Vol. X.-No. 2C. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



203 



and no art will succeed in ever making it become a 

 new plant, however considerable the size ol'tlie in- 

 ternodimn may be. But, on the other hand, take the 

 bud of a vine, without any portion of the stem ad- 

 hering to it, and it will tlirow out stem and root, 

 and become a new plant immediately.' The vari- 

 ous modes of artificial propagation, such as in- 

 creasing by eyes, striking from cuttings, laying, 

 budding and grafting, ' all consist in the applica- 

 tion of these principles under various forms.' — 

 Increasing by eyes or buds is illustrated by the 

 above instances of the vine. Striking by cuttings 

 consists in placing a stem, bearing more buds than 

 one, ' in circuinstancos fit for the continuance of 

 life ;' and this method has an advantage over pro- 

 pagation by single buds, as ' the stem of the cut- 

 ting forms an important reservoir of nutriment' 

 for the buds it bears, until they can emit roots into 

 the soil to cater for themselves. That Inid which 

 is nearest the bottom of the cutting emits its roots 

 ' first into the earth,' and a 'good operator always 

 takes care that the lower end of his cutting is 

 pared down as close to the base of the bed as may 

 be practicable, without actually destroying any 

 part of the bud itself: by this means the first 

 emitted roots, instead of having to find their way 

 downwards between the bark and wood, strike at 

 once into the earth, and become a natural channel 

 by which nvitriment is conveyed into the general 

 system of the cutting.' 



' Layhig is nothing but striking from cuttings, 

 that are still allowed to rnaintain their connexion 

 with the mother plant, by means of a portion, at 

 least of their stem. Tongueing the layer, ' has the 

 effect of enabling the roots to be emitted into the 

 soil through the wound more readily than if they 

 had to pierce through the bark.' 



Budding and Grafting. — Biulding differs from 

 grafting in this, that a portion of the stem is not 

 made to strike root on another stem ; but that on 

 the contrary, a bud deprived of all trace of the 

 woody part of a stem is introduced beneath the 

 bark of the stock, and there induced to strike root. 

 ■■ In performing either of these operations, the 

 great point to be attended to is to secure the ex- 

 act contact of similar parts.' 



Transplanting. — Tlie success of tliis important 

 operation, the writer conceives, may be proved to 

 depend exclusively upon these two conditions : 

 1. The preservation of the spongioles of the roots; 

 and 2. The prevention of excessive evaporation. 

 The spongioles are the extremities of the fibres, 

 and consist of bimdles of vessels surromided by 

 cellular tissue in a very lax spongy state. 'Plants 

 absorb all or nearly all of their fluids through 

 these spongioles, and, as the latter are exceedingly 

 delicate in their organization, their destruction will 

 be effected in exact proportion to the violence or 

 carelessness with which their transplantation is 

 performed. ' It is because of the security of the 

 spongioles from injury, when the earth is imdis- 

 turbed, that pLiuts reared in pots are transplanted 

 ■with so much more success than if talcen iimnedi- 

 ately from the soil.' As every fibre is terminated 

 by a spongiole, cutting through the roots of large 

 trees to induce the formation of fibres, the year pre- 

 vious to removing them, contributes to successful 

 tiansplautiiig. ' When destroyed, the spongioles 

 are often speedily replaced, particularly in orchard 

 trees, provided a slight degree of gi-owth continues 

 to be maintained. This is one of the reasons why 

 trees removed in October succeed better than if 

 transplanted at any other time. The first impulse 



<f nature, when thetree finds itself in a new situa- 

 tion, is to create new mouths by which to feed, 

 when the season for growing again returns.' 



Evaporation. — The prodigious evaporation of 

 plants, is first attested by quotations from Hales, 

 Guettard, and Knight. A plant of sun-flower per- 

 spired seventeen times more than a man. — This 

 loss has all to be supplied by the moi.sture intro- 

 duced into the system by rhe spongioles ; and 

 hence if the spongioles are destroyed, and evapo- 

 ration takes place before they can be replaced, a 

 plant must necessarily die. From this principle 

 arises the impracticability of transplanting decidu- 

 ous trees when in leaf. Hence also ' certain ev- 

 ergreens can be transplanted in almost all months ; 

 this arises from their perspiration being much less 

 copious than in deciduous trees, wherefore the 

 spongioles have less difficulty in supplying the 

 los.s occasioned by it.' 



In damp or wet weather this evaporation is 

 least ; in hot dry weather it is greatest. ' Con- 

 fonnalily with these conditions, and consistently 

 witli the foregoing prmciple, it is, that deciduous 

 l)laiits, if taken from the ground in summer, are 

 put into pots, and put in a hot bed to recover ; not 

 for the sake of the heat, but because the atmos- 

 phere of a hot bed is so charged with humidity 

 that perspiration cannot go on, so that the vital 

 energies of the plant, instead of being wasted by 

 evaporation are directed to the formation of new 

 months by which to feed.' 



CULTURE OP INDIAN CORN. 

 Mr Smith : Dresden, June 1, 1831. 



Indian corn being an important production of our 

 soil, and extensively grown by our farmers, it is de- 

 sirable that vre should attain the mode of cultivating 

 it, at the same time most easy and most productive. 

 To contribute something to this end, I shall make 

 some observations on the best mode of cultivating 

 this grain, and point out some errors into which I con- 

 ceive many of our farmers have fallen with regard to 

 it. To ascertain the proper mode of culture for any 

 plant it is necessary to examine into its nature and 

 qualities, and the kind of soil to which it is best 

 adapted, and we should proceed accordingly. The 

 wart of proper attention to this rule has produced 

 much wild theory and bad practice in agriculture. 

 The corn plant requires a loose alluvial soil to bring 

 it to its greatest perfection, we should therefore in 

 preparing ground for its reception render it as light 

 and mellow as possible, ploughing as deep as the 

 nature of the soil will admit; harrowing the ground 

 previous to planting is advantageous in hard cloddy 

 soils, but is not generally necessary. The seed 

 should be deposited in furrows struck as deep as the 

 ground is ploughed, and lightly covered with loose 

 earth, if too much earth is thrown upon it there is 

 danger of its rotting in cold wet weather, which 

 sometimes succeeds the season of planting. By this 

 mode of planting the plants are more firmly fixed in 

 the earth, the roots striking deep draw a greater sup- 

 ply of nourishment to support them, they are Uke- 

 wise more secure from drought which often proves 

 very destructive to the corn crop, the stalks will not 

 generally grow as tall as those which are planted su- 

 perficially, but are thicker and stronger and produce 



larger ears. The best process of cultivation is, that 

 which will preserve a level surface, and most effec- 

 tually destroy the weeds. This is most effectually 

 done by drawing a large harrow over the rows, (the 

 depth of the furrows will preserve the plants from 

 injury) the weeds should be carefully removed, and 

 the furrows filled up around the plants as they be- 

 come large enough to bear it. If this operation is 

 well done, (and much of the success of the crop de- 

 pends upon its being so) one ploughing will be suffi- 

 cient ; in doing this the earth should be thrown to the 

 corn, but care should he taken not to ridge it, which 

 is very injurious, as it carries oft' the rain from the 

 corn which requires a plentiful supply of moisture, 

 especially when earing. 



Many farmers pursue a quite different course, just 

 skimming the surface, and planting their seed almost 

 on the top of the ground ; the consequence is that the 

 roots, unable to penetrate the hard earthjbeneath, af- 

 ford but little sustenance to the plants which run up 

 spindling, and being often exposed to drought, yield 

 but a scanty crop ; this may be often seen by exam- 

 ining the outer rows of corn where the ground could 

 not be well ploughed. What seems to have led to 

 this practice is the cultivation of new ground where 

 it could not be ploughed deep, the strength of the 

 soil produces abundantly with any kind of culture. 

 The superficial farmer continues skimming the sur- 

 face until it becomes exhausted, when supposing the 

 land worn out he abandons it to wiser cultivators. 



Another error which some practise is so abused as 

 almost to carry with it its own confutation, this is to 

 plough so deep as to cut and mangle the roots of corn 

 with the idea of making it produce better. This 

 causes what is called fired corn, that is, the blades 

 wither and die before it is fully ripe. 



Though I conceive the above observations to be 

 supported by reason, they are somewhat the result ot 

 experience, the best proof of theory. I once planted 

 in the same field with some who ploughed shallow, 

 while my part was broken up beam deep and furrow- 

 ed with the plough one after the other in the same 

 furrow; the conseqnence was that I had a better crop 

 than they, with much less labor, and I am convinced 

 that every similar trial would produce a similar re- 

 sult. A Western Farmer. 



Save your Ashes. — -It is now a wpH attested fact 

 that the fine ashes of Schuylkill coal will make an 

 excellent fire if made into balls of the consistence 

 of thick mortar. A friend of mine showed me a 

 fire last evening which had been burning six houi s, 

 made principally of these ash balls, which was 

 then as good and as warm a fire as it would have 

 been if he had made it of coal. The manner in 

 which these balls are made is as follows: mix the 

 water with the fine ashes of the coal, and then 

 make them into balls about the size of an egg, let 

 the grate be half full of coal, and fill it with these 

 balls, then jiut on the blower, and in a few minutes 

 it will be in a blaze and make a good fire.— ^Wort- 

 ing Man's Advocate. 



A Chand)ersburgh paper asks — ' May not our 

 dreadful iiifluenza be the dreaded cholera of Eu- 

 rojie, in a modified form ? VVhat say the physi 

 cians ?' 



