never found in the furrows of the skin as the female always is. He lives on the surface of 



the epidermis, and being smaller, had escaped observation. A bunch of the variety of 



Banana, called the St. Helena, was raised in England (under glass, of course) in 1843, 

 weighing one hundred and thirty-three pounds. The proper minimum temperature for the 

 Banana, is from 60^ to 650 in winter, in summer from 65° to 70O, and the maximum 75° to 

 850, giving air on favorable occasions, keeping up a moist atmosphere, and using liquid 



manure occasionally. Ammoniacal gas-water poured into the runs and haunts of ants, 



is a certain destroyer. A mushroom will lift a heavy stone by its force of growth ; con- 

 sidering that it is of a weak structure, and with a shallow root, it is a puzzling question 



how it does this. If by any chance you happen to have a bad plant, destroy it ; do not 



give it away. A taste for flowers is likely to prevent a taste for sinful pleasures ; we ought 

 therefore to give away freely of the best we can spare. Were the flowers of the world to 

 be taken away, they would leave a blank in the creation. Imagination cannot suggest a 



substitute for them. Be grateful for the gift of flowers. The English railroads maintain 



an army of 100,000 employees, officers included : four tons of coal, and twenty tons of water, 

 are flashed into steam every minute throughout the year! Twenty-six millions of " sleepers" 

 were employed on the original construction of the English roads ; they disappear at the rate 

 of two millions a year. To provide these alone, requires the felling of 300,000 trees an- 

 nually ; 5,000 acres of forest must be yearly cleared to provide the necessary quantity. If 



these figures were tried for America, they would be more than doubled. Some time since, 



a correspondent of the Boston Cultivator recommended potash for the rats, which troubled 

 him very much, so that he felt justified in resorting to extreme measures to eflPect their ex- 

 pulsion from his premises. He pounded up potash, and strewed it around their holes, and 

 rubbed some under the board and on the sides where they came through. The next night 

 he heard a squealing among them, which he supposed was from the caustic nature of the 

 potash that got among their hair, or on their bare feet. They disappeared, and for a long 

 time he was exempt from any further annoyance. 



Answers to Correspondents. — (Omega). Lettuces and radishes do not come hard except 

 on wretchedly poor land, or on very ill-cultivated ground. Ridge up a border for them this 

 winter, and put three inches of quite rotten dung all over it. After the first frost, dig it 

 deep, and mix the dung well among the soil. When the surface is very dry in March, put 

 two inches of rotten tan, or a good sprinkling of salt, all over it, stir the surface, and sow. 



Fruit Stains. — To remove these, hold the cloth tightly over some vessel, and pour boiling 

 water through it, and most kinds will quickly disappear. 



Berberis aquifolia, once sold at a guinea an inch, may be propagated in the open air, 

 from cuttings of one joint of the last year's growth. 



Mead. — This old-fashioned and by no means despicable beverage, is thus made : Use four 

 pounds of honey to every gallon of water ; if a dry mead, only three pounds. Boil gently 

 for an hour, skimming carefully ; cool until milk-warm (75^), in an open tub. If four gal- 

 Ions are made, add half a tea-cupful of yeast spread upon a toast. In two or three days 

 the fermentation will cease ; then barrel and treat like other home-made wine. If made 

 in September, it should be bright by the end of March ; it may then be racked off into a 

 clean cask, and bunged down again. By September, it will be fit for bottling. It is useless 

 to hope for good mead merely from refuse honey, or the washings of the combs. 



(Isaac Dillon, Zanesville, 0.). We think your difficulty in the names of the apples sent 

 will be cleared up, by leaving out " American," in your Golden Russet, your specimens of 

 which were very fine, and naming the other "American Golden Russet,'' or Little Pearmain, 

 one of its synonymes. The " Sweet Paradise" apple, is unknown here, and we should not 



