No. 10 



Cabbage Sjxrouts. — Washings of our Streets. 



325 



ty dollars from the acre. It oflcn falls ma- 

 terially short of this, however, from the want 

 of knowledge and care in gathering and 

 dryina; the crop. 



" The quantity of hops taken to Alhany 

 and the neighbouring towns on the Hudson, 

 this year, (1834) has been estimated at ',2,300 

 bales, or 500,000 lbs., which, had not many 

 of them been prematurely gathered, or badly 

 cured, would have yielded to the growers 

 ninety or a hundred thousand dollars. But 

 of tlic 2,.300 bales, there was not more than 

 200 bales, we are informed, that ougJit to 

 have received the denomination of first sorts. 

 Many of them were picked too early, before 

 the matter that imparts to them their 

 value was sufficiently developed ; and others 

 were scorched or smoked in curing. This 

 carelessness has seriously affected the char- 

 acter of our hops abroad, and they are no 

 longer purchased by the Philadelphia brew- 

 ers. They would soon form an important ar- 

 ticle of export, if their character was raised 

 by care in their culture and drying, and a 

 rigid inspection." 



The young shoots of both wild and culti- 

 vated hops are considered by some as very 

 wholesome, and are frequently gathered in 

 the spring, boiled, and eaten as asparapus. 

 The stalk and leaves will dye wool yellow. 

 From the stalk a strong cloth is made in 

 Sweden, the mode of preparing which is 

 described by Linnasus in his Flora Succica. 

 A decoction of the roots is said to be as good 

 a sudorific as Sarsaparilla ; and the smell of 

 the flowers is soporific. A pillow filled with 

 hop flowers will induce sleep, unattended 

 with the bad effects of soporifics, which re- 

 quire to be taken internally. — Gardtner''s 

 Assistant. 



time; equalling, and more frequently excel- 

 ling, the first head itself, in flavour and ap- 

 pearance. This is adapted for families more 

 than market gardens, because there is some 

 trouble in rubbing or taking off the useless 

 shoots; but it is well worth while in the 

 case of early cabbages, in a private family, 

 for it forms an excellent second crop. 



Cabbage Sprouts, — Very few people take 

 half the pains they ought with cabbages. 

 When they are cut — no matter hov.-- — the 

 stumps are left to bring sprouts; no matter 

 when, nor how many. Now, the fact is, 

 that when the sprouts begin to come, they 

 should be all rubbed off but the best — or at 

 most two; but if there be only one left to 

 grow on each stump, it will grow faster and 

 better, and be occasionally as good as the 

 first head that was out; instead of which, 'a 

 multitude of small ones are allovved to grow, 

 not any of which bring good hearts, and all 

 arc, for the most part, but a poor apology for 

 greens. When a cabbage is cut, the leaves 

 should be cut off the stem, and as soon as 

 the buds of the stump begin to grow, rub 

 off, or cut, all that are not wanted, leaving 

 one of the strongest and best to grow into a 

 head, which it will do in an incredibly short 



Washings of our Streets. 



What a vast amount of fertilizing material is daily 

 running from our gutters into the sewers, and tlicnce 

 to the Delaware and Schuylkill, to dirty their streams, 

 and thus be rendered worse than useless. It is well 

 worth the consideration of the shrewdest among us, 

 whether it may be possible in any way to avoid this 

 waste, and turn it to valuable purposes in agriculture 

 and horticulture. The following paragraph from a 

 Scotch paper is to the point, and shows that the idea 

 is by no means new with us.— Ed. 



" Were Glasgow properly washed out, I 

 should judge the washings capable of irrigat- 

 ing at least 15,000 tlcres — a square of five 

 unles ; and this, at £30 per acre, would be 

 worth £450,000 ; or, at only £20 per acre, 

 £300,000 yearly. Taking into account the 

 population of Glasgow, these sums are con- 

 siderably under what Liebig allows. We 

 should have here a stream of dirty water run- 

 ning out from the city, to return again in a 

 stream of milk — a transformation eftected by 

 the mysterious metamorphic power of com- 

 bined vegetable and animal assimilation. No 

 doubt a large outlay of capital would be ne- 

 cessary, in the first place, to bring in and dis- 

 tribute a sufficieLcy of waterover the city, 

 and to effect a complete drainage ; and in 

 the second place, to raise the collected 

 washings, conduct them by aqueducts to the 

 proper distance, and spread them out in a 

 complete net-work of irrigation; but the 

 exuberant, fertility which would thence be 

 extended over a large space of country would 

 more than doubly compensate the amount of 

 outlay, while the improvement which would 

 be effected in the health, and even in the^ 

 morals and character of the population of 

 Glasgow would be inappreciable. In the 

 event of this improvement being carried out 

 generally, our beautiful rivers and streams, 

 which now as they pass our cities and popu- 

 lous villages, suffer pollution by the drainage, 

 would continue to run in crystal purity to 

 the sea, sweet as when they first welled out 

 in the fountains and springs from the bosom 

 of our pastoral hills." 



To feed land before it is hungry— to give 

 it rest, before it is weary, and to weed it be- 

 fore it becomes foul, are said to be evidences 

 of good farming. 



