No. 2. 



Food and Grouth of Plants. 



5L 



I find it too ligfht, short and low, with the han- 

 dles too higla and crooked, and not of length 

 sufficient to give the moans of guiding it 

 steadily; but there is another objection of still 

 greater moment — as a single planter, the 

 liorse is made to walk exactly on the track in 

 which the drill is to work, and the seed 

 to be dropped, and on stiff land in a wet 

 season, I should fear that the injury done in 

 this way would be irremediable. 



Now, I would propose that it be made to 

 form a double drill or planter, with the beams 

 more elevated, the roller-wheels of course 

 larger in diameter, and the handles lower, 

 longer, and straighter : the whole machine 

 larger and iieavier than at present, planting 

 two rows instead of one, and these at any re- 

 ♦piired distance, the capacity for which might 

 be given by the means of sliding cross bars, 

 secured at their proper distance by screw pins 

 in the usual manner. Then the horse would 

 walk in the space between the rows, and thus 

 all injury fi-om treading be prevented : a dou- 

 ble quantity of land might be planted in the 

 same time, and the work be much better pei-- 

 formed. 



Would Mr. Buckminster do us the favor to 

 notice the above suggestion in the pages of 

 the Cabinet, and oblige us with his opinion 

 ihepuupon. W. B. 



Montgomery County, Aug. 12, 1839. 



P. S. Machines of the present form and 

 size might still be constructed for those who 

 prefer them on so small a scale, but for a large 

 business, I conceive the alteration above sug- 

 gested, would prove of much value, and se- 

 cure for it that general demand which its very 

 srreat merits deserve. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Essays on Agriculture.— No. VII. 



EY JaSEPII CLOUD. 

 Food and Growth, of Flauts* 



With a due sense of self-msufficiency, I 

 approach the consideration of this profound 

 and mysterious subject, which appears in 

 some degree to have escaped the grasp of 

 the human mind, or perhaps it has not been 

 considered of sufficient importance to claim 

 the attention of philosophers. Whatever may 

 have been the cause, there is no question as 

 to the effects, and that we are still in much 

 darkness on many subjects connected with it. 

 Enough, however, for the most important 

 practical uses is perhaps sufficiently under- 

 stood. The more abstruse and less essential 

 parts will be lefl for further developement, 

 more as matters of science than of utility. 

 If, in the course of my remarks, an additional 

 ray of light should be furnished to the know- 

 ledge already possessed, it will be considered 



as more than a compensation for the labor of 

 communication. 



Plants, after they have germinated, do not 

 remain stationary, but are contmually in- 

 creasing in size. It is evident from the in- 

 crease that a great deal of fresh additional 

 matter is acquired by the plants — and they 

 must necessarily receive it by some channel, 

 and from some source or other. Plants, 

 then, require food as well as animals — now 

 what is this food, and whence do they derive 

 it ? These questions can only be answered 

 by an attentive survey of the substances which 

 are contained in vegetables, and an e.xamina- 

 tion and comparison with those substances 

 which appear to be necessary for their vege- 

 tation. If we could succeed completely in 

 this enquiry, it would throw a great deal of 

 light upon the nature of soils, and of manures, 

 and on some of the most important questions 

 in agriculture. The substances entering in- 

 to the composition of vegetables, as far as 

 has been ascertained by chemical analysis, 

 appears to be carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 

 nitrogen, with earthy and saline substances — 

 of which carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, 

 calcium (lime) potash and soda may be consi- 

 dered as essential ingredients of the food of 

 plants — potash being found in all vegetables 

 except such as grow in connection with sea 

 water, where soda takes the place of potash. 

 Carbon, which forms the principal mass of 

 vegetable matter, is considered a simple sub- 

 stance, and when pure it appears in the form 

 of diamond — carbon combines freely with 

 oxygen either by combustion or putrefaction, 

 their union forming carbonic acid, which in 

 the gaseous state pervades the atmosphere ; 

 it is absorbed by water, and very powerfully 

 by calcium, potash and soda forming carbon- 

 ates of these substances, in which state they 

 will hereafter be considered, when treating 

 of the manner in which food is furnished to 

 plants. Carbon also combines with hydrogen 

 m the production of carburated hydrogen-gas, 

 which on decomposition by a union with 

 oxygen, results in the production of water 

 and carbonic acid. Oxygen then is that im- 

 portant constituent of the atmosphere, which, 

 by entering into combination with carbon, 

 forms carbonic acid, and with hydrogen it 

 forms water. Without the agency of oxygen- 

 gas and water, no putrefaction of vegetable 

 or animal matter could take place, conse- 

 quently no carboaic acid or other preparation 

 of the food of plants produced. Oxygen-gas 

 is also the supporter of vegetable respiration. 

 Having thus taken a brief view of some of 

 the characters of the substances essentially 

 entering into the composition of vegetables, 

 and of the effects produced by their combina- 

 tion ; hence it is understood of what sub- 

 stances vegetables are composed, consequentr 



