142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



chemical connection which exists between the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms. The marked adaptation of the living vege- 

 tal)le to the wants of the living animal, " is exhibited in the fact 

 that the animal finds ready formed in the ripened plant all the 

 most important sul)stances of which his own body is composed." 

 Tlie ghiten is the same in composition with the constituent of 

 the muscle ; the oil witli the fat of the body ; the phosphates 

 go to the formation of bone ; the starch and sugar aiford the 

 necessary element for the purposes of respiration. Farmers 

 who have provided for their household Kohl Rabi turnips, 

 (pleasant flavor similar to the boiled Frencli chestnut) and 

 cauliflower as well as cabbages, Jerusalem artichoke as well as 

 potatoes, Salsify, (oyster plant,) Skirret, (sugar root,) scorzo- 

 nera, (a delicate root palatable and nutritious,) as well as the 

 parsnip, beets,— with other well known vegetables, (so com- 

 monly used in cities,) such farmers never fear the surprise of a 

 neighbor's dropping into a vacant seat at their dinner tables. 

 Of the eight hundred varieties of nutritive plants chiefly used 

 as food by man, (see History of Plants, &c., by Dr. Funger,) 

 our farmers cultivate but a very few of them. 



Healthful Lijluences of Vegetables. — Dr. Chadwick, of 

 London, the well known English calculator of cause and effect, 

 in fixing the period of human life, says that the blood which is 

 impelled through the system is constantly carrying off the de- 

 cayed particles of the human organism at the rate of six to 

 seven pounds daily — about three pounds of which is carbonic 

 acid, and the remainder decomposed animal matter. The 

 whole body is renewed on the average of once in about thirty 

 days. We know tliat " doctors disagree," yet if one-half the 

 quantity stated be true, — the farmer's first concern is his 

 health, — it is almost his entire capital. Without a full 

 measure of health and spirits he cannot have the strength and 

 courage to front exhausting toil. 



We would remind the readers of this report of the following 

 truths, by many doubtless remembered, but by many more 

 possibly forgotten. 



All vegetable substances consist of two parts, one called the 

 organic part, which burns away in the fire and which forms 

 ninety to ninety-nine from out of every one hundred pounds, 

 and one called the inorganic i)art, which does not burn away. 



