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In the third case are some remarkable varieties of silicates, which contain borates from Norway and other countries; and in the fourth case are the first in order, of the carbonates, including carbonates of soda, the beautiful crystals of carbonate of baryta, carbonate of strontia and aragonites, from Aragon, Hungary, Bohemia, and Vesuvius; and in the next case are deposited further varieties of aragonite, and some remarkable varieties of calcite, or carbonate of lime.
They are the means by which the farmer can dissolve and make available for the growing crops the otherwise insoluble mineral elements, such as iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, all of which are contained in most soils in great abundance. These elements exist in the soil chiefly in the form of insoluble silicates.
The inference I have drawn from these experiments is, that as far as is practicable the manuring should be adapted to the temperature, but as this is obviously impossible in a climate like ours, the only way is to rather under than over manure, and to apply no ammoniacal manure to the wheat crop, or at all events very little; for although guano was beneficial to wheat when used in conjunction with silicates, &c. &c. in 1844, yet the injury it did in 1845 may very fairly be set against that benefit.
These sulphates appear to be formed, in part, at least, by bacterial agency. This gas, which is of common occurrence in the atmosphere, is oxidized by bacterial growth into sulphuric acid, and this is the basis of part of the soil sulphates. The deposition of iron phosphates and iron silicates is probably also in a measure aided by bacterial action.
As for quartz, it can be produced under the influence of heat by water holding alkaline silicates in solution, as in the case of the Plombieres springs. The quantity of water required, according to Daubree, to produce great transformations in the mineral structure of rocks, is very small.
A no less favourable influence than that of lime is exercised upon the soil of peaty land by the mere act of burning it: this greatly enhances its fertility. We have not long been acquainted with the remarkable change which the properties of clay undergo by burning. The observation was first made in the process of analysing the clay silicates.
Calcium may be present in other compounds, especially in silicates, which are the most abundant compounds in the soil and in the earth's crust; and, as indicated by the ending -ate, oxygen is contained in calcium silicate as well as in calcium carbonate." "I see; the subject is much more complicated than I thought."
It will now be obvious to you, that in a mixture of clay with lime, all the conditions exist for the solution of the silicated clay, and the solubility of the alkaline silicates. The lime gradually dissolving in water charged with carbonic acid, acts like milk of lime upon the clay.
And now the acid, even without heat, dissolves not only the lime, but also so much of the silica of the feldspar as to form a transparent jelly. The same effect which the lime in this process, with the aid of heat, exerts upon the feldspar, it produces when it is mixed with the alkaline argillaceous silicates, and they are for a long time kept together in a moist state.
A noted European chemist, Dr. Leduc, has produced what he calls "osmotic growths," from purely unorganized mineral matter growths in form like seaweed and polyps and corals and trees. His seeds are fragments of calcium chloride, and his soil is a solution of the alkaline carbonates, phosphates, or silicates.
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