No. 9. Cultivating ground without Manure. — Editorial A"otices. 



293 



Cultivating Ground without Manure. 



We take the following article from the New York 

 Sun, of the 31st ult. 



The London Gardener's Chronicle, con- 

 ducted by Professor Lindley, brings to no- 

 tice in the following article, the recent dis- 

 covery in Germany, of a plan of superceding 

 manure in cultivation : 



(Communication on the art of cultivating 

 the ground without manure.) By F. H. 

 pokes, Frankfort, on the Maine, 1842, pp. 31. 



Wonders will never cease! While our 

 agriculturists are eagerly discussing the 

 comparative advantages of particular soils, 

 and studying the theory of manures as pro- 

 pounded by Sprengel and Liebig, a country- 

 man of these distinguished professors comes 

 forward to proclaim that their labours are 

 vain ; for, if we are to believe him, he has 

 discovered the art of growing luxuriant 

 crops on the poorest lands, and without any 

 manure whatsoever; and the cost of the 

 process is so trifling, that for the acre of 

 wheat or maize, it does not exceed five 

 pence sterling; and for rape, cabbage, &c, 

 amounts to only about half that sum. At 

 first we were disposed to consider such ex- 

 traordinary pretensions as an effusion of 

 quackery, and entitled to little or no credit; 

 but our incredulity has been somewhat 

 shaken by the numerous and respectable 

 attestations which the author has appended 

 to his pamphlet, and which tend to prove 

 that his method has been practised with 

 success, during the last twelve years, in va- 

 rious parts of Germany and Holland. Thus 

 the certificates from Vienna, dated in 1829 

 and 1830, declare that Mr. Bickes's process, 

 which would seem to consist in some prepa- 

 ration of the seed, "renders all dunging 

 unnecessary, is applicable to the poorest 

 soils, and to all sorts of plants, and imparts 

 to them a wonderful degree of vegetation 

 and fulness;" and they gave the results of 

 the experiments in the Imperial garden of 

 the Chateau, from which it appears that 

 wheat raised from seed sown by Mr. B., had 

 larger ears and more grains than that pro- 

 duced from unprepared seed ; that the bar- 

 ley showed ears with four rows and a larger 

 number of grains, while that from unpre- 

 pared seed, had only two rows and a smaller 

 froportion of grains on each stalk; and the 

 ndian corn exhibited a larger number of 

 much stronger and thicker heads. 



At Bundingen, again, some plants of the 

 sunflower, treated according to Mr. B's me- 

 thod, grew to the height of 10 to 11 feet 

 with woody stems of eight and a half to nine 

 inches in circumference. Ten or twelve 

 potatoe plants, of a large yellow sort, called 



Marburger, yielded each, on the average, 

 30 good sized tubers, with stem and branches 

 seven feet long; and maize, which grew 

 partly singly and partly in rows, had from 

 two to five, and in some instances, as many 

 as eight and nine heads. These crops were 

 obtained in the garden of Count Isenburg; 

 and we are further assured by the certificate, 

 to which are attached the signatures of two 

 burgomasters, the court gardener, a grand 

 ducal counsellor, and other official person- 

 ages, that they were raised in ground but 

 partially dressed, and in the midst of tall 

 weeds ! The trials of this method in Hol- 

 land, made in the summer of 1834, were at- 

 tended with results not less astonishing: 

 prepared wheat and rye, though sown thick, 

 gave from 50 to 60, and evenSO stalks from 

 one grain ; and a plant of barley bore eight 

 large ears. Buckwheat rose to four and a 

 half and five feet: flax had four and five 

 stems from one seed, and Indian corn grew 

 from nine to ten feet in height, with four to 

 five heads from a single corn. The green 

 crops were equally luxuriant. 



Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry, which 

 has been republished in one of the cheap 

 editions of the New World, teaches us that 

 ammonia is the great stimulant to the growth 

 of plants. At one of the late agricultural 

 meetings in London, Dr. T. C. Jackson sug- 

 gested that seeds might be coated with some 

 gummy substance, and then rolled in guano, 

 enough of which would readily adhere, to 

 produce all the effects ascribed to those for- 

 eign prepared seeds, — the new plan being a 

 secret. 



A mere tea-spoonful of guano, applied to 

 a newly struck rose cutting, of a few inches 

 in length, had been sufficient, the following 

 spring, to produce a bush of some six feet 

 in height. It is the received opinion, that 

 the nourishment of vegetable life is derived 

 from the atmosphere. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AMESICAN HEUB-BOOK. 



Philadelphia, Fourth Month, 1843. 



In the early part of last month, the public curiosity 

 was considerably excited by the appearance of an un- 

 expected and remarkable comet, which is said to be 

 " second in splendor only to the memorable one of 

 1G80." 



Sears C. Walker, in communicating some observa- 

 tions made upon it at the High School Observatory in 

 this city, describes it as " one of the most remarkable 

 that has ever appeared in the history of the world, for 

 its physical peculiarities." According to the calcula- 

 tions of Encke, a noted German astronomer, the comet 

 of 1G80, in its nearest approach to the sun, was within 



