118 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Afrit,, 
a few pots this season to begin with, from the 
nearest pottery, or seed-store, or agricultural 
warehouse. We also advise the pottery men, 
and seed and implement dealers, to provide an 
ample supply by another season, if not this, for 
we hope to have tens of thousands in use in 
the Agriculturist gardens all over the country. 
The Tuberose—Very Desirable. 
On few flowers has nature lavished more, attrac¬ 
tions than upon the Tuberose ( Polyanthes tuberosa). 
Graceful and beautiful, whether we regard the full 
clustered spike or the individual flowers, of a deli¬ 
cate, rich blush, or nearly white, it diffuses far and 
wide a fragrance not less delicious than powerful, 
and not in the least cloying; As its name indicates 
it is a tuberous plant. It is a native of Ceylon, and 
requires a long season. The time is at hand for 
planting the tubers, and most important is it to se¬ 
cure good roots.. They are annually imported by 
our seedsmen, and are'besides grown in large quan¬ 
tities by florists in the vicinity of New-York, and 
other cities further South. A good bulb is large, 
plump and firm, with very few offsets ; one or two 
small offsets are not objectionable, as they help to 
furnish foliage ; but bulbs with any considerable 
number should be rejected, as the chances are that 
the main bulbs bloomed the previous" season, and 
will not again, as the bulb never blooms but once. 
Plant them in rich and moderately dry soil, about 
one foot apart, covering the top of the bulb about 
one inch. So soon as the flower stalks appear, set by 
each a strong stake, four feet long (one foot in the 
ground,) to whieh tie the brittle stalk as often as 
necessary to keep it from being broken. Where 
the seasons are not long enough to allow the 
plant to perfect all its flowers or bulbs, aboutlast 
of March or first of April put single bulbs into 
four inch pots, in soil composed of equal parts 
of loam, sand, and rotten manure. Give but lit¬ 
tle water and place in some warm part of a room 
or under the stage of a green house until they 
form roots, which will usually be in about two 
weeks: They should then be placed where they 
will be fully exposed to the light, in a tempera¬ 
ture not lower than 55° or 60°; when the weather 
is warm and settled they may be turned out into 
the open ground, being careful not to break the ball 
of earth around their roots. They bloom in August 
and September. 
So soon as frost kills the leaves in the Fall 
take up the roots and spread them out in the sun 
to dry, covering them at night, or bring them in¬ 
doors to avoid wet or frost. When they are so dry 
that all the soil will readily separate from the tu¬ 
bers, remove those that have not bloomed, put them 
aside for blooming plants next season, and keep the 
others to propagate from. The leaves and roots 
should then be cut off and the bulbs put away in 
the dryest place possible—if where the tempera¬ 
ture will be from 60° to 80° through the Winter, so 
much the better. Tubers that have bloomed 
should have their largest offsets taken off the next 
season and planted to make blooming bulbs for the 
succeeding year, while the old bulbs are planted to 
produce more offsets. 
Drying Woolen Stockings. 
and dry woolen hose without having them shrink. 
The strong feet of adults can overcome the shrink¬ 
age, but for the tender feet of children and infants 
the difficulty is a serious one. It can be easily 
avoided, however, by a simple method, which may 
uot be known to all the readers of this department 
ot the American Agriculturist. When the stockings 
are new, lay them flat upon a piece of paste-board, 
mark out the form with a pencil, and then cut the 
board pattern fully as large as marked. When the 
stockings are washed and ready for drying^ put one 
of these patterns into each, pinning them over the 
top, and they will remain of the original size after 
being dried. The sides of glove or ribbon boxes, 
or other paper boxes, make good dryers. We hap¬ 
pened in at a house the other day, where there were 
about half a score of children, old and young, and 
the rows of some thirty stockings on stretchers, 
set up to dry, was a pleasant sight, and sugges¬ 
tive—they, suggested this paragraph. One thing 
more. In the case alluded to, the “good man of 
the house ” had provided neat wooden stretchers, 
apparently whittled out of shingles with a jack¬ 
knife, on some winter evening. (He doubtless de¬ 
served to have such a fine group of children—they 
appeared to be well-behaved ones.) We indulged 
our fancy in imagining how the stockings for the 
tiny feet, then in the cradle,would successively occu¬ 
py a place on the different sized stretchers that 
stood in that long row, the bottoms ranging from 
two or three inches in length, to a full grown foot. 
Contributed to the American Agriculturist. 
Substitutes for Coffee. 
1— E. C. Long, of Erie County, N. Y., sends to 
the Agriculturist the following directions, which are 
the result of several successive experiments to ob¬ 
tain a good substitute for coffee: “ Take clean rye, 
boil it in water ten minutes,-dry it in pans; and 
brown it the same as coffee, taking care not to burn 
it. Then peel some carrots, cut them in small 
square pieces, dry, and brown them the same as the. 
rye. Grind both the rye and the carrots, and mix 
one part of the carrots with two parts of the rye. 
A tablespoonful of the mixture makes a quart of an 
agreeable drink—an excellent substitute for coffee, 
we think_I have heard that beets are good, if 
prepared and used the same as above described for 
carrots, but have not experimented with them.” 
2— Adam Bohn, of Carroll County, Ill., writes 
that the Nepaul Barley , (No. 190 in our Seed list,) 
is one of the best substitutes for coffee in the coun¬ 
try. “Scald or boil it for a few minutes; dry, and 
brown it. A little Rio Coffee added makes, it very 
pleasant, so much so that some of the oldest coffee 
drinkers have mistaken it for the pure Rio. An 
old lady tells me that since adopting the above 
drink, she has not been afflicted with her former 
headache, which was so troublesome.” 
3— 0. R. Tisdel, Stephenson County, Ill., writes : 
Take common garden carrots , wash, slice in say 
}£ inch pieces ; cut across, leaving the pieces about 
the size of kernels of corn; dry on tins in an oven 
about 24 hours, then brown and grind the same as 
other coffee. Use this with one-fourth part or less ' 
of Rio or Java coffee, and a rich excellent coffee is 
made, requiring a good judge to distinguish it from 
the pure article. It should not be made too strong. 
4— W. B., of Oletha, Kansas, writes: We have 
tried for coffee making, wheat, barley, corn, broom 
seed, sorghum seed, dourah corn, potatoes, acorns, 
carrots, parsneps, hickory nuts, and okra, and could 
only drink three or four of them.. Nothing pleases 
us so much as dandelion root , dried and lightly 
scorched, but never burned. We esteem it a stimu¬ 
lant, tonic in its influence, healthful, and as agreea¬ 
ble to the taste as the pure coffee berry. [This is 
one of the recipes advertised by some of the hum¬ 
bug “ Professors ” as a 50-cent secret. As a medici¬ 
nal drink, when needed, a little dandelion root, is 
not objectionable. The U. S. Dispensatory says it 
is slightly tonic, diuretic and aperient.... is thought 
to have a specific action upon the liver, and is ap¬ 
plicable to derangement of the digestive organs. 
This is as a medicine. It should not be used when 
there is an irritable condition of the stomach and 
bowels.—E d.] 
5— Wm. Muir, of Lawrence County, Ind., recom¬ 
mends sweet potatoes; cut in thin slices, dry in sun 
or in an oven, and put away until wanted. Parch 
say a pint at a time, like coffee, and for a meal for 
six persons, grind and use about % teacupful. It 
gives a clear fluid. A bushel of sweet potatoes 
will supply a family of six, old and young. 
I 6—II. Baster, of Gates Mills, recommends “equal 
weights of chicory and coffee, dried and roasted in 
the usual manner. The chicory root is raised aa 
easily as carrots, and in exactly the same manner. 
To- prepare the root, wash it clean, slice lengthwise 
in 4 to 6 pieces, according to size, cut into % inch 
lengths, dry and keep in a dry place until wanted.” 
[Chicory is largely used to adulterate coffee in this 
country, and especially in Europe, 25 million pounds 
being used in England and France alone. But its 
prolonged free use produces cramp in the stomach, 
heart-burn, loss of appetite, acidity, constipation 
or diarrhea, weakness of the limbs, tremblings and 
sleeplessness, cloudiness of the senses, etc. For 
full description of plant, with engraving, mode of 
cultivation, etc., see American Agriculturist for 
February, 1859—(vol. 18, page 53)—Ed.] 
7—Jairus Rich, Hamilton County, O., while ap¬ 
proving economy in all business transactions, well 
suggests whether a true patriot will drop the use 
of coffee, solely on account of its extra expense, 
when all the extra price now paid (and a little more) 
goes directly to support the expenses of the coun¬ 
try in these perilous times. 
[Remakks.— The taste for coffee is wholly an ac¬ 
quired one ; nobody iikes a pure coffee infusion un¬ 
til they learn to do so by long practice, first dis¬ 
guising the coffee taste with milk or cream and 
sugar. Pure water is always most agreeable to the 
natural taste. People would feel as well, and be 
quite as well, if coffee and tea were banished, and 
the saving would be immense. We confess to 
drinking coffee,, but only when prepared thus : The 
cup % full of home-produced cream; % full of 
boiled milk; plenty of sugar; the rest filled up with 
coffee of fair strength. Such a drink we can ‘worry 
down’ without much wincing. Tea we have nev¬ 
er learned to like, and are too old to begin.— Ed.] 
To Cook a Beefs Heart—By “ Dolly.” 
[We continue to receive numerous “recipes” on 
this subject, most of which are somewhat similar to 
each other, and not materially different from those 
given last month, page 86, but we can only make 
room for the following rather amusing letter.—E d.] 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
Your just appeal in the February Agriculturist 
in favor of beeves’ hearts as a nutritious and cheap 
food, appears to me to stand in a fair way to be 
neutralized, if the directions given by correspond¬ 
ents; be followed for cooking by any one expecting 
anything more palatable or savory than hashed 
sawdust, or boiled shavings.—Shade of Mrs. Glass 
to the rescue! “ Gash it, ” says one ; “ soak it, ” 
says another; “boil it,” say all. Chop it, mince 
it, fry it, stew it—effectually spoil it, and then won¬ 
der that no one will eat it. But give it the slightest 
chance, and, if English Hare be justly esteemed a 
delicacy, Beef Heart is not to be despised. 
Don’t “ boil until tender ;” it is tender—nothing 
^nore so, if from a well-conditioned animal. Don’t 
“gash it,” to let all the juice out—this is delicious, 
and wanted in the gravy; there are receptacles 
enough for the stuffing, which should be a simple 
veal stuffing, richer or plainer, as desired. Wash 
the heart well in warm water; fill all the tubes 
and holes with the.stuffing, and also spread a deep 
layer over the top, or thick end of the heart; skew¬ 
er the flap (which must be left on by the butcher) 
over the stuffing to keep it from falling out. Have 
the oven at a moderate heat, put in the heart, baste 
it frequently with butter, and let it bake steadily 
1% hours, if it weigh 6 lbs.; or^" hour more or less 
for each pound over or under 6 lbs. When within 
the last quarter of being done, turn the melted but¬ 
ter and drippings out into a hot frying pan, return 
the heart to the oven to finish cooking, while you 
make the gravy, thus : Add pint boiling water 
to the contents of the frying pan, also (divided 
into 4 parts) a piece of butter the size of a small 
egg, sprinkle with the dredger enough flour to 
thicken, and add salt and pepper to the taste. Set 
over the fire arid stir the gravy until having sim¬ 
mered gradually, it boils, and is done. Put the 
, heart on a very hot dish, (a water dish if you have 
