AMERICAN 
AGRICULTURIST 
New-York, Wednesday, April 19, 1854. 
Bound Volumes. —We have a few sets (26 
numbers) of volume eleventh, bound and un¬ 
bound. The price, at the office, of the unbound 
volumes is $1.00. The bound volumes are neatly 
put up in cloth covers, gilt backs, at $1.50. 
TVe can also furnish the covers separately, 
gilt and all ready for putting in the paper, for 
twenty-five cents each. With the covers thus 
prepared, any bookbinder can complete the 
binding for twenty-five cents. Volumes sent to 
the office will be bound complete for fifty cents. 
We are having printed a new edition of the 
first ten annual volumes of the monthly Agri¬ 
culturist, which can be supplied for $1.25 per 
volume or $10 for the set of ten volumes. 
Back Numbers. —We have taken the precau¬ 
tion to print each week a large number of extra 
copies, so that we can still' supply new subscri¬ 
bers with full sets from the beginning of this 
volume, (March 15.) Any copies accidentally 
lost by a subscriber, will be freely supplied. 
Specimen copies sent to any person, whose ad¬ 
dress is furnished post-paid. 
Our Paper. —We again present our readers 
with nearly thirty articles relating directly to 
the cultivation of the soil, nearly all of which 
were written expressly for this paper,—many 
of them by the editors. Please look them over 
and see how many hints are thrown out which 
are practically worth the price of a volume. If 
any such are found, please show the paper to a 
neighbor and ask him to partake of the advan¬ 
tages afforded by becoming a subscriber. Our 
large subscription books are rapidly filling up, 
but we have room for a few more names. 
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N. B.— New-York, Monday, 11 o'clock A. M., 
April 17th, 1854.—-We take back all we have 
said during the last three weeks about putting 
in spring crops. We thought spring had ar¬ 
rived, but find we were greatly mistaken, for at 
this hour the ground is covered about a foot 
deep with snow which is still falling. Our rea¬ 
ders will please look up the Agriculturist of 
three weeks ago, and get ready to start again 
with the new spring, to commence after this se¬ 
cond edition of winter is over. 
ONE WAY TO RAISE BEETS. 
A garden well laid out, with all the vegeta¬ 
bles growing in rows, or in imitation of some 
geometrical figure, presents a fine appearance 
to the eye, and this practice is to be commended. 
We have, however, found it advantageous to 
have a plot of beets in some less conspicuous 
part of the garden, which was planted more 
with regal'd to economy than beauty. 
For this purpose we take about a square rod 
of ground, and as soon as it will do to work it, 
sow it thickly with some early variety of beets, 
putting on the seed broadcast, and digging it in 
with a hoe. If the plants come up very thick, we 
pull out a part at the first weeding. As soon as 
they begin to interfere with each other, we pull 
up a quantity, and boil roots and tops together, 
d thus have a good dish of greens. The 
thinning process goes on almost daily till late in 
the summer, and this single rod of ground 
furnishes us an abundance of greens, and there 
is still left growing a good crop of beets, which 
have been benefited rather than retarded, by the 
stiring of the ground while thinning them out. 
We are aware that the above plan contains 
nothing new to many, but within the last year 
we have visited scores of gardens where the 
only practice was to sow beets in rows, with the 
seeds at a distance of three or four inches from 
each other. 
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PLENTY OF GOOD RADISHES FOR A SHILLING. 
We have had an abundance of radishes at all 
seasons, without devoting a foot of ground to 
their special cultivation. Our plan has been 
simply this. As soon as our garden has been 
plowed and spaded, we have sown over it a 
small quantity of radish seed, broadcast. The 
subsequent working and planting of the soil 
buries these seeds, and as they come up, we 
destroy them as we would weeds where there 
is not room for them to grow. But there is 
always some space between rows or hills of 
other vegetables, where several plants may be 
allowed to remain till large enough to pull up 
for the table. Wherever there is any spare 
room, we scatter a few seeds when hoeing over 
the ground to kill weeds. This practice we 
follow up all through the summer, and a single 
shilling’s worth of seed, thus sown in small 
quantities, every time we have gone into the 
garden to work, has furnished us an abundance 
of young and tender radishes at all times. 
When early peas come to maturity, we have 
young beets or radishes growing up on the 
ground occupied by them, from seeds which 
were sown during the last hoeing they re¬ 
ceived. 
It is well known that on some soils radishes 
do not grow well, but by our plan of scattering 
them in every part of the garden, we have 
always hit upon some spots just suited to pro¬ 
duce the nicest roots. Where they happen 
to be in the way of other vegetables, or where 
they produce tough, strong bulbs, we cut them 
down with the hoe and cover them with earth, 
and they aid to enrich the ground. Thus used, 
a comparatively small amount of seed, will 
yield a more satisfactory and economical supply, 
than if a special plot were devoted to their cul¬ 
tivation. 
-—— 
DON’T EAT HORSE-RADISH TOO FREELY. 
It is almost hazardous to say any thing 
against a condiment so universally used and 
relished as this, but a word of caution is needed. 
Horse-radish is highly stimulate and exciting to 
the stomach, and this effect is almost always 
followed by lassitude and weakness. We have 
met with several cases, where persons have 
ignorantly used this root so freely as to be 
scarcely able to labor at all. 
Where it is needed as a medicine, a small 
quantity of horse-radish is doubtless beneficial. 
But we are quite sure, from considerable obser¬ 
vation of its effects upon ourselves and others, 
that any person using a full spoonful or more, 
at a meal, will suffer in consequence, although 
the cause of this suffering may not be per¬ 
ceived, since it produces a stimulating effect for 
the first hour or two after eating it. 
HOW TO PLANT CUCUMBERS, MELONS, AND 
SQUASHES, 
TO AVOID DESTRUCTION BY BUGS. 
As the cost of seed is trifling, we have for the 
past few years always succeeded in getting good 
vines by the following process: Instead of 
planting a few seeds in hills at the distance they 
would ultimately be required to grow, we have 
put in a large quantity over the whole ground; 
so that at first we have had a hundred plants 
where only one was needed. Sometimes we 
have had a plant come up on every two inches 
over the whole bed. 
As fast as the expanding leaves of the vines 
interfere with each other, we cut off the weaker 
ones with a pair of shears, so as not to disturb 
the roots of those remaining. The “ bugs” 
have always materially assisted in the thinning 
process, but we have never failed to find twice 
or thrice the needed number of plants entirely 
untouched. When beyond the reach of danger 
from insects, all the weaker plants are removed; 
and a solitary vine left here and there has been 
enough to cover the ground. 
The same ground will yield much better, by 
having the vines at equal distances from each 
other, than if two or three are left together in 
the same hill, since the roots have more room 
to grow, and they find a greater amount of 
nourishment when thus isolated. The fruit 
will also be more solid and of better quality. 
It should also be remembered that air and 
light are essential to the growth and maturity 
of the fruit; and it is better to occasionally cut 
out a thrifty plant, than that the ground be too 
densely covered. Just vines enough to thinly 
cover the ground, will produce better than 
double this number. 
-♦«•- 
EAT LETTUCE SPARINGLY. 
Few persons are aware, that a large amount 
of opium (Lactuarium) is found in the larger 
leaves and stalks of lettuce, and that this sub¬ 
stance has the properties of the common opium 
of the poppy. Almost every one, after partak¬ 
ing freely of lettuce, will feel dull and drowsy, 
though the cause of this drowsyness may not 
be perceived. A small quantity may produce 
no immediately injurious effects, but we have 
little doubt that derangement of the digestive 
organs, and of the system generally, might 
often be traced to a too free indulgence in this 
pleasant salad. We should add, however, that 
the opium of lettuce, is chiefly found in the 
milky fluid which exists in the stems and in the 
older plant. The first very young and tender 
leaves, with but little of the stems adhering, 
contain so small an amount of the narcotic, as 
to be little objectionable.] 
Prolific South-down Ewe. —We have seen 
a ewe of this breed, belonging to Mr. I). B. 
Haight, of Dutchess County, that is eleven 
years old this spring, and has just dropped 
three fine lambs. These make up twenty-two 
in all, which she has produced within the past 
nine years. We think this extraordinary for a 
ewe of any breed. 
-♦ - 
Chinese Seeds. —We lately received from 
Commodore Perry, commanding the United 
States’ Squadron for Japan, a quantity of gar¬ 
den and field seeds, in fantastical little jars, her- 
