A muck manual, for farmers

Front matter

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Book ■ D l<o .

PREFACE to THE SECOND EDITION

The dedication prefixed to this volume, show* its origin and object. By an accidental correspondence with Professor Hitchcock, the Geological Surveyor of Massachusetts, the Author unexpectedly found himself placed before the public, as an agricultural chemist. He had no intention of pursuing inquiries relating to agriculture, other than those arising from his researches, on the action of cow dung in calico dyeing. Attached as chemist, to the largest establishment of that art in our country, — daily, almost hourly employed in duties connected with it, he carried forward inquiries bearing upon practical farming, in answer only, to the many questions asked him by various persons, especially by Professor Hitchcock, and Mr. Colman, the Agricultural Commissioner of Massachusetts. Their published remarks induced some of the most active and intelligent of his fellow citizens to request of him a course of lectures on Agriculture, in the winter of 1839 — 40. Perfectly unexpected as was this request, it was acceded to with great diffidence. Whatever ideas the Author may have had on this subject, they assumed no systematic shape till this application, and then the lectures were prepared as they were weekly delivered. The Author's agricultural reading had been very limited, and that confined chiefly to the chemistry of farming.

IV PREFACE.

Perhaps this was no serious loss to his hearers, as the lectures were expected to embody chiefly, the Author's peculiar views. This circumstance is alluded to, only to explain the reasons why so few references are made, by name to others. The statements were made from memory, from general impressions, called up during the act of preparing the notes for the lectures. Repeatedly urged, the Author reluctantly contented to their publication. Throwing off all the dress of a lecturer, and omitting the many details and illustrations, befitting the lecture room, the manuscript notes were thrown into paragraphs. — While the main drift of the whole was preserved, that the volume might not exceed a readable size, it was condensed, perhaps "even to a fault." The amount of this condensation, may appear from the fact, that nearly one-third of the whole course, has here been compressed into about thirty pages. In preparing the notes for the press, the Author often found it impossible to put his finger upon the passages of all the writers, whose opinions, he may have introduced. References to names have been generally omitted, except where the freshness of the results, entitled the authors to the humble tribute which such mention could confer. It is hoped that no injustice has been done, by omitting the name of those, whose ideas are embodied in these pages ; ideas which have been so long before the world, that they have become almost common property.

The remarks relating to the geographical distribution of plants, are drawn up from a paper by De Candolle, published in one of the English journals, from the Bibliotheque universelle de Geneva. In the chapter on the physical properties of soil, the Author has derived valuable assistance from a paper by Professor Schubler, of Tubingen, published in the journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

PREFACE. V

Some of the principles of Agricultural chemistry laid down by the Author in this volume, especially the 1st, 2d and 3d, have been thought to be too broad by some persons, especially by a writer in the American Journal of Science, for whose opinion is felt all that profound respect, which exalted science and candor command. Upon a careful review of these principles, it seems to the Author that they are true as general expressions of facts. They may not be more limited and guarded than they already are, without destroying their force. Less limited than they are would remove them farther from truth. It was hoped before a second edition should be called for, that the analysis undertaken by the writer, of the soil of pine barrens, to ascertain its quantity of alkali, would have been finished. The first edition of the following work having been wholly exhausted within six months from its publication, and large orders remaining unsupplied, anew edition goes to press, with fewer additions and improvements than the Author intended. It may be observed that this edition is enlarged, it is hoped, enriched, by several pages of new matter. Among the principal additions are several articles on manures, and a sketch of the celebrated Mulder's researches on geine, which will be found in the appendix to the fourth chapter. The whole has been carefully revised ; a few unimportant errors have been discovered and corrected ; a fuller table of contents, and a copious index — the last, prepared by the kindness of the Author's ingenious young friend, Mr. Samuel Webber Jr., are added.

The author would here publicly express his thanks to the editors of the various scientific and literary journals, who have inserted notices of his work, in their various publications. He feels under great obligations to the editors of the different agricultural newspapers, for the favorable opinion, they have, as far as the Author knows, uni-

VI PREFACE.

versally expressed of this volume. Coining from all parts of the country, unsolicited, and from writers personally unknown to the author, he deems their opinion the best index of the value placed upon his humble labors by the agricultural community, S. L. D.

Lowell, Oct. 1842-

Chapter I

Geology of Soil, :::::::: : page II Objects of agricultural chemistry; objects and nature of agricultural geology ; definition of the terms, primitive and secondary 5 rocks have one common origin ; the terms primary and secondary soil are useless ; rocks and soil are to be classed by their origin and distribution ; in their origin all rocks are igneous or by fire ; chemical constitution of all rocks similar ; there is one rock and one soil ; chemical constitution of rocks does not affect the vegetation over them ; geographical distribution of plants ; the laws which govern it; rocks do not form the soil which covers them ; general uniformity of chemical composition of soil.

CHAPTER 11.

Chemical Constitution of Rocks and Soils, : 24 Different views taken of rocks by geologists, mineralogists and chemists ; farmer takes only the chemical view; nature of agricultural mineralogy ; farmer must understand the results of the analysis of minerals ; division of the twelve substances forming rocks, into silicates, urets, salts — explanation of these terms; chemistry of soil ; chemical notation ; the three laws of affinity explained ; constitution of simple minerals composing rocks; rocks are masses of silicates ; the whole is divided into three classes only.

CHAPTER ni.

PliOPERTIES AND ChE»WCAL ACTION OF THE ELEMENTS

OF Soil, ::::,::::::::: 38 The common properties of the bases of silicates ; characters of the class urets ; particular description of silicon, or the base of flinty earth ; composition of granite

Vlll COiSTENTS.

and the soil which it forms; quantity of alkalies in barren plains ; all soil contains lime, alkali, &c., — enough for any crop grown on it; action of air and moisture upon soil, produces salts ; origin of sulphate and phosphate of lime in soil ; all soil contains these substances.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Organic Constituents of Soil, : : : : 50 Number of substances forming plants; what the organic constituents of soil are ; they are formed by the action of the living plant; plants draw their inorganic constituents ready formed from the soil ; two great divisions of the elements of soil into the organic and inorganic ; soil composed of either division dlone, barren ; of the laws of isomi)rphism, which affect agriculture ; of geine, its nature, properties and relations ; it is divided into two classes, that which contains, and that which docs not contain nitrogen ; geine is essential to agriculture ;, of the chemical history of geine, and recent researches of Mulder on this subject.

CHAPTER V.

Of the mutual action of the organic and inorganic Elements of Soil, :::::::: 66

Theoretical and practical farmers both aim at the same object; the action of the elements of soil to be considered in two ways — 1st, the mutual chemical action of the organic and inorganic parts — 2nd, the influence of growing plants on this action ; of the importance of salts to this action ; of the action of carbonic acid and the carbonates upon the silicates of soil ; of the modification produced upon this action by the presence of life ; of catalysis or the action of presence, by which life acts; of the action of mineral manures in agriculture; tlieir earthy or alkaline part always acts one way; their acid part produces differences of action ; illustration and explanation of the action of salts or mineral manures; of the action of nitre ; of lime ; of ashes ; of the composition of leached and unleached ashes.

CHAPTER VI.

Manure, ::::::::::::::: 114 Manures contain all the elements which plants want — are divided into three classes ; choice and determina-

CONTENTS. IX

tion of a standard of value for manures ; nitrogen determines the value of manure ; pure cow dung the type of all other manures; its composition and analysis; yearly produce of salts and geine by one cow ; the action of manure referred to the joint effect of all its components; its action due chiefly to its ammonia; origin of this in dung ; of the composition and value of horse dung; of the composition and value of night soil; of hog manure ; of sheep manure ; of the quantity of sheep manure from 1000 sheep daily ; of the composi tion and effects of guano ; its actual money value to the farmer ; of poudrette ; of the value of the droppings of domestic fowls; of the composition of fish, flesh, fowl, gristle, skin, sinews, &c.; they all afford mineral, vegetable, and animal salts ; of the composition of the great bulk of animal bodies, fibrine, albumen, caseine ; vegetables afford similar products; these similar and identical products form proteine ; of its composition and value as a manure ; of the value of sinews, gristle, skin, hair, horns, nails, wool, and feathers; all animal and vegetable products form two classes, that which does and that which does not contain nitrogen ; of the composition and value of bones as a manure; of fats and oils; of soot; of the spent ley ; of artificial spent ley ; of liquid animal manures; of the peculiar principle which gives them their value ; its analysis, composition and action ; of the analysis of cattle urine — its value as a manure ; urine of the horse, sheep, and hog ; of human urine — its value and composition.

CHAPTER VTI.

Artificial Manure and Irrigation, : : : : 160 Of the nature, analysis and composition of peat, swamp muck and pond mud; what is wanting to give these the value of cow dung is alkali ; of the relative value of ammonia, potash, and soda, ashes and which may be used for this purpose ; of the quantity in which these may be added to a cord of peat ; of the compost of peat with animal manure ; of the various substances used for forming artificial manure with peat, and their relative value ; of the principles of irrigation ; of the action of pure and impure water; of the composition of the deposites from freshets ; the nature, action, and value of rain and snow, in agriculture ; " snow the poor

X CONTENTS.

m^tn's manure," — how far this is true ; of paring and burning ; of turning in green and dry crops.

CHAPTER VIII.

Physical properties of Soil, ::::::: 190 Great differences in soil depend upon physical not upon chemical properties ; physical characters of soil are dependent on its relation to heat, moisture, consistency, and electrical state ; in all these relations, geine acts the chief part ; of the quantity of water produced by the decomposition and waste of geine ; the amount evaporated per acre from this source ; the quantity evaporated from woodland, exceeds the amount of rain which falls; of the waste of geine caused by this evaporation of water ; of the proportion of carbon which is derived from the soil, and from the air by forest trees.

CHAPTER I.

GEOLOGY OF SOIL.

1. Agricultural Chemistry aims to explain all the actions of earth, air, and water, upon plants. It refers to all their chemical relations, to the geology, mineralogy and chemistry of soil.

2. Agricultural geology explains the relations which soil bears to plants, and the manner in which that affects vegetation.

3. Agricultural geology confines itself to facts. It digs into the earth, observes what composes that ; how its components act upon plants. Conversant only with facts, or logical deductions from these, it leaves to geology proper, the vast mass of observations, supported by the highest modern science, which teaches the origin, mode of formation, origin nal condition, and successive changes which our globe has undergone.

4. The terms, primitive and secondary, used by geologists, are almost parts of common language; yet, need to be explained to the farmer.

5. Large tracts of all extensive countries are composed of rocks of a granite texture. This needs no definition. Such rocks having been observed to underlay all others, in the scale of rocks composing the earth's crust, were called primary. It was supposed that these were first formed. Out of the ruins of these, no matter when or how ruined, other rocks have been made, called secondary. The ruins of the primitive rocks have been transported by water, and then gradually deposited layer upon layer. Under immense pressure, these layers of mud, sand, fine gravel, rolled stones, &c., have been hardened into solid rock ; forming sandstones, slates, or even rocks presenting the crystaline structure, or texture of granite, by the action of heat, which the facts of modern geology teach, exists in the interior of our globe.

6. This internal heat is supposed to be the cause of volcanoes, and the primitive rocks themselves, to have been the ejection, under circumstances unknown, of the melted mass of the globe ; ejections, similar in kind, to those of modern lava, but greater in degree.

7. Intermediate between modern laya, and primitive rocks, and actually passing into either, is a large class of ancient volcanic rocks, called trappean ; such are basalt, trap, and highly crystalline porphyry.

8. However named and classed are the rocks of the earth's surface, they have one common origin, the molten matter of the globe. Hence, having a common origin, their ultimate chemical constituents are similar. If granitic rocks have a certain chemical constitution, then sandstone, slate, &c., having been formed from worn out and worn down granitic rocks, have a constitution chemically like them.

9. To the agriculturist, the terms primary and secondary^ are useless. Equally so are all distinctions of soil based on these terms.

10. Soil is the loose material covering rocks, and often is included in that term. It is supposed to have been formed from decayed rocks. Both are to be classed by their origin. The origin of rocks refers not only to the mode of their first formation, but to their subsequent arrangement. The origin of all rocks, geology teaches, is from the molten matter of the globe. These have been, afterwards, in some cases, removed by water, and in part remodified by heat (5). Referring rocks to their origin, they are divisible into two great classes.

ist. Those formed by fire.

2d. Those formed by water.

11. This division relates both to the origin and distribution. In their origin all rocks are truly igneous or by fire. In their distribution they are aque^- ous or by water. This is the only division necessary to the farmer. It is the division taught and demanded by Agricultural Geology.

12. The first class includes all the highly crystalline rocks, granite, gneiss, sienite, greenstone, porphyry ; it includes also, basalt, lava, volcanic sand. The products of volcanoes, whether ancient or modern, agricultural geology places in the same class, including thus all that portion which forms the largest part of the earth's surface.

13. The second class includes sand, clay, gravel, rounded and rolled stones of all sizes, puddingstone, conglomerates, sandstones, slates. When these various substances are examined, a large part of sand is found to be composed essentially of the ingredients of the igneous rocks. This is true also, of sandstone, slate, of conglomerates, of bowlders.

14. There is a large deposit, or formation in some districts, composed almost wholly of one of the chemical constituents of the igneous rocks, united to air. The constituent is lime, the air is carbonic acid, forming by their union, carbonate of lime. Marble, limestone, chalk, belong to this formation.

I

These are not to be ranked as original igneous products, subsequently distributed by water. The lime, originally a part of igneous rocks, has been separated and combined with air, by animals or plants, by a living process, called secretion. The modern production of carbonate of lime, is still going on under the forms of shells and corals. Though belonging to neither division, the subject will be simplified by referring limestone to the second class of rocks ; but it is truly a salt, and it will be discussed hereafter.

15. The chemical constitution of all rocks is similar. If rocks are divided into two classes, the first composed of those usually called primary, such as granite, gneiss, mica slate, porphyry ; and the second class, composed of rocks, usually called trappean, as basalt, greenstone, trap, then the great difference in their chemical constitution is this :

The first, or granitic class, contains about 20 per cent, more of silex, and from 3 to 7 per cent, less of lime and magnesia and iron, than the second or trappean class.

16. If the language of geology is borrowed, and rocks which present the appearance of layers, or a "stratified structure," are divided into two classes, fossiliferous and non-fossiliferous, or those which do, or do not contain remains of animals or plants, it will be found that the fossiliferous are neither granitic nor trappean, yet are they to be classed with the last, agreeing with them, in containing less silica, and more lime, magnesia, and alumina.

17. The stratified non-fossiliferous rocks agree in chemical composition with the granitic, and the fossiliferous with the trappean and volcanic.

18. The trappean and fossiliferous contain the most lime an-d magnesia ; the granitic and non-fossiliferous, the most silex. The great difference in chemical composition, between the two classes, is produced by hme and magnesia, — two substances, which, more tlian all others, have been thought to influence the character of soil.

19. The amount of this difference is about from 4 to 7 per cent.; yet notwithstanding this, the general chemical constitution of all rocks approaches so nearly to identity, that this may be laid down as the first principle in agricultural chemistry, that there is one rock, consequently one soil.

20. To the farmer, all soil is primary. The question then arises, how do rocks and soil affect vegetation ? As a consequence of the first proposition, it may be laid down as the second principle of agricultural chemistry, rocks do not affect

THE VEGETATION WHICH COVERS THEM.

21. This is opposed to the geological doctrine of the times, and may seem to be opposed to the statement in section 18. The difference there stated, may be thought to produce corresponding effects in vegetation. This would be true if rocks exerted any influence on soils, due to their chemical constitution. A survey of the geographical distribution of plants, used for food, will show that the common doctrine of the chemical influence of rocks on vegetation, is not so well supported, as to be considered an established principle. It is not intended to deny that rocks do, by their physical constitution, affect vegetation. Unless it is shown that their physical depends upon their chemical constitution, the principle must be admitted as a general truth.

22. The plants used for food are cultivated on every variety of rock foundation which the earth presents. Their cultivation is limited neither by granitic nor trappean, by fossiliferous nor non-fossiliferous rocks. Their product varies not more on different, than on the same geological formation. Every where, over every variety of rock, the cultivation of the food-bearing plants, repays the labor of the farmer.

23. Surveying Massachusetts, it is evident the grain crops are not influenced by the peculiar rock formations over which they are grown ; for in this State, with the exception of modern volcanic rocks, all the various formations which the earth presents, are found. Yet no difference in the quality and quantity of crops of rye, oats, barley, wheat, Indian corn, is found, which can be attributed to different geological tracts.

24. All plants have a natural limit, a peculiar region, in which, unaided by the human race, they flourish and spread spontaneously. ■ The smaller the limit of this natural boundary, the more difficult is the cultivation of the plant. Yet we find that the natural boundary is passed, and so plants come to live in an artificial region. There is a natural, and there is an artificial " habitat," or region ; and this last is either horticultural, or agricultural. The first is unlimited, the second is limited by the great external circumstances of temperature and moisture.

25. The extreme north and south limits, which bound the cultivation of the food-bearing plants, are determined wholly by physical, physiological and social causes. Temperature is the great agent, which limits the agricultural " habitat" of the grain-bearing plants.

26. The distribution of plants is governed by the two follov/incr laws :

1st. The polar agricultural limits are bounded by lines passing through .places of equal summer heat.

GEOLOOY OF SOIL. 17

2d. The equatorial limits, by lines of equal winter heat.

These lines are called respectively, isotheral, and isochimenal. They by no means coincide. They often cut each other at right angles, and generally, from about 45 degrees north latitude, — they are parallel neither to one another, nor to the latitude. They are often highly curved.

And nov/ for the proof of these general laws. Beginning with barley, the grass or grain which has been cultivated the farthest north ; its fields are found in the extremity of Scotland, in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles, 61 degrees N.; in the Feroe Islands, between 61 and 62 1-2 degrees N.; in Western Lapland, near North Cape, in latitude 70 degrees ; on the borders of the Vvliiie Sea, in Western Russia, between 67 and 68 degrees, and near to Archangel, in Eastern Russia, about 66 degrees, in Central Siberia, the limit of barley is between 58 and 59 degrees N. There are no extended observations of the temperature of the northern portions of our own continent, and therefore the limit of barley in Northern America is left undefined. But its European line wirll probably define that which will limit grain cultivation in America.

Tracing a line through the points above named, it is the northern boundary of all the cereals, or grains. A liltle beyond this line is the boundary of the potato, and the belt between the two, is remarkable. It is the zone between agriculture, and fishing, and hunting, between races of men, subsisting on animal, and on vegetable diet, and those whose chief food is animal. The northern cultivation of barley is bounded, if its course is traced, by a very curved line. Is this determined by geological causes, or do causes purely physical erect a barrier to its farther northward advance ? The answer will be found, in tracing the temperature of the seasons of the different places, through which the limit of the northern cultivation of barley passes. It will be evident that the line of this limit is isotheral, for the mean temperature, Fahrenheit, is as follows :

Latitude. Year. Winter. Summer.

Russia, at the mouth of the White Sea,

Casting the eye on this table, it is evident that the annual and the winter temperature have little influence on the barley limit, and that a mean summer temperature from 46 to 47 is the only indispensable physical condition, to tlie cultivation of barley. On the Atlantic islands, a mean temperature from 3 to 4 degrees higher is necessary, which compensates for excessive humidity. It is remarkable, that all the cereals have failed in Iceland, though its mean temperature is above that necessary for barley. Nor is this owing to its geological structure. In that, it agrees with the fertile shores of the Mediterranean. It is volcanic. So far a^ nitrogen, and carbonic acid, and ammonia, may be supposed to be evolved from the earth, and to contribute to the growth of grain, Iceland should equal fertile Italy. But such is not the fact, and it goes to prove that rocks affect very little the crops grown over them, even when the great physical element, temperature, is as high as is necessary. That grains fail in Iceland, is due to the excessively tempestuous rains with which that country is visited. If then, the hmits of barley are defined by an isotheral line of 46 1-2 degrees in Europe, that will also limit its cultivation in America. So far as observation has extended, this is true, and the line of boundary is equally curved, and winding. If a similar table for the limits of wheat is constructed, by drawing a line through the most northern places, where this grain has been cultivated, the physical conditions, essential to its cultivation, will be found as follows :

Mean temperature^ Fahrenheit^ of the

Latitude. Year. Summer. Winter.

North latitude 64 degrees, appears then, to be the utmost limit of wheat. It is evident by inspection, that this is not determined by the cold of winter ; for spring wheat would not be affected by it ; and even if sown in autumn, in these far northern regions, the seeds would be effectually preserved from the rigors of winter, by that thick mantle of snow, which becomes thicker and more lasting towards the north. The temperature of the air exerts no influence on seeds of plants buried under snow. Nor does the mean temperature of the year exert any effect ; it is seen ranging 9 degrees, while the summer temperature varies only 3 1-2 degrees. The summer temperature alone defines the limit of northern wheat cultivation, and this is an isotheral line of 57*4 degrees. Yet it is found, that there are places, where, as in Russia, the means of spring and autumn, both depending on that of winter in part, are too low to allow wheat to be raised under this line of 57-4 degrees. In truth, the relation of climate to cultivation cannot be accurately determined without observations on the mean temperature of the days w^hich elapse between sowing and harvest, and to this point the philosophic farmer should direct his attention. In our country, the isotheral line of 57*4 degrees, starting from Labradore, 51 degrees, and passing between Hudson's Bay and Lakes Superior and Huron, 50 degrees, then turning north it approaches 58 degrees. At Cumberland House, 54 degrees north, Capt. Franklin found fields of barley, wheat, Indian corn.

The line approaching the Pacific ocean turns more southerly to compensate the increasing humidity. As the limits of barley mark the boundary between the races of shepherds, and hunters and fishers, and thus presents itself in a moral view, so the limit of wheat becomes interesting from coinciding in some parts with that of fruit trees, as apples and pears, and also with that of the oak. The whole aspect not only of agriculture, but also of the orchard and forest changes at once on approaching^ the isotheral line of 57'4 degrees, the northern limit of wheat. It would be easy to extend these remarks to lye, still the staple food of a large part of the population of Europe, and to oats, little used for food for man out of the " land o' cakes," yet growing in Norway, as high as latitude 65 degrees. Each of these grains has a distinct isotheral line parallel to that of wheat and barley. Indian corn and the potato have each its isotheral line. Turning to the equatorial limits of the grains it will be found, that extreme heat arrests their cultivation. Observations in these regions, and experiments peformed by profound vegetable physiologists, confirm this statement. They have proved that the seeds of the food-bearing plants, even after germination has began, can support greater degrees of drought and heat, than ever occur in the hottest climates. The grains all germinate in a soil of a temperature from 104 to 105 degrees, and require at least from 116 to 120 degrees to arrest this process. Barley ceases to germinate at the lowest temperature. After barley, follows wheat, then rye. Indian corn endures the highest heat, viz : 120 degrees, before its germination is arrested. The grains flourish under a mean annual temperature of from 77 to 80 1-2 degrees. Defining their equatorial limits, they are bounded not by lines of equal summer, but equal winter temperature ; the reverse of their polar limits. Hence, climate, always determines the sowing season. In Bengal, wheat, barley, oats, are sown in October and harvested in March and April, while rice and maize are sown in May, to be harvested as with us in October. It is this line of equal winter temperature, or rather that of the coolest months, which allows the grains to be cultivated in many places within the torrid zone, and the line of 68 to 70 degrees, which constitutes the tropical limits of wheat culture, varies between 20 and 23 degrees latitude. The other grains enduring from 5 to 7 degrees lower temperature, are found in higher latitudes.