86 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
will be supported although the ligament should be divided | 
between the second bone and the head. The divided liga- j 
ment will soon unite again, and its former usefulness will be 
restored when the wound so made is healed.” 
In cattle or horses there is an opening between the 
first and second bones of the neck, in which the spinal 
marrow is only coverd with a ligament, and it is at this 
point that the butchers of Lisbon and Madrid, with a 
short but keen bladed knife, deal the fatal blow. This 
operation is called pithing, and where understood, is 
much preferable to the common mode of knocking down, 
practiced in England and this country. 
Action of Manures. 
Of the importance of manures to the cultivator of the 
soil, there seems to be but one opinion. The practical 
man and the theorist both are compelled to admit, that 
a plentiful supply of manure is essential to success in 
farming; and experience proves that few things are 
more true than the Flemish maxim, “ without clover no 
cattle, without cattle no manure, without manure no 
grain crop.” The nature of the action of manures, or 
the manner in which they produce their good effects, 
does not, however, seem to be equally clear with the 
points before mentioned; at least, there seems to be a 
greater diversity of opinion on this topic, a thing per¬ 
haps allowable when it is considered that it is less a 
matter of direct observation than the others, and that 
even men of science do not appear to be perfectly agreed 
in all their conclusions respecting the laws of vegetable 
nutrition. 
To produce vegetation, three things seem to be indis¬ 
pensable ; moisture, warmth, and a communication with 
the earths. Deprivation of the two first is certainly 
fatal to plants, and though where the two first are pre¬ 
sent and the last absent, yet the perfection of such 
plants is never complete, and fruits are never formed. 
Thus an acorn, suspended by a string over a glass of 
water at a proper temperature, will vegetate, and while 
the roots seek the water the young plant will extend up¬ 
wards, yet the growth will continue no longer than the 
substance of the acorn affords nourishment to the young 
shoot. Fill the glass with earth, and if watered, the 
growth will continue so long as nourishment and space 
are afforded. It would appear then to be clear that the 
union of these three things are necessary to the growth 
and perfection of plants. 
There was a time when it was believed that plants 
derived their support entirely from water, and that if a 
suitable supply of this was provided, it was all that was 
required, and that the use of the earths was only to 
serve as a reservoir or repository of this fluid for the 
use of the plant. This, idea of water being the sole 
nourisher of plants, may be traced through Greece to 
Egypt, an origin, or opinion, not surprising among a 
people who yearly witnessed the fertilizing effects of 
the waters of the Nile, on the apparently barren sands 
of that country. The large quantity of sediment 
brought down by the river, appears to have been over¬ 
looked in their estimate of fertilizing causes, though it 
is now well understood that of all substances such de- 
posites are the most valuable. This opinion was revi- 
ved and apparently confirmed in the 17th century, by 
the experiments of Bovle and Van Helmont. The wil¬ 
low tree of the latter, planted in a tight box, lined with 
lead, the earth and tree carefully weighed at planting, 
watered with rain water only, and after a few years 
growth, both the earth and tree again weighed gave a 
gain, which, when it was ascertained that the earth had 
diminished only a few ounces, was deemed conclusive 
as to the nutritive power of water. It remained for la¬ 
ter philosophers, by the analysis of rain, and other wa¬ 
ter, to show that the substances required in the growth 
of such plants was contained in abundance in the fluids 
employed. 
When water, made chemically pure, is employed in 
that state to promote the growth of plants, a failure is 
the certain and inevitable result. That able experi¬ 
mentalist Cuthbert Johnson, has varied his experiments 
in every form, and always with the same termination, 
the death of the plant, in a longer or shorter period. 
Dr. Thomson was equally foiled; he finding that plants 
so treated vegetated only for a short time and then fail¬ 
ed, never perfecting their seeds. Other experimental¬ 
ists have been equally unsuccessful, and the theory now 
more rationally adopted, is, that water is only valuable 
as a solvent for the nutritive matter required by plants ; 
in other words it is only useful as a liquid manure. 
Some plants of the bulbous rooted kinds, that are made 
to flower in water, such as the tulip and hyacinth, are 
obliged to be planted in the ground every other year, or 
they refuse to flower, or even, finally, to vegetate. 
This is accounted for by the fact that the store of nutri¬ 
tive matter provided by nature in the bulb, and drawn 
from the earth, was exhausted by vegetating for one 
season in water. 
It has been supposed by some, the earths most com¬ 
mon in good soils would, if watered with pure water, 
support vegetation. But the experiments of M. Giobert 
proved the fallacy of this supposition. He mixed silica, 
alumina, lime, and magnesia, in the proportion in which 
they are found in the best soils, and then in vain at¬ 
tempted to grow plants where pure water was used. 
This was not the case when water impregnated with 
animal and vegetable matter, or that from a dunghill 
was used, as the most luxuriant vegetation ensued. All 
the efforts to induce plants to appropriate to their 
growth matter in any other state than that of solution 
have failed. The finest and most impalpable particles 
cf matter are rejected equally with the coarsest. Davy 
ineffectually tried charcoal, reduced to the finest possi¬ 
ble state ; and Chaptal and Johnson equally failed with 
the earths, saline substances, and with other organic 
matter. All nutrition, then, in plants, as well as in ani¬ 
mals, is performed by substances in solution, or aeri¬ 
form ; and it is hence also evident, that manures are 
only useful to plants when presented to them in a li¬ 
quid form, or when they assume that form in the earth 
by combination with water. 
We have before expressed our full conviction that all 
vegetable growth, or nutrition, is the result of a chemical 
action not dissimilar to that of the voltaic battery, or the 
agency of electro-magnetism. Of the existence of such 
electro or voltaic currents, vegetation itself furnishes the 
most conclusive proof. To this the vegetable sensibility 
of the mimosa must be attributed ; and the currents as 
they exist in the fluids of plants, may, under the micro¬ 
scope, be distinctly observed in those plants with trans¬ 
parent cuticles, such as the Caulina fragdis, or Trades- 
cantia virginiaca. We further infer this action, from 
the general similarity existing in the functions of vege¬ 
tables and animals, and their nutritive powers. In an¬ 
imals the nervous system furnishes conclusive evidence 
of such agency, and the organization of the plant may 
not unreasonably be referred to the same cause. “ Per¬ 
haps,” says Professor Henslow, “ until the contrary is 
proved, we may consider the addition of sensibility, to 
the living principle, as the characteristic property of 
animals; a property or quality by which the individual 
is rendered conscious of its existence, or of its wants, 
and by which it is induced to satisfy these wants by 
some act of volition.” Dr. Green, in quoting this pas¬ 
sage from Prof. H., goes farther, and says, “ We are in¬ 
clined to the belief, however difficult it may be to de¬ 
monstrate it, that a quality strictly analagous in its re¬ 
sults, to this property in animals, belongs to vegeta¬ 
bles.”* Every new truth in vegetable physiology goes 
to confirm our previous opinions of the nature of vegeta¬ 
ble nutrition, and develop the rationale of manures. 
The earths will not cause vegetation, be they ever so 
nicely proportioned ; water cannot support the plant, 
when used in a pure state; the salts of manures, con¬ 
stituting their most efficient part, are fatal to plants in 
a concentrated form, or when present in too large quan¬ 
tities ; but when these are combined, the growth of the 
plant they are brought to act upon, is certain and rapid. 
It is scarcely possible there should be a clearer or more 
beautiful illustration of the nature of the chemical ac¬ 
tion necessary to the growth of plants than this combi¬ 
nation affords. In this case the different earths consti¬ 
tute the battery for the generation of the voltaic cur¬ 
rent, the particles constituting the plates of the great 
machine of nature, and the finer the earths are made 
the greater the number of pairs, and consequently the 
more active in their results. In itself, however, this 
battery is powerless; it is only when the plates are 
plunged in an exciting fluid, when water containing the 
salts necessary to produce this action is applied, that 
this current, so indispensable to the growth of plants, in¬ 
deed, without which no vegetable (and perhaps no 
other) organization is possible, is fully developed. To 
us this philosophy of vegetation appears extremely 
simple and natural, explaining more satisfactorily than 
any other theory, the action both of vegetable and mi¬ 
neral manures. 
If the plates of zinc in the common battery are corro¬ 
ded or destroyed, or those of copper rendered worthless 
by continued action, it is clear these defects must be 
supplied before the desired effect can be produced. So 
if any of the necessary earths be absent, or if they have 
been exhausted by cultivation, a healthy vegetation can 
not be expected, until this deficiency is remedied. And if 
the proportions of earths are ever so perfect, if the ex¬ 
citing agents, the salts and the water, are absent, there 
can be no growth ; the current, which alone carries into 
circulation the substances that go to the formation of 
the plant, cannot exist. In this way only, can the pro¬ 
digious fertilizing powers of some liquid, or dry ma¬ 
nures that when applied to the soil become liquid, be 
satisfactorily accounted for. Urines, poudrette, and the 
sewerage water of large cities are instances of this kind 
of agents. 
But whatever opinion may be entertained of the the¬ 
ory here advanced, it cannot be disputed, that indepen¬ 
dent of the substances more particularly necessary to ex¬ 
cite voltaic action, there are few articles so rich in 
the materials required by plants, as are what are termed 
the liquid manures, or the drainings of the barn-yard 
or the stables. This fluid contains the most essential of 
the salts employed in accelerating vegetation, and their 
loss to the farmer is irreparable. There is some little 
difference in the constituents of the urine of different 
animals and of man, but the analysis of one, and we se¬ 
lect that of the cow, by Prof. Brande, will give a suffi¬ 
ciently accurate notion of the constituents of this sub¬ 
stance, and the less occasioned by not converting it to 
its proper use in promoting vegetation. 
Water,. 65.0 
Urea. 4.0 
Phosphate of Lime,. 3.0 
Muriates of Potash and Ammonia,. 15.0 
Sulphate of Potash,. 6.0 
Carbonates of Potash and Ammonia,. 4.0 
Loss,. .3.0 
_ 100.0 
* See an ingenious paper on “ Vegetable Organography and 
Physiology,” in the 77th No. of Professor Silliman’s journal. 
The instances given in proof, by Dr. G., are not satisfactory 
to us.— Eds. of Cult. 
Barn-yard manure, after it has been deprived by solu¬ 
tion, by washing, and by evaporation of these essential 
animal and vegetable salts, is very little better than 
common vegetable mould. Its efficiency in promoting ve¬ 
getation is gone with the exciting agents it has parted 
with ; the remainder is only the earths which have 
formed the frame-work of the plants, consumed or de¬ 
composed, useful indeed, but wholly wanting in the pow¬ 
er they once possessed. 
To show the difference caused by the presence of 
these agents in enabling plants to take up the matters 
necessary for their perfection, we give the following 
from a statement of Prof. Johnson : 
“ I caused beans to vegetate under three different cir- 
cumstances; the first were grown in distilled water j 
the second were grown in sand and watered with rain 
water; the third were sown in rich garden mould. The 
plants thus produced when accurately analyzed, were 
found to yield the following proportion of ashes : 
Those watered with distilled water,.. 3.9 
Those “ with rain water,. 7.5 
Those grown in garden mould,... 12.0” 
Garden mould, or soil, more than almost any other 
abounds in these prominent elements of fertility, and 
the above experiment proves conclusively the importance 
of their presence, where luxuriant vegetation is wished 
or expected. 
Liquid manure, then, may be considered one o the 
most valuable agents in the production of crops. But 
its use as practiced on the continent of Europe, and in 
China, cannot be expected here; it has as yet, scarcely 
been introduced into England, though where it has been 
tried its benefits have been most decisive. The addi¬ 
tional labor required in the German or Flemish use of 
this manure is so great, that their system, unless in some 
limited cases, cannot be expected here; the cost would 
exceed the income. There is no necessity, however, for 
the frightful waste of this valuable material that we 
W'itness in every part of our country. Instead of this 
fertilizing fluid being converted to a profitable use, the 
great object, with multitudes of farmers, seems to be, 
how they shall get rid of it in the easiest manner. 
Ditches are constructed from their yards or stables to 
the highway, and the neighboring brook or river, to 
carry off the precious article, as though it was feared 
the surest means of fertilizing the soil, or producing 
great crops, would accumulate too rapidly. 
It is to the accumulation of such salts that the sewer¬ 
age of cities owes its fertilizing properties, when em¬ 
ployed for the purposes of irrigation. A striking in¬ 
stance of this power appears in the astonishing increase 
of the grass crops on the water meadows near Edin¬ 
burgh since the wrnter from the drains of that metropo¬ 
lis have been applied to their irrigation.* This result 
will not be surprising to any one wbo reflects on the 
composition of such sewerage ; “ its endless mixture of 
organic matters, its soot, its carbonate of lime, its de¬ 
composed animal matter, and above all its urine,” com¬ 
bine to produce one of the most active stimulants of ve¬ 
getation known. 
But if farmers cannot at present in this country be at 
the expense of the vats for converting the whole or the 
most of their barn or stable manures into liquid ma¬ 
nures, or the costly apparatus for its distribution, they 
can do much to prevent its waste by furnishing the 
means for its absorption, where there is an excess, as 
there usually is in the vicinity of the yard or stables, 
and thus save it for the use of the soil. To do this 
it is necessary, in the first place, that some cheap and 
easily constructed reservoir should receive these drain¬ 
ings when they are formed. In most yards a hollow 
may be made, without lining, if the soil is retentive, but 
if porous, with a lining of clay and imbedded pebbles, 
and this, if filled with swamp earth, the sandy wash 
from the roads, or even common earth, will absorb large 
quantities of thus liquid manure, and thus obtain a fer¬ 
tilizing power, equal, if not superior, to that of common 
barn-yard manure, treated in the ordinary manaer. 
These earths brought to the yard, become thoroughly 
impregnated with the salts and other fertilizing matters 
of the yard, and thus preserve for the farmer what 
would otherwise be lost to his use. In many cases 
where the cattle and sheep are folded in open yards, a 
covering of vegetable mould, swamp earth, &c., spread 
over the yard after it has been cleared out, to the depth 
of a foot, will prevent much w'aste by its absorbing 
power, and being thoroughly mixed by the feet of cat¬ 
tle with the ordinary manure, will be found- in the 
spring when wanted for use on the field a most valuable 
manure. In this way, some farmers add to their stock 
of fertilizing materials some hundreds of loads annually. 
One of the most successful farmers of New-England, 
Mr. Clark of Northampton, has pursued this system to 
a considerable extent, and with marked benefit. Others 
also, harm tested its use, and speak highly of the prac¬ 
tice, as corresponding perfectly wflth the theory. 
Various opinions have been entertained of the utility 
of piling barn-yard manures Avhen not wanted for im¬ 
mediate use, or the propriety of placing them under co¬ 
ver. It not unfrequently occurs that the stable or yard 
manures made during the winter, are not required for 
the spring crops, and are reserved for those to be sown 
in autumn. The question now arises, how shall this 
manure be disposed of during the summer 1 If it remains 
spread 0 A r er the surface of the yard exposed to alternate 
sun and rains, it appears clear that the most valuable 
parts of it, the salts and animal part, must be lost in 
* See Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 19. 
