310 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sep?. 
salt, and the Tamarix choose only sulphate of mag- 
nesia. 
3. It was also ascertained that, when a plant 
was placed in a solution of fermenting manure, the 
disagreeable smell, which had been previously emit¬ 
ted, gradually disappeared* 
If these experiments have not quite settled the 
question, they have at least strengthened the opin¬ 
ion that plants appropriate to themselves soluble 
substances in very different proportions. Chemical 
analysis of different plants grown on the same soil, 
also completely establishes this proposition. With 
regard to the oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitro¬ 
gen, chemical analysis has also proved that they 
are present in plants in proportions varying with 
the species, but agreeing very closely in the same 
plant. Analysis has also most clearly established 
the great diversity of the proportions in which dif¬ 
ferent plants assimilate the alkalies and earths. 
For example, some plants will be found to contain 
common salt in large quantities, whilst wheat grown 
on the same soil will contain none. Other plants 
again, as the wall pellitory, the nettle, and borage, 
will be found to contain nitrates in large quantities, 
though they may be grown alongside of plants con¬ 
taining none at all. It seems therefore impossible 
to avoid the conclusion that plants possess the pro¬ 
perty of choosing, or at least of retaining, certain 
substances in preference to others, and, consequent¬ 
ly, that different plants require different food. 
But this opinion does not rest on the authority of 
chemical analysis alone; it is confirmed by the ex¬ 
perience of agriculturists. For instance, it is 
known that certain manures seem especially to fa¬ 
vor the growth of certain plants—as gypsum for 
clover—that certain plants only thrive on soils 
where they can obtain an abundant supply of a 
special ingredient, as the fern and the chestnut, on 
soils rich in potash, or such as are derived from 
slate rocks, and those of volcanic origin ; that a mix¬ 
ed husbandry is the most productive; that a planta¬ 
tion containing a variety of trees produces more 
wood than if one species alone had been planted. 
These multiplied facts prove that it is not a certain 
quantity of a nutritive principle, but a choice 
amongst several that is necessary to vegetation. 
Translated from the French for the Farmers’ Mag. 
Water for Irrigation. 
We have frequently heard it said that hard water 
was preferable to soft for the purpose of irrigation. 
But from a discussion of the subject at a late meet¬ 
ing of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
it appears that the question is not fully settled. 
Mr. Pusey said he doubted whether, in the present 
state of our knowledge, it could be admitted as a 
general axiom that hard water was good for ir¬ 
rigation, and soft water, on the contrary prejudicial. 
In Devonshire, the criterion by which practical 
workers in water meadows were guided in their 
judgment of the quality of the water most suitable 
for their operations, was that of a certain warm, 
soft, and oily sensation it communicated to the touch, 
when a portion of it was held and examined in the 
oalm of the hand ; the absence of such a quality in- 
dyating, in their opinion, a water unsuitable for ir- 
n £btion. He knew, as a fact, that when lime 
exists i n an y water in such excess as to give it 
petrifyi,^ properties, such was considered by 
practical*i en as decidedly unfit for irrigating pur¬ 
poses. He accordingly much doubted whether hard 
water was th<» only water fit for irrigation. He 
thought water Meadows would not be confined to 
limestone districts; for in those geological districts 
in the west of England, where irrigation had long 
been successfully practiced, lime was absent; the 
water being consequently soft. He considered that 
water in general became softened by remaining 
sometime in ponds. In the hilly districts of Devon¬ 
shire, the water of the small streams running down 
the declivities, was found to improve its irrigating 
qualities. 
Mr. Almack considered snow as the best ex¬ 
emplification of the beneficial action of water con¬ 
taining ammonia, and possessing chemical qualities 
from other impregnation. Mr. Fisher Hobbs said 
he could fully confirm the views of Mr. Pusey. 
Prof. Way said, in regard to the questions affect¬ 
ing the action of water in irrigation, he had only to 
repeat his diffidence on the subject, although he 
thought the criterion by which the Devonshire 
workers of water meadows were guided, might be 
fallacious. He had himself formed the opinion that 
the effects resulting from irrigation were due more 
to the chemical qualities of the water, than to the 
circumstance of its higher or lower temperature; 
but he was sensible how ignorant we were on these 
difficult questions, and he should be most open to 
conviction, and glad to learn all he could on these 
interesting subjects. 
Cultivating Stiff Soil. 
The importance of pulverization, for stiff soils, 
can hardly be overrated; yet it is a matter which 
receives too little attention from farmers in most 
sections of our country, where this description of 
soil prevails. Considerable improvement has been 
made in the implements used in cultivating stiff 
soils; as regards their pulverization, though the 
best implements for this purpose are by no means 
common. Much depends on the plow, as to the effect 
produced on the soil—some producing much more 
pulverization than others. The first effort, towards 
producing this effect, should be to plow the land 
fine, or in narrow furrows. But in addition to this, 
some implement is needed which will, under any 
circumstances, reduce the hard soil to the requisite 
degree of friability. In England, an implement 
called the 11 clod crusher” is used for this purpose 
It consists of series of iron plates, placed round a 
cylinder, with notches like deep cut saw-teeth at 
the outer edges. The machine operates like a rol¬ 
ler, and being drawn over the ground, breaks down 
and pulverizes the lumps at once. We can see no 
good reason why such an implement should not have 
been brought into use in this country. 
A writer in the Farmers’ Magazine makes some 
interesting observations in regard to the improve¬ 
ments which have been made in the cultivation of 
stiff soils. He says— 
u We need only reflect a moment on the princi¬ 
ples which have to guide the strong-land cultivator, 
in preparing his soil for the seed, and compare the 
means he had of overcoming his difficulties, say 
twenty years ago, with what he has now, and we 
shall see how very different is his position rendered 
by the application of mechanical science. We 
speak not of his profit, abstract or comparative; 
but we cannot help being struck with the vast dif¬ 
ference in his resources of meeting the difficulties 
of his position. Once he had to plow with three 
or four horses, and to cross plow with great labor 
and difficulty, and then to harrow with an imple- 
plement which produced scarcely any impression on 
the stubborn clods—to plow and harrow, and plow 
and harrow, whenever he could, until perhaps he 
