The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-11-02

reptles winch Unrest that part oil Amerlca.-Ctn-
cinnati Republican.
AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN HoRTI-
CULTURE.
| In La Phalange Fourier paper published at
| Paris, Sept. 9Th, novel discovery IS described
which, if true, will work great change in an
important department. of agricultural labor. II is
communicated TO the Paris print by Charles
Pollard and NJ. Bernard, who date their letter
at Brest, August, l641. II appears that while
they and some OF their friends, who farm
their own estates, were engaged in converse
ton on the subject Of agriculture, is was OBJ
served by one Of them that that branch Of indus
1 try was suffering more for the want of capital
and enterprise than any other, and that nothing
was to be done without manure, which was eve
ry day becoming more scarce and expensive
This remark led TO an inquiry into the proper
ties of manure, and particularly as to what pro-
vision Nature had made in those uncultivated
regions where there seems to be a vigorous and
luxuriant growth without artificial assistance.
ain observing Nature unassisted unthwarted,
rather, by the hand of man, in vegetable repro
duction, it is found that when the seed is ripe
it falls upon the ground and then the plant which
has produced il sheds its leaves, or falls itself
upon it, in decay, and covers and protects i,
from the weather until generation has COM
menced, and the young plant is able to g ow up
in health and strength and full development, to
recommence the same routine OF seeding and Of
reproduction.
.s From this il follows that, in nature, every
plant produces its own soil or humus, and that
the earth only serves to bear the plant, and not
to aid or noursh il in vegetation. The nourish-
ment of plants is thus supposed TO be derived
from air and 1odter heat and light, or electri-
city, in different proportions, adapted to the diff
ferent varieties of vegetable nature"
With this general notion in their minds, and
considering wheat to be, in present circum-
stances, one of the most important vegetable
substances, they agreed to try experiments, and
in October last undertook the following opera
tions:
In field which had been sown with rye, be
: cause the land was deemed too poor for wheat,
plot of twelve square yards, untitled and left
, without manure, was carefully strewed over
with the grains of wheat, and wheaton straw
was laid upon ii closely and about one inch in
thickness. In garden, also, which had been
neglected several years, few square yards Of
earth were trodden over, and the surface being
made close and hard grains of wheat were scat
tered on this hardened surface, and layer Of
. straw one inch in depth, was carefully laid over
) it, and left as in the former case, TO take It's
: chance without Interior attention. And, in or
der to make doubt impossible concerning the
I getable reproduction, twenty grains Of wheat
were sown upon the surface of pane Of glass
: and covered with some straw alone, as in the
other case.
The termination of the seed was soon appa-
rent and most healthy in development. The
/ winter has been rigorous" says these cores
pondents, .for this part of the country, and the
earth has sometimes been frozen in one solid
mass to the depth of six inches in the garden
? | xx,hor he Wh aa Ua and fhic hae han
pened several times during the winter, to the
great injury Of many plants, and even the entire
destruction of some, while the spots protected
by the straw were never thoroughly concealed,
nor were the grains of wheat though lying on
tn, surface under the straw at all effected by
the cold. During spring excessive droughts
prolonged, and several times repeated, have pre-
vented vegetation on the common plan from
fourshing in healthy progress, while our little
spots of wheat have hardly felt the inconveni-
ence of excessive dryness, for the earth protect
ed by the straw has never been deprived entire
" of moisture, and our blades Of corn were nour-
shing, when all around was dropping and I'M
certain. To conclude, then, we have thorough
ly succeeded in our practical experiment, and
the wheat produced is of the finest quality.
The straw was more than six feet high and in
the ears were so, 60, and even 80 grains ofwheat,
of full development, the admiration Of all who
saw them, and particularly those which grew
vi on the pane of glass, and which were quite
as healthy and as large as those which grew up
on the common earth. Ii must be observed, al
So that there was not the smallest particle Of
earth upon the glass, and that the plants were
left entirely TO themselves, without being water
ed or attended to in any way whatever from the
time of sowing TO the time Of reaping.
| a The cause OF this success, they think, may be
explained in the following manner
"Straw being bad conductor of heat and
good conductor Of electricity, maintains the root
Of the plant in medium temperature, and pre-
vents the earth from being deprived entirely of
moisture. The moisture Of the earth or the
substratum, being continual, facilitates the gra-
dual and constant absorption OF cafbonc acid
gas from the surrounding atmosphere, and hy-
drogen and carbon, the chief elements of nour-
ishment TO vegetables, are thus economical in
regular supplies where they are constantly re-
CURED, and pass into combination with oxygen
from the roots up to the stems and branches of
the plants in which they assimilated and
the oxygen thrown off in exhalation from the
leaves The straw decays but slowly, and thus
| furnishes its substance by degrees to the young
plant in due progression and proportion, (such
as the siliquous ingredients, for instance, Of the
pod or capsule,) 50 that the decomposition of
the straw corresponds to the four phases Of fer
mentaton in progressing the sdcchdrine to the
alcoholic, the acid and the putrid states, analo-
gous 10 those Of infancy, budding youth and
seeding Of the plant.
"We observe that our blades Of wheat have