ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS A KNOWLEDGE OF THE INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS. BY Dr. CHARLES A. CAMERON, M.R.L.A., F.C.S.L., Corresponding Member of the Agricultural Societies of New York, Belgium, &c. EXPERIMENTS WITH SODIUM. as one in seventy. I have analyzed potatoes which were grown at Skerries, in the county of Dublin, within a few yards of the sea, and on a soil containing nearly two per centum of soda and chloride of sodium, yet I found only a mere trace of soda in the tubers, and a very small proportion of that substance in the tops. The centesimal composition of the mineral part of the tubers is shown in the following table : Potash Soda Sesquioxide of iron 38.18 .. a trace 2.06 3.17 1:06 7:00 10-27 18 30 0.38 1.58 82.00 Sodium compounds are found in large proportion in the ashes of members of the families Cruciferæ, Liliaces, and Algae. It occurs in greater or less proportion in most plants, but it is very doubtful whether or not it is essential to any. Sprengel found 38 per centum of soda in the ashes of bean seeds, Richon 19 per centum, and Levi nearly 12 per centum. Daubeny could only find in the same substance 7 per centum of sodium, as chloride and oxide, in one specimen, 2-25 per centum in another, and 145 per centum in a third. Way and Ogston found 13.61 per centum in the straw of the bean, and 2-8 in the seeds; and, lastly, Boussingault, so remarkable for the accuracy of his analyses, found no sodium in the seeds of French beans (haricots), whilst Richardson obtained 21-20 per cent of soda and chloride of sodium in the pods of the kidney bean. The analyses of the ashes of the pea, made by different chemists, exhibit a great variation in the amount of sodium. According to Sprengel, soda constitutes 20 per centum of Way analyzed the matter extracted from the soil by a the pods and an inappreciable amount of the straw. Bous-solution of carbonic-acid gas in water, and found it to be singault found 2:50 per centum of soda in the pods, and Hartwig 13 per centum of soda and chloride of sodium in the straw. According to Erdmann, there is 1.50 per centum in the straw and none in the pods. Rammelsberg found 19.82 per centum in the straw, and none in the pods. Richardson obtained 19 per centum from the pods. Spinach and asparagus are very rich in soda. The ashes of the former yield, according to Richardson, 4289 per centum of goda and chloride of sodium, and that of the latter 47.15 per centum. In no part of the horse-chesnut, at any stage of its growth, could Wolff detect sodium; and Staffel (the author of the Jena prize essay-"Whether the quantity of the inorganic constituents of the same plant and of the same organ varies in the different periods of vegetation") who sought specially for sodium in the wood, the leaves, and other parts of the horse-chesnut and of the walnut, failed to detect it in those trees. Of three specimens of Armeria maritima, analyzed by Voelcker, the first contained 28:48 per centum of soda and chloride of sodium, the second 18:44 of chloride of sodium, and the third neither soda nor chloride of sodium. In several analyses of the potato, made by different chemists, the proportion of soda is high, and in others very low. Waltz found 9 per centum in the ashes of the tubers of early red potatoes; and the mineral part of the haulms of “Axbridge kidneys," examined by Thomas, contained 16 per centum of soda. In a complete analysis of the potato, recently published by Grace Calvert, the presence of soda is not stated. J. W. Hardy, of Virginia, has analyzed the potato, and the yam, or sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas). In the ashes of the tubers of the former he found 0.5 per centum, and in those of the tops 0.7 per centum of soda; the ashes of the tuberous root of the yam yielded 0.8 per centum, and those of the tops 06 per centum of soda. In all of Hardy's analyses the proportion of soda to potash was, on the average, rich in soda; yet the plants grown upon the soil containing so much available soda, took but little of it up, their ashes, in some instances, yielding abundance of potash, but no soda. According to Dickie, Voelcker, and others, the seapink (Armeria maritima), scurvy grass (Cochlearia offici nalis), and seaside plantain (Plantago maritima), contain sodium when grown near the seashore, and potassium when developed in mountainous situations, or cultivated in the garden. The investigations to which I have referred, as well as many others, which the limited period of time to which the reading of this paper is restricted, prevents my bringing under your notice, appear to show-1st: That soda is frequently either altogther absent from many important plants, or exists in them to an insignificant amount. 2nd: That, when it is abundant in plants, it accumulates, in most instances, in those parts which are not concerned in the perpetuation of the species, and which are also of least importance as food for animals. 3rd: That it has not been proved that the replacement of soda in plants by potash has proved injurious to them. All the experiments which have been made to elucidate this subject render highly probable the supposition that sodium is not an essential element in vegetable bodies; still, must be admitted that it has not been conclusively proved that this substance is a useless constituent of plants; neither, on the other hand, has it been satisfactorily shown that it performs any important function in the vegetal economy. As a contribution-I trust not altogether valueless—towards the solution of these questions I offer the results of some experiments, performed by myself, and the details of which I shall now proceed to state. Spinach and asparagus, plants which naturally contain a large proportion of sodium compounds, were selected as the most suitable for the purpose of those experiments. The seeds of these plants were sown in soils, and supplied with manures containing no sodium (as in the case of those placed in the vessels of group c). The seeds germinated and produced an average number of plants, which, in due season, flowered and fructified. During the period of their growth the plants were supplied with carbonic acid gas, and with a solution of that compound in distilled water; they were also occasionally watered with a solution of carbonate of ammonium, containing 1 part of the carbonate in 250 parts of water. The vessels in which the plants were grown were covered with glass shades. The plants were placed in a good southern aspect, and altogether were developed under conditions of growth (if we except the absence of sodium) of a very favourable character. When the plants had fully matured their seed, they were removed from the vessel, thoroughly washed to free them from traces of adhering soil, and burned. The ashes of each kind of plant were carefully examined for sodium with the ordinary chemical means, but not the slight est trace of that substance could be discovered, although in the case of the spinach 286 grains weight were operated upon, and of the asparagus 206. The ordinary processes of analysis having failed to detect the presence of sodium in these ashes, recourse was had to Bunsen and Kirchhoff's spectrum analyzer. The ashes of the two plants were respectively ignited in the flame of a Bunsen's burner, and a spectrum having been produced by the spectroscope, the intense yellow band which appeared therein at once revealed the existence of sodium in the ashes. By repeating this experiment on the ashes of the plants grown in the vessels of group c-the barley, oats, peas, and grass-I found that sodium was present in every instance. The soils on which the plants grew were also examined by photo-chemical means, and found to contain sodium. The presence of this substance in compounds from which it seemed to have been entirely excluded is not unaccountable. Bunsen and Kirchhoff have proved chloride of sodium to be constantly present in the atmosphere, and an abundant constituent of the dust which accumulates on shelves, and which we brush from our clothes. I have found it in distilled water which had been prepared in the most careful manner; and I have no doubt that it existed in the soil on which the plants I experimented upon were grown, and in the artificial manures supplied to them before the sowing of the seeds (for they were not examined by the aid of the spectrum analyzer till after the analysis of the plants). From one or more, or all of these sources the plants derived the sodium found in them. Now, the question here presents itself—Was the minute trace of Bodium found in those artificially-grown plants essential to their healthy development? I think this question must be answered in the negative, as it is inconceivable that any sub. stance found in bodies-mineral, vegetal, or animal-in quan tities so minute as to be inappreciable by ordinary chemical means, could be useful, much less essential, constituents. In not one of the plants grown without the intentional application of sodium compounds could the amount of sodium have been so much as the one-twenty-thousandth part of its ashes, or the one-five-hundred-thousandth part of the whole plant. The proportion may, indeed, have been far less than even this minute quantity, as the spectrum analyzer merely indicates the presence, but does not accurately tell us the quantities of bodies. The fact of the universal diffusiveness of the greater number of the elements of matter is one of the most wonderful discoveries of this age of scientific marvels, and there is little doubt that in the progress of mental enlightenment nearly all the simple substances will be found as widely disseminated in nature, as the so-called universal substance, oxygen. We are now in possession of an instrument of research, the delicacy of which is such that it almost approaches to the infinite. With an apparatus which enables the eye to detect | the presence of the 180,000,000th part of a grain of common salt,* it should not surprise us if sodium were found in every substance submitted to the searching scrutiny of such an agent. By its means, or by those of a still more delicate instrument, it is provable that almost every one of the elementary bodies would be found in plants and animals, but subserving as unimportant functions in the economy of those beings, as silver does in the ocean, or carburetted hydrogen in the atmosphere. It is impossible to accurately determine by experiments conducted in the field, what are, and what are not, the indispensable elements of vegetal nutriment. No matter how completely impoverished the soil selected for the experiment may appear to be, it is certain to contain a noteable proportion of all the substances found in the ashes of plants. Field experiments are, however, when accurately conducted, varied and repeated, the safest to rely upon in solving such problems as the following: Is the turnip benefited more by the application of phosphate of calcium than by that of the sulphate of ammonium? Does the application of common salt to meadow or pasture land increase the yield or improve the quality of the herbage? It is from the results of experi ments in the field, and from those of the analyses of plants which were grown in ordinary soils, that nearly all our knowledge of the nature of the food of plants has been derived. Such experiments as those performed by me should not, therefore, supersede in the slightest degree trials in the field, for it is only when the theoretical deductions of the chemist agree with the practical experience of the husbandman, that we may be certain of having arrived at the truth. The following experiments may be regarded as intermediate between a trial in the field and what have been rather contemptuously termed, "flower-pot experiments:" About 4 cwt. of loamy soil of medium fertility was deprived of its organic constituents by burning them. The clay was then placed in barrels, the latter filled with water, and the soil well stirred up. After the subsidence of the earthly particles, the clear liquid was drawn off, and a fresh supply added. This process was repeated about twenty times. At each washing, except the last three, two pints of hydrochloric acid, mixed with four gallons of water, were poured over the clay a few minutes before the barrels were filled with water. The soil was by these means deprived of all or the greater portion of its soluble constituents; and, until exposed for a long time to the action of the atmosphere, by which its rocky portions would be partially disintegrated and ren dered available as food for plants, it would be almost, if not quite, infertile. Such a soil, I believe, would be admirably adapted for the testing of the relative values and suitability of the different kinds of manures; nor was I mistaken. The soil was spread to the depth of six inches on a bed of powdered bricks; and, having been manured with a compound containing all the substances, except sodium, known to be useful to vegetation, it was sown with the seeds of asparagus, radishes, and onions. The seeds germinated and produced plants which were in every respect equal to those cultivated in the ordinary manner. Some of the plants were burned, and their ashes, on being submitted to analysis, yielded the following results: AMOUNT OF SODA AND POTASH IN 100 PARTS. Asparagus • Bunsen and Kirchhoff state that by means of the spectrum analyser they can detect the 1-3,000,000 part of a milligramme of chloride of sodium. Miller doubts the accuracy of this statement, but admits that the delicacy of the photo-chemical mode of testing is exceedingly great. Asparagus, many varieties of the onion, and indeed most [ "al springs of Germany and of France; in the waters of the species of asphodeleæ, are indigenous to the sea-coast and EXPERIMENTS WITH LITHIUM, By submitting various substances to the admirable method of photo-chemical analysis, to which I have so repeatedly adverted, MM. Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered two new elements, resembling the metals of the alkalies, and frequently associated with them. These elements have been termed cæsium and rubidium. By the same means Crookes, more recently, discovered another new element resembling sulphur, to which the name thallium has been given by its discoverer, By means of the spectrum analyzer, Bunsen and Kirchhoff also ascertained that the metal lithium, instead of being limited to a few localties, as had previously been supposed, was almost as widely diffused as the common alkaline metals which it so much resembles, These chemists and their pupils found lithium in the mine Dead Sea, of the Mediterranean, and of the Atlantic; and lithium are not in accordance with those of the Prince of Three mens of Irish barley four contained no lithium. on Dalkey Hill and Killiney Hill, but did not recognize it | in any of them. 3rd: Barley seeds were sown in soil com posed of quartz, alumina, and sulphate of barium, and contained in four vessels. Those in No. 1 vessel were manured with a compound made up of all the substances supposed to be essential to the growth of plants; and, in addition, a proportion of salts of lithium, equal to the amount of potas sium salts contained in the artificial manure. No 2 vessel was supplied with a compound identical in composition with that placed in No. 1 vessel, with the exception that it contained no potassium. No. 3 vessel was supplied with all the mineral constituents of plants except sodium, the place of which was occupied by lithium. The manure in No. 4 vessel contained only a minute quantity of potassium bat a considerable amount of the nitrate, carbonate, and phosphate of lithium. The seeds in No. 1 vessel ger minated and produced healthy plants, which, in due season, fructified and developed grain. The plants were burned. and the ashes, on being submitted to analysis, afforded the following results: Seed Straw Potash. Soda. Lithia. 1.68 2.00 In this case the lithium appears to have acted as a substitute for sodium in the vegetal organisms. An accident happened to vessel No. 4, which vitiated the results of the experiment, and prevented me from determining to what extent lithium could be substituted for potassium. The results of these experiments lead me to conclude-1: That lithium, if present in the soil, is likely to be taken up into the organisms of plants. 2nd: That it is capable of being substituted for sodium, and probably, to a limited extent, for potassium, in plants. 3rd That it is neither useful nor essential to vegetables, being wholly absent from specimens of cultivated plants of luxuriant growth, and from soil on which barley had been perfectly developed. THE COLONY OF VICTORIA. The importance of the colony of Victoria, which nearly equals in area the entire island of Britain; the excellency of its climate and its soil; the conveniency of its position and of its division by the mountain ranges which bisect it; and the increased attention now given to Australian emigration, invest its agricultural position and progress with increased interest. On the agriculture of South Australia and New South Wales the British public are pretty well informed; but, as respects Victoria, they have, perhaps, not given the colonists that credit which is properly due for the rapid advances being made in their laudable endeavours to become more independent of extraneous supplies of breadstuffs. The agricultural statistics of the colony for the year 1861 show, that of the three millions of acres which had passed into private ownership, only about 419,000 acres had been brought into cultivation; but this was an increase of 120,000 acres in three years; and the proportion under wheat was 161,232 acres, oats 86,200 acres, and barley 4,119 acres. The gross produce of wheat in the colony in the year ending March, 1861, was 3,456,072 bushels, or an excess of 1,159,915 bushels over the previous year. The crop of oats was 2,626,056 bushels, and of barley 83,410 bushels. Notwithstanding the large increase of population, the import of flour into Victoria has declined from 41,000 tons in 1855 to 34,793 tons in 1860. Prior to the discovery of gold, agriculture had made considerable progress in Victoria. In the year 1850 no less than 52,185 acres were under cultivation, while the population was only 76,000. Owing to the gold discoveries, the cultivation of the land languished for a time, only 34,651 acres having been placed under cultivation, in 1854, when the population amounted to 236,798; but since that date a fresh impulse has been given to agricultural pursuits, every subsequent year presenting an increased breadth of land under tillage. Thus, at the end of March, 1861, with a population of 540,000, there were about 420,000 acres under cultivation. In the year previous to the gold discoveries, the quantity of wheat produced in the colony had been within less than a tenth of the requirements of its then small population; but in consequence of the falling off in agriculture, just alluded to, this proportion declined year by year, until in the years 1854 and 1855 only about a tenth of the quantity necessary for use was grown in the colony, the remaining nine-tenths being imported. Since then, however, the quantity of Victoria-grown wheat has each year, with the exception of 1859, borne a much larger proportion to the total quantity available for the requirements of the colonists. The quantity of wheat necessary for yearly consumption ranges from seven to eight bushels per head; and the proportion of wheat grown in Victoria to the total quantity available for use, is now about 60 per cent. At a recent colonial agricultural show, Victoria wheat beat, in fair competition, the wheat of South Australia; which, at the Exhibition of 1851, had won for that colony the leadership in Australian agriculture. The position which Victoria wheat has attained in the Exhibition of 1862 shows the suitability of the Australian climate for wheat, and the improvement in culture that is taking place generally. Let us cite a few instances illustrative of the character and yield of the wheat shown. First, we have Tuscan wheat, grown by Mr. Thomson, that weighed in Victoria 69lbs. 4oz.>> the bushel, and when weighed here 68lbs. 8 oz., which carried off the first prize offered in the colony; and flour made in Melbourne from wheat weighing 69lbs. to the bushel, also honoured with the first colonial prize; white Chester wheat 68lbs. per bushel; wheat grown on light clay soil, the sixth crop in succession, weight 67lbs. 14 oz.; wheat, the fifth consecutive crop, 1 cwt. of bonedust to the acre applied, weight 67lbs. 8 oz. Wheat grown on black soil after potatoes (third crop after potatoes) 35 bushels to the acre, weight 66lbs. 10ozs.; also on black soil after potatoes (first crop after grain) 30 bushels to the acre, weight 65lbs. 14oz.; wheat, black clay soil, first planted with potatoes and two years with wheat, weight 66lbs. 4oz.; wheat black loam soil, rotation of crops-five crops of Wheat previous to the present one-yield 35 bushels to the acre; white Tuscan wheat, grown on volcanic virgin soil, one year fallow, average 40 bush. to the acre; wheat grown on loamy soil with clay bottom, rotation alternately with potatoes and oats, average per acre 39 bushels, weight 671bs.; white Tuscan wheat, virgin soil, after a summer fallow, 40 bushels to the acre; wheat grown on light soil, ploughed last season for the first time, without fallowing, weight 67lbs. 6oz. Uxbridge wheat, black volcanic soil, grown after oats, 30 bushels per acre; Tuscan wheat, grown after potatoes, 35 bushels per acre, weight 65lbs. 2oz.; wheat grown at Bushworth, 33 bushels to the acre. These details, taken from the Victoria Catalogue, go far to prove the high character already attained for wheat, and which is also borne out by other cereals, barley being shown, which, when weighed in the Exhibition, averaged 58lbs. 5oz., and oats 49lbs. 4oz. During the last eleven years the average yield of wheat throughout the colony has been 22 bushels per acre, which, considering the primitive husbandry yet practised, contrasts favourably with the general average of England. The arrangement of Providence, by which land brings wheat willingly and remuneratively, longer | in succession than it is known to have done in regard to any other crop, is very benign. Land has sickened of clover and grown shy of turnips, and refused to grow oats, beyond a given repetition; but it has never yet shown any symptom of dislike to wheat; and though, in the Norfolk course, it has recurred every fourth year, approaching a century, and that too on turnip and barley soils, which are not the best for wheat, it is yet an acceptable crop to the land which has been under that course. In certain portions of the colony of Victoria the average yield of wheat has been quoted at upwards of 40 bushels, and, in a few instances, under peculiarly favourable conditions of soil and season, at from 60 to 70 bushels per acre. Under the present system of farming in Victoria, however, it would apparently not be prudent to calculate upon the general crop of wheat yielding more than 22 bushels per acre on the average. Low as this rate is, compared with that of England and Wales, it nevertheless appears to exceed the average produce of South Australia and New South Wales by no less than five bushels per acre. RAMS AND RAM SALES. one's class. Honest farmers, indeed! Are not such practices very closely allied to, if not actual swindling transactions? I am sorry to say that I can vouch for several such transactions, as coming under my own noticed in times gone by, and from men of whom I expected much better things; indeed, I am afraid that in the auctioneer's case much of his business and popularity depends upon running up a quick sale, either with or without a bidder. This is a blot upon fair business, however much it may be tolerated. The months of August, September, and October are for them, to enhance the average of the sale. These the seasons when these sales and lettings take place in best sheep may, with great credit, be exhibited, but the this country; and as it is the time when our sheep- owner should declare his intention to use them himself. breeders make their annual selections, a few words upon If only selections from the flock are being sold all is the subject generally will not be inappropriate. The understood and anticipated; but if " the flock of rams" great increase in this department of breeding (ram- is to be sold or let, none should be disposed of beforebreeding) has pretty nearly paralyzed the trade, and hand, nor any undertaking between the vendor and many of our best breeders have declined it in conse- customer should be entered into, so that let the sheep quence of the great competition for public favour. This reach a high, or even fabulous price, the customer is much to be regretted, as the country loses the ad- knows what he has to pay, as was previously agreed upon vantage of their correct judgment, enterprize, and liberal This is downright trickery, but is not altogether unexpenditure. It is quite true that men with inferior common. It is precisely analogous to those tricky sales flocks and good shepherds can get up their sheep to of Shorthorns we heard so much of, some time ago such an extraordinary condition and fatness as to super--the best animals being bought in. One blushes for sede in the open market men of higher repute and truer flocks; and these men no doubt do themselves good, but the country receives harm. In olden times the customers of these men would readily go to the oldestablished flocks, and take from them the second run of rams at their own customary price, and thus their purity of breed and excellency were kept up. Now they go into market, buy a wonderfully fatted sheep-which of course is considered good because he is fat-and from this they breed. The general consequence is that this overfed sheep proves less efficacious, his stock are effeminate, and the fall of lambs less than before. This is one of the evils of the new order of things. Another is that by this competition the owners of our best flocks are in a measure discouraged; they are deterred from their usual research after first-class animals. The price Occasionally realized for their flock of rams prevents the liberal, almost extravagant expenditure usually indulged in to keep their flock, and this mainly owing to the price made of their second-class sheep. It is far better to use rams of second-class condition from a true flock, than the best-fed ones from an ordinary source; and to use rams or ram-lambs bought in the open market, without character, is greatly to be deprecated. The general mode of selling or letting rams now is by public auction, and no mode can be better or fairer, providing all is fair and above board; but the system of running a customer up is abominable. It is also almost as bad to put into the ring sheep not intended to be disposed of, but merely set up, that high prices may be bid We might inquire what description of ram should be bought or hired-a question opening a wide field for discussion, in fact embracing every district of the kingdom. Of course every breeder will take his peculiar locality into consideration in adopting or propagating any particular breed of sheep, and here he will find ample scope for the exercise of his judgment, for such have been the inroads upon old breeds and old prejudices, and so numerous have been the introduction of new breeds and cross-breeds into different districts hitherto supposed to be altogether inimical to their progress, that the old-established breeds are nearly all driven out, and the original breed is nowhere to be found, thanks to the thousand improvers for the change. It is the same in all breeds of sheep. All have been changed and improved from their original type within the past few years, and the movement still proceeds, and with accelerated speed, thanks to our innumerable exhibitors at our agricultural shows. Well, what sort of ram shall I choose? Take care |