16 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
LITTLE THINGS: 
OR, A WALK IN MY GARDEN. 
I do not write about my garden because it 
is so large, so expensive, or so much better 
than those of my neighbors, but because 
every garden possesses its individual interest. 
Every garden is full of instruction, even that 
of the sluggard. While taking my walk this 
morning, I was struck with the 
POWER OF ],EAVES TO ABSORB HEAT. 
I transplanted some cabbages, gave them 
a single watering, and covered them with 
leaves of rhubarb, or burdock, which I find 
much better than repeated watering. The 
thermometer had been up to 95°, yet the 
plants did not wilt. What oceans of heat 
are swallowed up by vegetation in summer! 
The leaves do not merely evaporate the 
water by the aid of heat, but they have an 
apparatus by which water is emitted from 
their surfaces, which, when disengaged, ab¬ 
sorbs a large quantity of sensible heat. A 
single large maple in open ground will al¬ 
most always induce a current of air beneath 
its shade. 
Somebody has said, and it has gone the 
rounds of the papers, that nitrogenous ma¬ 
nures are not good for cabbages or ruta 
bagas. Now I do not believe it. They love 
such manures, but the trouble is, such ma¬ 
nures should be thoroughly incorporated 
with the soil, and if possible, prepared early 
in the season. I have for many years pre¬ 
ferred this kind of manure to all others, and 
have almost always beat my neighbor, the 
doctor, who is a good gardener. 
I have a spot sown with seeds from the 
Patent Office called the 
CHAMPION PEA OF ENGLAND. 
They look finely, are ready for picking after 
the Prince Albert, and before the Marrowfat. 
They have been cultivated for several years 
by some English families in this vicinity, by 
whom they are highly prized. I think they 
are not generally known in this State, but 
will prove a valuable addition to our culinary 
articles. Item. —Sow the Prince Albert, 
Champion and Marrowfat, for a succession 
of productive crops. 
Some very silly things have been written 
respecting the use of 
SALT AS A MANURE. 
The chief use of salt is alleged to be its 
power of destroying grubs and worms. Now 
I would like to know how many bushels, 
evenly spread over an acre, would be ne¬ 
cessary, so as to destroy a single worm 1 
Then, again, it destroys weeds. But so will 
sulphuric acid, potash, or any other salt, or 
acid, when used in large quantities, and in a 
concentrated form. How many bushels of 
salt to the acre would it take so as to kill any 
weed whatever? I will answer. It will 
take just as much as will kill everything you 
plant or sow, except such plants as are of 
marine origin. There is, however, one little 
experiment which I once made with com¬ 
plete success. I had a spot thickly set with 
Canada thistles where I wished to make a 
garden. I manured the ground heavily, 
sowed with oats, and let thistles and oats 
grow together. When they were in full 
bloom, I mowed them pretty high, and with 
a tin coffee-pot of beef brine I filled up the 
hollow stocks of the thistles with the same. 
To some this might seem small business, 
but I passed over the ground faster than I 
could hoe it when under cultivation. The 
result was, that I never saw any thistles grow 
there afterwards. I close this article by de¬ 
claring that I design to make my garden sup¬ 
ply my table with something fresh the year 
round.—N. T. T., in New-England Farmer. 
THE SUNFLOWER, OR HELIANTHUS, 
This is a highly ornamental and extensive 
genus of plants, and from their tall growth 
they are particularly well adapted for the 
back of flower gardens, or the front of shrub¬ 
beries, in which situation they make a 
splendid appearance in autumn. They grow 
well in any common garden soil; the tender 
kinds being protected in winter. It appears 
to possess far more profitable qualities than 
were hitherto supposed, and besides forming 
a beautiful object in a bed of flowers, it may 
be cultivated with advantage, and applied to 
many useful purposes. An acre of land will 
contain 25,000 sunflower plants at 12 inches 
distant from each other. The produce will 
be according to the nature of the soil and 
mode of cultivating ; but the average has 
been found to be 50 bushels per acre of the 
seed, which will yield 50 gallons of oil. 
The oil is excellent for table use, burning in 
lamps, and for the manufacture of soaps. 
The mash, or refuse of the seeds after the 
oil has been expressed, and made into cakes, 
will produce 1,500 lbs.; and the stalks, when 
burnt for alkali, will give out 10 per cent of 
potass. The green leaves of the sunflower, 
when dried and burnt to powder, make ex¬ 
cellent fodder for milk cows, mixed with bran. 
From the ease with which sunflowers are 
produced in our gardens, for they flourish in 
any soil and require no particular care, we 
may safely say that an acre of land will 
yield a very considerable return. Poultry 
are very fond of the seeds. 
A White Robin. —I have heard of white 
crows, white blackbirds, white blackberries, 
and quite lately of a white swallow, but 
never until this season did I ever see a snow 
white robin. This rare bird can be seen any 
day near the residence of Mr. Herbert, in the 
town of Le Roy, about five miles north of 
Watertown. It has been seen and examined 
by a large number of visitors, as well as 
nearly all the people in the neighborhood, 
and pronounced to be a bona fide robin. It 
has the form and voice of one, and mates 
with a redbreast; is a female ; has brought 
up a family of fine young robins, two of 
which were spotted; and this is the third 
season it has nested on Mr. Herbert’s farm 
and picked its hasty meal from his door step 
—scattered there by his hand, for which she 
has doubly paid him by a sight of her rare 
plumage and by her sweet choral.—Water- 
town (N. Y.) Reformer. 
A smile, an expression, will tell a history; 
there are years of association in it, long 
years of memory and their shadows. 
BATHING AND SWIMMING. 
Every one should learn to swim. That, 
says an exchange, is a truism. Dr. Frank¬ 
lin said it a long while ago. But how few 
there are, even in our seaport towns, who 
obey Poor Richard’s injunction ! There is 
no excuse for such negligence, when we 
remember that the acquirement of the art of 
swimming gives health and pleasure to the 
pupil. All that is required is a little faith, 
some acquaintance with the laws of specific 
gravity, and considerable practice. Faith, 
as in all important matters, is the chief 
requisite. We have seen an excellent 
method for learning youths to swim. We 
do not think it is patented, and give it for the 
benefit of parents and guardians. The 
teacher is supplied with a stout rod, some¬ 
what shorter and stronger than a fishing-rod, 
a cord, a hook, and strap—the latter should 
be three or four inches in width. The strap 
is placed about the body of the pupil, half 
way between the arm-pits and the hips, the 
hook or ring affixed to the strap,and fastened 
to the cord. The latter being made fast to 
the end of the rope, the pupil is placed in 
the water like a fish. He will soon learn to 
strike out, and the rest will come of itself. 
This plan is better than that of supporting 
the body on corks or life-preservers, because 
by the latter method the pupil must event¬ 
ually lose his support all at once, while with 
the hook and line it is taken away from him 
gradually. Swimming by this process may 
be taught in about six easy lessons.— New 
Haven Palladium. 
MUSKETOES. 
Musketoes are getting to be very plenty 
and troublesome again, the east winds driv¬ 
ing them in swarms to the city from the 
meadows. Without leave or license, and 
unannounced, they present their bills, and 
take pay from your blood. All manner of 
ways have been tried to keep them away but 
none are effectual unless it be the following : 
An old pilot on the Ohio river says : 
“ Never kill or drive ” off a ’skeeter; let him 
have his fill, expose your body so as to get 
bitten all over, after which no ’skeeter, will 
bite you ; for a ’skeeter Avas never known to 
place his sucker in the place that one has 
been in before him, even if it were fifty years 
ago. Being bitten all over, you will there¬ 
fore prove an effectual remedy. 
The Richmond Dispatch says : 
An ingenious German of this city has 
invented a bedstead, which, in view of the 
musketos that are to come, is one of the 
most useful inventions of the year. The 
frame of the beadstead contains machinery 
at once simple and effective, which being 
wound up, will put in operation a fan or fans 
suspended above the sleeper. When wound 
up lhe machinery will move the fans from 
seven to twelve hours with rapidity, regulated 
at pleasure by (he occupant of the bed, ere 
atingabrisk and stirring breeze, or gentle, 
soothing zephyr. The steads are made at 
from $5 to $50. 
He who is genteel, but not gentle, is no 
gentleman. 
