I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 403 



priests. They are cultivated under mats, to secure the desired 

 degree of shade, and bring from $5 to 16 a pound in Japan, 

 none of this quality being exported. 



In the article upon the teas of China it is stated that indi- 

 go is used for coloring gunpowder- tea, and that in the south- 

 ern districts of China Prussian-blue and gypsum are employ- 

 ed instead of indigo. -iHfisc. Doc, House Rep., No. 96, 1872, 3. 



CONGRESSIONAL ACTION RESPECTING FORESTS. 



A very important bill was lately introduced into Congress 

 by Mr. Haldeman, of Pennsylvania, and has now become a 

 law. It provides that every future sale of government land 

 shall be with the condition that at least ten per cent, of the 

 timbered land shall be kept perpetually as w^oodland ; and if 

 the land be not timbered, then the patent is to be issued on 

 the condition that ten per cent, of the quantity is to be plant- 

 ed with forest trees Avithin ten years, and kept forever as 

 woodland. If this be done, an abatement of fifty per cent, is 

 to be made on account of the expense of the planting. A vio- 

 lation of this agreement is to be met by the forfeiture of the 

 land. It is also proposed that any one who 'may wish to ac- 

 quire title to the public land, under the homestead act, can do^ 

 so by proof of the fact that he has had, at the end of three 

 years after taking possession, at least one acre under cultiva- 

 tion with timber for tw^o years, and that this shall be contin- 

 ued until one acre in every ten is planted with trees, in clusters 

 not more than sixteen feet apart. House Bill, Forty-second 

 Congress, 3008. 



INFLUENCE OP SULPHURIC ACID ON WINE. 



Dr. De Martin, discussing the influence of sulphuric acid 

 upon the formation of w' ine, assures us that by adding a sin- 

 gle gramme (15 grains) of the acid to a quantity of wine 

 equal to 25 gallons, the following results will be observed : 

 First, the fermentation will be more rapid and more quickly 

 completed, and the sugar more speedily transformed into al- 

 cohol. Second, the red color of the wine will be more lively. 

 Third, a careful chemical analysis reveals no more sulphuric 

 acid in such wine than in specimens prepared by the ordinary 

 methods employed in the South of France. It is most prob- 

 able, indeed, that, in consequence of the numerous reactions 



