1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



17 



formed of membrane, only, and placed in the 

 midst of bundles of vessels always distended by 

 the liquids which they contain, they must have 

 been so pressed in on every side, as to have been 

 unfitted for the performance of their appropriate 

 duties. But having a tough and elastic fibre coiled 

 along their inner surfaces, they are enabled to re- 

 sist this pressure, and to furnish a free passage 

 forirases throughout the whole plant. 



Ducts, are membranous tubes, very much re- 

 sembling spiral vessels in their form, and dislin- 

 guishabTe from them principally by their want o( 

 elasticity, and the absence of a spiral fibre along 

 their inner surface. The rounded cellules and cy- 

 lindric tubes, of which the vegetable structure 

 consists, cannot be applied to each other in masses, 

 80 as to fit exactly ; litde irregular spaces will ne- 

 cessarily be left between them. These spaces are 

 termed intercellular spaces. They are usually 

 triangular ; but their form vvill of course be de- 

 termmed by the number of vessels by which they 

 are formed. It sometimes happens, that the pe- 

 culiar secretions, or products of plants, are depo- 

 sited in these spaces, and pressing upon the neigh- 

 boring cellules, form cavities of very considerable 

 size. ° Of this nature are the turpentine cells, in 

 the bark of the pine. 



Such are the elementary organs of plants, and 

 sucii, so liir as is known, their offices, 'rhe in- 

 fluence of the vital principle, is beauiifiily dis- 

 played in the action of tlie^e organs. The ves- 

 sels of the living plant, swollen with fluids, re- 

 tain during ilk, their figure — change the fluids 

 which they contain into others of the most oppo- 



and twelve inches in the line; single stalks only 

 left in the thinning, which operation was performed 

 by a patent drill-machine, invented by Francis 

 H. Smith, of Baltimore, which I have found use^ 

 ful, in many years' experience. With one man 

 and two horses, this machine will furrow, drop, 

 cover, and roll down eight or ten acres per day, 

 and, with nearly a mathematical precision, in 

 point of line and distance. The corn, when up, 

 was worked with ordinary " cultivators," suc- 

 ceeded by one dressing with the "scari^er," 

 about six inches deep. This latter implement, 

 which I purchased several years ago, of Sinclair 

 & Moore of Baltimore, has, in my opinion, no 

 equivalent substitute, in the culture of our corn- 

 crop; as by it, the earth may be penetrated and 

 pulverized six or eight inches deep, with two 

 horses, and without turning up the sward, and 

 exposing it to the drying action of the sun and air. 

 The cultivators, or any other harrows, (I prefer the 

 cultivator,) are again used and continued, un- 

 ceasingly, till the sward is rotten, which vvill ge- 

 nerally be about the last of June, when the 

 plough is. for the first time since the planting, in- 

 troduced to turn up the sward, which, having 

 been so long buried and undisturbed, except by 

 the cutting of the " scarifier,''— and, under the 

 cumuiaiive agency of heat and moisture, is now 

 fully deconi|)osed, and thus incorporated with 

 the soil; which is thereby improved, and adapted 

 to the subsequent wheat or other small grain, 

 which may delight in dainty and well cooked food, 

 when the corn had flourished upon the vapors 

 and gases of the preparatory process. After the 



sitequaliiies-and constitute, during life, a suffi- \plougIh I take up agmn, the " cultivator, or any 

 '■ ■ ■ ' '- • -!•- - .--^ I Other harrow, under the classic precept, "mw/ru?7i 



cient barrier, to prevent them from nungiing tose- 

 ther. But no sooner is life extinct, than the sides 

 of these vessels yield, the secretions mingle, and 

 in a short time, conliision and decay reiizn, where, 

 for aires, the vital principle had mainlaiix'd every 

 thini"" in the most perfect harmony and urd<_r. 

 [To be continued.] 



For tlie Fanners' Register. 

 STATEMENT OF THE CUr.TIVATION AND PRO- 

 DUCT OF A FIELD OF COU.\. 



Cambridge, Dec. 29, 1S38. 



Dear Sir — You requested the result of a corn 

 crop whicli I made this year, and my mode of cul- 

 tivation, with its rationalia. Though noloiitfinal, 

 because lUe principles on which it was made are 

 Avell known and settled, yet it was unusual, and I 

 have not, elsewhere, known their application in 

 the same manner, in all respect--^. 



1 have, for several years, tried a lew acres, un- 

 der a similar culture; and findiiiix it considerably 

 superior, in all seasons, to the ordinary meiiiods, 

 I extended il this year, to forty acres ; and tlmugh 

 the droujrhi has very much curtailed the product 

 below the promise of the luxuriant stalks, yet, it 

 is very respectable '.'or field- cnliuve. 



The field in question was cultivated the previ- 

 ous year in corn, ill the ordinary mode, having 

 been, the same year, manured — about thirty loads, 

 and limed, one hundred bushels to the acre. 

 The then ensuing winter and spring, as early as 

 possible, it was ploughed, a moderate depth, 

 about four inches, drag-harrowed and rolled, and 

 drill-planted, in lines four and a half ffst apart, 

 Vol. VII— 3 



adeo, rastris ghbas qui ffangit ineries.'"' And 

 the drier the season, the more I use it, to promote 

 ihe absorption of atmospheric moisture, which, at 

 nicht, and in the driest season, is more abundant 

 than generally supposed; as well as to assist, by 

 lightening the surface soil, the transpiration 

 through it, of the waters of the sw6-soil, which 

 being more forcibly acted upon by the greater 

 perrneability of the earth, in this loose, porous, 

 and lightened condition, to the rays of heat, afi'ord 

 a considerable resource of humidity. 



You have then my mode of culture, and the 

 principles on which it is founded. I never cross- 

 plough, even in ordinary wide planting, until the 

 sward is rotten. Because, by this process it is 

 turned up, and exposed to the drying and evapo- 

 rating influence of the sun and air, by which even 

 animal substances, more putrescent than vege- 

 table, may be, and are effectually preserved from 

 putrefaction, as in the ordinary practice of curing, 

 as it is termed, fish, beef, &c. &c. Because, I 

 have a finer culture, and the soil is better 

 pulverized without it; and though not a thorough- 

 (Toing advocate of the doctrine of the well known 

 Tull, " thai pulverization, is, in itself, sufficient," 

 yet, I hold it an essential co-operative, and with- 

 out which, the best crop cannot be produced. 

 And, because, by the operation of early cross- 

 ploughinir, unless under a deeper furrow than 

 my experience will justify, the sward is exposed, 

 before decomposition, to the antiseptic agencies 

 which I have named, and becomes indurated ; 

 and, if if can then be subdued at all, it will require 

 much cost and labor; and will, when done, have 

 lost much of il?|v.6;ju/- coriotituenis. 



