1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



673 



cool place, and feeding them on green food in 

 summer, -which, by the way, can be got handy, as 

 ■we raise considerable clover, and can raise drilled 

 corn and millet, within a few rods of the contem- 

 plated yard. I also thought they might get the 

 after feed by tying them out either to a weight or 

 a stake. "Would soiling sheep be profitable ? Al- 

 so, what breed are most profitable ? 



I have a piece of old pasture land, which has 

 not been plowed for twenty years. It i^ natural- 

 ly a good soil, mellow and loose, and easy worked. 

 It is flat and no stones or shrubs. If this land is 

 plowed deep with oxen, and turned over bottom 

 up and flat, and then allowed to settle a month, 

 and then cross plowed with a horse, as deep as 

 possible and not turn up tuvf, and then well har- 

 rowed and fertilized, would it not yield ruta 

 bagas? A Subscriber TO Monthly. 



Remarks. — We have never known the experi- 

 ment of soiling sheep tried, but judging from 

 what we know of the animal, should think that it 

 could not be made profitable. They like a free 

 and pretty wide range, and are always impatient 

 of restraint. Even in the winter they do not like 

 close confinement, and in clear weather — how- 

 ever cold it may be — prefer the open air to the 

 barn or shed. If confined in any considerable 

 number in the summer to a comparatively small 

 enclosure, it seems to us that they would be an- 

 noyed by flies and by their own droppings and 

 exhalations, and gradually lose appetite and be- 

 come diseased. We cannot tell you what breed 

 would prove most profitable. Perhaps you may 

 determine from the numerous articles we have 

 given on sheep culture. 



You can undoubtedly get a good crop of ruta 

 bagas as you suggest. 



ASCENT OP SAP IN VEGETABLES. 

 There have been numberless hypotheses de- 

 vised by vegetable physiologists to explain the 

 phenomena of the ascent and descent of sap in 

 plants ; some maintaining that the vegetable, like 

 the animal system, is endowed with sensation, 

 the result of a nervous system, which, they flatter 

 themselves, they have clearly traced in the fibrous 

 and other parts. Grew ascribed the phenomena 

 to the levity of the vital fluid ; Malpighi, to an 

 alternate contraction and dilation of what he er- 

 roneously considered to be the air vessels ; Per- 

 rault, to fermentation ; Tournefort and Hales, to 

 capillary attraction ; and Thompson, to a contrac- 

 tile power in the diff'erent sets of vessels so ad- 

 mirably distributed through the vegetable frame. 



Acknowledgments. — Mr. Ely H. Gillett, 

 of Colchester, Vt., will please accept our thanks 

 for his favor of Nov. 6. It is in such a steady 

 patronage as his, and the hearty expression of 

 good-will which he utters, that conductors and 

 editors find encouragement and suppoit. 



AGKICULTUHAIi LITERATURE. 



Transactions op thb Massachusetts Society foe Fbouos- 

 iNQ AoRicnLinEE. New Series, Vol. 1 : Fart IH. 



This volume is another of the timely and val- 

 uable publications of the old Massachiiseiis Soci- 

 ety for Promoting Agriculture. A large portion 

 of the work is occupied by an Agricultural and 

 Geological Survey of Essex County, illustrated 

 by a Map, — by David Choate. This essay gives 

 the history of the county, its rivers, ponds and 

 lakes. It then enters upon its geological charac- 

 ter, showing where the various rocks are distrib- 

 uted, and where marl and peat alluvium are found. 

 The chapter showing the "efi'ect of geological for- 

 mations on vegetable products," is an interesting 

 one. The author says, "it is a well known fact 

 that wheat was once a profitable crop in Massa- 

 chusetts, and it is believed in this county ; and 

 it is equally well known that while a few districts 

 seem still favorable to its growth, yet it cannot be 

 generally raised on our soils." We think the 

 writer, in this remark, has fallen in with a popu- 

 lar error, which has nearly outlived its day. How 

 this error became popular we are not certain ; 

 but think it originated in the practice of sowing 

 wheat on land that had been severely cropt for 

 several preceding years, and which had been pret- 

 ty thoroughly exhausted of its alkaline properties. 

 We find, every year, excellent fields of wheat in 

 various parts of the State, and hear no complaint 

 that the crop is not as profitable as any of the 

 other grain crops ; the evidence, indeed, is in fa- 

 vor of the wheat. Winter wheat flourishes well 

 when sown early in September, and is fast com- 

 mending itself to our people by its excellence 

 and certainty. It seems to us that the failure to 

 secure a good wheat crop was more the fault of 

 the cultivator, than from any deficiency of prop- 

 er elements in the soil. Beside the reason we 

 have already suggested, — that of putting it upon 

 land too severely tasked to produce any fair crop, 

 most of the winter wheat was sown too late in 

 autumn to allow the plants to become well root- 

 ed and established before the ground was frozen 

 up. In this condition, if the plants remained 

 uncovered by snow during a severely cold period, 

 they were usually what is called "winter-killed," 

 from this cause, or were thrown out by the heav- 

 ing of the soil in the early spring, and perished 

 in that way. The same errors aff'ected the crops 

 of spring wheat, — viz. : impoverished soil and 

 late spring sowing. Where these are properly 

 guarded against, the crops of wheat of both kinds 

 are as certain in every part of the State, — as far 

 as our knowledge extended, — as the crops of bar- 

 ley or Indian corn. 



We would suggest to our friends who desire to 

 raise a crop of wheat, and who have no ashes to 

 apply to the soil, that they sow ten bushels of 



