346 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



there could be no harm in carrying oti what the 

 land produced, or in neglecting that part o( the 

 crop which was of no economical value lor any 

 other purpose. We might iilusirale this by a 

 re'erence boih to Biill exisiing, and to many now 

 exploded praciices among ourselves, but we ra- 

 ther advert to a custom prevailing among our 

 iransailamic brethren, as described in the very 

 interesting work of one of the best race ol our 

 own existing practical larmers. They grow wheat, 

 eell the gram, and eiiher burn or otherwise wasie, 

 ihe straw. Alter wheat ihey grow clover, which 

 they never cut, hut plough in lor tjreen manure. 

 The vegetable matter in the soil is thus Uept up, 

 all the conditions of ihe old theory are lulfiM^-d, 

 and yet the land is mevitably going to ruin. The 

 Jaiher may not be aware that he is eating eour 

 grapes; but the children's teeih are sure to be 

 eat on edge ncveriheless. 



Again, our West India planters, on their cs- 

 taies'm Jamaica and elsewhere, find the laml im- 

 poverished, and they hardly know why. There 

 may be special local causes by which it is aided 

 here and ihere, but the main cause is the same 

 as in the United States. Tne canes are deprived 

 of their juice in the mill, and the trash, as the 

 refuse canes are called, is then burned to boil the 

 euf^ar. The ash they leave is olien considered 

 as'worse than useless— it is only a troublesome 

 refuse. 



Can any one doubt, after such examples as 

 these, that all our practice is modified and has 

 been modified by theory, either lor good or lor 

 bad? Not that theory has at once said to the 

 li^rmer, do this, and he both done it, but the 

 opinions of the vegetable physiologisis gradually 

 became a part of the general stock of knowledge 

 among all well-informed men, and, through them, 

 gradually influenced the agricultural practice in 

 every country of Europe. 



Then these same theoretical opinions led to 

 curious shifts and contrivances in nomenclaiure. 

 It was now and then observed, that the addition 

 of inorganic, matter to the soil, ot wood and peat 

 ashes, of kelp, of saltpetre, and a score of other 

 things, proiluced a remarkable elfect upon vege- 

 tatioTi— increased the crop— hastened its growth- 

 gave a heavier return of hay, of straw, and ol 

 grain. Was the plant/ed by these things'? Not 

 at all. These were not manures, they were 

 stimulants. And so we had some substances 

 which were nei'.her manures nor stimulants, but 

 acted by fermentation; while many other like 

 Bhifts were made necessary by the advance ol 

 knowledge, not a few ol" which still linger among 

 us, and will linger, standing in the way ol sounder 

 views and a salisr practice, till anoiher generation 

 eees the light. And among the men upon whose 

 minds these shadows of old opinions thus still 

 rest— who have beaun to ascend, but have not 

 yet escaped from the mists of the valley— from 

 these men we hear the opinion sagely (propound- 

 ed "Chemistry must be content to Ibllow — she 



cannot lead in agriculture." But this is mere 

 fudge; agriculture, above every other art, is ac- 

 cus?omed to be led by theory. Every little farmer 

 has his foo'ish fancies, which direct his practice ; 

 and it is only to be lamented, that while so willing 

 to be led, she has been accustomed to listen more 

 frequently to the voice of the mere empyric, than 

 to that 0.*" the sound philosopher. 



So far as we have seen, she was led by physi- 

 ology, and into what difficulties ;— let us now see 

 wliat she has begun to think since chemistry 

 took her by ihe hand, and began at once to leach 

 and to guide iter. The adi of plants was the 

 first object of s'udy. Little came of the early 

 analyst s of Do Saussu'-e. They were inaccurately 

 perlurmed, and it was well that no attempt was 

 made to deduce any important natural conse- 

 quence from them. But the resources of chemi- 

 cal fekill increased, and better instructed men 

 luriied their alieniion to the eufject. Spreneel 

 we may meniion as the most indulaiigable in ihia 

 line, and one who has mainly comributed to the 

 establishment of the received views— though we 

 may also add, that the highesi analyii.-al skdl haa 

 never yet been enlisted in ihia cause. These 

 analyses j^roved that the notion of the organic 

 being ihe only essential part of the vegetable, 

 could no longer be entertained; that earttiy 

 matter was also essemial to the exisience of the 

 plant ; and that in each species of plant, and even 

 in each part of the same plant, the earthy matter 

 was present in a quantity [)eculiar to itsell, while 

 the (juantiiy or kind of malier of which the ash 

 consisted, was also difierent in diHerent plants, 

 and generally special in each. Well, this being 

 proved by chemistry, what (bllovved from if? 

 Why, that the old physiological doctrine about 

 ihe essential nature of the vegetable matter, had 

 only looked at the sul jt-ct with one eye, that now 

 ihe'chemical doctrine opened the other eye, and 

 the plant was then seen to consist of two essential 

 pari.!— an organic and an inorijanic part. But 

 how did tins'' affoct praciice'? Why, thus- ihe 

 old races of stimulants and lermeniators, and al! 

 the rest of them were dismissed. The plant haa 

 an inorganic part which must be led, and must 

 (Trow by the aid of iiiorganic/or)d -it must have 

 mineral (bod as well ae vegetable food. From 

 this it further followed, that vegetable manures, 

 if they make plants grow, do so, not because they 

 supply organic food nnJy, but because they con- 

 tain, and "are able to supply inorganic Ibod also. 

 And again, mineral substances made a plant 

 grow, not by some hidden mode of merely stimu- 

 faiing it to take up and appropriate a larger por- 

 tion '^ol Ihe vegetable matter which had been 

 applied to its roois, but because it actually entered 

 into its substance, and supplied that morganic 

 Ibod which was not previously within reach ol its 



roots. * , /• u 



Thu?, in regard to the soil, it followed from the 

 some doctrine^ that mere vegetable matter might 

 be increased to any amount, as by ploughing in 

 green crop?, &c., without i's being possible to 

 save the land from ultimate barrenness, ii crops 

 were continually carried off, and noihing— no 

 mineral matter, that is— restored to it. Let the 

 American farmers burn their straw, and top-dress 

 iheir soil with the ash; and though they do not 

 convert their straw into manure, as in our fold- 

 yards, yet with the aid of their green clover, 

 iheir land may retain its fertility (or half a century 

 lontrer, vvithout the addition of foreign manures. 

 Let^'lhe ash of the cane trash be used to top-dresa 

 the young canes, or be put in holes about their 

 roots, crushing it first when it happens to be 

 melted, and though past mismanagement may 

 not be repaired, lurther exhaustion will proceed 

 with infinitely greater slowness. We have a 



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