20 



Variety of Colours. 



Vol. IX. 



farms. The prepared flax was one half 

 heavier in stems and seed capsules, and the 

 latter were double in number; and when 

 tlie unprepared had already become yellow, 

 the prepared was still of the deepest green. 

 But the potatoes excelled everything yet 

 known in the most productive fields. From 

 a smgle potatoe there were seldom less than 

 ten, and sometimes seventeen strong stems, 

 while, in the best fields, there are seldom 

 more than one-third of this number." 



All other plants, clover, beans, turnips, 

 &c., are said to have been equally benefit- 

 ted. One-fourth only of the usual quantity 

 of seed — of wheat and rye — was sown on a 

 poor unproductive clay, and yet the produce 

 was greater than on the newest land of good 

 quality, though aided by manure. 



Two testimonials follow, dated Septem- 

 ber, 1831, signed by burgomasters, town- 

 counsellors, gardeners, schoolmasters, farm- 

 ers, and land-valuers, seventeen in number. 

 The following is an extract from the one 

 which relates to experiments made in a 

 garden at Biidingen : — ** 



" 1°. Several sunflowers had a height of 

 ten to eleven feet, the foot of the stems 

 being eight and a half and nine inches in 

 thickness. The stems consisted of firm 

 wood, and contained as much combustible 

 material as young fir trees of eight or ten 

 years of age. 



"2°. Ten or twelve potatoe plants gave 

 on an average thirty large potatoes each, 

 and had stems seven feet in height. 



" 3°. Fifteen stalks of Indian corn had on 

 an average five heads each, some having as 

 many as eight or nine heads to a single 

 plant." 



The next experiments quoted by the au- 

 thor, were made at Amsterdam, in 1834: — 



" The buckwheat was four and a half to 

 five feet high, the flax had four to five stems 

 from each seed, the Indian corn was nine to 

 ten feet in height, and had four to five heads 

 from each seed. The white clover was as 

 large in the leaves and stems as the red 

 clover usually is; the red clover and Lu- 

 cerne three feet high. 



" These results were obtained from the 

 prepared seeds alone, without manure, on a 

 depth of six or eight inches of the drift 

 sands of the downs, arranged in beds for 

 the purpose of the experiments." 



Between 1834 and 1839, nothing is re- 

 corded regarding the progress of the au- 

 thor's discovery or researches, and he leaves 

 us to infer that, in this interval, nothing had 

 been done — since, under the date of Sep- 

 tember, 1839, he inserts only an extract 

 from a Mayence newspaper, containing a 

 statement of some of the results obtained in 



the former years. To this is subjoined one 

 other testimonial, dated November, 1841, 

 declaring that his potatoes, sown on unma- 

 nurcd soil, were superior to any others in 

 the neighbourhood of Castel, where M. 

 Bickes resides. 



I think the conclusion Y^'hich is fairly to 

 be drawn from a careful perusal of this 

 pamphlet is, tliat, for a few successive years, 

 the author had made experiments upon the 

 preparing of seeds, and out of a number of 

 less successful, had obtained some very in- 

 teresting and striking results; that he had 

 then laid the matter aside for about as many 

 years more, and again, in 1841, made a soli- 

 tary experiment or two, which he has incor- 

 porated with his previous results in his pam- 

 phlet of 1843. For twelve years, therefore, 

 he has been more or less occupied with the 

 subject, but during all that time he has 

 never published or given any account of his 

 process for preparing the seeds according to 

 his method. He is one of that class of dis- 

 coverers who wish to sell their secrets, and, 

 by magnifying their importance, hope to 

 derive a larger profit from divulging them. 

 With such men the true friends of agricul- 

 ture can have no sympathy. 



1 do not think, however, that his preten- 

 sions are wholly unfounded, or that, by a 

 skilful study of the preparation of seeds, 

 much good may not hereafter be derived by 

 practical agriculture. The reasons for this 

 opinion will appear in the sequel. 

 (To be eoncluded in next No.) 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 



Variety of^olours. 



To THE Editor, — Among the many beau- 

 tiful and wonderful objects which we are 

 accustomed to gaze upon, almost without 

 taking note of them, as we walk forth upon 

 this wide world of ours, the great variety of 

 colours which we witness in things around 

 us, is not one of the least delightfiil. We 

 pass through the garden, and though it may 

 be in humblest style — for nature works just 

 as delicately for the peasant, as for the 

 prince — we behold " flowers of all hue," 

 from the deepest and most gaudily coloured, 

 to the snoio ivhite, which we are told, shows 

 the abserJce of all colours. The eye luxu- 

 riates over the rich paintings which spring 

 up in all directions, the delicacy of whose 

 touches, Solomon could not rival, in all his 

 glory. We pass through the corn-field, and 

 once in a while observe that nature has 

 played one of her pranks, by stepping appa- 

 rently out of her usual track, and producing 

 a stalk which shows some striped leaves 



