AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
89 
metically sealed, and with labels in both Chinese 
and English. These we have distributed among 
numerous friends, with a request to have their 
reports on the success of their cultivation, and 
hope to hear favorable accounts from them dur¬ 
ing the summer and fall. 
NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SHOW 
FOR 1854. 
The Executive Committee of the New-York 
State Agricultural Society, adopted a resolution 
at their last regular meeting, at Albany, April 
6th, to hold their next great show at Hamilton 
Square, in the city of New-York, on the 3d, 
4th, 5th, and 6th days of October. 
We congratulate the members and friends of 
the Society, on their having the Show where all 
that desire to witness its various objects of in¬ 
terest, can come with the certainty of finding 
comfortable accommodations. This has hitherto 
been a great objection to many who desired to 
be present, but who have been deterred from 
the great difficulty, or frequently the utter im¬ 
possibility, of procuring either comfortable 
lodgings or table. With the immense number 
of our hotels and large boarding-houses this 
objection cannot exist; and we shall look con¬ 
fidently for a throng of visitors to the forth¬ 
coming show, hitherto unexampled on the 
Western Continent. 
The facility for getting animals, products, im¬ 
plements, &c., by the converging water-courses 
and railroads that center in this city, together 
with the enlarged national feature which we 
understand is to be adopted for this year, (offer¬ 
ing large inducements for the neighboring States 
to send in their contributions,) will tend mate¬ 
rially to increase the interest and swell the num¬ 
ber of visitors to the exhibition. We shall be 
disappointed if the receipts are not double what 
have ever before been realized by the Society. 
-»#♦- 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW-LONDON 
COUNTY, CT. 
A convention was held at Norwich, Ct., April 
12th, to reorganize the old New-London County 
Agricultural Society, which has been defunct 
some ten years. The old Society had a brief 
existence, and its demise was so sudden and 
unexpected, that the cause of its death has never 
been ascertained. The attendance was respect¬ 
able, and from a majority of the towns in the 
county. Much more interest was manifested 
than was anticipated. Nearly all classes were 
represented. An M. D. was chosen chairman, 
and another M. D. secretary, which showed that 
the Society was to be well doctored , and in case 
of its early death, there should be at least medi¬ 
cal advice enough on hand to determine the 
^ cause. A clergyman was chosen president of 
the new society, which perhaps looks still more 
ominous as to the solicitude felt for the new 
enterprise. Some of the first men in the county 
for intelligence and wealth, were put upon the 
executive committee, and the prospect now 
looks favorable for an exhibition in the fall wor¬ 
thy of this county. 
We were gratified to learn that the experi¬ 
ments made with guano and super-phosphate of 
lime, had so generally proved successful. A 
dealer informed us, that almost every one who 
purchased last year, is purchasing this. One 
dealer, in Norwich, has already sold one hun¬ 
dred tons of guano, and seventy-five of super¬ 
phosphate. Probably not less than 500 tons 
of these concentrated manures will be used in 
Eastern Connecticut this season, and if found 
profitable, this amount will be doubled another 
year. At this rate it will not be long before 
New-England will rival Virginia and Maryland 
in the use of these manures. 
A PROPOSITION—SUPER-PHOSPHATE, 
There is so much opportunity for deception 
or collusion on the part of manufacturers of 
various artificial fertilizers, that we have uni¬ 
formly declined to publish reports of experi¬ 
ments made to test their value, and we have 
refused to receive samples of any kind of spe¬ 
cial manures for our own experiments, if we 
were asked to publish the results. We have no 
confidence in the specimens put up for such ex¬ 
periments or for analysis ; neither do we value 
the results obtained by the first samples sent 
into the market for sale, for it is to the interest 
of manufacturers to furnish a good article at 
first, even if at a loss. These doubts we have 
expressed plainly to different manufacturers—to 
Mr. De Burg, among the number. 
Mr. De Burg, however, has called upon us, 
and made a proposition which we think obviates 
the above objections, and we cheerfully lay it 
before our readers; and we will with the same 
cheerfulness give the free use of our columns 
to any other manufacturer, who will make a like 
fair and open proposition. Mr. De Burg’s pro¬ 
position is as follows: He will furnish, at his 
own expense, three to five hundred pounds (or 
more if desirable) of his super-phosphate of 
lime, to any agricultural society, or club, or 
association of men, who will give it a fair trial, 
and report the results, favorable or reverse ; and 
mark, jpW 33 the samples for experiments are not 
to he taken from the factory, nor from any par¬ 
ticular lots, hut from any that has been or may 
he sent into the market. To prevent any chance 
for deception, those proposing to make such ex¬ 
periments may first select their samples from 
any they can find in the country, and then ap¬ 
ply to Mr. De Burg, and he loill give an order 
for its delivery to them free. 
We understand Mr. De Burg has sent out 
many hundreds of tons to agents in different 
parts of the country the present season,—of 
course not all designed for any such special 
trial as the above,—and we trust that a number 
of agricultural clubs will each appoint a com¬ 
mittee to conduct a course of experiments to 
test the value of super-phosphate of lime. 
We have not the least interest in the success 
or failure of Mr. De Burg’s manufacture; but as 
he proposes to subject super-phosphate of lime 
to a rigorous test at his own expense, we cer¬ 
tainly hope the experiments will be carefully 
and extensively made. If the result happens 
to benefit himself and others in the like occupa¬ 
tion, by this new fertilizer proving to be valua¬ 
ble to farmers generally, we shall be glad of it. 
—!—• • •- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
OSAGE ORANGE HEDGE. 
INFORMATION WANTED. 
We are planting and raising Osage Orange 
hedges, and we need information on the sub¬ 
ject. Several here are raising more or less, and 
various rumors are afloat as to what is the pro¬ 
per management. Our method is as follows : 
We soak the seed two weeks in warm water 
before sowing, keep the plants clean from weeds 
during the summer, and letting them stand till 
spring, when they are transplanted about 6 
inches apart, and cut off the next year 3 inches 
from the ground. I wish some of your readers 
would tell us if, when the hedge is thin, it will 
answer to lay the shoots down instead of cut¬ 
ting them off and filling up with plants. If any 
of your readers can give us a better plan, we 
shall be most happy to receive the information. 
We are about to move where timber is scarce, 
and shall plant hedges, as we wish to make 
fence as quickly as possible. II. & J. N. 
Washington, Tazwell Go., III. 
We shall be glad to hear from any of our 
subscribers in answer to the above. We will re¬ 
print here some remarks of our own, published 
on this subject last year, which were as fol¬ 
lows : 
In 1847 we resolved to try it, and purchased 
a pint of seed. A close examination convinced 
us that if it sprouted the season it was planted, 
it must be soaked. We put it in a steep of wa¬ 
ter and soot, and put the bowl under the stove, 
where the water would keep a little warm. 
There it stood eight days, when we prepared 
the ground much the same as we should have 
done for peas, and sowed the seed in drills eigh¬ 
teen inches apart. We had a large crop of 
weeds before there were any signs of the ex¬ 
pected Orange sprouts. But they did come up 
at last, (six weeks after they were planted,) and 
after being weeded and hoed, made a thrifty 
growth—the first season attaining a height of 
thirty inches. The following spring we dug 
them up and transplanted them along the inside 
of the road fence. A large portion of tho 
ground had been made by filling up a ravine 
that was about four feet deep. We dug a trench, 
and cutting the plants down to about four 
inches, set them in it, only six inches apart—at 
least six inches nearer than they should have 
been. That season they made a fine growth, 
and as we were anxious to obtain a high stand, 
they were not trimmed during the summer, but 
left until spring, when they were cut back to an 
even height. This treatment has been contin¬ 
ued ever since, and now we have a hedge that 
no animal would attempt to go through, and 
there are few men who would succeed. We 
have never protected it during the winter, and 
consider it unnecessary to do so. 
The Orange is late in putting out foliage, but 
it retains its leaves longer than any other tree, 
not excepting the willow. It grows rapidly, 
and if summer trimmed and properly attended, 
makes a screen that human eyes cannot pene¬ 
trate. Some stalks that were allowed free 
growth last summer made over nine feet of new 
wood. Transplanted to the lawn as an orna¬ 
mental shrub or tree, it has few superiors. It 
can be easily kept in shape; and in any loca¬ 
tion north of the highlands it will bear fruit— 
but it will not perfect its seed. When covered 
with its balls of green fruit, it is a beautiful and 
interesting object. 
March of Improvement.— “ My good friend,” 
said Lord Kaimes to a farmer, “ such are the 
wonderful discoveries of science, that I should 
not be surprised if, at some future time, one 
might be able to carry the compost of an acre 
of land to the field in our coat pocket.” “ Very 
possible,” replied the farmer, “ but in that case, 
I suspect you would be able to bring back the 
crop in your waistcoat pocket.” 
