FARMERS' REGISTER— VEGETABLE INSTINCT. 



59 



Manure accumulated in the different stock yards 

 from the commencement of winter, and remaining; 

 until midsummer or later, possibly some until 

 fall, will not run into great heat ; and should it be 

 so disposed, the fermentation Avill be over before 

 applying it on the wheat in winter. Yours res- 

 pectfully, RICHARD SAMPSON. 



King William, Va. 



For the guinea grass roots which I send you, 

 prepare the ground by well ploughing and harrow- 

 ing : let it be rich — the richer the better, as it no 

 doubt is a very exhausting crop. Place one of the 

 roots horizontally, every three feet — cover light- 

 ly — cultivate as corn. The roots will so run as 

 to meet — but from my short experience, they had 

 better be prevented, by taking up the runners to 

 form new plantations ; as when broad cast, I am 

 sure it would in our climate dwindle down to or- 

 dinary product. It should be cut for horses, when 

 about four feet high ; whenoIder,it becomes harsh. 

 What particularly recommends it is, that when 

 all other grasses fail from drought, tliis is then in 

 full growth. Indeed so very sensitive is it, you 

 will find if it is closely watched, that upon the 

 slightest change to colder Aveather, its growth is 

 checked ; but so soon as a hot scorching sun comes 

 out, the growth is rapid beyond description. I 

 forgot to mention that a light dry soil suits it 

 best. 



* * * I return the names of the few subscribers 

 to the Register that I have been able to obtain, 

 and wish they were more — but you might as well 

 preach repentance to the devil, as to talk to a lum- 

 ber-getter or tar-burner about farming ; they have 

 no idea of the advantages of agricultural improve- 

 ment, and it is useless to say any thing to them 

 about it. I am thoroughly convinced of the value 

 of marl, lime, &c. and shall continue to use them. 

 Fortunately, my small and poor farm has marl all 

 around it, attended with the inconvenience only of 

 its being twenty-two feet below the level of the 

 surface, so that I have steep hills to haul up. But 



many persons upon river, have marl on a 



level with their land, and yet will not use it, and 

 curse him who first introduced it. 



VegetaMe Iiisliiict, 



From the New England Farmer. 

 Instinct is a particular disposition or tendency 

 in a living being to embrace, without deliberation 

 or reflection, the n^ieans of self-preservation, and to 

 perform on particular occasions, such other actions 

 as are required by its economy, without having 

 any perception to what end or purposes it acts, or 

 any idea of the utility and advantage of its own 

 operation. Climbing plants afford a curious in- 

 stance of this instructive economy. Some of these 

 having very slender stems, cannot, like most other 

 plants, grow of themselves in a perpendicular di- 

 rection; but in order to compensate for this inca- 

 pacity, nature has given them the povv'er of mov- 

 ing or twining their branches and tendrils differ- 

 ent ways, until they generally meet with a tree or 

 some other body on which to climb, to attacli 

 themselves; and when a tendril has laid hold of a 

 support, it coils up and draws the stem after it.* 



* A mistake. The t'-'nclril does not draw tlie stcin 



Trees and other vegetables have likewise the 

 power of directing their roots for procuring nou- 

 rishment: — for instance, a tree growing near a 

 ditch, will be found to direct its roots straight 

 downwards, on the side next the ditch, until they 

 reach the ground below it, when they will throw 

 off fibres underneath, and ramify like the root on 

 the other side of a tree. Some curious examples 

 of this kind of instinct are related by Lord Kaimes, 

 among Avhich is the following: — "A quantity of 

 fine compost for flowers happened to be laid at the 

 foot of a full grown elm, where it lay neglected 

 three of four 3'ears ; when moved in order to be 

 carried off, a net v.ork of elm fibres spread through 

 the whole heap ; and no fibres had before appeared 

 at the surfa^ce of the ground." 



Many flowers also fold up their leaves on the ap- 

 proach of fall or in cold cloudy weather, and unfold 

 them again when cheered by the reanimating in- 

 fluence of the sun. This is remarkably exempli- 

 fied in the convolvulus arvensis , anagalUs arvensis, 

 and many others, but more particularly in the last, 

 whence it has been called the poor man's weather 

 glass. 



In Watson's Chemical Essays, also, it is stated 

 that trefoil, wcod-sorrel mountain ebony, the Af- 

 rican marigold, and many others, are so regular in 

 folding up their leaves before rainy weather, that 

 these motions have been considered as a kind of 

 instinct similar to that of ants. — Tapper on the 

 Probability of Sensation in Vegetables. 



Some plants open their petals to receive rain, 

 others avoid it; some contract at the approach of a 

 storm, others at the approach of night; while some 

 expand and blossom only to the evening air. 



Near the cape certain flowers form a species of 

 chronometer. The viorea xinguiculata and undu- 

 laia open at nine in the morning and close at four; 

 the ixia dnnamonca opens at the time the other 

 closes, and sheds a delicious perfume throughout 

 the night. 



The stamina of the flowers of sorrel thorn are 

 so peculiarly irritable, that when touched, they 

 will incline almost two inches, and the upper joint 

 of the leaf of the dioncca is formed like a machine 

 to catch food. When an insect therefore settles on 

 its glands, the tender parts become irritated, and 

 the two lobes rise up, grasp the insect and crush it 

 to death. The plane tree exhibits the power of 

 exei-cising a sagacity for securing food not unwor- 

 thy of an animal. Lord Kaimes relates, that 

 among the ruins of New Abbey, in the county of 

 Galloway, there grew in his time, on the top of one 

 of its walls, a plane tree upwards of twenty feet 

 in height. Thus situated, it became straitened for 

 food and moisture, and therefore gradually direct- 

 ed its roots down the side of the wall, till they 

 reached the ground at the distance of ten feet. 

 When they had succeeded in this attempt, the up- 

 per roots no longer shot out fibres, but united in 

 one; and shoots vigorously sprung up from the 

 root which had succeeded in reaching the earth. 



The island of St. Lucia presents a still more cu- 

 rious plienomenon in the animal flower. This or- 

 ganization lives in a large basin, the water of 

 which is brackish. It is more brilliant than the 

 niario;old which it resembles. But when the hand 



after it; it merely supports it. The stem increases in 

 length only from the grov^-th at the end. The limb of 

 a tree and the tendril of a vine are always at the same 

 clisance from the ground. 



