The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-05-16

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Evs1v expeyi6S I 81 ~ III it, qbjsct
tho solntion q am qnestioa In IT, afeks O
mar = instructive. Whether ~ experF
ment.bc successful or not, it il not the less
instructive. for experiences u acquired by
III, future u well % BY the snccesssof ex-
ner;mefnts. Every tillef Of the esrth, ffonn
Adam down to the Nhistling plOugh-boy
that saw his first furrow not longer ago
than last autumn, has given more or less
10 the making ef experiments. a farmer
sst,ics'' this crop, Or that plan, and biz
exner;ments are the groundwork Of the
experience which gives Intelligent direction
to his husbandry.
None Of the great industrial pursuits i
more fruitful of experiments that have been
and now are making in his branch Of INDUS
try had been systematically conducted. and
If proper accounts of them had al been
collected and published, what valuable
and instructive work We should have! Take
the Chineses sugar-canei - an example for
illustration. How many thousands OF far
mers intend to make sirial' Of it this year?
and among this great number, how many,
think YOU, will give for the benefit OF agri-
culture, any account Of their experiment and
its results3 Perhaps dozen or two. The
aggregate experience of all the rest will be
lost to the agricultural communicated
vet. If collected and6embod togAher, It
would be Of incalculable value.
have been led into this train of remarks
in consequence of an experiment that |
made last year with tie cultivation Of sun
flowers as preventative or protection
against ague and fever, and if you will pub
lish an account Of this experiment, with an
axplanation of what was sought to be ac-
complished by it, and the results obtained,
perhaps some Of your many thousand road
ers will Join and assist in carrying it out
for with such assistance a sanitary question
Of great Importance may be satisfactory
settled one way or the other, in . httls
while.
The dwelling of the superintendent is
adjoining the Observatory, which is situated
on q hill on the left bank of the Potomac,
in lat. SO deg, 80 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 it contain about IL acres, IN
closed by brick wall on the east, sonth 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 a
single row of .sycamores Of some twenty
wears growth, separates the wallfrom the
river. In fact the river with its marshes at
the foot ofthe hill encircles the grounds OF
the Observatory half way round, viz, from
S. E. by way of S. to N. W. Thus you per-
ceive, we are in a sort of bend in the river.
Most Of the marshes are iast ''a wash at
low water, parts of them are bare when the
tide is out, and all of them, in the early
summer, are covered with rank growth OF
grass and weeds, which begin to decay in
August. This is. the commencement, too,
of the sickly season, and few minutes
walk about the grounds Of the observatory
after sunset has been found sufficient to
bring ON upon strangers an attack OF ague
and fever. The place is so unhealthy that
my family are compelled to desert it for four
or FIVE months Lest year they broke up
early in May, and did not return till Novem-
Der. - a-. asts.ss ID T.0 .
Now, i am not going. into dissertation
concerning malaria or miasm, for, be the
seeds of the pestilence what they may, those
Of these intermittents are supposed to be due
in great measure to the marshes Of the
Potomac. The decay of the vegetable mat
+a,. a. ,,fa Toe
of some kind, which predispose to chills and
fevers-such is the popular belief, at any
rate. t.g. -sasgn s~ss + 8. .I--s =
This brings me to the history Of the sun
flower experiment. A process OF reasoning
like the following led me tostry it.
If it be the decay of the vegetable matter
on the hill, then the sickness must be owing
to the deleterious effects of some gas, miasm
or effiuvium, that is set free during the
composition, and if SO the poisonous matter
or the basis Of it, whatever it be, must have
elaborated during the growth of the weeds,
and set free in their decay. Now, if this
reasoning be good, why might we not, by
planting other vegetable matter between Us
and the marshes, and by bringing it into
vigorous growth just about the time that of
the marshes begins to decay, bring fresh
forces of the vegetable kingdom again to
play upon this poisonous matter, and elab-
crate it again into vegetable tissue, and SO
purify the air? "A
This reasoning appeared plausible enough
to justify the trouble and expense of expert
ment and was encouraged to expect more
or less success from it. in the circumstance
that everybody said ''plant trees between you
and'the marshes-they will keep off the
chill" But as to the trees, ii so happens
that at the very time when the decomposi-
ton on the marshes is going ON most rapid
ly, the trees for the most part, have stopped
their growth to prepare for the winter, and
though the trees might do good, yet rank
growth of something got up for the occasion
might do more. Hops, climb high; they
are good absorbents, and Of rank growth,
but there were objections to hops on account
of stakes, poles, &C., Irecollected that
had often seen sunaowers growing about
the cabins in the West, and had heard, in
explanation, that it was s''healthy'' to have
them. This was so much more in favor Of
making the experiment with sunfowers.
An acre of sunhowers will absorb during
their growth many thousand gallons Of
water more than are supplied by the rains.
lney are STeat uDsoTDeHtS. lney are Oh
easy cultivation, and more rank than hops
they require no poles and the seed are very
valuable. paid SIS a bushel for them
Hhis plant, therefore separately offered to
fulfill all the conditions required to satisfy
the problem; for if the supposition that the
ague and fever poison be impaired to the
atmosphere by the decaying vegetable mat
ter in the marshes, and il this poison were
set free during the process Of decay, why
should not the sunfowers in their rank
growth absorb it, and again elaborate it in
to vegetable matter, and SO fix it, at least
for while, and until cold weather. L
consulted upon this subject with one of the
most useful men this country ever pro-
duced-the late A. j. lowing, Of Newburgh
--and he thought the idea good one.
Finally, resolved to make the expert
ment, at the risk of spelling the looks of
beautiful lawn. Accordingly, in the fall of
1855, the gardener trenched up to the depth
of two and a half fectia 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 about to try, required rich
ground, tall sunhowers and rank growth.