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Some observations on veget at ion, and manures, by the 
Editor. 
Agriculture . The art of selecting and raising to the best ad- 
vantage, those vegetable substances that serve for the use of man. 
It is not my intention to enter at large into the extensive theory 
of this first of arts, or to give a detailed account of practices adopt- 
ed or recommended by the numerous writers on this prolific sub- 
ject : but a few general observations hitherto seldom noticed in 
the connection now presented to the reader may furnish more accu- 
rate ideas than commonly prevail. 
The theory of agriculture relates to I the properties of the 
plant itself. II. of the climate and soil in which it is placed. Ill, 
The mode of accelerating its growth and encreasing its size 
Writers on agriculture, ignorant for the most part of the phy- 
siology of animals as well as vegetables, have usually considered 
and treated of plants as inanimate beings : they are not so. 
Every plant is the production of an organized seed endued 
with the property of vegetable life, and of being acted upon by 
appropriate stimuli. This vegetable life is originally excited and i 
subsequently continued by the application of what may be called 
natural stimuli, much in the same manner as in animals. Thu$ 
the pollen of the pointal received by the chive, and thence propa- 
gated to the seed vessel, impregnates the seed, and excites the ac- 
tion of the living fibre, which afterwards proceeds according to the 
laws of organization peculiar to each plant. This action is conti- 
nually renewed by the application of vegetable food by means of 
which the germ is dilated till the plant arrives at its full growth. 
All this is perfectly analogous to the impregnation of the animal 
germ in the ovarium, and its subsequent growth to full age and 
size. 
In animals, the muscular fibres have the property of contracting 
on being irritated. Irritability as it is called. So have vegeta- 
ble fibres. The sensitiveplant, the hedasyrum, the dionsea mus- 
cipula of Carolina, the phenomena of plants growing in a dark 
place and turning to the light, are proofs of this, if not of voluntari- 
ly. The separated twigs of hedasyrum, are irritable, like a sepa- 
rated muscle. Mr. Howard has lately discovered the same proper- 
ty in the pollen, on the application of alcohol. (Trans. Linn. So- 
ciety of London.) 
Animals have feeling, perception, or sensibility , and the power 
of voluntary motion. So have plants. 
The facts adduced by Percival, Smith, and Darwin, and the whole 
