316 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
ISriuclkle's Orauge E£as»herry | 
Blighted.— A. S. Jack, Province of Quebec, Canada. 
You do not say whether your vines were protected in 
winter or not. From your description of the blight we 
should infer that it was caused by a cold and wet spell, 
just at blossoming time. This is a most critical period 
with all fruits, and unfortunately we cannot control the 
■weather. A cold rain, just when bushes or trees are in 
flower, prevents fertilization, and as a consequence we 
get very little, or no fruit. English gardeners often cover 
their dwarf pear trees with a screen or tent while in bloom. 
Musquito rVets or Bars for Win- 
dows.— These can easily be manufactured at home, and 
the pest of autumn be effectually barred out. First make 
a frame for the netting, that will just fit into the lower 
part of the window. If you have a pine board, a saw, and 
a jack plane, make them yourself; if not, you can 
buy mouldings about 1J£ inches wide, by % thick, for 
one to two cents a foot. With a knife, a fine saw and 
a few tacks or wooden pegs, the frame can he joined to- 
gether at the corners. Now stretch over it the mosquito 
netting, and fasten with tape and tacks, and your work 
is done. It is light and handy, and a great comfort in all 
regions where these insects flourish. We have just com- 
pleted four, and are ready for dog days. The netting cost 
sixteen cents each, and the material for the frames about 
twenty cents each. A boy or girl can readily make the 
frames, and sleep all the better for it. 
Sheep liaising' at the "West, — A gen- 
tleman in Illinois, after four years' experience in this 
business has discovered that his practice does not corres- 
pond with the theory of the papers. He says in the 
Prairie Farmer: " My losses have been greater; my per- 
centage of lambs less ; my weight of clip less ; the price 
obtained for my wool less, and I have been generally and 
particularly disappointed. Sheep bite so close than when 
a drouth comes it uses up a pasture much worse than 
■when stocked with cattle. I have about come to the con- 
clusion that one sheep will eat, of grass, as much as two 
steers." If his former conclusions are as reliable as this 
last, they will not be likely to damage sheep raising on 
the prairies very much. 
Wiegela Nivea. — Under this name, Mr. 
Geo. Such, South Amboy, N. J., sends us a Wiegela with 
pure white flowers.— Very beautiful. 
Making "Vinegar. — P. T. S. Hard cider 
will turn to vinegar very soon, by exposing it to the at- 
mosphere in a warm place. Allowing it to run slowly 
from one vessel into another, over a platform covered 
with oak shavings, will hasten the process. A few drops 
of red cabbage water will make the color a deeper red, if 
people desire it. 
Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 
lege. — Prof. Chadborne has resigned the Presidency. 
Prof. Wm. S. Clark, of Amherst College, has been elected 
President by the Trustees. Prof. E. S. Snell, also of Am- 
herst College, has been offered the Chair of Mathematics 
and Engineering, and Prof. H. H. Goodell, of Williston 
Seminary, East Hampton, MasB., has been appointed in- 
structor in French, Gymnastics, and Military Science. 
A Tree Swindle. — L. Newton, Washing- 
ton, Iowa, sends a leaf of a tree which some nurserymen 
are selling for " Silver Maple." The leaf is that of the 
Silver Poplar, or Abele— one of the worst nuisances 
among trees. It suckers so badly that it is unlit for any 
place except a paved street. The Silver-leaved Maple is 
Acer iasycavpum, also called White Maple, and in some 
places at the West, Soft Maple. The Soft Maple of the 
East is Acer rubrum., also called Red and Swamp Maple. 
Nutritive Value of" Corn of BfciUFer- 
eut Colors. — Wm. Bremmer, of Iowa, asks, "What is 
the nutritive value of our white western corn compared 
with the yellow or mixed V Color is no indication of 
nutritive value, except as it is a feature of a particular 
variety. The only reliable guide is tveight, when the va- 
rieties compared are of about the same degree of dryness, 
or have been exposed to the same conditions of tempera- 
ture, circulation of air, etc., for several weeks. The heav- 
iest corn will be found to be the most nutritive, provided 
both can be equally well digested. 
Much JLand to be Possessed.— New 
York, the great dairy State of the Union, is said to pro- 
duce less than a ton of hay to the acre on an average. 
The pastures are still less productive, for it is the best 
land that is kept in meadow. The Eastern Slates aver- 
age still less. There are large tracts that do not yield a 
dollar's worth of grass to the acre. We know of a 
twelve hundred acre farm that rents for a thousand dol- 
lars, and we suppose the rent is some criterion of its 
value. It is a sad sight to travel through such farms — 
often situated within a half hour'B ride of good markets, 
and behold the neglect and slovenly farming. What a 
good time there will be when these farms are redeemed, 
and made to yield their increase 1 He who has skill and 
capital, need not go West to find a profitable field for his 
investment. New England and New York can be more 
cheaply fed from their own soil, than from the prairies of 
the West and from the shores of the Pacific. California 
wheat for sale in Rochester 1 Ohio butter and cheese in 
New England 1 What a comment upon our husbandry 1 
English Market Keports.— £. s. d. 
" E. E.," of Philo, HI., reads the reports of foreign mar- 
kets, and asks the value of Pounds, Snillings, and Pence, 
Sterling. Sterling is the name applied to the currency of 
Great Britain, and means hard money. A pound Sterling 
(£) is worth, at par, $4.84; a shilling (s) is one-twentieth 
of a pound, hence worth 24 cents 2 mills; & penny (d) is 
one-twelfth of a shilling, hence is worth a little more 
than 2 cents. All these values are in gold, with exchange 
at par. Now our gold values are very different from pa- 
per or currency values, and this difference must be in- 
cluded in the calculation of values of grain, etc. Besides, 
the state of trade varies— at one time making the mer- 
chants of this country in debt to England, at which time 
the pound sterling is worth here more than $4.84 ; at an- 
other time the merchants of England are in debt to us, 
and then exchange is said to be m our favor, and the 
pound 1b worth less than its par value. A "quarter" 
is 8 bushels, and wheat is calculated at 60 pounds to 
the bushel ; hence the quarter of wheat is 4S0 pounds. 
SIolcus Tartaricum. — This year, a new- 
cereal has been advertised in England, under the name of 
Holcm Tartaricum and Sorghum Tartaricum. The Lon- 
don Field has tried seed from three sources, and thus re- 
cords its opinion : " Here then we have one of the gigan- 
tic humbugs of modern times ; but we ought to be thank- 
ful that the puffs were so big, and the seed so dear that 
little soil was wasted in the trials ; at the same time it is 
most devoutly to he wished, for the good of all, that mat- 
ters of this kind should not be so lavishly extolled with- 
out due trial, or very good evidence on the part of those 
by whom they are so authoritatively recommended." We 
quite agree with the ESfe, and give its caution for the 
benefit of our readers, as this " new cereal " will prob- 
ably make its way here. Prom all we can learn, it de- 
serves a place along side of JBromus Schrcederi. 
Value of Farms in Indiana. — In 
Marion County, in which the capital of the State is 
situated, farms will average $75 to the acre. This county 
is about twenty miles square, and contains some of the 
best land in the world. Nothing can exceed the fertility 
of the White River bottoms. The clay lands are not so 
valuable for 6ome purposes, and much better for others. 
Excellent farms, with comfortable buildings, can be 
bought in this State for $50 an acre, which would be 
worth $200 an acre in any part of Connecticut or Rhode 
Island. In Benton County, 24,000 acres of land were 
bought for about $6 an acre, and in this and the adjacent 
oounties, wild lands are still to be had for about that 
price. In Allen County, within a few miles of Fort 
Wayne, improved lands can be bought from $15 to $30 an 
acre. We were informed that farms with improvements 
upon them could be bought cheaper in this county than 
in any other part of the State. There are plenty of cheap 
farming lands in Indiana, and it Is unquestionably one of 
the best States for thriving Eastern people to go to. The 
land is superb, and only needs skill and capital to make 
its owners independently rich. 
B*rice of Laud in JPennsylvannia. 
— A subscriber inquires for the price of land in the Valley 
of the Susquehanna, Pa. In Buffalo Valley, which comes 
down upon the Susquehanna, at Louisburg and Milton, a 
district about ten miles broad by twenty long, the value 
of farms will average $150 per acre. In the Paradise Val- 
ley, on the opposite side of the river, the price of land 
is about the same. These lands are probably as produc- 
tive as any in the State. In the immediate vicinity of the 
large towus and villages, where there is a prospect of 
selling building lots, land is worth from $500 to $3000 
an acre. Good land in all the Valley of the Susquehanna is 
worth from $75 an acre upwards. The farms run large, 
and would probably average 150 to 200 acres to the farm. 
Back on the hills, remote from railroads and other priv- 
ileges, land can be had much cheaper, say from $15 to $30 
per acre, and is dearer than laud that costs ten times more. 
Sainton Culture in Australia is en- 
tirely successful. The eggs were carried 16,000 miles, 
packed in ice, and successfully hatched three years ago. 
This year they have a fine run of salmon up the Dei-went 
river, and a promise of abundance for home use and ex- 
port. These eggs were a magnificent present to that 
island continent. Let us profit by this example. 
Chess— the Crucial Test. — On page 
244, (July No. ,) we say : " When we can be shown a plant 
that is part wheat and part chess, we shall be willing to 
discuss the subject." Mr. P. P. Severance, of Greenfield, 
Mass., sends us two specimens of plants of wheat anci 
chess, growing with their roots so intertwined as to ap- 
pear to be but one plant. On putting them under a 
stream of water, and washing all the dirt off, the roots* 
slipped apart, and showed no sign of connection. If this 
is the best the transmutationists can do, we must still de- 
cline to " discuss the subject," — of wheat turned to chests. 
Barm Cellars. — In a recent trip through 
Connecticut and Massachusetts, we were struck with this 
almost universal appendage of new bams. They are 
generally built in the most substantial manner, and well 
supplied with muck. Farmers who economize as closely 
as New Englanders generally do, would hardly make this 
investment unless it paid. "We noticed also, that the best 
farms invariably were those that had the barn cellars. 
These are the stomachs of the farms, indispensable in the 
North, and soon to be so on the new farms of the West. 
Wilow Trees Ah out Wells.— A sub- 
scriber wishes to know if these will injure the water. 
The popular belief that they will is well founded. The 
roots will go very far and deep to find the water, and will 
impart vegetable matter to it which affects the taste. 
The leaves also will be likely to fall into the well and de- 
file it. All trees should be kept away from it, and the 
mouth of the well should have ventilation. The old sweep 
with an oaken bucket was useful in keeping away trees. 
Insects' Eggs. — Geo. Surface,Upshur,Ohio. 
The eggs are those of the tent caterpillar. We have more 
than once figured them. Remove all you can find. They 
do not hatch until spring, and are readily seen in winter. 
The State Alms-house at Palmer, 
Ittass., is a model institution of a model State, and 
well worth visiting for its lessons of economy in farm- 
ing. A poor worn-out farm has gradually been brought 
np to a high state of productiveness, by utilizing every 
thing that too often runs to waste in public institutions. 
The privies, the styes, the barn-yard, the waste water 
from the house, are all made to pay tribute to the soil. 
It stands on a beautiful eminence overlooking the vil- 
lage, and the meadows and gardens looked greener than 
ever, as we recently passed them. The inmates are not 
exactly self-supporting, but the cost of their maintenance 
is very much diminished by their location upon this farm. 
Salmon in the Connecticut. — Satis- 
factory laws, we are informed, have been passed by the 
Connecticut Legislature, just adjourned, for the protec- 
tion of this fish, according to the programme laid down 
by the New England Fish Commissioners. The eggs 
placed in the upper waters of the stream were hatched, 
and the young fry are said to be now making their first 
visit to the sea, in large numbers. In three years more 
we hope to he eating this fish from the Connecticut, 
whence it disappeared more than fifty years ago. Cheap 
salmon is a great desideratum in our markets, and with 
suitable legislation it can once more be realized. 
A Cheese Factory in £2n$>'lan<l. — 
A meeting was held in Cheshire, June 22d, to discuss a 
cheese factory, at which American example was quoted 
with favor. A committee was appointed to investigate 
the factory system and report. We are astonished at this. 
John is so confident that he can do everything better than 
his neighbors, that he seldom looks abroad for a new idea. 
He has been over thirty years trying to get so simple a 
thing as the connecting of a train of steam cars by a bell 
rope, through his head, and does not see it yet. If he sees 
a cheese factory before the inillenium, we shall be hap- 
pily disappointed. 
Sims and Evergreens. — G. W. "W., 
Green Castle, Ind. There is no elm equal to the Amer- 
ican, or White Elm. It bears removal better than any 
other tree, aud we have seen trees twenty to thirty feet 
high successfully transplanted. Of course, the tops must 
be cut back, in proportion to the shortening of the roots. 
They grow with great rapidity, and we should prefer trees 
of smaller size, say ten to fifteen feet high. As to the 
best evergreen for a door yard, our taste inclines to Hem- 
lock, though the Norway Spruce is more generally 
planted. Whatever one is chosen, always keep the upper 
branches from overhanging, and stifling the lower ones, 
