NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



363 



stock through the winter.— Caledonian, St. Johns- 

 bury, Vt. 



INFLUENCE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 

 ON VEGETATION. 



It is not sufficient that a plantis set in a soil most 

 appropriate and suitable to its habits, nor that it 



receives the manures which have a tendency to fer- 

 tilize and invigorate it ;— hut it will soon languish 

 and decay if the atmosphere surrounding it have 

 not the proper moisture and temperature ; if it he 

 not placed so as to receive the benefit of light, and 

 if the needful stimulating and alimentary elements 

 be not present in a gaseous form, and constantly 

 supplied to the growing plant. The humidity and 

 temperature of the air should bear a constant pro- 

 portion, otherwise the plant receives injury. If, 

 for instance, the moisture is greatly reduced, and 

 the heat increased, a drought is produced, injuri- 

 ous and sometimes fatal to the plant. And on 

 the other hand it may suffer equal injury if the 

 moisture is superabundant and the temperature 

 much diminished. A continuance of cold and w r et 

 checks and enfeebles the plant. If the atmosphere 

 is surcharged with both heat and moisture, the 

 condition most favorable to vegetationis presented. 



All seeds germinate well without light. But 

 though light is not necessary to germination, yet 

 generally it is highly beneficial tovegetation,which 

 is a different process from germination, and which 

 requires different gases for its successful growth. 

 Celery is bleached and made tender in being de- 

 prived of light ; and it is, at the same time, dis- 

 eased. Light gives the green color to vegetation. 

 The mode, however, in which light operates on 

 plants is not very well known. It is supposed al- 

 so to have an effect on the odor of flowers and the 

 taste of fruits. Some plants delight in the most 

 vivid rays of summer noon, others flourish best in 

 a moderate light and under the covert of the for- 

 est. 



But the atmosphere itself, not regarding its con- 

 ditions of moisture or temperature, nor the light 

 which is transmitted through it, but the elements 

 of which it is composed, is necessary to the vitali- 

 ty of plants, and is by its absorption the chief 

 source of the vegetable vigor and health. When 

 the air is too dry, evaporation goes on faster than 

 moisture can be re-supplied by absorption. At 

 the time of rains and storms, when the atmosphere 

 is both warm and moist, and especially when well 

 charged with electricity, vegetation is most rapid 

 and at the same time most vigorous. 



Europe ; yet long before the capabilities of this in- 

 valuable plant had been discovered by us, the in- 

 stinct of that little bird had guided it to its use, 

 and the cotton thread was annually employed in 

 the completion of its nest. — Kidd's Own Journal. 



THE SEASON IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The season up to the time of this present writing 

 has been a remarkable one. The warm and grow- 

 ing days have been few. The opening of spring 

 was unusually retarded and it was very late before 

 the seed could be got into the earth. Much of it 

 had not vegetated before the ground became parched 

 for want of rain. This drought was accompanied 

 by cold and severe winds from the west and north- 

 west. Many of the. smaller garden seeds have not 

 yet germinated. We have strong hope, however, 

 from the recent showers and rains. The grass in 

 many sections had shown signs of suffering and 

 gave prospect of a light crop. A few days has 

 produced considerable change and the prospect has 

 improved. Each shower has cleared away cold, 

 and with it high winds. As we write, the leaves 

 on the trees that overhang and shade our window 

 look as though a frost had bitten them. Frost 

 was ohserved in gardens in this vicinity on the 

 morning of the fifth, and once in the week since. 

 Grains are looking well ; corn is mostly up, looking 

 pretty well except a little yellow. Potatoes, peas, 

 beans, &c, look uncommonly well. Fruit, so far 

 as we have seen, looks uncommonly well. Warm 

 weather for the remainder of the month, and a 

 warm July, will bring about, we think, a good, 

 general crop — Granite Farmer, June 22d. 



Nest of the Tailor-Bird. — The tailor-bird of 

 Hindostan gathers cotton from the shrubs, spins it 

 to a thread by means of its feet and long bill, and 

 then employing its bill as an awl, it sews the large 

 leaves of an Indian tree together so as to protect 

 and conceal its young. Cotton, as an article of 

 manufacture, is quite of modern introduction to 



ROTATION OF OUR FOREST TREES. 



We desire here to allude to a subject which has 

 an important indirect bearing, at least on the sub- 

 ject of agriculture, because it illustrates the great 

 rotation principle, in the vegetable kingdom. 



The forests in many parts of our country are 

 about changing their tenants. In our vicinity, the 

 great burden of our forest timber, as found here by 

 the first settlers, was white oak. This is about 

 giving place to the black oak, especially on ele- 

 vated ridges, or where the land is inclined to be 

 sandy. The venerable white oaks, with diameters 

 from 30 to 50 inches, are, in most instances, sur- 

 rounded by a crop of sapling black oaks, leaving 

 beneath their shade nothing to perpetuate their 

 kind. 



If we arc not mistaken in our judgment, the 

 cause of this is not very hard to define. It is a 

 matter well understood, by those who have given 

 any attention to the subject, that there is, in every 

 portion of the earth, certain elements or principles, 

 which go into the composition of vegetable matter. 

 That any particular species of vegetable will soon- 

 er or later consume out of the earth that which is 

 peculiar to its nature, after which that particular 

 kind will not prosper until the principle which 

 nourishes it is reproduced, either by resting the 

 land, or by special manuring. 



Some vegetables exhaust from the soil their pe- 

 culiar food more rapidly than, others. Flax, for 

 instance. It used to be said by old farmers, that 

 a piece of ground that had borne a crop of flax 

 would not bear another for seven years. 



It is on this principle that the rotation in crops 

 is predicated ; a doctrine, for the knowledge of 



