46 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
be llie prourtuie eliccis ol buu* Unices wiiicii are auucu to 
lljem lor that purpose. As re;>^ards such substauces, I 
•will not, at this time, d well upon tiieir nature, inasmuch 
as 1 shall shonly issue from the press a treatise on ma- 
nures, which I trust will fully explain the matter. 
The improvement of soils, when pursued upon scientific 
principles, issimpleand easy to understand, and, when 
practicable, easy to accomplish. That vegetable manures 
and peat would render sandy soils more productive, is 
reasonable to suppose, but such productiveness would be 
occasioned, not by improving the quality of the soil, but 
by furnishing the crops growing in it with nourishment 
The permanency of effect ascribed to peat, however, may 
be questioned, for the large quantity of vegetable fibre 
contained in peat, becomes exhausted after a certain time, 
so that the whole of the permanent effect would liave to 
be ascribed to the quantity of earth remaining. Hence it 
follows, that the soils which have been improved by the 
addition of peat or vegetable manure, will soon require 
the same additions to be repeated; but the moment, when. 
required, will not be known tothe unscientific farmer before 
be finds a deficiency in bis crop. 
The probable reason why so little knowledge has been 
acquired concerning the manner in which plants derive 
Iheir nourishment, may be found in the obscurity of the 
processes of vegetation. Everything is done imper- 
•eptibly to human sense; the roots are silently and in- 
cessantly at work, absorbing the soluble substances in 
the soil, whilst the leaves are constantly performing the 
same functions, unperceived, in the air. Observation can 
detect nothing. It required much patient investigation, 
and many well directed experiments to be made before 
these powers and offices of the roots and leaves were dis- 
covered. It was not the practical man that explored the 
secret recesses of vegetation, or attempted to develop its 
laws. It was philosophy with its complicated apparatus 
and its comprehensive views that led man into the labora- 
tory of nature, and explained the manner in which she 
conducts her operations. The results of her labors have 
unfolded many truths of the greatest importance to agri- 
cultural practices. 
The analogy which has been confessed to exist in many 
respects between animals and vegetables is, perhaps, in 
no partiticular, more striking than in that of deriving 
nourishment for subsistence and growth. 
' The first changes which take place in the germination 
of a seed, consists in the abstraction of a quantity of its 
carbon by the oxygen of the air. In the same mat.ner re- 
spiration in animals consists in the abstraction of a quan- 
tity of carbon from the blood. In both cases heat is gener- 
ated, and the same products formed. The earth may be 
considered the stomach of vegetables, and the fibres of the 
roots as vessels, performing the offices, analogous to those 
of the lacteais in animals. 
Thus agriculture may be considered to be a system of 
operations, calculated to convert manure into vegetable 
matter, while the soil performs the part of an instrument 
in the process. Every care in its preparation is only di 
reeled to assist the action of the manure, and water is a 
mere medium for conveying it as nourisliment to the 
plants, while heal facilitates their action upon it. 
This view of the business of agriculture serves to open 
to us many objects which miglit otherwise escape obser- 
vation. 
[Concluded in onr next number.^ 

APRICAN AHD CHINESE SUGAE CANE. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In the December 
number of the Southern Cultivator, I see a notice of the 
Jmfe Umwina, a species of corn, an African plant which 
may be substituted for sugar cane. I obtained late in the 
spring five grains, which were enc]o.sed in the envel- 
ope in which they came from Africa. I think, as 
well as I can rem.ember, they were planted in July ; only 
one seed germinated, which matured perfectly by the I2ih 
of October. There were 2 heads to the parent plant, and a 
sucker wa.s thrown up, which did not mature although it 
headed. 
I am strongly under the impression that it may be cul- 
tivated advantageously for syrup, if I may judge from the 
saccharine taste of the stalk. 
I enclose you a few of the seed of that wffiich was ma- 
tured and also that cut immatured. I think there was 
more juice in the sucker, immatured, than in the main or 
parent stalk, and it should not be allowed to mature per- 
fectly before it is ground. I have, I think, (not having 
threshed it off the head) about a pint of the seed, which, if 
I live another year, I shall plant and prove it. 
Yours very respectfully, T. R. S. 
Mobley's Pond, Ga., Dec., 1855. 
P- S.— The name I have written {Imfe Umwina) was 
on the envelope in which I received it. 
Remarks. — The seed sent by our friend is quite differ*, 
entin color from the Chinese Sugar Cane (ffolcus SaceJufr- 
atus) cultivated by us. We shall cultivate both carefully, 
as we have no doubt they will prove highly valuable. A 
chemical friend has produced a beautiful sample of crys*. 
talized sugar from a few stalks wlrich we furnished 
him. — Eds. 
GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE MAKING. 
The Augusta Chronicle Sentinel, noticing the sue- 
cessof Mr. Axt, of Wilkes county, in cultivating the grape 
remarks further ; 
“The business of grape growing and wine making may 
now be considered most auspicious.y started in Ceoigia 
and the South. And it only remains for those who pre- 
fer the pure juice of the grape to the vilely adulterated 
mixtures of commerce, and who wish to aid in the success- 
lul development ol a most important and promising enter- 
prise, to give the matter their countenance and support at 
the outset; and thus secure to the South in a few years, 
an entirely new source of large income and profit.” 
These words contain a suggestion, well w’orth con- 
sideration. We would hail with special pleasure the in- 
troduction of any feasible plan of abolishing from our trade 
the “vilely adulterated mixtures of commerce,” which are 
nothing better than poisons, and against which, the influ- 
ence of every lover of sound morality and good order has 
justly been turned. And if legal restriction has proven 
powerless, almost of good, and the wise counsels of good 
men, have been to a great extent, as “pearls cast before 
swine,” we should rather encourage than oppose a move- 
ment yet in its incipiency, which promises much toward 
supplanting the pernicious “drugs” now in use, by the 
introduction of the “jiure and wholesome juice of the 
grape.” We ever have been, and ever expect to be an 
advocate of strict sobriety, both by word and practice, and 
we are lully convinced, tha', with the change above re- 
ferred to, we would have far less drunkenness to lament- 
much less crime to punish. 
Recently, many experiments have been made in the 
culture of the graj .e, in this section of country, with the 
most satisfactory results, and well informed men who 
have made this a subject of considerable investigaiion, 
have pronounced the soil and climate of East Tennessee, 
taken in conjunction, as being as well adapted to the suc- 
cessful culture of the grape as any portion of the Union. 
In our mountains and wood lands, fine native varieties of 
