FORCING PEACHES. 
133 
begun to sprout, but in general, time has not been yet afforded to 
determine the issue. So far I speak concerning the express subject 
in view : the fact is confirmed by another evidence that has been 
afforded by what may be called chance. In another pot, seeds of 
Hibiscus apicanus had been sown in two small drills, and covered 
to a slight depth: two or three fell upon an intermediate space: 
their radicles, have pushed into the soil, and the black head of the 
husk is still above ground ready to be carried up with the plumule. 
As to the progress of growth, I am quite sure that, the plants have 
advanced well during the full light of day ; and as I cannot admit 
the “ acknowledged theory” that plants 
extract oxygen, and “ expel carbon 
at night”—because I cannot 
perceive upon what natural 
facts it is grounded, I hold by the evidence of my own observations, 
and believe that, plants grow and thrive during sunshine (under 
glass,) as much, or more than they do during the night. Our ex¬ 
perimental philosophers have been too apt to deduce hypothesis 
from vegetable phenomena, induced by placing vegetables in unna¬ 
tural situations. Plants in bell-glasses, confined with oxygen and 
other gases, are not in a state of nature; and he who hopes to deter¬ 
mine the cause of a purely natural phenomenon by employing arti¬ 
ficial and unnatural agents, is equally liable to delusion as another, 
who hopes to determine the nature of the sap vessels and course of 
the sap by investigating cuttings and portions amputated from the 
living plant, and thus cut off from the regular sources of impulse and 
supply. 
I omitted to mention the peas—there were four seed—all of which 
have sent down a curved root process, and the mass above is much 
enlarged. The two kidney-beans rotted almost immediately. 
March 1 5th, 1835. 
ARTICLE V.—A FEW HINTS ON FORCING PEACHES. 
BY W. W. S. 
About the end of November, or the beginning of December, I put 
the lights on my peach-houses for the first crop, and make fires for a 
few evenings to dry the flues. In about a fortnight after this, I 
make gentle fires regularly every evening, but allow them to go out 
in the mornings, and give the trees a great quantity of air by day, 
but shut the house close again every evening. 
