Vol.lX. — N".2, 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL 



11 



loss of sap-extracted by the iiise -t. Have you 

 ever pulilishcd any account of this insect ? If 

 not, have you on hand any iiaCjrniation to 

 give respecting them. 



Yours, II. FERRV. 



jVorthampton, July 14, 1830. 



Remarks bt/ tht. EJitor. — We liave'no recollec- 

 tion of having seen, heard, or read of the above 

 mentioned insect, before the receipt of Mr Ferry's 

 cotnmunication. 



I Rem.\rkable Growth of Cherry Grafts. 

 ' In the nionth'of iNIarch, 1828, I set, on a natural 

 Cherry Stock, which is now seven inches in cir- 

 cumference, probably not tiiucli less then, a scion 

 of the English IJIackheart, which is now in the 

 smallest place eleven inches in circumference and 

 has completely covered the stock. There are 

 three leading branches from this, one six and a 

 half feet, one six feet, the other five and a 

 half feet ; there are seventeen smaller limbs, 

 branching from these in all directions. It bore 

 fruit this present season in abundance and to per- 

 fection only two years old. I have several others 

 which have grown very rapidly and I believe they 

 do quite as well if not better than budding, es- 

 pecially large stocks. L. COBB. 

 Sharon, Mass. July 19, 1830. 



REMARKS ON VEGETABLES. 



[Concluded.] 

 THYME. 



' No more, my goats, shall I behold yoa climb 

 The Bloepy cliRi, or crop the flow'cy thyme.' 



Deydih. 



In ancient times, flocks of goats and sheep were 

 sent from many remote parts, to feed on the thvme 

 which grew so abundantly on the rocky parB of 

 Languedoc and Narbonne, and this'pasturage yield- 

 ed a great revenue to the inhabitants of that 

 country, during the height of Roman luxury, on 

 account of the high flavor it gave to the thou- 

 sands of cattle which were sent to that province. 



' VVheio the wild thyme pel fumes the purple heath, 

 Loi^ loitering there your fleecy tribes extend.' 



Phillips in his History of Vegetables, says, a 

 long residence on and near the South Downs of 

 Sussex, gave the author of this work an oppor 

 tunity of ascertaining, that those flocks which fed 

 on hills most abounding with thyme, produced 

 mutton of a very superior relish ; and it cannot 

 have escaped the notice of the epicures in hauri 

 ches, that the highest flavored venison is always 

 from arid hilly parks, where this penetrating ' pun 

 provoking' herb abounds. 



This plant was thought excellent in suff"umiga- 

 tions to revive the spirits ; and by its extraordi- 

 nary fragrancy it was deemed comfortable to the 

 brain and highly exhilarating to the heart. A lit- 

 tle thyme mixed with wine, gives it a most grate- 

 ful savor, and both the smell and taste of it are 

 very penetrating ; whence it becomes sudorific, 

 inciding, penetrating, healing, and opening ; is of 

 service in the flatulent colic, and restores a decay- 

 ed appetite. 



TOBACCO. 



Tobacco was brought to England by Sir Fran- 

 cis Drake, in 1570, who that year made his first 

 expedition against the Spaniards in South Amer- 

 ica. Lobel informs us, that it had been cultivated 

 in England previously to that date. Sir Walter 

 Raleigh can-ied the Virginian tobacco to England 

 about the year 1586, and it is related that he was 



the first who brought tobacco into repute ; but, 

 by the caution he took in smoking it privately, it 

 appears he did not intend that it should he copied. 

 But sitting one day in a deep meditation, with a 

 pipe in his mouth, he inadvertently called to his 

 man to bring him a tankard of striall ale : the fel- 

 low coming into the room, threw all the liquor 

 in his master's face, and running down stairs, 

 hawled out ' Fire! help! Sir Walter has studied 

 till his head's on fire, and the smoke bursts out of 

 Ills mouth and nose.' After this. Sir Walter made 

 it no secret, and took two pipes just before he 

 went to be behe.ided. 



A French Natural Historian (Valmont Bomare) 

 relates, that in 1750 Maryland and Virginia pro- 

 duced to England more than 100,000 tons of 

 tobacco ; of which, he says, the. English kept one 

 half for their own consumption, and exported the 

 remainder to France ; for which the latter coun- 

 try paid annually the sum of 9,200,000 livres, or 

 about $1,701,998 52. 



This vegetable still continues to form so con- 

 siderable a branch of commerce in England, that 

 a store-room has lately been erected in the Lon- 

 don Docks, for the exclusive purpose of housing 

 tobacco, which covers with one roof a space of 

 nearly six acres of ground, and which is perhaps 

 the largest room ever built. This immense store- 

 room is, when empty, an object of wonder ; but 

 on seeing it full of tobacco our amazement must 

 be increased, by reflecting on the extent of the 

 trade of England, and on the singular destination 

 of such an enormous heap of half-putrefied nau- 

 seous leaves. 



Wynne says, in his History of Virginia, pub- 

 lished in 1770, that the Virginians export annually 

 above forty thousand hogsheads of this leaf, each 

 hogshead containing eight hundred weight. This 

 author says, ' wherever they have planted this 

 article, their lands are so exhausted by it, tba 

 they will hardly produce the bare necessaries of 

 life, and much less such an exhausting weed. It 

 is for this reason, that most of our tobacco plan- 

 tations are broken up and the people have been 

 obliged to quit them, and retire to the mountains, 

 where they find fresh lands fit to produce this 

 plant, which is the support of their trade, and has 

 been of more importance to ihem than all the 

 other productions of North America put together, 

 so long as their lands were fresh and fertile.' 



WATER CRESS. 



The ancients ate cress with their lettuce to 

 counteract the cold nature of that salad. The 

 name of Nasturtium alludes to its warm stimula- 

 ting qualities, which were thought to put life into 

 dull and stupid persons, and to brighten the un- 

 derstanding of those who ate of Nasturtium, and 

 which gave rise to the Greek proverb, ' eat cress, 

 and learn more wit.' 



three years. A number of ])lants were propagated 

 from it the first season, several of which were sent 

 abroad, and one of which I presented to that in- 

 telligent and enterprising friend of the silk culture, 

 Gideon B. Smith, Esij. of Bahimorr, who, in a 

 recent letter, speaks of its flourishing condition. 



P. S. I notice a small error in my coniiniuii- 

 cation inserted in your paper of 25th ult. The 

 date should be May instead of Jtuie. 

 Very respectfully, 



WM. ROBERT PRINCE. 



innean Botanic Garden, ) 



Now York, July 27, 1»30. ( 



CATTLE OVERCOME BY HEAT. 



Mr Fessenuen — As the hot season has now 

 arrived, when oxen are frequently overcome by 

 heat, and many are lost, will you, or some of your 

 correspondents, through the medium of your use- 

 ful paper, inform the public of the best manner of 

 treating an animal overcome by .the heat, and you 

 will oblige a constant reader. 



Very respectfully yours, 



THOMAS HUBBARD. 



Concord, July 18, 1830. 



Q^ We can find nothing on this subject in any 

 veterinary writer, and our own observation and 

 experience have not led us to any remedy for this 

 evil of ordinary occurrence. We should be very 

 much obliged to any correspondent who may sug- 

 gest any cure or palliation for the complaint above 

 mentioned. 



To Remove a tight stopple from a decanter.— 

 It frequently happens that the stopper of a glass 

 bottle or decanter becomes fixed in its place so 

 firmly, that the exertion of force sufficient to with- 

 draw it would endanger the vessel. In this case, 

 if a cloth wetted with hot water be applied to the 

 neck of the bottle, the glass will expand, and the 

 neck will be enlarged, so as to allow the stopper 

 to be easily withdraw. — Dr Lardner''s Cabinet 

 Cyclopa:dia. 



The non conducting power of Sand is so great, 

 that in eastern countries, when the surface of a 

 bed of sand at midday is too hot to allow the hand 

 to remain in contact with it, the temperature, at 

 the depth of a few inches, is gratefully cool. 

 During the celebrated i?iege of Gibralter, the gar- 

 rison turned their knowledge of this fact to good 

 account. The red hot shot employed to destroy 

 the Spanish floating batteries was placed in wood- 

 en barrows on layers of sand, and thus carried 

 from the furnaces to the batteries without the 

 wood once catching fire. 



CHINESE MULBERRY TREE. 

 Mr Fessenden — I perceive in your paper of 

 16th inst. a communication on the subject of the 

 Chinese Mulberry Tree, (Moms midiicaulis) which, 

 it is stated, was introduced to FraiLce from the 

 Philippine Islands, in Jidy last, and the acquisition 

 of which promises to be of vital importance to the 

 silk culture on account of its great superiority for 

 that purpose. By the way of making known that 

 in our country we sometiiries even anticipate oth- 

 ers in the introduction of useful horticultural pro- 

 ductions, I have to state that this tree was intro- 

 duced into our collection in the winter of 26-27, 

 and has consequently existed among us for above 



The Hive Bee. — ' Lesser tells us, that in 1525, 

 during the confusion occasioned by a time of war, 

 a mob of peasants, assembling in Hoherstein, at- 

 tempted to pillage the house of the minister of 

 Elende, who having in vain employed all his 

 eloquence to dissuade them from their design, 

 ordered his donietics to fetch his bee-hives, and 

 throw them into the middle of the infuriated mul- 

 titude. 



'The event answered his expectations: they 

 were immediately put to flight, and happy were 

 those who escaped unstung.' — U. S. Gazette. 



It is stated, that if a bed of carnations be wa- 

 tered at different times in the season, with a solu- 

 tion of nitre, the good effeclsof the application will 

 be visible by the luxuriance of the leaves, and the 

 extraordinary dimensions of the flowers. 



