No. 4. 



On Promoting Vegetation. 



107 



known to us, but certain powers to affect us 

 in a particular manner, and to impress differ- 

 ent sensations and perceptions on our bodily 

 organs 1 These different perceptions, indeed, 

 enable us to distinguish, accurately enough, 

 one thing from another ; but we are totally 

 ignorant of the nature of those powers, and 

 equally so of the essence or substratum in 

 which they inhere, and by which they are 

 supported.* 



The great system of the universe is gov- 

 erned by general laws, which, so far as our 

 knowledge extends, obtain universally. Gra- 

 vitation, attraction, repulsion, cohesion, and 

 perhaps many other principles, affect every 

 portion of matter that comes within our 

 knowledge ; but what supports those powers, 

 in what their energy consists, or from whence 

 they are derived, we are by no means able to 

 apprehend or conceive. Vegetation also ob- 

 tains universally on this globe. Wherever 

 there is earth, vegetation takes place ; there- 

 fore the principle (or principles) of vegetation, 

 whatsoever it be, or in whatsoever it consists, 

 must be universal ; and all that is necessary 

 for the husbandman to do, is to prepare his 

 ground effectually, put in his seed or plants at 

 the proper season, and vegetation will most 

 assuredly follow. Indeed, so prolific is nature 

 as to clothe the face of the globe with herbs 

 and plants in every region, without the inter- 

 vention or assistance of man. The fund or 

 magazine, then, which furnishes the pabulum 

 or food of plants, is established and supplied 

 by the economy of nature, seeing it obtains at 

 all times and every where, unassisted by art. 

 But how and in what manner nature is to be 

 assisted, how and by what means vegetation 

 is to be promoted, and carried to its utmost 

 and most beneficial degree of perfection, is 

 the grand desideratum, the great and import- 

 ant object of our inquiry. 



The principles of vegetation, and the means 

 by which it may be promoted in the most suc- 

 cessful and beneficial manner, may be fitly 

 divided into three general heads, and distin- 

 guished by the terms mechanical, chemical, 

 and nutritive. The Mechanical includes 

 every operation which tends to break, divide, 

 and pulverize the soil ; whether it be by 

 ploughing and harrowing, digging and hoe- 

 ing, or by any other means whatever; that 

 being the most eligible which most effectually 

 performs the operation at the least expense. 



Pulverizing the soil may be truly con- 

 sidered as the first step towards an improving 

 vegetation ; not as 'producing the food or nour- 

 ishment of plants, but of putting the soil into 

 a fit condition for receiving it, from whatever 

 source it may be derived, and giving easy ac- 



* We think that tho application of science to the pur- 

 suits of ajrririiltiire, hy Sir H. Davy. A. Youno, and 

 Otiiers, has leniieJ in a great degree to raise tlie veil. 



cess to the roots and fibres which extend 

 themselves every way in quest of the same. 



Chemical principles produce much the same 

 effects, but in a way we cannot so easily, nor 

 so perfectly, comprehend. The mechanic 

 powers are subservient to our will, and we 

 can continue the use of them until the desired 

 end is obtained ; but the effects of chemical 

 operations are not so certain in this business, 

 as a certain concurrence of circumstances, 

 not always in our power to procure, is neces- 

 sary to produce the hoped-for success. Much 

 depends upon the temperature of the seasons, 

 the state of the air, and many other things 

 not in the power of man to foresee or to govern. 

 Fermentation seems to be the principal agent 

 in promoting vegetation by chemical powers. 

 This divides, attenuates, and subtilizes, by 

 means of an internal motion of the parts, 

 which we cannot clearly conceive. Probably 

 it is on this principle that marl, chalk, shells, 

 and every kind of calcareous earth, are ferti- 

 lizers of land. Not by any matter or sub- 

 stance inherent in them, as constituent parts 

 of the same, but as absorbent bodies, which 

 attract much more powerfully the principles 

 of vegetation than earth alone could do. 



We come next to inquire concerning iVw- 

 tritive principles. And here we have a field 

 to range in as capacious at least as the earth 

 we inhabit, together with its atmosphere; 

 perhaps much more, even not less than the 

 solar system, as that immense body of fire, 

 which is the centre thereof, gives life and 

 energy to the whole creation ; and annually 

 revives, reanimates, and bestows rejuvenes- 

 cency on the whole animal and vegetable 

 world. 



But before we proceed on this inquiry, it 

 may be proper to make a few observations, 

 the truth of which is self-evident, and conso- 

 nant to the common sense of mankind. By 

 common sense, the writer does not mean com- 

 mon opinion; for nothing is more vague and 

 liable to error than that ; but those ideas which 

 are the same in all men, as proceeding from 

 identical or similar sensations and perceptions 

 involuntarily impressed upon them. This is 

 the true and only defensible meaning of the 

 term common sense, though it is frequently 

 made to stand for, and express, principles 

 which are supposed to be innate in the mind, 

 l)ut in fact have nothing common or identical 

 in them, but are as infinitely diversified in 

 different men as are their features. 



There seems to be a natural relation, con- 

 nexion, and dependence, between the animal 

 and vegetable kingdoms. No part of the ter- 

 raqueous globe that we know of, that is occu- 

 pied by living creatures of any kind, but is 

 replete with vegetables proper for their sus- 

 tenance and support ; and it is equally certain, 

 that wherever vegetables grow and flourish, 



