No. 7. 



Mixing at the Root — Stall-Feeding. 



215 



process of ingrafting there is inoculation- 

 more — there is an entire substitution of the 

 juices of the stock for those more congenial 

 ones which nature had designed to nourish 

 the scion — and what is the consequence? 

 Does a mixture take place 1 I think not. It 

 has been supposed that the stock does influ- 

 ence the fruit of the scion — and with reason 

 — but does the fruit of the scion partake of 

 the specific qualities of the stock? I think 

 not. The digestive and assimilating organs 

 of the scion appear to be capable of destroy- 

 ing those specific qualities and converting 

 them to their own nature. 



The choice varieties of roots and fruits, as 

 well as of animals, have been obtained by 

 culture from native productions of an inferior 

 quality, and these possess a strong tendency 

 to return to their original state, whenever the 

 necessary care and culture are neglected. 

 This tendency increases in a direct ratio to 

 their improvement. Hence the universal 

 complaint of degeneration, where only ordi- 

 nary attention is bestowed in the cultivation 

 of improved varieties. Now if any of the 

 highly improved varieties of fruit are ingraft- 

 ed into stocks of inferior quality, their nou- 

 rishment will be of an uncongenial kind, and 

 deterioration will probably take place. This 

 seems to be a general principle ; but it re- 

 mains to be shown that there would be a 

 particular assimilation to the peculiar quali- 

 ties of the stock. 



The foregoing suggestion is important to 

 our horticulturists, and ought to be attended 

 to. In the apple, for example, instead of the 

 usual resort to a cider-mill, they should care- 

 fully select their seeds with a reference to 

 the kinds of fruit which they intend to propa- 

 gate. Stocks for the fine varieties of early 

 fruit should be raised from seeds of early 

 fruit, and of good quality — and ceteris pari- 

 bus, of all the other kinds. 



If the view which I have taken is correct, 

 it follows that the assimilating powers of the 

 plant would prevent potatoes from mixing, 

 by inoculation. Hence it appears that the 

 new theory is no better than the old one, 

 and that they are both alike insufficient to 

 afford a satisfactory solution of the problem. 

 Before attempting to build any more theories, 

 let us inquire whether the whole affair may 

 not indeed be one of "Franklin's fishes." 



I have often seen the " ring-streaked and 

 speckled" potatoes, and therefore am no scep- 

 tic as to the fact. But before engaging in 

 the inquiry how a mixing in the root is ef- 

 fected, I think it most prudent to consider 

 whether it is effected at all — or whether 

 the apparent mixing may not depend on the 

 tendency in the plant to degenerate, or form 

 new varieties? Whether it is essential to 

 this change that two varieties should be 



planted together ? — or whether the same 

 result may not, and does not frequently occur 

 where only one variety is planted? I ara 

 satisfied that this does often happen ; and it 

 may be found, on a careful investigation, that 

 it is the only way in which plants mix in the 

 root. This idea may, perhaps, be very repug- 

 nant to the preconceived notions of many of 

 my readers ; but it is by far the most conso- 

 nant with what we know of the vegetable 

 economy. How often do we hear agricultu- 

 rists, who have not been over-careful in the 

 choice of their seed (and very few are so), 

 complain that their potatoes have become so 

 mixed, white, red, and blue, that they are no 

 longer fit to plant. I am aware that this is 

 always accounted for on the supposition that 

 different varieties have been accidentally 

 planted, either together, or in contiguous 

 rows. But this is very often supposition only, 

 and a very doubtful one too. What says J. 

 D. E. to this solution tcithoiit a theory. I 

 hope that he and G. W. Cooper will give the 

 matter a full and fair examination, and make 

 known the result for the benefit of a 



NoVITIATK. 



Stall-Feeding. 



In stall-feeding, the quantity of food given 

 should be in proportion to the weight of the 

 animal ; an ox will eat a little less than one- 

 fifth of his weight per day of cabbages, and 

 about a third of his weight of common tur- 

 nips, besides hay to counteract the supera- 

 bundant moisture of the roots. About a sixth 

 part of his weight, with the addition of dry 

 food, is the proper allowance per day of pota- 

 toes or carrots. One pound of oil-cake and 

 one of hay for every hundred pounds weight 

 of the animal, is the usual allowance per day 

 of this food ; the quantity of the former being 

 increased as the fatting progresses until it is 

 one-half more than the first. 



Every load of hay and sufficient litter given 

 to beasts while fatting on roots and oil-cake, 

 will make seven loads of dung, one load of 

 which, if kept under shelter, is more effica- 

 cious than two of common barn manure. Mr. 

 Moody littered forty-five oxen while fatting 

 with twenty wagon-loads of wheat-stubble, 

 mown after the crop had been carried, and 

 the product of dung, when well fermented, 

 was six hundred tons: another trial with 

 thirty-six cows and four horses, while eating 

 fifty tons of hay, and twenty acres of straw 

 used as litter, made three hundred tons of 

 rotten dung, in good order for the land. Every 

 acre of stubble, after carrying the wheat 

 crop, should be carefully mown, and taken to 

 the cattle-yard, there to be stacked, for win- 

 ter use. — Selected. 



