AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
17 
“ it is then held over a trough, and water being 
poured in the pith is washed through the cloth 
into the trough below: the water- being then 
drawn off; the sago is taken out and dried for 
use or transportation... .It is granulated in a 
manner somewhat similar to that adopted in the 
preparation of Tapioca, and in this state enters 
into commeroe.” 
Not the least remarkable among southern trees 
is the Live Oak. It is found as far north as the 
Carolinas, but we did not see any large specimens 
above the latitude of Savannah ; the very largest 
were on the St. Johns, in Florida. Its value for 
hip timber is widely known. It is also used for 
the naves and felloes of large wheels, for which 
it is better suited than white oak. Every Winter 
the hammocks of Florida resound with northern 
axes, felling these stately trees for exportation to 
the various cities of the sea board. It is to be 
regretted that the Government does not take more 
stringent measures to prevent tiie exhaustion of 
the live oak groves on. the public lands. The 
sea islands along the coasts of Georgia and Flor 
ida have been mostly stripped of their oaks to 
make room for planting cotton. This tree is sel¬ 
dom found more than twenty miles from the 
shore, and that narrow strip of land has already 
been much thinned of its best trees. 
Our sketch, taken near Picolata, in Florida, 
may give some idea of the characteristics of this 
tree. We can describe it, for northern apprehen¬ 
sion, no better than by saying that it resembles 
the largest white oaks in rugged strength and 
massiveness, combined with the loftiness and 
graceful sweep of the old New England elms. It 
is also an evergreen. The branches of these 
trees are often draped in festoons of grey moss, 
peculiar to that latitude, often ten to fifteen feet 
long, which renders the shade beneath them as 
dark as evening twilight. This moss is an air 
plant, and does not seem to injure the trees on 
which it grows. In severe Winters the “ poor 
whites ” rake it down from the branches, to feed 
their starving cows. It is also gathered in large 
quantities and “ cured ” for filling beds. It makes 
quite an article of commerce. 
No. 7—Yellow Jasmine. 
Not the least pleasant among our mementos of 
Southern vegetation, is a twig of the Yellow 
Jasmine, which now lies in our herbarium, and 
nas not yet lost all its fragrance. This vine blos¬ 
soms ir February, and is one of the first tokens 
ot returning Spring. It clambers over fences, up 
the trunks of trees fifteen or twenty feet high, 
and adorns the portico of almost every Southern 
habitation. The flowers are bright yellow, and 
about half the size of the common morning glory. 
The fragrance is delicious, almost beyond com¬ 
parison. It is occasionally met with at the North 
in Green-house culture, and catalogued under 
No. 6 —Live Oak. 
Jasmimim revolutum. It is not sufficiently hardy 
in out-door culture, to withstand our cold winters 
without protection, but by laying it down, and 
covering slightly with earth upon the approach of 
severe weather, it may be cultivated upon the 
sunny sides of buildings even in this latitude. 
Our last sketch represents the branch of another 
scarlet flowering vine, whose name we did not 
learn, which appears soon after the Jasmine, and 
with similar habits, though destitute of fragrance. 
We regret not 
having made a 
further acquain¬ 
tance with this 
plant, its habits, 
hardiness, and 
the probability 
of its being a- 
dapted to more 
northern lati¬ 
tudes. Perhaps 
some of our 
Southern read¬ 
ers will supply 
the deficiency. 
Our port-folio 
of sketches of 
Southern vege¬ 
tation is not 
exhausted, and 
may be drawn 
upon again. We 
would respect¬ 
fully solicit of 
ourreaders who 
are scattered 
over nearly ev¬ 
ery habitable portion of the globe, sketches and 
descriptions of plants hitherto undescribed in 
popular works. Nothing can be more interest¬ 
ing to all classes than an acquaintance thus 
gained of the plants and flowers which adorn 
and beautify other lands, or furnish by their fruits 
the sustenance of the inhabitants In these 
pages, however, we can give hut little space to 
, topics not directly or indirectly connected with 
agriculture or horticulture, and therefore interest 
ing to cultivators of the soil, 
---o~«-««gg:^ cr-T — --- 
The Orchard. 
In this and several consecutive numbers of the 
Agriculturist for the present year we propose to 
discuss, in its various descriptions of fruit and 
their cultivation, this delightful, and interesting 
as well as profitable branch of husbandry—notonly 
in its application to farm culture, but in the garden 
of the amateur, and t.be villager, whether he cul¬ 
tivate one tree, fifty frees, or a thousand. The 
orchard is a subject which has engrossed much of 
the best time in our life ; we have given it long 
and varied study : fruits have been with us an 
object of love—even a hobby; trees we have 
planted by thousands, not in a professional way, 
by which we have gained a livelihood, but for our 
own good use and behoof, from which we in after 
days expected valuable returns if not in actual 
profits, yet in the pleasure their bearing would 
give us, the enjoyment of their delicious fruits, and 
the grateful reflection that we had contributed our 
mite to leave by our own labors, as every consid¬ 
erate man should, the world a little better than we 
found it. Therefore we feel that we can talk about 
orchards and their fruits candidly, and disinterest¬ 
edly, if not learnedly, and instructively. We have 
neither trees to sell, nor fruits to vend. We have 
no crotchets with which to indoctrinate others, no 
prejudices to throw off, no partialities to encour 
age. We have read, if they could be measured bv 
the cube rule, square vards of pomological books 
and literature by various authors, a great deal of 
it containing sense, some of it nonsense, and yet 
none of it supplying all the knowledge which an 
accomplished fruit-grower should possess in every 
department of his occupation. Nor do we propose 
to supply all that knowledge in its varied items 
which is lacking in the hooks, but in our own fa¬ 
miliar way give such practical views as from our 
own experience and observation, we believe to be 
to the purpose, and which, added to the book, as 
well as to the practical knowledge of our reader* 
