1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



333 



snips will bo eaten before time of planting, when 

 their place may be taken by radishes, and they be 

 followed by peas, and they by a few turnips. To 

 the other early peas, the parsnips may follow : 

 on the corn land you can grow squashes, and vice 

 versa. 



Half an acre arranged in this way, will give all 

 that a family of sis persons can possibly need, 

 but Ifc sure to remember at starting, that yon 

 want no more land under culture, than you can 

 keep free from weeds, and to plant no greater quan- 

 tity than you can use yourself. Where the most 

 of the surface is under culture, and the ornamen- 

 tal is entirely excluded, there is danger of a too 

 great sjiirit of utility ; thercforedonot forget that 

 we must feed the mmd and soul as well as the 

 body, but pay a due regard to both. It is very 

 desirable, however, to keep each division by itself, 

 and not mix them together heterogeneously. No 

 one wishes to see gilly-flowers and cabbages side 

 by side, because they are of the same fomily ; let 

 the two divisions be just as separate as parlor and 

 kitchen, but do not omit either any more than 

 one of these two rooms from your house. It may 

 seem rather late to make this appeal for the vege- 

 tables, but there is yet time for tomatoes, late 

 peas, sweet corn, carrots, jiarsnips, and cabbages, 

 and when you read over this list, recall the sa- 

 vory dishes they may be compounded into, and be 

 willing to give your wife the assistance you can, 

 in the culinary department. Lest the succession 

 of the vegetables should be forgotten, an ennu- 

 meration may be of service ; first parsnips, then 

 asparagus, rhubarb, radishes, lettuce,, dandelions, 

 peas, beans, cucumbers, corn, squashes, tomatoes, 

 carrots, turnips, cal)bages and potatoes. For 

 fruits, strawberries, raspberries, currants, cher- 

 ries, melons, pears, peaches and apples, — all with- 

 in the reach of every owner of one hundred and 

 fifty feet square of land. 



R. Morris Copeland. 



Roxhury, June 3, 1854. 



PRODUCTION OF BUDS AND SEEDS. 



In considering the production of vegetable buds 

 and seeds, of somo insects, of more perfect ani- 

 mals, says Erasmus Darwin in th(J Zoonomia, 

 the modes of generation may be divided into soli- 

 tary and sexual. The first consists in solitary, 

 lateral generation, as in the reproduction of 

 •weeds and bulbs of vegetables, and of the young 

 of the polypus, and of the hydra stcntoria, or of 

 the solitary internal generation, as of the ap/iis, 

 vine frcttcr , actcnia, sea anemone tcia, tape worm 

 &nd volvcx; all of which are properly a vivipa- 

 rous progeny, as they are produced b^' spawns, or 

 eggs, or seeds. In these modes it is believed that 

 fibrils with fermative attitudes, and molecules 

 with formative propensities, produced by, or de- 

 tached from, various essential parts of their re- 

 spective systems, float in the vegetable or insect 

 blood. Tiiose may be termed animalized parti- 

 cles of primary combination, consisting of a solid 

 particle adjuined to a peculiar appetartcy or pro- 

 pensity ; which latter may bo termed its ctkerial 

 part; as magnetism or electricity may be addud 

 to iron or to other inanimate bodies. 



The various ways in which plants are propa- 

 gated, opens a wide field of observation to the 

 student. The various phenomena involved in the 

 evolution of the almcst innumerable species of 

 vegetable productions, and the singular and as- 

 tonishing wisdom with wliich means are adapted 

 to ends, wnll aflbrd ample scope for the investiga- 

 tion of the most acuminated and persevering in- 

 tellect, and is a field, the treasures of which hu- 

 man genius and perseverance can never entirely 

 exiiaust. 



WHAT A WHOLE CEOP CARRIES OFF. 



Below we give another chapter from Johnston's 

 "Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geolo- 

 gy," which we think will be found interesting to 

 every reader, whether ho cultivates the soil or not. 

 There are so few technical terms employed, and 

 the author's meaning is made so clear by the use 

 of forcible and perspicuous language, that we al- 

 ways take up the work with a new pleasure. And 

 so will other*. 



The importance of the inorganic matter con- 

 tained in living vegetables, or in vegetable sub- 

 stances when reaped and dry, will appear more 

 distinctly if we consider the actual quantity car- 

 ried ofi" {'rom the soil in the series of crop. 



In a four years' course of cropping, .in which 

 the crops gathered amounted jier acre to — 



1st year, Turnips, 20 ton.? of bulb.s ;uid 6} tons of topa. 



2d year, IJarley, 40 Ijushtl^ of Go lbs. eucli, aiul 1 ton of straw. 



3d year, Clover and Hye-Grass, 1\ ton of each in liay. 



itii year, Wh'.'at, lb bushels of 6o"lbs., and IJ tons of straw. 



1". The quantity of inorganic matter carried 

 oif in the four crops, supposing none of them to 

 be eaten on the land, amounts to about — 



Potash 317 lbs. 



Soda 51 " 



Lime 193 " 



Magnesia 55 •' 



Oxide of iron la " 



Silica 350 " 



or in all about 11 cwt. ; of wliich gross weight the 

 different substances form unlike jiroportions. 



2'*. As till clearer view of these quantities will bo 

 obtained by a consideration of the fact, that if we 

 carry off the entire produce, and add none of it 

 again in the shape of manure, we must or ought, 

 in its stead, if the land is to be restored to its 

 original condition, to add to each acre every four 

 years — 



Dry pearl-asli 465 lbs. 



Common bone-dust 652 " 



Kps )ni salt.s 326 " 



Common salt 116 " 



Quick-lime 70 " 



Total 1529 lbs. 



Several observations suggest themselves from a 

 consideration of the aliove statements. 



First, That if this inorganic matter be really 

 necessary to the plant, the gradual and constant 

 removal of it from the land ought, by and by, to 

 make the soil poorer in tliis part oi' the food of 

 plants. ji 



Second, Tliat the more oi the crops which grow 

 upon tlie land we r.ituru to it again in tlie form of 

 manure, the less will tliis deterioration be percep- 

 tilde. 



Sulphuric acid 108 lbs. 



Phosphoric acid 116 " 



Chlorine 70 " 



Total 12S4 " 



