274 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



large residuum resembling' this substance. This wine is then mixed with 

 the red Catalonia wine, which is a lighter variety, and that forms the 

 port-wine of commerce, and the casks containing it, which never have been 

 adulterated, will show such a bottom, after standing a long time, when the 

 wine is drawn off and it has time to dry till it will break up. A cider bar- 

 rel might show something to compare with this. Sherry wine is made by 

 reduction in the same way as port — the original being brought to market 

 in goat skins, which sometimes impart a flavor which makers of spurious 

 wines try to imitate, to prove that it is genuine. 



Black Knot. 



Dr. Trimble. — Last week Mr. Prince gave the names of forty plums, which 

 he said were never affected by the black knot. One of the exempts was the 

 Bolmar. Here is the answer to that statement. Here are a lot of black 

 knots which I cut from a tree that I know to be a Bolmar. 



Farming Under Difficulties. 



Mr. John Hacker from Portland, Me., writes such a humorous letter about 

 farming under difliculties, that we must give it entire, because it is diflScult 

 to see what we could prune out. It is a brave man who can write down 

 his own failures for the benefit of others : 



"Mr. Farmers' Club : Having read the reports of your discussions with 

 much interest, and, I trust, with some profit, I take the libert}'- to give you 

 some statement of my experiments and failures, hoping that, from the 

 remarks they may elicit, to gain further information which may lead to 

 better success in the future, 



" The war having knocked my usual employment on the head, I was 

 induced to make the attempt to draw subsistence for myself and an invalid 

 companion from the earth, and accordingly secured the'use of a small farm 

 of land naturally good, but which had been mowed during the lifetime of 

 the ' oldest inhabitant,' without being plowed or manured, and consequently 

 pretty thoroughly worn out. I plowed in the fall as deep as the largest 

 plow would operate, and the frosts of winter pulverized the earth finely. 

 In the spring, I put on all the barn manure that I had time and means to 

 get togetlier, and put in my seed. I planted over 3,000 hills of cabbages, 

 of an excellent variety, that head well without being transplanted, putting 

 from five to ten seeds in a hill. They came up finely, looking strong and 

 green, but no sooner were they out of ground than they were covered with 

 flocks of small black or dark-brown fleas, that commenced feeding on the 

 leaves. I sprinkled them well with air-slaked lime and ashes, which I 

 think had some effect on the teeth of the varmints, for after that the plants 

 did not disappear quite so fast. However, the work of destruction still 

 went on, when I brought up salt-water from the wharf and gave them a 

 drenching. From this time but few fleas were seen ; but whether salt had 

 scattered them, or whether the plants had become too tough for them, I, do 

 not know. But few plants were left, and I replaced them by some that I 

 bought, and nursed them carefully ; but as soon as they had begun to give 

 fair promise, white maggots commenced a 'raid' on their roots. This 

 killed a large number of them, and made others pale and sickly. After 



