"The supposition of alkalies, metallic oxides, or inorganic matter in general, being produced by plants, is entirely refuted by these wellauthenticated facts. "The woodcutters in the vicinity of Heidel- | sandy soil. By its decay, an abundant proviberg have the privilege of cultivating the soil sion of alkalies is supplied to the roots of the for their own use, after felling the trees used trees, and a fresh supply is rendered unneces for making tan. Before sowing the land thus sary. obtained, the branches, roots, and leaves are in every case burned, and the ashes used as a manure, which is found to be quite indispensable for the growth of the grain. The soil itself, upon which the oats grow in this district, consists of sandstone; and although the trees find in it a quantity of alkaline earths sufficient for their own sustenance, yet in its ordinary condition it is incapable of producing grain. "The most decisive proof of the use of strong manure was obtained at Bingen (a town on the Rhine), where the produce and developement of vines were highly increased by manuring them with such substances as shavings of horn, &c., but after some years the formation of the wood and leaves decreased to the great loss of the possessor, to such a degree, that he has long had cause to regret his departure from the usual methods. By the manure employed by him, the vines had been too much hastened in their growth; in two or three years they had exhausted the potash in the formation of their fruit, leaves, and wood, so that none remained for the future crops, his manure not having contained any potash. "There are vineyards on the Rhine, the plants of which are above a hundred years old, and all of these have been cultivated by manuring them with cow-dung, a manure containing a large proportion of potash, although very little nitrogen. All the potash, in fact, which is contained in the food consumed by a cow is again immediately discharged in its excrements. "It is thought very remarkable, that those plants of the grass tribe, the seeds of which furnish food for man, follow him like the domestic animals. But saline plants seek the sea-shore or saline springs, and the Chenopodium the dunghill from similar causes. Saline plants require common salt, and the plants which grow only on dunghills, need ammonia and nitrates, and they are attracted whither these can be found, just as the dung-fly is to animal excrements. So likewise none of our corn-plants can bear perfect seeds, that is, seeds yielding flour, without a large supply of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, substances which they require for their maturity. And hence, these plants grow only in a soil where these three constituents are found combined, and no soil is richer in them, than those where men and animals dwell together; where the urine and excrements of these are found corn-plants appear, because their seeds cannot attain maturity unless supplied with the constituents of those matters. "When we find sea-plants near our saltworks, several hundred miles distant from the sea, we know that their seeds have been car ried there in a very natural manner, namely, by wind or birds, which have spread them over the whole surface of the earth, although they grow only in those places in which they find the conditions essential to their life. "The first colonists of Virginia found a "The experience of a proprietor of land in the vicinity of Göttingen offers a most remark-country, the soil of which was similar to that able example of the incapability of a soil to produce wheat or grasses in general, when it fails in any one of the materials necessary to their growth. In order to obtain potash, he planted his whole land with wormwood, the ashes of which are well known to contain a large proportion of the carbonate of that alkali. The consequence was, that he rendered his 'land quite incapable of bearing grain for many years, in consequence of having entirely deprived the soil of its potash. "The leaves and small branches of trees contain the most potash; and the quantity of them which is annually taken from the wood, for the purpose of being employed as litter, contain more of that alkali than all the old wood which is cut down. The bark and foliage of oaks, for example, contain from 6 to 9 per cent. of this alkali; the needles of firs and pines 8 per cent. "With every 2650 lbs. of fir-wood, which are yearly removed from an acre of forest, only from 0.114 to 0-53 lbs. of alkalies are abstracted from the soil, calculating the ashes at 0-83 per cent. The moss, however, which covers the ground, and of which the ashes are known to contain so much alkali, continues uninterrupted in its growth, and retains that potash on the surface, which would otherwise so easily penetrate with the rain through the mentioned above; harvests of wheat and tobacco were obtained for a century from one and the same field without the aid of manure, but now whole districts are converted into unfruitful pasture land, which without manure produces neither wheat nor tobacco. From every acre of this land, there were removed in the space of one hundred years 1,200 lbs. of alkalies in leaves, grain, and straw; it became unfruitful, therefore, because it was deprived of every particle of alkali, which had been reduced to a soluble state, and because that which was rendered soluble again in the space of one year, was not sufficient to satisfy the demands of the plants. Almost all the cultivated land in Europe is in this condition; fallow is the term applied to land left at rest for further disintegration. It is the greatest possible mistake to suppose that the temporary diminution of fertility in a soil is owing to the loss of humus; it is the mere consequence of the exhaustion of the alkalies. "Let us consider the condition of the country around Naples, which is famed for its fruitful corn-land; the farms and villages are situated from eighteen to twenty-four miles distant from one another, and between them there are no Lamb's Quarter, a troublesome weed about gardens and * Chenopodium album, called in the United States houses. roads, and consequently no transportation of manure. Now corn has been cultivated on this land for thousands of years, without any part of that which is annually removed from the soil being artificially restored to it. How can any influence be ascribed to humus under such circumstances, when it is not even known whether humus was ever contained in the soil! "The method of culture in that district completely explains the permanent fertility. It appears very bad in the eyes of our agriculturists, but there it is the best plan which could be adopted. A field is cultivated once every three years, and is in the intervals allowed to serve as a sparing pasture for cattle. The soil experiences no change in the two years during which it there lies fallow, further than that it is exposed to the influence of the weather, by which a fresh portion of the alkalies contained in it are again set free or rendered soluble. The animals fed on these fields yield nothing to these soils which they did not formerly possess. The weeds upon which they live spring from the soil, and that which they return to it as excrements, must always be less than that which they extract. The field, therefore, can have gained nothing from the mere feeding of cattle upon them; on the contrary, the soil must have lost some of its constitu ents. "Experience has shown in agriculture, that wheat should not be cultivated after wheat on the same soil, for it belongs with tobacco to the plants which exhaust a soil. But if the humus of a soil gives it the power of producing corn, how happens it that wheat does not thrive in many parts of Brazil, where the soils are particularly rich in that substance, or in our own climate, in soils formed of mouldered wood; that its stalk under these circumstances attains no strength, and droops prematurely? The cause is this,-that the strength of the stalk is due to silicate of potash, and that the corn requires phosphate of magnesia, neither of which substances a soil of humus can afford, since it does not contain them; the plant may indeed, under such circumstances, become an herb, but will not bear fruit. "Again, how does it happen that wheat does not flourish on a sandy soil, and that a calcareous soil is also unsuitable for its growth, unless it be mixed with a considerable quantity of clay? It is because these soils do not contain alkalies in sufficient quantity, the growth of wheat being arrested by this circumstance, even should all other substances be presented in abundance. "Trees, the leaves of which are renewed annually, require for their leaves six to ten times more alkalies than the fir-tree or pine, and hence, when they are placed in soils in which alkalies are contained in very small quantity, do not attain maturity. When we see such trees growing on a sandy or calcare One thousand parts of the dry leaves of oaks yielded 55 parts of ashes, of which 24 parts consisted of alkalies soluble in water; the same quantity of pine leaves gave only 29 parts of ashes, which contained 46 parts of soluble salts. (De Saussure.) 9 ous soil,-the red-beech, the service-tree, and the wild-cherry, for example, thriving luxuriantly on limestone, we may be assured that alkalies are present in the soil, for they are necessary to their existence. Can we, then, regard it as remarkable, that such trees should thrive in America, on those spots on which forests of pines which have grown and collected alkalies for centuries, have been burnt, and to which the alkalies are thus at once restored; or that the Spartium scoparium, Erysimum latifolium, Blitum capitatum, Senecio viscosus, plants remarkable for the quantity of alkalies contained in their ashes, should grow with the greatest luxuriance on the localities of conflagrations.* "Wheat will not grow on a soil which has produced wormwood, and, vice versa, wormwood does not thrive where wheat has grown, because they are mutually prejudicial by appropriating the alkalies of the soil. "One hundred parts of the stalks of wheat yield 15-5 parts of ashes (H. Davy); the same quantity of the dry stalks of barley, 8.54 parts (Schrader); and one hundred parts of the stalks of oats, only 4.42;-the ashes of all these are of the same composition. "We have in these facts a clear proof of what plants require for their growth. Upon the same field, which will yield only one harvest of wheat, two crops of barley and three of oats may be raised. "All plants of the grass kind require silicate of potash. Now this is conveyed to the soil, or rendered soluble in it by the irrigation of meadows. The equisetuce, the reeds and species of cane, for example, which contain such large quantities of siliceous earth, or silicate of potash, thrive luxuriantly in marshes, in argillaceous soils, and in ditches, streamlets, and other places, where the change of water renews constantly the supply of dissolved silica. The amount of silicate of potash removed from a meadow, in the form of hay, is very considerable. We need only call to mind the melted vitreous mass found on a meadow between Manheim and Heidelberg after a thunder-storm. This mass was at first supposed to be a meteor, but was found on examination (by Gmelin) to consist of silicate of potash; a flash of lightning had struck a stack of hay, and nothing was found in its place except the melted ashes of the hay. "Potash is not the only substance necessary for the existence of most plants, indeed it has been already shown that the potash may be replaced, in many cases by soda, magnesia, or lime; but other substances, besides alkalies, are required to sustain the life of plants. The soil in which plants grow furnishes them with phosphoric acid, and they in turn yield it to animals, to be used in the formation of their bones, and of those constituents of the brain which contain phosphorus. Much more After the great fire in London, large quantities of the where a fire had taken place. On a similar occasion, the Erysimum latifolium were observed growing on the spots Blitum capitatum was seen at Copenhagen, the Senecio viscosus in Nassau, and the Spartium scoparium in Languedoc. After the burnings of forests of pines in North America poplars grew on the same soil. (Franklin.) phosphorus is thus afforded to the body than it | quently the arable lands were converted into requires, when flesh, bread, fruit, and husks of grain are used for food, and this excess in them is eliminated in the urine and the solid excrements. We may form an idea of the quantity of phosphate of magnesia contained in grain, when we consider that the concretions in the cœcum of horses consist of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, which must have been obtained from the hay and oats consumed as food. Twenty-nine of these stones were taken after death from the rectum of a horse belonging to a miller in Eberstadt, the total weight of which amounted to 3 lbs.; and Dr. F. Simon has lately described a similar concretion found in the horse of a carrier, which weighed 1 lb. "It is evident that the seeds of corn could not be formed without phosphate of magnesia, which is one of their invariable constituents; the plant could not under such circumstances reach maturity." (Organic Chemistry.)] pastures. England had been very closely cul- ALKANET (Anchusa, Lat.). This plant is a species of bugloss with a red root, brought from the southern parts of France, and used in medicine. It grows wild in Kent and Cornwall, but in other counties only in gardens. It flowers in summer, and its root becomes red in Autumn. The root is astringent: the leaves not so much so. [The puccoon (Batschia Canadensis) is called alkanet in the United States. See Flor. Ces. p. 118, obs.] Some few of the cotter farmers were reduced ALLIUM. See ONION, GARLIC, LEEK, SHA-to the grade of hired shepherds; others became LOT, CHIVES, &c. artisans, a still smaller number retained a plot of land, but a large portion (for even monastic support was now abolished) became beggars, who, as all records agree, infested England. This gave birth to the poor laws, and the same reign of Elizabeth was the era of an effort to remedy the evils which had arisen from this ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. This designation has been applied in England to a plan for bettering the condition of the poor, by allotting to each family in a parish an extent of ground for the purpose of cultivation with the spade. Under the article AGRICULTURE it is noticed, that in England, during the feudal times, andestruction of small farms. allotment system existed. Its object, however, was different; the lords of the soil, having an interest in obtaining as many tenants as they could, for their power was proportionate to their number, portioned their estates into as many small allotments as they could obtain family tenants, receiving in return certain days of military or other service. tity of ground allotted was too large, and from its interfering with the just liberties of the landed proprietors, this act was repealed in the last century. It had been experienced that though the tenants of those small farms had been poor, yet none of them were paupers; it was therefore thought that every mode of recurring to such a system must be beneficial; and in accordance with this opinion an act of parliament was passed, commanding that to every cottage that should be erected, four acres of When the feudal system was destroyed, the ground should be allotted. This first suggeslords let their lands in a similar manner, re-tion of the allotment system failed. The quanceiving as rent certain quantities of labour from the tenant, or produce of the land he rented; although, it not being now an object to maintain the number of their tenants, but rather to acquire an increased return of produce, and to obtain a prosperous tenantry, no obstacle was thrown in the way of increasing the size of farms. Land was left like any other subject of investment, and a man obtained as much as his means of cultivating permitted, or as he found to be profitable. These were powerful limitations, for money was scarce, and the agriculturists were chiefly tenants, labourers for hire being few. As the value of all farming produce increased from various causes, the profits becoming commensurately large, cultivators required more extensive forms, consolidation proceeded, and in 1709 the first enclosure act passed; and from that time to the present the small occupiers have gradually further diminished, as their right of commonage and the like was taken away by the four thou sand enclosure bills that have since been enacted. In the fourteenth century occurred the great est revolution that ever happened to the agri- When small farmers are deprived of their culture of England. The increased demand tenements, they become, if they continue agrifor wool in the Netherlands and at home, ren-culturists, farming labourers. It becomes a dered the breeding of sheep much more profit- subject of very great political importance, able than the growing of corn, and conse- therefore, to ascertain how the character and comfort of these, who are now by far the most numerous class in society, can be best promoted. It would be here misplaced to examine how the system of poor laws has served in various ways to debase and depress them; our present object must be to consider how the allotment system may be the best made to promote contrary effects. This system, we have noticed, suggested itself to the legislature in the reign of Elizabeth, but it was of very limited operation. On the Continent, a system of larger allot ments was partially adopted in the year 1707, in the Duchy of Cleves, but we are not aware that the example was followed, till, after the lapse of more than a century, the Dutch government, in 1818, divided tracts of poor soil at Frederick's Oord, and other places, into allotments of seven acres. The government provided overseers to notice the moral conduct and industry of the tenants; advanced capital when needed, which was to be repaid; and an annual rent was to be returned. Manual labour was exclusively adopted. The expense of establishing each individual was 221. 68. 4d.; and the annual excess of produce over the subsistence of the family, after deducting the rent, twelve shillings per acre, was 81. 28. 4d. (M. de Kirchoff. Jacob on the Corn Trade, &c.) About the year 1800, Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells, commenced the allotment system; Sir H. Vavasour communicated to the Board of Agriculture, about the same period, some experiments demonstrating the great benefit of "the Flemish," or "field-gardening husbandry;" and, in 1802, Charles Howard, Esq. followed the example. Since that period the patrons of the system have been very numerous. The clergy have been especially promoters of this system. Where this system, well regulated, has been tried, and the experience is now very exten sive, the results have been most happy. The condition of the poor has been ameliorated; by rendering them more independent, they have become more contented and more careful; bet ter as citizens, and better as individuals. If the allotments much exceed a quarter of an acre, or in any way approach to the nature of cotter farms, a proportionate blow is made at that employment of capital and talent in agriculture which has raised it to its present improved state. The advantages attending this system," says a clerical writer in the Christian Observer for 1832, "besides the comfort of the poor man, are the diminution of the poor's rate, and the moral improvement of the labourer. Since this plan has been in operation, the poor-rate has been steadily declining from about 320l. to about 180l. per annum, with the prospect of still further diminution. When the farmer's work is scarce, the poor man finds profitable employment on his patch of ground, which if he had not to occupy him, he would be sent to idle upon the roads at the expense of the parish. The system has the further and very important effect of improving his character. When the labourer has his little plot of ground, from which he feels he shall not be ejected as long as he conducts himself with propriety, he has an object on which his heart is fixed; he has something at stake in society; he will not hang loose on the community, ready to join those who would disturb it; so much so, that in the late riots, no man in the parish showed any disposition to join them." From the year 1828 to the present time, numerous pamphlets upon this subject have appeared, and for further information readers are referred to those of Dr. Law, and of Messrs. Scobell, Scrope, Banfill, Denson, Blackiston, Withers, &c. ALLOWANCES TO TENANTS. Such as are agreed to be made to them on their quitting farms, or under any other circumstances. See Customs of Counties and Appraisement. "On Pulley Common, in Shropshire," says Sir W. Pulteney, "there is, at least there was, a cottager's tenement of about 512 square yards, somewhat more than one-ninth of an acre. The spade and the hoe are the only implements used, and those chiefly by his wife, that he may follow his daily labour for hire. The plot of land is divided into two parcels, whereon she grows wheat and potatoes alternately. In the month of October, when the potatoes are ripe, she takes off the stalks of the plants, which she secures to produce manure by littering her pig. She then goes over the whole with a rake, to collect the ALLUVIUM, or ALLUVION (from the Laweeds for the dunghill. She next sows the tin Alluvio, “an inundation”), is a term which, wheat, and then takes up the potatoes with a in the English language, has no very defined three-pronged fork; and by this operation the meaning. Some authors use it to designate all wheat seed is covered deep. She leaves it those rocks which have been formed by causes quite rough, and the winter frost mellows the now acting on the surface of the earth, includearth; and by its falling down in the spring it ing those of volcanic origin; while others, adadds vigour to the wheat plants. She has pur- hering to the literal meaning of the original sued this alternate system of cropping for term, confine its application to deposits, whatseveral years without any diminution of pro- ever be their character, that have resulted duce. The potato crop only has manure. In from inundations. Neither of these definitions 1804, a year very noted for mildew, she had convey the same meaning as is usually atfifteen Winchester bushels of wheat from 272 tached to the word, the one including too square yards, being four times the general much, the other too little. The term has been averaging crop of the neighbouring farmers. badly selected, but is used in its proper appliIt is to be wished such instances of cottage cation to designate all those deposits recently industry were more frequent; and more fre- formed, or now forming, by the agency of waquent they would be, were proper means made ter, whether from an uninterrupted and con use of to invigorate the spirit of exertion in stant stream, or from casual inundation. the labouring class." All streams, lakes, rivers, seas, and the under the conditions to which we have alluded. The mountainous regions are, from their elevation, less suited to the progression of so ocean itself, hold a large quantity of earthy | geous to man, whatever might be their result matter in mechanical solution, which they deposit in their beds. The character of the sediment is governed by the nature of the rocks over which the waters flow; and the quantityciety, so intimately connected with agricultudepends partly upon the constitution of the rocks, and partly upon the power of the water. If the rock be easily destroyed, and a large body of water flow over it with a considerable velocity, the destructive effect will be great, and much worn materials (detritus) being formed, the stream will have a thick and turbid appearance. The same effect is frequently produced by the discharge of a number of tributary streams into a river, all of which accumulate a greater or less quantity of the earths over which they flow. ral prosperity, than the plains. As we rise above the level of the sea, the atmosphere becomes more rarified, and the cold more intense, both of which are injurious to vegetation in general, and unsuited to promote the comfort of animal life. The plains are, therefore, preferred by men when they congregate together, and form societies. It cannot be considered an unwise or unfit result, that the lowlands should be enriched with alluvial soils, produced by the destruction of the rocks and natural soils of mountainous regions. It The distribution of water at the present is reported of Dioclesian, that he told his coltime, and I more particularly refer to rivers, league, Maximilian, he had more pleasure in is very different from that of former periods. the cultivation of a few potherbs which, in the The majority of the valleys through which gardens of Spalatro, grew in the soil that on rivers are now flowing, have been produced the top of Mount Hemus had only produced by the action of water, which, running from moss and dittany, than in all the honours the higher lands, has not only scooped them out, Roman empire could confer. From the definibut has spread over them the worn material tion I have given of the word "alluvium," I which it accumulates in its passage. By the must include the gravels and sands that are of operations which have since been going on, recent formation among the alluvial deposits; the waters have been collected together in but our attention is chiefly directed to the soils, comparatively narrow channels of consider- or those beds which are suited to sustain vege. able permanency. On this account, the influ- table life. It is true that the gravels may be ence of water that flows over the portions of the made available for the cultivation of some earth inhabited by terrestrial animals is great-plants, but the beds which are so used belong ly restricted; and the production of new beds of rock or soil is rather an accidental than a necessary consequence. rather to that class of rocks denominated dilu vial by geologists, than to the deposits of which we are speaking. But, although the influence of water has If we trace the circumstances under which been thus confined, all lands, and especially alluvial soils are formed to their cause, we the surfaces of mountainous districts, are un- shall find that they have their origin in the fall dergoing change, and the superficial covering of heavy rains, and the melting of snows, in of one district is conveyed to another. The mountainous regions. The water, in its passhowers of heaven are constantly sweeping sage to the valleys, collects the superficial soil away the soil and decomposed rocks of the and decomposed earthy material that lies in its uplands into the valleys, over which they are path, and transports them into the channels totransported by streams and rivers, the larger wards which it flows. The streams that are and heavier particles falling to the bottom, the formed on the mountain slopes are generally smaller being united with the water in mechani-united together before they reach the plains, cal mixture. That portion of earthy matter which is carried away from a district by the running water, is, as far as the district itself is concerned, the most valuable, being the superficial covering or soil, and would be for ever lost to that portion of the earth inhabited by man, were it not arrested in its passage to the ocean, by deposition in the bed of the river, or on those lands which the waters may happen to overflow. It is well known to those who have visited elevated districts, that many mountains are already deprived of their soils, and are but the skeletons of the earth, without covering or life. By this action the valleys are in the process of elevation, and the mountains of depression; and if we could conceive it to proceed without limitation, we may imagine a time when all the varieties of elevation and depression, which now give beauty to the surface, will be destroyed, and an entirely different condition of the distribution of land and water will be established. But, at the same time, it cannot be denied that these changes, as far as they have hitherto proceeded, have been advanta and form impetuous torrents, overcoming all obstacles, until their velocity is lost, when, in their winding courses, they meet each other, and form rivers. Rivers, in every part of their course, are subject to inundation; when, throwing their waters over a considerable space, they deposit the earthy materials they have accumulated. If such inundations had not occurred, the accumulated worn materials (débris) would have been deposited in the bed of the river, or carried into the lake or sea where the waters themselves are discharged. There are abundant instances on record of the filling up of rivers by the worn materials (detritus), which have been carried into their courses; and any river of our own country will afford a limited example of this result. Many rivers and estuaries, which a few years since were navigable, have ceased to be so on account of the large amount of alluvial matter deposited in their beds; and many of our towns, which were once populous and wealthy, have on this account become poor and almost deserted. If we would see the effect of the transport of worn |