THE EXHAUSTION OF TUE SOIL, ITS CAUSE AND CURE.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 2, 16 July 1874, Page 3

THE EXHAUSTION OF TUE SOIL, ITS CAUSE AND CURE.

Much attention has been given to this subject of late in Great Britain, and a large snoount of gva!uable?f information with referencefto*it.'*Wprovingon the steps already taken by "such authors as Juhnntone arid others, whose works on agriculturehave been so largely circulated. " Tfae admirable scientific investigations of these* arid other chemists have led to the pro* duction of a system by which agriculturists and others may be able to'de'cide for themselves the of soil exhaustion, and adopt a course of cultivation which will in. a short tim restore the.sbU to its virgin vigor.. To apply their experience, .with practical effect to pur own. exhausted, soil? shall; be the' endeavQi , of these hints farmers.

-v • The Properties of the Atmosphere. It is necessary for the purpose of under? standing the culture of the soil, to be ac- "- quainted with the materials which consti? tute the air of which we breathe,-and to determine its action"with .regard to the life of plants and the formation of soils. Air then is an invisible substance, transparent, without taste or smell', permanently elastic and moveable in any direction, the blue color it possesses has; been; discovered lately \''\ to proceed from a gelatinous substance existent in the which is the v 'Cause of the exquisite blue tints often seen in the sky. The atmosphere consists "' ot two gassesj viz., oxygen and nitrogen— : 'of these, nitrogen is -the- most forming four parts butof every five. The other".constituents of {carbonic '>'?. nitric !ac|d, 'ammonia, and water," m the ' shape of vapor, which increases or dimisbes according fo its'sta'te'o'f heat of Void, which . may be determined by the theremometert Oxygen forms also a much larger propor-. tion of water, eartha, rocks, and mine-rils than of air, as inwater eight parts, out of nine are oxygen, all the great reservoirs of the earth consisting of.oceans, rivers, lakes, &c, containing this araonnt. In rocks, minerals and soils one half thrir weight it? oxyg n. In animals it-forms three-fourths of their weight, In. vegetables, four parta : ' ! out of five. Thus it becomes material. of which the;whole globe js -madey : existing in three separate formsj and yet the -same7<materialyfinWteYi.a^Jiq^uid^i^i ls earthy components as solid, and in ah\a£ -'.-l, ,gas.; ; Theus'e combustion, as without it Jpmps npf fire ' Wonld tiijimaif said, to air,,. js bjily\«.- •. the bxygeti of the airthey •?\osfc are; said to r.ustron,expos p>ere, herea^i^ them.. ."Oxygen resembles.it in being; invisible.witfiottf r and tastelesiy' butr'it isits action; and does more " aifiiron rusts slowly. \, in is'so T^6^W^ x rust in a few; secondsTrits.\acH stone : is . fjrast to similar yolehce inal life,' ' '$uch; an extent phenomena of combustion, jrespic-tioii;fd.ep¥s otits inctfuation to condition r<tq ire called oxides, they«re founa!to : af ouno^l|3 '. <V' £X'i'isi.-S$ ■'&>» '--<s^-w^^;>;ta--g^---^*.'<aj^.ft¥:?:.-.f;^'.'-;Si-i--. , j