VOU. XVI. RIO. 49. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



387 



not believe. But there must be a startincc pointy 

 and we must be giiideil by Uie best lislit now be- 

 fore us. It is with j;reat diffidence 1 enter on the 

 sul)ject to be laid before the committee of Con- 

 gress, being aware that I may differ in seyitlmeiit^ 

 practice and opinion I'rom other more experienced 

 cniti valors, and that it may be found expedient 

 hereafter to relinquish present and adopt new mea- 

 sures. But when intelligence shall be received 

 and laid before the committee from various sec- 

 tions of the lluited States, I feel confident that the 

 connnittee will find matter to report favorably on 

 the culture of silk in this country. 

 Respectfullv yours, 



D.^NIEL STEBBINS. 

 To the honorable Chairman of the 



Committee on Agriculture, Washington City. 



P. S. There are in this place, two large silk 

 factories doing a profitable business. 



(From the Genesee Farmer.) 

 CULTIV.^TION— CURIOUS FACTS. 

 The history of some of our commonest agricul- 

 tural and horlicultnral product.s', fmnishes n useful 

 lesson res|)ecting the beneficial effects of a careful 

 cultivation. The husbandman may read, in the 

 case of the ])otato particularly, not merely the ef- 

 fects produced by accident in the introduction of 

 useful plants, but the vast improvements resulting 

 from judicious culture. 



The s(ieecli of Col. Knapp, in delivering the 

 premiums awarded by the .\mericau Institute to 

 individuals residing in Newark, etnbraced many 

 curious facts, which will probably be read v\ith 

 priifit by intelligent fanners. We quote a feu 

 paragraphs. 



" Every thing in this country, (said he,) has been 

 brought forvvarif by protection. In this bleak clime, 

 but few of the sustaining fruits of the earth were 

 bere indigenous, or in a perfect state. Even the 

 Indian corn, so often considered as native bere, 

 was with difficidty acclimated. It was brought 

 from the South, and by degrees was coa.ved to ri- 

 pen in a northern latitude. The aborigines who 

 cultivated it, taught the pilgrims how to raise it; 

 they plucked the earliest ears with the husk and 

 braided several of tl.'ern together, for the next year's 

 seed, and their care was rewarded by an earlier 

 and surer crop. 



"The pumpkin brought from Spain, was first 

 planted in Rowley, Massachusett.-!, and it was sev- 

 eral years befiue they came to a hard, knotty shell, 

 which marks the true yankee puinpkin such as are 

 selected for the golden pies of their glorious thanks- 

 giving festival. 



" Our wheat was with difficulty acclimated. — 

 That brought fiom the mother country had grown 

 from spring to fall, but the season was not long 

 enough here to ensure a crop ; it was then sown 

 in the fall, grew under the snows in winter and 

 catching the wannest growth of spring, yielded 

 its increase by mid-summer. 



"Asparagus, which is now the delight cf all as 

 an early vegetable, and for which several millions 

 of dollars are paid our gardeners yearly, is of late 

 culture in this country. At the time of the revo- 

 lution, asparagus was only cultivated on the sea- 

 board : this luxury had not then reached the far- 

 mer of the interior." 



The history of the potato is a singular one. — 

 Rees' Encyclopaedia states that the p»tato was first 



brought from Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh, to 

 Ireland. The writer should have said from South 

 America, in the latter part of the sixteenth centu- 

 ry, lie had no idea of its ever being used a.s an 

 esculent, at that time. It was pointed out to him 

 as a beautiful flower, and its hard, bnlby root was 

 said, by the natives, to |)ossess medicinal qualities. 

 He took it to Ireland, where lie had estates pre- 

 sented to him by Queen Elizabeth, and planted it 

 in his garden. The flower did imt improve by 

 cultivation, but the root grew larger and softer. 

 The potato, in its native bed, was a coarse ground 

 nut. The thought struck the philosopher to try 

 the potato as an edible, and boiling and roasting 

 it, found it, by either process, excellent. He then 

 gave some of the plants to the peasantry, and they 

 soon became, in a measure, a substitute for bread, 

 when the harvest was scanty. 



"The potato was suc('essfiilly cultivated in Ire- 

 land, before it was thought of in England ; it 

 grew in favor by slow degrees, and was so little 

 known when our pilgrim fathers came to this 

 country, that it was not thought of for a crop in 

 the New World. It woidd have been an excel- 

 lent thing for them if they had been acquainted 

 with the value of the potato. It was not till 1719, 

 that the Irish potato reached this country. A col- 

 ony of Presbyterian Irish, who settled in London- 

 derry, in New Hampshire, brought the root with 

 them. This people found their favorite vegetable 

 flourished well in new grounds. By degrees their 

 neighbors came into the habit of raising potatoes; 

 but many years elapsed before the cultivation of 

 it was general among (be yeomanry of the coun- 

 try. Long after they were cultivated in New 

 England, they were held in contempt, ami the 

 master mechanic often had to stipulate with his 

 apprentice that he should not be obliged to eat pn. 

 tatoes. An aged mechanic once informed me that 

 he raised nine bushels, having at that time (1746) 

 a dozen apprentices, but did not venture to offer 

 them a boiled potato with the meat, but left them 

 in the cellar for the a()prentices to get ami roast 

 as they pleased ; he soon found that he should not 

 have enough for seed, and locked up what was 

 left. The next year he raised the enormous quan- 

 tity of thirtysix bushels ; tiie neighbors stared — 

 but his boys devoured them during the following 

 winter. 



" About this time, some of the gentry brought 

 this vegetable on their tables, and the prejudice 

 against them vanished. Thus, by degrees, a taste 

 for this food was formed, never to be extingriiished. 

 The cultivation of the potato is now well under- 

 stood—a crop ameliorates, instead of impovcrisli- 

 ing the soil, and the culture can be increased to 

 imy extent. Thus, by the curiosity of one lover 

 of nature, and bis experiments, has an hnmbje 

 weed been brought from the mountains of South 

 America, and spread over Europe and North 

 America, until it is emphatically called ' the brea<l 

 of nations.' Still, the country from which it was 

 taken, has been too ignorant or superstitious to at- 

 tempt its cultivation, until within a few years 



Now, the lights of science are chasing away the 

 long, deep shadows of the Andes. 



" Rice was brought from India in 1722, and cul- 

 tivated by way of experiment in South Carolina. 

 It succeeded well, and was, for many years, the 

 staple article of the State. It seems strange, but 

 it is not more strange than true, that a vegetable 

 should have a moral and religious influence over 

 the minds of men. Brahma could never have 



forced his code of religious rites, with an hundred 

 incarnations, if India had not abounded in the 

 rice plant. His followers would have become 

 carnivenins, notwithstanding all the rays of his 

 glory, and the awful exhibitions of his might, if 

 he had not driven the amimals away, and secured 

 the vegetable kingdom for his worsliippers. Man 

 is, in spite of his pfiilosopity, a creature of the 

 earth — and in a conmion measure, like the cha- 

 meleon, takes the hues of his chaiacter from his 

 position and his food 



"The cotton plant was at first cultivated as a 

 flower in our gardens, and a beautiful flower it is. 

 This plant alone, has made a revolution in the fi- 

 nances of the world. Look at the growth and 

 consumption of it in the United States, and the 

 immense manufacture of it in England, where it 

 (cannot be grown, and you will find my assertion 

 true in its most exteniled sense. 



" Until our purchase of Louisiana, this country 

 was imlebted to the East and West Indies for su- 

 gar. In thiscountry — the thirteen U. States — sugar 

 and molasses were made in small quantities, from 

 corn-stalks, sweet apples, pumpkins and maple su- 

 gar trees; but all put together, furnished but a small 

 part of the sugar detnanded by the great mass of 

 people. Our people are fond of saccharine, or 

 sweetening, to use our peculiar tertn for it. 



"The corn stalk, the pumpkin, and the sweet 

 apple, are given up for sugar or molasses — and 

 the maple tree is falling before the axe, and we 

 must rely on the sugar cane alone, unless we can 

 substiluie, as in France, the sugar beet. The c(d- 

 tiire of the sugar beet has been commenced with 

 us, and proiiably will be successful." 



Horticultural. — Having lately noticed, in our 

 principal market, very fine Parsnips, the produce 

 of this vicinage, we invite the attention of the 

 growers thereofi and that of our horticultural 

 friends generally, to the following paragraph, cop- 

 ied from a late English paper : 



Parsnip Wine. — Wine made of Parsnip-root ap- 

 proaches nearer to the Malmsey of Madeira and 

 the Canaries than any other wine : it is made with 

 little expense or trouble, and only requires to he 

 made as agreeable to the palate as it is wholesome 

 to the body. To every 4 pounds of parsnips, clear 

 and quartered, put one gallon of water ; boil them 

 till they are quite tender; drain them through a 

 sieve, but do not bruise them, as no remedy would 

 clear them afterwards. Pour the liquor into a tub, 

 and to each gallon add 3 pounds of loaf sugar, and 

 and half an ounce of crude tartar. When cooled 

 ;t*> the temperatuie of 75 degrees, put in a little 

 new yea.-it ; let it stand foi>r days in a warm room, 

 then Mun it. The mixture should, if possible, be 

 fermentad in a temperature of 60 degrees. Sep- 

 tember and March are the proper seasons for ma- 

 king the- wine. Wl«;n the fermentation has subsi- 

 iled, bung down the cask, and let the wine stand 

 at least twslve months before bottling. 



Oil from Vegf. tables. — A discovery has been 

 made in England, by which oil may be obtained 

 in greater abim(laiu'e from the seeds of vegeta- 

 bles by applying to them diluted muriatic acid. — 

 A", y. Stiir. 



The Season. The grass promises a heavy 

 crop of hay, now become one of New England's 

 sta[des. Other crops look well. — Portsm. Jour. 



