566 



THE SOUTHER 



N PLANTER. 



[September 



terior. There is a walnut tree near Bala-, 

 klava, in the Crimea, that is at least a thou- 

 sand years old. The cedars of JLebanon are 

 the remnants of . the forest from which Solo- 

 mon built the Temple more than 3,000 years 

 ago, There are oaks now growing in Eng- 

 land which were planted before the Norman 

 conquest. The yew trees are still older. 

 One in the churchyard of Braburn, in Kent, 

 is now more than 3,000 years old. The 

 same cypress which sheltered the troops of 

 Fernando Cortez in Mexico is standing now, 

 and others are there like it, which are 4,000 

 years of age. The mammoth pines of Cali- 

 fornia are the most wonderful trees in the 

 world, growing four hundred feet high, and 

 attaining a circumference in proportion. 

 These trees are two or three thousand years 

 old. One of them required five men, twen- 

 ty days, to bore it full of pump auger holes, 

 the only way to fell it, and then it was so 

 nicely poised that it stood till the same men 

 spent two days more in driving wedges with 

 a battering ram into one side of the cut to 

 topple it over. The expense of cutting it 

 down was $550. It is by no means impro- 

 bable that some of the olive trees near Je- 

 rusalem are the same that stood there when 

 the Saviour was on the mount and in the 

 garden. A tree is always venerable. It 

 stretches out its arms with such sheltering 

 care, inviting us to take refuge under its 

 shade, that I wonder the pagans have not 

 worshipped living trees instead of idols. 

 The growth of a tree is curious : it is from 

 the leaves outward and onward : it does not 

 grow from the root upward, but from the 

 branches on. I was amused some few months 

 ago by a beautiful description which one of 

 our popular writers gave of his visit to 

 " Sunnyside " a few days after the death of 

 Irving. The incident that amused me was 

 this. He says, I went out upon the grounds 

 to a tree under which I sat and carved my 

 name'on its trunk many years before; now 

 my name was away up among the branches, 

 and I climbed up to see it. But if the poet 

 had carved his name on the trunk of the 

 tree at first, it would never have been any 

 • higher up, though the tree should outlive 

 the cedars of Lebanon ! The book of Coul- 

 tas is full of sentiment, and the thought is 

 suggestive of more, leading into the deep 

 things of nature, and revealing the wisdom 

 of the Creator whose power and providence 

 the author observes in every fibre, leaf and 

 stem. 



Advantages of Pulverizing the Soil. 



The effects of pulverizing or stirring the 

 soil are numerous. 



1. It gives free scope to the roots of veg- 

 etables, and they become more fibrous in a 

 loose than in a hard s'oil, by which the 

 mouths or pores become more numerous, 

 and such food as is in the soil has a better 

 chance of being sought after and taken up 

 by them. 



2. It admits the atmospheric air to the 

 spongioles of the roots — without which no 

 plant can make a healthy growth. 



3. It increases the capillary attraction or 

 sponge-like property of soils, by which their 

 humidity is rendered more uniform : and in 

 a hot season it increases the deposit of dew, 

 and admits it to the roots. 



4. It increases the temperature of the 

 soil in the spring, by admitting the warm 

 air and tepid rain. 



5. It increases the supply of organic food. 

 The atmosphere contains carbonic acid, am- 

 monia and nitric acid — all most powerful 

 fertilizers and solvents. A loose soil attracts 

 and condenses them. Rain and dew, also, 

 contain them. And when these fertilizing 

 gases are carried into the soil by rain-water, 

 they are absorbed and retained by the soil 

 for the use of plants. On the other hand, 

 if the soil is hard, the water runs off the 

 surface, and instead of leaving these gases 

 in the soil, carries off some of the best por- 

 tions of the soil with it. Thus, what might 

 be a benefit becomes an injury. 



6. By means of pulverization, a portion 

 of the atmospheric air is buried in the soil, 

 and it is supposed that ammonia and nitric 

 acid are formed by the mutual decomposi- 

 tion of this air and the moisture of the soil, 

 heat also being evolved by the changes. 



7. Pulverization of the surface of soils 

 serves to retain the moisture in the subsoil, 

 and to prevent it from being penetrated by 

 heat from a warmer as well as from radiat- 

 ing its heat to a colder atmosphere than it- 

 self. These effects are produced by the po- 

 rosity of the pulverized stratum, which acta 

 as a mulch, especially on heavy soils. 



8. Pulverization, also, as the combined 

 effect of several of the preceding causes, 

 accelerates the decomposition of the organic 

 matter in the soil, and the disintegration of 

 the mineral matter; and. thus prepares the 

 inert matter of the soil for assimilation by 

 the plants. — Gen. Farmer. 



