WINE MAKING. 



plant will grow from Maine to Florida, and produce an abundance of syrup supe- 

 rior to the best from sugar refineries, and can of course be turned into dry sugar 

 as easily as the syrup from the true sugar-cane. 



Mr. Peters, of Atlanta, Ga., has been experimenting with it, and says "that, 

 on ordinary soil, it will produce from 346 to 468 gallons of syrup to the acre, 

 and that every farmer can make his own syrup at a cost not exceeding fifteen cents 

 per gallon." It is believed by some, that it will supersede the true sugar-cane 

 even in Louisiana. In the Middle and Eastern States, it will probably not pro- 

 duce so much saccharine matter as in the South ; yet it will be well worth cultivat- 

 ing, if only for the syrup, should it yield only 300 gallons per acre. What biher 

 crop can be cultivated that " will pay" as well ? As a forage plant, cultivated 

 broad-cast, cut while young, and tender for soiling, or dried for winter fodder, it 

 is believed that it will be far superior to Indian corn, or any other forage plant 

 yet known. 



Japan Pea. — We are also indebted to the Celestial Empire for this plant, now 

 pretty extensively disseminated, and I have often been asked the question : What 

 it is good for ? If you will soak them" over night in warm water, and, next day, 

 give them a good cooking, serve them up as Lima beans, and do not say they are 

 superior to beans, then I can only say, "tastes differ." The Pea is raised with 

 less trouble, and produces more abundantly in all soils and all seasons than Lima 

 beans. Last spring, we received two new varieties of the Japan Pea via Cali- 

 fornia, nothing different, however, except in color, one being green, and the other 

 red. 



These new productions are well worth attending to, and neither of those enume- 

 rated will be classed with Rohan Potato or multicaule " humbugs," in a few years 

 hence. 



It seems as if nature were always provident. Although I am not yet "the 

 oldest inhabitant," I can nevertheless well remember the time when water, horse, 

 hand, and all other "powers," were becoming inadequate to the demand ; then, 

 at the very "nick of time," steam became the " motor ;" wood was rapidly decreas- 

 ing in quantity, and increasing in price — lo I and behold ! black rocks were found 

 an admirable substitute ! Hickory and birch brooms could no more be had to do 

 the "sweeping;" then broomcorn makes its appearance just when people began 

 to fear that "sweeping" was soon to be " one of the institutions" that had become 

 extinct. Hemp, flax, and wool, were at one time so inadequate to the demand, 

 that serious thoughts began to arise in the minds of many, how, if population 

 should continue to increase, the people could find materials to " hide their naked- 

 ness." Again comes the substitute, just when most needed, in the name of cotton. 

 Thus, as any one particular article becomes scarce or exhausted, Providence 

 provides a substitute. 



WINE MAKING. 



A FRIEND of the Horticulturist remarks, that we have repeatedly given in our 

 pages the view, that the domestic manufacture of wine is favorable to temperance, 

 and requests us to insert the other side of the question, taken from a late paper. 

 We do so without expressing our own judgment in the matter. 



CRIME AND INTEMPERANCE IN WINE-PRODUCING COUNTRIES. 



BY EDWARD C. DELAVAN. 



The increase of crime in France is, proportionally, six times greater than the increase of 

 population, as appears from well-authenticated returns. 



