USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 27
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the seed ripens the pericardium opens to let them out, which is ac- cording to rule in each species of plant. Some are opened by the action of frosts ; some by elastic explosion, throwing the seed to a distance. Those of most composite flowers are endowed with downy appendages by which they float in the air, and are carried to great distances. We cannot omit to notice the nutriment laid up in store in the seed for the sustenance of the young plant. A striking analogy exists between the seeds of trees and plants and the eggs of animals ; the same point is provided for in the same manner. The white or albuminous part only is used in the formation of the young chicken. The yolk, with very little alteration or diminution, is wrapped up in the abdomen of the young bird to serve for its nu- triment till it has learned to pick its food, and for this reason the young bird does not, as the young quadruped, care for food or seek its dam, no such provision being made for the latter .. We give the most common illustrations, because they are the most forcible.
Our next observation on the mechanical structure of plants is upon the general property of climbers. In this family of plants from each joint issue two shoots, one bearing the flower and the fruit and the other drawn out to a tapering tendril that attaches to anything within its reach. Considering that two purposes are to be provided for-the fruitage of the plant and the sustenation of the stalk-no means can be more mechanical than this presents to the eye for utility and simplicity of arrangement. "We do not see so much as one tree, or shrub or herb that hath a stiff, strong stem that is able to mount up and stand alone withont assistance, that is furnished with these tendrils." To illustrate, we make a single comparison, the pea and the bean, and remark that in the pea they do not make their appearance till the plant has grown to a height to need their support.
The strong, hollow stems of canes, straws and grasses give the greatest amount of strength and elasticity for the amount of mate- rial used. Joints at stated distances in these tubes is another ele- ment of strength without increasing the weight, the material being slightly different,
With what uniformity and care has nature provided for these stalks of grasses, grains and canes by providing each with a cover- ing, an impenetrable coat of waterproof varnish. The grasses seem to be Nature's special care. With these she carpets the green earth and paints the landscape; with these she feeds the human family, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, and the grub
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beneath the surface. The cattle feed upon their leaves and blades, birds upon their smaller seeds, and many insects upon their roots and seeds. None need be told that wheat, rye, corn, &c., are strict- . ly grasses. Corn is a monocious, paniceons grass, and though the great staple of the West it seems to be overlooked in its botanical and mechanical structure by botanists and intelligent growers. All our bread-producing plants are grasses. Those families of plants known as grasses exhibit extraordinary means and powers of in- crease, hardiness, and an almost unconquerable disposition to spread.
Their faculties of recuperation coincide with the intention of nature concerning them. They thrive under a treatment by which other plants would be destroyed. The more their leaves are con- sumed, the more their roots are increased. Many seemingly dry and dead leaves of grasses, revive and renew their growth in the Spring.
In lofty mountains and cold latitudes, where the summer heat does not ripen their seeds, grasses abound which propogate them- selves without seed. The number of mechanical arrangements are so numerous that we must content ourselves as before remarked, by a reference only to the more common and marked instances. Parasitical plants furnish marked illustrations.
The lencuta Europea is of this class. The seed opens and puts forth a little spiral body, which does not seek the ground to take root, but climbs spirally, from right to left, upon other plants, from which it draws its nourishment.
The little spiral body proceeding from the seeds, is to be com- pared to the seedy fibres sent out in other cases. They are straight ; this is spiral. They shoot downward, this upshoot shoots upward. In the rule and in the exception, we perceive equally the design. A better-known parasitical plant is the mistletoe. We have to remark in it a singular instance of compensation.
No art hath yet made the seeds of this plant to root in the earth. Here, then, might seem to be a mortal defect in its constitution. Let us examine how this defect is made up to them. Their seeds are endowed with an adhesive quality so tenacious that they ad- here to the surface or hark of any tree, however smooth. Roots springing from these sceds insinuate their fibres into the woody substance of the tree, from which this parasite draws its life and maintainance.
Another marked instance of rare mechanical action is the autum- nal crocus (colchicum autumnale.) How I have sympathised with
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this poor plant. Its blossom rises out of the ground in the most forlorn condition possible, without a sheath, calyx or cap to pro- tect it, and that too, not in spring, to be nourished by the genial rays of a summer sun, but under all the disadvantages of a de- clining year. When we come to look more closely at the organism we find that its mechanical functions instead of being neglected, that nature has gone out of her way to provide for its security, and to make up for all its defects. The seed vessel, which in other plants is situated within the end of the flower, or just beneath it, in this plant is buried ten or twelve inches underground, in a bul- bous root. The stiles always reach the seed vessel, but in this by an elongation unknown in other plants. All these singularities con- tribute to but one end. As this plant blossoms late in the season, it would not have time to ripen its seeds before the access of win- ter would destroy them.
Providence has arranged its structure thus that this important office may be performed at a depth in the earth out of reach of the effects of ordinary frosts. In the autumn nothing is done above the ground, but the blooming and fertilization. The maturation of the impregnated seed, which in other plants proceeds within the capsule exposed with the rest of the flower in open air, is here carried on during the winter, within the earth, below the reach of ordinary frost. But here a new difficulty must be overcome. The seeds though perfected, are known not to vegetate at that depth in the earth. The seeds, therefore, though safely lodged through the win- ter would all be lost to the purpose for which all seeds are intended. To overcome this difficulty another admirable provision is made to raise them above the surface and sow them at a proper distance.
In the spring the germ grows upon the fruit stalk accompanied with canes. The seed now in common with other plants have the benefit of summer, and are sown upon the surface. Truly "great and marvelous are thy works," and how carefully are all the minute details of all His creatures, animate and inanimate, provided for. Relations of parts, one to another, are and must be a principle in mechanical law. So in animal economy, so in the vegetable world, so in all nature's works. None of the works of the Deity want these harmonious relations of parts and offices. Everything in na- ture by which we are surrounded, all the events and circumstances of life embody a language replete with instruction. He must be an inattentive student of nature that does not read from its pages con- stantly open before him, themes of thought as interesting as they are instructive and important.
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Inspiration declares that "day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge," and there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. The sky, with its vast expanse of azure blue upon whose surface drift clouds of snowy brightness or dark and fearful, are the birthplace of lightning and storms, have pure and peaceful or gloomy and terrific language. " When I consider the heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon and stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him ?" The seasons too have their significant lan- guage. In the spring time of life, the most delightful associations are gathered up in the memory, and to no period in after life does the mind recur with greater pleasure than to this delightful morn- ing of life, its real spring time. Summer, autumn and winter are typical of maturity, decay and death, and each have a language that conveys instruction. Where nature leaves us revelation becomes our guide, and points to a land of perpetual enjoyment, while-
"Our's is a lovely world, how fair Thy beauties even on the earth appear, The seasons in their courses fall, And bring successive joys ; the sea, The earth, the sky are full of Thee, Gracions glorious Lord of all.
" There's glory in the break of day, There's glory in the noontide ray, There's sweetness in the twilight shades, Magnificence in night ; Thy love Arched the grand heaven of blue above, And all our smiling earth pervades.
" And if thy glories here be found, Streaming with beauty all around, What must that fount of glory be ? In Thee we hope, in Thee confide, Through mercy's never ebbing tide, Through love's unfathomable sea."
Colors in Leaves and Flowers.
The history of Mifflin county is destined to be among the agri- cultural people of the country, and those citizens of the towns whose homes are adorned and brightened by flowers, and for this reason, we devote as much space as we do to the botanical interests of the work in hand. All common leaves contain a green pigment known tochemists, as Chlorophyll, from which they derive their ordi-
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nary colors. The cells of the leaf are stored with this pigment, while their transparent walls give them the superficial sheen which we notice so distinctly of the glossy foliage of the laurel. But very slight chemical changes in the composition of leaves, gives them a different color, which is not surprising, when we remember that color is only light reflected in greater or less proportions of its constituant waves.
The pelargonium, the colens, the Begonias and dark seedums, which are employed to give shades of color, to garden and con- servatory show how easy the green coloring matter can be replaced by shades of purple, red and brown.
These changes seem, on the whole, to be connected with some deficiency in the nutriment of the foliage. It appears that the nor- mal and healthy pigment is a rich green, but that as the leaf matures, having performed its office and run its race, it passes through suc- cessive stages of orange, pink and russet, different leaves assuming different shade, according to their chemical elements. The autumn tints of the forest, the crimson hues of the Virginia creeper, the the transitory colors of the dying plant, all show us they are pass- ing away, they have done their assigned work.
If a single leaf, or even a particular spot upon a leaf, is insuffi- ciently supplied with nutriment or from other causes, its first symp- ton of ill health is a tendancy to paleness or jaundiced yellowness. If an insect turns some portion of it into a gall-nut or blight, the tips assume a hue of sickliness. In short, any constitutional weak- ness in a leaf, brings about changes in its cells, which bring about. an altered mode of reflecting the light.
Now, the ends of long branches are naturally the last to mature of any portion of the plant, and the young leaves, formed at such points, have a great tendancy, early in the season, to assume a brown or a pinkey hue. Furthermore, these points are exactly the places where the flowers are formed ; flowers being a collection of aborted leaves destined to fulfill the functions of parents, for future generations, at the point where the vigorous growth of the original plant is beginning to fail.
Nothing can be more natural therefore than that the flower leaves should show an original tendency to exhibit brilliant hnes, a. tendency that would be strengthened by a natural selection, if it gave the plant and its descendants any superiority over others in the struggle for life. It should be remembered too that the leaf of the flower differ from the ordinary leaf, from the fact that it is not
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self supporting. The green leaf of a plant, and the green skin of a cactus is its mouth, stomach, and lungs and are perpetualy en- gaged in assimilating from the air and water those gasses and elements needed for its growth. But the flower is an expensive luxury to the plant. It does not feed itself, but is fed by other portions of the plant. In annuals they ripen their seed mature and die, in perennials, they produce the seed for the re-production of their species take a rest, grow again and re-produce their seed ad- seriatim. Biennials run their race in two years and die as the annual does, in the first year. But those plants, like the forest oak, the maple, the hemlock and pine, have an extended longevity and annually or biennially, according to their state of health, after they have attained to years of maturity re-produce themselves. We find their counter parts in the animal kingdom. In the insect world we find the annual race, the biennial and the perennial. In the mamalia tribes and in the human race we find the precise connterparts of the oak, the maple, the hemlock, and the stronger. and long-lived races of vegetation. Nor does the comparison end here. The colors of flowers are not without their object and uses. They attract the eye of the tiny insect, and he flies from flower to flower to gather his food for his immediate use, the material to build his cell and his honey to store therein for his future use and to feed his yonng. In doing this he becomes covered with the dust that impregnates the next flower on which he shall alight, and while thus he goes from flower to flower he is unconsciously fulfill- ing his mission in this world. The first vegetation on this earth and before the coal period, and out of which the coal formations were formed was all a flowerless vegetation. It was in the middle ages of the world's history.
Animal existence was yet slumbering in the chambers of the future, their plans of existence yet unexecuted in the mind of the Creator. The immense quantities of carbon now locked up in the coal veins were then in the atmosphere, in the form of carbonic acid gas, rendering it a noxious poison, in which no air-breathing animal could exist. No animated being, nor voice, nor song of bird to break the prolonged silence. The surges broke upon the beach, the tempest gathered in the thickening air, the storm burst on the bald and desolate cliff, but no fluttering wing sought protection from its fury.
This humid atmosphere and tropically heated earth produced monster growths of vegetation. They were buried by the sweeping
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tornado, and as rapidly succeeded by others, to be swept down by a like fate. These rapid, successive growths of vegetation cleared the atmosphere of its superabundance of carbonic acid gas, and formed the coal beds. Thus the growth of vegetation purifies the air, and fitted the earth for the habitation of air-breathing animals, and finally man, the last and highest order of creation's work.
The impress of vegetation left in the coal proves it to be of a low order.
It displayed no gaudy flowers to feast the eye, and regale the other senses by their sweet perfume; for these would have been idle wastes, for there were no eyes to feast on the tints of the flow- ers, nor olfactories to regale on their rich aroma.
Rushes, ferns and allied species of vegetation formed the then vegetable kingdom ; the former thirty feet high, and the latter of tree dimensions. The impressions of their prostrate stems may often be traced on the shale overlying the seams of coal. The order of vegetation improved and got higher as time rolled on, culmina- ting in the grand present, when men and animals of the highest order of nature are cotemporary with the finest flora in the world's history.
Agriculture in 1776.
In the course of a century after the first colonists had located on the eastern shores, they had transformed the wilderness into a fruitful and productive country. Agriculture was their favorite pur- suit. Travelers from Europe were struck with the skill with which they cultivated their rich and abundant soil, and the fine farm houses that filled the landscape. The barns overflowed with the products of the harvest field, and were surrounded by herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep. The northern and middle colonies were famous. for wheat and corn. Pennsylvania was the granary of the nation. In New Jersey, the farms that spread from Trenton to Elizabeth- town, excited the admiration of the most scientific agriculturists of the old world.
Long Island was a garden, and all along the valleys opening on the Hudson, the Dutch and Hugenot colonists had acquired ease and opulence by a careful and successful agriculture-not for the pur- poses of display or avaricious hoarding, as was the case in the old country.
" Not for to hide it in a hedge, Not for a train attendant,
But for the glorious privilege Of being independent."
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Houses on their farms were usually built of stone, with tall roofs and narrow windows, and were scenes of intelligent industry. While the young men labored in the field, the mother and daughters spun wool and flax and manufactured the clothing for the family. The farm house was a manufactory of articles for daily use. Even nails were hammered out in winter, and the farmer was his own mechanic. A school and a church were in almost every village. Few children were left untaught by the Dutch Domine, who was. sometimes paid in wampum, or the New Englfind student, who lived among his patrons, and was not always fed with the daintiest fare. On the Sabbath, labor ceased, the church bell tolled in the distance, a happy calm settled upon the rural region, and the farmer and his family, in their neatest dress, walked or rode to the village church. The farming class, usually intelligent and rational, formed in the northern colonies, the sure reliance for freedom, and when the invasion came, the Hessians were driven out of New Jersey, by the general uprising of its laboring farmers, and Burgoyne was captured by the resolution of the people rather than by the timid generalship of Gates.
The progress of agriculture at the South, was even more rapid and remarkable than at the North. The wilderness was swiftly converted into a productive region. The coast from St. Marys, to the Delaware, with its inland country, became, within a century, the most valuable portion of the country. Its products were eagerly sought for in all the capitals of Europe, and one noxious plant of Virginia, had supplied mankind with a new vice and a new pleasure.
It would be useless to relate again, the story of the growth of the tobacco trade. Its cultivation in Virginia, was an epoch in the history of man. Tobacco was to Virginia, the life of trade and intercourse ; prices estimated in it; the salaries of clergy were fixed at so many pounds of tobacco. All other products of the soil were neglected to raise this savage plant. Ships from England, came overannually, to gather in the great crops of the large planters, and Washington, one of the most successful land-owers and agri- culturist was accustomed to watch over the vessels and their captains, who sailed up the Potomac to his very door. The English sailors seem to have been ever anxious to depreciate his products, and lower his prices. Virginia grew enormously rich from the sud- den rise of this vitiated taste.
From 1724, when the production of tobacco was first made a
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royal monopoly, until the close of the collonial period, the produc- tion and consumption rose with equal rapidity and in 1775, 85,000 hogsheads were exported annually, and $4,000,000 from the sale of tobacco was sent into the southern colonies. This was equal to about one-third of the whole export of the colonics. Happily since that period the proportion has rapidly decreased, and useful articles have formed a larger part of the export from the new to the old world. One of these was rice. A governor of South Carolina had been to Madagascar and seen the plant cultivated in their hot swamps. He lived in Charleston on the bay, and it struck him that a marshy spot in his garden might well serve as a plantation for rice. Just then, 1694, a vessel put in from Madagascar in distress, whose commander the governor had formerly known. Her wants were liberally relieved in gratitude for the kindness he received, the master gave him a sack of rice. It was sown and produced abundantly. The soil proved singuarly favorable for its culture. The marshes of Georgia and South Carolina were soon covered with rice plantations. A large part of the crop was ex- ported to England. In 1724, 100,000 barrels were sent out of South Carolia alone. In 1761, the value of the rice crop was more than $1,500,000, and the white population was less than 45,000. 'So it is easy to conceive the tide of wealth that was distributed :annually among its small band of planters. They built costly mansions on its coasts and bays, lived in fatal luxuries and wild excesses, and often fell speedy victims to the fevers of their mal- arious soils. Indigo, sugar, molasses, tar, pitch, and a great variety of other products added to the wealth of the south. But cotton 'has grown through many vicissitudes to be the chief staple of British and American trade was at this period cultivated only in small quantities for the use of the farmers. It was spun into coarse cloths, and it was not until Whitney's invention in 1793, that it could be readily prepared for commerce, and to the inventive genius of Connecticut the southern states owe a large part of their wealth and political importance.
The Culture of Flowers.
The term horticulture is derived from two Latin words " Horti" and "Cultis," signifying garden and culture, hence under the term horticulture is properly included the cultivation of fruits, vege- tables and flowers. To " dress the garden and keep it," was the employment assigned by the Creator to the progenitor of our race.
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With a physical organization with the requirements for continued moderate exercise to ensure its development and healthfuless, with imaginativeness and asthetic taste seeking daily and hourly gratifications with a palate not blunted with the fumes of tobacco, nor scorched by stimulants, he is in harmonious union with his surroundings so kindly furnished in paradoxical profusion by his Creator. These were the surroundings of the home of the first pair, which by their natures they were so well adapted to enjoy, and these should be the accompaniments of our homes, now human nature being the same in all time and we would say :
" Make your home beautiful, bring to it flowers, Plant them around you to bud and to bloom; Let them give life to your loneliest hours, Let them bring light to enliveu your gloom, Then it shall be when afar on life's billows, Wherever your tempest-tossed children are flung,
They will long for the shade of the home weeping willows, And sing the sweet song which their mother had sung."
The beauty and fragrance of a yard of flowers, the elegance of boquets that adorn the house internally are worth a hundred times their cost as they create a love of home and a refinement in child- ren. Home is thus made the abode of virtue and contentment. This is a pen picture of the flower-surrounded homes of Mifflin county. Heretofore the goddess Pomona has held the sway in horticulture. It has been fruits instead of flowers. Fruit growing has become a mania and pomological knowledge at its zenith. The best fruits have been heralded so long and so loud that every grower can make his little specch on their respective merits. Not so with graceful Flora. Her pathway, though strewn with roses, is beset with many thorns; yet hopefully she pursues her way, trust- ing that many a wilderness and solitary place shall be made glad by her presence. What a heartache is experienced by the west- ern amateur, when in midsummer he visits the old gardens and pleasure grounds in the east, as is in Mifflin county, where wealth and a more congenial climate have spread their choicest gifts, and we realize how many floral treasures are denied us. A distance of twelve hundred miles from the seacoast, away from the genial in- fluences of large bodies of water, a climate of extreme dryness, of extremes of heat and cold, subject to sudden changes, these exercise a ruling influence in horticultural matters in the entire interior.
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