1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
21 
fed to cows whose manure is all reapplied to 
the same land, it will be improved. The ma¬ 
nure made by the consumption of the fifteen 
tons of hay, in connection with the extra growth 
of roots in the'soil, will be worth more than 
the two tons of guano, and it will still more 
benefit the land, causing it to produce still more 
largely the next year. This crop being made 
into more manure, and returned to the same 
field, will again increase its yield, and there is 
scarcely a limit to the extent to which its fer¬ 
tility may be increased,—all by the judicious 
reinvesting of the original five tons of guano 
(principal and interest). Of course, the usual 
requirements of good husbandry (such as ro¬ 
tation and seeding) must not be neglected ; but 
under a good system of farming, with Peruvian 
guano to start with, the productive power of a 
farm may be vastly increased. In careless farm¬ 
ing guano will be found an expensive manure. 
The Variegated Rose of Sharon. 
In quite a large collection of ornamental 
shrubs none has given us greater satisfaction 
than the Variegated Rose of Sharon. The or¬ 
dinary form with green leaves is one of the com¬ 
monest shrubs in cultivation, and is commonly 
called in the catalogues, Althaea, frutex, though 
it is not properly an Althaea, but Hibiscus Syri- 
acus. Its late appearing, single and double 
hollyhock-like flowers, and its hardiness make 
it a popular favorite. The variegated one to 
■which we refer- was, if we mistake not, intro¬ 
duced by Robt. Buist, who, though he has 
brought out many fine plants, has sent out none 
more likely to become a general favorite than 
this. The variegations of the leaves are well 
defined, the light portion being of a clear, creamy 
white. The past summer has put plants with 
variegated leaves to a severe test. They are 
regarded, and probably justly, as constitution¬ 
ally weaker; and 
many of them 
lose their foliage 
in a long con¬ 
tinued drouth, or 
their markings 
disappear under 
our July and 
August heats. 
The Variegated 
Rose of Sharon, 
however, stood it 
bravely, and was 
bright and cheer¬ 
ing to the end. 
The plant makes 
such a show r with 
its foliage that we 
hardly need flow¬ 
ers in addition 
but it produces 
dark purple flow¬ 
ers which are re¬ 
markably double, 
and furnishes one 
of several in¬ 
stances of excep¬ 
tions to the state¬ 
ment that plants 
with variegated 
foliage do not 
bear double flow- 
ers. The leaves 
are represented in 
the engraving of 
the natural size, 
while the flower 
given there is 
much smaller 
than usual, on ac¬ 
count of the dry 
weather. The 
shrub is now generally kept by nurserymen, and 
u r e can commend it as one of the finest of its class. 
Job’s Tears.— {Goix Lachryma.) 
It is pleasant to see old and almost forgotten 
plants turn up occasionally, and when a gentle¬ 
man brought for a name a specimen of Job’s 
Tears, we were gratified to meet a very old gar¬ 
den friend. There can scarcely be any thing more 
curious in the way of a grass—for it is a grass 
that bears this lachrymose name. The engrav¬ 
ing will show the singular character of its 
flowers. A small, egg-shaped involucre en< loses 
the female or perfect flower, and from this pro¬ 
ceeds a weak spike, bearing several staminate or 
male flowers. There is something about the 
arrangement that reminds one of Indian corn. 
The involucre, or roundish body, which incloses 
the perfect flowers, in ripening, becomes very 
hard and bony, with a smooth, polished surface, 
and of a gray color. These seeds, if we may 
call them so, have received numerous fanciful 
names, of which Job’s Tears seems to have be¬ 
come the most firmly attached. When perfora¬ 
ted the Tears are strung as beads, and used to 
make rosaries. The plant is a native of South¬ 
ern Europe, and in our warm summers it usually 
perfects its curious fruit, though it would be 
much safer to give the seeds a start under glass. 
Potato Grafting. 
BY JOHN WARCUP. 
[The publication of Darwin’s “ Animals and 
Plants under Domestication” brought into 
prominence the fact that hybrids could be pro¬ 
job’s tears. —(Coix Lachryma.) 
duced other than through the medium of the 
seed. Several instances of graft-hybrids were 
cited, among the most striking of which was 
the successful blending of the characters of two 
varieties of potato by means of grafting. This 
statement at once set English experimenters at 
work, and for a while the journals contained 
numerous accounts of more or less promising 
results. During the past season, one of the 
most careful of these experimenters made the 
announcement, that he had done with potato¬ 
grafting as promising no useful results what¬ 
ever. The following, from our Canadian cor¬ 
respondent, John Warcup, gives the manner in 
which the grafting is done, and the results he 
obtained in his experiments last season.—E d.] 
I grafted, last spring, an Early Rose on a Gar¬ 
net Chili, and also a Garnet Chili on an Early 
Rose, in like manner. I took a Chili and 
scooped out every eye, then cut from an Early 
Rose a slice in shape somewhat like a shield, 
containing a fine germ, or bud. This shield was 
inserted in a bed prepared for it in the Chili, 
stuck on with two pins, and bound fast with 
bass. The bed and shield were made to fit as 
exactly as possible, and the grafted specimen 
immediately planted in the usual manner. The 
two sorts operated upon are both reds—the 
Chili a little the darker, and round in shape, 
the Rose paler red, and oblong. All the speci¬ 
mens came up arid grew well. They were dug 
