608 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



ence. If the original design was to tap the Val- 

 ley, and afford a cheap and sufficiently speedy 

 conveyance for the immense resources of this, and 

 the country west, of us, no scheme could be. devised 

 more likely to effect this than the one contemplated 

 by a continuous canal to Covington — or if (he 

 funds of the company are insufficient, to Bucha- 

 nun at least. And many cogent reasons could be 

 given, why this last named point should be the 

 terminus of the great Nashville rail road. I will 

 merely remark, that such articles as plaster, salt, 

 coal, marble, lime, and perhaps limestone and 

 granite, and pig metal, will not very well suffer 

 transportation any great distance on rail roads, 

 and there is no point where the salt and plaster of 

 Washington and Smythe, could strike the James 

 River improvement, so cheaply, or at so short a 

 distance, as at Buchanan. 



Whilst on this subject, I am reminded to beg 

 your aid to a turnpike we have in contemplation 

 from the present termination of the Lynchburg 

 turnpike at the head of the Blue Ridge canal, by 

 the way of the Natural Bridge and Dibrell's Sul- 

 phur Spring to intersect the Covington turnpike at 

 Clifton Forge, on Jackson River. This will af- 

 ford all from the lower country desirous to visit the 

 mineral springs of the west, by far the most di- 

 rect, romantic and picturesque road — and indeed, 

 on every account, the most eligible road that can 

 be selected. 



ROBERT R. BARTON. 



From Chaptal's Chemistry Applied to Agriculture. 



OF THE EFFECTS OF THE NOURISH3IEXT OF 

 PLANTS UPON THE SOIL. 



It appears to be clearly proved, that plants im- 

 bibe from water and the atmosphere, only carbon, 

 oxygen, and hydrogen; but analysis shows us 

 that, independently of these principles and the 

 products arising from their combinations, plants 

 contain azote and some earthy and saline sub- 

 stances, which cannot be produced by either of 

 the three elements mentioned above. It remains 

 then for us to inquire, in what manner these sub- 

 stances have been introduced into plants. 



Azote, which is found in the albumen, the ge- 

 latine, and the green coloring matter, is not sen- 

 sibly drawn from the atmosphere, though it con- 

 stitutes four- fifths of it, but passes in with oxygen 

 in the water imbibed by plants, and like that, is 

 separated in their organs. 



The earths which tire insoluble in water, but 

 which are mixed with, or suspended in that fluid, 

 are not absorbed in large quantities by the pores 

 of plants but may be conveyed into them by the 

 aid of some chemical agents, as the acids, the al- 

 kalies, &c. Besides, if we observe attentively, 

 we shall find that these substances do not abound 

 in plants; and we can easily conceive, that the lit- 

 tle they do contain, might, in a state of extreme 

 division, be introduced by water. 



There are some plants that fasten themselves 

 and grow upon the most barren rocks, deriving 

 from the surrounding air, and from rains, all the 

 nourishment required by them; of this number 

 are the mosses, the lichens, and fleshy plants. 

 Their growth is slow, their transportation almost 

 nothing, and their color remains nearly the same 

 all the year round: so that they constantly absorb 



water and carbonic acid, and assimilate their con- 

 stituent principles. 



The soil is always exhausted, in a greater or 

 less degree, by the plants it produces; and much 

 more by those that are annual, than by those that 

 are perennial. Air and water alone do not afford 

 a sufficient degree of nourishment to plants, for 

 when they have been made to grow in well wash- 

 ed sand, watered with distilled water, though they 

 have flowered, their fruits did not arrive at matu- 

 rity. Experiments to this effect have been made 

 by Messrs. Giobert, Hassenfratz, de Saussure, 

 &c. 



Those annual plants which transpire most, ge- 

 nerally exhaust the soil in the greatest degree. 

 Peas, beans, and buckwheat, though they have 

 succulent stalks, exhaust it least, because they 

 transpire but little. 



When annual plants are cut at the lime of flow- 

 ering, they do not exhaust the soil, as their succu- 

 lent roots furnish materials for replacing the loss 

 occasioned by their growth; but after having pro- 

 duced their fruits, the soil derives but little advan- 

 tage from the dry fibres which are the only remains 

 of their stalks and roots. 



During fructification, plants absorb but little 

 nourishment from the soil; the supply necessary 

 to the formation of the seed is furnished by 

 those juices which already exist in the roots and 

 stalks, and this occasions "them to become dry and 

 exhausted, so that, when the fruit is perfected, the 

 roots and stalks consist only of wooddy fibres. It 

 is necessary that this fact should be known, in order 

 that too late mowing of meadows, whether natu- 

 ral or artificial, may be avoided. The most favo- 

 rable period for cutting grass is that of its flow- 

 ering; if the operation be postponed till the seed is 

 formed, two great disadvantages will arise; the 

 first is, that fodder obtained will have parted with 

 the greater portion of its nutritive qualities; and 

 the second, that the plants having fulfilled all the 

 laws of their nature, by providing for their repro- 

 duction, cannot flourish again with vigor during 

 the same year.* In support of this doctrine, i 

 will mention one well known fact, which is that 

 meadows mown before fructification afford the 

 most abundant harvests, and the gratest number 

 of them, as they may be mown several times in a 

 year. The perennial plants which serve as fod- 

 der, may by this means be preserved for several 

 years in a state of reproduction; but if mown atier 

 the formation of seed, the plants are weakened 

 and the production is lessened. All farmers know, 

 that when they subject to tillage a piece of artifi- 

 cial grass land, which has for several years been 

 constantly mown at the time of flowering, it will 

 yield several harvests without any dressing; but if 



* This holds good onhy in part in regard to timothy 

 (Phleum pruiense.) According to Sinclair, this grass 

 contains more than double the nutriment when in seed 

 than when in bloom. At the same time the remark of 

 Chaptal is correct, that the root is much more exhaust- 

 ed by maturing seed — the aftergrowth is comparatively 

 trivial, and the subsequent crops are diminished. By 

 cutting rye in flower, or before, which is either annual 

 or biennial, it may be almost rendered perennial, as we 

 have witnessed, in sowing it with lucern. We have 

 observed the same fact in regard to many garden produc- 

 tions — whose existence and vigor are prolonged by pre- 

 , venting the formation of the seed. — Cultivator, 



