EDITOR S TABLE. 



Free axd Easy. — A Western editor announces that his wife has gone among her rela- 

 tives "to recruit her jaded energies," and he himself is going to travel along the lino of 

 certain counties. He adds quaintly and familiarly, " Give us a nod and a shake of the 

 hand as we go along I" 



A New Rhododendron is noticed in the last Southern Cultivator, as having been dis- 

 covered by S. McDowell, of Franklin, Macon county, N. C. It grows to the height of 

 five feet; the foliage larger and more rich than the Pontic, with larger panicles of flowers 

 and a more brilliant color, which is a bright crimson approaching scarlet. We have re- 

 ceived a draw ng, and shall publish it. 



" Much Labor on Little Land," says the Rural New Yorker, " it has been observed 

 is the secret of successful farming, and the more we learn practically and theoretically 

 of agriculture, the firmer becomes our conviction that it is so." 



Productive Crop. — The Salem (Mass.) Gazette says: — "We were inlormed by Mr. 

 Asa Bushby, jr., of South Dan vers, that he lately gathered 6000 bunches of onions from 

 half an acre of land, which sold, delivered at our whaves, for more than $200." 



Batard Taylor's India, China, and Japan contains less information of a positive or 

 scientific kind than could have been expected. The only gleanings from it we have been 

 able to make are the following : — 



" The husk (of the tamarind tree,) incloses a thick paste, wrapped around the seeds, 

 with an intensely acid, but agreeable taste." p. 52. 



" The acacia and tamarind are occasionally met with, and the date and brab palms 

 thrive in the valleys. The tamarind frequently rivals the banyan in size, while its fo- 

 liage is wonderfully graceful and delicate. The leaflets of its slender pinnate leaves are 

 so small, that the Koran could not more forcibly describe the torments of Mahomedan 

 hell, than when it says that the sinners in the nether fire shall receive, to cool their thirst, 

 just so much water as will lie on one of these leaflets, once in a thousand years." p. 82. 



" In the valleys is found the deodar, or Himalayan Cypress, which grows to a height of 

 more than 200 feet." p. 190. This is a brief notice for the Deodar ! 



The description of Agra and its architectural reamins, is the redeeming feature of the 

 work. 



Pop Corn. — The horny or flinty portions of corn, when viewed in their sections under 

 a good microscope, will be found to consist of a great number of six-sided cells, filled with 

 a fixed oil, which has been successfully used for the purposes of illumination. On this 

 oil depends the popping qualities of corn ; for when the kernels are heated to a tempera- 

 ture sufficiently high to decompose the oil, a sudden explosion takes place, and every cell 

 is ruptured by the expansion of gaseous matter, arising from the decomposition of the oil 

 and the formation of carburetted hydrogen gas, such as is sometimes used in lighting 

 large cities, the grain being completely evolved and folded back, or turned inside out. 

 This property is remarkably strong in the pop corn, and is common in a greater or less 

 degree in all corn abounding in oil ; but those kinds destitute of a horny cover will not 

 pop under any circumstances. After the decomposition or extraction of this oil, corn is 

 more readily digested by man, though it is less fattening to animals. 



