Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1857-05-01
From the Rural New Yorker, April L.
Sunfiovyer Culture as a Preventive of the Ague and
BY LIEUT.. M. F. MAURY

Sunfiovver Culture as a Preventive of the Ague and
Fever.
BY LIEUT. M. F. MAURY
Every experiment that has for its object the solu
ton any question in the affairs of man is insruc-
tive Whether the experiment be successful or not
is not the less Instructive tor experience is acqulr
ed by the failure well by the success OF expert
menis Every tiller of the earth, from Adam down
to the whistling plow-boy that saw his first furrow
not longer ago than last autumn, has been given
more or less to The making of experiments. farmer
tries this crop, or that plan, and his experiments
are the ground work of the experience which gives
intelligent direction to his husbandry.
None of the great industrial pursuits is fruit
full of experiments tnan that OF agrculture anu II
all the experiments that have been and now max
ing In this branch of industry had been systemati
callv conducted, and if roper accounts of them had
all been collected and published, what valuable
and instructive work should we have had Take the
Chinese sugar an example for illustration
How many thousand of farmers intend 10 make a
'stria' of it this year ?-and among this great num-
Der, how many, think you, will give tor the benefit
of agriculture any account of their experiment and
its results 2 Perhaps dozen or two. The aggre
gate experience Of all the rest will be lost to the ag
rcultural community and yet, if collected and en-
bodied together, it would be of incalculabe value.
| have been led into this train of remarks in conse
quence of an experiment that | made last year with
the cultivation of sunfowers as preventive or PRO-
tecon against ague and fever, and ifyou Will publish
an account of this experiment, with an explanation
of what was sought to be accomplished by it, and
the results obtained perhaps some OF your many
thousand readers will join and assist IN carrying II
out, for with such assistance sanitary question of
great importance may be satisfactorily settled, one
way or the other, in little while.
The DIV rlli1g of the Superintendent is adjoining
the Obser vatory, which is situated on hill on the
lett bank of the Potomac, in lat SO deg SO min,
So sec. 1t is "a feet above the low water of ebb
tide, and about 400 yards from the river. The
grounds pertaining to 1t contain about II acres, in
closed by brick wall on the east, south and west
sides, with picket fence on the north. The south
wall runs along nearly parallel with the river, and
so does the west. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal,
fringed by single row of sycamores, of some TWEEN
ty years. growth, separates the wall from the river.
In fact the iver with its marshes at the foot of the
hill, encircles the grounds of the Observatory half
Way round, viz: from s. f. by way OF 5 to ~ w.
Thus, you perceive, we are in a sort of bend in
the river. Most of the marshes are ust {" wash :"
at low water parts of them are ARE when the tide
is out, and all OF them, in the earc summer,
cred with rank growth of grass and weeds, which
begin to decay in August. This is the commence
ment, too of the sckly season, ard few minutes
walk about the grounds of the Observatory after sun
set has been found sufficient to bring upon stran-
gers an attack of ague and fever The place is so
unhealthy that my family compelled to desert it
for Jour or five months every year. Last year they
broke up early in May, and did not return till No.
vember.
Now, am not going into dissertation concerning
malaria masm, for be the seeds of the pestiltnce
what they may, those OF these intermttens are eur-
posed to he due in great to the marshes OF
the Potomac. The decay OF the vegetable matter
upon them infects the air with impurities of some
kind, which predspose to chills and fevers such is
the popular belief, at any rate.
This brings me to the history of the sunflower ex.
pertinent. process of reasoning like the following
led me to try it.
If it be the decay of the vegetable matter on the
marshes that produces the sickness the hill, then
the sickness must be owing TO the deleerious effects
of some gas, masm ef1uvium, that is set free dur
ing the decomposition and if so, the poisonous mat
ter, the basis of it, whatever it be, must have been
elaborated during the growth of the weeds, and set
free in their decay Now, if this reasoning be good,
why might we not by planning other vegetable mat
ter between and the Marshes and by bringing it,
into vigorous growth just about the time that that of
the marshes begins decay, bring fresh forces of the
vegetable kingdom again to play upon this poisonous
matter and elaborate it again into vegetable tissue,
and so purify the air
Th reasoning appeared plausible enough to Jus.
THY the trouble and expense of experiment, and |
Was encouraged 10 expect more or less from
it, in the circumstance that everybody said, 'plant
trees bet en- you and the unsatisfactory will keep
off the chs." But to the trees, it so happens that
at the very time when the decomposition on the ma
shes is going most rapidly, the trees for the most
part, have stopped their growth to prepare for the
winter and though trees might do some good, yet a
rank growth of something got up for the occasion
might do Hops climb high they are good
absorbents, and of a rank growth, but there were
objections to hops on account of stakes, poles, Sc
recollected that | had often sun-fowers grow.
ing about the cabins in the West and had heard, in
explanation, that it was 'heathy" to have them
This was so much more in favor of making the ex-
pertinent with sun,fowers.
An of sun-foWers will absorb during their
growth many thousand gallons of water than are
supplied by the rains. They are great absorbents
They are of easy cultivation, more rank than
hops-they require no poles, and The seed are verv
valuable. paid So bushe for them. This plant
therefore, apparently offered 10 fulfil all the conditions
required to satisfy the problem for if the suppos
ton that the ague and fever poison be impaired to the
atmosphere by the decaying vegetable matter in the
marshes, and if this poison were set free during the
process of decay, why should not the sunhowers in
their rank growth absorb it, and again elaborate it
into vegetable matter, and so fix it, at least for
while, and until cold weather! | consulted upon
this subject with one of the most useful men this
country ever produced-the late A. J. Downing Of
| Newburg- and he thought the idea good one
Finally resolved to make the experiment, at the
risk of spelling the looks OF beautiful lawn. Ac
cordngly in the fall of 1885, the gardener trenchec
up to the depth of two and half feet belt about
forty five feet broad around the Observatory on the
marshy side, and from $50 to 200 yards from the
buildings. The conditions of the theory was abou
to try required rich ground, tall sunfowers and
rank growth. Accordingly after being we'll manur-
ed from the stable yard, the ground was properly
prepared and planted in sunfowers last spring. They
grew finely; the sickly season was expected with
more than the usual anxiety Finally ii set in, and
there was shaking at the Presidents House and Other
places usual, but for the first time since the Obser
vatory was built the watchmen about it weatbered
the summer clear ct chills and fevers. These men
being most exposed to the night air, suffer most anC
heretofore two or three relays of them would be at
tackled durIng the season; for falls sick anolh