1857.] for Pasturage, Wool and Agriculture. 69 



hay for winter feeding, when set with red clover, herd-grass and 

 timothy. 



The Peach and the Apple, too, will rarely fail to yield their fruits 

 in abundance, when planted on the northern sides of the mountains. 

 Held back in their development of buds and blossoms in the spring, 

 by the chilliness of their position, the fruit will rarely be sufficiently 

 advanced to be injured by the latter frosts. Apples and Peaches 

 both are cultivated in a small way here, and are unsurpassed in del- 

 icacy of flavor by those of any other section of the country. On 

 the completion of the Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad, the fruits 

 of North Carolina's mountains will doubtless compete, in the Cin- 

 cinnati markets, with that of our own enterprising Orchardists. Or, 

 to guard against failures in the future, why should not the fruit- 

 growers of Cincinnati double their chances by having orchards in 

 North Carolina, as well as in Ohio ? The fruit crops, I was assured, 

 in many places, do not fail more than once in four or five years. 



The duration of the winters, in North Carolina, usually, have a 

 range of about three months. Plowing, by the best of farmers, 

 is mostly done, for the spring crops, in the month of February. 

 March, generally, is too stormy, and the weather too uncertain, for 

 out-door's labor. — Extract from the Report of David Christy, on the 

 Mineral lands of the Tuckasege and Nautahala Copper Association. 



THE POISON STRYCHNINE. 



This drug, which has lately become so notorious for destroying the 

 lives of human beings — as in the case of the infamous Dr. Palmer, 

 recently executed in England — is a most deadly organic poison. A 

 dog has been killed with the sixth part of a grain of it, and a human 

 being with less. When introduced into the stomach it acts with fear- 

 ful energy, causing lock-jaw immediately, violent spasms, and death 

 in a few minutes. It is odorless, but so intensely bitter as to be 

 perceptible to the taste when one part is diluted in a million parts 

 of water. The composition of strychnia is carbon 44, hidrogen 

 24, oxygen 4, nitrogen two equivalents. It is colorless, and forms 

 soluble chrystalized salts. It is an alkaline base, and is extracted 



