lands of the world have been formed by the agen- 
cies mentioned in our articles on AnLuvium, D1- 
LUVIUM, and Decomposition or Rocks; some have 
been laid bare or rendered available to man by 
the recession of the ocean and the bursting or 
draining of lakes; and a few have been formed 
by the decomposition of beds of pyrites, the erup- 
tions of volcanoes, the overflowings of the sea, and 
various artificial processes of draining morasses, 
changing the texture of dry bogs, and mixing 
foreign and fertilizing ingredients with arid 
sands. The composition of the different kinds of 
arable lands will be pointed out in the article on 
Soits; the distribution of arable lands in thor- 
‘oughly cultivated countries will be noticed in 
the article on Farms; and the methods of im- 
proving, cultivating, and managing arable lands 
will be detailed under the words Draining, 
Proveuine, Roration, Manures, and in several 
other articles.—Chaptal’s Chymistry of Agriculture. 
—Tnebig’s Chenistry of Agriculture British Hus- 
bandry.—Rham’s Dictionary of the Farm. 
ARACACHA,—botanically Arracacia esculenta. 
A perennial, herbaceous, tuberous-rooted plant, 
of the umbelliferous tribe. It has no beauty, 
but possesses remarkable utility in furnishing 
food for man, and might probably, by diffusion 
and judicious cultivatién, become one of the most 
valuable plants in the world. It grows indige- 
nously in New Granada and other parts of Colum- 
bia; it is there known under the name of Apio, 
and is considered the most useful and agreeable 
of all the plants, whose roots are used as human 
food; it has, for a considerable time past, at- 
tracted the attention of horticulturists both in 
Europe and the United States; it was, about fif- 
teen years ago, introduced by some botanists and 
amateur cullivators into Great Britain; and it 
has been made the subject of many interesting 
experiments and observations at Montpellier, at 
Geneva, at Fromont, in the south of France, in 
the south of England, and in other places. It 
does not thrive in the hotter regions of South 
America, acquiring very small size of tubers, and 
expending its main strength in the production of 
stems ; it thrives well in the districts whose mean 
heat is not greater than 60°, and best of all in 
the mountainous districts whose mean heat is 
between 58° and 60°; it is cultivated, with ex- 
cellent result, in the Caraccas; it promises to 
adapt itself very readily to the climate of Italy, 
Spain, and the south of France; and though 
hitherto it has required the heat of the green- 
house in England, it has thriven in a sufficient 
number of instances in the open air, to warrant 
the hope that it may speedily be so acclimated as 
to flourish under field cultivation in the hop 
counties of England, and especially in all thé 
southern and south-eastern counties of Ireland. 
We are not aware that any trials of it have been 
made in the counties of Cork, Wexford, or Kil- 
kenny; but we are sanguine as to the resi.ts 
whenever they shall be judiciously made; ad 
ARACACHA. 
231 
we would suggest that, in the present disastrous 
state of potato cultivation, trials of the aracacha 
should be made throughout all the south and the 
centre of both Ireland and England. A figure of 
this plant is given in Plate X VIJ. 
The stems of the aracacha grow to the height 
of from two to four feet ; the leaves are long and 
pinnated, and resemble those of celery; and the 
roots are large fleshy tubers, somewhat resem- 
bling, in their form and clustering, the tubers of 
the dahlia. The knobs or tubers of the root, 
however, are of two clusters and kinds: those 
produced from the upper part of the root are 
comparatively small in size, incline upwards, and 
individually produce several germs or shoots to- 
ward the tip; and those produced from the cen- 
tral and lower parts of the root, are larger than 
the former, descend into the soil, excel the root 
itself in tenderness and in the delicateness of 
their flour, and are the kind preferred for food 
and generally brought to table. Hight or ten of 
these large and chief tubers, besides small ones, 
are produced by each parent root; they are shaped 
somewhat like a cow’s horn, but taper suddenly 
off, and terminate in a few small fibres; they 
have a diameter of 2 or 24 inches in almost every 
part of their length, except the more tapering 
extremity ; and the largest of them has usually a 
length of 8 or 9 inches. Different varieties of 
the plant have respectively white, yellow, and 
purple tubers; but all the varieties are quite or 
very nearly identical in nutritiousness, flavour, 
and other principal properties. In the district 
around Santa Fé, where the plant is indigenous, 
and where its tubers are as universally used for 
food as those of the potatoe are in England, it is 
propagated by planting pieces of the root, each 
containing an eye or shoot, and it acquires in 
three or four months a sufficient size and ripe- 
ness of tuber to be suitable for culinary purposes, 
and, when allowed to grow during six months, 
increases the tubers to a vast size without any 
deterioration of their flavour. Mr. D. Fanning 
of London, describing in 1829 the mode of culti- 
vating the plant in the Caraceas, says, “Take a 
young plant or sucker, and cut it close to the 
top, leaving only two leaves on it. After it is 
cut, let it remain a day or two in the shade, in 
order to allow the cut part to heal. Plant them 
out early in April, about two feet apart, on the 
top of drills, barely placing the plants in the 
earth. Let them remain thus till the latter end 
of August or beginning of September, when the 
roots will be fit for use. Then take up both root 
and plant, and place them in a warm dry situa- 
tion until April, and then prepare again for plant- 
ing as stated above.” The mode of experimental 
cultivation in England, is in deep black mould, 
in a temperature as nearly as possible ranging 
between 55° and 62°. Mr. Hamilton, at Ply- 
mouth, where the mean temperature of the month 
of July is 63° 50’, found his experimental araca- 
cha plant to grow more luxuriantly in the open 
a a 8 
‘ 2 = 
