250 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



[March 3. 



We have, however, frequently observed tliat the sap 

 from the sugar nKiple flows with most frfeeilom when a 

 frosty night is succeeded by a fair day, either calm or 

 the wiud northerly or -westerly. It is well known to 

 all makers of maple sugar, that when the iiljhts are at 

 a temperature above the freezing point, the days suc- 

 ceeding yield little or po juice from '.he maple. And 

 ■we have known maple sap flow freely for an hour or 

 two in the morning ; and a slight breeze springing up 

 from the south east, or any point south of north east 

 and south-west, would stop the flux of the sap almost 

 instantaneouslj'. We do not pretend to understand the 

 philosophy of this, but so it is. We look however no 

 note of the moon, not suspecting that planet of any in- 

 terference in tlie case. We do not say that the moon 

 has not the influence alleged, but we must have bet- 

 ter evidence before we can aflirm it as a fact estabiish- 

 ed. 



While on the subject of the moon's influence on the 

 flux of maple sap, it may not be amiss to take notice 

 of some other alleged interferences of that planet with 



in the bark and wood. There originate the acid or i Tlifise gentlemen, when recommending to us 



alkaline, mucilaginous or resinous, ncrid or aromatic, .• larmers, wlmt they deemed the best nieims bv 



,• r ,1 :. ...r,;„i. ...„ „:™u. " »i,,..;_ .T •_ i„^:-.ii_ I- •' 



saccharine or bitter principles. A portion of the sap is 

 carried to the flower and fruits, and undergoes no less 

 remarkable, changes, for purposes destined to be ac- 

 complished there ; but is .lOt returned from thence, as 

 from the leaves, in order to answer any further end. 



Writers are not agreed respecting; the cause of the 

 ascei;.t of sap. Some suppose that the vessels in which 

 it rises are a series of little pumps furnished with valves. 

 The air cnclosi-d in these being Tarified by heat, es- 

 capes in part, and the sap, or fluid immediately below 



which we mig-ht obtain Ibis de.sirable object 

 have indeed differed in the modes Ihe^' have re- 

 commended. Tlip one (Mr Pickering) advises 

 us to lake the s.)m ■ slep* ihe successful breed- 

 ers of cattle in l>.c;!and have taken— and by a 

 judicious selection, &c. to inipiove our breed of 

 cillle. While the other (Mr Ponn.) adiisesus 

 to procure the finest of Ihe present iinpro\e(l 

 breeds from Eng-land or elsewhere — as the best 

 way of gaining (his olijcct. 



1 have not used the term native catlle, ns I 



is introduced hy the pressure of the atmosphere, as in jam yet to be informed if we have anv native 

 what is called a suction pump. Others attribute this j cattle in ibis country, except llie butfalo or bi- 

 effect to what they call the principle of vitality in the j son — very few of w hich, if any, aie to be found 



vegetable, &c. &c. The circulation of sap, according 

 to the above theory is said to have been ascertained by 

 experiments made by Dr Darwin, Mr Knight and oth- 

 ers, who b;,- introducing twigs of various vegetables 

 into water coloured with logwood, madder, &c. were 

 able to trace the motions of the fluid, and to deduce 



the processes of vegetation. Mr Loudon in his Ency- therefrom something like the principles we have at- 

 clopedia of Gardening, published in London, 1824, , tempted to explain. In short, according to these and 



says "Meager, Mascal, Worlidge, and the authors 

 ■who preceded them, regulate the performance of hor- 

 ticultural operatioi's by the age of the moon. Turnips 

 orxmions, according to these authors, sown ■when the 

 moon is full, will not bulb, but send out flower stalks; 

 and fiuit trees, planted or grafted at that season, will 

 have their period of grafting greatly retarded. A weak 

 tree is te be pruned in the increase and a strong tree in 

 the wane of the moon. Quintinye seems to have been 

 the first to oppose this doctrine in France, and through 

 Evelyn's translation in his Comphle C-arc!tner,he seems 

 to have overturned it also in England. " I solemnly 

 declare" he says, " that after a diligent observation of 

 the moon's changes for thirty years together and an en- 

 quiry whether they had any influence iu gr>rdcning, 

 the affirmative of which has been so long established 

 among us, I perceived it was no weightier than old 

 ■wives' tales, and that it had been advanced by unex- 

 perienced gardeners. 1 have therefore followed ■«hat 

 appeared more reasonable, and rejected what was 

 otherwise", in short graft in what (Imc of the moon you 

 please, if your grafts be good, and grafted on a proper 

 stock ; provided you do it like an artist, you will be 

 sure to succeed. In the same manner sow what sort? 

 of grain you please in any quarter of the moon. I'll 

 answer for your success, the first and List day of the 

 moon being equally favourable." 



With regard to " the subject of sap vesselE,"we shall 

 give a brief exposition of ■what we believe to be the 

 modern theory of the circulation of fluids in vegetables. 

 The sap vessels pervade the alburnum or sap wood. — 

 The nutrilious fluids imbibed from the soil by the radi- 

 cal fibres, after, perhaps nndirgoiug some change equi- 

 valent to digestion in the body of the root, ascend in 

 '-he state of sap along the stem or trunk into the leaves, 

 Tiy moans of those sap vessels. In the leaves the sap 

 is exposed to the action of heat, light and air. Much 

 of the watery part of its composition evaporates by* 



other modern writers on the physiology of vegetation, 

 all the sap of vegetables ascrndstilortt^ {fit oiilside layer 

 rif Ihe wood ; and that part of said sap which is not 

 wrought into leaves, flowers or fruit, rr is not evaporat- 

 ed in the perspiration of the leaves, &c. descends along 

 Ike inside layer of the bark, and by its secretions forms 

 a new layer of alburnum. If you stop up or destroy 

 the channels by which the sap ascends or those by 

 which it descends, by girdling or other means you des- 

 troy the vegetable. We huve not read Sinilh''s Bnlarty^ 

 quoted by " Investigator," but mean to read it, and if 

 we find anything new on thisabtruse subj>xt, ■we may, 

 perhaps, give some further remarks on what "we are 

 somewhat tempted to call the mclapht/sics of ccgeiation. 



TO THE EDITOP. OF THE NEW ENc.LAND rAH.MEn. 



BREEDS OF CATTLE. 



Wilmington, {Ms.) Feb. 27, I82ti. 

 Mr Fesskxdkm — I have road with pleasure the 

 several Letters wriKen by llio lion. Ti.mothy 

 PicKnniNi;, [lublished in your paper on (he siib- 



among us. .'Vllempts have been made lo im- 

 prove our breed of callle by inlroducing Ihese 

 wild bulls among them, but VTiihoiit anv ad- 

 vnnlage having been derived thereby. The 

 catlle now most common in this connlry are a 

 mixed breed from Ihe cattle our furcfalhers 

 brought with them, or imported from the seve- 

 ral countries from which they originated and 



which (I believe) were of as good a breed as 

 was Ihen common in those countries; and from 

 which breeds has been [)roduced in those coun- 

 tries llie present highly imjiroved race. II 1 am 

 correct in Ibis description of our present breed 

 of caKle, it follows of course that Mr PicKnRi\o"s 

 Ihcory is true — that a breed of callb; may be 

 produced I'rom our present breed equal to Ihe 

 jiresent highly improved breed in any of (hose 

 countries from w hich ours originated ; or it must 

 be confessed (a confession 1 am lery unwilling 

 should be made) that we American Farmers 

 cannot accomplish, ^vith the same means, what 

 has been accomplished by the farmers in oilier 

 coiinlrjes. Yel, nolwilhslanding, I fully believe 

 wilti -Mr PifKnniNG that our present breed of 

 cadle is capable oliieing improved lo a deoree 

 equal to the highest improved race in any coun- 

 try. I also fully believe with .Mr Pouel that 

 the most espedilious way to accomplisii this ob- 

 ject, would be lo introduce into our country the 

 lines! catlle of Ihe highest improved bieeds, as 

 by so doing, we at once come in possession of 



PowEE, Esq — a~ published in your paper, and 

 in a pamphlet; and must confess Ihal I have nol 

 the ability lo discover either in their nbjecl or 

 opinions difference which could have been made 

 a just ground for a controversy between those 

 gentlemen. If I have rightly understood the 

 purport of what those gentlemen have written, 

 they both agree that Ihe callle now common a- 

 mong us are much inferior to Ihe present im- 

 proved breeds in Encjland, and in some olher 

 par(« of Europe — and that the object of both, 

 was to impress on the minds of us farmers the 

 great importance of our immediately turning 

 our allenlion to the improvement of o'lr slocks 

 of callle. It also appeared lo be Ihe joint opin- 

 j.erspiration from the leaves. A portion, however, of,;^^ of those gentlemen Ihat the present impiov- 



ject of llie improvemenl of our breeds of Caltlp, • Ihe best breed of catlle that those countries from 

 and also Ihe reply to (he same by John HinEJ "hence we receive them have been able, wilh 



the sap or blood of the vegetable descends alongthe 

 inner layer of the bark. That part which returns from 

 'he leaf is impregnated with carbon, [coaly or woody 



the besl possible management for a century past 

 lo produce. 



I am sensible that objections may he made (o 

 eilherof ihe modes recommended by ihese o-en- 

 llemen. To .Mr Pickewmj il may be said — it 

 will require a great length of lime in the way 

 you have proposed, to produce a breed of cattle 

 equal to Ihe highesl improved breeds in Eng- 

 land. And (hat we are unwilling lo be half a 

 century in the rear of any nation in improve- 

 ments. To Mr Pov.'Er, it may (wiih Iruib) be 

 ■said bj tiie major pari of us farmers, Ihe ex- 

 pense of importing these fno «atlle exceeds our 

 abilily to meet, and we cannot iuifirove our 

 blocks of callle in this way. It might also fur- 

 ther be said— if the finest callle in Ihe world 

 were to be imported in suliicieni numbers, and 

 ilistribrted gratis among all the farmers in IVorlh 



ed breeds in England and elsewhere, bad been 

 produced by a judicious selection, — crossing Ihe 



breeds, and by the superior good management, ' ■^nis'"i'"^^'f those catlle were m uiaged in Ihe 

 matter] attracted from the atmosphere, and yields its j f„r j, century past, of the breeders of callle injs'Rme injudicious manner, and (ed in Ihe same 

 carbon to the body of the plant, thus forming a new those counlries, who being genllemen of ample 'scanty tnd negligent way that our catlle gene- 



forlnnos. and (Irst rate (alenls, have by iliscover- 1 rally n«w are, they would soon degenerate — 

 ing an<l putting in practice the best mode of i lor, if ky the most judicious ami best possible 

 management produced (lie present highly im- 1 "iai'"S''i>ient the present improved race has 

 proved race. ibeen prjiduccd; il must I believe naturally foi- 



and outside layer to the alburnum or sap wood. 



The peculiar secretions, by which one plant differs 

 in taste, smell and medical qualities from another are 

 first evolved in the leave?,- though, perhaps, perfected 



