Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

ner and more brittle. Compounds formed normal elements in due proportion, will betin the soil by lime are comparatively insolu- ter resist disease when exposed to its causes, ble. Hence it is from three to six years than those that are deficient in any one elebefore lime applied to the soil is exhausted. ment; indeed, this remark may be made The hydrate of lime, or lime slacked with more general-it may be applied to all livwater, acts the most rapidly. Carbonate of ing organized beings. The more perfect lime produces the most permanent effect they are in structure, and the more normal upon the sol. Light, dry, sandy soils con- in growth and proportion, the more perfect taining little vegetable matter, are not those will be their health and the greater their which are most benefitted by lime; such power to resist disease. I hope not to be missoils already contain an abundant supply. understood. I would by no means intimate that the absence of lime has anything to do with the origin of the potato disease. I do not know that diseased potatos have been subjected to chemical analysis, to ascertain whether they are deficient in this element, or that those varieties that are most liable to disease have been compared analytically with those that are less so. The solution of these questions merits the attention of the agricultural chemists, if it has not already received it. But I have no doubt that the dry, mealy potato contains more lime than the wet, soggy one-or that those that have grown on dry land, with an abundant supply of lime, have rotted less than those that have grown under other circumstances.

There is one error with respect to the use of lime, which should by all means be avoided; that is, the mixture of lime with the manure heap, whether in a fermenting or quiescent state. Ammonia abounds in animal manures, combined with phosphoric, carbonic, muriatic, or other acids. These salts of ammonia are decomposed by lime, which combine with their acids and expels the ammonia, an element which is of great importance to vegetation. Probably the best methods of applying lime are to spread it upon the soil before planting, and mix it in with the harrow, or to sow it as a top dressing, soon after the coming up of the

crop.

The analysis of soils and the analysis of plants require to be carried on together.

Vegetables that contain in a perfeet state a large amount of lime, may attain their full size without an adequate supply, but The cultivator needs to know the compothey will not be perfect plants. Lime is an sition of the plants which he proposes to important ingredient in clover; it is found cultivate, and the composition of the soil in chiefly in its cuticle or covering membrane. which he proposes to cultivate them, that If this grass is grown upon a soil consisting he may judge of the adaptness of the one mostly of vegetable matter, and under the to the other, and be able to modify the soil stimulus of animal manure, it will lodge or to suit the demands of the plant. J. R. break down from its own weight, for want-N. E. Farmer.

of the strength or stiffness which a due proportion of lime would impart to it. Potatos contain a large per centage of lime, and there can be no doubt that for some years past those that have been raised under circumstances that preclude a sufficient supply of lime have been more liable to disease than those that could obtain an abundant supply of it.

Potatos that have grown in low land where the soil consists largely of decayed vegetable matter, or which have been raised by animal manures, have been affected by the rot much more than those which have been raised on sandy soils, or by means of plaster, which is sulphate of lime.

Vegetables that are perfect in their organization, that is, that contain all their

Hemlock-Abies Canadensis.

AMONG evergreen trees there are none more beautiful than the common hemlock, and it is only that it is common, and found in almost all sections of the country that has prevented its becoming prized as it deserves. It is perfectly hardy, and grows in the forest to the hight of sixty or eighty feet, but when standing alone forms a broad, low head, with irregular branches, clothed with delicate green foliage of singular beauty. Its appearance is much improved in favorable situations, and it may be grown successfully on almost all soils with proper treatment. We have observed in the woods beautiful shrubs of the hemlock, which

would prove as ornamental for yards and lawns as any of the most highly prized foreign varieties.

The hemlock is peculiarly beautiful "in the beginning of summer, when each twig is terminated with a tuft of yellowish green recent leaves, surrounding the darken green of the former year." Mr. Emerson, in his report on trees and shrubs of Massachusetts, remarks in substance, that it possesses a lightness and gracefulness-especially when the dark green mass is moved by the gentle breeze that can not fail to attract the attention of the most careless observer of the beautiful in nature; it is entirely free from that stiffness, and grenadier-like appearance which some other trees of the same family exhibit. It is a happy, joyous tree; like the polite and vivacious Frenchman, it continually bows and smiles, alike in sunshine or storm, winter or summer. When set on a lawn, singly or in groups, it forms a dense mass, and produces a deep shade; perhaps it is best when planted in this way. He adds:

two; after that, if the land is good, it makes very good growth, though it grows even when young, as well, or better than many other things with which we take much pains, which are inferior to this. The former objection I shall answer by adding my own experience in transplanting the tree. In the spring of 1849, I pulled up about two hundred small trees, in hight from a foot and a half, to three feet, out of the moss of a swamp, having nothing on the roots; set them out immediately in a moist place; three-fourths lived and did well. The next year I tried the same experiment on a larger scale, got about five hundred, pulled them up in the same way, set them out as I did the others-four-fifths lived and did well. These trees have now a great many fibrous roots, and can be moved without loss. Last spring I tried larger trees from a different soi!, a loam somewhat gravelly, moved about twenty-five, of sizes from three to eight feet in hight, chose a moist day, took them up with a ball of earth, and set them out as soon as possible; when taking them up I was careful not to disturb the roots in the ball of earth. Every one lived, though last summer with us was the dryest we have had for many years."-Rural New York.

Statistics of Ohio Agriculture.

"As it bears pruning to almost any degree, without suffering injury, it is well suited to form screens for the protection of more tender trees and plants, or for concealing disagreeable objects, By being planted in double or triple rows it may in a few years be made to assume the appearance of an impenetrable wall-really impenetrable to the wind, and to domestic animals. A hedge the precise proportion in which land in any Ir is a very difficult thing to determine of this kind, seven or eight feet high, on a bleak, barren plain, exposed to the north- given State is used. Yet, this is an all-imwest winds, gave Dr. Greene, cf Mansfield, portant fact, in determining the productivea warn, sunny, sheltered spot, for the culti-ness of land, and the condition of a people. vation of delicate annual plants. When I In Ohio, however, we can do this with tolfor both State and National erable accuracy; Governments have ascertained different parts of the problem, to which the annual reports of the State Board of Agriculture have added much information. The following are elements gathered from these sources, and the conclusions to which they lead: Acres of land returned for Taxation,... 24,149,369

saw it, the annuals, several of which were rare exotics, were beautiful, the hemlock screen was much more so."

A writer in the New England Farmer, who thinks the hemlock "the most beautiful of all evergreens, and strangely neglected, while we search distant climes to procure those of less value and beauty," has tried transplanting the hemlock with good suc

cess.

He says:

....

Acres of land returned in the census as im
proved,
Acres unimproved,.

Acres cultivated in 1850-in Wheat,

Acres cultivated in 1850-in Corn,

......

9.851.493 14,397,876

1,823,916 1,730,220

[ocr errors]

3,554,136

"I have spoken of some of its advantages, and now methinks I hear some one say it is difficult to transplant, and that it grows slow while young. The latter objection is real, Acres cultivated in Corn and Wheat, to some extent; it does not grow verv fast-Cultivated in Oats, Rye, etc., I mean small plants-for the first year or Leaving for Grass, Meadow, Fallow, etc., 5,297,357

1,000,000

TRANSMUTATION.

It thus appears, that the entire land of the State is thus used, viz:

Cultivated in Grain,

in Grass, Meadow, etc., .....
in woods and waste,

19 per cent.

21
60"

[ocr errors]

66

But, if we

If we allow twenty per cent. for woods and fallow ground, the grain and meadow land of the State may be doubled, with nothing but common cultivation. allow for the increase of skill and labor, which always results from the increase of population, then fifty per cent. more should be added to the total production. As the people, now in this State, have a surplus of one half their whole production, it follows, that Ohio can support ten millions of people, without feeling the burden of excessive population.

The aggregate corps, animals, etc., produced and sustained on nine millions of acres as above distributed, were as follows: for

549

sidered as worse than useless, grows abundantly on the shores of the Mediterranean. It produces a species of grain resembling wheat in form, but much smaller. In the year 1839 M. Fabre sowed a quantity of this grain, and he found the produce bore a close affinity to wheat; that produce he sowed the next year, and the yield was still more like wheat. He went on sowing the produce of each year the succeeding year, until he has now succeeded in getting as fine a crop of wheat, and of as good quality as can be wished for. Thus he has proved that a wild and mischievous weed can be educated into excellent wheat."

This subject has been paraded in the papers at different times for some months, and the high authorities which have countenanced the theory have given it so much weight that many persons have adopted the belief that one species may change into an35,000,000 other. Schleiden, the eminent botanist, has 62,000,000 some views which appears to correspond

the year 1851, as returned to the Auditor:

Wheat, (adding fifteen counties not returned,) bushels,

Corn, bushels,

....

[blocks in formation]

13,472,742

425,718 with this. I had intended to prepare an

354,358

5,057,769

60,168 article upon the permanance of species, but have not been able to accomplish it; in the 638,064 meantime, will remind the reader that, al

187,991

1,443,142

103,196 though the origin of wheat and some others

37,310

4,588,209

804,275

1,358,947

188,188 of our cultivated plants is involved in much obscurity, and although in their present con197.398 dition they may exist merely as varieties, 3,942,928 more or less permanent, still it will not do 1,964,770 to talk about the changeability of species, or 463,397 their convertibility into one another, while we retain the present signification of the terms. Admitting the statement, the question should be, are the Ægilops and the wheat mere varieties of a given species, and not whether one species has changed into another. I have sometimes apprehended that botanists, in their zeal for extending their catalogues, have not sufficiently weighed the value of their specific characters, and that thus mere varieties have been dignified with specific names and grade. Indeed, it is not always easy to ascertain the true distinguishing characters of species without an extended investigation.

In the above catalogue of articles, Ohio is the first State in the Union, in wheat, corn, flax seed, maple molasses, horses, and sheep; proving the Sate to be the first in the Union in purely agricultural products. In wheat the census crop fell, in consequence of a failure of the crop, a little below Pennsylvania; but, as the ordinary crop before and since, was nearly double that of Pennsylvania, it does not changes the fact, that Ohio is decidedly first in wheat, as well as corn.-Railroad Record.

Transmutation.

"A VERY Singular discovery has lately been made in France by M. Fabre, a gardener of Ayde. The herb Egilops, heretofore con

The Garden.

A DISCOURSE ON FLOWERS.

HAPPY is the man that loves flowers! Happy even if it be adulterated with vanity and strife. For human passions nestle in flowers too. Some have their zeal chiefly in horticultural competitions, or in the ambitions of floral shows; others love them as curiosities, and search for novelties, for "sports," and monstrosities. We have been led through costly collections by men whose chief pleasure seemed to be in the effect which their treasures produced on others, not on themselves. But there is a choice in vanities and ostentations. A contest of roses is better than of horses. We had rather take a premium for the best tulip, dahlia, or ranunculus, than for the best shot. Of all fools, a floral fool deserves the eminence. But these aside, blessed be the man that really loves flowers! loves them for their own sakes, for their beauty, their associations, the joy they have given and always will give; so that, if there was not another creature on earth to admire or praise, he would just as much sit down among them as friends and companions. But such men need no blessing of mine. They are blessed of God! Did He not make the world for such men? Are they not clearly the owners of the world, and the richest of all men? The end of art is to innoculate man with the love of nature. But those who have it in the natural way need no pictures nor galleries. Spring is their designer, and the whole year their artist.

He who only does not appreciate floral beauty is to be pitied like any other man who is born imperfect. But men who contemptuously reject flowers as effeminate and unworthy of manhood, reveal their coarse

ness.

Were flowers fit to eat or drink, were they stimulative of passions, or could they

be gambled with like stocks and public consciences, they would take them up just where finer minds would drop them; who love them as revelations of God's sense of beauty; as addressed to the taste, and to something finer and deeper than taste, that power within us which spiritualizes matter, and communes with God through His work.

Many persons lose much of the enjoyment by indulging false association. The term weed ends the glory of some flowers. But all flowers are weeds; and somewhere our rarest flowers are somebody's commonest. Flowers growing in noisome places, in desolate corners, upon rubbish, or rank desolation, become disagreeable. Road-side flowers, ineradicable, and hardy beyond all discouragement, lose themselves from our sense of delicacy and protection. And generally there is a disposition to undervalue common flowers. If a plant be uncouth, it has no attractions to us simply because it has been brought from the ends of the earth and is a great rarity;" and if it has beauty, it is none the less, but a great deal more attractive to us because it is common. It adds generosity to beauty. It gives joy to the poor, the rude, and to the multitudes who could have none were Nature to charge a price for her blossoms. Is a cloud less beautiful, or a sea, or a mountain prospect, because often seen, or seen by millions?

[ocr errors]

At any rate, while we lose no fondness for eminent and accomplished flowers, we are conscious of a growing respect for the democratic crowds. There is, for instance, the mullein, of but little beauty in each floweret, but a brave plant, growing cheerfully and heartily out of abandoned soils, ruffling its root with broad-palmed, generous, velvet leaves, and erecting therefrom a

A DISCOURSE ON FLOWERS.

spire that always inclines us to stop for a kindly look. This fine plant is left, like a decayed old gentleman with us, to a goodnatured pity. But in other countries it is a flower, and called the "American velvet plant."

551

As for marygolds, poppies, hollyhocks, we shall never have a garden without them, both for their own sake, and for the sake of old-fashioned folks, who used to love them. Morning-glories need no praising. The vine, the leaf, the exquisite vase-formed flower, the delicate and varicus colors, will secure it from neglect while taste remains. Grapeblossc ms and mignonette do not appeal to the eye, and if they were selfish no man would care for them. Yet, because they pour their life out in fragrance, they are always loved, and, like homely people with noble hearts, they come to look beautiful by association. Nothing that produces constant pleasure in us can fail to seem beautiful. We do not need to speak for that universal favorite, the rose! As a flower is the finest stroke of creation, so the rose is the happi

We confess to a homely enthusiasm for clover-not the white clover, beloved of honey bees, but the red clover. It holds up its round, honest head with such rustic innocence! Do you ever see it without thinking of a sound, sensible, country lass, sunbrowned and fearless as innocence always should be? We go past a field of red clover like Solomon in a garden of spices. There is the burdock, too, with its prickly rosettes, that has little beauty or value, except (like some kind, brown, good-natured nurses) as an amusement to children, who manufacture baskets and what not of its burrs. But thest hit among flowers! thistle is a prince. Let any man that has But we must not neglect the blossoms of an eye for beauty take a view of the whole fruit-trees. What a great heart an appleplant, and see where is more expressive grace and symmetry [say rather character]; and where is there a more kingly flower? To be sure there are sharp objections to it in a bouquet; yet most gardeners feel toward a thistle as boys toward a snake; and farmers, with more reason, dread it like a plague But it is just as beautiful as if it were a universal favorite. What shall we say of mayweed, irreverently called dog-fennel by some? Its acrid juice, its heavy pungent odor, make it disagreeable and being disagreeable, its enormous anti-Malthusian increase renders it hateful to damsels of white stockings, compelled to walk through it on dewy mornings. Arise, O scythe, and devour it !

The first thing that defies the frost in spring is the chickweed. It will open its floral eye and look the thermometer in the face at 32°; it leads out the snow-drop and crocus. As a harbinger and herald, let it not be forgotten. [It even welcomes the anniversary of the birth of Washington, in this latitude.]

You can not forget, if you would, those golden kisses all over the cheeks of the meadow, queerly called dandelions. There are many green-house blossoms less pleasing to us than these. Moreover, their passing away is more spiritual than their bloom. Nothing can be more airy and beautiful than the transparent seed-globe-a fairy dome of splendid architecture.

tree must have! What a generous work it
makes of blossoming! Not a single bloom
for each apple that is to be, but a profusion,
a prodigality of them. The tree is but a
huge boquet; it gives you twenty times as
much as there is need for, and evidently be-
cause it loves to blossom. We will praise
this virtuous tree. Not beautiful in form,
often clumpy, cragged, and rude; but glo-
rious in beauty when efflorescent. Nor is it
a beauty only at a distance. Pluck drown
a twig and examine as closely as you will;
it will bear the nearest looking. The sim-
plicity and purity of the white expa ded
flower, the half-open buds slightly blushed,
the little pink-tipped buds unopen, crowding
up like rosy
children around an elder brother
or sister! Why, here is a cluster more
beautiful than any you can make up artifi-
cially, and you may pick from the whole
garden. Wear this family of buds for my
sake; it is all the better for being common.
I love a flower that all may have; that be-
longs to the whole, and not to a select and
exclusive few. Common, forsooth! a flower
can not be worn out by much looking at, as
a road is by much travel.

How one exhales, and feels his childhood coming back to him, when, emerging from the hard and hateful city streets, he sees orchards and gardens in sheeted blooila, plum, chrry, pear, peach and apple, waves and billows of blossoms rolling over hills

« AnteriorContinuar »