532 



FARMER S' REGISTER 



[No, 9 



ence produced in the habits of the plant by cuhi- 

 vation. 



Plants agree with animals in requiring periodi- 

 cal times of rest. In animals, these periods are, 

 for the most part, at short intervals of not more 

 than a day ; but, in plants, they are commonly at 

 long intervals, probably of a year. In warm cli- 

 mates, the dormant period of plants commences 

 with the dry season, and continues till the recur- 

 rence of the periodical rains which are peculiar to 

 the tropical regions. In temperate countries, the 

 dormant season in plants commences with the 

 cold of winter, and continues till the recurrence of 

 spring. When plants are in a dormant state, 

 they commonly lose theirleaves, and, consequently, 

 at that season, they are unable to make use of 

 the nourishment applied to their roots ; and hence 

 the injury done to them when they are stimulated 

 with nourishment and warmth, so as to occasion 

 their growth during the period at which they 

 ought to be at rest. Hence, also, arises the in- 

 jury which plants receive, and especially bulbs, if 

 the soil about them be kept moist by water when 

 they are in a dormant state. Plants having no 

 feeling, in the common sense in which the word 

 is used, can neither experience pleasure nor pain ; 

 but they resent injuries, either negative or posi- 

 tive, by slow growth, or by becoming diseased. 

 By their being fixed to the spot where they grow, 

 they necessarily depend for their food, heat, air, 

 and light, on the circumstances peculiar to that 

 spot ; and, hence, to increase their growth be- 

 yond what it would be if left to nature; additional 

 food must be brought to them, and the warmth, 

 airiness, and lightness of the situation increased. 

 Hence, what is called vegetable culture ; which 

 consists in stirring the soil, adding manure to it, 

 regulating the supply of water by draining or ir- 

 rigation, sheltering from the colder winds, a"nd ex- 

 posing to the direct influence of the sun's rays. 

 If we imagine any one of these points attended to, 

 and not the others, the plant will not thrive. Stir- 

 ring the soil, and mixing it with manure, will be 

 of httle use if that soil be liable to be continually 

 saturated with moisture, either from its retentive 

 nature, from springs from below, or from continu- 

 ed rams from above ; or if it be continually with- 

 out, or with very little moisture, from its porous 

 nature, the want of moisture in the subsoil, and 

 the want of ram and dews fi-om the atmosphere. 

 Irnprovmg the soil without improving the climate, 

 (that IS, without communicating a proportionate 

 degree of warmth and light,) will increase the 

 bulk of the plant, but without proportionately 

 bnngmg its different parts to maturity. For ex- 

 ample, we will suppose two plantations of trees 

 planted at the same time, on similar soil, and in 

 the same climate ; that in the case of the one 

 plantation the soil was trenched and manured, 

 and in the other not ; and that the trees were 

 planted in equal numbers in both plantations, and 

 at the same distances. The trees in the prepared 

 soil would grow rapidly, and in the unprepared 

 soil slowly. Afrer a certain number of years (say 

 twenty), we shall suppose both plantations cut 

 down; when the timber produced by that which 

 had grown slowly would be found hard, and of 

 good quality ; while that produced by the planta- 

 tion which had grown rapidly would be found soft, 

 spongy, and, when employed in construction, 

 eomparatively of short duration. The reason is, 



that in this last case the rate of nourishment to 

 the roots exceeded the natural proportion which 

 nature requires in plants, between the suppiv of 

 food to the roots, and of light and air to the leaves. 

 Had the trees in the prepared soil been thinned out 

 as they advanced, so as never to allow their 

 branches to do more than barely touch each 

 other, they would have produced a great deal 

 more timber than the trees on the unprepared soil, 

 and that timber would have been of equal firmness 

 and duration with timber of slower growth. It 

 ought, therefore, to be strongly impressed on the 

 minds of amateur cultivators, that though nou- 

 rishment of the root will produce bulk of the lop, 

 or, at least, length of top, yet that it is only by 

 abundance of light and air that quality can be 

 secured. 



One very remarkable point of difference be- 

 tween animals and plants is, that which has been 

 before alluded to, the much greater provision 

 which nature has made for the propagation of the 

 latter than of the former. Plants not only pro- 

 duce immense f]uantities of seeds, which are dis- 

 tributed by the winds and waters, by animals, and 

 by various causes : but they extend themselves by 

 shoots, which run on or under the surface of the 

 ground, as in the case of the strawberry, the rasp- 

 berry, &c. ; and they produce buds, each of which, 

 by human art, can be rendered equivalent to a 

 seed, either by planting it (with a small portion of 

 the plant from which it is taken) at once in the 

 ground, or by inserting it in another plant of the 

 same family. Hence, the great facility with 

 which plants are multiplied both by nature and 

 art ; with the exception of a few, in which the 

 process of propagation by artificial means is com- 

 paratively difficult. 



Another remarkable difference, also before al- 

 luded to, between plants and animals is, the abso- 

 lute necessity of light to plants during the whole 

 period of their existence. There are many ani- 

 mals of the lower description, such as worms, to 

 which light, so far fi-om being necessary, is injuri- 

 ous; and there are instances of even the more per- 

 fect animals having lived for several years without 

 the presence of light, either natural or artificial. 

 Light is not necessary for either the functions of 

 the stomach, brain, or lungs, in animals : but in 

 plants, though it is equally unnecessary for the 

 functions of the root and the collar, it is essentially 

 so for those of the leaves ; and the leaves are ne- 

 cessary to the elaboration of the sap, and, conse- 

 quently, to the nourishment of the plant. A 

 plant, therefore, from which the leaves are con- 

 tinually stripped as soon as they are produced, 

 soon ceases to live. Small and weak plants, 

 from which the leaves are taken off as they are 

 produced, will die in a single season ; and this 

 practice, continued for two seasons, will kill, or 

 nearly so, the largest tree. If, instead of stripping 

 a plant of its leaves, the leaves are produced in 

 the absence of light, and light never admitted to 

 them, the effect will be precisely the same. Seeds 

 germinated, or plants struck from cuttings, in the 

 dark, will not exist a single season ; nor will trees, 

 or tubers, such as the potato, placed in an apart- 

 ment from which all light is excluded, live more 

 than two seasons. Hence, the importance of light 

 to plants can scarcely be overrated ; lor, while it 

 has been proved that plants, even of the most per- 

 fect kind, will live for many months, or even years, 



