1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



123 



ed parts with the common clay composition, and 

 surround the trunk with a strip of sheathinp; pa- 

 per eight or nine inches wide, which shoukl ex- 

 tend two inches helow the surface of the soil, and 

 be secured with strings of matting above. Fresh 

 mortar should then be placed around the root, 

 so as to confine the paper, and prevent access be- 

 neath it, and the remaining cavity may be filled 

 with new or unexhausted loam. This operation 

 should be performed in the spring or during the 

 month of June. In the winter the strings may 

 be removed, and in the following spring the trees 

 should again be examined for any borers that 

 may have escaped search before, and the protect- 

 ing applications should be renewed." 



LETTER FROM MR. BROWK". 



WasJiington, Jan. 19, 1858. 



My Dear Sir : — The United States Agricultu- 

 ral Society closed its sessions on Friday, the loth. 

 During that day there was a long and animated 

 discussion upon the feasibility of raising the 

 Sorglium and the /mp7tce, and their respective 

 merits. The Imphee is an African plant, and is 

 thought by some persons to be superior to the 

 Sorghum for the purpose of fodder, syrup or 

 sugar. Mr. Leonard Wray was introduced, and 

 stated that he had been a sugar planter in the 

 West and East Lidies, and also forty years in 

 Caffraria, Africa, and that he discovered the Im- 

 phee in Caffraria, and from that place had intro- 

 duced the plants into Australia, New Zealand, 

 France and Algeria, and on the American conti- 

 nent from Canada southward to the Brazils. Hav- 

 ing gone to the Cape of Good Hope, he heard so 

 much there of the beauty and fertility of the 

 country about Port Natal that he went thither, 

 and liked it so well as to stay there three years. 

 It was here that he met with the Imphee. This 

 plant will not yield much sugar when grown in 

 rich saline swamps where salts of iron prevail, 

 but is rich in saccharine matter when grown on 

 warm, sandy loams. He thinks the Chinese su- 

 gar cane was taken originally from Africa by the 

 Portuguese. The seed of the Chinese sugar 

 cane is black — that of the Imphee is white, and 

 will produce from 50 to 250 bushels an acre, is 

 made into flour and produces good bread. The 

 discussion on the topic of the sugar canes was 

 long, and sometimes exciting considerable sensa- 

 tion, as i\Ir. Wray thought the Patent Office had 

 interfered to prevent the sale of the Imphee seed 

 and the introduction of the plant. Dr. Charles 

 T. Jackson, of your city, was present, was called 

 upon, and his statements were listened to with 

 marked attention. 



When this "vexed question" had been hushed. 

 Dr. HiGGlNS, State Chemist of Maryland, made 

 an interesting report upon the subject of Hog 

 Cholera. He declared the disease, though pop- 



ularly called cholera, to be properly a Prie!/mo?iia, 

 the seat of lesion being in and around the lungs, 

 and not the bowels. The remedies are there- 

 fore like those in a case of epidemic. The 

 cause of the disease lies in an excess of fibrin 

 in the animal's blood, which makes it too thick, 

 and consequently unable to pass with the 

 requisite facility through the arteries of the 

 lungs. Hence the necessity of an alkaline car- 

 bonate is indicated, and he had found a mixture 

 of equal quantities of carbonate of soda and 'ba- 

 rilla to be a perfect curative. His rule was to 

 give two grains of the mixture in swill three 

 times a day to each hog, and it had been in all 

 cases successful, when the case was not too far 

 gone. Di". HiGGlNS remarked, in answer to a 

 question put by a member, that the value of the 

 hogs which died last year amounted to several 

 millions of dollars. He had seen them die in as 

 large a number as five hundred in a day ! This 

 disease was not confined to the South and West 

 alone — a great number Avere lost in New Eng- 

 land, probably at the rate of seven out of ten of 

 many droves of hogs sent there. If this simple 

 remedy shall prove as eS'ectual as has been rep- 

 resented, this fatal scourge may be arrested. 



The business of the session now being closed, 

 the President, Gen. Tilghman, rose, and in a 

 short and appropriate address, adjourned the So- 

 ciety to meet again next year. 



All the sessions of the Society have been 

 marked by an earnest zeal which indicates an in- 

 terest in the cultivation of the earth that prom- 

 ises much for the future. Massachusetts was well 

 represented in these councils. I saw present from 

 that State, Messrs. French, Brooks, Newell, Phil- 

 lips, Flint, Loring and Chandler. If these gath- 

 erings, and the transactions of the Society, do 

 not strike out any new and heretofore untrodden 

 path to the agriculturist, they cannot fail to awak- 

 en new efforts in many, and arouse an emulation 

 in the art which will greatly increase the pro-i 

 ducts and the profits of culture. Beside this, they 

 certainly have a tendency to cherish feelings of 

 friendship and regard between the citizens of dif- 

 ferent sections, and to introduce to each other 

 the various improvements and progress in agri- 

 cultural art. 



Our meetings have taken place in what is called 

 the "East Room" of the Smithsoniau Institution ; 

 it is the room in which the philosophical instru- 

 ments are deposited, but contains maps, and 

 drawings of fishes and animals, and among the 

 rest what is called '■'A Marine Aquarium." This 

 is a case about five feet long by eighteen indies 

 high, and three feet wide. It stands upon a frame, 

 the height of a common table, upon which rests 

 a white marble slab ; into this slab grooves aro 

 cut near the edges, into which thick plate glai-s 



