MISCELLANEOUS. 
duced into cultivation among us, especially on 
barren hills, and such lands as are liable to be 
poached by fierds of cattle. Captain Cook says : “ It 
flourishes on a poor, thin soil, in an arid climate, 
is of a pale green, and falling, it takes a slight root 
on the joints of the stock; these joints are eight or 
ten in number, and four or five inches apart. This 
peculiarity is only observed on a close inspection, 
for, the joints also sending up a short stem, on 
which is found the grain and slender blades, it re¬ 
sembles an unthrifty blue grass; and, like that, it 
forms a sod, and a smoother and far harder one. 
About harvest time the country turns to the yel¬ 
lowish brown color of our ripe grain fields; and 
in extensive views the eye is only relieved by the 
green of a single variety of spice-weed, which dots 
the smooth brown surface of the earth. Thus, so 
short and very withered in appearance, it seems 
wholly insufficient to support animal life, while 
proving with its grain a rich and ample food for 
countless buffaloes; and also for the diminutive 
but far more numerous prairie-dogs. Some say 
the grass will only grow where the buffalo is 
found; that it disappears as they recede. Fora 
hundred miles we see it almost continually in the 
road, when little or none other is to be found. If 
this goes to prove that trampling is essential to its 
rowth, the above idea is strengthened by our 
nowledge that the immense herds of buffalo must 
subject it fully to this treatment. I think I no¬ 
where saw the grass in quantity ungrazed by the 
buffalo; in the lower river bottoms, amid the suc¬ 
culent, green, rich looking grass of several species, 
untouched by the buffalo, little patches of this 
were observed closely eaten. After the last win¬ 
ter and spring of unheard-of severity and back¬ 
wardness, we found the buffaloes quite fat on the 
13th of June. 
“ Our dragoon horses had to subsist for some time 
on this grass; their being able to do so at all, so 
closely grazed as we found it, and under the ne¬ 
cessary restriction of a 22-feet picket rope, would 
seem to prove its extraordinary nutrition. Only 
one other fact will I mention, and I do not explain 
it. I found it on my return, near Council Grove, 
about the middle of July, in the road, taller and 
greener than almost any I had seen earlier and 
farther to the west. I shall send you, by the first 
opportunity, a half pint of the grain, which I pick¬ 
ed with my own fingers: it can be gathered in no 
other way.” 
Mr. Rotch in Europe. —Among the passengers 
in the steamship Caledonia, which sailed from 
Boston on the 1st inst., were Francis Rotch, Esq. 
and family, of Butternuts, Otsego co., this state. 
Mr. R. and his son go out with a view of examin¬ 
ing the agriculture and stock of England, and other 
parts of Europe, and will probably be absent at 
least two years. From his accurate and scientific 
knowledge of these matters at home, and a long 
previous residence abroad, his observations will be 
of the most valuable kind; and we trust that he 
may be induced to give them to the public in a 
tangible shape. A work from him on the subject 
of agriculture, and especially stock, would be 
235 
sought for and read with eager interest. We 
quite envy him his agricultural tour. May him¬ 
self and family enjoy health and happiness abroad. 
Obituary.— We learn with deep regret of the 
death of William Lincoln, Esq., of Worcester, 
Massachusetts. He was an able lawyer, distin¬ 
guished for literary attainments, and had frequent¬ 
ly been a representative in the legislature of his 
state. But his great celebrity, and what most en¬ 
deared him to the agricultural community, was 
his reports on swine; he being for a number of 
years chairman of that committee at the county 
shows of Worcester. These reports were ex¬ 
tremely humorous and witty, and invariably drew 
forth hearty peals of laughter from the stout yeo¬ 
manry annually assembled to hear them. His re¬ 
port to the New York State Agricultural Society 
at Albany last year partook of the same character¬ 
istics. He was an estimable citizen, and has left 
a void that it will be difficult to fill. 
Dorking Fowls. —Mr. L. F. Allen took a num¬ 
ber of these fine birds to the late Agricultural 
Show at Rochester, with a view of exhibiting, and 
then sending them to this city for distribution 
among his friends. For safe keeping, they were 
placed under the care of a servant at the Eagle 
Tavern; but soon after dark, the chief cook espy¬ 
ing so fine a lot of birds, thought they would do 
great credit to the dinner-table the next day, and 
without knowing their breed or value, cut off their 
heads, and sent them down to his aids in the 
kitchen for preparation. Our friends must take 
the disappointment as coolly as possible, and wait 
another year for their Dorkings. 
The New-England Farmer. —We regret to see 
that Mr. Putnam has retired from the editorial de¬ 
partment of this journal. Mr. Joseph Breck, one 
of its proprietors, takes his place, and we have no 
doubt that he will continue the paper to the satis¬ 
faction of its readers. 
Stock For Sale. —We would call attention to 
the advertisement of Messrs. Hendrickson & Co. 
of Ohio. They go down the Mississippi river the 
present month, with a fine assortment of different 
breeds of animals, and we recommend them es¬ 
pecially to our southern friends, as men of strict 
probity and honor in all their dealings. It is well 
known that we imported Windsor Castle and 
other stock belonging to them. 
[J3? 3 We have commenced the publication in 
this No. of Dr. Mohl’s powerful article reviewing 
Leibig’s Vegetable Physiology. We shall continue 
it as fast as received in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
from London. Our readers will find it an able 
paper and a rare treat. 
OCT" Have any of our readers Lord Sommerville 
on Devon cattle ? If so, we shall be extremely 
obliged to them for the loan of it a short time. 
