AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
77 
i?i .. ■ -— 
of the washing fluids sold in the country for 
several years past, the recipes for most of 
which we have seen. 
Our second reason for not recommending 
it is, that we have not tried it, and shall not 
so long as we have that most excellent pre¬ 
scription, first published in the Agriculturist, 
January 11th, 1854, called the “BoraxWash¬ 
ing Recipe.” This has been tried thousands 
of times, and we have heard it always com¬ 
mended when alluded to. Our clothing has 
been washed with the borax-soap for two 
years with the most satisfactory results. 
For the benefit of many new readers, and to 
refresh the memory of old ones, we will 
give the recipe again. It is as follows : 
To each pound of common hard soap add 
from one-half to three-quarters of an ounce 
of common borax, with one quart of water. 
Put the water in any convenient vessel upon 
the stove, add the borax, somewhat pulver¬ 
ized, and then put in the soap cut up in thin 
pieces. Keep them hot—but not boiling— 
for two or three hours, or until the whole is 
well dissolved, and then set it aside to cool, 
when a solid mass will be formed. If the 
vessel is set upon the warm stove at night, 
the operation will be completed in the morn¬ 
ing, though we think it better to stir the mass 
just before it is cooled. 
The night before washing, rub the clothes 
where most soiled, with'the soap, and soak 
in water till morning. This soap, which has 
been more than doubled in quantity, will go 
quite as far, bulk for bulk, as the original, 
thus saving at least one-half. The boiling 
and washing are to be performed in the usual 
manner ; but it will be found that the labor 
of rubbing is diminished three-fourths, while 
the usual caustic or eating effect of the soap, 
is greatly lessened ; and the hands will re¬ 
tain a peculiarly soft and silky feeling, even 
after a large washing. The preparation is 
adapted to all kinds of fabrics, colored or 
uncolored, including flannels, and is thought 
to increase their whiteness. 
Stump Machines. —Mr. Benjamin Richards, 
of Jones’ Creek, Randolph Co., Ill., inquires 
concerning, the best “ Stump Machine 
where one can be obtained, its price, &c.; or 
the best mode of constructing one that will 
extract stumps 20 to 30 inches in diameter. 
We know of none for sale. Any information 
on this subject, addressed directly to Mr. 
Richards, or, if of general interest, furnished 
for the columns of this paper, will be thank¬ 
fully received. 
Canada Subscribers will ofcourse remem¬ 
ber that a part of their postage must be pre¬ 
paid here, and provide therefor. The postage 
necessary to be prepaid here is 12 cents per 
annum on the American Agriculturist, and 
26 cents a year on the Times. 
J. G. .1., of Maine : We do not know that 
the Discorea Japonica, is on sale in this city 
or elsewhere. It is quite doubtful whether 
the Wyandot corn will ripen so far north as 
your State. It failed this year in the lati¬ 
tude of Albany, N. Y. We should, however, 
■advise an experiment with this as with all 
similar matters on a small scale at first. 
J. F.—Readington, N. J.—Thanks for a 
letter and seeds, which came in after the 
paper was in type—will be noticed in our 
next. 
N. Y. State Agricultural Society. —The 
Annual or Winter Meeting will be held at 
Albany,on Wednesday, February 11th. See 
advertisement. 
The Brooklyn (Ct.) Farmers Club —one 
of the oldest and most successful in the 
country—have this winter adopted the plan 
of holding their meetings at the houses oi 
the members, after the manner of the ladies’ 
sewing circles. This is an excellent plan, 
where the number attending is not too large; 
though every farming neighborhood ought to 
have agricultural club meetings so large that 
no private house would accommodate them. 
The method pursued by some of the clubs 
in Westchester and Dutchess Counties, N. 
Y., is perhaps the best, where it can be car¬ 
ried out: We refer to their day meetings 
upon the farms of the different members. 
This gives an opportunity to study the soil, 
crops, implements and practice of the sev¬ 
eral persons visited. 
California Wheat Crop. —The Alta Cal¬ 
ifornia of Nov. 5th, says that Dr. Trask, the 
State Geologist, has returned from a tour 
throughout the whole of the northern, cen¬ 
tral and southern portions of the State. He 
estimates the consumption of flour at 370,000 
barrels a year ; and from the investigation 
he has made, gives it as his opinion that the 
total yield of the present year will not ex¬ 
ceed 390 or 395,000 barrels of flour, leaving 
20 or 25,000 barrels for export, or five times 
that amount in wheat for seed. He also 
states that there is only one county in the 
State which this year has produced a full 
crop, viz., Yole. The yield in this county 
averages thirty bushels to the acre. Colusi 
comes next, producing 28 bushels to the 
acre. The average yield throughout the 
State is estimated by Dr. Trask at seventeen 
or eighteen bushels. There was fifteen per 
cent more land sown with wheat this year 
than last, and the falling off in the aggregate 
production is attributed to the inferiority of 
the yield, smut, rust, grass-hoppers, &c. In 
Los Angelos and San Bernardo the wheat 
crop proved a total failure, and the people, 
as soon as it was found out, were forced to 
put in corn, and succeeded in raising a small 
crop. 
Our Exchanges will confer a favor by call¬ 
ing special attention to the general character 
of this paper, and saying such favorable 
things of us as they can consistently. We 
make this request with more freedom be¬ 
cause we are sending the Agriculturist to a 
large number of papers from which, on ac¬ 
count of their different character, we derive 
nd particular benefit except from such no¬ 
tices. 
Corn Crop in Virginia. —Mr. J. C. Cohoon, 
of Nansemond County, Virginia, states in a 
private letter that the corn crop for the past 
season has rarely been surpassed within his 
recollection, extending over a period of about 
sixty years. 
Granaries. —L. Salaville, of Paris, has 
taken out a patent for constructing grain 
storehouses by having an air chamber under 
the floor of the grain-room, and by having 
the floor on which the grain is laid pierced 
with small holes, through which currents 
of air are to be forced by a blowing ma¬ 
chine. 
The number of eggs daily brought to this 
market is almost incredible. These are now 
gathered from all the western States, where 
they have generally been preserved in lime- 
water first, and afterward packed in barrels 
with oats and sent forward by canal and rail¬ 
road. Three years ago we chanced in a 
small town in the interior of Ohio, and noted 
the current price of eggs as 5c.a6c. per doz., 
at this season of the year. The local paper 
published in that town quoted eggs last week 
at 17c. per dozen, and recently we saw a 
barrel of eggs from the same town standing 
in the store of an “ egg merchant ” in Wash- 
ington-st., for which he had paid 19?c. per 
dozen delivered here. 
This branch of trade has become greatly 
enlarged and systematized within a year or 
two past. The country merchants in west¬ 
ern towns, take in eggs and “ pay in goods.” 
These they pack and send direct to a com¬ 
mission merchant here, or more frequently 
sell them out to migratory dealers at the 
nomial cost price, depending upon the profits 
on their “goods” for their remuneration. 
The traveling dealers frequently have on 
hand half a million or more of eggs, and 
sales of 50 to 150 barrels (containing 75 to 
80 dozen each) to a single egg merchant, are 
very common transactions. 
We had the curiosity to make a little in¬ 
quiry as to the number of eggs annually 
brought into this city, and, for this purpose, 
called upon several of the largest egg mer¬ 
chants. The books of ten of these exhibit 
an aggregate of receipts and sales, for twelve 
months past, of nearly thirty-six millions. 
Further inquiry showed that this is not quite 
one-third of all sold here. The annual con¬ 
sumption of eggs in this city may be set 
down, in round numbers, at full one hundred 
millions. 
A dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, sent forward 
1,200 barrels to a single dealer here during 
the present year. The supply is seldom 
equal to the demand, even at the high rates 
usually prevailing, and the business maybe 
doubled or trebled without sinking prices be¬ 
low a remunerative figure. A glance at our 
weekly quotations shows that the average 
price, during the past year, has been full 
seventeen cents per dozen. 
We began, however, to note the manner 
of preserving and packing these eggs. The 
method now usually adopted is to take them 
as fresh as possible and immerse them in 
lime-water. This is prepared by putting a 
few quarts of unslacked lime in a tight bar¬ 
rel or cask, and then partly fill the vessel 
with water. It is allowed to stand a few 
