PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 119 



in autumn, a method which I recommend on large 

 farms. 



'' The manure crop is in the spring shallowly rayoh 

 in, and is equal in its effects to 3.914 to 5.811 loads 

 of manure per acre. 



"6. One observation which leads to the most impor- 

 tant results, was the certain conviction, that it is the vital 

 power of plants, which, by the incomprehensible faculty 

 of decomposition and assimilation, by means of their 

 leaves and stalks, constantly imbibe an incredible quanti- 

 ty of substances, in the shape of gases and manures, and 

 convert them into their own elements, rejecting what 

 they do not want, changing what they have received into 

 a new body, and so continuing until they have formed 

 their blossoms ; that the root, which till then keeps grow- 

 ing and oozing out moisture, only begins when its growth 

 is perfected powerfully to decompose that which surrounds 

 it, and alone supports the fruit, whilst the leaves and stalks 

 are fading ; that the vital point of the plant has its seat 

 exactly in the centre of the germ, from which it forces 

 the root into the earth, and the stalk upwards ; that every 

 thing depends, in the first growth of the plant, on keeping 

 this point in health and activity ; that this should be done 

 in sowing, 



" 1st. When the surface is as much as possible pulver- 

 ized, in order that the seed-corn or potato-shoot should 

 be surrounded by, or rather laid on earth finely divided, 

 in which the fibres of the root may quickly shoot, and 

 where air, moisture, and warmth may operate with facility. 



" 2d. When the shoot, lying on such a pulverized sur- 

 face, is covered only a couple of lines, in order that 

 light, air, warmth, dew, and other atmospheric moistures 

 may immediately excite the vitality in this point, and 

 thereby promote the developement of the germ and pro- 

 cure nourishment to the first leaf. 



" I refer, with regard to this, especially, to the speci- 

 mens of dried plants kept ready for the inspection of the 

 visiters, which so strikingly show what difterence there is 

 in the vital germ lying on the surface, where roots and 

 leaves immediately, numerously, and powerfully shoot 



