HE FARMERS DEPARTMENT. 
     
     ADAPTIN G PLANTS T0 SOILS. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The following valuable remarks, from the 
     
    

    
     of Mrs. Agnes lbbetson a lady celebrated 
     
    

    
     or her agricultural and economical skill are 
     
    

    
     extraote from the Bath and West of England 
     
     Society's papers. 
     
    

    
     I have been lately much employed in en- 
     
     deavouring to show that all plants should be 
     
     divided, disposed or placed according to the 
     
     difl'erent soils, congenial to their habits, from 
     
     which they originally proceed, and that it is to 
     
     the total inattention to this circumstance, that 
     
     we probably owe the very strange and contra- 
     
     dictory results constantly to be found in all 
     
     agricultural reports. No person can read with 
     
     attention the late accounts delivered to the 
     
     House ofCommons, respecting the growth of 
     
     corn throughont this kingdom, without being 
     
     struck with the contradictory returns trans- 
     
     mitted ofthe whole; and without being con- 
     
     vinced that there must be some hidden cause 
     
     for such a strange diversity in the gains of the 
     
     former; as there are many instances adduced in 
     
     those reports of the same excellent manage- 
     
     ment, where the same seed has been sown, an 
     
     equal degree oflabor peformed, with the same 
     
     season, time and manure employed, and one far- 
     
     mer has gained three times as much again as 
     
     was expended for pulling in the crop, while ano. 
     
     ther has scarcely exonerated and repaid himself 
     
     for the labor ant seed; what then could be the 
     
     cause ofthe loss of the latter, and the gain ofthc 
     
     former? It must, be chiefly i am convinced, ow— 
     
     ing to the agreement or disagreement of the 
     
     plant with the soil in which it is placed, its situ- 
     
     ation and aspect; three things of which the 
     
     farmer knows but little. or ever takes into 
     
     his caICulation. He has but one way of putting 
     
     in plants. loading the eath with manure. But 
     
     to adapt the plant to the soil fro.n which it ori- 
     
     ginally came, tomi't also the mmure to both 
     
     that they may exactly agree, and not injure 
     
     the vegetable; that the situation of the plant 
     
     may be consulted, With respect to humility anl 
     
     dryness; and that to complete the whole, the 
     
     aspect also miy be fitteJ, so that the plant that 
     
     love: the sun miy be expose! to it, while that 
     
     which prefers shade may receive it: these are 
     
     attentions truly wanting to our agricultural 
     
    

    
     system, asl hope to show. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Ithas been a subject of considerable inquiry 
     
     among agricultiirists, as in what consists the 
     
     food ol'plants. Some have attributel it to wa- 
     
     ter, some to earth, and others to air. To all 
     
     these sources vegetation is intebte l; the 
     
     fertilizing principle of all m inures is referable 
     
     to the extractive mitterarisin: from dec'rn- 
     
     oosed animal and vegetable recrements, and in 
     
     .his state soluble in water, which is the car- 
     
     ying medium into the vegetable substances. 
     
     (Vegetables in general will not growin pure 
     
     -arth, or pure water, some plants are so org-a» 
     
     iized as to reqiure only mechanical support 
     
    

    
     in the soil, abstracting their nourishment 
     
     rain the atmosphere by means oftheir leaves: 
     
     , "rhilst others from their roots depend upon 
     
     he soil for their support. Although many 
     
    

    
     lants will grow in dilforent soils, yet they 
     
     ave all their favourite ground; ant itis more 
     
     , asy to accommolate the plant to the soil thin 
     
     ’isdapt the soil to the plant. By knowing 
     
     erefors. what sort of plant the farmer is 
     
     ning to put in, he may ofcourse be regulated 
     
     .’ lith respect to the quantity and specie ' fma~ 
     
     fl - lire required. the aspect wanted, and 'e de- 
     
      -esof humidity and dryness requsit, .rthe 
     
    

    
     ‘ ant. All plants cams Originally trolls pe- 
     
    

    
     ' .i 
     
    
   
   
    
     THF BRITISH AMERICAN 
     
    
   
   
    
     culiar earth; either from clay, sand. gravel. 
     
     chalk, or teams formed from a mixture of some 
     
     of these, or from a verp wet or dry soil; 89d 
     
     though many plants wi I grow inditferently in 
     
     several species of earth, yet the have all their 
     
     favourite ground, that which they evidently pre- 
     
     fer. Now to make the soil fit for the plant, is 
     
     certainly a very expensive thing; but to adapt 
     
     the pla'gfito the soil, is not only an easy and 
     
     expedi s mode, but one which requires 
     
     labor, infinite less assistance in dressing, 
     
     seed, and care of every kind. It is true 
     
     that all Cultivated plants demand some 
     
     manure. because nature gives not salt and oil 
     
     enough in. any earth, to do without some artis- 
     
     tance of this kind; but the plant that is natu- 
     
     ral to the soil requires infinitely less than that 
     
     which is adverse to it, and may therefore be 
     
     cultivated at a quarter of the expense. Now 
     
     nature is so bountiful, that there is scarcely a 
     
     plant necessary to the food of man and ani- 
     
     mals, that, if we choose with care, has not one 
     
     peculiar sort, calculated for every soil. 
     
    

    
     Nature has been bountiful in plants pecu- 
     
     liarly adapted to agriculture in which there 
     
     are quite as many species fitted t'orpoor (and, as 
     
     for rich land; and il'planted in their own soils, 
     
     give an infintely greater return and are not sub- 
     
     ject tothose dreadful disorders tout too common to 
     
     plants dplaced in improper ground. 1 have 
     
     repeate ly traced maladies arising from this 
     
     source, that tainted the means of life in a ve- 
     
     getable: and being constantly accustomed. 
     
     when I heard of any extraotinary crop, to 
     
     proceed to the place, and inquire thoroughly 
     
     into the causes and management made use of 
     
     by the farmer, lhave generally founl the 
     
     success to proceed from accitentally putting 
     
     the plant into that groiint from which it ori- 
     
     ginally issued, ant inmnring it accorlin; to 
     
     the quantum ofjuices it received from the earth 
     
     and with that matter likely to forma proper 
     
     co:npoiint, adapted to its wants, in short, at- 
     
     tenlin: to the right rules of vegetable econo- 
     
     my. anl the com non process of niture. 
     
    

    
     But [ am sorry to sav. that, in mmuring the 
     
     innumerable farms. direrrrly situilet, l have 
     
     but too often fiunt this order reversed; the 
     
     chalk plant put in sand. thes and plant in 
     
     clay and so on: ant Wlllt is still more, the wa- 
     
     tery plant put in dry grount, and the dry ve- 
     
     getable in a Wet soil; not in all these cases 
     
     they cannot fail ofinaking a very bild crop. 
     
     A plant accustomed to a poor soil, placed in a 
     
     good one, rols; while the one w‘iich prefers a 
     
     rich loam, is starved in a poor one. A clayey 
     
     plint piitin Sl'll, is blown out of the etrth, 
     
     for want of those rercnn'vc powers the root is 
     
     used to; while the sand plant, placel in clay, 
     
     lecoys at the root fun the nntor moisture 
     
     whichit cannot berir. The chill! plant, also 
     
     placet in gravel. is letrovol bv its own acili 
     
     1y, which is no loozermSi'nd, for most plants. 
     
     ifthe firmer do not grutge the mikin: of the 
     
     soil, he imycsrtainly do it, but it can never 
     
     answer in point of expense. It is a strange 
     
     mistake, ant a most fatil one. that almost all, 
     
     eyen some ofonrbest gentlemrnftrmm fall into. 
     
     VIZ: 'iit. oiiiit niiir: loo highly. 
     
     Now this is so completely the cause of innume- 
     
     rable failures. that [am most anxious to can. 
     
     sure the practice. It always reinin ls mo of the 
     
     accozinlgiven by Miller, of what was done 
     
     in the Weslln'liet, when some botanists were 
     
     lesirons ofbrinzing over some tine plants of 
     
     the cache species. 'l‘ney iaquiret not what the 
     
     plants wera,butwholly inattentive to their being- 
     
     rock plants, they put them into tubs ofthc rich- 
     
     est soil they could procure; the plants all died,- 
     
     but this was looked upon as an accilent, ant 
     
     the same process again followed. when one of 
     
    
   
   
    
     ll‘i’ 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     easks breaking they concluded that the plants 
     
    
   
   
    
     its. so 
     
    
   
   
    
     must die, as the earth had left them; and fling. 
     
     ing on them some dry sand which happened to 
     
     be in the way, ordered the casks down to th. 
     
     hold, when to their great astonishment in. 
     
     plants so treated lived. while those in the other 
     
     cases died as usual. This opened the eyesofth. 
     
     gardeners with respect to rock plants; but to 
     
     this day sand plants, instead of havin a poor 
     
     soil, generally receives a rich one. Photo is 
     
     not a more ruinous etl'ect than that produced 
     
     on the plant ot'a poor soil placed in rich ground. 
     
    
   
   
    
     From the Philadelphia Album. 
     
    
   
   
    
     A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DIS. 
     
     BASES OF CA'I‘I‘LE. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The internal disorders of cattle may with 
     
     propriety, be divided into two classes. 
     
    

    
     First, those of the organs subservient to di. 
     
     gestion and chylification; secondly, those of 
     
     the sanguiferous system, or blood vessels. The 
     
     former may be cured by means ofthe three sim. 
     
     ple prescriptions l have alluded to; the latter by 
     
     the fleam. In both, however, th ‘ animal’s diet 
     
     is an object of the greatest importance; for to 
     
     what purpose would it be to remove the accu. 
     
     mutated matter which occasions the disordered 
     
     state of the digestive organs, were the animal 
     
     siill kepton the samediet which produced it, 
     
     or what benefitcould be expected from reliev. 
     
     ing the vitalorgans when oppressed by a re. 
     
     dundancy of blooJ, if the animal were after. 
     
     wasz allowed to feed at pleasure, and form as 
     
     much blooJ again. in a short time, as that 
     
     which hat been drawn off? 
     
    

    
     In the treatment ofthe disorlers of cattle, 
     
     attention to feeding is an essential object. and 
     
     is equally, or more important, as a means of 
     
     prevention; for itis not too much to assert, 
     
     that nearly all their disorders originate in in:- 
     
     proper inanagemznt as to fee ling. A morbid 
     
     susceptibility, or a predisposition to disease, 
     
     only be propagated by negligence in breeding, 
     
     an may be protuced by taking animils from 
     
     their native soil and climate, and placing them 
     
     in colder situations; for cold and moisture are at. 
     
     ten poWerl'nl agentsiii lessening- the vital power, 
     
     'rl'ld especially that oftlie digestive organs. Still 
     
     the principle. a-it often the tin noliate cause of 
     
     their disorder, is improper feeling. The most 
     
     fruitful source ofdisease in cattle, ant espe- 
     
     cially m‘lch c in. is bil hay,‘ ant even 
     
     such as is by miny consideret tolerabl good. 
     
     The fibrous parts of such hay gradual y accu. 
     
     mutate between the leaves of the third, or foli- 
     
     ated sto'nach; here they are compressed from 
     
     time to time, not become mittet together. and 
     
     being detained by numerous papillao. with which 
     
     the surface ofthc leaves is covere 1, produces at 
     
     length a morbid condition ofthc fourth stomach. 
     
     not often of the bowels also. The most com- 
     
     mon symtom ofthis state of the digestive or. 
     
     gins is named the yellmoo; from the milk in 
     
     one ofthe quarters of the utter, becoming of 
     
     a yellow color, and stringy, as it is termed, 
     
     that is, mixed with S'nlll filamentous coagula, 
     
     or curds, often offensive in small ant taste, 
     
     and sometimes streakel with blunt. Tue acri- 
     
     rniny of the milk causes aswellin: and hard- 
     
     ening ofthe quirtor: and unless it is drawn 
     
     ofl‘several times a day, it often so initiates the 
     
     cellular texture of the utter, as to terminate 
     
     m suppnration, and an obiiteratioo of the re- 
     
     ceptacle, or quarter, as it is on on only namod. 
     
     'IliieOpenin; drench never fails ofcziring' this 
     
     disorder, ifgivan in season, anl one dose is 
     
     sufficient: after taking it the animil mtist be 
     
     kept at grass, as that food, and the exercise 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     ' Unwholesom water is often a cause of disease In 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     cattle, especially inilch cows.