No. 3. 



Cultivation of the Oak. 



75 



mineral vegetable, rather than vegetable 

 soils. P 



Every gardener should know, that the 

 best manure for any plant is the decomposed 

 leaves and substance of its own species. 

 This fact will suggest the proper course 

 with reference to the leaves, tops, vines, 

 haulm, and other vegetable refbse of the 

 garden. 



The other fact connected with the leaf, is 

 its function of exhalation. The greatest 

 proportion of crude or sap which ascends 

 the trunk, upon reaching the leaf, is given 

 forth again to the atmosphere, by means of a 

 particularly beautiful economy. The quan- 

 tity of moisture produced by a plant is hardly 

 dreamed of by those who have not specially 

 informed themselves. The experiments of 

 Hales have been often quoted. A sun-flower, 

 three and a half feet high, presenting a sur- 

 face of 5.616 square inches exposed to the 

 sun, was found to perspire at the rate of 

 twenty to thirty ounces avoirdupois, every 

 twelve hours, or seventeen times more than 

 a man. A vine with twelve square feet, ex- 

 haled at the rate of five or six ounces a day. 

 A seedling apple-tree, with twelve square 

 feet of foliage, lost nine ounces a day. 



These are experiments upon very small 

 plants. The vast amount of surface pre- 

 sented by a large tree, must give off immense 

 quantities of moisture. The practical bear- 

 ings of this fact of vegetable exhalation are 

 not a few. Wet forest lands, by being 

 cleared of timber, become dry; and streams, 

 fed from such sources, become almost extinct 

 as civilization encroaches on wild woods. 

 The excessive dampness of crowded gardens 

 is not singular, and still less is it strange 

 that dwellings covered with vines, whose 

 windows are choked with shrubs, and whose 

 roof is overhung with branches of trees, 

 should be intolerably damp, and when the 

 good housewife is scrubbing, scouring and 

 brushing, and nevertheless, marvelling that 

 her house is so infested with mould, she 

 hardly suspects that her troubles would be 

 more easily removed by the axe or saw, than 

 by all her cloths and brushes. A house 

 should be closely surrounded with shrubs. 

 A free circulation of air should be main- 

 tained all about it, and shade trees so dis- 

 posed as to leave large openings for the light 

 and sun to enter. The usual rains of the 

 current season have produced so great a 

 dampness in our residences that no one can 

 fail to have noticed its effect, both on the 

 health of the pccupants, and upon the beauty 

 and good condition of their household sub- 

 stance. — Western Farmer t^ Gardener. 



On the Importance of the Cultivation 

 of the Oak and other valuable Timber 

 Trees. 



With Observations nn the Preservation of 

 Ship Timber, and the Process of Decay 

 in Wood. By A. Mitchell, M. D., Port- 

 land. In a letter to the Hon. H. A. S. 

 Dearborn. 



My Dear Sir, — The following article 

 was communicated by me to Gen. Joseph 

 M. Hernandez, of St. Augustine, Fl., and 

 published in the Florida Herald. Vou will 

 probably recollect that this gentleman has 

 been, for many years, exclusively devoted to 

 the science of agriculture, and is one of the 

 best systematic planters in that State. An 

 Es.say written by him on the Culture of the 

 Tobacco Plant, has been considered to be 

 one of-the most elaborate articles ever pub- 

 lished on that subject. 



Reasoning from analogy on the soil and 

 productions of the southern portion of our 

 Union, we may attribute to Florida, as hav- 

 ing within its domains as many natural ad- 

 vantages as any of the tropical regions in 

 the cultivation of those plants that are indi- 

 genous to those countries, presenting an ex- 

 tensive surface, which as yet remains im- 

 perfectly explored — rich in the spontaneous 

 growth of many esculent plants for the sup- 

 port of man, and the growth of domestic 

 animals, and offering a wide field for the 

 cultivation and introduction of many more 

 for exportation and home consumption. Such 

 are the tea-plant, coffee, tobacco, sugar cane, 

 Turkish poppy, olive tree, cotton, indigo, 

 saflron, grape, fig, &c. As we shall briefly 

 descant, at present, on the vital importance 

 of a community being well versed in agri- 

 cultural science, in order to improve with 

 advantage those rich fields which a bounte- 

 ous Creator has spread out before us, we 

 shall principally advert to the forest growth 

 of this peninsular portion of our United 

 States, with some original observations on 

 the preservation of ship timber, and the pro- 

 cess of decay in these woods. 



The process of decay termed dry rot, has 

 been a theme of scientific inquiries for many 

 years among many ot our most eminent 

 chemists; and the most elaborate investiga- 

 tions have been made, both at home and 

 abroad, in order to ascertain the chemical 

 effects of air, heat, light, and moisture, on 

 the same, as our oaks and various timbers 

 that have been previously prepared and ap- 

 propriated to use for ship-building. We do 

 not, at present, have the presumption to offer 

 any preservative means that would counter- 

 act the effects of this dreaded enemy to our 

 national purse,. but simply to throw out some- 



