AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
37 
more of the most thrifty stems should be se¬ 
lected and tied to each pole by a woolen 
yarn, or soft rushes—great care being taken 
to perform this operation at the proper time, 
and before they have become too hard and 
confirmed in their inclined position so as to 
be injured by slanting them up from the 
roots. 
The English and French cultivators have 
adopted in some cases, by way of experi¬ 
ment, a system of espalier training, by which 
the vines run in a horizontal direction on a 
series of trellises five or six feet high. This 
is thought by some to avoid the great ex¬ 
pense of poles, and also the liability to in¬ 
jury by high winds and storms to which long 
poles are subject. Some have also recom¬ 
mended trellises of iron wire in France, by 
it is thought that a fifth part of the expense 
for poles is saved; but, surrounded as most 
of our farmers arc by abundant and suitable 
material on their own premises, it is not 
probable that any resort to such experiments 
will at present be necessary. 
Carelul cultivation after the hops are 
poled—that is, the second and subsequent 
years—is required to keep the ground free 
from weeds and grass ; and during times of 
drouth, the more frequently the plow and the 
horse cultivator are used both ways the bet¬ 
ter. From what has been said, it will be 
evident that the plant comes to its most per¬ 
fect development in a soil thoroughly tilled 
and pulverized. The hop requires frequent 
stirring of the soil in times of drouth more 
than many other crops. The plants are 
greatly invigorated by it. The soil is hoed 
up around the hills in June or July, and 
many cover the hills in winter either by 
plowing or by manure. Whether this is 
done or not, the hills are opened early in 
spring, and the large part of the last year’s 
shoots, the running roots, cut off with a 
sharp knife to within an inch or two of the 
stem. But the old bine, or the tap root, which 
descends vertically into the soil, is not 
touched. The hills are opened by back-fur¬ 
rowing from each row of hills both ways. 
This brings all the soil into the spaces be¬ 
tween the rows. Before the first hoeing the 
back furrows are split with the plow, which 
turns the earth back upon the hills. After 
the hill are opened by back-furrowing, they 
are covered with a shovelful or two of com¬ 
post; or, in want of this, the finest and rich¬ 
est soil will be found useful. 
It has already been seen that the hop vines 
are frequently gathered up and burned on 
the ground in the winter or spring. This 
may be done, and the ashes are of great 
value to the succeeding crop ; but perhaps 
one of the most valuable manures, as well as 
the cheapest, is made of the vines, gathered 
into a heap, and left to decompose and form 
a rich black compost, to be applied in the 
spring in the manner indicated for other ma¬ 
nure. This use of the vines has been too 
much neglected. Not only accurate experi¬ 
ment, but every principle of agricultural 
chemistry, shows at once how important 
this hop-vine manure is; for the vine con¬ 
tains in a concentrated form almost every 
constituent which it has taken from the soil; 
and those parts which are taken away in the 
seeds and strobiles of the plant can be abund¬ 
antly supplied by composting these vines, 
chopped up, through the winter with barn¬ 
yard manure, woollen rags, fish, or other ni¬ 
trogenous substances. In this manner the 
land is not only restored to the condition in 
which it was before the crop was taken away, 
but made as much richer as the amount of 
other manures used in the compost ex¬ 
ceeds the amount carried off in .the seeds 
and fruit of the plant. 
As soon as the shoots are of sufficient 
length the poling is commenced, as has been 
said, and the vines are tied to the poles. 
The shoots not tied to the poles are, as al¬ 
ready indicated, buried up in hoeing, and 
this whether they are wanted to form layers 
or not, for otherwise they would shut out 
the light and heat from the vines.— C. L. 
Flint's Second Annual Report to the Massa¬ 
chusetts Board of Agriculture . 
(To be Continued.) 
MATERIALS IN THEIR INVISIBLE STATE. 
If a piece of silver be put into nitric acid, 
a clear and colorless liquid, it is rapidly dis¬ 
solved, and vanishes from sight. The solu¬ 
tion of silver may be mixed with water, and 
to appearance, no effect whatever is pro¬ 
duced ; thus in a pail of water we dissolve 
and render invisible more than ten pounds 
worth of silver, not a particle of which can 
be seen. Not only silver, lead, and iron, 
but every other metal can be treated in the 
same way, with similar results. When char¬ 
coal is burned, when candles are burned, 
when paper is burned, these substances all 
disappear, ami become invisible. In fact, 
every material which is visible can, by cer¬ 
tain treatment, be rendered invisible. 1. Mat¬ 
ter which in one condition is perfectly opaque, 
and will not admit the least ray of light 
to pass through it, will, in another form, be¬ 
come quite transparent. The cause of this 
wonderful effect of the condition of matter is 
utterly inexplicable. Philosophers do not 
even broach theories upon the subject, much 
less do they endeavor to explain it. The 
substances dissolved in water or burned in 
the air, are not, however, destroyed or lost; 
by certain well-known means they can be 
recovered, and again be rendered visible— 
some in exactly the same state as they were 
before their invisibility ; others, though not 
in the same state, can be shown in their ele¬ 
mentary condition; and thus it can be 
proved, that matter having once existed, 
never ceases to exist, although it can change 
its condition like the caterpillar, which be¬ 
comes a chrysalis, and then a gorgeous but¬ 
terfly. If a pailfull of the solution of silver 
be cast into the sea, it is apparently lost by 
its dispersion in the mighty ocean ; but it 
nevertheless continues to exist. So when a 
bushel of charcoal is burned in a stove it dis¬ 
appears in consequence of the gas produced 
being mixed with the vast atmosphere ; but 
yet the charcoal is still in the air. On the 
brightest and sunniest day, when every ob¬ 
ject can be distinctly seen above the horizon, 
hundreds of tuns of charcoal in an invisible 
condition pervade the air. Glass is a beau¬ 
tiful illustration of the transparency of a 
compound, which in truth is nothing but a 
mixture of the rust of three metals. This 
power of matter to change its conditions from 
solid opacity to limpid transparency, causes 
some rather puzzling phenomena. Sub¬ 
stances increase in weight without any appa¬ 
rent cause ; for instance, a plant goes on in¬ 
creasing in weight a hundred-fold for every 
atom that is missing from the earth in which 
itis growing. Now the simple explanation of 
this is that the leaves of plants have the pow¬ 
er of withdrawing the invisible charcoal 
from the atmosphere, and restoring it to its 
visible state in some shape or other. The 
lungs of animals and a smokeless furnace 
change matter from its visible to its invisible 
state. The gills of fishes and the leaves of 
plants reverse this operation, rendering in¬ 
visible or gaseous matter visible. Thus the 
balance in nature is maintained, although 
the continual change has been going on long 
prior to the creation of the “ extinct ani¬ 
mals.” Septimus Piesse. 
Scientific American. 
Geologically speaking, says Hood, the rock 
upon which hard drinkers split, is quarts. 
Ifflrffcrftral ^primed 
THE HORTICULTURIST FOR MARCH. 
The leader, this month, is upon Bornologi¬ 
cal societies and their influence, and con¬ 
tains some historical facts that should be 
put upon record in all journals that take note 
of the progress of this art. The first gene¬ 
ral meeting of fruit-growers was held at 
Buffalo, in the month of September, 1848, 
under the auspices of the New-York State 
Agricultural Society, of which Lewis F. 
Allen, Esq., of Buffalo, was then President. 
This gentleman was one of the principal 
I movers in the matter, and participated act¬ 
ively in the proceedings of that meeting. 
Delegates were present from fifteen of the 
States, and from the Canadas ; large collec¬ 
tions of fruit were presented ; and the dis¬ 
cussions continued three days. In the fol¬ 
lowing month, the “ American Pomological 
Congress ” assembled at New-York, under 
the auspices of the American Institute. The 
display of fruits was magnificent, and the 
meeting highly satisfactory. 
The next year, the Buffalo organization 
met at Syracuse, and adopted the title, 
“ North American Pomological Society.” 
At this meeting, overtures were made to the 
American Pomological Congress, for a union 
of the two societies, which were accepted, 
and in the following month the union was 
consummated at New-York, under the name 
of the American Pomological Society. This 
society has held five sessions ; two in New- 
York, one in Cincinnati, one in Philadelphia, 
and one in Boston; and the next will be held 
in Rochester, in 1856. There is not at this 
time in the world an organization of this 
kind so efficient, and that extends its influ¬ 
ence over so wide a range of territory, as 
this. It has its committees, and gathers its 
reports from the most northern limits of the 
United States to the shores of the Pacific. 
The local societies that have been formed 
in many parts of the country will be efficient 
aids to the national society. The informa¬ 
tion, which has been gathered in these so¬ 
cieties, and which finds its Avay into the re¬ 
ports of the national society, is of great val¬ 
ue to all classes of cultivators. Though the 
discussions have, thus far, been principally 
confined to the best varieties of fruits, this 
is a point of prime importance to all who 
are planting orchards, and making selections 
for garden cultivation. A list of the most 
popular varieties throughout the country 
concludes the article. There are 36 varie¬ 
ties of the apple, 49 of the pear, 25 of the 
peach, 20 of the plum, 19 of the cherry, 4 of 
the apricot, 4 of the grape, 5 of the rasp¬ 
berry, and 9 of the strawberry. 
Ten pages, or more than a fifth part of the 
whole magazine, are devoted to the biogra¬ 
phy of the Hon. M. P. Wilder, his private 
and public life, his efforts in behalf of horti¬ 
culture, extracts from his speeches, fine 
passages, &c. Whether it is substantially 
the same that has just appeared in Hunt’s 
Merchant’s Magazine or not, we have not 
compared critically to see, but presume it is 
from a notice that we saw in Hunt’s. It is 
