1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
953 
"vile nuisiince." In some places the notion 
prevails that the more its destruction is attempt- 
ed, the foster it spreads, and with tliis view 
patches are sometimes left in the fields%r fear 
of making matters worse by disturbing them. 
This belief has some foundation in fact, and 
there is no doubt that plowing and harrowing 
will break and scatter the roots, every piece of 
which will start and form a plant. But a field 
infested with this or similar weeds should be 
kept in hoed crops until the evil is exterminated. 
We know that this will kill the Toad-Flax, for we 
iiave seen it done, and have yet to see the weed 
that can long resist the frequent and thorough 
application of a sharp hoe. In Pennsylvania 
the plant is known as Ranstead-weed, on ac- 
'count, it is said, of its introduction there by a 
Mr. Ranstead, who niauy years ago cultivated 
it in his garden. The name Toad-flax is the 
one by which the plant is known in England, 
and as it is very desirable to preserve uniformity 
in popular as well as botanical names, wc give 
it the preference over the others. 
Soda Wash for Fruit Trees. 
Popular errors in regard to scientific matters 
die very hard ; they have more lives than a cat. 
This is especially the case with absurdities put 
forth by men who know little of science, to those 
who know nothing at all, the latter accepting 
all that may be put forth by the former as " law 
and gospel." This soda wash talk was made 
some years ago by " Professor " Mapes at the 
Farmers' Club of the American Institute, was 
published in their proceedings, and has been 
reproduced by agricultural papers which ought 
to know better, year after year. The directions 
to make the wasli, required sal soda to be heat- 
ed to redness in an iron vessel, which the learn- 
ed " Professor " said would drive off' the car- 
bonic acid and leave the soda in a caustic state : 
this was then to be dissolved and used upon the 
trees. In the report of the proceedings of a re- 
cent meeting of the club where this precious 
nonsense originated, we find accounts of the ex- 
perience of correspondents and members present 
in making this chemical preparation which was 
propounded by their very chemical "Professor." 
One man put his sal soda in a piece of stove- 
pipe and succeeded about as well as if he had 
tried to heat a piece of ice to redness ; another 
put it in an iron pot, but it frothed over and 
they had a bad time generally. The reason that 
these gentlemen did not succeed in making 
caustic soda out of sal soda by heating it, was 
simply because it is impossible. Any schoolboy 
■with a trifling knowledge of chemistry knows 
that it is one of the distinguishing characters of 
the alkalies proper, that it is impossible to de- 
decompose their carbonates by heat alone. Sal 
soda is a carbonate of soda, and besides carbon- 
ic acid and soda its crystals contain over 60 
per cent,of water. When these crystals are 
beated they melt, and if the heat be continued, 
this water will be driven off" in the form of 
eteam, and the carbonate of soda left as a dry 
mass which by an increase of heat may be melt- 
ed and heated red hot without undergoing any 
further change, and when it cools it will be pre- 
cisely the same as the crystals, minus the water. 
Now when one has been to all this trouble and 
then dissolves the melted mass in water, he will 
get precisely the same solution that he would, 
had he dissolved the crystals at first; and if any 
one wishes to use sal soda wash, we advise him 
not to go through with the heating process, 
which though very "chemical," is very useless. 
We have noticed this matter once before in a 
"Basket" item, and now put it in large print 
in the hope that some may be saved the tribu- 
lation experienced by the gentlemen above re- 
ferred to. This sal soda nonsense is only one 
illustration its author has afforded of the adage 
that " one talks all the better for having some 
knowledge of his subject," as well as a caution 
to those societies who publish reports of their 
proceedings, that they should subject them to 
some revision, and not allow every absurdity 
that garrulous people and self-styled"Professors" 
choose to propose, to go out endorsed by them. 
Recreation and Visiting among Farmers. 
This may seem to some a very unsuitable topic 
for this busy time of the year. On the contrary, it 
is specially seasonable. Most farmers make life too 
much a drmigery for themselves and for their chil- 
dren. By working hard from moruing until night, 
and* from week to week, with no recreation, they 
become dull, and do not accomplish as much as 
they would with a little timely relaxation, " all 
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Nor 
do they enjoy life nearly so well. They doubtless 
say to their souls, " I must work hard now, and 
lay up money against a time of need, or against old 
age ; then I will rest and enjoy myself." They for- 
get that they are meanwhile wearing out their fac- 
ulties of enjoyment, and are acquiring habits which 
will unfit them for .anything but an old age of con- 
tinued toil. Let farmers bear in mind, too, the 
etTcet of such a life on their children. 
As to the way in which farmers shall get recrea- 
tion, we are not disposed to be particular. Some 
will choose to get it in one w.iy, and some in another. 
One very good method is to make up an occasion.al 
pie-nic. Fix on a pleasant afternoon, and take 
the whole family to some neighboring grove, 
where the children can romp, where the older 
folks can rest, .and all have a good supper. If sev- 
er.al families can unite, it will be all the better. 
Another way, is to make short visits to the neigh- 
bors. To do this, it will not be needful to con- 
sume a whole day ; this would be an unnecessary 
loss to you and a bore to your neighbor. But seize 
on the broken, h.alf-days, or even the hour or two 
after tea, and ride over to neighbor A's, or neigh- 
bor D's. He will be glad to show you his stock and 
his crops, and his orchard. Tou will learn some- 
thing from him, and he from you. At any rate, 
you will get recreation, and will return to your 
home and your daily labor with new zest. 
^ i^a^ — .-• 
The Sanitary Commission and the People. 
With the advent of peace, we are happily no lon- 
ger obliged to remind our readers that they can do 
this or that for the comfort of the soldier. It is 
gratifying to know that many of our hints h.ave 
been acted upon, and we are also glad that we h.ave 
been able to act as a medium of communication for 
those of our readers who had no other way of reach- 
ing the organized Commissions. The great work of 
the army being at an end, the Sanitary Commission 
now states that all further efforts in its behalf may 
cease, and iu making this announcement we add 
their eloquent tribute of thanks to those who have 
aided them in their Labors. 
" To the Soldier's Aid Societies, and through 
them to each and every contributor to our supplies, 
to every woman who has sewed a scam or knitted 
a stocking in the service of the Sanitary Commis- 
sion, we now return our most sincere and hearty 
thanks— thanks which are not ours only, but those 
of the camps, the hospitals, the transports, the 
prisons, the pickets, and the lines, where your 
love and labor have sent comfort, protection, reUef, 
and sometimes life itself. It is not too much to say 
that the army of women at home has fully matched 
in patriotism and in sacrifices the army of the men 
in the field. The mothers, sisters, wives aud daugh- 
ters of America have been worthy of the sons and 
brothers, husbands and ftthers who were fighting 
their battles. After having contributed their living 
treasures to the war, what wonder they sent so 
freely after them all else that they had ? And this 
precious sympathy between the firesides and the 
camp fires, between the bayonet and the needle, the 
tanned cheek and the pale face, has kept the nation 
one; has carried the homes into the ranks, and 
kept the ranks in the homes, until a sentiment of 
oneness, of irresistible unanimity, in which domes- 
tie and social, civil and religious, pohtical and mil- 
itary elements entered, qualifying, streugtheuing, 
enriching and sanctifying all, has at l.ast conquered 
all obstacles and given us an overwhelming, a pro- 
found and permanent victory. It has been our 
precious privilege to be your almoners ; to manage 
and distribute the stores you have created and given 
us for the soldiers and sailors. We have tried to do 
our duty impartially, diligently, wisely. For the 
means of carrying on this vast work, which has 
grown up in our hands, keeping pace with the grow- 
ing immensity of the war, and which wc are now 
about to lay down, after giving the American pub- 
lic an .account of our stewardship, we are chiefly 
indebted to the money created by the fairs which 
American women inaugurated and conducted, and 
to the supplies collected by you under our organ- 
ization. To you, then, is finally due the largest 
part of whatever gratitude belongs to the Sanitary 
Commission. It is as it should be. The soldier 
will return to his home to thank his own wife, moth- 
er, sister, daughter, for so tenderly looking after 
him in camp and field, in hospital aud prison ; and 
thus it will be seen that it Is the homes of the conn, 
try which have wrought out this great salvation, 
and that the men and the women of America have 
an equal part in Its glory and its joy." 
Making Pickles. 
During the rebellion the array demand for pick- 
les was so great that the high prices they brought 
were sufficient to give many persons the pickle fe- 
ver. The numerous inquiries respecting the man- 
ner in which cucumbers were r.aised on the large 
scale have been well answered by our friend Timo- 
othy Bunker Esquire. We now have many asking 
us about the manner of putting up the pickles, and 
though we have intimated to the Squire that we 
would like his views on this matter, we have heard 
nothing from him. Probably the heavy hay crop 
around Hookertown keeps him busy, or else he is, 
as Justice of the Peace, engaged in looking after 
the morals of that flourishing village. In the ab- 
sence of any thing from the Squire, we are obliged 
to tell what we know upon the subject, and thus 
answer a great many calls for information. In the 
first place it is necessary to put cucumbers into salt 
before placing them in vineg.ar, as the vinegar pen- 
etrates much better and the salting removes a crude 
and raw taste that they otherwise have. We have 
eaten pickles made by putting cucumbers directly 
into vinegar, but consider them greatly inferior to 
those prepared in the usual way. There are two 
methods of salting ; dry salting and iu brine. In 
dry salting, the cucumbers are put in a barrel or 
other receptacle and sprinkled freely with fine salt ; 
juices exude from the cucumbers to dissolve the 
salt and thus form a very stroug brine, while the 
fruit itself shrivels very much. This method uses 
a great deal of salt, but more cucumbers can be put 
into a barrel than when they are put into a brine. 
The shriveling is of no disadvantage, as the plump- 
ness is restored when the pickles are soaked. In 
putting down in brine the process differs according 
to the scale upon which it is carried on. Where 
large quantities are raised, new barrels are filled 
with cucumbers, about half a peck of salt added, 
and headed up, the barrels are then filled with wa- 
ter through the bung holes, bunged up tightly and 
shipped. We know a gentleman at the West who 
sends ofl' a largo quantity prepared in this way, but 
how long they will keep in such a weak brine we 
