Chemistry in Its Application to Agriculture and Physiology

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John Owen, 1843 - 430 pages
 

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Page 105 - OF THE INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS. CARBONIC acid, water and ammonia, are necessary for the existence of plants, because they contain the elements from which their organs are formed ; but other substances are likewise requisite for the formation of certain organs destined for special functions peculiar to each family of plants. Plants obtain these substances from inorganic nature. In the ashes left after the incineration of plants, the same substances are found, although in a changed condition....
Page xiv - I shall be happy if I succeed in attracting the attention of men of science to subjects which so well merit to engage their talents and energies. Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry, — it is the foundation of the riches of states.
Page 330 - Although the juice was expressed from the grapes in contact with air, under the conditions therefore necessary to cause its fermentation, still this change did not ensue when the juice was heated in close vessels to the temperature of boiling water. When thus treated, it could be preserved for years without losing its property of fermenting. A fresh exposure to the air at any period caused it to ferment. Animal food of every kind, and even the most delicate vegetables, may be preserved unchanged...
Page 86 - ... forms soluble compounds with all the acids ; and when in contact with certain other substances, it completely resigns its character as an alkali, and is capable of assuming the most various and opposite forms. Formate of ammonia changes, under the influence of a high temperature, into hydrocyanic acid and water, without the separation of any of its elements. Ammonia forms urea, with cyanic acid, and a series of crystalline compounds, with the volatile oils of mustard and bitter almonds.
Page 194 - The Chinese husbandman always steeps the seeds he intends to sow in liquid manure until they swell, and germination begins to appear, which experience has taught him will have the effect of hastening the growth of...
Page 299 - Eremacausis (or decay) differs from fermentation and putrefaction, inasmuch as it cannot take place without the access of air, the oxygen of which is absorbed by the decaying bodies. Hence it is a process of slow combustion, in which heat is uniformly evolved, and occasionally even light. In the processes of decomposition, termed fermentation and putrefaction, gaseous products are very frequently formed, which are either inodorous, or possess a very offensive smell.
Page 175 - ... means. According to the common view, the action of solid animal excrements depends on the decaying organic matters which replace the humus, and on the presence of certain compounds of nitrogen, which are supposed to be assimilated by plants, and employed in the production of gluten and other azotized substances. But this view requires further confirmation with respect to the solid excrements of animals, for they contain so small a proportion of nitrogen, that they cannot, possibly, by means of...
Page 184 - The most easy and practical mode of effecting their division is, to pour over the bones, in a state of fine powder, half of their weight of sulphuric acid diluted with three or four parts of water...
Page 27 - ... of plants, as well as of those peculiar vegetable compounds which possess all the properties of metallic oxides, and are known as " organic bases." Estimated by :ts proportional weight, nitrogen forms only a very small part of plants ; but it is never entirely absent from any part of them. Even when it does not absolutely enter into the composition of a particular part or organ, it is always to be found in the fluids which pervade it. It follows from the facts thus far detailed, that the development...
Page 193 - IN respect to the quantity of nitrogen contained in excrements, 100 parts of the urine of a healthy man are equal to 1300 parts of the fresh dung of a horse, according to the analyses of Macaire and Marcet, and to 600 parts of those of a cow.

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