12 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
For the American Agriculturist. 
FACTS IN FRAGMENTS. 
A iiog’s taste would not generally be consid¬ 
ered very fastidious, but, according to Linnaeus, 
the hog eats onty 72 species of plants, while the 
horse eats 262; the cow, 276 ; the sheep, 387; 
and the goat, 449. 
The Potato is a native of South America, and 
is still found in Peru and Chili growing wild, in 
which state it is small and bitter. It is said to 
have first attracted the notice of a European 
botanist by its flower. Potatoes were intro¬ 
duced into Great Britain in the latter part of 
the sixteenth century, but by whom is uncer¬ 
tain. Some historians say by Sir Walter 
Raleigh, while others mention other adventurers 
to the new world. They were at first cultivated 
as rarities, without any idea of their importance 
as an article of general cultivation. Their 
spread over the countries of Europe was slow, 
and in some of them they are now but little 
cultivated. 
Wheat and Rye grow spontaneously in Tar¬ 
tary and Siberia. Wheat is also indigenous in 
Sicily. Oats grow wild in Abyssinia. Buck¬ 
wheat is said to be a native of Asia. The na¬ 
tive country of Barley is unknown'. Indian 
Corn is a native of America. Rice of Ethiopia. 
It was introduced into South Carolina from 
Madagascar, in 1693 or 4. Artichokes, Cab¬ 
bage, and Lettuce, are said to be natives of 
Holland; Asparagus of Asia; Onions and Gar¬ 
lic of various eastern countries ; Horse Radish 
of China; Mustard of Great Britain; Beans 
of the East Indies; Pumpkins of America; 
Peaches and Cherries of Persia; Plums and 
Apricots of Asia ; Hemp of Persja and (-India. 
Flax grows spontaneously in Persia, but the 
cultivated variety is supposed to have originated 
in Egypt. Tobacco is a native of America. It 
is supposed to have been introduced into Eng¬ 
land in 1580, by Ralph Lane and the colony 
under his command, who returned from Roan¬ 
oke in that year. Probably it was introduced 
by order of Sir Walter Raleigh, under whose 
auspices the colony had been sent out, who had 
learned its use of the Indians, or in France, 
where it had previously been introduced by 
Nicot, from whom it takes its generic name, 
Nicotiania. The Sugar Cane is a native of 
China or the East Indies, where sugar has been 
manufactured from it from a very remote pe¬ 
riod. Sugar is first mentioned by a European 
writer, A.D. 625, but for centuries after was 
sold only as a medicine, and previous to its cul¬ 
tivation in the West Indies it did not come into 
general use as an article of food. 
Previous to the commencement of the six¬ 
teenth century, our English ancestors appear to 
have known little of gardening, as they im¬ 
ported their vegetables from the Netherlands. 
Merino Sheep were first introduced into this 
country in 1802, by Robert R. Livingston. The 
same year one hundred were imported at 
Humphreysville, Ct., by Gen. Humphreys, at 
that time Minister to Spain. 
A singular custom prevails in Valctta, the 
capital of the Island of Malta, which effectually 
protects the inhabitants from all danger of pur¬ 
chasing adulterated milk. The milkmen take 
their goats to the doors of their customers in 
the morning and evening, when the customer 
sends or brings out a vessel, and the goat-herd, 
kneeling down by one of his animals, milks 
from it the required quantity. 
The custom with persons who cannot write 
of making their mark in the form of a cross, 
thus, +, originated in the days of papal igno¬ 
rance and superstition, when it was ordained 
that those who were unable to write their 
names, should make a cross to show that they 
were Christians. II. S. V. 
- • © *.- 
Running down a Competitor. —If it be policy 
for a tradesman to run down the goods and cha¬ 
racter of a competitor, the following may be 
considered an exception to the general rule: 
“What’s the price of that coat?” inquired a 
countryman, the other day, of a merchant in 
this city. 
“ That ? The price of this, sir, is eight dol¬ 
lars; and very cheap at that price,” anwered 
the merchant. 
“ I can’t exactly agree with }mu then,” said 
the customer; “I only paid six for the one I 
have on.” 
“That may be,” replied the merchant, “ and 
I should consider that you would have been 
horribly bitten, if you had paid half that sum 
for it. I don’t sell such goods as that. Why 
look at it! it is miserable stuff, and merely 
basted together, at that; and the man who sold 
it to you knew it at the time. He is a great 
cheat, whoever he is, and deserves to be pub¬ 
licly condemned.” 
“That’s just the opinion I’ve had of him ever 
since I made the purchase,” said the customer; 
“I bought this coat of you some six months 
ago!” 
The merchant was suddenly reminded of some 
other butiness that needed his attention, and 
left the customer in the hands of his clerk. 
-• »•- 
A Model Christmas Present. — We met one 
of our industrious young mechanics, who was 
congratulating himself upon having found in his 
stocking, this morning, a most elegantly wrought 
purse, with fifteen dollars, in bright gold, “ en¬ 
closed,” the purse made by his happy young 
wife, and the money saved by her from his re¬ 
gular contributions for family expenses. Besides 
the affectionateness of this appropriate holiday 
douceur," it is a text from which a whole volume 
of good sermons might be written on the sub¬ 
ject of household economy. It reminds us of 
Solomon’s beautiful proverb about a good wife. — 
Ohio Statesman. 
Ovster Life. — An imaginative naturalist has 
pictured the life of an oyster as one of the hap¬ 
piest of destinies. He has described him as care¬ 
fully lodged in a dwelling of pearl, fed with the 
rich produce of the swelling tides, growing deli¬ 
cately corpulent with luxuries which he receives 
by the mere trouble of opening his mouth, 
soothed to slumber by the gentle ripple of the 
waves that roll above and around him, and 
cheered amid the intervals of his almost contin¬ 
uous dreams by the consideration that his death 
even is to be glorious as that of the white bull 
sacrificed to Jove, or the tender virgin who 
saved her country by her passage down the 
throat of the Minotaur. Faint ideas of discom¬ 
fort are suggested by such traditions as those 
of the “Oyster crossed in love;” but on the 
whole, the lot of the oyster is a glorious one. 
He swims in a sensuous paradise until the crash 
of the oyster-knife comes thundering in to put 
an end to his life; and then he lies white, suc¬ 
culent, and resigned, ready to be offered an un¬ 
resisting sacrifice to the gastronomic sensibilities 
of some refined palate. 
“Young America.” — The Lafayette (Ind.) 
Journal tells a good story of a precocious little 
fellow who walked into the house of a citizen of 
that city one day last week, and after taking a 
seat by the fire, very coolly informed the lady 
of the house that he was on his way to Chicago, 
and, if they had no objection, he would remain 
over night. The lady, of course, consented, and 
the little stranger was kindly cared for. He 
gave his name as Charlie, and said he lived in 
Cleveland. When asked what he was going to 
Chicago for, he answered that he was “ travel¬ 
ing for his health.” All attempts to obtain the 
name of his parents were unavailing. He ob¬ 
stinately persisted that he never had any. 
Tiie Worst of It.—“Do you want any ber¬ 
ries, ma’am ?” said a little boy to a lady one day. 
The little fellow was very shabbily clothed, and 
his feet were bare and travel-stained. In both 
hands he held up a tin pail full of ripe raspber¬ 
ries, which were prettily peeping out from amid 
the green leaves that lay lightly over them. 
The lady told him she should like some; and 
taking the pail from him, she stepped into the 
house. He did not follow, but remained behind 
whistling to some canaries hanging in their cage 
on the porch. 
“ Why do you not come in, and see if I mea¬ 
sure your berries right?” said the lady, “how 
do you know but what I may cheat you?” 
The boy looked archly up at her and smiled. 
“I am not afraid,” said he, “for you would get 
the icorst of it, ma’am.” “ Get the worst of it!” 
said she, “what do you mean?” 
“ Why, ma’am, I should only lose my berries, 
and you would be stealing; don’t you think 
you tvould get the worst of it ?” 
-- 
Intermarriage of Blood Relations. — The 
Fredericliburg Fetes says: In the county in 
which we were raised, for twenty generations 
back, a certain family of wealth and respectabil¬ 
ity have intermarried until there cannot be 
found in three or four of them a sound man or 
woman. One has sore eyes, another scrofula, a 
third is idiotic, a fourth blind, a fifth bandy¬ 
legged, a sixth with a head about the size of a 
turnip, with not one out of the number exempt 
from physical or mental defects of some kind. 
Yet this family perseveres to intermarry with 
each other, with these living monuments con¬ 
stantly before them. 
Large Ox. —The Ogdensburg Sentinel says 
Mr. Perkins, of Ilydepark, Vt., has an ox on ex¬ 
hibition in Ogdensburg which weighs 3,935 
pounds. This Behemoth was raised at Hyde- 
park, is now in his sixth year, and is still grow¬ 
ing, having gained the past year nearly 400 
pounds. He stands 6 feet 4 inches high, and 
measures from rump to nose 12 feet 4 inches, 
and from tip to tip 20 feet. He is considered 
the largest specimen of horned cattle in the 
world. Mr. Perkins is on his way to Illinois, 
whither he has removed his family, in order as 
he says, to let the animal attain his growth, 
Vermont being too crowded for that purpose. 
- • • • - 
Substitute for tiie Common Brick. — Martin 
Keenan, of Milford Mass., says—“ I think a 
substitute for brick, as good and cheap, can be 
manufactured as follows: Take a metal mould, 
first filled with heated gravel, and then pour melt¬ 
ed glass into it, and leave it to cool gradually. 
I think each mould would not require more 
glass than is contained in a common black bot¬ 
tle. These are sold for a cent each, the blowing 
of which must cost half that sum.” There ap¬ 
pears to be something in this. 
--• • •- - 
“ Mother, what is a hush?” “A hush, child? 
I do not know — what makes you ask ?” “ Cause 
the other day I asked Jane what made her back 
stick out so, and she said hush.” 
When Adam got tired naming his descend¬ 
ants, he said: “ Let all the rest be called Smith.” 
