THE CULTIVATOR. 
147 
may be artificially economised in gardens both in the 
open ground and in plant houses. 
INJURIOUS SUBSTANCES. 
Plants are precisely similar to animals in respect to 
injuries caused by too much or too little food, as well 
as by what is of a deleterious or poisonous quality. 
It is accordingly found that among the substances 
just mentioned as constituting the wholesome food of 
plants, they are injured by too much or too little wa¬ 
ter, and by too much or too little carbonic acid gas, 
and by too much or too little light or heat. Saussure 
found that when he confined plants in carbonic acid 
gas, they were as much injured as the consumptive 
patients whom Dr. Beddoes caused to breathe oxy¬ 
gen, which, in due quantity, is indispensable to 
health. Food, indeed, which is rich, concentrated, 
and without a due mixture of what is less rich, is in¬ 
jurious to both plants and animals ; and, hence, plants 
will not thrive on distilled water largely mixed with 
carbonic acid gas without atmospheric air, or at least 
nitrogen to qualify it; any more than a man will 
thrive on nothing besides rich beef tea without bread 
or other qualifying substances : dogs have actually 
starved to death by feeding them on nothing but rich 
soup. 
When, on the other hand, there is not sufficient 
water, every body knows that plants will wither, and 
when not enough is carbon, it is equally ascertained 
that they become pale or yellow ; while a deficiency 
of nitrogen to cresses, cabbages, mustard, and tur¬ 
nips, will render them vapid and deficient in flavor. 
Besides these causes of injury, there are certain 
substances which act even in smaller quantities as di¬ 
rect poisons. Arsenic, for example, will completely 
destroy the life of a plant, or of a seed, and M. 
Leuchs proved that the nine thousandth part of a 
grain was hurtful. Opium, likewise, will put the 
sensitive plant to sleep in half an hour, and lauda¬ 
num will kill a kidney bean in one day. Cherry lau¬ 
rel water produces effects similar to arsenic. Iron, 
in the form of oxide, at least, when in any conside¬ 
rable quantity, is by no means favorable to vegeta¬ 
tion, thoughiron finds its way in minute portions into 
most plants, and may be observed in some vegetable 
ashes in the form of the red oxide, or rust. It may 
be observed in the same form in soils of a reddish 
brown colour, many of which are far from barren; 
though they certainly do not owe their fertility to the 
iron, but are fertile in spite of it, owing to some other 
causes. 
De Candolle seems to doubt iron being injurious, 
but the experiments of Dr. Home put this beyond 
question. One drachm of copperas, or sulphate of iron, 
in the rich mould of a garden, killed some plants of 
barley when an inch high; and he found most dark 
coloured infertile under soils, or till, owed their bar¬ 
renness to iron. This result was confirmed by Sir H. 
Davy, who placed a primrose root in a solution of ox¬ 
ide of iron in vinegar, which soon acted as a poison 
and turned the leaves yellow ; and he proved that the 
iron had entered the plant by testing the decoction with 
infusion of galls. Plants, as I have observed, which 
are grown by cottagers in old iron, or white iron pots, 
do not thrive, no doubt from the same cause, and it 
may be partly on the same account that granite soils 
are infertile. 
Magnesia, it has also been found, is poisonous to 
plants ; and hence, burnt lime from the limestone con¬ 
taining magnesia, as about Belfast, Durham, and some 
parts of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Shrop¬ 
shire and Somersetshire, when laid upon land, has 
been found to prove very injurious. It may be, that 
the small particles of the magnesia, which are insolu¬ 
ble in water, and do not readily attract carbonic acid 
gas, get into the minute suckers at the tips of the root- 
fibres and obstruct them, though no solid substance 
whatever can get into a plant; for it is found that 
when mixed with fat peat earth, magnesia does good 
rather than harm, because, in this case, it finds abun¬ 
dance of carbonic acid gas, by which it is converted 
into a carbonate of magnesia, that will partly dissolve 
in water by means of humic acid, and, consequently, 
supply plants with wholesome nutriment. 
It must be evident, that besides having a due quan¬ 
tity of wholesome food provided for plants, this must 
be so placed as to be within reach of the suckers of 
their root fibres, since they cannot move about in 
search of it themselves ; a subject, which, with some 
others may be treated of under the head of Paysics ; 
a term now commonly used, and pretty generally un¬ 
derstood, to comprehend explanation of facts from 
mechanical, as distinguished from chemical, princi¬ 
ples. 
The happiness of the human race, in this world, 
does not consist in our being devoid of passions, but 
in our learning to command them.— Fr. Prov. 
Men of limited capacities generally condemn every 
thing that is above the level of their understandings. 
— Rochefoucault. 
Perfect Subsoil Drainage and Deep Ploughing. 
Every variety of good soil has a naturally dry, porous 
subsoil, being either a deep, friable, porous earth, sand, 
or gravel, or open rock; so that rain water will not rest 
on its surface, but readily pass through the stratum be¬ 
low. 
The greatest injury which the land receives is from 
stagnant water on the surface, or between the soil and 
the subsoil. 
Bad and worthless clay soil is generally that which 
is saturated by stagnant water. 
If water be allowed to remain on good land, it will 
soon convert it into bad or worthless soil; a retentive 
subsoil has generally a soft or clayey surface, and is 
universally a bad and unproductive soil. 
When the subsoil is retentive, the rain finds its way 
through the cultivated portions of the surface to the sub¬ 
soil, and passes on slips between them to the furrows, 
keeping the cultivated portions of the soil wet and unfit 
for vegetation; but if the subsoil be porous, either natu¬ 
rally or artificially, it then goes directly through the 
subsoil or porous passage to the drains that are formed 
to draw off the redundant water. 
It is the constant practice of the most scientific gar¬ 
deners, when about to pot any plants, to put some broken 
tiles or gravel in the bottom of the pots to drain off the 
superfluous moisture from the plants to the hole in the 
bottom of the flower pots; and when they use a strongish 
or clay soil, instead of passing the soil through a sieve 
as formerly was the custom, they now chop it into small 
pieces, and thus give to strongish clay soils an artificial 
porousness which they naturally do not possess. 
On examining the roots of plants growing in pots with 
soil thus prepared, we find the crevices between the 
broken pieces of earth full of roots, because they have 
not only a more easy passage where the soil is friable, 
in consequence of the lumps keeping the earth loose and 
porous between them, but here the drainage is most 
rapid and complete. 
Land is not perfectly drained which, during the wet¬ 
test weather, has any spots on it which the water rests 
upon, and gets stagnant for a short period; the rain 
should have a free course to sink diwn through the sub¬ 
soil below the-roots of plants, and then run off' by the 
furrow-drains to the open ditches. 
Complete subsoil drainage of the retentive soils can 
only be effected by having a drain in every furrow, or 
about one or at most two perches apart; and then by 
subsoil ploughing across the drains, and making an ar¬ 
tificial porous stratum under the cultivated surface to 
within an inch or two of the stones in the drains, that 
the rain-water may fall through the surface and run in 
the subsoil to the drains. The effect produced on the 
crops of close retentive soils, after they have been per¬ 
fectly drained and subsoil ploughed, is most astonishing. 
The produce is so much increased that it will, in many 
instances, pay the expenses in a year or two ; and wet 
soils, which seemed to be strong clay when wet, become 
friable and even light when completely subsoil-drained, 
are easily cultivated, and light enough for producing 
turnips to be fed off with sheep. 
Perfect drainage and deep ploughing is the true prin¬ 
ciple of giving to the soil an increased fertility; by this 
means the plants are enabled readily to push their roots 
farther and deeper in search of food, which they obtain 
of a more healthy kind, than when the soil is imperfectly 
drained and ploughed shallow. All tenacious clay soils 
should be trenched or subsoil-ploughed once in every 
course of crops; or when they are in fallow; this prac¬ 
tice not only gives to the roots of plants a greater scope 
to go in search of food in dry weather, but also furnishes 
a depth of porous substratum under the soil to draw off 
the superabundant moisture during continual wet wea¬ 
ther, and transmits moisture to the roots of plants in 
continual drought. 
The utility of trenching or subsoil-ploughing these 
soils, particularly such as have retentive subsoils, must 
be evident, for, if the toil on such a subsoil be well pul¬ 
verized merely to the depth of the furrow slice, in con¬ 
tinued wet weather it soon gets into a state unfit for 
vegetation; the water becomes stagnant, and all the so¬ 
luble matter in the soil is either washed out, or locked 
up in the soil from being so thoroughly soaked as to ex¬ 
clude the air; and when it again becomes dry, it is as 
hard and solid a mass as bricks ready for the kiln. 
In either of these states it is impossible for any plants 
to vegetate, the soil being at one time as soft and smooth 
as well tempered mortar, and at another almost as dry 
and hard as a stone. 
But when the soil is artificially deepened by deep 
ploughing, and the subsoil is also made porous to much 
greater depth by the subsoil-plough, the rain gradually 
sinks down to the whole depth of the porous substratum, 
and from thence to the furrow drains; and in time of 
great drought, the deep moved ground will hold, by ca¬ 
pillary attraction, a much greater supply of moisture 
for the nourishment of plants, thus draining off the abun¬ 
dant water during the heavy rains, and supplying the 
means for healthy vegetation at all times. 
Complete or perfect drainage is the foundation of all 
improvements in husbandry; it should therefore be the 
first step which we take in attempting to improve or 
ameliorate the soil. 
Land wet from springs should be drained by deep 
drains, so as to tap the porous stratum which contains 
the water at the lowest level if possible. But much the 
greatest part of what is called wet land, is so from its 
retentive subsoil, and the retentive adhesive nature of 
the soil, which so obstinately retains the rain that falls 
on it; so that the drying process is effected very slowly 
when compared with soil whose subsoil is either natu¬ 
rally or artificially porous. The working of such land 
is kept back, and is frequently not effected in proper 
time. Nature furnishes us with the principles which 
should direct all our operations in permanently improv-' 
ing soil or in cultivating it. 
As we have seen that the richest and most productive 
soil has always a subsoil pervious to water, which car¬ 
ries it off as it falls by imbibing it or filtering it to a 
considerable depth below the active soil; so we ought 
artificially to make as complete a drainage of subsoils 
to produce the same effect by having drains from one 
to two perches apart to effect this, and by deep or sub¬ 
soil ploughing across these drains to draw of the water 
to them which falls on the surface, so that the whole of 
the active soil may be always kept so dry as to be fit tor 
the purposes of vegetation. 
These drains must be sufficiently near each other to 
allow the redundant moisture to be speedily and effectu¬ 
ally carried off by the artificial passage made at the bot¬ 
tom of the moved subsoil. 
The distance of these drains must be regulated by the 
nature of the subsoil; if this be very close and impervi¬ 
ous they should be only about one perch, but if it be to 
a certain degree pervious, they might be two perches 
apart. 
Before we attempt perfectly to drain any land, we 
must first understand the principles of the system tho¬ 
roughly, or we may only adopt certain general rules, 
without considering that the various kinds of subsoil 
will require particular modes to effect our object. 
Mr. Smith of Deaneston first gave publicity to the 
mode of perfect drainage, and subsoil ploughing; he 
says, “ The principle of the system is the providing of 
frequent opportunities for the water rising from below, 
or falling on the surf'ace, to pass freely and completely off, 
and therefore the most appropriate appellation for it, 
seems to be, ‘ The frequent drain system.’ ”—Morton on 
Soils. 
Magnesian Lime Slone. —Almost every writer up¬ 
on the use of lime in agriculiure, has adopted the 
opinion of Tennant, that magnesian lime stone was 
hurtful to land; and although the practice in Penn¬ 
sylvania had disproved the fact, the lime there used 
in agriculture abounding in magnesia, yet our own 
writers continue to persist in the error. “ It is now 
asserted,” says Parkes, “that lime and magnesia 
are both hurtful when employed in improper situa¬ 
tions, or in excessive quantoy, but that magnesia in 
itself is not essentially injurious.” 
Preserving meat without salt. —It is the practice 
in Thibet to prepare their meat by extreme cold.— 
The process is extremely simple. They kill, clean 
and strip the animal of his skin ; he is then placed 
upon bis legs in a commodious place, and left expos¬ 
ed to a free access of frosty air, until all the juices 
in his body are completely dried up, and the whole 
becomes one uniformed stiffened substance. It. is 
then in a fit state for carriage to any part of Thibet, 
and for keeping 10 any season of the year. No salt 
is used in the preparation. 1 had supplies of this 
prepared meat during all the time I remained at Ge- 
shoo Sopmboo, which had been cured in the preced¬ 
ing winter. It was perfectly sweet, and I was ac¬ 
customed to eat heartily of it, without further dressing, 
and at length grew fond of it. It had not the appear¬ 
ance of being raw 7 , but resemb'ed in colour that which 
has been well boiled. It had been deprived of all 
ruddiness, by the intense cold.— Turner’s Embassy 
to Thibet. 
The saltmine of Wilitska, near Cracow, in Poland, 
is the largest in Europe, and has been constantly 
worked for more than 600 years. It is at the im¬ 
mense depth of 740 feet below the surface of the 
ground on which the town stands ; and it is 1,100 feet 
wide, and 6,700 feet in length. The mine exhibits a 
spacious subterraneous plain, with lofty vaulted roofs, 
supported by columns of salt, which have been left 
standing for the purpose. Here a great number of 
lights are constantly burning, and the blaze of these 
reflected from every part of the mine, which appears 
bright and clear as crystal, or tinged with the most 
beautiful colours, presents a most enchanting pros¬ 
pect.. In these mines 1,000 men are constantly em¬ 
ployed. The passages contain altars and chapels, in 
which lights are continually kept burning before the 
images of the saints, and some of these galleries are 
capacious enough for a large church to be enclosed in 
one of them. That part of the mine which has been 
most excavated, and which appears like a vast plain, 
is interspersed with clusters of huts belonging to the 
miners and their families, many hundreds of whom 
are born and finish their lives in this subterraneous 
enclosure. 
Near Cordova in Spain there is a mountain of rock 
salt 500 feet high, and three miles in circumference. 
— Park’s Chem. Essays. 
He who is ambitious to be rich, wishes his desire 
to be accomplished as soon as possible.— Juvenal. 
Avarice produces rapacity. 
