J 867. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



413 



from the sulphur of its acid component. Sul- 

 phur is an essential constituent of the albumen 

 and gluten of most grains. Many crops fail 

 from the difficulty with which this eWment is 

 obtained from the slowly decomposing soil. 

 Sulphate can, under these circumstances, be 

 advantageously applied. 



3. Gypsum is applied in Europe upon grass^ 

 and especially upon red clover, and upon other 

 large leaf crops, in which case its efficacy de- 

 pends mainly upon an abundant supply of 

 water also. 



]\Ir. Walker, of Concord, said that at the 

 Asylum farm, there has been constructed below 

 the level of the buildings an immense open 

 tank of stone with water-tight walls and floor. 

 Into this several hundred loads of old and well- 

 decomposed muck are put two or three times 

 a year, and upon this is received all the wash 

 from the closets, sinks, laundry, &c., of the 

 Institution. When this mass has become thor- 

 oughly saturated, it is removed and its place 

 supplied with fresh. This manure is put upon 

 the lighter portions of the farm, and the stable 

 manure upon those parts that are heavier. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HO^W PLANTS QROW.--NO. IV. 



Pure water consists of oxygen and hydro- 

 gen. But rain-water is not pure. As I have 

 said, water has a strong affinity for carbonic 

 acid and ammonia, and as its vapor is precipi- 

 tated in the form of rain, it brings down car- 

 bonic acid and ammonia, and carries them into 

 the soil. It is estimated that the surface water 

 is converted into vapor and precipitated from 

 ten to fifteen times annually, thus washing the 

 impurities from the atmosphere and bringing 

 down carbonic acid and ammonia into the soil 

 for the use of plants. 



Plants receive all their food in either a gas- 

 eous or liquid form. In the atmosphere they 

 find it in the form of gas. In water they find 

 it in a liijnid form. Water also contains in so- 

 lution many other substances dei-ived from the 

 mineral kingdom, which, if not essential to the 

 growth of plants, yet are ajjpropriatcd by 

 them to the formation of various products pe- 

 culiar to their several families, as gums, resins, 

 oils, odoi-s, coloring matters, poisons, &c., 

 and to the performance of their secondary 

 functions, the reproduction of their species. 



These substances are lime, potash, soda, 

 magnesia, silex, iron, manganese, phospho- 

 rus, sulphur. Thus nature has provided the 

 food of plants in two distinct forms and stored 

 it up in two distinct reservoirs. Plants have not 

 the j)ower of locomotion. They cannot roam 

 abrond in (juest of their food, like animals, and 

 this double commissariat is the compensation 

 which nature has provided. But how do 

 plants grow ? We have not yet answered the 

 question. We have merely spoken of the 

 food which plants consume, and the sources 

 from which it is obtained. We have not spo- 



ken of the organs by which the assimilation and 

 vitalization of plant food are effected — the 

 formation vessels — the vessels in which secre- 

 tion and excretion are carried on. 



The various organs of plants consist of cells, 

 which were at their formation soft, transparent, 

 round or ovoid bodies, but arranged into con- 

 geries and strata, they become elongated and 

 flattened, and in this form are generally pre- 

 sented to us. 



A common form of vegetable cells is that 

 which a kernel of rye would present with its 

 two ends cut off so as to leave the ends more 

 blunt than when the grain is perfect. In a 

 growing plant new cells are constantly formed, 

 and arranged in the direction of the axis of 

 the plant, and in the direction of the circum- 

 ference ; that is, plants grow at the same time, 

 both in length and circumference. We have 

 two classes of plants in which the arrange- 

 ment of the cells differs somewhat. In exog- 

 enous plants, or plants which grow by addi- 

 tions to the surface, the new cells are arranged 

 between the sap wood or the albumen and the 

 bark. This is by far the most numerous class 

 of plants in our climate. It embraces all our 

 wood bearing trees and shrubs, and most of 

 our annual and biennial plants. In endoge- 

 nous plants, as Indian corn, sorghum, the com- 

 mon tiags, asparagus and the palms, the cells 

 are arranged in bundles or threads, Avhich 

 grow in the direction of the axis of the plant, 

 and are inserted in the mass of pulpy tissue 

 which the plant contains. If you cut off a 

 stalk of corn and bruise is a short distance 

 from the cut end so as to break the sap ves- 

 sels, you will have a bundle of threads or 

 fibres. These are constantly multiplying in 

 number and increasing in length from the cen- 

 tre to the inner surface of the enclosing 

 skin or bark. 



In annual and biennial exogens, the internal 

 layers of cells become hardened or filled with 

 excretions, and cease to aid in the circulation 

 of the sap, which goes on in the external lay- 

 ers. In perennial exogens a new layer of 

 cells is formed annually. The internal layers 

 after a time become hard and filhd by the de- 

 posit of foreign substances as lime, potash, 

 silex, &c., or by the excretions of the plant, 

 as pitch, resin, gum camphor, &c., and con- 

 tribute little or nothing to the growth or other 

 functions of the plant which are cariied on in 

 the albumen, and chiefly in the outer layers of 

 that, and in the inner layers of the liber or in- 

 ner bark. These cells are formed in every 

 part of the plant. They constitute the fiame- 

 work of its root, its stem, and its foliage. In 

 these cells the work of assimilation and vitali- 

 zation goes on. Thny are lined with a mucil- 

 aginous substance, which, in addition to carbon, 

 oxygen and h} drogen, contain nitrogen. This 

 is the vitally active principle of the plant, and 

 may be said to give form to the plant ; lor, un- 

 der its influence, the prepared sap or cellulose 

 is deposited to form the permanent walls of new 



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