1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



376 



it. When water is not "iven them, although fed 

 with swill, they will drink heartily of the water 

 collected in the yard or barn-cellar, after visiting 

 their tiougli several times, and finding it empty 

 and dry. Nothing is more grateful to ihem in a 

 hot day than a bucket of cold water, drank from a 

 clean, sweet trough. We trust that fanners will 

 give a'tention to the matter, and ascertain for 

 themselves whether our suggestions are valuable 

 or not. 



A GROWING LOVE OP FIiOWEKS. 



It gives us much pleasure to notice, both in our 

 intercourse with the people, and in our agricultu- 

 ral and horticultural reading, frequent evidences 

 that the spirit which prompted the inquiry, 

 "What's the use of flowers ?" is gradually being 

 trained to an appreciation of their beauties and 

 uses which will give force to the truth that "Solo- 

 mon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of 

 these." As such an evidence, we have before us a 

 discussion, by the Philadelphia Gardener's Month- 

 ly, and a writer for the New York Journal of 

 Commerce, of the chams'of their respective cities 

 to the honor of pre-eminent fondness for flowers. 

 It is admitted by the Philadelphian that the New 

 Yorker has lately awakened to a sense of their 

 beauty and loveliness, and is just now subject to 

 quite a passion for floral displays, but that if eith- 

 er place is entitled to pre-eminence for an honest 

 love of flowers for any other purpose than mere 

 sho«-. that place is surely Philaaelphia, for Avhich 

 honor slie is indebted to the old Dutch Burghers 

 of Gcrmautown, of v,hose labors the Moniliii/ thus, 

 speaks : 



"Those of us who can remember fifty years ago, 

 know how rarely flowers were seen in or about tlie 

 houses of any l)ut the wealthiest in any town of 

 the United States ; but in (iermantown ihere was 

 scarcely a dwelling, from the simple log cabin up 

 to the large stone mansion President W^ashington 

 lived in, but what had its cherished flowers. 

 Flower pots, to be sure, were rarely seen — but 

 cracked tea pots, pickling jars, and dilapidated 

 household utensils of every character were ready 

 sulistitules, and these, with tlie rarest of floral 

 pets, were made to adorn almost every window in 

 tlie town. The gardens were also stocl;cd witli 

 the most beautiful flowers, brought from Germany 

 by tlie growers themselves, or their immediate an- 

 cestors : and it was indeed a rare sight to find a 

 garden or window, that had not some blooming 

 evidence of floral taste. To this day, in the old 

 yards and gardens of old residents, many plants 

 and flowers may be found, that no modern horti- 

 cultujist believes to be in the country. Double 

 Lilies of the Valley were here twenty years ago, 

 and the double liosa lundn, and another variety 

 called the May Rose, prolxibly a double variety of 

 the Jliisa darolitiiana, and which the writer never 

 saw outside of Germantown, is still frequent in 

 nlan^ a cottage yard. 



McArran was probably the first one to adopt 

 the plan of raising large tjuantities, and sefling ' 

 low, in order that all might procure them. Koses , 

 that usually sold for .$1 50 each, he increased ex- ' 



tensively, and sold all through the town for 15 and 

 jO cents each, to the dismay of his brother florists, 

 who saw nothing but ruin to him and them in 

 such a course ; but they soon found the increased 

 custom more than made up for the lost figures of 

 the high prices, and the example became generally 

 followed ; and we do not think we are far wrong 

 in guessing that Buist must have cleared 810U0 ia 

 one year on the Jeunc dcs Prez rose alone. 



Bedding plants arc sold in Philadcli)hia by the 

 tens of thousands, at prices ranging from three to 

 ten cents each ; and we know of one firm which 

 does only this marketing and bedding business, 

 whose bill for flower pots for one season has ex- 

 ceeded $1200. 



TOBACCO AND WHEAT. 

 In a late discussion of the tobacco question, a 

 correspondent of the I'ural New Yorker said, "I 

 will now venture the prediction that tobacco will 

 ultimately become one of the staple commodities 

 of the Northern States." This may be so, and it 

 may not. His prediction might be met by the 

 prediction of some body else of equal prophetic 

 powers, that tobacco raising can never reach the 

 dignity of a Northei'n institution. But some of 

 this writer's statistics are not so easily disposed 

 of, sickening as they are. We knew something of 

 the annoyances to which one is subjected from the 

 smoking, snufhng and chewing habits of his fellow 

 citizens ; have seen how the cabins and decks of 

 steamboats, the passage-ways and seats of railroad 

 cars and public halls, are rendered provokingly 

 filthy and nauseous ; and have been told by one. 

 of our native poets, that 



"If you would know the deeds of him that chews. 

 Go to the house of God and see the pews." 



Yet we confess we were not prepared for the fol- 

 lowing statement : 



"It is perhaps not generally understood to how 

 great an extent the article of tobacco enters into 

 the commerce of our country. According to the 

 census of lSGO,its production in the year previous 

 amounted to no less than 429. ."390,771 jjounds. 

 Now computing its value at 40 cents a pound, 

 which is perhaps a fair average for all its ((ualities 

 in the manufactured state, the value of the tobac- 

 co cro]) of that year would be no less than $171,- 

 750.308.40. A glance at another column shows 

 that the wheat crop for the same year was 171,- 

 18^,.j)81 bushels. So it will appear that the to- 

 bacco crop of that year would purcliase the en- 

 tire wheat crop of the same season at the respec- 

 table price of l?I per bushel, and have a surplus 

 fund of $o72,027.40." 



Thiidv of the market value of the tobacco grown 

 in this country exceeding the value of the wheat 

 crop, which feeds not only our own people, but, to 

 some extent, the hungry millions of Europe. 



t^ It is estimated that the wheat crop in the 

 South this year will amount to nearly 00,000,000 

 bushels. In ISOO over 31,000,000 bushels were 

 harvested. This great increase is accounted for by 

 the fact that unusual attention has been paid since 

 the beginning of the war to the cultivation of the 

 cereals. 



