FARMERS' REGISTER— VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



295 



6th. This question is not sufliciently defined to 

 enable me to give an answer. 



7th. I know of but two methods of the curing of 

 the desired colours, viz : The quick curing by fire ; 

 and by bulking in high order, until it yellows, as 

 has been explained. 



Wishing tiiat these answers may be satisfactory, 

 I conclude. 



Your friend, 



FREDERICK OROAOKO. 



August 17, 1827. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



On a remarkable law of Vegetable Life, and its 

 influence on several operations in Horticulture 

 and y/griculture, by the Rev Dr. Fleming. 

 It frequently happens that the results of experi- 

 ence are extensively acted upon by practical men, 

 in reference to particular operations, long before 

 the principle concerned in the arrangement be dis- 

 tinctly recognized, or its application to objects, 

 under other circumstances, be deemed either possi- 

 ble or expedient. The theorectical naturalist fre- 

 quently receives the first hint of his generaliza- 

 tions from those who have confined their attention 

 to effects merely, and who have marked these even 

 under peculiar confined limits. Yet we must be 

 contented to receive knowledge from every quar- 

 ter, though in scanty portions, and rejoice in every 

 contribution likely to accelerate the march of im- 

 provement. 



It is well known, that, in the animal kingdom, 

 all those circumstances which accelerate the growth 

 of the body, exercise a proportional influence on 

 the reproductive system, so that the period of pu- 

 berty is uniformly earlier in domesticated than in 

 wild animals, and in those which are fed plentiful- 

 ly with food, than in those which are scantily sup- 

 plied. These effects of an abundant supply of food 

 are exhibited throughout the whole range of the 

 animal kingdom, as far as observation has hitherto 

 extended. The very reverse of this arrangement 

 seems to prevail in the vegetable kingdom. Where 

 plants are furnished with an abundant supply of 

 food, their productive energies develope themselves 

 slowly, and flowers and fruit or seeds are late in 

 appearing. On the other hand, when the supply 

 of nourishment is scanty ; when the plant is, as it 

 were, starved, and when death is threatened, the 

 reproductive energies act with readiness, flowers 

 and seeds are produced, and the extinction of the 

 race guarded against ; or, in other words, the scan- 

 tier the supply of nourishment, the earlier ivill a 

 plant propagate its kind. Let us now attend to 

 some of the exhibitions of this law, and their ap- 

 plication to useful purposes. 



In reference to seeds, it has been long known to 

 gardeners, that those wliich are new or fresh pro- 

 duce plants with more luxuriant foliage, and less 

 inclined to run into flower or fruit, than such as 

 have been kept for some time, and are partially 

 spoiled. In the first case, the supply of nourish- 

 ment, during the early stages of its growth, being 

 in abundance, the plant enlarges rapidly in sizej 

 while, in the latter case, the scanty supply causes 

 the plant, in obedience to the law which we have 

 announced, to run more directly to flower and seed. 

 These circumstances are carefully considered in 

 the culture of cucumbers and melons, the seeds of 

 >vhich are seldom employed until several years old. 



Such indeed is the attention paid to this condition, 

 that we find in books on horticulture the following 

 grave recommendation: — " If new seed only can 

 be had, it should be carried a week or two in the 

 breeches pocket, to drv away some of the more 

 watery parts." A similar attention to this law, 

 in reference to the seeds of other vegetables, is pro- 

 ductive of equal benefit. Peas, for example, are 

 well known as apt to run to straw, where the 

 ground is rich or moist. The employment of old 

 is the only suitable remedy. In some newly en- 

 closed carse lands, the evil of excessive luxuriance 

 is frequently experienced to an inconvenient de- 

 gree during two or three years. The straAV is 

 great in quantity, but the grain is always deficient. 

 In vain is recourse had to early or thin sowing, 

 while the use of the old seed is neglected. We 

 need not here guard against misconception, by sta- 

 ting in detail, that, where seeds are kept too long, 

 they either do not vegetate, or give origin to a 

 weak, sickly, useless "plant. Where luxuriance 

 of leaf and great size are the objects aimed at in the 

 cultivation of garden or farm produce, the influ- 

 ence we have been considering must be guarded 

 against as an evil; especially, for example, with 

 turnips and cabbage ; old seed producing plants too 

 much disposed to run to flower. 



Independent of the influence which this law ex- 

 ercises on the future plant, as the result of the con- 

 dition of the seed, we have it in our power to wit- 

 ness the operation under other circumstances, in 

 the groiving plant itself In the management of 

 fruit trees, there are a variety of plans pursued, 

 which, though obviously depending on this laio of 

 the vegetable kingdom, are frequently but imper- 

 fectly understood by the practical gardener. The 

 transplanting of fruit trees hastens the production 

 of flower-buds. A tree which for years has shown 

 us tendency to produce flower-buds, but which has 

 been exclusively occupied in the extension of its 

 roots and branches, will, upon being shifted from 

 its place, soon exhibit symptoms of a change. The 

 roots, by this process, have been in part injured, 

 the supply of sap to the tree during the following 

 season has in consequence become diminished, and 

 the plant ceasing in a great measure to extend its 

 size, hastens to propagate its kind by the produc- 

 tion of flower-buds, and the subsequent display of 

 blossoms and fruit. 



The diminished supply of sap, and the conse- 

 quent hastening of the production of fruit-buds, is 

 accomplished by several other plans equally effica- 

 cious. When a rank growing fruit tree is engraft- 

 ed on a slow growing stock, or, in other words, 

 when a tree requiring much sap is compelled to 

 receive its supply through a tree having but a scan- 

 ty supply, the engrafted branch will come earlier 

 into fruit than if it had been always supplied with 

 abundant nourishment. The method of accelera- 

 ting the production of fruit, and termed dwarfing, 

 is particularly serviceable in enabling the cultiva- 

 tors of new varieties to become early acquainted 

 with their respective merits. 



When fruit trees are prone to run to wood, gar- 

 deners are accustomed to lay bare a portion of their 

 roots during winter. By this exposure many of 

 the fibres are destroyed, and the vigor of all great- 

 ly diminished; so that the sap, during the follow- 

 ing summer, is transmitted to the branches in less 

 quantity, and the production of fruit buds is the 

 consequence. 



