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combined with nitric acid transforms itself into the economy of urea; while urea, in its turn, transforms itself into carbonic acid combined with nitric acid.

Theodore de Saussure knew that phosphate of lime was necessary to plants, and it is the same with phosphate of magnesia. Sprengel discovered the presence of alkalies in the vegetable economy; but, as they all admitted that plants drew their nourishment in the soil in a state of solution, it was thought that these elements must enter into them, whether they were needed or not. We see now the fallacy of this opinion; for the cellular tissue can only form itself with the aid of carbon. Without carbon, neither fecula nor sugar could be formed; and without phosphate, albumen could not be formed.

M. Malaguti, in his second lecture on agricultural chemistry, says: "There exists in the remotest part of Asia a vast country presenting the different climates comprised between Central Germany and Lombardy." The land is of volcanic origin. The mountains there are formed of a very stiff clay; the soil of the valleys is nearly sixteen feet deep, and rests upon an impermeable subsoil, where some artificial fens are formed.

From time immemorial, the fertility of that country has never been disputed, and that in spite of the absence of all agricultural societies, meetings, agricultural communities, etc., and, what is still more, without any cattle market, or the least importation of artificial manures. This country is Japan.

If these countries enjoy unparalleled richness, it is due to the idea of restoring to the soil those elements which have been taken from it.

The Japanese has no cattle, because he could not sell his milk; and he does not eat meat, and therefore would get no profit from his beasts. All the land belongs to the sovereign and to some nobles of high degree, who give the lands in fiefs to nobles of an inferior class. The latter, in their turn, farm them out to peasants, in lots of five or seven acres or more. As the properties are small, and divided by a great number of canals for irrigation, they do not serve advantageously for milch cattle: they, therefore, only keep sheep.

The Japanese farmer is ignorant of the aphorism, "Much fodder, many cattle; many cattle, much manure; much manure, much corn."

But they say, The principles which constitute a crop proceed partly from the soil and partly from the air. The latter are brought there by the force of natural laws, and the first must be introduced into the soil. Human excrements only represent the part which is derived from the soil; and from that they conclude that those who consume the crop become the producers of manure.

It is, then, because they use human excrements that their crops never

fall off. No trace of the manure is ever found on the land; but privies are constructed in every street for the purpose of collecting it.

It must not, however, be supposed that no other manure is used by these people. As there is always some loss of fecal matter in a crop, while respect for the dead deprives the soil of part of its fertilizing elements, they employ other manures; and, as they use enormous quantities of fish, they put the detritus into the soil. They also form a compost with chopped straw, kitchen refuse, and the clearings of fields, which is covered over with earth and cut straw, and moistened constantly. After a certain time putrefaction commences, when they break up the heap, and by that means obtain good vegetable mould.

In order that it may be thoroughly used, they manure each plant particularly-that is to say, they open furrows, sow the seed, and cover it over with manure, thereby avoiding the necessity of spreading it over the whole surface, as we do; and their fields never remain fallow. That is due to human excrements; and it is the same in China.

But let us leave these countries, and see what was passing in Europe in the middle of last century: take France, for example:

About 1760, the cultivator had no other winter fodder than carrots, turnips, and a little straw, from wheat or rye. Butter and milk were both very bad in quality. They had to wait till the spring before they could let their cattle into places where the grass was at most only an inch high, and the animals returned as starved as they went out. This is what our agriculture will come to if we do not take care.

About that time Schubert introduced the culture of clover; for a time, this supplied the loss of other fodder, but after a while the yield diminished, till at length they could no longer grow it upon the same land.

Then appeared guano as an artificial manure; I shall not speak of the animal black, the quantity of that used being much too small to influence the destiny of agriculture. But, thanks to the use of this manure, the crop of clover became much larger; France once more recovered her productive faculties, but soon clover again began to diminish in yield, when gypsum (thanks to its action, the nature of which we are still ignorant of) rescued the farmer once more from loss by increasing the crops of that leguminous plant.

Thus clover, potatoes, and guano have hitherto prevented the ruin of agriculture, particularly the potato, as it will grow upon a poor soil, and vegetate where wheat would not sprout. It must not, however, be supposed that potatoes prevent the exhaustion of soils, quite the contrary; but as their roots force themselves to a greater depth in the earth than wheat, they find nourishment where the short roots of that cereal could not reach.

But though the introduction of the potato has been beneficial in some

respects, it has also been the source of a great evil on the continent, by favoring the exchange of its manure for gold from England. Besides, the use of potatoes as the sole aliment of certain populations is one great cause of the decrease in stature of human species. For instance, in France the height of soldiers in 1789 was 5 ft. 6 in.; in 1823 it was 5 ft. 3 in.; and now the regulation height is only 5 feet.

In Germany, says Liebig, where the people feed almost exclusively upon potatoes, the diminution of height is still more marked. In 1760 it was 1 m. 78, and now it is 1 m. 55. In Saxony, out of 1,000 conscripts there were 716 unfit for service, and 317 rejected as under height.

The bony substance of men has been exported in England under the form of animal charcoal.

Another cause of the slow decline of agriculture is, the discovery of guano. Let us suppose, said M. Malaguti, that 1 cwt. of guano furnishes in five years 5 cwt. of wheat more than would have been obtained without the use of the manure, the importation being about 2,200,000 tons in fifteen years, the result would be that 1,800,000 individuals would be well fed, thanks to guano, for we might put any other production as an equivalent in the place of wheat.

But guano, too, will come to an end, for all that has been discovered is in working, consequently the mass diminishes more and more.

The discovery of fossil phosphates has also brought fresh help to make up for the insufficiency of bones, but that source will soon become exhausted; and besides, phosphate alone will not afford nourishment for plants; it must be mixed equally with potash and soda.

"We must only attend to ourselves," said the poet; and when populations have become familiar with the simple laws of nature, respect to which will guarantee their future well-being for all time; when they learn to know that each cultivator is capable of maintaining the fertility of his land without importing manure, and that if that importation depends upon foreigners, the actual state and increase of crops and subsistances are subject to fortuitous events, over which populations have no control; when, in fact, it is proved by statistics that under the most favorable circumstances the importation of manure must come to an end at no very distant period, they will know how to solve the question of the sewage of towns, upon which the preservation of the riches and well-being of the state as well as the progress of civilization depends.

A. DE LA MORVONNAIS

Name.

Table of the Chemical Composition of some Principal Articles of Food. EXPLANATION. The column of "Heat and Fat givers" signifies-I., Starch; II., Sugari III., Fat or Oil.

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Table of the Chemical Composition of some Principal Articles of Food-Con.

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FACTS IN AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

The following tabular statements of results of agricultural and chemical investigations are presented in the belief that they may prove useful to the American farmer as matters of reference and comparison. They have been collected with great care by Mr. Emil Wolff, doctor of analytical and agricultural chemistry at the agricultural academy of Hohenheim, from the results of the several experiments carried out at the various experimental stations (model agricultural and experimental farms) in Germany, and recently published by him in Berlin:

Total carbon.

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