356 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



(says Dr. Arnold,) after its drainage, became much more un- 

 healthy. It is said to be extremely dangerous for a white man 

 to remain, (in the hot season,) one night on the rice grounds of 

 Carolina. The custom of laying the rice grounds dry at intervals 

 during the growth of the crop, seems to give rise to miasmata of 

 the most deadly character to the white inhabitants, but fi'om 

 which the colored race is entirely exempt ! But they have pul- 

 monary disease, and their children are peculiarly liable to measles 

 and whooping cough, often fatal to them. The allowance of the 

 negroes is a half lb. of bacon with Indian corn meal and molasses 

 a day, with the privilege to almost every man to raise pigs and 



poultry. 



AGRICULTURE A DIVINE ART. 



The American poet, Barlow, author of " Hasty Pudding," and 

 the epic poem of America, " The Columbiad," in his correspond- 

 ence with Josiah Meigs, late Commissioner of the United States 

 Land Oifice, in a letter from Paris, in 180], speaking of National 

 Education, recommends chemistry, botany, mineralogy and the 

 divine art of agriculture. 



EFFECT OF COLORED LIGHT ON THE GERMINATION 



OF SEEDS. 



If you desire to determine the commercial value of any variety 

 of garden or other seeds, you may place one hundred or more in 

 a pot, and quicken their growth in a hot house. If they all ger- 

 minate, you may consider them first quality, and of the highest 

 marketable value. If seventy only germinate, the seed loses 

 thirty per cent in value. To determine this fact, requires about 

 sixteen days. It is now found that the value of seed is known in 

 four days, by the use of blue glass, which is a matter of great 

 commercial value. It is known that the yellow ray of light 

 diminishes the growth of rootlets, and the absorption of water; 

 the red ray prevents the proper development of plants ; darkness 

 produces a very great growth of their white rootlets, as it prevents 

 the formation of green coloring substances. 



CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 

 Report of Dr. Robert Batty, of Augusta, Ga., J^ov. 1856. 



It seems well adapted to Georgia. Let no Broom corn or any 

 like it grow near, land prepared exactly as for corn. Dr. Peter's 



