Notes and Gleanings. ^-^ 



" Bismarck." — Since our correspondent " Bismarck " made his exit, we have 

 had many inquiries from our readers for their old friend. We are happy to say 

 that, in response to these inquiries, he has promised occasionally to favor us with 

 his views on horticultural subjects, though necessarily in a briefer form than here- 

 tofore. 



Buying Trees. — There are two points which should be attended to by all 

 tree buyers. First, if you want to get what you pay for, send your orders to an 

 honest and skilful nurseryman, instead of buying of travelling agents. No doubt 

 there are honest agents, but there are also dishonest ones, as many purchasers have 

 found to their sorrow ; and a man who is here to-day and there to-morrow is 

 much more likely to defraud you than a nurseryman, who must of necessity have 

 an established location, and must know that if his trees are not satisfactory you 

 will know where to reach him. Second, send your orders ear/y, so as to have 

 them executed early, before the nurseryman is so crowded with work that every- 

 thing is done in a hurry, and secure the earliest selection and fullest assortment, 

 and get your trees so as not to be hurried in planting them. 



Plant Food. — Without a proper management of nitrogen, potash, and phos- 

 phoric acid, no farmer can be in a high degree successful. He grows no ptont 

 upon his farm which does not contain them ; he sells no product, vegetable or 

 animal, which does not carry them away. He has no soil rich enough to endure 

 for any considerable length of time the draft made upon it for these substances 

 by plants without losing its fertility. They must be supphed, or exhaustion fol- 

 lows. There are in looo pounds of wheat, 23 ; of oats, 22 ; of peas, 42 ; of 

 potatoes, 15; and of red clover hay, 21 pounds of nitrogen, respectively. In 

 1000 pounds of wheat, there are 237 ; of corn, 250 ; of oats, 123 ; of potatoes, 

 515; and of clover, 161 pounds of potash, respectively. In 1000 pounds of 

 wheat, there are 498; of corn, 501 ; of oats, 149; of potatoes, 113; and of clo- 

 ver, 63 pounds, respectively, of phosphoric acid. Prof. Fernald. 



Making Vinegar. — From a prize essay of the Indiana Horticultural Society, 

 by W. H. Ragan, we take the following directions how to make pure cider vine- 

 gar. This can only be done by taking pure cider, putting it in a cask with an 

 open bung, and setting it away in a dry, warm room, where it will not freeze, 

 awaiting the result, which will come about in from one to three years. The 

 formation of acetic acid, or the process of acetic fermentation, may be hastened 

 by using casks that have been used for vinegar, or by adding sour cider to a cask 

 already one third or one half full of vinegar. But to attempt anything further 

 than this, in the way of hurrying matters, is always at the expense of quality. 



Orange Trees in Florida. — The orange growers of Florida have again 

 been unfortunate. The Rural Carolinian says, " The effects of the freeze which 

 occurred just previous to Christmas are said to be quite disastrous in Florida, 

 where the orange trees are badly injured. Our correspondent, Judge Edwards, 

 of Micanopy, lost 25,000 oranges." 



