6^ 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



of the soil amply repays the farmer, as the crops 

 do not seem to exhaust the ground. Many far- 

 mers work the same ground fifty years or more, 

 without spreading upon it a particle of manure. 

 The seasons are also favorable to the husband- 

 man. Rain, however, is rare. Before we left 

 El Paso, which was in January, the inhabitants 

 were plowing, and sowing corn. I have nodonbt 

 that, were the Mexicans not so excessively lazy, 

 they might produce anything they chose; but 

 when they have put seed into ground, they think 

 they have done enough ; and if it should not. come 

 up, and the plant thrive, instead of doing as we 

 should, setting to work to remedy it, they simply 

 ' call on Hercules;' in other words, fall upon their 

 knees at the altar before the priest, tell him how 

 unfortunate they have been, buy a blessing from 

 hira, and go home in blessedness. The inhabi- 

 tants produce maize, oats, wheat, onions, melons, 

 grapes, and several other fruits. I never saw 

 any potatoes, although, as we know, it is cur- 

 rently said that the root grows wild in the south- 

 ern parts of Mexico. I have seen as fine melons, 

 grapes, and corn in Mexico as I have observed 

 anywhere ; and I have purchased onions as large 

 as an ordinary sized dinner plate." — Edward's 



New Mexico. 



New Plan of Cooking Potatoes. — About 

 this season of the year, the skin of potatoes be- 

 comes so exceedingly tough that it will not crack 

 in the operation of boiling, the superabundant 

 moisture and other matters contained in the pota- 

 to cannot escape, and the consequence is that the 

 tuber boils soapy and wet. I believe that cooks 

 peel potatoes at this time of the year because of 

 the toughness of their skins, which emit a disa- 

 greeable smell in cooking. I have at all times 

 found that before Christmas, the less water pota- 

 toes are boiled in the better, using plenty of salt; 

 but that after that time, and up to the period 

 when the old ones begin to go out in spring, the 

 more water used the better, not with the view of 

 improving the potato, but of obviating the smell, 

 which arises from its skin. In making this and 

 the following statements, I am av/are that I am 

 placing myself in the same position with regard 

 to cooks that the bear was in with respect to the 

 bees. By the dab of the wench of all work up to 

 the great Soyer himself, I shall be told that by 

 boiling potatoes at this time of the year with 

 their jackets on, a bad flavor is imparted to the 

 whole mass, and this is no doubt true; but if I 

 advocate the bane, I will also give the antidote. 

 My plan is as follows: Let the potatoes be washed 

 clean with a brush ; then take a knife and cut the 

 skin through all round the potato, do the same 

 lengthwise and put them in plenty of water (salt- 

 ed.) It will be found, when the potatoes are 

 boiled, that where the skin was cut, it will have 

 separated considerably, and allowed the moisture 

 to escape. The labor of peeling, moreover, will 

 not occupy one quarter of the time which is re- 

 quired in removing the skins before cooking, 



leaving out of the question deep peeling, by whicEi 

 the most farinaceous part of the potato passes to 

 the hog tub. If a cook in a large family cannol 

 afford time for skinning potatoes at dishing up 

 time, they might be boiled a quarter of an hour 

 before they are wanted, and put into an oven, 

 where they can be kept liot ; but potatoes are best 

 sent to table with their jackets on, for the latter 

 keep them longer hot ; and if cooked on my plan, 

 the skins peel olf with the greatest ease ; all who 

 have tried uiy method like it uncommonly well. 

 Jamea Cutliul, Florist, Camberwell. Gardener's 



Clironicle. 



Cultivation or Celery. — At a meeting of 

 the Horticultural Society iu Regent-street, held 

 Dee. 5, Mr. Cole, gardener to H. Collier, Esq., 

 of Dartford, exhibited some very fine red celery , 

 to which a certificate was awarded, and with it 

 he sent the following account of its cultivation, 

 which we extract from the last muiiber of the So- 

 ciety's Journal. " Herewith I take the liberty of 

 handing you six sticks of celery, of a kind which 

 I have grown for the last three years, and which 

 I think, both in point of size, solitlity, and flavor, 

 will be found superior to any which has hitherto 

 been cultivated. The specimens sent are not se- 

 lected, but are merely examples of a general crop, 

 planted without any object in view beyond that 

 of the supply of my employer's table, and entirely 

 without ever thinking of sending any of it for pub- 

 lic exhibition. My stock consists of 600 plants, 

 planted in rows, four feet apart, and the plants 

 9 inches apart in the row; and I have not a doubt 

 that the whole crop woujd average 6 lbs. per 

 stick. Not the least remarkable excellence in 

 this celery is, that it will stand 12 months with- 

 out running or starting for seed, and such a thing 

 as a pipy or stringy leaf I have never noticed so 

 long as I have grown it. For a more substantial 

 detail of my method of cultivation, I may remark 

 the seed was sown the first week in February, 

 and so soon as the plants were large enough they 

 were pricked out in garden soil, rich in vegetable 

 matter, under hand glasses. The trenches were 

 prepared in the usual manner, in the first week 

 in June, by excavating them nine inches deep,, 

 and digging in a good dressing of spent dung. 

 The plants were of course strong when they were 

 planted out, and each was removed to the trench 

 with a good ball of earth adhering to the roots, 

 so that, (afterwards receiving a copious water- 

 ing,) they sustained little or no check. In earth- 

 ing celery, I generally endeavor to steer between 

 the two extremes of frequently earthing, and 

 earthing only when the plants are full grown, be- 

 lieving that a little earth after the plants are fully 

 established in the trenches, say a month after 

 planting, promotes the rapid growth of the plants,, 

 more especially if they receive a good soaking of 

 weak liquid manure, or soot-water, a day or two 

 before they are earthed. Soot-water is an excel- 

 lent manure for celery ; and where worms and 

 other insects are troublesome, a Uttle dry soot 



