mm^ 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUlILfSHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Aoricultdbal Warehouse.) 



vol.. MX. 3 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1840. 



[WO. 13. 



N. E. FARMER, 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE EXCRETORY 

 POWERS OF PLANTS, &c. 



The lately discovered doctrine of the excretory 

 powers of the roots of plants, although it was rath- 

 er startling to us, and slowly received at lirst, is 

 now beginning to be embraced by the generality of 

 scientitic men. Tlie doctrine being first adopted 

 and promulgated by several leading men, about 

 the same time in England as well as on the conti- 

 nent, gained for it a ready acceptance with many, 

 who, however, had some difficulty in e.xplaining 

 and proving what tliey professed to believe. That 

 the soil immediately in contact with the roots and 

 other parts of the plant which grows in it, must 

 receive some kind of taint, either by exudation, res- 

 piration, or other mode of discharge of its fluids, is 

 perfectly feasible ; and that this taint is apprecia- 

 ble by our senses, both of sight and scent, is unde- 

 niable. But whether this taint or discharge from 

 the plant be poisonous, or only useless to plants of 

 the same kind which succeed, is the question not 

 yet clearly decided. Objectors insist that it is not 

 what is /f/i! that is deleterious, but what is taken 

 away which renders the soil loss suitable to the 

 second crop of the same kind. Every different 

 species of plant, say they, selects its own peculiar 

 kind of food, and therefore the second cannot find 

 so much as the first, unless the exhausted plot be 

 replenished with that of which it has been depriv- 

 ed. But the abettors of the e,xndation notion, say 

 this is impossible ; that no replenishment of even 

 the richest dress will operate so as to make the 

 second as good as the first crop. This is, perhaps, 

 carrying the idea of excremental poisoning too far; 

 because a farm may be so exhausted under a regu- 

 lar rotation of cropping, as to be at last unfit to 

 bear any kind of crop until again visted by the 

 dung cart. We often see in cottage gardens on- 

 ions and cabbages repeatedly grown on the same 

 spot, without any material falling off", provided the 

 annual application of ashes and other sweepings 

 about the house are bestowed to assist the crop. 



It is quite possible, however, that one species of 

 plant may be not only unhurt by the exuvia of 

 another, but even thrive in it, as beans and wheat 

 are known to do, alternating for many consecutive 

 years. And moreover, as beans, drilled and prop- 

 erly labored by horse and hand hoes, are a cleans- 

 ing crop, and if the drills of this year were to oc- 

 cupy the intervals of those of the last, it might be 

 possible, as TiiU used to say, to grow beans every 

 year upon the same field ; but this, for many rea- 

 sons, would not be eligible, even if practicable. 



But some of those who strenuously support the 

 theory of Professor De Candolle, relative to the 

 injurious ejectments of previous crops, not only in- 

 sist on the validity of the professor's opinion, but 

 maintain that it is consistent with a fixed law of 

 nature, namely, that no plant is destined by nature 

 to occupy constantly the same station. That they 



are constitutionally endowed with powers or ten- 

 dencies by which they desert or fly from the place 

 of their birth ; as if by a kind of perception they 

 knew that their parents liad devoured all the food 

 which they would require for themselves. 



We have many instances of the progeny forsak- 

 ing the mother; some seeds have parachute wings 

 to fly away with ; others are contained in seed 

 vessel.', which when acted upon by the heat of the 

 sun, burst with such clastic force as to scatter the 

 seeds to a considerable distance around. By many 

 other means are seeds dispersed : by winds, by 

 currents of water, by birds and otiier animals. But 

 besides seeds, plants have other modes of increase 

 or extension: witness the numerous oflisets and 

 suckers produced by many difl^erent sorts of plants, 

 and all these take divergent directions, so that they 

 should not rob the parent or be starved themselves. 

 The strawberry plant is a familiar example of how 

 far the living progeny depart from the mother's sta- 

 tion before they fix themselves in the ground. To 

 those instances a hundred others might be adduced ; 

 all which go to prove that plants are constitution- 

 ally inclined to a change of place. Trees, indeed, 

 are fixed to one spot; but they are ever finding 

 fresh pasture by the extension of their leading 

 roots, as is the ca.se with all other perennial plants. 



But, after all, the question recurs — is this di- 

 verging tendency a natural law of vegetation, or is 

 it because antecedent production exhausts or poi- 

 sons the soil, so as to render it unfit for the purpo- 

 ses of subsequent production ? 



We know that newly broken up land, whatever 

 its quality may be, is always more suitable to any 

 crop than that of the same quality which has been 

 long cultivated ; showing that there is a something 

 in maiden soil wliich is fugitive. What thatsome. 

 thing is, has never been discovered by practical 

 men, nor has it been investigated by the chemist, 

 though an object well worth the researches of sci- 

 ence. 



That the fertility of exhausted land may be re- 

 newed by additions of manure, is well known ; and 

 it seems that the dress restores that which has 

 been abstracted by the previous crops; or, or least, 

 supplies a substitute. On the knowledge of this 

 fact all our best systems of agriculture are found- 

 ed ; and whether land be exhausted or poisoned 

 by previous cropping can make no difference in the 

 culture, so that the rules of rotation, as established 

 by long experience, are strictly attended to, and 

 no cross-cropping pursued, unless for some mani- 

 fest prospective advantage. 



Tliat a change of scil, and even a change of air, 

 are beneficial to all kinds of terrestial plants, are 

 well confirmed facts ; and nothing conduces so 

 much to the advantage of the farmer as a frequent 

 change of seed. Now, how a change of soil with- 

 out it being of better (piality, and especially, how 

 a change of air, without reference to its tempera- 

 ture, can be so e.xciting and congenial to foreign 

 or strange plants, is one of those mysteries in cul- 

 tivation which we cannot readily fathom. It must 

 be observed, however, that such effects are only 



seen between the fortieth and sixtieth parallels of 

 latitude; because beyond those bounds an inter- 

 change would be too extreme; though there are 

 some exceptions to this rule, for the Mazagan beans 

 of Egypt do well in this country, and some native 

 plants of Siberia do equally well in Britain. But 

 the farmer's range in making such changes is con- 

 fined to the seed of corn, grasses, potatoes, &c. ; 

 and, next to obtaining clean seed of the best varie- 

 ties, most suitable for his own land, is the procur- 

 ing them from the most distant parts of the kintr. 

 dom, or at least from some neighboring county. 



From the same. 



REPORTING EXPERIMENTS WITH ARTI- 

 FICIAL MANURES. 



In ail our agricultural publications now issuino- 

 from the press, we see many accounts of expeii- 

 ments made for ascertaining the value of certain 

 substances recommended as manures, either for 

 top-dressing or ploughing in. Some of these ac- 

 counts are elaborately, and, no doubt, faithfully 

 written ; and sometimes favorable, or, as it may 

 happen, unfavorable. Sometimes, too, we are told 

 of the same material having contrary efl^ects on 

 land of precisely the same character, especially if 

 situated in distant parts of the kingdom. Now, 

 these discrepancies may often arise from ignorance 

 or want of consideration of the peculiar effect or 

 action of the material employed. 



Besides the various substances which have been 

 used as manures from time immemorable, there are 

 others, chiefly minei-als, which are brought into use 

 with various success. The reports of such trials 

 are not ahvays uniform; and defective in so far as 

 the character of the weather or season following 

 the application is omitted to be stated. In my own 

 practice I have used soot extensiv(;ly for top-dress- 

 ing wheat, and have harrowed and rolled it in ; but 

 if a dry spring and summer followed, the soot was 

 of no service. I have used chalk and lime as dres- 

 sings for light gravelly land ; but if a wet season 

 succeeded, little or no immediate effect was obser- 

 vable. The same result followed the application 

 of salt, on the same description of land, under the 

 like circumstances of season. And the reason for 

 the non-efficiency of these three last named sub- 

 stances was perfectly obvious : all three are ready 

 absorbents of water from the air, and in dry sea- 

 sons are eminently useful to growing crops ; where- 

 as, in a showery time, the crops need no such as- 

 sistance. 



Saltpetre and nitrate of soda are at present fash- 

 ionable top-dressings ; and those best acquainted 

 with these substances affirm that they are often in- 

 judiciously used. On wet tenacious land they can 

 never be so efficacious as on dry sandy or gravelly 

 soils ; nor in wet seasons so much as they certainly 

 must be in dry. If I be not mistaken in attributing 

 to them such effects, they will ahvays be consider- 

 ed as doubtful fertilizer-; ; because they must be 

 used before it can be ascertained, except by con- 

 jecture, what sort of season is to follow. 



