No. 3. 



The Canada Thistle. — Hatching Apparatus. 



87 



influence of the sporidia of the fungus, in 

 both sets of experiments, having produced 

 plants infected witli ergot, while the plants 

 derived from grains not so subjected, es- 

 caped disease, a convincing proof is aftbrded 

 that their infection could not have been the 

 effect of chance, but must have resulted 

 from the artificial introduction of the spo- 

 ridia; and that the infection of the rye only, 

 while the wheat and barley escaped, is to 

 be attributed to the greater susceptibility of 

 the rye to infection, as proved by the much 

 greater frequency of the production of er- 

 gots in that species of grain. 



The Canada Thistle, 



Will grow on the poorest soils, and seems 

 more partial to clay, or soils inclining to 

 clay, than any other, probably from its tena- 

 city and adhering to the light downy sub- 

 stance attached to the seed, and retaining it 

 where it vegetates the ensuing spring. By 

 means of this down, it floats in the air and 

 is scattered to great distances. It is gene- 

 rally found on naked or uncultivated spots, 

 and by the road-side, seldom or never on 

 fields in grass. 



It is often introduced by grass seeds, par- 

 ticularly timothy and clover, which have 

 been gat'cred where the thistle is preva- 

 lent, and which has probably been the prin- 

 cipal means by which it has been introduced 

 into this State. The banks of our canals 

 and rail-roads, are lined with them. Thirty 

 miles north of this, they seem to have ob- 

 tained a foothold so permanent, that they 

 liave not only taken possession of the sides 

 of the roads, but whole fields are covered 

 with them. About five or six years since, 

 when on a visit to that section, I was much 

 surprised at the apparent apathy with which 

 the farmers viewed them. They were then 

 ripe, and the air filled with their light, 

 downy seed, floating in every direction. 



Ploughing and working among them, un- 

 less it is followed up with a determination 

 of extirpating them, seems rather to in- 

 crease than destroy them. It is my opinion, 

 from careful observation, that they spread 

 from the roots, and according to the best of 

 my calculation, at the rate of four to five 

 feet in every direction; and the result of my 

 experiments, observations and reflections, 

 has brought me to the following conclusions 

 and theory: that by whatever means the fo- 

 liage, or leaves, or stalks of the plant are 

 continually and frequently destroyed for one 

 season, or two at most, during the months 

 of June, July, August and September, will 

 destroy the Canada thistle. 



It is a settled principle in physiology, 

 that leaves are as essential to vegetables, as 

 lungs are to animals; and that without the 

 healtiiful exercise of these organs, both the 

 vegetable and the animal will become dis- 

 eased and ultimately die. Leaves are as 

 necessary to tlie roots of plants as roots are 

 to the leaves; they are mutually dependent 

 on each other, and one cannot long exist 

 without the other. The repeated and com- 

 plete defoliation of a plant, therefore, must 

 soon be fatal to its roots, and an effectual 

 mode of eradicating tliem. 



Caleb N. Bement. 



Three-hills Farm, N. Y., July 4th, 1843. 



Hatching Apparatus. — They have a ma- 

 chine for hatching eggs, now actually in me 

 in London, bringing out the little chickens 

 in broods of fifties and hundreds, with all 

 the punctuality of an old hen. The follow- 

 ing is the advertisement of the machine, as 

 we find it in the London papers of the 2nd 

 inst., whicli we insert gratis, just for the 

 sake of spreading a knowledge of the in- 

 vention : 



"Hatching Apparatus! Reduced prices — 

 from eight to sixteen guineas. — Messrs. Todd 

 &L Son, of Bury street, Bloomsbury, beg to 

 call the attention of the public to their port- 

 able patent Hatching and Rearing Appara- 

 tus, being the original manufacturers. This 

 successful invention is capable of hatching, 

 at a trifling expense, any number of game 

 and poultry eggs of all sorts, from 50 to 

 200, at one time, and possesses the further 

 recommendation of furnishing poultry for 

 the table at a trifling cost, at all periods of 

 the year. For further particulars apply to 

 the manufacturers. A machine may be seen 

 in use daily." — <S. C. Temperance Advocate. 



" Since man is but an instrument to direct 

 the machinery placed at his command by In- 

 finite Wisdom, it is not likely that he can 

 discover the minutiae of first causes. He is 

 an observer who ought to make and register 

 the results of his observations ; and in pro- 

 portion as he does so, he will obtain a 

 knowledge of effects from which he may 

 infer the existence of certain general laws." 



The vegetable origin of coal is now uni- 

 versally admitted by geologists ; and, when 

 we discuss the probable manner in which 

 the terrestrial plants from which it was de- 

 rived were imbedded in marine shale and 

 sandstone, we shall find it necessary to sup- 

 pose a long succession of operations. — Ly- 

 elVs Elements of Geology — vol. 1. p. 59. 



