614 } AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
tain grapes with very little trouble in a room or other sheltered 
place. For this purpose a vigorous, healthy cutting of the late growth 
of the wood is taken, from three to five feet in length, having at the 
upper end two fruit buds. The cutting is to be entirely enveloped with 
moss, and bound with bast, but so as to leave the extremity bearing the 
fruit buds uneovered. The cutting thus prepared is to be inserted 
spirally into a sufficiently large flower-pot, leaving the fruit buds pro- 
jecting above the edge of the pot, which is then to be filled with rich 
hot-bed earth, well moistened, and placed in the sun behind a window, 
and kept uniformly moist. The water applied should never be cold, but 
rather lakewarm, so as to stimulate to the utmost the development of 
the young roots. When the weather is such that there is no danger 
from night frosts, the pot may be placed outside the window or against 
a Sunny wall, or even inserted in the ground, in order to secure a more uni- 
form moisture and temperature. When the two fruit: buds have produced 
branches, having bunches of grapes upon them, these shoots are to be 
trimmed, so that two sound leaves remain over each grape shoot, in 
order to keep up the circulation of the sap, since without this the grapes 
would not develop. A single leaf would be sufficient, but two are bet- 
ter, for greater security. An occasional watering with a liquid manure 
is advisable, in order to stimulate the growth of the plant, although this 
must be applied with care, since an excess will do more harm than good, 
In one instance a grape shoot treated in this way produced nine large 
bunches of fine grapes, although such a number would be rather more 
than could conveniently be supported by the plant. 
Colors from wild plants—A German writer shows that a great variety 
of colors and dyes can be readily obtained from common plants found 
almost everywhere, the method consisting principally in boiling them in 
water at a high temperature, so as to produce a strong decoction. Thus, 
for instance, the well-known huckleberry, or blueberry, ( Vaeciniwn,) 
when boiled down, with an addition of a little alum and a solution of 
copperas, will develop an excelient blue color. The same treatment, 
with a solution of nut-galls, produces a clean dark-brown tint; while. 
with alum, verdigris, and sal-ammoniac, various shades of purple and 
red can be obtained. The fruit of the elder, (Sambucus niger,) so fre- 
quently used for coloring spirituous liquors, will also produce a blue 
color when treated with alum. The privet, (Zygustrum vulgare,) boiled 
in a solution of salt, will furnish an excellent color; while the overripe 
berries yield a scarlet-red. The seeds of the common burning-bush, 
(Luonymus,) when treated with sal-ammoniac, produce a beautiful pur- 
ple-red; while the juice of the currant, pressed out and mixed with a 
Solution of alum, will furnish a bright-red color. The bark treated in 
the same way produces a brown. Yellow can be obtained from the bark 
of the apple tree, the box, the ash, the buckthorn, the poplar, elm, &c., 
when boiled in water and treated with alum. A lively green is fur- 
nished by the broom-corn, (Spartium scoparium ;) and brownish-green 
by the Genista. 
The ailantus tree—The disagreeable smell of the ailantus tree while 
in blossom need be no objection to the planting of it on a large scale as 
a timber tree, ‘since, as is well known, it is dicecious, and the male tree 
alone possesses the unpleasant peculiarity. It is only necessary to 
propagate the female tree, therefore, in order to have an equally fine 
grove without the practical inconvenience referred to. It so happened 
that on the first introduction ef the tree into this country the male tree 
alone was propagated. The female, however, is coming more rapidly 
