VEGETABLES. 



ing bloffomhas been cut off; the elm, oak, and afii, being 

 injured at the fame time.: the line of devallation was precifely 

 marked, proceeding in a horizontal manner through a certain 

 vale traft, to the height of about thirty-five feet; the 

 trees that grew on higher ground not being touched. The 

 explanation of this circumftance feems, it is faid, to be, that 

 the fog, which rifes more or lefs every evening, especially 

 after a warm day, was, during the night, in this inftance, 

 fuddenly fucceeded by a fmart froft, which feized the moift- 

 ened parts to the point of elevation of the fog, and produced 

 the mifchief. Cold winds coming on after a day or two of 

 fun-fhine, may llkewife prove dellruftive of the bloflbm in 

 fuch cafes of apple-trees in thefe fruit-grounds. On this 

 account, in a northern expofure, the fruit is not unfrequently 

 preferved, while in others it is deftroyed ; for the fun, not 

 having much influenced the trees in this fituation, they are 

 left to the prevaihng temperature of the feafon, and thus 

 enabled to bear the cold north-eafterly blafts of the night 

 without being hurt. 



Though the fecond of the above caufes is much believed 

 to be hurtful to the trees in fruit-grounds by thofe engaged 

 in them, the opinion has been confidered as unfounded by 

 fome. If, however, the partial manner in which feme trees 

 and hedges are affefted be coniidered, it will be difficult , 

 it is thought, to account for the effett in any other way. 

 This caufe, hke that of froft, may affett vegetables by its 

 expanfive power, burlting their velfels as it pafles through 

 tfeem. In fome cafes, a lingle limb of a tree, in one night, 

 lofes all its foliage, and ceafes to vegetate : in others, one 

 tree of many in a fruit -ground ; or a row of trees in the 

 fame direftion ; and fometimes whole fruit-grounds are 

 affefted in the fame manner, and are difiicult of recovery. 

 The mifchief is moftly done in a night, and with great un- 

 certainty, as neighbouring trees in the very fame directions 

 often efcape. 



In refpeft to the laft of thefe caufes, it has been obferved, 

 that frofty nights, with a north-eaft wind, in the fpring, 

 fucceeding a warm day, are particularly injurious to the 

 bloflbm of the apple ; the warmth of the day hatches the ova 

 or eggs of the infedl which breeds in it, while the coldnefs 

 of the night, by checking the progrcfs of the fap, keeps the 

 bloffom in its half-expanded ftate, to form a nidus for them. 

 The opinion of apple-growers, too, is in fupport of this in 

 molt diftrifts and fituations. But wliether iniefts are caufed 

 in this way, or by tlie difeafcd Hate of the trees, the nioft 

 promifing mode of preventing the ravages and deftruftion 

 which they commit on the leaves, buds, and bloffoms of fuch 

 trees, is that of fmoking them well by means of fome proper 

 fubttance, to which a httle fulphur has been added. In this 

 way they may moftly be got the better of without much 

 trouble. 



The other caufes of mifchief have been noticed under 

 their proper heads. 



Many other forts of vegetables of the tree and other kinds 

 are likewife liable to be affected, injured, or deftroyed in 

 their parts by thefe caufes, the prevention of which may be 

 attempted by fimilar means. See Difeafes of Plants in 

 Smith's Introduftion to Botany. 



Vegetable Acid. See Acid, and Vinegar. 



Vegetable Afies, in Agriculture, the fubftances of this 

 fort which are produced from vegetables of different kinds 

 by incineration. Tliey differ much in their nature and 

 quantities as afforded by different vegetables. In general, 

 thofe of the herb fort furnifh four or five times, and thofe of 

 the ftirub kind two or three times as much alhes as thofe of 

 trees. The leaves in common produce more than the 

 branches, and the branches more thau the trunks. Thofe 



burnt in a green ftate afford more allies than fuch at are 

 confumed in a dry condition. The quantities of afties tliat 

 are afforded by fome common vegetables are, in 10,000 

 parts of the thiftle, 53 of afties; in the fame number of 

 fern, 62 ; in that of the fow-thiftle, 196 ; in wormwood, 

 730 ; in vetches, 275 ; in beans, 200 ; and in fumitory, 

 790 : while in the fame number of parts of the poplar-tree, 

 7 of afties are only afforded ; in the beech, I z ; in the oak, 

 15; in the elm, 39; and in the vine, 55. Such vege- 

 table afties as contain alkalies, are capable of being ap- 

 phed to land with advantage in fome cafes. The oxyds 

 of metals are fometimes found in the afties of vegetables, 

 but only in very minute quantities. In cafes where the 

 vegetable afties are of a reddifti-brown appearance, they are 

 moftly impregnated with the oxyds of iron ; but where 

 they have a black or purple caft, with that of the oxyd of 

 manganefium ; and where thefe different colours are blended, 

 they contain both fuch fubftances of the oxyd kind. 



The different fahne compounds contained in vegetables, 

 or afforded by the incineration of them, are extremely 

 various, and have been confidered under their feveral proper 

 heads. See Sulphate of Potajfa, &c. Phosphate of 

 Lime, Sec. 



The quantities of foluble faline matters, metallic oxyds, 

 and other fubftances which are afforded by the afties cf 

 different vegetables, may be feen in a table inferted in the 

 " Elements of Agricultural Chemiftry." 



Thefe points may ferve to dirett and affift the farmer in 

 the preparation and application of vegetable afties in the 

 moft economical and beneficial manner, \vliere they can be 

 had recourfe to with propriety as a dreffing on land or over 

 crops of fome kinds. See Ashes and Woon-AJies. 



Vegetable Eailh, or Mould, that fort of line reduced 

 earthy material, which is formed and produced by the de- 

 ftruftion and decay of different vegetable productions and 

 matters, either upon the furface, or in the more interior 

 parts of the land. The term is, however, more generally 

 applied to the peculiar earthy fubftance, or body, which con- 

 ftitutes tiie fuperficial layer of fine black or dark coloured 

 mould, in wliich plants, for the moft part, ftrike or take 

 root, and giow in every fort of ground or foil, and which 

 varies very greatly in different fituations and circumftances, 

 in confequcnce of the variations that happen in refpeft to its 

 depth, and tlie progrefs it has made towards the ftate of per- 

 fect decompofition and deftruAion, as well as from the na- 

 ture of the vegetable fubftances and matters of which it is 

 conftituted and compofed. It has been fuggelted too, as 

 acquiring fome diverfity or difference of quahty on account 

 of its being more intimately or more loofely mixed and in- 

 corporated with the other bodies and materials that are found 

 to conftitute land : and, hkewife, that the earthy matter 

 which is formed from the deftruCtion of fome particular 

 forts of vegetable materials, may be better fuited for the pur- 

 pofes of vegetation than that which proceeds from others. 

 It is an earthy material, which, befides being produced both 

 by the diffolution and reduction of vegetable matters, as 

 above, m.ay probably be partly too acquired from the air, 

 water, and light ; by the procefs of vegetation, and partly 

 from the properties of the lands in or on which it exifls. In 

 fome cafes it is of very confiderable depth, while in others 

 it forms merely a thin fuperficial coat or covering of the 

 land ; and there ai-e ftiU other cafes, in which it is fcarcely 

 vifible, or met with at all. 



It may be noticed, that vegetables, in confequence of their 

 having in their compofition a large proportion of mucila- 

 ginous matter in a ftate of mixture with their otiier mate- 

 rials or fubftances, efpecially in fome forts, arc in fonic di-- 



grt. 



