THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



old neighbors in Caswell or Person County, North 

 Carolina, where he had been a merchant previous 

 to the war. Coxe ascribes the introduction of this 

 peach from the Mediterranean to a Mr. Heath. 

 The two peaches are identically the same, and 

 its constant habit of reproducing itself without 

 variation, proves its universal popularity, and 

 tends to confirm the history of its appearance in 

 this country at two points remote from each other. 

 A seedling Heath makes the best stock for budding 

 of any of our fine varieties. There can be no 

 good object attained by relying alone on seedlings 

 for an orchard. The uncertainty of getting good 

 fruit ripening in succession throughout the season, 

 should deter any person from attempting it when 

 our nurseries contain so many fine varieties, such 

 well grown trees, and so very cheap. 



I find, Mr Editor, that this communication is 

 ranch longer than I had intended. I wished to 

 apeak more of the apple, my mode of planting and 

 cultivation, and the theory on which my practice 

 is founded. But this I must defer until some other 

 time, if you can find room for me in the Planter. 

 Woodford, \ 



Near Falls Church P. O. V H. C. Williams. 

 Fairfax County, Va. } 

 June 17, 1855, 



CAPILLARY ATTRACTION OF THE SOIL. 



From numerous observations which have been 

 made at different times on the peculiar appearance 

 of the surface of soils, clays, &c, during the 

 warm summer months, and the fact that they, 

 when covered with boards, stones, or other mate- 

 rials, so as to prevent them from supporting vege- 

 tation, become in a comparatively short time, much 

 more productive than the adjacent uncovered soil, 

 led to the belief that the soil possessed some pow- 

 er within itself, aside from the roots of plants — of 

 elevating soluble materials from deep sources to 

 the surface. 



Dr. Alexander II. Stevens, of New York, was, I 

 think, the first to suggest this idea. He speaks 

 of it in his address delivered before the State Ag- 

 ricultural Society of New York, on the Food of 

 Plants, in January, 1848. No accurate experi- 

 ments were performed, however, to fix it with a 

 degree of certainty, till those made which appear 

 in this paper. 



To throw some light upon the subject, in May, 

 1852, 1 sunk three boxes into the soil — one 40 inches 

 deep, another 28 inches deep, and a third 14 inches 

 deep. All three of the boxes were 16 inches 

 square. I then placed in the bottom of each 

 box three pounds of sulphate of magnesia. The 

 soil was to be placed in the boxes above the sul- 

 phate of magnesia, was then thoroughly mixed, 

 so as to be uniform throughout. The boxes were 

 then filled with it. This was done on the 25th of 

 May, 1852. After the boxes were filled, a sample 

 of the soil was taken from each box, and the per 

 centage of magnesia which it contained, accurate- 

 ly determined. On the 28th of June, another 

 sample of surface soil was taken from each box, 

 and the per centage of magnesia carefully obtained 

 as before. The result in each case pointed out 

 clearly a marked increase of magnesia. 



On the 17th of July, a sample of the surface soil 

 was taken for a third time from each box, and 

 carefully examined for the magnesia. Its per 

 centage was found to be very perceptibly greater 

 than on the 28th of the preceding month. On the 



Box 



Box 



Box 



10 in. 



28 in. 



16 in 



high. 



high. 



high. 



0.1S 



0.18 



0.18 



0.55 



0.30 



0.32 



0.52 



0.4C 



47 



47 



0.53 



0.54 



0.51 



0.58 



0.61 



15th of the months of August and September fo) 

 lowing, similar examinations severally were made, 

 with the same evident gradual increase of the mag- 

 nesia in the surface soil. 



The following are the results as obtained : 



Per centage of Magnesia 

 May 25th, 

 June 28th. 

 July 17th, 

 Aug. 15th, 

 Sept. 15th. 



Before the middle of October, when it was in- 

 tended to make another observation, the fall rain:? 

 and frosts had commenced ; on this account the ob 

 servations were discontinued. The elevation of the 

 magnesia, as shown in the above experiments, evi- 

 dently depends upon a well known and quite uni- 

 versal property of matter, viz : — the attraction of 

 solids and liquids, or what is commonly denomi 

 nated capillary attraction, or the property which 

 most liquids have to rise in tubes, or between 

 plane and curved surfaces. This may be clearly 

 illustrated by taking a series of small capillary 

 glass tubes and insert one extremity of them in a 

 solution of sulphate of magnesia, or chloride am- 

 monium, and break or eutoff the upper extremity, 

 just below the height to which the solution rises. 

 Expose them to the sun's rays. The water of the 

 solution evaporates, and the fixed sulphate of 

 magnesia will be deposited just on the upper ex- 

 tremity of the tube. 



As the solution evaporates, more rises up from 

 below, r eeping the tubes constantly full. Yet no 

 sulphate of magnesia passes off; it all, or nearly 

 all remains at, or rises just above the evaporating 

 surface. Just so in the soil; as the water, evapo- 

 rates from the surface, more water pregnant with 

 soluble materials from below, rises up to supply 

 its place; as this evaporation goes on, it leaves the 

 fixed materials behind in the surface soil at the 

 several points of evaporation. 



This explains why we often find during the 

 months of July, August and September, a crest of 

 soluble salts covering the surface of clay depositee 

 which are highly impregnated with the alkalies or 

 any of the soluble compounds of the metals, earth, 

 or alkaline earths. Also, the reason, in many in- 

 stances, of the incrustations upon rocks that are- 

 porous and contain soluble materials. It also helps 

 to explain the reason why manures when applied 

 for a short or longer time upon the surface of soils., 

 penetrate to so slight a depth. Every agricultu- 

 rist is acquainted with the fact that the soil direct 

 ly under his barn-yard, two feet below the surface,, 

 (that is any soil of any ordinary fineness) is quite 

 as poor as that covered with boards or otherwise, 

 two feet below the surface, in his meadow; the 

 former having been for years directly under a 

 manure h^p, while the latter, perhaps, has never 

 had barnyffd manure within many rods of it. 



The former has really been sending its soluble 

 materials to the surface soil, the latter to the sur- 

 face soil and the vegetation grown near ; or upon 

 it, if uncovered. 



The capillary attraction must vary very much in 

 different soils fthat is, some have the power of ele 

 vating soluble materials to the surface from much 

 deeper sources than others. The pores or intersti- 

 ces in the soil correspond to capillary tubes. The 



