THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



399 



the body is to remain unchanged, ll has been 

 proved, that iron is not necessary to the colorinir 

 mailer ol'lhe blood, but that it Ibrms an epsential 

 constituent ol' blood-globules. These glohulee, ii 

 is well known, take no part in nutrition. Prolessor 

 Liebig conceives that the iron is the great means 

 of conveying to the lunirs the carbonic a. id Ibrm- 

 ed in the system ; and he lias made a calculation, 

 that the iron contained in the l>ody could actually 

 convey twice as much carbonic acid as is expelled 

 daily liom the system. 



Dr. Piaylair, to whom the public is indebted for 

 this able summary, on receiving the thanks ol 

 the Section, (also voted to Prot: Liebig,) stated 

 that he had prepared it lor a popular assemblage, 

 and referred the more scientific portion of his 

 hearers to the original, lor farther inlormation. 



REPLICATION TO THE REJOINDER ON THE 

 DOCTRINE OF ROTATIONS.* 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Big Lick, Roanoke, Aug. 17, 1842. 

 i am truly surprised that you should have 

 evinced so little knowledge of the human heart, 

 &nd so little regard for editorial popularity, in your 

 note to the last essay of the Rev. Jesse Turner, 

 as to have indulged the Irish hint, that his argu- 

 ments 80 Cully answered themselves as to render a 



* When a controversy has commenced in a journal 

 like this, and the discussion has become excited, or is 

 beginning to wax warm, the editor is placed in a very 

 difficult position, in which he cannot possibly so act 

 (if aiming to act properly and fairly) as to avoid giv- 

 ing offence to both contending parties. He will, at 

 the same time, offend one by what he admits, and the 

 other by what he rejects, of each of the opponents' 

 pieces. And even if regardless of such offence, and 

 of every consideration but to do what is right, he re- 

 solves to prune away all personalities and unpalatable 

 epithets, he will find them so inseparably interwoven 

 with sound and necessary argument, that it is impossi- 

 ble to separate them entirely, and wholly reject the one 

 class, without impairing the force of the other. Under 

 such difficulties we have had already to act in regard 

 to prior controversies which grew out of Mr. Turner's 

 communications, and under such difficulties we have 

 to act now. This discussion, in spite of some previous 

 restraining on our part, (particular and remedial as 

 well as general and preventive,) has assumed a com- 

 plexion which we much regret — and the more so be- 

 cause of the high respect which we entertain for both 

 the opposing parties, as individuals, and as highly va- 

 lued contributors to the pages of the Farmers' Regis- 

 ter. If Mr. Turner requires it, we must permit him 

 to reply, and thus make even and equal the number of 

 the passes of attack and defence. But with that, this 

 discussion must end in this journal, unless confined 

 strictly to the matter in question, and to principles and 

 things, avoiding altogether what is personal or merely 

 critical of the manner and not the matter of the argu- 

 ment.— Ed. F. R. 



reply unnecessary. It was, Mr. Editor, a most 

 impolitic and cruel thrust, of'a barbed javelin, into 

 the sides ol the redoubtable " Le Noir Faineant," 

 which I am (earUil will cool the ardor of his chi- 

 valry, and disturb liie happy sell-complacency 

 with which he has heretofore regarded his prow- 

 ess and invincibility. To convict any dialectician 

 dut ol his own mouth, by adopting his lofic as the 

 very best argument against the truih of his pro- 

 positions, is distressing and luortilying enough in 

 all conscience ; but when you have, as on the pre- 

 sent occasion, a s[)ecial victim, duly prepared lor 

 the sacrifice in every particular, even to the gar- 

 land of flowers, a gentleman of age, experience, 

 and reputation, ambitious of fame as a practical, 

 self-taught liaimer, whose knowledire is rather in- 

 tuitive than inductive, and who, disdaining the aid 

 ol philosophers or philosophy, expects to light 

 up the intricate paths of organic chemistry and 

 vegetable physiology by the corruscations of his 

 own genius, you will find the anguish greatly 

 augmented by these adventitious circumstances, 

 and the writhings and contortions of the haplefia 

 victim afibrding indubitable assurance that he is 

 suffering the tortures of being flayed alive. I 

 know full well that the gentleman smarts un- 

 der your rebuke, and fieeis that you have at 

 one blow repaid him with liberal interest for all 

 his irony. ***** 



# * ' * * * # * 



With this introduction I would now proceed to 

 vindicate the theory of a rotation in crops, which 

 has been assailed by Mr. Turner, and endeavor to 

 correct the numerous errors and fallacies, which 

 disfigure his otherwise s()righlly essay; but really 

 the assault is so feeble, that I see but little to re- 

 build, while his positions are shifed with so 

 much alertness, and with such pliable consistency, 

 that I am almost delerred from the task of heading 

 and exposing him. i will, however, make a few 

 suggestions by way of reply, lest the gilded spe- 

 ciousness of the gemleman should be mistaken, 

 by careless observers, for the sterling bullion of 

 true knowledge. And first let me ask, how a 

 grave gentleman, who has undertaken to enlighten 

 the community on the sutject of agriculture, can 

 be so regardless of the serious responsibilities of 

 his task, as to disparage by sneers the authority 

 of philosophers, who have done more to advance 

 agriculture than all other men livingl What 

 shall I say in reply to that part of his essay in 

 which he remarks, " It however, Chaptal, Sir 

 H. Davy, Liebig, &c., can be of any service to 

 him, he may bring them. But to the Frenchmen 

 I positively object." Thus to strip Chaptal of 

 his birthright as a Frenchman, after a long life of 

 filial devotion to the glory and prosperity of his 

 beloved France, will never do. 1 am satisfied 

 he would not give up his heritage as a native of 

 la belle France, if he were perfectly sure it 

 would advance him in the good opinion ol Jesse 

 H. Turner, president of the Agricultural Society 

 of Henrico. This, reader, is one of the in)por- 

 tant preliminaries insisted upon in this controver- 

 sy by my authoritative antagonist, who affects 

 great wrath at my intimating a disposition in him 

 io varnish \\\s theories with lacts, and as it is a pre- 

 cious niorceau, we will chew the cud upon it a 

 while longer. As a matter of curiosity and di- 

 veriisement, let us analyze it. You positively and 

 emphatically object to the authority o^ Frenchmen, 



