NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



97 



(gp We welcome to the corps editorial Agri- 

 cultural, Sanford Howard, Esq., who is announced 

 as "resident editor" of the Boston Cultivator. 

 Mr. Howard has been well known to the agricultu- 

 ral world, having for several years been connected 

 with the Albany Cultivator, one of the leading 

 agricultural papers of the country. He is a good 

 writer, has an extensive knowledge of agricultural 

 subjects in general, and particularly of all matters 

 pertaining to Live Stock. 



And what gives our new neighbor an additional 

 interest in our eyes, is the fact that we notice in 

 the Sdeni ific American a design of a Farm Cot- 

 tage which was presented by Mrs. Sanford Howard 

 t > the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, and is 

 published in their Transactions. Thrice happy is 

 the Editor who has such a helpmeet in his editori- 

 al labors. Brother Howard, here is our hand — 

 welcome to the Athens of America. 



Carrots for Horses. — We have repeatedly urged 

 upon the reader the importance of using carrots 

 once a day as feed for the horse. For young 

 horses, especially, corn or meal is too stimulating, 

 and has a tendency to bring on disease and pre- 

 mature decay, while carrots are succulent and nu- 

 tritious, and tend to keep the digestive organs in 

 order, and consequently the whole system vigor- 

 ous and capable of great endurance. 



Umon Artist: Pittsburg, Pa., R. D. Harts- 

 horn, Editor. — We spoke of this work upon re- 

 ceiving the first number. Its character is fully 

 sustained iu the third. Please send us the second 

 number. 



horticultural. 



NEW DISCOVERY. 



The following is an extract from a late letter of 

 the Paris correspondent of the St. Louis Republi- 

 can. If true, it is certainly wonderful. But 

 deeper researches into the arcana of science will 

 constantly reveal things not only untold, but en- 

 tirely un thought of before. We stand as yet 

 only upon the threshold of the vast store-house 

 of knowledge before us ; we have the key in our 

 hands, and it becomes each one to advance and 

 explore the bright and beautiful realms beyond. 

 We can neither deny nor affirm the truthfulness 

 of this account, but after all it is no more strange 

 than that -we sit in our chair and converse with a 

 friend in New Orleans, receiving his reply to our 

 question in a few minutes ! The distance being 

 only some fifteen hundred miles ! — Ed. Farmer. 



"And now let me tell you about a most beauti- 

 ful and interesting discovery which has lately 

 been made by a celebrated Parisian horticulturist 

 by the name of Hebert. I was persuaded to go 

 to his rooms a few days since, and I assure you I 

 had no reason to regret the long walk I had taken. 



Beneath a large glass case, four or five feet in 

 height, and as many in circumference, were 

 placed pots of roses, japonicas, pinks, dahlias, 

 chinasters, &c, &c, all in bud. By means of a 

 certain gas, invented by himself, and which is 

 made to pass by a guttapercha tube to any pot re- 

 quired, Mr. Hebert causes the instantaneous bloom- 

 ing of the flowers. The ladies in the room asked 

 successively for roses, dahlias and japonicas, and 

 saw them burst into full bloom and beauty, in a 

 second. It was really wonderful. Mr. Hebert is 

 now trying to improve on his discovery, and to 

 make the gas more portable and its application 

 less visible. The secret is, of course, his, and his 

 rooms are crowded every day with the most de- 

 lighted spectators. I wish I could send you the 

 lovely Camilla which I received, which, when 

 asked for, was so tightly enveloped in the green 

 leaves of its calax, that the color of its flower 

 could not even be guessed at ; and yet the re- 

 quest was hardly out of my lips when the beauti- 

 ful white Camilla was in my hand. When he has 

 made a little more progress, Mr. Hebert intends 

 to get out a patent and deliver his discovery to 

 the public." 



GREEN-HOUSES IN WINTER. 



Very few persons appear to know the value of 

 the sponge in a green-house. I mean for the pur- 

 pose of washing the leaves of all those plants with 

 leaves broad enough to admit of it. I took the 

 hint some five years ago from a neighbor, the most 

 successful plant grower I have ever had the good 

 fortune to know. His plants were always so es- 

 pecially fresh and healthy, that I was for a long 

 time puzzled to understand his secret, and he al- 

 ways declared he had no secret. But early one 

 morning I caught him with a pail of clean water, 

 slightly warm, by his side, sponging off the leaves 

 of all his choice plants. I said to myself, "I have 

 it." I did more ; I went home and practiced it. 

 My plants soon showed by their new aspect, that 

 I w r as not wrong in believing it the real secret of 

 my neighbor's success. They began to look bright- 

 er, healthier, and grow and bloom better than my 

 utmost care had ever been able to make them do 

 before. And now strangers always ask the same 

 question when they see my plants, that I used to 

 ask my neighbor. My answer is, "use the sponge." 

 The pores of the leaf get filled with fine dust — and 

 the plant chokes. Syringing does not wholly re- 

 move it; the sponge does. — Horticulturist. 



The Whortleberry. — The swamp kind is sus- 

 ceptible of easy and profitable cultivation in gar- 

 dens. A gentleman residing in Wayne County, 

 Michigan, has a tree growing in his garden which 

 is ten feet high, and which Was transplanted from 

 a marsh about ten years since. It occupies, at 

 present, aposition in a rich upland soil, and is 

 about an inch and a half in diameter. The fruit, 

 while it is considerably improved in size, is equal 

 in flavor to that produced in the swamps, and the 

 yield is more abundant and certain. The smaller 

 varieties of this excellent fruit, ordinarily found on 

 plain land, and in openings, would doubtless well 

 reward one foi\ cultivating them, and prove as 

 hardy and prolific as the cranberry, raspberry and 

 other wild fruits which yield so readily to the hand 

 and wishes of the gardner, when removed to a cul- 

 tivated soil. — Bumont Chronicle. 



