1846.] European ^8gricvUure. 251 



in carrying the fruit to market on their heads; and that the gath- 

 ering of a crop of peas required forty persons for every ten acres. 

 The account given of the sum of money received from the pro- 

 duce of a single acre is quite worthy of remark, it being the 

 statement of a market-gardener. Radishes, £\0; cauliflower, 

 j£60; cabbages, j£30; celery, first crop, <£50; second crop, jC40; 

 endive, j£30; — making a total of j£220, or 1,100 dollars, for the 

 gross produce of an acre in twelve months." 



In the fifth and last part of the first volume of European Agri- 

 culture, we find among many others the following heads of sub- 

 jects: the soil, theories and operations of the soil, soils of Great 

 Britain, physical properties of a soil, plowing and its different 

 modes, improved machinery, etc. We will detain the reader a 

 few moments with Mr. C.'s remarks on the soil. 



"The farmer's whole business, as far as cultivation is concerned, 

 lies with the soil ; and upon the soil, and on the skill and intelligence 

 with which he manages it, must depend entirely his success. The 

 notion, that plants receive a large portion of their nourishment 

 through their leaves, — although some experiments, in my opinion 

 not sufnciently decisive to determine the question, seem to favor 

 it, — appears to me about as probable as that animals receive a 

 large portion of their nourishment through their lungs. If they 

 absorb corbon and discharge oxygen by day, they reverse the pro- 

 cess, and absorb the oxygen of the atmosphere, and discharge car- 

 bon, by night; and w^hat portion of the latter in this way is as- 

 similated, and made to form a part of the plant, (as far as I can 

 understand the experiments which have been made,) does not as 

 yet seem to be determined. I know the confidence with which 

 this is affirn^ed, and, as a philosophical fact, I admit that it is of 

 great interest, and extremely worthy of inquiry." 



" That the atmosphere contributes essentially to vegetation — 

 that plants derive much of their nourishment and substance from 

 the air, as I have already remarked does not admit of a question; 

 but, so far as any practical use whatever is to be made of this 

 fact, we must consider this nourishment as received through the 

 roots, and consequently through the medium of the soil in which 

 these roots spread themselves, and the manures by which it is en- 

 riched. The soil therefore, as the basis of all vegetation, is the 

 great object of the farmer's consideration." 



" The ingenious theory of Decandolle, that the exudations or 

 excrementitious matter from one kind of crop unfitted the ground 

 for an immediate repetition of the same species of plant, seems 

 now to be generally abandoned. It is a well established principle, 

 which nractical men understand quite as well as the scientific. 



