172 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
“One of the chief objections urgei against their culture 
is, that, not being killed by winter, they will grow up 
amongst crops . which succeed them, and thus prove 
troublesome. Where I grew my crop in 1857, 1 raised 
tomatoes in 1858. I found no trouble. This objection 
becomes a valuable quality if planted in a waste piece of 
land ; as the crop will perpetuate itself. The Jerusalem 
Artichoke certainly deserves more attention from the 
farmers of the United States than it has yet received. 
“The agricultural press of our country recommend the 
cultivation of root crops for stock. I have tried, in years 
past, the mangel- wurtzel, and ruta-baga, and, owing to 
the great expense of culture — keeping out weeds when 
quite young— gave them up as unprofitable— much as I 
like to see dumb animals enjoy green provender during 
the dry season. But with the Artichoke we can well af- 
ford to feed. Another advantage they possess ouer root 
crops generally, is this: the.beets and ruta-bagas must have 
the best land, while the Artichoke can be put on a rough 
side-hill, and if just cleared, can be put in with a mattock. 
They do without cultivation. My crop noticed in this 
communication, was passed through once with a shovel 
plow only. My crop of 1858 1 shall not dig a*til March, 
as that is the time I most need them, and they keep in 
the ground as nicely as anywhere. 
Some of your readers wish to know if they can get the 
seed by mail. I answer, yes. 1 will exchange with any 
person having other valuable seed which I may want, or 
any person sending postage stamps sufficient to pay post- 
age and remuneration for trouble, shall have their orders 
fulfilled. Of course small tubers will be selected. A few 
ounces would produce enough for a large plantation the 
second year, W. W. Rathbone. 
Clifton Gardens and Nurseries^ ') 
Marietta, Ohio, Jan., 1859. j 
TURPENTINE AND ITS USES. 
There are several hundred stills for the manufacture 
of spirits of turpentine in the State of North Carolina 
alone, while the States bordering on the Mississippi are 
all more or less engaged in it. The uses of rosin and tur- 
pentine seem to increase with every development of in- 
ventive talent. In painting, in printing, in soap making, 
and especially in lighting, its use seems to be almost uni 
versal. It forms an important element in many chemical 
operations, and it is estimated, in a late communication to 
the London Society of Arts, that from two to three hun- 
dred thousand dollars worth is consumed annually in the 
American India-rubber manufactories. From seventeen 
thousand to twenty-two thousand tons have been import- 
ed into England annually for many years past, and almost 
exclusively from the United States. Spirits of turpentine 
is obtained by distilling with water the semi fluid sap or 
pilch which exudes from incisions made in the wood of 
various species of pine ; the product left after distillation 
isarosinous solid, which is properly termed resin or 
rosin- Camphene, which is extensively used in lamps, 
as a substitute for oil, is spirits of turpentine purified by 
repeated distillations. Burning fluid is a solution of rec- 
tified turpentine or camphene in alcohol, the tendency of 
the turpentine is smoke being diminished by the addition 
of alcohol, Camphene and burning fluid, although high- 
ly inflammable, are not of themselves explosive ; a mix- 
turi?, however, of the vapor of these liquids with atmos- 
pheric; air is highly explosive, and igniting at a distance 
at the approach of the slightest spark or flames, is apt to 
communicaJe fire to the liquids themselves. Burning 
fluid, being mur.h more volatile than camphene, is much 
more dangerous. Oil of turpentine is extensively used as 
a solvent for rosins in the manufacture of varnish, and in 
the preparation of paintst; also, to some extent, in medi- 
cine. 
THE HONEY QUESTION, ONCE MORE. 
Editor Southern Cultivator- I shall have very 
little to say in reply to the communication of Dr, Baker, 
which Appeared in your last number, indeed I believe I 
would have been quite willing to leave the whole matter 
in the position the Doctor has left it, had he not thought 
proper to submit to me a few direct questions. Respect for 
him demands that I should answer his queries, and in 
doing so I shall incidentally notice some other points in- 
troduced in his article. 
In the first place, I do not consider that the merits of 
the question at issue, are either impaired or benefitted by 
the Doctoi’s declaration, that his contribution to the Medi- 
cal Journal was not intended as a reply to a short one of 
mine, which appeared in the same paper. I did not say 
that it was — I said it was intended as a partial reply, and 
said so becausel thought the phraseology: “The chiefobject 
of this communication is to combat the jerroneous, yet al- 
most universal impression, that bees extract honey from 
flowers, &c,” warranted me in the use of the expression. 
So much, then, by way of apology. 
Dr. Baker says that “it is known that the subject in 
dispute,” (that is, whether bees depend wholly on honey 
dew for their supply of honey,) “is of little moment in a 
practical point of view.” I disagree with him, and boldly 
declare that I believe no question can be so trivial as not 
to merit the consideration of intelligent men, if, in so do- 
ing, light can be made to shine from darkness ; and may 
I not hope that the Doctor will lend his aid in removing 
some of the superstitions under which men are laboring, 
even those “who study nature, not from books, but as 
they find it, in God’s wide universe I” But to proceed. 
In support of the assertion that bees never starve when 
they can leave the hive, I give my own, supported 
by the experience of of others, with such information as 
may be obtained from other sources. I would here inform 
Dr. Baker that my hives are not surrounded by sugar 
hogsheads, &c., but are three miles off from these re- 
sources,. yet my city friends, who have any sweets about 
them, can attest that their neighbor’s bees are quite a nuis- 
ance to them during the summer season. Now, am I to 
understand the Doctor to mean that bees visit these places, 
not to get wherewith to store in their combs, but simply 
sustenance for themselves 1 He certainly must mean that, 
for he says, “the hunter would not have been afraid of 
his bees starving had they been provided with syrup, <fec., 
though with these resources at hand, he might have re- 
mained solicitous about his honey crop.” (The reader 
will please refer to the Doctor’s article.) 
Dr. Baker desires me to assign a reason why the hun- 
ter’s bees had collected no honey up to the middle of 
June. I wish it distinctly understood I have no dis- 
position to make an issue of veracity, but I will say, that 
ifthe Doctor would turn his attention to bee-keeping for 
a while, he will meet, in the course of his experience, with 
many more wonderful things than the one to which he 
has called my attention; he would find that it is quite a 
difficult thing to ascertain the quantity of honey a hive 
may contain, even with the aid of the glass window, for 
the reason that too small a portion of the comb is exposed 
to view. Up to the time of the invention of glass hives, 
by Miraldi, a mathematician of Nice, very little of the in- 
door proceedings of bees was known, and even at this 
day, with all the ingenious contrivances of men, there is 
much mystery to be removed in the economy of this won- 
derful insect. In relation to the case in point, I am very 
certain that the hunter’s hives contained much more 
honey than he supposed, and that the god-send, in the 
form ofhoney-dew, enabled the bees to fill their combs 
sooner than if they had to continue to draw on the flow- 
ers; but of two things the Doctor may rest assured, and 
that is, that the old hunter’s bees were not in the least 
