APPENDIX.

AN ESSAY ON THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS,

WITH A FORMULA FOR THE SAME,

As founded on the Relations between Soils and plants.

BY CHARLES BICKELL, PH.D.

CHAPTER I.

Subject.

The laws of vegetable life, as well as the phenomena and pro-
cesses which constitute its nature, are entirely founded on and
supported by the actions of agents which, under the influence
of heat and light, exist in the atmosphere and in the solid crust of
our globe. Both the air and earth supply plants either directly or
indirectly with crude nourishment, indispensable for their growth,
winch they assimilate and transform into new compounds of or-
ganic form and character. In the first case, it is the original
constituents of the air and earth which cause development of vege-
table life; in the latter, these nourishments are the products of the
mutual action of the atmosphere and earth on each other.

The study of the constituents of the air and earth and their
reciprocal action upon each other, must therefore, form the natural
basis of our knowledge of the formation and necessary conditions
of a soil, which may be favorable to the growth of cultivated plants.

Constituents op the Atmosphere.—Oxygen—Nitrogen—Car-
bonic Acid—Ammonia— Water.

The constituents of the atmospheric air are either fundamental,
viz: Oxygen and Nitrogen, which form its main bulk, and remain
in a constant proportion to each other; or accidental, viz: Carbonic
Acid, Ammonia and Water, which must be considered as merely
admixtures, with which the atmosphere is supplied from many
sources. The quantitative proportions of the latter, depending on