177 



set deep in this loose ground or they all dry up under 

 a hot August and September sun,— and yet, if they 

 are set too deep the hearts rot, — and in either ease 

 the plants die. 



It is no use trying to teach this to customers. The 

 poor hands, too often employed as " gardeners " to 

 do the Wurk, would as soon " think of flying" as of 

 rolling a piece of ground to make it firm before put- 

 ting out the sets ; hence they will plant deep in 

 spite of all things, and the plants cannot be saved. 

 It is best to introduce something which even an 

 ignoramus cannot kill. A strawberry plant with a 

 ball is not likely to be set deep ; hence, for this rea- 

 son alone, besides the assurance of a good crop the 

 next year, we would recommend to nurserymen the 

 universal adoption of small pot strawberry plants tor 

 early fall planting. 



' WASTE OF FORCE IN VEGETATION. 



We give under our "Domestic Intelligence, " a 

 paper by the Editor of this journal, copied from 

 the Froceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 on the consumption of force by plants in making 

 their upward growth. 



It was introduced there as a simple matter of 

 natural science, but if found to be as true as tlie 

 Author believes it to be, it will have a great bearing 

 on many practical points in Horticulture which have 

 never been clearly understood. 



For instance, it has been long known to Agricul- 

 turists that rolling ground when dry was of great 

 benefit. Some few of course there arc who suppose 

 that the rolling ground after a seed sowing is merely 

 to make the ground " smooth, " and who come in 

 time to look on the matter as one of appearance only, 

 and leave the land clotty and rough to save time : but 

 the shrewd observer knows well that this clod crush- 

 ing business is, in dollars and cents, profitable, but 

 he can scarcely tell why. So the gardener, grow- 

 ing his rare pot plants, takes his soil as dry as he 

 can, and then fears not to ram in as hard as 

 a post, to his plants' profit ; and there are special 

 cases, as recently referred to by our observing cor- 

 respondent Mr. Stough, where things growing in 

 hard pressed soil astonish even those who are ac- 

 customed to profit by it. To be sure explanations 

 are attempted, and we are told it is by " a thorough 

 pulverization of the soil that rolling and pressing 

 soil accomplishes this good, " but this is no explan- 

 ation of the principle, but a re-statement of the 

 fact. 



This paper enforce we think does explain it. It 

 shows that growth motion is a tax on what may be 

 called the plants digestive powers which are neces- 



sarily limited, and the more force wasted in pre- 

 paring for growth, the less growth can be made. 

 Therefore if a plant have to" push its roots through 

 a hard clod, a greater aniount of force must be ex- 

 pended to push through that clod than would be 

 required to penetrate the numerous pores of a well 

 pulverized soil, and with this increased expenditure 

 of force in this direction, their is little left for 

 absolute growth. In other words the easier a plant 

 can push its roots through the soil, the more force 

 it has left for other purposes. 



Coming back to the grape vine, which suggested 

 this paper, it is a remarkable fact that most of the 

 grape growers of the old generation used to consi- 

 der it essential to success to cut off thetendrds of 

 the grape vine. Why, no one could tell. The father 

 of the present writer, one of the best grape growers 

 of the time, as the "Oak Hill Ham burgs, " still 

 celebrated though fifty or more years have passed 

 over them testify, so taught the son ; but with that 

 irreverence which philosophy begets in one for the 

 revelations of the past, when " no reason" can be 

 given for them, the practice has been long abandon- 

 ed by the son as of no account. And yet if the 

 principles now enunciated be correct, there must be 

 a great benefit in many cases from cutting off" ten- 

 drils. If these tendrils exhaust the vital force in 

 their vain efforts to discover something to cling to, 

 cutting them off", or stopping that useless motion, 

 must be of immense advantage. 



Some of our best grape growers are yet of that 

 class, which sticks to this practice. Mr. Lamont, 

 gardener to Mr. Zug, at Pittsburg, whose excellent 

 communications, our readers so often profit by, re- 

 cently stated in this journal, that he considered 

 cutting off the vine tendrils as one of the chief ele- 

 ments of his great success. 



Mr. Meehan's theory will not account for every 

 form of vine disease ; and a vine may have every 

 facility for a healthy use of its tendrils, and yet be 

 diseased from other causes; but as one of the causes 

 of weakened vitality in grape vines we have no 

 doubt an inordinate amount of force spent in fruit- 

 less motion will from henceforth take a decided 

 rank. 



Another useful fact may be drawn from these 

 principles, namely, that that system of trellising 

 will probably be made advantageous to the vine 

 which admit of the vine tendrils most easily, and 

 readily getting something to cling to. 



