356 
of the American Medical Association, and will be given to competent 
medical men, that their properties may be carefully investigated. 
GRASSES FOR THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST.—Specimens of Bromus 
unioloides, Willd., which is the Bromus Schraderi, Kunth., (a truly Ameri- 
can, and not, as has been stated, an Australian grass, ) are frequently 
sent in from Texas, and generally with very encouraging statements of 
its valwe as a suitable grass for that section of country. Recently Mr. 
Louis Lehmann, of Brenham, Texas, has sent specimens of ‘a native 
winter-grass, which springs up in November or sooner, as the rains set 
in; it grows all winter, and is fit to cut for hay by the 1st of April. 
Cattle and horses eat it very greedily.”. Mr. Lehmann thinks it will be 
a great acquisition. It appears to be the Phalaris Americana, Ell., much 
resembling the Phalaris arundinacea, L., or Reed-Canary-grass, which is 
common in wet swampy grounds in the Northern States, but the Texas 
species is smaller and softer, intermediate between the Northern species 
and the common Canary-grass which produces the Canary bird-seed. 
It is well worthy of experimental trial by the farmers of Texas and the 
Southern States. 
Norway oats.—Mr. C. A. Sullivan, of Starkville, Mississippi, seuds 
to the Department a specimen of the ‘“‘ Norway oats,” and also one of 
the common black oats. The former specimen was grown from seed 
distributed by the Agricultural Department. 
The two were grown on very poor soil—red-clay hill. The Norway 
stalk has ninety-one well developed seeds, while the other has thirty- 
seven faulty ones; the difference in the size and strength of the stalk 
is equally as great. Both were planted at the same time and grew 
within twenty feet of each other. 
SALT OR MINT WEED—Iva avillaris, Pursh.—Mr. William Budge, 
of Paris, Utah, sends a specimen of “a very obnoxious weed, called by 
the farmers in this section salt or mint weed.” Mr. Budge says that 
its roots penetrate sometimes as much as fifteen feet into the earth, 
and it increases so fast and is so injurious to crops that it threatens 
great damage to that section of country. It is a low insignificant plant, 
very abundant in the valleys of Utah. It also occursin Colorado. We 
solicit further information respecting it. 
FRUIT-GROWING IN INDIANA. 
A correspondent in Clarke County, Indiana, sends to the Depart- 
ment the following account of the rise, progress, and profits of fruit- 
culture in the vicinity of Otto: 
Fruit-growing as a specialty in the vicinity of Otte isa comparatively new industry, 
having been introduced within the last fifteen years. From asmall beginning, under 
circumstances somewhat unfavorable, it has become one of the leading industries of 
this locality. 
The pioneer fruit-grower in this section, Mr. Argus Dean, in the spring of 1857 pro- 
eured 1,600 peach-trees from a nursery in New Jersey, which he set upon a bluti of 
the Ohio River, immediately in rear of Marble Hill, and about two miles northeast of 
Otto. This orchard bore its first crop in 1861, and two successive crops, when the 
cold storm of the 1st January, 1864, so injured the trees that they never entirely re- 
covered. They were cut away several years ago. It is not to be presumed that this 
first effort proved highly remunerative, yet it convinced Mr. Dean that iruit-culture 
might be made profitable in this locality, and he resolved to prosecute the business on 
a more extensive scale. For this purpose he purchased an old farm, the soil of which, 
