im 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 3 



f Translated for the New Genesee Farmer from the 



German. ] 



CHANGE OF SEED. 



BY TROFESSOR srKENOKL, OF GOTTIlTOEtT. 



Oecasionnl change of seod ia unquestionably of the 

 highest itnporlanco in agriculture. Observant for- 

 mers have doubtless remarked that, though all possi- 

 ble pains be token to secure the best and most perfect 

 seed grain, it is generally more advantageous to pro- 

 cure a supply from some other and distant section of 

 country. 



In the year 1811, I obtained a parcel of multicaulis 

 ryo from Friedland in Bohemia — a celebrated rye dis- 

 trict, having a clay soil. This rye, thus brought a 

 distance of 21 miles, was sown in a sandy soil, rich in 

 humus, which had been manured by ploughing in a 

 green crop of vetches. It vegetated well, grew as- 

 tonishingly, and attained a height of from 9 to 9J feet, 

 with heads proportionably long — measuring from 9 to 

 10 inches, and containing from 115 to 120 groins each. 

 In the ensuing fall I sowed some of the rye thus pro- 

 duced, on a soil of similar character and equal quali- 

 ty, manured as before by turning in a crop of vetches. 

 The stalks, however, scarcely attained a height of 7 

 feet — which was the more remarkable, as, in the sum- 

 mer of 1812, the season being peculiarly propitious, 

 all the other rye in the vicinity wos unusually tall. 

 When sown again, the following season, this rye pro- 

 duced stalks averaging only 5 feet high ; and the 

 heads were proportionably shorter and less productive, 

 in each year. The deterioration of this rye was ren- 

 dered the more obvious, as, in the year 1812, I pro- 

 cured some fresh seed from the original locality ; seed- 

 ed it on land of similar quality, after plowing in vetches 

 OS before, the stalks of which grew to the height of 

 from 8 to 8J feet— contrasting strongly with the more 

 stunted growth of the other. 



1 have experienced similar results in the cultivation 

 of buckwheat, oats, barley, beans, potatoes, and flax. 

 With us, the stalks of Indian corn, also, from seed 

 imported from the southern part of the United Slates, 

 attain a height of 15 oi 16 feet, tho first year ; but the 

 product of the second seeding will not exceed 10 feet 

 in height ; and in the third year, it will not be taller 

 than our domestic corn. 



On many soils a frequent change of seed appears to 

 be essential, for various reasons. It is undoubtedly 

 true that the seed can only produce a vigorous and 

 perfect plant, when its germ is adequately developed ; 

 and it is equally certain that such a developemont can 

 result only from a proper commixture of the ingredi- 

 ents of a soil, aided by the influence of climate, sea- 

 sons, &c But the success of the plant is determin- 

 ed also, in a great measure, by the kind of nourish- 

 ment aflbrded to its earliest germs and radicles. 

 Hence, when seed grain, having a perfect gorm, is 

 supplied, seasonably and in due proportions, with 

 those substances which contain, in an assimilable state, 

 the peculiar pabulum or nourishment which the infant 

 plant needs, it will grow vigorously, and flourish per- 

 manently to maturity if the soil continue subsequent- 

 ly to furnish a proper supply of the requisite food. A 

 field recently manured with fresh stable dung, it is 

 well known, will not produce good seod grain ; and 

 hence it is probable that the good or bud quality of 

 seed grain depends on the presence or absence of cer- 

 tain ingredients ol soils. Grain grown on land re 

 cently manured with animal dung, contains, accord 

 ing to Hermbstadi, more gluten than that grown on 

 lands not so manured ; and where the land was ma- 

 nured with sheep dung, the grain produced is peculiar- 

 ly rich in gluten, because this kind of manure con- 

 tains in abundance the nitrogen essential to its forma- 

 tion. Now such grain is probably unsuited for seed, 

 precisely because it contains too great a quantity or 

 proportion of glnien, whereby the starch t>f (he e« 



grain is too suddenly decomposed. Whereas, were 

 a lees proportion of gluten present, the starch would 

 be gradually converted into sugar — the earliest food 

 required by the developing germ. Wo may, therefore, 

 conclude that, in general, all groin is unsuited for seed 

 if it contain every large proportion of gluten, or of 

 other nitrogenous substances capable of converting 

 starch ropidly or suddenly into sugar. But in grain 

 intended lor breadetufls, this over-proportion of gluten 

 is a very desirable quality; because the more of it 

 any grain contains, the bettor is it adopted for produc- 

 ing flour — gluten being among the most nourishing 

 substances. 



Experienced farmers know it to be very advanta- 

 geous to sow, in a sandy soil, rye grown on clayey or 

 aluminous upland. The reason appears to ba this, 

 that the rye from clay soils contains only the due pro- 

 portion of gluton. On the contrary, it is found to be 

 improper to sow rye from rich, moist, bottom lands 

 on sandy soils ; because the seed contains such an 

 over-proportion of gluten as to convert the whole ol 

 the starch suddenly into sugar, and the sugar as sud- 

 denly into other substances not eongenial to the germ- 

 inating plant. Sandy soils in general do not furnish 

 good seed grain, inasmuch as such grain is deficient 

 in certain substances — as lime, magnesia, &.c. — es- 

 sential, nay, indispensable, to tho perfect develope. 

 ment ol the germ. That sugar does, in fact, play an 

 important port in the germination of seeds and the 

 first develorement of the plumule and radicle, is man- 

 ifest from the fact that all the minutia seeds, parsley, 

 carrots, tfec, germinate better if steeped for a few 

 days in a solution of sugar or in a diluted syrup. 

 But though sugar is unquestionably of great impor- 

 tance in the germination of seeds and in the earlier 

 developemont of plonts, I do not mointoin nor assert 

 that the successful issue of the process is the effect, 

 exclusively, of this substance. On the contrary, I 

 am convinced that, to secure a propitious result, the 

 presence also of alkalies, sulphates, and chlorides, in 

 due quantities and proportions, is absolutely requisite. 

 There ore soils which imperiously require an an- 

 nual change of seed. But it is, in most cases, suffi- 

 cient to procure a supply from places in the immediate 

 vicinity, or not more than three or four miles distant 

 — a circumstance which the principles above indicated 

 will serve to explain. 



Climate also has a very conspicuous and important 

 influence on the quality of seed grain ; and experi- 

 ence teaches that, for seed, such grain is best suited as 

 was grown in scolder region or district, Chemical 

 ana'ysis shows that such grain contains a smaller 

 quantity of gluten than that grown in warmer cli- 

 mates. Wheat iiom the North of Europe contains 

 much less gluten than that from the southern coasts of 

 the Mediterranean. 



The deterioration of grain, so as to become unfit 

 for continued seeding, I have most frequently observ- 

 ed in oats. But 1 remarked, in every instance, that 

 the soils which produced bad seed oats were deficient 

 in lime, magnesia, or some other substance or ingre- 

 dient requisite to the full developement of the germ. 

 Oots invariably became unfit for seed if sown in soils 

 deficient ill lime or potash ; and chemical examination 

 shows that good seed oats contain much lime and pot- 

 ash. Now, though we may, from these and similar 

 circumstances, deduce in part the reasone to what 

 change of seed is oftimes necessary, it is not to be de- 

 nied that, for the full elucidation of this matter, more 

 numerous experiments and observations are desirable, 

 Probably results highly satisfactory could be arrived at 

 if good and bad seed grain, as well as the soils on 

 which they respectively grew, were subjected to accu- 

 rate chemical analysis. 

 The great benefit re^ullinj from frequent 'changes 



of seed, is purticularly striking in the culture of flax ; 

 it being well ascertained that seed imported from Rus- 

 sia is greatly superior to that of domestic growth. 

 Russian flaxseed, though commonly an ill-looking, 

 unpromising article, invariably produces a much lon- 

 ger stalk and fibre than native seed, apparently much 

 better. That climate likewise, in this case, exerts an 

 important influence on the due proportionment and 

 admixture of the ingredients of the seed, may be con. 

 sidered certain. But v/hat the ingredients really are 

 which contribute to, or elfecluate, the more vigorous 

 growth of flax from Russian seed, remains to be as- 

 certained. 



Again, by means of seed groin, climoto may in 

 some sense, and lo some extent, be transferred from 

 one reg'on to another. Thus, if we sow, in a colder 

 climate, seed oats from a warmer district, where oats 

 ripen early, the plant will, in its new locality, matura 

 at on earlier period than the domestic oat, though not so 

 early as in its native region. 



Finally, it may be considered osan ascertained fact, 

 that soils chemically ill constituted, require the most 

 perfect and best seed grain. A judicious selection 

 will, in such cases, very materially increase the quan- 

 tity of the product — the dift'erenco being in some cases 

 not less than fifty par cent. 



From tlie National Intelligencer, 



The Polar Plant of the Western Prairies— a 



Vegetable Compass. 



Washinctoh, August 9, 1842. 



Dear Sir — In offering through you to the National 

 Institution a dry-pressed specimen of the Polar Plant 

 of the Western Prairies, itls proper that I shonld give 

 description of it, and of its location. It is a species 

 of fern, with one large flot leaf, ichose plane always 

 points to the north and south. The leaf is symmetri- 

 cally disposed about the stalk. It attains the height of 

 from ten to sixteen inches, and it is believed that it 

 never blessoms. It is spread profusely in large beds 

 over all the Western prairies, from the far Northwest 

 to the far Southwest. It has been Eeen in the prai- 

 ries of Wisconsin and other regions east of the Mis. 

 sissippi. It is never found in the loresls ; or, in 

 other words, out of the prairies. It has been well 

 known to the hunters and trappers of the West, and 

 to the officers of dragoons ; but 1 believe that its exis- 

 tence has never (at least extensively) been mode 

 known toibe world. Its plane is always in the plane 

 of the meridian, when not disturbed by high Windsor 

 other external couscs. The indications are always 

 most nccurate in the valleys, where the beds are shcl- 

 tered from the winds, and where the traveller finds 

 them arranged in parallel positions, faithfully pointing 

 out the direction of tho meridian. The leaf is sym- 

 metrical, and thus there is nothing in its indications to 

 distinguish the north from the south. 



The specimen which I send was plucked from the 

 prairies near Fcrt Gibson, west of Arkansas. 



That its indications are actually the some wherever 

 found is tho universal testimony of all who have 

 known of it ; and I hove met many who have noticed 

 it from south of Fort Towson to a considerable dis- 

 tance north of Fort Leavenworth. In mony instances 

 those who spoke of it derived their first intimation of 

 its existence from that excellent officer and capital 

 woodsmrin, Copt. Nathan Boone, of let regiment U. 

 S. Dragoons, son of tho celebrated Daniel Boone. 



The cause of the polarity of this curious plant yet 

 remains to be discovered. Being symmetrical in 

 shape, or rather the weight being equally distributed 

 about the stem, it is poasible that its sap or fibre is so 

 thoroughly impregnated with certain salts of iron as to 

 be deviated, from the period of its infant groA'th, by 

 the action of the magnetism of the earth, turning like 

 a compass needle on its stem or root as a pivot. That 

 it is not caused by the action of light would seem pro- 

 bable from analogy, as vegetables acted upon by light 

 ore noted for turning their leaves or blossoms towards 

 the sun instead of from it. At mid doy the plane of 

 the Polar Plant posses through the sun, and thus it 

 shuns the light. I have noticed it in long-continued 

 cloudy weather, and could find no alteration in its po- 

 sition. 



As the existence of the torpedo and the electrical 

 eel exhibited the influence ofelectriciiy on onimal life, 

 this plont is very interesting na showing its probable 

 connnexion also with vegetable life ; thus furnishing 

 a link to supply the chain of gradation. It is well 



