826 
THE TH0P10M- AGRICULTURIST. [June 2, 1890. 
dried, powdered, and finely bolted. The powder is> 
therefore, composed of lime and arsenious acid, with 
about 25 per cent, of carbonaceous matter which sur- 
rounds every atom. Experiments which we made with 
it in 1878, says Professor Riley, impressed us favour- 
ably with this powder as an inseoticide, and its use 
on the Colorado Potato-beetle by Professors Budd and 
Bessey, of the Iowa Agricultural College, proved highly 
satisfactory. We were, therefore, quite anxious to 
test its effect on the Cotton-worm in the field on a 
large soale, and in the winter of 1878-79 induced the 
manufacturers to send a large quantity for this pur- 
pose to the Department of Agriculture. The analysis 
made of it by Professor Collier, the ohemist of the 
Department, showed it to contain : 
Per cent. 
Rose aniline 
12.46 
Arsenic aoid 
43.65 
Lime 
21.82 
Insoluble residue ... 
14.57 
Iron oxide ... 
1.16 
Water 
2-27 
Loss ... ... 
4.07 
100.00 
Through the liberality of the Manufacturers, Messrs- 
Hemingway & Co., a number of barreis of this powder 
were plaoed at our disposal during the season of 
1879, and distributed to various observers and agents 
in Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. Early in the spring 
of the following year, Mr. A. K. Whitney, of Frank- 
lin Grove, 111., found it to be a perfect antidote to 
the canker-worms, which had not been prevented 
from ascending his Apple trees. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
*. 
PLANTS GEOWN FOR SALADS. 
M. Henri de Vilmorin, of Paris, who, metaphorically 
speaking, has been described as " a horucultural- 
agrionltural giant," delivered an interesting address 
on the afternoon of the 25th March before a rge 
and fashionable audience on " Plants Grown for 
Salads." 
M. de Vilmorin, who spoke fluently in English 
began by saying that the taste for green, fresh, crisp, 
uncooked vegetables was natural and common to most 
men. Such an appetite was a healthy one and in 
accordance with the reoognised laws of nutrition. 
Vegetables so served, that is, uncooked, at tables were 
usually known as salads, and they supplied the ele- 
ments necessary for the preservation of health, just 
as the flesh-forming and heat-giving properties were 
furnished in the rioher articles of diet. Salads con- 
tained a relatively far higher proportion of mineral mat- 
ter chiefly salts of potash, than ordinary food, for though 
all vegetable oontained that substance in considerable 
quantities, it was lost to nutrition by the cooking 
process. Although salads were ordinarily understood 
as being solely made with green or partially-bleached 
leaves, every part of the plants might be and were 
used in some places. In faot, salads comprised things 
so various as roots, celeriac, radishes, rampion, &o. ; 
bulbs or underground stems, onions, stachys leaves, 
such as lettuce endive, cresses, corn salad, and 
many more ; leaf stalks, as celery : stems as aspa- 
ragus ; bracts, as in artichoke ; flowers, as in 
nasturtium ; fruits and seed pods, as cucumbers, 
capsicum, tomatoes, and so on. M. de Vilmorin 
observed he would treat the subject generally from 
two points ; first, the vegetables used in France as 
salads and brought into Paris markets, and secondly, 
the operations required for the proper cultivation of 
salads. Bleaching was one of the most important of 
these operations, for by that means, intelligently ap- 
plied, vegetable almost uneatable for salads were ren- 
dered palatable and pleasant. The Continental and 
British ideas of what constituted a salad differed very 
materially. Salads proper on the Continent were such 
vegetables as formed a distinct dish, dressed with oil, 
vinegar, and, of course, salt and pepper. These were 
often served with meat. Then there was another end, 
less number of salads made up in many ways of roots, 
bulbs, &c. M. de Vilmorin then described the season 
for each peculiar class of vegetable and form of salad, 
" Common and proper," Speaking again of " salads 
proper," he observed that lettuces and cabbages were 
to be had, with a little care, all the year round. An 
inverted pot or a glass cover in the winter months 
formed a suitable protection for these vegetables, 
the types and modes of preparing which he next 
described. Common chicory was little used, except 
when bleached. Next to cabbage and lettuce, the 
French salad-eaters consumed most of the plants 
known as curled and Batavia endives. Green cultivated 
dandelion could be had also all the year with little 
trouble, as also could watercress. Referring to other 
plants used as salads in France, the audience were 
told that salsify tops made a fine tender salad, and had 
nice nutty flavour. Then there were celery, chervil, 
chives shallot, borage flowers, mustard and rape seed- 
ings, &o. Referring to salads eaten as an accompani- 
ment to meat, M. de Vilmorin enumerated over a 
score of plants among them the well known French 
di.-hes of French and kidney bedens and lentils. The 
flowering in most plants was developed under the 
action of light. By excluding light, or practising what 
was technically termed " bleaching," the vegetable 
matter was not only made whiter, but the plants them- 
selves were made more tender and materially im- 
proved to the taste. In connection with "bleaching," 
he wished to bring forward and press upon the attention 
of the English the olaims of the dandelion and com- 
mon, or bitter, chicory. The dandelion had been 
cultivated and grown as a vegetable for over fifty years 
near Paris. It was sown in the fields in April, in 
ridges about two feet apart. The growing plants 
were tended and weeded and watchea like any other 
vegetable, and the soil was heaped up over the sprouting 
leaves to secure their being " bleached." So cultivated, 
it sold in the market at prices of from 8s to 20s a cwt. 
The dandelion was also set out in the same way as 
common chicory. In gardens the plants were set m uch 
closer, and the leaves were sometimes bleached by 
over-turned pots. There were several varieties of 
dandelion cultivated in field and garden, and all of 
them, when suitably made up, were most agreeable 
as salads. The same applied to chicory and a host 
of other plants equally available for use as winter 
salads. — Pioneer. 
PLANTING :— TOBACCO IN DELI. 
The Deli Courant of the 2nd April reports fa* 00k - 
ably on tobacco crop prospects there during uie 
moDtb before, the weather then proving as hot and dry 
as could be wished. Hardly any rain fell, so that 
felling and burning operations could be actively pro- 
ceeded with, much jungle having been cleared away 
from the fields. Up-country, on many estates, plant- 
ing has already taken a start, but it wholly depends 
on the raininess or otherwise of the weather whether 
much will come of this early cultivation. Generally 
field work was actively gone on with in March. The 
forwarding of last year's crop continues in full swing, 
with every prospect of the whole outturn being deli- 
vered in Europe before summer. The stocks in the 
hands of wholesale dealers there will probablybulk, 
the largest about July next. 
Telegrams bring word that all Deli tobacco com- 
panies' shares at Amsterdam have risen considerably 
in quotation, in consequence of the favourable orop 
outlook. 
The Deli Planters' Association has authorised its 
committee of management to subsidise direot steamers 
plying from there to China, the resulting outlay being 
borne proportionately by the members. 
Recently, on the departure of the " Sachsen " from 
Singapore, difficulties arose as to rapid loading with 
tobacco in bales during a rain shower, the Master ap- 
parently not setting store by slow but sure shipment, 
Tobaoco seems to be a risky article, owmg to its so 
readily becoming damaged, and even when rain does 
not take effect on the leaf, it wets the matting of 
the bales and gives rise to fermentation.— -Siraitf 
Times* 
