The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-05-11
From Chambers Edinburg Journal.
sINGULARExPERIMEN IN VEGETABLE
GROWTH


"The late investigation of Professor Liebig, have
gone far to oyerurn former notions to the pheno-
mena Of vegetable growth, showing cons derable
grounds for concluding that the soil is only medium
through which the substance ofplans is formed, and
not the Of that substance-in short, that all
yegetaui. matter comes oat of the atmosphere, ana
the vapors suspended in il. This eory derives fur
Their confirmation fron. he result of experiments
Of u singuary bold kind lately made by two gentle
men in the neighborhood of Brest II is from COM
munication made by them on the subject to La Pha-
LANCE Partisan publication, that We obtain the fol-
lowing particulars:
ain field usually considered too posr Tor wheat,
plot of twelve square yards, untitled and unmanured
was sirewn over with that grain, and Afterwards
layer of wheaton straw, about one inch in thickness
was laid overn The same thing done with
similar plot in neglected garden which was pre-
viously trodden with the feet. pane of glass was
also laid down in the place, with twenty grains
OF wheat scattered it, and layer of straw above
The winter rigorous, and the spring dry, that
vegetation in general suffered considerably in thai
district nevertheless, strong crop rose through the
straw in all these three situations the stalks being
above six feet high, and the containing from fifty
to eighty healthy grains. That growing upon the
glass though NOT particle 0f earth IL, was
as strong and abundant as the rest. There were no
weeds, the straw having choked all the plants but
those OF its kind. 1t is TO be remarked, that the
roots were few in number and short and hard like the
| claws OF birds.
"The cause of the success of this experiment sug
gested by the gentlemen Pollard and Bernand)
| TO be the following: Straw being bad conductor Of
| heat and good conductor of electricity, maintains
the root of the plant in medium temperature and
prevents the earth from being deprived entirely OF
moisture. The moisture of the earth, the subsira-
um, being continual facilitates the gradual and Con-
slant absorption of carbonic acid gas from The sur
| rounding atmosphere, and hydrogen and carbon the
chief elements of nouIishment vegetables, are thus
economlzed in regular supplies where they are con-
stanty required, and pass up IN combination with
oxygen from the roots up to the stems and branthes OF
| the plants in which they assmilated, ard the
oxygen thrown of in exhalaons from the caves.
! The straw decays but slowly and thus furnishes It's
substance by degrees TO the young plants in due pro-
gresson and proportion, (such the silcious ngre-
| decomposition of the straw corresponds to the four
phases of fermentation in progressing from the sac
charine to the alcoholic, the acid and ptrtd states,
analogous 10 those of infancy, budding, you ntatu-
rity, and seeding Of the plant"
Ii there is no iallacy in the experiment. and mis-
statement in the report-we may expect to see grain
growing without tage or manure and with equal
| luxurance all kinds of soil.
| Some experiments at present in the course OF be-
ing made at the garden of the CALIFORNIAN Horticul.
tural Society in Edinburgh, tend to confirm the pos
sibility of rearing wheat by these means Three
specimens OF the fcuS elasted have been suspended
| by ]. Macnab, Jr. in hot house, with supply OF
water for The root by means of worsted cord con-
neced with an inverted bell-g above The plant
hangs by wire, with its roots exposed to the air the
worsted connects it with the in the bellgass
| but it has connection with any thing else. Yet
| these three plants grow extremely well and perform
all their natural functions the most healthy man
ner.- Boston Transcript. >s