ped, and if the atmospheric air be removed from it by the well known method, clear visible sparks may by day light be discovered disengaging themselves from the neck, just a few moments before the freezing takes place. This phenomenon appears to be a steady and a sure guide for indicating, whether the freezing will soon take place or not at all.-Translated by Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, from the Central Blatt, July, 1833.

Agriculture, DOMESTIC ECONOMY, &c.

Translated by Prof. J. Griscom.

1. Observations by M. Boutigny D'Evreux, on a new theory of the action of manures and of their employment; by M. de la Giraudieu.-M. de la Giraudieu, President of the Agricultural Society of Loir-et-Cher, concludes from his own experiments that the weight of the produce of land is in proportion to the weight of manure with which it is enriched; and that soil, of whatever nature it may be, has only a mechanical agency in vegetation, and is no otherwise important than as a support to plants.

The first of these conclusions deserves notice, and agriculturists are indebted to M. de la G., for a communication of the curious and important fact, of a direct ratio between the manure and the produce. To assert, in fact, that the amount of produce is in proportion to the manure, is as much as to say, increase the number of your cattle that you may increase your manure, and thus double or treble your harvest. Better advice cannot be given, and no one has a better right to give it, than the President of the Agricultural Society of Loir-et-Cher. Since it is suggested by the result of actual experiment. Experientia index.

But I am far from uniting in opinion with M. de la G., with respect to the action of soils, independently of manure, and of the manner in which manure operates.

This author pretends, that calcareous, argillaceous, ferruginous or sandy soils act only as supports, like sponge, pounded glass, &c., this, I think, is erroneous and that no one can call in question the action exerted by the soil on vegetation. Who does not know that a soil composed in equal parts of siliceous sand, clay and carbonate of lime possesses great fertility, when well watered, although it may be completely destitute of vegetable remains? But how can this phenomenon be explained?

Admitting that the clay retains water, a portion of which however evaporates, an electric current is established ;-admitting also, which

is unquestionable, that the carbonate of lime yields carbonic acid to the vegetable, and that the lime absorbs a fresh portion from the air which establishes a new electric current, under which there is no vegetation or perhaps life, possible. Sand acts by dividing the other ingredients, by multiplying the points of contact, and increasing the number of atomic piles.

Some experiments, which I intend to repeat and publish, with all the needful developements, justify me now in concluding, first, that manures exert only an electro-chemical action on vegetation, second, that the best are those which are the most speedily decomposed, because they establish the most numerous and powerful electric currents.

These views may at first appear paradoxical; but if examined without prejudice or pre-conceived opinions, it will be seen that they are not inadmissible.

Every body has observed the influence on vegetation of a warm, moist and stormy atmosphere, or in other words, of one charged with electricity. It is sufficient, for this purpose, to walk in a garden, during such a spell of weather, and to return the next day. One hardly knows it again.

No one doubts the energetic activity of animal manure; now it is that kind which gives rise to the greatest number of new combinations, and consequently to the developement of the most active and numerous electric currents.

We know also that oxygin is necessary, and even indispensable to vegetation and especially to germination. Oxygen acts here in the same manner, in combining with carbon, or one of the various elements of the vegetable or grain and in establishing an electric current which ceases when the vegetable has passed through all the changes of its existence.

Does not oxygen act in this case as it does in fermentation? It can neither be affirmed nor denied perhaps at present.

With respect to the absorption of manure by vegetables, it is sufficient to notice the experiment of De Saussure, to refute the opinion. He found that a sunflower had absorbed only the twentieth of its weight of manure.

The action of plaster on meadows is yet but little known. I have reason for believing that it may be advantageously replaced by calcareous marl, pulverized and simply dried in the sun, or heated in an oven, after the batch has been withdrawn. If this opinion be correct, it will open an immense source of profit to the farmer. Jour. des Connais. Usuelles.

This article and the next, were translated by a lady and communicated by Mr. C. U. Shepard.

2. New observations upon the action of sulphate of lime.-The sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris, or gypsum) is employed with great success in agriculture.

It is especially in the culture of sainfoin, as well as in other artificial meadows, that its good effects have been proved. The sainfoin has even such an affinity with the lime, that the presence of the hedysarum onobrychis is almost always the indication of a calcareous soil, as the colts-foot (tussilago farfara) is of the blue clay, the arenaria rubra of a thin gravel, and the wild sorrel (oxalis acetosella) of the presence of iron. These are some of the botanical indications which answer very well in the analysis of soils for agriculturists in general. It does not appear nevertheless even to the present time, that plaster has been of great assistance in horticulture. But chemists are not agreed as to the manner in which the sulphate of lime acts upon vegetation. In employing it, it is scattered with the hand upon the crops when the leaves are in their full developement towards the end of April, or the commencement of May, at a moist, cloudy time but not rainy; and those who perform the operation think in general, that they administer a stimulant, while some suppose that it is useful in obtaining for the leaves a favorable moisture; but the clover and the sainfoin naturally contain in their stalks a considerable quantity of gypsum, and when the soil appears tired of producing these plants, it is commonly thought that the soil becomes exhausted of its gypsum, and that it is no longer in a state to furnish to them the necessary ingredient. This observation leads to the presumption also, that the sulphate of lime enters, by a dose more or less considerable, into the composition of these plants. In this uncertainty, too much publicity cannot be given to any experiments which are likely to settle the question; and this consideration engaged M. Becquerel, member of the Institute, to communicate to the Academy of Sciences (in the session of the 7th of Nov., 1831) some observations made by M. Peschier, Apothecary of Geneva, upon the influence which the sulphate of lime exercises in vegetation. M. Peschier had disposed two equal vases filled with silicious sand slightly moist, and in each of which he had sown water cresses; one of the vases had been watered with pure water, and the other, with water containing sulphate of lime in solution. Afterwards he reduced to ashes, the cresses of the two vases, which had vegetated during the same time,

and under the same atmospheric influences, and he found that in one hundred grains of the ashes of the cresses, watered by pure water, there were twelve grains of sulphate of potash, and twenty grains of carbonate of potash; while that in one hundred grains of the ashes of the cresses, watered by the water of sulphate of lime there were eighteen grains of sulphate of potash, and thirty grains of carbonate of lime. M. Peschier afterwards submitted the remainder of the cresses, already watered by the water of sulphate of lime, to the continued action of an electric current during many days, after which he found that the ashes of these cresses included twenty six per cent of sulphate of potash. M. Peschier made similar experiments upon lucerne or Spanish trefoil, and he observes "the sulphate of lime ought to be made use of in a state of solution, and not in a solid state;" he concludes from it that the sulphate of lime does not, in times of drought, act by communicating to the plant its water of crystallization; water, which it will re-absorb in a time of moisture, but that its principal action is considerably to augment the proportion of the sulphate and of the carbonate of potash, in the organization of vegetables. But here a question arises. Some earths are found in vegetables, as is proved incontestably; but do these earths make a part of their proper nourishment. Physiologists appear not to agree upon this subject. The experiments of Saussure tend to prove the contrary.

This observer has analized the ashes of two trees of the pinus abies (spruce) the one growing upon a granitic, the other upon a calcareous soil. In one hundred parts of the first he found thirty parts of silex, and fifteen of alumine, and forty eight of carbonate of lime. In one hundred parts of the second he found thirty parts of alumine, and sixty three of carbonate of lime.

It seems thence to result, that the silex was not necessary to the development of these trees, and that in the first experiment its presence was purely adventitious, and resulted from the qualities of the soil in which the tree had grown. Experiments carefully made will probably give a similar result for other trees, and we would solicit, for the sake of agriculturalists who need accurate information, whether it be correct to say that unassimilated inorganic mineral substances can strictly be said to enter into the organization of a living system like that of vegetables. It is obvious from the experiment of M. Peschier, that he introduced, at will, into the cresses, by means of water, containing sulphate of lime in solution, one third more of

sulphate of potash, and of carbonate of lime than he ever had found in it, in its natural state, and that the action of an electric current augmented the quantity of sulphate of potash one third more still, but in concluding from this, that the sulphate of lime ought to be employed dissolved and not in a solid state, he appears not to have had in view merely, the introduction of the material into the plant-where it is not altogether certain that it contributes to its organic developement. This procedure, it seems, in the mean time withdraws the agriculturalists from a practice, whose advantages are established, without sufficiently considering that the farmer enters into the same views in not using the plaster in a solid state, except in weather which is not rainy, but cloudy and moist, which causes the slow and gradual dissolution of it, to the benefit of all the parts of the vegetable, without excepting the roots. All this appears to merit attention. It is impossible to discover too much ardor in observing, or too much caution in forming conclusions.

S. B.

Ann. de l'Institut royal horticole de Fromont.

3. Memoir upon valuable kinds of fruit trees, and their propaga tion from seed.-In pursuing my researches upon the French Flora and Pomona, I have been led to make a new observation, and one which is contrary to all the received opinions of the last two thousand years, relative to the seeds of valuable fruits, such as pears, apples, plums, &c. M. Sageret, our associate, sowed about fifteen years since in his garden, in the street Folie Mericourt, a very great number of seeds of the best fruits. The young trees proceeding from their seeds, were put into a nursery. Four years after, he quitted his garden, and went to live in Montreuil street, No. 141, where he at present resides. His young fruit trees were taken up, and transplanted to his new garden, in Montreuil street, some of them having been twice transplanted. After two or three years, many pears, plums, &c., proceeding from these seeds, yielded fruit, and many among them good fruit: without being perfectly similar to the species from which they came, they often have some qualities which approximate to them. Having always heard it said that the best fruits propagated by their seeds degenerate, and that almost always acid and unpalatable fruits are the consequence, I wished to know the origin, or rather the experiments, which constitute the foundation of this opinion; I have read in consequence, and consulted a great number of works, and especially those of the most celebrated authors; but I