......................
18th......................
19th......................
20th......................
29st......................
22d......................
The average quantity of milk, therefore, per day, in the course
of the week that preceded the experiment, was 10.287 pints.
From the 23d of January, when the ration was altered to                 Hay............................  16.5 lbs.
Chopped wheat straw............9.9 "
Beet-root........................  4
the quantity of milk yielded was:
Janary.              Pints.   January.              Pints.
23d.-.**......*-.............11.4  27th..................11. 6
24th..................10.5  2th............28*11.4
25th.. —............... -.10.5  29th —...........11.4
26th.-.-.................10.5  30th..................11.4
on an average 11.8 pints per diem; a little more than with the former allowance.
The excrement passed by this cow was analyzed during four days,
from the 24th to the 27th of January; the whole quantity being
weighed moist every day, and well mixed, a mean sample of about 
6 oz. in weight was taken for analysis. This being stove-dried, the
pi.t..
12.9
12.3
12.3
11.4
10.5
12.3
12.3
]2.9
12.3
10.5
11.4
pi.t..
12.3
11.4
11.4
12.3
10.5
11.4
10.5
11.4
11.4
11.4
11.4
Ist to...
d............ —.........
3d..
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
Ilth 
FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.   423
entire quantity of dry matter contained in the moist excrement was
readily ascertained:
Dates.   Moist excrement.        Dry excrement.      Milk in pints.   Milk in lbs.
Jan. 24....... 40.7 lbs.               6.8 lbs.         10.5            13.5
25.......41.8                     7.3              10.5            13.5
26.......' 62.1                   9.0              10.5            13.5
27.......43.4                    7.1             10.5             13.5
- 188.0                 30.2             42.0            54.0
To ascertain the quantity of fatty or waxy substances contained
in the food, the several samples were first treated with hot water,
then with ether, and finally with a mixture of ether and alcohol boiling. The fatty element of the butter was determined by Peligot's
method.
Fatty Matters in the
Food per cet.
1st Experiment............3.6
Hay....................  l2d   dittoE.............3.9
2d   ditto.................9
S~raw~..............    1st Experiment........- 2.4
2d   ditto............2.0
Fatty Matter in the
Excrements and
Milk per cent.
l st Experiment...........3.3
Excrements (dry)...........    t Experit.....n...3.3
M2d ditto..........................................3.7
Milk.... -...............................................3.7
Let us say, that the proportion of fatty substance contained per
cent. in the several articles consumed as food, was  as follows                        Hay..............3.7
Straw...................2.2
Beet................. 0.1
Dry excrements............3.6
Milk...............3.7
and we shall have the results of the experiment in this shape:
FOOD CONSUMED IN FOUR DAYS.         EXCREMENTS AND MILK IN FOUR DAYS.
Fatty matter.                              Fatty matter.
Beet........237.6 lbs. 1667.3 grs.     Excrements........30.4 lbs.  7688.1 grs.
Hay... -..... 66.0  1776.1           Milk...........54.3        14125.7
Straw.... 39.6       6113.4
Fatty matter in excrements
Fatty matter in fiJod.24956.8           and milk.............. 21813.8
The excretions........21813.8
Fatty matter fixed or -
burned............   3143.0
The natural conclusion from this experiment appears to be this:
that the cow extracts from her food almost the whole of the fatty
matter it contains, and that she converts this matter into butter.
It would perhaps be possible to make the proportion of butter
contained in the milk to vary within certain limits. It is well known
that the butter of cows in the same district varies notably according
to the nature and abundance of the forage; the butter of the same
country-side, for example, has been ascertained to contain 66 of
margarine to 100 of oleine in summer, and 186 of margarine to 100
of oleine in winter. In the first case, the cows are grazing on the
mountains, (the Vosges;) in the second they are eating dry fodder
in the stall. I have besides had an opportunity to make a direct
experiment upon this subject, which appears to me quite conclusive
Having substituted for one half the allowance of hay an equivalent 
424    FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.
quantity of rape-cake, still very rich in oil, the cows were kept in
excellent condition; but the butter was extremely soft, and had the
taste of rape-seed oil to a degree that was perfectly intolerable.
1 do not know a single instance in any of the systems followed at
Beehelbronn, in which a milch-cow does not receive in her ration a
quantity of latter analogous to fat, superior to that which is contained in the milk she yields.  Having upon a certain occasion put
a cow exclusively upon beet, I anticipated an unfavorable effect on her
nilk; and in fact a very sensible diminution in all its valuable elements occurred, and the animal began to suffer. By simply adding
a few pounds of straw which had been taken away, the milk resumed
its standard quality. The two rations thus composed may be contrasted under the two points of view of contents in fat and contents
in organic matter.
In the ration of beet and straw (beet 119 lbs., straw 71 lbs.) there
w;ere 140 dwts. 20 grs. of fatty matter; in that composed exclusively
of beet (132 lbs.) there were but 38 dwts. 14 grs. of fat.'The ill effects
of the beet-root ration could not be ascribed to deficiency of inorganic
elements, for the phosphate of lime it contained amounted to 37 dwts.
7 grs.-amply sufficient for all the purposes of the economy.
The information we have from M  Damoiseau, one of the most
careffil of the observers who have investigated the subject of the
production of milk, confirms us in our views of the necessity of fatty
matters in the daily ration of the milch-cow. The following are
the elements of three of the rations for a cow in M. Damoiseau's
establishment.
No. 1.              No. 2.               No. 3.
Beet, or mangel-wnrzel.. 88 lbs.   Carrots  74 lbs.    Potatoes 55 lbs.
Bran........ -......... 6.6 " 6.6 " 6.6
Pollard............... 5.5 " 5.5                            "     5.5
Lucern................ 6.6            "      6.6           "      6.6
Oat-straw.............13.2 " 13.2                               13.2
Salt -.......-............ 0.11 " 0.11                      "     0.11
121.0              107.0                88.0
Maximum.          Medium.     Minimum.
*Quantity of milk yielded.. From 25 to 26 pts.   16 to 18 pts.   124 pts.
I,et us now calculate the actual nutritive value of the different
items in the above rations; or, selecting one, let us take that with
the beet for particular consideration, as among the most usual.
6.6 lbs. of bran and 5.5 lbs. of pollard at.... 5 per cent. —0.60 of fatty matter
6.6 lbs. lucern........................... 3   =0.33 
13.2 lbs. oat-straw...................... 5   "    =0.60
1.53
Whence it follows, that a cow here received upwards of 13 lbs.
of matter of a fatty nature with her food-a quantity more than sufficient to produce not only 16 or 18, but the maximum quantity of
25 or 26 pints of milk, very rich in cream. Did the cow receive an
additional 40 lbs. of beet-root, she would find something like 12 lbs.
more of solid matter in this article composed especially of sugar,
which she would burn to keep up her temperature, and nearly 25
dwts. of oily matter, which she would transfer to her milk,-to say 
FATTY ELEMIENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.    425
nothing of new azotized principles which would be converted into
caseine.
If we now, by an easy transition, pass to the phenomena of fattening, we still find that the principles which have been laid down can
be most satisfactorily applied. Setting out from the numbers obtaintied from the experiments of Mr. Riedesel, which, in many points,
agree with all I have seen myself, we arrive at the following conclusions.
An ox weighing 1320 lbs. avoird. will keep up his weight upon
about 22 lbs. of good hay per diem.   Put up to fatten, the same animal would require about twice this quantity, say 44 lbs., upon which
he would gain at the rate of about 2 lbs. per day.
N,ow, if we even take Mr. Riedesel's conclusions as a little too favorable, as giving at least the maximum nutritive value to the hay and
its equivalents, we may still admit, with him, that 22 lbs. of hay will
produce about 17 pints of milk, or about 2 lbs. avoird. of flesh, containing 0.55 lbs., or rather more than 2 lb. of fat. Now, 22 lbs. of
hay contain nearly 12 oz. 12 dwts. of principles soluble in ether,
i. e. of fatty or waxy matter.
The fatting ox, consequently, fixes a certain proportion of these
principles in the same way as the cow. There is only this difference, that the cow returns with the milk she yields a considerable
quantity of the fat she finds in her food. There consequently exists
an obvious relation between the formation of milk and fattening-a
position which would gain support, did it require any, from a note
which I owe to the politeness of M. Yvart, who, in summing up a
long array of facts, concludes with these words: "The secretion of
milk appears to alternate with that of fat. When a milch-cow fattens, she loses her milk;" and the converse of the proposition is no
less true; when we would fatten a cow, we must let her go dry.
The breeds of kine admitted to be the best milkers remain long
lean after the calving. In some of the short-horned English breeds,
the quantity of milk is often very considerable shortly after the
calving; but the animals are much disposed to get fat, and getting
fat, the secretion of milk neither continues so long, nor is it so plentiful, as in some of the other less improved kinds. English hogs,
which become much fatter than French hogs, appear not to be such
good nurses.   Now, if we admit that there is this intimate relation
between the formation of milk and that of fat, we are obviously very
near the admission, that articles of food containing fatty substances
indispensable to the production of milk, are also indispensable to the
production of animal fat. And, then, has it ever yet happened that
animals have been fattened with food devoid of grease? I have not,
for my own part, met with a single fact which countenances such a
proposition.  I have referred to the distinguished agriculturist, who
attempted to fatten pigs upon potatoes, but who only succeeded by
adding a certain quantity of graves to the food-an article which, as
every one knows, contains a considerable proportion of fat in its composition.
M. Payen has, in fine, made some experiments which appear alto                               36* 
426    FATTY ELEMENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.
gether conclusive, and from which it follows, that two Hampshire
hogs which, having consumed 66 lbs. of gluten, and upwards of 301
lbs. of starch, had only gained 17- lbs.; while other two animals of
the same breed, having been fed with 99 lbs. of the flesh of sheeps'
heads, containing from 12 to 15 per cent. of fat, had gained 35 lbs.
Yet, judging from elementary analysis, these two rations were almost
identical; they contained the same quantity of dry nutritious matter.
The first ration contained 26.4 lbs. of dry gluten, and 30.4 lbs. of
starch; the second contained 20.9 lbs. of dry flesh, and 15.4 lbs. of
fat. The quantities of carbon and azote were, therefore, a little
higher in the vegetable than in the animal ration; but they differed
notably in this, that the latter contained an equivalent of fat for the
equivalent of starch contained in the former.
In a second experiment, four hogs, fed upon boiled potatoes, carrots, and a little rye, gained 117.7 lbs.; while other four animals,
of the same age, and in the same conditions, but fed upon sheeps'
heads, gained as many as 226.6 lbs.
In the course of these experiments, M. Payen was struck with
this circumstance, that the increase in weight of an animal that is fattening being represented by 50 per cent. of water, 33.3 of fat, and
16.6 of azotized matter, the conviction is forced upon us that he actually fixes the greater proportion of the fat of his food in the cellular tissue of his body. The first hogs, for example, had eaten 14.74
lbs. of fat, and had gained 11.44 lbs. in weight; the four last referred to had had 18.48 of grease, and had increased 14.74 lbs. in
weight.
It has now been the practice for several years, in various places,
to maintain hogs in considerable numbers upon muscular flesh, horseflesh; and it has been ascertained that the article, if extremely
lean, though it keeps the animals in good heart and condition, though
they grow and thrive on it, yet they will not fatten. When they are
to be got ready for the butcher, they must, in addition, be put upon
a course that is known to be proper to fatten them.
The scientific question of fattening having, of late years, attracted
very general attention, the opinions which have now been announced
have been very actively contested. Among other arguments, the
general freedom from fat of the bodies of carnivorous animals, and
the usual fat state of those of the herbivorous races, has been cited.
Whales have even mistakenly been included in the list of fat vege table feeders; but it is known to all naturalists, that the great majority of the whale tribes, the whole of those that inhabit the northern
seas, are carnivorous. And, indeed, the mention of this fact leads
me to revert to one of the most curious problems in the physics of
the globe-that, to wit, presented by the vast amount of animal life
amidst the waters of the ocean, and its support by a quantity of
vegetables which to us appear altogether inadequate to such an end.
The beautiful researches of M. Morren, however, seem calculated
to throw some light on this interesting subject,-that inquirer having
shown that certain animalcules possess the faculty of decomposing
carbonic acid in the same way as vegetables; and it is probably in 
FATTY ELEMIENTS OF FOOD, AND ON FATTENING.    427
virtue of this power that the enigma is to be explained, of the source
whence the myriads that people the deep derive their food.
But is it absolutely true that herbivorous animals only abound in
fat!  W*ho has not seen fat dogs and cats; and in the Cordilleras,
where palm-trees abound, there is a particular species of bear, which
lives in a great measure on the oily palm-nuts and young shoots of
the palm-tree, which becomes remarkably fat, and proves a great
attraction to the tigers of the country.*
Before coming to a close with this discussion, I think it right to
refer to the experiments of M. Magendie, who has so well established the fact, that the chyle of animals fed on fat food contains a large
quantity of fat; and that animals kept long on such food frequently
become affected with what is called the fatty liver.t
To sum up, then, experiment demonstrates that hay contains a
larger quantity of fatty matter than the milk and excretions which it
forms; and that it is the same with all the other mixtures and varieties of food that are usually given to animals.
That oil-cake increases the production of butter, and that, like
maize, it owes the fattening properties it possesses to the large
quantity of oil it contains.
That there is the most perfect analogy between the production
of milk and the fattening of animals; that potatoes, beet, carrot, and
turnip, only fatten when they are conjoined with substances that
contain fitty matters, such as straw, corn, bran, and oil-cake of
various kinds.
That in equal weights, gluten mixed with starch, and flesh mneat
abounding in fat, have a fattening influence on the hog, which differs
in the relation of 1 to 2.
Lastly, that fat food-food which will afford fat in the digestive
canal-appears to be the indispensable condition of fattening. If it
be necessary that the respiration be diminished or lessened in extent,
this is only that the fatty substances taken into the stomach, and
which have made their way into the blood, may not be oxidated,
may not be burned; not that their formation may be favored.
All these facts are in such perfect harmony with the simple view
of assumption and assimilation of fatty matters, that it is difficult to
conceive on what foundation the opinion can repose which would
have them composed out of their elements in the animal body.
Nevertheless, I am myself the first to admit, that more extensive
experience may lead to the modification or even entire change of
the opinion which I advocate. The facts on which that opinion is
based, despite their number, are not probably yet sufficient to constitute a perfectly satisfactory or conclusive theory. New researches
* These bears, evidently, cease to be carnivorous while they live on palm-nuts and
leaves.  For my own part, I do not think the point settled yet.  The fatty matter of
the generality of vegetables is wax rather than grease. And then some of the herbivorous tribes seem never to get fat.-ENG. ED.
t I may here state the contrary fact, as announced to me by a physiological friend,
in whose report I place great reliance, that the chyle of animals fed with substances
that give mere traces of waxy matter, contains fat or oil that can be collected in larga
i psP-ENG ED. 
ECONOMY r F FARM ANIMALS.
are, therefore, indispensable  it would be requisite to show, that a
cow kept on a regimen abundant in point of quantity, but as poor as
possible in matters analogous to fat, will continue to maintain her
condition and yet yield milk abounding in cream; and that it is
really possible, as some persons affirm, to fatten animals rapidly on
roots and tubers alone.*
CHAPTER IX.
)F THE ECONOMY OF THE ANIMALS ATTACHED TO A FARM.
OF STOCK IN GENERAL, AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE
PRODUCTION OF MANUIRE.
AGRICULTURAL industry generally extends to the breeding and fattening of cattle; the breeding, or at all events the maintenance, of
horses; the breeding, and feeding of sheep and swine.   The  cir
cumstances, indeed, in which the tiller of the ground sees himself
spared the necessity of attending to these matters, are rare exceptions to the general rule, and in fact only occur where it is easy to
obtain abundant supplies of manure from without, or in those few
favored spots where the fertility of the soil is such that it continues
to yield its increase without addition in the shape of manure. In
the vicinity of great centres of population, where dung can be bought
cheap, or of guano islands, where a cargo costs a trifle, and in some
tropical countries, large farming establishments may be found totally without stock in the shape of sheep and horned cattle.   But in
a general way the agriculturist is obliged to give himself up to the
care of flocks and herds of one description or another; and, in fact,
we now know that there is a certain and very indispensable relation
to be maintained between the extent of surface under crop and the
number of cattle to be provided for, variable as regards farms differently situated and circumstanced; but invariable when circutimstances are the same, and the system of management pursued is
similar in its principal features.
The question as to whether the cultivation of grain or other useful plants, or the rearing of cattle, is more profitable, which is often
agitated, must receive a different solution in regard to each different
locality. In one place it may be more advantageous to breed cattle
or horses; in another to rear or fatten them: here, the production
of milk, butter, and cheese, may be the best husbandry; there, the
growth of hay, (as for miles round London on the north and west;)
and again, wheat and the other cereal grasses may be the staples of
* WVhoever would try experiments in this direction, must be careful to mix his food;
one article alone never agrees. The Americans sy, a pig w.ill (lie upon pumpkins and
upon apples alone; but he will live and fatten onl a mixture of thle two. I have myself seen scores of oxen fattened upon ournips, with a moderate allowance of straw or
bog-hay; and have seen pigs get into admirable condition for the butcher on little more
than potatoes.-ENG. ED.
428 
ECONOMY OF FARM ANIMALS.
prod iction. Even supposing that the growth of grain is that which
is most advantageous on the whole, it by no means follows that the
farmer shall give himself up to this exclusively; it is seldom that
he can do so, indeed; he must have manure, and this entails the
necessity of keeping cattle.  If the latter, however, be the least
profitable item in the economy of a particular domain, it will of
course be kept within as nar;ow limits as possible.
In many places where the land is well adapted to the plough, and
where the production of grain is unquestionably profitable, stock appears to offer few advantages; it sometimes happens, indeed, that the
balance as regards the stall and cow-house is on the wrong side for
the farmer, when the actual value of the forage that has been consumed is taken into the account. The loss is only made up for by the
manure, which is in fact the return. This is the view that M. Crud
obviously takes when he speaks of the stock upon a farm as a necessary evil.* I am far from participating in his opinion; the cattle
ul)on a farm are no evil, though they may be very necessary. To
be satisfied of this, it is enough, in fact, to recollect the principle
which has been established in treating of rotation courses, viz:
That in no case is it possible to export a larger quantity of organic
matter, and particularly of organic azotized matter, from a farm,
than is represented by the excess of the same description of matter
coutaiied in the manure consumed int the course of the rotation.
By acicting otherwise, the standard fertility of the soil would inevi
tably be diminished.
This principle recognised, and I believe that it cannot be disputed,
it is obvious that a portion of the produce of the fields must be returned to them to fecundate them anew, and it is precisely this portion of the forage crops destined to furnish manure that must be
consumed in the stable and cow-house.   Reasoning abstractly, the
forage plants which it is not intended should quit the farm, might be
buried directly as manure, without being made to pass through the
bodies of animals; their fertilizing influence on the soil would come
out sensibly the same; and this is what is done, in fact, so often as
we manure  by smothering.  But we  have scarcely made the first
step in the rudiments of agriculture before we discover the immense
advantages of following the usual custom, which first employs as
forage fbr cattle the crops that are grown with a view to the production of manure. And we shall by and by find, in fact, that by
adding to that portion of these crops a supplement of forage plants
which it would be legitimate to export, without trenching upon the
fuindamental principle above laid down, we obtain the same quantity
of nmanure, and turn the whole of this supplement into useful forces,
or into animal products which possess a market value greatly superior to that of the forage before its assimilation.  It is only the price
of this portion of the forage, fixed or modified by the cattle on the
farm, which can fairly be set down  to the debit account of wool
grownr., of power created, and of flesh and dairy articles produced.
* Theoret. and Pract. Economy of Agricul. vol. ii. p. 235, (in French.)
429 
HORNED CATTLE.
As to the forage plants which are immediately turned into manute,
it seems to me impossible to regard them as possessed of the proper
market value; the farmer could not have sold them at this.  In my
mode of looking at the thing, the cost of producing the forage crop,
and the value that it actually has, constitute a circulating capital,
the annual interest of which, estimated at a certain rate, expresses
the true cost-price or value of the manure employed in the  3ourse
of a rotation. In a word, in my eyes, the value of the manure
which gives fertility to the soil is represented by the price of the
labor, the rent charge, &c.-by the general outlay entailed by the
growth of the forage from which it is obtained.
[ shall endeavor, by and by, to illustrate this topic by examples
but in order thoroughly to understand this mode of estimating the
price of manure, there are several elements wanting, which I propose to assemble in this chapter. With this view, I shall first present the facts which I have been able to collect, or which I have
myself had an opportunity of observing in reference to the economy
of the domestic animals attached to a farm; and I shall then make
an attempt to deduce the relation that exists between the consumption of forage and litter, animal reproduction and increase, and the
formation of manure.
~ HORNED CATTLE.
It were foreign to the purpose of this work, did I enter into the
natural history of the animals that are usually attached to farming
establishments  neither will I pretend to discuss the relative merits
of the different breeds of sheep and oxen, nor speak of the best
methods of improving them.   I confine myself to the varieties which
I have on my own farm, or which I see on the farms of my neigh
bors, and upon which I have opportunity of making daily observations. It will be enough if I give a brief summary, in this place,
of the general principles admitted by practical men of the highest
name and authority upon these points.*
Between the external fiorms of animals and the internal organs
essential to life, there is the most obvious and intimate connection.
A broad and deep chest is the sure indication of ample lungs and a
good general constitution. The pelvis, or bony cincture formed by
the lump and haunches, ought to be spacious in the females.   A
small head is generally the indication of a good kind. Horns in our
domestic animals must be regarded as objectionable rather than useful; and by adopting measures which tend to repress their growth,
we undoubtedly favor both the production of flesh and wool. The
strength of animals depends far more on the degree in which their
muscular system is developed than on the mass of their bones; it is,
besides, flesh, not bone, that has value in the butcher's eyes; so
that the farmer's business is by all means to strive after a delicate
but well-covered skeleton. Animals which have been indifferently
* Cline, in General Report of Scotland; Communication to the Board of Agriculture; Spencer on the choice of male animals for breeding from; Cully's Introduction, 
kc., on live stock, &c.
430 
BREEDING.
fed while young, have often the bony system very disproportionately
developed.
Two modes are generally followed with a view to improving the
external shape of domestic animals. One of these consists in only
breeding fronm animals of the most faultless forms of the same race,
and generally of close degrees of kindred; another in crossing
females with the males of a neighboring race, each possessing in
the greatest degree the qualities which it is held desirable to transmit to the future race. The former of these plans is spoken of as
the method of breeding in and in; the second as the method  by
crossing.
Certain disadvantages have been stated as belonging to the system of breeding in, by the side of several unquestionable and more
immediate advantages.  While the race acquires smtall bones and
shows a decided disposition to take on fat readily, it is said after
several generations to lose in constitution, to become more subject
to disease;^ the cows to give less milk, and the males, inclosing their
characteristic masculine forms, to show themselves less fit for propagation. The English breeders who take this view of the subject,
are, therefore, in the habit of having recourse to males of the same
race, but bred at a distance from themselves. I must for my own
part say, that I have seen no reason to admit any ill effects from
propagation continued in the same direct line.  Our live-stock at
Bechelbronn has not been otherwise renewed for a very long time,
and without the race appearing to suffer in any way; our bulls, on
the contrary, have very much improved.
Mr. Cline insists greatly on the selection of females not only of
good shape, but so much above the mean height as to approach the
standard of the males.  When the bull is very much larger than the
cow, the progeny is apt to fall off instead of improving; the reason
for which Mr. Cline finds in the large size of the foetus, the issue
of a large male, which a small female can neither accommodate
properly in her womb, send easily into the world, nor suckle duly
when it is born. Whatever we think of this explanation, there can
be no doubt of the propriety of giving the principle pointed at the
most careful consideration in practice. Mr. Cline refers to the great
improvement that has been effected in the breed of English horses
mainly through crosses with small barbs and Arabian stallions; the
introduction of Flemish mares would upon the same principle have
been another means of still further improving the race. The neglect of this principle, Mr. Cline is of opinion, lies at the bottom of
the numerous failures and disappointments that have been encountered in attempts to improve the breed of horses. A striking illustration of it occurred some years back, when bay horses of great
height  were in particular request; the Yorkshire breeders had
their mares covered by the tallest stallions that could be found; but
they immediately found that the progeny was merely long-legged,
that it was narrow-chested, and without either weight or bottom.
Spencer acknowledges with breeders in general that the bodily
and constitutional qualities are almost always those that preponder
431 
IMANAGEMENT OF CATTLE.
ated in ancestors, and that the qualities of the father predominate
in the posterity particularly as regards oxen and sheep. This point
settled, the choice of a good male is evidently the first point of consequence in attempting to improve a breed. As it is not possible,
however, to find either a bull, or a tup, or a stallion, quite perfect,
the one must be chosen that is most free from defect, particularly
the defect or defects which we have it in view to correct in our
breeding animnals, our cows, ewes, and mares. Certainly no reasonable breeder would bring together animals that presented similar deficiencies; on the contrary, he will strive to have his female served
by the male which shows all the qualities in the very highest degree
that are most wanting in her. On the whole, the association of
animals of the same race appears to me the best mode of continuing
desirable qualities, especially when this is conjoined with ample supplies of good food to the young. The influence of feeding is im mense; in my own neighborhood I see that the progeny of the
Bechell)roon bulls are often inferior both in stature and shape to
those that are brought up in our own stables.
Great size, however, is not always to be regarded as an improve ment; height is by no means a constant indication of vigor of con stitution.   Improvement in those particulars of form and stature
which are ascertained to be best suited to the circumstances of the
locality, the climate, the pasture, &c., are the points to be especially
attended to. It is above all indispensable to breed animals of vigor ous constitution: over-refinement of original races has often led to
indifferent conformation of body, and to undoubted delicacy of con stitution, whichl has rendered the herd or the flock much more ob  noxious to attacks of epizootic diseases.
The degree of refinement of an original stock is evidently con  nected with the quantity and quality of the forage of the district.
In cold and mountainous districts, where the herbage is scanty, it is
necessary to restrain the ambition of having highly-improved stock
waithin considerably narrow limits; in such circumstances, the grand
affair is to have a hardy race, not over nice in its food, which, through
a considerable portion of the year, consists of but coarse grass.
The ox (bos taurus) has been reduced to domesticity from the
remotest ages, and nothing but conjecture can be offered with regard
to its original race. The animal accommodates himself with won  derful facility to the most opposite climatic circumstances; he mul  tiplies with astonishing rapidity in the hottest regions of the tropics;
unknown at the period of the conquest, he has now overrun the
steppes of the vast basins of the Oronoco and the Amazons; and
is met with in vast herds on the highest and coldest table-lands of
the Andes, even uip to the line of perpetual snow; wherever there
is food, ie appears to thrive; the extremes of temperature seem to
have little or no influence upon him.
The buffalo (the bos bubulus of naturalists) is the only other mem   ber of this family that has been domesticated. He is fond of warmth,
and is supposed to have been introduced into Italy towards the sixth
century, from Eastern Asia. The buffalo is also found in Hungart
432 
MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE.
and Greece; and wherever he is met with, he is made serviceable
as a beast of draught and burden, and as food.
In breeding oxen, the great consideration is the bull. According
to Thaer, the bull ought to have a short thick neck, the head short
and small, the forehead broad and curled, the eyes black and sparkling, the ears long and well placed, the chest broad and deep, the
body long, the legs short and columnar in shape.* A well-made
bull would serve seventy or eighty cows were the season spread
equally over the whole year; but as it is not so, Thaer thinks that
twenty is as many as can properly be given to the same animal; and
this, in fact, is the number which we adopt at Bechelbronn.
The cow gives more milk than any animal known. A great vatiety of external signs of a good milker have been particularized;
but it may be said that there is none infallible. In a general way, I
think that race has much to do with the point; the cow that is the
offspring of a mother of a good kind, and a free milker, will herself
be a good milker also. I will only add, that among the milch-kine
which I have had an opportunity of observing, those that showed
little tendency to take on fat, while they kept their appetite, have appeared to me to yield milk in largest quantity, and for the longest time.
The age at which it is advisable to put heifers to the bull, depends
a good deal on the way in which they have been kept and brought
up, and also on their growth. Young animals of a good kind, that
have been well fed from the birth, and received all the care which
contributes so powerfully to their development, will be ready to receive the bull when they are between a year and a half and two
years old. At Bechelbronn, we bull the greater number of our
heifers at the age of about eighteen months. Whenever they enter
into heat with any thing like force, whatever their age, they ought
to be put to the bull, or there is risk of the disposition to receive him
dying away, and never returning; the heifer then begins to lay on
fat, and ever after refuses the male. The rule, however, is not to
allow the young female to be leaped until she is nearly at her full
growth; this, in fact, is the season when the desire for the male
usually first shows itself.
If there be no new indication of heat in the course of three or
four weeks after the male has been admitted, there is reason to believe that the animal is pregnant. The cow goes with calf about
forty weeks; the delivery generally takes place between the 277th
and the 299th day after the access of the bull; but periods so short
as 240 days, and others so long as 321 days, have been observed.t
The calf that is brought up with proper care is generally allowed
to suck for five or six weeks; but it sometimes happens that even
at three weeks old the quantity of milk supplied by the mother is
insufficient; an additional quantity of food is therefore requisite.
One of the best drinks for calves is made by mixing a proper quantity
of oil-cake with tepid water; the large proportion of vegetable caseum, of oily matter, and of phosphates which the substance contains,
* Principles of Agriculture, vol. iv. p. 296.
t Teissier in Annals of French Agriculture, vol. ix. 2d series.
37
433 
REARING CALVES.
makes it peculiarly appropriate food for calves; diffused in water, it
in fact bears a close resemblance to milk in point of chemical composition. It is now, too, that the calf begins to play with a little
hay, so that it is always advisable to place some within its reach,
the finest and softest portions being picked out.
But it is by no means necessary that the calf should ever be allowed to suck; it drinks without difficulty, or can be made to drink, as
every dairy man and woman knows, by putting a finger or two into
the animal's mouth under the surface of the drink. A little warm
water is added to the milk during the first few days, in order to give
it due warmth.  Some begin from the very first to measure the
milk; but those who are best informed upon the subject of breeding
and rearing do nothing of the kind. Crud allows his calves to drink
as much milk as they will take for the first week. After this time
they have an allowance of about seven pints of new milk mixed with
the same quantity of fresh whey. They are weaned at seven weeks.
From the age of between nine and ten weeks to a year, a calf will
consume about a fourth of the ration of a grown cow, say 612 lbs. of
hay per diem. During the second year, the allowance of hay may
be estimated at about 13 lbs., or a little more; and in the third year
it will amount to between 19 and 20 lbs. This is to be understood
of cattle brought up carefully but frugally.
In some of the best dairies of Switzerland, the procedure is different.
During the first six weeks the calves are allowed to drink as much
milk as they will take without a surfeit. At a month old they are
served with chopped hay and roots, or better still, if the season admits of it, with green clover or lucern, which they have at discretion
till they are seventy days old.  Treated in this way, a calf is nearly
twice as large and twice as heavy as one that has been brought up
economically. During the remaining 295 days that make up the
first year, the animal is allowed from 8 to 9 lbs. of hay; and this
quantity is doubled during the second year. By proceeding in this
way, a heifer at two years old may herself be a mother and contributing to the produce of the dairy.
Our procedure at Bechlielbronn is calculated on the Swiss plan.
The calves suck till they are six or seven weeks old, being put to
the cows night and morning. Any thing they leave is milked off.
After numerous trials by gauging and weighing, I find that our
calves take each during the forty-two days they are allowed to suck,
from 528 to 600 pints of milk; in other words, from 142 to 182 pints
per diem.  The quantity of milk which a calf takes immediately
after its birth, does not indeed amount to any thing like even the
smaller of these quantities: still it is considerable.
A calf which weighed at its birth on the 18th of May 108.9 lbs.,
after having sucked, weighed 112.4 lbs.; so that it had taken 3.5 lbs.
of milk to its meal; and as it had two of these in the day, 7.0 lbs.
in all. The same calf, thirteen days afterwards, weighed 130.91 lbs.;
and after having sucked, 139.0 lbs.; it had therefore taken 8.1 lbs.
to its meal, or 16.2 lbs. per day.
About the third week after birth, our calves have hay of the best
434 
REARING CALVES.
quality set before them; they take very little at first, but they soon
get accustomed to it, and at weaning time it commonly suffices for
their support. It may happen, however, that at this period they fall
off a little, but they soon recover again; still, if any of them appear
delicate, it will be prudent to allow about a couple of quarts of milk
a day mixed with water, for some little time, which is gradually
withdrawn as the animal becomes accustomed to its new food.
Calves grow with great rapidity during the suckling time.  The
only experimental data with which I am acquainted in regard to the
increase of weight of calves during the first period of their lives, are
those of M. Perrault de Jotemps. These observations I shall associate with those which I have myself made at Bechetbronn, where,
by a happy coincidence, we have the same Swiss race of cattle as
Messrs. Perrault at Feuillasse. The weight of three calves at birth
was found by M. Perrault to be:
No. 1........................70.4 lbs.
No. 2....................83.8
No. 3........................80.8
Average....................... 78.0
At Bechelbronn the weight of six calves at birth was:
No. 1, born in May................ 108.9 lbs.
February............ 88.0
Ditto..................90.2
April............ 100.1
June................ 88.8
May............. 101.2
Average......................96.2
M. Ernest Perrault found that a calf, No. 1, during the first
eighteen days of its life increased on an average 2.8 lbs. per diem;
No. 2 increased at the rate of 1.8 lbs. per day; and No. 3 at the
rate of 2.7 lbs. per day; average increase, 2.4 lbs. per day. Another calf, born at Feuillasse, which weighed 101.2 lbs., when nineteen days old weighed 151.2 lbs; so that it had gained 50 lbs., or at
the rate of 2.6 lbs. per diem; a rate which corresponded precisely
with what was observed in the case of nine other calves fed for the
butcher, the average increase of which per diem was 2.7 lbs., during
whi(.h each has had about 19.3 pints of milk daily.
The conclusions come to at Bechelbronn bear a close resemblance
to those of Feuillasse:
A calf which at birth weighed.... 108.9 lbs.
Weighed 13 days afterwards...... ]139.0
Increase in 12 days.............. 30.1   Increase per day, 2.5 lbs.
A calf born 12th of Feb. weighed.. 88.0 lbs.
On the 30th of March it weighed.. 171.6
Increase in 46 days.............. 83.6  Increase per day, 1.8.
The same calf, weaned the 21st of
April, weighed................193.6 lbs.
Increase in 21 days.............. 22.0   Increase per day, 1.03.
It is obvious, therefore, that from the time of weaning, the growth
teases to be so rapid; the transition from the milk diet to one of
435 
REARING CALVES.
hard dry food, is often critical for young animals; and I have al.
ready said that it is one at which they frequently lose weight.
If we reckon the daily increase from birth, that is to say, for 69
days of mixed alimentation, we have 1.5 lb. for the quantity.
Crescent, born the 27th of June, weighed...  88.8 lbs.
Eleven days later........................ 112.1
Increase..............................       per day, 2.1 lb
At the age of 37 days he weighed......... 188.1
Increase in 26 days....................... 27.1   per day, 2.5
Six days afterwards he weighed.......... 202.4
Increase in 6 days.......................   14.3   per day, 2.3
Another calf at birth weighed.............. 101.2
At weaning, aged 41 days.................. 189.2
Increase.................................. 88.0   per day, 2.1
These various observations give about 2.2 lbs. for the average
daily increase of a calf in weigoht during the period it is sucking.
The data of M. Perrault make it a little higher, 2.7 lbs. So that it
may be assumed that a calf which is receiving from 15 to 19 pints
of milk in the day, will be gaining 2.48, or very nearly 21- lbs. in
weight per diem.
It will readily be understood that in places where milk is of con    siderable value, as in the neighborhood of cities, the farmer may find
his profit in selling that article directly rather than in turning it into
veal or beef, more especially if the usage of the district be to give
the calves milk till they are three or even four months old. Noth   ing, in my eyes, can justify such a needless expenditure of milk
especially since I have had an opportunity of witnessing what I may
call the natural course of rearing cattle in the steppes of South
America.   There the young animals only receive milk in any thing
like quantity for two or three weeks; they soon get accustomed to
live on grass. In the warmer countries of the earth, too, cows give
much less milk than they do in temperate latitudes, and the secre  tion also dries up much sooner. The value of the milk, and the
high price of butter and cheese, are unquestionably at the bottom
of the immense slaughter that takes place in France among the
calves, even at a very early age, when they are fat, but do not weigh
more  than from  110 to 112 lbs.  This circumstance undoubtedly
stands in the way of the production of meat in that country, and
causes the notorious scarcity of meat of the best quality. Of the
too millions of calves which it is calculated are slaughtered in
France, I! lths are killed before they are a month old, and when they
do not weigh, one with another, more than from 90 to 110 lbs. But
we have seen that at two months old the weight will have increased
to from 154 to 176 lbs., more than half as much again; so that, by
merely keeping the animals for one month more, the quantity of
butcher-meat brought to market would be increased by about
120,000,000 lbs.*
It does not by any means follow, however, as the excellent authority I have quoted seems to think, that this increase of butcher.
meat would add to the actual amount of food isproduced by the agri            * Perrault de Joterops, in Journal d'Agriculture, t. v.
436 
REARING CALVES.
cultural industry of the country. To produce 2 lbs. of veal, in fact,
I have shown that something like 22 lbs. of milk must be consumed;
but it is evident, that 1,200,000,000 of pounds of milk represent an
amount of nutritive matter superior in value to 120,000,000 of pounds
of veal.  Could the production of the additional quantity of meat in
the course of the second month be effected by means of any other
food less costly than milk, which is itself a fluid of great value as
food, with ordinary forage, for example, or linseed tea, or oil-cake,
&c., the state of the question would be changed, and there would
then be no doubt of the advantage to the community of the additional supply of butcher-meat. This indeed is so well understood,
that all the efforts which have been made to improve upon the ordinary and simply natural mode of rearing young cattle have been
directed with a view to economizing milk. The interesting work
of AI. Ernest Perrault, from which I am about to make several extracts, was not written with any other purpose.
M. Perrault set out with the view of ascertaining experimentally,
1st, whether the large quantity of milk generally allowed to sucking
calves is really indispensable, and whether it is possible to diminish
it without detriment to the animals; 2d, whether a portion of the
milk can be replaced by hay-tea, an article prepared by pouring 14
or 15 pints of boiling water upon a pound of fine meadow-hay, and
infusing for a few hours.
The observations were made upon three calves taken after weaning.  A was kept for 94 days on the usual allowance to calves at
Feuillasse; B had a smaller quantity of milk, and from the 42d day
after birth had an increasing allowance of solid food; C in the
course of the comparative experiment had 476 pints of hay-tea, and
as it is impossible to regard the infusion as of higher nutritive value
than the article from which it is prepared, I shall set down this drink
as equal to 28-1 lbs. of hay. The allowance of milk was stopped 48
days after the weaning.
A, B, and C were kept on their respective rations for 95 days.
The three were kept for the first 18 days on milk entirely, during
which it was calculated that each had had from the mother 337
pints. Here are the rations in a tabular and comparative manner.
A.                               B.                         C.
I
On the usual allowance.  On a reduced allowance of          On hay-tea.
milk.
o, 
lbs.
396   Food, 95 days.. 
..  Suckling, 18 days
396 Days 113........
- -
:zc
Fool, 95 days..
Suckling, 18 days
Days 113........
37~
p
I
I
8
0
0
8
8
437
'5
I 
Fo d 94days...1460
Suockiing, 18 day-, 348
Days 112........ 180
'A
'5
g
,, Z
cz 
lbs.
374
374
lb .
591
591
],-)16
348
1564
23
34
58 
REARING CALVES.
It would have been desirable to have had these three calv es
weighed immediately after the termination of the experiment; as
this was not done, the results have not the whole of the precision
that seems desirable.   Nevertheless, M. Perrault from his observa
tions concludes:
1st. That A, kept on milk alone, weighed at birth... 88 lbs
At the age of 452 days............................. 771.0
Total increase..........683.0
Increase per day......... 1.5
2d. That B, on the reduced allowance of milk,
weighed at birth..........................83.6 lbs
At the age of 224 days......................404.2
Total increase.......... 320.6
Increase per day.......... 1.4
3d. That C, on hay-tea, weighed at birth      -...........111.2 lbs.
At the age of 101 days........ -— *-..        270.6
Total increase............159.4
Increase per day.......... 1.67
M. Perrault's general inference is, that the calf which had the haytea ration grew more rapidly than either of the other two brought
up either on pure or on dilute milk. The differences, however, are
within the limits of the variations noted in animals that are reared
on the same ration.
If we reduce the various articles consumed in these experiments
t o    food of the same nutritive value-to hay, for example-we find,
that
A consumed in 112 days, 1357 lbs. of hay*
B     "         113 "    1137    "
C     "         113 "      906    "
The minimum ration for the maintenance of calves, to which
M. Perrault comes from his experiments, differs little from that which
we think amply sufficient at Bechelbronn; and our animals certainly
are not inferior to those of Feuillasse. This fact may be judged of
by the following particulars, which I have selected as affording the
elements of contrast with M. Perrault's B and C:
Sophy weighed at birth..............-100.1 lbs.
At the age of 102 days................... 279.4
Total increase......... 179.3
Increase per day........ 1.76
Food consumed: Milk 525 parts, weighing 684 lbs. = hay 297 lbs.
Hay..-.... —..-..................... 539
In all....... 836
Rosa at birth weighed...................  96.8 lbs.
At the age of 239 days..............473.0
Total increase.........376.2
Increase per day......... - 1.58
This calf consumed: Milk 528 pints, weighing 684 lbs. =hay 297 lbs.
Hay...-.......................1773
In all.........2070
* Milk must be regarded in the light of forage, so that its equivalent should be stated.
Assuming milk to consist of 12.61 dry matter and 87.39 water, I find by direct analysis
438 
REARING CALVES.
Without calling in the assistance of hay-tea, consequently, by
bringing up on milk for seven weeks, and giving forage as soon as
possible, it is obvious that we obtain results fully as good as those
of M. Perrault.
I have said that it was during the period when calves are suckilig, or receiving a regular allowance of milk, that the increase of
weight was most rapid. As the animal approaches the term of its
complete development, the weight, in an equal interval of time,
increases at a progressively diminishing rate; but from the data
which I have collected, but which are not very extensive, it appears
that the increase is very regular until the full growth is attained.
From this period the animal continues stationary, if he merely
receives the ration of maintenance; any variation observed is purely
accidental, and loss or gain one day is compensated by gain or loss
on another. The adult animal, which does not lay on fat, thus
acquires a standard weight, which is preserved for a term of years
unchanged, until the period of decrepitude and decay arrives.
It is not unimportant to ascertain the progressive increase in
weight of cattle; the balance is a means which the breeder and
feeder ought not to neglect; it is a powerful check upon his servants, and a sure tell-tale in regard to the state of the stock at any
moment. A conscientious herdsman is a most precious person on a
farm; but the more I study breeding and feeding, the more I am
satisfied that the most trustworthy agent of all is the balance. Frequent weighings are necessary, in order to keep a regular account
of the state of the cow-houses. I here append such absolute observations as I have made on the increase of weight in horned cattle,
with an expression of regret that I have not been able to present my
reader with more numerous data.*
Weight at Age when  Weight at  Increase
birth.    weighed.   this time.  per diem.
tho        Days.         the.        tIe.
Victoria...............
Ditto..................
Susan.................
Ditto..................
Gallop................
Ditto..................
Ditto..................
Schwartz..............
Sophy.................
Mignonne.............
Ditto..................
Margot................
Ditto..................
Ditto..................
James.................
Ditto..................
Ditto..................
that 100 of this dry matter contains 4.0 of azote: so that 100 of milk contains 0.50
azote. This shows that 230 of milk are required to replace 100 of good meadow-hay
containing 1.50 azote.
* As the weights were merely relative, I have neglected the fractions in turning
the French kilogramme into avoird. pounds.  1 have, however, given the true incre
ments of weights per diem -ENG ED.
t
t
439
REMARKS.
N..,!. f B..t..
lb.
T
91
i
D.yr,.
56
156
168
168
82
164
264
83
102
103
203
108
190
290
119
201
301
lb..
180
288
176
!270
178
254
. 388
02
254
216
312
224
304
482
216
284
452
lb.
1.9
1.45
1.55
1.25
1.21
1.43
1.59
1.47
1.76
1.34
1.56
1.38
1.56
1.83
1.25
1.07
1.32
Under a year old.
I 
INCREASE OF WEIGHT OF STOCK
Names ofen     t Beatts.  Ieiht  ( at  REMAREKS.        k
ut~iA   t~s~.ge   nw
lbs.    Days.     lbs.    lbs.
Petrel.................   88        147      270     1.36
Ditto.................... is       229      378     1.40
Ditto.        --— "..................  329  538     1.49
Rosa..................   88         239      430     1.58
Stern.................. 90         275      570     1.91
Ditto................... "        357       732     1.93
Ditto................... "        436       880     2.00  From 1 to 3 yrs. old.
Chastel................   89       465      972     2.09
Ditto. -.................  547           1080     2.00
Eichaas...............90           730      976     1.34
Ditto.................. "          811     1074     1.34
Castor, 2d bull.........    100    796     1740     2.26   Become fat, killed.
Castor, 1st bull......... -98     1009     1602     1.65   Ditto.
By way of pendant to these results, I give two series of weighings,
one of which has reference to the increase of weight of a heifer, on
which I made a number of consecutive observations; the other was
undertaken with a view to ascertain the variations which milch-kine,
aged more than three years, may experience:
Gain between one    Time    Increase
Dates heifer weighed. Weight. weighing and another. elapsed.    in 24hours.    Remarks.
lbs.          lbs.       Days.
Sept. 5.......369.8          42           3                Fed with hay and
9........374.0     4                            1.40  roots.
23........393.8           19.8         14         1.41
Nov. 3...... 429.0            35.2         41         0.85
"28......469.4 40.4                    25         1.21
Jan. 29...... 550.0           80.6         62         1.32
Apl. 21.......678.4 128.4 82                          1.50  Was fed on green
July 9........884.4 206.0                  79         2.48  cloverat discretion.
Aug. 3........950.4 66.0                  25          2.64
TABLE OF MILCH-KINE THREE YEARS OF AGE AND UPWARDS.
1st        2d               Interval between Differences
e.     weighing.  weighing.  Difference. the weiglings.  per day.
lbs. avoir.  lbs. avoird.           Days.         lbs.
1       1445        1555       110          82          +1.3
2       1315        1434       119          "           +1.5
"       1540        1394       146          "          -1.7
"       1320        1386        66                      +0.8
"       1100        1236       136          "           +0.2
"       1449        1540         91                    +1.1
" 1672              1727         55                     +0.6
"       1784        1654        130         "          -1.5
"       1573        1601         28         "           +0.4
3       1346        1287         59         "          -0.6
Taking the preceding numbers as the authority, and until we have
a larger number of weighings, I think we may conclude that the
living weight of cattle of the Swiss breed increases by the following quantities per diem:
During the period of suckling at the rate of 2.4 lbs.
lUnder three years.......................1.5
Above three years.......................0.2
The increase of weight of growing animals depends much on the
kind of food they have; and it is matter of great moment to know
the precise amount of fodder which neat cattle require in order to
thrive. Those who have treated of it specially, are as far from
being agreed as to the proper ration; and then many who have
specified the kind and quantity of the food, have neglected the ages,
440
.t
f B,! —t-.
N....
Esmeralda.... 3
Orphan 3
6
6
7
Paysaniie 7
Raffalea........-..... 8
Prim,,tDonna..-.-....  8
Forniosa —-----—.-.. 9
Belle et Bonne....... 11 
ALLOWANCE TO CATTLE.
the absolute weights, the amount of labor required, and the milk obtained from the animals. It is subject of simple observation, that an
animal of great size, all things else being equal, will require a larger
quantity of forage than another of less bulk.
Once the allowance of food is well established, it is greatly to be
desired that it be continued with the greatest regularity. Nothing
is more injurious to cattle than stinting.  Still, there is a term in
every year when the live stock, or some portion of them, at least,
are almost necessarily stinted in their food; in the depth of winter
the animals that are not put up to fatten, consume little or nothing
but straw. At this season, consequently, the stock fall off considerably in flesh, in strength, and in the milk they give; and when the
loss has been very great, the animals are sometimes too far gone to
recover when the spring has come round. This state of things is
greatly to be deplored, and, indeed, ought to be viewed as most prejudicial; it will be altogether impossible to advance the economy of
neat cattle to the point of perfection which it is fitted to attain, until
means are taken to secure every portion of the stock, at every period
of the year, a sufficiency of properly nutritious food.  Happily, with
the progress of agriculture, this condition is becoming every year
more and more easy; the introduction of roots, (turnips and mangelwurzel,) and of tubers, (potato,) into the routine of every farm that
is respectably managed, supplies a fodder, through the whole of the
winter, that is equivalent to the grass and other green meats of
spring and summer.
Thaer fixes at 13 lbs. the quantity of hay per diem which a cow
requires for her maintenance in perfect condition; and if the animal
be in milk, he allows as many as from 22 to 33 lbs. But the ration
must vary, as I have said, with the weight of the animal. M. Perrault states 27 lbs. as the allowance for a milch-cow weighing about
880 lbs.; he having, in his experience, found that an animal in milk
required about 6} lbs. of hay for every 220 lbs. of living weight.
Pabst, who paid great attention to the feeding of cattle, admits, that
for the ordinary allowance of an ox doing nothing, or of a cow which
is dry, 3.85, or upwards of 343 lbs. of hay, are required for each 220
lbs. of carcass weight; 4.4, or about 4- lbs., if the animal be a
draught-ox; and 6.6, or upwards of 6- lbs., if it be a milch-cow.
The inquiries which I have made into this subject have led me to
conclusions somewhat different; from which I infer, that the rela tion between the weight of the living animal and the necessary fod der is not an invariable quantity. A very large ox or cow, relatively
to its weight, requires less food than an animal of smaller dimensions.
And this circumstance is a grand argument with those breeders who
are in favor of very large cattle; they say, that if a large ox con sumes more food than a small one, still the increase of consumption
is bv no means in the ratio of the increase of weight.
The milch-cows at Bechelbronn have no more than 33 lbs. of hay
per head per diem, or the equivalent of this quantity of forage.  But
the smallest creature on the farm, at the time my experiments were
made did not weigh less than 1110 lbs. (79 stone, 4 lbs.); the rela
441 
FEEDING-ALLOWANCE.
tion of the living weight to the food being, therefore, as 100 is to
2.73, say 23.
The largest cow, again, weighed 1784 lbs., (127 stone, 4 lbs.,) so
that the relation is here as 100 is to 1.85, or 1Iliths.  The average
relation, taking the whole of the cows in the stable, came out as 100
is to 2.25; in other words, for every 100 lbs. of carcass weight,
24 lbs. of meadow-hay per day had to be allowed.
It thus appears, from these inquiries, that growing animals require
more food relatively to their weight than when they are adult.  The
young animals, upon which I made my observations, were from 5 to
20 months old; and for this age I found that for every 100 of living
weight 3.08, or upwards of 3- lbs., of hay were required. The following table will give my conclusions at a glance:
d        X'1 *,  Average age    -  
~  c    J: o    o o >  ~of the several e=  E3 o;,=   REMARKS
animals.      ~                           aEM aK,=
__________                   __             _ 
lbs.    lbs.   months.  days.    lbs.      lbs.    lbs.
No.2  1 197  t  418    14.3       3      26     209       7.15     3.43  In February.
3'26        484   1 4.7     4       6     242       7.35     3.06      ditto.
5  205
6 170
7   1758    1267    36.0       5       9     311.8    18.0      2.89      July.
8 115 J
9   163
12   206   1   11.0       5      10     297.0    5.5       3.70     February.
9   328       a      *..9.3    6      23     361.4 4.65         2.53      Septem.
3 290
4   289    2479.66.0         9       5     495.8   33.0       2.66      July.
1  252 
10  239
9   341
3  303
4   302    2536    62.7        9      18     507.3   31.35      2.47      ditto.
1  265
10  252 
11   304       ~     22.0      10..    627.0   11.0        3.50      February.
12   371   19.1                13       5     550.0    9.55      3.48      ditto.
134  483      2063    62.7     20       5   1027.0   31.35       3.05      ditto.
14Average per cent. of living we43.08
Average per cent. of living weight..................... 3.08
In the course of the experiments, the calves were kept on good
meadow-hay, allowed them at will, according to our usual custom.
The hay that was put into the crib once a day was weighed, and an
account was kept and deducted of any that had been left of the previous day's allowance. The length of time during which each several experiment was continued, varied from 2 to 13 days; and I have
thought it right to indicate the season of the year, lest that should
have any influence. To sum up, then, it may be said, that for every
100 of living weight neat cattle require:
442 
FEEDING-SALT.
For simple sustenance (Pabst)........... 0.75 or I lbs. meadow-hay.
When laboring (Pabst)......................... 20' ""
When in milk (Pabst)................... 3.0  "               "1
," " (Perrault)................ 3.12  " a
1"    "    (Boussingault, large cows) 3.73       " 
Growing rapidly (Boussingault)..........   3.08 " "
The forage ought to be given to cattle with great regularity, and
care should be taken that they do not eat too hastily. Generally
speaking, they have their allowance three times a day, constituting
so many meals, which, however, are well divided, the whole quantity for each meal not being placed before the animal at once. This
precaution is particularly necessary when the allowance consists of
green fodder. The watering should take place in the intervals between meals, the animals being driven to the trough night and
morning; though, when the heat is excessive, it is better to water
them three times a day. The water ought to be of good quality,
though, if it have no deleterious substance dissolved in it, cattle
seem to make no objection to that which is turbid, and which cannot, we should think, be very palatable. Our cattle are watered,
during a part of the year, with water from a shaft pierced through
a highly argillaceous soil. Cattle seem to dislike excessively cold
water; they then drink as little as possible. The cattle in the great
South American plains, drink water at a temperature of from 85~ to
97~ F. In Europe, the best water in point of temperature in winter
is that of a deep well.
Every one is familiar with the taste which herbivorous animals
show for salt, and this is one of the articles which is advantageously
made to enter into the ration when its price is not too high. In
France, it is absolutely necessary to use the article with extreme
parsimony-a circumstance which I much regret, and which I cannot but view as prejudicial to rural economy:-[in England, where
the odious salt-tax has been got rid of, salt, of the most beautiful
quality, is one of the cheapest of all manufactured substances.] I
know that many feeders do not think salt indispensable; but their
authority is opposed by that of some of the highest names in Germany and England, and my own mind has long been made in regard
to the value, to the excellent effects of this substance. I ascertained, for instance, that milch-kine, though they would not do upon
potatoes alone, throve very well when they had from two or two and
a quarter ounces of common salt added to the ration. A celebrated
English breeder, Mr. Curwen, recommends about 3' ounces of salt
to be given daily to cows and heifers in calf, and to draught-oxen,
and something less to fatting oxen, to young animals, and to calves.*
The high price of salt in France does not allow us to be so liberal
at Bechelbronn; yet we make a distribution of the article three
times a week, and in quantities which bring the allowance to something more than about an ounce and a half per day. By way of
eking out the allowance of saline matter, we further supply, from
time to time, a quantity of Glauber salt, which comes in all to rather
* Sinclair, Agriculture.
443 
MILCH-KINE.
more than half an ounce per head per diem. The use of this salt,
sulphate of soda, has long been common in Alsace, and also on the
other side of the Rhine; and its effect on the health of horses and
of sheep, as well as of horned cattle, has been recognised as highly
advantageous. In Wurtemberg, the horses have, very commonly,
725 grains, neat cattle 463 grains, sheep 305 grains, and swine 250
grains of Glauber salt twice a week.*
Salt appears to be more especially useful in hot weather and in
warm climates. In the steppes of South America, it is held by the
llama keepers as an axiom that cattle cannot live without salt.
Wherever a flock thrives particularly well, it may be averred, a
priori, that there is a salado there, a salt-lick of the North Americans, or place where there is a salt-spring. In the savannas that
are without saline springs, the herdsmen make a distribution of salt
every day. On the plateau, or table-land, of Nueva Granada, common salt is replaced with Glauber salt, as in Alsace and Wurtemburg, and, I may say, that it was matter of much interest to me to
find the same custom prevailing on the table-lands of the Andes
as upon the banks of the Rhine.
~ II. MILCH-KINE.
I have already had occasion to say, that the signs by which the
qualities of kine as milkers were sought to be appreciated, are somewhat deceitful. Still, I am far from denying that practice and experience do not enable many persons to pronounce with some certainty upon this particular. The power of doing so, however, is in
some sort the peculiar privilege of him who possesses it; at least, I
have seen all the general rules that have been laid down on the subject fail: I have seen cows of the most opposite conformations
equally productive. I have also said, that race or descent had much
to do with this quality; the heifer that comes of a mother, a good
milker, will be very likely to turn out a good milker also. The
legitimate way, therefore, of obtaining a good race of milch-kine, is
to breed them from a stock that is already noted in this respect. At
the time of my penning these lines, there are two animals on the
farm that are remarkable as milch-kine: one is a tall, unseemly
animal, the bones projecting, and altogether thin and miserable; the
other is a small cow, with rounded outlines everywhere, the bony
frame but little conspicuous; her skin soft, her hair sleek and fine.
Nevertheless, these two animals have one character in commonthe udder is of extraordinary size.
We ought not to be hasty in judging of the value of a milch-cow
after the first calf; age has great influence on the secretion of milk.
It is generally allowed that a cow does not attain to her maximum
capacity of yielding milk until she has passed her sixth year.
With regard to the means we have of judging of the age of a cow,
they are principally derived from the horns. The teeth do not afford us any indication, as in the horse and sheep. In the ox, about
* Coinrnniiictted by M. Schlattenalllnnl.
444 
MILCH-KINE.
the fifth year, there is a ring formed about the root of each horn; in
the cow, this ring makes its appearance after the first calving, and
from this epoch there is a new ring formed each year, which pushes
on the former one.   In aged animals these rings have become
faint, and can scarcely be counted.  It is also evident that the horns
which, in early life, were thicker at the base, and tapered gradually
towards the tips, about the ninth or tenth year of the animal's life
present an opposite conformation; they exhibit a kind of constriction
at the roots. The depression above the eye increases with age, and
the false hooves become long and often bent.
Thaer reckons that, one with another, in well-regulated establishments, cows will continue in milk for about 280 days, and yield in
all about 2265 pints, or 283 gallons. But it is certain, that the yielding, of a cow varies greatly with circumstances, race, age, climate,
and individual. The cows that graze at liberty in South America,
do not give more than about three pints of milk per diem; which, as
it is almost wholly used in bringing up the calf, the dairy is there
of very little importance. In established farms, a cow is reckoned
to yield about 40 lbs. of cheese per annum. Mr. Curwen estimates
the quantity of milk at 6580 pints, or 822 gallons, per cow; M. Perrault states it at but 2992 pints, or 374 gallons; and Mr. Low gives
the quantity at 5994 pints, or 7494X gallons. The differences between
these several quantities are obviously enormous, and can scarcely
be reconciled  with any conceivable diversity of circumstances.
They are probably connected with the method taken to ascertain the
quantities.
The following table comprises the whole of the statements with
which I am acquainted.
Places.                  Authorities.                                Oervtions
Auth~~~~~~~obsrvatiens.  r'
llbs. lb    ts. Pt
Fraee: La Fenillasse (Ain) Perrault de Jotempsh 880 27s.5' t92  8."2 Cows in the house.
I,ornpries (Ai)..  ID'Angeville.                60a14.31610i   4.4      Do.
R,)ville (Meurthe..  IDeDombasle.                     22.02492  5.9       Do.
Ly.onnais (.iontagnes)  ro fli" G,e 1284 3.5 Cows ill fed in winter.
Le fel and Boussin    Bechellronn (Bas-Rhin)          gault.  
England.................Lo"                                      5994 16.2      Do.
E~~gi d... Lo g~~~~u:5994 16.2  Do.
Do.................            wwrit,6 28.6580 17.8                         Do.
Belgium: Antsverp..                                            1Sch12ertz.3  Do.
D,,                            2,,hwertz.              "        27z2 396i7 10O.9 At grass & in the house.
liollaed: Low Countries          Shert. 34 9.2 In the boue, winter.
Do......                                               in 686i    7066 19.4
Campine...  Sch26.5ertz.                                      K      i     
Sasony: SeSchweitzer.;7                                           28.6,287117.3 Kept in the house.
Altentlburg.                                      30hm2. i 8 9.2
Austria: Carilthia...                      82a!      252i  7.5 Well fed.
Prussia: Taleglin.."   22.02648  7.2 Kept in the house.
Neighllborhood of Berlin!Thaer.                        27    04  82
Switzerland.......                l)'Angeville.       1036      22   8.2       Do.
Hoffvyll..  Dl)'Angeville.             132138.5 468512.8   ell fed.
".2   s 8 2  Do
At Bechel)roiun we have seven cows whose allowance per head
is 331bs. of hay per diem. The milk is measured night and morn                                        38
F
I
s
p
s
445 
MILCH-KINE.
ing, and the quantity given by each cow is particularly noted. The
herd consisted of Raffalea, 8 years old, whose milk failed the 21st of
April, and reappeared the 18th of June without her having calved;
La Paysanne, 7 years old, whose milk ceased the 21st of February,
and she calved the 29th of April;-Prima Donna, 8 years old: milk
stopped February 19th, calved December 5th;-Formosa, 9 years
old: ceased milking 1st April, calved 2d June;-La Gitana, 6 years
old: ceased milking 30th September, calved 9th November;-Galatea, 6 years old: ceased milking 9th July, calved 2d October;-Belle
et Bonne, 111 years old: ceased milking the 15th February, calved
3d April. These seven cows gave in the course of the year, neglecting fractions, 30576 pints, or 3822 gallons of milk. In the month
of January, in round numbers, 1870 pints; in February, 1260 pints;
March, 1260 pints; April, 1657 pints; May, 2527 pints; June, 3726
pints; July, 4180 pints; August, 3661 pints; September, 2913
pints; October, 2622 pints; November, 2540 pints; December,
2360 pints; having, one with another, given 546 gallons of milk,
and milked on an average 30291 days each; the entire herd having
milked during 2118 days, and the average quantity yielded by each
cow having been 14.6, say 14- pints for every day she was in milk;
the quantity for each day ofthe year amounts to about 11.9, say 10 pints.
June, July, and August are obviously the months mst productive
of milk, during which the cows had scarcely any other food than
clover. The average quantity for these months was undoubtedly
raised from three of the cows having calved in March, April, and
May, so that these were severally giving their largest measures during the three summer months.
It may be enough to state, that the largest quantity of milk is obtained in the course of the three first months after calving; the produce then will amount to 18, 20, and even 24 pints per day, while
the mean quantity during the   hole time of milking will very little
exceed 12 pints.
The observations for the year 1842, which I referred to some
short way back, showed a mean of 14.6, say 14- pints of milk for
each cow. But in the mode of reckoning pursued, there were
sources of error, which have been avoided in the estimates just
given. The only mode of securing accuracy of result is to take the
quantity of milk yielded by each cow between the period of calving
one year to the same event the following year. This mode of reckoning gives the quantity 13 pints per day for each cow, which I am
disposed to adopt as the standard for the Swiss breed, fed with 33
lbs. of good meadow-hay, or an equivalent in wholesome roots, &c.
I am also disposed to look upon 310 as the mean number of days
during which a cow will give milk after calving.
We sometimes see quantities of milk mentioned as given by particular cows that are truly surprising, and that seem even calculated
to excite suspicion of the veracity of the reporters. Some have
spoken of cows that gave 44 and 521 pints of milk a day for several
months.  M. Crud says that cows of great size indeed have even
given as many as 70.4 pints in twenty-four hours; and Thaer goes
446 
MILCH-KINE.
still further when he states that persons worthy of every credit say
they have seen cows in first-rate pastures, which, at the height of
their milking time, produced as many as from 74 to 82- pints of milk
in the twenty-four hours. Such a flux of milk can only be very temporary, and indeed must occur but very rarely. The herdsmen at
Bechelbronn have often diverted me with tales of such marvels;
but since I have accurately gauged the dairy produce of the farm, I
have met with nothing which would lead me to credit their reality.
We  have had cows indeed which have given 26', and even 311
pints a day for several weeks; but these are still very far from the
quantities which have been mentioned to me.
Good feeding is undoubtedly required in order that cows may produce milk abundantly; but I believe that the influence of particular
kinds of forage on the production of milk is often greatly exaggerated. Each breeder or feeder seems to have his own favorite article,
however, so that there is nothing like uniformity among them; with
one it is the carrot that is in the ascendant; with another it is the
beet that is supreme; there is no root, in fact, which has not alternately had its apologists and detractors. The truth lies between the
extremes here as it does in so many other instances; and I am satisfied that each and all the roots and other articles of forage that are
generally introduced into the ration of milch-kine, are calculated to
produce abundance of good milk; it is only necessary that the substances be allowed in ample quantity, that no mistake be committed
in regard to the nutritive equivalents of the several articles.  I do
not hesitate to add, that the opinions of the generality of farmers and
dairymen on the subject are based on observations which are always
more or less imperfect.
It is but a few years ago that a series of experiments were undertaken at Bechelbronn, with a view to ascertain whether the particular nature of each of the several articles consumed by milch-kine
influenced the quantity or chemical constitution of the milk in any
appreciable manner. The purpose of these inquiries being purely
practical,-having been undertaken with a special eye to the dairy
and its produce, the inquiry was confined to the articles that are
usually given to cows with us. These necessarily vary with the
season, but I have already said that the dole to each head is equivalent to 33 lbs. of meadow-hay, which, indeed, always enters in considerable quantity into the ration, whatever else be given,- unless,
indeed, the animals are exclusively upon green meat, when, of course,
the use of every thing else is suspended. In winter the hay is mixed
with beet, potatoes, turnips, or Jerusalems. In spring the hay is
gradually replaced by green fodder, which in the first instance is rye
cut green, and by and by clover. The experiments which I shall
now detail were made upon a cow which had calved two hundred
days, and was again pregnant.
1st EXPERIMENT.
200 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
The cow fed on hay alone gave 65.42 pints of milk in the course
of seven days, or 9.34 pints per day. This milk consisted of:
447 
MILCH-KINE.
Caseum.....................3.0 
Butter.................4.5 f -is 12A
Sugar of milk..............4.7  Soli
Ash of caseum..............1.0
WVater.....................87.7
100.0
2d EXPERIMENT.
207 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
Fed with turnips and cut straw, (the ration consisting of turnips
equal to 29.7 lbs., and straw equal to 3.3 lbs. of hay,) the same cow
gave in the course of eight days 84.4 pints of milk, or 10.5 pints per
day. The comiposition of this milk was:
Caseu 3................3.0.
Butter..................... 124 
4.2~Slds1.
Sugar of milk................ 50 Solids 12.4
Ash of caseum..........-..-.-.   0.2J
Water...................87.6
100.0
The animal discussed her provender with good appetite, but the
ration was too large; about 11 lbs. of the turnips being left each day
unconsumed.
3d EXPERIMENT.
215 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
The ration here consisted of:
Field-beet, an equivalent for 29.7 lbs. of hay.
Chopped straw   "        3.6   "
In the course of fourteen days the quantity of milk obtained
amounted to 137.6 pints, or 9.8 pints per diem, and was composed
as below:
Caseum................. 3.4 
Butter....................4.0
t5e.3  Solids  12.9
Milk sugar...........5.3 f
Ash of caseum.............0.2 
Water..................87.1
100.0
4th EXPERIMENT.
229 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
The ration consisted of:
Raw potatoes equivalent to 29.7 lbs. of hay.
Chopped straw   "           3.6    "
tn the course of eleven days the cow gave 96.1 pints of milk, or
at the rate of 8.7 pints per day, the fluid consisting of:
Caseum...................
Butter..................... 3.40
Butter ~~~~~4.0 ~Solids 13.5
Milk sugar................5.9 olids 13.5
Ash of caseum............. 0.2
Water...................8.5
100.0
The cow did not do well upon this regimen: she became heated,
and refused one-half the straw. In a general way, we do not give
tubers to a greater extent than is equivalent to one-half of the allowance of hay, in which proportion cows do very well upon raw potatoes.
448 
MILCH-KINE.
5th EXPERIMENT.
240 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
The forage here consisted of the full allowance of hay, or 33 lbs.
In hle preceding experiment the milk, which had hitherto kept up to
from about 91 to 10-l pints a day, fell suddenly to little more than
8-j pints.  To ascertain whether the fall was owing to the potato
regimen or not, the cow was returned to the ration of hay under
which in the 1st experiment the daily average of milk was 9.3 pints.
In the course of thirty days 188 pints of milk were collected, at the
rate of 6.2 pints per day. The declension in the quantity secreted
consequently cannot be ascribed to the potatoes which were given
in the 4th experiment.
6th EXPERIMENT.
270 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
The ration here was raw potatoes, with salt and straw-the ration
of the fourth experiment, with the addition of about 2- oz. of salt.
The animal ate this salted ration with appetite; she also made away
with the whole of the chopped straw, and it agreed well with her;
nevertheless, the milk continued to decrease in quantity; it had
fallen off to 5.9, say 6 pints a-day.
7th EXPERIMENT.
290 DAYS AFTER CALVING.
In this trial the ration consisted of Jerusalem potatoes equivalent
to 33 lbs. of hay, under which the milk may be said to have remained stationary, though it was above rather than under the 6 pints per
diem, as in the 6th experiment. In composition it was as follows:
Caseurnm...................... 3.3 
Butter....................... 3.5
Sugar of mnilk............55  Solids 12.5
Ash of caseum.............. 0.2J
~WVater...................... 87.5
100.0
The quantity of the milk had obviously decreased from the first
down to the two last experiments; but its chemical constitution
does not appear to have varied during the entire course of the trials;
the varied regimen has had no influence on the proportions in which
its several ingredients are encountered.   But there was still one
point to be ascertained, viz: whether the milk secreted very shortly
after the delivery differed from that which was formed at a period
remote from that epoch.
8th EXPERIMENT.
A cow which had calved twenty-four days before, and, upon a
mixed regimen of hay and green clover, was giving at the rate of
18.6 pints of milk a-day, was brought under observation. Analysis
showed this milk to consist of:
Caseum...................... 3.0 )
Butter.................... 3.5tI
Sugar of milk..4.5  olids 11.2
Ash of caseumn............  0.2
Water................  --— 88.8
100.0
38*
449 
MILCH-KINE.
9th EXPERIMENT
35 DAYS AFTER CALVI.IG.
The same cow, upon green clover, was now producing 21.2 pints
of milk a-day, and of the following composition:
Caseum................ 3.11
Butter............... 5.6  Sld  13.2
Sugar of milk...................Sods 13. 2
Ash of caseum............0.3
Water..-............... 86.8
100.0
This milk evidently presents a larger quantity of butter than appears in any of the preceding analyses. But no hasty conclusion
must be drawn from this; for the succeeding experiments will exhibit a change equally sudden in the proportion of the fatty element,
but in a different way.
In a second series of experiments I set myself the task of ascertaining whether green fodder had any such remarkable influence on
the production of milk, and especially of its fatty element, or butter.
1st EXPERIMENT.
BEGUN 176 DAYS AFTER THE CALVING.
The ration here consisted of articles of winter fodder:
Potatoes equivalent to 16.5 lbs. of hay.
Hay        "       16.5"
Upon which the cow had long been kept, though the milk was only
measured during the last six days. The quantity was 16.3 pints
a-day, and consisted of:
Caseum..........          3.3.
Butter................. 4.8
Sugar of milk.............5.1  ohds 13.5
Ash of caseum............ 0.3
Water.. -.............. 86.5
100.0
2d EXPERIMENT.
182 DAYS AFTER THE CALVING.
Mixed regimen: Green clover equivalent to 16.5 lbs. of hay.
Hay           "          16.5"
Upon which the quantity of milk was at the rate of 17 pints a-day.
3d EXPERIMENT.
193 DAYS AFTER THE CALVING.
Green meat: Clover equivalent to 33 lbs. of hay
Quantity of milk, 17.2 pints a-day, composed of:
Caseum................4.0)
Butter................. 2.2 
Sugar of milk.................7  Solids 11
Ash of easeum.............0.3
Water...............89.7
100.0
450 
MILCH-KINE.
The small quantity of butter here induced me to repeat the analysis, but the result came out very nearly the same, the quantity being
still but 2.35 per 100.
4th EXPERIMENT.
204 DAYS AFTER THE CALVING.
Green fodder: same quantity as before.
Milk per day 13.7 pints, composed of:
Caseum................3.75
Butter.3.5 Sld12
Sugar of milk............5.2 Solds  12.6
Ash of caseum............0.2 J
Water..................87.4
100.0
It would therefore appear that fresh-cut clover has no such virtue
as that of increasing the quantity of milk given by cows. Under
the winter fare, in fact, the milk produced in the course of the
twenty-four hours amounted to 16.7 pints; under green clover it
was but 14.9 pints. It would be a great mistake, however, as I
conceive, to ascribe the diminution here to the use of the green
forage; it is due, I apprehend, exclusively to the greater length of
time that has elapsed since the period of calving.
The chemical composition of the milk varied little, as I have
already incidentally remarked, in the course of these experiments.
The differences in respect of the caseum, by which let me say I
understand the whole of the azotized constituents, the whole flesh
of the milk, rarely exceed one-hundredth part. The proportion of
the fatty element varies suddenly, and, as it seems, independently
of the various circumstances in which the cows are placed.
The general inference from these experiments, then, is that the
nature of the food does not exert any marked influence on the quantity and chemical constitution of the milk (I do not now speak of
the quality of the fluid) if the cows but receive the proper nutritive
equivalents of the several sorts of provender. It is of great importance to insist on this point; for it is quite certain, that if the
weight of the several rations be not calculated according to that of
the equivalents, variations in the secretion of milk would be forthwith conspicuous; but then these variations would have the increase
or diminution of the provender allowed as their cause.
When cows are kept through the winter upon straw alone, they
cease to give milk; but on the return of green forage, in the spring,
the secretion is restored. The re-appearance of the milk in this
case, however, is not connected with the coming in of the fresh
provender, but with the return of plenty; the animals are not only
fed, from having been starved, but they are more than fed; they
have something to spare, which their economy turns partly into milk.
In well-managed establishments, where a good system of husbandry secures an abundant supply of good nutritive provender to
the cattle during winter, the produce of the dairy during this season
differs much less from that of the summer than is generally supposed.
I am besides persuaded that we estimate the nutritive powers of
451 
FATTENING.
green forage at too low a rate, and that when cattle are upon we%
clover or lucern, they are in fact much more effectually nourished
than under ordinarv circumstances.
If it be true, as it evidently is, that the quantity of milk produced
depends especially upon the absolute quantity of nutritive food consumed, it is not so with the quality of the fluid.  It is undeniable,
that the milk of spring and summer, formed upon green and succulent food, is much more palatable than that of the winter season;
the butter is also much finer and better flavored. The green herbs
of our pastures undoubtedly contain volatile principles which are
dissipated and lost in the processes of drying and fermentation
which they undergo in their conversion into hay. If chemistry be
powerless in seizing such principles, it still informs us of the possibility of introducing a variety of articles into the food of cows
which have the property of communicating those qualities which
we prize in milk. In all grazing countries certain vegetables are
pointed out as giving, in the vulgar opinion, a particular aroma to
the flavor of milk.
~ III. FATTENING OF CATTLE.
Under a parity of circumstances, feeding cattle for the butcher
may occasionally be found more advantageous than the dairy to the
farmer. In feeding for the market there is, in the first place, a
quicker return for the outlay, than in keeping milch-kine through
the whole of the year.  In the first operation, the capital is realized
at the end of four or five months; that which is employed in producing milk, and butter, and cheese, is always lying out, like a sum at
interest.
The quantity of food requisite to bring cattle intended for the
butcher into condition, does not vary less than that which is required
to secure a plentiful production of milk. Thus the stature, the age,
the race of the individual, and the relative proportions of flesh and
fat which we would have laid on, all imply varied doles of various
kinds of forage. The age in especial has to be considered; for in
putting up a young animal to fatten, we have both flesh and fat to
form. This is what always occurs in the fatting of oxen of two
years old, and of pigs of ten or eleven months. The increase in
living weight experienced at various ages is not equally owing to
accumulation of fat; this indeed may be so in the case of beasts,
the muscular system of which has already attained complete development, but it is otherwise with young and still growing animals.
Practice does much in enabling us to select the animals that will
fatten readily.  In a general way it is well to choose young animals
that have a large chest, the body bulky and rounded, the ribs finely
arched, the bones small, the limbs short, the neck thick for its
length, the skin soft, pliant, velvety to the touch, and moveable over
the body, particularly over the ribs, the tail should be scanty, the
buttocks not deeply cleft, but fleshy-well breeched, as the phrase
runs in some districts. The look of the animal should be sharp
452 
FATTENING.
and bold; the horns slender, whitish, and rather transparent. The
animal must have been cut while he was still at the teat.
The celebrated English breeder, Robert Bakewell, succeeded,
after a long and troublesome course of experiments, in creating  a
race of neat-cattle and of sheep which show themselves particularly
disposed to take on fat. The fundamental principles established by
Bake-weil, after all his experience, are these: that smallness of
bone, fineness of skin, and cylindrical shape of body, are the surest
indications in cattle of the disposition to lay on fat readily, and
upon the smallest quantity of provender. The most striking features
in the breed obtained by Bakewell, commonly known as the Dishley
breed, may be summed up in the following terms:
1st. The animal low on his legs.
2d. The back-bone straight.
3d. The carcass rounded and almost cylindrical.
4th. The chest deep and large.
An ox is held to have grown rapidly and well, when at the age of
three years he weighs from 1016 to 1051 lbs. avoirdupois, from 72
to 75 stone. The disposition to fatten young is also a precious
quality in the beast which it is intended to bring up for the butcher;
the feeder comes the sooner at his return.  Sinclair thinks, that independently of good constitution, which is indispensable, this quality
is derived especially fromn meekness of disposition, from good temper; and as docilitv is generally the result of good treatment in
early life, young animals ought always to be treated with great
gentleness and made perfectly familiar.
The different races do not all yield meat of the same quality, and
this quite independently of age. The best meat has a very decided
and characteristic flavor after it is dressed, which indifferent meat
wants, or which is replaced by a savor that is disgusting rather
than agreeable. The fiat in the best meat, as well as being laid on
superficially, is distributed through the substance of the muscles, so
as to give the flesh a marbled appearance.
In fattening cattle, it is perhaps of more importance than in general feeding, that the provender should be distributed regularly;
plenty of soft litter, and the greatest attention to cleanliness, aid
materially in fattening.  The cow-house ought to be dark and quiet;
in a word, all the conditions ought to be combined which conduce
to sleep, and secure freedom from disturbance of every description.
The age at which cattle fatten most readily is that of from 7 to 8
vears.*  Animals under this age, which have not yet come to their
full growth, will nevertheless get into excellent condition; but they
require both longer time and more food, for the reason, apparently,
hat they are still forming both flesh and fat.
In fattening during winter, which is done almnost exclusively with
iay in some countries, an ox weighing 748 lbs., upon 40 lbs. of hay
,er diem, will increase by about 2 lbs. daily. According to Mr.
* This is as in the original, and may be true, but in England and Scotland we have
weldom an opportunity of proving it so.-ENG. ED.
453 
THE OX.-FATTENING.
Low, an ox weighing 770 lbs., and consuming about 2223 lbs. of tur
nips per week, if he thrive, will gain in the same space of time
nearly a stone in weight. Admitting that the equivalent number fobr
turnips is 676, I find that the ration of hay for this allowance comes
out 47.8 lbs., having produced exactly 2 lbs. of increase.
In the information obtained in the Rhenish provinces by M. Moll,
in regard to the fattening of cattle under the influence of a regimen
which would give 11 lbs. of hay to every 100 lbs. of dead weight,
the animal will increase one third in weight in the course of three
or four months.
To these general results I add a few particular facts, which are,
indeed, the only data in rural economy that can ever be received as
having much value.
In a series of experiments which he undertook, Mr. Robert
Stephenson proposed to compare the progress of the increase in
weight of oxen upon different alimentary regimens. Starting with
the principle which we have already established, that animals consume a quantity of food in proportion to their weight or size, when
they are under the same conditions, he had of course to divide his
stock into several lots, each made up of animals of as nearly as possible the same weight. Oxen of two years old, brought up on the
same farm, and kept in the same manner, were the subjects of experimnent. I shall select one experiment, in which the observations
were made upon three lots of six beasts each. The weight of each
lot was ascertained before and after the experiment, which was carried on for 119 days.
The first lot was put upon white turnips, linseed-oil cake, beans,
and oats; and for the last 24 days, each beast had 20 lbs. of potatoes every day in addition.
The second lot was fed like the first, with this difference, that it
had no cake, and that during the last 24 days the quantity of potatoes allowed was but 10 lbs. per diem.
The third lot had no other provender than turnips.
Here are the weights and the nature of the provender consumed
by the animals during the 119 days, with a column added containing the equivalent in hay corresponding with each of the articles
consumed:
LOT  III.
Equivalent Equivalent
Weight    in h.       assumed.
in lbs.   in hbl.
1122        127        885
12012       1777.6        676
"           "            ~23
"           " 62
"           "          315
1905
16.0
LOT 1.
Equivalent
Provender.    weight    il bay
per~~~~~~~, head
in  s.    in l bs.
White turnips..1518         171.6
Swedes....... 13336        1973.4
Beans........ 358          1559.8
Oil-cake...... 389         1768
Oats...... - 173 2 79
Potatoes...... - 479 151
Ration expressed in hay 5904
Hay consumed per day    49.7
per head.
Hay per 100 of the liv- I
ing weight.......... 4.01
LOT II.
Equivalent
Weight     in hay
in  lbs.    ill lbs.
1628       184.8
13384.8    1980
358      1559
.. 18
173       279
239.8      77
3971
34.3
3.03
It therefore plainly appears that the lot which had the largest
454
2.0 
THE OX.-FATTENING.
allowance of provender, the food which contained the greatest quantity of azotized principles-of flesh, in fact-produced the largest
amount of dead weight in a given time, and that the lot which had
the shortest allowance increased in the smallest measure both in
flesh and fat-results which might have been readily foreseen. It
is also apparent, from the table, that in proportion to the nutritive
value of the articles consumed by each lot, the increase in carcass
weight was greatest in that which received its allowance in the least
bulk. Thus reducing the different rations to a standard forage, we
find that in the first lot, which was most plentifully supplied, 100 of
hay gave 4.2 of increased weight; while the same allowance of hay
produced 6 in the third lot, which was fed parsimoniously. This
fact is most readily explained: over a certain limit, the more food
an animal receives, the smaller is the fraction which is assimilated
and turned to use in the body. Breeders have consequently discovered, that it is by no means generally advantageous to push animals
beyond a certain point of fatness. The excess of weight which is
obtained with the assistance of quantities of food, exaggerated as it
were, no longer compensates for the additional expense incurred.
This is a circumstance which Mr. Stephenson's experiments also
illustrate, and indeed they led him to the conclusion which has just
been stated. Judging by the market price of the several articles of
provender employed by this distinguished breeder, the first lot
appears to be that, the fattening of which turned out the least advantageously: while each pound weight of flesh produced here cost
about 5d., the price of production in the second lot did not much
exceed 4d. (4'th;) in the third it was a little more, (4'ths.)
With these observations of Mr. Stephenson, we find the following
numbers to express the daily increase in weight of the cattle during
the period of fattening:
Average weight of  Hay consumed per day   Increase per head   Increase per day and
the oxen before  and per head.    in 119 days.      per hlead.
fattening.
lbs.            lbs.             lbs.             lbs.
1st lot.....1115          49.7            247.5             2.
2d".-1016              34.3              231.6            1.9
3d".    794              16.              112.6             0.9
The weight of the several animals must also be taken into account,
in seeking to estimate the increase realized upon every 100 lbs. of
live weight during the fattening.
In the 1st lot-100 of live weight in 119 days gained, 22.2
2d "                  "                 22.8
3d "       "                            14.2
It is seldom that cattle are fattened in the house upon clover or
lucern in the green state; nevertheless, animals will fatten upon
this forage with great rapidity. An ox will eat as much as 1 cwt.
of clover cut in flower in the course of the day. In case the green
food should relax the bowels too much, a fraction of the allowance
may be given dried, and towards the end of the fattening a little cake
may be given. But these additions do not appear to me indispensable; they are always attended with additional cost: and I have
455 
THE OX.-FATTENIN G.
frequently seen cows, upon green clover at discretion, acquire a
remarkable degree of fatness, although they had not ceased to be
regularly milked.
In those countries, the nature of whose climate is favorable to
pasturage, the rearing of cattle presents immense advantages; but
the animals can only be fattened in those that are the most fertile.
The meadow that suffices for the growth and keep of a bullock will
not always bring the animal into condition for the butcher. Those
countries where the climate is moist, but long droughts rarely felt,
where neither the summer heats nor the winter colds are excessivethe conditions, in fact, which are met with in the beautiful pasture
lands of England, in especial-are those that prove most favorable
to the rearing and feeding of cattle. The pasture lands of Normandy and Brittany in France, of Switzerland and Holland, several of the provinces watered by the Rhine, &c., are also remarkable
for their luxuriant herbage. In such situations and with such advantages, the grand object with the farmer is the production and
fattening of cattle. Whenever it has been possible to lay down
extensive and productive meadows, it is now beginning to be clearly
understood that the introduction of even the best system of rotation
were to make a false application of agricultural science. In my
opinion, there is no system of rotation, however well conceived and
carried out, which will stand comparison in point of productiveness
with a natural meadow, favorably situated and properly attended to.
The reason of this is obvious, and follows from the very principles
which we have laid down in treating of rotations.   The whole object
in the best system of husbandry is to make the earth produce the
largest possible quantity of organic matter in a given time.   But in
such a system we are limited by the climate, inasmuch as we are
obliged so to arrange matters that our crops shall always attain to
complete maturity; the consequence of which is, that with all our
pains the soil remains unproductive during a certain number of
weeks and months towards the end of autumn, in the early spring,
and through the whole of the winter. But upon meadow lands,
vegetation is incessant; the winter even does not interrupt it com pletely; it still revives and makes progress on the bright days; and
in the spring it proceeds when the mean temperature is but a few
degrees above the freezing point of water, and never ceases until it
is checked again by the severer cold of winter. It is therefore easy
to obtain conviction that a given surface of meadow land must neces sarily produce a larger quantity of forage than land laid out in any
other way. It is true that the forage thus obtained will nriot, like
the cereal grasses, answer immediately for the support of man; but
it nevertheless concurs powerfully in this by producing milk, and
butter, and cheese, and in breeding and fattening cattle: let there
be added to all these advantages of what may be called a permanent
vegetation, that the cost of keeping it in order is infinitely less, and
that there is no risk to be run from failures of crops, and the vast
advantages of meadow or pasture land will meet us with all their
force.
456 
THE OX.-FATTENING.
On the banks of the Elbe, in Holland, in the neighborhood of
Arnheiln, the meadows are depastured during one year, and cut,
and their produce made into hay the following year, and so on alternately. The cattle are fed in the house with the hay during the
winter. They are driven out into the pastures in May. In the Low
Countries, it has been found that to fatten a large ox a surface of
meadow land of about 9960 square yards, upon which he will pasture during five or six months, was necessary. In the bottoms of
greatest fertility near Dusseldorf, it has been calculated that to keep
a cow an extent of surface equal to about 1800 square yards was necessary.
In countries which possess rich pasture lands, oxen are put to fatten immediately upon the richest of them. In the valley of the
Auge, in Normandy, these meadows are designated as herbages. A
meadow of this kind requires a rich, damp soil, capable of retaining
moisture. It is, therefore, to a considerable extent dependent upon
its subsoil. In the district mentioned, the soil of the pastures consists of a thick layer of vegetable mould resting upon clay; it is
therefore very rare that this meadow land feels the effect of drought;
it is, indeed, only in the early spring that the pasture upon such
lands sometimes fails, in which case the stock must of course be assisted with hay, the quantity being gradually diminished as the season advances.
M. Dubois finds that a lean ox weighing 473 lbs., after fattening
in the valley of the Auge, will weigh 763 lbs., so that he will have
gained 290 lbs.; the degree of fatness attained in this district is often
prodigious. M. Dubois mentions oxen which weighed when fat 1760
lbs., upwards of 125 stone, and he speaks of one which attained the
enormous weight of 2750 lbs., upwards of 196 stone.
The height of the oxen fattened in the herbages of the Auge varies from 4 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 3 in. measured at the haunch; when
thoroughly fat, the four quarters will weigh from 550 lbs. to 990 lbs.,
the hide will weigh from 70 lbs. to 116 lbs., and they will yield from
100 lbs. to 150 lbs. of tallow.
It is calculated that on the meadows of the greatest fertility, a
surface of 2760 square yards are required to fatten a large ox; op
meadows of medium fertility, a surface of 4680 square yards are required to fatten an ox of medium size; on those of the third quality,
a surface of 3720 square yards is deemed necessary to fatten a
small ox.
M. Dubois calculates the quantity of green fodder consumed by
an ox during the eight months when he is fattening, as equivalent to
6600 lbs. in dry hay; this, at least, is the quantity that the extent of
meadow required to fatten one ox would produce. The average
ration of green forage per diem is, therefore, equivalent to about 27
lbs. of hay, a quantity which appears small, and which would be so
in effect, were not the oxen kept so long ill the meadows. M. Dubois, indeed, observes that in the stall, with a ration composed of
from 11 lbs. to 13 lbs. of linseed oil-cake and 26 lbs. of hay, an ox
will become sufficiently fat for the butcher in seventy days, and will
39
457 
THE OX.-FATTENING.
acquire nearly the same weight that he would have gained in the
course of seven or eight months in the meadows. There is nothing
surprising in this fact, inasmuch as the ration mentioned by M. Dubois, in our mode of viewing it, is equivalent in nutritive value to at
least 81 lbs. weight of hay; the quantity of oil-cake alone is enough
to supply a good pound weight of fat per diem.
In old Friesland7 where the pastures are excellent, results are obtained which may be compared with those of the meadows in the
valley of the Auge; an ox of from 770 lbs. to 990 lbs. weight will
be pushed to a weight of from 1100 lbs. or 1650 lbs. on a surface
of meadow land between 3000 and 3600 square yards in extent.
In the meadows of the Auge the fattening goes on even during the
winter; the oxen are received into the pastures between the 15th
of September and the 15th of November, and the animals pass the
winter in the open field; but they receive from 12 lbs. to 26 lbs. of
hay per diem until the month of April, when the grass has already
grown sufficiently to suffice for their keep. These oxen are generally fat and ready for market in July.
In these observations of M. Dubois, the fattening has reference to
the neat weight of the carcass, sinking the offal, as it is said, or estimating the weight by the quarter. The most esteemed quarters are
the hind quarters, which are found to weigh rather less than the fore
quarters, although the difference is less, the higher the condition of
the animal.
It is long since various means have been devised for ascertaining
the neat weight of a living animal, or in other words, the weight
which the carcass will have when it has been embowelled, flayed,
and the head and fat cut off. These various parts compose what is
called the offal. It is readily to be conceived that one grand feature
in the excellence of an ox must consist in the great relative weight
of the carcass properly so called in comparison with the offal; but
it may easily be imagined also that the relations in the weight of
these two different portions of the living animal will vary according
to the state of fatness, and also according to the breed and the age
of the beast.
Mr. Anderdon has found that an ox which is not absolutely lean
will give for every 100 lbs. of his absolute weight:
Of marketable meat...............*-53.5 lbs.
An ox somewhat fatter will yield......55
And one completely fat as many as.......62.2
Mr. Layton Coke's estimate is:
For a lean ox.............. 60 per cent. of marketable meat.
For an ox in middling condition..65             "
And for a fat ox................73         "
These estimates appear to me exaggerated, and I much doubt from
the sales of cattle which we make ourselves, whether they would
readily be admitted by the buyers; they are in fact too high as regards the available meat.
From a great number of actual trials made with animals of about_
two years old, and which were all as nearly as possible in the same
458 
THE OX.-FATTENING.
condition, Mr. Stephenson was enabled to determine with great accuracy the actual weight of the butcher's meat in contrast with the
entire weight of the animal. Mr. Stephenson comes to the following conclusions:
Butcher's meat per cent...................7.
57.7
Tallow............................ 8.0
The hide........................... 5.5
The entrails and offal...........................28.8
1oo0.0
The precise quantities of marketable meat and of offal have also
been determined by Air. Mallo in an ox of the Durham breed which
was slaughtered in his presence. The weight of the animal on its
feet was 1496 lbs.
Per centage of
lbs. live weight.
The two fore quarters weighed....... 405.9  55.4
The two hind "...423.5 i
The skin --............................. 62.7  4.2
The tallow - - - -                - - -..........................112.0  7.5
The blood  -..........................110.0  7.4
The head, fat, and entrails...............381.7  25.5
1496.0 100.0
These relations as to meat, tallow, and skin agree in a very considerable measure with the estimates of Mr. Stephenson.
Sir John Sinclair gives the following numbers as the results obtained in connection with an ox of the Devonshire breed, slaughtered
at the age of 3 years and 10 months.
Weight of the living animal, 1549.6 lbs.
Per centage of
Ibs.    the live weight.
Butcher's meat, the four quarters.......1083.5  70.0
The skin........................... 84.9     5.5
Tallow............................. 143.2  9.2
Entrails and blood.................. 163.6  10.5
Head and tongue........... - -......... -  36.7  2.4
Feet - - - -..............         17. 1..........   1.4
Heart, liver, and lungs................ 20.4  1.3
1549.4    100.0
The animal here was not in prime condition.   On the whole, the
relations as stated by Mr. Stephenson may be taken as those that
will be found nearest the average truth, and as his numbers are deduced from numerous actual experiments, I feel disposed to adopt
them. M. Dubois has found that an ox which will weigh 473 lbs.,
sinking the offal, will be brought by fattening to the weight of 763
lbs. We have, therefore, for the weight of an animal as it stands:
Before fattening........ 828 lbs.
After fattening......1336
Gain in weight......... 508
The fattening having been effected in eight months, the absolute
increase in weight per diemn will amount to 2 lbs.; the increase per
cent. upon the weight is 61.4.
We have seen that during the fattening, the mean consumption,
reckoning the provender in hay, amounts to 6600 lbs.; the increase
obtained being 508 lbs. gives 16.9 lbs. of living solid for every 220
459 
THE HORSE.
lbs. of hay consumed. Lastly, the mean ration being settled by M.
Dubois at 26.4 lbs. of hay per head and per diem, and the weight of
the animal on being taken into the meadow being 828.3 lbs., this ration corresponds to 7.1 lbs. of hay for every 220 lbs. weight of the
living animal.
To sum up from the fact just stated on the subject of fattening, it
appears that the increase per day is:
According to Thaer.............-... 0.93 per cent. on the hay consumed.
" Low.................0.91 
Stephenson, 1st lot.........0.94 
" " ~2d.........20.99 "
" " ~3d......... 0.45 "
" Dubois................ 0.95 
~ IV. OF HORSES.
In what follows I shall limit myself to the consideration of the
horse in his relation to agricultural industry, and shall give the result of certain experiments which I have made upon his growth with
a view of solving the question, much disputed in various places at
the present time, whether or not the general farmer can breed horses
with advantage to himself.
The horse employed in farm labor ought to be spirited and strong;
attention to external form is only to be given in so far as it is an
indication of the qualities that are required.  He ought therefore to
be broad in the chest and in the haunches, and his muscular system
mnust in general be decidedly developed. A horse of considerable
size, if he be otherwise exempt from defects. is generally preferable
to a small animal; he is stronger, takes longer steps, and does more
for his keep than the other.  We are not to require in the draughthorse the vivacity and amount of spirit which we look for in the
saddle horse, yet he ought to have that liveliness which is almost
always a sign of health in animals.
Thaer does not approve of the practice commonly followed at this
time of mixing with good draught horses the blood of stallions of
elegant shape, but little adapted to stand hard work. Although this
remark is not without truth, it is still impossible to deny that in many
cases the employment of stallions of some breeding has much improved the race of draught-horses in various districts.  It is not,
besides, unworthy of attention, that it is really important for the
farmer to have a breed which he can readily dispose of to advantage,
particularly in those countries where horses for cavalry and artillery
service are in request. My own observations would lead me to say,
that the breeds in France are frequently improved by crossing with
stallions of the royal studs.  The effect from this procedure has not
perhaps been so great as might reasonably have been expected, still
evident progress has been made.
The mare will take the stallion at about the age of three years; but
it is seldom that the animal is covered at so early an age; on the
farm she will be at least five or six years of age before this is allowed, especially if the animal is to be worked during the time she is
with foal; and the same consideration leads us to say, that a mare
460 
THE IIORSE.
ought nat to be covered oftener than once in two years, although it
is very possible to have a foal from her every year, for she frequently comes into season towards the 11th day after foaling, and she
goes with young for a term which varies between 333 and 346 days.
A brood mnare may be employed in ordinary work during the first
period of her pregnancy; but when the timne is further advanced,
when she is in the tenth month, for example, every possible precaution must be taken against accident.  This is the period at which
we withdraw our brood mares from the common stable, and put them
into separate boxes. After she has foaled, the mare receives in
small quantities and frequently repeated, warm drinks and brain
mashes. While she is giving suck, her food ought to be of a more
substantial or better kind than that which is generally allowed.
The mare may be put to light work twenty days after she has
foaled; but it is requisite not to demand any thing like exertion from
her within eight or ten weeks after this event; she then goes out
accompanied by her foal, which is generally suckled for about one
nundred days.  Foals are frequently brought up in the stable or in
the loose box; this is our practice in Alsace; but it is well, with a
view to the growth and health of the young animal, that it be taken
out every day. On quitting the teat, foals are fed upon choice hay;
in the course of the second year a portion of the hay should be replaced by an allowance of oats, and in the season the use of green
clover cannot be too highly recommended.
According to Thaer, the daily allowance to a horse of middling
height, and doing ordinary work, may be regarded as good when it
consists of:
Hay.....8.2 lbs. = Hay........ 8.2 lbs
Oats......9.2 = Ditto.........14.2
Allowance reckoned in hay.... 22.4
In England the following allowance has been particularly mentioned as that of certain well-conducted stables.
Cut hay...... - 11.0 lbs. = Hay........11.0 lbs.
Cut straw..... 2.2    = Ditto....... 0.55
Oats.........11.0    = Ditto.......16.9
Beans.......... 1.1    = Ditto......  4.7
Allowance reckoned in hay.....33.2
According to M. Tassey, veterinary surgeon in the Municipal
Guard of Paris, the provender of the horses in this corps in 1840
consisted of:
Hay..........11 lbs. =  Hay........11 lbs.
Oats.........8       =  Ditto.......12
Straw for litter 11    =  Ditto...... 2
Total allowance..........25
The same authority reckons that horses employed in severe
draught receive or require:
Hay.........16 lbs. = Hay........16 lbs.
Oats.......17   = Ditto.....26
Total allowance....... 4
39*
461 
THE HORSE.
Until very lately (previously to 1840) the allowance of troop
horses in the French army consisted for the reserve cavalry of:
Hay..........11 lbs. =  Hay........11 lbs.
Oats.......... 8    = Ditto........12
Straw......11    = Ditto........ 2
Total allowance........25
For the cavalry of the line:
Hay....... 8.8 lbs. = Hay........ 8.8 lbs.
Oats...... 7.5   = Ditto......11.5
Straw...11.    = Ditto....... 2.7
Total allowance.....2....3.0
For the light cavalry:
Hay...... 8.8 lbs. = Hay........ 8.8 lbs.
Oats..... 6.6    =  Ditto....... 10.1
Straw.... 11.    = Ditto...... 2.7
Total allowance.........21.6
Influenced by the consideration of the frequent indifferent quality
of hay, and its injurious effect upon the health of the horse, it was
decided in 1841 to replace a portion of the hay ration by a larger
quantity of oats, an article much less liable to be adulterated, or to
be indifferent in quality. The allowance now consisted for the reserve cavalry of:
lbs.                           lbs.
Hay..............8.8 =  Hay............ 8.8
Oats............. 9.2 =  Ditto.. -......... 14.2
Straw...........11   =  Ditto............ 2.7
Total allowance..........25.7
For the cavalry of the line:
lbs.                    lbs.
Hay............. 6.6 = Hay........6.6
Oats.............8.8 -= Ditto........... 13.5
Straw............11  = Ditto............2.7
Total allowance........22.8
For the light cavalry:
lbs.                 lbs.
Hay.............. 6.6 = Hay............6.6
Oats..............8.3 = Ditto........... 12.8
Straw............11 = Ditto..........2.7
Total allowance........... -  22.1
From what precedes, it appears that the substitution of oats for
hay was made upon a calculation which squares well with the theoretical inferences in regard to the relative nutritive powers of these
two articles.
The allowance to the horse ought to be distributed into three portions, constituting as many meals, and put before him in the morning
before going to work, in the middle of the day, and in the evening;
he is generally watered at meal times. It is also highly advantageous to the health of the horse that he be made to work with a certain regularity. Our horses at Bechelbronn, upon an allowance
equivalent to 33 lbs. of hay, work from 8 to 10 hours a day, having
an hour's rest at midday.
462 
THE HORSE.
There is, of course, a certain relation between the height, or, if
you will, the weight of the horse, and the quantity of provender he
requires.  Some attention, as we have seen, has been given to this
point, in connection with horned cattle; but with reference to the
horse I know of no data but such as I myself possess.   Seventeen
horses and mares, aged from 5 to 12 years, and having each provender equivalent to 33 lbs. of meadow hay, weighed together 18,190
lbs. The mean weight of each horse being represented by the number 1070 lbs., we perceive that for every 100 lbs. of live weight,
6.7 lbs. of meadow-hay are required for the daily ration, the horses
working from 8 to 10 hours a day. This relation differs very little
from that which we have obtained in reference to cattle.
I was anxious to ascertain the rate of growth of the horse; and
in connection with our breed, which have a mean weight of about
1100 lbs., I found that the foals weighed as follows:
NAMES.                                                           
lbs.                  lbs.  days.   lbs.   lbs.
Filly of Chevreuil  25 May, 1842   110 20 Aug. 1842   294.8   87    184.8   2.1
Filly of Hechler    12June, 1842   113   7 Sept. 1842   286.   87    172.    1.9
Filly of Brunette   12 June, 1842   113   7 Sept. 1842   354.    87    241.   2.7
The mean increase per day during the period of suckling in the
three cases quoted above, therefore, appears to have been rather
more than 2 and  oths lbs. avoirdupois.
Immediately after weaning, young horses appear to experience an
arrest of their growth for some short time, an event which indeed
happens to animals generally. I found, for example, that Chevreuil's filly, which on the day of weaning weighed 294 lbs., nine
days afterwards weighed but 288 lbs., and had consequently lost
6 lbs.
I shall add a few weighings of horses further advanced in age,
although still young:
Alexander, a colt, weighed at birth 110 lbs.; at the age of 128
days, 337 lbs.; increase 227 lbs., or about 1.8 per diem: 51 days
afterwards, 490 lbs.; increase 105 lbs., or per day 1.4 lb.
Finette, a filly, weighed, when weaned at the age of 86 days, 295
lbs.; 83 days afterwards, 396 lbs.: increase 101 lbs.; per day,
1.1 lb.
Hechler's filly weighed, when weaned at the age of 87 days, 286
lbs.; 65 days afterwards, 358 lbs.: increase 72 lbs., or per day 1.10
lb.
From what precedes we may conclude:
463 
THE HOG.
1st. That foals, the issue of mares weighing from 960 to 1100
lbs., weigh at birth about 112 lbs.
2d. That during suckling for three months, the weight increases
in the relation of 278 to 100, and that the increase corresponds very
nearly to 2 and 2 lbs. avoirdupois for each individual per diem.
3d. That the increase of weight per diem of foals, from the end
of the first to the end of the second year, is about lfv lbs. avoirdupois; and that towards the third year, the increase per day falls
something under 1 lb. avoirdupois. After three years complete, the
period at which the horse has very nearly attained his growth and
development, any increase becomes less and less perceptible. These
conclusions in regard to the horse, differ very little from those
which I have had occasion to draw in connection with horned cattle.
I have also made a few experiments with reference to the quantity
of provender consumed by foals in full growth, and have found that
Alexander, Finette, and Hechler's filly, weighing together 1106
lbs., consume per day:
Hay......... -19.8 = Hay.........19.8
Oats............ Ditto.         11
Total allowance......30.8
Per head.... -.....10.22
The mean weight of these foals was 368.6 lbs., so that the hay
consumed for every hundred pounds of live weight was 2.85 lbs.,
with which allowance the daily increase amounted to about 1.2 lb.
Consequently, a mixed provender, equivalent to 100 lbs. of hay, had
produced 12 lbs. of live weight. I must confess that this result
appears to be somewhat too favorable, but I can only set down the
numbers as they presented themselves to me.
The flesh of the horse is not generally used, or at least openly
used, as food for man, though there are countries in which it is exposed for sale and commonly eaten. At Paris, indeed, in times of
scarcity, horse-flesh has been consumed in quantity. During the
Revolution, a knacker exposed publicly for sale, in the Place de
Greve, joints from the horses which he had killed, and the sale
continued for three years without any ill effect; in 1811, a scarcity
obliged the Parisians to have recourse to the same kind of food,
and it is said, indeed, that the traffic in horse-flesh as an article of
human sustenance is still continued to a very considerable extent in
the French metropolis; at the present moment, a distinguished
writer on Medical Police, M. Parent-Duchatelet, has even proposed
to legalize the sale of horse-flesh as food for man.
~ V. OF HOGS.
There is perhaps no farming establishment which does not keep
a certain number of hogs, a measure by which offal of all kinds tha:
would go directly to the dunghill, is turned to the very best account.
The dairy, the kitchen-garden, and the kitchen, all yield their contingent of food to the pig-stye, which is moreover an excellent
means of using up certain portions of the harvest.  But the rearing 
464 
THE HOG.
and fattening of hogs, although frequently looked upon as matters
of course, and requiring very little care, do in fact demand considerable attention and certain conveniences in situation. The rearing
of hogs, in a general way, may be said to suit the small farmer
better than the great agriculturist.
Our common domestic hog appears to derive his origin from the
common wild hog of Europe. The breeds are extremely numerous.
The black hog, covered with rather fine hair, and commonly found
in Spain, is a native of Africa. This is the race which has been
carried to South America, where it has multiplied in a truly surprising manner. It grows rapidly; and if it has little to recommend
it with reference to fattening, it is nowise nice in the matter of food
and general entertainment; the flesh is excellent when the animal
has been kept upon the banana, and fattened off upon Indian corn.
The hogs of the east of Europe are remarkable for their size
they are of a deep gray color, and have very long ears; they are
not very prolific, the brood swine having rarely more than four or
five at a birth. The Westphalian breed, on the contrary, though
they resemble the last, are highly prolific, the litter generally consisting of from ten to twelve. In Bavaria the hogs are remarkable
for the smallness of their bones and the readiness with which they
take on fat. Lastly, the Chinese race, which is common in England,
and begins to extend on the continent, differs from those hitherto
known, in having the back straight or even hollow, and the belly
large. This breed is also remarkable for its quietness; the pork
which it yields is of the very best quality.
One of the great advantages connected with the hog being its
extreme fecundity, it is important to have a breed which is distinguished in this respect. There are some brood swine which have
regularly borne ten to fifteen, and even eighteen pigs at a litter; a
more general number is eight or nine.
According to Thaer, the hog that is disposed to take on fat is
distinguished by length of body, long ears, and a pendulous belly.
The hog attains his growth at the end of about a year, until which
time the female ought not to be put to the boar. One boar generally
suffices for about ten females.
The hog, as all the world knows, is an animal the least dainty in
his food; he is omnivorous, nothing comes amiss to him; but his
food is by no means matter of indifference when the quality of the
flesh comes to be considered. Thaer seems to think that maize is
of all articles that which is the best for feeding swine; and I have
had occasion to verify the accuracy of his conclusion in South
America, where I may add it is found that the oily fruit of the palnitree contributes powerfully to the fattening.
Husbandry, in regard to the hog, comprises two distinct periods:
the growth of the animal, and his fattening. It is generally admrnitted that it is most advantageous not to fatten swine for the butcher
until they have completed or nearly completed their growth. A
hog which has been well kept from the period of its birth, may be
put up to fatten at the age of about a year. The female shows signs
465 
THE HOG
of heat at the age of about five or six months, and goes with young
on an average 115 days, and will produce regularly two litters per
annum; when particularly well kept, she may have three litters in
the course of from thirteen to fourteen months.
The hogs which are destined to be fattened for the knife are generally cut at the age of six weeks, particularly if they are to be
put up to fatten at the age of nine or ten months, as is often done.
Almost all the varieties of roots and grain produced upon the farm
are suitable for the maintenance of the hog; but in Alsace, and I
believe generally, the staple is the steamed potato, with which are
associated various articles in smaller quantity, such as peas, and
barley and rye meal, &c.
The farrow sow ought to have food by so much the more abundant and nutritious as she is required to suckle a larger number of
pigs. Our allowance at Bechelbronn to the hog with five young
ones during the six weeks of suckling is as follows:
lbs.               lbs.
Steamed potatoes........24.75 =hay.........7.8
Rye meal..............2.45 =   "........4.0
Skim milk...........13.2 = "........6.2
Total allowance.......18.0
After the fifth week, when the animal is no longer giving suck,
the ration consists of:
lbs.              lbs.
Steamed potatoes........ 12.1 = hay.......7.3
Rye meal.............1.0 ="........1.6
Skim milk (sour)........6.5........3.3
Total allowance........12.2
This allowance is gradually reduced to the end of the second
month after the farrowing, when the animal is upon the maintenance
ration of the farm, consisting of:
lbs.               lbs.
Steamed potatoes.........16.5 = hay........5.2
The potatoes are mixed with dish washings, which certainly contribute to improve their nutritive power, although I am altogether at
a loss to estimate the value of the article.
The young pigs begin to taste the food given to the mother at the
age of about a fortnight, but they never take to this kind of food
freely until they are four or five weeks old and are weaned; up to
this time they have an allowance of skim milk and whey. To five
pigs at the time of weaning we allowed per day:
lbs.
Steamed potatoes......22.0 = hay.......7.3 per head 1.4
Rye meal..............1.0 =-"........1.6 " 0.33
Skim milk..... -.6.6 "........2.8 " 0.57
29.6          11.7
This allowance was modified by degrees; the quantities of milk
and rye meal were gradually abridged, and the proportion of potatoes increased, so that about the third month the allowance per head
was from 11 to 13 lbs. of potatoes mixed with greasy water. Thia
466 
THE HOG.
is the regimen, equivalent to about 5 lbs. of hay, upon which out
store pigs are maintained until they are put up to fatten. During
the three months which follow the weaning, therefore, we may
reckon that each animal has consumed 3.8 lbs. of meadow-hay per
day, and that from the third month the consumption may be represented by 5.2 lbs. of the same article.
We have attempted in vain to replace the potato by rape or madia
oil-cake;  the pigs refused it obstinately; but they showed  no
objection to poppy seed, walnut and linseed cake; during the season
they will also eat clover, and are partly maintained upon this plant.
In summer they are put entirely upon green meat, animals from five
to six months old consuming about 19 lbs. of clover a-day, a quantity
which represents very nearly 5 lbs. of clover hay.
The hog may be fattened at any age; but as we have already said,
it is not generally advisable to fatten before he is ten months or a
year, some say fifteen months or a year and a half old, at which
period the animal is undoubtedly in flesh and at its full growth. The
other extreme limit appears to be about five years; but it is only a
brood sow that is ever kept to five years of age. It is generally
allowed that twelve weeks are required to bring a hog into prime
condition, when he ought to have a layer of fat under the skin upwards of an inch in thickness. Sixteen weeks may be required to
obtain an animal really fat; and twenty weeks to have him at the
highest point that is attainable. The hog requires to be fed regularly. After weaning, pigs should have five or six meals in the
course of the day; the number of meals is diminished gradually,
and towards the end of two months they amount to but three in all.
I was curious to ascertain the weight of pigs at the moment of
their birth, so as to determine their rate of increase during the period
of suckling. On the 5th of September a sow farrowed a litter of
five.
lbs.
No. 1 weighed 2.205
No.2   "    3.025
No. 3    "    2.476
No. 4   "    2.750
No. 5    "    3.300
Weight of the litter.......13.756
Average weight per head..2.751
On the 11th of October the weight of the litter was 86.9 lbs., or
17.3 lbs. per head: increase in thirty-six days, 73.2 lbs.; per head,
14.6 lbs.; per day, 0.409 lbs. On the 15th of November the weight
was 177 lbs.: increase in thirty-five days, 90.2 lbs.; per head, 18
lbs.; per day, 0.506. During the thirty-six days of suckling, consequently, 100 of live weight at birth had become 632.
In another instance, I found that eight pigs which at the time of
weaning weighed 114 lbs., or 14.3 lbs. per head, at a year old
weighed 1320 lbs., or 165 lbs. per head: increase in eleven months
1206 lbs., or 150 lbs. per head.
The increase per diem since the weaning had been 0.4,-not quite
467 
THE HOG.
half a pound; and as the food consumed may be represented by 5.2
lbs. of hay per day and per head, it will follow that 100 of forage
had produced 8.58 of live weight. This ratio is too high, however;
for these pigs besides the regular allowance had whey and various
scraps of which no account was kept; and we know that whey
alone contains a considerable quantity of the representatives both
of flesh and fat.
Baxter came to some interesting conclusions on the growth and
fattening of young hogs. Four animals each of the age of nine
months weighed at the beginning of the experiment 458.2 lbs.;
twenty-one days afterwards, 620.8 lbs.: increase of weight 162.6
lbs., to obtain which there were consumed:
lbs.                      lbs.
Barley............151 equivalent to hay, 250
Beans.............140.8 " 611
Malt grains.......440 " 257
1229
So that a quantity of nutritive matter represented by 100 lbs. of
hay produced 13.21 lbs. of live weight.
Assuming the weight of each pig of nine months old before the
fatting to have been 29 lbs., the increase per head was 40.6 lbs. in
the course of twenty-one days, or at the rate of 1.9 lbs. each. Baxter reckoned the carcass weight, sinking offal, at 7.4 per cent.
One of the pigs between nine and ten months old weighing 159.o
lbs., at the end of twenty days weighed 198.8 lbs.: increase in
twenty days, 39.3 lbs.; increase per day, 1.9 lbs. DIuring these
twenty days, the animal had consumed 188 lbs. of barley, equivalent
to 314 lbs. of hay. The increase would consequently give for every
100 lbs. of hay consumed an increase of live weight of 12.52, say
121 lbs.
Arthur Young by keeping pigs of a year old on peas-meal obtained the following results
No. 1 weighed 99.0; 35 days afterwards, 157.5; gain, 58.5; per day 1.672
No. 2       91.7; 42             145.4; "  53.7   "   1.876
No. 3       86.6; 63             139.4;    52.8        0.836
I shall here give two series of observations made at Bechelbronn
on the fattening of hogs. September 6th, 1841, seven hogs, aged
fifteen months each, already in good condition, were put up to fatten.
They had hitherto had the usual hog's food-sour milk and boiled
potatoes after weaning; by and by from 11 to 15 lbs. of potatoes,
whey, and dish washings. The seven porkers weighed 1691.8 lbs.;
or 241.670 lbs. each. The increase had been at the rate of 0.528,
rather better than half a pound per day and per head, supposing them
to have weighed 13.7 lbs. each, at the time of weaning.
lbs.
After fattening, 20th December, the 7 swine weighed 2101.0
Before    "      6th September             "           169.8
Increase in 104 days, 409.2 lbs.; ar per head....   58.3
Increase per day and per head.....................     *. 0.572
468 
THE HOG.
In the course of the 104 days, there were consumed:
lbs.                  lbs.
Barley..........772  equivalent to hay 1144
Peas...........1042.8 " 4171
Potatoes........9504 " 8296
Greasy water and whey-quantity not determined... 8333.6
So that with the provender equivalent to 100 lbs. of hay 4.91 lbs. of
live weight had been produced.
These seven porkers, slaughtered, yielded:
Weight of    Weight of
Weight   Weight after  Weight of  the porkers   heads and
alive.      bleeding.     the blood.      without         offal.
heads or feet.
lbs.
268.0
208.4
208.2
263.2
220.0
213.4
321.2
6          259.6        250.8        8.8         213.4        37.4
7          393.8        376.2        17.6        321.2        55.0
I-20;8.6                                 1702.6
It must be admitted that these animals had increased both in flesh
and in fat; but in spite of this, the experiment appears to be unfavorable to the opinion that fat in animals is the effect of direct assimilation of the substance. The whole increase of weight in the
seven porkers had been 409.2 lbs.; supposing 27 per cent. of fat in
this increase, its amount must have been 110.4 lbs. in all; but the
food consumed did not contain more than 57.4 lbs. It would therefore be necessary to admit that the food which had not been taken
into the account had contained as many as 53.0 lbs. of fatty matter,
which I own does not appear to me probable. But no definitive
conclusion can be drawn from the circumstance, owing to the actual
state of fatness of the animals, when they were specially put up to
fatten, not having been ascertained; perhaps the absolute quantity
of fat already accumulated is greater at this time than is generally
supposed.
I find, for instance, that a young porker of 196.9 lbs., killed at
the time when he might have been put up to fatten specially, yielded
as many as 26.3 per cent. of fat.
The following are the data afforded by the fattening of the farm
porkers for 1842:
Nine porkers, from thirteen to fifteen months old, and already in
good condition, were put upon the full fatting allowance on the 1st
of October, on which day they weighed:
lbs.
1940
Nov. 28th, after having been bled, they weighed..... 2307.8
Increase in 58 days per head and per day............38.2
40
I
i
I
I
r
-I
I
469
Hogs.
lbs.
323.0
5159.0
283.0
316.0
264
259.6
393.8
lbs.
312
248
272
305
257.4
250.8
376.2
lbs.
11
11
11
11
6.6
,g. 8
17.6
lbs.
44.0
39.6
63.8
41.8
37.4
37.4
55.0
i
2
3
4
5
6
7
2098.6
11
11
1702.6
11 
THE HOG.
In the course of fifty-eight days the hogs had consumed:
lbs                       lbs.
Rye.. -.... -...77   equivalent to hay  1141.8
Peas.......1302             "             5209
Potatoes...... 4796         "            1861
Greasy water and whey undetermined....8221.8
The nine animals gave 1746.8 lbs. of meat, fat and lean, or 75.7
per cent. of their weight as they stood alive; besides which, 141.9,
say 142 lbs. of lard were obtained from the internal parts. Now
supposing that in the increase of weight obtained in the course of
fifty-eight days, the fat were to be represented by 29 per cent., the
fat fixed would amount to 100.1 lbs.; while the whole of the fatty
substances contained in the food consumed would not amount to more
than 59.6 lbs. It would therefore be imperative on us, did we maintain that all the fat was obtained ready formed from without, to suppose that the whey and dish washings administered in indeterminate
quantity, had introduced 40.5 lbs. of fat into the bodies of the animals.
Some experiments which are going on at Bechelbronn at this moment s ill, I trust, settle the question definitively as to whether during
the fatting of hogs and other animals there is any formation of fat at
the cost of the starch and sugar of the food.
The observations which I have made on the fattening of hogs may
be summed up in these terms:
' 
.'A
. t
f'a;.
5'O.
E.e
I-.=
~.X
Duration of the experi       meiit.
lbs.         lbs.          lbs.       Months.       Months.        Days.
5.1         0.440          8.58          1             11    "
13.5         0.836         13.21          9             "            21
15.7         1.958         12.52          9            "             20
"          1.254           "           12            "
11.6         0.572          4.91         15             "           104
15.4         0.660          4.21         14  58                              1
The allowance to the hogs in the preceding observations was always abundant. To determine the quantity of potatoes consumed
each day by a hog in full growth, and whose weight was known, I
had him weighed at intervals, as well as the potato ration, placed
before him at will, which he ate daily, and found that when he
weighed:
Per 100 of the
live weight in hay
2.52
2.89
30.1
3.02
lbs.                           lbs.
11   equivalent in hay to  3.4
13.2            "               4.2
15.4            "              4.8
17.6'               5.5
I
470
. -t
t.g
I. -
. T,
I
II
P.
1!
11
I
I.I
0I
I.
138 he — te
145
160.5
184.8 
THE HOG.
To these observations on the keep and fatting of horned cattle,
horses, and hogs, I would gladly have added remarks of like extent
on the growth and fattening of sheep; unfortunately, I have only
been able to obtain very imperfect information on this branch of
rural economy. I have, however, sought to ascertain approximately
the relations which exist between the weight of a young animal, the
food consumed, and the increase in live weight, by means of the following experiment:
Two sheep six months old weighed together....134.2 lbs.
Sixteen days afterwards they weighed.......... 151.8
Total increase............  17.6
Increase per day, per head............ 0.55
In the sixteen days the two sheep ate:
Hay............22.0 =  Hay............22.0
Potatoes........53.3 =  Hay.......... 16.9
38.9
Or per head in hay.....................-9.45
Or per head per day.................. — 1.21
This would give us about 2.9 of hay provender per cent. of the
live weight, so that a ration which should be represented by 100 of
hay would be followed by an increase on the weight of a sheep of
6ix months old of 27.7 per cent.
( VI. OF THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE.
The forage consumed on the farm being the source of the manure
produced there, it would seem that it must be easy to calculate the
value of all that comes from the stables and cow-houses day after
day. I do not mean the mass or weight of the dejections here, for
it is certain that the more or less watery nature of the food materially influences the weight of the dung produced; and if a common
mode of calculating the quantity of dung by merely multiplying the
weight of food consumed by three be correct in some cases, it is
very far from the truth in others.  The dung produced on the farm
must be calculated on different grounds from this; and without pretending to any degree of accuracy which is really unattainable, it is
still very possible to get at the quantity of azote which is contained
in the litter and in the dejections, so as to be able to refer to a standard the quantity of manure made.
Were not the azotized principles of the food partly exhaled by
animals, the whole quantity not appearing in the excretions, it is
obvious that it would suffice to have ascertained the quantity of azote
contained in the food, to be in a condition to decide on that contained in the dung added to the litter.  But this cannot be done; to
be convinced of the fact, it is enough to take the least complex case,
that of a full-grown horse, receiving as his allowance per day:
Hay.....  22 lbs. containing 1775.3 grains of azote.
Oats...... 11 " 1389.4 "
Straw....  11 " 308.7              "
Litter....  8.8          108.0    "
Azote........ 3581.4
471 
Now assuming 2 per cent. as the contents in azote of dry farmyard dung, we see that the food consumed by the horse, speaking
theoretically, might or should forIn 25.5 lbs. of dry manure. But
we have seen that a horse or cow will exhale from 355.0 to 416.8
grs. of azote, which is all derived from the food, and is consequently lost to the dung-heap. Now 385.9 grs. of azote represent 2.75
lbs. of dry manure; so that the dry dung produced by the horse kept
in the stable, will be reduced from 25.5 lbs. to 23.1 lbs. In the
course of a year, upon this calculation, the azote exhaled will diminish the weight of dry dung produced by one horse by a quantity
equal to 1045 lbs.
The azote of the food of a cow is still more considerable in quaintity, and the loss to the dunghill proportionally larger; inasmuch
as to the amount she exhales, must be added all that goes to constitute the milk she gives. Practical men, without pretending to get
at the cause of the thing, have long been aware of the fact, that a
cow produces less dung than a horse; and the truth of this is readily demonstrated on scientific grounds. Suppose a cow, consuming
the equivalent of 33 lbs. of hay, and giving about 17 pints of milk
Der day:
33 lbs. of hay contain -........... 2670 grs. of azote,
44  "    straw for litter contain..   123    "
Azote....... 2793 = 19.8 lbs. of dung supposed to be dry.
But in the 24 hours, there have been of
Azote exhaled......... —................ 385.9 grains, and of
Azote in 17 pilnts, or 22.7 lbs. of issilk carried off, 802.7 grains,
1188.6 = 8.8 of dry dung.
The 33 lbs. of hay digested by the cow, consequently, the litter
added, have only produced 8.8 of dry dung. The azote of the food,
of which we find no account in the dejections, amounts per annum
to nearly 30 cwts., (3300 lbs.,) the deficiency in the case of the
horse amounting to no more than 1045 lbs., (9 cwts. I qr. 9 lbs.)
The estimation of the dung produced by growing animals, presents several special difficulties, inasmuch, as besides the azote
exhaled from the lungs, there is the quantity that is fixed in the living body.
In one of the experiments which I have related, it appears that a
calf six months old, consuming:
Hay 9.6 lbs. containing............ 1069.8 azote,
Discharged by its dejections..........  838.3 "
Azote fixed or exhaled in 24 hours.. 231.5 "
The azote lost to the manure by the fixing of azote is therefore
very considerable, in the case of young animals as well as of milchkine.  We find, for example, that for every 100 lbs. weight of hay
consumed:
A horse supplies the eq.ivalent of  51 lbs. of dry standard dung,
A milch-cow.................. 32    "         "
A calfofsix months......... 40 4                       "
472
THE HOG. 
THE HOG.
To estimate with any rigor the quantity of azotized manure which
ought to result from the forage consumed on the farm, it were necessary to know the proportion of azote contained in the bodies of
all the animals entertained upon it.  Having the increase of weight
that occurred in the stable, cow-house, pig-stye, and poultry-yard, we
should then be in a condition to know the precise quantity of dung
which it would be necessary to retrench from that which the forage
ought to have produced, had there been no production of animal
matter, had the whole of the azote of the food passed through the
live-stock to the dung-hill. Unfortunately, we have no very precise
data by which we might calculate the quantity of azote contained in
a living animal. I shall, nevertheless, endeavor to apply such as
we possess.
From a few practical experiments, and the information at my
command, I admit that the following substances in their usual state
contain per cent.:
Moisture.    Dry matter.  Salts.     Azote.
Beef-flesh............77   23           1.0        3.5
Veal................7 7           23           "           "
Blood.................820                     0.9        3.0
Skin.-..... —..*0...........60   40           1.0        7.2
Hair................. 9          81           2.0       13.8
Horn................ 9           91           0.7       14.4
Beef bones (tibia).....30        70     "    "
An entire skeleton.....36        64         35.0         5.2
Brain, intestines, &c......81     10          1.0        2.9
Fat freed from skin....20        80 " 1.9
These data applied to the various parts which enter into the
constitution of the animals which  up to this point have engaged
our attention, we should have for the quantity of azote per cent.
contained:
In horned cattle.............3.47
In the horse................3.64
In the hog....................3.80
In the sheep..............*-.-3.66
Average........-......3.64
For every 100 lbs. of live weight produced on the farm, consequently, we may, without probably being a great way from the truth,
presume that there has been 3.6 of azote fixed, azote obtained front
the forage, and which, consequently, cannot go to the dung-heap; in
other words, every 100 lbs. of live weight produced, deprive the
establishment of 180 lbs. of dry standard dung, or nearly 18 cwts.
of moist farm-yard dung.*
We may be allowed, therefore, to entertain the hope that we shall
one day be able, from the quantity of forage consumed upon a farm,
to calculate the actual quantity of manure which we shall have at
our disposal   To arrive at this result, it would indeed only be necessary to subtract the manure represented by the azote exhaled
from and fixed in the bodies of the stock, from the amount of azo
* This discussion will undoubtedly extend by and by to phosphoric acid. I shall
only say at this time, that from the results obtained in the case of a pig, the phosphoric acid appears to be in the proportion of from 2 to 3 per cent. of the live weight.
40*
473 
THE HOG.
tized manure represented by the whole quantity of forage, were it
to be used immediately. To obtain results of any accuracy, how
ever, it were necessary to possess data both more numerous and
more precise than any we have at present. This perfection of cocfficielts must be viewed as an affair for the future; agricultural
science has almost every thing to create.
In estimating the quantity of manure from the forage consumed,
it has been supposed that there is no loss. With reference to the
stall or cow-house, a careful husbandman may approach this perfection, by doing almost the contrary of all that is usually done now-adays; i. e. by taking every precaution against waste; but it is obvious that in so far as the stable is concerned, there must always be a
considerable and inevitable loss; all that falls upon highways and
byways is irretrievably gone. It is, indeed, matter of ordinary calculation that in consequence of their work out of doors, the horses
upon a farm do not afford more than about two-thirds of the dung
which ought to be obtained from the provender consumed.   Some
experiments made in the stables at Bechelbronn show that the loss
in this way may amount to one quarter of the whole amount of
dejections; still, as the animals are for the major part engaged on
the land of the farm, it is obvious that what falls there is by no
means lost. To supply my reader with definite sums from a particular instance, upon which he may fix his mind, I shall state for his
information that in the course of 1840-41,* my stock at Bechelbronn,
consisting of sixteen head of cattle, eleven calves, twenty-seven
horses, and (?) hogs, consumed 333,579 lbs. or 148 tons, 18 cwts.
1 qr. 15 lbs. of forage, containing 6925 lbs. of azote, and produced
upon their original weight 20,S21 lbs. of flesh, fat, and milk, contain ing with the addition of a calculated quantity for loss from out of
door droppings, exhalation by the lungs, &c., 2631 lbs. of azote.
The forage and the litter, from their contents in azote, ought to have
produced about 15,356 cwt. of moist farm-yard dung; they, however,
produced no more than 9522 cwt.; and, in fact, we see that there
had been a consumption of azote by arrest within the bodies of the
stock, by exhalation from their lungs, and by loss, amounting to 2631
lbs.; by an equivalent quantity of dung, therefore, had the absolute
produce necessarily been diminished.
Thaer allows that articles of dry forage and litter double their
weight in becoming converted into dung.  The statement which I
have just made agrees on the whole pretty well with this estimate.
In our cow-house ration, one-half only is generally hay, the other
half consists of roots and tubers.  The dry forage and litter conse quently amount to 4660 cwt., which according to Thaer ought to
become changed into 9320 cwt. of dung, a number not very wide of
that to which we have come. Sinclair reckons the dung of the cow house at four times the weight of the litter, a view which neither
accords with Thaer's estimate nor with our experience.
I think it altogether unnecessary to insist on the importance to
* Twelve months, I presume.-ENO. ED.
474 
METEOROLOGY.-TEMPERATURE.
the farmer of a foreknowledge of the quantity of manure which he
may reasonably calculate on obtaining from a known weight of forage
consumed upon his premises. Of the various methods proposed for
arriving at this information, that which I have employed, and which
is based on ascertaining the amount of azote, appears to me the best
calculated to supply satisfactory results, particularly when experience
shall have corrected or confirmed the numbers which I have adopted
as the elements of my calculations.
I have already said that any supplementary forage, or forage
added to that which is indispensable to the production of manure,
generally acquires, by the fact of its conversion into power or into
exportable substances, a value superior to that which it could have
had of itself in the market-place. This additional forage is that
fraction of the provender, the azote of which figures in the statements
that have just been made as azote exhaled or assimilated and fixed.
We find, in fact, in representing this forage which is lost to the
dung-heap, but gained to power and exportable articles, that in the
stall, 100 lbs. of hay yield 8.61 lbs. of live weight, and 40.8 lbs. of
milk, and that in the hog-stye, 100 lbs. of hay yield 21 of living
weight.  In the stable, again, the azote fixed, exhaled, or lost amounts
to nearly 1540 lbs., represented by about 1218 cwts. of hay, which
have yielded 1504 lbs. of live weight, due in great part to the birth
and growth  of foals, in addition to the force represented by 8370
days' work.
CHAPTER IX.
METEOROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS;
~ 1. TEMPERATURE.
THE phenomena of vegetation are always accomplished under the
influence of a certain temperature. If, in addition, the concurrence
of light, air, moisture, and various inorganic substances, be required,
it is still perfectly certain that all of these agents only contribute to
the development of a plant when they are assisted by a due measure
of heat, variable with reference to the different vegetable species,
and comprised within limits that are rather far apart, but essential.
Germination, for example, takes place at a temperature a few degrees above the freezing point of water, 38~ or 39~ F., and at one
indicated by 100~ or 120~ of the same scale. The forests of tropical
countries thrive in a hot, moist atmosphere, which often marks upwards of 100~ F.; and I met with a saxifrage upon the Andes, at
an elevation of 15,748 feet above the level of the sea, beyond the
line of perpetual snow, and very near the line of perpetual congelation.
Some families of plants require a temperature not only high, but
it never falls below a certain very limited degree; the majority
475 
METEOROLOGY.-TEMPER ATURE.
of the intertropical plants are in this predicament. There are others
which, imperatively requiring a high temperature for their growth
and perfection, nevertheless suspend their powers during the winter,
and bear without detriment degrees of cold of great intensity
among the number may be cited the larch-pine, which abounds in
Siberia, and stands the utmost rigors of its climate, where the
thermometer at mid-winter frequently falls to 30~ and even 40~ below zero, F.
The meteorological habitudes or dispositions of plants being extremely various, it follows, that the geographical distribution of
plants is a consequence of the distribution of heat over the surface
of the globe-of climate.
The earth we inhabit appears to have a heat proper to itself; it is
a heated body in progress of cooling. It is found, in fact, that as
the centre of the earth is approached, as mines penetrate more
deeply below its surface, the temperature increases. Below a very
limited distance from the surface, the temperature ceases to be
affected by variations in the temperature of the general atmosphere;
from the point of invariable temperature the subterranean heat increases uniformly at the rate of 1~ cent. (1.8~ Fahr.) for every 101
feet of descent.
The depth at which the point or stratum of invariable temperature
is met with, varies in different places, and is mainly affected by the
extent of the thermometrical variations in the superincumbent air in
the course of the year.  In the higher latitudes, consequently, the
depth is very considerable; at Paris, for example, M. Arago has
found that a thermometer, buried at 26} feet under the surface, does
not remain absolutely stationary. In climates of greater constancy,
as may be conceived, the layer of invariable temperature will be
found much nearer the surface; were the temperature of the air invariable, the layer of invariable temperature would necessarily be
found at the surface of the ground.  In countries under and close to
the equator, this, in fact, is found to be the case.   From a series of
observations which I made in South America, between the 2d parallel of southern and the 11th of northern latitude, I found that, near
the line, the layer of invariable temperature is found nearly at the
surface  the thermometer, placed in a hole about one foot deep,
under the shade of an Indian cabin, or a shed, does not vary by more
than from one-tenth to two-tenths of a degree cent.
It was probably under the influence of the internal or proper heat
of the globe, according to M. de Humboldt, that the same species
of animals which are now confined to the torrid zone, inhabited, in
former and remote ages, the northern hemisphere, covered as it then
was by arborescent ferns and stately palmns.  It is easy to imagine
how, as the surface of the earth cooled, the distribution of climates
became almost exclusively dependent on the action of the solar rays,
and how also those tribes of plants and of animals, the organization
of which required a higher temperature and more equable climate
gradually died out and disappeared.*
* Humboldt's Central Asia, v. iii. p. 98.
476 
MIETEOROLOGY.-TESIPERATURE.
In the state of stability to which the surface of the globe appears
actually to have attained, the sun must be considered as the agent
which most directly influences the temperature of our atmosphere.
The length of the day, the number of hours during which the sun is
above the horizon, coupled with the height to which he ascends,
such is the cause with which the temperature of each particular latitude is primarily connected; and, in looking at the subject practically, it is found to be so precisely; not only is the mean temperature of the year dependent oni the length of the days, and the meridian
altitude of the sun, but the mean temperature of each month in the
year is essentially connected with the same circumstances. In the
northern hemisphere, the temperature rises from about the middle
of January, slowly at first, more rapidly in April and May, to reach
its maximum point in July and August, when it begins to fall again
until mid-January, when it is at its minimum.
The highest mean annual temperature is, of course, observed in
the neighborhood of the equator; between 0~ and 10~ or 12~ of latitude on either side, at the level of the sea, where, besides the equality of day and night, the sun, always elevated, passes the zenith
twice a year.  The  observations that have been made up to this
time, lead us to conclude that this temperature oscillates between
26~ and 29~ cent.; 78.8~ and 84.2~ Fahr.
Did the earth present unvarying uniformity of surface, not only
with reference to elevation but to constitution, so that the power of
absorbing and of radiating heat should be everywhere alike, the climate of a place would depend almost entirely on its geographical
position: the points of equal temperature would be found on the
same parallels of latitude, or, to employ the happy expression introduced by M. de Humboldt, the isothermal lines would all be parallel
with the equator. But the surface of our planet is covered with undulations and asperities, which cause its outline to vary to infinity;
and then the soil is dry, or swampy; it is a moving desert of sand,
or covered with umbrageous and impenetrable forests; and all this
causes corresponding varieties in climate, for the surface becomes
heated in different degrees as it is in one or other of these conditions. Another very important consideration is, that the surface is
a continent, or an island in the ocean: the climate of a country, or
a district, is vastly influenced by its proximity to or distance from
the sea. The difficulty, the slowness, with which such a mass of
liquid as the ocean becomes either heated or cooled, is the cause of
the temperate character both of the summers and winters of the
shores it bathes, and the islands of moderate dimensions it surrounds.
As we penetrate great continents from the sea-board, we find that
the temperature both of summer and winter becomes extreme, and
the difference between the mean summer and mean winter temperature is great; and again we find, that places which have considerably different latitudes, have still very nearly the same mean annual
temperature. The mean temperature of Paris, in latitude 48~ 50',
is about 51.4~ F.; that of London, in lat. 51~ 31', is 50.7~ F.; that
477 
METEOROLOGY.-TEIMPERATURE.
of Dublin, in lat. 53~ 23', is 49.1~ F.; and that of Edinburgh, in lat
55~ 57', is 47.4' F.
An island, a peninsula, and the sea-shore, consequently, enjoy a
more temperate and equable climate-the summers less sultry, the
winters more mild.  On the shores of Glenarmr, in Ireland, in latitude 55~, the myrtle vegetates throughout the year as in Portugal
it rarely freezes in winter; but the heat of summer does not suffice
to ripen the grape.  Under the very same parallel, however,  at
Konigsberg, in Prussia, they experience a cold of 17~ and 18~ below
zero of Fahrenheit's scale in the winter. The ponds and little lakes
of the Feroe Islands, although situated in N. lat. 62~, never freeze,
and the mean winter temperature is very nearly 40~ F. On the
coasts of Devonshire, in England, the winters are so mild, that the
orange-tree, as a standard, will there carry fruit; and the agave has
been seen to flourish, after having lived both winter and summer,
for twenty-eight years, in the open air, uninjured.
One of the grand characteristics of what may be called a maritime climate, is the less difference which occurs between the temperature of summer and that of winter. At Edinburgh, for instance,
the difference only amounts to 19~ F.; at Moscow, which is nearly
on the same parallel, the difference amounts to 50~ F.; and at
Kasan, (lat. 56~,) it is as much as 56.3~ F.
The influence of extensive continents, or remoteness from the
sea-board, does not seem merely to render a climate extreme, increasing at once the heat of summer and the cold of winter.  The
collective observations on temperature, made in Europe and in Asia,
show that the mean annual temperature decreases as we penetrate
more into the interior of continents towards the east.  Humboldt
ascribes this diminution of temperature partly to the refrigerating
action of the prevailing winds.  While the mean annual temperature
of Amsterdam (N. lat. 52~ 22') is 49.6~ F., that of Berlin (N. lat.
52~ 31') is 47.4~ F.; that of Copenhagen (N. lat. 55~ 41') is 46.7~ F.
and that of Kasan (N. lat. 55~ 48') is but 35.9~ F.
The highest temperature which has yet been registered, as occur ing in the open air, appears to have been observed by Burckhardt, in
Jpper Egypt; the thermometer indicated 47.5~ cent., upwards of
117~ F. The lowest was seen by Captain Back, in North Amcrica,
when the thermometer fell to.56~ cent., 68.8~ F. below zero.
~ II. DECREASE OF TEMPERATURE IN THE SUPERIOR STRATA OF THE
ATMOSPHERE.
The temperature rises rapidly as we ascend in the atmosphere;
places among the mountains always possess a climate more severe
as they are higher above the level of the sea.  Even under the
equator, height of position modifies the seasons so much, that the
hamlet of Antisana, which is within one degree of south latitude, but
which is upwards of 1l3,0Q0 feet above the sea level, has a mean
temperature which does not differ much from that of St. Peters-_
burgh. Near it, but at a still greater height, the summit of Cyambe,
478 
METEOROLOGY.-TEMPERATURE.
covered by an immense mass of everlasting snow, is cut by the
equinoctial line itself.
The cold which prevails among lofty mountains, is ascribed to the
dilatation which the air of lower regions experiences in its upward
ascent, to a more rapid evaporation under diminished pressure, and
to the intensity of nocturnal radiation.
Places which are situated upon the same mountain-chain, nearly
in the same latitude, and at the same height, have often very diffbrent climates. The temperature which would be proper to a place
perfectly isolated, is necessarily modified by a considerable number
of circumstances. Thus the radiation of heated plains of considerable extent, the nature of the color of the rocks, the thickness of the
forests, the moistness or dryness of the soil, the vicinity of glaciers,
the prevalence of particular winds, hotter or colder, moister or drier,
the accumulation of clouds, &c., are so many causes which tend to
modify the meteorological conditions of a country, whatever its
mere geographical position. The neighborhood of volcanoes in a
state of activity does not appear to affect the temperature sensibly;
thus Purace6, Pasto, Cumbal, which have flaming volcanoes towering
over them, have not warmer climates than Bogota, Santa Rosa, De
Osos, Le Param de Herve, &c., situated on sand-stone or syenite.
From the whole series of observations which I had an opportunity
of making on the Cordilleras, it appears that one degree of temperature, cent., 1.8~ F., corresponds to 195 metres, or 649.4 feet of
ascent among the equatorial Andes.   In Europe, it has been ascertained that the decrease of temperature in ascending mountains, is
more rapid during the day than during the night-during summer
than during the winter; for example, between Geneva and Mount
St. Bernard, to have the Fahrenheit thermometer fall one degree, it
is necessary to ascend
In spring......................  326.1 feet.
In summer.....................336.6
In autumn............................. 382.2
In winter....................... 422.2
It sometimes happens, however, that in winter, in a zone of no
great elevation, the temperature increases with the elevation —a fact
which Messrs. Bravais and Lottin observed in the 70~ of N. lat., in
calm weather; at an elevation between 1312 and 1640 feet, the rise
amounted to as many as 6~ centigrade, 10.8~ Fahrenheit.
In no part of the globe is the diminution of temperature, occasioned by a rise above the level of the sea, more remarkable than among
equatorial mountain ranges; and it is not without astonishment that
the European, leaving the burning districts which produce the banana
and cocoa-tree, frequently reaches, in the course of a few hours, the
barren regions which are covered with everlasting snow. "Upon
each particular rock of the rapid slope of the Cordillera," says M.
de Humboldt, "in the series of climates superimposed in stages, we
find inscribed the laws of the decrease of caloric, and of the geographical distribution of vegetable forms."*
* Humboldt's Central Asia, vol. iii. p. 236
479 
METEOROLOGY.-TEMPERATURE.
In the hottest countries of the earth, the summits of very lofty
mountains are constantly covered with snow; in the elevated and
cold strata of the atmosphere, the watery vapor is condensed, and
falls in the state of hail and snow.  In the plain, hail melts almost
immediately; the fuision is slower upon the mountains; and for each
latitude there is a certain elevation where hail and snow no longer
melt perceptibly.  This elevation is the infer?ior limit of perpetual
srolv.
The accidental causes which tend to modify the temperature of a
climate, also act in raising or lowering the snow-line. On the southern slope of the Himalaya, for example, the snow line does not descend so low as it does upon the northern slope; and in Peru, from
14~ to 16~ of S. latitude, Mr. Pentland found the perpetual snow-line,
at an elevation of 1312 feet higher than it is under the equator.
Elevation above the level of the sea, consequently, has the same
effect upon climate as increase in latitude.  Upon mountain ranges,
vegetation undergoes modification in its forms, becomes decrepit,
and disappears towards the line of perpetual snow, precisely as it
does within the polar circle, and for no other than the-same reason,
viz., depression of temperature.
The constancy and the small extent of variation which occurs in
the temperature of the atmosphere under the equator, enables us to
indicate with some precision the point of mean temperature below
which there is no longer any vegetation. In ascending Chimborazo I met with this point at the height of 15774.5 feet, where the
mean temperature approached 35~ F., and where consequently the
saxifrages, which root among the rocks, must still receive a temper ature of from 41~ to 43~ F. during the day, inasmuch as far beyond
the inferior snow-line, at an elevation of 19,685 feet above the sea line, I saw a thermometer suspended in the air, and in the shade
mark 44.6~ F.
In considering the extension of vegetation towards the polar re gions, we discover plants growing in very high latitudes in places
which have a mean temperature much below that which I believe to
be the limit of vegetable life on the mountains of the equatorial region.
In these rigorous climates vegetation is suspended by the severity
of the cold during the greater portion of the year; it is only during
the brief and passing heat of summer that the vegetable world
wakes from its long winter sleep.  Nova  Zembla, lat. 73~ N., the
mean temperature of whose summer is between 34~ and 35~ F., is,
perhaps, like the perpetual snow-line of the equator, the term of
vegetable existence. It is also to the very remarkable heat of the
summer in countries situated at the northern extremity of the con tinent of Asia, remarkable if it be contrasted with the intensity of
the winter cold, that man succeeds in rearing a few culinary vegeta bles in those dreadful climates. At Jakoustk, in 62~ of N. lat., and
where mercury is frozen during two months of the year, the mean
temperature of summer is very nearly 64~ F. We have here, as M.
de Humboldt observes, "a well-characterized continental climate,"
examples of which indeed are frequent in the north of America. At
480 
1IETEOROLOGY.-GROWTH OF PLANTS.
Jakoustk wheat and rye sometimes yield a return of 15 for 1, although at the depth of a yard the soil which grows them is constantly frozen.*
The limit of perpetual snow being much lower upon the mountains
of Europe than in tropical countries, agriculture ceases at a much
less elevation. At a height of 6560 feet above the level of the sea,
the vegetables of the plain have almost entirely disappeared. In
Northern Switzerland the vine does not grow at an elevation of
more than 1800 feet above the sea-line; maize scarcely ripens at an
elevation of 2850 feet, while in the Andes it still affords abundant
harvests at an elevation of 8260 feet. On the plateau or table land
of Los Pastos, fields of barley are seen at upwards of 10,000 feet
above the level of the sea; but on the northern slope of Monte Rosa,
in Switzerland, barley fails at an elevation of about 4260 feet; on
the southern slope, indeed, it reaches a height of about 6560 feet;
and this great variation in the ultimate limit of barley is frequently
observed with reference to the same plant grown upon opposite aspects of a mountain range. The difference is ascribed to local influences; thus, it is a well-ascertained fact, that on the mountains
of the northern hemisphere vegetation reaches a much higher latitude upon southern than upon northern exposures; but a general
law, and one applicable to every latitude, is, that the higher we rise
above the level of the sea, the scantier does vegetation become, the
later do harvests reach maturity; but as the heat of the atmosphere
increases with the elevation, it follows that there is an obvious relation between the time a crop is upon the ground and the mean temperature of the place or season where it grows. We have still to
examine this relationship.
III. MIETEOROLOGICAL CIRCUMISTANCES UNDER WHICH CERTAIN
PLANTS GROW IN DIFFERENT CLIMATES.
In discussing the conditions of temperature under which the various plants that are common in our European agriculture come to
maturity, we are led to conclusions which are not without interest.
A knowledge of the mean temperature of a place situated between
the tropics suffices of itself to give us an idea of the nature of its
agriculture; in fact, the temperature of each day differs little from
that of the entire year, during which vegetable life proceeds without
interruption. It is altogether different with regard to countries situated beyond the limits of the torrid zone.  The mean annual temperature is not then a datum sufficient to enable us to appreciate the
agricultural importance of a country. In order to know what the
earth will produce, the temperature proper to the different seasons
of the year must be known; in a word, it is the mean temperature
of the cycle in which vegetation begins and ends that it imports us
to ascertain, in order to learn what the useful plants are which may
be required of the soil.
In examining the question which now engages us, we first inquire
what time elapses between the sprouting of a plant and its maturity,
* Humboldt's Central Asia, vol. iii. p. 49.
41
48. 
METEOROLOGY.-GROWTH OF PLANTS.
and then we determine the temperature of the interval which seperates these two extreme epochs in vegetable life. In comparing
these data with reference to the same species of plant grown in Europe and America, we arrive at the following curious result, that the
number of days that elapse between the commencement of vegetation and the period of ripeness, is by so much the greater as the
mean temperature is lower. The duration of the life of the vegetable would be the same, however different the climate, were this tempera ture identical; it will be longer or it will be shorter as the mean
temperature of the cycle itself is lower or higher. In other words,
the duration of the vegetation appears to be in the inverse ratio of
the mean temperature; so that if we multiply the number of days
during which a given plant grows in different climates, by the mean
temperature of each, we obtain numbers that are very nearly equal.
This result is not only remarkable in so far as it seems to indicate
that upon every parallel of latitude, at all elevations above the level
of the sea, the same plant receives in the course of its existence an
equal quantity of heat, but it may find its direct application by ena bling us to foresee the possibility of acclimating a vegetable in a
country, the mean temperature of the several months of which is
known.
CULTIVATION OF WHEAT, ALSACE.
In 1835 we sowed our wheat on the 1st of November; the cold
set in shortly after the plant had sprung, and the harvest took place
the 16th of July, 1836. The vegetation during the last days of autumn is so slow and irregular, that it may be assumed without sensible error, that it really begins in spring, when the frosts are no longer
felt; from this period only does it proceed without interruption. For
Alsace I regard this period as beginning with the 1st of March.
The period of the growth was, therefore, 137 days, the mean temperature was 59~ F., (3083~ F.)
Tremois wheat, this same year, required 131 days to ripen under
a mean temperature of between 60~ and 61~ F., (7925~ F.)
At Paris, setting out from the 31st of March, wheat generally requires 160 days to attain maturity, the mean temperature being
about 560 F., (8960~ F.)
At Alais the month of February having generally but few days
of heat, it may be regarded as the epoch when the continued vegetation of autumn-sown wheat commences.   The  harvest taking
place on the 27th of June, the number of days which it requires to
ripen is 146, the mean temperature being between 57~ and 58~ F.
(8322o F.)
CULTIVATION OF WHEAT IN AMERICA.
At Kingston, New York, the wheat is sown in autumn, vegetation suspended through the winter resumes its activity in the begin
ning of April, and the harvest takes place about the 1st of August.
The crop is therefore growing during about 122 days under the influence of a mean temperature of 63~ F. (76800 F.)
482 
METEOROLOGY.-GROWTH OF PLANTS.
In the same place Tremois wheat; is sown in the beginning of
May, and the harvest takes place towards the 15th of August, so
that it is 106 days on the ground under a mean temperature of 68~ F.,
(7208o F.)
At Cincinnati the wheat sown in the end of February is harvested in the 2d week in July, say the 15th day, the crop is therefore
1 37 days on the ground under a mean temperature of between 60 and
61~ F. (82880 F.)
INTERTROPICAL REGION.
Wheat sown at the end of February was reaped on the 25th of
July at Zimijaca, plain of Bogota, having been 147 days on the
ground, the mean temperature being between 580 and 59~ F.,
(85260~ F.)
At Quinchuqui the vegetation of wheat begins in February and
ends in the month of July, say, 181 days; and I found the mean
temperature to be between 57~ and 58~ F.
At Venezuela, according to M. Codazzi, wheat to ripen requires
92 days at Turmero, mean temperature between 75.2~ and 76~ F.,
(6918~ F.;) 100 days at Truxillo, mean temperature 72.1~ F.,
(7210~ F.)
CULTIVATION OF BARLEY.
Of the cereals, barley is that which succeeds in the most diversified climates. It comes to maturity under the burning heats of the
tropics; and in regions where the mean and constant temperature
is scarcely 52~ F., fields of barley of great beauty are still encountered.
At Alsace (Bechelbronn) barley sown at the end of April was
harvested on the 1st of August. It had remained 92 days on the
ground, the mean temperature having been between 66~ and 670 F.,
(61 18s~ F.)
Winter barley sown on the 1st of November was cut on the 1st
of July.  Reckoning the period of active vegetation from the 1st
of March, it was 122 days in coming to maturity, the mean temperature having been between 58~ and 59~ F., (7076~ F.)
At Alais winter barley is harvested on the 18th of June. Assuming that, as in the case of wheat, the 1st of February is the date
of commencing vegetation, it must have taken 137 days to come to
maturity under a mean temperature between 55~ and 56~ F.
In Egypt upon the banks of the Nile barley is sown in the end
of November, and the harvest takes place at the end of February,
at an interval therefore of 90 days, and the mean temperature of the
winter at Cairo is nearly 70~ F., (6300~ F.)
At Kingston, North America, the barley is sown in the beginning of May, and the crop is cut towards the beginning of August,
in about 92 days, therefore, the mean temperature being between
66~ to 67~ F.
At Cumbal under the line there is no fixed period for sowing
barley. It is generally put into the ground on the approach of the
483 
METEOROLOGY.-GROWTH OF PLANTS.
rainy season about the 1st of'June, and it is then reaped about the
middle of November; it therefore stands on the ground for about
168 days, and the mean temperature is between 51~ and 52~ F.
At Santa Fe6 de Bogota they reckon about four months between
the barley seed-time and harvest, or about 122 days, the mean temperature being between 58~ and 59~ F.
CULTIVATION OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN.
In the neighborhood of Bechelbronn the maize which sprouted on
the first of June yielded an abundant harvest on the 1st of October,
the mean temperature having been 68~ F.
In South America maize comes to maturity in the course of three
months, say 92 days, the mean temperature being between 81~ and
82~ F.; but on the elevated plains, as that of Santa Fe, maize will
require six months to come to maturity, say 183 days, and there the
mean temperature is 59~ F.
CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO.
In 1836 our potatoes at Bechelbronn were put into the ground on
the 1st of May, and the crop was gathered on the 15th of October,
after 157 days, therefore, the mean temperature having been about
65~ F.; but in ordinary years, when the temperature is less elevated
than that of 1836, the potato crop is generally gathered at the end
of October, after 183 days, the mean temperature having been as
before nearly 59~ F.
In the neighborhood of Alais potatoes are planted at the end of
March and taken up about the 1st of September, after five months
or 153 days, the mean temperature of which has been 70~ F.
According to M. Codazzi potatoes are grown near the lake of Valencia, (Venezuela,) in 120 days, and the mean temperature of Maracaibo near the lake is 78~ F.
According to the same observer, the potato still yields good crops
at Merida in the Cordilleras, where the mean temperature is between
71~ and 72~ F., and the growth lasts about 4' months.
On the temperate levels of New Granada at Santa Fe6 I saw potatoes set in the middle of December immediately after the rainy
season, and the harvest was gathered in the course of the first week
in June, the crop therefore was at least 200 days in the ground, the
mean temperature having been between 58~ and 59~ F.
On the occasion of my ascent of the volcanic mountain, Antisana,
I ate on the 4th of August some potatoes which had just been gath ered, and which had been planted in the beginning of November, so
that the crop had been 276 days in the ground, the mean tempera ture of the country being 52~ Fahr.
But this is not yet the superior limit to the cultivation of potatoes
under the equator. They are still grown at Cambugan, the mean
temperature of which scarcely exceeds 49~ Fahr., the plant remain ing nearly eleven months in the ground, and the crop being frequently
484 
METEOROLOGY.-GROWTH OF PLANTS.
lost from frosts that occur at this great elevation in the course of
the months of November and January.
CULTIVATION OF THE INDIGO PLANT.
In Venezuela, in plantations very near the level of the sea, the
first crop is cut about eighty days after sowing. The mean temperature is there between 81~ and 82~ Fahr.   In other countries
where the mean temperature ranges between 72~ and 74~ Fahr.,
which must be regarded as the limits to the growth of indigo, the
first cutting. takes place 31 months or 106 days after the sowing.
InI India the first cutting seems generally to occur about ninety days
after the sowing, and the mean temperature of the two winter months
and of the summer months when the crop is on the ground, at Bombay is about 76~ Fahr.
I shall terminate this section by calling the attention of vegetable
physiologists to a fact which appears to have escaped them. It is
this: that plants in general, those of tropical countries very obviously so, spring up, live, and flourish in temperatures that are nearly
the same. In Europe and in North America, an annual plant is
subjected to climatic influences of the greatest diversity. The
cereals, for example, germinate at from 43~ to 47~ or 48~; they get
through the winter alive, making no progress; but in the spring
they shoot up, and the ear attains maturity at a season when the
temperature, which has risen gradually, is somewhat steady at from
74~ to 78~ Fahr.
In equinoctial countries things pass differently: the germination,
growth, and ripening of grain take place under degrees of heat which
are nearly invariable.   At Santa  Fe  the thermometer indicates
79~ Fahr. at seed as at harvest time. In Europe the potato is
planted with the thermometer at from 50~ to 54~ Fahr., and it does
not ripen until it has had the heats of July and August. But we
have just seen that this plant grows, slowly indeed, but regularly, in
places where the temperature, nearly invariable, does not rise above
48.2~ or 50~ Fahr.
Germination, and the evolution of those organs by which vegetables perform their functions in the soil and in the air, take place at
temperatures that vary between 32~ and 112~ Fahr.; but the most
important epoch in their life, ripening, generally happens within
much smaller limits, and which indicate the climate best adapted to
their cultivation, if not always to their growth; for the vine grows
lustily in many places where its fruit never ripens. To produce
drinkable wine, a vineyard must have not only a summer and an
autumn sufficiently hot; it is indispensable in addition that at a given
period-that, namrely, which follows the appearance of the seedsthere be a month, the mean temperature of which does not fall below
19~ cent. or about 66-~ Fahr., a fact of which conviction may be
obtained from the following table which I borrow from M. de Humboldt:
41*
485 
METEOROLOGY.-GROWTH OF PLANTS.
Temperature of  Temperature  Temperature of
summer.    of autumn.  the hottest month.
Bordeaux......  70~ Fahr.    58~         73.3~ F. very favorable
Frankfort, A.M...  65         50         66.0
Lausanne....... 65.2        49.7        65.8
Paris............ 65.8      52.2        66.2
Berlin.......... 63.2        48.0        64.4 Wine scarcely drinkable.
London........ 62.9        51.2         64.1 Vine not cultivated.
Cherbourg..... -. 61.9    54.4         63.2 "
In high latitudes the disappearance of vigorous vegetation in plants
may depend quite as much on intensity of winter colds as on insufficiency of summer heat. The equable climate of the equatorial regions is therefore much better adapted than that of Europe to determine the extreme limits of temperature between which vegetable
species of different kinds will attain to maturity. Thus it has been
found that the vine between the tropics is productive in temperatures
that vary from 69~ F:. to 79~ or 80~. I shall terminate with a list of
the temperature& favorable to the particular vegetables in the success
of which man is more especially interested.
Maximum. Minimum.
Pine-apple...... " 68
Melon..................... "..67
Vanilla...................   68
G71 aCluas....................." A77
The vine.......79 74
7 Coffee......-............79  74
6 Anise......-............77    66
Wheat......-.-.......-... 74 (?) 74
Barley...... -........74    59
Potatoes.............75 (?) 52
Arachaca...... 75 49
Flax....................74    54
Apple......  72..59
Oak.......................67 61
Maximum. Minimum.
The cocoa, or chocolate bean 82~ F. 73~ F.
Banana............... " 64
Indigo...... a  71
Sugar-cane......   "    71
Cocoa -nut                       7.................7  (  778
Palm...................... " 78
Tobacco...................  " 65
cManihot 7..................2 572
Cotton-tree................ "    67
Maize........................." 59
Haricots................... i 59
OrchiI........................ " 72
Rice...................... s"   75
Calabash.............. —--  "    72
Carica papaya.............. "   66
~ IV. COOLING THROUGH THE NIGHT; DEW, RAIN.
When the sky is clear and calm during the night, vegetables cool
down and very soon show a temperature inferior to that of the air
which surrounds them. This property of cooling in such circumstances belongs to all bodies  but all do not possess it to the same
degree.  Organic substances, for instance, such as wool or cotton,
feathers, &c., radiate powerfully and sink low; polished metals, on
the contrary, have a very weak emissive or radiating power; and
air and the gases in general radiate still more feebly.
Inasmuch as a body is continually emitting heat, its temperature
can only remain stationary so long as it receives from surrounding
objects at every instant a quantity of caloric precisely equal in quantity to that which it loses from its surface.
From the moment that these incessant exchanges cease to be i.
a state of perfect equality, the temperature of a body varies; it ma)
even experience a considerable degree of cooling if it is exposed
during a clear night in an open spot. In such circumstances, a body
gives off towards all the visible parts of the heavens more heat then
it receives; for the higher regions of the atmosphere are excessive
486 
METEOROLOGY.-NIGHT COOLING.
ly cold, a fact which is proved by the rapid diminution of temperature experienced on ascending mountains, or by rising into the air
in balloons. The internal temperature of the globe, the tendency
of which would be to compensate the loss experienced by the bo,ly
which radiates, has scarcely any effect in lessening the coolin,r, because it is propagated with extreme slowness, in consequence of the
indifferent conducting powers of the earthy substances of which its
crust is composed. The air, lastly, which surrounds the radiating
body, does not warm it save in the most minute, inappreciable degree,
and rather by its contact than by transmitting to it rays of heat, for
the gases have only very limited emissive powers. It is even in
consequence of the small amount of this power that the stratum of
air in contact with the surface of the ground, does not by any means
sink in the same proportion as the surface upon which it lies. Thus,
in the circumstances which I have indicated, a thermometer laid
upon the ground always indicates a temperature lower than that
which is proclaimed by one suspended in the air; and the difference
is by so much the greater as the radiating power of the bodies exposed is more decided, or as it may take place into a greater extent
of the heavens. Every cause which agitates the air, which disturbs
its transparency, which contracts the extent of the visible sphere,
interferes with nocturnal radiation, and therefore with cooling. A
cloud, like a screen, compensates either in whole or in part according to its proper temperature, for the loss of heat which a body upon
the surface of the earth experiences in radiating into space. Wind,
by continually renewing the air which is in contact with the surface
of bodies tending to cool by radiation, always diminishes its effect to
a certain extent. It is for this reason that a cloudless sky and a
calm atmosphere, when nocturnal radiation attains its maximum, are
most dangerous or injurious to our harvests.
In a night which combines all the conditions favorable to radiation,
a thermometer of small size laid upon the grass will be found to
mark from 10~ to 14~ or 15~ Fahr. below the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. Thus in the temperate zone in Europe, as
Mr. Daniell has observed, the temperature of meadows and heaths
is liable to fall during ten months of the year by the mere effect of
nocturnal radiation to a temperature below the freezing point of
water; this is particularly apt to happen both in spring and autumn,
when the destructive effects of radiation are most to be apprehend ed, the nocturnal radiations of those seasons frequently lowering the
temperature several degrees below the freezing point.
A few observations which I made upon nocturnal radiation at dif ferent heights in the Cordilleras, seem to indicate that its effects
there are less decided than in Europe, in consequence perhaps of
the greater quantity of heat acquired by the ground in the course of
the day. It appears that in this mountain range it rarely freezes at
a height less than 6560 feet above the level of the sea; although
there are certain circumstances there which favor nocturnal radia tion so much, that it is really impossible to indicate any very precise
limits.  In a general way it may be said that the crops of those
487 
IMETEOROL'Y.-NIGHT COOLING.
plains which are sufficiently elevated to have a mean temperature
of from 50~ to 58~ Fahr. are exposed to suffer from frost; it frequently happens that a crop of wheat, barley, maize, or potatoes, of
the richest appearance, is destroyed in a single night by the effect
of radiation.  In Europe during the fine nights of April and May,
when the air is calm and the sky clear, buds, leaves, and young
shoots are frequently cut off, are frozen; in a word, although a thermometer in the air indicates several degrees above the point of congelation. Market gardeners and others who are much exposed to
loss from this cause, ascribe the effect to the light of the moon of the
months of April and May; and they ground their opinion upon the
fact that when the sky is clouded, the destructive effects of frost are
not apparent, although the same temperature of the atmosphere be
indicated by the thermometer.
In the lower ranges of the Cordilleras, farmers also ascribe the
same injurious consequences to the light of the moon, with this difference, that according to them the destructive influence continues
throughout the year; and it is not unworthy of remark that, in the
neighborhoods of Paris and of London, the mean temperature of the
months of April and May (from 50~ to 57~, or 58~ F.) represents exactly the invariable climate of those places among the Andes, where
the effects of frost upon vegetation are particularly to be apprehended. M. Arago has shown, that the cold ascribed to the light of the
moon is nothing but a consequence of the nocturnal radiation, at a
season when the thermometer in the air is frequently at from 40~ to
43~ F. and the sky is clear and calm. At this temperature a plant,
radiating into space, readily falls below the point of congelation,
and then the hopes of the gardener and farmer are destroyed. The
phenomenon takes place particularly in a bright night: and if the
moon happen to be up when it occurs, the influence is ascribed by
the vulgar to her light. Were the sky clouded, the principal condition to radiation would be wanting; the temperature of objects on
the surface of the ground would not fall below that of the surrounding medium, and plants would not freeze unless the air itself fell to
32~ F.
The observation of gardeners, therefore, as M. Arago remarks,
was not in itself false, it was only incomplete. If the freezing of
the soft and delicate parts of vegetables in circumstances when the
air is several degrees above the freezing point, be really due to the
escape of caloric into planetary space, it must happen that a screen
placed above a radiating body, so as to mask a portion of the heavens, will either prevent or at least diminish the amount of the cooling.
And that this takes place in fact, appears from the beautiful experiments of Dr. Wells. A thermometer, placed upon a plank of a
certain thickness, and raised about a yard above the ground, oc casionally indicates in clear and calm weather from 6~ to 7~ or 8S F.
less than a second thermometer attached to the lower surface of
the plank. It is in this way that we explain the use of mats, of
layers of straw, in a word, of all those slight coverings which gar deners are so careful to supply during the night to delicate plants at
48S 
METEOROLOGY.-NIGHT FROSTS.
certain seasons of the year. Before men were aware that bodies on
the surface of the ground became colder than the air which surrounds them during a clear night, the rationale of this practice was not
apparent; for it was altogether impossible to conceive that coverings
so slight could protect vegetables from a low temperature of the air.
The means indicated, as simple as they are effectual in protecting
plants in the garden, are rarely applicable in farming, where the
surface to be preserved is always very extensive. Nevertheless, in
severe winters, the frost by penetrating the ground would frequently
destroy the fields sown in autumn, were it not that in high latitudes
the snow which covers the surface becomes a powerful obstacle to
excessive cooling, by acting at one and the same time as a covering,
and as a screen preventing radiation. As a covering, because snow
is one of the worst of conductors one of those substances which for a
given thickness opposes the passage of heat most effectually; it is,
therefore, an obstacle almost insurmountable to the earth beneath it
getting into equilibrium in point of temperature with the atmosphere.
As a screen, because in sheltering the ground it prevents it from
undergoing the cooling which it would not fail to experience in clear
nights by radiation into the open firmamnent. It is familiarly known
in many parts of Europe, that the accidental want of the usual covering of snow will cause the loss of the autumn-sown crops of grain
It is on the surface of the snow that the great depression of temperature takes place; and the substance being a very bad conductor,
the earth cools in a much less degree. In the month of February,
1841, I made some experiments, which show that the snow which
covers the ground acts in the manner of a screen. I had first a
thermometer upon the snow, the bulb of the instrument being covered by from 0.078 to 0.117 of an inch of snow in powder; second, a
thermometer, the bulb of which was situated completely under tlhe
layer of snow in contact with the ground; third, a thermometer
in the open air, at about 37 or 38 feet above the surface, on the north
of a building. The layer of snow was about four inches in thickness,
and had covered a field sown with wheat for a month. The sun
shone brightly upon the field on those days when my experiments
were made.
Feb. 11. Five o'clock in the evening; the sun has been hidden
by the mountains for half an hour; the sky is unclouded, the air very
calm: thermometer under the snow, 32 F.; thermometer upon the
snow, 29~ F.; thermometer in the air, 36.3~ F.
Feb. 12. The night very fine, no clouds, the air calm. At seven
o'clock in the morning, the sun is not yet upon the field: thermometer under the snow, 26.2 F.; thermometer upon the snow, 10~ F.;
thermometer in the air, 26.3~ F.
At half-past five in the evening, the sun behind the mountains:
thermometer under the snow, 32~ F.; thermometer upon the snow,
29~ F.; thermometer in the air, 37.5~ F.
Feb. 13. At seven in the morning; the sky gray, the air slightly
in motion: thermometer under the snow, 28~ F.; thermometer
upon the snow, 17~ F.; thermometer in the air, 25~ F.
489 
METEOROLOGY.-DEW.
At half-past five in the evening; the air calm, the sky cloudless,
the sun already concealed for some time: thermometer under the
snow, 32~ F.; thermometer upon the snow, 30~ F.; thermometer
in the air, 40~ F.
Feb. 14. Seven in the morning, wind W., a fine rain falling:
thermometer under the snow, 32~ F.; thermometer upon the snow,
32~ F.; thermometer in the air, 35.7~ F.
When we reflect upon the losses occasioned to farmers and market gardeners by frosts that are entirely due to nocturnal radiation
.et seasons of the year when vegetation has already made considerable progress, we ask eagerly if there be no possible means of guarding against them. I shall here make known a method imagined and
successfully followed by South American agriculturists with this
view. The natives of the upper country in Peru who inhabit the
elevated plains of Cusco are perhaps more than any other people
accustomed to see their harvest destroyed by the effects of nocturnal
radiation. The Incas appear to have ascertained the conditions
under which frost during the night was most to be apprehended.
They had observed that it only froze when the night was clear and
the air calm: knowing consequently that the presence of clouds
prevented frost, they contrived to make as it were artificial clouds
to preserve their fields against the cold. When the evening led
them to apprehend a frost-that is to say, when the stars shone with
brilliancy, and the air was still-the Indians set fire to a heap of wet
straw or dung, and by this means raised a cloud of smoke, and so
destroyed the transparency of the atmosphere from which they had
so much to apprehend. It is easy in fact to conceive that the
transparency of the air can readily be destroyed by raising a smoke
in calm weather; it would be otherwise were there any wind stir ring; but then the precaution itself becomes unnecessary, for with
air in motion, with a breeze blowing, there is no reason to apprehend
frost from nocturnal radiation.
The practice followed by the Indians just described is mentioned
by the Inca Garcillaso de la Vega in his Royal Commentaries of
Peru. Garcillaso in the imperial city of Cusca, and in his youth,
had frequently seen the Indians raise a smoke to preserve the fields
of maize from the frost.*
The cooling of bodies occasioned by nocturnal radiation is always
accompanied by a deposite of moisture upon their surface under the
form of minute globules: this is dew. The ingenious experiments
of Wells having demonstrated that the appearance of dew always
follows, never precedes the fall in temperature of the bodies on
which it is deposited, the phenomenon cannot be attributed to any
thing more than a simple condensation of the watery vapor con tained in the air, comparable in all respects to that which takes
place upon the surface of a vessel containing a fluid that is colder
than the air.t The quantity of moisture dissolved in the atmosphere
* The good effects of smoke in preventing nocturnal congelation are also signalized
by Pliny the naturalist.
t Arago, Annuaire des Longitudes, Aun~e 1837, p. 160.
490 
METEOROLOGY.-DEW.
is by so much the greater as the temperature is higher. In very
warm climates the dew is so copious as to assist vegetation essentially, supplying the place of rain during a great part of the year.
According to some meteorologists dew is most copious near the
sea-board of a country; very little falls in the interior of great continents, and indeed is said only to be apparent in the vicinity of lakes
and rivers.* I cannot agree in any statement of this kind made so
absolutely. I have never had occasion to see more eopious dews
than those which occasionally fall in the steppes of San Martin to
the east of the eastern Cordilleras, and at a very great distance
from the sea; the dew was so copious that for several nights I found
it impossible to employ an artificial horizon of black glass in order
to take the meridian altitude of the stars; the moment the apparatus
was exposed there was such a quantity of water deposited on the
surface that it soon gathered into drops and trickled off. I found it
necessary to have recourse to mercury to reflect the star under observation. During the clear calm nights the turf of these immense
plains receives a considerable quantity of moisture in the form of
dew, which materially assists vegetation, and by its evaporation
tempers the excessive heat of the ensuing day. In tropical countries the forests contribute to keep down the temperature. In very
hot countries it is rare to be out in a cleared spot, when the night
is favorable to radiation, without hearing drops of water, produced
by the copiousness of the dew, falling continually from the surrounding trees, so that forests contribute further to produce and to maintain springs by acting as condensers of the watery vapor dissolved
in the air. I might cite a number of observations upon this point
which I made in the forest of Cauca. In the bivouac between the
4th and 5th of July, 1827, the night was magnificent; nevertheless,
in the forest which began at the distance of a few yards from our
encampment, it rained abundantly; by the light of the unclouded
moon we could see the water running from the branches.
It is possible that the transpiration from the green parts of the
trees might have been added to the dew condensed, and so increased
the intensity of the phenomenon which I have described; but I
rather incline to believe that the cooling of the leaves by way of
radiation had by far the largest share in the production of this dewrain. It is true that of all the leaves which form the crown of a
tree, those whose surface is exposed and radiate freely into space
intercept, as would a screen, the radiation of the leaves and branches
which are not so exposed; but, as M. de Humboldt has observed, if
the leaves and branches which crown a tree cool directly by emission, those which are situated immediately beneath them by radiating
towards the lower parts of the leaves which are already cooled a
greater quantity of heat than they receive, their temperature,will
also necessarily fall, and the cooling will thus be propagated from
above downward until the whole mass of the tree feels its effects
ft is thus that the ambient air circulating through the leaves becomes
* Kaemtz, Meteorology, translated by W. Walker, London, 1844.
491 
METEOROLOGY.-RAIN.
cooled during bright nights, and to judge from the influence which
forests exert in lowering the temperature of a country, it is enough
to recollect with M. de Hunboldt that by reason of the vast multiplicity of leaves, a tree, the crown of which does not present a horizontal section of more than about 120 or 130 square feet, actually
influences the cooling of the atmosphere by an extent of surface
several thousand times more extensive than this section.
The proportion of watery vapor which a gas will retain in solution is by so much the greater as the temperature of the air is
higher. All the causes which cool air saturated with watery vapor
occasion, as we have already seen, the precipitation of a certain
quantity of moisture.
When this condensation takes place in the midst of a gaseous
mass, the precipitated water collects into small floating vesicles,
which trouble the transparency of the medium that momentarily
holds them in suspension.   Mists, fogs, and clouds are collections
of these vesicles; a fog, as a celebrated naturalist said, is a cloud
in which one is, and a cloud is a fog in which one is not.
The vesicles of clouds tend towards the earth, like all heavy bodies, but by reason of their specific lightness the resistance of the
air which they displace lessens the rapidity of their descent. When
they are of larger size they coalesce and form drops of water which
fall with greater celerity. When these drops pass through strata
of very dry air they undergo partial evaporation, and this is the
reason wherefore there is sometimes less rain upon plains than upon
mountains. In opposite circumstances it is the inverse phenomenon
that is observed; the drops increase in size in passing through the
inferior strata of an atmosphore saturated with moisture, condensing
vapor in their course. This is what happens most generally.
In taking a survey of a large amount of observations, meteorologists have inferred that the annual quantity of rain varies with the
latitude; that, greatest at the equator, it gradually lessens as higher
northern and southern latitudes are attained; this is as much as
saying that the quantity of rain is greater as the temperature of the
climate is higher. But to this rule there are numerous exceptions;
for instance, under the line at Payta on the sea-coast it only rains
very rarely; a shower of rain is an event, and when I visited the
country eighteen years had elapsed since they had had any thing of
a fall of rain. Local causes have the greatest influence upon the
fall of rain, so that countries on the same parallel of latitude are far
from being equally distinguished by dryness or humidity.
It is believed that in Europe it rains more heavily and more frequently in the day than in the night. In the equinoctial regions, at
least in those parts that I have visited, it would seem that the opposite rule held good. Every one in South America allows that it
rains principally during the night, and the observations which I
made in the neighborhood of Marmato enable me to state that of
7.874 inches of rain which fell in the month of October, 1.336 inches
fell in the day, 5.638 inches in the night; of 8.881 inches which
1ll in the month of November, 0.707 inches came down in the day,
492 
METEOROLOGY.-RAIN.
8.174 inches in the night; of 5.934 inches which fell in December,
0.786 inches fell in the day, 5.148 inches in the night.
Two series of observations taken in the same country at two stations not far from one another, but situated at very different elevations, seem to confirm, in reference to the equatorial regions, the
conclusions of European meteorologists as to the fact that the annual quantity of rain which falls diminishes as the height above the
level of the sea increases. They also show that in latitudes which
do not differ materially, more rain falls where the mean temperature
is 68~ F. than where it is 58~ F.
Marmato lies in N. lat. 5~ 27", and 75~ 11" (I) W.  long., at a
height of 4676 feet above the level of the sea; Santa Fe6 in N. lat.
4~ 36", W. long. 75~ 6", at a height of 8692 feet above the level of
the sea. And while the quantity of rain at the former place amounted, according to my own observations for 1833, to 60 inches, according to Caldas, in 1807, at the latter there fell but 39.4 inches.
In temperate climates the quantity of rain that falls varies with
the seasons.   Near the equator, where the temperature remains
constant throughout the year, the rainy season commences precisely
at the period when the sun approaches the zenith; and whenever the
latitude of a place in the torrid zone where it rains is of the same
denomination and equal to the declination of the sun, storms occur.
In such circumstances the sky in the morning is of remarkable purity, the air is calm, the heat of the sun insupportable. Towards
noon clouds begin to show themselves upon the horizon, the hygrometer does not advance towards dryness as it usually does, it remains
stationary, or even falls towards extreme humidity. It is always
after the sun has passed the meridian that the thunder is heard,
which being preceded by a light wind is soon followed by a deluge
of rain. In my opinion the permanence or incessant renovation of
storms in the bosom of the atmosphere is a capital fact, and is connected with one of the most important questions in the physics of
our globe, that of the fixation of the azote of the air by organized
beings.
The most recent inquiries show dry atmospherical air to consist
in volume of:
Oxygen.................2...... 20.8
Azote........................ 79.2
The air contains in addition from 2 to 5 10,00OOOths of carbonic acid
gas, and quantities perhaps still smaller of carbureted combustible
gas. The experiments of M. Theodore de Saussure, as well as
those of Professor Liebig, have further demonstrated in it traces of
ammoniacal vapor.
I have already shown that animals do not directly assimilate the
azote of the atmosphere.   Azote is nevertheless an element essential to the constitution of every living being, and is met with indifferently in either kingdom of nature. If we inquire into the source
of this principle in connection with the herbivorous tribes of animals,
we find it as an element in the food which sustains them. If we
next inquire into the immediate origin of the azote which enters
42
493 
METEOROLOGY. -RAIN.
into the constitution of vegetables, it is discovered in the manure
which proceeds more  specially from animal remains; for vegetables, to thrive, must receive azotized aliment by their roots. We
thus come to apprehend that plants supply animals with their -zote,
and that these restore it to plants when the term of their existence
is accomplished; we are led to discover, in a word, that living organic matter derives its azote from dead organic matter.
This view leads us to conclude that the amount of living matter
on the surface of the globe is restricted; that its limits are in some
sort determined by the quantity of azote in circulation among organized beings; but the question must be viewed from a loftier eminence, and we must ask what is the origin of the azote which enters
into the constitution of organic matter considered as a whole?
If we now turn to the possible sources or magazines of azote, we
shall find, setting aside organized beings and their remains, that
there is in truth but one, the atmosphere. It is therefore extremely
probable that all living beings have previously obtained their azote
from the atmosphere, just as it seems very certain that they have
thence derived their carbon.*
The most reasonable supposition in the actoal state of science, is
to consider the ammoniacal vapors diffused through the atmosphere
as the prime source of the azotized principles of vegetables, and
then through them of animals; a consequence of which hypothesis
would be to assume with Liebig, that carbonate of ammonia existed
in the atmosphere before the appearance of living things upon the
face of the earth.
The phenomena and effects of thunder-storms appear to me calculated to support this opinion.  It is known, in fact, that so often
as a succession of electrical sparks passes through moist air, there
is formation and combination of nitric acid and ammonia. Now ni trate of ammonia is one of the constant ingredients in the rain of
thunder-storms. But nitrate of ammonia, being a fixed salt, cannot
exist in the atmosphere in the state of gas or vapor; and then it is
not the nitrate, but the carbonate of ammonia that has been signal ized in the air. In bringing to mind the series of reactions of which
I have spoken, it is not difficult to perceive how the nitrate of am monia, precipitated in thunder-showers, and thus brought into contact
with calcareous rocks, should suffer decomposition, pass into the
state of carbonate on the return of fair weather, and become fitted
to undergo diffusion in the state of vapor through the atmosphere.
We should in this way be led to regard the electrical agency, the
flash of lightning, as the means by which the azote of the atmosphere
is made fit for assimilation by organized beings. In Europe, where
thunder-storms are rare, an office of so much importance will per haps be accorded reluctantly to the electricity of the clouds; but in
tropical countries no difficulty would probably be felt on the matter.
In the torrid zone, thunder-storms happen in one place or another
>a)t only every day, but every hour, and even every minute of every
* Boussingault, Annales de Chimie, t lxxl 1839.
494 
METEOROLOGY.-THUND)ER-STORMS. 
hour throughout the year; so that an observer, placed at th9 equator,
were he endowed with organs of sufficient delicacy, would never
lose the roll of the thunder.
As the equator is quitted, the times at which rain falls become
less specific or periodical. Under the tropics, the rains of thunderstorms, which are always the most copious, fall while the sun is in
the neighborhood of the zenith. In the northern hemisphere, the
greatest quantity of rain falls during winter; and at places somewhat far south on the temperate zone, the summer rain is altogether
insignificant. In assuming the number 100 to express the whole
annual quantity of rain, we should have in
Madeira.       Lisbon.
Winter....... 51           40
Spring...........16            34
Summer.......... 3             3
Autumn.........30             23
Less rain falls in the eastern parts of Europe than in the western.
The annual rain, too, is distributed very unequally over the different
seasons, as has been shown by M. Gasparin in a remarkable paper.
If we express by 100 the quantity of rain gauged in a year, we
should have for each season:
In the west of  West of   East of   Germany. St. Petersburg.
England.    France.   France.
Winter........26        23       20         18       14
Spring.........20          13        23        22       18
Summer...............23        25       29        37        37
Autumn..............31          34        28        23        30
The quantity of rain which falls in the course of a year varies
considerably according to the climate; to form an idea of the extent
of these variations, it is enough to notice the results obtained at different observatories; but it is less the annual quantity of rain that
falls, than the way or quantities in which it is distributed over the
different months of the year, which interests the farmer; upon this
distribution, in fact, in many districts, depend the productiveness
and fertility of the soil.   I add a table of the mean quantities of rain
in inches and 10ths, that fall at London in the different months of
the year:
Jan.  Feb.  March. April.  May.  June.  July.  Aug.  Sept.   Oct.  Nov.  Dec.
in.          in.     in. in.... i. in. in. in.  in.
1.45   1.25   1.17  1.29   1.61   1.72   2.39   1.80   1.84   2.08   2.20   1.72
~ V. ON THE INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURAL LABORS ON THE CLIMATE
OF A COUNTRY IN LESSENING STREAMS, ETC.
A question of great importance, and that is frequently agitated at
this time, is, as to whether the agricultural labors of man are influential in modifying the climate of a country or not? Do extensive
clearings of woods, the draining and drying up of great swamps,
which certainly influence the distribution of hieat during the different seasons of the year, also exert an influence on the quantity of
running water of a country, whether by lessening the quantity of
rain which falls, or by promoting the more speedy evaporation of
that which has fallen 1
In some districts it has been held, that the streams which had
495 
496       INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE.
been used as moving powers, have very sensibly diminished. In
other places, the rivers are said to have  shrunk visibly; and in
others, springs that were formerly abundant, have almost dried up.
Observations to this effect appear to have been principally made in
valleys, surmounted by mountains; and it is generally asserted, that
the falling off in the springs and streams, had followed close upon
the period at which the woods, scattered over the surface of the
country, were cleared away without any kind of reserve.
These statements, which may be assumed as facts, seem to indicate that where the woods have been felled, it rains less than it did
formerly; this, indeed, is the general opinion entertained on the
subject; and were it admitted, without further examination, the
natural inference from it would be, that the extension of agriculture
diminishes the annual quantity of rain which falls in a country. But
at the same time that the facts as stated have been observed, it has
further been noticed that since the clearing of the surface from forests, the torrents and rivers which seemed to have lost in amount
of regular supply of water, had become subject to sudden and extraordinary risings which had proved the cause of numerous and grave
calamities. In the same way, springs that are generally all but dry,
have been seen to burst forth again abundantly after violent storms.
These latter observations, as may readily be imagined, are of a kind
that should lead us not lightly to embrace the vulgar opinion, which
maintains that the cutting down of the woods has had the effect of
lessening the mean annual quantity of rain: it is not only not impossible that this quantity has not varied, but it may even happen that
the mass of water which passes over the bed of a stream, supposed
shrunken, is actually the same as ever it was; the only difference
may be, that now the flow is much less regular than it used to be:
in former times the bed was always and more moderately full; at
present it is excessively full at intervals only. It is very possible,
therefore, that here as elsewhere, occasionally, the appearance of
the fact has been taken for the reality. It were very important to
discover some natural index to a solution of the question at issue:
whether or not the destruction of the forests that once covered the
face of a district of country, had had the effect of lessening the mean
annual fall of rain?
The lakes which are met with in plains, and at different levels in
mountain ranges, seem to me peculiarly well calculated to throw
light on this subject. Lakes may, in fact, be received as natural
gauges of the running waters of a country. If the mass of the water
contained in the lakes undergo change in one direction or another, it
is obvious that this change, and the direction in which it has occurred, will be proclaimed by the state or mean level of the lake or
lakes, which will differ for the same reason that it does at different
seasons of the year, viz. as drought  or rain prevails.  The mean
level of the lake or lakes of a district will, therefore, fall, if the
quantity of water which flows through that district diminishes; the
level, on the contrary, will rise, if its streams increase; and it will
remain stationary if the afflux and efflux of the lake continue un 
INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE.
changed. In the following remarks, I shall attach myself particularly to observations upon lakes which have no outlet, by reason of
the facility with which any even slight change in the level of these
must be discovered.   I shall not, however, neglect those lakes
which have an exit by a stream or canal, because I believe that the
study of these may also lead to accurate enough results; the only
point requiring preliminary remark, is the sense in which the words,
change of level, are to be taken.
Geologists admit, that the level of the waters upon the surface of
the globe has everywhere undergone great changes, whether attention be directed to the shores of the sea or to those of great inland
lakes. This fact is universal, and is questioned by none, but great
diversity of opinion prevails in regard to the cause of the phenomenon.  Some pretend, that in many cases the change of level is only
apparent,-that the body of water has not sunk, but that the shores
have risen; others, again, maintain that there has been a true diminution in the mass of fluid, a true drying up, and that its level has
actually sunk. I shall not, in this place, enter upon the great geological question; the variations which are there signalized are often
of vast extent, and involve the supposition of violent catastrophes,
which, in a general way, were long anterior to the historical epoch.
I shall only refer to changes of level observed in lakes by our ancestors or contemporaries; in a word, to facts which have taken place
under the eyes of men, inasmuch as it is the influence of their agricultural labors upon the meteorological state of the atmosphere,
which I am seeking to appreciate. The facts upon which I shall
more particularly dwell, were observed in South America; but I
shall show that what is true with regard to this continent, is true
also with reference to any other continent.
One of the most interesting portions of Venezuela is, undoubtedly,
the valley d'Aragua.  Situated at a short distance from the seaboard, possessed of a warm climate, and of a soil fertile beyond example, it combines within itself all the varieties of agriculture that
belong in peculiar to tropical regions; on the hillocks which rise in
the bottom of the valley, are seen fields which bring to mind the
agriculture of Europe. WVheat succeeds pretty well upon the heights
which surround La Vittoria.  Bounded on the north by a chain of
hills which run parallel with the sea-board, and to the south by the
range which separates it from Llanos, the Aragua Valley is liniited
on the east and west by a series of lesser elevations, which shut it
in completely. In consequence of this peculiar configuration of
country, the rivers which rise in its interior have no outlet to the
ocean; their waters accumulate in the lowest part of the valley, and
form the beautiful lake Valentia. This lake, which M. de Humboldt
says exceeds the lake Neufchatel in size, is raised about 1300 feet
above the level of the sea; it is about ten leagues in length, and
about two leagues and a half where it is widest.
At the time when M. de Humboldt visited the Aragua Valley, the
inhabitants were struck with the gradual diminution which had been
going on in the waters of the lake during the last thirty years.  It
42*
497 
498       INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE.
was enough to compare the statements of older writers with its condition at this time, to obtain conviction that the waters had, in fact,
very much diminished. Oviedo, for instance, who visited the valley
frequently towards the end or the sixteenth century, says, that the
town of New Valencia was founded in 1555, at the distance of half a
league from the lake; in 1800, M. de Humboldt ascertained that the
lake was upwards of 549 yards, or upwards of 3t miles, instead of
about 14' mile from its banks.
The appearance of the surface also gives new proof of the fact of
the recession of the water; certain hillocks which rise in the plain
still preserve the title of islands, which, undoubtedly, they formerly
received with propriety, when they were surrounded by water. The
land which had been left by the retreat of the lake, soon became
transformed into beautiful plantations of cotton-trees, bananas, and
sugar-canes. Buildings which had been erected on the banks were
left, year after year, further and further from them. In 1796, new
islets made their appearance. An important military position, a fortress built in 1740, in the Isle de la Cabrera, was then upon a peninsula. Finally, in two islets of granite, M. de Humboldt discovered,
several yards above the level of the lake, a bed of fine sand, mixed
with fresh-water shells. These facts, so certain, so unquestionable,
did not pass without numerous explanations from the wise men of
the country, who, as if by common consent, fixed upon a subterranean exit for the waters of the lake. M. de Humboldt, after the
most careful examination of all the circumstances, did not hesitate
to ascribe the diminution of the waters of the lake Valencia to the
extensive clearings which had been effected in the course of half a
century in the Aragua valley. "In felling the trees which covered
the crowns and slopes of the mountains," says this celebrated
traveller, "men in all climates seem to be bringing upon future
generations two calamities at once-a want of fuel and a scarcity
of water."*
In the year 1800, the population of this favored valley, where the
cultivation of indigo, of cotton, of cocoa, and the cane had made immense progress, was as dense as it was in the most thickly populated districts of England or France, and every one was delighted
with the appearance of comfort that prevailed in the numerous villa ges of this industrious country.
Twenty-five years after M. de Humboldt, I explored in my turn
the Valley d'Aragua, having fixed my residence in the little town of
Maracaibo. The inhabitants had now remarked that for several
years, not only had the lake ceased to diminish, but that it had even
risen very perceptibly. Some fields that were formerly covered with
cotton plantations were now submerged. The Isles de las Nuevas
Aparacidas, which had risen from the waters in 1796, had again be come shoals dangerous to navigation; the tongue of earth, De la
Cabrera, on the north side of the valley, had become so narrow that
the slightest rise in the water of the lake covered it completely; a
* Humboldt, vol. v. p. 173. 
INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE.
continuous N.E. wind was sufficient to flood the road which led
from Maracaibo to New Valencia; in short, the fears which the inhabitants of the lake had entertained for so long a period had entirely
changed their nature; they were now no longer afraid of the lake drying up; they saw with dismay that if the water continued to rise as
it had done lately, it would in no long space of time have drowlied
some of the most valuable estates, &c.  Those who had explained
the diminution of the lake by supposing subterraneous canals, now
hastened to close them up in order to find a cause for the rise in the
level of the water.
In the course of the last twenty-two years important political
events had transpired. Venezuela no longer belonged to Spain; the
peaceful valley d'Aragua had been the theatre of many a bloody contest; war to the knife had desolated this beautiful country and decimated its inhabitants.  On the first cry of independence raised, a
great number of slaves found freedom by enlisting under the banners
of the new republic; agricultural operations of any extent were
abandoned, and the forest, which makes such rapid progress in the
tropics, had soon regained possession of the surface which man had
won from it by something like a century of sustained and painful
toil.  W,ith the increasing prosperity of the valley many of the principal tributaries to the lake had been turned aside to serve as means
of irrigation, so that the beds of some of the rivers were absolutely
dry for more than six months in the year. At the period which I
now refer to, the water was no longer used in this way, and the beds
of the rivers were full. Thus with the growth of agricultural industry in the Valley d'Aragua, when the extent of cleared surface was
continually on the increase, and when great farming establishments
were multiplied, the level of the water sunk; but by and by, during
a period of disasters, happily passing in their nature, the process of
clearing is arrested, the lands formerly won from the forest are in
part restored to it, and then the waters first cease to fall in their level, and by and by show an unequivocal disposition to rise.
I shall now, without, however, quitting America, carry my readers into a district where the climate is analogous to that of Europe,
where the surface is occupied by immense fields, covered with the
cereals as with us. I speak of the table-lands of New Granada, of
those valleys raised from 10,000 to 13,000 and 14,000 feet above
the level of the sea, in which the mean temperature throughout the
year ranges from 58~ to about 62~ Fahr. Lakes are frequent in the
Cordilleras; and it would be easy for me to describe a great number; I shall, however, confine myself to those which became subjects
of observation in former times.
The village of Ubate6 is now situated in the neighborhood of two
lakes. Some seventy years ago these two lakes formed but one;
the old inhabitants saw the water shrinking and new fields pre sentingo themselves year after year.  At this present time fields of
wheat of extraordinary luxuriance occupy levels that were com pletely inundated 30 years ago.
It is enough indeed to perambulate the neighborhood of Ubate,
499 
METEOROLOGY.
to consult the old sportsmen of the country, and to refer to the
annals of the various parishes, to be satisfied that extensive forests
have been cut down in the whole of the surrounding country: the
clearing, in fact, still continues; and it is certain that the recession
of the waters, although much slower than it was in former times, has
not yet entirely ceased.
A lake, situated in the same valley, to the east of Ubate, deserves
our particular attention. By means of barometric measurements,
made with extreme care, I found that this lake had precisely the
same level as that of Ubate. Nearly two centuries ago, it was visited by Piedrahita, Bishop of Panama, an author of great accuracy,
to whom we owe the history of the conquest of New Granada. He
states this lake to be ten leagues in length, by three leagues in
breadth; but Dr. Roulin having had occasion, a few years ago, to
make a plan of the lake, he found it a league and a half in length, by
one league in breadth; my own impression is, that at the time
Piedrahita wrote, there was but a single lake, extending all the way
from Ubate6 to Zimijaca, not two lakes as at present, a supposition
which would take away every thing like exaggeration from the statement of Piedrahita.  But the fact of the retreat of the waters of
these lakes is unquestioned; the inhabitants of Zimijaca all know
that the village was founded close to the lake, whereas, at the present time, it is nearly a league from its banks. Formerly, there was
no difficulty in obtaining all the building timber that was wanted;
the mountains which rose from the valley on either hand were covered up to a certain height with the trees proper to these cold regions; the oak of the Andes abounded; numerous myrcias were
also in existence, from which abundance of wax was obtained: at
the present timae these mountains are almost stripped of their trees,
an event mainly brought about by the eagerness to procure fuel in
manufacturing salt from the springs of Taosa and Enemocon.
To these authentic facts, which I could multiply and support by
minany others of a similar kind, it may be replied, that the diminution
of the water, incontestable as it is, might perhaps have taken place
without the clearing away of the forests. It may indeed be maintained, that the drying up of the waters is owing to a totally different cause, altogether unknown to us; that it must be ranked among
the numerous phenomena, the reality of which we perceive, but
without being able to render any account of their cause.
I cannot, in the instance last quoted, as in that of the lake of Valencia, refer to any increase of the lake connected with the suspension of agriculture, or the reappearance of the forest.   I might,
however, adduce in favor of the opinion which I defend, the slowness with which the decrease in the lakes of the valley of Ubatg has
lately gonie on, and since the felling, of trees in the neighborhood
has almnost entirely ceased.  Extensive plots of fertile ground are
now no longer left dry and available to the husbandman by the retreat of the lake; he already begins to think of means for obtaining
by artifice that which nature, assisted by the clearing of the country
presented him with in former times. In the year 1826 there was a
500 
METEOROLOGY.
speculation on foot for draining the valley completely by cutting a
canal and letting off the water.  Further proof of the fact which I
am urging is obtained in another way. It is not difficult to show,
that lakes in the immediate vicinity of those that have shrunk most
remarkably, but around which no destruction of the forest has taken
place, have undergone no change in their level. The lake of Tota,
situated at no great distance from the valley of Ubate', at an elevation that must approach 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, in a
region where vegetation has almost entirely disappeared, has preserved its pristine level unaltered. The lake is nearly circular
and Piedrahita, in 1542, gives it two leagues in breadth. It is subject to violent storms, which render its navigation dangerous; and
even travelling along its banks, from the particular circumstances in
which the road is situated, with the lake on one hand and a perpendicular cliff upon the other, is not without risk. In 1652, the road
passed as it does at present, the water laving the foot of the same
rocks, and its level having suffered no change, any more than the
sterile country which surrounds it.
I shall conclude what I have to say on the lakes of South America
by speaking of that of Quilatoa, because it has been made the subject
of accurate observations sufficiently remote from one another-1740
and 1831.
Living at Latacunga, a town situated at no great distance from
Cotopaxi, the traveller is sure to hear of the wonders of the Laguna
da Quilatoa. From time to time this lake, it is said, casts forth
flames which set fire to the shrubs and withered grass that grow
upon its banks, and frequent detonations are heard, the sound of
which extends to a great distance. M. de la Condamine, in 1738,
visited this lake, which he found of a circular form, and about 1278
feet in diameter; on the 28th November, 1831, I also visited the
Lake of Quilatoa. It cannot be better compared to any thing than
to the crater of a volcano filled with water; I found it nearly 13,000
feet above the level of the sea, in the cold region, therefore; and
indeed it is surrounded with immense pastures; but the information
which I obtained from the shepherds in the neighborhood of the Lake
of Quilatoa, dissipated all that was marvellous in its history; they
had never seen any flames issue from its bosom, they had never
heard any detonations; in short, I found the lake as M. de la Condamine appears to have found it, every thing having remained for
nearly a century without change.
The study of the lakes which are so common in Asia, would
probably supply conclusions similar to those deduced from observations made in South America, viz., that the waters which irrigate a
country diminish as the forests are cleared away, and as agriculture
extends. The recent labors of M. de Humboldt, which have thrown
so much new light upon this quarter of the world, appear to leave
no doubt upon the subject. After having shown that the system of
the Altai is about to lose itself by a succession of slopes in the
steppes of Kirgiz, and that consequently the Ural chain is not connected with that of the Altai, as was generally believed, this celebrated
501 
METEOROLOGY.
geographer shows, that precisely in the situation where the Alghinic
mountains are usually set down, a remarkable region of lakes commences, which extend into the plains that are traversed by the Ichim,
the Omsk, and the Obi.*  It would appear that these numerous
lakes are remainders as it were of an immense sheet of water, which
formerly covered the whole of the country, and which had become
divided into so many particular lakes by the configuration of the
surface. In crossing the steppe of Baraba, in his way from TI'obolsk
to Baraoul, M. de Humboldt perceived everywhere that the drying
up of waters increases rapidly under the influence of the cultivation
of the soil.
Europe also possesses its lakes; and we have still to examine
them from the particular point of view which engages us. M. do
Saussure, in his first inquiries in regard to the temperature of the
lakes of Switzerland, examined those which are situated at the foot
of the first line of the Jura. The Lake of Neufchatel is eight
leagues in length, and its greatest breadth does not exceed two
leagues. On visiting it, Saussure was struck with the extent which
this lake must formerly have possessed; for, as he says, the extensive level and marshy meadows which terminate it on the southwest, had unquestionably been covered with water at a former
period.
The Lake of Bienne is three leagues long and one broad; it is
separated from the Lake of Neufehatel by a succession of plains that
were probably inundated.
Lake Morat is also separated from the Lake of Neufchatel by low
and level marshes, which beyond all question were formerly submerged. Unquestionably, adds Saussure, the three great lakes of
Neufchatel, Bienne, and Morat, were formerly connected, and formed
one great sheet of water.]
In Switzerland, as in America and Asia, the old lakes, those that
may be spoken of under the title of the primitive lakes, and which
occupied the bottoms of the valleys when the country was uncultivated and wild, have become divided, and now fiorm a variable number of smaller and independent lakes. I shall wind up the present
subject by referring to the observations of Saussure upon the Lake
of Geneva, which may be looked upon as the starting point of the
admirable works of this distinguished philosopher.
Saussure admits, that at an epoch long anterior to the times of
history, the mountains which surround this lake were themselves
submerged; a great catastrophe let off this immense collection of
water, and by and by the current possessed no more than the bottom
of the valley; the Lake of Geneva was formed.
In merely considering the monuments left by man, it is impossible
to doubt that within 1200 or 1300 years the waters of the Lake of
Geneva have gradually fallen in their level. It is evidently upon
the levels which have thus been left that the quarter de Rive, and
the lower streets of the city of Geneva have been built. This de
* Humboldt, Fragmens Asiatiques, t. i. p. 40-50.
t Saussure, Voyage dans les Alpes, t. ii. chap. 6.
502 
METEOROLOGY.
pression of the surface, continues Saussure, is not merely the effect
of any deepening of the bed of the Rhone, by which the lake is discharged; it has also been produced by a diminution in the quantity
of water which flows into it.
The conclusions which it seems legitimate to draw from the observations of Saussure are, that in the course of from 1200 to 1300
years the quantity of running water has sensibly diminished in the
districts around the Lake of Geneva. No one will, I apprehend,
deny that in this long period there have not been extensive clearings of forest lands in Switzerland, and a continual increase in the
extent of cultivated land in this beautiful country. Here, consequently, as elsewhere, an attentive examination of the levels of the
lakes leads us to conclude, that where extensive clearings from forest have been effected, where agriculture has extended, that there
has in all probability been diminution of the running waters which
irrigate the surface; while in those districts where no change has
been effected, the amount of running stream does not appear to have
undergone any variation.
The effect of forests considered in this point of view would therefore be to keep up the amount of the waters which are destined for
mills and canals; and next to prevent the rain-water from collecting
and flowing away with too great rapidity. That a soil covered with
trees is further less favorable to evaporation than ground that has
been cleared, is a truth that all will probably admit without discussion. To be aware that it is so, it is enough to have travelled, a
short time after the rainy season, upon a road which traverses in
succession a country that is free from forests, and one that is thicklv
wooded. Those parts of the road that pass through the unencumbered country are found hard and dry, while those that traverse the
wooded districts are wet, muddy, and often scarcely passable. In
South America, more perhaps than anywhere else, does the obstacle to evaporation from a soil thickly shaded with forests, strike the
traveller.  In the forests the humidity is constant, it exists long after
the rainy season has passed; and the roads that are opened through
them remain through the whole year deeply covered with mire: the
only means known of keeping forest ways dry, is to give them a
width of from 260 to 330 feet, that is to say, to clear the country in
their course.
If once the fact is admitted that running streams are diminished
in size by the effect of felling the forests and the extension of agriculture, it imports us to examine whether this diminution proceeds
from a less quantity of rain, or from a greater amount of evaporation, or whether perchance it maybe owing to the practice of irrigation.
I set out with the principle that it must be next to impossible to
specify the precise share which each of these different causes has
in the general result; I shall, nevertheless, endeavor to appreciate
them in a summary way. The discussion will have gained something if it be proved that there may be diminution of running streams
in consequence of clearing off the forests alone, without the whole
of the causes being presumed to act simultaneously.
503 
METEOROLOGY.
With regard to irrigation, it is necessary to distinguish between
that case in which an extensive farm has been substituted for an impenetrable forest, and that in which an arid soil, which never supported wood, has been rendered productive by the industry of man.
In the first case it is very probable that irrigation will have contributed but little to the diminution in the mass of running water; it
may readily be imagined that the quantity of water used up by a
dense forest will equal, at all events, if not exceed, that which will
be required by any of the vegetables which human industry substitutes for it. In the second case, that is to say, where a great extent
of waste country has been brought under cultivation, there will evidently be consumption of water by the vegetation which has been
fostered upon the surface; agricultural industry will thus tend to
diminish the quantity of water which irrigates a country. It is extremely probable that it is to a circumstance of this kind that we
must ascribe the diminution of the lakes which receive so large a
proportion of the running streams of the north of Asia. It is almost unnecessary to add, that in circumstances of this kind the effect
which is due to the simple evaporation of rain-water is not increased;
the loss by this means must be rather less, because from a surface
covered with plants evaporation takes place more slowly than from
one that is devoid of vegetation.
In the considerations which I have presented upon the lakes of
Venezuela, of New Granada, and of Switzerland, the diminution may
be directly ascribed to a less mean annual quantity of rain; but it
may with equal reason be maintained to be a simple consequence of
more rapid evaporation.
There are, in fact, a variety of circumstances under the influence
of which the diminution of running streams can be shown to be con nected with more active evaporation. I shall confine myself to the
mention of two particular instances, one noticed by M. Desbassyns
de Richemond, in the Island of Ascension; the other is from obser vations by myself, and is among the number of facts which I regis tered during my residence for several years at the mines of Mar mato.
In the Island of Ascension there was an excellent spring situated
at the foot of a mountain originally covered with wood; this spring
became scanty and dried up after the trees which covered the moun tain had been felled. The loss of the spring was rightly ascribed to
the cutting down of the timber. The mountain was therefore plant ed anew, and a few years afterwards the spring reappeared by de grees, and by and by flowed with its former abundance.
The metalliferous mountain of Marmato is situated in the province
of Popayan, in the midst of immense forests. The stream along
which the mining works are established is formed by the junction of
several small rivulets which take their rise in the table-land of San
Jorge. The country which overlooks the establishment is thickly
wooded.
In 1826, when I visited the mines for the first time, Marmato con sisted of a few miserable cabins, inhabited by negro slaves.  In
504 
METEOROLOGY.
1830, when I quitted the country, Marmato had the most flourishing
appearance; it was covered with workshops, it had a foundry of
gold, machinery for grinding and amalgamating the ores, &c., and a
free population of nearly three thousand inhabitants. It may be
readily imagined, that in the course of these four years an immense
quantity of timber had been cut down, not only for the construction
of machinery and of houses, but as fuel, and for the manufacture of
charcoal. For facility of transport, the felling had principally gone
on upon the table-land of San Jorge. But the clearing had scarcely
been effected two years before it was perceived that the quantity of
water for the supply of the machinery had notably diminished. The
volume of water had been measured by the work done by the machinery, and actual gauging at different times showed the progressive
diminution of the water. The question assumed a serious aspect,
because at Marmato any diminution in the quantity of the water,
which is the moving power, would be of course attended with a proportional diminution in the quantity of gold produced. Now, in the
Island of Ascension, and at Marmato, it is highly improbable that
any merely local and limited clearing away of the forest should'have
had such an influence upon the constitution of the atmosphere as to
cause a variation in the mean annual quantity of rain which falls in
the country. More than this, as soon as the diminution of the
stream at Marmato was ascertained, a pluviomneter, or rain-gauge,
was set up, and in the course of the second year of observation a
larger quantity of rain was gauged than in the first year, although
the clearing had been continued; still there was no appreciable increase in the size of the running stream.
A couple of years of observation are unquestionably insufficient to
show any definitive variation in the annual quantity of rain that falls.
But the observations made at Marmato still establish the fact that
the mass of running water had diminished in spite of the larger quanti*y of rain which fell. It is therefore probable that local clearings otf
forest land, even of very moderate extent, cause springs and rivulets to shrink, and even to disappear, without the effect being ascribable to any diminution in the amount of rain that falls.
We have still to inquire, whether extensive clearings of the
forest-clearings which embrace a whole country-cause any diminution in the quantity of rain that falls. Unfortunately, the observations which we have upon the quantity of rain which falls in particular districts, are only of sufficient antiquity and accuracy in
Europe to be worthy of any confidence, and there the soil was cleared
before observation, in the generality of instances, began.
The United States of America, where the forests are disappearing
with such rapidity, will probably one day afford elements for the
complete and satisfactory solution of the question, whether or not
the cutting down of forests causes any diminution in the quantity of
rain which falls in the course of the year.
In studying the phenomena accompanying the fall of rain in the
tropics, I have come to a conclusion which I have already made
known to many observers. My own opinion is, that the felling of
43
505 
METEOROLOGY.
forests over a large extent of country has always the effect of lessening the mean annual quantity of rain.
It has long been said, that in equinoctial countries the rainy season returns each year with astonishing regularity. There can be
no doubt of the general accuracy of this observation, but the mreteorological fact must not be announced as universal and admitting of
no exception; the regular alternation of the dry and rainy season is
as perfect as possible in countries which present an extreme variety
of territory. Thus, in a country whose surface is covered with forests
and rivers and lakes, with mountains and plains, and table-lands, the
periodical seasons are quite distinct. But it is by no means so where
the surface is more uniform in its character. The return of the
rainy season will be much less regular if the soil be in general dry
and naked; or if extensive agricultural operations take the place of
the primeval forest; if rivers are less common, and lakes less frequent. The rains will then be less abundant; and such countries
will be exposed, from time to time, to droughts of long continuance.
If, op the contrary, thick forests cover almost the whole of the territory, if its rivulets and rivers be numerous, and agriculture be limited
in extent, irregularity in the seasons will then take place, but in a
different way; the rains will prevail, and in some seasons they will
become as it were incessant.
The continent of America presents us, on the largest scale, with
two regions placed in the same conditions as to temperature, but in
which we successively encounter the circumstances which are most
favorable to the formation and fall of rain in one case, and to its
absence in the other.
Setting out from Panama, and proceeding towards the south, we
encounter the Bay of Cupica, the provinces of San Bonaventura,
Choco, and Esmeraldas; in this country, covered with thick forests
and intersected with a multitude of streams, the rains are almost
incessant; in the interior of Choco, scarcely a day passes without
rain. Beyond Tumbez, towards Payta, an order of things entirely
different commences: the forests have entirely disappeared, the soil
is sandy, agriculture scarcely exists, and here rain is almost un known. WVhen I was at Payta, the inhabitants informed me that it
had not rained for seventeen years! The same want of rain is
common in the whole of the country which surrounds the desert of
Sechura, and extends to Lima; in these countries rain is as rare as
trees are.
In Choco, where the soil is thickly covered with trees, it rains
almost continually; and on the coasts of Peru, where the soil is
sandy, without trees, and devoid of verdure, it never rains; and
this, as I have said, under a climate which enjoys the same tempera ture, and whose general features and distance from the mountains
are nearly the same. Piura is not more remote from the Andes of
Assuay than are the moist plains of Choco from the Western Cor  dillera.
The facts which have now been laid before the reader seem to
authorize me to infer- 
506 
METEOROLOGY.
1st. That extensive destruction of forests lessens the quantity of
running water in a country.
2d. That it is impossible to say precisely whether this diminution
is due to a less mean annual quantity of rain, or to more active
evaporation, or to these two effects combined.
3d. That the quantity of running water does not appear to have
suffered any diminution or change in countries which have known
nothing of agricultural improvement.
4th. That independently of preserving running streams, by opposing an obstacle to evaporation, forests economize and regulate their
flow.
5th. That agriculture established in a dry country, not covered
with forests, dissipates an additional portion of its running water.
6th. That clearings of forest land of limited extent may cause
the disappearance of particular springs, without our being therefore
authorized to conclude that the mean annual quantity of rain has
been diminished.
7th, and lastly. That in assuming the meteorological data collected in intertropical countries, it may be presumed that clearing off
the forests does actually diminish the mean annual quantity of rain
which falls.*
* These meteorological observations are highly interesting, and worthy of every
consideration. That unforesting a country makes it absolutely drier, seems unquestionable; but whether that be in consequence of less rain falling, or of that which
falls going further, making more show, cannot be easily determined. It does not seem
very legitimate to decide, that because a country is covered with wood, therefore it is
wet: the converse of that proposition appears much more probable-viz., that because
a country is wet, therefore it is covered with trees. There is one part of the ocean
which is called by mariners "The Rains;" because it rains there almost ceaselessly,
as it does in the province of Choco: but "The Rains" has no forests to account for
its dripping sky. Did that region consist of dry land instead of salt-water, then doubtless its surface would be covered, as that of Choco is, with an impenetrable forest.
The subject is adverted to here, however, not to discuss the general question, but to
throw out the suggestion that under the hand of man, the soil and even the climate of
our immense Australian possessions might possibly be improved. Drought is the
grand enemy of Australian settlers; and the country is generally barren of wood.
Governors, district governments, and farmers, and all who are interested in the prosperity of the colony, surely ought to encourage, by every possible means, the growth
of the taller trees and shrubs that are indigenous to the country.
Expeditions might be made once or twice a year, at the proper season, for scattering
or planting the seeds of these trees or shrubs. Could every knoll within a hundred
miles of Sidney be seen crowned with a thick screen of leafy trees, there can be little
doubt but that the rain which falls would be economized; and that the beds of the
rivers, instead of being dry for eight or nine months, would be occupied all the year
round by at least a moderate stream of water.-ENG. ED.
THE END.
507 
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Of BR,BERT BURNS, with Explanatory and Glossarial Notes, and a Life of the
Author. By JAMES CURaRIE, M.D. Illustrated with six Steel Engravings.
l6mo, $1,25; gilt edges, $2,00; morocco, $2,50.
JC utler.-Etludibr as
By SAMUEL BUTLER. With Notes and a Literary Notice, by the Rev. T. R.
N ash, D.D.; illustrated with Portraits, and containing a new and complete 
Index. 16mo, $1,50; gilt edges, $2,25; morocco, $3,00.
Byron.-C1Uilde treold'8 Pil,grimage.
A Romance.  By LoRD ByRoN.  Illustrated, 16mo, $1,2.5; gilt edge, $2,00
morocco, $2,50; cheap edition, 18mo, 50 cts.
4 
Appletons' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
POETRY
Byron. —The Complte Poetical Wors of ordByron.
Collected and arranged, with illustrative Notes, by Thos. Moore, Lord Jeffrey,
Sir Walter Scott, Prof. Wilson, J. G. Lockhart, Thomas Campbell, etc., etc.
Illustrated with a Portrait, and ten elegant Steel Engravings. One vol. Svo,
cloth, $4,00, cloth, extra gilt leaves, $5,00, mnorocco extra, $6,50; or a
cheaper paper edition, with portrait only, $2,50.
Cowper.-The Uomplete Poetical Works
Of WILLIAM COwrER, Esq., including the Hymns, and Translations from Mad.
Guion, Milton, etc., and Adam, a Sacred Drama, from the Italian of Battista
Andreini, with a Memoir of the Author.  By the Rev. HENRY STE-BBINGS, A.M.
One vol. 16mo, 800 pages, $1,50; gilt edges, $2,25; morocco, $3,00.
Campbel. —The Complete Poetical Works
Of THOMAS CAMrBRELL.   Illustrated with a fine Portrait and several handsome
Steel Engravings. One vol. 16mo, $1,50; gilt edges, $2,25; morocco, $3,00.
Dante.-The Visiom of Hell, Purgatory, and Para  dise, of DANTE ALIGHIER1. Translated by the Rev. Henry Cary, A.M. With
a Life of Dante, Chronological View of his Age, Additional Notes and Index.
Illustrated with Twelve Steel Engravings, from Designs by John Flaxman,R.A.,
and a finely engraved Portrait.  One elegantly printed volume, 16mo, $1,50;
gilt edges, $2,25; morocco, $3,00.
Griwold.-The Saored Poets of Egland and Ane  rica, for Three Centuries. Edited by Rufus W. Griswold. Illustrated with Steel
Engravings. One handsome 8vo vol., 550 pages, $2,00; gilt edges, $2,50.
LIST OF AUTHORS. -George Gascoine, Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Sir Henry Wot  ton, Barnabe Barnes, Sir John Davis, Francis Davison, Joseph Bryan, John Donne, Ben Jonson,
Thomas Carew, George Sandys, Sir J. Beaumont, Phiness Fletcher, William Drummond, Giles
Fletcher, hlenrv King, James Shirley, George Wither, Robert Herrick, Frances Quarles, Thomas
Heywood, Richard Crashaw, Patrick Carey, W. Habington, Edmund Waller, John Milton,
Jeremy Taylor, Sir E. Sherburne, Henry More, Abraham Cowley, Andrew Marvell, Henry
Vaughan, Geo. Herbert, Thomas Randolph, Richard Baxter, John Quarles, Sir R. Blackmore,
Thomas Flatman, Rev. John Norris, Isaac Watts, Thomas Parnell, Edward Young, Robert
Blair, James Thomson, Charles Wesley, James Merrick. Chris. Smart, William Cowper, John
Logan, N. Cotton, J. Grahame, Anne Steele, A. M. Toplady, J. Scott, Hannah More, Anna
L. Barhl)auld, T. Dwig,ht, J. Q. Adams, W. Wordsworth, James Montgomery, James Hogg,
S. T. Coleridge, Robert Southey, W. Herbert, C. C. Colton, R. Heber, H. Barton, H. K.
White, J. Pierpoint, George Croly, A. Norton, R. H. Dana, W. Knox, J. A Millhouse, H. H.
Milman, Bp. Mant, Felicia Hems'       I. 3igourney, C. Wilcox, J. N. Eastburn, W. B.
Peabody, H. Knowles, Bp. Doane, S. Keole, Robert Pollok, J. Moultrie, G. W. Bethune,
Wm. Croswell, J. G. Whittier, Sir Rokert Grant, W. C. Bryant, A. C. Cox, Isaac Williams.
aklc.-ThTe Complete Poetdcal Work8
Of FITz-GRERENE HALLECK.   Now first collected.  Illustrated with elegant Steel
Engravings from Paintings by American Artists. One vol. 8vo, $3,50; gilt
edges, $4,00; morocco, $6,00.
,ef  ns.. The Complete Poetical Wors
Of FELICIA HEMANS, printed from the last English edition, edited by her Sister.
Illustrated with Six Steel Engravings. Two beautifully printed and portable
volumes, 16mo, $2,50; gilt edges, $4,00; morocco, $5,00.
eva.   — Songs of the Affections, 
By FELICIA HEMANS. One volume, 32mo, gilt, 31 cts.
Lorl.-Poem,
By WILLIAM W. LORD. 12mo, illuminated cover, 75 cta
5 
Appletons' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
POETRY.
HMoore.-The Complete Poetical 1Workg
Of THOMAS MOORE, beautifully printed in clear legible type, in exact imitation
of the recent corrected London edition. Illustrated with numerous fine Steel
Engravings and an elegantly-engraved Portrait of the Author. One volume,
8vo, $4,00; gilt edges, $5,00; morocco, $7,00.  Cheap edition, Portrait and
Vignette, only $2,50.
MJfooy,         e.-i lt~h /elodieg,
By THOMAS MOORE, with the original prefatory Letter on Music. 32mo, 38 cta.
-Jfoore.-Lalla Roo,jh,
An Oriental Romance. By THOMAS MOORE. 32mo, cloth gilt, 38 cts.
Milton.-The CompletePoetical Works
Of JOHN MILTON, with Explanatory Notes and a Life of the Author, by the Rev.
Henry Stebbing, A. M. Illustrated with Six Steel Engravings. One vo4ume,
16mo, $1,25; gilt edges, $2,00; morocco, $2,50.
MAlton.-Paradige -Logt
By JOHN MILTON. With Notes, by Rev. H. Stebbing. One volume, 18mo,
cloth, 38 cts.; gilt leaves, 50 cts.
Pollok.-The Course of Time,
By ROBERT POLLOX.  With a Life ofthe Author, and complete Analytical In  dex, prepared expressly for this edition. 32mo, frontispiece, 38 cts.
Poetic lacon (The), or Aphorisms from th Poets.
Edited by BEN. CASSEDAY. Miniature size, 38 cts.
Pope.- The Woqrks
Of ALEXANDER POPE.  Complete, with Notes by Dr. Warburton, and illustra  tions on Steel.  16mo, $1,50; gilt edges, $2,25; morocco, $3,00.
Southey.-The Complete Poetical Works
Of ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq., LL. D. The ten volume London edition in one
elegant volume, royal 8vo. Illustrated with a Portrait and several fine Steel
Engravings, $3,50; gilt edges, $4,50; morocco, $6,50.
CONTENTS.-Joan of Arc, Juvenile and Minor Poems, Thalaba the Destroy  er, Madoc, Ballads and Metrical Tales, The Curse of Kehama, Roderick, the
last of the Goths, The Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo, Lay of the Laureate,
Vision of Judgment, Oliver Newman, &c.
Scott. —Lady of the Lake,
A Poem. By Sir WALTER SCOTT. 18mo, cloth, 38 cts.; gilt edges, 50 cts.
Scott.-AJarmion,
A Tale of Flodden Field. By Sir WALT. SCOTT. 18mo, 38 cts.; gilt edg., 50 eta
Scott.-Lay of tlhe Last Jingtrel,
A Poem.   By Sir WALTER SCOTT.  lSmo, 25 cts.; gilt edges, 38 cts.
Srcott.-The Poetical TVork.e
Of Sir WALTER SCOTT, Bart.  Containing Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion,
Lady of the Lake, Don Roderick, Rokeby, Ballads, Lyrics, and Songs, with a
Life of the Author. Illustrated with six Steel Ingravings. One vol. 16mo,
$1,25; gilt edges, $2,00; morocco $2,50.
6 
Appletmns' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
POETRY.
Tltomson.-Te keason8,
A Poem.  By JAMIES THOMSON.  One volume, 32mo, cloth, gilt leaves, 38 ets.
Ta,sso.- The Jeru alerm Delivered
Of TORQUATO TASSO. Translated into English Spenserian verse, with a Life of
the Author, by J. H. Wiffen. Two volumes of the last London edition, reprinted
in one elegant 16mo volume, illustrated with a finely engraved Portrait and
several beautiful Steel Engravings, $1,50; gilt edges, $2,25; morocco, $3,00.
Toke  of Affection, Friendshp, Love,  emembance,
The Heart.  31 cents each volume.
Young. —ight Thoughts.
The Complaint, or Night Thoughts. By EDWARD YOUNG, D. D. Miniature
size volume, elegantly printed, 38 cts.
RELIGIOUS.
Arnold. —Rqugby School Sermons.
Sermons preached in the Chapel of Rugby School, with an address before Con  firmation. By THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. One volume, 16mo, 50 cts.
Anthon.-An Easy Catechirm for 0uldren;
Or, The Church Catechism with Scripture Proofs.  By HENRY ANTHON, D.D.,
Rector of St. Mark's Church, New-York. Part 1, price 6i cts.
Anthon.-UCatechism8 on the Homilies of the Church.
By HENRY ANTHON, D.D.  18mo., paper cover, 6i cts.
A Kernepis.-Of the Imitation of UChrit:
Four Books by THOMAS. KEMPIS.  16mo, $1,00.  Reduced to 75 cts.
Burnet.-At Ex,position of the XXXIX. Articles
of the Church of England. By GILBERT BURNET, D D., late Bishop of Salis bury. With an Appendix, containing the Augsburg Confession, Creed of Pope
Pius IV, &c. Revised and corrected with copious Notes and Additional Refer  ences, by the Rev. James R. Page, A.M.   One handsome 8vo volume, $2,00
Burnet.- -The Higtory of the Reformation of the
Church of England By GILBERT BURNET, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Salisbury;
with the Collection of Records and a copious Index, revised and corrected,
with Additional Notes and a Preface, by the Rev. E. Nares, D.D. Illustrated
with twenty-three engraved Portraits. 4 vols., $8,00. Reduced to $6,00.
A cheap edition is printed, containing the History in.hree volumes, without the Records,
waich form the fourth volume of the above. Price, $2,50.
Beaven.-A Hep to Uatechii,ing.
For the use of Clergymen, Schools, and Private Families.   By JAMES BEAVEN
D.D., Professor of Theology at King's College, Toronto. Revised and adapted
to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. By Henry
Anthon, D D.  18mo, paper, 6~ cents. 
Bradley.-Family and Parish Sermons:
Preached at Clapham and Glasbury. By fhe Rev. CHARLES BRADLEY. From
the seventh London edition  Two volumes in one, 8vo, $1,25.
7 
Appletons' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
SCIENCE AND THE ARTS.
1. AGRICULTURE.
Bo,tisswagaut.-A~Ticultitral Chemit ry.
Rural Economy, in its Relations with Chemistry, Physics, and Meteorolog'
or, Chemistry applied to Agriculture. By J. B. BOUISSANGAULT. Translat-t
with Notes, etc., by Geo. Law, Agriculturist. 12mo, over 500 pages, $1,5C
Falkner.-The Farqnw's MalIcwl:
A Practical Treatise on the Nature and Value of Manures, founded from E
periments on various crops; with a brief account of the most Recent Disc,
veries in Agricultural Chemistry.  By F. FAIXNER and the Author of" Briti'
Husbandry." 12mo, cloth, 50 cents.
MJar~shll.-Th Farmer'ds Hand-Book:
Being a Full and Complete Guide for the Farmer and Emigrant: comprising  The Clearing of Forest and Prairie Lands; Gardening; Farming Generally
Farriery; The Management and Treatment of Cattle; Cookery; The Col
struction of Dwellings; Prevention and Cure of Disease; with copious T'Iablh
Recipes, Hints, &c., &c.  By JOSIAH T. MARSHALL.  12mo, illustrated, $1,0f
T        on.,perimental Rese arches
On the Food of Animals and the Fattening of Cattle, with Remarks on the Fo(
of Man: founded on Experiments made by order of the British Governmei
by ROBERT DUNDAS TiHOMSON, M. D., Prof. University of Glasgow.   12yr
cloth, 50 cts. Paper cover, 38 cts.
II. ARCHITECTURE AND MECHANICS.
A'inot.-  othic Architecture,
Applied to Modern Residences. Containing designs for Entrances, Hal
Stairs and Parlors, Window Frames and  Door Panelling, the jamb and la:
Mouldings on a large scale; the decoration of Chimney Breasts and Mantel
Panelling and Graining of Ceilings, with the appropriate furniture. The who
illustrated with Working and perspective Drawings, and forming all the n
cessary parts of a modem dwelling. By D. H. ARNOT, Architect.  Now publishi
in Nos., to be completed in one vol., 4to.
Byrne.-  cyclopedia of -cVahineg, Mechanime, can
Engineering.  Comprising Working Drawings, and Description of every in
portant Machine in practical Use in the United States, Great Britain, etc., i
cluding a complete Treatise on Mechanics, Machinery, and Engine Wor
By OLIVER BYRNE, Civil Engineer.
*** This work (now in preparation) will be published in Nos., at 25 cents each. It will coil
prise nearly 2000 pages, and 1500 Engravings.
Borne.-A Catechisvn of the Steam Fngine.
Illustrative of the Scienitific principles upon which its operation depends, at
the practical details of its structure, in its application to Mines, Mills, Stea
Navigation and Railways.   With  various suggestions of Improvement.   I
JOHN BOURNE, C. E., 16mo, 75 cts.
Hodge. The,Steam F~n,ine:
Its Origin and gradual improvement, from the time of Hero to the present da
as adapted to Manufactures, Locomotion and Navigation. Illustrated with 
Plates in full detail, numerous wood-cuts, &c. By PAUL R. HODGE, C.
One volume folio of plates, and letterpress in Svo, $10.
11, 
Appletn' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
SCIENCE AND THE ARTS.
Lafever.- -Beanties of Modern Architectwre;
Consisting of forty-eight Plates of Original Designs, with Plans, Elevations, an&
Sections-also a Dictionary of Technical Terms; the whole forming a complete
Manual for the Practical Builder. By M. LAFEVER, Architect. Large 8vo, $5.
III. MEDICINE AND CHEMISTRY.
De Leuze.-Practical Ingrction in Animal Magnet ism. By J. P. F. DE LEUZE. Translated by Thomas C. Hartshorn. Revised
edition, with an Appendix of Notes by the Translator, and Letters from emi nent Physicians and others, descriptive of cases in the U.S.  1 vol. 12mo, $1.
Fiesen.s.- Chemical Analysi.
Elementary Instruction in Chemical Analysis. By Dr. C. RHEMIGIUS FRESENIUS.
With a Preface by Prof. Liebig. Edited by I. Lloyd Bullock. 12mo, cloth, $1.
Htall.-The Principles of Dciagnosis.
By MARSHALL HALL, M.D. F. R. S., &c. Second edition, with many im  provements, by John A. Sweet. One volume, 8vo, $2.
Liebig. —Familiar Lettps on Chemitry,
And its relation to Commerce; Physiology, and Agriculture. By JUSTUS LIE  BIG, M.D.  Edited by John Gardner, M.D.  One vol., 25 cts., bound.
Leger.-Animal Magnetism,
Or Psychodunamy. -By THEODORE LEGER, M.D., late Prof. of Anatomy at the
Practical School, Paris. One vol. 12mo, $1,25.
Wil.on>.-On  Healthy Skin:
A Popular and Practical Treatise on Healthy Skin; with Rules for the Medi  cal and Domestic Treatment of Cutaneous Diseases. By ERASMUS WILSoN,
F. R. S. 12mo, illustrated, $1.
IV. USEFUL ARTS.
Cooey.-The Book of Useful KnowledJe:
A Cyclopedia of Six Thousand Practical Receipts, and Collateral Information
in the Arts, Manufactures and Trades; including Medicine, Pharmacy, and
Domestic Economy: designed as a compendious Book of Reference for the
Manufacturer, Tradesman, Amateur, and Heads of Families. By ARtNOLD
JAMES COOLEY, Practical Chemist.  Illustrated with numerous Wood Engrav ings. One volume, 8vo, of 650 pages. Price $2,00, bound.
?arnell.-Applied U7hei8Ntry,
In Manufactures, Arts, and Domestic Economy. Edited by E. A. PARNELL.
Illustrated with numerous Wood Engravings, and Specimens of Dved and
Printed Cottons. Paper cover, 75 cts.; cloth, $1.
Ui'e.-Dictionary of Artsg, Ma/facetqre, and iaiesn;
Containing a clear Exposition of their Principles and Practice.  By ANDREW
URE, M.D., F. R. S., &c. Illustrated with 1450 Engravings on wood. One
thick volume, with Supplement complete, $5.
Ure.-A Spplement to Dr. Ue'   ctionary.
8vo, 200 cuts, $1,50.
V. MILITARY.
Hcd eck.  lle?~n~ts of Mfilitar7y Science and Art;  -
Or, a Course of Instruction in Strategy, Fortification, Tactics of Battles, &e.;
embracing the Duties of Staff, Intfantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Engineers;
adapted to the Use of Volunteers and Militia.  By H. WAGER HALLEc:, A. M..
L,ieut. of Engineers of U. S. A rmy.   One vol l2mo, illustrated, $1,50.
14 
Appleton#' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Acton; or, Th-e Circe of Life.
A Collection of Thoughts and Observations, designed to delineate Life, Man,
and the World.   l2mo, $1,25; gilt edges, $1,50; extra gilt, $1,75.
Anu.,ted.-The Gold Seeker',  Manual.
Being a practical and Instructive Guide to all Persons emigrating to the newly
discovered Gold Regions of California.   By Prof. D. ANSTED.   12mo, 25 cts.
Arthw'.-Tired of Hougekeeping.
By T. S. ARTrUR, author of "Insubordination;'" etc., etc. 18mo, frontisp., 38 cts.
Forming one of the series of" Tales for the People and their Children."
Adler.-A Dictionary of the German atnd English
Languages. Compiled from Hilpert, Flugel, Greib, &c. By G. J.. ADLER,
Prof. German in the University of New-York. 1 large vol., 8vo, 1400 pp. $5.
A,nel. —Ches. for Winter Evening;
Or, Useful and Entertaining Lessons on the Game of Chess. Compiled from
the best English sources and translations from the French.  By H. R. AGNEL.
Illustrated with fine Steel Plates, from paintings by R. W. Weir. 12mo, $1,75.
Apple,ond' Steamboat and Ral-iroad Compauion:
Being a Traveller's Guide through New England and the Middle States, with
Routes in the Southern and Western States and also in Canada; forming like  wise a complete Guide to the White Mountains, Catskill Mountains, &c., Ni  agara Falls, Trenton Falls, &c., Saratoga Springs, and other watering places;
and containing full and accurate Descriptions of all the Principal Towns, Vil  lages, the Natural and Artificial Curiosities in the vicinity of the routes; with
Distances, Fares, &c. Illustrated with thirty Maps and numerous EngravingL
By W. WILLIAMS. One very neat volume, $1,25.
Appleton.s' Southern and West,ern Guide Book.
Accompanied with numerous Maps and Plans of cities. By W. WILLIAM
One volume 16mo.
Apletond' Ye7w- York City Gi de.
Accompanied with a Map. 18mo. 38 cts.
Appleto' YNew City Jfap,
Of New-York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Price, 121 cts. each, in a case.
Appleo' Library Mlanual:
Containing a Catalogue Raisonne of upwards of 12,000 of the most important
Works in every department of Knowledge, and in all Modern Languages.
Part I.  Subjects alphabetically arranged.   II. Biography, Classics, Miscella  neous, and Index to Part I. 1 vol. 8vo, 450 pages, $1,00; half bound, $1,25.
Arnold.-The Miscellaneous Works
Of THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D., with nine additional Essays, not included in the
English collection. One vol. 8vo, $2.
Bglnchard.-Tourist and Travwel7ers.
By LAMAN BLANCHARD.  One volume 24mo.  Illustrated, 25 cts.
Brook~. —Foiwr lonths camon,g the Gold Finderg in
California; being the Diary of an Expedition from San Francisco to the Gold
Districts.  By J. TYRRWHITT BROOKS, M.D., 8vo. paper, 25 cts.
15 
Appletois' Catalogue of Valuable Publicatws.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Bond. —Golden Maximy;
Or, a Thought for every Day in the Year. Devotional and Practical. Selected
by the Rev. ROBERT BOND. 3,2mo, 31 cts.
Biyac(t.- What I saw in Ualifornia.
Being the Journal of a Tour, by the Emigrant Route and South Pass of the
Rocky Mountains, across the Continent of North America, the Great Desert
Basin and through California, in the years 1846, 1847. By EDWIN BRYANT,
late Alcalde of San Francisco. Sixth edition, with an Appendix containing
Accounts of the Gold Mines, various Routes, Outfit, etc., etc., with maps of
California and the Gold Region. 12mo, $1,25.
Californian Guid&e -Book;
Comprising Col. Fremont's Geographical Account of Upper California; Major
Emory's Overland Journey, and Captain Fremont's Narrative of the Exploring
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains and to Oregon and California, accompanied
with a Map of the various Routes, and a Map of the Gold Regions. 8vo, 50 cts.
hapman.-Insgtruction to Young Markmen,
In all that relates to the general construction, Practical Manipulation, etc., etc.
as exhibited in the Improved American Rifle.  By JOHN RATCLIFFE CHAPMA  Civil Engineer. Illustrated with plates. 12mo, $1,25.
Uooley.-The American in _Egypt;
With Rambles through Arabia Petrma and the Holy Land, during the years
1839-40. By JAMES EWING COOLEY. Illustrated with numerous Steel En gravings; also Etchings and Designs by Johnson.   8vo, of 610 pages, $2.
Corbotuld.- The  tlistory and Adventure8 of Marga ret Catchpole, a Suftolk Girl. By the Rev. RICHARD CORBOULD. 8vo, paper
cover, 2 Steel plates, 25 cts.
Don Quixote d- La Jfancha.
Translated from the Spanish of Miguel Cervantes Sauvedra. Embellished with
eighteen Steel Engravings. 16mo, $1,50.
Drwry.-Friendc and Fortwne;
A Moral Tale, by ANNE HARRIET DRURY.   12mo, 75 cts.; paper, 50 cts.
Du m.-  Maguerite De Valois;
An Historical Romance. By ALEXANDER DUMAS. 8vo, paper cover, 25 ets.
Edwardc.  Voyage up the River Amazon;
Including a Residence at Para.  By W. H. EDWARDS.   12mo, cloth, $1,00
paper cover, 75 cts.
Ellis. —Prevention better than Cure;
Or, the Moral Wants of the World we live in. By Mrs. ELLIS. 12mo, cloth, 75 cts.
Ellig.-The Women of' gland;
Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits. By Mrs. ELLIS. 1 vol. 12mo, 50 ct.
Ellis.-The Mothers of England;
Their Influence and Responsibility. By Mrs. ELLIS. 1 vol. 12mo, 50 cts.
Ells.-The Jinister's Family;
Or, Hints to those who would make Home happy. By Mrs. EL'rIS. 18mo, 38 cts
tO 
Appletons' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Ellis. —First Impression8;.
Or, Hints to those who would make Home happy. By Mrs. ELLIS. 18mo, 38 ct&
Elli. —oomeriville Hall;
Or, Hints to those who would make Home happy. By Mrs. ELLIS. 16mo, 38 cts.
Ellis.-Family Secrets; or, The  D)angers of -Dining
Out. By Mrs. ELLIS. 16mo, 38 cts.
Ellis.-Social -istinctions; or, Hearts and  omes.
By Mrs. ELLIS. 8vo.
*** It is written in the spirit of Modern Progressive Philosophy, and seems to be illustrative of
great social truths, while aiming a well directed blow against cruel and proscriptive usages of society."-JVat. Era.
Ellis.-A Voice from the Vintage; or, The Force of
Example. Addressed to those who Think and Feel. By Mrs. ELLIS. 8vo,
paper, 6 cts.
h&eurby.-Yature'8 Gems; or, American Flowers
in their Native Haunts. By EMMA C. EMBURY. With twenty Plates of Plants
carefully colored after Nature, and Landscape Views of their Localities, from
drawings taken on the spot, by E. W. Whitefield. One imperial octavo vol  ume, printed on the finest paper and elegantly bound. Price $6.
omhory and Fremot.-Notes of Travel in California.
Conmrising the prominent Geographical, Agricultural, Geological and Minera  logical features of the country; also the Route from Fort Leavenworth, in Mis  souri to San Diego, in California, from the official Reports of Col. Fremont and
Major Emory. 8vo, paper, 25.
Efverett.-A System of Eglish Versification.
Containing Rules for the Structure of the different kinds of Verse. Illustrated
by numerous examples from the best Poets. By ERASTUS EVERETT, A. M.
12mo, 75.
iost.- T avl.g in Africa.
'l'he Book of Travel's in Africa, from the Earliest Ages to the present time.
Compiled from the best authorities, by JOHN FROST, L.L. D. 12mo, illustrated
with over 100 plates, $1.
lriost.-TThe Book of the Indians of North  America.
Their Manners, Customs, and Present State. Compiled from the most recent
authorities. By JOHN FROST, L.L. D. 12mo, illustrated, $1.
Frost.-The Book of the Army:
Comprising a Genleral Military History of the United States, from the period
of the Revolution to the present time, with particular Accounts of all the most
celebrated Battles; compiled from the best authorities. By JOHN FROST, L.L. D.
Illustrated with numerous Engravings and Portraits. 12mo, $1,25.
Frost.-TlIe Book of the Navy:
Comprising a General History of the American Marine, and particular Acco(Mts
of all the most celebrated Naval Battles, from the Declaration of Independenoe
to the present time; compiled from the best authorities.  By JOHN FROST, L.L. D.
With an Appendix, containing Naval Songs, Anecdotes, &c.  EmILihed
with numerous original Engravings and Portraits. 12mo, $1.
17
I.  
Appletos' Catalogue of Valuable Publications.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Frost.-The Book of the Colonies:
Comprising a History of the Colonies composing the United States; from the
Discovery in the 10th Century, to the Commencement of the Revolutionary
War. Compiled from the best authorities. By JOHN FROST, L.L. D. 12mo,
illustrated, $1.
Frost.-The Book of Good Example:
Drawn from Authentic History and Biography. Designed to illustrate the ben
eficial Effects of Virtuous Conduct. By JOHN FROST, L.L. D. 12mo, illustra
ted, $ 1.
Frc 9t.-The Book of Ilutrioug 3echc8,c of Dwrop~
and America.  Translated from the French of Edward Foncaud.  Edited by
JORi  FROST, L.L. D.  12mo, illustrated, $1.
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22