VOL. XVltl. NO. as. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



•239 



EXCRETIONS OF PLANTS. 

 From observation, wc learn tluit llie niattDr ex- 

 creted by plants is, as a general liiin<,', tlirown out 

 in such a condition as to be, not only unfit again to 

 enter tlie system of tlie plant rejecting it, but posi- 

 lively d'jieterious ; and t'urtlier, that the excretions 

 of different plants diiTer so ninch from each other, 

 that whilst that thrown out by a (ilantis deleterious 

 to others of the same species, it is so;uetimes well 

 adapted to the nourishment of those of a different 

 species. This fact will explain some of those rules 

 which experience has taught the practical agricul- 

 turist. For instance, the rule that the same crop 

 should not be grown for several years in succes- 

 sion upon the same piece of ground. It will not 

 do to say, as is often done, that a second crop of 

 wheat will not grow as well upon any given spot, 

 is the first, because that spot has been exhausted 

 jf too great a poition of its nutritive matter by the 

 first. This it is true is one reason, but if it be the 

 3nly reason, or even the principal reason, we may 

 isk, how is it that a crop of corn will succeed al- 

 nost as well as if the wheat had never been grown 

 ;here .' The true explanation seems to be that the 

 'aiUire of the second crop of wheat arises not so 

 nuch from the exhaustion of the soil, as from the 

 Jxistence in the soil of a portion of matter positive- 

 y deleterious to wheat, deposited by the first crop ; 

 it the same time this matter is not injurious to the 

 ;orn, and hence that crop will succeed when wheat 

 vould fail. To grow the same crop for several 

 luccessive years upon the same spot, is, as De Can- 

 loUe has very pertinently, though perhaps not very 

 elegantly remarked, "like feeding an animal upon 

 ts own excrements." 



It is much to be desired that this matter should 

 le made a subject of more careful and more accu- 

 ate experiments than it ever has as yet, aa it is one 

 vhich would doubtless admit of very important 

 iractical applications. If the precise nature of the 

 natter retained and of that rejecteil by each ofthe 

 Tops in common cultivation could once be ascer- 

 ained, it would seem to be an easy matter to de- 

 ermine the best order in which those crops should 

 ucceed each other. Perhaps, too, if this subject 

 pas better understood, we should find that the way 

 n which some manures benefit land, is not by sup- 

 dying nourishment to the plants growing on it, but 

 ly removing this deleterious matter from their roots, 

 f this matter possessed the character of an acid, 

 and there are se^'eral facta which seem to render 

 t almost certain that such is the character of the 

 natter excreted by many plants) lime would act in 

 his way — it would unite with the acid and neu- 

 ralize its properties. The rotation of crops is a 

 natter very generally attended to in farming, but 

 n gardening, where it is ofstill greater miportance, 

 t is frequently neglected, and as a necessary cbn- 

 equence, garden plants degenerate under so inju- 

 licious a system of cultivation. Our best garden- 

 r» have been taught by experience never to sow 

 he same plant even for two years in succession, 

 pon the same spot of ground. 



When the root of a plant is cut off, and the stem 

 laced in water, the excremenlitioua matter, whicli 

 1 other circumstances would have been discharg- 

 d from the roots, issues from the end of the stem, 

 lence it is tJi-it water in which flowers have been 

 ept for some time, always becomes offensive. We 

 ommonly say that the water has become putrid ; 

 ut pure water can never become putrid ; the offen- 

 ve character ot" the water in such circumstances 



arises entirely from the rejected matter excreted by 

 the stem. 



It is a fact, which I suppose all must have no- 

 ticed, that some plants when placed in water to- 

 I gether, seem to keep each other alive, whilst others 

 I produce just the opposite effect. This is owing to 

 I the nature of the matter excreted by their stems. 

 ! Where the matter rejected by one plant is of such 

 a nature as to be suited to the nourishment of the 

 other, tliey will keep each other alive ; but where 

 the opposite is the case they will hasten each others 

 deatii. In the same way we explain the fact that 

 a nosegay composed of many different flowers, will, 

 "hen placed in water, generally preserve its fresh- 

 ness much longer than one composed of the same 

 number of flowers of the same species. There is 

 a class of plants commonly called weeds, which 

 cannot grow in the immediate neighborhood of our 

 com non cultivated plants without materially inju- 

 ring them. This is doubtless in part owing to their 

 consuming the nutritive matter contained by the 

 soil, and in part also to their overshadowing the 

 cultivated plant and thus shutting it out from tlie 

 direct action of the sun, but it is also, in part, owing 

 to the nature ofthe matter which they deposite in 

 tlie soil. The common opinion that weeds poison 

 the plants in whose immediate- neighborhood they 

 grow, is not mere imagination — it is nothing more 

 than a simple statement of the fects of the case. 



It is a curii us fact, frequently noticed by bota- 

 nists, that plants in their wild state, grow in natu- 

 ral groups. This is in part to be attributed to the 

 varying nature ofthe soil — such plants as prefer a 

 sandy soil, being collected together where such a 

 soil occurs ; and in part also to the operation of 

 the matter deposited by them in' the soil. Such 

 plants as deposite matter of a nature fitted to sus- 

 tain and assist each others growth, will gener- 

 ally be found growing together. It would seem, 

 that in parcelling out the earth, the Creator has not 

 assigned particular species of animals alone to par- 

 ticular portions, and given them the means of de- 

 fending themselves against the aggression of their 

 neighbors ; but that ho had taken the sams kind of 

 care for plants, at least to a certain extent. If a 

 seed of a plant which properly belongs to one por- 

 tion, is by accident thrown upon another, the plants 

 to which that portion btlongs, soon destroy it. Thus 

 has the Creator fixed for every separate portion of 

 creation, "the bounds of its habitation." — Fanners'' 

 Resiister. 



Exhimsted Lands too soon AbandoiKd The 



fai:lt ofthe fanners upon our hard soil has been to 

 abandon the ground after the skinning process. 

 This was natural while other fertile lands remained 

 in the vicinity to be cleared that w'ould produce 

 larger crops. And now a farmer that has mowed 

 over forty, fifty and a hundred acres year after year 

 until he has reduced the crop of hay down from 

 two tons to one ton, half a ton and even four or five 

 hundred pounds to the acre; is as a matter of neces- 

 sity willing almost to give away the ground that 

 yields so scantily, to seek a livelihood by taking 

 women boarders at the price of a dollar or a dollar 

 and a quarter a week, near some great factory es- 

 tablishment, or else to pack up " bag and baggage" 

 and set out for the land of promise in the west. 



To men so discouraged as these have been in 

 times past, I believe the alternative offers of a 

 much more certain chance of success in life; and 

 that is, in the renovation of worn out farms. If a 

 man is in debt to the amount of its whole value, he 



had bettor purchase a portion of what was his own 

 on credit, and remain upon it, than abandon it. — 

 With common health, with a good resolution a, id 

 good habits, he may as soon lay a foundation for 

 the future sustenance and comfort of himself and 

 family as he can perhaps any where else. The 

 poorest places for steady employment, I am induced 

 to believe, are our largest towns and villages. A- 

 mong the fanners the poor man can almost every 

 where be employed at a price either in money or 

 produce to help sustain his family : his wife and 

 children who are of sufficient age can also find 

 some kind of business where industry shall aid the 

 exertions of the father : nay, is it not an event of 

 frequent occurrence that females in a family alolie 

 earn its support ? The poor man can work for 

 others as well as on the ground which he has pur- 

 chased or hired. But let him work it rightat hiune. 

 If he have but a single acre ofthe worn out land — 

 I do not mean impervious rock or that gravel or 

 sand on which labor and manure will have no ef- 

 fect, but that retentive soil which holds manure, or 

 such barren wet soil as may be drained — or such 

 impoverished soil as requires the plough or the iron 

 bar to strike deeper than it has been wont ; if he be- 

 gin with an acre of such land and begins aright, the 

 first year will give him better jiay for the labor and 

 application than he ever obtained under the skinning 

 process ; the product will be increased in a com- 

 pound ratio in succeeding years ; and in a few re- 

 volving seasons he will, find his single acre yielding ■ 

 him more clear gain than, some farmers obtain from 

 fifty and a hundred acres, under the, wearing-out 

 mode of cultivation. — Gov. HiWs Jlddress. 



J^ght Soil Mr Robinson, of Baldwin-sville, in- 

 quires "by what process night soil can be converted 

 into an inodorous manure in a short time, so that 

 any cultivator may be able at once to remove "a 

 nuisaQce and obtain a valuable manure." We are 

 unable to inform Mr Robinson of the processes 

 adopted where the preparation of poudretle is car- 

 ried on extensively anil in the ino-t approved man- 

 ner ; but it is said in the 1st vol. British Husband- 

 ry, that " All unpleasantness of odor may be pre- 

 vented by the mere use of ashes ; and were those 

 thrown upon the night soil or into privies that have 

 no communicaiion with sewers, the ashes made in 

 every dwelling house would so completely absorb 

 the fluid parts, that a solid h^ap of manure would 

 be produced, which might afterwards be removed 

 without difficulty or offensiveness." This is the 

 method practiced extensively in some parts of Eng- 

 land, and on the continent. Lime is, however, 

 much better than ashes, and this is the disinfect- 

 ing agent whereve.- poudrette is produced. In 

 Rigby's .Agricultural Reports, the following is re- 

 commended as the best method of preparing and 

 using night soil : " Spread it on a spot of clean 

 grass; let it be well harrowed on a clear drying 

 day; then put it under cover, and add a chaldron 

 of lime to four loads ofthe soil in that state, and it 

 will become dry, and can be reduced to an inodo- 

 rous powder." All that seems to be required, is to 

 mingle with the drained material something that 

 will dry and render the mass friable and pulveru- 

 lent. Lime is the most efficient agent for this pur- 

 pose, and that which is slaked, is stated in Pilking- 

 ton's Transactions to be preferable for this purpo.-^e 

 to that which is caustic. — Jllhany Cultivator. 



That excellent paper the Genesee Farmer, hra 

 been united with the Albany Cultivator. 



