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_ SEPARATE AND DISTINCT DEPARTMENT OF NATURE,

BY

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ROBERT. SERRELL WOOD,

Corresponding Member of the National Institute. OS 2 6's

WASHINGTON, MARCH, 1850.

P

The most palpable source of nutrition to all created beings was sup-
posed by the ancients to possess the attributes of vitality; it was there-
fore an amiable weakness on their part to personify the Earth, and to
hold her in peculiar veneration. Modernscience has banished this beau-
tiful sentiment from its stern philosophy, but it can never invalidate the
fact that there are certain ingredients of the soil (whatever be their
origin) which claim intermediate rank between matter in such states of
combination as the chemist can produce by synthesis, and the lowest
specimens of vegetable organisms: neither has it yet successfully proved
that the same elements in other shape than the organic salts of humus
contribute with equal efficiency to the luxuriance of vegetation, although
there is evidence in volcanic and other localities to show, that an excess
of either free carbonic acid gas, or ammonia, or water, even when the
other minerals present suffice for the wants of plants, is injurious to the
highest degree. A greater proportion than at present of those gases and
vapours inthe atmosphere, and consequently in the soil, may have favored
the earliest denizens of our globe: those tribes have now nearly passed
away, or their constitution has been modified with modifications of cli-
mate, &c.

A just appreciation of fossil organic remains has elicited a probable
truth, that function and organization proceed through both kingdoms of
nature by parallel lines of advancement, observable since the different
periods of the world at which they respectively commenced their exist-
ence. It would seem as if some general law, harmonizing with the
earth’s progress in its physical capacity, governed the succession of these
products, an idea which is further supported by their gradual develop-
ment at the present day fromthe germinal toa perfect state. Weshould
also bear in mind the remarkable fact, that animals and vegetables are
blended together so as to render any attempt to define their distinguish-

)

~

ing properties utterly futile. Vegeto-animals have been fully recognised
by naturalists; and we are next led to inquire whether the soil, forming
a connection between organized and unorganized matter, partakes of a
vegeto-mineral character in the highest acceptation of the term.

The animal department, although indebted for its growth and prime
condition to azotized aliment approximating more or less in its nature
the tissues themselves, borrows, from vegetables especially, hydro-car-
bonaceous substances of a less complex composition, a portion of which
is converted into fat, another portion is directly oxidized and excreted,
while a third is presumed, in the case of the lowest animals, to be con-
vertible by means of ammonia into gelatine, &c., their integuments cor-
responding with those of plants as surfaces absorbent of nourishment,
sufficiently at least to establish a close relation between both races in
this respect aS well as in their both inhaling oxygen.* Again, the vege-
table department in its highest range, although dependant upon rich
mould or organic: manures for its most efficient support, (as man and
some other animals are upon flesh,) draws from the atmosphere elements
convertible into cellulose, &ce., indicating the claims of animals upon
vegetables, of vegetables upon the soil, and, as I shall endeavor to show,
the ultimate dependance of the soil upon the atmosphere. Nature evi-
dently proposes more than one resource for the maintenance of her crea-
tures; and unity of design, which pervades the works of creation, would
suggest that, although the soil receives its most unequivocal accessions
from the debris of plats, it nevertheless allows the crude materials of
air to circulate within its pores, and to form more notable combinations.
Animals, vegetables, and the soil are constituted in large proportion of
particles, which have possessed, but which no longer retain, the usual
characteristics of life—particles, be it observed, which threaten to resolve
themselves into simpler forms, unless the tendency to disintegration be

*The oxidation of the hydrocarburets is generally believed to liberate caloric in living bodies as
a primary result, but I respectfully maintain that it, in the first instance, causes the surrender of

electricity which was previously combined ; heat consequently becomes a secondary effect, of an |

altered consistency or composition in soltds or fluids, whereby their specifie capacity for caloric
is affected.’ The temperature of animals is exaggerated by physical exertion, which causes the
contracton of muscles and a more rapid circulation of the blood. A large portion of their food is
already combined with oxygen in the proportion to form water; no heat is therefore evolved from
this source, and the separation of free water from their surfaces in the shape of vapour produces a
reduction df temperature perhaps equivalent to the heat generated by the conversion of venous into
arterial blood. The slow reactions between highly constituted substances may be identical in a
chemical point of view with ordinary cases of combustion, but the results very different ; the
amount of heat liberated being proportionate to the greater or less competency of conducting |
media to carry off the electricity set free, or of other contiguous molecules in the circulation or |
elsewhere to appropriate that imponderable by forming new combinations. And here I may be }
permitted to add, that if the solution of a simple metal in the voltaic apparatus liberates a force
which, on being conducted by a special arrangement of wire around an enclosed bar of tron, mag-
netizes it, a fortiori the resolution of more complex particles, such as those contained in the ani- |
mal circulation, might be supposed capable of contracting (magnetizing) a muscle enclosed with-
in a network of conducting nervous filaments. A ganglion is the voltaic apparatus, certain con-
stituents of the blood electrolytes, the motor and sensitive nerves conducting media, and the mus-
cle, which is insulated by cellular matter and ligament,a magnet. ‘The contraction of a muscle
or a congeries of muscles would not necessarily diminish the volume of their mass, because their re~
duction of size only tends to enlarge the capacity of the surrounding cellular substance ; free ins
grees is therefore allowed to the blood between the fibres, and consequently greater efficiency
produced in the parts. ' diinih sss hedlan

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OM) fo Vee
VA

3

cqunteracted by a force of an opposite kind. The soil possesses no evi-
dence of organization either in mass or in detail; but organization may
mark grades of development without being indispensable to characterize
living matter. Nothing can be more indefinite than even the essential
properties of life. Can physiologists determine at what precise moment
the vital principle is surrendered by a piece of muscle cut from the leg
of a healthy animal? ‘The separation of a part merely shortens its term

” of existence by destroying perhaps the faculty of self-preservation or re-

production. Where then shall we find the first link in the self-supporting
chain of vital products? Are we to consider the vesicles or cells which
the microscope discovers almost everywhere on the earth’s surface as ex-
hibiting the simplest manifestations of life, or may we refer its rudiments
to the corpuscles of blood, or to certain constituents of sap ?

I propose to regard the soil as a creature sud generis, sustaining
living bodies whilst it is itself sustained by them. Its proportions are
limited by the means of increment placed at its disposal. If the
natural history of soil be studied, we find that although it may in-
crease enormously under certain conditions, and although its term of
maturity may be prolonged to an apparently indefinite extent, its ulti-
mate dissoiution, in whole or in part, is a matter of as much certainty
as the lapse of ages. Organized bodies, however, display their power
of increase more particularly-in-their progeny, which represent the pa-
rent in an enlarged individuality. The soil, likewise constituted, as I
shall presently endeavor to show, of many individuals of different char-
acter, is capable of propagating its kind by a quasi-fissiparous process—
that is to say, a portion of veritable mould being isolated from the main
body and placed in a favorable situation, exerts a quickening influence
upon surrounding matter of elemental identity: mould, consequently,
either enlarges in bulk itself, or gives bulk to vegetables, just as vegeta-
bles, during their growth, either enlarge in bulk themselvs, or give bulk
to animals which feed upon them. It may be further urged, as a gene-
ral proposition, that animals, plants, and the soil, increase and multiply
in co-ordinate ratios, and that, with the continued addition of light, a
much greater mass of matter will be engaged in the enjoyment of more
exalted faculties, either in an organized or semi-organized shape.

Aboriginal soil, then, may be attributed to the rays of the sun co-ope-
rating with physical changes of certain universally diffused substances,
which I shall presently mention—changes of form, consistency, and po-
sition, capable of impressing the heterogeneous residue with new aflini-
ties. We, however, regard, as chiefly anstrumental, at the present day,
in the generation of humus de novo front carbonic acid and water, the
forces liberated by already existing humus, or by materials of higher
grade in the act of decomposition—forces identical with those emitted
from the luminous worlds. around us.

‘Commencing with the lowest grade of progressive developments, we
submit for consideration: first, whether ulmin and other semi-organized
substances were not originally, and are not still, produced from carbonic
acid and water at the expense of ammonia which becomes decom-
posed in the ground by means of oxygen, nitrogen being liberated upon
the same terms which vegetables prescribe for themselves during an an-

4

alogous process of transformation.* Secondly, whether the disintegra-
tion of those hydrocarburets which are formed in vegetables from ulmin,
such as starch, gums, oils, &c., does not promote the formation of various
azotized proximate principles, when ammonia, sulphur, phosphorus, and
some few other minerals, are present. Lastly, whether the dissolution
of these proteine and allied compounds into less complex forms, or into
their ultimate elements, does not generate cellulose, &c. ©The idea on
which we particularly insist is, the reluctance on the part of bodies,
whether organized or unorganized, to allow their constitutional forces to
exhaust themselves by their component materials becoming resolved
into simpler combinations, as long as contiguous matter evinces the dis-
position of assuming an identical character or an equivalent complexi-
ty of constitution. For this reason, the same forces which enter into
the constitution of vegetables are apparently transmitted from one gene-
ration to another. But, on the other hand, it must be confessed that,
were it not for the incessant appropriations of the luminous element by

the surface materials of our globe, no furiher progress in the quantity

or quality of chemico-vital phenomena could be anticipated.

It would likewise be unreasonable to expect the occurrence of these
spontaneous formations of soil, where the want of indispensable pre-
requisites prohibits what would be an ordinary train of events in more
favored regions. The fixed alkalies and atkaleids, in moderate quantity,
might expedite the process, and yet the same bases, or ammonia, or
water, in excess, effectually prevent it. To consider them as tending
to break up, under all circumstances, rather than to superinduee more
complex relations of matter, would be to adopt an error equivalent with
considering oxygen an element of universal destruction.

Viewed solely as an accumulation of dead or effete materials, the
ground presents a melancholy picture of desolation, but as a thing of
life it offers eminent support to the doctrine of development. As soon
as a fit habitation was prepared for land-animals and plants, they each
in the fulness of time entered on their career. There is an aptitude in
this arrangement, and no less probable is it that the first and simplest
forms of living matter derived their forces from existing substances of
lower degree in complexity, and that the light of heaven co-operated
then, as it dees now, in the glorious consummation. Water-plants flour-
ished long before dry land appeared; these must have subsisted upon
gases and salts dissolved in the ocean, and their debris became the source
of much primeval soil. This admission by no means militates against
the proposition that semi-organized compounds, constituting humus, may.
also be formed in Nature’s laboratory by a direct union of the elements
concérned, the most obvious cause of a primary character being the
reduction of ammonia, or its transformation, into water and nitrogen,
by means of oxygen. Whether other compounds be formed in the soil,
such as nitrates, which are due to progressive as well as retrograde re-

* Tt may be observed that the gaseous effuvia (excretions proper) respired by the leaves of
plants, are for the most part simple elements, as oxygen and nitrogen, which, on assuming the
aeritorm condition, give up the electricity previously binding them with solids in tne closest chemi-
2 relations ; their loss of this force redounds to the benefit of plants by the consequent fixation
of carbon.

vt

5

actions, must depend upon dynamic contingencies. Holding these pre-
mises in mind, we are led to inquire whether the decomposition of semi-
organized compounds did not liberate the necessary forces and introduce
the lowest types of vegetable organisms, under conditions of the world
more favorable than at present. and which we can scar cely now appre-
ciate.* These in turn becoming decomposed, and surrendering their
forces, may have forwarded new combinations of vegetable matter, until
we reach a period of the earth’s history teeming with vital phenomena
familiar to us.

Germs, like nuclei of lesser note, may be identical, or nearly so, in
their ultimate or proximate elements, and yet differ in the proportions
of their combined imponderables. On this hypothesis the variety of
vegetables and even animals is divested somewhat of mystery ; the ele-
ments of nutrition being the same, the congenital forces which direct
the earliest vital movements in each particular genus or species deter-
mine their subsequent figure and organization.

After making due allowance for climate and the immediate effects of’

solar irradiation upon the digestive powers of plants, we attach no little
importance to the shape in which their food is presented to the roots. It
is asserted by the modern school of Agricultural Chemists, that the or-
ganic food of plants is exclusively carbonic acid and ammonia dissolved
in water, and, of course, the force of life is esteemed the chief cause of
all organic changes of a progressive character. With us, on the con-
trary, it is contended, that the substances aforesaid could not possibly be
metamorphosed into higher compounds except by the addition of light,
or of forces identical with light, derived from organized and semi-orga-
nized materiel in the act of decomposition. It is well, known, that no
manure is more acceptable to vegetables than their own decaying leaves,
or the debris of a higher class of plants; the explanation now offered
for this fact by authors entitled to our utmost respect, is, as stated above,
very simple; but unfortunately it leaves the solution of ulterior pheno-
mena hopeless. To attribute the more abstruse transmutations to a force
of life is tantamount to an abandonment of principles applicable to all

* These conditions have reference to tormer bipolar movements of our eirth, not of an extra-
vagant, but of an exaggerated kind. I intend, on some future occasion, to submit reasons for the
belief that the sun is the immeciate cause of the diurnal rotation of planets within the solar sys-
tem, and of their annual changes of position and presentation. To be more explicit: if solar
rays be compounded, as I shall argue, of repellent and attractive forces neutralized by their com-
bination in light,and they be decomposed on the surface of the ear h, (this surface being a nixed
one of solids, liquids, and aeriform fluids,) we can understand how more of the calorific rays may
be detained on the peripheral or outer portion of ow planet, and exert an influence -there. while
the electric rays, for the most part, pass on to the innermost surface ot the solid crust, causing ad-
ditional layers to be precipitated from the central fluid mass. A tempo-ary loss of equilibrium
thus occasioned between the opposite sides of the sphere, produces a centrifugal tendency in the
comparatively enlarged proximal surface, and a centripetal tendency in the distal surface, which
becomes, each section of it for the instant, comparatively smaller than its antipod. We further
surmise that the earth has reached its present rate of movement and extent of bipolar oscillation
after considerable diminution of intensity in the North and Souti hemispheres respectively, at
different epochs ; that the approaches to a more pertect equilibrium,and consequent alterations of
climate from this cause,have been so gradual within the historic period as to have escaped the no-
tice of observers in this field of science. Iam notacquainted with any more plausible explanation
of the undoubted changes of level in the ocean since the commencement of the tertiary era, as evi-
denced by phenomena cf universal extent. -

5
physical changes for the production of which chemists are unable to con-
trol or concentrate the usual forces of matter.

Practical agriculturists will hexitatedbelorezthoyabisea :
heel that proximate principles must be, and in all cases are, reduced
before they can be absorbed by the roots. Because analytical chemists
are unable to dissolve by artificial means divers ingredients of humus,
it does not follow that a force derived from the voltaic movements of
contiguous living tissues is incompetent to do so; neither does it follow
that the constituents of the ascending sap vessels, or of animal chylife-
rous ducts, represent matter in its identical form as appropriated from
the prime vie, or the soil, because the organic portions of food may
become attached to the presenting superficial tissues, before the force of
absorption separates and reduces them to other soluble compounds as
found in the sap and chylous lymph. Although I have contended that
the precipitation of the solids in living bodies is mainly due to forces
derived from analogous materials, yet accretions to the roots of plants
probably occur at all seasons ; during spring and summer, however, the
foliage enjoys the privilege of appropriating aeriform food by means of
light, in addition to the forces borrowed from chemical and mechanical
reactions.

The usual articles of food correspond more or less with the tissues
which prevail in living bodies; hence it happens that, when referring to
animals, practical as well as speculative agriculturists lay great stress
upon fibrin, albumen, phosphate of lime, &e.; when referring to plants
they formerly paid especial regard to the ordinary ingredients of humus,
and while pursuing that natural system (apart from the use of highly
stimulating manures, both organic and inorganic) were not troubled
with the treatment or the discussion of modern vegetable diseases. We
now suspect that just as there are peculiar principles in vegetables which
produce constitutional effects on animals, so there are in vegetable mould
of good quality combinations, not the result merely of decomposition, but
of direct union between the elements concerned; and that these vegeto-
mineral varieties are of great importance, and define the nicer qualifi-
cations of soil and consequent character of plants cultivated therein.
The nervous matter of animals taken as food appears most likely to
sustain the nervous system and to promote the growth of neurine within
our own frames. No people feeding on vegetables exclusively has ever
attained eminence in the scale of nations; not because neurine cannot
be formed from vegetable products, but because it cannot be so bounti-
fully formed. However much disposed the digestive apparatus may be
to reduce the ingesta to a homogeneous fluid, certain substances pass its
drdeal which may eventually give flavor, color, and other characteristics
to both animals and vegetables.* Public opinion has changed even in
respect to the elements which necessarily enter into the composition of

Mn prog,

*A very general repygnance to truck raised upon night-soil exists, and I believe the objections
are to a certain extent valid. When vegetables are supplied with but a moderate amount of such
offensive manure, the probability is, that the digestive powers of the roots will completely alter the
character of such portions of food as are not assimilated by the soil; or even if any is direcily
absorbed into the vegetable system, it is very rapidly decomposed and passed away. ‘Lhe case ig
different when plants are rendered rank and stimulated by an excess of sewage; and it is from
such an unnatural and continuous process of forcing growth that we instinctively revolt.

7

vegetables, but is still adverse to an acknowledgement of any advan«
tage derivable from the direct absorption of compounds highly endowed.
We cannot detect any absolute contrast in kind, such as is alleged to
-exist, between the materials constituting the food of animals and vege-
tables, but simply a difference in amount of semi-organized and mine-
ral nutriment appropriated by the races respectively, corresponding with
their functions and the complexity of their organisms. The fungous and
certain parasitic tribes establish this view of the subject almost conclu-
sively. Light is necessary to their health and welfare in different de-
grees; its influence upon the functions of the human body being small,
there is the greater necessity for man’s securing a full supply of protein-
ized aliment, and a moderate allowance of those vegetable stimulants
and beverages which administer to his gratification. It is in vain to
shut our eyes to what some may consider a humiliatory fact, that diet
essentially contributes to our physical and mental calibre.

From these miscellaneous data we infer that, although humus con-
sists mainly of well-known organic matter, it contains other substances
which perform an office entirely overlooked by agriculturists, and ad-
monishes them to reconsider the necessity of frequent rotations in crops,
so far as permanent improvement of the soil, and not immediate profit
by overtaxing its every capability, isconcerned. The staples of a coun-
try, being ascertained by experience, may be encouraged by strictly res-
toring to the ground the refuse of those staples as specific manure. The
minute products referred to exhibit to my mind degrees of chemico-vital
complexity and corresponding differences in their physiological relations.
Not the least reason, perhaps, why the cerealia in particular are disin-
clined to extreme climates, or certain regions of country in even temperate
latitudes, is the same which prevented them from sooner gracing the bosom
of our earth, to wi', the want or insufliciency of appropriate semi-organ-
ized aliment. I may be told that grain has been successfully raised with-
out the least portion of humus, or any of this highly-extolled materia ali-
mentaria. We will join issue on this point, and await the verdict of good
and true men. who will we'gh the evidence of unexceptionable and long-
continued experiments; and if the cerealia do not degenerate or become
diseased, as potatoes have become, by the injudicious refinements of art,
I shall be agreeably disappointed. There cannot, | suspect, be too great a
supply of mould if there be alsoa proper proportion of mineral ingre-
dients, and silica in particular, to support the luxuriant stem. While
calculating the value of this class.of plants we should be mindful not
to underrate the straw, whether as food, litter, or manure, for domestic
consumption. The tuber of potatoes has been perhaps over-stimulated
by unfermented organic manures not possessing a sufliciency of mineral
bases to ensure hardy germs; whereas, what seems to threaten wheat is
an excess of inorganic elements over the organic, so as to render
it eventually more grain than stem ; and thus by forcing year after year
exuberant seed and a precocious progeny, we endanger the permanent
welfare of the plant. It is true that the grain crops are not cultivated
for their leaves or roots, as cabbages or turnips are; but does not the
constitution of the germ depend upon the efficiency of the parent’s whole
structure? The evil is analagous to that of breeding in and in, whereby

8
e
éertain organs, peculiar products, and morbid tendencies are exaggera-
ted/to the prejudice of the other parts and functions, Such a system
must terminate disastrously to animals and vegetables, as it operates
injuriously to the healthy condition and growth of humus, when by re-
peated over-doses of any one element, or by the total neglect of others,
or by allowing certain noxious elements to accumulate, we depress the
productive energies of the soil.

An argument is frequently raised in disparagement of mould, that an
excess of vegetable matter, as in swamps or heath-moors, is unfavor-
able to a wholesome vegetation : on the other hand, experiments have
proved that certain plants will thrive in pure charcoal—plants which do
not deserve to be ‘styled useful except by indirection, transplanted from
rich garden earth, containing abundant resources in their systems, sup-
plied freely with water perhaps saturated with organic matter, in a
close atmosphere charged with concentrated nutriment, in a green-house
which collects the rays of thesun with great effeet wpon growth ; plants
such as these, many of which cannot survive a sudden change of tem-
perature, and die out or are forgotten in a few generations, are brought
in comparison with field crops, t'e support of man and his fortunes !
It may not be inappropriate, by way of comparison, to direet my readers
to those conditions of society m which a pampered aristocracy is found
in juxta-position with a degraded, ignorant, and vicious populace: the
former are the hot-house plants, the latter those noisome weeds which
from their very rankness are cumbersome to the ground. Happy is
that country in which neither class exists, but a population of intelligent
freemen, with such qualifications of mind and body as ennoble the race.

As far as plants administer to the food of men and domestie animals,
their importance may be graduated by the amount of their fecula, gum,
oils, &c., or of albumen, &c. In order to obtain these products tt e plants
are generally destroyed, some of them in embryo as seeds and tubers,
some more advaneed in life: but we never wait until these latter sponta-
neously cease to live, because at the period of their natural dissolution
their hydro-carbonaceous deposites have been converted into lignin. The
proteinized deposites in the cells and nitrogenous solutions in the sap
have also disappeared; they have done their appropriate duty, which
partly corresponds with that performed by the adipose deposites in the
cellular substance of animals, or by the fatty matters of bile. Vegeta-
bles, with a view to their self-preservation, are known to use the hydro-
carbonaceous substances in their sap for building up their structures, at the
same time borrowing, as I conceive, the necessary forces from the azotie
ingredients, until the germs divert the juices measurably from the stem
and branches. In consideration of the collateral uses of azotized matter in
vegetables we are too apt to regard it as*forming an integral portion
ofa plant per se. The vegetable and vegeto-mineral kingdoms economize
nitrogen, not for its own sake, but for the advantageous reactions which
it promotes: the vegeto-animal and animal kingdoms appropriate hydro-
carburets chiefly for that purpose. The same principle may be extended
to their modes of growth at the incipient stage of their existence ; phane-
rogamous flowering plants not being fecundated until the pollen reaches
the blossom, nor the animal ovum until the semen masculinum quickens it.

9 =

The very compound ammonia which under favorable circumstances, such
as an abundance of carbonaceous aliment, might forward the growth of
plants, under other circumstances becomes the means of disintegrating
their frame-work even unto utter debility and death. It is for this reason I
deprecate an excessive use of, or an entire dependence upon, the fertilizing
salts now so prevalent, which will probably cause a more rapid ex-
haustion of the soil unless we keep our farms in good heart ; and then
we may lay on the minerals with a liberal hand. Thus are true econ-
omy and high tillage combined. Our interest demands that we foster the
carbonaceous elements of the:soil on the Atlantic slope of this conti-
nent, in order to compete with the middle Srates of the West, notwith-
standing the diseases of new countries which affect both animals and
vegetables: nearly all of them will soon be avoided by scientific and
careful husbandry, more particularly by draining. The refuse of our
homesteads and green manures must be our chiei resource, and in pro-
portion as we gain carbon by.any available means, we should encourage
its still further accumulation by an equivalent admixture of mineral
bases, among which ammonia is pre-eminently serviceable, both as a
solvent or vehicle, and as a stimulant in the manner suggested.

In reply to those who consider the atmosphere competent to supply a
full amount of carbon both to the leaves and roots of our field and gar-
den crops, and who, conformably with this doctrine, rely upon mineral
manures, ] would ask why the ammonia which is furnished in the same
way does not suffice. Can the vapor of water dissolved in air, or even the
dew which is deposited at night, sustain under ordinary circumstances
the welfare of the higher class of vezetables for aseason, not to mention
a series of years ¢ It might as well be contended that no rain is needed
anywhere, because in Egypt the periodical overflow of the Nile ren-
ders it unnecessary there by soaking the adjacent plains to an extra-
ordinary depth, as that wheat can be raised on poor soil for many
successive years without the slightest artificial or natural additions of
carbon in some of its solid or liquid forms.

We do not propose adding compounds of nitrogen to worn-out soil
solely for the purpose of raising vegetable mould, alihough the
improvement in the soil is the first step in the improvement of
our vegetables, and consequently of our animals. Whether our in-
crease of wealth consist of azotized food which has been acquired at
the expense of hydro-carbonaceous matter in vegetables, or whether it
consists of hydro-carbonaceous organizable matter in the soil which has
been acquired at the expense of ammoniacal ingredients, the chemical
process is identical; and when the value of good mould is taken into
account, the difference between the market prices of the organized and
semi-organized products is not always in favor of the first.

During the decomposition of a manure heap or a compost bed, as long
as ammoniacal fumes escape, provided the air be allowed to percolate the
mass, and there be no deficiency of fixed alkalies and alkaline earths, I
fully believe that a positive addition of semi-organized substances results;
although the retention of ammonia is doubly desirable for direct ap-
propriation by growing plants, a desideratum, which may be in some
measure effected by artificial-means. Were, however, the loss of am-

oe

10

monia complete, which it generally is not, the porous character of the
new-born mould would attract back again a certain proportion. ‘Thus
it happens that as in the atmosphere, carbonic acid, ammonia, and vapor,
hold a proportionate relation to each other, so do they in the soil near

the surface of the ground, and it is in consequence of the natural ina-

bility of the mineral bases to regulate their own movements satisfacto-
rily in reference to vegetation, that man is called upon to remedy any
defects or excesses. It is usually asserted by those who admit. the
supply of carbonic acid and ammonia to the roots from decaying organ-
ic matter, that the atmosphere was the primeval source of those elements;
they therefore refer the origin of vegetables or vegetable growth to that
vast magazine, as amply empowered to sustain what it originated. We
admit the joint influence of gases, liquids, and solids on living bodies, and
this we hold to be sufficient to account for all the material phenomena
and reactions of life.

Whether this theory be right or wrong, no injury can accrue from the
adoption of a practice founded on its requirements, We should by no
means place our sole reliance upon the natural but slow formations of
soil as food for our culiivated crops, any more than we should rely upon
the organic elements of the atmosphere, or of the same elements absorb-
ed by ground kept in fine tilth. For precisely similar reasons we should
object to feeding our domestic animals upon food slightly azotized, if our
aim be to gain flesh and nerve. Under favorable eondi'ions then, and
by the aid of light, the pulverized surface of worn-out soil becomes slow-
ly self-renovated, provided its texture be porous and yet sufficiently re-
tentive; and this recuperation proceeds the more rapidly i in proportion
to the amount of semi-organized substances already existing. A nucleus
assists, without being necessary to, formative action. We may not at
first, or at once, attain a pabulum adapted to sweet vegetation; indeed
we might never succeed without slight extraneous additions. I therefore
do not recommend any purely natural system of agriculture for civi-
lized communities; but as a question of physiology, I contend, ‘that
as a coarse vegetation precedes the develonment of nobler plants,
so the commonest earthy bases, in conjunction with water and the
elements of the atmosphere, serve to prepare poor land for future
usefulness, by a succession of higher and higher subterranean products;
and among the elements of air I include phosphorus, sulphur, and some
other minerals, either in solution or mechanically suspended.

It is, moreover, questionable, whether the organiic acids in combination
with mineral bases, or other still more abundant: organic substances the con-
stituents proper of soil, are so unstable as generally supposed; a doubt
which may be extended to the constituents proper of living vegetables and
animals, as long as easily-decomposable matters in the circulation or other-
wise favorably. located are available for functional purposes; whether,
for instance, the exposure of those hydrocarburets to the atmosphere, by
repeated fallows, necessarily entails their speedy loss in the absence or
comparative paucity of growing plants; the latter alternative, of course,
resulting in no necessary loss, provided the plants be allowed to rot on
the ground or within the furrow. My own impression is, that under the
circumstances stated, and as long as moisture is maintained, partial de-

11

composition is adequately compensated by original nitrogenized forma-
tions, these again to be supplanted in natural order by original hydrocar-
bonaceous deposites at the expense of the atmosphere. Uncropped land
which has been kept constantly worked for several successive seasons,
or which has been lying waste for five or ten years, may be gradually
accumulating vegeto-mineral products peculiar to the climate, to such
an extent that the application of a little guano alone will ensure a re-
munerating crop of grain. This is no argument in disproof of my main
position, for | have uniformly discovered that, where the ground was de-
cidedly worthless and bare, the whole class of mineral manures disap-
pointed me; but where ascanty allowance of humus gave them a chance
of turning that pittance to immediate account, the crop spoke for itself,
if the season was favorable; although, as I have before remarked, it
was tasking the ground to its utmost strength for the purpose of giving
the crop a good start.

The constitutional depravity of the middle regions in Maryland and
Virginia must be assigned to the exhaustion of available alkalies
and alkaline earths, and to the too rapid withdrawal of sulphur and
phosphorus. Let the proper mineral bases bear the right proportion in
a raw surface composed of rock lately disintegrated, and if the climate
be genial, there can be little doubt of a soil-formation, and subsequent
vegetation based upon it, even on a sclitary island in the midst of the
Atlantic ocean.

The conclusion to which we arrive is, that animals, vegetables, and
the soil hold certain properties in common, alike affecting their growth
and the means of obtaining nutriment. When circumstances admit,
they all appropriate materials but little if at all removed in composition
from their own substance; but they also are enabled to generate within
their system more or less compounds suitable to their immediate wants
from the same elements in simpler states of combination. The more
capital, therefore, we judicially invest in organic manures, or in mineral
manures with a view of fostering humus, the more deeply we plough
and pulverize the soil within prudential limits, the larger interest accrues,
not only by the increased weight and quality of produce above ground,
but also below the surface.

Mount Hermon, Wasuineton County, March, 1850.

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Danorg oveds soubor, to ‘(hi au how ddgiow baraanen! ody yd glia
' quite. ott cals oebe isd

ACBL, Fay wrnuod verpaus Vi nomaal ens

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