230 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
grown by the Chinese is the Trapa bicornis, 
called by them the Ling. The nut of this 
plant forms the principle article of food for 
whole districts where the rice crop is scarce. 
The Ling is grown chiefly in stagnant wa¬ 
ters, or those having but a very slight cur¬ 
rent. It is sown in the fall in the shallow 
parts of the lakes, in the swamps, and on 
the margin of the rivers, where it receives 
the lull blaze of the sun, as the more the 
plant is exposed to the heat of summer the 
more prolific it is, and the better the quality 
of its fruit. 
The unripened nut is very agreeable to the 
taste, and is much used by the Chinese as 
a refreshment for the sick. When ripened 
it is boiled and eaten as we do chestnuts, 
or dried, hulled, and ground to meal, which 
is used to make bread, and gruel, &c., &c. 
The green fruit is also preserved in large 
quantities and used as a sweetmeat for 
dessert. 
The plants bloom from June to August, 
and the ripe nuts are gathered in September 
and October. Our author in describing the 
harvest says : 
‘ Nothing is more curious than to see the 
women and children embarked in tubs which 
are used as boats to gather the crop. The 
noise, the songs, and the cheers of those 
strange gatherers remind me of the joyous 
vintages in France.’ 
When all the tubs have been filled they 
are tied to one another in a long row, and a 
boat tows them to their place of destination. 
The reason tubs are used instead of boats 
is to prevent tearing the immense Hanes 
or branches formed by the plant, which pro¬ 
duce a large crop the*succeeding year. 
The Trapa bicornis is cultivated in all the 
different provinces, and is variously known 
as Ling, Pi-Tsf and Ki-Chi; and a less val¬ 
uable variety, the Trapa natans, is also grown 
to some extent. 
The Liene Hoa (nymphaea nelumbo) is also 
extensively cultivated for food, the fruit be¬ 
ing dried, ground into flour, and then boiled 
and served up with salt and vinegar. It 
makes its appearance on the most aristocrat¬ 
ic as well as at the most common tables in 
the Empire. This plant is described as be¬ 
ing very beautiful, and the scene in June is 
said to be magnificent, when over a broad 
surface immense quantities of the Liene Hoo 
spread like a carpet on the waters of a lake. 
The flowers, striped, pink and white, are 
the size of a large poppy, and fill the 
atmosphere with a sweet perfume, and 
gladden the eye by the freshness of their 
looks and the brilliant beauty of their 
leaves. 
Our author, in closing his remarks on the 
water plants of China, says that the Govern¬ 
ment appoints botanists in every circuit of 
the country, whose only business is to ben¬ 
efit the poor by making out a list of every 
plant fit for the sustenance of man ; to make 
perfect drawings for its identification ; to 
describe it and the manner of its cultiva¬ 
tion and the mode of preparing it for 
food, and to see that these descriptions are 
thoroughly circulated throughout the dis¬ 
trict. 
W'e do not anticipate that the Ling will 
ever be of any material use in this State, yet 
as we have the necessary sloughs and 
swamps, and the proper climate, we hope 
that some of our amateurs will search for 
sound nuts and experiment with them. It 
is possible, if the plant is very prolific, and 
our Chinese population remains with us, 
that the water-chestnut may become a valu¬ 
able addition to our agricultural products. 
At any rate it is worth trying, even for the 
novelty of its appearance.” 
We commend the example of the Chinese 
Government as worthy of imitation here.— 
We have, doubtless, a large number of in- 
digineous plants, which are worthy of culti¬ 
vation for food, and our government ought 
to make some more efficient exertion to 
hunt them up and bring them into use. 
As there is no hope that the specimens 
sent us will vegetate, we shall preserve 
them as curiosities, and any one may see 
one or two of them at any time in our of¬ 
fice.—[En. 
CALIFORNIA WALNUT. 
In the same package with the above came 
some specimens of the native California wal¬ 
nuts. They are about the size, or a little 
smaller than the common black walnut of 
this country, which they resemble in appear¬ 
ance, though after removing the outer shuck 
the nut itself is smoothe. We tried one of 
them and found it in taste much like our 
butternut, or between that and the Maderia 
nut. The rest of the specimens we shall 
plant and report upon the result. The edi¬ 
tor of the California State Journal, who for¬ 
warded these specimens, makes the follow¬ 
ing statement in his issue of May 3d : 
“ Last December, we, in connection with 
Col. Forman, the Postmaster of Sacramen¬ 
to, and Mr. Redding, took a trip to the lower 
portion of this county to procure some 
young trees of the Native Walnut, which 
we believe to be a non-described variety 
between the common black walnut of the 
Atlantic States and the English or Chili wal¬ 
nut of commerce. We were unable to find 
any seedlings to remove, but rather than to 
be disappointed in the object of our journey, 
we took an axe and cut the suckers from 
around several old stools and brought them 
to this city and had them planted, almost 
without hope of their taking root and grow¬ 
ing. But we are happy to say that we were 
mistaken. Of the twenty suckers collected, 
some fifteen are in full leaf, and have every 
appearance of becoming fine trees—six or 
eight of them can be seen in Mr. Redding’s 
garden, three or four in the grounds of Dr. 
B. B. Brown, several in Col. Forman’syard, 
and others in the gardens of different ama¬ 
teurs to whom they were given to experi¬ 
ment with. 
We also, through the kindness of C. S. 
Howell, Esq., Postmaster at Onisbo, receiv¬ 
ed half a peck or so of the nuts from the 
native trees. A portion of these were sent 
to the Patent Office at Washington, and the 
remainder distributed. Of the general re¬ 
sult which attended the planting of the nuts 
we have not heard, but those planted in Mr. 
Redding’s garden have all come up, and he 
now has a dozen young seedlings varying 
from four inches to a foot in height. We 
commend this native walnut to the attention 
of our citizens for a shade and ornamental 
tree, as at the proper season there is no dif¬ 
ficulty in procuring either the suckers or the 
nuts in abundance. Full grown trees abound 
on, and in the vicinity of Grand Island at 
the lower end of this county—say from Onis¬ 
bo down to the swamps.” 
VALUE OF 'HIGH-PRICED FERTILIZERS— 
GUANO—SUPERPHOSPHATES, &C. 
[Below we give the first of a series of ar¬ 
ticles written for the Homestead, by Samuel 
W. Johnson, of the Yale College Analyti¬ 
cal and Agricultural School. We know Mr. 
Johnson well, having worked at the same 
table with him for a long time, prior to his 
spending a couple of years in Germany, and 
other parts of Europe. He is a diligent, 
careful and skilful experimenter, and we 
know of no one likely to do better justice 
to the subject he has taken hold of, viz : a 
thorough investigation of the artificial ma¬ 
nures, good, bad and indifferent, now offered 
to American Farmers. Those unacquainted 
with chemistry may not find these articles 
so interesting as otherwise, but all will gain 
some practical information. We may differ 
in some respects from Mr. Johnson, in ref¬ 
erence to the method of estimating the value 
of certain ingredients in manures, and as to 
the best means of protecting farmers from 
imposition, but we give his articles entire.] 
There is no better evidence of the waking 
up of the Agricultural community, than is to 
be found in the rapid multiplication of artifi¬ 
cial manures, or the increasing importation 
of Guano. It is to be feared, however, that 
many farmers are not so wide awake as 
may be imagined, and are being disastrously 
fleeced through the ignorance or villiany, (I 
regret to use this term, but facts sustain me,) 
of manufacturers and dealers. In the pres¬ 
ent state of things, the Farmers of Connecti¬ 
cut, and indeed of nearly the whole country, 
are absolutely at the mercy of any man who 
chooses to engage in the manufacture or sale 
of manures. The consequence is that at 
this moment, a kind of Guano is in the mar¬ 
ket which is not worth one-half what is de¬ 
manded for it, and superphosphates of Lime 
are sold, which do not contain a particle of 
soluble phosphoric acid. How shall the 
Farmer be protected from imposition, or 
rather my readers, let me put the question 
more directly, How shall you protect your¬ 
selves ? You can not do it by field trial, be¬ 
cause what you order by the hundredweight 
for trial this year, may be indeed very good; 
but what you buy next year by the ton, may 
be almost worthless. You can’t tell by the 
smell, for a good commercial manure, has, 
or ought to have no strong odor, which is a 
sign of rapid waste. Color, consistence and 
all physical or external characters may be 
easily counterfeited. There is no way to 
protect yourself, but by having recourse to 
chemical analysis made of it. You can tell 
infallibly what its value is. In fact a chem- 
