78 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD. NO. 9. 
ovina,) Fig. 20 ; The Hard Fescue, (F. duriuscula,) 
Fig. 21 j and the Floating Fescue, (F. fluitans,) 
Fig. 22, are all indigenous to this country, and 
good pasture grasses. The last two are good hay 
grasses, though the former is rather diminutive. 
The floating fescue requires to grow in a very wet 
and strong clay soil, when it will be found to yield 
a large burthen of nutritive forage. The seeds are 
small but abundant, sweet, and fattening. All fowls 
are f ond of the seed, and all animals of the seed 
and herbage. 
Fig. 22. 
Fig. 23. 
Orchard, or Cock's Foot Grass, (Dactylis glome- 
rata,) Fig. 23 is indigenous, and for good arable soils, 
and especially for such as are shaded, it is one of 
the most profitable of grasses grown. It should be 
cut for hay before it is ripe, as in seeding it be- 
comes coarse and hard, and is less acceptable to 
cattle. It is ready for the scythe with the clover, 
and after cutting, it immediately springs up and 
furnishes three or four crops of hay, or constant 
pasturage throughout the season. It should be fed 
closely, to secure a tender, succulent herbage. The 
seed is remarkably light, weighing 12 or 15 lbs. 
per bushel. Twenty to thirty pounds are usually 
sown upon one acre; yet ten pounds on finely-pre- 
pared soils have been known to produce a good sod, 
over the entire ground. It flourishes from Maine 
to Georgia. 
American, or Swamp Cock's Foot, (D. cynosu- 
rbides,) is an indigenious swamp grass, yielding a 
large amount of grass or hay of inferior quality. 
Biennial Rye Grass, or Ray Grass, (Lolium 
perenne, or bienne.) Fig. 24, and Italian Rye Grass 
are highly esteemed grasses in Europe. They have 
been more or less cultivated in this country for 
many years. They were not successful on their 
first introduction here, owing to our severe frosts. 
Recent experiments, however, have shown them to 
be sufficiently hardy for the middle states; and 
they are now extensively cultivated in the neigh- 
borhood of New York, where they are highly es- 
teemed both for hay and pasturage. On good soils, 
they yield large returns of valuable forage. It is 
better to sow early in the spring, either by itself or 
with barley. With oats or wheat, it does not suc- 
ceed so well. When put in with Timothy and 
orchard grass, the latter has usurped the place of 
both the others in a few years. Heavy clay lands 
are liable to throw out the roots by frost, and thus 
winter-kill. 
Fiorin Grass, (Agrostis stolonifera,) Fig. 25, has 
been much lauded in England of late, but it has 
made little progress in the estimation of American 
farmers, and probably with sufficient reason. It is 
a diminutive grass, affording considerable nutriment 
in a condensed form, and is adapted to a winter 
pasture. It grows on a moist clay or boggy soil. 
Fig. 24. 
Fig. 25. 
It is probably on such, and in moist climates only, 
that it attains its full size, character, and value. 
Many results have been attained with it in England 
and Ireland, which would seem to commend it, as a 
valuable forage plant, in its appropriate soil and 
climate. Several of the fiorin family abound in 
this country, among which is the squitch, couch, 
or quick grass, which are considered as pests in 
the cultivated fields. — Allen's American Farm Book. 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD.— NO. 9. 
Pickles. — These, it is well known, are generally 
vegetable substances, infused in vinegar, and sea- 
soned with spices or aromatic substances of various 
kinds. In some, the chief aim of the manufacturer 
is to render them as white as possible, as onions, 
cauliflowers, &c. ; in others red, as cabbages and 
tomatoes; and lastly, in others green, as cucum- 
bers, gherkins, the pods of beans, capsicums, &c. ; 
and it is the last-named class with which we have 
principally to deal; for, in the greater part of them, 
their green color is due to the presence of copper. 
Indeed, some go so far as to assert that it is impos- 
sible to make green pickles without the use of this 
metal. This, however, would seem to be disproved, 
if the directions given at p. 290, in our sixth vol- 
ume be correct. 
It has been the custom from time immemorial to 
use copper for the purpose of imparting a green 
color to pickles, as may be gathered from many 
books on cookery, and in fact, most of those ordi- 
narily sold in market, are contaminated with this 
metal, and sometimes it is practiced to an alarming 
extent. 
In some of the recipes for greening pickles, it is 
recommended to boil the vinegar in a bell-metal or 
copper pot, and pour it boiling hot on the substance 
to be pickled; in others, a mixture of verdigris, 
(diacetate of copper,) distilled vinegar, alum, and 
salt are recommended ; and in a third method, this 
system of poisoning is made more simple and easy 
by scalding the substances to be pickled in a brass 
