134 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
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CURRANTS 
Are a valuable fruit in family economy, are a long 
time in use, and are a marketable crop. New plan¬ 
tations of this fruit should be made every ten or a do¬ 
zen years, as old wood becomes diseased, the grounc 
upon which it grows exhausted, and the fruit upon it 
inferior. The varieties are the black, common rec 
and white, the Dutch, or large, or grape, white anc 
red, champaign, &c. The Dutch are the best. They 
do not produce so much wood as the common; but 
they give proportionally more and larger fruit, parti 
cuiarly the red. 
GOOSEBERRIES 
Are liable to be spoiled by mildew; but we have 
reason to believe, from the experiments we have 
made, that the disease may be prevented by a strong 
pickle being poured about the plants in winter, when 
vegetation is dormant. The varieties of this fruit are 
very numerous. The thin skinned of medium size are 
the best. 
For directions for propagating the gooseberry, cur¬ 
rant and grape, by layers and cuttings, see pages 29 
and 80 of vol. III. of Cultivator. 
RASPBERRIES, 
Particularly the white and red Antwerp, are deserv¬ 
ing of culture, where this fruit does not abound in a 
wild state. They are propagated by succors, that is, 
shoots which come from the roots of old plants. The 
canes, or stems, of the Antwerp raspberry, bear but 
one season, and are succeeded annually by a new 
growth. We cut away the dead wood in autumn, 
reduce the canes to four or five in a place, cut in the 
laterals, and also the top to the height of about four 
feet, and as a precaution against the frost of winter, 
bend down two stools towards each other, secure 
them at the surface of the ground by a crotched stake, 
and slightly cover them with earth. The raspberry 
requires a new berth once in four or five years, to 
bear well. 
STRAWBERRIES. 
We treated of this fruit so fully in our August num¬ 
ber, as to supersede the necessity of adding any thing 
more at this time. 
TRANSPLANTING. 
We will only state, briefly, that in transplanting, 
care should be taken to give the roots their natural 
direction—to surround them above, below, and at the 
sides, with rich surface mould—and to bring this 
mould every where in close contact with them. As 
to the season of planting, we should prefer early au¬ 
tumn, as soon as the functions of the leaves are de¬ 
stroyed by frost, and while there is yet a sufficient 
flow of elaborated sap, to produce new fibrous roots— 
or late in the spring, before the leaf buds have burst, 
and when there is a brisk circulation of ascending sap. 
“If trees have been planted in autumn,” says Rey¬ 
nolds, in his Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Gar¬ 
den, “ they will, by the following April, have made 
fresh roots, and their buds will begin to push.” If 
transplanted in autumn, it is well to throw around the 
plant two or three forks’ full of mulch or coarse dung, 
to protect the roots from severe cold; and the like 
precaution will prevent excess of evaporation in sum¬ 
mer. 
Having thus disposed of the fruit department, we 
shall, in our next, treat of the culinary department of 
the garden. 
Office and Extent of the Roots of Plants. 
Roots perform a double office to plants : they serve 
as braces to keep them in an upright position; and 
they are purveyors to supply them with food suitable 
to their growth and maturity. To enable them to per¬ 
form these offices well, three requisites in the soil are 
essential. First. It is important that the soil be mel¬ 
low, that the roots may penetrate in it freely, not 
only to strengthen their bracing properties, but to 
extend their range for food, this being absorbed or 
taken up by the spongeoles, or extreme points—and 
the greater their range the more abundant the food 
which they supply. Secondly. It is important that 
this food be in the soil, in a soluble state, that is, in 
a condition to be dissolved by, and incorporated with, 
the fluids in the soil. This food consists of vegeta¬ 
ble and animal matters,—or of whatever has been 
such. Thirdly. It is important that a quantity of 
moisture be always present in the soil, to dissolve the 
food of plants, and to serve as the medium for con- 
veying it first to the spongeoles, and from thence into 
and through the plant. Air, heat and moisture, are 
all essential agents in preparing the food of plants, in 
the soil, and in giving vigor to vegetable growth. 
It should be the object of the farmer and gardener 
to aid these natural operations in cultivated crops; 
and to repay the soil, by labor and skill, for the annual 
tribute which they draw from it. These labors con¬ 
sist in returning to it vegetable food—dung—equiva¬ 
lent to that which they annually take from it,—in 
rendering it mellow and permeable to the roots of the 
growing crop—in regulating the supply of water, for 
too much is as hurtful as too little—and in keeping 
the surface loose and porous, for the free admission 
of air, heat and moisture. Hence the advantage of 
deep tillage, perfect pulverization, of draining, ma¬ 
nuring, and the frequent use of the cultivator among 
drilled or hoed crops ; and these considerations also 
suggest one objection against using the plough in the 
after culture of these crops, and of earthing or h illin g- 
them to any considerable extent—as both of these 
modes of culture, ploughing and hilling, tend to cur¬ 
tail the natural range of the roots, and consequently 
to diminish the pasture and food of the crop. 
The depth and horizontal spread of roots, is greater 
than is generally apprehended, and they often branch 
into minute filaments imperceptible to the naked eye 
—and yet these minute imperceptible filaments col¬ 
lect food for the parent plant. Jethro Tull, the fa¬ 
ther of drill husbandry, has given us a good and sa¬ 
tisfactory illustration of the great extension of the 
roots of the common turnip, which we transfer to our 
columns, not only to convince our readers of the fact, 
but to illustrate the importance of good ploughing and 
thorough pulverization in tillage husbandry. We in¬ 
vite attention to the cut, and then to the explanation 
in the words of Tull. 
[Fig. No. 50.] 
once well dug; and, if weeds appear where it has been so 
dug, hoe them out shallow with the hand hoe. But dig all 
the piece next the out-lines deep every time, that it may be 
the liner for the roots to enter, when they are permitted to 
come thither. If the turnips be all bigger as they stand nearer 
to the end B, it is a proof that they all extend to the outside 
of the piece, and the turnip 20 will appear to draw nourish¬ 
ment from six feet distance from its centre. But if the tur¬ 
nips 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, acquire no greater bulk than the 
turnip 15, it will be clear that their roots extend no further 
than those of the turnip 15 does; which is but about 4 feet. 
By this method, the extent of the roots of any plant may be 
discovered. There is another way to find the length of roots, 
by making a long narrow trench, at the distance you expect 
they will extend to, and fill it with salt; if the plant be kill¬ 
ed by the salt it is certain that some of its roots enter it. 
“ What put me upon trying this method, was an observa¬ 
tion of two lands or ridges (fig. No. 2,) drilled with turnips 
in rows, a foot asunder, and very even in them ; the ground 
at both ends and one side, was hard and unploughed. The 
turnips not being hoed, were very poor, small and yellow, 
except the three outside rows, b, c, d, which stood next to 
the land (or ridge) E, which land, being ploughed and har¬ 
rowed at the time the land A ought to have been hoed, gave 
a dark flourishing colour to these three rows; and the turnips 
in the row d, which stood farthest off from the new ploughed 
land E, received so much benefit from it, as to grow twice as 
big as any of the more distant rows. The row c being a foot 
nearer to the new ploughed land, became twice as large as 
hose in d; but the row which was next to the land E, 
grew much larger yet. F, is a piece of hard whole ground, 
of about two perches in length, and about two or three 
■ feet broad, lying betwixt those two lands, which had not 
been ploughed that year. It was remarkable, that during the 
length of this interjacent hard ground, the rows d, c, b, were 
as small and yellow as any in the land. The turnips in the 
row d, about three feet from the land E, receiving a double 
increase, proves that they had as much nourishment from the 
land E as from the land A, wherein they stood, which nou¬ 
rishment was brought by less than half the number of roots 
of these turnips. In their own land they must have extend¬ 
ed a yard all round, else they could not have reached the 
land E, wherein it is probable that these few roots went more 
than another yard, to give each turnip as much inctease as 
all the roots had done in their own land. Except that it will 
hereafter appear, that the new nourishment taken at the ex¬ 
tremities of the roots in the land E, might enable the plants 
to send out more roots in their own land, and receive some¬ 
thing more from thence. The row c being twice as big as 
the row d, must be supposed to extract twice as far; and the 
row b, four times as far, in proportion as it was of a bulk 
quadruple to the row d.” 
“ When roots are in a tilled state,” says Tull, “a great 
pressure is made against them by the earth, which constant¬ 
ly subsides, and presses their lood closer and closer, even 
into their mouths, until itself becomes so hard and close that 
the weak sorts of roots can penetrate no farther into it, unless 
reopened by new tillage.” 
Tull’s work was published a hundred years ago.— 
It has been quoted and commented upon by most of 
the subsequent writers upon agriculture; and the facts 
above stated have neither been controverted nor dis¬ 
puted, either by these writers, nor, so far as we have 
learnt, by practical farmers. They are therefore un¬ 
disputed. Why is it, that cultivated crops, upon the 
margins of fields, and about stumps and fast stones, 
give more dwarfish plants, and less product, than the 
well-tilled portions of the field 1 It is nut owing to 
the poverty of the soil; for these portions abound 
most in the elements of fertility, by reason of the 
plough, on being raised from the furrow, depositing 
there the finest and richest mould. Why do mea¬ 
dows deteriorate'? Is it not because the roots of 
plants have not a sufficient range, in mellow earth, to 
supply the requisite food—and because the unbroken 
soil “ becomes so hard and close, that the weak sort 
of roots can penetrate no farther upon it ” ? 
There are some practical improvements which we 
would draw from the preceding facts. And— 
First —in regard to the use of the plough in Indian 
corn, and other hoed crops. The roots of Indian corn 
are known, from repeated observation, to extend in 
the soil at least six, eight and ten feet, and if plant¬ 
ed in squares four feet apart, each hill has virtually 
a pasture of four feet square to feed upon. Now if 
the plough is run both ways through the crop, this 
pasture is reduced to at least two square feet, for the 
roots which furnish sustenance are within reach of the 
plough, and must be cut by it. Hence the plough re¬ 
duces the pasture of each hill, while it continues to 
be employed, from sixteen to four square feet, or 
three-fourths. 
Secondly —in regard to the application of manure, 
whether it should be applied in hills and drills, or 
spread broadcast. The roots extend simultaneously 
with the stems, and draw sustenance for the plant 
through their extreme points. Hence, by the time 
the crop is first dressed, the roots have extended be¬ 
yond the manure deposited in the hill, and conse¬ 
quently the plant derives but a partial benefit from 
this central deposite of food. If, on the other hand, 
the manure is spread broadcast, the roots, as they 
extend, are constantly reaching new supplies, and 
the plant is sustained in undiminished vigor. 
Thirdly —in regard to fallow crops, instead of nak¬ 
ed fallows. Where sward ground receives but one 
ploughing—but that should be a thorough one—the 
vegetable matter of the surface is turned completely 
under, safe from the wasting influences of the wea¬ 
ther. This vegetable matter readily decomposes, fur¬ 
nishes a permeable stratum for the roots,the food which 
these roots seek for, and moisture to convey it to the 
plants which require it. As the roots of the sod decay, 
the upper stratum becomes permeable to heat and 
air, and crumbles into a fine tilth. In the case of 
naked fallows, a good portion of the vegetable matter 
is lost, by being turned to the surface at the second 
ploughing, and the ground consequently becomes 
more compact, and is not so readily penetrated by 
the roots of the crop, nor by heat, air and moisture, 
the essential agents of vegetable growth. And 
Fourthly. The facts which we have detailed, afford 
a strong argument in favor of the alternating system 
ot husbandry, wherever it can be introduced—of pe¬ 
riodically breaking and pulverizing the soil, with the 
plough, harrow, roller and root crops, thereby ren¬ 
dering it more congenial to the growth of grasses and 
small grain. 
Varieties of Grain. 
Le Couteur, in his excellent publication on wheat, 
which we propose to notice hereafter more fully, states 
that his collection consisted of 150 varieties, or kinds. 
The varieties of wheat, like those of the apple, may 
be multiplied without number, by sowing different 
kinds contiguous to each other—the pollen of one 
