AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 231 



independent people. But there are means of inferior and indi- 

 rect subjugation from which our country is not emancipated ! 

 So much for 1798 ! Nor are we yet, 1855 !" 



PEOSPECTS OF AMERICAN FARMERS FOR 1855. 



Never was a brighter prospect for you ! Two hundred mil- 

 lions of men are engaged in mortal combat ! The immeasurably 

 extended and fertile plains of Austria and Southern Russia are 

 hermetically sealed against the export of a single cargo of the 

 Staff of Life. The withdrawal of such an immense amount of 

 human labor from the farms ! 



Farmers of the United States ! You have the most honorable 

 calling tliat ever engaged a class in any nation, ancient or modern. 

 Now you can make it lucrative ! Do not allow your children to 

 be withdrawn from agriculture ! You need not apprehend pro- 

 ducing an over supply ! Our granaries and those of Europe are 

 so exhausted that there is no danger of filling them to repletion 

 for two years to come, even if a universal peace was proclaimed 

 to-morrow. 



QUANTITY OF WATER USED BY VEGETABLES. 



In 1796 Dr. Hales, of England, carefully examined and re- 

 ported, that a growing sunflower used 22 ounces a day, while 

 its whole weight was 48 ounces only; nearly half of its weight a 

 day. 



Dr. Woodward found that a sprig of spearmint weighing 28^ 

 grains, used up in 77 days, 3,004 grains of water; between July 

 and October, that is more than its own weight each day. Cabbage 

 uses half of its own weight a day. Water is decomposed within 

 the vegetable by the aid of light. Its inflammable parts form oil, 

 resin, gum, &c., and the vegetable acids. Van Helmont long ago 

 tried the interesting experiment on vegetation as using up the 

 soil. He planted a willow weighing five pounds in an earthen 

 vessel containing soil dried in an oven first and then moistened 

 with rain water. He sunk this vessel in the earth ; he watered 

 it most generally with rain water, but occasionally with distilled 

 water. At the end of five years his willow weighed one hundred 

 and sixty-nine pounds. He then dried all the soil in the earthen 

 vessel, weighed it, and found that it had lost but two ounces of 

 its original weight. 



Dr. Peck commented on the extremely high prices of agricul- 

 tural products. 



