STORE AND BREEDING STOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8422, 25 November 1890, Page 3

STORE AND BREEDING STOCK.

Prices for ordinary store cattle and sheep are somewhat easier than they were last autumn, when there was no chance of profits to farmers who bought lean animals to fatten. But values are still high enough to pay breeders well enough, and stock of prime quality, sheep especially, are as dear as ever. At the great Scotch sheep sales, indeed, the averages nmde by most of the great breeders were 'nigher than they were last year. But arc breeding stock, for which there ».s still a very brisk demand. At the recent crack sales of cattle prices have beer, generally very satisfactory. It is only inferior breeding stock and ordinary store sto-::k for winter fattening that are lower in price, in correspondence with the reduction in the value of moat since this period of last year. A NEW FAD IN VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. Sap : Does It Rise from the Roots?" is the title of a little book, written by a Mr. Reeves, and published by Mr, Kenning, of 'Great Queen-street, London. The author answers the question in the negative, and consequently is logically compelled to contend also that planta do not derive their nutriment from the soil, although he allows them to absorb gases from manures applied to the land. So paradoxical a theory scarcely deserves serious refutation. Yet its very boldness has secured it a great deal of .attention of the kicking-down-stairs character, just as did the absurd exhibition of crankiness of the man who, a few years back, wrote many pages to prove that the earth is Hat. Mr. Reeves makes some ingenious ob jections to the somewhat chaotic theories commonly current as to the rise of sap and its circulation in trees and plants ; but that sap does rise through the agency of some force or forces is as clearly demonstrable as any scientific axiom in existence. It is marvellous that anyone should maintain, as Mr. Reeves does, that plants do not derive moisture or their mineral ingredients from the soil, but only from their foliage. So many obvious facts are opposed to this theory that a man needs to be blind on one side to maintain it. If plants derived all their water from rain, dew, and atmospheric moisture through their leaves, how could we account for the fact that plants when transferred from one place to another are quickly revived by being watered at the roots only, although flagging badly at the time of replanting? Again, there is the familiar example of pot plants kept in rooms, never getting any rain or dew on their foliage, and quickly dying if not watered at) the roots. As to the ni sritie - of pj.-ufcs, Mr. Reeves would help hhaself a liv tlo :■ lacould prove that their organic oon- i -jci'Cis are derived partly from gases in the ssvu, supplied by manure ; but lie scarcelv notempts to prove this assertion, and "if he could substantiate it, he would not account for the well-known fact of crops being benefited by lime, potash, and other minerals supplied to the soil. Consistency compels Mr. Reeves to assert that the growth of vegetation never exhausts a soil ; but hundreds of experiments have proved that certain constituents of fertility are practically exhausted by continuous cropping. Again, Mr. Reeves says that varieties of soil are of little consequence to plants, he composition of the atmosphere being the important consideration. How, then,' can he account for the enormous difference in crops grown in two fields on the same farm, when the atmosphere is the same ? But it is unnecessary to accumulate evidence in disproof of paradoxes, based on superficial and onesided observations, and Mr. Reeves may be left to enjoy his cranky theories, or to learn the elements of the subject upon which he discourses with more zeal than discretion.