anaiss 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
99 
W ANTED to purchase, a clean Copy of the GARDEN- 
ERS’ CHRONICLE for 1841, bound or unbound. Address 
(stating price and condition) toJ. N. Morron, Bookseller, Boston. 
plants require no other food than that which is con- 
tained in the seed, until the seed-leaf is fully expanded 
and the rough leaf appears ; heat and moisture then are 
fhe Gardeners’ Chronicie, 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1843, 
“MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Sean + 2 
_ ‘Tuesday, Feb-21 - . . 9 Linnean 
Floricultural, | )°) | 
+ Gy 
Geological 1... a4 pam 
Satin el folS a Resa ebay AUR EH chic Mer eRe 
Saturday, Feb.25 . . Royal Botanic. . >) g'man 
Friday, Mar.3,  [. . . Botanical +. 8 rae 
Counrny Sows. Feb.93. Ipswich Cucumber.7] 
We rejoice to find, from a late Report of the « In- 
stitution for the Relief of Aged and Indigent Gar- 
denérs and their Widows,” that the funds of the So- 
ciety are in a prosperous state. The Committee have 
been enabled to purchase 200/. Three per Cent. Con- 
sols in addition to 400/. already funded in the three 
previous years; leaving, after the payment of debts, 
the sum of 47/7. 12s. 1d. in the hands of their 
bankers. The total amount of subscriptions for 1842 
was 2491., showing an increased income of 61/. 16s. 
over that of the preceding year. It is announced that 
an election of two pensioners will take place on the 
Ist of June next, and that two more will be elected 
in the following January. 
hile we thus congratulate the Society upon its 
flourishing condition, we at the same time hope that, 
as it has for its object the welfare of distressed and 
meritorious individuals, it will continue to meet with 
that support which it so eminently deserves. Based 
on the best of principles—that of charity towards our 
fellow-creatures—such an institution if properly con- 
ducted, as there is no reason to doubt will be the 
case in the present instance, cannot fail to exert a 
beneficial influence. e therefore earnestly renew 
our appeal to every Gardener who has it in his power 
to subscribe his mite towards thé assistance of his Jess 
fortunate brethren. In thus adding to the happiness 
of others, he will but increase his own 3 and he ma: 
in some measure be providing for himself, should an 
unexpected reverse of fortune overtake him at a future 
period. 
Under the present judicious regulationsit is scarcely 
possible that the funds of the Society should be 
bestowed upon any who are not really necessitous and 
deserving. Where, then, can the wealthy and cha- 
Titable find a more fitting opportunity for following 
the bent of their kind dispositions than in seeking to 
alleviate the distress of their aged servants, whom in- 
firmity and other misfortunes have thrown upon the 
World for support? We feel assured that this excellent 
Institution only requires to be more generally known 
tomeet with still more extended patronage. It is con- 
ducted by honest men, for, honest purposes; there are 
no hawks among them: and it deserves, in our 
Opinion, not only all it has received, but a much more 
ample amount of receipt— provided always that it 
Keeps itself clear of scampish managers, 
7 a 
Tue slow and p position of 
vegetable substances in the earth is the natural mode b 
which the soil is enriched. When the land has been long 
left, entirely to itself, and all that is produced decays on 
its surface, the plants which are found to grow on it are 
of a richer and more succulent nature, in proportion 
to the time it has been thus accumulating fertility, 
Under very favourable circumstances, where moderate 
heat and moisture have concurred in producing luxu. 
Mant vegetation, where no floods have carried off the 
accumulated vegetable mould, and where a porous 
a soil has not permitted the waters to stagnate, the 
lack earth is so rich that to add manure to it would 
© to spoil it. It is already of too loose a texture, and 
an addition of the most barren clay, in a pulverised 
State, would increase its productiveness. Such soils 
ae found on the banks of vers, in uninhabited 
thoutties. The first settlers in Virginia found what 
sae considered as land of inexhaustible fertility: for 
ead years they had only to sow or plant, and to reap ; 
€ding was the only thing which required attention. 
bay. of these spots are now abandoned as absolutely 
he accumulated humus has been lon: 
hae The moisture is evaporated under a hot 
soil. and only the hardiest weeds will thrive in the 
ee Very little care and foresight might haye 
Vented this 3 the judicious addition of manures 
id kept up 
Commo 
Smalley 
re than on its affording nourishment, depends the 
& certay » Seeds want only 
4in warmth and moisture to vegetate; the young 
the cir to be promoted. A small quantity 
of fermenting dung will excite the action of a great 
quantity of humus, which will actually generate heat 
and moisture: for it is well known now, that water is 
produced by a combination of the hydrogen and oxy- 
gen evolved in the decomposition of humus, at the 
same time that water is also evaporated by the leaves, 
and probably decomposed. Nature has provided a 
wonderful circle of decompositions and recombin- 
ations: we have only to watch her operations, and 
assist them bys furnishing materials for her to work 
upon. Physiologists and chemists, by their researches, 
greatly assist the practical cultivator of the soil 3 but 
their love of classification and building systems often 
eads them into error. No sooner had vegetable mould, 
Separated from the earths, become the object of experi- 
ments, than chemists discovered thie composition of a 
substance to which they gave the name of humic acid, 
or Ulmic acid, composed of definite proportions of the 
elements of vegetable substances. Humic acid was 
immediately invested with the power of affording all 
the food plants required, and the heat and moisture 
produced in the decomposition of organic matter in the 
soil was lost sight of. The actual quantity of humic acid 
In any soil was thought to be the exact measure of its 
fertility. But it is yet to be proved that pure humic 
acid ever exists in any manure, although it can be 
prepared from it, or from rotten wood, or from peat. 
Humus, however, is not humic acid, and should not be 
confounded with it ; but it is simply a very compound 
residue of slow decay and spontaneous combustion of 
vegetable and animal substances in the earth, the 
action of which is excited by exposure to air and 
moisture ; and this action goes on till all the volatile 
elements of the humus are separated, and nothing is 
left but the fixed salts and earths it may contain. We 
must endeavour to afford fresh matter for this decom- 
position, or, if we may say so, fresh fuel for its com- 
bustion ; and if we proportion our supply to the 
waste produced by vegetation, we shall keep up the 
fertility to the degree in which we found it; if we 
give more, judiciously, we gradually increase the 
fertility : but we may give too much at a time, and 
thus, instead of assisting vegetation, we may impede 
it by over nourishment, and much of our manure will 
be lost by dissipation in the atmosphere, or by being 
carried off in solution by the waters which pass through 
the soil. ‘These principles should be kept in view in 
the praetical application of manures; and if experi- 
ence confirms their truth, we shall have obtained a 
clearer insight into the mode in which different kinds 
of manures assist vegetation and increase fertility in the 
soil—__M. 
Tue many inquiries which were addressed to us 
last year upon the subject of rooks induce us to men- 
tion, now that the season for building has begun, or is 
very near at hand, that, in the opinion of a friend, 
(whose ornithological knowledge would, if we might 
appeal to it, carry the greatest weight with it,) the 
most probable means of attracting rooks, and inducing 
them to build, is to send a boy into the branches of a 
tree with bundles of twigs, made fast to the branches in 
such a way that the rooks may use them for their nests 
without upsetting them and losing them. The bundles 
of sticks act in the first instance as a decoy, and after- 
wards as a means of enabling the rooks ‘to -establish 
themselves. 
Tuar failure of Clover upon land, which has given 
rise to the saying that a field is clover-sick, or tired of 
Clover, has never been satisfactorily explained. We 
see that the Rev. Mr. Thorp, of Womersley, near 
Pontefract, has ingeniously endeavoured to account 
for it,* by supposing it to arise from the effects of 
frost. He is of opinion that 1t cannot arise from the 
soil being exhausted of certain kinds of food necessary 
to Clover; and he arrives at this conclusion from 
finding no material difference in the chemical analysis 
of good Clover land and land clover-sick. And he is 
unwilling to recognise the doctrine of root excretions, 
which some have thought to account for the failure of 
Clover, partly because the experiments of Macaire 
Prinsep, on which that doctrine has been founded, 
have been disproved by Meyen and Unger ; and partly 
because, had they not been disproved, they would not 
account for all the circumstances connected with the 
action of Clover on soil. For Mr. Thorp’s arguments 
in support of his own views we must refer our readers 
to the paper itself. We can only state that he thinks 
the remote cause of injury to Clover, by the action of 
frost, arises from the want of a certain degree of 
cohesiveness of the particles of soil among themselves, 
the consequence of which isa diminution of the power 
of the soil in retaining heat. According to the experi- 
ments of Schubler, the power of retaining heat is 
nearly in proportion to its weight; and consequently 
loose puffy soils retain it less than compact soils. 
* Journal of the Royal Agr. Soc., vol. iii. p. 326, 
Mr. Thorp in all cases finds clover-sick land mor® 
loose than where Clover flourishes ; a circumstance 
which he ascribes to various causes, ofter local; and 
hence he concludes that loss of heat, or, in other words, 
cold, is what destroys the Clover, 
We cannot stop to examine this theory very closely, 
but we will content ourselyes with asking how it 
applies to the well-known fact, that, if land is apt to 
become Clover-sick at the end of four years, it is not 
so at all if the time of rest is extended to eight years? 
It is the practice in some places to substitute Rye- 
grass for Clover every four years; and where that is 
done clover-sickness is not heard of, although, if the 
alternation of Rye-grass is neglected, the land imme- 
diately becomes again tired of Clover. 
We hasten to lay before our readers the following 
To the Editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle. : ; 
Sir,—A chemical friend of mine has kindly directed 
my attention to the fact of a manure being advertised 
under the name of “ Dr, Daubeny’s Sulphate of Ammonia ;” 
and assures me, moreover, that a sample of it whick he 
has examined contains not a trace of the above-named 
alkali, 
Now, as I entertain a perfect conviction of my informant’s 
accuracy, I am unwilling even to wait until I have suc- 
ceeded in procuring the article in question, before I assure 
the agricultural public, through your columns, that, 
so far from having authorised the manufacturer to use my 
name, I do not even know who he may be, and am at 
the present moment at a loss to know where to apply for a 
sample of it. 
Ican only conjecture, that he may have intended to 
follow the instructions given in one of my Agricultural 
Lectures, which were published in the Journal of the 
Royal English Agricultural Society, in which I pointed out 
the manner of converting the impure ammoniacal carbonate 
present in the coal gas liquor into sulphate of ammonia by 
means of gypsum. 
Thad no sort of intention of claiming that method as 
my own, as it was a mere application of a well-known 
chemical process to the case of the gas-liquor ; but as the 
manufacturer, whoever he may be, has thought fit, with- 
out consulting me, to give me the credit of the invention, 
I regret to find that he has brought it into discredit, by 
some blunder he appears to have made in the mode of his 
manipulation. I remain, Sir, your obdt. Servant, 
Cuaries DausBeny, 
Professor of Botany and Chemistry, in 
the University of Oxford. 
Oxford, Feb. 14, 1843. 
P.S.—Allow me to take this opportunity of correcting’ 
an error which has crept into the same lecture, from 
which the unknown individual alluded to may have in- 
tended to take the method of forming the sulphate of 
ammonia, which he has chosen to call by my name. 
Amongst the substances therein enumerated by which car- 
bonate of ammonia may be fixed, common salt is, mentioned. 
Now, although, according to Berzelius’ principles, if a solu- 
tion of muriate of soda be mixed with one of carbonate of 
ammonia, a portion of the latter would be decomposed, 
and a certain amount of muriate of ammonia generated, 
yet, for reasons with which I will not detain you at pre- 
sent, this circumstance would not assist us in preventing 
the escape of the ammonia, and therefore would not 
enable the agriculturist to economize the useful princi- 
ples of his dung-heap. Professor Henslow is quite right 
in questioning the utility of such an addition, as he has 
done in a Letter to the Farmers of Suffolk, published ina 
provincial newspaper. 
FAMILIAR BOTANY.—No. XII. 
Gnomes! whose fine fingers fill the organic cells 
With virgin earth, of woods and bones and shells; 
Mould with retractile glue their spongy beds, 
And stretch and strengthen all their fil re-threads— 
C) 
4 
a 
2 
5 
4 
3 
5 
4 
And guide and guard the transmigrating Ens. ees 
Hardening the Texture.—Not more does we epee 
and vigorous ostrich differ from the soft yolk \s 8 : hm 
engendered than does the nll onan aad tet Pee ti 
j vhich it is elaborately tor ie 
Of lelly, ORUtU Wonderful is the process in 
abstracting nothing created, adding 
nothing when destroyed. All these things, produced at 
the command of the Great First Cause, are subjects of 
admiration only, not of investigation, We may know 
indeed whence matter comes and whither it goes, but why 
the same elements are combined into the forms of a 
quadruped, a bird, a fish, a reptile, or a plant, no man 
can say ;. and it is only those who are foolish that attempt 
the discovery. While, however, these mysterious effects 
are beyond all scrutiny, there are others of a secondary 
