THE CULTIVATOR. 
113 
when such views prevail good citizenship is almost certain to follow. 
Let an individual see that his best interests are identified with that 
of the community around him, and he will be the last to counte¬ 
nance, much less be instrumental in raising riots and mobs, thus 
setting the laws at defiance. I will venture to say, that the names 
of few, if any of those who have kept our cities in constant agita¬ 
tion and alarm, by their unlawful combinations, disgraceful riots, 
midnight conflagrations and murders, are to be found on the books 
of savings banks as depositors. No, sir, the persons who occasion 
all these disturbances are not the prudent and industrious, but the 
idle, the profligate, the frequenters of the grog shop, the theatre, 
the gaming table and the brothel, those who, having nothing of pro¬ 
perty or character to lose, imagine they will be gainers by the com¬ 
motions they get up in society ; and the actors of such scenes are 
not confined to cities, they not unfrequently show how low and de¬ 
graded they can render themselves even in our otherwise happy and 
peaceful country. 
Could all our young men, and young women too, be persuaded to 
enrol themselves on the side of temperance, in its most extended 
sense, and to forego all superfluous and unnecessary expenditures, 
soon, very soon the necessity for jails and prisons, and poor-houses, 
and Taxes for the support of their inmates, would have passed 
away. With much respect, yours, W. W. J. 
Hamptonburgh, July 25, 1836. 
N. B. Our wheat and rye harvest in this section will be light, 
considerably below an average crop. The prospect for tolerably 
fair crops of corn has materially brightened, potatoes promise well, 
oats and grass remarkably fine. 
GREEN’S STRAW CUTTER. 
Dear Sir —I last fall bought one of Green’s Straw Cutters, of 
Mr. Bement, Albany. I had a stock of horses and horn cattle of 
about 35 head. I cut all of my hay, and also my straw, and when 
cut (for horses, oxen and cattle that were not worked, and for cows 
which did not give milk,) the hay and straw cut was mixed to¬ 
gether about half and half; (which is conveniently done,) and then 
fed to my stock in mangers under my sheds. They ate it all up 
clean—there was not a bushel of the cut fodder wasted during the 
■winter. For my working oxen and horses, and cows that gave 
milk, I cut as above, except I put about two parts hay and one 
part straw. I fed no grain or mill stuff during the winter. My 
stock never went through a winter better. I can safely say that I 
saved by the operation at least 30 per cent on my fodder, over the 
usual way of feeding. I am fully satisfied that when our farmers 
become fully acquainted with the use of the Straw Cutter, they 
would not be without one if at twice the price which is charged 
for them. Yours, &c. 
J. W. DOUGLAS. 
Lockport, July 23, 1836. 
LOADING HAY. 
If I can communicate to the public any thing useful, they have! 
my consent to take all the advantage of it they can, without paying 
any thing for the right. 
What I claim as an improvement, is the laying hay upon the rack 
so that no labor shall be lost in pitching off. Our hay rack is wide, 
so as to contain three tiers of fork fulls. We always begin at the 
hind end and load towards the other ; we pitch generally from a 
windrow, and when a course is out the loader tells the pitcher to 
start on. At once starting we generally have hay enough to lay 
one course of forkfulls ; we fill the rack a little above the raves, then 
lay a course the off side, then one the nigh side, then one in the 
middle, then begin the off side again, &c., laying as much in the 
middle as either side. When we come to pitch off we have no 
trouble to find where to begin at any time, and by having the system 
understood, we can pitch off each other’s load if necessary. 
WM. GOULD. 
Lorraine, Jefferson Co., July 29 Ih, 1836. 
EXTRACTS. 
DEVELOPMENT OF VEGETABLES. 
Farther proofs of design may be collected from an examination 
into the modes in which these structures, so admirably adapted to 
their objects, have been gradually formed. Confining our attention 
to vascular plants, in which the process of development has been 
studied with the greatest attention and success, we find that nature 
has pursued two different plans in conducting their growth.* In 
the greater number, the successive additions to the substance of the 
stem are made on the exterior side of the parts from which they 
proceed. This mode is adopted in what are called Exogenous 
plants. In others, the growth is the result of additions made in¬ 
ternally ; a plan which is followed in all Endogenous plants. The 
oak, the elm, the beech, the pine, and all the trees of the northern 
regions, belong to the first of these divisions. The palm tribe, such 
as the date, the cocoa nut tree, and indeed a large proportion of 
the trees of tropical climates, together with the sugar cane, the 
bamboo, and all gramineous and liliaceous plants, belong to the lat¬ 
ter. We shall first inquire into the endogenous mode of growth, 
as being the simplest of these two kinds of vegetable develope- 
ment. 
A palm tree may be taken as an example as the mode of growth 
in endogenous plants. The stem of this tree is usually perfectly 
cylindrical, attains a great height, and bears on its summit a tuft 
of leaves. It is composed of an extremely dense external cylindric 
layer of wood; but the texture of the interior becomes gradually 
softer and more porous as it comes nearer to the centre ; though with 
regard to its essential character it appears to be uniform in every 
part, having neither medullary rays, nor true outward bark, nor any 
central pith ; in all of which respects it differs totally from the ordi¬ 
nary exogenous trees. 
The first stage of its growth consists in the appearance of a cir¬ 
cle of leaves, which shoot upwards from the neck of the plant, and 
attain, during the first year, a certain size. The following year, 
another circle of leaves arises; but they grow from the interior of 
the former circle, which they force outwards as their vegetation ad¬ 
vances, and as ligneous matter is deposited within them. Thus, 
each succeeding year brings with it a fresh crop of leaves, in¬ 
termixed with ligneous or woody matter, which leaves, exert 
an outward pressure, and stretch out the preceding layers that en¬ 
close them ; until the latter, acquiring greater density, no longer 
admit of farther distention, and remain permanently fixed. This 
happens first to the outermost layer, which is the oldest; then each 
succeeding layer becomes consolidated in its turn. As soon as the 
outer layer has become too hard to yield to the pressure from with¬ 
in, the growth of the inner layers is immediately directed upwards ; 
so that they each rise in succession by distinct stages, always pro¬ 
ceeding from the interior ; a mode of development which has been 
compared by De Candolle, to the drawing out of the sliding tubes 
of a telescope. The whole stem, whatever height it may attain, 
never increases its diameter after its outward layer has been con¬ 
solidated. A circle of leaves annually sprouts from the margin of 
wood ; these, when they fall off in autumn, leave on the stem cer¬ 
tain traces of their former existence, consisting of a circular im¬ 
pression round the stem. The age of the tree may accordingly be 
estimated by the number of these circles, or knots, which appear 
along its stem. The successive knots which appear in the stems 
of other endogenous plants, as may be observed in growing 
corn, and also in various grasses, may be traced to a s imil ar 
origin. 
The structure of exogenous trees is more complicated : for, when 
fully grown, they are composed of two principal parts, the wood and 
the bark. The woody portion exhibits a farther division into pith, 
which occupies the centre, and consists of large vesicles, not co¬ 
hering very closely, but forming a light and spongy texture, readily 
permeable to liquids and to air; the harder wood, which surrounds the 
pith, in concentric rings, or layers ; and the softer wood, or alburnum, 
which is also disposed in concentric layers on the outside of the 
former. Each of these concentric layers of wood and alburnum 
may be farther distinguished into an inner and outer portion ; the 
former being of less density than the latter, and consisting of a 
lighter cellular tissue ; while the outer portion is composed of the 
denser woody fibres, resulting from the union of numerous vessels 
with a cellular envelope. The bark is formed by concentric layers 
of hortical substance, of which the innermost are denominated the 
liber; and the whole is surrounded by an outer zone of cellular 
tissue, termed the cellular envelope. Of this envelope the exterior 
surface is called the epidermis. 
All these concentric zones may be readily distinguished in a hori- 
" The tribe of Felicis, or ferns, the structure of which is vascular, consti¬ 
tutes an exception to this rule ; as they differ in their mode of development, 
both from exogenous and indogenoug plants. 
