ON GROWING QUINCES. 



63 



The electrical elements of vegetables and 

 plants have thus been slightly glanced at, 

 not with any view to introduce discussion, 

 but to render it manifest that horticulture 

 can never be duly understood or correctly 

 applied, until its principles be determined. 

 In common with agriculture, it must be sci- 

 entifically investigated by professors duly 

 qualified to analyse and instruct ; and the 

 world is deeply indebted to Justus Liebig, 

 for he has distinctly proved, that cultivators 

 are wandering in the dark, though means 

 are at command, were they duly applied, to 

 remove difficulties and obviate perplexities, 

 by the establishment of positive facts. 



The practical gardener, if he duly appre- 

 ciate the quotation and remarks, will see at 

 a glance the reason of his embarrassments 

 and failures ; he will also be sensible of the 

 wondrous mechanism he superintends ; he 

 will perceive that, from the four elements 

 described, all the specific fluids of his plants, 

 their chemical and medicinal principles, 

 their sapid and odorous qualities are derived, 

 and, therefore, if a plant do not meet with 

 its proper aliment, or rather, if it be expos- 

 ed to agents which disturb the natural as- 

 similations, a morbid action must be induced 

 and disease certainly follow. But again, 

 plants must be duly supplied with inorganic 

 substances, all such not being the products 

 of vital organization, viz., earths, metals, 

 potassa and soda. As these will be alluded 

 to more particularly hereafter, it will now 



be sufficient to observe, that theyar^ deriv- 

 ed chiefly from the soil, and therefore in the 

 culture of the floral department, and of all 

 plants in pots, the gardener is peculiarly 

 liable to commit error, and incur vexatious 

 contingencies. 



Vegetable physiologists, seeing the im- 

 possibility of introducing any solid sub- 

 stances through the porous system of the 

 roots, have been tempted to refer to larbonic 

 acid, dissolved in or united with the sap, as 

 the prime source of vegetable nutriment ; 

 and, following up this view, agriculturists 

 have adopted the modern theoretic notions 

 respecting humus and humic acid. We are 

 mere infants in experiment, and what we 

 know, may be comprised within a nutshell. 

 But we have now arrived at a period of re- 

 search and experiments, when we may as- 

 sume a direction better calculated to lead 

 to precise results. Heretofore we have seen 

 them conducted upon detached parts of 

 plants — mere mutilations. " Can the laws 

 of life be investigated in an organized be- 

 ing, which is diseased or dying 1" We 

 think not. " Is not the observation of a 

 wood or a meadow infinitely better adapted 

 to decide so simple a question, than all the 

 trivial expiri/iitiits under a glass globe ? " — 

 Liebig. 



The question is full of meaning, and can 

 only be solved by diligent and careful re- 

 search. Wn. W. Valk, m. d. 



Flushing. L. /., July, 1S47. 



THS "WHOLE SECRET OP GROWING QUINCES. 

 BY AN OLD ORCHARDIST. 



Sir — I will comply with your request to 

 write down for the benefit of your readers 

 my practice in cultivating the Quince tree. 

 The commendations you are pleased to he- 



me to suppose that I may have struck out 

 a mode better than is generally known or 

 practised. 



If so, " it ought," as you say, " to be a 



stow on my plantation of this fruit tree, leads secret no longer." Indeed, I have had too 



