I 860 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
365 
men and women, are hustled and squeezed , 
shouting, quarreling and cursing, stun the un¬ 
accustomed ears; and to a stranger the scene is 
absolutely bewildering. To cross the streets in 
the neighborhood is a dangerous feat, to be ac¬ 
complished, sometimes, only by clambering from 
wagon to wagon. Not unfrequently, two lines 
of vehicles meet and block up a street. We have 
seen a throng thus packed together unable to 
move in either direction for more than an hour. 
Our artist has given as much of the scene as 
could well be shown on paper; it must be seen 
to be realized. We advise our readers who 
would enjoy one of the greatest “ sights” in the 
City to take an early start from their lodgings, 
and visit Washington Market just at daylight; 
they will agree that the half has not been told. 
Notwithstanding the ill-regulated and totally 
inadequate accommodations, the amount of bus¬ 
iness transacted is immense, and is scarcely 
equaled in any other market in the world. The 
sales of individual dealers amount to from five 
thousand to three hundred thousand dollars, and 
upward, per annum. From a single stall, twelve 
feet by six, the sales of carcasses of beef and mut¬ 
ton amount to over fifty thousand dollars an¬ 
nually. One firm of dealers in Poultry and 
Game have an annual trade of over two hundred 
thousand dollars ! A firm in Albany receives 
every season for stock dressed for the stalls of 
this market, three hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. The pork trade is estimated at between 
five and six million dollars a year! From these 
items some idea may be formed of the amount 
of sales effected. The transactions are almost 
wholly for cash. Some firms doing a business 
of fifty to a hundred thousand dollars a year 
keep no books, but divide the net receipts each 
day, thus keeping everything “ square.” 
Many interesting details might be given, did 
space permit, and we may recur to the subject 
again to give some practical hints to our country 
readers who bring or send produce to this mark¬ 
et. The purpose of the present article is to call 
attention to this “ Institution ” as one of gen¬ 
eral interest, and a place to be visited by our 
subscribers who come to this city. 
Plenty of Beef. 
Owing to the increased railroad facilities, and 
also to the greater attention paid to stock-raising 
during the few years of moderate grain 
crops, the quantity of beef brought to this City 
during the present season has been unprecedent- 
ly large. The live stock reports for a few years 
past show that the number of beeves sold in and 
around this city, averaged 3,143 per week in 
1857 ; 3,676 in 1858, and 3,950 in 1859, while the 
average for the current year will reach about 
4,400. During the two months ending Novem¬ 
ber 1st, the receipts have been enormously 
large, amounting to 49,700 for nine weeks, or an 
average of 5,540 per week. Of this number 
14,700 were from Illinois, 7,600 fromNew-York, 
6,900 from Ohio, 3,800 from Kentucky, and the 
balance from other States. It has been difficult 
to sell so many cattle, even at the low rates 
which have prevailed of late. 
--— --- 
Wolves in Maine. —It is reported that these 
ferocious animals are unusually abundant in 
Maine, the present season. In Aroostook Co., 
they have been very destructive of sheep, and in 
some instances have killed young cattle. 
If an elephant can travel eight miles an hour 
and carry his trunk, how fast could he go if he 
had a porter to carry it for him. 
Large Vegetable Garden. 
Mr. Charles Backus, a Long Island farmer, 
has under cultivation eight large farms devoted 
to raising vegetables for New-York market. 
During the past year he has raised forty acres of 
potatoes, fifteen to twenty acres of parsneps, 
carrots and beets, fifty of corn, eighty of cab¬ 
bages. One hundred acres are devoted to as¬ 
paragus, and forty to currants. Three and a 
half acres are under glass, for raising early salad, 
radishes, cucumbers, etc. . From three hundred 
to three hundred and fifty laborers are employed 
in the Summer season, and twelve large wagon 
loads of produce are every day sent to the City. 
His business in a single year amounts to $100,000. 
Only thirteen years ago two wagon loads per 
week were the whole amount of produce raised 
by Mr. B., who has every year since extended 
his operations, until they now probably exceed 
those of any market gardener in the Union. 
The Prairie Roses. 
“ That’s the Michigan rose, ain’t it ?” is a 
question put to us twenty times a year by visit¬ 
ors on seeing our collections of climbing roses. 
As if there were only one rose of this sort. Let 
us therefore explain a little. There are many 
running roses among the tender, ever-blooming 
varieties, as, for example, the Cloth of Gold, 
Lamarque, the Multifioras, Banksian, etc. In 
the Carolinas, we have seen these shedding 
their fragrance around the second and third 
story windows of houses. But of these we do 
not now purpose to speak. 
There is a family of roses known as the Prai¬ 
rie-roses (botanically, rosa rubifolia,) which are 
hardy climbers, and adapted to every climate 
and soil. They were raised by Mr. Feast of 
Baltimore and Mr. Pierce of Washington, from 
seeds of the wild climbing rose of the western 
states, sometimes called “ the prairie rose,” and, 
in certain localities, “ the Michigan rose.” But 
it might as well be called the Ohio, or the Ken¬ 
tucky rose, as the Michigan. This original wild 
rose has single flowers. These gentlemen sowed 
seeds of this wild rose in their gardens, by the 
side of beds of Noisettes and other superior 
roses, where the pollen of the one would be car¬ 
ried to the blossoms of the other. Seeds of the 
wild roses so impregnated, were sown, and from 
them a great number of new varieties were 
originated. Out of this multitude, a dozen or 
more of the finest, with double flowers, have 
been selected, named, and sent into market. It 
is plain, therefore, that the prairie rose, or the 
Michigan rose is the original wild, single flow¬ 
ered plant of the West, and not the splendid, 
various-named and double-flowering progeny 
derived from its seed by hybridization. Of these 
last, we will give the names, and such brief de¬ 
scriptions as are at hand: 
1. Baltimore Belle. Light blush, nearly white, 
double, flowering in clusters, and with the fra¬ 
grance of a Tea rose. 
2. Queen of the Prairies. —Larger than the 
preceeding, deep pink, very double, with oc¬ 
casionally a white stripe on the petals. 
3. Perpetual Pink. —Pink, changing to purple, 
and flowering twice a year in strong soils. 
The above are Mr. Feast’s seedlings; the fol¬ 
lowing are Mr. Pierce’s: 
1. Pride of Washington. —Quite dark pink, 
cupped in clusters of twenty or more. 
2. Anna Maria. —Lighter pink, smaller, double, 
cupped. 
3. Eva Corinne. — Delicate blush, carmine 
centre, fragrant. 
4. Mrs. Eovey. —White, very double, larger 
flowers than any others. A superb plant. 
5. Jane. —Lilac-rose, imbricated, double, in 
clusters. 
6. Linncean Mill Beauty .—Pale blush, beauti¬ 
fully tinted. 
The others, which we have not seen, are as 
follows: Miss Grinnell, Ranunculiflora, Virginia 
Lass, President, Triumphant, Mrs. Pierce. 
These are all said to be quite desirable. There 
may be others still of which we have not heard. 
From the whole list, a fine collection may be 
made, for one’s garden or veranda. 
Covering Strawberries. 
We can have too much of a good thing, as 
many tyros in fruit culture have found out to 
their cost in this operation. Reading that straw¬ 
berries are benefitted by a.mulch in Winter, they 
wrap them up as they would their babies in bed, 
hardly leaving a breathing hole. Three and four 
inches of stable manure, or leaves, are spread 
over them at this season, and the snows 
press down the litter, so that the leaves and 
crowns of the plants decay. They come out in 
the Spring black and dead. 
Nature gives us a profitable hint as to the 
proper amount of protection for this plant. It 
grows among the grasses, and the old fog that 
forms after mowing, where the fields are not 
pastured, screens them sufficiently from the cold. 
If the leaves are covered at all, it should only be 
with loose litter through which the air can cir¬ 
culate freely. With this precaution, we have 
never found any difficulty in the winter-killing 
of the plants. It is better to manure them at 
this season, than in the Spring. What is spread 
upon the surface now, leaches down with the 
Winter rains, and is equally distributed among 
the roots. Look occasionally at the plants to 
see if the leaves are green. 
-- H O B* -► . . r 
John Chinaman’s Floral Tastes. 
In Mr. Fortune’s “Three Years’ Wanderings 
in China,” one of the most readable books is¬ 
sued for many a day, we find the following show 
of Chinese taste in horticulture: “ When trav¬ 
eling on the hills of IIong-Kong, a few days af¬ 
ter my arrival in China, I met with a curious 
dwarf Lycopodium, which I carried to Mr. Dent’s 
garden, where my other plants were at the time. 
“ Hai-yah,” said the old compadore, when he 
saw it, and was quite in raptures of delight. All 
the coolies and servants gathered round the 
basket to admire this little plant. I had not 
seen them evince so much gratification since I 
showed them the “ Old Man Cactus ” (cereus sen¬ 
ilis) which I took out from England, and pre¬ 
sented to a Chinese nurseryman at Canton. On 
asking them why they prized the Lycopodium 
so much, they replied, in Canton-English : “ Oh, 
he too muchia handsome; he grow only a leetle, 
a leetle every year; and suppose he be a hundred 
year old, he only so high—holding up their 
hands an inch or two higher than the plant.” 
Such is the taste of “the celestials,” who 
dwarf their ladies’ feet, and dwarf their oaks 
and pines into pigmy-trees. We outside barba¬ 
rians can’t appreciate such tastes; our education 
is neglected. 
To keep apples from rotting—place them in a 
' dry cellar with a family of children. 
