168 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
GRAVEL WALL, OR CONCRETE HOUSES. 
Mr. Francis Gillette, of Hartford, Conn., writing to 
the '■^Hom&leady' bears the following testimony to the 
economy and durability ol the Gravel Wall: 
Having been often asked my opinion of the concrete or 
gravel wall style of building, — whether it is equal or su- 
perior to other styles, and its relative cost, — I take this 
mode of answering the inquiry, for the information of all 
persons who may be interested in the subject. 
I am every way pleased with the gravel wall, and 
think it superior, in all respects, to any other. It is now 
nearly three years since I built a large square walled 
dwelling-house of tnis material, and I have found it to 
combine every quality desirable in the walls of such a 
structure. It is perma7ient^ not having settled or cracked. 
It is warm in winter, and cool in summer. It is entirely 
free from dampness^ even in the dampest dog-days, no 
•moisture having at any time been detected on the interior 
surface, though plastered directly upon the wall, without 
.furring out, as is customary in stone or brick walls. 
Jlaving formerly occupied a stone house, which was at 
times damp, though furred out and built with great care, 
the contrast in this respect is very noticeable. Being 
thus plastered directly upon the wall it affords 7io harbor 
race-course for vermin, to chase up and down, at all hours, 
day and night, more to their own amusement than to the 
entertainment of the hopeless occupants within. It holds 
the stucco perfectly, the surface being rough and admiiably 
suited to this style of finisih. It is cheap, costing in this 
vicinity, where gravel and filling stone are easily obtain- 
ed, about one third the price of brick. Indeed, with my 
present experience, I could build at even a less compara- 
tive cost, perhaps one quarter. 
All things considered, I am so well satisfied with the 
concrete or gravel wall, that should I build again, I should 
prefer it to any other material with which I am acquain- 
ted, even at the same cost. 
In conclusion I will volunteer one suggestion as to the 
manner of constructing the wall. I pursued the common 
mode and used “flisks,” or boxes in laying the wall. 
Were I to build again, I should cast the material before- 
hand, in rough boxes of the width of the wall and of any 
convenient length, and lay the blocks thus cast in mor- 
tar. This mode has many advantages. AH danger from 
rain while the walls are still green and liable to washing 
is thus obviated ; the walls can be made parfectly true 
and perpendicular without the constant trouble of moving 
and adjusting the flasks, which are very liable to be 
moved out of place; juts and angles can easily be ac- 
commodated to the shape of the wall, and the builder’s 
• taste can be gratified in this respect as readily as by any 
other material. Instead of the square or octagon form, 
best suited to the flask mode of construction, he can 
adopt the cottage, or any other style, however irregular 
and angular. 
I shall be pleased to communicate any information 
which my experience may have afforded me, in relation 
to the details of this mode of building, believing it to be 
. highly conducive in the promotion of domestic economy 
._and comfort. 
Preserving Dried Fruit. — One day last week, while 
•.purchasing a lot of dried fruit, we discovered small 
^pieces of sassafras bark mixed amongst it, and, upon 
inquiry, were informed that it was a preventive against 
the worms. It is said that dried fruit put away with a 
Uttle bark, (say a large handful to the bushel,) will save 
foryeaT®> unmolested by those troublesome little insects, 
which so often destroy hundreds of bushels in a single 
season. The remedy is cheap and simple, and we ven- 
ture to say a good one —Lexington (S'. C.) Flag. 
CHINESE AND SOUTHERN TEA. 
The Patent Office is in receipt of a communication, from 
Mr. W. W. Hazzard, St. Simon’s Island, in Glynn county, 
Georgia, in which the writer requests to be allowed to 
make some experiments with the Chinese tea plant seed, 
&c., recently imported. He encloses in his letter some 
cuttings of a plant found in his own neighborhood, which 
he calls the Georgia tea plant, and the inference to be 
drawn fro.m his remarks is that the plant is good as a sub- 
stitute for the Chinese tea. His object in forwarding 
the sprigs in question is to have them compared with the 
imported plant, under the supposition that they are either 
identical, or of a similar species. He says the plant is 
indigenous to his vicinity of the State and found in great 
abundance. He speaks of the climate as being very mild, 
and says that the date and banana produce fruit there, 
which matures in favorable seasons ; and he thinks, there- 
fore, that it is a locality peculiarly adapted to experiment- 
ing with the Chinese tea plant. 
[The plant forwarded to the Patent Office, by Mr. Haz- _ 
ZARD, was probably the Yopon {Ilex Vomitoria). It 
grows spontaneously along our Southern Atlantic coast, 
from Virginia to Florida, is sometimes called “ North 
Carolina Tea,” and is fully described in our 15th volume, 
(1856) page 140— also, in last year’s volume, (1858) page 
29.— Ed ] 
CHINESE SUGAR CANE IN FRANCE. 
Wm. B. Hodgson, Esq , of Savannah, Ga., in a letter 
of Mr. Gardner, published in the Constitutionalist, of 
this city, says: 
“The immediate purpose of this letter, is to bring to 
your notice a new treatise on the culture of Chinese Su- 
gar Cane, (Holcus Saccharatus) by Monsieur Hippolyte 
Leplay, which I have just received from Paris. This 
plant. Sorghum, having rather fallen into disrepute among 
some of our planters, I therefore attach a greater interest 
to this work. 
“Mr. Leplay treats this plant, principally, in the light 
of its commercial value. It has been regarded by our- 
selves in the light of its economic value, or use for home 
consumption. The author treats of its properties for 
producing sugar and alcohol, or spirits. In common 
with my fellow planters, I have only sought to obtain 
from it syrup^ox plantation use, and forage for cattle. To 
this extent, I must speak well of its economic value ; and 
ray preparations, after some experience, are now made 
to obtain two thousand gallons of syrup. 
“The operations of Mr, Leplay have been conducted in 
Languedoc and Provence, whose climate approximates to 
our own, if it be not its isotherm. He established sugar 
mills at different points, to which the cane was brought 
and sold. The price which he paid was twenty francs 
(about three dollars and eighty cents) for the weight of 
one thousand kilogrammes, or about two thousand two 
hundred pounds, From one hundred and eighty proprie- 
tors he purchased two million eight hundred thousand 
pounds of cane, which were reduced to sugar and alco- 
hol. He estimates that the farmers cleared sixty dollars 
to the acre, by the sale of cane. A better cultivation, 
he thinks, would bring up the yield to one hundred dol- 
lars per acre. 
“In the manufacture of sugar, he made numerous ex- 
periments, on the relative saccharine value of the cane, 
at different stages of maturity. He traces this up, from a 
point of imperfect vegetation, where the saccharometer, 
or sugar guage, indicated zero, as the sugar property of 
the cane juice. Then he measured its saccharine proper- 
