editor’s table. 
349 
EMtor’s Stfatile. 
Large Quinces. —The Massachusetts Plowman ac¬ 
knowledges the receipt of quinces from Mr. Charles 
Hathaway of Grafton, twenty of which weighed 18 lbs. 
One weighed 18 ounces, and measured 13| inches 
round. The same paper speaks of another received 
from Mr. John Henry of Leominster, which weighed 23 
ounces! 
Hemp Brake. —The Tennessee Agriculturist says 
one of these machines has lately been invented by 
C. B. Butler, which breaks 200 lbs. per hour. 
Toads Destroyers of Ants. —A writer in the Culti¬ 
vator asserts that toads quartered near ant hills will 
destroy them in a short time. We think they would do 
their work more rapidly if they were confined there in 
a box open at the top and bottom, and placed round 
the ant hill. 
Agricultural Survey. —We notice in the Cincinnati 
Gazette, that Charles Whittlesey, Esq., and Mr. A. 
Randall, editor of the Plow-Boy, have been authorized 
by the Hamilton County Agricultural Society to make a 
survey of the farms of this county, and intend entering 
upon the duty forthwith. They will examine and ana¬ 
lyze soils; take the statistics of crops and live stock; 
collect as far as they can the profits of agricultural 
labor in this county; note the peculiarities of farming 
implements in successful use; make drawings of the 
best horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, they may meet 
with; and give descriptions of the most approved fruits, 
vegetables, and grasses. They propose, after getting 
through, to publish in convenient form a report of the 
results of their combined observations, which they place 
at the price of $1 per copy, and for which they solicit 
subscribers. This is an excellent movement. Will not 
the counties of the empire state imitate it ? 
A Big Baby. —A medical friend has just given us an 
account of a child, born in Franklin, a few days since, 
which weighed, at birth, no less than sixteen pounds and 
a half, and measured from the chin to the back of the 
head sixteen inches and three quarters. It is a boy, and 
is doing well. Children at birth, we are informed, seldom 
weigh more than ten or eleven pounds. This is a great 
country for the production of babies—they grow too at 
an amazing rate. Query—Is this owing to the Teche 
water, or the superabundance of electricity in the at¬ 
mosphere ? We cut the above from the Planters’ Ban¬ 
ner, and if any of our northern farmers can beat this 
great agricultural product , we shall be glad to hear 
from them. 
Losses by the Flood on the Mississippi and its Tribu¬ 
taries the past Summer. —These are estimated by the 
Concordia Intelligencer (La.) at $6,677,000. 
Agricultural Products of the U. S. for 1843.— 
Wheat, 
Barley, 
Oats, 
Rye, 
Buckwheat, - 
Indian Corn, 
Potatoes, 
Hay, - - 
Flax and Hemp, 
Tobacco, - 
Cotton, - 
Rice, 
Silk Cocoons, 
Sugar, 
Wine, - 
The supposed value of the above, $607,185,413. 
The articles of wheat, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, 
100,310,856 bushels. 
3220,721 
145,929,966 
24,280,271 
7,959,410 
494,618,306 
105,756,133 
15,419,807 
161,007 
185,731,554 
747,660,090 
89,879,145 
315,965 « 
126,400,310 « 
139,240 gallons. 
(( 
tons. 
<c 
pounds. 
« 
« 
tobacco, rice, and sugar, amounted to less in 1843 than 
in 1842 ; though the aggregate value of all the above- 
named articles in 1843, was $24,545,445 greater than 
in 1842. The population of the United States in 1843 
was 19,183,583 .—National Intelligencer. 
Pickled Cabbages. —Quarter the firm head of the 
cabbage; put the parts in a keg, sprinkle on them a 
good quantity of salt, and let them remain five or six 
days. To a gallon of vinegar put an ounce of mace, 
and one of peppercorns and cinnamon. Cloves and 
allspice may be added, but they darken the color of the 
cabbage. Heat the vinegar scalding hot, add a little 
alum, and turn it while hot on the cabbage, the salt 
remaining.—Mass. Plowman. 
Corn Bread.—Take as much corn meal as you wish 
to cook, scald it well, by pouring boiling water over it 
and stirring it thoroughly; then mix it to the consist¬ 
ency of batter, with milk; if it is pretty rich it won’t 
hurt it, but mind the mixing part, that it is thoroughly 
done, the more the better. Put in one egg, a teaspoon¬ 
ful of salseratus and a tablespoonful or more of lard. 
Mix the whole thoroughly together, till the ingredients 
are entirely incorporated through the whole; mind, I 
say, the mixing, the more the better. It is now to be 
baked as usual, about three quarters of an hour, and 
you will have the finest corn bread you ever ate.— 
Western Farmer. 
Culture of Corn in Cane Land. —The cane, it seems, 
is all cut down in swaths, and laid toward the left. 
When a sufficient quantity of ground is thus cut over, 
the prostrate cane is burnt. The tough roots in the 
ground utterly forbid plowing, so that holes are made 
in the ground with a stick for the reception of the corn. 
The corn comes up finely, and grows well on this new 
ground without any plowing or other attention than 
simply this: a growth puts up from the roots of the 
cane, which is called mutton cane. This it is neces¬ 
sary to destroy, and it is done by the hands walking 
over the field with a stick in hand and knocking the 
young muttons down wherever they appear. They 
easily snap off like pipe-stems. It is a common thing, in 
these hills, we understand, to raise fine crops of corn 
without any plowing.— South Western Farmer. 
Ripe Fruit and Dysentery. —There is a pernicious 
prejudice with which people are too generally imbued— 
that fruits are injurious in the dysentery—that they 
produce and increase it. There is not, perhaps, a more 
false prejudice. Bad fruit, and that which is imper¬ 
fectly ripened, may occasion colics, and sometimes 
diarrhoea, but never epidemic dysentery. Ripe fruits of 
all kinds, especially in the summer, are the true preser¬ 
vatives against this malady. The greatest injury that 
they can do, is in dissolving the humors, and particu¬ 
larly the bile, of which they are the true solvents, and 
occasion a diarrhoea. But even this diarrhoea is a pro¬ 
tection against the dysentery. Whenever the dysentery 
has prevailed, I have eaten less animal food and more 
fruit, and have never had the slightest attack. I have 
seen eleven patients in one house; nine were obedient 
to the direction given, and ate fruit—they recovered. 
The grandmother, and a child she was most partial to, 
died. She prescribed for the child burnt brandy and 
oil, powerful aromatics, and forbade the use of fruit. 
She followed the same course herself, and met the like 
fate. A minister attacked with dysentery ate three 
pounds of red currants between 7 o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing and 9 in the evening—next day he was entirely 
cured.— Tissot. 
Profit of Growing Mustard Seed .— We have re¬ 
cently purchased from J. H. Parmlee of Ohio, a part of 
his crop of brown mustard seed, raised, as he informed 
