248 Notes and Gleanings, 



Preserving Small Fruits. — I can't afford so many cans. I tried it on a 

 small scale once, but as the fruit was no better, and the space required so great, 

 and the expense great too, I gave it up. I dry everything, or rather partially 

 dry them ; either pack in sugar, or, after packing, pour a strong sirup over the 

 fruit. For the small fruits, cherries, strawberries, etc., I put in my preserving 

 ketde a cup or two of sugar with the least water that will make a stiff sirup, 

 throw in some fruit ; when scalded, skim out as free from sirup as possible, 

 spread on plates and dry in the oven, pack before they are dried hard, boil the 

 sirup down. Add a little sugar each time you add fruit. Do not put in too 

 much at a time, or in stirring you will break tender fruits. Strawberries put up 

 in this way will not fade, and though I never tried to keep them more than one 

 year, I have no doubt they would last many years. I have kept cherries three 

 years in this way without the trouble of wasting or scalding. When wanted for 

 use add a little water, as much sugar as you wish, and stir gently, a few minutes 

 only. A bushel of fruit can be packed in a gallon jar, and you will have jelly 

 left after pouring on your dried fruit as much as it will absorb. This Mrs. Ma- 

 son told me one day, and I, Lettie Lee, can indorse her statement in regard to 

 the aforesaid good things. Western Rural. 



Effect of Battles on Vegetation. — We find the following paragraph 

 in the Boston Daily Advertser. The effect described is not strange, but it ap- 

 pears singular that it has never been noticed before. Has anyone ever seen any 

 mention of it ? — 



" Among the evil effects of the war, it has been observed that in the vicinity of 

 the scenes of great battles, vegetation has been generally, if not entirely de- 

 stroyed, at any rate, materially impaired. Such plants as have not actually died, 

 ha've withered or grown up wan and sickly, as if poisoned by some injurious sub- 

 stance in the air or the soil. German chemists have explained the phenomenon 

 as arising from the diffusion of sulphur in the air and over the surface of the soil. 

 This sulphur, in the shape it is contained in the smoke of gunpowder, is sup- 

 posed to combine with the oxygen in the atmosphere, to form sulphurous acid, a 

 deadly poison in its effects on organisms of any kind." 



A New Early Peach. — The American Agriculturist has received from 

 Mr. S. G. Bilgen, of Littleton, Halifax Co., N. C, specimens of the Beatrice 

 peach, a seedling raised by Thomas Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, England. Like 

 all early peaches it is small, but of high color, very fragrant, and of good quality 

 for a very early variety. Mr. Bilgen finds it at least twenty days earlier than 

 Hale's Early, and possessed of superior shipping qualities. 



The Rose Slug. — A writer in Scribner's Monthly recommends powdered 

 white hellebore for the rose slug — the same as has proved so effectual for the 

 currant worm. It is dissolved in water, a half pound to a half barrel, and ap- 

 plied with a syringe. Over this, while wet, a little dry powder should be dredged. 



