10 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



/ 



branches, nothing can well be more desti- 

 tute of any real foundation. If, in the 

 spring, when the buds are just swelling, 

 a tree is cut across at the ground line, no 

 bleeding takes place, neither will the sap 

 flow for some distance upwards,but among 

 the branches the bleeding will be found 

 to have commenced. Let the line A 

 B represent the trunk and branches 

 of a tree ; let incisions be made at c, 

 d, e\f; the sap will run at c first, then 

 at d, next at e, and last at f } next the 

 roots. This was observed some years 

 ago by Mr. Thomson, at that time the 

 Duke of Portland's gardener, who 

 thought that he had discovered that 

 the sap of trees descends in the spring 

 instead of ascending; a strange spe- 

 culation enough, it must be confessed. 

 The fact is, that the sap is driven into B 

 accelerated motion first at the extremities 

 of a tree, because it is there that light and 

 warmth first tell upon the excitable buds. 

 The moment the buds are excited, they 

 begin to suck sap from the parts in which 

 they are in contact ; to supply the waste 

 so produced, the adjacent sap pushes up- 

 wards ; as the expansion of the leaves 

 proceeds, the demands upon the sap near 

 them become greater; a quicker motion 

 still is necessary on the part of the sap, 

 in order to make good the loss ; and thus, 

 from above downwards, is that perceptible 

 flow of the fluids of trees, which we call 

 the bleeding, effected. 



A correspondent remarks that the well 

 known fact of trees sprouting in the spring, 

 although felled in the autumn, proved that 

 the sap had not at that time quitted the 

 trunk to take refuge in the roots. And 

 we agree with him that such a common 

 occurrence should have put people on their 

 guard against falling into the vulgar errors 

 on this subject. — London Gardeners 1 Chro- 

 nicle. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



There are three duties that every farmer 

 owes to an agricultural paper; first, to sub- 

 scribe to it; secondly, to pay for it; and thirdly, 

 to write for it. A newspaper, to our poor 

 thinking, is not the proper recipient of learned 



essays and scientific hypotheses; but it is cal 

 culated rather for the purpose of recording the 

 practical results of the age in which we live, 

 the thousand observations of living, working 

 men, which but for such a record as this, would 

 be lost forever to the science of agriculture. 

 Inferences must be based upon facts, and facts 

 can only be known from experiments. It be- 

 hooves us then in the crude state in which this 

 great science is admitted to exist, to begin 

 with experiments. These the farmer must 

 make; but, to make them available, he must 

 conduct them with caution, with vigilance, 

 and with economy. Instead of attempting to 

 ascertain for himself the thousand facts which 

 are necessary to the elucidation of the com- 

 prehensive art in which he is engaged, how 

 I much wiser, how much more rapid would be 

 j his advancement, if each individual would 

 | institute a particular set of experiments and 

 , mutually interchange the results with his neigh- 

 | bor. How interchange them 7 We answer, 

 | through the medium of an agricultural paper, 

 i Used in this way, an agricultural journal may 

 be made to collect into one focus the straggling 

 beams of light, and diffuse their concentrated 

 effulgence where only a single ray glimmered 

 before. Thus it is that knowledge may be 

 I diffused and science advanced. Of the value 

 ; of such a journal, who can doubt 1 Such a 

 journal it is our object to make the Planter, 

 \ and as far as it depends on us, no exertion 

 I shall be wanting. 



\ But let it be remembered, that this great de- 

 sideratum, so conducive to the prosperity of 



i the farmer and the progress of agriculture, is 

 only to be obtained by the co-operation and 

 assistance of the farmer himself; the editor 

 can do nothing but serve up the dishes, the 

 substantial material of which must be fur- 

 nished by others; the paper, therefore, is va- 

 luable in proportion to the ability and willing- 

 ness to contribute to it, of those amongst whom 

 it circulates. In Virginia, the ability is not 

 wanting; we defy the Union to produce a class 

 of more intelligent farmers than those who' 

 cultivate the soil of the Old Dominion; but 

 there is a backwardness amongst the best of 

 them to communicate with us, that is the 

 greatest bar to their prosperity and ours. Of 



