158 
like the caterpillar, upon being touched coiled it¬ 
self immediately up. It resembled a species of 
grub, though I saw nothing upon it in the form of 
legs; on examining the kernels in my hand, I 
found two-thirds of them punctured as with a small 
needle; the heart mostly eaten out, and they were 
easily rubbed fine. I looked still farther but saw 
nothing more of the worm or its work. In the au¬ 
tumn following, when preparing some of the above 
mentioned wheat for seed, by immersing it in strong 
pickle, I was not a little surprised to see apparently 
full and plump kernels, float on the surface, which, 
on examination, proved to be entirely eaten up, save 
the shells; and in most of them a small hole was 
clearly seen. From every two bushels thus im¬ 
mersed, about one quart floated from the above 
cause. 
My wheat the next year was mostly destroyed by 
the weevil, [grain worm] so I saw nothing of this 
maggot, as the weevil destroys the grain while in 
the milky state. 
I purchased half a bushel of Italian spring wheat 
last winter, from Mr. Van Rensselaer, at the Culti¬ 
vator office, and on the 28th of May last, it was 
sown ; having prepared it by immersion in a strong 
pickle, and then mixing with it as much quick-lime 
as could be made to adhere to the grain. It came 
up well and grew finely, wholly free from weevil, 
rust or smut. But behold ! a few days previous to 
cutting it, I discovered one, and only one, of the 
same species of little grey worms. Just three 
months from the day it was sown, it was threshed, 
and yielded about as ten from one. The soil is not 
a right one for wheat, being too gravelly; and was 
shaded by woods on the north, south and west. 
Before I lay down my pen, I must just remark, 
with regard to pickling and liming seed grain, 
that I believe it should be strictly adhered to, as I 
have practised it upon all kinds of grain, except 
peas and buckwheat, and can speak of its benefits 
to every kind. Yours with respect, 
W. MURPHY. 
Rohan Potato. 
Oxford , Ct. Oct. 1, 1838. 
Dear Sir — I planted, on the 26th of April last, 
two tubers of the Rohan potato which weighed 13 oz. 
on a dry loam. 
I dug the crop on the 24 Sept, which measured 
two and a half bushels, and weighed 144 lbs. or 
more than 160 per cent, notwithstanding the drought. 
Other varieties on similar soil were not more than 
half an ordinary crop. 
The Rohans are but little known, and will proba¬ 
bly command a good price for a year or two ; and 
unless some description of them is given in _ the 
Cultivator, there will probably be as many kinds 
palmed upon the public as there have been of Dut¬ 
ton corn. 
My seed, which I had of your neighbor Thorburn, 
was of an oblong or kidney shape ; but on digging 
the crop I found various shapes, round, kidney, and, 
as is generally termed, snagged. 
On offering some of the kidney shaped ones for a 
premium at" the horticultural fair at New-Haven, 
they were objected to by some, as not being Rohans 
on account of their shape. Very respectfully yours, 
ALFRED HARGER. 
The Grub—Ruta Baga. 
Poughkeepsie, Oct. 16, 1838. 
J. Duel, Esq.—Dear Sir—Being a subscriber to 
the Cultivator, 1 take the liberty of stating to you a 
few facts with regard to some of my crops this sea¬ 
son. 1 observed in one of the spring numbers of the 
Cultivator, that salt petre was a preventive for the 
grub worm eating corn, by making a pickle, and soak¬ 
ing twelve hours before planting. I did so, as per or¬ 
der; and planted a field of seventeen acres, and at 
the proper time the grubs came along, and it appears 
the flavor of the salt petre just suited their taste, for 
they cleared ten and a half acres of my corn-field al¬ 
most entirely; the remaining six and a half acres, 1 
planted some of it in three times, and have now 
about one-third of an average crop. I would have 
been better off if Mr. Grub had taken the whole, as I 
ploughed up the ten and a half acres and sowed three 
and one-fourth bushels of buckwheat, from which I 
have 300 bushels of very fine buckwheat, and sold it 
at 75 cents per bushel, and I am certain there is 50 
bushels lost on the field, as it had all to be mowed, as 
it was all lodged and could not be cradled. There¬ 
fore I think it will take more men than ever I have 
seen, to convince me that salt petre will stop the 
grub from eating corn. 
I have succeeded very well these four years in 
growing the ruta bajra. I have had each year about 
600 bushels to the acre ; this season the drought and 
the fly injured mv turnips some, but I will have an ave¬ 
rage crop still, T consider it a very valuable crop, as 
I have sold them at from four shillings to six shillings 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
per bushel, and in the spring, my horses, oxen, cows, 
sheep, hogs, and even the poultry eat them and do 
well on them, and they are remarkably good for horses 
that have got the heaves, and also a good preventive 
for that disease. My method of cultivating the ruta 
baga is the same that is practised in Scotland. I 
plough the ground in April, and on the 20th of June 
harrow it, and cross-plough and harrow until the 
ground is perfectly fine. I then draw my drills with 
the plough two and a half feet from centre to centre; 
I then take a one-horse cart or wagon, but a cart is 
best, as the drills are injured with so many wheels 
turning on them ; I put manure in each drill as for 
potatoes ; then I take the plough and split the drills 
right and left; then I take a light roller long enough 
to reach over two drills, with one horse, and roll the 
tops of the drills once over ; then I take the drill bar- 
row and sow the seed ; then I pass the roller once 
over the seed; when the turnips are up about two 
weeks, I go through with a hoe and thin them, leav¬ 
ing them eight inches apart, and in two weeks more, 
I plough between the rows ; I then go through with 
the hoe and clean the tops of the drdls of all weeds and 
grass and in about 3 weeks more I plough them again ; 
then in the fall I take a scythe and cut as many tops 
as the stock will use in one day, and so until all the 
tops are used; then take a dung hook and drag out 
all the turnips, make pits that will hold about six 
loads ; make the pit two feet wide and two feet deep, 
and build them up like a roof, the more above the 
ground the better, as they will not keep if they are 
warm; cover with a little straw to prevent the earth 
from going among the turnips ; for each pit make 
three little flues for ventilators; then put on from 
four to five inches of earth, clapped well down with 
the spade. The turnips will keep better in this way 
than in a cellar, as a cellar is too warm. 
Please excuse me for troubling you with this long 
story, but I have seen this crop managed in this way 
in Scotland, and never failed, forty years ago. I re¬ 
main, dear sir, your serv’t, 
JOHN BODDEN. 
EXTRACTS. 
The Philosophy of Vegetation. 
[From the Genesee Farmer ] 
Perhaps there are few subjects of so much interest to 
the farmer as a proper understanding of the causes and 
agents of vegetable nutrition. The economical applica¬ 
tion of manures, the propriety of their use, the value of 
a system of rotation in crops—in short the whole philo¬ 
sophy and practice of farming—may be said to be depen- 
ing on this point. Is there but one substance in nature 
that constitutes the proper food of plants? or are they 
endowed with omnivorous powers, and capable of find¬ 
ing food in all things presented to them ? If there is but 
one kind of food, what is that one ?—and if there are 
many,what is their state when appropriated by the plants? 
These are a few of the subjects that enter into a consi¬ 
deration of the food of plants; and the opinions of wri¬ 
ters on vegetable physiology have been as various and 
conflicting as the substances which chemical analysis 
has detected in plants have been numerous. 
Some have maintained that the actual nourishment was 
derived from the air: some that water alone constituted 
the food of plants; others have asserted that the growth 
was owing to a single substance, and that the ear ths which 
are present in plants, as well as most of the salts, are to 
be considered as merely accidental, not being necessary 
to the formation or growth of the vegetable: the only 
substance which all are agreed in considering absolutely 
indispensable, since it is a large and apparently essen¬ 
tial part of every plant, is carbon. If the plant derives 
its support from the air, then the carbonic gas which ex¬ 
ists in it must be the source of supply: if taken into cir¬ 
culation by the roots, then the carbon must exist in some 
soluble form, since the greatest chemical skill has never 
been able to induce a plant to take up the minutest por¬ 
tion of insoluble carbon, or detect its presence as an ope¬ 
ration of nature. 
Amidst these conflicting sentiments, adverse and con¬ 
tradictory as they may at first seem, we think that the 
opinions of men of science are verging to an agreement 
on one or two of the most essential points; and what we 
consider as of quite as much consequence, these opi¬ 
nions very nearly coincide with the actual experience of 
the farmer, and give a strong support to the modern 
theories and practice of agriculture. 
We believe that Klaproth was the first to discover and 
announce to the world the existence of a peculiar sub¬ 
stance, which he considered of importance to vegetable 
organization from its analysis, and which, from his first 
finding it in the bark of the elm, he denominated ulmin. 
Braconnet continued the investigation commenced by 
Klaproth, and found there were few substances of vege¬ 
table origin in which ulmin did not exist, tracing it in 
considerable quantities in sawdust, starch, sugar, seeds ; 
and indeed in nearly all plants it was present. Berzelius, 
the great Swedish chemist, embraced it in his researches, 
and extending them to the soil, 1'ound that it existed in the 
earth in abundance, as well as in the bark and ligneous 
substance of trees. From its presence in the earth, and 
the probability that it was from thence that plants derived 
it, Berzelius distinguished it by the name of geine, a word 
derived from the Greek word signifying the ehrth. Spren- 
gel and Bouillay have discovered that it is a leading and 
efficient principle in vegetable and animal manures, and 
hence they have denominated it humine, a name by which 
it has been most generally known, though scientific men 
are appearing to incline to return to the nomenclature of 
Berzelius. The justly celebrated chemist and observer, 
Raspail, in his late work on Organic Chemistry, transla¬ 
ted by Dr. Henderson, denies the existence of geine, or 
humine as a proximate principle in soils, and says, “ it will 
be easy to see that all these phenomena, (described by 
Berzelius, Sprengel and others,) apparently so varied, 
which have given room for the discovery of so many 
substances analagous to ulmin in their nature, are es¬ 
sentially nothing but a development of carbon.” The 
name, however, we consider of mere secondary impor¬ 
tance, and whether it is called ulmin, or humine, or geine , 
of carbon, it cannot effect the results which seem to flow 
from the substance and render it one of the most impor¬ 
tant agents in vegetable nutrition, if not the only one 
yet known. 
Geine, says Professor Hitchcock, in his late admirable 
Report on the Economical Geology of Massachusetts, 
“ when wet, is a gelatinous mass, which on drying, be¬ 
comes of a deep brown, or almost black colour, without 
taste or smell, and almost insoluble in water; and, there¬ 
fore, in this state, incapable of being absorbed by the 
roots of plants. Yet after the action of alkalis upon it, 
it assumes the character of an acid, and unites with am¬ 
monia, potassa, lime, alumina, &c. and forms a class of 
bodies called geate, most of which are soluble in water, 
and therefore capable of being taken up by the plants; 
and it is in the state of geates that this substance, for the 
most part, exists in soils.” 
Silica, alumina, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, potash, 
soda, and sulphuric and phosphoric acids, may be con¬ 
sidered the inorganic principles of vegetables, and ana¬ 
lysis detects their presence in the most of them; hence 
they will be found the constituents of all soils, for the 
most part existing as salts—for instance, carbonate of 
lime, sulphate of lime, muriate of lime, phosphate of 
lime, &c. Neither the earths nor the salts can be consi¬ 
dered the proper food of plants, as both these may be pre¬ 
sent, and yet a weak or imperfect vegetation, or none at 
all, be the result. But if the combination of these salts 
with humus or geine has taken place, then, in connexion 
with the earths, vegetation will be vigorous, and the pro¬ 
per functions of plants fully developed. In the language 
of Dr. Dana, it would seem then “ that the earths are the 
plates, the salts the seasoning, the geine the food of 
plants.” 
The 'Soluble Vegetable Extract,’ of Davy and Chap- 
tal,produced from carbonaceous mould,is the soluble geine 
of Berzelius, and the insoluble matter of the mold spo¬ 
ken of by Chaptal would seem to be the insoluble geine 
or humus of Berzelius and Sprengel. Geine is, there¬ 
fore, the decomposed organic matter in the soil. When 
the result of recent decomposition, it is abundantly solu¬ 
ble in water; the action of the atmosphere converts this 
soluble matter into solid humus or geine, ‘ still partially 
soluble in water, and wholly soluble in alkali.’ Soluble 
geine, and in this state only does it become the food of 
plants, acts neither as acid nor alkali. It is converted into 
a substance having acid properties by the action of alka¬ 
li, and in this state combines with earths, alkalies and ox¬ 
ides, forming neutral salts, soluble in water, such asmag- 
nesia, lime, &c. and thus matter insoluble of itself is 
prepared for the food and nutrition of plants. It appears 
to have been satisfactorily established by late chemical 
researches, that this substance forms the nourishing ha- 
sis of all soils, and that they are fertile or infertile exact¬ 
ly in proportion to the soluble geine they contain, or the 
application of materials capable of converting the inso¬ 
luble into that which is soluble. 
If there are any facts certain in agriculture, it is, that 
a soil composed chiefly of one of the earths, either sand, 
lime, or clay; or one that contains an excess of salts, 
as pure manures; are always barren. Plants may in¬ 
deed exist to a limited extent, but they will be weak and 
without fruit. To these earths add geine, and a perfect 
healthy vegetation will be the result. The great essen¬ 
tials of vegetation, then, are the earths, salts, and geine, 
and their degree of fertility will mainly depend on the 
; proportion with which the last is mixed with the first. 
Every discovery in experimental philosophy—every 
advance in vegetable chemistry, seems to render more 
clear the great truth, that nature’s works, though appa- 
| rently complex, are carried on in the simplest manner, 
and with the fewest possible agents. The slight shades 
of difference found to exist in the constituents of most 
dissimilar substances, such as starch, lignin, sugar, and 
some of the acids, prove that slight causes produce 
powerful modifications of matter, and render it probable 
that the original kinds of matter are less numerous than 
have been usually supposed. All investigations point 
to an agency that pervades all the forms of matter, and 
by an arrangement of atoms consequent on vitality pro¬ 
duces all the varied forms of vegetable and animal na¬ 
ture. This agent, under the name of caloric, galvanism, 
or electro magnetism, is constantly at work modifying, 
changing, combining, decomposing and arranging. To 
it we owe aggregation and cohesion—to its subtile and 
diffusive energy, all growth and circulation—and may it 
not be considered as certain that the earths and salts are 
a magnificent voltaic battery, ever ready for action when 
moistened with water, and thus reviving the dormant vi¬ 
tality of the seeds submitted to its influence. But 
though this vitality maybe revived, and the slumbering 
energy of this germ of the future vegetable be restored 
to activity, it is clear that the circulation will produce 
little or no effects in inducing growth, unless matter sui- 
