1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
in constitution for the general use of farmers. I 
then commenced crossing the "Alderneys" with 
nil these breeds, and after careful observation I 
am convinced that Alderneys crossed with Ayr- 
shires produce the best and most desirable cow 
to be had for all purposes. The Ayrshires are of 
good size, extremely hardy, and good milkers, 
but the quality of milk is no better than the Dev- 
ons, natives, etc. ; but cross the Alderneys with 
them and you get a hardy animal, with the rich 
milking quality of the Alderney. You increase 
the size over the thorough-bred Alderney. Half 
Alderney and half Ayrshire is, I think, the very 
best cow extant. I have now in my herd several 
heifers of this cross, three years old last spring, 
that the past season gave 12 to 14 quarts milk 
per day each, and made 12 pounds of splendid 
butter per week on good pasture. If the farm- 
ers in the dairy sections of onr country would 
try t lie crossing of their present breeds of cows 
with thorough-bred Alderney bulls, they would 
great ly improve their stock, increase both the 
quantity and quality of their butter, and benefit 
the millions of consumers of these articles of 
necessity and luxury in every family. T. F. 
Ni»ht Soil as a Manure. 
The use of night soil as a fertilizer has fre- 
quently been advocated in these columns, aud 
we have endeavored to show how a generally 
wasted article might he turned to account. Re- 
cently we have had sent to us, by several corres- 
pondents, an article that originally appeared in 
the Springfield Republican, which we quote : 
"Very severe prohibitions have been issued 
in France, England aud Germany, against the 
use of pondrette, imperfectly prepared, it hav- 
ing been proven by careful experiments that the 
fecal matter of sinks cannot be converted wkh 
safety into garden manure under five years' 
careful preparation. Pestilential and other dis- 
eases are propagated by vegetables grown in 
soil thus manured. Yet, it is stated that these 
death-dispensing deposits are absolutely used in 
the market gardens around our large American 
cities in their natural state, and many of the 
frails and vegetables so grown can be told by 
the nostrils or the taste before they are cooked, 
and in the process of cooking. It is the opinion 
of skillful medical observers, that nearly all the 
novel diseases which now afflict many American 
cities, owe their origin to the organic diseased 
matter taken up by vegetables and fruits grown 
in soil dressed by "the fecal matter of the sinks, 
and transferred to the stomach. Galloping con- 
sumption in persons whose families have never 
been subject to this terrible disease have been 
t tared to the use of vegetables grown by pou- 
drette." 
These are serious charges, which if true would 
warrant the denunciation contained in the arti- 
cle, and onr readers need not be told that if there 
were the least foundation for such an alarming 
report we should not only not advocate the use 
of night soil, but he among I lie first to condemn 
it. Let us look a little at. the alleged facts ii\ the 
above statement Are there any "prohibitions" 
in France, England and Germany ? As to the 
last named country, we cannot speak so posi- 
tively, but in England, the use of city sewage 
ha9 been attended witli such profitable results, 
that one of tiie important problems of the day 
is, to increase its employment, and prevent a 
fearful waste. In olden times, 1789, there was a 
prohibition in France, but the restriction was 
long ago removed, and we are quite certain that 
it lias not been renewed, as the most recent 
French work on gardening, only a few weeks 
old, speaks of the use of night soil. The work 
of M. Gressent, 1865, gives plans of some of the 
celebrated market gardens, in which are tanks 
for holdiug liquid manure, made from this 
" death dispensing deposit." Joigneaux, in the 
most recent aud most elaborate work on gar- 
dening yet published in France, says that the 
exclusive use of fecal matters may give a bad 
flavor to vegetables, but advises their use wheu 
composted with other matters. It is verv pro- 
bable that a plant, especially an edible root, if 
grown in ground containing a large quantity of 
recent night soil, would have an unpleasant 
flavor. Yet we have eaten vegetables from a 
garden where this manure was used exclusively 
for a series of years, and though our prejudices 
kept us on the lookout for something unpleas- 
ant in their flavor, we failed to detect it. 
In China and Japan their success in gardening 
— for their agriculture is almost all gardening — 
has for centuries depended upon the use of this 
manure, as they have scarcely any other. 
As to the medical view of the case, no names 
being given to the "medical observers" we 
attach no weight to their " opinion." As far as 
negative testimony to this point goes r we have 
consulted with two of the most eminent physi- 
cians — men who are known everywhere as 
among the first in their profession— and they 
have never heard of, or read of, any disease being 
attributed to the use of vegetables treated with 
this manure. 
In all cases we have advised the composting 
and deordorizing of the night soil, and we be- 
lieve that wheu prepared thus, it may be used 
with as much safety as any other fertilizer. We 
regret that a paper so generally correct as the 
Springfield Republican, should have given what 
seems to us an unfounded and needless alarm. 
Sense at the " Farmers' Club." — Doubt- 
less many who read the reports of the so-called 
Farmers' Club, really believe that a meeting of 
farmers assembles in New York to discuss 
farming matters. It is simply a miscellaneous 
gathering, including persons, who, by carrying 
on business in the city, are enabled to keep up a 
farm in the suburbs; doctors whose practice does 
not seem to occupy all their time ; meu who 
have given up farming to earn a living by their 
wits, aud everlasting talkers, who are always 
delighted with the sound of their own voices. 
These people get together and discuss, with 
equal gravity, tbe influence of the moon, or the 
last invention in the way of bitters. The re- 
ports of what they do are about the funniest 
reading extant, and were it not for their comical 
character, it would be a great waste of paper 
on the part of the Tribune to publish them. 
These reports, however, have some good things 
put in by the reporter, or from his correspon- 
dence ; these save the whole thing from being 
utterly ridiculous. Of late, the Club, having ex- 
hausted agriculture, have turned their attention 
to medicine — and as the talkers there seem to 
know as much about one subject as they do about 
another, they discoursed about curing fever and 
ague as glibly as they would the sticking of pigs. 
There is no knowing but the Club would have 
exhausted medicine and tried its facile hand at 
thei dogy, had not a live farmer happened in, who 
entertained the singular notion that a Farmers' 
Club was for the purpose of discussing farming. 
We read in the report : " Dr. Hexamer in- 
veighed at some length against the discussion of 
medical questions by a Farmers' Club." Keep 
on, Doctor, with your "inveighing;" you used to 
bo a good practitioner before you turned fanner, 
and if you will only cure the Farmers' Club of 
encoethes loquendi, we shall believe that your 
skill is equal to the most desperate cases. 
How Hew York is Supplied, with Flowers- 
In a large city the sale of cut flowers, in the 
form of bouquets, baskets, table decorations, and 
tbe like, in the aggregate amounts to a very 
large sum. Every wedding, party, or similar 
occasion makes a great demand for flowers, and 
during the holidays all the sources of supply 
are taxed to their utmost. It wonld not be ex- 
travagant to estimate the expenditure for flowers 
in New York City on New Years day at from 
thirty thousand to forty thousand Dollars. 
The little bunch of violets offered on the 
streets, by the flower girls, for a dime, as well 
as the choice bouquet furnished at the florists' 
stores for $20 and upwards, all require flow- 
ers, and for a good part of the year flowers that 
are grown under glass. In all sorts of odd aud 
out of the way places we find small greenhouses, 
in which these are produced. The neighborhood 
of Hohoken, N. J., is especially noted for the 
quantity of flowers produced by the German 
growers. These are frequently mechanics, shoe- 
makers, tailors, etc., who have small glass struc- 
tures, and generally grow but one or a few kinds 
of flowers. One will grow violets, another car- 
nations, another heliotropes, aud so on. By giv- 
ing attention to only one or two varieties, these 
humble cultivators often attain greater perfec- 
tion in their products than do larger establish- 
ments where there are many varieties. The 
flowers are gathered from these places by mid- 
dlemen, who bring them to New York for sale 
to the bouquet makers. These flowers are cut 
with great care, and the buyer gets flowers only, 
without any extra buds, aud seldom any stem. 
Indeed, the bouquet maker can furnish a better 
stem, for his purposes, from a bit of broom corn 
or a sliver of wood, than the one naturally be- 
longing to the flower. The greeu-houses refer- 
red to are, however, small affairs when compar- 
ed with the large establishments, in which suf- 
ficient capital allows the erection of the best 
houses and the use of all the modern appliances. 
One of the most extensive florists' establish- 
ments in the vicinity of New York, is that of 
John Henderson <fc Co., Flushing, L. I., where 
the production of cut flowers is made the lead- 
ing business. The range of glass is extensive, 
there being twelve houses, each 100 feet long, 
built on the low roofed plan, described in Oct., 
18(35 ; these houses are all side by side, on what 
is called the ridge and furrow system. Besides 
houses there is about as much area occupied by 
buildings of other styles. The camellia house is 
very spacious, and the camellias are planted out 
in the open ground of the house. Each of the 
twelve buildings above referred to is generally 
occupied by one kind of plant. To look through 
a house a hundred feet long, entirely filled with 
Carnations, Bouvardias, or other plants, has a 
singular effect Those who pel a single plant 
with great can- will experience no great amount 
of pleasure at seeing things they have learned 
to regard as individuals, massed into such 
crowds, and with no more personal identity than 
a soldier in an army. In looking through such 
an establishment, one almost g»ts tired of flow- 
ers. A sheet of scarlet is seen in one house, a 
broad bed of white in another, lavender color in 
another, and one goes away with his senses of 
Sight aud smell so overwhelmed by quantity that 
he has lost all idea of quality. It is only wheu 
the individual flowers get out of the crowded 
green-houses, and passing through the hands 
of the expert bouquet-maker are worked up in- 
to beautiful combinations, that they again se»m 
to us objects of beauty, and not stock in trade. 
