120 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
taught. The present time is auspicious for the purpose. A geological 
survey of the state is now in progress, under the authority of the govern¬ 
ment. A most important collection of objects in geology, mineralogy, 
zoology and botany, must of necessity be the result. It is therefore high¬ 
ly desirable that a suitable museum be provided for the reception and pre¬ 
servation of this collection. What place so proper as the capital of the 
state? Such a collection once made, would be a nucleus around which 
future additions would accumulate, until at last it might rival in utility, if 
not in extent, the collection of the Garden of Plants, in Paris If this 
first step be taken, under the auspices of the state, there is every reason 
to hope, that in no long time, we shall possess an university, not in name, 
but in tact—an university, where the more elementary branches usually 
taught in academies and colleges should be excluded, while chemistry, 
agriculture, mining, engineering, geology and mineralogy, natural history, 
political economy, mental and moral philosophy, and such other branch¬ 
es as are of sufficient interest to attract pupils, could be thoroughly studi¬ 
ed. 
The limits of this discourse will not permit me to enter more fully on 
this subject; 1 merely throw out the suggestion for the consideration of 
the society, so that, if deemed important, it may be acted upon without 
loss of time. 
At the agricultural farm, pupils might be taught the management of 
farms, the raising and taking care of stock, &c. Botany and horticulture 
might likewise be taught and practised there; but the institution in the 
city, it appears to me, ought to be the place where such as had leisure, 
or inclination and means, to study profoundly, should resort. 
No business is more important, none more honorable, than agriculture 
and its kindred arts. The wealth, the power, the morality of a nation, are 
closely connected with it. Let, therefore, the wealthy, who have the 
greatest interest, be foremost in its promotion. Let them make gentle¬ 
men farmers of their sons, instead of professional men and merchants. 
Let them give an education such as befits their prospects, and the hono¬ 
rable position they are to occupy in society. 
If this were more generally done, we would less frequently see the well 
earned property of the fathers squandered by the children, or the high 
professional character acquired by the parent, sullied by the incapacity and 
indolence of a son, who feels not the stimulus of necessity, to make him 
tread in the honorable course pointed out to him. The country would 
become the residence of the most worthy and most gifted members of so¬ 
ciety;—the wilderness would blossom as the rose, and none would be found 
to live in cities, but such as could not afford to dwell in the country, or 
such as, for the love of gain, could submit to temporary banishment for 
the sake of spending the evening of their days, each under his own vine 
and fig-tree, remote from the noise and turmoil of the multitudinous city. 
To all, then, who wish to live in health, -comfort and independence, we 
would say— 
“ Venerate the plough, 
“ And o’er your hills and long withdrawing vales 
“Let Autumn spread its richest treasures to the sun, 
“ Luxuriant and unbounded.” 
OF THE NATURE AND USES OF THE PRODUCTS OF VEGETATION. 
The elements that enter into the composition of plants, are but few in 
number; but the proportions in which they are combined establish so 
great a difference in the products of vegetation, that it seems almost in¬ 
credible, that these should be the effects-of so small a number'd' princi¬ 
ples, varying only in the proportions in which they are united. 
The aliments of plants are water, air, and mauures: these substances 
absorbed by the leaves, the fruits, or the roots, furnish, by analysis, car¬ 
bonic acid, hydrogen, a little azote, and some earthy and saline principles: 
it is from these materials that the almost endless variety of widely differ¬ 
ing products of plants is formed by their organs. 
During the progress of vegetation these products are found to undergo 
successive changes; that which is first acid becomes sweet; that which is 
tender becomes hard, and all is owing wholly to the constant changes 
taking place in the proportions of the constituent principles; and one is 
astonished at finding that the most exact analysis of substances possessing 
the most opposite characteristics, detects no other difference than some 
hundredths more or less in the proportions of their elements. 
When a plant has completed or terminated its various stages of vegeta¬ 
tion, the dead remains, if exposed to the action of the same agents, such 
as air, water, and heat, suffer a succession of retrograde changes; they 
are gradually decomposed, and their constituent principles enter into com¬ 
bination with those of the bodies by which they are acted upon; thus the 
dead plant is entirely governed by those invariable physical and chemical 
laws, which in the living plant are governed and modified by the laws of 
vital'ty, the action of which regulates that of all external agents, and pro¬ 
duces results which we can neither explain nor imitate. 
Though great caution should be used when endeavoring to establish an 
analogy between two modes of existence differing so widely as those of ani¬ 
mals and vegetables, it must be perceived that there is a resemblance in 
the manner in which both are nourished. 
Animals inhale air by their lungs, or absorb it by glands scattered over 
their bodies; they are nourished by solid aliments received into their sten 
machs, or into some analogous organ; plants absorb air by their leaves and 
fruits, and imbibe through their roots the nutritive juices contained in the 
earth. In animals, the juices circulate through every part, and pass into 
all the various organs, in which they are elaborated, in order to form all 
the products which belong to this kingdom; in vegetables the juices are 
cairied into the bark, the alburnum, the pith, the wood, the leaves, and 
the fruit, by tubers and glands, which are arranged in hexagonal cells, and 
| are very numerous in the parenchyma, and in the cortical layers of the 
Dark; the juices undergo particular modifications in the various organs, 
and form in each one of them new compounds differing from each other. 
| The leaves receive the sap in vessels of the most delicate texture; in 
these it is elaborated, and combined with substances absorbed from the 
I atmosphere, whilst the surplus of water, as well as the oxygen of the car- 
I bonic acid from which they have extracted the carbon, is given out by the 
leaves through their transpiring pores. The sap, after experiencing these 
changes, passes into the organs of the plant, where it is subjected to new 
elaborations. 
The leaves are to plants, what the lungs are to animals; those receiving 
the sap, as these do the blood, to be mingled in them with the gas absorb¬ 
ed from the atmosphere, and to pass thence into the great vascular system; 
j and from both leaves and lungs the superfluous water and gases are thrown 
out into the air. 
We likewise find a great variety of structure amongst the various spe¬ 
cies of which the two kingdoms are composed; some have a soft, loose, 
parenchymatous formation; others present a harder and dryer tissue; this, 
in vegetables, is owing to the predominance of carbon; in animals, to that 
of phosphate of lime; these two principles, though very different, form the 
basis of their separate structures. The same elements enter into the com¬ 
position of all the products, whether animal or vegetable; the difference 
! between them arising solely from the different proportions of the constitu¬ 
ent principles. 
j An analysis of the principal products of vegetation has been made with 
] great care by Messrs. Gay-Lussac and Thenard. The results of these te- 
I searches enable us already to draw some conclusions in regard to the cha¬ 
racter of any one of the products, according as this or that principle may 
predominate in its composition; or according to the nature of the elements 
combining to form it. Thus we know, 
! 1. That a vegetable substance is acid when it contains no azote, and 
when the quantity of oxygen in proportion to that of hydrogen, is greater 
than is necessary for the formation of water. 
! 2. That when the proportion of hydrogen to that of oxygen is greater 
S than is necessary for the formation of water, the substance is oily, resinous, 
jalcoho'ic, or ethereal. 
3. That when the quantity of oxygen and hydrogen contained in a sub¬ 
stance is the same as in water, the substance is analogous to sugar, gum, 
fibre, &c. 
I shall in this work speak only of such products of vegetables as are 
j most common, or of the most extensive use, either for domestic purposes, 
| or in the arts: and I shall endeavor as much as possible to follow the order 
j prescribed by the analogy of their constituent principles.— Chaptal's Che- 
j mistry. 
NOTICE OF THE FARM OF J. F. EDMUNDS, of CHARLOTTE. 
In fulfilling my engagement to visit the best managed farms, and report 
to the readers of the Register such points of management as seem to be 
most deserving of imitation, I find it a difficult task to determine what mo¬ 
dels to select. There are many plantations in Charlotte, Prince Edward, 
Halifax, &c. on which the best management exists, on the old plan of 
cultivation: that is to say, their management denotes economy, industry, 
good arrangement, and neat cultivation. Such plantations have been very 
profitable, in times past, to their owners; but this profit has been derived 
from the cultivation of tobacco. And it must not be disguised, that most of 
the estates that have produced large tobacco crops, have greatly deterio¬ 
rated in value on account of the paramount attention required by this crop, 
to the neglect of all permanent improvement. I, by no means, intend to 
assert, that tobacco culture is incompatible with improvement. There are 
many successful tobacco cultivators who have improved their estates; but 
the great majority of the thorough-going tobacco cultivators, have adopted 
the three-shift system—have no standing pastures—raise no hay—sow but 
’little clover—and bestow but little attention on the subject of manures. 
[The planters, who are deriving the most profit from their plantations, are 
practical men, who have been successful cultivators of tobacco, and who 
have devoted a part of the labor and resources of their farm? to raising 
manure and the grasses. The sight of such a plantation, a few years ago, 
in the tobacco region of Virginia, was like an oasis in the desert—as rare 
as it was refreshing—but their number is annually increasing; and there 
are now considerable districts of country, in Charlotte and Prince Edward 
counties, that present a view o*’ good meadows, well manured lots, and 
large fields well set in clover. But, without indulging further in general 
remarks, I will proceed to give a short account of the successful manage¬ 
ment of the planters residing on Wardsfork creek, in the county of Char- 
otte. The planters in this part of the county at first acquired their celc- 
