58 



Manuring Seeds by Steeping. 



Vol. IX. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Manuring Seeds by Steeping. 



Well has the editor of the Cabinet called 

 it a " startling doctrine, that all seeds may 

 be so treated as to grow most luxuriantly, 

 without any manuring- of the soil in which 

 they are cultivated,"* for it seems to over- 

 throw some of our long accredited notions 

 concerning manures and rich soils. From 

 pure beach sand, or an equally barren sub- 

 soil, we arc promised a greater crop without 

 manure, than has usually been obtained from 

 a good soil well dressed ! and this, on the 

 simple condition that the seed used should 

 undergo a short and cheap preparation ! 

 One cannot help being curious to know if 

 this magic power, given to the seeds of an 

 nual and other short lived plants, would be 

 alike imparted to those of slower growth 

 to the peach, for instance, of a few years, 

 and to the oak of an hundred"? — if so, what 

 giants may tlie forest not be made to pro- 

 duce. 



Yet we are bound to give heed to these 

 claims, for they are confirmed by many wit- 

 nesses ; a tithe of the testimony offered to 

 sustain them, would suffice to convict of the 

 highest crime in our courts of justice. More- 

 over, when we remember th;it a few ele- 

 ments constitute the food of all vegetables 

 and that air and water furnish the most of 

 these ; when we see a plant thrive well in 

 a bottle of pure water, and the sturdy oak 

 springing from a naked rock with a few 

 chinks only for the admission of its vagrant 

 roots, we are led to consider whether the 

 food of plants is not more abundant and 

 more accessible than we had supposed; and 

 wliether the first condition of vigorous 

 growth he not a good appetite and good 

 (ligeslion, to be derived only from a robust 

 conslitiiiion through a vigorous germ or 

 seed. If so, we have some clue to the a 

 tonishing results referred to, and some ra- 

 tional ground of faith in the matter. But 

 my object Vvas, by relating a fact having 

 some bearing upon the subject, to encourage 

 others to do the same, for doubtless m.any 

 such ficts are afloat in the community, and 

 it is only by their multiplication and aggre- 

 gation that any thing like a safe theory can 

 be formed in the premises. 



Some years ago, the writer was shown by 

 the proprietor and cultivator of a small farm 

 of a light sandy soil, in the eastern part of 

 Massaciiusetts, seven ears of corn, of the 

 kind called brindled, or red and white; five 

 were large full ears, the otiier two, smaller, 

 but sound and merchantable. They were 



* See page 377, last vol, of Cabinet. 



all, he said, the produce of a single seed ! 

 this seemed almost incredible to all, espe- 

 cially when he added, that no extraordinary 

 care or dressing had been used in its culti- 

 vation ; and had not the relator been a man 

 of undoubted integrity and noted accuracy, 

 his account would, I have no doubt, have 

 been discredited. But perhaps the most 

 singular feature in the case was to come; 

 he had not even planted the corn, it had 

 sprung up from the dung dropped on the 

 spot by a corn fed ox ! Thus, this prolific 

 seed had passed through the organs, but es- 

 caped tlie process of digestion. This cir- 

 cumstance was viewed at the time as a 

 most singular coincidence, but strange to 

 -ay, of the many that were acquainted with 

 the facts in the case, no one, so far as I 

 know, looked upon tliem in the light of 

 cause and effect. 



This case seems to me to go, as far as a 

 single case can, to confirm the novel doc- 

 trine of the German,* and to justify the 

 trial of the excrements of cattle made li- 

 quid, and of their urine also, and perhaps of 

 the guano, for fertilizing seed. 



On reviewing this subject in the light we 

 now possess, I cannot but consider it as pro- 

 mising important results to agriculture, and 

 as preeminentlv worthy the attention of 

 every intelligent hu.^bandman. At the hands 

 of the physiologist too, in connection with 

 the animal as well as the vegetable king- 

 dom, it seems to me the whole doctrine is 

 worthy of the closest scrutiny; it would not 

 surprise me if in it should be found a clue 

 to the marked dissimilarity of offspring of 

 the same parents, occurring under what ap- 

 peared to be similar circumstances. 



It is the intention of the writer to try the 

 effect of the new process on the germination 

 of seeds to some extent; — further than this 

 to test the agricultural value of the new 

 doctrine, his situation is no,t favourable — it 

 is favourable, however, to the preparation of 

 the chemical solutions; or " corn-growing 

 liquids," of James Campbell, an account of 

 which is contained in the Cabinet of seventh 

 month last ; and it is his present purpose, in 

 order to facilitate the attempts of others to 

 test their value, carefully to make such so- 

 lutions, and to furnish them to applicants at 

 a barely remunerating price. 



Paul Swift. 



Philadelphia, Eighth month 30th, 1844. 



A MIXTURE in the proportion of one ton 

 of refuse fish to ten tons of earth, are used 

 in Cornwall as a manure for turnips. 



* See last No. of Cabinet, page 18. 



