AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NOKTH MARKET STREET, (Aobicuitural Wabehou«e.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL.. XXI.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 17, 1843. 



[NO. 40. 



N. E. FARMER. 



From the Conn. Farmers' Gnzelte. 



SORRKL. 



Mr Wood — I am inJiiced to send you a few 

 einarks upon this troublesome plant, in conse- 

 quence of seeing in your Gazette of Feb. Ist, an 

 ibservation whieli appears to me to bo founded in 

 rror. You were speaking of the o.valic acid — 

 rhich you say, " is found in many plants, particu- 

 arly the sorref, which always iniUcates a sour soil." 

 Ft is this idea of our soil being; connected witli sor- 

 rel, that strikes me as incorrect. It would be of 

 little importance whether it is correct or incorrect, 

 f it were not made the basis of all the practical di- 

 rections to be found in our periodicals for extermi- 

 nating sorrel. All prescriplinns for destroying 

 this weed proceed upon the idea that the oxalic 

 .cid found in sorrel, exists in the soil, and is ab- 

 sorbed by the roots into the plant. Hence we are 

 told, even in the Albany Cultivator — the ablest 

 gricultural paper in the country — that "sorrel 

 'ill only grow in soils where the oxalic acid is in 

 bundance. To destroy sorrel, it is only ni-cessary 

 o neiitralizg the acid tiiat produces it, and this may 

 fbe done by any alkali, but the most common and 

 cheapest is lime." 



Now we farmers (let nie call myself one on a 

 small scale,) dislike spending our time, money and 

 labor in a way to produce nothing but disappoint- 

 ment. When our fields are overrun with sorrel, 

 we look to you editors to tell us how to destroy it. 

 " Put on lime," you say — " that will neutralize the 

 ■acid in the sour soil, and consequently starve the 

 sorrel." We accordingly cover the soil with lime, 

 and behold the sorrel, instead of disappearing, 

 grows more rank than ever. How vexatious ! 



If, Mr Wood, yon will take a careful review of 

 your chemistry, you will probably find that the ex- 

 istence of oxalic acid in sorrel, is no more proof 

 that the soil is sour, than a sour apple, or sour 

 grape, or sour gooseberry, or sour pie-plant, is 

 proof of sour soil. Tiie chemists ail inform ua tliat 

 the vegetable acids (the oxalic being one) are pro- 

 duced in the plants themselves, and not in the soil. 

 It is true the elements of which the acids are com- 

 pounded (carbon, oxygen and hydrogen,) arc found 

 both in the soil and in the atmosphere: but they 

 do not exist in either in the acid form which 

 they are made to 'assume in the plants. And 

 whether these elements, when taken into a plant 

 through its roots or leaves, are to be formed into an 

 acid, or into some other product, depends upon the 

 nature of the plant. Thus when taken into a po- 

 tato-plant, they form a starch ; into a corn-stalk, 

 they fornj sugar ; into a grape-vine, they form tar- 

 taric acH ; — and, in the progress of vegetation, 

 these products are often changed from one to an- 

 other, in the same plant. For illustration, take the 

 following from Dr. Kane's Chemistry, p. 658 : " If 

 we examine the composition of a young apple, we 

 find it to be nearly tasteless, and to consist of a 

 loose, ligneous tissue, in which is imbedded a quan- 

 tity of ordinary slarch : as its growth proceeds, the 



starch diminishes in proportional amount, anJ the 

 fruit becomes intensely sour, from the presence of 

 tartaric acid ; and after some time, the acidity be- 

 comes of a much less disagreeable kind, and the 

 tartaric acid is found to be replaced by malic acid, 

 and in the next concluding stage of maturity, this 

 disappears, its place beiug-lakiMi by peoline (jelly) 

 and s:io;ar." None of these products come from 

 the soil ready-formed. It is the plant that has 

 formed them by its own vital powers. You will 

 search in vain in the soil for the starch of the po- 

 tato, or for the sugar of the maple sap, or for the 

 cream of tartar grapes, or ^or the oxalic acid of sor- 

 rel. But to be sure on this point, examine every 

 analysis of soils to be found in books, and you will 

 find no one that states oxalic acid to be a constitu- 

 ent of soil. Indeed it is impossible that this acid 

 should exist in soils — it is so easily dissolved in 

 water, that every rain would wash it out. 



If all this be true, and I know of no reason to 

 question it, the application of alkalies to the soil 

 in order to neutralize an acid that does not exist 

 there, but only in the plants that grow on it, would 

 seem at least to be made in the wrong place. The 

 misapplication will not be less apparent, when it is 

 considered that no acid exists in vegetables except 

 in combination with some alkali. So that no plant 

 will grow, if it contains an acid, unless the soil fur- 

 nish it with an alkali. Thus Liebig says, (p. 43.) 

 "it is quite impossible to manure a plant of the 

 genua oxalis (wood sorrel,) without potash." Pot- 

 ash, then, instead of destroying sorrel, is absolute- 

 ly necessary to its growth.* 



I shall conclude this portion of my remarks by 

 reference to a fact which you may observe for 

 yourself, on taking a walk to Col. Puuderston's 

 lime-kiln, in the neighborhood of this city. His 

 kiln for burning oyster shells is set into the side 

 of « knoll composed of coarse sand and pebbles, 

 which have been water-worn and washed clean of 

 all fine matter. Nothing can bo more barren than 

 this sand. It has been drawn out of the hill and 

 levelled off around the mouth of the kiln. Here 

 the burnt shells have been spread, slacked, and 

 have remained till carted away for manure. There 

 has been left on the surface of the sand a coat of 

 lime of considerable thickness, which has lain 

 there for a few months past undisturbed, the burn- 

 ing of shells having been suspended. A few weeks 

 ago, I went to the kiln, and found sorrel growing, 

 with great luxuriance, through the coat of lime, 

 which in ojie place was two inches thick, about a 

 bunch that was particularly thrifty. According to 

 the theory of the periodicals, this ought not to be 

 so — but unfortunately it is so. 



We must look, then to some other means for the 



"In treating this subject, I have gone upon the suppo- 

 sition that the acid in our common sorrel is the same as 

 that in wood sorrel, (oxalis acctosella,) that is oxalic 

 acid. Common sorrel, however, belongs to another ge- 

 nus of plants, CRumei,) and may or may not contain 

 oxalic acid. I am not chemist enough to determine this 

 point. One circumstance is against il. Oialic acid is 

 poisonous — butchildien eat iIih leaves of sorrel with 

 safety ; and pies or larts made of the leaves, are a whole- 

 eonae, though not to every one, a very palatable food. 



I destruction of sorrel, than the ap))lication of nlka- 

 i lies to the soil. l,et us inquire a little into the 

 habits and ninnncr of growth of this plant. [t 

 spreads, as you well know, by long stringy roots, 

 running just under the surface of the ground. On 

 i these roots, for every inch or half inch, spring out 

 buds which grow uf) into leaves and steiii.i. The 

 I buds are formed principally in the spring and fall 

 ; months, and there is a pause in their growth about 

 ] midsuiiiiner. Plowing the ground and turning 

 over the roots, while the buds are growing or ready 

 to grow, that is in the spring cr fall, has no effect 

 to kill them. Hence putting in a spring crop (not 

 tilled) like oats, or a fall crop like rye, tends rcther 

 to spread the sorrel than subdue it. But if the 

 ground is thoroughly broke up about midsummer, 

 the sorrel is pretty apt to die. Hence a crop of 

 buckwheat which is sown in July, is very cITectual ; 

 but a cropof riita baga, sowed in the same month, 

 and kept clean by the hoe or cultivator, is a still 

 better destroyer of sorrel. For the same reason, 

 if the roots of the sorrel are broken and the leaves 

 cut off through the month of July, as may be done 

 in tilling a crop of corn, the sorrel will generally 

 perish. If it comes up from seed, it is as easily 

 killed by hoeing as any seed, provided the hoeing 

 he done soon after the plant comes up, and before 

 the horizontal roots have begun to run. 



Such are the results of my own observation and 

 experience. If any of your readers know any bel- 

 ter way to root out the sorrel, they will confer a 

 favor by making their mode of destruction public. 

 Respectfully, your friend, 



NOYES DARLING. 



JVew Haven, Feb. 1]//,, 1843. 



Faith and Works. — There is no pursuit in life 

 in which the union of faith and works is more ne- 

 cessary, or productive of better effect, than in that 

 of farming. This is well illustrated by the follow- 

 ing little story, which we have somewhere read or 

 heard. At the early settlement of New Hamp- 

 shire, the inhabitants of a town in the interior con- 

 sisted chiefly of Irish or Scotch Presbyterians, who 

 among other things, adopted the following custom. 

 When their fields were planted and sown, the min- 

 ister, with his elders, deacons, and the farmers, 

 visited each field in succession, offering up a short 

 prayer at each, that their labors might result in a 

 plentiful harvest. One day the procession engag- 

 ed in this pious perambulation, arrived at a field, 

 where the minister stopped, took a quick but keen 

 survey, and then addressed his flock to this pur- 

 port : "Brethren, we may pass along: it will be of 

 no use to pray over this field till there is more ma- 

 nure spread upon il; otherwise, even the prayer of 

 a righteous man, however /eryeiii, cannot be effectu- 

 al." — Albany Cult. 



We last week received from Tyler Fountain, 

 Esq., of Peekskill, a dozen fall pippins, which had 

 been so well preserved through the winter, that 

 they were as sound and juicy as in November. 

 They were packed in barrels with sifted plaster of 

 Paris. — Ibid. 



