378 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
sauce and pies, from the latter part of May, until 
the end of August next year. There are many 
ways of cooking this plant. We have frequently 
had it so prepared in pies, that inexperienced per¬ 
sons could not distinguish them from those made 
of new apples, and we like them better. A dozen 
crowns of the Linnaeus Rhubarb costs about two 
dollars now. The price of the larger undivided 
roots depends upon the size. For further items 
see article on page 275. 
2nd. Strawberries. —By the time the Rhubarb 
begins to lose its novelty, the fore part of June, 
the earlier varieties of Strawberries will begin to 
ripen. Strong plants set out in September will 
yield considerable fruit the next season. We have 
gathered a small crop from plants set October 
15th. A very trifling outlay will put a family in 
possession of any desired quantity of luscious 
Strawberries, from the middle of June to the tenth 
of July or later. Read what is said in another 
column of “ One Little Strawberry Plot.” If 
you have not done so, secure a dozen plants of 
each of say four varieties and put them out this 
month (Sept.), 12 to 18 inches apart, on a soil 
spaded one-and-a-half feet deep, with a good coat 
of bone-sawings, or well rotted manure. For four 
varieties we would say : Hovey’s Seedling, Long- 
worth’s Prolific, Wilson’s Albany, and Peabody’s 
Seedling, if you can get it—if not, take Hooker or 
Walker’s Seedling, or Boston Pine. Four varie¬ 
ties are enough for common use, though it costs 
little to add a few other varieties, say the Hook¬ 
er, Walker, and Boston Pine just named, and the 
Crimson Cone, Burr’s New Pine, Genesee, etc. 
3. Raspberries. —The Strawberries will not be 
gone before Raspberries will come on. Where 
they are not growing now, a full crop can scarce¬ 
ly be obtained next year, but put out plants next 
month (Oct), or even in November, and they will 
send up abundant shoots next season ready for 
bearing the following year. The Raspberry and 
Blackberry send up new canes one Summer to 
produce fruit and die out the next. Canes two 
or three feet or more in hight, if set out in Autumn, 
usually bear the next year. Provided you will take 
care enough of them to simply bend them down 
in Autumn and cover with a little earth and un¬ 
cover early in the Spring, we advise for home use 
to get the Fastolff variety, and also some of the 
Brinkle’s Orange and Red Antwerp. But where 
Winter protection by covering can not, or rather 
will not, be attended to, though it is but little 
trouble, we recommend getting hardy varieties, 
such as the Allen, Black Cap, and American Red. 
It may be well to have some of the Allen, and 
Black Cap, in addition to the Fastolff, Antwerp 
and Brinkle. None of these varieties are now ex¬ 
pensive, except the Brinkle, arid this will soon be¬ 
come more plentiful and cheaper. Twenty-five, 
fifty, or a hundred plants will cost but a few shil¬ 
lings, or dollars at most. They will grow on any 
naturally good soil, or one made so. Spade the 
ground deeply, and dig in plenty of any well-rot¬ 
ted manure. If the soil be heavy clay, mix with 
it a quantity of black mold or decayed leaves from 
the woods. We have found sink-slops an excel¬ 
lent fertilizer. The canes may be transplanted as 
soon as the leaves drop off—usually early in Oct. 
They bear packing and transportation well, and 
may therefore be obtained of any near or remote 
reliable dealer. Put out a few this Fall, no mat¬ 
ter where you live, and when you enjoy the lux¬ 
ury of the fruit we shall have your thanks for 
urging you to do so. 
4. Blackberries. —These will follow hard upon 
the Raspberries, and keep up a succession of fruit. 
For the bearing of Blackberries you will need to 
wait a year. Put out the plants in Autumn, any 
time before freezing up of the ground, the sooner 
after the leaves drop off the better. They will 
bear a poorer soil than the raspberry, but will re¬ 
pay generous manuring and tillage. We put the 
New-Rochelle variety at the top of the list. It is 
hardy, a great bearer, produces fruit unequaled in 
size. To this may be added the Dorchester. If 
it be impossible to obtain either of these varie¬ 
ties get Newman’s Thornless, or failing to secure 
this, take up some canes of the best wild kinds 
growing near; manure and cultivate well, and 
improved fruit both in quality and quantity will 
be the result. But we advise every one who has 
a fourth of an acre or even less of ground, to set 
out this very Fall a dozen, twenty, or more of the 
improved sorts. They multiply rapidly after be¬ 
ing once well established. Blackberries bear 
packing well and may be carried any distance. 
SUMMING UP. 
The above four kinds of fruits will form a suc¬ 
cession of delicious fruit for a period of full three 
months; and, to say nothing of the comfort or 
luxury, there is profit in their culture. They re¬ 
pay their cost in the saving of other kinds of 
food. Thousands, yes millions of persons, es¬ 
pecially those residing at the West, are longing 
for the time when their young orchards—per¬ 
haps not yet planted—shall produce the old staple 
fruits ; but why wait 1 A little trouble, and a 
comparatively trifling expense, such as we have 
pointed out above, and in other separate articles 
in these pages, will put all these persons in pos¬ 
session of luxuries unsurpassed by the costly 
viands of the rich, in less than two years. 
About Soaps. 
The alkalies are caustic (burning) substances 
that have the property of uniting with acids 
(sour substances) to form compounds which are 
usually inert. Thus : strong, caustic, newly burned 
lime and the powerfully corrosive acid, oil of vit¬ 
riol (sulphuric acid) unite and form the tasteless 
compound known as plaster of Paris, or gypsum, 
used as a fertilizer. Pure soda, which is so caus¬ 
tic as to destroy the flesh, unites with the same 
acid, oil of vitriol, to form common Glauber salts 
(sulphate of soda.) 
The alkalies have also the property of dissolv¬ 
ing oils or oily substances, and on this account 
they are used in washing, to remove the oily ma¬ 
terials that collect upon the garments from the 
skin or other sources. As explained on page 89, 
the principal alkalies generally known, ar e: potash, 
soda, ammonia (or hartshorn,) lime, magnesia, and 
they may be remembered by their initial letters 
forming the word psalm. Of these, potash, soda 
and lime are most common. Potash is washed 
out from wood ashes, the water being boiled away. 
But the pure alkalies are too corrosive to the 
skin, and to garments, to be used alone in washing. 
On this account, both potash and soda are ren¬ 
dered mild, or less corrosive, by first uniting them 
with oil in the form of soap. 
There are many kinds of soap. If potash, which 
is the alkali in ley obtained from wood ashes, be 
united with oil, it forms a semi-fluid or soft soap. 
Add to this some soda, or salt (which contains 
the metalic base of soda,) and the soda will ex¬ 
pel the potash and take its place. We then get 
soda soap which is a hard soap, capable of being 
cut into cakes or bars. Hard soap may be pro¬ 
duced directly by using a solution of soda with 
grease, and boiling it down sufficiently. 
Common resin* may in part be substituted for 
oil. All brown and yellow soaps are soda, oil and 
resin combined. If the resin be somewhat less 
in quantity than the oil, the soap is very good for 
common purposes. We are not sure that the ad¬ 
dition of a small quantity of resin does not 
improve the soap for extracting oily matters from 
garments. This much is certain, that a teaspoon¬ 
ful of spirits of turpentine added to a tub of soap¬ 
suds improves it for washing; and the turpentine 
is similar to resin. As brown soap is much lower 
in price than white soap, and if equally dry as ef¬ 
fective pound for pound, if not more so, the 
brown kinds are the cheapest. Yery brown, dark 
colored soaps contain too large a proportion of 
resin and should be avoided. 
Castile soap is made of olive (sweet) oil and 
soda, some coloring matter being added to give it 
the mottled appearance. Genuine Castile soap is 
a rare commodity, however, as most of that sold 
under this name differs only from good common 
hard soda soap, in being colored. 
Windsor Soap is made of soda united with a 
mixture of cheap olive oil and tallow. 
The very white hard soap we frequently see is 
simply soda and tallow. 
Walnut oil soap, cocoa-nut oil soap, palm oil soap, 
almond on soap,, etc., are made of soda combined 
with the various oils indicated by the name. 
Most of these articles, now-a-days, are no more 
than common white or colored hard soaps scented 
with a trifle of an extract or oil of the article 
from which the particular specimen is named. 
Take a piece of common hard soap, cut out a 
little plug, as if you were trying a water melon 
put in a few drops of any aromatic oil; return the 
plug and you will have a fancy or scented soap. 
This is a convenient method of “ improving” a 
piece of Castile soap for the wash-stand. Any 
oil you chance to have, bergamot, cloves, various 
mints, etc., will answer for this purpose. 
Transparent soap, often called walnut oil soap, 
military soap, erasive soap, and several other 
names, is made by dissolving white soap in alco¬ 
hol. It is of course more costly, but the alcohol 
remaining combined with it, assists its solvent 
properties without rendering it injurious to the 
skin or clothes, and hence it is valuable for re¬ 
moving “ grease spots,” or washing delicate fab¬ 
rics, and the face and hands. 
Note. —*Resin is often spelled and most commonly 
pronounced rosin. It is in some parts of the country vul¬ 
garly called “rosum." The correct spelling and pronun¬ 
ciation is res-in, accenting the first syllable and giving » 
the short sound of e in met 
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Blackberry Wine. 
There are several processes recommended. 
The following is perhaps as good as any one of 
them : Put the berries into a coarse cloth—lin¬ 
en is preferable, though cotton or woolen will an¬ 
swer—and press out the clear juice. Add one 
quart of water to from three to four quarts of the 
juice, and also add about three pounds of good 
sugar. White sugar is preferable, but light brown 
may be used. Stir until the sugar is well dis¬ 
solved and then put in a clean keg, setting in a 
cool place. Leave the bung open, covering it with 
millinet or gauze to keep out flies and other in¬ 
sects. Let the fermentation go on for several 
weeks. When the lees have all settled and the 
liquid become clear, draw it off and cork in bot¬ 
tles. It may be kept, without bottling, in casks, 
or in jugs. It should always be placed to ferment 
at first, in some convenient vessel for drawing it 
off without disturbing the lees. A cask wi!h an 
end faucet is best for this. 
