THE SOUTIIEEN PLANTER. 



341 



that winter wheat sends out new roots and fresh 

 fibrils in the sprin;:^, and at the same time til- 

 lers, and forms tufts, each shoot of which also 

 roots like the central blade, and all this second 

 growth occurs just when spring wheat is com- 

 ing up. In spring wheat there is little disposi- 

 tion to tiller : as the growth is quick, the root 

 has no period of rest, and therefore its fibres 

 and fibrils are developed regularly, and . have 

 no fresh impulse of growth like wheat that has 

 stood the cold of winter, and is prepared to 

 meet the milder season of spring with an invig- 

 orated constitution, and an appetite that re- 

 quires new roots and fresh rootlets to suppl3^ 

 It is on this account that winter wheat can be 

 transplanted in spring with but little chock to 

 its growth, and even the tufts can be divided 

 into slips, which is indeed a useful mode of aug- 

 menting our crop in experiments upon new and 

 rare varieties. The seed having been sown as 

 evenly as possible at the required depth, the 

 following changes take place : — The grain be- 

 gins to obtain moisture from the soil, and con- 

 sequently enlarges its size. In a few days the 

 embryo shows a great change ; it has become 

 enlarged — the lower part soon protruding as a 

 rootlet — the upper as a bud, Avhich will quickly 

 develop leaves. Coincident with this proceed 

 the chemical changes in the cotyledon, from 

 which the germ is supplied with its food, until 

 the roots on the one hand, and the leaves on 

 the other, become capable of acting — the one as 

 purveyors, and the other as eliminators of that 

 food with which the plant may be surrounded, 

 in the soil and in the atmosphere, and upon 

 which depends its after welfare. If wholesome 

 food for the plant be in the soil, it progresses 

 favourably : if the reverse, disease or death will 

 be the result. If the supply of these be insuffi- 

 cient, the produce is small ; if too great, we get 

 blighted leaves and straw, with too small a pro- 

 portion of corn. If bad seed be sown, we have 

 a diseased and malformed plant, resulting in 

 their diseased and consequently blighted grain. 

 All this, however, depends upon the air the 

 plants get to breathe : if full of noxious vapour, 

 they die; a small quantity of such gases as sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen, sulphurous-acid gas, and 

 muriatic-acid gas, acting as a poison, and thus 

 preventing wheat from being grown in the vi- 

 cinity of some chemical and manufacturing 

 works. 



The nature of the food which the wheat plant 

 derives from the soil, is known to materially in- 

 fluence the composition of the plant and the 

 seed. Thus Ilembstaedt long since found, by 

 some experiments with Avheat dressed with dif- 

 ferent manures, that when wheat, which was 

 grown on land without any manure, yielded 9.2 

 per cent of gluten, that it yielded, when dressed 

 with 



Vegetable matter, . . 9.6 per cent. 

 Cow dung, . . . 12.0 " 

 Sheep dung, . . . 32.9 " 

 Night soil, . . . 33.14 



The constituents of these decomposing applica- 

 tions are assimilated by the plant either in the 

 gaseous form, at the moment of their extrica- 

 tion, or when they are dissolved in the moisture 

 of the soil. It would seem, then, that a more 

 extended and varied examination of the mois- 

 ture of the same soils in their simple state, and 

 when dressed with various manures, might be 

 productive of useful results ; and this has been, 

 although but partially, accomplished by Profes- 

 sor Way, when he was examining the drainage 

 waters from the rich hop-grounds of Surrey and 

 from otlier lands ; and if we regard the compo- 

 sition of such drainage Avaters as affording a 

 tolerably fair view of that of the moisture re- 

 tained in the surface soil, and from which the 

 wheat plant derives at least the mineral portion 

 of its food, then it is interesting to compare the 

 composition of the mineral substances or ash of 

 the wheat plant with those contained in land 

 drainage water. 



Now in the following table will bo found, — I. 

 The substances found in 100 parts of the seed ; 

 II. of the straw and chaff" of some Iloptoun 

 wheat {Jour. JRoij. Ag. Soc, vol. vii, p. 631) ; 

 and III. and IV. the matters (given in grains) 

 contained in an imperial gallon of two (previ- 

 ously filtered) drain waters, from two fields on 

 the land of Mr. Paine, at Earnham, in Surrey, 

 [lb. vol. xvii, p. 133) :— 





I. 



II. 



in. 



IV. 



Silicaj^ . . . 



5.63 



69.36 



0.95 



0.45 



Phosphoric acid. 



43.98 



6.24 



trace 



0.12 



Sulphuric acid, 



0.21 



4.45 



1.65 



5.15 



Chlorine, . . 







0.70 



1.10 



Lime, . . . 



1.80 



6.96 



4.85 



7.19 



Magnesia, . . 



11.69 



1.45 



0.68 



2.32 



Peroxide of Iron, 



0.29 



0.73 







" Alumina, 







0.40 



0.05 



Potash, . . . 



34.51 



11.79 



trace 



trace 



Soda, .... 



1.87 





1.0 



2.17 



Here, then, we find all the chief mineral con- 

 stituents of the wheat plant, in the water of a 

 cultivated soil ; and in the same land-waters 

 were found, in each imperial gallon {in grains): 





Soluble organic 

 matter. 



Nitric acid. 



Ammonia. 



I. 



IL 



7.0 

 7.40 



7.17 

 ■ 14.74 



0.018 

 0.018 



It is one satisfactory result of the examina- 

 tion of these drainage waters, that the substanr 

 ces they carry away from the soil are not so 

 very material in amount as at first sight we 

 might be led to suppose ; for as Mr. Way re- 

 marks, ''It is to be remembered that, as the 

 drains are at a depth of from four to five feet, 

 all the soil to that depth is concerned in furnish- 

 ing the substances which we find in the water. 

 Assuming that a superficial inch of soil over an 



