UC-NRLF
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ANDREW
SMITH
HALLIDIC:
ON THE
SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE
COMPRISING
A COMMENTARY ON AND COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION
OF THE
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY
OF
MR, KIRWAN AND SIR HUMPHRY DAVY;
THE
CODE QF AGRICULTURE
OF
SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, SIR JOSEPH BANKS, AND OTHER
AUTHORS ON THE SUBJECT.
SHEWING,
That there is not only a discrepance in the opinions of those Authors on many
of the most important operations of Agriculture ; but that this arises from their
inferences and conclusions being erroneous ; and their principles unfounded, or
inapplicable ; and particularly on the subject of breeding, and the nature,
preparation, and application of manures. And also of the rust or black blight in
wheat ; of which the true cause, and its preventive are here explained.
DeUicateti to ti>e
BY JOSEPH HAYWARD,
AUTHOR OF THE SCIENCE OF HORT1CULTUJ
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW
1825.
••
LONDON :
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New- Street- Square .
ADVERTISEMENT AND
DEDICATION.
AFTER the numerous books of late pub-
lished on the subject of agriculture, and
particularly those of Mr. Kirwan, Sir Hum-
phry Davy, Sir John Sinclair, Sir Joseph
Bankes, and others, another may appear
superfluous ; but all who have read those
different authors with attention, must have
been convinced that however elaborate their
works, there is such a discrepancy in their
opinions on some of the most important
operations of agriculture, as to justify an
attempt to bring them to the .test of
a just investigation and comparison, by
tracing their principles in their progress
from cause to effect. I am not a pro-
fessor of chemistry, nor an extensive
A 2
108567
IV ADVERTISEMENT
practical agriculturist, nor the member
of any learned society : and as it is the
fashion of the times to attach great import-
ance to such authority, some may consider
me arrogant, presumptuous, and invidious,
in attempting to intrude on the public my
commentaries on the works of such estab-
lished characters : but I disclaim any other
intention, than that of ascertaining and
establishing just principles, and I cannot
hope to induce any one to adopt my notions
in preference to others, unless I prove
theirs to be wrong. My ideas on the sci-
ence of horticulture have long been before
the public ; and the critics remarked on that
work, that I was more bold than politic :
but what sort of policy must it be to deter
an Englishman from appearing as the ad-
vocate of truth and science ? If they mean
that by my boldness in endeavouring to
point out what I conceived to be the errors
of others, and to rectify that which I had
proved to be bad in practice, I lost the
patronage of the Horticultural Society of
London, they may be correct j for this, as a
AND DEDICATION. V
body, I certainly could not obtain, although
previous to the publication of that work, I
privately submitted the same to some of
the first public characters, and particularly
to Sir Humphry Davy, and to the president
and council of the Horticultural Society.
Sir Humphry very politely received and
acknowledged the perusal of my papers,
and with great liberality stated his admis-
sion, that to that part of my work which
related to the objects of his peculiar study,
he found no objection ; at the same time
excusing himself from giving an opinion
on the practical part, by observing, he did
not consider himself possessed of sufficient
practical knowledge to give it importance,
and expressed his intention to commend me
to the president of the Horticultural Society.
I dedicated my book to the president and
society, and repeatedly applied to them for
their opinion, and invited them to an in-
vestigation of my demonstrations, but which
they uniformly refused ! Nearly six years
have now elapsed, and I have never seen
any comment of his or theirs on it: however.
VI ADVERTISEMENT
the public having done me the honour to
have purchased the first edition, and good
part of the second, assures me it cannot
now be suppressed ; and whether the im-
provements I had established, were or were
not received and treated as they deserved,
time will show. Every man has a right to
confide in his own understanding, and if
his conscience does not accuse him of having
presumed to violate truth, or pluming him-
self on his fancied powers, to have imposed
false and untried theories on the ignorant
and credulous, he need not fear others.
Fortune may enable pride and arrogance to
smother truth and science for a time, but
in a land of liberty these must ultimately
establish themselves, however humble their
immediate patrons. Although the Horti-
cultural Society of London have refused to
\ acknowledge the merit of my arrangement
and explanation of scientific principles,
they must ultimately adopt them, or be
\ left far in the back ground, and their gar-
, den exhibit a glaring instance of a want
of candour and liberality in the directors.
20
AND DEDICATION. Vll
Repeated observation and demonstrative
experiments have convinced me, that al-
though Sir Humphry Davy's analysis, and
expositions of chemical principles, are cor-
rect and clear, in his application of them
to agricultural practice, and in his infer-
ences, he is greatly mistaken.
That although Sir John Sinclair, is copi-
ous and minute in his description of agri-
cultural operations and practical results, his
opinions and deductions are erroneous and
inconclusive.
That Sir Joseph Bankes, in his opinion
and description of the rust or black blight
in wheat, has mistaken the effect for the
cause, and thus misled the public in their
endeavours to find a remedy.
That Mr. Knight's opinions and exposi-
tions, as quoted by Sir John Sinclair and
Sir Humphry Davy, are hypothetical and
fallacious.
That Bakewell's principles and practice ^
in breeding, condemned by Sir John Sin-
clair, and neglected by the generality of
agriculturists, are founded on true scientific
Vlll ADVERTISEMENT
principles, and are the most correct and
beneficial that can be followed.
That the practice of Jethro Tull and
Mr. Curwen is grounded on just scientific
principles ; although these are not recog-
nised, or not explained by them.
That the methods in general practice, of
preparing and applying manure, are erro-
neous and imperfect.
That by the common mode of making
hay, much unnecessary risk and expense
are incurred, and the saccharine and nutri-
tive principles lessened and dissipated.
That every county in England may make
as good cider as Hereford, Devon, or
Somerset; and the apple trees may be
trained so as never to be subjected to the
injuries of being overloaded with fruit or
snow, and without incurring additional ex-
pense.
And that the defects I have described
being removed, and the remedies and prac-
tices I have explained adopted ; much' in-
crease, and more certainty in the produce
of the land, may be obtained.
AND DEDICATION. IX
Then, under such convictions, ought I
to fear being censured as obtrusive and
presuming, in thus offering myself to the
public ? I know, among the practical agri-
culturists, it is a prevailing opinion, that
no good arises from attending to theorists.
To these I will beg leave to observe, that
however repeatedly they may have been
misled by theory, they cannot be justified
in opposing or neglecting science; for whilst
ignorant of this, they are mere imitators,
and can never be masters of their business.
And surely, the nobility and gentry, will
not consider a correct knowledge of the
relation of effects to their causes, as it
regards objects which are not only essential
to their happiness, but to their existence,
to be beneath their notice ?
I trust the British public will not con-
sider me unworthy their attention, be-
cause I have no great man, or body of men,
to patronise my work. At any rate, when
they consider the result of my having op-
posed the theories of a great man in my
former work, they will, perhaps, excuse
X ADVERTISEMENT AND DEDICATION.
me, in thus wishing to avoid mortification,
and of relying upon their candour and libe-
rality, by dedicating this work to them, of
whom I have the honour to be one,
And their very faithful,
and humble servant,
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
Page
Advertisement and Dedication - iii
Introduction -------- i
General View of the Subject - 5
On Breeding or Raising Vegetables - - - 9
On Breeding and Rearing Animals - - - 21
On Cultivating the Earth ----- 51
Arrangement of Chemical Principles - - - 71
On the Roots of Plants ------ 77
On the Use and Office of the Leaves 82
On the Food of Plants -.,---- 93
On the Rust or Black Blight in Wheat - - 156
On Fallowing Land and Paring and Burning - 169
On the Composition of Soils and the Agency
of the Earths, &c. 189
On the Nature and Application of Lime - - 195
On Haymaking - - ----- 208
On Orchards and Cider - - - - - - 212
UNIVERSITY
OF
INTRODUCTION.
AGRICULTURE is defined by Mr. Kirwan to
be "the art of making the earth produce the
largest crops of useful vegetables at the smallest
expense ;" but this conveys only a contracted
and partial idea of that which must be compre-
hended in the science of husbandry. Vegeta-
bles, and animals which feed on vegetables, con-
stitute that produce of the earth which is essen-
tial to the existence, and requisite to the com-
forts, of mankind. The art of husbandry is, no
doubt, simple, if it be considered as limited to
manual operations only ; but the science of hus-
bandry or agriculture is more properly, a know-
ledge of the laws of nature which determine
the existence of both animals and vegetables,
and particularly of those, which influence and
govern them in their sexual intercourse and pro-
pagation, and also in their feeding, lodging, &c.
2 INTRODUCTION.
Sir Humphry Davy very justly observes, " It
is scarcely possible to enter upon any investiga-
tion in agriculture without finding it connected,
more or less, with doctrines or elucidations de-
rived from chemistry." And a chemical examin-
ation, shows, that the earth is but little con-
cerned in vegetation, otherwise than as a me-
dium or vehicle, bed or couch, in and on which,
the most important operations of nature are
conducted and performed.
We are commonly led to consider vegetables
as the chief produce of the earth ; but vegetables
and animals are so completely dependent upon
each other, that before we can affect in any de-
gree the produce of the one, we must comprehend
the influence they have each on the other. From
a great similarity to themselves in nature, man-
kind were very early enabled to form a clear com-
prehension of the general functions of animals,
in regard to their food, and as they are influenced
by climate ; also, of the difference in the sexes,
and the natural result of their intercourse : but it
was not understood until a much later period,
that the general functions of vegetables are in
every respect similar to those of animals, and
that the operations of nature regarding both,
are regulated by much the same laws j this, how-
ever, is now clearly demonstrated.
INTRODUCTION. 3
As some portions of the earth, in the produc-
tion of animals and vegetables, conduce more to
the supplying the wants of mankind than others,
so are some species of animals and vegetables
more productive and eligible than others, and
not only one species more so than another, but
some varieties of the same species are more valu-
able than others ; therefore it must be obvious,
that as well as enquiring into the- general nature
and various qualities of the earth, we must also
enquire into and ascertain, the qualities of those
varieties of animals and vegetables which are the
most conducive to our wants, and what causes
produce those varieties, or diminish or increase
their peculiar qualities. But as the qualities which
give value to the different varieties of animals and
vegetables must depend on peculiar circumstances,
it can be of little use in a work like this, to attempt
a particular description of these : and although
it is obvious, that the physiology of both animals
and vegetables form the fundamental principles
of the science of husbandry, it does not follow
that it must also comprehend a knowledge of the
comparative anatomy of either animals or vege-
tables ; this is of trifling consequence to the hus-
bandman. I shall therefore interfere very little
with the departments of zoology or botany.
THE
SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.
IT appears that a difference in the species only
of animals and vegetables was originally created,
and that the different varieties were left to be
determined by the casual or accidental com-
binations and operations of original principles or
causes. In the production of variety in ani-
mals and vegetables, no doubt climate has the
preponderating influence, and next to this food
and lodging ; but in the general course of nature,
these three grand principles operate in unison,
and when all concur in one effect, the greatest
distinctions are produced.
Food being the most effective and essential
cause of variety in the value of animals, this has
B 3
6 GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.
commanded more attention than the operation
of climate and lodging in respect to animals :
and climate and lodging being the more imme-
diate, effective, and obvious cause of the variety
and value of vegetables, these have commanded
more attention than food in respect to vegetables.
But to avail ourselves of the full advantage al-
lowed by nature, food, climate, and lodging,
both as they affect the one and the other, must
be clearly understood and equally attended to.
\^ The general progress of nature is uniform;
and in the continuation of her works, as if to
avoid the disorderly effect of an extreme indulg-
ence, or the capricious negligence of individuals,
the sexes were created, and it was ordained that
a junction of the two should be necessary for the
production of one individual ; and that in their
offspring, the habits and propensities of both male
and female should be blended.
And further to protect her creatures from ca-
sual injury arising from a change of food, lodging,
and climate, the habits of both animals and ve-
getables are made subservient to such changes :
thus, the continuation of a superabundance of
food produces an increase in size, and a defici-
ency of food a decrease ; a cold and a hot climate,
and a wet and a dry lodging, each produces a
coat or covering for the body, and a tempera-
20
GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. 7
ment of constitution best adapted to counteract
extremes: these things, therefore, form most
important objects of consideration.
Animals and vegetables administer to the wants
of mankind in various ways ; some by their flesh,
or the immediate substance of their bodies ;
others by their offspring and seed, or the food
provided by nature for their offspring ; others,
again, by their exterior covering, and others by
assisting man in his labour, and contributing to
his pleasures : therefore, in breeding and feeding
both animals and vegetables, due regard must be
paid to the peculiar object desired. And as na-
ture ever determines the end to the means, the
attention of the agriculturists must be directed
to the adapting their means to the end in view.
Nature is ever kind and liberal in providing
for the necessities of her creatures ; and being
always inclined to make an exuberant return in
her productions, for extra aid, she thus gives to
mankind an opportunity to avail themselves of
such propensities : by removing obstructions, and
favouring and protecting the general operations
of nature, and supplying the deficiency of any
needful support, they may increase their means
of subsistence and enjoyment.
But although mankind are thus blessed by an all-
bountiful Providence, their power is prescribed,
B 4
8 GENERAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.
and they are not permitted to act in opposition to
the laws of nature with impunity; whenever,
therefore, they presume to interfere with the
operations of nature, with a view to produce any
beneficial or certain effect, they must pay all due
deference to her laws ; all attempts to produce
sudden and abrupt changes, and wide extremes,
must be avoided : by assisting nature certain ob-
jects may be obtained, but attempts to force or
oppose her, generally produce disorder, and
often destruction.
These preliminary observations naturally lead
to the three following grand divisions of the
subject : — viz.
The breeding and raising of vegetables j
The breeding and rearing of animals ;
And, as connected with both these, — The
cultivation of the earth, or the producing and
preparing food and lodging for both.
In this order I shall proceed to consider and
arrange my observations.
9
ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES.
THE nature of the sexual intercourse, in the
propagation of animals, may be considered as too
well understood to 4ieed a minute explanation ;
but of the necessity of the sexual intercourse, in
the propagation of vegetables, many are still ig-
norant. I may therefore, perhaps, be excused for
intruding some observations on this part of the
subject, and for giving extracts from prece-
ding authors.
It may be but of trifling importance, who was
the first that discovered, the existence of a differ-
ence in the sexes in vegetables ; but as Bradley,
in a work on the improvement of planting and
gardening, published in 1730, seems to have
been one of the first English authors who wrote
on the subject, and as his description is clear
and simple, I shall give it in his own language.
He says, " I hope to be excused, if in the
"explanation of this wonderful mystery of the
" generation of plants, I shall be found to intro-
" duce such kind of plants as are not to be found
"in forests, and to make some of my experi-
"ments in the orchard and kitchen-garden.
10 ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES.
" Moses tells us, in his account of the creation,
"that plants have their seeds within themselves ;
" that is, every plant contains in itself, male and
" female powers. The text he has given us,
" seemed to be explained by this discovery, and
" may lead us to consider, that plants wanting
" local motion, require therefore this union of
"sexes in themselves; by which means they
"may generate without the neighbourhood of
" other plants. But before I proceed to explain
" this new system, I think myself obliged to de-
" clare, that the first time this secret was com-
" municated to me, was several years ago, by a
" worthy member of the Royal Society, Robert
" Yates, Esq., who has had this notion for above
" thirty years, that plants had a mode of ge-
" nerating somewhat analogous to that of ani-
" mals. The light which I received from this
" gentleman was afterwards further explained by
" another learned member of that society, Mr.
"Samuel Moreland, who in the Philosophical
" Transactions, 1703, has given us to understand
" how the dust of the apices of male flowers is
" conveyed into the uterus, or vasculum semi-
" nale of a plant ; by which means the seeds
" therein contained are impregnated. I then
u made it my business to search after this truth,
" and have had the good fortune enough to bring
" it to demonstration by several experiments.
ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES. 11
" But to come to the point : the lily being a*
" flower more generally known than any other,
" and the generative parts being large and ex-
" posed, I shall from thence endeavour to explain
"the method which nature makes use of, to
" impregnate the seeds of that and every other
" plant ; and by which means the several species
"of vegetables have been continued to the
"world.
" The flower of the lily has six leaves or petals,
" which are set upon the summit of the foot-stalk,
" marked a in the figure ; they serve to guard
" the parts of generation from the injury of
"the weather, and as they are no other use,
" that I know of, so it is not necessary that I
12 ON BUEEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES.
" should place them in the figure, b is the
*' mouth of the pistilium, or passage, which leads
" to the uterus c, in which are these ovaries
" filled with little eggs, or the rudiments of seeds,
" such as we find in the ovaria of animals : but
" these eggs will decay and come to nothing,
" unless they are impregnated by the farina fe-
" cundans, or male seed of the same plant, or
" one of the same sort.
"From d to e is the stamen of the lily,
" through which the male seed of the plant is
"conveyed, to be perfected in the apex f;
" where by the sun's heat it ripens, and bursts
" forth in very minute particles like dust ; some
" particles of which powder falling upon the
" orifice b, is either conveyed from thence into
" the vesicle c, or by its magnetic virtue draws
" the nourishment with great force from the
" other parts of the plant into the embryos of
" the fruit, and makes them swell.
" Now that the farina fecundans, or male dust,
" has a magnetic virtue, is evident, for it is that
" only which bees gather and lodge in the cavi-
" ties of their hind legs to make their wax with ;
*• and it is well known, that wax when it is warm
" will attract to it any light body."
Whatever may be thought of magnetic power,
the wise providence of nature is here wonder-
ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES. 13
fully displayed, by guarding in a different and
more certain manner against casual obstruction,
as well as the inability of a plant to bring toge-
ther the necessary parts formed for the propaga-
tion of its species. Every flower is furnished
with a receptacle, called the nectarium, wherein
is secreted, an odoriferous and very sweet liquid,
which attracts, and serves for the food of bees,
and other insects ; and these vessels are always
placed below the apices and the pistilium, so that
the insects in their endeavours to obtain their
nectar, must pass over, and between, the apices,
and also the pistilium ; and the farina or dust
sticking about them, is thus conveyed to the
mouth of the pistilium, and the process of
impregnation performed ; without this assist-
ance, there are some plants which could scarcely
ever be brought together, or impregnated : for
instance, the cucumber and the melon, and all
others of this tribe of plants, which have distinct
male and female blossoms, when growing in si-
tuations where the wind has no power to dis-
perse the farina.
As an elucidation of this, I may mention the
progress and result of the following experiment :
being desirous to obtain seed from a peculiar
head of broccoli, and well aware that the inter-
course of bees would occasion the seed to be
14 ON BREEDING AND UAISING VEGETABLES.
different to the mother plant, I surrounded the
sides of the plant with a frame of gauze, suffi-
ciently open to admit a free change of air, and
placed a hand glass on the top, and the conse-
quence was, not a single seed was formed ; ob-
serving the failure, I removed the covering, and
gave free access to the bees, &c., when a few
remaining blossoms immediately fructified, and
produced full pods of seed.
Bradley proceeds, " But again, if the parti-
" cles of this powder should be required by na-
'< ture to pass into the ovaries of the plant, and
" even into the several eggs or seeds there
" contained, we may easily perceive, if we split
" the pistilium of a flower, that nature has pro-
" vided a sufficient passage for it into the
" uterus.
" In the first figure I have given a design of
" one stamen, with its apex, to prevent mistakes
" in my explanation ; but the flower of every lily
" has six of the same figure and use, which are
" placed round about the pistilium or female
" parts, so that it is almost impossible it should
" escape from receiving some of the male dust,
" or farina feeundans, falling upon it.
_\^ w In this and other flowers of the same nature,
" the pistilium is always so placed that the apices
" which surround it are equal in height with it,
ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES. 15
" or above it, so that their dust naturally falls
" upon it ; and when we observe it to be longer
" than the apices, we may then conjecture that
«< the fruit has begun to form itself, and has no
" longer occasion of the male dust. And it is
" likewise observable, that as soon as the work /
" of generation is performed, the male parts, \
«' together with the leaves or covering, fall of£
" and the pipe leading to the uterus begins to
" shrink. We may further remark, that the top
"• of the pistilium of every flower is either co-
'* vered .with a sort of velvet tunick, or emits a
" gummy liquor, the better to catch the dust of
" the apices.
" And now, as we find in the description I
" have given of the lily, that the uterus is within
" the flower, so, on the other hand, the uterus
" of the rose is without the flower, at the bottom
" of the petals or flower-leaves. And likewise
" in fruit-trees, the cherries, plums, and some
" others, have their utricles within their flowers ;
" and the gooseberry, currant, apples, and pears,
" on the outside or bottom of their flowers.
" But further, although nature has designed
" the dust of the apices to fecundate the female
" parts, contained in the flowers of plants, yet
' ' we observe, that in some plants the male and
" female parts are remote from each other ; as, /
16 ON BREEDING AND RAISING VEGETABLES.
" for example, the gourd, pompion, melon, cu-
" cumber, and all of that race, have blossoms
" distinctly male and female upon the same
" plant : the male blossoms may be distinguished
" from the others, in that they have not any
" pistil or rudiment of fruit about them, but
" have only a large thrum, covered with dust,
" in their middle ; the female blossom of these
" has a pistilium within the petals or flower-
" leaves, and the rudiment of their fruit always
" apparent at the bottom of the flower before
" it opens. 'And so in like manner all nut-bear-
" ing and mast-bearing trees have their catkins,
" or male blossoms, remote from the female
" parts.
" The oak, for example, which blossoms in
" May, has its male parts distant from tne
" acorns. We find little strings of farinaceous
" flowers in great abundance, remote from the
" rudiments of the acorns or fruit.
" When we view with a good microscope the
" male dust of one small plant, we find every
" particle of it to be of the same size and figure.
" But in some cases it is of two colours, as in
" the tulip, where it is yellow and blue.
" I shall proceed to demonstrate part of this
" system. I made my first experiment upon the
" tulip ; which I chose rather than any other
V
ON BREEDING OR RAISING VEGETABLES. 17
" plant, because it seldom misses to produce
" seed. Several years ago I had the conveni-
" ency of a large garden, wherein there was a
" large bed of tulips ; in one part, containing
" above 4-00 roots ; in another part of it, very
" remote from the former, were twelve tulips in
" perfect health. At the first opening of the
" twelve, which I was very careful to observe,
" I cautiously took out of them all their apices,
" before the farina fecundans was ripe, or any
" ways appeared- These tulips, being thus cas-
" trated, bore no seed that summer; while, on
" the other hand, every one of the 400 plants
" which I had let alone produced seed.
" By this knowledge we may, perhaps, alter „
" the property and taste of any fruit, by impreg-
" nating the one with the farina of another of
" the same class : as, for example, a codlin with
" a pearmain, which will occasion the codlin so
" impregnated to last a longer time than usual,
" and be of a sharper taste ; or if the winter
" fruits should be fecundated with the dust of
" the summer kinds, they will decay before their
" usual time. And it is from this accidental ~*\ ^
" coupling of the farina one with the other, that
" in an orchard, where there is variety of apples,
" even the fruit gathered from the same tree
" differ in their flavour and times of ripening ;
c
18 ON BREEDING OR RAISING VEGETABLES.
" and, moreover, the seeds of those apples so
" generated being changed by that means from
" their natural qualities, will produce different
" kinds of fruits if they are sown. It is from
" the accidental coupling that proceeds the
" numberless varieties of fruit and flowers which
" are raised every day from seed."
The latter part of these observations, no doubt,
are correct; but in his supposition, that the
coupling of the farina changes the flavour or the
general qualities of the immediate fruit, this
author is mistaken, as it produces no such effect.
The change takes place in the seed alone, and,
therefore, can only be discoverable in the next
generation. By this accidental coupling, there
can be no doubt, but that variety in every species,
is principally produced ; and by taking advan-
tage of this, and directing, and partially divert-
ing, the usual course of nature, changes in the
habits, and general properties of vegetables, and
their fruits, may be produced, as well as in
animals.' By admixing the farina of the blossoms,
and planting the seeds, varieties of potatoes are
obtained; but no variety can be obtained by
planting the potatoes themselves, either by vary-
ing the soil or mode of culture. And the same
may be said of apples, and other fruits ; for let
trees be propagated in whatever numbers, by
\
ON BREEDING OR RAISING VEGETABLES. 19
engrafting or budding, and on whatever stocks, \
or by whatever means, it will create no variety (
in the fruit.
It thus appears, that mankind possess the
same influence over the sexual intercourse of
vegetables, as over that of animals ; and, conse-
quently, they have it as much in their power, to
raise and establish peculiar varieties in the one,
as in the other, and upon the same principles,
viz. that of selecting and pairing the males and
females. And if it be desired to exert this in-
fluence, the process may be easily conducted,
in the following manner : — a. blossom being se-
lected for a female, which has in itself the male
and female organs, as soon as the bud is ad-
vanced to the state of being on the point to
open or blow, the petals or flower-leaves must
be opened, and the apices or anthers taken off;
the blossom may then be left a day or two, until
the petals have expanded themselves, and the
pistilium be advanced to a state fit for impreg-
nation; then, a blossom being selected for a
male, when in full bloom, it must be taken off
the parent plant, and its apices, or anthers, gently
rubbed over the point, or end, of the pistiiium of
the prepared female blossom, so that the farina,
or dust, may attach itself to it ; after this, the
female must be defended against the intrusion
20 ON BREEDING OR RAISING VEGETABLES.
of bees, or such like insects, or placed out of the
danger of being otherwise promiscuously impreg-
nated. It is by a close attention to these laws
of nature, that so many valuable varieties of
pulse, grain, fruit, roots, and esculent vegeta-
bles, have of late been raised and obtained.
It must also be observed, that by frequently
propagating from seeds, carefully selected from
those plants, which possess the most desirable
qualities, — even though there be no intended
crossing or mixing of farina to produce varie-
ty,— the most valuable habits of any species,
may be improved and increased 5 and particu-
larly by their being naturalised, and enabled to
adapt themselves to flourish, in any peculiar soil
or climate.
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
ALTHOUGH the difference in the sexes, appears
to be more strongly marked in animals, than in
vegetables ; the laws of nature, as they regard
the result of their connection, are much the same
in both.
On the subject of breeding, Sir John Sinclair
says, " The art of improved breeding consists in
" making a careful selection of males and fe-
" males, for the purpose of breeding stock
" with fewer defects, and with greater perfec-
" tions, than their parents, in which their mu-
" tual properties shall be continued, and their
" mutual faults corrected.
" The objects of improved breeding, therefore
" are to obviate defects, and to acquire and per-
" petuate desirable properties j hence, when a
" race of animals have possessed in a great de-
" gree, through several generations, the proper-
" ties • which it is our object to obtain, their
" progeny are said to be well bred, and their
" stock may be relied on."
" It was upon this principle of selectiorfthat
" Bakewell formed his celebrated stock of sheep,
c 3
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
" having spared no pains or expense in obtain-
" ing the choicest individuals, from all the best
" kinds of long or combing woolled sheep,
" wherever they were met with : and it cannot
" be doubted, that any breed may be improved in
" the same manner ; namely, that of putting the
" best males to the finest females. After a su-
" perior breed, however, has been thus obtained,
*« it is a point that has been much disputed,
" whether it is proper to raise stock ; 1st, from
" the same family ; or, 2d, from the same
" race, but of different families ; or, 3d, from
" races entirely different.5*
This explanation of Sir John Sinclair, without
doubt, is clear enough ; but as he found the
subject much disputed, so he seems to have left
it, at any rate, but resting on very indetermi-
nate grounds ; for although he gives an ample
detail of the observations, and practical results,
of many of the most eminent men, on both sides
the question, his own conclusions are by no
means demonstrated, but calculated to confuse
and mislead ; for he further says, " On breeding
" from the same family — this method is called,
" breeding in and in, or putting animals of the
" nearest relationship together : though this
" plan was for some time in fashion, under the
" sanction of BakewelPs authority, yet experi-
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 23
" ence has now proved, that it cannot be sue-
" cessfully persevered in."
This conclusion, in a general sense, cannot be
admitted, but we may, indeed, admit, that there
are bounds, beyond which we cannot force na-
ture, for having reached the point of perfec-
tion, there we must stop ; we cannot proceed
farther.
Sir John should also have stated, what appears
to have been the fact, that Bakewell, not only se-
lected the finest males and females, but he spared
neither pains nor expense, in furnishing and adapt-
ing such climate, lodging^ and food, as appeared
most conducive to the forwarding his object;
and then, it might have been remarked, that the
pains and expense thus incurred by Bakewell,
to obtain his object, was so great, that the no-
velty alone of his produce, could command an
adequate return ; and this, perhaps, may be a
sufficient reason, why his plans could not be
considered as eligible to be generally followed,
but it does not furnish just grounds for con-
demning the principle, of breeding in and in,
altogether.
After a perfect stock has been obtained* how
is it to be continued ? This seems to be the grand
question, and it only can be answered on the
principles before explained, viz. by duly attend-
&fc ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
ing to their qualities and habits, when selecting
the breeders ; and again, to the means, by which
those qualities and habits are sustained. If great
size be the valuable quality, and the utmost
nature will admit ofj has been produced by an
artificial climate and lodging, and a selection of
food, it must be obvious, that with the same
climate, lodging, and food, the same stock may
be kept up, by breeding in and in \ but with a
less congenial climate, lodging, and food, the
progeny of such animals, must decline, and be-
come less in size ; and at the same time, it
might be * observed, that under those circum-
stances, no crossing can keep up the size and pro-
pensities. And again, if animals or vegetables, of
whatever size, bred in a certain climate, and with
certain lodging and food, can be furnished with
a lodging, climate, and food, more congenial and
nutritive, they may be increased and improved,
Sir John proceeds, — " It may, indeed, prove
" beneficial, if not carried too far, in fixing any
" variety that may be thought valuable, but on
" the whole it is only in appearance. Under
" this system, the young animal comes into the
" world on comparatively a very small scale ; by
" keeping it fat from the first moments of its ex-
*' istence, it is made to attain a greater size than
16
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 25
" nature intended ; and its weight, in conse-
" quence, will be very great in proportion to the
" size of its bones. Thus a generation of ani- N
" mals of an extraordinary form, and saleable at
" enormous prices, may be obtained, but^that
44 doesjiotjgrgvejthatjthe practice is eligible^ if ^
" lpnJLE§£?ffied in ; on the contrary, if the system \
" be followed up, the stock get tender and deli-
" cate ; they become bad breeders, and though
" they retain their shape and beauty, they will
" decrease in vigour and activity, „ will become
" lean and dwarfish, and ultimately incapable of \
" continuing the race/' *"?.
If a striking instance, not only of the ab-
sence of physiological principles, in the appli-
cation of practical observation, but of the sub-
stitution of speculative opinion; was necessary,
to prove a want of scientific arrangement, in Sir
John Sinclair, surely this must be sufficient ;
and if such arguments as the following, against
the attempt to produce a certain effect, are per-
mitted to influence opinion, and such causes be
assigned, as these, " it is thus made to attain a
" greater size than nature intended" agriculture
might, indeed, continue to be mere speculation
and uncertainty.
But even were such observations, construed
in the most favourable manner, they apply par-
26 ON BREEDING AND HEARING ANIMALS*
tially only, as they are descriptive of the effect of
injudicious selection, and of artificial feeding, and
do not prove the cause of defection, to be in the
general principle, of breeding in and in.
It appears, that Bakewell well knew how far
he could lead nature ;. and so far from his results
proving the insufficiency, of breeding in and in
to produce perfection, it completely establishes
the fact, that such an object cannot be obtained,
with equal facility, by any other means.
It 'must be admitted, that more valuable
animals in themselves, never were produced,
than those bred by Bakewell ; but the old
maxim no doubt is good, " You may purchase
" gold too dear." However, as before observed,
Bakewell had an object in view, and to ob-
tain this, every advantage of artificial climate,
food, and lodging, were resorted to, regardless
of expense; and so long as he could furnish
exuberance in food, climate, and lodging, he
found an exuberance in the flesh and size of his
animals returned ; but when his means of
increase were exhausted, nature made a stand —
she never went "farther than she intended"
I once heard of a farmer, who, ambitious to
excel, purchased a bull from Bakewell, or some
such fancy breeder, and after having kept him
for some time, the beast lost flesh, and became
ON REARING AND BREEDING ANIMALS. ^7
weak and languid ; the farmer on meeting
with his former feeder, complained that the ani-
mal was fast declining, although he had plenty
of grass, hay, &c. the feeder told the farmer,
that grass and hay were not sufficient ; for besides
these, he had been fed on grain, and had also
been indulged with a pail of milk every day,
from the time of quitting his mother. This suf-
ficiently shows the folly of carrying things to
such extremes for general purposes ; but it does
not prove Bakewell, to have been erroneous in
his judgment, nor doe&it detract from the prin-
ciple of breeding in and in.
It is the general practice of sheep farmers to
purchase their rams from professed breeders, at
enormous prices, and these, which are bred
under peculiar indulgences, are always kept
away from the flock, with an extra allowance of
the best food, such as grain, pulse, &c., and
frequently, also, are allowed the shelter of a
house ; the consequence is, that their stocks are
always lean and long, and large in their bones,
and unequal to sustain the hardships of the
natural climate, lodging, and food, with health
and vigour; and hence it is obvious, that the
.practice of crossing is not only attended with
much useless expence, but that it obstructs what
ought to be the object of every rational farmer
28 ON BREEDING AND HEARING ANIMALS.
to obtain, viz., the possession of a stock, in every
respect adapted to the nature, and localities, of
his situation and circumstances.
Sir John Sinclair also says, " Sir John Sea-
" bright tried many experiments, by breeding in
"and in, with dogs, fowls, and pigeons, and
" found the breeds uniformly 4egenerate." But
it maybe remarked, that pigeons, dogs, and fowls,
Pfrom their long domestication, are already as much
removed from a state of nature, as nature will
admit of ; and being bred and fed more to please
the fancy than for any defined object, it frequently
happens that the most desired qualities are the
„ i effect of disease or distortion ; and, therefore, on
1 the principles laid down, it might be expected,
-^>. that weak, diseased, or defective males and fe-
males being selected and paired, would produce
those that are still more so.
Sir John Sinclair again says, " A gentleman
" who tried the experiment with pigs, brought
" them at last into such a state, that the female
" gave over breeding almost entirely, and when
" they did breed, their produce was so small
" and delicate, that they died as soon as they
" were born." Here also an effect is mistaken
for a cause ; these failures evidently arose from
wigin^aJLjiefect, and a peculiar selection in pair-
ing having been carried to an extreme, and
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 29
not solely on the principle of breeding in and
in ; no doubt, in the pursuit of this principle,
there are, as in every process, two extremes and
a medium.
As for dogs, I knew a gentleman, who by-\
crossing had lost the valuable qualities of his (
greyhounds, which determined him to try back, )
by breeding from the nearest blood, and he suc-
ceeded, and recovered his lost excellence. And
Samuel Emley, Esq. of Salisbury, assured me,
he bred in and in, with the same family, both /
pointers and spaniels, for thirty years, and never }
found them degenerate.
No opinion is more common, than that game-
cocks will degenerate, when bred in and in ; but
having asked different breeders, in what points
they have been found to degenerate, I was an-
swered by one, that those so bred, would stand
up till killed, but that they had no spirit or ac-
tivity; whilst the other asserted, that they were
all activity, spirit, and dash, at the onset, but
gave in after a blow or two. I have also re-
peatedly heard the same inconsistent objections ,
made to breeding in and in with greyhounds ;
one party asserting, that those so bred, have:
great speed, but no bottom, whilst another states,
that they have no activity or speed, but will run .
till death.
30 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
There can be no doubt, but that all these
failures may occur, when breeding in and in,
but they are clearly the effect of improper se-
lection, and establish no grounds of objection,
that will not as justly attach to the principle of
cross breeding.
In breeding animals for fattening, it is the
usual practice to select those for breeders, that
discover the greatest propensity to fatten or
grow fleshy, and such animals are generally
uncertain and bad breeders, and always bad
nurses ; and this rests on the principle I have
stated. The female being selected, as one in
whom the exuberance of nature is in her flesh,
Bnd whose food is appropriated entirely to the
increase of this, her powers of conception are
obstructed, and her young, neither during her
pregnancy, nor after their birth, can be fur-
nished by her with the nourishment necessary
to support them ; and sterility in the female,
and disorder and want of size and strength in
her progeny, must be the result. But after their
birth, the wants of nature in food and tempe-
rature, may be artificially supplied to the young,
and they may thus be reared, with all the appa-
rent qualities of their progenitors.
I obtained a sow pig, of a breed peculiar for their
propensity to fatten, from Mr. Hodgson. This
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 31
creature kept in high condition, even when fed
on grass alone, or simple wash and grains ; but
she never produced more than seven young
ones at a farrow, and two or three of those
were generally starved to death for want of her
producing milk, all her food being appropriated
to the increase of her own flesh, instead of fur-
nishing sustenance for her young ones ; and
whatever boar was put to her, made no differ-
ence in this respect, but I never obtained any
young ones, that possessed in an equal degree
her own propensities and shape, except when
put to her own son. I also obtained another
sow, of a very different breed, but of equally
strong propensities to fatten, and valuable pro-
portions, and although this animal was regularly
in season for more than twelve months, and put
to different boars, she never would breed. Such
a sort of pigs would certainly not answer to
keep as breeders of stock for a market, but to
purchase for fattening, they were worth 25 per
cent, more than any others I ever possessed.
Such peculiarities were, no doubt, produced by
breeding in and in, and could not have been
by any other means, but it was also more imme-
diately the effect of selection. Animals possess-
ing the opposite propensities, that of breeding
great numbers, with large bone, and such as
32 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
are also with difficulty furnished with flesh,
may of course be produced, by observing the
same principles.
Sir John Sinclair likewise says, " Mr. Knight's
" experiments with plants have fully convinced
" him, that in the vegetable as well as the ani-
" mal kingdom, the offspring of a male and
" female, not related, will possess more strength
" and vigour than when they are of the same
" family, which proves how unprofitable such
" connections are."
Peculiar cases may have occurred, partially
to sustain such remarks, but these cannot justify
such a general conclusion. The terms " more
strength and vigour," can only be understood
as comparative. If a male from a plant of vi-
habits and full health, be coupled with
•^*^^N,^., n JLiii"^-10**^??^**^^*1^
. habits and bad health; is it
be expected that the offspring will be more
vigorous and healthy than the male parent ?
rely not ; it would be as contrary to nature
* as to reason: it might be more so than the
female, but this does not justify such a general
conclusion.
And further, Sir John says, " A change of
" seed is in general advantageous, in regard
" both to animals and vegetables ; hence many
" farmers are induced, not only to change tho
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 33
66 seed of the kind of grain they cultivate, butA
" to procure males from the flocks and herds
" of those who have the same, or similar withS
" their own. It has been remarked that those
" farmers have in general the worst flocks, who
" bred from rams produced on their own farms,
" and that an interchange of males is mutually
" beneficial."
These observations, like many others of Sir
John- Sinclair, are calculated more to mislead,
than_Jto inform, the ignorant agriculturist, for
instead of grounding his judgment and prac-
tice, on the established principles of science, he
is here recommended to rely on _ blind j^ance,
or the casual observation and imitation of others.
By crossing different varieties of vegetables,
no doubt, other varieties may be obtained, and, A"
perhaps, such as possess more valuable qualities /
than the parent plants ; but with vegetables as (
with animals, food and climate, possess the /
greatest influence, in varying their qualities; thus\
the seeds of plants, transplanted from a sterile
soil and uncongenial climate, to a luxuriant soil(
and congenial climate, will increase in the luxu- \
riance of their produce, with every generation, /
until they have reached the bounds prescribed j
by nature, and vice versa.
Sir Humphry Davy very justly observes,
D
34 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
" As plants are capable of amelioration, by pe-
" culiar methods of cultivation, and of having
" the natural term of their duration extended,
" so in conformity to the general law of change
" they are rendered unhealthy, by being ex-
" posed to peculiar unfavourable circumstances,
" and liable to premature old age and decay.
" The plants of warm climates transported
" into cold ones, or of cold ones transported
" into warm ones, if not absolutely destroyed
" by the change of situation, are uniformly ren-
" dered unhealthy,"
A difference in opinion may always be ex-
pected to exist, as to the form and colour that
constitutes the beauty of animals, as well -as ve-
getables, but it cannot be denied that the grand
object of agriculture, should be a profitable pro-
duce. The mode of attaining this object, no
doubt, will be determined, in a great measure,
by peculiarity of situation and circumstances;
but taking it for granted that every agriculturist
must be desirous of keeping up the good qua-
lities, if not of improving his stock, the only
questions that can arise, are, What is an im-
provement? and, What will produce profit ? And
let this be determined as it may, perfection can
only be obtained by a selection of breeders.
If a greater or less size be required, stronger
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 35
propensities, or greater and more perfect health
and vigour, the object must be obtained by se-
lecting and pairing those males and females
which possess in the greatest degree the requisite
qualities, whether crossing be resorted to, or
breeding in and in.
When left to nature it is always determined
one way ; those which are rendered the weakest,
from whatever cause, are driven off) or down, by
the strongest and most vigorous : and as all have
to contend with the same climate, lodging, and
food, those possessing the best habits must al-
ways prevail, and consequently the breed must
be kept up to its greatest perfection. And that
an adherence to those principles which are the
most congenial to the laws of nature is the most
profitable, is clearly established by practical de-
monstration.
It is well known, that there. are many farms,
and many large districts that never do fatten
their stock, and indeed are considered and
found inadequate to it ; and what other cause
can be assigned for this, but that the stock are
bred by continual crossing with males reared
under advantages of superior lodging, food, and
climate, to what such farms and districts natu-
rally produce ? As Sir John Sinclair observes, )
animals bred from the same family, and selected S
D 2.
36 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
for their peculiar propensities to fatten, have a
large proportion of flesh, and but little bone ;
so, on the contrary, animals bred from meagre
fernales, living in a harsh climate, and with a
scanty supply of food, by crossing with males
of the largest size, produced by superior food,
and in a climate more congenial, have a large
proportion of bone, and but little flesh, and pos-
sess withal a more delicate and precarious state
of health. Any land whatever, that will furnish
food enough to maintain two animals in a state for
breeding, and with a climate and lodging requi-
site to sustain health and vigour, wrill be found
equal to the fattening an animal that had been
naturalised to it by breeding in and in for several
generations. Every farm may be considered as
having its peculiar advantages and disadvantages,
compared with others, and a profit can only
arise from a skilful observance and management
of these.
There does not exist a more mistaken notion,
than that the stock of one farm may be kept equal
to every other, by crossing and changing the ani-
mals and seeds only. It has been well observed,
that " Nature provides every creature with a
" shelter from the storm." If a male and female
of any species of animal or plant be bred under
circumstances of a congenial climate, and a libe-
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 3?
ral supply of food, and afterwards placed in a ^
situation where the climate is harsh, and the /
supply of food scanty, they must of necessity de-
cline in flesh, and in health and vigour : but
their young, bred under those circumstances of
privation will ^cauire habits, and be reduced
7> %A£&t » "~<r •?$*** ^^^ju*,«/afc^*w. . /
> A£t » "~<r •*** ju*,«^*. .
to a size, m&& conformable f and these again
breeding in and in, the habits of their progeny
will still become better adapted, until, by de-
grees, they will become perfectly inured and na-
turalised, and capable of making the utmost
return the farm is equal to, and at the least \
expense. But if j on the other hand, the breeder
chooses to contend with, and oppose, nature ;
and instead of submitting to her laws, he still
persists in attempting to keep up the size, by a
fresh supply of males and females from the ori-
ginal quarter, he inevitably must be subjected
to the consequences of a want of health and vi-
gour, and incur great hazard, and extra expense.
That the above principles equally govern the
vegetable, as well as the animal world, has
been demonstrated by Sir Joseph^Banks, who
says, that jby repeatedly raising plants from the
seeds g0iwji, on .the ..sgot, he has so naturalised
tcTthis climate, vegetables that were natives of
a warm climate, and which on their first intro-
duction into this country, could only be kept
D 3
38 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
f alive in conservatories, that they are now en-
\ abled to flourish in the open air without artificial
/ protection. And in corroboration of those con-
clusions, I annex the following extracts: that
of Mr. Mason, from Sir John Sinclair's Code
of Agriculture, and Mr. Robinson's, from the
Farmer's Journal, of April 15th, 1816.
Answers by C. Mason, Esq. ofChilton, Durham,
to the question, whether the system of " Breed-
ing in and in" is advisable.
To answer the question on the propriety or
/ impropriety of adopting the system called Breed-
\ ing in and in, it seems only necessary to recur
to the acknowledged principles of breeding in
general. It is admitted that all breeding pro-
ceeds on the presumption, that the tendency of
/ any individual animal is to transmit to its off-
\ spring, the form, constitution, and. qualities
which it possesses ; and as two animals are con-
cerned in the production of one offspring, that
one .is expected to inherit a form and constitution
compounded of the joint qualities of its pa-
I rents. Thus it is found in numerous breeds of
\ animals, as in deer, in the west Highland cattle,
/'in the north Devon, and in the wild cattle of
Chillingham Park, the offspring for an indefinite
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 39
number of generations, have borne the same ge-
neral characters. These are examples, where
great numbers have contributed to the formation
of the several breeds, and while the general cha-
racter is found invariable, it is not observed to
be accompanied by any general deterioration, in
any essential quality: where any deterioration
therefore, is observed, it is most probably ascriba-
ble to one of two causes.
1st. From some peculiarity of circumstances,
few animals only may be concerned in the pro-
duction of the breed, and then, any individual
defect must not only be transmitted uncorrected,
but will necessarily increase in the progeny ; a
tendency to that defect being inherited by both
parents, and botri being immediately descended
from its original propagator. This defect may
be in size, from inclination to feed at an early
age, to feed fat with a comparative small con-
sumption of vegetable food, to lay that fat on
valuable points, or in constitutional health, and
according to the nature of the original defect, the
breed will become bad graziers, or incapable of
producing any but an unhealthy offspring.
2dly. The same effects may follow in breeds
formed by selection. The selector may have be-
gun with an individual having, some radical de-
fect in form, constitution, or quality: and if he
D 4
40 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
want judgment or opportunity to correct such
defect, by employing other cattle of the same
breed, free from such, his cattle will degenerate,
as before explained. In the case of selection
from a small number, it is also to be observed,
that the selector too often chooses the weakest
male, because such appears of the most delicate
form, and nearest approaching to female sym-
metry ; and if this be continued for a few gene-
rations, it may be easily be supposed that such
a breed will dwindle, compared to one left to
the process of nature, in which the strongest
males driving off the weakest, are exclusively
employed for the propagation of the kind.
From these observations, strengthened as they
may be by the long established practice among
breeders of race-horses, &c., the result appears
to be, that any deterioration from breeding in
and in, is not a necessary consequence, but a fault
in the judgment of the foeeder*
A Letter by Mr. Joseph Robinson, published in
the Farmer's Journal, April \5th, 1816, in
answer to " A Norfolk Breeder's Queries "-
QIC. 1. How were the Northamptonshire
sheep treated the first summer after going to
fold?
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 41
Am. Picked the stubbles until they went to
turnips, on which they were wintered, and at
spring were removed to old grass land, and
never eat clover or artificial grasses. When
brought to-Whitsun fair, (May 17th,) such was
the glut of mutton that a price was not offered
for them, and three pound ten shillings each
would have purchased them. Not being sold,
they were turned back upon a piece of old turf,
where they remained all summer, without pro-
tection from sun and flies, and gained thirty-
five shillings each for five months' grazing. Had
they been sold and slaughtered at the end of two
years for three pounds ten shillings each, after
being hard worked the first summer, their merit
and great profit would not have been known,
which undoubtedly is the case with thousands of
the best animals in the nation. At the same
Whitsun fair, there was a lot of the great Leices-
ters, six in number, brought forward by a tup
man, who occupies a farm under Lord Fitzwil-
liam, which will feed any animal that possesses
any feeding nature ; and he has a father-in-law
who has two of the best turnip farms in the
county at command to winter sheep upon, and
corn troughs generally before them. Those six
Leicesters, after feeding upon the cream of two
or three farms, were brought forward to beat
42 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
the hard- worked Northampton, which had been
bred twenty -jive years, sire and dam without a
cross, in the same county, in the same parish, and
bred and fed upon one farm only.
From the great indulgence of the Leicesters,
they might at that time have been ten shillings
per head more value; but the - Northamptons
were supposed to have cut ten shillings worth
more wool at two clips than they had, which was
an equivalent. The Leicesters being turned
back likewise, upon the farm of Lord Fitzwilliam,
and kept through the summer, were expected to
come again at St. Luke's fair, and to go to the
cattle show, in Sadler's yard, at Christmas. Thus,
while the Northampton s were paying thirty-five
shillings per head for five months' keeping, the
Leicester's made a retrograde motion ; the dry
summer, sun, and flies, did not suit them, they
went away like an owl in the desert, and their
price and weight kept secret.
I do not see any good purpose answered by
those honoured characters, who are ornaments to
our nation, bestowing their money to encourage
the bringing forward the best trained and finished
animals, effected by gathering the cream off the
best farms in different counties. Not one farm
or one county produces them. I cannot see how,
or by what means, the most profit may be made
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 43
of an acre of poor or middling land, which com-
poses the great majority of the soil of this king-
dom. If rent was paid by the head of stock,
instead of the acre, it might perhaps answer the
tenants purpose to bestow the indulgence upon
a few animals; but since rent is paid by the
acre, the question with the occupier is, how can
we make the most profit of an acre of land ?
Suppose soils were classed into three or four
different classes ; for instance, say land under
twenty shillings per acre, land above twenty and
under forty shillings, above forty and under
sixty shillings per acre, and premiums offered to
persons who would bring animals forward mak-
ing most profit of an acre of grass, cleaning up
rough and smooth, — would not that answer a bet-
ter purpose, as it would hold out encouragement
to different classes of men and soils ? There is
by far the greatest proportion of poor and mid-
dling land, and on that must depend the princi-
pal supply of the market.
An attempt to improve the breed of animals
for the shambles, by making choice of the largest
males, is as ancient as it is fruitless ; and is it
not strange to see it renewed in the nineteenth
century, by the professed followers of a Bake-
well ? They say the attempt is laudable, because
difficult to be obtained. Difficult to breed a
44 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
large good one? — A sufficient reason why I
should object to it. Shall we refuse the common
necessaries of life, bread and water, because
easy of access, and substitute in their room what
is hard to obtain ? Will that do for the great
national family, who are spending their strength
for a bare subsistence for themselves and fami-
lies ? They say it is easy to breed a little good
one ; then is it not wisdom to accept the offered
good?
" Not to know a treasure's worth
Till time has stolen away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the miseries we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is."
COWPER.
I cannot, for one moment, suppose that the
great or small size of an animal has any thing to
do with his goodness as a stock -getter.
" To find the medium, asks some share of wit,
And, therefore, is a mark fools never hit."
Again let me beg those luminaries to come to
the test of reason. They say we cannot combine
great wool and great mutton ; if we increase one,
we decrease the other. Then what are they
doing by enlarging the frame? Are they, by those
means, diminishing or increasing the difficulty ?
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 45
As every animal is supported through the me-
dium of the stomach, a wool-bearing animal has
two demands, — to support wool and carcase ;
nor can either thrive further than nourishment is
afforded. Then how wrong to put large animals
upon a poor pasture, that produces but little
herbage, and that little, less nutritious !
Again, when they say it is easy to get a little
good one, — if they mean by a good one, one
which will produce a son better than his sire,
and a third better than a second, and a fourth
better still ; that is what I shall call a good one.
If such a one is easily produced, do not the
hungry, poor, oppressed tenantry, the great
national family, in the name of all that is good,
call upon them to do it ? Why trifle with the
sacred wants and comforts of man ?
Again, they say we cannot combine heavy
wool with a good carcase. I believe not with
long middles and high legs, or with whimsical
fanciful niceties. But to say they cannot be
combined upon any principle is wrong: expe-
rience has proved we can do it with sheep that
are calculated to live and thrive upon poor and
middling soils.
I am convinced it would be a valuable acqui-
sition, if males to get stock were all bred upon
poor and middling soils, and treated as common
46 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
grazing stock ; then they would appear in their
true light. What does pampering do, but de-
ceive the unthinking ? And passing a bad stock-
getter, not only wrongs the person who uses
him, but injures the public, and ultimately falls
upon the poor.
The man who produces a pound of flesh, or
a bushel of bread corn, where it was not pro-
duced before, gives food to the hungry, and so
far promotes the works of God in his provi-
dence.
Qu. 2. Is thirty-one months the most profit-
able age to sell sheep, or to go to market at an
earlier period ?
Ans. The most proper time depends on cir-
cumstances ; if sheep are hard worked at an
early age, they require more time ; but if in-
dulged, will ripen sooner.
Qu. 3. What were they bred from, twenty-
five years before.
Ans. They were bred from a Dishley tup,
put to Northampton ewes, before the name of
New Leicester was known ; when Mr. Bake-
well was rising out of the solitary vale where he
could not meet his creditors, the vale in which
he learned, by repeated experiments, of tying up
different sorts of sheep, and weighing food to,
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 47
and refuse from them. By that slow and trouble-
some process, he found which were the best of
the different sorts he tried. When he had done
this, such was the wayward prejudice of breed-
ers in that day, they would not have them, and
it was with difficulty he could prevail on any
one to try them ; the prevailing opinion was,
too little, too little. Where they were tried,
wonders were v/rought; they made great im-
provement wherever they went, and no other
sheep would stand in competition with them.
Then his sheep were suited to poor land, a hard
common, the most so of any sheep. There are
people now living who heard Mr. Bakewell say,
that I, with my poor land, did him more credit
than any man in the three kingdoms. But the
great man mistook the effect for the cause ; he
knew what constituted a pleasing form, and what
was a good quality, but his capacious mind was
never led to consider what it was that gave the
animal strength of stamina ; if he had known it,
surely he would have communicated it to some
one, nor would he ever have departed from it.
He never thought how he procured it, or how
he lost it ; but when he had lost it, his sheep
were like Sampson when he had lost his hair
and became as another man. When he had lost
sterling worth, then he began to enquire after
48 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
the trappings of fashion. Then the general ques-
tion was, — What will be in fashion two years
hence? And some people yet living must re-
collect what became the fashion : some of the
worst animals that ever were introduced under
the palliating name of Bakewell, — high blood.
They had heads like snakes, eyes like hares, and
not one feature of a natural sheep. Mr. Bake-
well was a great politician, and by forming a
society of nearly twenty learned men from dif-
ferent counties, no other sheep ever had such a
weight of interest twisted, entwined, and wreath-
ed in their support. Under these circumstances,
for a lot of sheep of any other sort to be brought
forward to any public exhibition, were like an
individual standing against a crowd ; and as they
had possession of most of the best land in the
kingdom, it must be something very superior to
them to make any sort of stand against them.
Be that as it may, Dame Truth is no gossip, if
she is spoken with, it must be at home, for she
will go to none, and without the old gentle-
woman there is no certainty in breeding. I will
appeal to any one -who has been a tup man for
forty years, whether he has not been frequently
disappointed, and sometimes received least when
he expected most, and vice versa ; which proves
that without that something, which a Bakewell
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 4«9
never knew, no mercenary project, no combina-
tion of interest, can go straight forward to im-
prove the breed of sheep. Improve, did I say ?
I query whether there has been any improve-
ment in the breed of sheep in Northamptonshire
these last twenty or thirty years, other than what
has arisen from inclosures which afford a shelter,
and the introduction of turnips and clover, and
the use of mercurial ointment. I am persuaded
that what are called the New Leicesters, are not
near so good as they were ; in fact, without that
something, going into this or that county, or to
this or that man, for a male, is like a person
afflicted with the rheumatism going to Bath for
relief, and not using the waters. Bakewell's
sheep, at one time, would not only improve all
others, but would endure equal hardships, and
make more profit of an acre of land than any
other sort; would bear the inclemency of seasons,
needed nothing to create desire and tempt appe-
tite. And as he knew his sheep needed no extra
indulgence, he would not let a person a tup,
unless he would engage not to give the offspring
corn. The professed followers of Bakewell have
no objection to their customers giving their sheep
corn, and every other indulgence, sparing no
expense. They know that fat upon an animal, N
like charity, covers a multitude of faults. It is
E
,50 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
the prevailing fashion of some, now tacking
about, to produce large fat males ; and to what
purpose, but to make a better hand of their corn
than to take it to market : and knowledge, tak-
ing the advantage of ignorance, dupes the cre-
dulous out of their money.
Can the great quantity of fat laid upon an
animal, at such expense, produce a better sta-
mina in the offspring, or were ever the best
animals produced from the largest males? If
they were, Bakewell was wrong altogether. Can
it be right to call an animal from such an in-
dulgence and put him upon poor land to work,
whereby he is brought into a rapid decline,
when propagating his species ; and may not a
sudden transition of a male from a fat to a lean
state be injurious to the constitution, and is it
strange that they produce a declining stock ?
Various are the conjectures how or where
Bakewell procured his sheep ? He had them
from Lincolnshire, not from the rich marshes.
He there bought a score of ewes of a person
who could not be prevailed upon to sell a fa-
vorite tup, and agreed to give a guinea an ewe
to have them tupped by him before they came
home ; a great business-man, in Leicestershire,
saw them on the road coming home, and heard
something about the cost of tupping, and who
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 51
told Mr. Bakewell, at Loughborough market,
lie would not have them at the price they cost
the tupping. I think the original price was
four guineas a-piece, and when he was under
his misfortunes, his ewe lambs were valued at
no more than eight shillings each : the best
things he ever was in possession of, and from
which the tups that made hundreds sprang ;
these were called the Dishley blood, in distinc-
tion from that part of his flock which were
dashed with the Durham blood ; the former pos-
sessed short legs and thick carcases ; the latter
higher legs, longer and larger sheep with de-
fective fleeces; sometimes a fine large animal
was produced, but not being suited to the poor
soils, did not wear like the others.
Perhaps it would be thought arrogance in
any person to say he knows more of sheep
breeding than Bakewell did ; but surely one
may say some sheep are bred upon a principle
different from any other sort of sheep upon the
island. Whether they are better or worse, I will
leave time and experiment to prove, but am
persuaded that if ever that principle becomes
generally acted upon, the same quantity of herb-
age which now produces two pounds of flesh
will produce three pounds ; and then what an
increase of wealth to the nation, and what room
for an increase of population !
"E 2
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
Although one sort of sheep cannot be right
for all soils, if we must have two sorts of wool,
one principle may be right to breed all sorts of
sheep upon, viz. that which will turn a given
quantity of herbage to the most advantage.
Notwithstanding all the quackery and mystery
generally practised, there can be but two ways of
improving animals, viz. to breed from stock of a
good stamina, and train them in a proper manner
when bred. Dame Nature cannot be led, but
may be followed and assisted by human art.
Had Bakewell fixed a criterion, by which the
public might ascertain what constituted a right
animal for breeding stock, surely after thirty
years' steady pursuit of the object, the best
sheep would be found in more hands than they
are at this time, and the tupmen in different
counties not for ever destined to a dependance
on the few tupmen in Leicestershire for support,
and the public mind would have been at rest. I
suppose the Dishley Society were formed for
something like that, and to keep the best blood
entire, that the public might know where to find
it, but they seem as much divided in opinion
as others; some say one thing is the best, and
some say another ; like Dr. Priestley when he
offered his services to make up a creed for
the Church of England, and had not made up
his own.
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. ,58
Qit. 4f. Are they in the habit of making such
prices ?
Ans. In the year 1812, Charles Tibbits, Esq.
having ninety cull ewes to sell, indulged a friend
with thirty of the best of them, and the remain-
ing sixty were sold by auction, and averaged
three pounds fifteen shillings each, when a no-
bleman in the neighbourhood sold one hundred,
which averaged about forty shillings each, and
a shear-hog was slaughtered, that weighed nearly
sixteen stone, to win a wager; it paid one shil-
ling and three-pence per week, for eighty-two
weeks' keeping.
In 1814, ten sheep were sold in a public fair
to a stranger, which paid one shilling and three-
pence per head per week, for one hundred and
four weeks' keeping ; fifty, sold in a lot, paid one
shilling and four-pence per week, for one hun-
dred and ten weeks' keeping, all grazed in a
common way, without the aid of the scuttle,
and have dissected a carcase, which produced
thirteen and a half ounces of meat to a bare
half ounce of bone.
The above sheep all produced from males,
bred upon a farm that was supposed incapable
of supporting a sheep through the year before
I bought it, I would always choose such a si-
tuation, from conviction that the best sort of
E 3
54 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
animal might be bred upon, and are best suited
to, the worst soils, but not matured thereon.
Qu. 5. Are they bred by measure, height,
and length, or upon what system are they bred ?
Am. As to system, they are not philosophers
sufficient to know exactly how high the atmo-
spheric air will raise sheep to make them perfect ;
they know how many inches it will raise quick-
silver in a glass tube, but do not take that to
be a measure of perfection for sheep, so as to
render it necessary to take an exciseman's stick
when they want to engage a male.
Qu. 6. Any thing particular in the form of
the face, the length of the ear, &c. ?
Ans. This question reminds me of what a
nobleman's steward said some years ago ; he
went into a distant county to procure males, to
improve his master's flock at some future time.
Seeing some Northamptons pass the porter's
lodge, he asked where they came from; and when
he saw the person who bred them, he asked
him where he had the breed from. The steward
said, the breeders in a distant county told him
if he got such features, face, eyes, &c. he would
have every thing else accompanying it; but he said,
" I have the face, and you the every thing."
The above letter is written in a stile bordering
on the ludicrous, yet it is evidently much to the
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. £
purpose ; and although Mr. Robinson appears
more inclined to taunt than to praise Bakewell,
he furnishes practical demonstration of the cor-
rectness of Bakewell's principles. By Mr, Ro-
binson's own admission, Bakewell was in every
respect equal to his task ; he took up and pur-
sued most honourably the same principles which
Mr. Robinson upholds, until he found it would
not produce the grand object, riches. The
fact seems to be that Bakewell unfortunately
experienced the fate of many men of first-rate
abilities, viz. to have expended in the pursuit
of science, more than he gained ; and perhaps,
under the depression of heavy expense and
mortification, was induced to submit to the fas-
cination of fame, and to court fortune through
the medium of fancy or fashion. This line of
conduct, undoubtedly, gives Mr. Robinson the
advantage of accusing him of a want of true
patriotism, but it by no means supports the
charge of ignorance. A man of genius, who
can command the fashion, will feel no difficulty
in putting himself upon an equality with the
plodding man ; but the plodding man can never
place himself upon equal terms with the man
of genius, as a leader of fashion. Bakewell, in
the pursuit of perfection in the way of business,
became so thoroughly acquainted with the laws
of nature, as to be able to lead her to her
5(3 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
utmost limits, and having succeeded in attract-
ing the attention of those that were able and
willing to pay for fancy, he committed but a
common fault in availing himself of such an
ample resource for retrieving his fortune.
Mr. Robinson's experience in every respect
sustains Bake well's principles of breeding, but
he has the merit of marking the true point
where the husbandman ought to stop, and he
justly describes what ought to be the object of
every man who seeks to make the most of his
land. The landlord often drives, and rides, a
horse high-bred ; but from this, it is not to be
concluded that the tenant ought to breed his
horses from the same stock. Strange as it may ap-
pear, it is well known, that fashion reigns as para-
mount among what are called, the simple plodding
farmers, in determining their choice of stock, as
among the weaker sex in their dress ; and the
farmer looks with as much envy on the esquire's
made-up ram, or bull, as his wife or daughter, does
at the lady's bonnet : and thus, although from
the nature of the farm, he cannot support in
health and vigour a sheep of one -fourth the
size of those which the esquire produces, or
purchases at great prices, and sustains by artifi-
cial means, he will do the best he can by buy-
ing his cast-off rams : and thus he produces a
long, shanky race of animals, with almost as
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 5?
much bone and hair as muscle and wool;
and what is still as strange, this fashion also ex-
tends to the grazier ; his agent at the fair looks
out for a coarse frame of bone, and persuades
him it will carry more fat ; and this practice is
become so general, that the butchers' stalls ex-
hibit nothing but large, coarse joints of mutton,
consisting of fat sinew and bone ; and small mut-
ton is so scarce, that the public are induced to pay
one penny per pound more for lamb, from the ge-
neral dislike and inconvenience of large mutton :
and thus throughout, ignorance and credulity
are fed by ignorance and vanity, until reason
itself is obliged to give way. Mr. Robinson's,
as well as Bakewell's principles, are incontrovert-
ible ; and by following the plans and maxims of
the former, no doubt the hills and valleys of
Wiltshire, Hampshire, Somersetshire, Dorset,
Sussex, &c., may be made to breed and fatten the
most delicious mutton ; whereas, at present, they
are wholly devoted to the rearing of animals
which are little better than coarse frames of skin
and bones, to be filled up with tallow and grease,
by being bloated with artificial food, or in the
gross unwholesome pastures of the lowlands and
marshes.
How much would gentlemen, possessing hill
farms in those counties, add to the pleasures
and comforts afforded by their country, as we*
£8 ON BREEDING AND HEARING ANIMALS.
as increase the public stock of provisions, if they
would devote their attention to the rearing of
sheep, and fattening them on the same farm, as
Mr. Robinson has done, than by continuing to
indulge in the vanity of excelling their neigh-
bours, in raising large, raw, bony carcases, to be
crammed by others in distant districts !
In the production of wool, it is well known that
the climate, and natural produce and constitu-
tion of a farm, will of itself establish a medium
or proportion between the quantity and quality
of wool ; thus, it is found that the wool pro-
duced on one farm in Sussex, is of superior qua-
lity to that produced on another, even at a short
distance, although every means of changing
and crossing had been resorted to. Indeed,
what else could have established and naturalised
the beautiful breed of sheep called the South-
downs, and the valuable breed of Dorsets, or the
fine large long-wooled Leicesters, but that of the
breeders confining themselves to the assisting
nature, by selecting and pairing those animals
which were best adapted, in their local situation
and circumstances, to make the greatest return
in wool and mutton at the least expense ?
If the farmers of the South-downs had conti-
nually crossed with the Leicesters, could they
have produced sheep equal to Leicestershire?
or the Leicestershire farmers, by crossing with
ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 59
South-downs, have produced sheep equal to the
South-downs ? Certainly not ; then why not ?
The nature of the food and the climate would
not admit of it ; and this mode of reasoning will
apply to every county, and almost to every farm.
It will cost very little more to breed a ram,
than an ewe ; and, therefore, the farmer who in a
general way pays more for a ram than the extra
price of breeding, added to the value of an ewe,
pays so much to proclaim his own inability and
comparative ignorance.
A striking instance of the indulgence of
farmers in fashion or fancy, even at a consider-
able sacrifice, is exhibited in the black faces and
legs of the South- down sheep. The great value of
those sheep over any other peculiar breed, consists
in the superior quality of their wool ; but by the
means adopted to preserve the black faces and
legs, black hairs are extended into, and some-
times dispersed through, the fleece ; and as the
locks containing black hairs, are unfit to make
white or light-coloured cloths, these must all be
thrown out, before the wool is in a fit state for
the manufacturer ; and the quantity and reduced
quality of this is such, as to reduce the value of
the whole fleece, %d* per pound.
The only object in preserving this striking
mark, that I have ever heard explained, is, that
such sheep are more hardy; but if by this is meant,
60 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS.
that they are better enabled to endure cold wea-
ther, than they would if their faces and legs
were white, this is, on the clearest physical
principles, erroneous, and contrary to nature.
Thus we find in all the most northern climates,
that those animals which are of a dark colour, in
the warm seasons, change to white in the winter,
without which they could not endure the severe
cold they are doomed to encounter. Again, we
see the beneficence of our Great Creator has
given the native man of the burning climate of
Africa a black skin. Black absorbs and gives
out heat more rapidly than white ; as, in other
words, any body that is white, will retain the
heat which is engendered within it, much longer
than that which is black. Thus the white animal
in the frozen regions, is enabled to retain its
heat in a due degree, to preserve its health ; and
the black man, by a rapid emission1 of heat, is
protected against those dreadful fevers, the fre-
quent consequence of accumulated heat, by a
retentive white skin. It is this principle which
determines the difference in temperature of
soils. A black soil will, in a given time, and
in the same exposure to the sun, acquire
eight or ten degrees of Farenheit more than a
white; and on an exclusion of the sun, the
black will soon be reduced many degrees below
the white. 6*
61
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH.
ALTHOUGH the earth appears capable of af-
fording a spontaneous produce in vegetables and
fruit, her powers of production or principles of
fertility, are found to be limited, and to exist in
different degrees, in different portions ; and it has
also been clearly proved, that where those powers
and principles abound in the greatest force, they
are sooner or later decreased and exhausted
by the growth of vegetables, according to the
constitution, situation, and circumstances of the
soil. It, therefore, is an object essential to the
art of agriculture, to ascertain the causes or
principles of fertility and sterility, as the only
means of acquiring the power to remedy defects,
remove opposing matter, make good deficiencies,
and, generally, to preserve and continue the land
in its most productive state. Every husband-
man or agriculturist may be supposed capable
of judging, what stock of animals his land is
peculiarly calculated to support, in its immediate
state ; and this, from a knowledge of the quantity
and kind of food such animals require, and the
influence of lodging and climate on them. But
a knowledge of the nature and application of
62 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH.
food to vegetables, and the influence of lodging
and climate on them, is not so generally under-
stood ; yet it is equally necessary it should be,
as it is this alone which can . enable a person to
follow cultivation successfully.
It has been demonstrated by direct experiment,
and is admitted by all philosophers, that earth
alone, in any combination of its primitive or sim-
ple principles, is incapable of maintaining plants
in health, or to enable them to attain maturity ;
that vegetables require food to sustain them ;
that their food consists of animal and vegetable
matter, reduced by decomposition, to a soluble
state ; and that such food can only be taken up
or consumed by plants, in a state of liquid,
through its roots ; but of what peculiar ele-
ments or principles such food is composed ofj
by what means prepared, or how the requisite
proportion of the liquifying medium is deter-
mined ; or by what peculiar powers such food
is taken up by vegetables, and digested, and
appropriated to their various increase and pro-
ductions, are as yet subjects of discussion and
uncertainty.
To establish these points, it has been found
necessary to discover and investigate the ele-
mentary principles of which vegetables and ani-
mals are composed ; and also to ascertain by
what organic powers the process of vegetation is
6*
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH. 63
carried on ; and by what means these elementary
principles or substances are collected, com-
bined, put into action, and appropriated or dis-
posed of; and likewise, the composition or con-
stitution, and properties of the earth, and the
manner in which it contributes to the formation
and sustenance of vegetables. To accomplish
these things, some of the most eminent chemical
philosophers of the age have given their attention,
and a very comprehensive little work on the sub-
ject has been published by Mr. Kirwan.
Sir Humphry Davy was also induced by the
Board of. Agriculture, to give to the public a
regular course of lectures on agricultural che-
mistry ; and as those two eminent professors
have in their works, given the subject a full at-
tention, and considered it in all its various parts,
and their authority being generally respected
and relied upon, I shall confine my observations
and reference, on this part of my subject, chiefly
to them.
Sir Humphry Davy justly observes, " It is
" scarcely possible to enter upon any investiga-
" tion in agriculture, without finding it con-
" nected more or less with doctrines or elucida-
" tions derived from chemistry.
" If land be unproductive, and a system of
" ameliorating it is to be attempted, the sure
"method of obtaining the object is by deter-
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH.
" mining the cause of its sterility, which must
" necessarily depend upon some def ect in the
" constitution of the soil, which may be easily
" discovered by chemical analysis ; some lands
". of good apparent texture are yet sterile in a
" high degree, and common observation and
" common practice afford no means of ascer-
" taining the cause or removing the effect.
" The application of chemical tests in such
" cases is obvious, for the soil must contain some
" noxious principle, which may be easily dis-
*« covered, and, probably, easily destroyed. Are
" any of the salts of iron present ? They may be
" decomposed by lime. Is there any excess of
" siliceous sand ? The system of improvement
" must depend on the application of clay a.nd
"calcareous matter. Is there a defect of cal» '
" careous matter ? The remedy is obvious. Is
"• an excess of vegetable matter indicated ? It
" may be removed by liming, paring, and burn-
" ing. Is there a deficiency of vegetable matter ?.
" It is to be supplied by manure."
He also says, " The phenomena of vegetation
" must be considered as an important branch of
" the science of organized nature ; but though
"exalted above inorganic matter, vegetables
" are yet, in a great measure, dependant for
" their existence upon its laws. They receive
"their nourishment from the external elements;
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH. 65
" they assimilate it by means of peculiar organs,
" and it is by examining their physical and
" chemical constitution, and the substances and
" powers which act upon them ; and the modi-
" fications which they undergo, that the scientific
" principles of agricultural chemistry are ob-
" tained.
" According to those ideas, it is evident
«* that the study ought to be commenced by
" some general inquiries into the composition and
" nature of material bodies, and the laws of their
" changes. The surface of the earth, the atmo-^
" sphere, and the water deposited from it, must, J
" either together or separately, afford all the
" principles concerned in vegetation j and it is
" only . by examining the chemical nature of
" these principles, that we are capable of dis-
" covering what is the food of plants ; and the
" manner in which this food is supplied and pre-
" pared for their nourishment ; the principle of •
" the constitution of .bodies, consequently, should
" fi^Herthe first subject for our consideration.
" By methods of analysis, dependent upon
" chemical and electrical instruments, discovered
" in late times, it has been ascertained that all
"the varieties of material substances may be
" resolved into a comparatively small number of
" bodies, which, as they are not capable of being
66 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH.
" decompounded, are considered, in the present
" state of chemical knowledge, as elements.
"The bodies incapable of decomposition at
" present known, are forty-seven ; ofthesej^lnrtj-
" eight are metals; six are inflammable bodies;
" and three substances, which unite with metals
" and inflammable bodies, ajid form with them
" acids, alkalies, earths, or other analogous com-
" pounds.
" The chemical composition of plants has,
. " within the last ten years, been elucidated
" bv the experiments of a number of chemical
" philosophers, both in this and other countries ;
" and it forms a beautiful part of general che-
" mistry. If the organs of plants be submit-
" ted to chemical analysis, it is found that their
" almost infinite diversity of form, depends upon
" different arrangements and combinations of a
" very few elements ; seldom more than seven or
" eight belong to them, and three constitute the
" greatest part of their organised matter.
" All the varieties of substances found in plants
" are produced from the sap, and the sap of plants
" is derived from water, or from the fluids in the
" soil, and it is altered by, or combined with,
" principles derived from the atmosphere."
And again : " If any fresh vegetable matter,
" which contains sugar, mucilage, starch, or
" other -of the vegetable compounds solyble in
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH. 67
** water, be moistened and exposed to air, at a
" temperature of from 50° to 80°, oxygene will
" soon be absorbed, and carbonic acid formed ;
" heat will be produced, and elastic fluids, prin-
" cipally carbonic acid, gaseous oxyde of car-
66 bon, and hydro- carbon ate will be evolved ; a
*' dark-coloured liquor of a slightly sour, or bit-
" ter taste, will likewise be formed, and if the
" process be suffered to continue for a time suffi-
" ciently long, nothing solid will remain, except
" earthy and saline matter, coloured black by
" charcoal.
" Animal matters are in general more liable to
" decompose than vegetable substances. Oxy*
** gene is absorbed, and carbonic acid and am-
" monia formed in the process of putrefaction ;
" they produced compound elastic fluids, and
" likewise azote ; they afford dark-coloured acid,
" and oily fluids, and leave a residuum of salts'
" and earths mixed with a calcareous matter. The
" ammonia given off from animal compounds, in
" putrefaction, may be conceived to be formed
" at the time of their decomposition by the com-
" bination of hydrogene and azote. Except this
" matter, the other products of putrefaction are
" analogous to those afforded by the ferment-
" ation of vegetable substances ; an'd the soluble
" substances formed, abound in the elements, of
F '2
68 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH.
" which are the constituent parts of vegetables,
" in carbon, hydrogene, and oxygene.
" The circumstances necessary for the putre-
" faction of animal substances are similar to those
" required for the fermentation of vegetable sub-
" stances ; a temperature above the freezing
" point, the presence of water, and the presence
" of oxygene, at least in the first stage of the
" process."
He likewise says, " Soils in all cases consist of
" a mixture of different finely-divided earthy mat-
" ters, .with animal or vegetable substances, in a
" state of decomposition, and certain saline ingre-
" dients. The earthy matters are the true basis
" p^jthejtjQil ^ the other parts, whether natural,
" or artificially introduced, operate as manures.
" Four earths generally abound in the soils : the
41 aluminous, the siliceous, the calcareous, and the
" magnesian. These earths, I have discovered,
" consist of highly inflammable metals united to
" pure air or oxygene ; and they are not, as far
" as we know, decomposed or altered in vege-
« tation."
Mr. Kirwan says, " All plants (except the
" sub-aqueous,) grow in a mixed earth, moist-
" ened with rain and dew, and exposed to the
" atmosphere. If this earth be chemically exa-
" mined, it will be found to consist of siliceous,
" calcareous, and argillaceous particles ; often
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH. 69
" also of magnesia in various proportions, a very
" considerable quantity of water, and some fixed
" air. The most fertile also contain a small
" portion of oil, roots of decayed vegetables, a
" coaly substance arising from putrefaction,
" some traces of marine acid, and gypsum. Oh
"the other hand, if vegetables be analyzed,
" they will be found to contain a large portion of
" water and charcoal, also of fat and essential
" oils, resins, gums, and vegetable acids ; all
" which are reducible to water, pure air, inflam-
" mable air, and charcoal ; a small portion of
" fixed alkali is also found ; some neutral salts,
" most commonly Epsom, tartar vitriolate, com-
" mon salts, and salts of sylvius.
Thus far, we may consider all things reducible
to primitive principles, or simple substances, and
the opinions of these great men are accordant :
our next object must be, to consider how those
principles or elementary substances are again \
to be brought together, put into action, and )
combined ; and particularly for the different pur-
poses of husbandry. Agreeably to the rules of
chemistry, to demonstrate tta correctness of an
. <rr#^U*3v V>v ^^*«WW«3££*£j|fc>
analysis or any body, it is required, that the
same body be again produced by a recombination
of the part& discovered, and this is called a syn-
, or Lu^U^f tEfYfa*, . . "T^
thesis ; but although it is clearly obvious to the
A FS
70 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE EARTH.
most simple observer, that notwithstanding the
apparent ultimate destruction of every visible
substance, the same quantity of both animate
and inanimate substances always exist, and it
may be justly concluded, that the process of
nature is carried on by a kind of transmutation,
or change in the relative connection of matter,
brought about by certain processes of death and
decomposition, and restored again by the action
and dissemination of certain principles of life and
recomposition ; we cannot, by artificial means
alone, effect 6uch a combination of those princi-
ples, or elementary substances, as to form either
animals or vegetables, and we are therefore inca-
pable of demonstrating by synthesis.
On this point, Sir Humphry Davy remarks,
" What may be our ultimate view of the laws
" of chemistry, or how far our ideas of ele-
" mentary principles may be simplified, it is
" impossible to say ; we can only reason from,
" facts ; . we cannot imitate the powers of com-
y>«^{le«,e<Qa^i- »£ A*
;< position beloftgiHg-w vegetable structures, but,
" at least, wre can understand them; and as far as
" our researches have undergone, it appears, that
" in vegetation, compound forms are uniformly .
" produced from simpler ones : and the elements *
" in ttomirfil, the atmosphere, and the earth,
" absorbed and .made parts of beautiful and
" diversified structures."
71
ARRANGEMENT OF CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES,
AND PRACTICAL DEDUCTIONS.
BEFORE entering into a further inquiry of the
principles of any particular operations of husban-
dry, a general view of the workings of nature in
her various processes and proceedings, may ma-
terially assist in directing attention to the proper
points; for this purpose, the following explan-
ations and arrangement are offered.
All things that cpjisti^
reducible to the same primitive or elementary
principles, — viz. oxjgejie, hydjrogene, nitrogene,
carbon, and earth. The three first are permanent
elastic fluids, or gases; the fourth a permanent
substance; and although the earths are_prQY£d» by
Sir Humphry Davy, toJbe, compoundajofJii
inflammable metals and oxygene, it does not ap-
pear that they are found in any qtlier state than as
such compounds, in vegetables or animals; nor
that it is necessary they should be further subdi-
vided, either for the reproduction or suste-
nance of vegetables, or animals. I shall, there-
fore, take the liberty, in the pursuit of my
72 ARRANGEMENT OF CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES,
subject,, to consider the earths as elementary
principles. / , y-
JP & ,/„,,. • i - f
Oxygene is the vital air of life, the principle
of combustion, and the vehicle of heat, — the
pure air of Kirwan.
Hydrogene is the basis of inflammable air,
and is the lightest of all ponderable things, — the
inflammable air of Kirwan.
Nitrogene or azote is the opposite of oxy-
gene, and is incapable of supporting combustion,
and animal life.
Carbon is the basis of common charcoal,
divested of all its impurities.
Atmospheric air is compounded of the two
different permanent substances, o_xjgene and
nitrogene, combining and uniting in certain
proportions, and rendered aerial by the expansive
power of heat or caloric.
Water^is^form^d., by the two permanent sub-
stances, oxygeng^jand Jiydiogene, combining or
uniting in certain proportions, and which, in its
common state, always holds a certain portion of
earth in a state of solution, and generally of
carbon also.
substanc^g_,arfi^mjbhem-
cpmj)iuedda.different ,
form the wttpje of Jboth,ajiimals and
vegetables, it clearly appears that animal and
AND PRACTICAL DEDUCTIONS. J3
vegetable matter^ in the general composition and
continuation of the world, is divisible only, and not
destructible j and that therejfore, as far as we are
able to comprehend, the animal and vegetable
parts of the creation are continued and sustained
by transmutation : or, in other words, that the \
process of nature in creating and constructing* is
carried on hentimiedraios of compo-
sition and
Thus animals forming the superior part of
the creation, are endowed with the powers of
.•'-*••
4€8tr-oymg, ^afltieatkig, digesting, and decom-
posing the substances of both animals and
vegetables.
And veetables T^ariEWi«e^i»©^^^iea*
seem peculiarly designed by nature
^A., * £tL¥%^ |U^dp* ^- •7.
BfctsoHiaaiyiMh "timtwu. i.H» •ffont**»mi»g . th
animated world, by bringing the divided £sub-(
stances again into union and action^"^*
Animals devour both animals and vegetables
to support themselves, and by this they are at
the same time made instrumental in preparing
the food of plants, by facilitating the decom-
position of both animals and vegetables.
From the peculiar organisation of vegetables,
their food can only be taken up in a state of
liquid, and water is the only vehicle by which it
can be administered,
74 ARRANGEMENT OF CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES,
Whatsoever, therefore, constitutes the grand
invigorating or accumulatin&principle in the food
of plants, must be redu/cwfe to a soluble , state.,
><•'/*-»-* t4 .ft*"*-- V^** A'jff'f <L£ )• * r}~?t "* f"
or be placed in a state of minute divisiajjjify^ ^
Although water in its pure state contains hy-
drogene and oxygene only, as it is necessarily
brought in contact .with, or made to pass through
animal and vegetabTe^substances, (which are
always scattered over the surface, or contained
in the soil,) before it can conje within reach
^ jkt,4~tr-^t*&& z* "*•
of thg roots, it dissolves, OJtei.'Combit*cs and
carries^with it the carbonaceous matter.^^jj^
Plants possess the power of decomposing wa-
-^—i. f — 'r rT ' I.. -
ter^^ndj^Ttge CQiqpQsition^if their own yarious^
6ubstan_ces«\of retaining and ^pplyin^ the carbon.
hjxlrogeiie, and earth, and a portion of oxygene,^
and at the same time ofjen!i£lij3g ^^
oxygene as excrementitious.
Animals by respiration decompose the atmo-
spheric air, retaining the oxygene, and emitting
the nitrogene.
Animals and v^f^blesjg^
and left to spontaneous decay, are. .de composed
by fermentation, and by this 'process, carbon, and
earth are deposited, and oxygene, which is in-
reased by absorption, is disposed of, by^part
formmg^cafbonic oxyde, and part carbonic acid
gas : thehydroggne and mtrjpgepe_ are
AND PRACTICAL DEDUCTIONS. 75
as simple gases, or united as ammonia : the
hydrogen e also, is often combined with carbon,
forming carburetted hydrogene gas.
Carbonic acid^gaSj orjfixed^air, is formed by a
certain portion of carbon being dissolved and
held in solution or ^combination by oxygene,
and is more ponderous than atmospheric air.
is composed of carbon, and a
portion of oxygene less than sufficient to pro-
duce carbonic acid. j
Carburetted hydrogene gas, is carbon dissolved
in hydrogene, and is much lighter than atmo- Y
spheric air ; it is this gas by which balloons are
inflated, and which is burnt to give light, instead
of oil, &c. in lamps.
These elements being thus separated, are
again combined by the various processes of
nature.
By the combustion of electricity, the oxygene
gas^emitted by vegetables, and the hydrogene gas
by putrescent animal and vegetable matter, are
united and fojinjvjjjer ; and the proportions are
85 oxygene, and 15 hydrogene. By natural ja
nity, oxygene gas is combined with the nitrogene
gas, thrown off by the respiration of animals,
and atmospheric air formed ; and the proportions
are 22 oxygene, and 77 nitrogene.
Carbonic acid gas, from its density, is readily
76 ARRANGEMENT OF CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES.
brought in contact with calcareous, carbona-
ceous, and metallic substances, and also with
water, and by these absorbed or decomposed.
Conformably to the preceding doctrines, the
cultivation of land, naturally is divided into
two important opejations,-~vizl /.
First, TK^^apfi^^mpi'oving^- ox -correcting
the^urfac^-of4fee-«artl^ -and the sub-soil, that it
may receive and regulate a due supply of water,
and afford a proper accommodation for the roots
of vegetables. . v
Secondly, The regulating and furnishing the
needful supply of food for such plants, ancUfer
as it may be desirous to,cultiva1
»sueh -«iai*4&*~a8 the soil is test
adapted to support.
To be enabled to form a correct judgment on
these points, it will be necessary, first, to com-
prehend the nature and properties of the roots of
plants, and also of their stalks, branches, and
leaves.
77
ON THE ROOTS OF PLANTS.
To give life and motion to the seeds of plants,
a certain portion of water, and of oxygene or
vital air, and a degree of heat of about 50° Fa-
renheit, is necessary. A seed being placed in
the earth under these circumstances, it imme-
diately absorbs moisture, and gradually swells |
to the extent of its shell, or skin, when the /
radicle, or first root, protrudes itself, and in \
whatever position the seed be placed, assumes /
a perpendicular direction, and gradually makes \ ,
its way downwards into the soil ; and the germeiT. }
also assumes a perpendicular position, and grows ,
upwards. A great number of experiments have
been made to ascertain the peculiar principles,
which influence and give direction to the first
rudiments of plants, and many are recited by
Sir H. Davy ; but whether the first inclinations
of a plant be considered as instinctive, or whe-
ther, by the influence of any peculiar principle,
> the root is impelled forward into the earth, is
of trifling importance to the practical agricul-
turist : and whether it may be accounted for on
the principles of gravitation, or attraction, it is
78 ON THE ROOTS OF PLANTS.
not necessary for my present purpose to discuss.
It ' is progressive in its growth, similar to the
branches, but in an inverted direction.
As the branches of a tree are formed by a
very tender and succulent point, pushing up-
wards into the air, so the root penetrates down-
wards into the earth ; but as it has to make its
way through the pores, or between the particles
composing the soil it is planted in, which is
often close and tenacious, its first projecting
points are wisely adapted to the purpose, by
being much more minute and compliable, which
enables it to advance almost as readily as water.
After a root has effected a passage, it is en-
dowed with considerable expansive and repul-
sive powers, and thereby enabled to make its
way, by pushing off on all sides the encumbering
soil. When the soil is but partially submissive,
the root accommodates itself to the cavity, ad-
mitting its increase, however rugged and irre-
gular. Roots are, notwithstanding, impatient of
resistance, and at all times evince a partiality
for that soil which is most accommodating, and
run most evenly and luxuriantly, where they
meet with the least resistance, and the greatest
supply of nutriment.
The office of the root is to collect and supply
i the food, which forms and determines the future
8*
ON THE ROOTS OF PLANTS. 79
plant and its produce, and the constitution and
habits of the roots determine those of the stalk,
branches, and leaves ; if the roots grow luxuri-
antly, the branches will also.
A variety of means have been resorted to by
phytologists, to discover and ascertain the con-
struction and principles of action of the roots
of plants, and as various and contradictory have
been their opinions and representations ; but inx
the material point all agree; and the most mi-
nute examination, by the most powerful micros-
cope, confirms the fact, that the food of plants
can only be taken up by ^ thejropts i in a sta,te_of
solution in water, or suspended inji state of di-
vision, so minute as to be equal to a solution.
In a deep tenacious soil, or clay, roots can
only find a free passage through fissures or
clefts, which are formed by its occasional con-
traction, and as these openings are not very
numerous, or close together, the roots do not
divide much, or become fibrous, but those
which strike into them range wide and deep,
and getting beyond the general influence of the
sun and air, collect their food, or sap, from a
source ill adapted to fructification ; and, conse-
quently, plants under such circumstances are
generally fpund to be of a cold, aqueous, un-
healthy, and unprolific nature : on the contrary,
80 ON THE ROOTS OF PLANTS.
when a soil is light, porous, and shallow, the
roots meeting no obstruction, divide and form
a great number of fibres, which ranging hori-
zontally, and being more exposed to the effect
of sun and air, incline a plant more to be-
come fructiferous than to an increase of wood,
or an extension of branches ; and in such a
situation, the greatest supply of food being ap-
propriated to the production of fruit or seed,
the plants grow less to stalk, branches, and leaf.
Hence it is very truly remarked by an inge-
nious writer on fruit trees, that " they produce
the most generous fruits when their roots spread
near the surface of the earth," and whether we
consider such effects to be produced by the
roots being kept more within the influence of
the sun and air, or by the peculiar nature of
the food supplied by the soil in such a situa-
tion, it operates in support of one and the same
conclusion, viz. that it is necessary the roots
should be kept near the surface ; for whether
that which supplies the food of plants be a red,
a black, or a brown loam, or sand, or clay, the
induce fructification, and produce the most
perfect seed and fruit, and the most abundant
quantity, can only be furnished within a certain
depth.
ON THE ROOTS OF PLANTS. 81
Thus the roots having collected and absorbed,
or taken in, a supply of food or nutriment, for
the sustenance of the plant, the next object
for consideration is, how, or in what manner, or
by what means, such food is disposed of, and
appropriated to the uses of the plant, and to the
formation of its various substances ; and this I
shall proceed to show is determined by the
leaves, stalk, and branches.
ON THE USE AND OFFICES OF THE LEAVES, &c.
UPON what principles, and by what application
of power, the rise of the sap from the roots,
and its distribution and transformation into the
different parts and produce of the plant, is con-
ducted, is a question that has long been agi-
tated, and which has given rise to much spe-
culation, argument, and difference of opinion
among the learned. The use and office of the
leaves of plants, also, have been a subject as fully
argued and discussed, and with as little prac-
tical effect ; but these objects are of much more
importance than is generally considered by agri-
culturists. The nutriment being received from
the root into the stalk, becomes what is termed
the sap, and this is sent forward and appro-
priated to the different purposes of the plant,
in which process the leaves will be found to be
agents of great influence in determining the
produce.
Many describe the sap in vegetables as circu-
lating, like the blood of animals, through an
appropriate system of vessels -, whilst others deny
ON THE USE AND OFFICES, &C. 83
the possibility of such circulation, or even the
existence of such vessels.
Bradley says, " The many curious observa-
" tions which have been made concerning the
" structure of animal bodies, and what Dr.
" Grew, Malpigius, and myself have remarked,
" in the structure of vegetables, may ascertain
"to us, that life, whether it be animal or vege*
" table, must be maintained by a due circula-
" tion and distribution of juices in the bodies
" they are to support."
" The sap circulates in the vessels of plants
" much after the same manner as the blood
" doth in the bodies of animals." And after a
variety of abstruse arguments, he says, " In
" fine, a plant is like an alembic, which distils
" the juices of the earth ; as, for example, the
" roots having sucked in the salts of the earth,
" and thereby filled itself with proper juices for
" the nourishment of the tree, these juices then
" are set in motion by the heat, that is, they
" are made to evaporate into steam, as the mat- *
" ter in a still will do when it begins to warm.
" Now as soon as this steam, or vapour, rises
" from the root, its own natural quality carries A
" it upwards to meet the air j it enters then the
" mouths of the several arterial vessels, arrives
" at the extreme parts of them, i. £• the buds
G 2
84 ON THE USE AND OFFICES
" of a tree, it there meets with cold enough to
" condense it into a liquor, as the vapour in' a
" still is known to do ; in this form it returns
" to the root down the vessels, which do the
" office of veins, lying between the wood and
" the inner bark, leaving, as it passeth by, such
" parts of the juices as the texture of the bark
" will receive and require for its support."
Miller says, " The notion of the circulation
* was entertained by several authors much about
" the same time, without any communication
" one with another, particularly M. Major, a
" physician at Hamburgh, M. Peracett, Mari-
" otte, and Malpighi : it has met, however, with
" some considerable opposers, particularly the
" excellent M. Doddart, who could never be
" reconciled to it.
" M. Doddart, instead of the same juices
" going and returning, contends for two several
" juices ; the one imbibed from the soil, digested
*"' in the root, and from thence transmitted to the
" extremes of the branches, for the nourishment
" of the plant ; the other received from the
" moisture of the air, entering in at the extremes
*'* of the branches; so that the ascending and
" descending juices are not the same."
Mr. Knight is also an advocate for the doc-
trine of circulation, and has published a variety
OF THE LEAVES, &C. 85
of papers reciting a number of experiments that
he made, and which he considered to confirm
the fact. And Sir H. Davy conforms to his
opinions, and says, " In all plants there exists
** a system of tubes or vessels, which, in one.ex-
" tremity, terminates in the roots, and at the
" other in leaves. It is by the capillary action
" of the roots, that fluid matter is taken up from
" the soil. The sap, in passing upwards, be-
" comes denser, and more fitted to deposit solid
" matter ; it is modified by exposure to heat,
" light, and air, in the leaves ; descends through
" the bark, in its progress produces new organ-
" ised matter, and is thus, in its vernal and
" autumnal flow, the cause of the formation of
" new parts, and of the more perfect evolution
" of parts already formed."
But Mrs. Ibbetson, (a lady who has studied
the organism of plants, aided by a powerful
solar microscope, and whose observations and
descriptions are published in a series of papers
in Nicholson's Philosophical Journal,) after giv-
ing a variety of reasons which induce her to
conclude that the sap does not circulate, says,
"How strange, then, to alter all this beautiful
" arrangement, justified, indeed taught by dis-
" section, in order to find a place for sap- vessels,
" that cannot possibly require any. For why?
G 3
OO ON THE USE AND OFFICES
/
" must they have returning vessels ? Is there
" not a great difference between an animal which,
" after the first few years, has no increase, and
" a being that increases from every joint, and is
" supposed, therefore, to draw up only those juices
" necessary for that increase j especially as the sap
" is the liquid of the earth, not the blood of the
" tree, as is easily proved by adding nurture to
" the ground, when the sap fails, which soon
" restores it ? Besides, how is the circulation
" to be effected in the eternally increasing
" branches of a tree, whose every additional
" twig must make a variation in the quantity of
"juices wanted? Whereas, it is naturally de-
" creased as it mounts, by throwing out new
" shoots and branches, which expend the liquor
" as it rises. And I believe I may say, that I
" am now so well acquainted with all the differ-
" ent vessels of a tree, that I can no longer fail
" from ignorance : but here, except the inner
" bark vessels all proceed in a different direc-
" tion, either round the tree, or from the centre
" to the circumference, how is it possible that
" such large and powerful parts should be in-
" visible ?
" The use of dissection is to correct the use
" of imagination, or those experiments which
" have that effect, forcing the juices into chan-
OF THE LEAVES, &C. 87
" nels foreign to that which nature had appointed
" for them. I have before said, that I have ever
" found nature disposed to such resources, in
" case of any unnatural impediment. I have
" myself proved it."
The effect of grafting shows that the sap does
not circulate ; or, at any rate, if it does circu-
late, that it undergoes no change by the ascend-
ing and descending motion : and this also shows
the fact, that every part of a plant possesses the
power of selecting and transforming the portion
of fluid destined to its use as it passes up.
If the sap be passed through the body of a tree
to its leaves, and there prepared and returned
back, that part of the tree which is uppermost,
and producing one variety of wood and fruit, must
possess the power of preparing the fluids for the
production of every other variety below it, unless
the sap be supposed to pass up and return in the
same state, which amounts to a superfluity of
motion, and an excess of exertion, seldom found
in nature. This subject has always excited con-
troversy among phytologists, and notwithstand-
ing the great variety of ingenious and elaborate
experiments that have been made, they not only
have not been sufficiently conclusive to produce
unanimity of opinion, but the subtle and prolix
arguments that have been adduced on both sides
88 THE USE AND OFFICES
of the question, have operated more to confuse
than benefit the practical gardener or husband-
man, and have induced a careless destruction,
rather than an effectual protection, of the leaves
of plants.
The leaves, however, will be found to form a
most important part in the structure of a plant,
and to be destined to perform an essential office
in the process of vegetation.
Miller, in speaking of fruit-trees, says, " If
" the shoots have not a leading bud where it is
" cut, it is certain to die down to the next
" leading bud ; so that what fruit may be pro-
" duced above that, will come to nothing, there
" being always a necessity of a leading bud to
" attract the nourishment ; for it is not suffici-
" ent that they have a leaf bud, as some have
" imagined, since that will attract but a small
" quantity of nourishment. The great use of
" the leaves being, to perspire away such crude
"juices as are unfit to enter the fruit."
Again, " If we consider that the leaves are
" absolutely necessary to cherish the blossom-
" buds, which are always formed at the foot-
" stalks of the leaves, so pulling them off, before
" they have performed the office assigned them
" by nature, is doing great injury to the trees."
The Rev. Mr. Hales, in his Treatise on Vege-
OF THE LEAVES, &C. 89
table Statics, giving an account of an experiment
he instituted to prove the use of leaves in plants^
says, " That boughs of trees with leaves on them,
" placed in glasses containing known quantities
" of water, imbibed, some twenty, some thirty
" ounces in twenty hours, 4ay> niore or less,
" in proportion to the quantity of leaves they
" had, and when he weighed them at night they
** were lighter than in the morning ; while those
" without leaves, imbibed but one ounce, and
" were heavier in the evening than in the morn-
" ing, they having perspired little."
This eminent author also says, " It is plain,
" from the many experiments and observations
" before mentioned, that leaves are very ser-
" viceable in this work of vegetation, by being
" instrumental in bringing nourishment from the
" lowest part within the reach of the attraction
" of the growing fruit ; which, like young ani-
" mals, are furnished with proper instruments to
" suck it thence. But the leaves seem also de-
" signed for many other noble and important
" services, for nature admirably adapts her in-
" struments, so as to be at the same time service-
" able to many good purposes."
Mrs. Ibbetson cites a number of experiments
she made, to prove that plants do not perspire :
she, however, admits that plants continually give
90 ON THE USE AND OFFICES
out oxygene while the sun shines, and in this
particular all naturalists and physiologists agree.
Jt was a maxim of the great Sir Isaac Newton,
that in all scientific investigations of the opera-
tions of nature, for the purpose of ascertaining,
establishing, and producing causes and effects,
substances should not be unnecessarily multi-
plied.
If, then, in conformity with this, and as be-
fore explained, we suppose the food of plants to
be water, holding in solution carbonaceous mat-
ter, and that the roots take up this liquid, and
that plants have the power of decomposing it —
water being composed of oxygene and hydro-
gene — the hydrogene and carbon might be com-
pounded in different proportions with a portion
of oxygene, and formed into the different sub-
stances of the plant, and the remainder given
out as gas ; and then we have only to believe
that the leaves are essential to the process, and
the fact cited by Dr. Hales, that plants absorb
and dispose of water, will be sustained, and
many jarring opinions will be reconciled.
Admitting that a plant receives food, to sus-
tain and extend itself, for the various purposes
required by nature, and that, in this respect, it
is similar to animals, may we not suppose, that
as no animal is known to appropriate the whole
OF THE LEAVES, &C. 91
of the food it takes into the stomach, to the in-
crease of its permanent substance, — a consider-
able portion being thrown off as excrement, —
plants also appropriate a part only, and throw
off the remainder as excrementitious ? And if
so, what part of a plant appears so likely to be
prepared for this purpose as the leaves ? The
food being taken up as a liquid, and duly ap-
plied to the needful purposes of the plant, the
superfluous part of the oxygene might be passed
off in vapour or gas, and the hydrogene, carbon,
&c. with the leaves,
A very important question is also quoted by
Miller, as put by the Rev. Mr. Hales, in addition
to some queries by Sir Isaac Newton : " And
" may not light also, by freely entering the ex-
" panded surfaces of leaves and branches, contri-
" bute much to enobling the principles of vege-
" tables?" Which must certainly be answered in
the affirmative, if, by enobling vegetables, is to
be understood, their being put in a proper state
to produce blossoms, fruit, and seed, in maturity.
It is not only obvious, that without light, vegeta-
bles will not produce blossoms or seed, but that,
in proportion as plants, or any parts of plants,
from being crowded together, overshadow each
other, so will they be deficient in produce. The
most simple appearance and habits of every plant
9 ON THE USE AND OFFICES
clearly, demonstrate the absolute necessity of
light, to stimulate and sustain the generating
faculty ; which is the grand object of our labour
and study in that part of agriculture immediately
under consideration.
It may further be observed, that it is an un-
deviating law of nature, that no plant shall
produce blossoms, or fruit, until it be furnished
with a surface of branches, stalk, and leaves,
proportioned to the quantity of fluids supplied
by the roots.
Thus we find, that if two plants are placed,
one in a rich luxuriant soil, and the other in a
poor dry soil, the supply of food collected by
the roots of the one in the rich soil will be
large, and consequently the roots, branches,
and leaves, will be large. The supply furnished
by that in a poor dry soil will be small, and
the surface of the stem, branches, and leaves,
will be small ; and thus the surface of the trunk,
branches, and leaves, being in each case in due
proportion to the annual produce of fluids, (pro-
vided each be alike exposed to light and heat,)
will each alike, in point of time, attain maturity,
and produce seed or fruit.
Plants growing close together, run up tall,
which is occasioned, by a natural propensity to
spread and expose their surfaces to the sun and
OF THE LEAVES, &C. Q3
air, each continuing to grow more in height
than the other, until it is beyond obstruction.
Hence those plants that are grown in a clump
are always the shortest on the outside, for as
these are sooner satiated, they stop and allow
the others to overtop them.
Every artificial means resorted to by garden-
ers, to force plants to a fructiferous state, is de-
termined by this law, and whether by forcing
and facilitating an extension of surface by ar-
tificial heat, or shelter ; or by lessening the sup-
ply of sap, by curtailing its roots, or channels of
conveyance, the effect is the same.
This law, indeed, which determines the
growth and produce of a plant, is very similar
to that which governs the process of evaporation.
As the evaporation and inspissation of a fluid,
are determined by the extent of surface, ex-
posed to the action of heat, the preparation of
the fluids in a plant for fructification appear to
be governed. Thus if a vessel, presenting a
certain surface, be deprived of one- half of its
contents, the remaining half will be evaporated,
or inspissated, in the same time that the whole
would have been, if placed in a vessel exposing
double the extent of surface. We may, there-
fore conclude, that as it is the law of nature,
94f ON THE USE AND OFFICES
that in an open vessel, containing a liquid, the
greater the surface of the liquid exposed, the
greater will be the quantity evaporated in a
given time, and the greater the quantity of ex-
tractive matter prepared ; so it is with vege-
tables, the greater the surface of leaves and
branches exposed to the light, and the influence
of the sun and air, the greater the quantity of
fluid disposed of, by being digested, appro-
priated, and expelled ; and the greater the quan-
tity, and richer the quality of food and sap
Supplied, and raised by capillary attraction, or
otherwise ; the greater the quantity and richer
the quality of the matter furnished, to be re-
tained and appropriated by every part of the
plant to its various purposes, either of genera-
tion, or of substantial increase.
Again, the fruit of a plant being considered,
as requiring for its formation, a regularly pro-
portioned arrangement of its organs, and a due
supply of healthy sustenance, we may trace the
progress of nature to this effect, on the fore-
going principles, more clearly than by the doc-
trines of circulation, gravitation, or any other
theory that has been suggested ; and we may
conclude that it is with vegetables, as with ani-
mals, required to sustain health, that the graad
OF THE LEAVES, &C. 95
machinery be preserved uninjured and com-
plete ; and in conformity with this, if we wish
to limit the size, or surface of plants, we must
limit the food ; this is the only check, or te*
straint, nature will admit of, without entailing
future loss.
That her great work of creation and propa-
gation, may not be obstructed and retarded in
vegetables, by the accidental privations they are
subject to, from being made subservient to the
use of animals ; nature, all bountiful in her pro-
vision, and ever fertile in resources, has given
them the power within themselves, to a great ex-
tent, of repairing and retrieving their losses ;
and to this end, every plant and every branch, is
furnished with more buds than are required for
the immediate formation of branches or blos-
soms, so that if one be destroyed, another may
be ready to take its place, and prevent a waste
of time, or surface ; thus we find that the ef-
forts of a plant, from the seed forwards, are to
attain and acquire, the surface proportioned by
its nature, to the supply of food, necessary to
enable it, to fructify, and propagate its species ;
and the juices continue to flow until it has ob-
tained this required extent.
From the preceding observations it must be
96 ON THE USE AND OFFICES
concluded, that although the leaves of plants,
may in themselves, be of little value in contri-
buting to the nutriment of mankind, they form
an essential part in their organisation, for the
production of seed and fruit, the quantity and
quality of which will be in proportion to the
condition, or state of health, and exposure of
the stalk, leaves, &c. : this may readily be de-
monstrated, by placing plants under the circum-
stances of both extremes ; thus, if the leaves of
a seedling plant of wheat, or a turnip, or a
potatoe, be removed as fast as they appear,
neither seeds, bulbs, or tubers, will be produced
in any quantity, or quality, worthy of notice ; but
if the leaves of such plants are preserved, and
allowed a space sufficient to expand their full
extent, and be open to the influence of the sun
and air, they will attain the utmost size and
state of prolificacy the soil, and quantity and
quality of food, is capable of producing.
The capacity of a soil, and the distance plants
ought to be placed from each other, may rea-
dily be determined, by allowing a few plants a
larger space than they will probably occupy ;
and the space they then cover by their leaves,
may be taken as the distance required by each
plant, to enable it to attain perfection.
OF THE LEAVES, &C.
Plants that are excluded from the presence of
the sun and light, and the free circulation of
air, give out carbonic acid gas : thus when plants
are crowded together and overshadow each
other, they are, by a waste of their carbon,
thrown off as carbonic acid gas, debilitated and
deprived of the needful stamina; which is often
followed by sterility, putrefaction, disease, and
death.
An attention to these principles will enable
the husbandman, with great accuracy, to judge
of the difference between thick and thin sowing,
and to determine the proper medium ; and will
show the folly of removing or destroying the
leaves of plants designed to produce seed, fruit,
or roots, until these are perfected.
ii
98
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
THE food of plants has for a long time been
considered an object of importance, by natural
philosophers, and a great variety of experiments
have been made, to ascertain what it consists of,
and in what state of preparation it is most
readily and effectually applied ^ and many con-
clusions have been drawn, and conjectures
formed. As before explained, the earth, ani-
mals, and vegetables, have been analyzed, and
their component parts minutely described, by
men of the greatest talents and learning ; but as
yet no one has arranged and described such a
system of cultivation as will enable a person to
trace effects to their causes on just scientific
principles. Much has been founded on conjee
ture, and much still remains to be determined
by practical observation and demonstration.
Vegetables, like animals, vary in their natuie
and habits, and like them have their peculiar
food; and although the food of plants may ge-
nerally be composed of the same elements, it
varies in the proportion of its composition, and
thereby becomes adapted to different purposes :
thus we find that a soil, which will furnish food
8*
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 99
enough to support one plant of a peculiar kind,
will at the same time furnish sufficient to sustain
many others of different species.
Bradley, in the work I have before noticed,
says, " Land animals may be likened in general
" to those plants which are called terrene, for
" that they live only upon the earth, such as
" oak, elm, beech, &c. ; amphibious animals,
" such as otters, beavers, tortoises, frogs, &c.,
" which live as well on the land as in the
" waters, may be compared to the willows,
" alders, minths, &c. The fish kind, or aquatic
" race, whether of the rivers, or the sea, are
" analogous to the water plants, such as water
" lilies, water plantains, &c. which live only in the
" fresh waters, or the fuci, &c., which are sea
" or salt water plants, and not any of these will
" live out of its own element ; from whence
" we may conclude, how improper it would be
" to plant a water lily on a dry sandy desert,
" or an oak at the bottom of the sea, which
" would be just as reasonable as if we propose
" to feed a dog with hay, or a horse with fish:
" however, this rule of nature has been so little
" observed, even by some of our greatest plant-
" ers, that we can hardly boast of good suc-
" cess, in one out of five plantations that have
" been made."
H 2
100 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
He also says, " I shall beg leave to remark,
" that as the several land animals have their re-
" spective diets, so have the terrene plants their
" several soils, from whence they derive their
" nourishment ; as some animals feed on flesh,
" others on fish, &c., so do plants love, some
" clay, others loam, sand, or gravel. Nor is this
" all we ought to observe ; we must consider,
" likewise, how beneficial to every plant is a
" right exposure ; whether in a vale, the sides
" or tops of hills, exposed to the south or north
" winds ; whether inland, or near the sea, for
" it is a proper exposure that keeps a plant in
« health."
Bradley, Hitt, and Miller, consider the food
of plants to be salts, which every species of earth
more or less contains within itself; and that
according to the proportion of salts, contained
in each kind of soil or manure, will its proli-
ficacy be. f
That soils, and vegetable and animal matters,
may be found to produce salts, under certain
circumstances and chemical processes, I have no
doubt ; but this does not prove it to be necessary
that every substance, or any substance, con-
taining the basis or elements of salts, should
undergo this process, and be formed into
salts, before it can be in a state to constitute
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 101
food fit for the reception and nourishment of
plants.
Salts are various in their nature and general
effects, when placed in contact with other sub-
stances.
I have made many experiments with sea-salt,
nitre, soda, barilla, alum, &c., and have never
found them operate as a proportional addition of
food may be expected to do.
The opinions of Drs. Smith and Pearson on this
subject appear more rational. They say, that salts,
as they operate in promoting vegetation, are ana-
logous to mustard, cinnamon, ginger, &c., which
are not of themselves at all, or necessarily nu-
tritious, but contribute to render other things
nutritious, by exciting the action of the stomach
and other organs of digestion and assimilation.
Salts being considered to operate in this manner,
in promoting vegetation, we are naturally led to
their proper application, that is, in small quan-
tities, or in a state of weak solution. ^
Notwithstanding all that has* been said to es-
tablish the opinion, that sea-salt is a valuable
manure, I am convinced it never can, as an
article of food, contribute to the increase of any
vegetable ; but as a chemical agent, by destroying,
and facilitating the decomposition, of animals and
H 3
102 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
vegetables, or by its deliquiescence it may in
some instances increase the fertility of the soil.
Alkaline salts, no doubt, facilitate the solu-
tion of many animal and vegetable substances j
they also increase the divisibility, change the com-
bination, and otherwise exert an influence on the
soil itself, in a manner that adds much to its
fertility ; indeed, there are many reasons for be-
lieving that alkaline salts increase the fertility
of soils, and the fertilizing powers of manures,
when mixed or combined with them : the
urine of cows, horses, &c., always contain a
portion of alkaline salts, and this is more fer-
tilizing than the dung of those animals. By
the reduction of vegetables by fire, alkaline salts
are produced; and the action of fire on the
soil generally adds to its fertility : indeed, in a
great number of experiments, made with a view
to ascertain the most fertilizing, and the most
readily applicable and operative manure, or food
for plants ;' I have found the serum, or the watery
part of blood, diluted with six or eight times its
bulk of water, and given to plants in the same
quantity, and in the same manner, as when
supplying them with water, once or twice only
in the year, to produce the most immediate,
and most fertilizing effects of any thing ; whilst
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 103
the crassamentum, or clotted part of blood, left
to nature, was not beneficially operative, until
decomposed, and even then, was nothing equal
to the serum in its effects; and the difference
in the composition of those separate substances,
is, that serum contains one-fortieth of alkaline
salts, and the clot none. But if the clotted
part of blood be broken small, and well mixed
with three times its bulk of water, in which
potash, in the proportion of one-fortieth part
the weight of the blood, be dissolved ; the blood
will be reduced, and the liquid be rendered
equally effective as the serous part. And if
the clotted part be mixed with as much slacked
lime as will form it into a thick paste, it will dis-
solve, and be immediately applicable ; but is not
so immediately efficacious as the solution by salts.
It, however, must be remarked, that clotted blood,
mixed with quick lime, and left drying for a short
time, will not dissolve, and is rendered useless.
Mr. Kirwan, after describing the analysis be-
fore quoted, observes, " Hence we see on the
" last analysis, the only substances common to
" the growing vegetables, and the soils in
" which they grow, are, water, coal, different
" earths and salts ; these, therefore, are the true
" food of vegetables : to them we should also
" add fixed air, though by reason of its decompo-
H 4
104 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" sition, it may not be distinctly found in them,
" or, at least, not distinguished from that newly
" formed, during their decomposition.5'
He also says, " The agency of water, in the
" process of vegetation, has not till of late
" been distinctly perceived. Dr. Hales has
" shown, that in the summer months, a sun-
" flower, weighing three pounds, avoirdupois, and
" regularly watered every day, passed through
"it, or perspired, twenty- two ounces each day ;
" that is, half its weight.
" Dr. Woodward found that a sprig of com-
" mon spearmint — a plant that thrives best in
" moist soils, weighing only 28.25 grs., passed
" through it 3004 grs. in 77 days, between July
" and October, that is, somewhat more than
" its whole weight each day ; he did more, for
" he found that in that space of time, the plant
" increased 17 grs. in weight, and yet had no
" other food but pure rain water ; but he also
" found that it increased more in weight when it
" lived on spring water, and still more when its
" food was Thames water. Secondly, that the
" water they thus pass, nourishes them merely
" as water, without taking any foreign substance
" into account; for 3000 grs. of rain water, in
" Dr. Woodward's experiments, afforded an in-
«' crease of 17 grs. : whereas, by Margraaf s ex-
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 105
" periment, 5760 grs. of that water contain only
" one-third of a grain of earth. But, thirdly, it
" also follows, that water contributes still more to
" the nourishment of plants, besides the service it
" renders them in distributing the nutritive parts
*' throughout the whole structure, forming itself
" a constituent part of all of them, as may be un-
" derstood from modern experiments. Dr. Injen-
" houz, and M. Senebier have shown, that the
" leaves of plants exposed to the sun, produced
" pure air: now water has of late been proved to
" contain about 8.7 per cent, of pure air, the re-
" mainder being inflammable air. Water is then
" decomposed by the assistance of light within the
" vegetable ; its inflammable part is employed in the
"formation of oils, resins, gums, <§r. Its pure
" air is partly applied to the production of vege-
" table acids, and partly expelled as excrement."
He further says, " To M. Hazenfrez we owe
" the discovery that coal is an essential ingre-
" dient in the food of all vegetables. Though
" hitherto little attended to, it appears to be
" one of the primeval principles, as ancient as
" the present constitution of our globe ; for it is
" formed in fixed air, of which it constitutes
" above one-fourth part, and fixed air exists in
"lime-stones, and other substances, which date
" from the first origin of things.
106 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" Coal not only forms the residuum of all ve-
" getable substances that have undergone a slow
" and smothered combustion, (that is, to which
" the free access of air has been prevented,) but
" also of all putrid vegetable and animal bodies.
" Hence it is found in vegetable and animal
" manures that have undergone putrefaction, and
" is the true basis of their ameliorating powers.
" If the water that passes through a putrefying
" dunghill be examined, it will be found of a
" brown colour, and if subjected to evaporation,
" the principal parts of the residuum will be
" found to consist of coal. All soils steeped in
" water, communicate the same colour to it in
" proportion to their fertility ; and this water
" being evaporated, leaves also a coal, as Hazen-
" frez and Fourcroy attest."
And again, " Hazenfraz and Fourcroy attest,
" that shavings of wood, being left in a moist
" place for nine or ten months, began to receive
" the fermentative motion ; and being then
" spread on land, putrefied after some time, and
" proved an excellent manure. Coal, however,
" cannot produce its beneficial effects but inas-
" much as it is soluble in water. The means of
" rendering it soluble are not as yet well ascer-
" tained : nevertheless, it is even now used as
" a manure, and with good effect"
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 107
" In truth, the fertilizing power of putrid
" animal and vegetable substances were pretty
" fully known even in the remotest ages ; but
" most speculatists have hitherto attributed them
" to the oleaginous, mucilaginous, or saline par-
" tides then developed ; forgetting that land is
" fertilized by paring and burning, though the
" oleaginous and mucilaginous particles, are
" thereby consumed or reduced to a coal. And
" the quantity of mucilage, oil, or salt in fertile
" land, is so small, that it could not contribute
" the one-thousandth part of the weight of any
" vegetable. Whereas coal is not only supplied
" by the land, but also by fixed air combined
" with the earths, and also by that which is con-
" stantly let loose by various processes, and soon
" precipitates by superiority of its specific gra-
" vity, and is then condensed in or mechanically
" absorbed by soils, or contained in dew."
Sir Humphry Davy says, " The necessity of
" water to vegetation, and the luxuriancy of the
" growth of plants, connected with the presence
" of moisture, in the southern countries of the
" old continent, led to the opinion so prevalent
" in the early schools of philosophy, — that water
" was the great productive element, the sub-
" stance from which all things were capable of
" being composed, and into which they were
108 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" finally resolved. Van Helmont, in 1610, con-
" ceived that he had proved by a decisive expe-
" riment, that all the products of vegetables were
" capable of being generated from water. His
" results were shown to be fallacious by Wood-
" ward, in 1691. But the true use of water in
" vegetation was unknown till 1785, when Mr.
" Cavendish made the grand discovery, that it
" was composed of two elastic fluids or gases,
" inflammable gas or hydrogene, and vital gas
" or oxygene.
" Air, like water, was regarded as a pure
" element by most of the ancient philosophers.
" A few of the chemical enquirers in the six-
" teenth and seventeenth centuries formed some
" happy conjectures respecting its real nature.
" Sir Kenelrn Digby, in 1660, supposed that it
" contained some saline matter, which was an
" essential food of plants. Boyle, Hooke, and
" Mayow, between 1665 and 1680, stated that
" a small part of it only was consumed in the
" respiration of animals, and in the combustion
" of inflammable bodies. But the true statistical
" analysis of the atmosphere is comparatively a
" recent labour, achieved towards the end of
" the last century, by Scheele, Priestley, and
'*' Lavoisier. These celebrated men showed that
ic its principal elements are two gases, oxygene
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 109
u and azote, of which the first is essential to
" flame, and to the life of animals ; and that it
" likewise contains small quantities of aqueous
" vapour, and of carbonic acid gas : and Lavoi-
" sier proved that this last body is itself a com-
" pound elastic fluid, consisting of charcoal dis-
" solved in oxygene.
" Jethro Tull, in his Treatise on Horsehoeing,
" published in 1733, advanced the opinion, that
" minute earthy particles supplied the whole
" nourishment of the vegetable world. That
" air and water were chiefly useful in producing
" these particles from the land ; and that ma-
" nures acted in no other way than in ameliorat-
" ing the texture of the soil : in short, that their
" agency was mechanical. This ingenious au-
" thor of the new system of agriculture, having
" observed the excellent effects produced in
" farming, by a minute division of the soil, and
" the pulverization of it, by exposure to dew
" and air, was misled by carrying his principles
" too far. Duhamel, in a work printed in 1754,
" adopted the opinion of Tull ; and stated, that
" by finely dividing the soil, any number of
" crops might be raised in succession from the
" same land. He attempted also to prove by
" direct experiments, that vegetables of every
" kind, were capable of being raised without
110 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" manure. This celebrated horticulturist lived,
" however, sufficiently long to alter his opinion.
'* The results of his later and more refined ob-
*c servations led him to the conclusion, that no
" single material afforded the food of plants.
" The general experience of farmers had long
" before convinced the unprejudiced, of the truth
" of the same opinion, and that manures were
" absolutely consumed in the process of vegeta-
" tion. The exhaustion of soils by carrying off
" corn crops from them, and the effects of feed-
" ing cattle on lands, and of preserving their
" manures, offer familiar illustrations of the prin-
" ciple. And several philosophical enquirers,
" particularly Hazenfraz and Saussure, have
" shown by satisfactory experiments, that ani-
" mal and vegetable matters deposited in soils
" are absorbed by plants, and become a part of
" their organised matter. But though neither
" water, nor air, nor earth, supplies the whole of
" the food of plants, yet they all operate in the
" process of vegetation. The soil is the labora-
" tory in which the food is prepared. No ma-
" nure can be taken up by the roots of plants
"unless water is present j and water, or its
" elements, exist in all the products of vegeta-
" tion. The germination of seeds does not take
" place without the presence of air or oxygene
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. Ill
" gas. And in the sunshine, vegetables decom-
" pose the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere ;
" the carbon of which is absorbed, and becomes
" a part of their organised matter. And the
" oxygene gas, the other constituent, is given
" off': and, in consequence of a variety of agen-
" cies, the economy of vegetation is made sub-
" servient to the general order of the system of
" nature.
" It is shown, by various researches, that the
" constitution of the atmosphere has been al-
" ways the same, since the time that it was
" first accurately analysed : and this must, in a
" great measure, depend upon the powers of
" plants to absorb, or decompose, the putrefying
" or decaying remains of animals and vegeta-
" bles, and the gaseous effluvia which they are
" constantly emitting. Carbonic acid gas is
" formed in a variety of processes of fermenta-
" tion and combustion, and in the respiration
" of animals, and as yet no other process is
" known in nature by which it can be consumed,
" except vegetation."
Thus it appears to be a general opinion,
among the chemical philosophers, that carbonic
acid gas forms a preponderating ingredient in
the constitution of the food of plants. And the
means of its formation and production are alike
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
described by all, but as to the manner, or through
what particular medium, it is supplied and con-
sumed, these authors vary in their opinions ;
and I cannot but think, Sir Humphry Davy
has taken a very mistaken view of this part of
his subject. To show that there are other means
in nature by which carbonic acid is consumed,
than by the leaves of plants, we need only take
his own description of the nature and proper-
ties of lime. On this part of the subject he
says, " Slacked lime was used by the Romans
" for manuring the soil in which fruit trees grew;
" this we are informed by Pliny. Marie had been
" employed by the Britons and the Gauls, from
" the earliest times, as a top dressing for land.
"But the precise period in which burnt lime first
" came into general use, in the cultivation of
" land, is, I believe, unknown : the origin of
" the application, from the early practices, is
" sufficiently obvious, A substance which had
" been used with success in gardening, must
" have been soon tried in farming ; and in coun-
" tries where marie was not to be found, cal-
" cined lime-stone would be naturally employed
" as a substitute."
" The elder writers on agriculture had no
" correct notion of the nature of lime, lime-
" stone, and marie, or of their effects, and this
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" was the necessary consequence of the imper-
" fection of the chemistry of the age. Calca-
" reous matter was considered, by the alche-
" mists, as a peculiar earth, which in the fire
" became combined with inflammable acid ; and
" Evelyn and Hartlib, and still later, Lisle, in
" their works on husbandry, have characterised
" it merely as a hot manure, of use in cold
" lands. It is to Dr. Black of Edinburgh, that
" our first distinct rudiments of knowledge on
" the subject are owing. About the year 1755,
" this celebrated professor proved, by the most
" decisive experiments, that Jime-stone and all
" its modifications, marbles, chalks, and marles,
" consist principally of a peculiar earth united
" to an aerial acid ; that the acid is given out in
" burning, occasioning a loss of more than forty
"percent.; and that the lime in consequence
" becomes caustic.
" These important fa-cts, immediately applied
" with equal certainty to the explanation of the
" uses of lime, both as a cement, and as a
" manure. As a cement, lime, applied in its
" caustic state, acquires its hardness and dura-
" bility by absorbing the aerial (or, as it has
" been since called, the carbonic,) acid, which
" always exists in small quantities in the atmo-
" sphere; it becomes, asitwere, again lime-stone,"
i
114 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
Now admitting that carbonic acid is a neces-
sary part in composing the food of plants, it
appears to me that Mr. Kirwan's theory is by
far the most probable. He says, " That car-
" borne acid soon precipitates, by superiority of
" its specific gravity, and is then condensed in,
" or mechanically absorbed by, soils, or con-
" tained in dew." He also further remarks :
" That plants do not thrive, but most frequently
" perish, when surrounded by an atmosphere of
" fixed air, has long been observed by that
" great explorer of the most hidden processes
" of nature, Dr. Priestley ; but that fixed air,
" imbibed by the roots, is favourable to their
" growth, seems well established by the expe-
" riments of Dr. Perceval of Manchester, and
" fully confirmed by those of M. Ruskert.
" This last mentioned philosopher planted two
" beans in pots of equal dimensions, filled with
" garden mould ; the one was watered almost
" daily with distilled water, the other with water
" impregnated with fixed air, in the proportion
" of half a cubic inch to an ounce of water ;
" both were exposed to all the influence of the
" atmosphere, except rain ; the bean treated
" with aerated water, appeared overground nine
" days sooner than that moistened with distil-
" led water, and produced twenty-five beans;
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 115
" whereas the other pot produced only fifteen ;
" the same experiment was made with stock
" July flowers, and other plants, with equal
" success. The manner in which fixed air acts
" in promoting vegetation seems well explained
" by Senebier. He first discovered that fresh
" leaves exposed to the sun in spring water, or
" water slightly impregnated with fixed air, al-
" ways produced pure air, as long as this ira-
" pregnation lasts; but as soon as it is exhausted,
"or if the leaves be placed in water, out of
" which this air has been expelled by boiling,
" they no longer afford pure air ; from whence
" he infers, that fixed air is decomposed, its car-
" bonic principle detained by the plant, and its
" pure air is expelled ; it appears to me also,
" by acting as a stimulant, to help the decomposi-
" tion of the wafer."
Sir Humphry Davy again says, " When a
" growing plant, the roots of which are sup-
" plied with a proper nourishment, is exposed
" in the presence of solar light, to a given
" quantity of atmospheric air, containing its due
" proportion of carbonic acid, the carbonic
" acid, after a certain time, is destroyed, and a
" certain quantity of oxygene is formed in its
" place. If new quantities of carbonic acid gas
" be supplied, the same result occurs, so that
i 2
116 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" the carbon is added to plants from the air, by
" the process of vegetation in sunshine, and
" oxygene is added to the atmosphere." He
adds, " This circumstance is proved by a num-
" ber of experiments made by £)rs. Priestley,
'•' Ingenhouz, and Woodhouse, and M. T. de
" Saussure, many of which I have repeated
" with similar results. The absorption of car-
" bonic acid gas, and the production of oxygeney
" are performed by the leaf. And leaves re-
" cently separated from the tree, effect the
" change, when confined in portions of air con-
" taining carbonic acid, and produce oxygene,
" even when immersed in water holding carbo-
" nic acid in solution."
From what has been before said, on the nature
and properties of the leaves of plants, it is not
only pretty clear, that they are not furnished
with organs, necessary for the double action,
but it is in no respect necessary they should
possess this power. Why should a plant be en-
dowed with the power of feeding at both ends,
any more than animals, and when, like them, it
is proved, that the taking in their food at one,
is sufficient for all their purposes ? The expe-
riment cited, of carbonic acid being absorbed
by leaves recently severed from the tree, is no
eorroboration of Sir Humphry's theory, as if
OX THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 117
does not appear, that the stems were sealed,
and therefore they were left with the power of
taking up the fluid through the usual and natural
channels.
Sir Humphry Davy again says, " Vegetable
" and animal substances deposited in the soil, as
" shown by universal experience, are consumed
" during the process of vegetation, and they can
" only nourish the plant by affording solid matter
" capable of being dissolved by the fluids in the
" leaves of vegetables : but such parts of them
" as are rendered gaseous, and that pass into the
" atmosphere, must possess a comparative small
" effect, for gases soon become diffused through
" the mass of the surrounding air."
" The great object in the application of ma-
" nures, should be to make it afford as much
" soluble matter as possible to the roots of the
" plant, and that in a slow and gradual manner,
" so that it may be entirely consumed in forming
" its sap and organised parts."
And again, " No substance is more necessary
" to plants than carbonaceous matter, and if this
" cannot be introduced into the organs of plants,
" except in a state of solution, there is every
"reason to suppose that other substances less
" essential will be in the same case. I found by
" some experiments made in 1804, that plants
i 3
118 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" introduced into strong solutions of sugar, mu-
" cilage, tanning principle, jelly, and other sub-
" stances, died ; but that plants lived in the same
" solutions, after they had fermented. At that
" time I supposed that fermentation was neces-
" sary to prepare the food of plants, but I have
" since found that the deleterious effects of the
" recent vegetable solutions were owing to their
" being too concentrated; in consequence of
" which, the vegetable organs wrere wholly clog-
" ged with solid matter, and the transpiration of
" the leaves prevented. The beginning of June in
" the next year, I used solutions of the same
" substances, but so much diluted, that there was
" only about one two-hundredth part of solid ve-
" getable matter in the solutions. Plants of
" mint grew luxuriantly in all these solutions,
" but least so in that of astringent matter. I
" watered some spots of grass in a garden, with
" the different solutions of jelly, sugar, and mu-
" cilage, which grew most vigourously, and that
" watered with the solution of tanning principle,
" grew better than that watered with common
" water.
Again, " Mucilaginous, gelatinous, saccharine,
" oily, and extractive fluids, and solutions of
" carbonic acid in water, are substances that in
" their unchanged states contain almost all the
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 119
" principles necessary for the life of plants j but
" there are few cases in which they can be ap-
" plied as manures in their pure forms, and
" vegetable manures in general contain a great
" excess of fibrous and insoluble matter, which
" must undergo chemical changes before they
" become the food of plants."
I must confess I do not see the utility of Sir
H. Davy's expressing such an opinion. To say
the best of it, it appears, as Mr. Kirwan observes,
to be but a speculation ; and as he does not state
the few cases, it is worse than useless, inasmuch
as it is calculated to mislead, bewilder, and con-
fuse, and to shake the confidence of mere prac-
tical husbandmen in the general doctrines of
chemistry.
I cannot but think it by far the most probable,
that Sir Humphry Davy's first idea was the
correct one ; and that such substances must be
reduced by fermentation before they can be taken
up by the roots. At any rate, under those cir-
cumstances, the effect of such an application as
he describes, to the roots of the plants, must
have been the same, that is, death : but another
cause of death much more probable may be as-
signed, than that of the vessels being clogged
with solid matter; viz. the oxygenization, or
acidifying of those solutions, which most likely
i 4
120 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
destroyed the roots. At any rate, whenever I
have found a plant wholly killed by the appli-
cation of fermenting substances, I have observed
the roots were first destroyed. I have no doubt
of the correctness of Mr. Kirwan's observation,
that " vegetables not only require food, but
" that food be duly administered to them, a sur-
" feit being as fatal to them as absolute privation."
But the effect of surfeit in plants, is generally
the same as with animals, and discovers itself by
disease affecting different parts, in the manner of
sores and putrefying wounds, which also, as with
animals, are often followed by mortification and
death.
If, as Mr. Kirwan states, the more solid part
of vegetables be submitted to dry distillation,
or burnt in a close vessel, it will be reduced to
charcoal ; and which will continue to occupy
almost as much space, as the vegetable itself did
previous to the change, and to retain the same
figure and the same organic disposition. It is
therefore very evident, that the basis of charcoal,
which is termed carbon, not only forms the grand
stamina of plants, but that it enters into the
composition of every part and produce of ve-
getables : it may hence be justly inferred, that
if the plant be formed by the required ele-
ments, taken in at the root, (and of which there
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
can be no doubt,) the basis of charcoal must, in
that part of the food of plants which is supplied
by artificial means, form almost an integral ;
and how to prepare, co^ct, and apply this sub-
stance, is the grand desideratum.
As Sir Humphry Davy says, mucilaginous,
gelatinous, saccharine, oily, and extractive fluids,
and solutions of carbonic acid in water, are sub-
stances that in their unchanged states contain
almost all the principles necessary for the life of
plants ; and all that is contained in these sub-
stances, except the basis of charcoal, is contained
in water ; viz. oxygene, nitrogene, and earth.
In the preparation of food for plants, therefore,
the principal object must be to produce and
apply carbon, and the manner of effecting this is
still an object of doubt, difficulty, and uncer-
tainty, which is evinced by the opinions even of
those great philosophers which I have quoted.
What Mr. Kirwan says respecting coal, is true
enough ; but as to coal in itself, being made to
form any part of the food of plants, I have never
seen it proved ; that it has been applied as manure
with good effect, may be, but its operation must
have been as an alterative in the soil, and a pre-
ventative of putrefaction, and not as affording
carbonaceous matter to the plant. The shavings
of wood, no doubt, might have been reduced
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
to charcoal, by the operation of fire, but would
they in this state have afforded as much of the
basis of charcoal in a soluble state, as by the result
of oxydizement or ferrtfmtation ? Certainly not :
then it may be inferred, that to furnish charcoal,
or a substance capable of being converted into
charcoal, is not enough. Carbon must be pre-
sented in that state which admits of its perfect
solution and combination with water. And even
after this is produced, it clearly appears that some
co-operating agent is necessary, either to release
it from the natural attachment of some other
principle or substance, which is obnoxious to
plants, or to stimulate the plant to receive it ;
for it is found that the black residuum of veget-
ables, spontaneously decomposed by putrefaction,
will not of itself sustain such plants as are objects
of cultivation in agriculture ; nor will simple
calcareous earths ; but these two substances
blended in due proportions, constitute the most
fertile soils. Hence, as is well known, black
soils, which are constituted wholly of vegetable
matter, are sterile, and that by the simple com-
bination of lime they are rendered fertile. Then
what is this principle of fertility ? this is an im-
portant question.
The most complete solution of carbon, or that
state which admits of the most perfect union
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 1C2S
with water, appears to be carbonic acid ; but as
it has not been proved, that in this state it is, by
any application, capable of producing anything
like the quantity of carbonaceous matter required
to sustain a plant in health and vigour, it may
justly be concluded that carbonic acid, like coal,
is, by its constitution, restricted in its operation.
That process of decomposition, therefore, which
can be conducted so as to produce the required
state of solution and separation, without its run-
ning into the excess of carbonic acid or charcoal,
must be the most efficient ; and the chemical
terms which best express this state, appear to
me to be vegetable and animal oxydes ; and my
opinion as to the best mode of producing and
applying this, I shall hereafter explain.
Sir Humphry Davy says, " There is no ques-
" tion on which more difference of opinion has
" existed, than that of the state in which ma-
" nure ought to be ploughed into the land ;
" whether recent, or when it has gone through
" the process of fermentation. And this ques-
" tion is still a subject of discussion; but whoever
" will refer to the simplest principles of che-
" mistry, cannot entertain a doubt on the subject.
" As soon as dung begins to decompose, it
" throws off its volatile parts, which are the
ON THE POOD OF PLANTS.
" most valuable and most efficient. Dung
" which has fermented, so as to become a mere
" soft cohesive mass, has generally lost from one-
" third to one-half of its most useful constituent
" elements. It evidently should be applied as
" soon as fermentation begins, that it may exert
" its full action upon the plant, and lose none
" of its nutritive powers/'
Again, " All green succulent plants con-
" tain saccharine or mucilaginous matter, with
" woody fibre, and readily ferment. They can-
" not, therefore, if intended for manure, be used
" too soon after their death."
A reference to the principles of chemistry, most
certainly induces me to form conclusions very
different to Sir Humphry : in his explanations
of chemical principles, and their combinations,
no doubt he is clear and correct ; but many of
his applications of those principles, and his in-
ferences, appear to me to be superficial, hypo-
thetical, and fallacious : and this most probably
arises from a want of practical knowledge and
observation. His opinions seem to be grounded
on the belief, that in the production and appli-
cation of food for plants, quantity is the grand
desideratum. He appears to have no notion
that the health and condition of plants determine
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
their value ; or that vegetables are as much af-
fected by both the quality and the quantity of
food, as animals are, but such is the case.
That the state and condition of food when ad-
ministered to animals, determine its effects, is ge-
nerally understood : and it is precisely the case
with vegetables. Thus, whenever the nutritive
part of food is blended with a large portion of
filthy and impure matter, vegetables, like ani-
mals, become gross, bloated, and diseased.
Although, (as I have before observed when
speaking of the leaves of plants,) a rapid growth
and large surface may be produced, this is of little
value as food for animals ; it is aqueous, vapid,
obnoxious, and of little solid value ; and plants
in such a state, are, in another point of view, like
animals, — they are sterile, and seldom produce
their seed or fruit in perfection. And, therefore,
notwithstanding a great part of that which con-
stitutes vegetable and animal matter, may be
thrown off in the process of fermentation, it is im-
portant to consider, what those parts are, before
we attempt to appreciate their value. May it
not be necessary to the health of vegetables,
that a certain part should be expelled ? And,
although a portion of the more valuable part
may be wasted in the process of fermentation :
OK THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
may not the process render the remainder of
more avail and value, and thus create a profit
instead of a loss ?
It must be remembered, that the authority of
chemistry rests upon this axiom, — that whatever
constitutes a body, or operates as an agent in its
construction, must be demonstrable on a chemi-
cal examination, both by analysis and synthesis.
Now it does not appear, by the different analysis
before explained, that any vegetable substance
contains nitrogene, except gum, which is the
produce of disease ; but, that all animal sub-
stances, in an undecomposed state, do contain
nitrogene. Therefore, — with all due deference
to Sir Humphry Davy, — as in a demonstration
by synthesis, or in the composition of vegetable,
from animal substances, nitrogene cannot be
considered as necessary, ought it not to be disen-
gaged and expelled from such substances as are
prepared for the food of plants ? And if so, — as
nitrogene cannot be separated, by any other
means than fermentation, — is it not necessary
that such decomposition should be effected pre-
vious to its application? — or that the substances
be so placed, that the obnoxious gases be passed
freely off, and that the action of decomposition
may not affect the roots? It does not appear
ON THE TOO!) OF PLANTS.
that plants throw off anything as excrementitious
but oxygene ; and consequently, if nitrogene is
taken in, it must be appropriated. This remark
also applies to the consumption of hydrogene.
If a plant be induced to consume an extra quan-
tity of hydrogene, or carburetted hydrogene, it
must form a surface sufficiently large to employ
or appropriate it, or it must be passed off as
diseased excresence ; it cannot be expelled in a
healthy manner, like oxygene.
Sir Humphry says, " In the writings of scien-
" tific agriculturists, a great mass of facts may
" be found in favour of the application of farm-
" yard dung in a recent state. Mr. Young, in
" an Essay on Manures, which I have already
" quoted, adduces a number of excellent autho-
" rities in support of the plan. Many who
" doubted have been lately convinced : and,
" perhaps, there is no subject of investigation,
" in which there is such a union of theoretical
" and practical evidence. I have myself, within
" the last ten years, witnessed a number of dis-
" tinct proofs on the subject. I shall content
" myself with quoting that which ought to have,
" and which I am sure will have, the greatest
" weight among agriculturists. Within the last
" seven years, Mr. Coke has entirely given up
128 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" the system formerly adopted on his farm, of
" applying fermented dung : and he informs me,
" that his crops have been since as good as they
" ever were, and that his manure goes nearly
"" twice as far."
This doctrine, in a general sense, and com-
pared with the old practice, agrees perfectly
with my observation and experience ; but Sir
Humphry does not state, whether the dung is
immediately ploughed in, by Mr. Coke, or suf-
fered to lie on the surface ; and the difference
between those two modes of application, will be
found to be very important, by every person who
will try them.
I shall hereafter state my reasons why it is
improper, as a general practice, to manure lands
that are intended for immediate seed crops ; but
there may be cases where the state of the soil,
rom extreme poverty and other circumstances,
require it ; and in those cases, 1 am convinced
that the best time and manner of supplying dung
for such crops is, by spreading it over the sur-
face after the seeds are sown : at first sight,
and according to Sir Humphry's notions, this
may appear to be a wasteful practice ; but it is
far otherwise : for, as Sir Humphry says, " Or-
" ganic substances, as soon as they are deprived
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
" of vitality, begin to pass through a series of
" changes, which ends in their complete destruc-
" tion, in the entire separation and dissipation
" of the parts. Animal matters are the soonest
" destroyed by the operation of air, heat, and
" LIGHT. Vegetable substances yield more slow-
" ly, but finally obey the same laws. The periods
" of the application of manures, from decom-
" posing animal and vegetable substances, de-
" pend upon the knowledge of these principles."
Now, notwithstanding the manner of applying
dung which I recommend, that of spreading it
over the surface, and there permitting it to re-
main, before it be ploughed in, twelve months or
more, is directly opposite to that recommended
by Sir Humphry, it will be found more com-
pletely accordant with the above principles, as
well as with those of Mr. Kirwan : for, by leav-
ing dung openly spread on the surface, it is
evident, that the influence of the air, the heat of
the sun, and light, will be the least controlled
or obstructed ; and, consequently, the decom-
position will be more rapid, regular, and con-
formable to the wants of the plants. Under such
circumstances, more carbonic acid may be ge-
nerated ; but as this elastic fluid is heavier than
the atmospheric air, it will fall on and penetrate
the open surface of the soil, and thus accord in
130
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
effect with the experiments, cited by Mr. Kirwan,
of Dr. Priestley and M. Ruckett. And as to
any loss arising by the evolution of any other
gases, they are less likely to occur from dung
in this situation than when buried ; for carbu-
retted hydrogene gas is formed in the greatest
quantity during the putrefactive fermentation,
and when the substances are immersed in, or
glutted with, water, and excluded from the air
and light ; and in this state they most generally
are when buried : and this gas, possessing an
opposite quality to the carbonic acid gas, in be-
ing much lighter than the atmospheric air, will,
as it is formed, operate in a reverse manner to
the carbonic acid ; it will immediately, on being
liberated, penetrate the surface of the soil, mount
rapidly into the atmosphere, and pass off with
the wind, and be thus lost. And further, it is
well known that animal and vegetable substances
decomposed by the cold putrefactive fermenta-
tion under the earth, or at the bottoms of stag-
nant ponds, axe inert and inefficient ; at least,
until they are made to undergo some other che-
mical change, by calcination, oxydation, &c. ;
this is evinced by peats, bogs, &c.
We may likewise instance the effect of the ac-
cumulated animal substances decomposed under
the earth in burial grounds, which never exhibit
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 131
any comparatively extraordinary luxuriance of
vegetation. And, as a practical demonstration
that dung, when laid on or near the surface, and
repeatedly turned over and exposed to the ac-
tion of the atmosphere, is not very rapidly or
very effectually exhausted, I shall state a course
of operations which were carried on in a field of
about six acres,, within my immediate observation.
The soil of this field was a fine friable loam,
and of a black colour, but the surrounding
land, although of the same texture, was of a
foxy brown j this difference in the colour, no
doubt, was occasioned by the difference in cul-
tivation and manuring. The surrounding lands
had been treated in a careless, slovenly manner,
as a common farm ; whilst the field in question
was cultivated as a market-garden, cropped with
esculent vegetables, and manured at least once
in the year, for many years. At the period it
came under my notice the market-gardener had
died, and it fell into the hands of another per-
son, who having but seven years to run of a
lease, determined, as he said, to work it out ;
he therefore sowed it with white wheat for five
years following, without giving any manure.
The first year, it produced forty-eight bushels
per acre, and every year after, the crops declin-
ed three or four bushels per acre. The sixth
K 2
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
year, it was planted with potatoes without ma-
nure, and the crop averaged fourteen tons per
acre. The seventh year, it was sown again with
wheat, without manure, and it produced up-
wards of thirty-two bushels per acre.
And to show the beneficial effects of top-
dressing, I shall also state that about this time, I
took possession of a field of pasture land of about
twenty acres, a strong yellow or foxy clay ; it
lay on the side of a hill, and was very wet and
poachy, particularly during winter ; had been ge-
nerally cut for hay, although it seldom produced
more than three-fourths of a load per acre, and
this not until the end of July. I drained it by
cutting a ditch at the upper side, deep enough
to get below the stratum of clay, which in some
places was upwards of five feet, turning the
water down the sides, and gave it a top dress-
ing of scavenger's manure, the cleaning of the
town streets ; and the year after, it produced me
a load and a half per acre, in the middle of
June ; and a second crop, of three-fourths of a
load, the beginning of September ; and this it
continued to do, varying a little, more or less,
according only as the seasons were wet or dry.
And to shew the effect of dung buried deep ;
the following instance may be sufficiently strong.
I had noticed a field at Wickham in Kent,
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 133
which was laid down for a cherry orchard, and
planted with fine young healthy standard trees,
that for two years made a beautiful and luxu-
riant growth, and the third year, in the spring,
they threw out their shoots with equal luxu-
riance; but before summer, I observed to my
astonishment, they were all withered and dead.
Not being able to assign a cause for such an
unusual failure, I called on the proprietor, to
enquire how it happened ; he seemed perfectly
resigned to what he called his ill luck, in having
them struck with a blight ; however, perceiving
no reason why his trees should be blighted,
whilst his neighbours all around, should escape
uninjured, I enquired farther as to the nature
of the subsoil, &c«, when he told me he had been
at great expense and trouble to prepare the soil,
by giving it a thick covering of rich stable dung,
and trenching it in, a spit and a half deep with
the spade. I observed the trees had thrown
out a profuse discharge of gum, and have no
doubt, that during the two first years, the roots
had not penetrated the dung, but on reaching
it the third year, they were poisoned; or so
glutted with such impure food, as to be thus
diseased and destroyed.
Whatever devastation may be committed by
the insect or fungus tribe, to trees or plants,
K 3
134 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
I am convinced that by far the greatest
extent of injury, from what is placed to the
account of canker, mildew, &c. if correctly in-
vestigated, will prove to originate in the unwhole-
some supply, or impurity, of the food.
As to the objection, that by leaving dung on
the surface, a too rapid decomposition of the
manure, will be followed by a too rapid con-
sumption of food ; it may be said, " a man can-
not eat his cake and have it too.'* Let the crop
be suited to the manure, or the manure to the
crop, and as long as he gets its full value, he
will have little reason to complain of its coming
into his pocket too quick ; the sooner he gets
a profitable return for one dressing of dung, the
sooner he can afford another j and if a proper
course of crops be taken, he may go on a long
time, without feeling cause to complain that his
lands are too prolific, or too rich.
To be consistent, we must either stick to
chemical principles, or give them up. The
difference in the effect of the method I re-
commend, of applying manure on the surface,
and there to suffer it to remain the longest pe-
riod convenient; and that, by Sir H. Davy,
of burying it immediately ; may be determined
by the comparative formation and effect of the
two gases, carbonic acid, and carburetted hy-
drogen. If the former be, as stated, a principal
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 135
ingredient in the food of plants, and that by its
gravity it will penetrate into the soil, no method
more favorable for its generation and equal dis-
tribution can be devised, than by my mode of
application j and if carburetted hydrogen be
either an unwholesome food, or by its rapid
escape, the occasion of a great waste of carbon ;
and nitrogene gas be poisonous, or obnoxious,
when in contact with the food; no mode can
be more favorable to, or productive of, both
those effects, than burying the dung in an un-
fermented state.
If we were to suppose, that a difference in the
quality of the food supplied to plants, produced no
difference in its effects ; or that the roots possessed
the power of selecting the exact quantity and pro-
portion of each principle, required for its parti-
cular purpose, from any composition that may be
presented to it ; we should be driven far off from
accounting for the diseases of plants, or for the dif-
ference in the size, substance, state, and condi-
tion of plants of the same species, when growing
in the same situations : and, although we are
justified in believing, that a plant having taken
in its food in a compound state, possesses the
power of dividing and appropriating the different
parts to its different purposes, it must be pb-
vious, that any unnatural obstruction to the due
K 4
136 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
exertion of those powers ; or any improper sub-
stance being taken into the system with the
food ; must be followed by disorder, disease, and
destruction.
One great power which plants are allowed
to possess, and which seems absolutely neces-
sary ; is the decomposition of water, and the
emission of oxygene ; for, from the proportion
of oxygene in water, being so much greater than
in any of the vegetable products, the plant must
take up more than it can need ; and the great
power and activity of oxygen is such, that un-
less plants had the means of expelling the super-
fluous quantity, they could not exist, nor could
the different products be formed. But plants do
not appear to possess the power of expelling hy-
drogene ; therefore, whatever quantity of this
substance be taken into the system, it must re-
main and be appropriated. With these ideas, the
following analysis will be found generally to ac-
cord:—
Water contains, 85 parts oxygene,
15 - hydrogene.
Oil contains, 79 parts carbon,
21 - hydrogene.
Sugar contains, - 28 parts carbon,
8 - hydrogene,
64 v oxygene.
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 137
Gum contains, %3 parts carbon,
1 1 hydrogene,
65 oxygene,
1 nitrogene.
Starch contains, 43 parts carbon,
7 hydrogene,
50 oxygene.
Most people are aware, that the quality of the
food consumed by animals, is equally as deter-
mined in its effects, as the quantity, and such is
the case with vegetables. When an animal is
constrained to live on meagre, impure food, or
that, wherein a small quantity of nutriment is dif-
fused or blended with a large insipid mass, it is
induced to consume a greater quantity, to make
up for the want of a more concentrated quality ;
and the consequence is, an extension of the
stomach and bowels. But although the animal in
this condition, appears large in bulk, it possesses
little solid value, and less strength to bear up
under the additional weight; and such is the
case with vegetables ; their stalks, branches, and
leaves, are the organs for the reception and di-
gestion of the food ; and whenever they are
glutted with meagre food, a large extension of
the leaf and branches follows, but in this state
these possess little substance or value.
That some plants are more voracious than
138 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
others, and that they sometimes, like some
animals, feed on gross impurities j is distinctly
proved by the flavor of esculents, and parti-
cularly the cabbage tribe : thus we find that
sea-kale, growing in rank manured beds, is so
gross and bitter in flavour, as scarcely to be
eatable; whilst that which is grown in a pure
natural soil, is sweet and delicious.
Certainly, we cannot pretend to the powers of
determining and measuring out the exact pro-
portions of the required elements ; but we may,
by a little attention, be able to counteract and
avoid extremes.
It appears throughout nature, that the efforts
of a plant, from its first establishment, is directed
to acquire the proper state and condition to
propagate its species ; and that in its seeds and
fruit is comprised its concentrated essence. We
may therefore estimate its powers and efforts to be
in proportion to its wants ; and hence we may sup-
pose, that as starch, and sugar, contain a large
portion of oxygene, and a small portion of hy-
drogene; that those plants whose desired pro-
ducts consist of such substances, should be sup-
plied with food containing a large portion of
carbon and oxygene ; and as oil contains a large
proportion of hydrogene, and no oxygene ; that
to those vegetables, whose seeds produce oil, a
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 139
supply of food should be given, containing a
large portion of hydrogene and carbon.
On these grounds, • admitting carbonic acid
and carburetted hydrogene to form the food of
plants, we come to the following conclusions.
Those substances, and that mode of preparation,
which produce carbonic acid, and carbonaceous
oxydes, constitute the best food, and the best
state, for all plants producing grain and pulse ;
and surpass also, the best adapted for clovers,
grasses, &c., for feed and for hay ; as the quantity
of saccharine matter they contain, determines
their value, arid riot the bulk, which alone would
be increased by carburetted hydrogene. For
those plants whose seeds produce oil, such as
hemp, flax, rape, and all the cabbage tribe, car-
buretted hydrogene may be Well adapted. We
find those ideas corroborated by natural and
practical results : thus, seed-crops of grain and
pulse are always most healthy and prolific, on
lands that have been treated in that manner,
and left in that state, in which the roots are the
most completely freed from those substances
which produce carburetted hydrogene gas ; and
hemp, rape, turnips, cabbages, &c., from their
peculiar form of growth, are enabled to sustain
a large and extended surface, and can therefore
140 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
appropriate a large portion of carburetted hy-
drogene without injury.
A due attention to these particulars will ex-
plain the want of accordance in the opinions of
Sir Humphry Davy, with many of the operations
that are most successfully practised by many
eminent farmers. Indeed, if the food of plants
was wasted, by exposure to the atmosphere ;
ploughing and stirring up the soil must occasion
waste and sterility ; and the same must be the
case with turning over, and exposing masses of
dung; but, observing practitioners well know
that those processes are followed by additional
prolificacy.
That class, among the cultivators of plants,
who, of all others, pay the most attention to their
health, and proper condition for fructification,
is, perhaps, the florists ; and the most eminent
amongst those, make it their practice to mix and
turn over their compost at short intervals, so
that every part may be exposed to the influence
of the sun, air, and light, for at least twelve
months before they use it.
The fact is, I believe, that whether carbon
and oxygene combined, as carbonic acid, be the
best state of preparation for the consumption
of plants, or not ; carbon and oxygene form the
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 141
grand essentials for making them prolific ; and
when vegetable aud animal substances are laid
on the surface of the soil they are intended to
enrich, they are in a situation best calculated
for decomposition, by oxydizement ; for then,
as they are reduced to a soluble state, they are
dissolved by water, and carried to the roots ;
and when there is not moisture enough to carry
down the soluble part, it lies dry on the surface ;
and whilst dry, — as Sir H. Davy observes, —
no fermentation can take place ; and thus
circumstanced, under the alternate state of wet
and dry, the decomposition is gradual, complete,
and rapid. This may be observed by a stake of
wood, that has been some time fixed into the
earth ; for that part which is under the earth, and
that which is in the air, will remain sound, long
after that part which is between both, or on a
level with the surface of the earth, is completely
decomposed.
Besides, there is a natural operation constantly
working, to assist in the decomposition of vege-
table substances which are laid on the surface,
and to facilitate their conveyance to the roots of
plants ; which, although little thought of) is of
great importance, and this is conducted by the
earth worms. Whoever will notice the surface of
the earth, will find those creatures not only con-
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
stantly boring holes, and drawing the light sub-
stances around them, but that by their slime
they very much quicken the decomposition; this
is readily proved by leaving a piece of twine
on the surface of the earth a short time ; and
within a few days after it has been laid hold of
by the worms, it will be found quite rotten ;
their holes also afford ready channels of convey-
ance for the decomposed matter.
And further, these little creatures perform
another important operation ; they devour and
cast upon the surface, the more finely divided
earthy substances and undecomposed matter;
and thus that part of the soil best adapted to
sustain vegetation, is collected and accumulated
on the surface, and within the healthful range
of the roots of plants. The soil is also by such
means, rendered more conducive to an equal
percolation and evaporation of water ; and it
may be observed, that placing dung on the sur-
face, favours both the existence and the working
of these useful cultivators ; the surface of the
earth, thus continually opened, also affords a free
ingress to the carbonic acid gas, and egress to
the carburetted hydrogene.
Again, Sir Humphry says, " All green suc-
" culent plants contain saccharine, or mucilagi-
" -nous matter, with woody fibre, and readily
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 143
" ferment ; they cannot, therefore, if intended
" for manure, be used too soon after their
" death."
" When green crops are to be employed for
" enriching a soil, they should be ploughed in,
" if possible, when in flower, or at the time the
" flower is beginning to appear ; for it is at this
" period that they contain the largest quantity
" of easily soluble matter, and that their leaves
" are most active in forming nutritive matter ;
" green crops, pond weeds, the paring of hedges
" or ditches, or any kind of fresh vegetable
" matter, requires no preparation to fit them for
" manure ; the decomposition slowly proceeds
" beneath the soil ; the soluble matters are gra-
" dually dissolved, and the slight fermentation
" that goes on, checked by the want of a free
" communication of air, tends to render the woody
" fibre soluble, without occasioning the rapid
" dissipation of elastic matter."
This doctrine is evidently founded on the
notion, that plants consume vegetable substances
in their compound state ; but having admitted
that carbon, oxygene, and hydrogene, with a
portion of earth, are all the elements that are
necessary to compose a vegetable ; and also, that
water contains all those elements in itself, ex-
cept carbon, and that carbon, produced by the
144 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
fermentation of vegetables, is readily dissolved
and taken up by water ; and that plants possess
the power of decomposing water, and of divid-
ing and appropriating its principles, in com-
bination with carbon, to all its various uses ; why
are those principles abandoned, and a process
recommended, grounded upon supposition only,
in preference ? Such a deviation from the wise
rule of Sir Isaac Newton is surely worse than tri-
fling ; it is injurious to the character of science.
Vegetables exposed to the sun and air, and
dried, are found to possess more or less of sugar,
according to their nature ; and sugar is a vege-
table oxyde, almost immediately soluble and
convertible into food ; and it is most readily
convertible and productive of carbonic acid ;
let any person take a bundle of hay, and a bun-
dle of green grass, and submit each to infusion,
and compare the extract, both in appearance
and effect ; the difference will be considerable.
What says Sir Humphry of malt dust ? That
it " consists chiefly of the infant radical, se-
" parated from the grain." And he says, " I
" have never made any experiment upon this
" manure, but there is great reason to suppose
" it must contain saccharine matter, and this will
" account FOR ITS POWERFUL EFFECTS." Now if
these infant radicals had been separated and
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 115
buried in their green state,- what powerful effects
could they have been expected to have produced
in fertilising the soil, more than the severed ra-
dicals of other plants, of which the earth is
always full ? Surely none. Then what created
the difference ? Most evidently the exposure
to heat and air on the kiln, which, by oxydise-
ment, created the sugar.
Vegetable substances and dung, in drying, un-
doubtedly are reduced in weight, by the eva-
poration of its water; but this is a loss of no
importance, for water is again readily supplied,
and by the operation they absorb oxygene, and
are thus brought to a state much more efficient ;
that of soluble oxydes. From all the observ-
ations I have made, and which I have endea-
voured to explain, I am convinced, that every
addition of food to plants, and every operation
of agriculture, wherein the cultivation of vege-
tables is concerned ; will be found more or less
efficacious as it favours the free access, or in-
gress and egress, and the general influence, of
the oxygene of the atmosphere and water, to the
whole structure of the plant, and the ingredients
of its food during preparation.
And as to the mechanical effect of dung, in
pulverising the soil ; that which is placed on the
surface, must ultimately be equal to thai which
146 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
is immediately buried ; for, as has been stated,
that by burning, the solid part of the earth can-
not be reduced ; no more can the solid part of
dung be reduced by evaporation ; and the effects
of dung thus placed, in increasing the disposi-
tion of a soil to absorb moisture from the at-
mosphere, cannot be less, than when immedi-
ately buried : and what is more essential, it will
be less retentive of water.
Sir Humphry Davy has fully and minutely
described the nature and properties of all the
different substances used as manures, and such
who wish for particular information on these
divided subjects, I must refer to his work. My
object being to establish general principles, it
would be superfluous to attempt following him
further. On the preservation of manure he
says, " When dung is to be preserved for any
" time, the situation in which it is kept is of
" importance; it should, if possible, be defended
" from the sun ; to preserve it under sheds
" would be of great use, or to make the site of
" a dunghill on the north side of a wall. The
" floor on which the dung is heaped should, if
" possible, be paved with flat stones, and there
" should be a little inclination from each side
-" towards the centre, in which there should be
" drains connected with a small well, furnished
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
•*•* with a pump, by which any fluid matter may
" be collected for the use of the land. It too
** often happens that a dense mucilaginous and
" extractive fluid is suffered to drain away from
" the dunghill, so as to be entirely lost to the
« farm."
My previous objections to the application of
Sir Humphry's ideas, must be equally strong
against the mode here recommended.
Those who are in the habit of making hot-
beds for vegetables, know that fresh dung from
the stable, packed together without a sufficient
degree of moisture, to modify its fermentation ;
will very speedily acquire a high degree of
heat, and throw off* a quantity of elastic vapour ;
either carburetted hydrogene, or ammonia, and
that as the moisture declines, the heat will also :
and the dung will then be overrun with moul-
diness, or fungii, and thus during such ferment-
ation, the exclusion of moisture or rain, by
a shed being placed over it, must facilitate and
increase the loss by such evaporation, and by the
evolution of the gases ; and the earth covering
dung in this state, will not afterwards support
vegetation. As the chief supply of manure is
derived from the stable and farm yard, the ar-
rangement and management of these is a matter
of no trivial importance.
148 ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
In the general mode, I have always thought
sufficient care and attention are not given ta
the preservation and application of the urine of
the animals ; and that this is more valuable in
the composition of the food of plants, than is
generally calculated: urine not only in itself
contains greater fertilising powers than the
excrement, or dung ; but added to this, it consi-
derably accelerates and moderates the ferment-
ation, and particularly when diluted with water
in a due degree. The effects of the urine, also,
when thus divided and diluted, by mixing with
the dung, are much increased and beneficially
extended : and a much better mode, in my opi-
nion, for conducting this process, than that
recommended by Sir Humphry, is described by
Sir John Sinclair, as adopted in the Netherlands.
He says, " The more opulent pave and .line
" with brick the receptacles for their dung,
" which is thus constantly kept plunged in a
" mass of liquid matter ; the fibrous parts of
" the vegetables are thus completely decom-
" posed, and four tons of this manure go as far
" as five kept with less precaution."
But this liquid should consist of urine not too
much diluted, or with no more water added,
than is sufficient to keep the fermenting heat
below the power of generating steam.
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 149
Drains should be carefully made from the
stables and cattle-sheds, to cisterns or wells
protected from the rains ; and from these, the
urine should be taken and thrown over the
dung-heap, which should be open to the air ;
there is little danger of too much water added
by the rains, if not under the dripping of a shed.
I am convinced that stable and yard dung,
saturated with urine, and preserved in this man-
ner, would go twice as far as such dung pre-
pared in the usual manner, that is, by being
thrown into the open yard, and where the urine
of the stables and sheds is not only suffered to
run away, but the yard laid in such a manner
that the dung is washed by the rains, and the
drainings wasted.
It is a little singular that landlords, well aware
that on the supply of manure depends the value
of the farm ; are in many instances so jealous
of having all the produce of the farm spent on
its land, that they will not permit their te-
nants to sell a load of straw ; and yet they not
only will not be at the expense of properly
constructed receptacles for preserving the ma-
nure, themselves ; but will not regard the care-
less ignorance and neglect of the tenant, of
these objects.
The superior effect of putting the manure on
L 3
150 ON THE FOOD* O$' PLANTS*
the land as it is produced, as stated by Sir Ku
Davy to be the case with Mr. Coke, may be
accounted for, as arising from the urine absorbed
by the litter, which, if left in the usual way,
spread in an open yard, would have been wasted
and lost.*
* Whilst recommending the careful and effectual drain-
ing of stables, for the preservation of the urine, as the most
valuable part of animal manure, I will also state a circum-
stance, which cannot be thought unworthy of notice to
agriculturists, which occurred to me, to show how neces-
sary this is also to the health of animals.
I took possession of some stables, with the horses that
had been some time kept in them, and, to my misfortune,
in a very short time I found that the horses kept in those
stables had been subject to that dreadful disease, called
the mad staggers, for several years. Some horses had
died, and the horses then there, and which had been for
some time kept in the stables, were in wretched condition.
Two fine fresh horses which were put into them, were
within a few months seized with the mad staggers, and
one of them literally killed himself by knocking his head
about against the manger and stall ; the other was
saved by copious bleeding, and removal into a fresh stable,
but was so reduced as to be lessened in value one-
half. My neighbours advised the pulling down the stables,
considering the disease infectious ; but having, on going into
the stables early in the morning, been almost suffocated
and blinded by obnoxious gas ; I examined the floor and
drains, when I found the former to consist of large burr
stones, laid on a stiff clay ; and the floor sunk so low below
the drain, as not to admit of the draining away of the urine,
This struck me to be a sufficient cause to affect the brain oi
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 151
To show the fertilising effects of urine, Sir
John Sinclair says, " Every sort of urine con-
" tains the essential elements of vegetables in a
"state of solution. The urine of a horse, being
" so much lighter, would be more valuable than
" its dung, if both must be conveyed to any dis-
" tance. The urine of six cows, or horses, wilt
" enrich a quantity of earth, sufficient to top-
" dress one English acre of grass land j and as
" it would require four pounds worth of dung
" to perform the same operation, the urine of a
" cow, or horse, is worth about twelve shil-
" lings per annum, allowing eight shillings
" per acre as the expense of preparing the
" compost. The advantages of irrigating grass
" lands with cow urine almost exceeds belief.
" Mr. Harley, of Glasgow, (who keeps a large
" dairy in that town,) by using cow urine, cuts
" some small fields of grass six times ; and the
" average of each cutting is fifteen inches in
" length."
In concluding this part of my subject, I shall
shortly recapitulate my observations.
any animal confined in it, the same as it had the horses. 1
therefore had the floor taken up, relaid, and properly drained;
and the walls and ceiling, manger, cribs, &c, washed with
quick lime ; and from that time for ten years, I never had a
diseased horse.
L 4
ON. THE FOOD OF PLANTS.
It seems to be generally admitted, that animal
and vegetable matter must be reduced to a per-
fectly soluble state, before it can be appropri-
ated as food for plants ; and to effect this, it is
considered necessary, that a perfect decompo-
sition should take place, of the substances pro-
vided for this purpose, and many processes are
noticed, by which a decomposition is effected ;
but that which is most generally considered as
the indispensable one, is the putrefactive fer-
mentation. There are, however, five distinct
stages of fermentation described by chemists ;
namely, the saccharine, or that which changes
coagulated mucus, or starch, into sugar; the vi-
nous, or that which forms alcohol, or spirit, from
sugar, and at the same time generates carbonic
acid ; the acetous, or that which forms vinegar
from sugar ; the colouring, or that which con-
verts the substance of the green indigo plant
into blue ; and the putrefactive, which effects
the last and complete disunion of all the com-
ponent parts of a body ; leaving all at liberty to
form other combinations.
Now all the different authors appear to concur
in the opinion, that the putrefactive ferment-
ation is a necessary process for the reduction of
animal and vegetable substances, to the requisite
state of food for plants 5 the other different stages
ON THE FOOD OF PLANTS. 153
being either overlooked, or considered unim-
portant : but in this, I think, they egregiously
err.
It is certain, that when animal and vegetable
substances are left to spontaneous decay, the
putrefactive fermentation must be the ultimate
result; but it is demonstrative, that the resi-
duum, or the matter left by completely putrefied
animal and vegetable substances ; will not sup-
port the vegetables cultivated by man, in a
healthful progress to prolificacy, any more than
either of the simple earths : and that when
reduced to this state, its action is merely me-
chanical, or operative only, as it serves to temper,
or constitute, the compost or soil. And further,
that when in too great a proportion, in this state,
it is injurious, as it retains water until it becomes
in a state of stagnation ; whilst, on the contrary,
every process that checks the putrefactive fer-
mentation, and every operation that retards and
dispels its effects, in and on the soil ; and the
addition of many substances that are decidedly
anti-putrescent, such as charcoal, alkaline salts,
lime, &c. and which facilitate the dispersion of
water : add to the fertility of the soil, and in-
crease its prolificacy.
Thus we find that the spreading of dung
thinly over, and near, the surface of the earth ;
ON THE FOOD OF PLAtNTS.
the repeatedly stirring and turning it up, and
exposing it to the action of the sun, light, and
air ; paring and burning ; the addition of lime,
and the calcareous and saline substances ; and,
above all, the production, presence, and reten-
tion of carbonic acid ; all corroborate my prin-
ciples.
And if all physiologists do not agree, that car-
bonic acid forms the productive food of plants ;
all accord in the doctrine, that those substances
which either contain, or are capable of pro-
ducing carbonic acid : are conducive to the fer-
tility of the soil, and congenial to the health and
fructification of plants. I therefore cannot but
think the following are the true inferences; that
in the decomposition of vegetables and animals,
or the preparation of the food of plants ; (so far
from hastening,) every means should be adopted
that anticipate, or precede, the putrefactive fer-
mentation, in the reduction of those substances
to a soluble state ; — that vegetable substances
should be managed and disposed, so as to effect
and encourage the saccharine fermentation to the
utmost ; before they are exposed to the putrefac-
tive, which is done by effectually drying them in
the sun and air ; — and that animal substances
should, as much as possible, be placed under those
circumstances which favour the formation and
-ON trifi FOOD OF PLANTS.
diffusion of nitrous salts, and that prevent the
formation of carburetted hydrogen ; and this is
done by mixing them with vegetable substances
and calcareous earths, lime, &c. and exposing
them, as much as possible, to the action of the
air and light. And, above all, that every means
be adopted to remove every tendency in the soil,
or the manure, to retain water in a state of stag-
nation; for those plants which are the grand
objects of cultivation in husbandry, will never
grow healthy and prolific in stagnant water;
whatever food they may be supplied with ; nor
will the residuum of animal or vegetable matter,
decomposed by putrefaction in stagnant water,
either invigorate or sustain such vegetables-
166
ON THE RUST OR BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT.
ACCORDING to our understanding of the prin-
ciples, which regulate and determine the prepara-
tion and application of the food of plants ; must
be our notions of the diseases of plants, and our
ideas of the best mode or course of cultivating
them.
A wide difference undoubtedly exists in the for-
mation, functions, and peculiar nature of animals
and vegetables; but yet they may, in many res-
pects, be assimilated ; and thus, by comparison,
the proper treatment of plants be simplified, and
rendered more easy of explanation and comprehen-
sion. I shall take leave to state, that the observa-
tion and experience of many years have convinced
me, that the opinions of the great reformer of the
medical profession, Mr. Abernethy — that the most
afflicting diseases to which the human species
are subjected, are generated in the stomach, and
consequently are to be remedied by the stomach
— are perfectly just and well founded : and I am
also convinced, that most of the diseases of ani-
mals and of plants, may be accounted for and
remedied, on the same principles. From what
has been said, it is clear, that vegetables cannot
ON THE RUST, &C. IN WHEAT. 157
be supported without a due supply of food ; and
that with those, as with animals, the quality and
quantity of food must possess an equal influence.
Every man is aware, that the quality of the
food he consumes, is equally as determined in its
effects, as the quantity ; and such, no doubt, is
the case with plants, as before observed. When
an animal is constrained to live on meagre, im-
pure food, it is induced to consume a greater quan-
tity, to make up as much as possible for the
deficiency of quality ; and the consequence is, a
distension of the stomach and bowels. And this
is often followed by a poverty and corruption of
the fluids, which produces disease and debility ;
and the body is wasted by eruptions, and becomes
a prey to vermin. And when an animal (more par-
ticularly during parturition) is glutted with gross
and rich food, a surfeit is the consequence ; and it
is subjected to a stagnation of the fluids, inflam-
mations, and eruptions; which often end in mor-
tification and death : and plants, under the same
circumstances, are subject to the same conse-
quences.
These observations will be found correctly to
apply to, and to afford a clear exemplification of,
the rust, or black blight, in wheat.
On this subject, Sir John Sinclair says, " It
" appears, from an able paper written "by a dis-
158 ON THE RUST OR
" tinguished naturalist (Sir Jos. Banks), that this
" disease is occasioned by the growth of minute
" parasitical fungus, or mushrooms, on the leaves,
" stems, and glumes, or chaff, of the living
" plants ; and that the roots of the fungus, inter-
" cepting the sap intended by nature for the
" nutriment of the grain, render the grain lean
" and shrivelled, and, in some cases, rob it com-
" pletely of its flour. Nor is that all ; the straw
" becomes black and rotten, unfit for fodder, or
" little better than a caput mortuum, possessing
" neither strength or substance."
Again, — " Several of the accidents, above
" enumerated, may contribute to the production
" of rust ; but there are two additional circum-
" stances which likewise tend to promote it.
" First, — Having the land in too rich a state for
" corn crops ; and, Secondly, — When too fre-
" quent a repetition of crops of wheat takes
" place."
" It has been well observed, that when crops,
" intended to ripen their seed, are objects of
" Culture, there is not only wanted a degree of
" vigour and luxuriance in the plants sufficient
" for the pin*pose ; but if the fertility of the soil
" be raised to a higher pitch than is necessary or
" consistent with that object, injurious rather
" than beneficial consequences may be the result.
BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT. 159
" Land may be too rich for corn crops ; and it is
" better to keep it in a well-balanced condition,
" or in a medium state of productiveness, than
" in too fertile a state. The greater quantity of
" sap and juices in vegetables, growing on highly
" cultivated lands, it is evident, must necessarily
" render them more susceptible of the effects of
" sudden and extreme changes, and, conse-
" quently, more liable to disease. Besides, as
" mushrooms are produced on beds of dung,
" great quantities of manure must promote the
" growth of fungi, or parasitical plants, on the
" crops of wheat, if they are once infected. The
" wheat produced on the site of a dunghill is
" always rusted, even in the most favourable
" seasons ; and if the whole field is a species of
" dunghill, how can it escape ?"
" A too frequent repetition of crops of wheat,
" more especially when accompanied by great
" quantities of manure to force a crop, will often
" have the same effect. The rust was but little
" known in the western or the northern parts of
" England, or the southern counties of Scotland,
" until of late years, when every exertion has
" been made to increase the quantity of that
" grain."
Sir John Sinclair also says, "Among the reme-
" dies likely to diminish the effects of this fatal
160 ON THK RUST OR
" malady, the following have been particularly
"recommended: 1. Cultivating hardy sorts of
" wheat ; 2. Early sowing ; 3. Raising early
" varieties ; 4. Thick sowing ; 5. Changes of
" seed ; 6. Consolidating the soil after sowing ;
" 7« Using saline manures ; 8. Improving the
" course of crops ; 9. Extirpating all plants that
" are receptacles of rust ; and, 10. Protecting
" the ears and roots of wheat, by rye, tares, and
" other crops."
And again, he says, " It is likewise stated on the
" respectable authority of an eminent naturalist
" (T. A. Knight, Esq.), that by crossing different
" varieties of wheat, a new sort MAY be produced,
" which will completely escape being rusted,
" though the crops in the neighbourhood, and in
" almost every district in the kingdom, may suffer
" from it in the same year. These circumstances
" tend to prove, that the rust does not depend
" solely on atmospheric influence, otherwise it
" could not be prevented by changes of seed, or
" by the crossing of different varieties."
This theory of Mr. Knight's is like many
others of his, grounded on a superficial view of
things, and is a mere fallacious hypothesis.
Indeed all these great naturalists appear to.
have bewildered themselves in specious theory ;
and from not 'having traced the operations of
BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT. 161
nature to its source, have throughout mistaken
the effect for the cause.
Suppose a farmer was to find a sheep, unhappily
reduced, and preyed upon by maggots, or the
larva of the flesh-fly, he may very justly suppose
that the maggots reduced the sheep ; and as
justly expect, that whatever sheep were subjected
to the maggots, would be reduced in the same
manner. Then what would be the best and pro-
per remedy ? Knowing the maggots to be pro-
duced from eggs deposited by flies, would he try to
cover his sheep from the flies ; or attempt to drive
them where there were no flies ? Where is the
farmer or shepherd that does not know, that flesh-
flies will not deposit their eggs on a healthy part
of a sheep ; or if they do, that they will not pro*
duce maggots ? They know full well, that if a
sheep be diseased by eruptions, or wounded ; the
flies will find out these places, and there deposit
their eggs ; and, therefore, the remedy is simple :
cure and prevent the disease, or protect the
wounds, and the evil is avoided — " Remove
" the cause and the effect ceases."
Very similar will be found the diseases in
wheat, called the rust, or black blight, and its
cause.
The fungus undoubtedly preys upon that
which is intended to nourish and sustain the
M
162 ON THE RUST OR
wheat ; but what afforded an attraction and
lodgement for the fungus ? This is the grand
question.
It is stated, that the fungus is a parasitical
plant, like the misletoe, but this is not the fact ;
the fungus has no power to attach itself to, or
penetrate, the healthy stalks of the wheat, any
more than the larva of the flesh-fly have, the
healthy skin of the sheep.
Any one who will examine the stalks of wheat
growing on a luxuriant, rank soil, at short inter-
vals, about the time of its first showing the swelling
of the ear; will perceive the vessels to become rup-
tured, either from the luxuriant flow of the sap
up the tender tops of the plants, being checked
by cold winds, or an unhealthy overfulness, or
some other casual obstruction ; and the sap being
thus suddenly checked, will rupture the vessels,
and ooze out through little slits, or longitudinal
fissures ; the discharged matter will soon assume
the appearance of a white jelly ; as it dries, it will
become yellow, and then brown, and of a hard
texture : and in proportion as the sap-vessels are
injured and destroyed, and this exudation takes
place, the plant must of course, more or less, fail
in its supply of nourishment to the grain. In
some cases, the strongest stalks will not be able
to push the ear beyond the leaf, and the coro
BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT. 163
consequently will be starved. Whilst the season
continues dry and cold, the exuded sap will re-
main like dry gum ; but as it advances, and the
weather becomes warm and moist, the gum be-
comes moist, soft, and putrefying ; and then
forms, and affords a nutritive bed for the mould
or fungus ; which grows and increases until
it is deprived of moisture, or is so reduced as
to be insufficient to sustain it, when it dies ; and
according as the season is favourable or un-
favourable to its growth, it produces a brown, or
black powdery substance, in a proportional quan-
tity. Thus then, the foundation or cause of the nust
or fungus, is the putrefying matter discharged
from the ruptured sap-vessek of the plant : and
although the ruptures may be occasioned by a
contraction or obstruction of the vessels by
atmospheric influence ; the overfulness, or over-
luxuriance of the plant, produced by surfeit ; or
the being glutted with rank and unwholsome
food ; and its incapacity of digestion, and un-
healthy obstructions ; renders it more liable to
such injuries : and may therefore be considered
as the general cause of the disease, blight, or
rust.
I have planted wheat in a rank compost of
dung, which from its first appearance in the
autumn, during its growth in the winter, and
M 2
ON THE RUST OR
in the spring ; maintained excessive, luxuriance,
but which was ultimately so reduced by rust, as
to be rendered weak and incapable of bringing
its seed to perfection ; at the same time, and close
alongside ; I also planted wheat in a pure and
sweet sand, and supplied it with a solution or
infusion of rotten dung, by way of food j this
never appeared half so luxuriant as the other,
but the stalks or straw grew perfectly healthy,
arid free from disease, and the grain was of good
quality.
The following statement by Sir John Sinclair,
as well as what has been already quoted, will in
every respect be found to corroborate and sus-
tain my observations and opinions.
He says, " As land in too rich a state is apt to
" produce rust, it is found to be an effectual
" remedy, if previous to a crop of wheat the
" dung is applied to a smothering crop, as tares,
" hemp. &c, Indeed after cole seed, wheat is
" scarcely ever known to be rusted. The gene-
" ral culture of that article, and the use of Dutch
" ashes impregnated with saline matter, as a
" manure, tends greatly to the exemption from
" rust, by which, wheat in Flanders is distin-
" guished.
" Potatoes, when the crop is large, have the
" same effect ; in Flanders, where the wheat is
BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT.
" never materially injured by rust, potatoes are
" considered in its best cultivated district (the
" Pays de Waes) as the best preparation for that
" crop. If too much dung occasion the pro-
" pagation of fungi, which there is reason to
" believe is the case, smothering crops, by
" exhausting and diminishing the strength of
" the dung, may take away that tendency."
Undoubtedly the tares, cole-seed, potatoes, &c*
growing on the manured soil, must reduce, if not
wholly consume, its gross and over-luxuriant
qualities, and time and exposure, effect a more
complete decomposition and evolution of its
vitiating effluvia, and thus the great cause being
removed, the effect must cease.
Sir John further says, " Mr. Knight is de-
'*« cidedly of opinion that the disease is taken up
" by the root, every experiment to communi^
" cate it from infected straw to others proving
" abortive, and indeed if it were introduced into
" the ear of the plant how could it descend, and
" infect solely the stem, which is the case, un-
" less when the disease is inveterate ?"
As to the fungus passing into plants by the
roots, or being prevented from propagating, by
any of the means here pointed out, it appears
almost too preposterous to be seriously thought of i
How difficult do our housewives find it, to ex»
M 6
166 ON THE RUST OR
elude the seeds, , or prevent the fungus, growing
on their pickles and preserves, even by tied
down bladders and tight corks ? And if horse-
dung in a mass be placed in certain situations,
it is well known that even the large edible mush-
rooms will rise and grow where they never were
seen before.
Thus, then, if the cause of the rust or black
blight be as I have stated, — and the observations
both of Sir John Sinclair and Mr. Knight con-
firm my opinions, and the observations of Sir
Joseph Banks do not controvert them, — the
remedy is simple and obvious : viz. for the pro-
duction of seed crops j let manuring follow, and
not immediately precede them ; or at any rate,
dung should not be ploughed in, on such lands,
immediately before sowing the seeds.
And it i& equally obvious, that the ploughing
in, green crops, must be conducive to the produc-
tion of rust. And the feeding off turnips with
sheep, or folding them on the land, immediately
before sowing, must have a strong tendency to
the same effect.
If, when lands are manured, two or three
succulent or green crops be taken off, before it is
sown for seed-crops, although the leaf and plant,
or straw or haulm, of such crops may not appear
so luxuriant in consequence, the seed will be
BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT.
larger in quantity, and finer in quality. > And if,
in the general course of cultivation, dung be
applied or given to the green crops, which pre-
cede the white or seed-crops, the luxuriance of
leaf, stalk, &c. will be produced in that form
which is most valuable, either as green food,
turnips, &c. or hay ; and the succeeding grain-
crops would, in no respect, be diminished ; and
the straw, from being free from disease, would
be much increased in value*
From what I have stated, if two crops of
wheat be desired in four years, the better mode
of manuring for them is, to lay on the dung the
two first years for green crops, and take the two
wheat-crops following, in the last two years.
There never was a more widely mistaken notion,
than that a supply of dung given one year, can
be exhausted either in that or the following year,
by cropping with any thing, but by burying it
below reach of the roots, or so low that it be-
comes inert or poisonous ; the manure may be
worse than lost.
Sir John Sinclair again very justly observes,
" By the improvements which may be effected
" by the observations of ingenious naturalists, and
" the experience of intelligent farmers, there is
" every reason to hope that the diseases of wheat
" may, in a great measure, be so mitigated in their
M 4*
168 ON THE &UST, SCC. IN WHEAT.
" effects, that they will not in future be felt as
" a national calamity. For that purpose, how-
" ever, it is necessary that the diligent farmer
" should seize every opportunity of improving
" his knowledge in the diseases of wheat ; should
" note down all the circumstances connected
" with the subject as they occur, and should
" compare his observations with those of others ;
" that whether the causes of rust are general or
" local, they may as much as possible be ob-
" viated."
To this I will beg leave to add, that however
repeatedly, the diligent farmer may have been
misled by theory, he cannot be justified in wholly
opposing or neglecting science. The opinions I
have here endeavoured to explain, are grounded
on demonstrative practical experiment. And as it
is in the power of every farmer to make the same
demonstration, I trust every one will consider
it, in justice, due from all, to do so, before they
indulge in speaking lightly of them, or in treat-
ing them with neglect.
169
ON FALLOWING.
THE concurring action of the principles 1 have"
laid down, will be found correctly to apply to
the operation of fallowing, and clearly shew the
real value of this process.
In a general point of view it is obvious, that
both the advocates for, and opponents of, the
system of fallowing, have indulged in extremes $
the former attributing effects which, under com-
mon circumstances, it cannot produce ; and the
latter denying those which are clearly evident.
I shall however hope to show, that a little giving
way on both sides, will tend most to the public,
as well as private benefit.
Sir John Sinclair observes, " Over the greater
" part of Europe, it was formerly considered to
" be a most advantageous practice, periodically
" to dedicate an entire season to the cultivation
" of arable land, without raising from it any
" crop. It was supposed that the expense would
" be amply compensated by the texture of the
" soil being ameliorated, by the destruction of
" weeds, which would be thus effected, and by
" the increased produce of the succeeding crops.
1*70 ON FALLOWING.
" But when the expenses of cultivation were
" augmented, when new crops, as turnips, were
" introduced, (which were favourable to the
" process of cleaning the ground by their later
" period of sowing, and the hoeings they re-
" quired,) and when the productions of the soil
" became more valuable ; it was natural for the
" farmer to consider whether such great sacri-
" fices were really necessary, and whether fallows
" might not, in many cases, be diminished, and
" in others, totally given up. On this subject,
" a controversy has arisen between two sects, —
" the fallowists and anti-fallowists, which has
" been conducted with much keenness and
" energy.
" Of late years the question at issue has been
" much narrowed. It is now admitted, that
" on all light soils, where the turnip-culture can
" be practised, fallows are unnecessary ; and
" that on strong lands, under a judicious system,
" they are not essentially necessary more than
" once in the course of a rotation. The subject
" under discussion, therefore, is reduced to this
" short question :— Is it for the interest of a
" farmer who cultivates cold, strong, clayey,
" adhesive, and wet-bottomed lands, periodi-
" cally to fallow them ?"
This is certainly reducing the eligibility of the
ON FALLOWING. 171
practice, to a matter of calculation of profit. And
as, after all, this must depend entirely on the
means of the farmer, it may not be an unjust
view of the subject, although a very contracted
one.
But does the operation of fallowing increase
or diminish the fertility of the soil ? This is the
question undetermined, and is the most import-
ant one, and to solve it, it will be necessary to
trace the operation of chemical principles to
practical results.
Sir H. Davy says, " The chemical theory of
" fallowing is very simple. Fallowing affords
" no new source of riches to the soil. It merely
" tends to produce an accumulation of decom-
" posing matter, which, in the common course
" of crops, would be employed as it is formed.
" And it is scarcely possible to imagine a single
" instance of a cultivated soil which can be sup-
" posed to remain fallow for a year with advan-
" tage to the farmer. The only cases where
" this practice is beneficial, seems to be in the
" destruction of weeds, and for cleaning foul
" soils."
Again, " The most important processes for
" improving land, are those which have been
" already discussed, and that are founded upon
" the circumstance of removing certain consti-
ON FALLOWING.
u tuents from the soil, or adding others, of
" changing their nature. But there is an opera-
" tion of very ancient practice still much em-
" ployed, in which the soil is exposed to the
" air, and submitted to processes WHICH ARE
" PURELY MECHANICAL, namely, fallowing.
" The benefits arising from fallowing have
" been much overrated ; a summer fallow, or a
" clean fallow, may be sometimes necessary in
" lands overgrown with weeds, particularly if
" they are lands which cannot be pared and burnt
4< with advantage, but is certainly unprofitable
" as part of a general system of husbandly.
" It has been supposed by some writers, that
" certain principles necessary to fertility are de-
" rived from the atmosphere, which are ex-
" hausted by a succession of crops, and that these
" are again supplied during the repose of theland,
" and the exposure of the pulverised soil to the
" influence of the air ; but this in truth is not the
" case. The earths commonly found in soils
" cannot be combined with more oxygene ; some
" of them unite to azote, and such of them as
" are capable of attracting carbonic acid, are
" always saturated with it on those soils in which
" the practice of fallowing is adopted. The vague
" ancient opinion of the use of nitre, and of
" nitrous salts, in vegetation, seems to have been
ON FALLOWING. 173
" one of1 the principal speculative reasons for the
" defence of summer fallows.
" Nitrous salts are produced during the expo-
" sure of soils containing vegetable and animal
" remains, and in greatest abundance in hot
" weather 5 but it is probably by the combination
" of azote from these remains, with oxygene in
" the atmosphere, that the acid is formed, and
" at the expense of an element which otherwise
" would have formed ammonia, the compounds
" of which, as is evident from what was stated in
" the last lecture, are much more efficacious
" than the nitrous compounds in assisting vege-
" tation.
" When weeds are buried in the soil, by their
" gradual decomposition they furnish a certain
" quantity of soluble matter j but it may be
" doubted whether there is as much useful ma-
" nure in the land at the end of a clean fallow,
" as at the time the vegetables clothing the sur-
" face were first ploughed in. Carbonic acid gas
" is formed during the whole time by the action
" of the vegetable matter upon the oxygene of
" the air, and the greater part of it is lost to the
" soil in which it is formed, and dissipated in the
f atmosphere."
The reasoning here offered by Sir Humphry
Davy, affords further proof of the possibility of
174 ON FALLOWING.
staggering even truth itself by a plausible theory,
when practical observation is not brought to aid
the judgment.
To show the fallacy of the objections above
stated, and to prove that by the operation of
chemical principles, fallowing must add to the
fertility of the soil, we need only refer to what
has already been said on the nature of the food
of plants : however, the more clearly to establish
those principles which are most important, I
shall endeavour further to elucidate their appli-
cability. Admitting what Sir Humphry states
to be fact, " That the earths commonly found
" in soils cannot be combined with more oxygene,
" and none of them unite with azote j" yet the
remains of vegetables which are always in the soil
may ; superfluous or stagnant water may also be
dispersed ; and the formation of carburetted hy-
drogen gas prevented : for as he further says, "In
" the production of a plant from seed, some reser-
" voir of nourishment is needed before the roots
" can supply sap, and this reservoir is the cotyle-
" don, in which it is stored up in an insoluble form,
" and protected if necessary during the winter,
" and rendered soluble by agents which are con-
" stantly present on the surface. The change of
" starch and coagulated mucilage into sugar, con-
" nected with the absorption of oxygene, maybe
ON FALLOWING. 175
" rather compared to a process by fermentation,
" than to that of respiration ; it is a change ef-
" fected upon unorganised matter, and can be ar-
" tificially imitated; and in most of the chemical
" changes that occur, when vegetable compounds
" are exposed to air, oxygene is absorbed, and
" carbonic acid formed or evolved."
Then why deny the presence or action of such
agents, to change and prepare both organised and
inert vegetable matter, and rendering them so-
luble ; and reducing them to a proper state as
food for plants ; when thrown up and exposed to
the surface by fallowing ?
The very idea of fallowing, presupposes the
land intended to be submitted to the operation,
to be charged with vegetable matter, both orga-
nised and inert, by long exclusion from the action
of the sun, air, and light ; and the earth being
turned up to the depth of the fibrous roots
of the plants, and the plants themselves being
severed and turned upside down, and ex-
posed to the effects of a drying sun &c., the
vitality of the whole is (as far as can be done
by a simple operation) destroyed, and their sub-
stance, with that of the before, inert matter, is
exposed in the manner best adapted for oxydise-
ment, or the production of sugar ; which in all
cases is proved to be not only the most soluble,
but the state most productive of carbonic acid,
176 ON FALLOWING.
that vegetable matter can be placed in ; or the
best adapted as food for plants ; and particularly
of those which are desired to be prolific in fruits,
seeds, bulbs, and tubers. And as to such an ex-
posure to the atmosphere, producing either nitre
or ammonia ; it certainly cannot be likely, that
lands submitted to common cultivation, can be
sufficiently pregnant with animal and vegetable
matter to produce either ; but if it does so, nitre
is the most probable ; and this is constituted
to be the most profitable ; for nitre being com-
posed of oxygene and nitrogene, it contains one
of the vital principles of plants, and of which
they cannot take up too much, as they possess
the power of expelling any superfluous quantity.
But ammonia contains nothing that a plant can
need, it being composed of hydrogene ; and ni-
trogene. By a due supply of water, plants ob-
tain a due supply of hydrogene ; and nitrogene
is worse than useless, as it produces disease j and
indeed, the wise providence of nature seems here
distinctly displayed, by making ammoniacal gas
so much lighter than the atmospheric air, that it
may as speedily fly off as it is formed.
But whether the additional fertility obtained
by fallowing, can be equal to that produced by
other operations, is another question ; and is>
indeed, one more of expediency than of scientific
ON FALLOWING. 177
demonstration ; but in determining this, we must
take into consideration an axiom, that (as has
been before observed) seems not to have occurred
to Sir Humphry Davy ; viz. that plants may be
overfed, and diseased by unwholesome food. We
will therefore suppose that part of a foul field,
even of a middle quality, were laid up in fallow ;
and part manured, or laid down to turnips, and
fed off with sheep ; and both ploughed without
any further manuring to either part, and cropped
with wheat, — Query, would not the quality of
the grain and straw of the fallow land make up
for the difference in bulk on the other ; taking
into consideration the casualties of rust, and
the being lodged or blown down ? and whether
the clean state of the land after fallowing would
not more than compensate the difference of
profit arising from the turnips ?
This is the simple question at issue, and which
cannot be fairly answered, without reference to
the state of the land which is to be submitted to
the operation. If the land be foul, or full of
vegetable matter, both organised and inert, and
withal stiff and wet; on the principles already ex-
plained, fallowing must certainly be a beneficial
operation ; but if the land be free from vegetable
matter; the idea of increasing the fertility of the
soil, by a year's exposure to the atmosphere, can-
N
1?8 ON FALLOWING.
not be supported by any chemical principle : nor
can I believe it could ever have proved good in
practice.
It is admitted on all sides, that a vegetable
being destroyed and decomposed, and again de-
posited on the spot where it grew, adds much to
the capacity of the soil ; and, after what has been
said, a doubt can scarcely exist whether, if it be
exposed in such a manner, during the decompo-
sition, to the influence of the sun, air, and light,
as to become duly oxydized ; it will add more to
the fertility of the soil, than if it were decomposed
in a situation immersed in water, or obscured
irom the light, heat, and oxygene.
The consumption of vegetables by animals,
effects much the same change, as exposure to the
sun and air ; that is, by favoring oxydizement or
by rendering the substance not only more solu-
ble, but reducing it to a state more readily to
absorb oxygene ; and particularly when the dung
and urine are united: and these changes, aided
by the continual turning of the soil by the plough,
universally constitute the most effective opera-
tions in cultivating the earth.
As to the loss of a season, and a crop of vege-
tables, as food for animals, or as manure to the
land; the object of fallowing, on the principles I
have explained, may be fully sustained and acted
ON FALLOWING.
up to, without incurring such loss; as the requi-
site alteration in the vegetable matter contained
in the soil, may be as effectually produced during
one dry summer month as in twelve.
Any green crop, that will admit of being re-
moved in the months of June or July, may be
raised without detriment ; thus, grass, clover, or
tares, may be removed, either as hay, or green
food for cattle ; or if these or other greens be in-
tended as manure, they should be cut and dried
before they are buried or ploughed in ; for, as be-
fore observed, the operation of making grass into
hay, is the conversion of mucus into sugar; and,
therefore, hay, as a manure, will be found very
superior in its effects, to green grass. And when
land is manured for turnips or rape, for feed-
ing, as a preparation for a wheat crop; if rust or
laying down of the corn be an object, the feed
(for the reasons stated) may be carted off and
eaten on other lands.
Conformable to his general notions, Sir H.
Davy again expresses his dissent to the operation
of fallowing. He says, " When weeds are buried
" in the soil, by their gradual decomposition
" they furnish a certain quantity of soluble mat-
" ter; but it may be doubted whether there is as
" much useful manure in the land, at the end of
" a clean fallow, as at the time the vegetables
180 ON FALLOWING.
" clothing the surface were first ploughed in ;"
but how does this accord with his ideas on the
effects of paring and burning ? — on the subject
of which, he very justly observes — " Many ob-
" scure causes have been referred to for the pur-
" pose of explaining the effects of paring and
"burning; but, I believe, they may be referred
" entirely to the diminution of the coherence and
"tenacity of clays, and to the destruction of
"inert and useless vegetable matter, and its con-
*« version into manure/'
Ift then, the fertilizing effects of fire be wholly
comprised in its acting thus, as an alterative ;
how can it be denied, that the same effects,
though in a more moderate degree, are produced
by a summer fallow? Fire is undoubtedly a
powerful agent in fertilizing the land, and more
particularly when applied to stiff wet clays.
In a general point of view, I agree with Sir
H. Davy, as to the effects of paring and burn-
ing, and in many of his ideas as to the peculiar
principles of its operation, and particularly when
he says, —
" When clay or tenacious soils are burnt, the
" effect is of the same kind ; they are brought
" nearer to a state analogous to that of sands."
" In the manufacture of bricks, the general
" principle is well illustrated ; if a piece of dry
ON FALLOWING. 181
" brick earth be applied to the tongue, it will ad-
" here to it very strongly, in consequence of its
" power to absorb water ; but after it has been
" burnt, there will scarcely be a sensible ad-
" hesion."
" The process of burning renders the soil less
" compact, less tenacious, and retentive of moist-
" ure ; and when properly applied, may con-
" vert a matter that was stiff, damp, and, in
" consequence, cold, into one powdery, dry, and
" warm, and much more proper as a bed for
" vegetable life."
" The great objections made by speculative
" chemists to paring and burning is, that it de-
" stroys vegetable and animal matter, or the
" manure in the soil ; but in cases in which the
" texture of its earthy ingredients is permanently
" improved, there is more than a compensation
"for this temporary disadvantage. And in some
" soils, where there is an excess O/^INERT VEGETA-
" BLE MATTER, the destruction of it must be
" beneficial, and the carbonaceous matter re-
" maining in the ashes may be more useful to
" the crop than the vegetable fibre from which
" it was produced."
As Sir Humphry very justly observes, whe-
ther the operation of burning increases or dimi-
nishes the soluble carbonaceous matter, is of
N3
#N FALLOWING.
little importance, as these effects are compara-
tively transient ; but what is termed the mecha-
nical change in the texture of the soil, is of the
greatest importance, as in this respect the land
may not only be considered as permanently im-
proved, and altered from that state in which it is
at all times uncertain in its produce ; — capable of
being worked only at particular and short inter-
vals; difficult and expensive in its preparation
for seed-crops ; and, in general, ill appropriated
for feeding cattle ; — to a state free from all those
casual defects ; — but it is rendered less capable of
forming and retaining that enemy to healthy vege-
tation, STAGNANT WATER, and much more capa-
ble of receiving and applying, the source of all
vitality and prolificacy in vegetables, FRESH WATER.
These are the great and most valuable effects of
fire, when applied as an agent in cultivation : and
fall owing approaches the nearest to fire, in its
effects, of any operation in agriculture.
It is well known, that animals require a con-
stant supply of fresh air, to sustain a healthy ex-
istence; and the constant supply of fresh water,
is no less essential to the healthy existence of
vegetables.
The soil and subsoil that is constituted and
situated the best to sustain these principles, is
always the most valuable f and every operation in
ON FALLOWING.
husbandry that is known to produce fertility in
the soil, acts in unison with them ; indeed, under-
draining proves, comparatively, that agricultural
plants do better without water, than when immer-
sed in stagnant water ; and irrigation shews, that
when rapidly changing, a plant can scarcely have
too much water. Digging and ploughing, and
hoeing, stirring, and turning up the soil; not only
loosens the texture, and thereby admits a more
perfect percolation of water; but spongy vegeta-
ble matter, that, whilst under the earth, retains
water in a state of stagnation, is brought upon
the surface; the unwholesome moisture evapor-
ated, and the substance reduced to a state more
absorbent, but less retentive.
When the earth is in a proper state, or the
soil and subsoil properly constituted, and under
proper circumstances ; a constant circulation or
motion of the water up and down among the
roots of vegetables, is going on; — thus, when rain
falls in sufficient quantity; by its gravity, it per-
colates and sinks through the soil. And again,
as soon as the surface of the earth is sufficiently
rarefied to pass off what it retains in vapour, the
motion is reversed, and by the capillary attraction
of the soil the water is again raised, and brought
to the surface, and in its passage upwards again
comes in contact with the roots of vegetables; and
N 4
184 ON FALLOWING.
in this manner a continued change of water and
fresh supplies of the vital principle are produced.
It is evidently this principle which establishes
the greatest value of the operation of hoeing.
And although not recognised by Jethro Tull,
was what gave effect to his favourite process of
horse-hoeing. It is this also which produced
the increased fertility so much and so justly ex-
tolled by Mr. Curwen, in his mode of culture,
that of repeatedly stirring the surface between
the growing vegetables ; and not, as he supposed,
the absorption of the volatile gas thus extricated,
by the leaves of plants. Had Mr. Curwen's con-
ception been just, the plants at a considerable
distance from the loosened soil, must have been
benefited by the floating of the vapour, or gas,
by the wind, but which I take for granted was
not the case. The fact is, clay, as soon as sa-
turated with water, retains it in a state of stag-
nation, to the exclusion of fresh supplies : and
thus, plants growing in it, are exposed to poison-
ing and starvation. And when the surface is
operated upon by a drying sun, it contracts and
opens, in large clefts or fissures, through which
the vapour escapes; whilst the roots are closely
grasped in a dry mass, and thus by the other ex-
treme, the vegetable is placed in a state of starv-
ation. By repeatedly hoeing arid stirring the
14
ON FALLOWING. 185
surface, the adhesion is counteracted, and the
rain-water, with the soluble manure, more per-
fectly distributed among the roots ; and the con-
traction of the surface in drying, being pre-
vented, or the fissures and clefts being closed or
filled up, the water raised by evaporation is
more equally diverted among the roots. A pro-
per attention to, and comprehension of, those
principles, can alone enable a person to judge of
the eligibility of paring and burning, and to es-
timate its probable value when applied to parti-
cular soils.
It is evident, that the most important and per-
manent effects of fire consists in its imparting
calcareous quality to the earth ; it must therefore
be as evident that soils which naturally contain a
due proportion of calcareous earth, such as chalk,
limestone, marie, &c. cannot be so much im-
proved by burning. The effect of dressing lands
with lime and marie, is to ? certain degree the
same as fire; and therefore those lands only,
which are deficient in calcareous matter can be
permanently benefited by the addition of those
substances. Calcareous earths also anticipate
the effects of putrefaction, by reducing vegetable
and animal substances to soluble oxydes, and
thus they prevent a loss of carbon in the forma-
tion of carbonated hydrogen gas.
186
FALLOWING.
And from the effect of these operations, other
important conclusions may be drawn, viz. that
the working of the plough^ the hoe, the harrow,
and the roller, cannot well be overdone, during
the dry weather of spring, summer, and autumn ;
and that it cannot be too seldom done in wet
weather and in winter ; as these operations, when
the surface is dry, open the pores : and, when
wet, close them.
In all cases, where the soil is so tenacious and
retentive of water, as to render it necessary to
lay the land in narrow ridges for the purpose of
getting rid of it; fire may be applied in the man-
ner before explained, so as to effect such an im-
provement as would amply repay both the land-
lord and the tenant any expense that may be
incurred by the operation.
When lands are laid in narrow ridges, the best
and most effective manure, or that which is laid
on the surface, is washed away, and the spaces
occupied by the furrows are wasted, and so much
land lost. The surface-soil of such lands being
made friable, and open in its texture, sufficiently
to admit of a free percolation of water to a proper
depth, and well under-drained, would not only be
rendered more productive, but like fine sandy
loams, it would admit of working at all times and
seasons.
ON FALLOWING. 187
I once saw a very large field, of a stiff foxy
clay, laid down to turnips ; one half had been
reduced by burning, and the other not : the
part that was burnt, was clothed with as fine a
crop of roots, as could be wished for ; whilst on
the other, the seed, although the same in both
cases, and sown at the same time, appeared to
have failed, there being only a few thin patches
of plants ; and the cause was obvious. The
surface of the unburnt clay was closed, and ren-
dered impervious, immediately after sowing, by
rain ; but the calcination of the soil in the other,
kept it open, and made it accessible to the air,
which is positively necessary for the germination
of seeds.
The reducing of clay by fire, may be con-
sidered as the best mode of rendering surface
draining unnecessary.
Sir John Sinclair, after a very comprehensive
and minute detail of all the different modes and
effects of draining, very properly says in con-
clusion, " So sensible have landed proprietors
*' become of the deep interests they have in ex-
" ecuting this most important species of improve-
" ment, on a liberal and extended scale, that it
" is a practice with many, to have a general plan
" for the drainage and regular division of the
« different farms, when their estates are newly
188 ON FALLOWING.
" let; and the work is thus likely to be completed
" in a methodical, substantial, and permanent
*« manner, under professed drainers, and labour-
" ers solely employed on this essential work.
" On this great scale of drainage, the connection
" of one farm, or part of an estate, with another,
" renders the effect more complete, and the
" ultimate charges much less. Indeed, the te-
" nants are so sensible of the advantages of this
" system, that they give it a preference to
*' having the work done at their own expense,
" and in their own manner."
And on the effects of draining, he further very
justly observes : " On the whole, there is no
" means by which the value of land can be ad-
" vanced, or from which, when usefully applied,
" so many advantages can be derived, at a mo-
" derate expense, as that of draining. The
" owner is benefited by an increase of rent ; the
" occupier by that of produce ; and the public,
" by being thus supplied with greater quantities
" of the most essential commodities, and by hav-
" ing a source of useful employment furnished
** to the labouring classes of the community."
189
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, AND THE
AGENCY OF THE EARTHS IN VEGETATION.
THE surface of the earth is a variable com-
pound, but as it respects vegetation, it is not
necessary to pursue its analysis beyond the fol-
lowing simple divisions, viz. calx, or the cal-
careous ; silex, or the siliceous ; clay, or the
argillaceous ; magnesia, or the magnesian ; and
carbon, or the carbonaceous, or, as this is com-
monly called, mould.
The first four substances, are what Miller
properly calls the containing part, or body, bed,
or couch ; and the fifth substance or mould,
(which is the result of decayed animal and ve-
getable matter,) the part contained.
It is clearly proved that neither of the four
substances, calx, clay, magnesia, or silex, in a
simple state, whether separate or combined, will
support a plant ; and that the vegetative power of
every part of the earth, is determined by the
quantity of mould, or animal and vegetable mat-
ter it contains.
On the earths, as forming a component part
of plants, Mr. Kirwan says, " The next most
190 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
" important ingredient to the nourishment of
" plants, is earth : and of the different earths, the
" calcareous seems the most necessary, as it is
" contained in rain water ; and absolutely speak-
" ing, many plants may grow without imbibing
" any other ; M. Ruckert is persuaded that
" earth and water in proper portions, forms the
" sole nutriment of plants : but M. Giobert has
" clearly shown the contrary, for having mixed
" pure earth of alum, silex, calcareous earth, and
" magnesia, in various proportions, and moist-
" ened them with water, he found that no grain
" would grow in them ; but when moistened
" with water from a dung-hill, corn grew in
*' them prosperously; hence the necessity of the
'* carbonaceous principle is apparent."
He also says, " Earths cannot enter into
« plants, but in a state of solution ; or at least
" only when suspended with water in a state of
" division, as minute as if they really had been
" dissolved ; that siliceous earths may be sus-
" pended in such a state of division, appears
" from various experiments, particularly those
" of Bergman, who found it thus diffused in the
" purest waters of Upsal ; and it is equally cer-
" tain that it enters copiously into vegetables :
" both his experiments, especially those of Macci,
«* establish this point beyond contradiction. Ar-
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 191
" gillaceous earth may also be finely difilised, so
" as to pass through the best of filtres ; so may
" also calx, as appears from the quantity Mar-
" graaf found in the purest rain water."
On this part of the subject, after reciting a
great number of experiments, Sir Humphry
Davy observes, " The general results of this
" experiment, are very much opposed to the
" idea of the composition of the earths by plants,
" from any of the elements found in the atmo-
" sphere or the water."
He also says, " As the evidence on the sub-
"je.ct now stands, it seems fair to conclude,
" that the different earths and saline substances,
" found in the organs of plants, are supplied
•* by the soils in which they grow, and in no
" cases composed by new arrangements of the
" elements in air or water."
Here again is a great difference in the opinion
of those great chemists, and on a most import-
ant point; it being admitted that earths are
a necessary ingredient in the composition of
plants, the question naturally arises, how, and
in what proportions, and in what state, is it re-
quired by vegetables ? If Sir Humphry Davy's
conclusions are just, a minute examination or
analysis of soils, would be requisite to form a
correct judgment of its capacity ; and to these
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
lengths he has gone, and given the ingredients
and proportions of several fertile soils ; he has
also described the method of analyzing soils;
but the quantity of earth required by plants, for
their various compounds, is so small, as beyond
all doubt to sustain Mr. Kirwan's opinion, that
it is supplied by water.
That the clearest spring water contains a
quantity of earth, every person may obtain oc-
ular demonstration of, by examining the inside
of a tea kettle, in which water has been boiled for
some time ; the earth that will be found adhering
to it, must have been deposited from water.
Thus then, as far as the earths are concerned
as an article of consumption, or a necessary
component in the food of plants, we may rest
satisfied with the natural composition of most
soils, and direct our attention only to its consti-
tution, as it influences the absorption, retention,
and distribution of water ; and to its chemical
powers, in regulating and determining the ex-
tent and effect of the different fermentations,
combinations, and decompositions, which are
requisite for the reduction and preparation of
the various substances which constitute the food
of plants.
If the earth was left solely to the action of
the natural and chemical principles of affinity*
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 193
attraction, repulsion, &c. the accumulation, or
concentration, of the separate primitive sub-
stances ; or of vegetable and animal matter or
mould; may be too great to raise and sustain
plants in a healthy and fruitful state, and such
may be the case with other bodies, either simple
or combined ; we therefore find that nature has
provided the means of averting those extremes,
by reducing and blending, or mixing them, and
this by the operation of insects and reptiles ;
as has been before observed, the earth worms
seem peculiarly formed for this purpose ; by their
means the different substrata of clay, calx, sand,
&c. are covered with a stratum, compounded
of the finely divided matter of its composition,
forming what is called loam, or the soil; these
little creatures, in making their passages or in-
roads, have no other means of clearing their
way, than by eating the opposing matter, carry-
ing it to the surface and there throwing it up :
hence we find, that every part of the globe that
supports vegetables is furnished, or covered,
with an admixture of the different earths, form-
ing the soil, of greater or less depth ; and the
depth of this stratum or covering, the degree
of concentration, and proportion of the different
substances, the nature of the substrata, as it
regards the percolation and retention of water;
194 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
the quantity of water supplied ; and the expo-
sure to the sun, air, and light, determine the
natural produce of the general substance or soiL
From what is here said, so far from earth
worms being an enemy to the farmer, they are
his best friends ; without them his lands would
soon become impenetrable to air or water, and
hence sterile and unproductive ; and it is cer-
tain earth worms never wound, or prey upon
the sound or living parts of seeds, roots, or
plants.
As Mr. Kirwan observes, the calcareous earths
seem to be the most necessary as a component
part of the food of plants ; from its peculiar
chemical powers, it is also most necessary as an
operative agent in the preparation and reduction
of animal and vegetable substances, and in due
proportion, it is also well adapted to render the
other more tenacious substances permeable to
water and air, all which have been before ex-
plained.
But that state, in which the operation of the
calcareous earths have been found to be the
most powerful, is lime. This singular substance
is never found in a native state ; but from the
simplicity of its formation, and very extraor-
dinary powers, its uses and application in the
arts is most extensive, and perhaps no produc-
tion, from its universal adaptation, ever obtained
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 1Q5
or deserved more attention from the chemists ;
but I very much doubt whether any person has -
yet been able to give a demonstrative definition
of the principles of its various action.
The application of lime in agriculture has
been justly described to have rendered sterile
lands fertile, and fertile lands sterile. To speak
of it, therefore, as a manure, is evidently absurd
and calculated to mislead. The meaning of the
term alterative, as it is used in medicine, is ge-
nerally understood, and this appears to me to be
the proper denomination for lime, when applied
to the cultivation of land.
Sir Humphry Davy, has given a clear and
minute detail of the component parts of the
basis of lime, or lime-stone, and of the chemical
principles of its formation and action; but either
from a want of a more marked distinction be-
tween the effects of quick lime and slacked lime,
or from some other cause, his observations, by
no means accord with mine.
He says, " Lime forms a kind of insoluble
" soap with oily matters, and then gradually
" decomposes them by separating from them
" oxygene and carbon ; it tends to diminish,
" likewise, the nutritive powers of albumen from
" the same causes, and always destroys, to »
" certain extent, the efficacy of animal manures,
o 2
196 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
" either by combining with certain of their ele-
" ments, or by giving to them new arrange-
" ments. Lime should never be applied with
*' animal manures, unless they are too rich, or
" for the purposes of preventing noxious efflu-
M via; as in certain cases mentioned in the last
" lecture, it is injurious when mixed with any
** common dung, and tends to render the extrac-
" tive matter insoluble."
Now, as I have before observed, I have mixed
the crassamentum, or clotted part of blood, with
quick lime, which formed a kind of insoluble
•soap, and was therefore inapplicable as food for
plants ; but mixed with slacked lime it formed a
perfectly soluble soap, and thus rendered the
albumen immediately applicable and inodorous,
which left to itself could not have become so,
until it had undergone the putrefactive ferment-
ation, and have thus generated and diffused a
most noxious effluvia.
He again says, " In those cases in which fer-
" mentation is useful to produce nutriment from
" vegetable substances, lime is always effica-
" cious." Now in the experiment I have just
explained, it prevented the fermentation, and I
have always found this to be its peculiar pro-
perty.
Parkes says, " It appears from several late
" experiments carefully made, that sugar is com-
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 197
" posed entirely of hydrogene, oxygen, and car-
" bon. Mr. Cruikshank made many experi-
" ments on fermentation, and invariably found
" that whenever he added a fourth substance to
" the three which compose saccharine matter, no
" fermentation took place ; he tried lime, and at
" another time a small quantity of potash, and
" the addition of either prevented fermentation."
Sir Humphry Davy also says, " Quick lime
" in its pure state, whether in powder or dis-
" solved in water, is injurious to plants."
I have found slacked lime, when sown or
spread over plants of all kinds and stages of
growth, to destroy slugs, effectually perform this,
and without in the least injuring the plants.
As it must appear from these observations,
that I cannot practically and beneficially, further
apply the inferences of Sir Humphry Davy,
regarding the uses of lime in agriculture; I shall
not obtrude any further remarks on his ideas
on the subject ; but shall give an extract from
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which appears to
me, to be more clearly, if not correctly, explan-
atory of the uses and effects of lime in agri-
culture : but even this author, seems either not
to have understood the principles of the action
of lime, or to have erroneously described them.
He speaks of lime as a septic, and of its assisting
o 3
198 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
and hastening putrefaction ; but as before shown?
lime possesses a directly opposite quality; it not
only prevents, but arrests putrefaction, and is
therefore in fact, antiseptic ; and it is the action
of this principle which renders soils prolific.
Lime m, certainly, a most powerful agent in the
decomposition of animal and vegetable matter,
but it is on a principle more analogous to that
of fire \ as in the instances before stated, it not
only prevents the effects of putrefaction, which
are obnoxious to vegetables, but it accelerates
the formation of those compounds which are
essential to fertility.
It is stated in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
" Where the ground has been suffered to remain
" uncultivated for many ages, producing all
" that time succulent plants, which are easily
" putrefied, and trees, the leaves of which, like-
" wise contribute to enrich the ground, by their
"falling off and mixing with it, the soil will in a
" manner be totally made up of pure vegetable
" earth, and be the richest when cultivated, that
" can be imagined* This was the case with the
" lands of America ; they had remained unculti-
" vated perhaps since the creation, and were
" endowed with an extraordinary degree of fer-
" tility ; nevertheless, we are assured by one
'•* who went to America, in order to purchase
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 199
" lands there, that such grounds as had been
" long cultivated, were so much exhausted, as
" to b£ worse than the generality of ground in
" this country. Here then we have an example
" of one species of poor soil, namely, one that
" has been formerly very rich, but has been
" deprived by repeated cropping, of the greatest
" part of vegetable food it contained. The
" farmer who is in possession of such ground,
" would no doubt willingly restore it to its
" former state ; the present question is, what
" must be done in order to obtain this 'end ?
" We have mentioned several kinds of manures,
-" which long practice has recommended as ser-
" viceable for improving ground. We shall sup-
" pose the fanner tries lime or chalk ; for, as has
<< been seen, their operations upon the soil must
" be precisely the same. This substance being
** of a septic nature, will act upon such parts of
" the soil as are not putrefied or but imperfectly
"so; in consequence of which, the farmer will
" reap a better crop than formerly. The sep-
" tic nature of the lime is not altered by any
" length of time. In ploughing the ground the
" lime is more and more perfectly mixed with
" it, and gradually exerts its power on every
" putrescible matter it touches. As long a*
" any matter of this kind remains, the farmer
o4
200 ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
" will reap good crops ; but when the putres-
" cible matter is all exhausted, the ground then
" becomes perfectly barren, and the caustic
" qualities of the lime are most unjustly blamed
" for burning the ground, and reducing it to a
" caput mortuum ; while it is plain, the lime has
" only done its office, and made the soil yield
*' all that it was capable of yielding.
" When ground has been long uncultivated,
" producing all the time plants not succulent,
" but such as are very difficultly dissolved, and
" in a manner incapable of putrefaction, there
" the soil will be excessively barren, and yield
« very scanty crops, though cultivated with the
" greatest care. Of this kind are those lands
" covered with heath, which are found to be
" the most barren of any, and the most difficultly
" brought to yield good crops In this case
" lime will be as serviceable as it was detri-
" mental in the other ; for by its septic qualities,
" it will continually reduce more and more of
« the soil to a putrid state, and thus there will
*' be a constant succession of better and better
" crops, by the continual use of lime, when the
** quantity first laid on has exerted all its force.
« By a continued use of this manure, the ground
** will be gradually brought nearer and nearer
*« to the nature of garden mould, and no doubt,
14
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 201
" by proper care, might be made as good as
" any : but it will be as great a mistake to ima-
" gine, that by the use of lime this kind of
" soil may be rendered perpetually fertile, as to
" think that the other was naturally so ; for
" though lime enriches the soil, it does so, not
" by adding vegetable food to it, but by pre-
" paring what it already contains ; and when all
" i^ properly prepared, it must as certainly be
" exhausted as in the other case.
" Here then we have examples of two kinds of
" poor soils ; one of which is totally destroyed,
" the other greatly improved by lime ; and
" which therefore require very different manures :
" lime being more proper for the last than dung,
" while dung being more proper to restore an
" exhausted soil than lime, ought only to be
" used for the first. Beside dunging land which
" has been exhausted by long cropping, it is of
" great service to let it lie fallow for some time ;
" for to this it owed its original fertility, and
" what gave the fertility originally cannot fail
" to restore it in some degree.
" By attending to the distinctions between
" the reasons for the poverty of the two soils
"just now mentioned, we shall always be able
" to judge with certainty, in what cases lime is
ft to be used, and when dung is proper. The
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
" mere poverty of a soil is not a criterion where-
" by we can judge ; we must consider what hath
" made it poor. If it is naturally so, we may
" almost infallibly conclude that it will become
" better by being manured with lime. If it is
" artificially poor, or exhausted by continual
" cropping, we may conclude that lime will en-
" tirely destroy it. We apprehend that it is this
" natural kind of poverty only, which Mr. An-
" derson says in his Essays on Agriculture, may
" be remedied by lime \ for we can scarce think
" that experience would direct any person to
" put lime upon land already exhausted. His
" words are, « Calcareous matters act as power-
" fully upon land that is naturally poor, as upon
" land that is more richly impregnated with
" those substances that tend to produce a
" luxuriant vegetation. Writers on agriculture
" have long been in the custom of dividing ma-
" nures into two classes; viz. enriching manures,
" or those that tended directly to render the
" soil more prolific, however sterile it may be;
" among the foremost of which was dung :
" exciting manures, or those that were supposed
66 to have a tendency to render the soil more
48 prolific, merely by acting upon those enriching
" manures that had been formerly in the soiV
" and giving them a new stimulus, so as to en-
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 203
" able them to operate anew upon that soil which
" they had formerly fertilised, in which class of
" stimulating manures, lime was always allowed
" to hold the foremost place.
" In consequence of this theory, it would
" follow that lime could only be of use as a ma-
" nure when applied to rich soils, and when
" applied to poor soils would produce hardly
" any, or even perhaps doubtful effects.
" I will frankly acknowledge, that I myself
" was so far imposed upon by the beauty of this
" theory, as to be hurried along with the general
" current of mankind, in the firm persuasion of the
" truth of this observation, and for many years
" did not sufficiently advert to those facts that
" were daily occurring to contradict this theory.
" I am now, however, firmly convinced from re-
" peated observations, that lime and other cal-
" careous manures produce a much greater
" proportional improvement upon poor soils,
" than such as are richer; And that lime alone
'* upon a poor soil, will, in many cases, produce
" a much greater and more lasting degree of
" fertility than dung alone/
" Thus far Mr. Anderson's theory is exactly
" conformable to the theory we have laid down,
" and what ought to happen according to our
*' principles. He mentions, however, some
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
" facts which seem very strongly to militate
" against it, and, indeed, he himself seems to
" proceed upon a theory altogether different.
" Calcareous matters alone (says he) is not
" capable of rearing plants to perfection :
" mould is necessary to mix with it in certain
" proportions, before it can form a proper soil.
" It remains, however, to be determined what is
" the due proportion of these ingredients for
" forming a proper soil.
" We know that neither chalk, nor marl, nor
" lime, can be made to nourish plants alone ;
" and soils are sometimes found that abound with
" the two first of these to a faulty degree, but
" the proportion of calcareous matter in these
" is so much larger than could ever be produced
" by art, where the soil is naturally destitute of
" these substances, that there seems to be no
" danger of erring on that side. Probably it
" would be much easier to correct the defects of
" those soils in which calcareous matters super-
" abound, by driving earth upon them as manure,
" than is generally imagined; as a very small
" proportion of it sometimes affords a very per-
" feet soil. I shall illustrate my meaning by a
" few examples.
" Near Sandside, in the county of Caithness,
" there is a pretty extensive plain on the sea-
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. 205
" coast, endowed with a most singular degree
" of fertility. In all seasons it produces a most
" luxuriant herbage, although it never got any
" manure since the creation, and has been for
" time immemorial subjected to the following
" course of crops.
" 1. Bear after once ploughing, from grass,
" usually a good crop.
" 2. Bear, after once ploughing, a better
" crop than the first.
" 3. Bear, after once ploughing, a crop
" equal to the first.
" 4. 5. and 6. Natural grass, as close and
" rich as could be imagined, might be cut if
" the possessor so inclined, and would yield an
" extraordinary crop of hay each year : after
" this the same course of cropping is renewed.
" The soil that admits of this singular mode
" of farming, appears to be a pure incoherent
" sand, destitute of the smallest particle of ve-
" getable mould ; but upon examination it is
" found to consist almost entirely of broken
" shells ; the fine mould here bears such a small
" proportion to the calcareous matter, as to be
" scarcely perceptible, and yet it forms the
" most fertile soil that ever I yet met with."
The writer of this article in the Encyclopae-
dia accounts for this fertility, by supposing that
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C.
from its vicinity to the sea, it derives its prolific
powers from the salt water ; but by adverting to
the principles I have laid down, a much more
probable arrangement and combination may be
suggested. In the first place, we may suppose
that the mechanical texture of the soil and sub-
soil is such, and so situated, as not only to
obtain a supply of fresh water, but to admit of,
and facilitate, a constantly ascending and de-
scending motion of such water; and that its
chemical constitution is such, as to facilitate the
decomposition and reduction of the roots, leaves,
and stalks of the vegetables, regularly deprived
of life, to a soluble state, without the process of
putrefaction, and its consequent loss in car-
buretted hydrogene gas, &c.
All calcareous earths may alike possess anti-
septic powers, but all do not possess the capa-
city of operating so effectually as that here de-
scribed, to supply the requisite motion, change,
and quantity of water, by percolation and capil-
lary attraction, and consequently no other can be
equal in its fertility.
Sir H. Davy has given a minute analysis and
description of almost every kind of soil, and
explained the means of chemical investigation.
But as, I think, what has been said will be sum*,
cient to enable every person to form a pretty
ON THE COMPOSITION OF SOILS, &C. £07
correct judgment of the capacity and constitu-
tion of soils, as adapted to the general purposes
of husbandry ; I shall not enter more particu-
larly on this part of the subject, but must refer
those who wish for such information, to his work
on agricultural chemistry.
208
ON HAYMAKING.
HAVING observed that in a season when there
was no rain whatever, and the hay had been
made with rapidity, and carted within a short
time after it had been cut, that a greater quan-
tity was destroyed and injured, by being over-
heated and burnt, than in a catching irregular
season ; that when hay had not heated in the
stack it was frequently mouldy; that as hay lost
its native green colour and approached a
brown, it lost its nutritive qualities; and that alto-
gether, the making of hay, as usually conducted,
was a very precarious and teasing operation : I
determined on trying to arrange a system on
some more regular and certain principles, in
which I succeeded ; and by adopting a certain
and regular course of operations, was enabled
to make my hay of a uniform good quality; and,
let the weather be as it might, at a regular ex-
pense of labour. And considering such a pro-
cess not only of importance, as it ensures a
more perfect quality; but as it affords a more
certain protection against the injuries usually
consequent on the uncertainty of the weather,
ON HAYMAKING. 209
and overheating in the stack ; and that it thus
removes two great causes of anxiety, it may be
well worth the public attention.
In the first place, as to the state of the wea-
ther, it generally happens at this season of the
year, that there are three or four days rain and
three or four days dry; therefore, on beginning
to cut the grass, as it is well known that during
wet weather grass may be cut, and suffered to
remain in the swarth for several days without
injury; and it being desirable, where hands are
plenty, to have a good quantity, or as much as
will complete a stack in a day, in the same
state of forwardness ; I should prefer beginning
to cut during the rainy weather : however, be
this as it may, the swarths should not be opened
but on a certain fine day; and when this is
done, the grass should be well shaken apart and
equally spread over the ground. As soon as the
upper surface is dry, turn it well over ; and in
this operation, great care should be taken to
open and spread any cocks that may not have
been divided in the first opening. This being
done, commence raking into wind-rows in time,
that the whole may be made into small cocks
before night. The second day these cocks must
remain untouched, let the weather be wet or dry :
the third day, if the weather be certain and
210 Otf HAYMAKING.
fine, throw the cocks open; but if the weather
be wet or threatening, they may remain an-
other day, or until the weather is certain to be
fine for the day. The cocks should then be
thrown, according to the crop, into beds of two
or three rows; and after three or four hours' ex-
posure, turned over ; and taking time to gather
the whole into wind-rows and cocks before night,
let this operation commence accordingly, and
none be left open : the day after this, which in
fine weather will be the fourth ; the cocks must
again remain untouched, or not be opened, whe-
ther the weather be wet or dry. On the fifth, or
the next dry day, these cocks will only require
to be opened for an hour or two, when they will
be fit for the stack. The novelty of this mode
consists only in suffering the hay to remain in
cock the second and third, or alternate days;
and at first sight it may appear that so much
time in fine weather must be lost, but this is
not the case. Whilst the hay remains in cocks, a
slight fermentation, or what is termed sweating,
will take place ; and in consequence, after it has
been opened on the third and fifth days, it will
prove to be just as forward as if it had been
worked every day. And the advantages result-
ing from this, are obviously the following : — by
shortening the time of open exposure* the co-
ON HAYMAKING. 211
lour of the hay is more perfectly preserved, and
consequently the quality ; and the ferment-
ations, or sweating, which take place in the
cocks, prove so much to have diminished that
principle, or inclination, as to prevent its heat-
ing injuriously in the stack 5 and the whole
operation of making, whether it takes four days
or eight, requires three days' labour only ; and
the hay being left in that state every night, in
which it is the least possibly exposed to the in-
juries of the weather, and in which it may re-
main for a day or two in uncertain weather,
without injurious exposure ; much painful anxi-
ety, and useless attendance of labourers, are
obviated.
ON PLANTING ORCHARDS AND MAKING CIDER,
By introducing the subject of cider, my ob-
ject is not to enter into the history of the apple,
nor to discuss the merits of the different modes
of making eider, nor to describe the vast variety
of cider fruit ; but knowing that certain preju-
dices and erroneous opinions exist, that much
depreciate the value of that, which, when well
made, is a wholesome and delicious liquor ; and
that such prejudices and opinions absolutely de-
prive many districts of the profit and pleasure,
resulting from the growing and making good
cider; I entertain the hope of being able to
state such observations and facts, as will assist in
removing those obstacles.
In the first place, it is a general opinion that
the soil of those districts that are famous for
good cider, such as Devonshire, Herefordshire,
Somersetshire, &c. is the grand cause of the
superiority of their productions ; but this is an
egregious error; it is by no means the case: the
soil has little effect on the quality of the cider ;
as it is well known that in those counties, cele-
brated for good cider, the prime ciders are
ON PLANTING ORCHARDS.
produced on soils of directly opposite qualities.
However, to convince my neighbours of Wilt-
shire, that the cause of their inferiority was in
their bad assortment of apples, and not in their
soil or climate ; I, many years since, selected
some apples of the sort there called the cad-
berry, which grew in a very poor, shallow,
black, gravelly soil, resting on a chalk subsoil ;
and made cider from them : and this cider
proved, and was allowed by many good judges
who tasted it, to be as rich, strong, and full-
bodied, as any that grew on the richest lands,
or most famous districts. I also gathered from
one tree of the sort called the golden ducat,
growing on a soil of the same description, forty
bushels of apples, and these were made into
cider, which, like the apple itself, proved to be a
brilliant, sparkling, delicious, vinous liquor. In
the same orchard the greater part of the apples
were of the worst sorts, green, thin and sour ;
and when mixed, made a thin sour cider. I
also, by way of demonstration, made cider from
various other fruits separately, and among the
rest, of a green hard apple, called the stone
pippin, which being well known to keep well,
and after long keeping, to ameliorate and be-
come palatable ; I wished to prove if the cider
also would improve by keeping : which it did
ON PLANTING ORCHARDS
not, but was always like the apple, thin and sour-
Hence it must be obvious, that as far as the soil
is concerned, the same sorts of apples grown in
any part of the kingdom, will produce cider of
equally good quality; indeed, every person
knows that a nonpareil is a nonpareil, and a
golden pippin, a golden pippin, in all places
alike ; the only difference that can arise in the
soil, is in the supply of moisture and manure ;
the greater the supply of these the greater may
be the quantity ; but the quality will be more
aqueous, and of course less valuable. The quality
will be chiefly influenced by the climate and
exposure, as it may affect the ripening, for the
riper and dryer the fruit, the richer and more
spirituous the cider ; and these things vary in
their effect on apples, as much in one county
as another.
Another very prevailing opinion is, that a
good eating apple cannot be a good cider apple ;
and that a good cider apple is not to be selected
by its taste, or effect on the palate ; but this is
equally erroneous. A person may not be able to
ascertain the exact specific gravity of the juice
of an apple by his palate ; but the general
character of an apple may be correctly ascer-
tained; and the character or qualities of the
cider, will always be found to prove very nearly
AND MAKING CIDER.
the same as the apple. Thus, a rough sweet
apple will give a rough sweet cider ; a thin sweet
apple, a thin sweet cider ; and an acid and sour
apple, an acid and sour cider ; but generally, the
rough asperity of an apple and the aromatic
flavor will remain in the pulp, or pass off in fer-
mentation. Another erroneous opinion is also
very generally prevalent, that a mixture of
apples makes the best cider ; but as a general
proposition, a simple view of the thing must
show its absurdity. If there be a good cider
apple, and a bad cider apple ; how can an union
of the bad, make the good better ? The fact
is, fermentation possesses the greatest influence
in determining the quality of the cider; and it
is a law of nature, that without a perfect vinous
fermentation, there cannot be a perfect vinous
liquor. Now it is well known, that two sorts of
apples may be selected, the juice of one of which
will commence fermenting in two or three days,
and that of the other, not in less than eight or
ten days. It must then be obvious, that as the
early fermentation of the one, will force the
backwardness of the other, and the late fer-
menting will check and retard the early, there
can be no perfect fermentation with either ; and
consequently no perfect vinous liquor : and
this principle will undoubtedly operate, with
216 ON PLANTING ORCHARDS
the fruit from the same tree, as some must
unavoidably be better ripened than others ; and
therefore, in this case, if the ripest were selected
and separately made into cider, the quality
would prove superior to that made of those that
were less ripe, or if made together. After cider
is made, indeed, it may, by mixing, be made
more suitable for peculiar, or general purposes,
and thus be said to be better for mixing ; but
mixing the apples must be a pernicious and un-
profitable practice.
The science of fermentation is most important
to all who make cider, or wine, or beer; and
those who wish for information on this subject,
may find it in a valuable little book, by Mac-
cullock on wines.
The health, duration, and prolificacy of apple-
trees, as well as all other fruit-trees, are more
dependent upon the subsoil than the surface-
soil; in planting trees, therefore, this- requires
more attention than is generally given to it
Healthy and prolific apple-trees will seldom be
found where the subsoil is of a cold, tenacious,
wet, and stagnating quality ; and whatever may
be the nature of the surface-soil during very dry
summers, the roots in search of water will delve
deep into the subsoil, and having penetrated,
however low, there they must remain ; they
AND MAKING CIDER.
cannot get back again, In all cases, food se-
lected deep in the soil, is aqueous and unwhole-
some ; and if the water be stagnant, the roots
canker and rot in the winter, which vitiates the
sap, and thus the tree becomes cankered and dis-
eased; and a tree thus situated, although it may
for the few first years produce fine fruit, and
afterwards, generally produce strong fine shoots
in the summer, these will become diseased, and
often die in the winter or spring. The fruit,
also, when a tree is in this state, is generally
vapid and imperfect, and a crop very un-
certain.
In planting orchards, therefore, it will be
necessary, to ensure success, or permanent
and progressive prolificacy ; to guard against
those casualties, by underdraining and supplying
water on the surface, during very dry weather.
But the most effectual mode will be, in improper
subsoils, to form an artificial rock, as a found-
ation on which to plant the trees, about a foot or
a foot and a half underneath the surface of the
soil, which may be easily done by removing the
soil to the required depth, and laying a kind of
floor of stones, bricks, tiles, or slates, taking
care that the joints be well closed or stopped
with cement, that the roots may not penetrate,
as a tree extends its roots, even farther than its
Q
218 ON PLANTING ORCHARDS
branches. To make the foundation quite per-
fect may be expensive, but it must be considered,
that the work thus done is for ever done ; it will
not require repairing : and the additional proli-
ficacy of the trees, their healthy duration, and
the superior quality of the fruit, will make an
ample return. However, where the expense of
paving to a full extent cannot be afforded, even
three or four feet square immediately under the
tree, will be a great protection : it will, at any
rate, give a right direction to the roots in their
first outset, and prevent the formation of tap-
roots, which are bad things in fruit-trees.
As the figure of a tree, or its shape and form,
determines its powers of sustaining weights on
its branches, and of resisting the wind; and its
prolificacy, in a great measure, depends on the
due and regular expansion and exposure of its
branches equally to the influence of the sun
and air, this should be attended to on its first
formation or grafting. And if the following par-
ticulars in the mode of managing it are attended
to, they will be found to produce a tree of that
shape and strength, that will be equal, in every
respect, to its wants.
Whether the tree be intended to be raised by
inserting the graft near the ground, or at a suffi-
cient height to form a head ; only one graft
AND MAKING CIDER. 219
should be permitted to remain ; and this should
be trained up, with a single stem, to the utmost
height of its growth, and never stop'd or cut
back. The horizontal branches or head will then
be found to form itself, by pushing out shoots
immediately around the point of the year's per-
pendicular shoot or stem ; and as this will be
long or short, according to the soil and situation,
the horizontal tiers of branches will be at pro-
portional and proper distances ; and thus the tree
will assume the shape and growth of the fir or the
wild cherry-tree. If any irregular shoots should
push out on the sides of the stem, or too many
horizontals, they may be removed. And if the
perpendicular stem or leading shoot should be
destroyed, one of the horizontals may be fixed
up perpendicularly to fill its place, which it will
soon do, and the knife will not be required to
be used for any other purpose. A tree formed
in this manner, will apply all the sap furnished
by the roots to a profitable purpose ; and as it
will never be headed, or cutback, its progressive
or annual increase will be effective. And, as I
have before observed, it being a law of nature,
that no tree shall bear fruit until it has obtained
a surface of stalk, branches, and leaves, propor-
tioned to the food it takes up, this law will be
fully supported ; and the tree will attain the
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