NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



271 



losing. If the owner of parks or groves, for neatness' 

 sake, or to obtain leaves for other purposes, gathers 

 the annual harvest of leaves, he will in time take 

 away groat quantities of mineral matter, by which 

 the soil ultimately will be impoverished, unless it is 

 restored by manures. 



Leaf manure has always been held in high esteem 

 by gardeners. But many regard it as a piu-ely vege- 

 table substance ; whereas, it is the best mineral ma- 

 nure that can be applied to the soil. What are called 

 vegetable loams, (not peat soils, made up principally 

 of decomijosed roots,) contain large quantities of 

 earthy matter, being mineral-vegetable rather than 

 vegetable soils. 



Every gardener should know that the best ma- 

 nure for an}^ plant is the decomposed leaves and 

 substance of its own species. This fact will suggest 

 the proper coiu'se with reference to the leaves, tops, 

 vines, haulm, and other vegetable refuse of the 

 garden. 



The other fact connected with the leaf, is its func- 

 tion of exhalation. The greatest proportion of crude 

 sap which ascends tlie trunk, upon reaching the leaf, 

 is given forth again to the atmosphere by means of a 

 particularly beautiful economy. The quantity of 

 moisture produced by a plant is hardly dreamed of 

 by those who have not specially informed themselves. 

 The experiments of Hales have been often quoted. 

 A sunflower, three and a half feet high, presenting a 

 surface of .5.616 square inches exposed to the sun, was 

 found to perspire at the rate of twenty to thirty 

 ounces avoirdupois every twelve hours, or seven 

 times more than a man. A vine, with twelve square 

 feet, exhaled at the rate of five or six ounces a day. 

 A seedling apple-tree, with twelve square feet of 

 foliage, lost nine ounces a day.* 



These are experiments upon very small plants. 

 The vast amount of surface presented by a large tree 

 must give off immense quantities of moisture. The 

 practical bearings of this fact of vegetable exhalation 

 are not a few. AVet forest lands, by being cleared of 

 timber, become dry, and streams fed from such sources 

 become almost extinct as civilization encroaches on 

 "wild woods. The excessive dampness of crowded 

 gardens is not singular, and still less is it strange that 

 dwellings covered with vines, whose windows are 

 choked with shrubs, and whose roof is overhung 

 with branches of trees, should be intolerably damp ; 

 and when the good housewife is scrubbing, scouring, 

 and brushing, and, nevertheless, marvelling that her 

 house is so infested with mould, she hardly suspects 

 that her troubles would be more easily removed by 

 the axe or saw than by all her cloths and brushes. 

 A house should never be closely surrounded with 

 shrubs. A free circulation of air should be main- 

 tained all about it, and shade trees so disposed as to 

 leave large openings for the light and sun to enter. 

 The unusual rains of the current season have pro- 

 duced so great a dampness in our residences that no 

 one can fail to have noticed its effect, both on the 

 health of the occupants and upon the beauty and 

 good condition of their household substance. 



HENRY W. BEECHER. 

 — Wester?i Farmer and Gardener, 



THE GREATNESS OF MAN. 



Mankind, viewed collectively, as an assemblage of 

 beings, presents to contemplation an object of as- 

 tonishing magnitude. It has spread over this wide 

 world, to essay its powers against every obstacle, and 

 every element ; and to plant in every region its vir- 

 tues and its vices. As we pass along the plains, we 

 perceive them marked by the labors, the paths, or 



* Lindley's Horticulture, p. 42 and 44. Gray's Bot- 

 any, p. 131. 



the habitations of man. Proceeding forward across 

 rivers, or through woods, or over mountains, we still 

 find man in possession on the other side. Each val- 

 ley that opens, and each hiU that rises before us, 

 presents a repetition of human abodes, contrivances, 

 and appropriations ; for each house, and garden, and 

 field, (in some places almost each tree,) reminds us 

 that there is a person somewhere who is proud to 

 think and say, "This is mine." 



All the beautiful and rugged varieties of earth, 

 from the regions of snow to those of the burning 

 sand, have been pervaded by man. If we sail to 

 countries beyond the seas, we find him still, though 

 he may disclaim our language, our manners, and our 

 color. And if we discover lands where he is not, we 

 presently quit them, as if the Creator, too, were a 

 stranger there. Here and there, indeed, a desert re- 

 treat is inhabited bj' an ascetic, Avhom the solemnity 

 of solitude has drawn thither; or by a felon, whom 

 guilt has driven thither. 



While he extends himself thus over the world, be- 

 hold his collective grandeur. It appears prominent 

 in great cities, built up by his own hands ; it is seen 

 in structures that look like temples erected to time, 

 which promise by their strength to await the latest 

 years of his continuance with men ; and seem to 

 plead by their magnificence against the decree which 

 dooms them to perish when he shall abandon them ; 

 it is seen in wide empires, and in armies, which may 

 be called the talons of imperial power — to give 

 security to happiness where that power is just, but 

 for cruel ravage where it is tyrannical ; it is displayed 

 in fleets ; in engines, which operate as if informed 

 with a portion of the actuating power of his own 

 mind ; in the various productions of beauty, the 

 discoveries of science, in subjected elements, and a 

 cultivated globe. The sentiment with which we 

 contemplate this scene is greatly augmented when 

 imagination bears her flaming torch into the enor- 

 mous shade which overspreads the past, and passes 

 over the whole succession of human existence, with 

 all its attendant prodigies. When we have made 

 the addition for futurity, of supposing the human 

 race extensively enlightened, and apprized of their 

 dignity and power, and combined in a far stricter 

 union, till the vast ocean of mind prevail over all its 

 accustomed boundaries, and sweep away many of 

 the evils which oppress the world — we may pause 

 a while and indulge our amazement. Such an ag- 

 gregate view of the multitude, achievements, and 

 powers of man, is grand. It has the air of a general 

 and endless triumph. — Life and Thoughts of John 

 Foster. 



CHINESE HEMP. 



French agriculture has recently been enriched by 

 a very important new production. This precious 

 article is the Chinese hemp, the La 7na cor chorus, 

 the seeds of which were imported into France by 

 M. Stier, a member of the French embassy in China, 

 and has been cultivated and naturalized at Mar- 

 seilles by M. Garnier Savatier. This hemp, the re- 

 production of which is now secured by the seeds, 

 which have ripened in the best possible manner, 

 grows to a height of twentj'-four to twenty-five feet ; 

 the stalk is from five to six inches in circumference ; 

 each plant produces from two to three kilograms of 

 seed, and furnishes thread enough to make a yard 

 of superb lawn, superior in beauty and quality to 

 any obtained from French materials. The cultiva- 

 tion of this plant in the south of France will be the 

 more precious to the countrjs as a climate of the 

 temperature of that region is necessary for its fructi- 

 fication, and its seeds will find a ready sale in othei 

 countries where the seeds will not ripen, but where 

 the filaments may be produced. The South will 



