374 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNE 5, 1833. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 5, ISSS. 



PCBIilSHER'S NOTILE. 



We hope our Friends and Subscribers will ex- 

 cuse our importunity it" we press with earnestness 

 an unusual appeal to their justice and generosity 

 as regards clain'is due for the jVew England Farmer. 

 Tiiose who have been jirevented by distance, or 

 other circumstances from making the payments, 

 which are the radicles of our stock are respectfully 

 and respectively informed that we are in want of 

 such a nuuiber of «7tiaH sums, (like those for which 

 they stand indebted on our books,) as may enable 

 us to make sundry large disburseuients to paper- 

 makers, printers and certain other imiiortunate 

 personages who tell us that they " want money, 

 and must have it." 



In our case a liberal translation of pro bono 

 publico should seem to he for the bcnejit of the Pub- 

 lisher of the JVew England Farmer ; as we will 

 prove by the following titbit of chopped logic, viz. 

 Our paper is devoted to Agriculture ; agriculture 

 is the foundation of all /juWj'c g-oorf; Ergo, if we 

 are stinted as regards pecuniary matters the Com- 

 momcecdlh is iiyured. Moreover, we are about com- 

 mencing the twelfth volume of our Herculean and 

 perdurable labors for the behoof of the community 

 of Cultivators ; and have in contemplation cer- 

 tain improvements which cannot be carried into 

 effect without the means requisite to their accom- 

 plishment. 



WATER, ITS USE IIS VEGETATION, &C. 



We have been requested by a subscriber to give 

 aomc remarks on the uses of water in agriculture 

 and the means of its artificial application. 



In the first place we would remark that it is not 

 advisable to let theoretical speculations on the ad- 

 Tantages of irrigation induce a cultivator to incur 

 great expenses in counteracting natural deficiencies 

 of soil, &c. Where grounds are free from perennial 

 ■^rings or low marshes, excess of moisture, may, 

 with proper management, be turned to certain pro- 

 lit. It is not very ditficult to make provision to 

 drain oS'an excess of water; but where the soil is 

 naturally too dry, moisture cannot often be sup- 

 plied by art, in sufficient quantities for agricultural 

 purposes, but by an expense, entirely inconsistent 

 with the economy of farming. 



Perhaps the best possible mode of watering 

 plants in most cases is to attract the requisite 

 moisture from the atmos))here. That water exists 

 in the atmosphere may be proved as follows : — If 

 some of the salt called muriate of lime that has 

 been just heated red, be exposed to the air, even 

 in the driest and coldest weather, it will increase in 

 weight and become moist ; and in a certain time 

 will be converted into a fluid. If put into a retort 

 and heated, it will yield pure water ; will "i-adual- 

 Jy recover its pristine state ; and, if heated red its 

 former weight ; so that it is evident, that the wa- 

 ter united to it was derived from the air. And that 

 it existed in the airiu an invisible and elastic form, 

 is proved by the circumstance, that if a given 

 quantity of air be exposed to the salt, its volume 

 and weight will diminish, provided the experiment 

 he correctly made. 



The quantity of water which exists in air as va- 

 por, varies with the temperature. In pro])ortiou 

 afl the weather is hotter, the quantity is "reater. 

 At 50 degrees of Fahrenheit air contains about 



one fiftieth of its volume of vapor ; and as the 

 specific gravity of vapor is to that of air nearly 

 as 10 to 15, this is about one seventy-fifth of its 

 weight. 



At 100 degrees supposing that there is a free 

 communication with water, air contains about one 

 fourteenth part of vapor in volume, or one 21st in 

 weight. It is the condensation of vapor by dimi- 

 nution of the temperature of the atmosphere, 

 which is probably the principal cause of the for- 

 mation of the clouds, and of the fall of dew, mist, 

 snow or hail. 



Now in order to moisten the earth in a dry time 

 we have only to obtain moisture from the air, 

 which is a great reservoir of moisture, existing in 

 most abundance, in the hottest weather. This 

 moisture can only be artificially obtained by attrac- 

 tion or causing it to be absorbed by some other 

 substance. It may be absorbed either by the soil, 

 the man me, or the plants themselves for whose nour- 

 ishment it is required. With regard to the power 

 of the soil to absorb water, by what is called cohe- 

 sive attraction, this depends in some measure on the 

 division of its parts. If the earth be hard, and 

 its particles as it were ivelded together, it will attract 

 but little moisture from the air, dews &c. and 

 even the rains will run off without penetrating the 

 surface. Thus a foot path over a field in dry 

 weather will be dryer than the untrodden soil on 

 its borders, and the more you stir a soil, other 

 things being equal, the less will it suffer by 

 drought. 



Sir Humphry Davy observed that " The power 

 of the soil to absorb water by cohesive attraction 

 depends in a great measure upon the state of di- 

 vision of its parts ; the more divided they are, 

 the greater is their absorbent power. The dilfer- 

 ent constituent parts of soils likewise ajipear to act 

 even by cohesive attraction, with difierent degrees 

 of energy. Thus vegetable substances appear to 

 be more absorbent than animal substances ; animal 

 substances more so than compounds of alumina 

 and silica, [clay and sand] and coin|)ounds of al- 

 umina and silica more trfasorbent than carbonates of 

 lime and magnesia: their differences may, howev- 

 er possibly depend upon the differences in their 

 state of division and the surtiice exposed. 



"The power of soil to absorb water from air 

 is much connected with fertility. When this pow- 

 er is great, the j)lant is supplied with moisture in 

 dry seasons ; and the effect of evaporation in the 

 day is supplied by the absorption "of aqueous va- 

 por from the atmosphere, by the interior parts of 

 the soil during the day, and by both the exteri- 

 or and interior during the night. The stiff clays 

 approaching to pipe clays in their nature, which 

 take up the greatest quantity of water when it is 

 poured upon them in a fluid form, are not the soils 

 which absorb most moisture from the atmosphere 

 in dry weather. They cake and present only a 

 small surface to the air ; and the vegetation on 

 them is generally burnt up almost as readily as on 

 sands. The sods that are most efficient in supply- 

 ing plants with water by atmospheric absorption, 

 are those in which there is a due mixture of sand, 

 finely divided clay, and carbonate of lime, with 

 some animal or vegetable matter, and which are 

 so loose and light as to be easily permeable by tlie 

 atmosphere. 



From the foregoing premises, it is apparent that 

 one mode of loatering plants, is to hoe them and 

 keep the ground in a finely pulverized state about 

 their roots. The leaves of living plants likewise 



attract the water held in solution in the atmos- 

 phere. Some vegetables increase in weight from 

 this cause, when suspended in the atmosphere and 

 unconnected with the soil ; such are the house- 

 leek, and difterent species of the aloe. In very 

 intense heats, and when the soil is dry, the life of 

 plants seems to be preserved by the absorbent 

 power of their leaves; and it is a beautiful circum- 

 stance in the economy of nature, that aqueous va- 

 por is most abundant in the atmosphere wlien it is 

 most needed for the pni-poses of life, and that when 

 other sources of supply are cut off this is most co- 

 pious. 



Dr. Deane observed " vegetables that are newly 

 transplanted, as they have their roots more or less 

 diminished or otherwise injured, often need water- 

 ing till they have taken new root. But ibis should 

 be done with caution. If a dry season follow the 

 transplanting, let them be watered if they appear 

 to droop, only on evenings, and in cloudy weather, 

 and with water that has been exposed one day, at 

 least, to the shining of the sun ; not with water 

 directly from a well, or a cold spring, as it will' 

 give a chill to the plants. Only a small quantity 

 should be applied at once, that it may have an ef- 

 fect similar to that of a refreshing rain. For 

 water applied too plentifidly, sometimes washes 

 away the finest of the mould from the roots; or 

 makes little cavities about them which admit too 

 much air. 



"1m a dry season, whole gardens sometimes 

 need watering ; and in doing it the above precau- 

 tions are to be regarded. They are liajipy who 

 have a piece of standing water in their garden or 

 a rivulet near at hand, from whence the garden 

 may be watered without much labor." 



A copious supply of water is very essential to 

 a good kitchen garden. Loudon remarks that 

 " Many kitchen crops are lost, or produced of very 

 inferior quality, for want of watering. Lettuces 

 and cabbages are often hard and stringy ; tur- 

 nips and radishes do not swell ; onions decay; 

 cauliflowers die off; and in general, in dry 

 seasons, all the crutifcriB (plants whose flowers 

 consist of four petals placed in the form of a cross) 

 become stinted or covered with insects even in 

 rich and deep soils. CopioHS waterings in the 

 evenings, during the dry season, would produce 

 that fulness and suculency, which we find in 

 vegetables produced in the Low Countries, and in 

 the Marsh Gardens at Paris, and in England at 

 the beginning and latter end of the season. The 

 vegetables brought to the London market from the 

 Neat's Hoi:ses, and other adjoining gardens where 

 the important article of watering is nmch more 

 attended to than in private country gardens, may 

 be adduced as affording proofs of the advantage of 

 the practice." 



With regard to the quality of water used for 

 irrigating land and watering plants there has been 

 some disagreement, some preferring hard and oth- 

 ers soft water. But in this as in many other cases 

 no general rules can be laid down which do not 

 admit of many exceptions. Sir Humphry Davy 

 says " When the water used in irrigation has flow- 

 ed over a calcareous bed, it is generally found 

 inipregnated with carbonate of lime ; [the most 

 common cause of what is called hardness in water] 

 and such water tends in that respect to ameliorate 

 a soil in proportion as any of the njodifications 

 of lime and charcoal were deficient : but where 

 these are already in excess, water charged with a 

 lime sediment should be withheld ; while water 



