284 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



easily raised. The old males were more beautiful 

 than any I have examined since ; and as yet do- 

 mestication had produced no variety in their j)lu- 

 mage." 



I should like to ascertain, through the pages of 

 the JV. E. Farmer, whether any of this stock to 

 which Dr. Bachman refers are still in existence ; 

 and whether any serious efforts have been made in 

 any part of this country to domesticate any other 

 species not named in this communication. The num- 

 ber of species of the feathered tribe which have 

 been reduced to perfect domestication is exceeding- 

 ly small, and every new species thus rendered subser- 

 vient to the use of man must be a valuable acquisi- 

 tion. Wilson Flagg. 



LAYEES. 



By the term "layer," as applied by horticultur- 

 ists, is meant simply a shoot, or surcle, which, while 

 yet attached to, and constituting a portion of the 

 tree from which it is contemplated to be taken, 

 is bent down and covered with soil till it has 

 radicated or taken root. It is then detached from 

 the parent, and considered a distinct plant, in- 

 spirited by the identifying principle of life, and ca- 

 pable — under favorable circumstances — of perpetu- 

 ating its kind. 



The most favorable 

 time for the perform- 

 ance of this opera- 

 tion, is just before the 

 ascent of the sap, or 

 when it is fairly up — 

 that is, in the early 

 spring, or mid-sum- 

 mer. The sprig or limb on being bent dovni, should 

 be half separated by a clean cut on the under side, 

 extending through the outer barks and the albur- 

 num or sapwood, to facilitate the formation of the 

 nucleus the first season. It may be proper here to 

 observe, that by making the incision much deeper 

 than this, the injurj' thereby caused to the circu- 

 lating powers will necessarily prove detrimental, if 

 not immediately fatal to the plant ; the channel of 

 the sap, which is the life-blood of the tree, being 

 intermitted by the deep cut, or at least so much 

 diminished in its capacity as not to yield a suffi- 

 cient quantity of nutriment to the new plant. In 

 some species, remarks an experienced horticultur- 

 ist, and particularly in delicate sorts, it is not suf- 

 ficient to cut a notch, merely, because, in that case, 

 the descending sap, instead of throwing out granu- 

 lated matter, in the upper side of the wound, would 

 descend by the entire side of the shoot ; therefore, 

 besides a notch formed by cutting out a portion of 

 bark and wood, the notched side is sHt up at least 

 an inch, separating it by a bit of twig or small 

 splinter of stone or wood. The end of the layer 

 which remains above the surface of the ground 

 should be raised nearly upright. 



Grape vines, when bent down in this manner, and 



covered with moist soil to the depth of three or 

 our inches, take root immediately, and when divi- 

 ded from the parent stock, and set in good soil, 

 make thrifty and vigorous vines. Some of the 

 finest and most prolific bearers we have ever 

 seen, were started in this way. The grape may be 

 also propagated by cuttings. These should be se- 

 lected from the matured wood of the last year's 

 growth, and cut into lengths, having three buds 

 each. In planting, set the cutting pointing to the 

 south, and cover two of the Ixids only, leaving the 

 third even with the surface of the soil. Irrigation 

 will be necessary, if the weather is dry, or the soil 

 destitute of moisture. If the soil is rich, a very 

 small quantity of manure will be required, but it 

 should be of the best kind. A compost made of 

 the tendrils and leaves of the grape vine, mixed 

 with plaster, is an excellent article for this pm*pose, 

 and should be applied when practicable. 



HOW COAL WAS MADE. 



Geology has proved that, at one period, there 

 existed an enormously abundant land vegetation, 

 the- ruins or rubbish of which, carried into seas, and 

 there sunk to the bottom, and afterwards covered 

 over by sand and mud beds, became the substance 

 which we now recognize as coal. This was a natu- 

 ral transaction of vast consequence to us, seeing 

 how much utility we find in coal, both for warming 

 our dwellings and for various manufactures, as well 

 as the production of steam, by which so great a 

 mechanical power is generated. It may naturally 

 excite surprise that the vegetable remains should 

 have so completely changed their apparent charac- 

 ter, and become black. But this can be exjjlained 

 by chemistry ; and part of the marvel becomes 

 clear to the simplest understanding when we recall 

 the familiar fact that damp hay, thrown closely in- 

 to a heap, gives out heat, and becomes of a dark 

 color. 



When a vegetable mass is excluded fi-om the air, 

 and subjected to great pressure, a bituminous fer- 

 mentation is produced, and the result is the mineral 

 coal — which is of various characters, according as 

 the mass has been originally intermingled with 

 sand, clay, or other earthly impurities. On ac- 

 count of the change effected by mineralization, it is 

 difficult to detect in coal the traces of a vegetable 

 structure ; but these can be made clear in all ex- 

 cept the highly bituminous caking coal, by cutting 

 or polishing it down into thin, transparent slices, 

 when the microscojje shows the fibres and cells very 

 plainly. 



From distinct isolated specimens found in the 

 sand stones amidst the coal beds, we discovered the 

 nature of the plants of this era. They are almost 

 all of a simple cellular structure, and such as exist 

 with us in small forms, (horse tails, club masses and 

 fens,) but advanced to an enormous magnitude. — 

 The species are all long since extinct. The vegeta- 

 tion generally is such as now grows in clusters of 

 tropical islands ; but it must have been the result 

 of a high temperature obtained otherwise than that 

 of the tropical regions now is, for the coal strata 

 are now found in the temperate and even the polar 

 regions. 



