696 



FARMERS' REGISTER— VEGETATION &c. 



" position. Eyes of llie first kind seem calculated 

 *' for seein*^ -at a distance — of the second Ibr look- 

 " ing at near objects. Only a few insects can 

 " move their eyes. 



" The anteiiiicB are organs of ieelin;;', whicli are 

 "of great importance to insects, on account of 

 " their hard, insensible covering, and the immobi- 

 "lity of their eyes. Tliey appear to jjossess their 

 " must acute feeling in the antenna, as man has in 

 "the tips of his fingers; and as for the most part 

 " they live in darkness, supply the want of light 

 " by this contrivance. 



" The eggs of soniC insects are covered with a 

 " kind of varnish, to ])rotect them from the destruc- 

 " five influence of rain and other accidents." 



It would however be an endless task, if I were 

 to enter into all Ihe-wondcrs of the insect creation. 

 Latreiile says " that the wisdom of the Creator 

 " never appears to excite our admiration more than 

 " in the structure of those minute beings which 

 "seem to conceal themselves from observation; 

 "and Almighty Power is never more strikingly 

 " exhil)ited than in the concentration of organs in 

 "such an atom. In giving life to this atom, and 

 "constructing in dimensions so minute, so many 

 "organs susceptible of different sensations, my 

 "admiration of the Supreme Intelligence is much 

 " more heightened than by the contemplation of 



ON THE EFFECTS OF TERRESTRIAL RADIA- 

 TION OHT THE IROCESSES OF VEGETATION; 

 AND SOBIE ACCOUNT OF THE CHINESE ME- 

 THOD OF PROPAGATING FRUIT TREES. 



Fi'om Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 



It has been shown that the cooling process of 

 radiation, by which the temperature of the surface 

 of the earth'is lowered so considerably, differs ma- 

 terially on the inclination of the hil!, compared 

 with the bosom of the valley. Mr. Daniel), in- 

 deed, stales, on one occasion, a difference amount- 

 ing to 30°: ihat is to say, the thermometer on the 

 inclined surface maintained a higher temperature 

 by 30° than another i)!aced on the horizontal or 

 level plane of the adjoining valley. This difTer- 

 ence is certainly enormous ; but it is proved be- 

 yond a doubt, that a slope, and inclined plane, for 

 instance, radiates less, by many degrees, than the 

 surfijce which is altogether horizontal. Indeed, I 

 think, we may collect abundant proof of this im- 

 portant fact among the mountains and the valleys 

 of Italy. On .the jdains of Piedmont, the vines, 

 which are suffered to attain a considerable altitude 

 on lofty poles planted as their support, are detached 

 from these j)oles toward the approach of winter, 

 and prostrated on the earth, where they are se- 

 cured from injury by the straw. Tliis treatment 

 protects them from the effects of the intense, though 

 short winter, which reigns on the plains of Pied- 

 mont; for, even at Turin, the water in my room 

 has been congealed into a solid mass of ice through- 

 out its entire extent. The olive succeeds in Tus- 

 cany, but the almond, pomegranate, and plants 

 of the Citrus fiimily, flourish but imperfectly ; and 

 yet on the acclivities of theampitheatre of the Ap- 

 penincs, which form a semicircle round the mag- 

 nificent city of Genoa, you find that the pomegra- 

 nite, the lemon, and the orange, mature their fruit 

 and luxuriate. Even the imperial city is indebted 

 for her palm branches to t!ie palms which succeed 

 in tlie open air at Nice. Nov/ the only difference 



in these circumstances consists in a reduction of 

 the loss sustained by radiation, and the attempered 

 influence of the sea-breeze, which more than coun- 

 terbalance the increase of warmth imparted by 

 the sunbeams to a more .southern clime ; perhaps 

 even the excellence of Monte Somma wine may 

 have something to do witli the acclivity on which 

 tiie vineyards are planted. To my vision, fruit 

 trees planted on terraces, and rising one above the 

 other in amphitheatrical form, appear beautiful; 

 but this has become, I suppose, unfashionable, be- 

 cause it happens to be a gem from the antique. 

 Now restlessness in search of something new, how- 

 ever absurd, is incessant. The ancients appear, 

 in this respect, to have known what they were 

 about; and 1 must frankly confess that, in my es- 

 timation, they acted wisely, and had the belter of 

 us, and that we are decidedly in the rear. To this 

 cause I attribute the remarkaide fertility of the 

 land of Judea in former times. Its susceptibility 

 is sufficiently apparent, and there still remain ex- 

 isting vestiges of this mode of cultivating the flanks 

 of the valleys, on tise sides of the diversified hills of 

 Palestine, to a considerable altitude. It is still, 

 liowcver, very questionable, whether low walls, 

 constructed of brick, or of stone and mortar, quite 

 vertical, would succeed so well as the surface of a 

 calcareous or sandy soil, at an angle, for example, 

 of 45°. A sandy soil absorbs heat, and continues 

 heated, because sand is an indifferent radiator, and 

 is, moreover, a non-conductor of caloric (heat); 

 so that vines, &c. in contact with such a surface, 

 would be more than compensated for the tempera- 

 ture they would lose through the medium of radi- 

 ation ; which v/ould also be attenuated from the in- 

 clination of the plane. 



At St. Mary's Isle, tlie seat of Earl Selkirk, 

 near Kirkcudbright, I remember to have seen a 

 beautiful illustration of my views, in the case of 

 pear trees pinioned to trelliswork in such an in- 

 clined surface as I have described ; and I have al- 

 ways understood that the crops of fruit, which 

 tiiese trees carried, were remarkable both for 

 quantity and quality : indeed, it must be apparent 

 that, under such conditions, spring frosts can have 

 little or no influence, because these frosts are en- 

 tirely connected with the principles of radiation, 

 and have little or nothing to do with the tempera- 

 ture of the atmospheric medium. If the soil is not 

 of a sandy consistence, in that case, I would em- 

 ploy a thin stratum of sand. I have in my little 

 garden just such a surface, inclined and sandy, and 

 have planted vines with an intention to train them 

 on the surface, on a frame work, something like 

 cucumbers or melons in a hot bed. The vine I 

 am making my experiments with, is called Mil- 

 ler's black grape. I have already had ample proof 

 that the healthy luxuriance of other tender plants 

 does not suffer, and that frost has little or no effect 

 on such an exposure. 



For the purpose of maturing the fruit, I shall 

 throw a veil of black gauze over the vines; and 

 this will secure me Ihe effects of a pov.erful absorp- 

 tion of the caloric rays of the sun's beams. Though 

 the radiation from a" black surflice is proportional 

 to its absorl'cnt capacity, it will operate during 

 the lengthened day (and at this period of the year 

 the night is reduced to its minimum) in the ma- 

 turation of the fiuit, while the sandy surface is re- 

 tentive, from its non-conductive character. If 

 bunches of grapes on vines exposed sub duo, or 



