FOREIGN NOTICES. 



139 



nutritive properties of plants, and their ap- 

 plication to agriculture. I have endeavored 

 to make myself acquainted with the condi- 

 tion of practical farming, and with what it 

 requires, by a journey through the agricul- 

 tural districts of England and Scotland ; 

 and during this interval a long series of ex- 

 periments were carried on in the laboratory 

 of this place, with the sole object of giving 

 a firmer basis to my exposition of the causes 

 of the advantageous results attending the 

 practice of rotation of crops, and also of ef- 

 fectually banishing all doubts concerning 

 their accuracy. 



" In my ' Chemistry in its application to 

 Physiology and Pathology,' I have subject- 

 ed the process of nutrition of the animal 

 organism to a stricter investigation ; and I 

 am now, for the first time since the com- 

 pletion of these labors, in a situation to give 

 a simple and determinate expression to my 

 view of the origin of animal excrements. 



and of the cause of their beneficial efl^ects 

 on the growth of all vegetables. 



" Now that the conditions which render 

 the soil productive and capable of afllbrding 

 support to plants, are ascertained, it cannot 

 V/ell be denied, that from chemistry alone 

 further progress in agriculture is to be ex- 

 pected." 



The present volume is not only conside- 

 rably revised and amended, so as to bring it 

 down to the latest period of chemical pro- 

 gress, but it contains also an appendix exhi- 

 biting the analysis of a large number of dif- 

 ferent plants and soils, adding very mate- 

 rially to its value. 



Messrs. Wiley and Putnam have publish- 

 ed the work in so convenient, excellent and 

 cheap a form, that no intelligent landholder 

 in the country, who desires to know some- 

 thing of the mysteries of growth, nutrition 

 and decay of the vegetable kingdom, has 

 ! the least apology for not possessing it. 



FOREIGN NOTICES, 



Italian Horticulture. — Palermo, A-pril 8. — 

 After the many evidences of carelessness, neglect, 

 and idleness, which the gardens, as well as many 

 of the cultivated grounds, about Naples, affoided, 

 it was a great reiief to come here, where if lull ad- 

 vantage is not taken of the facilities afforded by the 

 climate, some gardens at least show taste, care, 

 and industry ; and the richly cultivated vale of Pa- 

 lermo, as well as the five basins round the bay of 

 Castellammare, would give a most favorable idea 

 of the state of agriculture in Sicily to the stranger 

 who saw nothing but this neighborhood. The cli- 

 mate is particularly favorable; the thermometer ne- 

 ver descends quite to the freezing point ; the great 

 heats of summer are somewhat modified by the nor- 

 thern exposure, the sea-breezes, and the high hills 

 which cl.jse the vale to the south. Drought is what 

 they suffer most from, but there are many springs 

 and small streams in the hills, and they have inhe- 

 rited from the Moors not only the art of irrigation, 

 but also several important aqueducts and water 

 channels, constructed for the purpose by that indus- 

 trious race. The soil is of itself not rich, and often 

 of very little depth. The rock is all calcareous, 

 but the earth generally very stiff, and, with the hot 

 sun, bakes almost like brick. However, where 

 there is water, vegetation is most luxuriant, and the 



Orange especially thrives in such situations, whilst 

 the drier parts are equally well suited to the growth 

 of the Olive, the Sumach, and the Indian Fig ; the 

 latter shrub, if so one may call the singularly shaped 

 masses formed by the Opuntia, is one of the most 

 productive crops of the country, and often covers 

 the lower parts of the warmer declivities of the 

 hills, or intersects the hot fiats at their foot, with a 

 network of thick rows, giving, with the Agaves ia 

 the hedges, a singular character to the views. The 

 plants vary from two or three to eight or ten feet 

 high, or seldom more. There are two varieties al- 

 most equally common, the one covered with prickles, 

 the other generally, but not always, almost entirely 

 without ; they do not appear to differ in any other 

 respect ; there are also varieties in the color of the 

 fruit. The buds arc in some places now beginning 

 to appea-, thickly studding the extreme articula- 

 tion of the plant, and when the fruit is fully formed, 

 it is said to be so abundant as completely to conceal 

 the articulation on which it grows. It is always 

 eaten raw ; tastes a good deal like the common 

 Fig, but with less flavor ; it is, however, more nu- 

 tritious, and forms, indeed, in many parts of Sicily, 

 for two or three months, the sole food of the lower 

 orders. It is not exported excepting to Naples. 

 The Sumach {Rhus coriaria,) is another very 



