640 



F A R M Ji R S ' REGISTER, 



[No. 11 



has successfully treated if, by the application of a 

 solution of salt, by a common (gardening pot, to 

 the stalks of the corn. This is a subject worthy 

 of the most minute investigation; and all methods 

 should be tried which promise to eradicate so 

 great an evil. As the funjjus increases by the 

 diffusion of its seeds, great care should be taken 

 that no mildewed straw is carried in the manure 

 used lor corn; and in the early crop, if mildew is 

 observed upon any of the stalks of corn, they 

 should be carefully removed, and treated as weeds. 



The popular notion amongst fiirmers, that a 

 barberry-tree in the neighborhood of a field of 

 wheat often produces the mildew, deserves exa- 

 mination. This tree is frequently covered with a 

 fungus, which, if it should be shown to be capa- 

 ble of degenerating into the wheat fungus, would 

 offer an easy explanation of the effect. 



There is some reason to believe, from the re- 

 searches of Sir Joseph Banks, that the smut in 

 wheat likewise is produced by a very small fungus 

 which fixes on the grain ; the products that it af- 

 fords by analysis are similar to those afforded by 

 (he puff-ball ; and it is difficult to conceive, that 

 without the agency of some organized structure, 

 so complete a change should be eff'ected in the 

 constitution of the grain. 



The misletoe and the ivy, the moss and the 

 lichen, in fixing upon trees, uniformly injure their 

 vegetative processes, though in very different de- 

 grees. They are supported from the lateral sap- 

 vessels, and deprive the branches above of a part 

 of their nourishment. 



The insect tribes are scarcely less injurious than 

 -the parasitical plants. 



To enumerate all the animal destroyers and 

 tyrants of the vegetable kingdom, would be to 

 give a catalogue of the greater number of the 

 •classes in zoology. Every species of plant al- 

 most is (he peculiar resting-place or dominion of 

 some insect tribe ; and from the locust, the cater- 

 pillar, and snail, to the minute aphis, a wonderful 

 variety of the inferior insects are nourished, and 

 live by their ravages upon the vegetable world. 



I have already referred to the insect which 

 feeds on the seed-leaf of the turnip. 



The Hessian fly, still more destructive to wheat, 

 has, in some seasons, threatened the United States 

 with a famine. And the French government, in 

 1813, issued decrees with a view to occasion the 

 destruction of the larvae of the grasshopper. 



In general, wet weather is most favorable to 

 the propagation of mildew, funguses, rust, and 

 the small parasitical vegetables ;\iry weather to 

 the increase of the insect tribes. Nature, amidst 

 all her changes, is continually directing her re- 

 sources towards the production and multiplication 

 of life ; and in the wise and grand economy of the 

 whole system, even the agents that appear inju- 

 rious to the hopes, and destructive to the comforts 

 of man, are, in fact, ultimately connected with a 

 more exalted state of his powers and his condition. 

 His industry is awakened, his activity kept alive, 

 even by the defects of climates and season. By 

 the accidents which interfijre with his efforts, he 

 is made to exert his talents, to look farther into 

 futurity, and to consider the vegetable kingdom 

 not as a secure and unalterable inheritance, spon- 

 taneously providing for his wants ; but as a doubt- 

 ful and insecure possession, to be preserved only 

 by labor, and extended and perfected by ingenuity. 



LECTURE VI. 



ON MANURES OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL, 

 ORIGIN. OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY 

 BECOME THE NOURISHMENT OF THE PLANT. 

 OF FERMENTATION AND PUTREFACTION. 

 OF THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF MANURES 

 OF VEGETABLE ORIGIN; OF THE DIFFER- 

 ENT SPECIES OF ANIMAL ORIGIN. OF MIX- 

 ED MANURES. GENERAL PRINCIPLES WITH 

 RESPECT TO THE USE AND APPLICATION 

 OF SUCH MANURES. 



That certain vegetable and animal substances 

 introduced into the soil accelerate vegetation and 

 increase the product of crops, is a fact known 

 since the earliest period of agriculture ; but the 

 manner in which manures act, the best modes of 

 applying them, their relative value and durability, 

 are still subjects of discussion. In this lecture,! 

 shall endeavor to lay down some settled principles 

 on these objects ; they are capable of being ma- 

 terially elucidated by the recent discoveries in che- 

 mistry ; and I need not dwell on their great im- 

 portance to farmers. 



The pores in the fibres of the roots ol' plants 

 are so small, that it is with difficulty they can be 

 discovered by the microscope ; it is not, therefore, 

 probable that solid substances can pass into them 

 from the soil. I tried an experiment on this sub- 

 ject: some impalpable powdered charcoal, pro- 

 cured by washmg gunpowder, and dissipating the 

 sulphur by heat, was placed in a phial containing 

 pure water in which a plant of peppermint was 

 growing; the roots of the plant were pretty ge- 

 nerally in contact with the charcoal. The expe- 

 riment was made in the beginning ol" May, 18(35; 

 the growth of the plant was very vigorous during 

 a fortnight, when it was taken out of the phial : 

 the roots were cut through in different parts ; but 

 no carbonaceous matter could be discovered in 

 them, nor were the smallest fibrils blackened by 

 charcoal, though this must have been the case had 

 the charcoal been absorbed in a solid form. 



No substance is more necessary to plants than 

 carbonaceous matter; and if this cannot be intro- 

 duced into the organs of plants except in a state 

 of solution, there is every reason to suppose that 

 other substances less essential will be in the same 

 case. 



1 found by some experiments made in 1804, 

 that plants introduced into strong fresh solutions 

 of sugar, mucilage, tanning principle, jelly, and 

 other substances, died : but that plants lived in 

 the same solutions after they had fermented. At 

 that time, 1 supposed that fermentation was ne- 

 cessary to prepare the food of plants ; but I have 

 since found that the deleterious effect of the recent 

 vegetable solutions was owing to their being too 

 concentrated; in consequence of which the vege- 

 table organs were probably clogged with solid 

 matter, and the transpiration by the leaves pre- 

 vented. In (he beginning of June, in the next 

 year, I used solutions of the same substances ; 

 but so much diluted, that there was only about 

 one-two hundredth part of solid vegetable or ani- 

 mal matter in the solutions. Plants of mint 

 grow luxuriantly in all these solutions; but least 

 so in that of the astringent matter. I watered 

 some spots of grass in a garden with (he diflferent 

 solutions separately, and a spot with common wa- 



