302 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



they jn-efer them raw, unless meal is added. For 

 fattening pork, for reai'ing young shoats and for 

 nui>iag sows, where meal is required, they are, I 

 think, lifty per cent, cheaper than any root we 

 can raise at this time, to cook, with whicii to 

 feed meal. Joseph Raymond. 



Hubbardston, Jan. 22, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GROUND NUTS-SOFT SOAP. 



Mr. Brown : — Your coi-respondent,"G. F. N." 

 asks, if the "Ground Nut, or Indian Potato," 

 cannot be cultivated to "make it a valuable root." 

 I answer yes, presuming it to be the artichoke — 

 known in boyhood's days as the "ground nut." 

 No vegetable is more valuable for pickles, wheth- 

 er a "child of nature" or one of highly-cultivated 

 taste. Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, melons, 

 onions, &c. fall into insignificance compared with 

 the artichoke as a delicious, crumpy pickle. It 

 lady at my side says, "I 



AFRICANS NO ARITHMETICIANS. 



Mr. Gavett, a traveller in South Africa, says : 

 "We had to trust to the Damara guides, whose 

 ideas of time and distance were most provokingly 

 indistinct ; besides this, they have no comparison 

 in their language, so that you cannot say to them 

 'Which is the longer of the two, the next stage 

 or the last one?' but you must say, 'The last 

 stage is little ; the next, is it great?' The reply 

 is not, it is a 'little longer,' 'much longer,' or 

 'very much longer ;' but simply, 'It is so,' or 'it 

 is not 80.' They have a very poor notion of 

 time. If you say, 'Suppose we start at sunrise, 

 where will the sun be when we arrive?' they 

 make the wildest points in the sky, though they 

 are something of astronomers, and give names to 

 several stars. They have no way of distinguish- 

 ing days, but reckon by the rainy season, the dry 

 season, or the pig-nut season. When inquiries 

 ai'e made about how many days' journey off a 

 place may be, their ignorance of all numerical 

 ideas is very annoying. In practice, whatever they 

 may possess in their language, they certainly use 



When tliey wish 



never grows soft ; a 



wish I had a bushel of them this minute 



Dig them, wash them clean and put them in- 1 no numeral greater than three 

 to vinegar (and spices if you want good pickles ! to express four, they take to their fingers, whicli 

 of any kind;) no salt pickle or scalding is re- are to them as formidable instruments of calcula- 

 quired as with the usual vegetable pickles. I tion as a sliding rule is to an English school-boy. 



To nmJie Soft Soap. — 18 pounds of potash to 18 They puzzle very much after five, because no 



pounds of clarified grease makes a barrel of soap ; 

 pour in cold water and stir. Potash is cheap. 

 Thei'e was a tradition among our ancient matrons, 

 that May was the lucky month for "soap to 

 come." This new pi-actice, without regard to time, 

 dispenses with the ley-leach, hot fires and various 

 vexatious troubles, and every family can make 

 soajD that makes grease. h. p. 



THE USE OF LEAVES. 



The oifice and utility of leaves are becoming 

 better understood by cultivators than formerly ; 

 yet we find a good many still adhering to the old 

 belief that the sun's rays, directly shining on 

 forming fruit, are what perfect it independently 

 of other influences. 



On this subject, theory and practice have been 

 invariably found in perfect accordance with each 

 other. The principles of physiology teach us that 

 tlic sap of a tree, when it passes in at the roots, 

 remains nearly unchanged in its upward progress 

 through stem and branches, until it reaches the 

 leaves, where, being spread out in those thin oi"- 

 gans, to light and air, it undergoes a complete 

 change, and thus becomes suited to the formation 

 of new wood and new fruit. Strip a rapidly 

 growing tree of its leaves at midsummer, and from 

 that moment the supply of new wood ceases, and 

 it will grow no more till new leaves are formed ; 

 and if it have 3'oung fruit, the growth and ma- 

 turity of the latter will cease in the same way. 

 A fi.'w years since, a Yellow Gage plum tree lost 

 all its foliage from leaf-blight, when the plums 

 were not fully grown, and while yet destitute of 

 flavor. The fruit remained stationary and unal 

 tered, until, in a few weeks, a second crop of 

 leaves came out. They then swelled to full size, 

 received their crimson dots, and assumed their 

 honied sweetness flavor. 



The object of pruning should be, therefore, to 

 allow the leaves to grow to full size without being 

 injured from crowding. — Anon. 



_ are hand remains to grasp and secure the fin- 

 gers that are required for 'units.' Yet they sel- 

 dom lose oxen ; the way in which they discover 

 the loss of one, is not by the number of the herd 

 being diminished, but by the absence of a face 

 they know. 



When bartering is going on, each sheep must 

 be paid for separately. Thus, suppose two sticks 

 of tobacco (a stick is about an ounce) to be the 

 rate of exchange for one sheep, it would sorely 

 puzzle a Damara to take two sheep and give him 

 four sticks. I have done so, and seen a man first 

 put two of the sticks apart and take a sight over 

 them at one of the sheep he was about to sell. 

 Having satisfied himself tliat that one was hon- 

 estly paid for, and finding, to his surprise, that 

 exactly two sticks remained in hand to settle the 

 account for the other sheep, he would be afilicted 

 with doubts ; the transaction seemed to come out 

 too 'pat' to be correct ; and he would refer back 

 to the first couple of sticks, and then his mind 

 got hazy and confused, and wandered from one 

 sheep to the other, and he broke off the transac- 

 tion until two sticks were put into his hand and 

 one sheep driven away, and then the other two 

 sticks given him and the second sheep driven 

 away. When a Damara's mind is bent upon 

 number, it is too much occupied to dwell upon 

 quantity : thus, a heifer is bought from a man for 

 ten sticks of tobacco ; his large hands being both 

 spread out upon the ground, and a stick placed 

 on each finger, he gathers up the tobacco ; the 

 size of the mass pleases him, and the bargain is 

 struck. 



You then want to buy a second heifer ; the 

 same process is gone through, but half sticks in- 

 stead of whole ones are put upon his fingers ; 

 the man is equally satisfied at the time, but occa- 

 sionally finds it out and complains the next day. 

 Once, while I watched a Damara floundering 

 hopelessly in a calculation on one side of me, I 

 observed Dinah, my spaniel, equally embarrassed 

 on the other. She was overlooking half a dozen 



