196 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Now is not the early attention of the farmer of 

 newly cultivated soils directed to their enrichment, 

 by adding to them manures containing phosphoric 

 acid ? and may we not conclude that this addition 

 enables such agrarian weeds to "spontaneously" ap- 

 pear ? Ou a future occasion I hope to bo able to 

 extend my observations upon the action of manui'cs 

 to other cultivated crops, and to report the result of 

 a series of experiments, which 1 have instituted on 

 the spontaneous production of certain plants, by 

 various chemical substances. 



The instances which I have given of this very 

 curious growth of certain plants, might be copiously 

 extended. Several marine plants are found near 

 some of the German salt springs, and even around 

 the saltworks of Cheshire and Polaud. The nettle 

 aud one or two other plants are found near to places 

 where saltpetre is generated. 



This inducement of the " spontaneous" growth of 

 plants, by applying certain substances to the soil, is 

 then, we must all conclude, neither a novel observa- 

 tion, nor one which should lead us to adopt erro- 

 neous conclusions as to the origin of plants, however 

 startling the phenomena which attends our walks. 

 The farmers of some of the rich soils of the hun- 

 dreds of Essex, for instance, if they plough beyond a 

 certain depth, iusure the growth of a profusion of 

 white mustard. We have already remarked that the 

 site of a fire becomes speedUy tenanted by totally 

 different plants from those growing around the spot. 

 Liebig alludes to other instances of a similar kind 

 (Orr/anic Chem., p. 152). It seems that after the 

 Great Pire of London large quantities of the ErysU 



mum latifolium were observed growing on the spots 

 where a fire had taken place. On a similar occasion 

 the Blitum cnpitatum presented itself at Copenha- 

 gen, the Senecio viscosus in Nassau, aud the Spar- 

 tium scoparium in Languedoc. After the burning 

 of some of the American forests, poplars grew spon- 

 taneously ou the same land. It may be very true 

 that these things are very inexplicable to us, who do 

 not see the seeds of plants conveyed by the winds or 

 birds from place to place, or perceive the seeds when 

 they are in the soil ; but it is worse ignorance to ex- 

 plain unknown facts by merely arriving at such ab- 

 surd conclusions as that the seed is generated in the 

 soil by certain imaginary agencies. Such an explana- 

 tion is never oiFcrcd to account for the appearance of 

 a tree or an animal in unexpected places ; and yet 

 the remark would be just as correct if it was ap- 

 plied to a colt or a baby, as to a plant of white 

 clover. 



The power of the atmospheric currents, of insects, 

 and of the larger animals, in ditfusing small seeds, is 

 but little understood by us. What minute seeds of 

 vegetables are carried up into the atmosphere by 

 strong currents of air; what force those winds pos- 

 sess, in this way, at great heights, is little imagined > 

 aud there are, most probably, other modes of seed 

 dispersion arranged by Infinite Wisdom, with which 

 we are entirely unacquainted. 



We may then well abstain from deceiving our- 

 selves with such explanations of the "spontaneous" 

 growth of plants, which are, in fact, merely substi- 

 tuting another set of words for an equally unmean- 

 ing conventional 



THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE SUBSTANCES. 



In a paper recently read before the Society of 

 Arts on the Utilization of Waste Substances, by 

 Mr. P. L. Simmonds, attention was prominently 

 drawn to the importance of this mattei- by the 

 many new industries which have sprung up, and the 

 large profits whicli have been made by vigilant atten- 

 tion to small matters, atid the application of some for- 

 merly waste substance to a usel'ul purpose. The paper 

 was full of curious details and suggestive information. 

 It pointed out the enormous reconversion of wool now 

 carried on, by tearing up old worn clothes and com- 

 bining them with a portion of new wool. Shoddy scoina 

 to be more generally made than we had reason to sup- 

 pose; and hence wo cannot wonder that our tailors' 

 bills become heavier, and that our garments are less 

 durable, since it is scarcely possible for the unpractised 

 eye to detect a genuine good broadcloth from a shoddy. 

 No wonder that the old clothes shops and the rag shojis 

 are increasing so rapidly, since there is such an exten- 

 sive casting-off of garments which become shabby and 

 unwcarable in a remarkably short space of time ! A 



speaker at the meeting gave a laughable instance of 

 this; for he said that occasionally in putting on new 

 stockings his feet went completely through them ! and 

 very many of the woollen garments made and sold, 

 after the first shower of rain materially alter in aspect, 

 and look anything but respectable. The waste mer- 

 chants and the rag grinders— now special trades in the 

 woollen districts— no doubt make their profits at the 

 expense of tiie customer ; and we learn that in the town 

 of Leeds the rag machines engaged in this reconverting 

 trade add to our annual stock of wool the equivalent of 

 ilie fleeces of 400,000 sheep. 



Apart, however, from these fraudulent or deceptive 

 reconversions of waste material, which are mainly duo 

 to the popular desire for cheap goods, there are very 

 many highly important applications of labour and skill 

 to the utilization of waste products. For instance, the 

 conversion of old woollen and cotton rags into paper j 

 the manufacture of waste silk ; the application of sew- 

 age manure ; the refuse of the fisheries, aiul such like, 

 arc all importaut, 



