118 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the whole weight ; and in oats it is said to be 3 per cent., though 

 much of this is in the husk of the oat. In being applied at once 

 to the seed in a form to enter and saturate the pores of the seed , 

 it may be expected to be taken up by the small roots of the 

 plant as soon as they are developed; and its effects, therefore, 

 must be immediate. But whatever may be the theory in the 

 case, should Mr. Campbell s results be confirmed by further 

 experiments, the fact will be obviously of great importance. 



From some pamphlets translated from the German by Pro 

 fessor Johnston, extracts from which have been published in 

 the Edinburgh Journal of Agriculture, it seems that great dis 

 coveries have been made in Germany, in the steeping of seeds ; 

 and, in the enthusiastic expectations of one of the discoverers, the 

 application of manure may be dispensed with, and the rotation 

 of crops on the same soil, in order to recruit the soil, will no 

 longer be necessary. The confidence with which these experi 

 ments are given, and their results proclaimed, would seem to 

 entitle them to attention. 



I shall here take leave to quote from a paper of Professor 

 Johnston some of these statements. Franz Heinrich Bickes, of 

 Castel, Mayence, has published An Account of the Discovery of a 

 Method of cultivating the Soil without Manure. He says, &quot; It 

 is twelve years since the discovery was made. The experiments 

 have been made at various seasons of the year, and the same 

 crop has been repeated on the same soil without regard to 

 the usual rotation. The cost is trifling, and the supply of the 

 materials to be substituted for manure is inexhaustible. The 

 testimonies in its favor are said to be from practical men ; and 

 they assert that, from examples in the Imperial Garden in Vienna, 

 in general the prepared seeds exhibited a very much stronger 

 growth, were of a deeper green, had thicker stems, finer and 

 fresher leaves, larger grain, and the grain was thinner skinned, 

 and therefore contained more meal. 



&quot; The hemp was of a much larger size, and had many side- 

 shoots bearing seed. 



&quot; The Indian corn had more ears. 



&quot; The buckwheat was upwards of three feet high, and full of 

 seed. 



&quot; Wheat, rye, barley, and oats, are thicker, and have more 

 numerous stems, larger ears, and more grains in each. 



