LADIES DEPARTMENT. BOYS DEPARTMENT. 
289 
About twenty years ago, it was common to trim 
straw bonnets with artificial wheat and barley, in 
ears, on which the following lines were written ; — 
Who now of threatening famine dare complain, 
When every fi-male forehead teems with grain ? 
See how the wheat sheaves nod amid the plumes ; 
Our barns are now transferred to drawing rooms ; 
And husbands, who now indulge in active lives, 
To fill their granaries, may thresh their wives. 
CONSERVE OF PEACHES. 
Pare and cut, or split your peaches, and to each 
pound of fruit, put three quarters of a pound of 
best loaf sugar ; boil them until they are clear ; 
take them out, drain slightly, and spread them on 
dishes to dry ; boil, also, the syrup until it thick- 
ens, and each day add a portion of the fruit, which 
must be exposed to the sun, until it has all been 
absorbed, and the fruit is dry. Then sprinkle 
sugar at the bottom of your jars, and put alternate 
layers of peaches and sugar until they are full ; 
stop close, and they will keep good a year. 
Peach Leather is made by boiling pared peaches 
till they form a thick pulp. Spread on dishes ; dry 
in the sun till it becomes tough; put it into a dry 
place, and it will keep well. When wanted for use, 
soak a portion for a night, in just water enough to 
swell and soften it ; sweeten with good brown 
sugar, and make pies of it. Quinces, preserved in 
the same way, are also extremely nice for winter 
desserts. 
Bogs' department. 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.— No. 15. 
I have previously informed you that different 
species of plants require different kinds of food, 
and in my last letter, I told you that a soil usually 
becomes so impoverished, after a few years' tillage, 
as to be unable to produce a medium crop without 
the aid of manure, or the advantage of fallow. 
Now, if these views are correct, it follows that, if 
the same kind of grain be put on the same field for 
several years in succession, the soil will be likely 
to become almost totally exhausted of some of the 
constituents which this kind of plant requires; and 
this exhaustion will manifest itself in its sickly 
appearance and diminutive yield. 
Here theory tells us it would be to our advantage 
to have our various kinds of produce succeed one 
another, so that the same ingredients need not be 
drawn from the soil every year; and the experience 
of ages has led to the same conclusion. Indeed, 
there is no fact better established in farming, than 
that the same kind of grain will not thrive for a 
succession of years on the same ground, except in 
some rare instances, where the soil is excessively 
rich. Land may be forced, however, by copious 
manuring, yearly, to sustain a luxuriant growth of 
the same crop every year, for an indefinite period ; 
but this system, in most cases, would be an unpro- 
fitable one. We see, in the growth of forests, an 
illustration of the principle of rotation, on an 
extensive scale. When a forest of any particular 
kind of trees is cleared away, if left undisturbed, it 
will be succeeded by a growth of another species ; 
and we are informed by those who have given 
attention to the subject, that Nature has established 
a regular system of rotation for forests, and deter- 
mined in what order the various species shall sue 
ceed each other. On the farm which I occupy is a 
small wood lot, from which the largest trees, con- 
sisting mostly of oak, have been removed, and now 
a thick growth of pine is springing up, which bids 
fair to monopolize the whole ground in a few years. 
Another fact, well known among nurserymen, is, 
that a young tree will not flourish, if transplanted 
to a spot previously occupied by an old orchard of 
the same kind. 
Such illustrations of the principles of rotation 
have been long observed, and if science could not 
explain them satisfactorily, there would be some 
apology for adopting an explanation founded on 
conjecture. A theory which has had many advo- 
cates, both learned and unlearned, is, that more or less 
excrementitious matter is discharged from the roots 
of plants that is afterwards poisonous to the species 
that produced it, though not injurious to others. 
I have previously alluded to this theory, and told 
you it was not supported by sound reasoning. It 
was formed before science had advanced to its 
present state, and it seems almost unaccountable 
that so many should still adhere to it, when the 
phenomenon it was formed to account for can be 
explained in a far more reasonable and satisfactory 
manner. When one side of a question is supported 
by arguments based on conjecture, and the other by 
facts, such as science has unfolded, we ought not to 
hesitate long which side to choose. 
Let us examine the theory a little more closely. 
It supposes that plants absorb, by their roots, cer- 
tain ingredients which are not adapted to the pur- 
poses of nutrition, and which, after passing through 
their circulation, are again returned to the earth. 
Now, admitting this to be so, though we have no 
positive proof that it is so to any extent, we are 
still at a loss to understand why this excretory 
matter should be more poisonous after being 
returned to the soil, than it was before entering 
the circulation. Nothing short of a magical change, 
wrought upon it, during its passage through the 
vessels of the plant, could render it noxious to the 
species that produced it, but harmless and inoffen- 
sive when absorbed by the roots of any other spe- 
cies. The theory will not bear inspection, and, in 
fact, can only be regarded as mere hypothesis. 
But when we consider, 1st, that the same kind of 
plant always requires the same kind of food ; 
2d, that no two species extract the same ingredients 
from the soil in the same proportions ; 3d, that if a 
soil be exhausted of any one ingredient essential to 
a plant, it is incapable of again sustaining and per- 
fecting that plant until this ingredient is restored ; 
and, 4th, that a few months are insufficient for its 
restoration by natural causes, we find an easy and 
ready method of explaining the advantages of 
rotation, without adopting the theory that supposes 
every plant to elaborate in its own system a sub- 
stance which is poisonous to its own kind.' 
The correctness of these views will be still more 
apparent when we examine the chemical constitution 
of such plants as are most commonly cultivated. We 
find that in some of them, lime appears to be the most 
important inorganic ingredient; in others silica; 
and in others potash. As these are the constituents 
which plants draw most liberally from the soil, and 
as they are required in widely-different proportions 
by different species, it is of practical advantage to 
