1880.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



283 



I did not see it, however, where I thought it 

 could do much harm, its choice seeming to be 

 where lialf the surface is rock (out-crop of 

 granite, I think), and the rest not worth much. 

 I saw none in tilled ground, or ground that ap- 

 peared to have been ever tilled. Upon going to 

 see what it was I found the plant to be what I 



should call 'broom,' though different from any 

 other I ever saw. Herbaceous, I think, but with 

 perennial root, and spreading therefrom — as it 

 appeared to be in patches only — little if any iso- 

 lated plant. It runs about 2 feet high." 



[The plant referred to is probably Genista 

 tinctoria. — Ed. G. M.] 



Literature, Travels I Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



NOTES AND QUERIES-No. 16. 



BY JACQUES. 



Galvanized tcire may do great injury to climb- 

 ing plants. Make a note of this. 



Ten-a Gotta. There is a storj' going the rounds 

 of an ignorant traveler, who in reading exhibi- 

 tion catalogues, asked who was Terra Gotta. 

 Quite as bad is the case which a staid monthly 

 asks: Who was Robin that sued Acacia? The 

 too little cultivated and beauiiful tree Robinia 

 Psevd'Acacia had been discussed. 



Our goodly heritage. The International Review 

 says the crops of cotton of 1878 and 1879 were 

 the largest ever raised. The ten crops of 1852 

 to 1861, inclusive, being the last crops raised by 

 slave labor, 34,995,440 bales. The ten crops of 

 1870 to 1879, inclusive, being the last ten crops 

 raised by free labor, numbered 41,454,743 bales. 

 It will surprise many to find that only about 

 nine per cent, of our total grain product is ex- 

 ported. * * Until 1870 it was the opinion of 

 railroad men that they could not profitably en- 

 gage in the transportation of grain from Chicago 

 to New York at a lower rate than forty cents 

 per hundred pounds, or twenty-four cents per 

 bushel. During 1879 grain has been shipped 

 from Chicago to Liverpool for seventeen cents a 

 bushel, a rate but little greater than that which 

 prevailed between Buffalo and New York by 

 canal ten years ago. 



A Florida correspondent believes the Algerians 

 of the interior are not Turks, as they lost that 

 title some years ago. We may give it up, but 

 would ask the writer if he believes the inhabit- 

 ants of Alsace and Lorraine have renounced 

 their religion and turned Protestants because of 



annexation? We agree they should be called 

 Mahometans. As to the silk-hatching on wo- 

 men's bodies, we make no objection, but fear it 

 is attended by a bad odor. 



Bee and other Culture. — The account of the 

 vast product of bee culture in the United States in 

 the December Notes and Queries has excited 

 some astonishment. That thirty-five millions 

 of pounds of honey and wax should constitute 

 the annual product, and that one firm of grocers 

 keeps as many as 12,000 swarms is truly aston- 

 ishing. The assistance given to the bees by 

 making artificial preparation for lightening their 

 manufacture of wax is interesting and curious. 

 The whole story is characteristic of American 

 enterprise, and system is shown to result in 

 success. There are many other plans pursued 

 with success by quiet industry. Northern men 

 have successfully planted Florida with orange 

 groves; a firm with which we correspond lands 

 during the season an immense number of boxes 

 of the finest oranges produced by their agents, 

 and finds each box bringing a five-dollar note, 

 with a profit in expectation greatly increased as 

 the trees grow older. Sweet things are in de- 

 mand, and so is every useful and nutritious 

 thing. A market like that of the whole of 

 America for any article, however small, is a 

 great market, and a vast army of producers who 

 have laid a sure foundation for desirable articles 

 may be said to sit at home at ease while reaping 

 the results of thought, and employing bees and 

 men to do their bidding. They say to one, "Go, 

 and he goeth," but he returns to the master 

 minds laden with produce. Such we like to re- 

 cord, whether it be the extension of the product 

 of the field, the loom, or cultivation. We have 

 already stated that mushrooms are co be, and 

 even are, successfully grown as an article of food, 



