editor's table. 



Agricultural, — Washington, April 19, 1856. — Much activity exists in the agricultural 

 branch of the Patent Office, under the direction of Mr. J. D. Brown. A number of gentle- 

 men, in various parts of the country, are engaged in making experiments in agricultui-al 

 chemistry, and several interesting reports have just been received. 



One, from Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, who has analyzed the corn cob, acquaints 

 the Bureau that it contains four and a half parts of nutritive matter, consisting of gum, 

 starch, and dextrine. 



Another, from the same gentleman, who has made geological excursions through the 

 States of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, furnishes the result of chemical 

 researches on the seed of the cotton plant. He says that cotton seed may be profitably 

 employed in the production of a rich, fat oil, and that the woolly fibre adhering to the hulls 

 may be economized in the manufacture of paper, while the substance of the seeds, or their 

 " meats," after having the oil extracted, may be employed for feeding animals, and also as 

 an excellent fertilizer. 



The following is the analysis of the oil cake, made from the cotton seed : Carbon, 37,740 ; 

 oxygen, 39,663 ; nitrogen, 7,753 ; hydrogen, 5,869 ; salts (inorganic), 8,960 ; total, 99,985. 



On separating the various salts, and reducing them to their ratios for one hundred grains 

 of the oil cake, the following results were ascertained : Alkaline salts, soluble in water, 

 0.13 ; phosphate of lime, 3.04 ; potash, 0.46 ; soda, 0.53 ; phosphoric acid, with traces of 

 sulphuric acid and chlorine, 0.80; silica and oxides of iron and manganese, 0.18 ; loss, 0.35. 

 Total, 5.50. 



The analysis of cotton seed justifies and explains the use made of them by the Southern 

 planters in preparing the soil with the rotted seeds, as a special manure for Indian corn, which 

 draws so largely on the oil for phosphates. 



The Bureau has been sending out small tubers of the Chinese yam, which was recently 

 introduced into France from the North of China, and bids fair to serve as a substitute for 

 the potato. 



Akispe, Bureau Co., Ill,, March 9, 1856. 

 Dear Sir : Our winter has been the most severe that has been known lately. Peach-trees 

 are all dead, old and young ; cherries also, all the Heart and Bigarreau varieties. Pears, 

 also, are nearly all dead ; few varieties, probably, will leaf out ; but whether they will live 

 through the summer, time will only tell. Plums are also badly used. Roses are killed to 

 the ground — all the ever-blooming sorts that I have examined. Apples, I think, are not 

 injured. I have two Napoleon Bigarreau trees, six years old, budded upon the Morello 

 stock, four feet up from the ground ; they are unharmed. Also, one other variety, name 

 not known, budded up nearly as high, unharmed. My loss in trees, &c., winter killed, 

 about 2,000 dollars ; rather hard luck for a new beginner, but I am not the only one ; it is 

 universal all through this section of country. 



Citizens New to the Country. — Dear Mr. Editor : I live in an old village which has 

 suddenly become the vogue. A perfect rush of city merchants, and others, has destroyed 

 all my old nooks and solitary rambling grounds. The springs of water have been dammed 

 into fish-ponds, and my trout stream made to wander through tame gardens. Gardens, did 

 I say ! Why, some that are so-called are a curiosity for a museum. I say nothing of the 

 silver maples that do duty for ornament in long, straight rows, nor of the hideous specimens 

 of evergreens which disfigure, rather than ornament, my poor old town. It is the kitchen 

 gardening that I object to ; the new " vegetables" that are introduced, and the rush that is 

 made for "good gardeners." Mine has been induced to leave me, after ten years of faithful 

 service, because he was ofl"ered ten dollars a month more than was ever paid in the 



