330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



For t/ie New England Farmer. 

 THE STUDY OP NATURAL HISTORY. 



The importance of a knowledge of natural his- 

 tory to the agriculturist has become appreciated 

 to a certain extent, but not, uufortunateh', to near- 

 ly its true value. That the agriculturist can be 

 successful only ■when he knows the capabilities of 

 Nature, her provisions and her laws, is plainly ap- 

 parent, for in no calling can success be calculated 

 on, unless after a deliberate and careful examina- 

 tion and comparison of the assistances which may 

 be rendered to overcome obstacles which exist, de- 

 termining their relative and individual strength, 

 the one to balance or overcome the resistance of 

 the other. 



For instance, the merchant has to overcome di- 

 ficulties caused by competition in the demand for 

 goods, of which there is an uncertain supply, by 

 fashion, by the uncertainties of existing national 

 relations, which cause fluctuations in the money 

 market, and more or less disturb, and sometimes 

 embarrass his operations, or cause them to result 

 disastrously. To overcome these, the merchant 

 carefully acquaints himself with the condition of 

 markets and the prices of those goods, which, to 

 him, are specialties ; he calculates the chances of 

 a great or small supply, caused by a great or small 

 production ; attentively watches the fluctuations 

 of the money market, and the various political 

 questions and changes which may arise, and ana- 

 lyzes them, to discover the value they may hereaf- 

 ter possess to his operations. Observing these 

 things, and knowing the balance to be favorable, 

 with an allowance for contingencies that may arise, 

 he is generally enabled to conduct his business 

 with tiiir, or even great chances of success. 



The obstacles the farmer has to overcome are 

 numerous, but they are all presented by Nature, 

 and the remedies she aff'ords are sufficient to keep 

 the balance perfect, if they are permitted to act 

 vigorously, and in their proper places. It is im- 

 portant, therefore, that he should be acquainted 

 with, and not injudiciously interfere with the 

 beautiful laws by which she regulates the phenom- 

 ena \vhich are operating for, or against him, but 

 avail himself of those that are acting for his bene- 

 fit, and even stimulate them to still greater exer- 

 tions. There is often, among farmers, a contempt 

 for scientific men, or those who make a study of 

 Nature, but such do not reflect that no one is so 

 much a naturalist as they ; that every operation 

 on the farm is but an experiment in one of the 

 brandies of natural history ; its success but anoth- 

 er scientific triumph, its failure usually the result 

 of ignorance of some great law ; very seldom 

 caused by unforeseen or uncontrollable accident. 



The means employed to maintain the equilibri- 

 um, in animate and inanimate Nature, are, of 

 course, different, but that they are adequate to 

 check the preponderance of any element, or its 

 dis])roportionate increase at the expense of others, 

 is plainly manifest. In inanimate Nature, the ef- 

 fects of difl'erent elements are modified, or coun- 

 teracted, by others to a degree, or entirely oppo- 

 site in Nature. For instance, the effects of light, 

 although absolutely necessary to a healthy condi- 

 tion of animal and vegetable life, require modifica- 

 tion, for the reason that constant exertion neces- 

 sarily attendant on the ]n'esence of light, would be 

 highly injurious in consequence of the exhaustion 



which would follow ; therefore, the absence of 

 liglit (darkness) is absolutely necessary at inter- 

 vals to secure the rest demanded by the system 

 which has expended a portion of its vital power 

 while in activity. Carbonic acid gas, although ab- 

 solutely necessary to vegetable life, unless coun- 

 teracted by the presence of oxygen, is fatally inju- 

 rious to animal lite, but Nature has wisely provid- 

 ed that animal life shall reject carbon, thereby 

 furnishing food for the vegetable, which, in its 

 turn, rejects oxygen for the support of animal life. 



In animate Nature, different tribes are employed 

 to destroy others which are injurious and often 

 prolific. That the destroyers may not increase 

 disproportionately to the others, they are less pro- 

 lific in proportion to their strength and rapacity ; 

 for instance, many families in the Herbivora (veg- 

 etable devourers,) are injurious to the farmer in 

 consequence of their depredations on his crops. 

 They are generally very prolific, and their rapidly- 

 increasing numbers, depending on vegetable life 

 for food, would, unless some check were provid- 

 ed, completely exhaust the supply of food which 

 is necessary to their existence ; but Nature has 

 created other animals which prey on them, and 

 keep them reduced within a necessary limit. 



Myriads of insects are created, and their num- 

 bers, like the locusts of Egypt, or the army worms 

 of our own day, would overrun and devastate the 

 land, were not some check provided : but in their 

 own class are tribes created which prey upon them, 

 and of mammals and birds whose orders subsist 

 upon them. 



How important it is, therefore, that the farmer 

 should know and protect those elements that are 

 assisting him : how necessary it is that he should 

 cai'efully investigate the phenomena of Nature, 

 and appreciate the value of even its minutest help. 

 Let him, therefore, observe and study ; let him 

 encourage the spirit of inquiry that he may see 

 dawning in the minds of his children, and teach 

 them to distinguish and protect the vilest worm, if 

 its life is spent in assisting him. If it is true "that 

 he who has made two blades of grass grow where 

 but one grew before, is a public benefactor," how 

 valuable must he be whose life's work has enabled 

 him to say that fertile and flourishing acres had 

 come where nought but a desert and Avilderness 

 was before. Edward A. Samuels. 



Fertility of Wheat. — A Mr. A. W. Parker, 

 of Cheam, Surrey county, England, some years 

 since, instituted a very curious experiment in the 

 management of wheat, of which we give the fol- 

 lowing abstract. In July, he deposited 07ie kernel 

 of wheat in a common garden pot ; in August, 

 he divided it into four plants, and in three weeks 

 he again subdivided these into twelve, and so on 

 until November, Mhcn the whole number from 

 this one kernel amounted to fifty-two, when they 

 were all set in the open soil. In July following, 

 twelve were found to be dead, the remainder in 

 full health. On the 19th of August, the crop was 

 harvested, and the produce was 1972 stems, aver- 

 aging fifty grains to the stem — being an increase 

 of 98,G00 grains ! How wonderfully hardy and 

 prolific is this plant, so indispensable to the com- 



