^^ERICAN HERD-BOOli 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebig. 



Vol. vm — No. 2.1 



9th mo. (September) 15th, 1843. 



[Whole No. 104. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 

 PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Gardening as a Science. 



I HOPE neither the editor nor his readers 

 will be frightened by the heading of my 

 paper. Under this title, I find quite an in- 

 teresting and common-sense article in the 

 May number of Paxton's beautiful Magazine 

 of Botany. Why should any of us plain 

 farmers, who sometimes give scope to our 

 reflective powers, be startled at the idea of 

 introducing system and rules, founded upon 

 the reasons of things, into the every day 

 operations of the garden, the corn field and 

 the manure heap? I have made, and here- 

 with offer for the Cabinet, if deemed suit- 

 able, .some extracts from the paper referred 

 to, believing they would afford instructive 

 matter for thought to many of your readers, 

 as they have done to myself. We may re- 

 collect, that the same difficulties which at- 

 tend us in our attempts to understand how 

 the most delicate plant that the amateur can 

 botanize upon, obtains and elaborates its nu- 

 triment, also present themselves when we 

 inquire into the growth of those of larger 



Cab.— Vol. VUL— No. 2. 



and more stately dimensions. The same 

 perfect law of nature, which enables the 

 spongiole of the minutest herb to meet all 

 its wants, equally, and similarly operates in 

 the growth of the corn, the wheat, and the 

 giant oak. And who is the farmer, that has 

 walked through his corn-field after a shower 

 of a hot summer evening, and almost heard 

 the plant cracking with its very thrift, that 

 has not involuntarily made the inquiry in 

 his own mind: — whence comes this wonder- 

 ful power of vegetable growth? how are its 

 demands satisfied, and who shall explain the 

 hidden processes by which the mysterious 

 principle of vilalily is sustained ? Eut hear 

 our author: 



j " There is no one subject in the science 

 of horticulture, vvliich involves so many dif- 

 ficulties, as the method by which plants re- 

 ceive and elaborate nutriment, so as to in- 

 crease in volume, and at the same time de- 

 posit within certain vessels or cells, the 

 peculiar fluids which characterise, and are 

 specific to each individual. 

 I "There are received notions which have 

 .been adopted, and appear to satisfy most 

 persons; yet we must admit that the whole 

 process is surrounded with inextricable diffi- 

 culties, which perhaps may never be re- 

 moved; but there are a few simple truths 

 that, if duly investigated, will evince that a 

 great deal too much has been incautiously 

 taken for granted. 



"The term sap is perfectly familiar to 

 every one: it is supposed to be the prime 



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