214 



Book Farming. — Mixing at the Root. 



Vol. V. 



make hay while the sun shone, he was not 

 slow in selectinsr such a lot " as was not to 

 be found again in the country ;" but my young 

 neighbour had chosen one, which shamed the 

 other nine, by his good looks, and the drover, 

 knowing that this animal would bring all the 

 rest into contempt, had the kindness to tell 

 him, " as he had been so good a customer, he 

 cUbld not find it in his heart to leave that 

 animal with him, as he knew he was affected 

 with the murrain, which would, in all proba- 

 bility, spread amongst his other cattle and 

 destroy the whole of them ;" he was therefore 

 kind enough to exchange him for one which 

 was exactly a match for the other nine, all 

 which he now assured him, "defied compe- 

 tition !" 



My neighbour, while living in the city, had 

 often purchased split peas for soup, and the 

 thought struck him, that he might as well 

 secure the difference in price, by sowing split 

 peas at once, and thus gain a double advan- 

 tage, wondering again, tliat this discovery 

 had been reserved for him, and by which he 

 could see very clearly, that he would soon 

 grow rich ; the thing was so palpable, that, 

 fearing his neighbours might take advantage 

 of his lucky thought, he sowed his crop by 

 moonlight, and waited anxiously for the re- 

 sult, that he might secure the invention to 

 himself by a patent right ! but he found that 

 the seed was so bad that not a grain of it 

 ever came up; this was a sad disappointment, 

 but it was a consolation, that no one knew of 

 his discovery, and another year he would be 

 sure to do better. 



The former tenant had not taken the trou- 

 ble to carry abroad his manure lor the last 

 three years, so, finding that others were sow- 

 ing turnips on land which had been frequent- 

 ly ploughed and harrowed and cleaned, he 

 thought he would forestall all this labour ; and 

 carrying the dung on to an old pasture, with 

 one ploughing, sowed his turnip seed as thick- 

 ly as he could scatter it — the turnips came 

 up as thick as a mat, which gave him great 

 pleasure; but, on showing them to an old 

 farmer who lives across the country, he was 

 mortified to hear him declare, they were ten 

 thousand times too thick, which, of course, 

 he set down as a notion of the " old school." 

 The ancient neighbour, as he spoke, pulled 

 up a handful of the plants, and after looking 

 at them, threw them down ; and I was highly 

 amused to see my young friend, when I visit- 

 ed my farthest field in the evening, busily 

 employed on his knees, carefiilly replacing 

 the plants with a setting-stick, and patting 

 the earth around them, that they may not 

 suffer from the temporary " disarrangement !" 

 he however, soon found that the weeds ren- 

 dered thinning them quite impossible, and 

 they grew into such a tower-ot-Babel crop, 



that to rid himself of the trouble, he was fain 

 to turn in his stock and eat up all, stock, 

 block and belay. By this time his corn had 

 given up contention with the weeds, and had 

 submitted to its fate ; and then he found that 

 the hills were so close, that, to clear thera 

 with anything but the hand-hoe, was quite 

 out of the question ; while to attempt to do 

 it by that means — he had rather be excused. 

 But I must stop for the present, and sin- 

 cerely hope that by the next season, I shall 

 have a very different story to tell. I am quite 

 ready to admit, that such persons as our young 

 neighbour coming amongst us will be of much 

 service to the country ; while, in return, I 

 must be permitted to believe, that although 

 we might be somewhat deficient in the Rule 

 of Three, we are not quite so ignorant, as 

 not to know that two and tioo make four. 

 Another of the Old School, 



East Bradford. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 « Mixing at tbe Root." 



" Novitiate" returns his compliments to 

 " J. D. E." for his respectful notice. (Vol. 5, 

 p. 115.) He assures J. D. E. that he has 

 observed the mixing of roots both in the com- 

 mon and sweet potato, too often to be a scep- 

 tic. Tiie term potato was used in a general 

 sense, and intended to embrace both the com- 

 mon and sweet kinds. 



J. D. E. inquires " what says your very in- 

 telligent correspondent to this new theory of 

 plants mixing at the root f Novitiate (as 

 his name implies) is not very intelligent, and 

 he disclaims the character of being so — and 

 this may be a sufficieut reason why J. D, E.'s 

 " very easy and natural solution" does not 

 appear so to him. 



The roots of the potato do sometimes ex- 

 tend to great distances and may often come 

 in contact — but why say conflict 1 They are 

 insensitive — they possess no locomotive pow- 

 ers — they are entirely passive, as respects 

 each other — there is no shuffling — no elbow- 

 ing or shouldering — nothing like conflict that 

 I can conceive of; hence it appears to be a 

 gratuitous and somewhat " extravagant sup- 

 position that they might become chafed, and 

 thus literally inoculate each other." If this 

 were the fact, it would be one of every-day 

 occurrence in the forest — the field — the gar- 

 den. A universal inoculation and consequent 

 mixture would take place, subversive of all 

 distinctions between plants. This objection 

 seems particularly strong against the inocu- 

 lation oi fibrous roots, which never increase 

 beyond the original fibre. 



Admit that inoculation does take place — 

 will a mixing follow 1 I think not. In the 



