AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
339 
How Plants and Animals Grow. 
Let us begin by saying a few words about the 
germ of life in both plants and animals. There 
is a germ of the chicken in the egg, which is 
quickened into life by the agency of heat and air. 
This new life is sustained by nourishment found 
immediately around it, within the shell. By the 
time it has exhausted this food, the chick is ready 
to burst the shell, and to seek its nourishment else¬ 
where. So the germ of the plant is within the 
coats of the seed, and it is quickened into life by 
the action of heat and air. It has a store of food 
provided for it in the seed itself, until it is able to 
strike its roots into the soil, and gather nourish¬ 
ment from other sources. In the quickening, 
both of the animal and the vegetable germ, light 
must be excluded. 
Animals and vegetables live upon animal and 
vegetable food, yet in both cases this food must 
go through a preparatory process before it will 
sustain life and nourish growth. In both cases, 
if solid it must be rendered soluble. In the case 
ofthe plant, this transformation takes place in the 
soil. Under the influence of heat, air and moist¬ 
ure, decomposition progresses so far, as to break 
up and render solvent the solid matter, and fit it 
to be taken up by the plant. This food is imbibed 
by the spongioles, the fine hair-like fibers of the 
extremities of the roots, and by them is carried 
through the body ofthe plant into the leaves,where 
it is elaborated into nutrition, fitted to build up 
the various parts of the growing plant—as bark, 
root, flower, fruit, &c. A like preparatory pro¬ 
cess goes on in the stomach and lungs of the ani¬ 
mal. The gastric juices of the stomach act upon 
the crude food, breaking down its cells and ren¬ 
dering it solvent. The lacteals (little tubes open¬ 
ing into the intestines) then take it up and carry 
it to the blood ; this conveys it to the lungs, and 
into every part of the body, during which process 
it is elaborated into the nourishing elements of 
flesh, bones, muscles, &c. 
Plants and animals both breathe, and cannot 
live without breathing. The air which the animal 
inhales, gives up a part of the oxygen to the 
blood, which it meets in the lungs, and the blood 
sends offa part of its carbon at the same time in 
exchange. In this way the blood is fitted to be¬ 
come living animal matter. So the leaves are 
the lungs of the plant and the sap its blood. The 
sap brought in contact with the air in the leaves, 
gives off oxygen, and imbibes carbon, and so is 
fitted to become living vegetable matter. Destroy 
the lungs in either case, and the great vital pro¬ 
cesses of life are arrested, and death ensues. 
Digestion, in the case of animals, requires a 
high degree of temperature in the stomach, be¬ 
tween 90° and 100°. Decomposition of the food 
on which vegetables subsist, goes on most active¬ 
ly in a high temperature, and ceases below 40°. 
Hence it is, that vegetable growth is suspended 
by the cold of Winter. 
Vegetables, as well as animals, may eat too 
much, and too rich food. Both, when in an en¬ 
feebled state, require but little, and that in a di¬ 
luted form. If fed at any time, on too concen¬ 
trated food, or with an excess of it, the spongioles 
of the plant and the lacteals of the body become 
clogged, and unable to take up and transmit the 
nourishment through the several structures to 
which they belong. There is, howeveT, a beauti¬ 
ful law prevailing in both cases, by which they 
may throw off, through certain excretory organs, 
such foreign matters mixed with their food, as they 
do not require, or which may be uncongenial. 
Facts like the foregoing would be interesting, 
iaeiel-y as matters of information, even though 
they were of no practical utility ; but they are of 
use. If the germ in the seed is quickened into 
life only in certain conditions, care must be taken 
that those conditions be provided. The seed must 
be placed where it will have the requisite air, heat 
and moisture—not too deep in the ground, nor too 
near the surface. Both the plant and the animal 
must be supplied with food in such a state that it 
can be easily digested. The plant needs even 
more care than the animal, for it is stationary, 
and cannot go abroad for food. As plants need 
to breathe, we see the folly of stripping grape¬ 
vines, or other plants, of their leaves in Summer, 
in order to ripen their fruit. 
The Yellow Locust. 
Considering the value of this tree for many 
purposes, we wonder that it is not more largely 
cultivated. It is a useful timber for railroad 
sleepers, fence-posts, wheel-hubs, and in ship¬ 
building. It is almost as enduring as the red 
cedar. For the Western prairies, where the 
farmer wishes to get shelter for his crops and 
buildings in the shortest possible time, this is, un¬ 
questionably, an excellent tree to plant. Indeed, 
as we are happy to know, it is already being plant¬ 
ed largely in several ofthe Western States. Rail¬ 
way companies are lining their roads with it, both 
for the sake of shelter from the winds, and to 
furnish “ ties ” for their tracks. 
It is a peculiarity of this tree, that though a 
rapid grower, and therefore an enormous feeder, 
it yet enriches the soil beneath it, probably by its 
large annual deposit of leaves. Grass grows very 
luxuriant beneath its shade. This tree may be 
rapidly propagated by seed harrowed into the soil, 
or by planting young trees, which will spread in 
all directions by suckers. Half barren pastures, 
and hill-sides useless for tillage, might be made 
much more profitable than they now are, by de¬ 
voting them to groves of locust. Lands of this 
description have already been made to yield tim¬ 
ber worth one hundred dollars an acre. 
-•»-*-I » 
Are Cleared Lands More Subject to 
Drouth than Others ? 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
The writer has often read, in articles which 
have appeared in the agricultural papers touching 
the bad effects of cutting away our native forests, 
that where so cut away, the land becomes more 
subject to drouth than before. We fancy such 
theory can only apply to the fact that clearing 
away the forests and opening the land to culti¬ 
vation, gives a freer passage to the water, as it 
falls or collects in various bodies, as swales, 
swamps, springs, &c., and passes it off into the 
larger channels; for we do not see how the sim¬ 
ple fact that trees, averaging not over eighty feet 
high, can attract larger bodies of water through 
the clouds thousands of feet above them, than the 
surface of the earth could do without trees. 
The face of the country, we believe, has much 
more to do with it. Hilly and mountainous coun¬ 
tries in the temperate zones, are usually more 
showery than plains; and whether the hills be 
bare or forested, appears to make no difference. 
The natural laws of atmosphere, climate, evapora¬ 
tion, winds, and the locality of bodies of water, 
we imagine to be controlling causes in the falling 
of rains, or the occurrence of drouths. 
We are led to these observations by the immense 
rains of the present season, which have fallen all 
over our Western States, almost with the vio¬ 
lence and continuance of a deluge ; and the vast 
prairies, stretching for thousands of miles in ex 
tent, seem to have had, if any thing, the worst of 
it. There are no mountains there—the Alle- 
ghanies being the most western range, east of the 
Mississippi—and none more for a thousand miles 
beyond it. Nor is the country even hilly ; but 
one immense champain of level and rolling, 
timber and prairie, faring about alike in each and 
every year with rain or drouth 
We have a good many weather wise-acres in 
the land, and many meteorological tables have 
been kept ; but we confess, with all our investi¬ 
gations, we have as yet been unable to work out 
any conclusive problem to guide or regulate our 
judgment in atmospheric phenomena, other than 
the barometer and thermometer ; the one giving 
us only a day or two’s indication of what weathei 
may come, and the other telling the fact as it is at 
the moment. 
There is no sort of regularity, year by year, to 
our American climate, except in the revolution 
of the seasons. Observer 
-- -- — - -- 
Care of the Lawn. 
During the heats of Mid-Summer, there is dan 
ger lest the lawn be neglected. Other cares now 
press, and th# long-continued heat of the sun has 
browned up the grass so that its beauty does not 
reward the pains bestowed, as it did in Spring. 
Nevertheless, do not neglect the lawn. Mow 
it once in ten days or a fortnight, according to 
the growth of the grass, roll it after every mow¬ 
ing, and if you have a garden engine or other 
means of irrigation at command, fail not to give 
the grass the benefit of it every few days. It is 
better to give it a good, thorough soaking down 
to the lowest roots, once a week, than to just 
sprinkle th<f leaves every day. If any thistles, 
white daisies or other weeds creep into your 
turf, dig them up at once. If any spots look bare 
and sterile, scatter over them some old, finely 
pulverized compost, and rake it in. The first rain 
will carry its soluble properties down to the roots 
of the starving grasses. 
Don’t neglect the flower-beds cut out in the 
turf. Unless you are on the alert, the roots of 
the grass will creep into the rich soil of these 
beds. Trim out the edges, every few weeks, 
with a sharp spade, preserving the outlines of 
the original figures with much care. Lighten up 
the soil of the beds with a forked hoe, and rake 
them off smoothly. Such trailing plants as ver¬ 
benas should be pegged to the ground, and others, 
as lantanas, geraniums &c., should be kept tied 
to neat stakes. Let slovenliness be banished 
from your premises—from the lawn, especially— 
and let neatness and order everywhere appear. 
Some would-be gardeners have an annual horti¬ 
cultural “ fit,” in the Spring, when they buzz 
around like so many bees, making a great flurry 
with roots and seeds. “ What splendid gardens 
we shall have this Summer ! Won’t this be ex¬ 
quisite, and that be charming!” And so they 
rhapsodise for a few weeks, and make sober peo¬ 
ple around them uncomfortable. But the “fit” 
passes off by the first of June, or thereabouts, 
and their gardens grow up to weeds. Not so with 
the true horticulturist. He has such an inborn, 
hearty love of Nature, that his zeal knows little 
abatement throughout the season. In the midst 
of dog-days, he may become tired in his garden, 
but not of it. His trees, shrubs and plants, both 
useful and ornamental, never suffer from neglect, 
and his premises in their several parts are al¬ 
ways in order. We number not a few such gar 
deners among our readers. 
