GRINDING 'CORN. — THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION.-ETC. 
27 
GRINDING CORN. 
It has been truly said, that “ No kind of grain 
is actually spoiled by grinding too fine, except In¬ 
dian corn,” although wheat is somewhat injured. 
But good corn bread, hommony, mush, and various 
other dishes cannot be made of flour ground too fine. 
For all ordinary purposes, the common mill em¬ 
ploye 1 for grinding wheat, answers equally well for 
grind ing maize. When it is required to grind the 
corn coarse, it is necessary only to elevate the 
uppermost stone and increase its speed; or to 
depress the stone and diminish its velocity to grind 
:<t fine ii general, the grits, or larger parts of the 
meal, should vary from one-fourth the size of a 
grain of mustard to that of a grain of rice, accord¬ 
ing to the uses to which they are to be applied. 
For very exact and special kinds of meal the 
Kibbling-mill is preferable, in many respects, as the 
size and uniformity of the grits can be regulated at 
pleasure by an indifferent hand; wffiereas, in the 
common mill for grinding wheat, their degree of 
fineness or coarseness depends entirely on the 
judgment and skill of the miller by regulating the 
position and velocity of the uppermost stone, and a 
due attention to feeding in the grain. 
A kibbling-mill consists of “ a small iron cylinder, 
usually about 8 or 9 inches wide, and 6 inches in 
diameter, tapering slightly to one end, and fluted on 
the inside. Within this a barrel of the same form, 
but of a less size, and fluted on the outside, re¬ 
volves by the turning of a spindle on which it is 
fixed. The meal is rendered finer or coarser in pro¬ 
portion as the working barrel is set nearer to, or 
farther from, the small end. This mill is made en¬ 
tirely of iron and steel, and is usually attached to a 
post. It is provided with a hopper, and is worked 
by a crank fixed at one end of the spindle, while a 
fly-wheel revolves at the other. It is used for 
beans, peas, and other pulse ; for malt and various 
kinds of grain, and is a very useful and ingenious 
contrivance, but requires care in its adjustment and 
general management.” B. 
THE STRAWBERRY GUESTION. 
The letter of Wm. R. Prince, on the strawberry 
question, is clear and to the point, and will I trust 
aid in convincing Mr. Downing of his error, to 
which he has been led by his gardener, who ap¬ 
pears to be a man of intelligence. He is, I presume 
from England; and it will be a difficult task to 
convince even the most intelligent European horti¬ 
culturists, that their best botanists have a new les¬ 
son ' to learn from an illiterate German woman. 
There is one point, in which Mr. Prince will dis¬ 
cover he is in error, after a further examination of 
what he calls plants of the perfect character. He 
says, “ Plants of the perfect character sometimes 
produce a few of their earliest and latest blossoms 
so "weak, as to be without stamens, or with very 
imperfect ones,” &c. From this, cause, he says a 
feio of the blossoms fail to produce fruit. I deny 
the existence of any plant of the perfect character, 
that will on an average produce half a crop of large 
sized, perfect fruit. I now speak of the Scarlet and 
Hantbois varieties. W here the blossom is partially 
perfect h| both organs, the blossoms that fail to pro¬ 
duce perfect fruit, are owing to a defect not in the 
male , but in the female organs. If the defects were 
in the male organs, the pistils would find kind 
neighbors in the neighboring blossoms, to supply 
their wants. I wish he would furnish us with a 
list of his perfect plants. Would he follow Mr 
Downing, and name the Swainstone, Ross Phoenix, 
and some others, as of this class ? 1 have given 
them all a thorough trial, and not one of them will 
average one-third of a crop of perfect fruit. The 
$500 I have offered for such a plant, is at Mr. 
Prince’s service, as soon as he can produce it. I 
have raised thousands from seed, and generally, 
about one-half are wholly defective in the female 
organs. A few are partially perfect in both organs, 
say one in a hundred. But I have never raised 
one possessed of both organs, that would average 
one-third of a crop. Never one, worthy of culti¬ 
vation for its fruit. T have never met with more 
than one variety, that separate from all others, will 
bear a full crop. It is the Duke of Kent. But a 
portion of the blossoms are defective in the male 
organs, and depend on the neighboring perfect 
blossoms. The fruit is small. If “ weakness or 
exhaustion,” would cause perfect blossoms, to bear 
no fruit, I would ask Mr. Prince, why it is, that 
the Hovey’s Seedling, when fully exposed to the 
sun and air, with a staminate near, would not fail 
in one blossom out of a thousand, to bear a perfect 
fruit, unless killed by frost. 
My Champagne vault and house are nearly 
finished, and I have four applicants w T ho profess to 
be masters of the art of manufacturing Mosseaux 
wine. I only wait for their credentials, to make a 
selection, when the manufacture wfill be commenc¬ 
ed. All will depend on the skill of the person se¬ 
lected, and I must not decide too hastily. 
N. Longworth. 
Cincinnati , Ohio, Dec. 10 th, 1846. 
EXPERIMENT OF MANURES ON CORN. 
With this I send you the statement of my ex¬ 
periments with several different manures on Indian 
corn the past season. You may rely upon its hav¬ 
ing been carefully made; and the result may be 
considered as showing the value of each kind for 
this particular crop, after taking into consideration 
the peculiarities of soil and season. The first is a 
sandy loam, and probably requires ashes more than 
any other manure. The season was excessively 
wmt, which may have favored the horse manure. 
The quantities, as you will see, w T ere not regulat¬ 
ed by equal values; but as much of each w 7 as used 
as would be of service without the risk of .injury. 
The planting w r as done on the 5th of May, as 
follows:—Hills, 3 ft. 9 inches apart, with 5 grains 
in each; for the horse manure the ground w-as 
slightly excavated for the hills, manure put in and 
covered, and the corn planted on the top of it; all 
the other manures, except the Ichaboe guano, were 
well mixed wfith the soil about the hills, care being 
taken not to let the grain come in contact with the 
guano or poudrette. The Ichaboe guano was not 
put on until July, when the corn presented a yellow 
and sickly appearance, wffiilst the others had a fine 
growth of twice the size—consequently its full value 
is not known ; but its value applied in this w 7 ay, 
