This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 Excerpt: ...year from an acre of soil a little more than 26 lbs. of chemical salts, containing a little more than 9 lbs. of potash, nearly 9 lbs. phosphoric acid, a little more than 1 lb. of sulphuric acid, 3 lbs. of magnesia, and nearly 2 lbs. of lime. From this it appears that the soil must be strengthened by tho uso of fertilizers rich in phosphates and potash, and having a large amount of sulphuric acid.--The use of the fibre of the cotton plant as a material for textile fabrics does not appear to have been known to those nations of antiquity whose skill in the manufacture of fine linen and in the weaving of wool is recorded in the most ancient writings. The cloths in which the mummies of the Egyptians were enveloped exhibit only the round smooth fibre of flax, never the sharp, angular, and spirally twisted fibre peculiar to cotton, a structure which may be recognized in the rags of the stuff made of the material, and is not lost even in the pulp to which these rags are reduced for the purpose of being made into paper. The earliest notice of cotton is by Herodotus, about 450 B. O, who speaks of the trees of India bearing, as their fruit, fleeces more delicate and beautiful than those of sheep, and of the Indians using them for the manufacture of cloth. Aristobulus and Nearchus, generals of Alexander, brought back to Greece correct accounts of the cotton tree and of its product. Theophrastus also described its culture from exact information. From India, cotton cloth was gradually introduced into Greece and Rome, and before the Christian era it was used by Verres in Sicily as a covering for his tents. According to Livy, Lentulus Spinther (63 B. C.) first introduced cotton awnings in the theatre at the Apollinarian games; and Caesar afterward covered the forum w...