18G5.] 
AMEPaCAN AG-KICULTURIST. 
Xlte Ciit-leavea BlacUberry,— H. F. 
Thornton, Lawrence County, Indiiina. This is an old 
Taiiety, concerning the value of which tlieie isatlifTerence 
of opinion. It is a"gre;it grower, and if allowed to have 
Its own way will produce weak canes 15 or 20 feet long 
and but little fruit. It would not answer your purpose as 
a lieJge phnit, but if trained upon a fence or other sup- 
port would prove a formidable obstacle to trespassers. 
When kept cut back, it produces abundant crops of large, 
rather late fruit, which is by some considered of fine 
quality, but to others again it has an unpleasant flavor. 
Aspliodel.— H. G. Tyer, Essex Co., Mass. 
Aspliodel is a genus of plants of the lily family, some of 
which are occasionally cultiv:.Hed fur ornament. Some of 
the species are emetic, but we doubt if rats are so afiaid 
of iliese or any other plants, that " they will die rather 
than pass over them." All the old herbals, or works on 
plants, are full of such stories about plants, which have 
of later years been proved to be fanciful or erroneous. 
Seedling Glacliolias.— H. H. C, Mystic 
Bridge, Conn., planted some Gladiolus seed, and wishes 
to know if he is likely to get new varieties, and how to 
treat his young bulbs. If Ihe seed was from good sorts 
there will doubtless be a great variety, but no one can 
foretell whethnr there will be any distinct from those 
now in cultivation. Take up the young bulbs and put 
them in dry earth or sand, and keep them in some place 
where iliey will be dry and always cool, but not freeze. 
Reinoviins: I»sieoiiies-— A. H. C, Rutland, 
Mich. Autumn is Ihn best time ; they may be trans- 
planted very early in spring, but do not flower so well. 
Miller's I*ro|>asatiiig: Case.— This was 
figiiied in the Agriculturist last year, and there have been 
numei ous inquiries as to w here it can be had. Mr. M. has 
left tlip city and we know of none for sale. They are 
of too small size for use except by amateur cultivators. 
Pansies* — A. B.- Spaulding, Windsor Co., Vt. 
Pansies will not do well in the house, unless kept very 
cool. They are best grown by sowing the seed soon after 
inidsummer, and setting liie plants in a cold frame to 
winter. When the snow remains on the ground all win- 
ter, plants from fall sown seed will give a fine bloom in 
early spring in the open air. 
Camellias. — S. H. Harlan, Champaign Co., 
O. If a gardener told you that camellias ^"^ must have a 
peculiar soil founi-l near Philadelphia," he told you a great 
piece of nonsense. They will do in any light, loamy 
soil, ricli in vegetable matter. Sods from an old pasture, 
allowed to decay, and then mixed with clean sand, or 
good garden loam, wilh leaf mould from the woods, will 
answer. The pots must have ample drainage. 
l>apliue Ortora.— C. G. Thompson has one 
that does not bloom. Cut it back early next spring. 
Use lip tlie Hoop SUii-ts. — A subscri- 
ber says :— " Tell your readers to throw ladies' old hoops 
into the fire, and when taken out they will be found per- 
fectly annealed, and will stay twisted in any form, and be 
extremely useful as a substitute for wire in a thousand 
and one instances." Pray use up the old hoops in some 
such way, they are a nuisance if thrown out with rubbish. 
Canary Seed. — A correspondent states that 
he successfully raised a quantity of this, giving the same 
soil and treatment as oats, but does not state the yield. 
Plants to l>e Naaned. — H. Goeriug, Lo- 
rain Co., O. The very clever drawing is that of Tecotna 
radtcans —someiimes called Bignonia — the Trumpet- 
creeper. It is often cultivated as an ornamental vine. 
.. .Adeline Howard, Lee Co., III., sends the fruit of the 
Spindle-tree, also called Burning-bush and Wahoo — 
(Eu07iymus atropurpuretts). It is a fine shrub, and very 
showy in autumn on account of its brilliant crimson 
seed pods — D. B., Volga City, Iowa, sends flowers and 
rools of Mertcnsia Virginica, the Virginian Cowslip or 
Lungrool. It is frequently cultivated in gardens, aind is 
a very pretty spring flower T. O. D. The plant is 
Gentianapuberula S. S. R. M., Lewisburgh, Pa. The 
flower is Hibiscus Sinensis, or close to it. It could be 
propagated from cuttings with bottom heat Irene Cole, 
While Co., Ind. The climber is QuamocliC coccinea, 
Bometimes called Ipotnca. figare{l in February last. The 
plant desc.ibud is probably the Leucoimn vernum, the 
Spring Snowflake— the bulbs of which are sold by 
seedsmen ...M. S. Shaler, Brown Co., Wis. The vine 
is Virgin's Bower, Clematis Vtrginiana. One Gerani- 
um is the oak-leaved; the larger one nut recognised. 
Mr. R. Allen, York Co. Me., sends the Fringed Gentian 
Gentiana crinita. As there are over 30 species of Aster, 
we cannot tell the one described without a specimen — 
N. Mason Gates, Middlesex Co. Conn. Pehmonium 
cceruleum, ov Greek Valerian, a pretty spring bloomer. 
■ Marl. — " Please state what kind of soil is most 
benefited by the use of marl— the quantity used, and how 
to apply it?" — E. A. P. This name covers a great variety 
of materials of variable fertilizing viilue. It usually 
means deposits in swamps, or former lake bottoms, in 
which minute shells abound, mixed with vegetable and 
earthy matter (calcareous marls.) There is scarcely 
any limit tn the quantity which may be used 'viihout 
injury to the soil, though a maximum good -iflect is 
often attained by a dressing of a few loads. It depends 
on the needs of the soil and the quality of the in ul. It 
supplies lime, and a small quantity of phosphoric acid, 
together with the pe;ity substances usually found in 
swamp mud, ;md srjinetimes a notable quantity of ammo- 
nia. Dig it this winter,expose it to the action of frost, and 
apply '20 to 50 loiids per acre, on various crops. The best 
effects are on heavy soils, poor in organic matter and lime. 
Ho-^v IVtitcU I>oes <wi*aiift SliriMU.— 
A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer states that 75 lbs. 
of corn on the ear weighed when dried, including the 
cobs, only 60 lbs.— a shrinkage of 20 per cent. The de- 
crease of each separately is not stated. Definite knowl- 
edge on this point will enable producers to properly 
graduate the price of corn accoiding to the stason of 
selling. Careful experiments with this and other grains 
are much needed. Who will make them and give the 
results for publication in the American Agriculturist ? 
Ho'cr Much Sand and Oravel in 
ITIortar, Concrete, etc.— Take a box and nearly 
fill it wilh coarse gravel ; add to this as much of a 
quality, the stones in which will average I-8th to 1-lOth of 
the diameter of the coarser kind, as can be worked into 
the mass without materially increasing Us bulk : then 
add all the fine, dry, sharp sand, free from dust or dirt, 
that can be worked into the whole. If the exact quantities 
used of each material be known, you will have a means 
of estimating the proporlions you will need. To make 
such a mixture of sand and gravel a perfect moi tar, it 
needs to be mixed with lime slaked to a creamy consist- 
ency, so that each panicle shall be covered with the 
lime, and the spaces between them filled. Tliis is the 
theory of a perfect mortar — rarely reached in practice. 
Concrete Fence Posts. — " If concrete is 
strong enough for water pipes, why will it not make good 
fence posts ?" This is in eftect the inquiry of a sub- 
scriber in Bond Co., III. The material has strength 
enough, but would need to be protected to some exient 
against the action of frost on the surface ; if made hollow, 
posts might become filled with water, and split by freezing. 
AcciiHiiilatiaiS" "^Vind PoYi'er.— A sub- 
scriber writes thathe has an invention whereby the power 
of a wind-mill maybe accumulated when the wind blows, 
and the power is not in use. in such a way that it may 
be used when the wind does not blow. There is no rea- 
son why some such thing should not be successful, and 
if so it would be very valuable ; but many inventors have 
tried to do this and failed to make it practical. 
IL.ig-lfttnisig: Rod Hinnbiig.— Perry W. 
Clark, Onondaga Co., N. Y., writes that the following 
game was played in that vicinity last summer, by opera- 
tors who quite likely are now at work in other parts : 
An agent agrees to put up lightning rods on buildings to 
remain a year on trial. He gives a written agreement 
that if they suit and are wanted at the end of the year, 
all right ; if not he is to remove them without cost to the 
parties. lie takes what he calls an "Order" for the 
rods, but what in reality is a promissory'note, which Ite 
sells to the first note broker that will buy. In this way 
thousands of dollars were taken from the writer's section 
of country, and for no really good equivalent returned. 
IjOoU Out for tlie *'Oas»* Iflaii.— 
There is a chap out West selling the right to "make 
and use Olefiant Gas." He charges only one dollar for 
the recipe, which is as follovvs : 2 quarts alcohol, I pint 
camphene. 2 ounces of alum, 1 teaspoonful of " Cucuma" 
liquid. Mix, let stand 12 hours, then use.— This is not 
gas at all, but only the old and dangerous burning fluid 
with alum added, and colored by " Cucuma," which 
should be CurcM^na— but these humbugs are generally illit- 
erate. At the present price of materials, this would 
be a very expensive, as well as a very dangerous light. 
Quaclc l>octors. — P. S. M., sends ns a cir- 
cular of witnilerful cures, and asks if the man is reliable, 
alleging as a reason for his caution, that he was once 
Immbugged out of $25 by a "doctor"- tn New York. 
Now if there is one thing that we have tried to set forth 
in languages© plain that it could not bemistaken.it is 
that no physician who advertises certificates of cures is 
flt to be trusted. One lesson of experience oui^ht to con- 
vince our correspondent of the truth tf our position. 
Hfe^v IlBBiii1>ug;— Isiterzaalional and 
Sfoine College,— .A.n enterpri.sing genius is sending 
out circulars from New York City, to induce young men 
to enter his "College," and slay at liome at the same 
time. For $50 he promises a " mail scholarship"— what 
that means we do not know, only that $50 will not be 
safely invested in any such operation. It is nonsense to 
talk of filling a young man for business by mail. No re- 
liable business college, and many are reliable, professes 
to do any thing of the sort. Readers of the American 
Agriculturist will not be caught bv such atranspaient 
swindle. The " Professor" in this enterprise has been 
placed under police snrvetllnnce. 
Won't l>e If uni1»itg'^'ed by circulars from 
Fletcher Brothers: T. Sherman & Co. ; George P. Har- 
per ; Cosmopolitan Art Union Association ; by the man 
who wants to have somebody in your neighborhood draw 
a lottery prize to help his business along ; by the man 
who says " your ticket has drawn a prize, but >ou must 
spnd him ten dollars, and he will lie for you ;" nor by any 
other man that wants to give you ever so many hundred 
cents' worth for a dollar paid him in advance. 
American "^Veeds and ITsernl 
Plants,— This is an illustrated treatise upon those 
plants which are interesting to the cultivator, either as 
objects- of his care, or as intruilers upon liis premises. 
The descriptions are both popular and scientific, and are 
interspersed with many interesting observations. A con- 
densed accoimt of the structure of plants, which prefaces 
the descriidive portion of the work, ■will, if carefully 
studied, enable any intelligent person to refer a plant to 
its proper family. We commen<l this work to those who 
have a desire to know something of the plants they daily 
meet. A new edition is to be issued Jan. 15. Price $1.50. 
Onr Smallest Snl>sci*il>er. — We have 
many young subscribers, little boys and girls, some of 
whom earn the money and forward it themselves, hut 
here is one not so young: A man in Clark Co., Ohio, in 
renewing his subscription for 1865, writes: " I suppose I 
am the smallest subscriber the American Agriculturist 
has of my age. I am thirty-one years old, 46 inches high, 
and weigh 55 pounds." — About like a 6 or 7 year-old boy. 
<]i»mnied Oil which has thickened on 
wheel axles can be readily removed wilh a little kerosene. 
Messrs. S*attersoM Sros., at 27 Park 
Row, are not only good men and excellent neighbors, 
but they keep a very convenient down town retail and 
wholesale establishment, where we always expect to 
find anything and every thing waided in the Hardware 
line, from a tack up to a whole chest of tools— not to 
specify a large assortment of skates; and we believe 
their articles are good and sold at reasonable rates. 
Xlie Pennsylvania Agi"icnltnral 
College,— It will be seen that the seventh session of 
this Institution is announced in our advertising columns. 
Dr. Wm. H. Allen, formerly president of Girard College, 
has been elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the 
death of Dr. Pugh, the former president. We hope the 
college may have that encouragement and support which 
will ensure for it a useful and successful career. 
Tlie niassaclausetts A$:^i'iciiltui*al 
College.— We learn that Massachusetts has sold a good 
portion of her land scrip and purchased 400 acres of land 
at Amheist, upon which it is intended soon to erect the 
necessary buildings. Judge H. F. Fiench, well known 
as a writer on agricultural subjects, has been (thosen aa 
President by the board of trustees, and is engager! rn the 
preparatory work of organization. An agricultural col- 
lege worthy of Massaclmsetts shoxild be entirely indepen- 
dent of existing institutions, be endowed wilh abundant 
means, and be able to command the very highest talent. 
Report of tlie OepartnientorAg^i*!- 
ciiltnre, 1863»— Now that the year '64 is just ex- 
pirinsr. the report for '63 makes its appearance, a delay 
said to be caused in part by the great press of public 
printing. The work forms a handsome volume of IQQ, 
pages, which is about twice as larpe as need be, did the 
writers exercise ordinary conciseness. Thee are arti" 
cles on a will e range of agricultural and horticnllural 
subjects from writers, some of whom are well known, 
and others not known at all. Some of the articles ara 
valuable, and others are mere talk, a,nd they are illus- 
trated by numerous wpo-d engravings, part of which oje 
