1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



281 



unavailing on account of a "law usage or custom." 

 Mr. Osgood, however, seeing the determination of 

 the men whom he was injuring, finally complied 

 with the report of the committee sent out by the 

 Superior Court, and kept his dam open two 

 months in the spring. Soon after a general law 

 of the Province was passed, requiring owners of 

 mills to keep their dams in a condition to allow 

 fish to run up and down freely in the spring. 

 After the passage of this act, with the penalty for 

 its violation, no further complaint was made 

 against tliis dam until it passed into the hands of 

 the Middlesex Canal Corporation, in 1794. 



ON THE CIRCULATION' OF SAP. 



BY MR. CHARLES REESE, BALTIMORE, MD. 



What is the true theory of the circulation of 

 the sap in exogenous trees and plants ? 



There is scarcely a subject in the whole range 

 of botanical science upon which there is such a 

 diversity of opinion as upon this. All writers ad- 

 mit that it is of great importance, and yet no two 

 precisely agree in the conclusions drawn from ex- 

 periments upon it ; and after a patient and care- 

 ful examination of the best authors, we are left 

 as much in the dai-k as ever. 



The most popular theory of the day, and one 

 which we find advocated by many wise and learned 

 men, is that, at the fall of the leaf, the sap in the 

 branches and trunk of the plant gradually de- 

 scends to the roots, and lodges there until the re- 

 turn of spring, when, by some unexplained pow- 

 er, it is forced upward, filling all the branches, and 

 causing the leaves to put forth again, and the tree 

 to grow. A majority of men, influenced mainly 

 by impressions received in childhood, and evident- 

 ly without reflecting much upon the subject, be- 

 lieve this to be the truth, and rest there, without 

 wishing to pursue the subject any further ; whilst 

 others, seeing great objections to this theory, have 

 discarded it, and set forth a new one, with this as 

 the main feature, viz. : That all the sap remaining 

 in the tree in the autumn becomes changed into 

 wood, and is thus finally disposed of; consequent- 

 ly, that which rises in the following spring is a new 

 supply. In the "Encyclopedia Britannica" — arti- 

 cle Botany, page 111 — we find "Walker, Burnett, 

 and others made incisions into the bark and wood 

 of trees in spring and summer, and marked the 

 points where the sap made its appearance. In 

 this way, they endeavored to trace the course of 

 the fluids in the stem. Walker concludes from 

 his experiments that the spring sap begins to jlow 

 at the root, that it ascends slowly upwards, and 

 bleeds successively as it ascends to the very ex- 

 tremity of the tree." 



On the other hand, in "Carpenter's Vegetable 

 Physiology," page 148, we have : "K a vine be 

 growing on the outside of a hot-house, and a sin- 

 gle shoot be trained within, in the midst of win- 

 ter, the warmth to which the latter is exposed will 

 cause its buds to swell and unfold themselves ; 

 whilst those on the outside are quite inactive. A 

 demand for fluid will thus be occasioned along 

 this particular branch ; and this will be supplied 

 by that existing in the vessels below. When 

 these are emptied, they will be again supplied by 



the pai-ts below them ; and thus the motion will 

 be propagated to that division of the roots whose 

 fibres are connected with those of the vegetating 

 branch. These will absorb fluid for its support, 

 whilst all the rest are completely at rest. In the 

 spring of the year, when the cheerful rays of the 

 sun call the whole of the buds into activity, the 

 whole of the roots are similarly aff'ected ; and that 

 the sap begins to move in the upper branches be- 

 fore it commences ascending in the trunk has been 

 shown by experiment — notches having been cut 

 at intervals, by which the period of its flow could 

 be ascertained in each part." 



When doctors disagree, &c., &c. Here we 

 have testimony precisely opposite. Of course, 

 both are right in their own estimation. 



In the hope of finding the truth amongst the 

 intelligent contributors who adorn your pages, I 

 have been induced to make the inquiry at the head 

 of this article. Will you give it a spare corner, 

 ann let us hear from them on the subject ? 



My attention was first called to it by witnessing 

 the operation of striking cuttings of the vine, cut 

 from the parent stem long after the sap had all 

 "descended to the roots," or had been "changed 

 into wood." As soon as the sun poured his flood 

 of golden light upon them, and the little brown 

 buds felt his genial warmth, they began to swell 

 and give signs of a new life. In a short time, a 

 thin, clear fluid began to trickle down their sides, 

 and form a rim around the base of each, from 

 which, in a few days more, a dozen white rootlets 

 peeped forth, and pushed down into the earth, as 

 if to bring up hidden treasures ; and almost im- 

 mediately the buds broke and came out into full 

 leaf. Here was a new revelation to me, and I be- 

 gan to question my new teachers : 



Whence had you this power ? Your life was 

 drawn from you last fall, and you have no great 

 reservoir at your base, with powerful engines to 

 send the crystal fluid through your veins at the 

 approach of spring, and yet you grow almost as 

 if still attached to the parent vine. Calling to 

 mind the words of the poet about "sermons in 

 stones, and books in the running brooks," &c., I 

 sat down to reflect awhile. Surely, said I, here 

 is food for thought. The fall of an apple led Sir 

 Isaac Newton to the discovery of the laws of grav- 

 itation ; and why may not as simple a physiologi- 

 cal fact as the striking of a cutting lead to the 

 true theory of the circulation of the sap ? 



From the teachings of the wisest and best man 

 the world has ever known, I have been led to per- 

 ceive that all things in the material world are the 

 eff"ects of spiritual causes. Wherever there is a 

 germ of life, or an organization receptive of life, 

 there is into that, through the medium of the light 

 and heat of the outward sun, an influx from the 

 Creator, a constant eff'ort to bring forth all things 

 good and beautiful ; and the more I investigate, 

 the more clearly I perceive this truth, that in all 

 the works of Infinite Wisdom there are ceilain 

 generals, composed of particulars, in each of which, 

 although they may be the smallest into which mi- 

 croscopical science has yet been able to divide' 

 them, there are a thousand particulars, each as. 

 full and perfect in its character as the first. How- 

 true this is, every department of the vegetable 

 kingdom testifies. But most clearly of all it is 

 exemplified in the vine, that beautiful symbol of 

 Divine truth. In each little rootlet, every tiny 



