Vol. X.-No. 49. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



387 



auytliiiig liut soiTti and miillen. These have prin- 

 cipally been made fertile by means of leached 

 ashes, at this enormous cost of money and labor ; 

 and I am much at a loss to know why they are 

 considered worthless airiong us, while they are in 

 such request on the Island. They should be 

 spread on the soil and intimately mixed by the 

 plough, or used in compost. In either way, I be- 

 lieve they would be found equally useful to i.s. 

 Middlesex; JV. Y., May 8, 1832. R: M. W. 



FIELD MICE. 



In the fall of 182!), I neglected to clean out the 

 grass and weeds in my apple nursery, that con- 

 tained some thousand trees. In the spring of 1830, 

 I found two or three hundred wholly spoiled by 

 the mice ; many eat entirely oft' at the bottom, that 

 were an inch and a half in diameter. I then 

 declared that there should be no neglect in clean- 

 ing out the nursery the next fall, but owing to a 

 pressure of business and cold weather commenc- 

 ing, I had not cleared out the nursery. I finally 

 hit upon a plan to rout the mice. I took in a bas- 

 ket a bushel of shelled corn, and sowed it through- 

 out the nursery in the grass. I then turned in 

 twenty or thirty young hogs, and after a day or 

 two I sowed another bushel ; the shoats rooted 

 the grass all over, and destroyed the mice and their 

 habitations. Last fall I practised the same meth- 

 od, and find no appearance of mice. I have prob- 

 ably a thousand apple trees that are from one and 

 a half to three inches in diameter, standing in grass 

 fields. I pastured sixty or seventy hogs in them 

 that contained the apple trees, and many times the 

 hogs run in other fields ; and there is no appear- 

 ance of mice in any field where the hogs have run. 

 I got so much in favor of the plan, that I turned 

 them into the meadows, and let them in all my 

 fields except where grain was sowed ; and although 

 they have been so numerous, I can discover very 

 little of their work on my farm, containing three 

 hundred acres of improved land, and quite a por- 

 tion mucky land, such as is generally selected by 

 the mice for their places of residence. I would 

 observe, that there have been great complaints and 

 much damage done in and about this section of 

 country. Now it remains for others to say, wheth- 

 er the hogs eat up the mice as they do the rattle 

 snake, or whether their trampling and continual 

 rooting drive them off". Yours, respectfully, 



JOHN SPICER. 



East Barrington, Yates Co., M Y., 4prU, 1830. 



MOUNT AUBURN. 



In reply to inquiries frequently made, with re- 

 gard to the progress of the undertaking at Mount 

 Auburn, (says the Boston Courier,) the following 

 statement will explain the present condition of the 

 works. As soon as the ground was sufficiently 

 settled after the rains in April, the making of the 

 avenues and paths was begun, and has been dili- 

 gently prosecuted until the whole are nearly com- 

 pleted. In effiicting this, the stumps and other 

 obstacles have been removed, the ground jilough- 

 ed, levelled and rolled, until a hard and excellent 

 road-surface is produced. Carriages, in great 

 numbers, now pass with ease through every part of 

 the ground, and ascend to the summit of the bill. 

 No place in the environs of Boston has been more 

 frequented with visitors, in the pleasant days which 

 have occurred during the month past. A contract 

 has been made for surrounding the whole ground 

 with a substantial fence of close wooden poles 



seven feet in heigljt. The whole iuclosiirc, four 

 hundred rods in length, will be completed this 

 season. A number of appropriate monuments to 

 designate the lots of individuals, are now making, 

 and some will be placed on the ground within the 

 space of a few weeks. The planting of shrubs 

 and flowers, the erection of a lofty stone gateway, 

 and of a tower on the summit, with the other con- 

 templaled improvements, will take place in suc- 

 cession, as fast as the funds of the institution per- 

 mit, and in regard to these the present popularity 

 of the design leaves no reason for doubting. In 

 the meantime it is hojjed that proprietors of lots 

 will give their aid, at an early ])eriod, to the gen- 

 eral design, by erecting throughout the ground, 

 such monumental emblems or simple inclosures, 

 as a correct taste may suggest. Marble, granite, 

 bronze, aird cast iron, aflford the requisite variety 

 of materials for monuments, and of these a variety 

 of plans may be seen at Mr Gary's stone-cutter's 

 yard, in Front street. For inclosures, it is believ- 

 ed that a slight iron fence, or a connexion of stone 

 posts with chains, will produce a most pleasing 

 effect on the eye, where a monument is inclosed. 



SUGAR FROM POTATOES. 



We were rather incredulous upon this subject, 

 and therefore expressed a hope that some one 

 " near Jaft'ery " would give us information. A few- 

 days since, Mr Henry Russell, of North Adams, Ms. 

 called on us, having seen the notice. He assures 

 us of the fact, that sugar, equal in strength to our 

 maple sugar, has been manufactured by him, pure- 

 ly from the potato root, and believes he shall be 

 able to manufacture sugar equal in strength and 

 goodness to that made from the cane. He has 

 made several barrels of molasses, which is the first 

 process. A bushel of potatoes, weighing sixtyfour 

 pounds, will yield eight pounds of sugar ! The 

 expense of manufacturing he states at about four 

 cents per bushel. Mr R. has already disposed of 

 his skill to several persons^ and is ready to enable 

 others to commence the manufacture, for a rea- 

 sonable consideration. Letters may be addressed 

 to him, at North Adams, Mass. The jjresent the- 

 ory is, that alcohol (spirit) does not exist in grain, 

 potatoes, &c, but is produced by the process offer- 

 mentation ; so of sugar. The process which the 

 ])otato undergoes produces sugar, and yet just as 

 much alcohol may also be produced, as if the sugar 

 had not been extracted ! The molasses of pota- 

 toes produces alcohol of a fine flavor. 



Silliman's Journal for January last, contains a 

 communication, from which it appears that suc- 

 cessful experiments have been made at Sackett's 

 Harbor, N. Y. The sugar is said not to be so 

 sweet as the Muscavado, but may be used for all 

 kinds of domestic purposes. " It has already be- 

 come a favorite ; its taste is that of a delicious 

 sweet ; and as an article of diet is unquestionably 

 more healthy and less oppressive to the stomach, 

 than any other sweet ever used." — Keene Sentinel. 



GARDENING AT SEA. 



We were on board a vessel the other day, just 

 about to sail for America, and were most hospita- 

 bly received iu a fine, airy, roomy cabin. The 

 captain's wife was present, and on the supposition 

 that she was a permanent inmate, we remarked, 

 that though she coidd boast of not only a floating 

 cottage, but a cottage ornee, she nevertheless lack- 

 ed the comfort of a kail-yard for the cultivation of 

 savoys and other pot herbs. " And there you are 



wrong," said tlje cajUain, " and if you will go with 

 me I '11 soon show you as goodly a crop .of greens 

 as you would wish to look upon." Our curiosity 

 being excited, we followed him to the hold, and 

 there beheld on a large scale, a novelty, or rather 

 phenomenon, in horticulture. The plan was this : 

 A sufficient number of savoy plants are pulled up 

 by the roots, and replanted among the sand used 

 for ballast. After a few days, the outer blades fall 

 ofl^, and on the other hand, new ones spring from 

 the heat ; and Ca[)t. Carson assured us, that his stock 

 of vegetables would continue quite fresh for months, 

 and, barring accidents, thicken the broth of a dozen 

 persons, lessen the chances of scurvy and other- 

 wise mitigate the effects of salted provision.s, till 

 the man at the mast-head descried their destina- 

 tion, Chauleur bay, on the shores of America. — 

 Dumfries Courier. 



JVative Country of Maize, or Indian Com. — 

 This grain, so imi)ortaiit to the agricultural inter- 

 ests of America, appears to be of uncertain ori- 

 gin. Fuchs very early maintained that it cams 

 from the East ; and Mathioli affirmed that it was 

 from America. Regmir and Gregory have pre- 

 sented fresh arguments in favor of its Eastern ori- 

 gin. Among them is the name by which it has 

 been long known in Europe : Ble de Turquie ; and 

 varieties, it is said, have been brought from the 

 Isle of France, or from China. Moreau deJoun6s, 

 on the contrary, has recently maintaned, in a me- 

 moir read before the Academy of Science, that its 

 origin was in America. The name Ble de Tur- 

 quie, no more proves it to be of Turkish origin, 

 than the name of the Italian Poplar proves that 

 the tree grew wild- in Italy. It can only signify 

 that it spread from Turkey into the neighboring 

 countries. Its general cultivation in southern Eu- 

 rope and the production of some new varieties, 

 proves nothing with regard to the country of the 

 species. In favor of its American origin, is tb« 

 fact that it was found in a state of cultivation in 

 every place where the first navigators landed. In 

 Mexico, according to Hernandez; and in Brazil, 

 according to Zeri ; and that in the various coim- 

 tries it had proper names, such as Maize, Flaolli, 

 &c. While, in the Old World, its names were 

 eiiher all of American origin, or names of the 

 neighboring region, whence it was derived ; and 

 that, immediately after the discovery of America, 

 it was spread rapidly in the Old World and soon 

 becaine common, a fact not reconcilable with the 

 idea of its former existence there. To these 

 proofs Aug. de Saint Hilaire has added another. 

 He has received fromM. de Larranhaga, of Monte 

 Video, a new variety of Maize, distinguished by 

 the name of Tunicata; because instead of having 

 the grains naked, they are entirely covered by the 

 glunjes. This variety is from Paraguay, where it 

 is cultivated by the Guaycurus Indians, a people 

 in the lowest scale of civilization ; and where, ac- 

 cording to the direct testimony of one of them, it 

 grows in the humid forests as a native production. 

 — Arcana of Science. 



Radishes. — There is a radish growing at Perth, 

 Van Diemen's land, in a shoemaker's garden (re- 

 served for seed,) as thick as a stout man's thigh 

 and from ten to eleven feet high ; in fact, the rad- 

 ish appears to take a different character in the deep 

 and moist sands of Perth. — Hobart 2'oum Courier. 



" Beware of little expenses ; a small leak will 

 sink a great ship." 



