194 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



feet in a sand-bank, that it is the habit of the maize plant to send 

 out roots twenty feet long. The length depends upon the soil 

 rather more than upon the plant. 



It is greatly to be desired that our knowledge of the relative 

 development of the roots of our various crops should be com- 

 pleted. The roots are in one sense the most important part of 

 the plant. We cannot influence a field crop, except through the 

 roots. We do not manure the tops, or operate upon them in any 

 way. All our efforts^to promote growth must be directed to the 

 root, and yet we do not know with precision what is the extent 

 and depth of the roots of the wheat plant, for example, as com- 

 pared with the roots of any other plant. We simply know that 

 some plauts have more and longer roots than others ; that clover, 

 for instance, is deeper rooted than wheat. 



Some important contributions to our knowledge of this subject 

 have been made quite recentty* and I have placed upon the black- 

 board some figures obtained by chemical analysis of the residues 

 of certain crops; i. e., the stubble, and the roots down to the 

 depth of ten inches. At Proskau, in Prussia, there is a Govern- 

 ment Agricultural School, and Dr. Weiske, one of the chemists 

 connected with that school, a year ago last summer, measured off 

 certain plots of land, several yards in dimensions, and carefully 

 excavated the soil to the depth of ten inches and with extreme 

 pains dug out all the roots he could get in that depth of soil. 

 These he dried, weighed, aud analysed, and these figures show 

 the average of his results, calculated in pounds upon the surface 

 of an acre. Unfortunately, he did not state anything about the 

 quantity of the crops ; but from the fact of their growing at Pros- 

 kau, where the soil has long been under cultivation, it is to be 

 presumed that these crops were good. 



Composition of Roots and Stubble — lbs. per acre. 



Rye 



Barley 



Oats 



Wheat 



Bed Clover . 

 Buckwheat . 

 Pea 



Lupine .. . . , 



Phos. 

 acid. 



24 

 11 

 28 

 11 

 71 

 10 

 14 

 13 



The first column gives the amount of vegetable matter which 

 was contained in the roots and stubble. We are not informed 



