1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
75 
from Corinth. These were called “corinths,” whence 
the name currant. The dried fruit sold in the stores as 
.currants, are really small seedless grapes. A correspond¬ 
ent in a recent “ Gardener’s Chronicle ” gives an in¬ 
teresting account of their culture. It appears that their 
production is confined to a limited district on the Gulf 
of Patras, and that the vines taken elsewhere are so apt 
to produce fruit with seeds, that their culture can not be 
general in other localities. The vines are trained to 
stakes, until strong enough to support themselves, and 
found to yield, when in full bearing, from 50 to 90 bunches 
each. The best growers place the gathered bunches in 
trays, 6x3 feet, exposed to the sun. Should a rain come, 
the trays arc stacked in piles, with a temporary roof to 
protect them. The fruit falls from the bunches in about 
six days, and the drying is completed in about six days 
more. The average yield is about 25 cwt. per acre, valued 
at the place of export at about §100 per ton. The Sultana 
raisins are from another seedless grape, and their culture 
restricted to the hills about Smyrna. The clusters, when 
picked, are dipped in ley to which a little olive-oil is ad¬ 
ded ; this is thought to facilitate the drying. The ex¬ 
port of currants from Greece in 18T0 was 86.500 tons, and ■ 
that of Sultanas is about 10,000 tons annually. 
TTnc Atlas- or Otto of Roses.—The 
war in Turkey not only interrupts the production of 
wheat and other articles of food, but also thatof luxuries. 
The district of Kezanlik is the priecipal source of what 
is known as Attar .or Otto of Ros.es, which is properly 
the Oil of Roses, the others being Turkish names mean¬ 
ing perfume. According to a correspondent of the Lon¬ 
don “ Times,” the passage of the armies lias left hardly 
a house or a crop standing in the whole region, and those 
who indulge in the usually costly and much adulterated 
perfume, will have to pay still more for it. The roses are 
cultivated in hedges, and the flowers collected before sun¬ 
rise, are placed in a rude copper still with water, heat ap¬ 
plied, and the water that distils is collected ; after stand¬ 
ing a day or two. the small quantity of oil that distils 
over with the water, rises to the surface, is skimmed off. 
To produce one pound of oil, 2,800 pounds of roses are 
required, upon an average, though the yield is affected by 
the season, and is often much less. The annual yield of 
'this district was 1,800 pounds, and about as much more 
was produced in all the rest of the country. The per¬ 
fume is also produced in India,'at localities on the Ganges, 
and elsewhere, is all consumed in the country. 
S 8 .«smi» H® 5 owing-. — “ J. G.,” Polk Co., 
Minn. A steam plow is used by Landreth Bro., of Penn¬ 
sylvania, the extensive seed growers. We know of no 
others in use this side of Louisiana. There are thou¬ 
sands in use in Europe and many in Egypt. 
Aj|»|»E« Saas.”—In whatever the American 
agricultural and horticultural journals may be inferior 
to the English, it is not in courtesy to their readers. 
The English editor is often—to put it mildly—snap¬ 
pish. Our correspondents are often, no doubt, as un¬ 
reasonable as theirs, yet we should think it on the north 
Bide of politeness were we to adopt the manner of the 
"Gardener's Magazine,” and reply to a correspondent 
thus: ' * ‘ E. S.’ Not having time to name your thirty va¬ 
rieties of apples and pears, we have sent them to the 
kitchen, and have not seen them since,”—a plain case of 
"apple Baas.” 
Wall a Grain Drill Pay.-“ C. M. C.,” 
Bradford Co., Pa. A grain drill will cost about $80. 
Its use will save half a bushel of seed per acre, and add 
a few bushels per acre to the crop; it will also sow grass 
need and grain at the same time, and sow ten acres a day. 
One can easily see if it will pay to use a drill or not. 
JL®s»g' Bsiuasui E7 »ib«1m.—I nquiries are made 
by various western publishers about lands on long 
Island. It appears that nearly every paper in the north¬ 
west has received a proposition to give a named space in 
their advertising columns in exchange for a deed of an 
hereof land in Suffolk Co., L, I., and inquiries are made 
»s. to the character of the lands. Long Island is very 
iorig, and on it there is land and land ; having a friend 
who was "born and raised” not far from the tract in 
question, we made inquiries, and learn that this very 
land was sold not long ago for 50 cents an acre. Our 
iriend says it is the " sandiest kind of sand,” and gives 
it as his opinion that whoever buys an acre of it at any 
price "will got stuck." 
A. Novelty Fates.—An English fur- 
dealer thus winds up his advertisement: “ N. B.—Capes, 
Victorias, etc., made up for ladies in fashionable style, 
oat of their own skins The Italics are ours. 
TVoiable with Hydraulic Rsians,— 
"R. S. C.,” Wakefield, Mass. As water absorbs a cer¬ 
tain quantity of air, the air chamber of a ram in times be¬ 
comes emptied of air and filled with water. This will 
always happen sooner or later, as the water contains 
more or less air, or flows from a rapid stream or a quiet, 
spring. The remedy is to remove the air chamber and 
empty it of water ar.d replace it, whenever the ram stops. 
By not understanding this, many persons unjustly find 
fault with this useful machine. 
Air BSeneatli tl»e Skin.—“Mrs. B.,” 
Everett, Mass. The presence of air in the cellular tissue 
beneath the skin, causes soft fluctuating swellings. It is 
known as Emphysema, and occurs as a symptom in some 
acute diseases, and sometimes happens when no disease 
is apparent. It may disappear without treatment, leaving 
no ill effects, or be dislodged by puncturing the skin. 
Farm Apprentices.—“J. J. M.” We 
know of no one who would be willing to take a young 
man as a student on a well-managed farm, and give him 
board for his services. The services of a novice upon a 
well-ordered farm are worth less than nothing, because 
he requires to be shown how to do everything, which is 
more trouble than doing it without such help. It is 
customary that a certain sum be paid as an equivalent 
for the trouble of teaching a novice in farming. Gen¬ 
erally, $390 a year is charged, which covers board. 
Means for Cooliisag Feed for 
Pigs.—“ H. H.,” Shelborne, Vt. A common open ket¬ 
tle of large size, set in a brick arch, would serve very 
well to cook the food for 30 to 50 hogs. This would cost 
very much less than any of the other steaming appa¬ 
ratus made specially for this purpose. 
Huts and Nubbins. 
There are floating around in the daily papers, numerous 
items which may afford our readers a pleasant variety if 
introduced occasionally among our matter of fact teach¬ 
ings. We have a strong belief in the utility of fun and 
laughter, and in complying with suggestions from several 
that we occasionally give some humorous items, we have 
collected a large number from the newspapers of the 
day. Upon looking these over to make a selection for 
our columns, we were surprised to find how few of the 
whole we cared to print. Aside from those lacking 
point, many were really irreverent and making fun of 
those things which all right thinkiug persons regard as 
sacred ; others make light of marriage, and assume that 
the relation of husband and wife is of necessity one of 
mutual deception. A large share of fun is directed to 
the “mother-in-law.” It may be that there are such 
mothers-in-law as comic writers regard as the type of this 
excellent class of women, hut we are happy to say that 
we have met with none. If our selection of “Nuts and 
Nubbins ” is small, it is because we think it better not 
to be funny at. all, than to be so at the risk of injuring 
the feelings of any person or class. We take these items 
Wherever we find them, without crediting their sources. 
Greenland lias no cats. Imagine cats in a country 
where the nights are six months long. 
What is the difference between a hill and a pill ? One 
is hard to get up, and the other is hard to get down.” 
A person who had been listening to a very dull address 
remarked that everything went off well—especially the 
audience. 
The Stl :iciv Board is» ilse Sunday 
School, by Frank Beard. New York, Jesse Haney 
& Co. As its title implies, this is especially intended 
for Sunday School instruction, but it is very useful for 
one who would learn the art of black-board illustration 
for any other purpose. A handsome work flne/y and 
abundantly illustrated. 
Blow Snper|>liospltate is Made 
Ineffective.—“H. B. S.,” Franklin Co., Pa. Super¬ 
phosphate is simply insoluble phosphate of lime that 
lias been treated with sulphuric acid so as to separate a 
portion of the phosphoric acid from its base, the lime, 
and render it free and soluble. If the superphosphate 
is brought into contact with lime, as on newly limed 
land, the free phosphoric acid at once unites with the 
lime, goes back or “ reverts” to the condition in which 
it was previously, and becomes insoluble and inert. 
Therefore, when superphosphate is used ou land that 
contains fresh lime, it is practically useless, and is lost 
so far as present effects are concerned. Superphosphate 
should not be used until the second year after lime. 
A S*r®fi table Bleu.— F. R. Kinney, Wor¬ 
cester, Mass., sends a portrait of his brown Leghorn 
hen. (Red Ribbon 2d>, which has recently died, we sup¬ 
pose of old age, being ten years and two months old. 
During her life she laid 2,151 eggs, or an average of more 
than 210 each year of her life. This is not the only hen 
Mr. Kinney has had of this breed, that has been remark¬ 
ably prolific of eggs; this goes to prove the frequently 
published statement, that a hen can only lay about 600 
eggs in the course of her life, to be a mistaken one. Mr 
Kinney claims this hen to have been the most prolific 
one ever reported. 
Chemicals foi* Comjpost.—“ D. 8.,” 
Bell's Valley, Va. It is not proper to mix soluble chem- 
mical fertilizers in compost heaps. They are more ef¬ 
fective when used alone, and spread on the land at the 
season when they can do most good. For composts, those 
substances are needed which take some time to decom¬ 
pose, or those fermentable matters, which communicate 
their action to inert materials, and so cause them to rot 
more quickly. Lime or wood ashes may be used along 
with some yard manure, to set up a destructive fermen¬ 
tation in such matters as swamp muck, leaf-mold, or 
vegetable refuse; but the latter should be in the greater 
proportion than the former, else ammonia will be lost. 
IFalise of a Fertilizer.—“W. P.,” Cool 
Spring, Del. A fertilizer containing 2 J per cent ammonia, 
and 10} per cent soluble and available phosphoric acid, 
is worth in the market about $40 a ton. These are the 
usual constituents of what is known as “ammoniated 
dissolved bone,” or superphosphate. In thiB shape the 
ammonia costs 30 cents a pound, and the phosphoric 
acid 12 cents. Generally all the ground bone of respect¬ 
able manufacturers is pure ; that from glue factories be¬ 
ing deprived of its animal matter, is consequently devoid 
of ammonia; adulteration is only practised by obscure 
persons without reputation. If you buy from well known 
dealers or manufacturers, there is no risk of loss unless 
by accident, and then reparation will be cheerfully made. 
Milly (just returned from a visit to her grandmother); 
“ Mamma, what do you want a mamma for ? You’re too 
big to put in the closet.” 
A little girl, yesterday, while watching the rain, turned 
to her mother and said :—“ Ma, I guess the weather’s so 
warm it.’s melting the clouds.” 
The Intention of the old deacon was good, but the way 
in which he worded his notice was infelicitous. He said : 
“ Any members of this congregation who have left off 
4 wearing apparel will please contribute the same to the 
poor.” A quiet smile pervaded the house, and the peo¬ 
ple thought, that it would be hardly the proper filing to 
leave oft'wearing apparel in the chilly December. 
English farmer (after anxiously inspecting strangers) : 
“What be they gentlemen doing, maister?”—Visitor: 
“ Sketching your Douse ; they are artists, and may be they 
will paint it.’’ — Farmer: “ Well, I am sure they be wel¬ 
come ; it wants it, and whitewashing, too, mortal bad.” 
“ Some little time ago I was instrumental in getting a 
cook for a newly-married friend. I did not often see my 
friend, and last week, upon meeting a sister of the cook, 
I asked her how her relative liked her place. “ Oh, very 
well, sir! the master and mistress are quite gentlefolk ; 
they don't know anything.” 
A Harvard student was called to account for having 
publicly styled the profeesov of Hebrew “a first-class 
i mule.” He admitted having made the remark, but said 
he intended it as a compliment. “ Explain yourself," 
said the professor. “ Why, a first-class mule is neces¬ 
sarily a good He-bray-ist.” Nolpros. 
One thousand shingles, says a newspaper paragraph, 
will cover one hundred square feet of surface. One 
shingle, by the way, will cover six square inches of bad 
boy, and, if properly applied, will be productive of as 
much benefit and more noise than one thousand shingles 
on one hundred square feet of surface. Figures won’t lie. 
A youngster who had been warned of the evil effects 
of mince pie heard a mouse squeal after he had been put 
in his crib and asked his mother: “ What dat noise ? ” 
“ Oh, it’s a little mousey; it won’t hurt,” was the reply. 
After a few minutes’ silence the youngster remarked : 
“ Guess de mousey been eat miss pie ’fore he go bed, an' 
made he ky.” 
One of the pleasant events of Christmastide was the 
presentation, in one of the leading industrial establish- 
! ments of Buglington, says the “Hawkeye,” of a hand¬ 
some gold watch and chain to each of the employees bv 
the proprietor. Come to think it over, we believe it 
was the employees who presented a gold watch and 
chain to the proprietor. We thought we had never 
heard of a precedent for the former reading. 
A man near Pittsburgh, Pa., recently advertised for a 
bookkeeper, and within twenty-four hours he had one 
hundred and thirteen applicants for the position. Subse¬ 
quently iie sought a man for his farm by the same means, 
and had eight responses. TJiese figures represent very 
fairly the disproportion of laborers in the varions indus¬ 
trial pursuits. There are men needed in abundance for 
agriculture and other manual labor, but when a young 
fellow is able to write a fair hand, and balance the day’s 
transactions in a country store, he feels above the farm, 
the anvil, or the bench. This is all wrong, and is of a 
piece with the other inflated notions that prevail. 
