286 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[A"UGTJ6T, 
othernanic for It; frequently cultivated in gardens.... 
"■D.,* 1 Goshen, Conn. Equisetum arvense^ frequently 
called Ground Pine, and a weed iu low wet lands. ..."B. 
F. T. &Bro., 1 ' Humboldt, Tcan. Virgin's Bower, Clem- 
atis Vtrginiana, The other plant Bent called "Virgin's 
Bower in Tennessee is the American Wisteria, Wistaria 
frutescens Lizzie M. Gilchrist. Hancock Co., Ind. No. 
1, ColUnsia verna. No. 2, Bellwort, Uvularia perfoliata. 
No. 3, Strawberry -bush, Euonymus Americanus 
"" Sago," Md, Some cultivated Willow, which we cannot 
name from the leaves alone S. F. Bradford, Berrien 
Co., Mich. The Palo Corydalis, Corydalis glauca. We 
have ofteu seen it in your State. It is pretty in the gar- 
den " Inquirer." Apparently Ornilhogalum pyrami- 
dale., but we are not sure from the specimen sent li L. 
W. G.," Baltimore, Md. Reed Canary-grass, Pkalaris 
arundinacea, a very coarse grass of little value U J. 
W. R,," Bath, Me. Wake-Robin, or Indian Turnip, 
Aris&ma trtptiyttum. Will grow in the garden '■ D. E. 
R.," Port Royal, Pa. Viper's Bugloss, Echium vulgare, 
and a persistent weed it is. By all means prevent its 
spreading if it requires cutting over everyday. Keep 
the leaves cut away as fast as they appear, and it will get 
exhausted iu time "A. L.," Exeter, N. H. No. 1, 
Shin-leaf, Pyrola elliptica. No. 2, Polygala polygama. 
No. 3, Three-flowered Bed-straw, Galium triflorum. No. 
4, Four-leaved Loosestrife, Lysimachia quadrifolia. 
forcing; xlspara^us. — "Weymouth." 
This is done to a considerable extent in France and 
England, but very little in this country. In England the 
plants are forced in the beds where they stand ; being 
planted with special reference to the purpose, with alleys 
for the reception of hot manure, frames and sashes being 
used to cover the bed. In France, three-year-old plants 
are lifted and placed close together on a hot-bed which is 
covered with a few inches of soil, aud the roots are cov- 
ered. A temperature of <k>° to TO 3 is found most suitable. 
Preserving Orapes. — W. H. Brown, 
Caes Co., Ind., asks about preserving grapes, stating that 
he lias tried all the plans recommended, and failed. He 
does not say what kind of grapes he has tried. The 
Concord is a very poor keeper, aud so are the Martha 
mid Delaware; while Catawba, Isabella, Diana, Iona, 
Eumelan, and others, keep easily until Christmas, and 
often much later. Packing iu small boxes of 5 or 10 lbs. 
each, after they have been picked a week or two, and 
then keeping iu a uuifermly cool place where they will 
not freeze, "is the plan usually followed. 
MeehanN Nursery. — Our friend Meehan, 
of the Gardener's Monthly, says so little about his own 
affairs in his journal that probably but few of his readers 
are aware that he has an extensive nursery at German- 
town, Pa. In a hurried visit we did not have much time 
to look at his general stock, as we were too much taken 
up with the many rare old and new things which he has 
stowed away in odd corners. It is very pleasant to seo a 
dealer in plants at the same time an enthusiastic lover of 
them ; and we regret that we had not sufficient daylight 
to allow of the inspection of all the interesting speci- 
mens that Mr. M. has collected. 
Jftudding.— " J. C.," Denton, Tex. The 
proper time to bud is when the bark of the stock lifts 
readily from the wood, and well-formed buds of the kind 
to be propagated can be obtained. The time will vary 
with the locality and with the season. Your partial fail- 
ure may be due to one of several causes. The ties may 
not have been cut soon enough, or an unusual growth of 
the stock may have taken place and '-drowned" the 
bud, as it is termed. Yours is a peculiar climate, and 
you will have to learn by experiment how to adapt your 
operations to it. 
Fine Mollylioclcs. — Our friend, William 
Chorltou, of Staten Island, sent us a box of hollyhocks 
which, for purity and delicacy of color and excellence of 
form, it would be difficult to excel. To call these ''double" 
seems a misnomer, when the center of the flower is as 
full as it could be. Mr. C.'s seed was from Chaytor, a 
celebrated English grower. 
Mr. flfferstine's Raspberries. — Mr. 
D. W. Hcrstinc, of Philadelphia, has been experimenting 
in the production of seedling raspberries. He sowed 
the seeds produced by the Allen, grown in proximity to 
the Philadelphia, and obtained a number of seedlings, 
the progress of whicli has been watched by the horticul- 
turists of Philadelphia, with much interest. On the 6th 
of July, the Fruit Committee of the Penn'a Horticultural 
Society met upon Mr. Herstine's grounds for the purpose 
of deciding upon the qualities of these new seedlings, 
and giving names to such as they might consider worthy 
of cultivation. Tiie meeting was the occasion of a re- 
markably pleasant horticultural gathering. The princi- 
pal horticulturists of Philadelphia, and the most noted 
fruit growers of Burlington Co., N. J., were present, as 
were several from other places. The American Agricul- 
turist, Gardener's Monthly, N. T. Tribune, Hearth and 
Home, and Gennantown Telegraph, were editorially rep- 
resented. The Committee decided that four of Mr. Hers- 
tine's seedlings possessed qualities which entitled them 
to names, aud these were called Herstine, Elizabeth, 
Ruby and Saunders. They are all large, red berries, of 
excellent flavor, very productive and hardy. They differ 
somewhat in the shade of red, in flavor and in foliage. 
Detailed descriptions of them will appear in the report 
of the committee. It was the unanimous opinion of the 
gentlemen present that Mr. H. had achieved great success 
in producing raspberries as hardy and productive as the 
Philadelphia, and whicli can rank "very good," as to 
quality. We shall be glad to hear that these new fruits 
prove as satisfactory elsewhere as they have upon the 
grounds where they originated. 
What shall he Plant?- P. W. J.," 
Fowler, 111., has a piece of land on which he wishes to 
plant an orchard, and asks if he shall select Apples, 
Pears, or Quinces. As he is near a city, wo should plant 
all three. Probably early varieties of apples and pears 
would pay best, aud in the selection of these wo should 
be governed by local preferences. A fruit that is unknown, 
though it may be of superior quality, cannot compete 
with a variety whicli is well known and a favorite. The 
advice of a dealer at the city where the fruit is to be sold 
would be better than what any one at a distance can 
give. Rea's seedling is the best quince, but the trees are 
rather scarce. The Apple or Orange variety is most cul- 
tivated for a near market. 
Slugs sbbmI Striped ISngs. — "D.," Go- 
shen, Conn., says: " I used to be troubled with the gar- 
den slug, or shell-less snail. They were especially des- 
tructive to tomatoes and cabbages. Supported the toma- 
toes on frames; then encircled the plants with bran, 
wheat or rye, at a distance of three or four iuches from 
the stalk. After dark found the bran full of slugs, whicli 
could then be picked up and destroyed ; or sprinkled salt 
ou them, when they disappeared, seeming to deliquesce, 
or liquify. I think a circle of salt, while it lasted, would 
protect the plants. I never lose cucumber or melon vines 
with the striped bug. Use simply and only a square box, 
without any covering, say 14 inches square, and S to 10 
inches deep, set about the hills at time of planting the 
seed, earthing up around the bottom. The bug flies in- 
deed, but I have rarely found one inside of these bores. 
until the vines showed over the top." 
Patented. Articles. — " Burdock " asks : 
" Can a man make an article on which there is a patent 
right, without paying a royalty or exposing himself to 
prosecution, if he makes it exclusively for his own use 
and not to sell ?" — No. 
i\ew Yorl£ Papers, — There arc several 
papers published in New York which are exclusively or 
in part devoted to agriculture and rural matters. To read 
some of the agricultural papers published elsewhere, one 
would suppose that it were a crime or a blunder for a 
publisher to be located in New York. "Abuse the op- 
posite counsel, 1 ' is the motto with some lawyers, and 
" abuse the New York papers,' 1 seems to be the stand- 
ing rule with some editors ; so we get it in the lump and 
in detail. When these attacks are especially directed to 
us we mete out the worst possible punishment to the 
writers thereof — we do not notice them. One person re- 
cently imagined some private conversation with one of 
our editors, and published it in the vain hope of a no- 
tice. These individual and general attacks by writers at 
a distance, having had no effect, new tactics have been 
adopted in the form of correspondence from near N. Y. 
A Pennsylvania paper publishes one of these letters in 
which New York publishers and editors are put down as 
incompetent, because they will not publish this writer's 
articles. This is a censure which is, indeed, high praise ; 
and we should not have noticed the matter but for the 
reason that some Southern papers have quoted this arti- 
cle as the testimony against New York papers. Editors 
from abroad can learn but little about New York news- 
paper people during their occasional visits here, or they 
would know that there is no place where merit is more 
promptly recognized, or where pretence is more quickly 
set aside than here. In New York a man soon finds his 
true level, especially in the newspaper line ; he is judged 
by his work, and no self assertion will help him if that 
be defective. When a man has been weighed and found 
wanting, his best course is to go into some other line 
where he might be useful ; but all do not think so, hence 
we have a class, known to the press as Bohemians, who 
pick up a precarious living by doing literary scrap- 
work. A few of these unfortunately hang around the ag- 
ricultural press, waiting for some inexperienced pub- 
lisher to pick them up, or try by underbidding, or by 
means of anonymous letters to supplant some one al- 
ready occupying a position. These Agricultural Bohe- 
mians arc generally men who, not succeeding at farming, 
come to the city with a small stock of facts and start as 
editors. They call themselves "practical men,"' and get 
upon agricultural papers ; in a few months their stock 
of ill-assorted knowledge being exhausted, they are of 
no further use. Their next step is to- attach themselves 
as agricultural editors to daily papers where they run 
for a short time and are dropped ; they then get upon the 
staff of the " religious " papers, hut even get found out 
there ; at last they become regular Bohemians, wandering 
from paper to paper in the hope of selling their often re- 
jected articles. They always have one resource, — it is 
not to go to work, for this style of "practical men" 
avoids that, but they can write letters to the country pa- 
pers and abuse those who do not sec fit to employ them. 
The wonder is not that such letters should be written, 
but that any paper Bhould consider them worthy of pub- 
lication. We doubt if a paper could he found in New 
York so wanting in professional courtesy as to open itd 
columns to a wholesale libel upon the press of another 
city. The New York publishers are successful only as 
they make such papers as the people want, and one way 
they succeed in doing this is by keeping clear of these 
pretenders and Bohemians. There is a great deal of 
nonsense talked about " practical men." It is a taking 
phrase, and there arc not wanting those who use it as an 
advertisement, and arc continually vaunting their supe- 
riority in this matter. We have the greatest respect for 
truly practical men, but very little for those who, fearing 
that the world will not otherwise know it, are constantly 
telling how practical they arc, leaving it to be inferred 
that they have a monopoly of that quality. As far as the 
Agriculturist is concerned, every member of its staff lives 
upon a farm, and works with his own hands ; an example 
we would commend to those who, failing as editors, 
are now the Bohemians of the Agricultural press. 
A I>arge Box-tree.— Growing against the 
old Belmont Mansion, now included in the magnificent 
Fairmount Park, at Philadelphia, is a remarkable speci- 
men of Tree Box. The trunk is divided from the bas-i 
into four parts, one of which is over a foot in diameter. 
The tree is some 30 feet in bight, but being placed close 
to the building it is not well shaped. 
Hfew York State I*oialtry Society. 
— The slated Semi-Annual Meeting of this useful Society 
took place at its rooms in this City, on Tuesday, July 
12th. The action taken was in brief, as follows: 1st. An 
exhibition of useful and ornamental poultry, pet animals 
and poultry appliances. Living specimens of artificial 
fish-breeding aud apparatus used iu Pisciculture, will be 
made in New York, commencing Dec. 14, and closing 
Dec. 22d, entries close Dec. 11th. 2d. The fees for mem- 
bership and the annual dues were reduced from &5 and 
$3, to $3 and $2, and the fee for life membership was re- 
duced from $50 to $25. 3d. The action of the executive 
committee in establishing the Poultry Bulletin, which, 
is sent free to members who have paid their annual dues, 
was endorsed by the Society. 4th. The whole subject 
of the adoption of a standard of points of excellence in 
poultry, was referred to the executive committee, with 
powers to adopt and promulgate. 5th. The borrowing of 
specimens to exhibit, and the conditional purchase of 
the same, with the same object, and with the intention 
to return them to the former owner, was declared a gross 
misdemeanor, exposing the exhibitor to the forfeit of all 
his premiums, and a member to suspension or expulsion. 
Importation oi" Animals, etc. — The 
new Tariff admits duty free all kinds of animals from 
beyond the seas imported for breeding purposes. Also, 
animals brought in for exhibition and to be returned ; 
also, animals with harness and tackle, owned by immi- 
grants ; also, eggs, and silk worms' eggs. 
Artists. — All artists are not painters or sculp- 
tors, but we have artists among farmers as well. Well- 
arranged buildings, rooms nicely adapted to the uses for 
which they are designed and kept in perfect order, a sta- 
ble well filled with good stock tastefully arranged, or an 
original landscape worthy of an artist's pencil, are scenes 
which some of our farmers are constantly bringing be- 
fore our admiring eyes. Even a ditch may be made at- 
tractive and beautiful as was remarked of one we were 
examining a few days ago, 100 yards long, 4 feet deep, 
as straight as an arrow, 12 inches wide at the top 
and 4 inches at the bottom, graded to a hair, and the 
bottom as solid as hard clay; it drew forth expressions 
of admiration from every one who looked at it. Joseph 
Amberson was the artist, and he, with his gang, challenges 
the Continent to compete with him in ditching as to 
style, rapidity, and price of work. Tic may be addressed 
to the care of Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., Newport, R. I. 
