1867,] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1? 
a neat village before the war, beautifully situ- 
ated ou the McMinnville Railroad, destined by 
nature to become a manufacturing city of great 
importance. Ilere the Duck River, a crystal 
clear stream, of considerable size, falls 150 feet 
in one mile, creating an immense propelling 
power. Such valuable advantages can not fail 
to attract the attention of capitalists eager for a 
well paying investment, as with water-power, 
all kinds of manufactured articles maj'be made 
with less expense than were steam power 
employed. Before the war, a Paper-Mill, Cot- 
ton Factory, Distillery, and Saw and Grist-mill 
were here erected, but the most of them were 
badly damaged during the war, when General 
Bragg made here 3,000 lbs. of powder per day. 
The facilities for transportation to good mar- 
kets are ample ; good roads intersect the coun- 
try everywhere. From Tullahoma, a Depot en 
the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, a 
Branch Road leads to McMinnville, which will 
soon be in running order again, and probably 
extended to Cincinnati ; from Decherd, another 
Depot on the Nashville and Chattanooga Rail- 
road, a Railway leads to the inexhaustible Coal 
Mines at Tracy City, where a coal-vein of five 
feet, is worked, and lately a bed of Iron Ore has 
been found, and a Foundry is to be erected. 
The war has devasted this country badly, and 
deprived the inhabitants, a very clever, polite, 
affable, sociable, and hospitable people, of almost 
every thing but their laud ; they are very glad 
that they are back again in the Union, and very 
desirous that Northern men of enterprise should 
come ami help to obliterate the ravages of the 
war, and to develop the resources of the coun- 
t ry. Money is very scarce here, and thus most 
every land owner is willing to sell a part of his 
generally large estates at a reasonable price un- 
der favorable conditions. Wild lands are offered 
at from one to six dollars per acre, and partly 
improved farms at five to fifteen dollars per acre. 
At present, labor is cheap, white men work for 
$1 to §1.35 per day and board themselves, or for 
50 to 75 cents and board ; colored men can be 
hired for §100 to §135 per year and board, col- 
ored women from 50 to 75 dollars. 
Although agriculture is here yet in its infancy, 
no improved implements to be found, as much 
as 35 bushels wheat per acre have been raised, 
and Cotton brings §100 per acre. An apple 
orchard containing GO acres, last year yielded 
3,000 gallons of cider Brandy, and another 
orchard of 100 acres yielded to the owner, a 
year ago, §15,000." 
Apple Pomace. 
Hundreds of tons of what, every farmer 
knows, would bo good food, or at least good 
manure, if it could be used, go annually to waste, 
because nobody knows what to do with it. If 
spread as manure, it poisons the grass or crops, 
and it is hard to knock it to pieces. So it lies 
in heaps and rots slowly, and after a while, is 
used as chip manure would be. 
Apple pomace may be worked over again, 
and fair vinegar made from it, but still the pom- 
nee or spent eider-cheese is left. It is remarka- 
ble that farmers never think of adding this in- 
gredient to the messes they cook up for their 
hogs. The sour juice is nearly all pressed out, 
there is starch, pectin, gum, sugar, and much 
albuminous matter, besides the seeds, left — and 
it will require not more than 30 minutes boiling 
to cook it thoroughly. It would probably be 
palatable simply boiled, but the addition of po- 
tatoes, or .any roots, with corn meal or oil meal, 
would surely make it so. We regret that we 
are not situated so as to try the experiment 
carefully and report results, and hope very much 
that some of our readers will try it. We have 
no data to determine the average value of what 
is left of the apples, but have no doubt it is 
greater than that of turnips or even beets. So 
far as we see, it needs only to be cooked to 
become tender and palatable. We commend 
the subject to l; Tuckahoe," who writes inquir- 
ing what to do with the article. 
The Treatment of Tree Seeds. 
Our people are at last waking up to the im- 
portance of trees, whether for fuel, timber, or 
shelter ; indeed, so many have been the in- 
quiries in regard to the subject, that we have 
offered a large premium (Oct. No.) to briug 
out the greatest amount of experience relating 
to it. The subject is alread} 7 beginning to have 
a literature, as we last month noticed the 
"Forest Tree Culturist" of Mr. Fuller. Upon 
looking over our correspondence we find a great 
many queries as to the proper method of treat- 
ing particular tree seeds, and we can best answer 
these queries in a lump. These seeds may be 
divided into two classes, one including those 
that must be sown as soon as ripe, and the other 
those that with proper care may be kept until 
the following spring. Of those that are to be 
sown as soon as ripe, the Elm and the Red and 
White (or Silver) Maples ripen their seed in the 
spring. As we have shown in a former number, 
the failure with these seeds is due to want of 
knowledge of the fact that they ripen in June, 
and that they must be sown at that time. If 
kept until the following spring, these seeds lose 
their vitality and fail, but if sown as soon as 
mature, they make strong young plants the first 
3 - ear. Other seeds needing immediate sowing 
ripen in autumn, and these are to be treated as 
nearly as possible as nature treats them. If, late 
in autumn, we look beneath the fallen leaves of 
an oak tree, a plenty of acorns will be found 
from which the radicle has protruded, showing 
that germination has already commenced. This 
will give the hint as to the proper treatment of 
acorns, which are to be planted shallow and the 
bed protected with a good covering of leaves, or 
other mulch. Chestnuts, Horse Chestnuts and 
Buckeyes, Tulip Tree, Hickories and Walnuts 
are treated in the same way. Hickories and 
Walnuts are said to do well if kept mixed with 
earth in a cool cellar during winter, and we 
have succeeded perfectly well with Horse Chest- 
nuts put iu a box of earth and exposed to the 
weather all winter. 
Seeds that are kept over winter should be 
preserved at a low and even temperature, and 
of course be quite dry before thej'are put away, 
to prevent mould. The following arc among 
the commonly planted seeds that arc usually to 
be had of seed dealers: Honey Locust, Osage 
Orange, the Ashes, Larch, Deciduous Cypress, 
Maples (except Red and White), Spruces, Pines 
and other evergreens. Honey Locust, if fresh, 
will grow without preparation, but if old, it 
should be scalded. Osage Orange must be 
sprouted; the others merely need to be sown in 
a light rich soil. Evergreens arc very tender 
when young, and are apt to be sun-scorched. 
These are best sown in beds where they can be 
shade* by a lattice work screen made of laths. 
Young trees, like other young plants, require 
care, and no one need sow the seeds with the 
expectation that they will take care of them- 
selves. Weeding, cultivation, aud thinning must 
be duly attended to, and if the little trees are 
likely to suffer from drouth, the ground should 
be covered with a good mnleh of saw-dust. If 
they are left in the seed-bed over the first win- 
ter, they will need to be covered with leaves. 
American Wines. 
Those who have only seen the sugared liquids 
often presented as wines, can have no idea of 
the wine producing capabilities of our native 
grapes ; and very few are aware of the large 
amount of capital already invested in wine 
making, or of the excellent quality of the 
wines produced at first class establishments. 
At Hammondsport, N. T., the Pleasant Valley 
Wine Company, the oldest iu that vicinity, has 
already established a reputation for its Still and 
Sparkling Catawba, and other winesj and it pro- 
poses to compete, in the way of sparkling wines, 
with the products of the French vineyards, at 
the Paris Exposition. The Urbana Wine Co., 
at the same place, though not yet fully in opera- 
tion, has the capital and means to carry on the 
business on an extensive scale. At the exhibi- 
tion of the Lake Shore Grape Grower's As- 
sociation, we saw about a hundred samples 
wine, some of them from well known makers, 
and . others from those of less reputation. 
The character of these wines was of a high 
average, and some samples remarkably fine. 
Aside from the wen-known Catawba and Dela- 
ware, the first prizes for which were taken by 
W. P. Anderson & Co., Cincinnati, there were 
some kinds not often seen. A specimen of 
Clinton showed that the wine making capabili- 
ties of this grape have been overlooked. This, 
and a creditable sample of Concord, were shown 
by the Lake Shore Wine Co., Brocton, N. Y.. 
and took a well deserved premium. Norton'* 
Virginia, of which but little is known at the 
East, gives a dark red wine, of a peculiar flavor 
that is usually unpleasant to those who are mi- 
accustomed to it, but it is highly esteemed 
by man}'. W. P. Anderson & Co. took the 
premium in this class. The wine which 
deservedly attracted the most attention, both 
on account of its rarity aud fine quality, 
was that from Ives' Seedling, exhibited by J. 
M. M'Cullough, Cincinnati. It is a red wine, 
somewhat like Burgundy, and gives promise 
that we shall not long depend on foreign coun- 
tries for a supply of wines of this character. 
Many other noteworthy samples were exhibited 
which we should be glad to speak of, if we 
had space. In the discussious of the conven- 
tion, very strong grounds were taken against 
the addition of anything — even grape sugar — 
to grape juice in order to make wine. It is 
probable that the many plantations of Iona will 
in the coming season be in bearing, and thi< 
variety lie sufficiently abundant to allow it lo 
be made inlo wine in a quantify large. enough 
to give it a fair trial. From a sample made in 
a small way, as well as tests, we have seen of the 
must, something remarkable mav be looked for 
Variegated Evergreens are becoming quite 
numerous; among the recent ones Are a silver 
leaved variety of C'uprensus Lawsoniana : said 
to be very line, and a variety of x. quoia gigdntea 
(Wellingtonia of the English), with yellow 
markings upon the leaves. The Golden Yew, 
a marked variety of the European Yew, is re- 
presented iu this country by some line speci- 
mens. In the spring nothing is more beautiful 
iu the way of " foliage plants," than this shrub. 
