186 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



into bread from potato flour, which is very much less nutritious than 

 wheaten flour, the former would be equally pleasant, and even more 

 nutritive than wheaten bread. The experiment has been tried with 

 great success ; and beautiful loaves of bread, made in this way, are 

 now sold in Paris at a much lower price than bread from wheat flour. 



Gelatine is one of the most powerful and valuable manures, being 

 supposed by Chaptal to act both as a stimulant and a nutritive sub- 

 stance. It is principally used in the shape of bone dust, though in 

 many parts of the world it is used extensively in the form of flesh, as 

 where fish are used for manuring. Bones are better than flesh, as 

 they contain phosphate of lime, a substance that greatly aids the 

 action of the gelatine. Bones contain about equal quantities of phos- 

 phate and gelatine. The bones, that are the hardest, have the least 

 gelatine, and those of young animals more than those of older ones. 

 Bones intended for grinding, should not be boiled, as they sometimes 

 are in cities, to extract the fat and gelatine for soap, as it lessens their 

 value for agricultural purposes. Bones should be ground fine, and if 

 allowed to ferment so as to have the pungent ammoniacal odor 

 appear, their action will be more prompt than otherwise. 



GERMINATION. Among botanists, germination comprehends 

 the precise time which the seeds take to rise, after they have been 

 committed to the soil. The different species of seeds are longer or 

 shorter, in rising, according to the degree of heat which is proper to 

 each. Air and water are the agents of germinations. The humidity 

 of the air alone makes several seeds to rise that are exposed to it. 

 Seeds too are observed to rise in water, without the intervention of 

 earth ; but water without air is insufficient. Mr. Homberg's experi- 

 ments on this head are decisive. He put several seeds under the 

 exhausted receiver of an air-pump, with a view to establish something 

 certain on the causes of germination. Some of them did not rise at 

 all ; and the greatest part of those which did, made very weak and 

 feeble productions. 



Thus it is for want of air, that seeds, which are buried at a very 

 great depth in the earth, either thrive but indifferently or do not rise 

 at all. They frequently preserve, however, their germinating virtue 

 for many years within the bowels of the earth ; and it is not unusual, 

 upon a piece of ground being newly dug to a considerable depth, to 

 observe it soon after covered with several plants, which had not been 

 seen there in the memory of man. Were this frequently repeated, it 

 would doubtless be the means of recovering certain species of plants 

 which are regarded as lost ; or which, perhaps, have never come to 

 the knowledge of botanists. 



GINGER. The root of a plant which grows spontaneously in 

 the East and West Indies, and in China. It flowers about August 

 or September, and fades about the end of the year. When the stalks 

 are withered, the roots are dug up, commonly in January and Feb- 



