520 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



good soil, with ordinary culture, produce 

 good crops of fruit. 



These strawberries, from their compara- 

 tively small size, do not usually enter into 

 competition with the larger Pine strawber- 

 ries ; but we believe there is a practical 

 cultivator in our neighborhood who will 

 undertake to grow from a bed of them, of 

 a given size, as many quarts in a season as 

 any grower in Cincinnati can do with the 

 best pistillate variety. They are evidently 

 little grown in Cincinnati, as we find them 

 scarcely mentioned in this report. Although 

 they are certainly not 'perfect flowered sorts, 

 in the sense defined by the committee, (has 

 any Rosaceous plant such flowers ?) yet we 

 think they might have been ranked as such. 



For ourselves, we place these sorts be- 

 low the pistillates for heavy crops and fine 

 large fruit ; but from their permanent cha- 

 racter, easy culture, and long succession of 

 fruit, they are largely esteemed in this part 

 of the country. 



The La Grange (or Lafayette,) straw- 

 berry, noticed in this report, is, as we have 

 proved, synonymous with the Prolific, or 

 Musk Ilautlois, as the committee suggest. 



The " Hudson" strawberry, as noticed in 

 this report, and as generally known at Cin- 

 cinnati, is, we imagine, not the genuine 

 Hudson, so long known in the Philadelphia 

 and New-York markets. We suspected this 

 from the exception which Mr. Longworth 

 made to our description of this variety ; but 

 the fact that it is in this report compared in 

 colour to Willey and Hovey^s Seedling, and 

 that we have fruited the Willey from Cin- 

 cinnati, which is widely difl^erent from the 

 true Hudson, (though, as we learn from Cin- 

 cinnati growers, not readily distinguished 

 from their "Hudson" there;) all this leads 

 us to suppose that the true Hudson is not 

 cultivated about that city. Ours is the true 

 " Hudson's Bay," accurately described and 

 figured in the London Hort. Transactions, 

 vol. vi., p. 159 ; in Lindley's Guide to the 

 Orchard, Princess Poviological Manual, and 

 our Fruits and Fruit Trees ; very dark co- 

 lour, firm flesh and acid flavor, with a neck. 



Mr, Ernst has just sent us plants of the 

 Hudson of Cincinnati, and we shall, there- 

 fore, soon be able to compare this with the 

 sort known by that name east of the AUe- 

 ghanies. 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Pulque — the Mexican Drink. — [We extract 

 the following account of the manufacture of the fa- 

 vorite Mexican drink, from Buxton's Adventures in 

 Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, lately published 

 in London. 



The American Aloe, {Agave Jlmericana) from 

 from which it is made, is the " century plant" so 

 well known in all our green-houses. — Ed.] 



" In the city of Mexico alone, the consunaption of 

 pulqui amounts to the enormous quantity of 1 1 mil- 

 lions of gallons per annum, and a considerable reve- 

 nue from its sale is derived by government. The 

 plant attains maturity in a period varying from 8 to 

 14 years, when it nowers ; and it is during the 

 stage of inflorescence only that the saccharine juice 

 is extracted. The central stem, which encloses the 

 incipient flower, is then cut off near the bottom, and 

 a cavity or basin is discovered, over which the sur- 

 rounding leaves are drawn close and tied. Into 

 this reservoir the juice distils, which otherwise 



would have risen to nourish and support the flower. 

 It is removed three or four times during twenty-four 

 hours, yielding a quantity of liquor varying from a 

 quart to one-half gallon. The juice is extracted by 

 means of a syphon made of a species of gourd called 

 acojote. one end of which is placed in the liquor, 

 the other in the mouth of a person, who, by suction, 

 draws up the fluid into the pipe, and it is deposited 

 in the bowls he has with him for that purpose. It 

 is then placed in earthen jars, and a little old 

 pulque — inadre de pulque — is added, when it soon 

 ferments, and is immediately ready for use. The 

 fermentation occupies two or three days, and when it 

 ceases, the pulque is in fine order. Old pulque has 

 a slightly unpleasant odor, which heathens have 

 likened to the smell of putrid meat ; but when fresh, 

 is brisk and sparkling, and the most cooling, re- 

 freshing, and delicious drink ever was invented for 

 thirsty mortal : and when gliding down the dust- 

 dried throat of a way-worn traveller, who feels the 



