REVIEW OF THE DECEMBER NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
85 
long and become so old that they had grown grey, 
(or else I had,) and they grew trees and bore more 
seeds that grew more trees and multiplied amaz- 
ingly. And I'll tell you how I made 'em grow. I 
poured boiling-hot ley on them, and when they 
got cold, I planted them in good rich earth. And 
I advise everybody, to plant locust seeds and trees; 
for, behold it is good so to do. 
Rough Notes by the Way, No. 4. — This may be 
a good enough title, (for what's in a name ?) but 
the true meaning title to the story is, — " The way 
the rough path of life is easily made smooth." 
And it is told, too, in that pleasing manner that our 
worthy old friend always tells his pleasant stories. 
May he long live to take notes and tell tales, with- 
out ever finding a rough note in the remaining 
short way of a long life. Here is a true specimen 
of a book farmer described — a young man at the 
age of 28, who finding it needful ; perhaps, to 
change his business, voluntarily apprentices him- 
self to the trade of a farmer, and by close applica- 
tion to work and study for one year, he becomes 
not only able to manage for himself, but capable 
of learning a lesson to his neighbors who had 
spent their lives in the trade. No doubt they were 
surprised to see the sandy worn-out hills of a Jer- 
sey farm rise again into fertility, under the opera- 
tion of his workings of magic, the secret of which 
he found, not where truth is buried, in the bottom 
of a well, but in the bottom of a well-mudded pond. 
The Striped Bug. — This is an excellent and 
cheap way to get rid of the striped bug. I wish 
we could get rid of the striped pig as easy. 
Farmers shoidd Write for Agricultural Jour- 
nals. — So they would if it were not for that eternal 
ding-dong kept up by those whose heads are as 
empty of everything, but sound, as those articles 
that only make a noise when their clappers are 
foing ding-dong, ding-dong. They are afraid of 
eing ridiculed as book farmers. This is another 
of the important reasons why this tirade of ridicule 
should be overborne. We can do it if we try. 
Sunfloiver- Seed Oil. — There is no doubt but the 
same principle, if not the same machine, which 
hulls buckwheat or rice, will answer the purpose 
of hulling sunflower seed, and that the product of 
oil would be largely increased, though not so much 
as Mr. Danforth has stated. The same machine, 
too, would answer to hull cotton seed, from which 
many thousand barrels of oil might be annually 
extracted that is now wasted — literally wasted. 
without even using it for manure, as may be seen 
in many places in the cotton region, as we are told. 
There is another thing, too, that I have no doubt 
of ; several of the oil-growing plants might be culti- 
vated as a crop in the region where Mr. D. lives, 
to a much greater profit than the " great staple" can 
be. And I am glad to see the right spirit moving — 
the spirit of inquiry. I cannot answer the question 
of what would be the cost of mill and press, or I 
would with great pleasure. 
The School House. — Having never in youthful 
days been in so good a looking one as this, I dare 
not venture now. But the article is such an inte- 
resting one that I beg every reader to bear it in 
mind, and never rest until he obtains a school 
house in his own district, just as good, if not just 
like it. Above all things don't forget the ventila- 
tion. Having myself so long depended upon the 
wind, I am a strong advocate for a fresh breeze. 
Agricultural Botany, No. 2. — From the great 
respect and esteem that I have for Dr. Darlington, 
who I am proud to say is a personal friend of mine, 
I cannot pass this article carelessly by. He speaks 
of the excellence of corn bread of the south, where 
it is almost universally found upon all the breakfast 
tables, whether a slab or mahogany one, besides 
the hundred-and-one other ways in which this ex- 
cellent grain is cooked. One reason why southern 
corn bread is so much better than northern is, 
the quality of the corn, but the grand secret is in 
grinding. Yankee millers still persist in spoiling 
corn meal by close grinding. As to sugar from corn 
stalks, no sane man would ever think of it while 
cane sugar is less than five cents per pound, as it 
is now, and from the constantly-increasing crops 
of Louisiana, will continue to be most probably 
for a long time. 
' Kentucky Blue Grass. — I am bound to believe so 
good authority as Dr. Darlington, that this grass, 
and that known in our region as " green grass" is 
identical, and yet it does appear to me that the 
shape of the leaves are not alike — or is there two 
green grasses ? The Kentucky blue grass, also, 
" comes in" to every old Indian encampment from 
Detroit to Prairie du Chien. 
Spearmint. — This plant like the blue and green 
grasses, is so confounded and mixed up with pep- 
permint, that confound me if I can sort 'em out. 
Which is it that we Yankees use to make oil of, 
which said oil we use to scent oil of turpentine 
with, which we then sell as " oil of peppermint ?" 
Lobelia, or Indian Tobacco. — " This is an acrid 
plant, possessing emetic, cathartic, and narcotic 
properties " — stop, stop, Doctor, you are describing 
the real Virginia weed ; and that you know it is 
sacrilege almost to speak irreverently of in this 
very enlightened age and day of refinement. Re- 
finement in a tobacco chewer's mouth. Oh, bah ! ! 
Black Birch. — As in case of the blue and green 
grass, 1 should like to know if yellow birch is black. 
Perhaps if I had lived in my school -boy days, 
where them same ' ' virgate branches" grew, I 
should have found out that black birch was a 
" twig of another color." Seriously, I hope my 
friend, " a friend to farmers," will continue his se- 
lections for these pages, for it is a truth that the 
little, though very valuable pamphlet from which 
they are taken is scarcely known. 
Cultivating the Strawberry. — I wish Mr. Long- 
worth would give a statement of actual occurrences 
that have taken place at Cincinnati in this culture, 
which we could depend upon for correctness, and 
which would show well by the side of this state- 
ment. 
Two-Horse Wagons. — The one that you sold my 
neighbor Smith last fall for $90 is a most excellent 
wagon. But it is not so very good to haul hay 
upon, as one without springs. In driving over 
rough ground, the load has a tendency to spring 
off. One great complaint against the use of spring 
wagons for common use, is the additional height 
to lift the loading. Cannot this defect be remedied 
in a great measure ? It strikes me that it can. I 
