1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



"5 



carbonaceous, constituting it an excellent absorb- 

 ent in composting stable manure. A sample of 

 decomposing rock — shale — from Wisconsin, sent 

 to the Department to ascertain its value as a fer- 

 tilizer, showed it to be deficient as a fertilizer. I 

 call special attention to the triumphant results of 

 analyses of the "poison soils " of Texas. In Dal- 

 las county they are extensive. G. W. Danover 

 writes : " .'\11 our soils for many miles in every 

 direction are of the same character, 'poison soils.' " 

 It exists in limited areas throughout the State, in 

 every variety of soil ; sometimes 50 acres of cot- 

 ton on one plantation dies from the poisonous 

 matters. Cotton, fruit trees and root vegetables 

 disclose its presence. Top root vegetation is most 

 liable to die. Trees die in one or two years. Root 

 vegetables and cotton die and rot just before fully 

 developing themselves. An ultimate analysis of 

 the soil sent gave no sulphuric acid, or any of the 

 sulphur compounds. Other details of the ana.- 

 lysis demonstrated that these " poison soils " 

 needed thorough underdrainage, to relieve the 

 subsoil from saturation and for the free circulation 

 of air ; then to be subsoiled to bring it more fully 

 under the influence of the air. A heavy dressing 

 of quick lime, deeply plowed in, to take up and 

 neutralize a large amount of humic acid, and so 

 relieve other elements of plant food, locked up as 

 insoluble humates. An application of gypsum 

 also, to furnish sulphuric acid, so indispensable as 

 a plant food. The money value of this analysis 

 would be difficult to estimate. Says Prof. Kedzie : 

 " In the early history of chemistry, analysis of cer- 

 tain barren soils revealed the cause of the barren- 

 ness in the sulphate of iron present. When this 

 was removed or decomposed by lime, the soil was 

 fruitful." In view of the triumphs of soil analysis 

 so far achieved, I think we can entirely assent to 

 the reasoning of Professor E. W. Hilgard, Univer- 

 sity of California : " If the agricultural chemist 

 can do nothing to help the farmer in these impor- 

 tant questions, his practical utility will be limited, 

 indeed." And how is he ever to be able to render 

 these services if he continues to ignore the chemi- 

 cal examination of the soils, upon the strength of 

 the " non-possumus" pronounced by some high 

 priests ? The claim of soil analysis to practical 

 utility has always been rested on the general sup- 

 position that, " other things being equal, produc- 

 tiveness is, or should be, sensibly proportioned to 

 the amount of available plant food within reach 

 of the roots during the period of plant's develop- 

 ment ; provided, of course, that such supply does 

 not exceed the maximum of that which the plant 



can utilize, when the surplus simply remains in- 

 ert." I think we should not admit the power and 

 efficacy of analysis as applied to plants, animal 

 bodies and vegetation, and ignore it as to soils. 



TORPID VEGETATION. 



BY R. DOUGLAS. 



The Gardeners' Monthly's article, " Can 

 Plants Sleep for Centuries ?" induces me to say a 

 word on the longevity of trees in a dormant state. 



I packed a box of 1000 catalpa trees purposely 

 to test them. The trees were packed in dry moss, 

 box lined with strong paper, the box put in a dry 

 tool house during the summer, a board floor and 

 three windows in a room the size of the house, 

 16x18 leet with outside door. They were put in 

 this room to give them the most severe trial. 

 Eighteen months after they had been dug we took 

 out 25 trees and planted them ; they grew appar- 

 ently as well as any transplanted trees. Two 

 months later I sent a bunch of them to the Nur- 

 serymen's Convention in Chicago last summer, 

 when they had been up and dormant twenty 

 months, and apparently their vitality was intact. 

 Now why not you or some careful scientist bury 

 some dormant trees in a nice dry sandy loam 

 knoll, say 6 or 8 feet deep, where the ground 

 would have just sufficient moisture to keep them 

 from shrivelling and the earth compacted so that 

 water could not reach them, and examine them in 

 fifteen or twenty years ? When you will be about 

 my age, depend on it, you will be just as much in- 

 terested in experiments as you are now ; and es- 

 pecially, you should bury some seeds at the same 

 time ; they could not germinate at that depth, and I 

 do not think they would rot. Try it. 



IVaukegan, Ills. 



ECONOMIC USES IN NIGELLA DAMA- 

 SCENA. 



BY G. 



Le Maout and Decaisne record that in South 

 Germany and the Alps the seeds of Nigella are 

 used in flavoring bread. The same thing once 

 obtained in this country. My mother used to 

 flavor a certain kind of cakes for us children with 

 the seeds of N. damascena — that quaint old-time 

 flower called " ragged lady," " devil-in-a-bush," or 

 " love-in-a-mist." My recollection is that the 

 taste of the cakes was excellent. The Nigella, 

 however, belongs to an order which contains many 

 poisonous plants. I would not care to eat its seeds 

 very freely, even after baking. 



