No. 133.] 4^7 



The soil under old buildings is equal to very rich manure. 



Keep the soil well covered the greater part of the time, and let 

 it have intervals of rest two or three years at a time after one 

 or two years' cropping, and it will be improved, or greatly pre- 

 served in its fertility. 



It is the excessive ploughing and pasturing that impoverishes 

 the soil. 



ROBERT K. TUTTLE. 



MorristowTiy JV. /., January 27, 1853. 



PHYSIOLOGY AND FERTILIZERS OF PLANTS. 



The President requested members to proceed with the discus- 

 sion. At his request, Robert L. Pell said the constituent or ele- 

 mentary principles of vegetables in general are hydrogen, oxygen 

 and charcoal. These appear to be common to all plants. There 

 are other substances, such as lime, potash, iron and azote, which 

 are found in plants, but as they are not common to all, they can 

 not be considered essential to the constitution of vegetable mat- 

 ter. The parts which naturalists are accustomed to consider as 

 distinct in their nature and functions, are six — the stem, or trunk ; 

 the root ; the leaf; the flower ; the fruit ; and the seed. In 

 many plants the root appears nearly similar in all its constituent 

 parts and principles to the stem or trunk : so much so, that the 

 one appears a continuation of the other. 



The stem, which includes the branches, and the substantial 

 portions of the plant, consists of three parts, the wood, the bark, 

 and the pith. The bark is protected on the outside by an epider- 

 mic:, which is composed of numerous layers of minute bladders, 

 interspersed with longitudinal fibres. The wood lies between 

 the bark and the pith. It is more dense than the bark, and its 

 structure more difficult, to be understood. It consists of two sub- 

 stances, the cellular and the ligneous. The ligneous are dried 

 lymph ducts. 



Between the bark and the wood a new ring of these ducts is 

 formed every year, which gradually loses its softness as the cold 



