Thus the quantity of ash left by a ton of wheat straw is sometimes as much as 360 lbs.; by a ton of oat straw as much as 200 lbs.; while a ton of the grain of wheat leaves only about 40 lbs.; of the grain of oats about 90 lbs.; and of oak wood only 4 or 5 lbs. The quantities of inorganic matter, therefore, though comparatively small, yet, in some cases, amount to a considerable weight in an entire crop. The nature, source and uses of this earthy matter will be explained in a subsequent chapter.
SECTION II.—CONSTITUTION OF THE ORGANIC
PART OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS.
The organic part of plants, when in a perfectly dry state, constitutes therefore from 85 to 99 per cent. of their whole weight. Of those parts of plants which are cultivated for food, it is only hay and straw, and a very few others, that contain as much as 10 per cent. of inorganic matter.
This organic part consists of four substances, known to chemists by the names of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The first of these, carbon, is a solid substance, the other three are gases or peculiar kinds of air.
1. Carbon. When wood is burned in a covered heap, as is done by the charcoal burners, or is distilled in iron retorts, as in making wood-vinegar, it is charred and converted into common wood charcoal. This charcoal is the most usual and best known variety of carbon. It is black, soils the fingers, and is more or less porous according to the kind of wood from which it has been formed. Coke obtained by charring or distilling coal is another variety. It is generally denser or heavier than the former, though less pure. Black lead is a third variety, still heavier and more impure. The diamond is the only form in which carbon occurs in nature in a state of perfect purity.
This latter fact, that the diamond is pure carbon—that it is essentially the same substance with the finest and purest lamp-black—is very remarkable; but it is only one of many striking circumstances that every now and then present themselves before the inquiring chemist.
Charcoal, the diamond, lamp-black, and all the other forms of carbon, burn away more or less slowly when heated in the air, and are converted into a kind of gas known by the name of carbonic acid. The impure varieties leave behind them a greater or less proportion of ash.
2. Hydrogen.—If oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) be mixed with twice its bulk of water, and then poured upon iron filings, the mixture will speedily begin to boil up, and bubbles of gas will rise to the surface of the liquid in great abundance. These are bubbles of hydrogen gas.
If the experiment be performed in a bottle, the hydrogen which is produced will gradually drive out the atmospheric air it contained, and will itself take its place. If a bit of wax taper be tied to the end of a wire, and when lighted be introduced into the bottle, it will be instantly extinguished; while the hydrogen will take fire, and burn at the mouth of the bottle with a pale yellow flame. If the taper be inserted before the common air is all expelled, the mixture of hydrogen and common air will burn with an explosion more or less violent, and may even shatter the bottle and produce serious accidents. This experiment, therefore, ought to be made with care. It may be safely made in an open tumbler, covered by a plate or a piece of paper, till a sufficient quantity of hydrogen is collected, when, on the introduction of the taper, the light will be extinguished, and the hydrogen will burn with a less violent explosion.
This gas is also an exceedingly light substance, rising through common air as wood does through water. Hence, when confined in a bag made of silk, or other light tissue, it is capable of sustaining heavy substances in the air, and even of transporting them to great heights. For this reason it is employed for filling and elevating balloons.