THE USES OF CHARCOAL. 



453 



vention" — F. R. Elliott — wrote me that 

 the reports were printed, but from some 

 unexplained cause, had not yet reached 

 him for distribution. 



Long ere you receive this, you will have 

 seen notices of the liberal doings of the 

 Cincinnati Horticultural Society, and the 

 Ohio State Board of Agriculture, with re- 

 gard to the next Congress. And it gives 

 me great pleasure to be able to inform you, 

 that I have enthusiastic assurances from 

 many nurserymen and fruit-growers of the 

 west, of their intention to be in attendance 

 at Cincinnati, with " heaps" of apples, and 

 " a right smart chance" of other fruits. 

 God willing, I shall be there to enjoy the 

 treat, and may hope to make a creditable 

 display from " The Grove," considering 

 that our trees are only from three to nine 

 years from the nursery. But, what I wish 



more particularly to urge upon the imme- 

 diate consideration of the pomologists of 

 the whole west, is the necessity of avail- 

 ing ourselves, for our own credit's sake, as 

 well as the advancement of our noble sci- 

 ence, of the opportunity which the courtesy 

 of eastern horticulturists has accorded to 

 our wishes, of being the first to issue a 

 volume of the Transactions of the National 

 Pomological Congress. 



We can do this, my friends. I know 

 fifty persons in the west, capable of making 

 valuable and reliable reports. And the 

 east, believe me, will not frown on our ef- 

 forts ; but, with their far greater know- 

 ledge, and experience, and facilities, will 

 aid and encourage us, and welcome the 

 "first fruits" of the education they have 

 given to their children in the west. 



The Grove, Illinois, January, 1S50. 



THE USES OF CHARCOAL. 



BY CHARLES ROBINSON, HEW-HAVEN. 



In preparing some stimulating, or rather 

 nutritive fluid for watering my green-house 

 plants this winter, I used, among other 

 things, a small quantity of " fish guano ;" 

 an excellent preparation, made in this vi- 

 cinity from the residuum of White fish, after 

 the oil has been principally expressed for 

 manufacturing purposes. 



I made the preparation in a close cask, 

 and it was so strongly impregnated with 

 the peculiar odor, so rife in the summer 

 season near the sea shore, that I could not 

 introduce it into my house. Indeed, when 

 the lid was raised, u stand back," was deci- 

 dedly the order of the day. 



To obviate this difficulty, I threw into 

 the mixture (of sand six pails full) about 

 two quarts of charcoal dust. The effect 



was truly wonderful. The fluid soon be- 

 came entirely inodorous. 



Following out the suggestion, I put some 

 finely pulverized charcoal into a cask contain- 

 ing rain water for use in my furnace, which, 

 during the winter, had acquired an unplea- 

 sant smell, and with as gratifying a result. 



My cistern, holding some fifteen hogs- 

 heads, is filled from the roof of my house, 

 standing near a street much frequented, 

 although regularly watered during the sum- 

 mer season. Whether the difficulty has 

 arisen from the dust from the street, or 

 from the fact that a grapevine overhangs a 

 part of the roof, or because the cistern is 

 closely covered, the water has nearly all 

 the time hnd a slight unpleasant smell. 

 Last summer the difficulty became so great 



