290 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Max 2, 
niag of their development as at a more advanced period. 
For instance, amongst vegetables considered as the most 
exhausting there are some which in ordinary cultiva- 
tion are not allowed to produce seed, as Cabbages, 
Woad, and Tobacco ; and it is agreed that in nurseries 
where young plants of Coleseed and Beet are raised for 
transplanting, the ground soon loses its fertility.* 
M. Mathieu de Dombasle has not hesitated. to attri- 
bute the slight degree of exhaustion caused by certain 
green crops to the circumstance of their leaving. in the 
ground a quantity of roots, which is very considerable 
compared with the whole mass of vegetation. To com- 
plete this explanation, it may perhaps be useful to re- 
member that those green crops which exhanst but little, 
or are beneficial to the soil, are gifted with the power of 
deriving from the atmosphere the greater proportion if 
not the whole of their elements. In a former work 
M. Boussingault has made it appear that all the vege- 
table matter produced in the course of a crop is not 
found in it when mowed ; in Clover, for example, the 
quantity of organic matter remaining as an acquisition 
to the soil may amount tomore than 0,8 of the weight of 
thehay. We must then set it down as a principle that 
every crop depauperates the ground on which it grows, 
put that the exhaustion, which is always clear when the 
crop is entirely taken away, becomes so much the less 
sensible, as there remains in it a greater or less quantity 
of residual parts. 
The slightly exhausting effect then of vegetables 
before flowering is far from establishing the point that 
during their early stage of growth they subtract but 
little from the soil; the above-mentioned facts prove 
the contrary, at the same time that they seem to indi- 
eate that at this epoch the plant already holds in reserve, 
accumulated in its organs, a large portion of the matter 
which at a later period will concur in the formation of 
the seed. We know, for example, that vegetables 
taken up after fecundation yield seeds notwithstanding, 
when they are kept in a proper state of moisture. 
When a vegetable is feeundated the reproduction of 
the species is insured, for, strictly speaking, it is effected 
under mere meteorological influences. Proceeding 
from this phase of vegetable life, the matter accumulated 
is carried towards the point where the fruit is to be 
developed ; the green colour of the leaves gradually 
fades, the saccharine and amylaceous principles, and 
the azotised substances, leave gradually the stems and 
roots. Clover and Beet after having produced seeds 
can no longer be considered as fodder, their stems and 
leaves presenting merely a ligneous and insipid tissue. 
In consequence of this appropriation of the succulent 
principles of the roots, we understand that a full grown 
plant will leave only a small residual part in propor- 
tion to what it would have left before maturity. It is 
to this nution in the organic matter of the residuum, 
that M. de Dombasle has attributed the exhaustion 
occasioned by crops ; but does it follow necessarily from 
this concentration of the juices towards a single organ, 
that from the moment it commenees, the air and atmo- 
cease to have any part in the phenomena of 
getation, and that the whole work of organisation 
which is accomplished after flowering is formed merely 
at the expence of the materials stored up in the tissues 
of the plant. This is the opinion of M. de Dombasle. 
Nevertheless, after flowering, the leaves preserve for a 
long time their aérial functions, and the moisture which 
eseapes from their leaves shows that the roots have not 
ceased their functions. We see that for an ill-founded 
opinion, an opinion entirely contrary, but not sufficiently 
justified in every point of view, has been substituted ; 
it was contended that assimilation takes place princi- 
pally during fructification; M. de Dombasle affirms 
that a feeundated plant incloses already all the elements 
necessary for maturation, and as he did not find for his 
defen uments as strong as those which he had 
the attack he had recourse to experiment. 
On the h of June, when the Wheat was in flower, 
he marked out 40 plants as equal as possible. "Twenty 
of these were taken, the remainder reserved for future 
Observation. After having cleaned and dried the 
20 first plants, he found that they were composed of— 
oz. (avdp.) 
l5 
a 
Roots 
Stem: 
and leave: 
sp 
) ounces. 
The remaining 20 plants were gathered after the ripen- 
ing of their seeds on the 28th of August, and gave :— 
oz. (av 
^, Spike, Chaff and Li 
ounces. 
In beeoming ripe the plants had increased by 
4-10ths of an ounce only, that is, by about 1-16th of 
their weight. The Wheat, therefore, had gained from 
the time of sowing to flowering 15-l6ths of its whole 
weight. If, then, it had been mown when in flower, it 
would have returned to the earth by means of its roots 
a fourth of the weight of the crop, whereas, when ripe, 
it left in the soil one-seventh only. 
The practical inferences to be deduced from this ex- 
periment, if correct, are important ; for if it is true that 
a plant eut when it is in flower contains already nearly 
the whole of the organic matter which it will contain a 
. month or two later, as regards hay crops, it would be 
more 
advantageous to mow before rather than after 
flowering. T i 
rin e method recommended by certain oui 
evident that th — — 
e instances are not conclus The 
tis not to prove that young crops do exhaust the ground, 
but to inquire whether they exhaust it as much as when they are 
allowed to ripen their seed. 
vators of multiplying the eropping and cutting of hay, 
on the same field, would thus be justified—a method 
whose merits are very doubtful in the estimation of 
many practical men, but which, were it well-founded, 
would have the advantage, which is always of such conse- 
quence in cultivation, of producing the greatest quantity 
of fodder in a given space of time. 
one side the question of the exhaustion of the soil, 
which is quite a secondary point, M. Boussingault has 
devoted his attention especially to verifying the exact- 
March to the 15th of August we have the following 
numbers :— 
Per day and per hectare. 
EN ge CREDE 
ness of the whose 
portant. 3 
He proceeded in the same way as M. de Dombasle ; 
but to avoid the risk of any important error which might 
arise from the desiecation not being perfect, he thought 
it best to analyse the matters taken from the soil. In 
fact, analysis offers a great security, because, indicating, 
as it does, the absolute quantity of carbon and azote 
which is found developed in erops, it is of no conse- 
quence whether the sul ining these ele- 
———— -— 
^ 
5s j 
as * css irn E 
n oo os $ R 
hus, setting on Times of Vegetation. ya) oS E eus 
EXE E 28 
Sale oul ipic 
E! E n 
PME 
are so 1m- i 
March 1 to May19 ..  ..| 79 | 15,0 204 | ,617 
y 5, 204 |, 
..| 21 | 205,0) 78,861,191 14,235 
Ll 56 | 82,0 2807| 5727 |4,764 
Mean assimi in 6,38| 24,001 1551 12,003 
M. Boussingault had eollected the necessary materials 
for executing a work of the same kind on leguminous 
plants; but the inerease of weight in dry vegetable 
matter was so considerable between flowering and matu- 
rity, that the analysis became useless for estimating the 
ments were weighed in a state of greater or less dry- 
ess. 
On the 19th of May, 1844, he looked out for a spot 
where the Wheat was as uniform as possible. 450 
plants were taken, which, freed by washing from the ad- 
herent earth, and dried by long exposure to air 
oz. (avdp.) 
procep stems and leaves .. 9.7 
oc " ed 
1.6 
11.8 
On the 9th of June, when it was in flower, 450 other 
plants were taken in the same spot, and dried in the 
same way, which gave— 
Spikes in flower 
Stems and le 
Roots . 
37.2 
On the 15th of August, at harvest-time, 450 plants 
were again taken as before, which gave— 
Seed. seso ooe . 23.8 
Spike and Chaff . 
Straw. 
Roots .. 
Mean for each plant— 
May 19..Plant without flow 
June 9..Plant in flower. 
Aug. 15..Plant in seed..... 1471. . 0641 
Thus, from flowering to harvest, the increase of dry 
matter was in the ratio of 100 : 177, that is to say, that 
in this interval the weight of the plant was almost 
doubled—a, result very different from that arrived at by 
M. de Dombasle. 
The analysis of these successive crops was made by 
taking as the representative of each, proportional quan- 
tities of different organs. The details of this analysis 
are here omitted, and we confine ourselves to giving 
the Table in which M. Boussingault has established 
the successive increase of organic matter in the crop 
from a hectare of land (2.471 acres). In fact the crop 
from the land whence the plants for experiment had 
been taken was weighed with the greatest care. First 
the weight of the sheaves was ascertained ; the Wheat 
was threshed by a machine, and then, after the grain 
had been measured, the difference between the weight 
of the straw and chaff was estimated. "There was per 
hectare, not deducting the seed — 
a" ae oo t . DI 
Straw and chaff . 
Roots (estimated) e 
Weight of whole erop per hectare P ^. 10; B 
The relation of the grain to the straw and chaff is 
nearly the same as that given by the 450 plants, We 
have a right, then, to presume that the weight of the 
plants taken before harvest, on the 19th of May and 
the 9th of June, represents, within the same limits of 
error, the state of cultivation of the fields at these two 
periods. 
Applying, then, to the whole erop the results of the 
preliminary analysis, we have as the successive incre: 
of organic matter on a hectare of land, the facts regis- 
tered in the subjoined Table. 
g gis 
; : E p g 
Times of Gathering. 2 E g 
a $4 
o 
Hydrogen. 
Oxy 
~»| 1519 
I . ..| 5803 
ease from May 19 to 
June 9 oe e -| 4284 11656,0 271,5 
(Harvest) + „10293 3829,1 |699,9 2 
from June 9 to | 
Augustió .. «+| 4490 |1606,21340,2 | 898,1]40,4| 266,5 
We see from this Table, that if, before flowering; 
from the 19th of May to the 9th of June, there were 
assimilated per hectare 1656 Ibs. of carbon, and 25 lbs. 
of azote ; the same principles fixed in the plants, from 
the appearance of the flowers to harvest, were 1606ibs. 
carbon, and 40 lbs. azote. Doubtless, and indeed as 
might have been supposed, à priori, the development of 
organic matter, at first very rapid, became less so as 
the crop approached maturity ; but it was still suffi- 
ciently active to double nearly the weight of the crop 
S 
; | as 
22: d 7 
59, 
between flowering and harvest. 
The analysis shows besides what was the progress of 
the assimilation of the constituent elements of the corn 
during the time of cultivation. Thus, supposing vege- 
tation to have been uninterrupted from the lst of 
q deduced from the experiment undertaken 
on the culture of Wheat, viz., that after fecundation 
plants continue to fix in their tissues elements derived 
from the soil and atmosphere.— M. J. B. 
Home Correspondence. 
Meeting of the Agricultural Society at Newcastle. 
—l have read your Leading Article respecting sepa- 
rate committees for the superintending the discussions 
to be carried on at the annual meetings of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, and heartily wish the 
subject was not only well investigated, but clearly de- 
fined and adopted, and the utility of the new arrange- 
ment would no doubt display itself at the next Meeting 
(Newcastle). It is by the rising generation that we 
must expect or look for the theory of agriculture being 
profitably applied, for I can assure you from experi- 
ence that pelt us, expose us, dun us, &c., as the know- 
ing ones may be desirous of doing, it has, and as things 
are it will continue to be an altogether one sided game, 
producing no useful effects ; but then we hope for im- 
provement: but to my subject, suppose my two sons, 
Christopher and John, and myself, attend the Neweastle 
Meeting ; if your divisions were adopted instead of us 
all going lounging idly from object to object, all toge- 
ther, I should say, * Now, Christopher,we shall attend 
the Newcastle Meeting ; you must gather what infor- 
mation you ean from the Section A, and as your brother 
purposes selecting the Section B, I shall notice and 
attain what I ean from Section C, and I trust when we 
return, we shall each have different information to un- 
fold to one another, and not go and return as if we 
were but one man having three heads, six hands, &e., 
but every one an intellect of his own, capable of being 
directed according to one’s need.” Now, can any objec- 
tions be made to such a division, for when the benefit 
of it is so apparent to a single family, what would be 
the effect should the different members of all our farmers’ 
clubs arrange themselves some time previously to the 
Meeting, so that each individual might gain inform: 
tion from a separate department, and at the termination 
of the parent Meeting we should have the whole of the 
business transacted brought amongst the absent ones 
throughout the kingdom. I have written the above in 
haste, simply because I approve of the object in view, 
and do assure you that unless scientific research enable 
the pre: agrieulturists to attain to something to 
enable them touphold orstem thetorrent settingin against 
them,the greatest portion of English soil will speedily be 
in the hands of its proprietors.— Christopher Silence. 
[We have also received the following on the subject.] 
As a member of the Royal Agricultural Society, in the 
habit of attending its country meetings, allow me to 
express my entire concurrence with your opinion as to 
the importance of arrangements being made to facilitate 
diseussion on topies connected with agriculture at those 
meetings, The sectional arrangements adopted by the 
British Association appear, as you suggest, excellently 
adapted to the purpose of our Society. The collection 
and diffusion of agricultural information would, I think, 
be far better promoted by the adoption of such a plan 
than by the holding merely of general meetings for dis- 
cussion, where the members attending, and the variety 
and extent of subjects offering for consideration, would 
be insuperable obstacles im the way of any abundant 
harvest of results being produced. Under sectional ar- 
rangements every person would know where to go in 
quest of such information as he more particularly 
needed, and if the proceedings of the sections, with any 
valuable papers read, were published in the “ Journal” 
of the Society, or through some other channel, they 
would then be accessible to all the members. The ex- 
perience of all would be collected and distributed in an 
orderly and methodical manner, and great as have been 
the benefits conferred by the Royal Agricultural So- 
ciety on the agriculture of the country, I believe they 
would be equalled, if not surpassed in importance, by 
those which would accrue from the adoption of the pro- 
posed plan.—H. F. Fardon. 
The Great Agricultural Meeting, to be held at New- 
eastle-upon-Tyne in July next, promises to be every- 
y 
thing the friends of the Society could desire in point © 
situation and attendance. Itis to be hoped that before 
this great gathering comes to pass, that some resolutions 
may be proposed to give small farmers and landowners 
a chance of competing for prizes. It is quite impossible 
that a tenant renting land from which he anticipates 4 
livelihood, ean. compete with the monied man in over 
feeding animals at a loss. He can neither spare his 
| time nor cash for this purpose, and any attempt at such 
| extravagance would be most decidedly a serious error 
