NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



TREATMENT OF SICKLY PLANTS. 



BY 1VJI. J. A. BRADFORD. 



Messrs. Editors : — I do not remember to have 

 seen in any papers of our country an account of a 

 discovery which is here related, made in France 

 some years ago, which consists of a very simple 

 treatment by which plants affected with weakness 

 or languishment are restored to vigor and health. 

 The diseased conditions to which this remedy has 

 been applied in France are described as debility, 

 etiolation or bleaching, chlorosis (chlorose,) yellow 

 gum, (iclere,) languishment, (phthisic,) emaciation 

 or withering, (consomption.) 



It has been the usual course in this country, 

 and, before the discovery referred to, it was also 

 the practice in France, to depend on a particular 

 mode of cultivation to remedy the evils mentioned 

 such as adapting the vegetable to the nature of 

 the soil, tempering and amending the soil, and sup- 

 plying the most suitable manures. 



The remedy and the mode of applying it is de- 

 scribed in the following lines. The article used is 

 called by the inventor, in his description, soluble 

 salts of iron, (les sels defer solubles,) and is vari- 

 ously named sulfate de fer, sulphate of iron, and, 

 as synonymous with it, vitriol vert, couperose vert, 

 (green vitriol, green copperas.) This can be no 

 other than what is known with us as copperas, or 

 sulphate of iron. 



Dr. Darwin, in his Philosophy of Agriculture, 

 published in 1800, suggests that green vitriol 

 might be found to be a remedy for the gum se- 

 cretion in trees, though I do not know that it has 

 been tried until the recent experiments made as 

 herein related. 



In 1840, a scientific farmer in France, guided, 

 as he says, by some points of resemblance whicl 

 he had observed between the coloring principle of 

 the blood, and the coloring principle of vegetables, 

 administered copperas (sulfate defer) to some hor- 

 tensias affected to a high degree with the diseased 

 condition referred to. The singular results ob- 

 tained, led him to repeat his first trials, to vary 

 them, and to apply them to plants of different fam- 

 ilies. At the end of autumn he was convinced, 

 and to satisfy others he proceeded to follow out 

 his experiments in 1841, with equal success, under 

 the eyes of some friends. 



In 1843, the agricultural committee of the 

 arrondissement of Chatillon appointed a committee 

 to follow out the experiments, and the report was 

 so favorable that a gold medal was awarded to the 

 discoverer. 



Copperas was applied by several farmers of 

 Chatillon to artificial meadows, as a substitute for 

 plaster. The spring being very wet, favored the 

 action of the salt, and the success of the experi- 

 ment led the same persons to repeat it in 1844. 

 This year was very dry. The consequence was 

 the salt was not immediately dissolved ; it was 

 converted into an insoluble oxyde of iron, and of 

 course was not absorbed by the growing crop. 

 The result was nothing. 



This liability to oxydation, unless previously 

 dissolved in water, or immediately melted by rains, 

 is a great inconvenience attending its use in ex- 

 tended cultivation ; and even under favorable con- 

 ditions it is not recommended on fields of legumin- 

 ous crops, nor to well grown cereals, unless the 



soil is almost entirely destitute of iron, which is 

 not often the case. 



Bat there are circumstances, says the disc >vor- 

 er, in which green copperas {vitriol vert) employed 

 with discretion will produce important results. 

 M. Dumont in 1845 applied it to part of a field of 

 sickly winter wheat, which very soon became dis- 

 tinguishable at considerable distance, by the in- 

 tensity of its color ; and gave a product quintu- 

 ple of that of parts of the same field left to them- 

 selves. 



The action of copperas (sels defer) upon the 

 chromule is of such sensibility that letters or de- 

 signs traced on a pale leaf with a pen dipped in a 

 solution of it, very soon restore a fine green to the 

 diseased leaf. 



If the leaf is glaucous (glaw/ue) that is, if it 

 has become dry, says the inventor, absorption can- 

 not take place. It will, of course, in that case, 

 be useless to apply the solution to the leaf by 

 sprinkling, and it will be necessary to have re- 

 course to watering the roots in a dose of 150 grains 

 (8 or 10 grammes) to a quart of water. Frequent- 

 ly, he says, it is best both to sprinkle and to wa- 

 ter. 



But the usual method of application directed is, 

 to sprinkle the diseased grain, if it can be done, with 

 copperas water, (eauferre,) made with one pound 

 avoirdupois of sulphate of iron (sulfate de fer) to 

 about 50 gallons of water, to be applied on a 

 cloudy and warm day. It is said that it will have 

 no effect if the thermometer is below 55°, and to 

 repeat it in 8 or 10 days, if necessary. It should 

 be used immediately when the copperas is dis- 

 solved. 



If water is not at hand the copperas, (vitriol 

 vert,) may be pounded and mixed, at the moment 

 of using, with a dry, finely-powdered soil, and 

 scattered among the grain at the rate of 40 pounds 

 to the acre ; and repeated, if necessary, in a week 

 or fortnight. 



The application of this remedy is much more 

 easy on tree and garden than field culture. On 

 this scale, it has been practised at Chatillon and 

 in the Jardin des Plants, Paris, with remarkable 

 results. It was first applied to the roots, but 

 since 1844 by sprinkling the leaves with a weak 

 solution of 15 to 30 grains (1 or two grammes) to 

 a quart. w. J. a. b. 



HARD WATER. 



What waters are pure — From whence natural hard water is 

 produced — The cause — The philosophy of cleansing — Its 

 effects — Error in the use oflime — its benefits and virtues. 



None of the waters produced by nature are en- 

 tirely pure and soft — artificially distilled water 

 alone is so, and often then, without care and some 

 chemical knowledge of the process, it is not free 

 from impurities. 



The waters from primitive formations, particu- 

 larly from mountainous districts, are almost pure, 

 and springs and wells on sandy plains are nearly — 

 owing to the rocks and soils being wholly composed 

 of sificious and other constituents, insoluble in 

 water. All streams and springs in secondary ,_ or 

 limestone countries, contain more or less materials 

 constituting what are called hard water — and often 

 the waters from sudden showers, which have been 

 produced by evaporation from extensive regions of 

 like formation, are sensibly affected. 



All waters known as hard, result from some of 



