No. 11. Preserving Cun-mUs. — Circulation of Matter, ^-c. 



843 



From the Massachusetts rinughmaii. 

 Preserving Currants. 



Mr. Editor, — In the article on " Goose 

 berries," published in the Ploughman of the 

 2nd inst., I notice the following direction for 

 preserving the fruit green, — "The unripe 

 berries may be preserved in a fresh state 

 through the winter, in bottles filled up with 

 cold or boiling water, corked and scaled 

 tight, and placed in a cool cellar, — and 

 sonle say, buried with the cork downwards." 



This may be true, still I should doubt the 

 propriety of "filling up the bottles with cold 

 or boiling water." 



For the last ten or twelve years I have 

 been in the habit of preserving green cur- 

 rants in considerable quantities, for domestic 

 use, and find them not only a luxury, but a 

 great convenience. My mode of preserving 

 them is simply this. I gather the currants 

 while green, or before they turn red, put 

 them into dry glass bottles, cork and seal 

 them tight; then place them in the cellar, 

 in such a position as is most convenient. In 

 this manner green currants have been pre- 

 served in my cellar for years. I have also 

 preserved gooseberries in the same manner, 

 and with equal success. I have green cur 

 rant pies on my table at all seasons of the 

 year, when other green fruit cannot be rea 

 dily obtained. And if you, or any of your 

 friends, will call at my house, I shall be 

 happy to wait upon and furnish you with 

 green currant pies at any season of the year. 

 M. S. Wilson. 



Berkshire Coffee House, Lenox, 

 May 4th, 1840. 



New Facts Relative to the Potatoe 

 Disease. — We are informed by Mr. T." C. 

 Peters, of Darien, that he has lost by rot 

 something like 10(30 bushels of potatoes this 

 season, and has observed the important fact 

 that a field of potatoes, whose stems and 

 leaves were evidently affected with the 

 blight, had its tubers preserved from all 

 injury by the action of a frost that killed the 

 potatoe tops dead. This crop grew on a low 

 piece of ground, and subject to frost. An- 

 other field hard by, similarly affected, escaped 

 the frost, and most of the potatoes rotted in 

 the hill. His early potatoes all escaped the 

 malady. 



Another fact is this. Mr. Pearce, of Ham- 

 burg, who is an excellent and observing 

 farmer, saw his potatoe vines were affected, 

 and pulled several hills to examine the roots. 

 They were sound, and left separated from 

 the stems or tops. By this separation three 

 hills wholly escaped the rot, while the pota- 

 toes in all the adjoining hills were rotten at 

 the time of harvest. — Farmer tj- Mechanic. 



Circulation of matter in the Animal and 

 Vegetable Kingdoms. 



In the immense, yet limited expanse of 

 the ocean, the animal and vegetable king- 

 doms are mutually dependent upon, and suc- 

 cessive to each other. The animals obtain 

 tlieir constituent elements from the plants, 

 and restore them to the water in their origi- 

 nal form, when they again serve as nourish- 

 ment to a new generation of plants. 



The oxygen which marine animals with- 

 draw in their respiration from the air, dis- 

 solved in sea-water, is returned to the water 

 by the vital processes of sea plants; that air 

 is richer in oxygen than atmospheric air, 

 containing 32 to 33 per cent., while the lat- 

 ter contains only 21 per cent. Oxygen also 

 combines with the products of the putrefac- 

 tion of dead animal bodies, changes their 

 carbon into carbonic acid, their hydrogen 

 into water, and their nitrogen assumes again 

 the form of ammonia. 



Thus we observe in the ocean a circula- 

 tion takes place without the addition or sub- 

 traction of any element, unlimited in dura- 

 tion, although limited in extent, inasmuch 

 as in a confined space the nourishment of 

 plants exists in a limited quantity. 



We well know that marine plants cannot 

 derive a supply of humus for their nourish- 

 ment through their roots. Look at the great 

 sea-tang, the Fuctis Giganlius: this plant, 

 according to Cook, reaches a height of 360 

 feet, and a single specimen, with its im- 

 mense ramifications, nourishes thousands 

 of marine animals ; yet its root is a small 

 body, no larger than the fist. What nou- 

 rishment can this draw from a naked rock, 

 upon the surface of which there is no per- 

 ceptible change] It is quite obvious that 

 these plants require only a hold — a fasten- 

 ing to prevent a change of place — as a coun- 

 terpoise to their specific gravity, which is 

 less than that of the medium in which 

 they float. That medium provides the ne- 

 cessary nourishment, and presents it to the' 

 surface of every part of the plant. Sea- 

 water contains not only carbonic acid and 

 ammonia, but the alkaline and earthy phos- 

 phates and carbonates required by these 

 plants for their growth, and which we al- 

 ways find as constant constituents of their 

 ashes. 



All experience demonstrates that the con- 

 ditions of the existence of marine plants are 

 the same which are essential to terrestrial 

 plants. But the latter do not live, like sea 

 plants, in a medium which contains all their 

 elements, and surrounds with appropriate 

 nourishment every part of their organs; on 

 the contrary, they require two media, of 



