EDITOR S TABLE. 



well known as being a large black cherry, equal in size to the Black Tartarian ; a very firm 

 fleshed and excellent cherry ; I should say of the best quality. 



Mr. Prince of Long Island. Some years ago Mr. Walsh sent me gi-afts of these cherries, I 

 inserted them, and called them Walsh No. 1 and No. 2 ; but was afterwards satii^fied that 

 they were the same as the Black Bigarreau of Savoy. The chen-y is large, round, and jet 

 black. 



JMr. HoTEY of Massachusetts. I introduced the Black Bigarreau of Savoy to the public 

 here ; and think it an entirely difiFerent cherry from Mr. Walsh's, which was put into the 

 catalogue as the New Black Bigarreau, and is known to Massachusetts Society as such. 



Mr. Waikee of Massachusetts. Does the gentleman consider Mr. Walsh's cherry a 

 seedling ? 



Mr. HovET of Massachussetts. I cannot say. 



Mr. Cabot of Massachusetts. Mr. Walsh presented two varieties of cherry here, which he 

 stated to be seedlings, and I do not now see that the gentleman denies them to be so. 



Mr. Walker of Massachusetts. If Mr. Walsh's cherry is not a seedling, why have we not, 

 in fifteen or twenty years, found it imported from Europe ? When a gentleman presents a fruit 

 as a seedling, and that length of time is given for contradicting him, the chances are that he 

 wiU be contradicted. But there is nothing againstj the claim of Mr. Walsh here, except the 

 statement of Mr. Prince, which can undoubtedly be explained. I think Mr. Walsh, who raised 

 the seedling, is entitled to give it a name. 



Mr. Lines of Connecticut. I move that it be placed on the list of those varieties which 

 promise well, under the name of Walsh's Seedling. 



The motion of Mr. Lines prevailed. 



The Necessity of Drought, and its Benefits. — The State Agricultural Chemist of Mary- 

 land, Mr. Higgins, publishes a paper, showing the necessity of droughts to replenish the soil 

 with mineral substances, carried off to the sea by the rains and also taken up by the crops, and 

 not returned by manure. These two causes, always in operation, would, in time, render the 

 earth a barren waste, in which no verdure would quicken, and no solitary plant take root, if 

 there was not a natural counteraction by drought, which operates to supply this waste in the 

 following maimer. During dry weather, a continual evaporation of water takes place from 

 the surface of the earth, which is not supplied by any from the clouds. The evaporation from 

 the surface creates a vacuum, so far as water is concerned, which is at once filled by the water 

 rising up from the subsoil of the land ; the water from the subsoil is replaced from the next 

 strata below, and in this manner the circulation of water in the earth is the reverse to that 

 which takes place in wet weather. With this water also ascend the minerals held in solution, 

 the prosphates and sulphates of lime, carbonate and silicate of potash and soda, which are 

 deposited in the surface soil as the water evaporates, and thus restores the losses sustained as 

 above stated. The author of this theory appears to have taken considerable pains to verify 

 the fact by a number of interesting experiments. The subject is worthy the attention of men 

 of leisure and of education, who pui'sue the rational system of blending chemistry with agricul- 

 tural science. 



The above notice by the Phila. Public Ledger of Mr. Higgin's experiments, calls our 

 attention to a vcell known fact, though in a somewhat new light. Practical men are 

 well aware that a subsoiled piece of ground will hold a larger body of water in suspen- 

 sion than it would in its natural state, and that this moisture rises to the surface in dry 

 weather through its tendency to endeavour to equalize its distribution through all 

 media containing it ; precisely as a dry sponge " sucks" up water from a shallow vessel. 

 That it should take up mineral salts at the same time is so very probable " on the face of 

 that it is surprising not to have occurred to our scientific agriculturists before. It 

 give a new turn of thought to our subsoilers. 



