Dr. LINDLEY Supposes--or is brought about by some outward circean agency every where present, and ready to act, under proper conditions, as the luminous ray of the compound sunbeam, which is the theory of a certain French philosopher.

But the propositions themselves, being admitted to be true, there are certain hints which may be drawn from them as corollaries, and which will prove instructive in a high de gree, to the farmer, pomologist and gardener. Two of them I propose to consider briefly in the present article.

1st. That in exogens, which include most fruit trees, the normal place of the fruit bud is within the circuit of circulation, and that generally, its appearance at the extremities of leading branches, is an evidence of over-fruitfulness and disability, if not disease.

2d. That as from organization, the fruit spur system is supported out of the general circulation, upon the principle of parasites, and maintains what is termed "the balance of power," by absorbing just so much of the general circulation as prevents over-luxuriant growth in the wood system-no more and no less: too great a diminution of the wood spurs has a tendency to over-stimulate the wood growth.

If we attempt to look around for evidences of the injury which trees and plants sustain, where fruit buds are allowed to take possession of the extremities of the main wood branches, and to cover the whole outer surface, we can hardly go astray, whether in the orchard or garden, especially when the plantations have been of long standing. Do we see the bearing branches of the gooseberry or currant bristling with thick and pointed clusters of fruit buds to their very ends? If so, it may be set down as a truth, that such branches are destined to perish at a day not remote. If again, we examine the pear and the apple, and find the whole exterior surface of the trees covered with fruit buds and fruit spurs, such a state of things is evidence of present debility, or a most pregnant sign of its speedy approach; indeed whole families of fruit trees (heavy bearers generally,) are sometimes seen to blight in this way-the wood system being stifled and supplanted by these parasitic spurs, and only re-appearing amid the dying throes of the tree, under the shape of "water-sprouts," in the body and large branches of the tree, where they break out in clusters, not unlike those present in the peach tree when affected with "yellows.” If one were skeptical of the doctrine of botanists, that fruit buds add nothing to the wood system, it would be quite easy to remove such doubting by a little personal examination of trees upon which the fruit bud system is developed in great excess. Numberless examples might be found of branches not larger than rye-straws, terminated by fruit buds, showing unerringly an age of three or more years, while such branches themselves show no increment of wood over and above the annual ring of the first season's growth; in fact, in such cases, the order of nature seems inverted, and instead of that taper growth from the trunk upward and outward, which marks and makes beautiful a tree in health, those fruit spurs go on enlarging and multiplying, until the thickening and bloated masses of debility darken and almost obstruct the view.

In illustration of the second point proposed, I shall draw largely upon individual experience, and hope that I may state, without being thought presumptuous, that my fruit crops, for some years, have presented a uniformity of appearance which has led some persons, and especially the less experienced, to suppose the result ascribable to the possession on my part, of some secret in the art of cultivation. I hardly need say that such is not the fact, and that I have never based a hope upon any other foundation than good culture, aided by a practice in pruning and training, conducted in accordance with the natural habit of each genus. But in efforts to acquire a knowledge of these natural habits, (which knowledge constitutes in part the science of pomology,) I have, after having endeavored to avail my

self of all the light shed upon this subject by others, sometimes perpetrated egregious errors, and perhaps I never committed an error more egregious in character, or more expensive in its consequences, than one in relation to the nature of this very fruit bud system, or spermoganous force. I term this error expensive, because in adopting a practice of pruning the peach and pear in conformity thereto, I lost a large part of the general crop in several bearing years, for the want of bloom.

Anterior to about the period 1847, I was, when growing fine fruits, in the habit of thinning the crop by removing a large portion of the fruit spurs with the fruit attached, leaving only those bearing the specimens intended to be ripened, and with the peach particularly, by way of monsterizing individual fruits, I reduced the whole count to a very small number upon certain young trees, nor was this practice abandoned till I saw branches of bearing trees, thus treated, running up into a nursery growth, the "tout ensemble" of which branches resembled more a thicket of young trees than a well proportioned individual tree. Indeed I have been more than once mortified to see fruits treated thus, and from which so much was expected, come to a perfect stand still; the whole crop of certain individual trees, ultimately writhing, growing yellow and dropping without maturity, whilst the buds of the current season would swell and burst into active wood growth.

These fruit spurs being in the nature of parasites, possessing and enjoying supplies of food obtained at the expense of the wood system, exist in a state of antagonism therewith, and holding forcible possession of the power to feed upon the general circulation, they must exist in such numbers, collectively, as will enable them, as a system, to keep in check the wood-growing force, the constant tendency of which is to a monopoly of the whole circulation, and to a growth of over luxuriance. Although it is a maxim generally received as a truth, that in sharing out any given stock of supplies, the fewer the distributees the greater the distributive share. The functions performed by the fruit-buds collectively as a system in this case, qualified the applicability of this maxim. When I thinned the crop by removing the spurs up to a given point, the operation might be salutary; further diminution disturbed the balance of power, and diminution carried to extremes stimulated the wood growth to a luxuriance which for a time suspended the development of fruit buds of a healthy character.

Although my remarks concerning the nature of these two forces have been confined to exogens, it by no means follows that a knowledge of them in other families of plants is either unattainable or useless. Such knowledge is not unattainable, since among cereals any experienced farmer will in early spring, long before the wheat plant has shot into culm, and as far off as the eye can discern colors, pronounce upon the promise of any wheatfield for a crop abounding more or less in straw or grain, as the dark green of luxuriance or the more subdued tints of moderate vigor happen to prevail; nor is it useless, since thereby a definite object is set before us and we have only to seek for means suitable to accomplish it—and it is somewhat remarkable as well as gratifying to the advocates of book-farming to notice the harmony in principle which prevails in the prescription of LOUDON, the highest English Agricultural authority, for converting an over-luxuriant wheatfield into productiveness, and that of Monsieur CAPPE, French Pomological authority quite as high, for changing an over luxuriant wood branch into fruitfulness-the one would rob the plants of their blades in April by "cutting them off with sheep or even horses;" the other would "pinch early the soft extremities of the shoots on vigorous parts."

I have thought too that Mr. DowNING's strawberry problem would admit of solution on this principle. Many varieties tending, in a rich light soil, to that obesity of luxuriance

which is imbecility, are kept in moderate vigor by compelling the roots to labor for a living amid pounded soil, which is to them the being pastured on "short commons."

L. YOUNG.

Springdale, Ky., 1851.

Reviews.

HEAT AND VENTILATION; general observations on the Atmosphere and its Abuses, as connected with the common or popular mode of heating public and private buildings, together with practical suggestions for the best mode of warming and ventilating. Rochester, D. M. DEWEY, Arcade Hall.

BELIEVING, as we do, that the intemperance of breathing bad air, is a national curse in America, which is, at the present moment, hurrying a thousand-fold more victims annually to the grave, than any other species of intemperance, we hail with pleasure any symptoms of awakening attention to the condition in which so many millions of our countrymen voluntarily pass so large a part of their lives.

The work whose title we have just named, is an unpretending pamphlet of 59 pages, published by D. M. DEWEY, at Rochester. It is mainly occupied with a very simple and clear statement of the necessity to the health of the human system, of pure air, and some system of ventilation in our dwelling houses. The wholesale system of poisoning men, women and children, daily going on all over the country, by tight coal stoves, and whereever one travels in cars and steamboats, by little "salamanders” of red-hot iron, and wherever one goes to a crowded lecture room or place of public amusement, by the continual heating over of the poisonous carbonic acid gas expired from the lungs-these are the topics which the author of this pamphlet, like ourselves, and others who have handled this subject, dwells upon, with wonder that intelligent beings can overlook their importance. If there is any "infernal machine" in America, it is a close stove that becomes red hot. We have preached from this text-(and we believe not without some effect, since we notice a stove-maker in Ohio advertises a ventilating stove, expressly intended to obviate the objections we have urged,) and we hope the press every where will take up the crusade, until this cursed invention to poison the pure air of heaven is utterly banished from the land. We shall quote for the benefit of our readers, what the author of this pamphlet has to say about the matter:

'But when we reflect upon the fact, that throughout the whole country, as soon as fuel becomes a little scarce, the open fire place in any and every form, is pretty generally closed to give place to the stove; we meet an evil which has been growing upon us for the last quarter of a century to an alarming extent. It is, however, true that in large towns, particularly where coal is easily obtained, the open grate in the best class of houses is quite generally used. The business of stove-making in most of the large towns in this State and throughout the country, has become quite the leading branch of manufacturing. Any one who will take the trouble to visit such establishments in Albany, Troy, Utica, Syracuse, Seneca Falls, Rochester, Lockport, and Buffalo, will, if unacquainted with the business, be astonished by the number which are annually turned out from these various establishments. The infinite variety, the taste and skill displayed not only in their external appearance, but in their fuel-saving qualities, demonstrate that the demand must be almost unlimited. The venerable Dr. NOTT, of Union College, and Prof. OLMSTEAD, of New-Haven, and many other intelligent gentlemen, have devoted a great deal of time, labor, and practical philosophy to the invention of stoves which would give off the greatest

amount of radiant heat with the least quantity of fuel. In this they have been very successful, and, if warming a room in this form, were all that its inmates required, mankind would be under lasting obligations for the philanthropic efforts of these distinguished scholars. From the tenacity with which they have adhered to their several models, one would suppose they were entirely unconscious of the consequences of introducing such a fuel-saving apparatus into a close room without any means of ventilation. Although the Germans, Russians, and French formerly excelled us in their construction of stoves, we are probably quite equal to them at the present day. The poorer classes in Germany and Russia, probably make their houses much closer than ours, and exceed our people in saving all the heat generated. In Russia, the great mass of the population exclude the external air in cold weather as far as possible, and they much prefer to respire the vitiated air to any admission of cold air, for the simple purpose of improving the atmosphere of their

rooms.

"Among the poorer classes, fainting or asphyxia is, by no means, uncommon, and all their rooms have that close, unhealthy smell which is so common among those who live in underground cellars in our own large towns and cities. With such an atmosphere as this and common as it is among the Russians, we need not wonder that Cholera remains among them during during winter, while in cold weather in other countries it ceases. Although many of the most scientific men of the present day-several of whom are of the medical profession-have depicted in the strongest language, the injurious and oftentimes fatal consequences of this mode of heating buildings; still very little attention is given to their warnings. Within the last two or three years, many of the most distinguished writers of the age have written volume after volume, upon the necessity and feasibility of ventilating our dwellings. The great mass even of intelligent and educated persons seem to be unaware of the disease, pestilence, and death, so often resulting from the use of what is called the "tight air-stove;" and the manufacturers of the article are making as many preparations for the continuance of the demand as though their wholesome qualities were as well established as the elegance of their various designs and patterns. It is a very common thing for persons who are abundantly able to secure all the comforts of life even in profusion, and construct a dwelling-house in strict accordance with all the modern improvements in domestic architecture, to leave out entirely the fire-place, and in its stead have a small circular opening, six inches in diameter, to be closed perfectly tight during summer, and opened only in winter; to receive the smoke-pipe of a fuel-saving salamander, which shall adınit no more air than is barely sufficient to support the combustion of the fuel. He will avail himself of the skill of the architect, to make all his windows and doors perfectly tight, and as the cold weather approaches, he will oftentimes invite his neighbors in to spend the evening socially, and at the same time demonstrate by the small amount of fuel which he uses, that he has the best stove and the warmest dwelling in town. Indeed, the whole company will soon testify to the fact that the room is really warm-so warm that they are inclined to leave carly in the evening, and if the same persons should frequently visit similar establishments, they would soon come to the conclusion, that going out on evening visits is very unwholesome-a species of dissipation which ought to be abandoned. The owner of such an establishment, as the one alluded to, is generally far from being parsimonious, and very likely fond of giving sumptuous entertainments, and in all his intercourse with his family and society may manifest the most generous feelings, and show his liberality in a thousand acts of kindness and benevolence; but did he know the consequences upon himself, family, and friends of his heating apparatus, its fuelsaving qualities would have very little influence upon him. We are fully aware that to those

who are very poor, and find it hard in cold cimates to secure fuel enough to keep themselves warm-the tight air-stove is perhaps the best thing for them under such circumstances, which can be introduced into their humble abode. But in such rooms as they are generally obliged to occupy, they suffer much less for the want of ventilation than those who live in houses where all the windows and doors are so nicely fitted, that the external air is entirely excluded. In many of the coal-stoves which have lately been introduced, the coal burns so slowly, that the carbonic acid gas, which is generated (being half as heavy again as the atmospheric air,) cannot ascend through the smoke-pipe and chimney-flue with the temperature which is generally maintained a few feet from the point of combustion. Dr. Ure, one of the most scientific writers of the day, says that carbonic acid gas cannot ascend at the temperature of 250 deg. F." but regurgitates into the apartment through every pore of the stove, and poisons the atmosphere. "I have," says he, "recently performed some careful experiments upon this subject," and find that when the fuel is burning so slowly in the stove as not to heat the iron-surface above the 250th or 300th degree of Fahr., there is a constant deflux of carbonic acid gas from the ash-pit into the room. "I shall, (he says,) "be happy to afford occular demonstration of this fact to any incredulous votary of the pseudo-economical, anti-ventilating stoves now so much in vogue. There is no mode in which the health and life of a person can be placed in more insidious jeopardy than by sitting in a room with its chimney closed up with such a choke-damp-vomiting stove."

"We could quote language and facts of a similar character from a great variety of the most reliable authors, but if we can induce any of our readers to observe the consequence in their own dwelling of these modern machines, we shall have gained more than by simply inducing them to peruse these opinions, however reliable they may be. In most of our churches, public halls, school-houses, court-rooms, places of public amusement, of fices, stores, work-shops, &c., we meet in this section of the country, the same unwholesome atmosphere; and almost the only variety to be observed in the mode of heating the room is in the form of the stove. If you enter a public hotel, the first thing you meet in the office or bar-room (if in winter,) is a large box-stove. If you go to the dining-room, you meet the same thing again, with perhaps a hundred feet of smoke-pipe crossing the room at different points; and the offensive character of the atmosphere gives you a sense of fullness in the head, while perhaps a disposition to vertigo compels you to leave the public rooms and retire to the one allotted to you. Then you will probably find a neat little elegant gothic pattern red-hot by way of showing you a little variety, and if you are compelled to lower a window for your relief, and wake up at midnight with a severe cold, you may console yourself with the fact, that your beautiful little stove is of the latest and most approved fashion, and consumes less fuel than any one ever before invented. If you stop long in the place, and stay over the Sabbath, and have been properly educated, you will of course go to church, and it is your own fault if you do not find one of beautiful proportions, handsomely finished, and elegantly decorated. The stove will be larger than the one at your hotel, and one will be placed in each corner of this splendid edifice. The sexton will fire up as often as is necessary, and keep you perfectly warm. It is true the air may soon become very disagreeable, and the eloquent voice of the speaker sound dry and husky; if he cannot relieve it by moistening his vocal organs quite frequently with cold water, you may not be at all pleased with its tones, silvery and agreeable as they were at first. But do not blame him. He is suffering for the purpose of keeping the audience perfectly warm, and if you see a considerable proportion of the congregation asleep, particularly if the house is full, do not wonder at it, for the atmosphere