174 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



VOL. 1, 





3 



The Pitcher-Plant. 



Nepenthes disiillatoria. 



There is not, perhaps, among the numer- 

 ous examples that occur of the provident 

 economy of Nature, in the vegetable part of 

 the creation, a more remarkable instance of 

 contrivance adapted to circumstances, and 

 of means suited to the end, than what is 

 evidently displayed in a plant which is com- 

 monly met with in Ceylon, and other islands 

 of the east, and which has obtained the ap- 

 propriate name of the Pitcher plant. 



Being the inhabitant of a tropical climate, 

 and found on the most dry and stony situa- 

 tions. Nature has furnished it with the 

 means of an ample supply of moisture, with- 

 out which it would have withered and per- 

 ished. 



To the footstalk of each leaf, near the 

 base, is attached a kind of bag, shaped 

 like a pitcher, of the same consistance and 

 color as the leaf in the early stage of its 

 growth, but changing with age to a reddish 

 purple. It is girt round with an oblique 

 band or hoop, and covered with a lid neatly 

 fitted, and movable on a kind of hinge or 

 strong fibre, which, passing over the handle, 

 connects the vessel with the leaf. 



By the shrinking or contracting of this 

 fibre the lid is drawn open whenever the 

 weather is showery, or dews fall, which 

 would appear to be just the contrary of what 

 usually happens in nature, though the con- 

 traction probably is occasioned by the hot 

 and dry atmosphere, and the expansion does 

 not take place till the moisture has fallen, 

 and saturated the pitcher. When this is the 

 case the cover falls down, and it closes so 

 firmly as to prevent any evaporation from 

 taking place. 



The water having gradually absorbed 

 through the handle into the footstalk of the 

 leaf, gives vigor to the leaf itself, and sus- 

 tenance to the plant. As soon as the pitch- 

 ers are exhausted, the lids again open, to ad- 

 mit whatever moisture may fall ; and when 

 the plant has produced its seed, and the dry 

 season fairly sets in, it withers with all the 

 covers of the pitchers standing open. — Bar- 

 row''s Cochin China. 



Machinery for Mowing and 

 Reaping. 



Farmers are generally slow in adopting or 

 encouraging any machine which will facili- 

 tate their labor. They seem to forget that 

 the implements of labor which have been 

 handed down to them by their fathers, such 

 as the plough, the cart and the harrow are 

 machines. Tell them that a machine may 

 be made for reaping or mowing and most of 

 them will give a doubtful shake of the head. 

 One reason of this is owing- to some abor- 

 tive attempts made by those who had not 

 the means to perfect their work, or lived at 

 an age when, or in a situation where, ma- 

 chinery could not be made with that accu- 

 racy and finish necessary for perfect move- 

 ments. 



We have long been fir.n in the faith that 

 the time would come when most of the ope- 

 rations carried on in the growth of corn or 

 grain, would be done by machinery, from 

 the first turning over the sod, by that admi- 

 rable machine, the plough, to the harvesting. 

 W^e have no doubt that ploughing will be 

 done successfully by steam, and that mow- 

 ing and reaping will be done by the same 

 Herculean power. For a long time our 

 farmers were opposed to the thrashing ma- 



