I860.] 



665 



their roots. Finger-and-toe,* clover sick- 

 ness, and some other diseases, are evidently 

 owing to certain conditions interfering with 

 this dissolving and absorbing power of the 

 roots of plants for their earthy food. This 

 hypothesis is the means of affording an ex- 

 planation of many obscure facts well known 

 to agriculturists. We shall, however, mere- 

 ly mention one connected with the absorb- 

 ing powers of soils to which both Brustlein 

 and Liebig refer. The latter, in his Letters 

 on Modern Agriculture, says : — " In. many 

 places the mud from pools, still waters, and 

 miry bogs, is highly esteemed as a fertiliz- 

 ing agent. It is evident that such mud acts 

 like arable soil, which has absorbed as much 

 as it is capable of doing of the soluble ele- 

 ments of food or manure brought in contact 

 with it." Now, although mud from pools 

 may be valuable manure in some places 

 where the soil abounds in calcareous matter, 

 or where the climate is hotter than our own, 

 yet it is well known in Scotland that mud, 

 which has long been at the bottom of ponds, 

 is sometime before it produces any fertiliz- 

 ing influence, even when laid on inferior 

 soils in large quantities. All parties know 

 that it is rich in the elements of fertility, 

 but which, somehow, are found not to be 

 available. It is said to be u sour," and the 

 smell which it emits certainly shows that 

 the organic matter it contains is undergoing 

 a peculiar species of decomposition. The 

 peculiar products seem to be inimical to the 

 healthy functions of the roots of our culti- 

 vated plants. The elements of nutrition 

 which the mud has absorbed from water are 

 in all probability lying on the outer surface 

 of the earthy particles ; but the acid matter 

 diffused through it does not permit the ac- 

 tion of the roots of land-plants to take them 

 up. The rootlets of the aquatic plants, not 



* It may here be observed that Liebig, in bis 

 Letters on j9g?-iculture, wbile he has so far given 

 his assent to our theory of finger-and-toe, mis- 

 takes, like many others, the peculiar disease 

 itself. It is the forked or branched state of the 

 roots which he describes as being cured by an 

 application of lime. But this is mere degene- 

 racy, and not a disease at all, in the strict sense 

 of the term. Finger-and-toe, or anbury, we be- 

 lieve, is caused by the attacks of insects, which 

 only touch those plants whose juices are in a 

 corrupt state, owing to a want of earthy matter 

 within the plant. Lime cures the disease by 

 inducing such a decomposition of the Vegetable 

 matter as maintains the healthy functions of the 

 roots. 



being injured by those products of decom- 

 position, take up a full supply of nutriment, 

 and produce a luxuriant vegetation of their 

 own. -The land and water plants both feed 

 upon the same substances ; but the particu- 

 lar form which the decomposition of the or- 

 ganic matter takes within the soil, has an 

 influence sufficiently powerful on the func- 

 tions of the roots of the land-plants to in- 

 terfere with their healthy action. 



So, too, in arable land; the organic mat- 

 ter which it contains is liable as it decom- 

 poses to produce different products. What 

 is a healthy condition for the roots of one 

 class of plants, is unhealthy for another. 

 The different kinds of plants that thrive in 

 running and in stagnant water are sufficient 

 to demonstrate the influence of the two 

 kinds of decomposition. In general, the 

 use of lime on arable land is more for the 

 purpose of regulating and controlling the 

 particular form of decay of the vegetable 

 matter, than for directly furnishing consti- 

 tuents for building up the framework of 

 plants. It is a curious fact that has been 

 little noticed, that a larger number of plants 

 perish when sown on calcareous soils. A 

 certain acid reaction in the decaying organic 

 matter seems as necessary to the roots exer- 

 cising their absorbing action, as is at least 

 congenial to the plants that flourish in the 

 sour mud at the bottom of pools. The com- 

 mon field-spurry is found on all light lands 

 destitute of lime, and liable to the disease 

 of anbury or finger-and-toe. Lime added 

 in quantity, and allowed a certain time to 

 act on the vegetable matter, is a preventive 

 of this disease in turnips, and destructive to 

 the growth of spurry. Facts at least fchow 

 that the chemical conditions of the decaying 

 organic matters in the soil exercise a pow- 

 erful influence on the growth of plants, ex- 

 plain them how we will. 



Loss of the Cud. 



Literally, there can be no such thing as 

 "loss of the cud." Ruminating animals 

 are never furnished with an appendage so 

 ridiculous as a cud, to be used as "gum," in 

 the mouth of a school-boy, which if lost, 

 must be supplied, with an artificial " cud ;" 

 as if the operations of nature must be sus- 

 pended until this prepared artificial panacea 

 is supplied, to take the place of the natural 

 " cud lost." 



By a slight investigation of anatomy and 



