36 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



what is the reason our winter wheat cannot be grown in 

 England, and whether the experiment has been thor- 

 oughly tried with seed from this country ? In this country, 

 our seeding is done before the harvesting in England. 

 What they call spring wheat there, which I believe is 

 usually sown in February, when brought here, becomes 

 winter wheat, and must be sown in autumn to perfect 

 its seed. 



Pulling Flax. — The directions will answer as well for 

 this country as England. But there is so much labor at- 

 tached to growing and preparing flax for the spinner, 

 that other crops will usually be found more profitable 

 here than flax, except when grown exclusively for seed, 

 and then it need not be pulled. 



Making Rhubarb (pie plant) Wine, or preserving it, I 

 cannot see the object of here where we have so many 

 other better things. 



Bones Dissolved in Caustic Ley. — It seems curious that 

 it should be necessary to publish this fact, known to 

 every "old woman" who ever made soap, and much more 

 curious that it should have ever been the subject of a 

 patent. But that was in England, where one is restrained 

 by an excise law from making his own soap out of his 

 own bones, grease, and ashes. 



The Potato Disease. — The remarks upon this go to 

 prove to my mind, that the cause of this lamentable mal- 

 ady lies beyond the reach of all human skill; and I fear 

 it is destiny that we shall no longer depend upon this 

 crop as a means of sustaining animal life, I sincerely 

 hope that my presentiments will prove false. I cannot 

 read an article upon the subject without having vivid pic- 

 tures of human suffering presented to my mind. 



The Editor's Table is not as sumptuously furnished 

 this month as usual, and so we can the sooner pass over it. 



Results of Hydropathy seems to be the most tempting 

 dish to a cold water man. This is undoubtedly a good 

 curative system; but like a great many other new sys- 

 tems, it claims too much — so much, in fact, that the whole 



