334 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
duce variations from the common type. We 
have seen Mercers tinged with blue, upon 
the outside, and streaked within, looking 
almost like another variety. This propensi¬ 
ty to sport, is a wise provision of the Crea¬ 
tor, for the improvement of all plants. The 
accidental qualities may be fixed by propa¬ 
gation in some plants, and thus a new varie¬ 
ty or rather sub-variety be originated. The 
white kidneys streaked with red, were not 
a cross, and probably would not have per¬ 
petuated the red streaks. If it be asked, 
what caused the red stripes, we can not tell 
any more than we can tell why the Hydrin- 
gea planted in garden mold gives a flower of 
rose color, and planted in swamp earth gives 
flowers of blue. We are confident it was 
some accidental quality in the earth, and not 
its neighboring red potato that furnished the 
coloring matter for its skin. 
As for case No. 2, if by it is meant the 
southern tuber that commonly bears that 
name, there must be a mistake. The cross 
of an Irish potato, with any variety of the 
sweet potato we believe to be an impossibil¬ 
ity. If it is asserted that the product of one 
variety of the Irish potato, bore some resem¬ 
blance to another, we would account for it 
as for case No. 1. 
Case No. 3, is a change in the habits of a 
plant, made by acclimation, of which there 
are abundant parallels. It is well known 
that Canada corn brought to the latitude of 
New-York, ripens later every successive 
year, until its period of maturity is con¬ 
formed to the necessities of the climate. 
The early Sovereign, is a potato of English 
origin, and we have no doubt that its culti¬ 
vation in this country, for four years, would 
prolong its period of maturity, and greatly 
enlarge its size. The change in the charac¬ 
ter of a potato by cultivation; is a matter of 
common observation. Most new seedlings 
are rank growers, and coarse flesh. Culti¬ 
vation improves their quality, enlarges the 
proportion of starch, and makes them more 
mealy. But what is gained in starch, is lost 
in stamina, and an old potato, like the Mer¬ 
cer, becomes too weak to perpetuate itself. 
We do not believe that tubers are ever 
crossed through the root as our correspond¬ 
ent supposes, and we account for his facts, 
by the above well recognized principles.-[En. 
ORIGINAL.RECIPES. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Boston Loaf. —When you were trying 
some of our New-England bread, or Boston 
Loaf as it is usually called, you requested a 
recipe of the same for your paper, which I 
here inclose. 
Take two quarts of coarse Indian mea 
and add sufficient boiling water to make a 
stiff pudding, stirring till thoroughly scald¬ 
ed. When cool add one quart of unbolted 
rye meal, one half pint of molasses and a 
little salt, mixing the. whole till a trifle stif- 
fer than Indian mush. Bake in deep iron 
dishes with a steady heat for several hours. 
The Indian and Rye meal should both be 
sifted in a coarse sieve before using, to take 
out the hulls. Laurie. 
Indian Pudding. —Scald say one quart of 
milk and stir in sufficient Indian meal—yel¬ 
low is preferable—to make it of the consis¬ 
tency of gruel; when cool sweeten with 
sugar, and spice to taste using cinnamon, 
ginger and nutmeg, also a little salt : add a 
little suet or butter and some raisins or fine 
chopped apples and bake from one to too 
hours. 
Sallie Lunn. —Mix 3 pints sifted wheat 
flour, I pint milk, 3 eggs ; £ lb. butter, 1 cup 
white sugar and 1 gill of yeast. Let the 
sponge stand till it is quite light; then put 
in deep pans and bake one hour. To be 
eaten while hot, with butter. 
APPLE PIES WITHOUT APPLES. 
The following receipt is now being sold in 
some parts of the country for fifty cents, 
and an injunction of secrecy at that. If it 
is worth fifty cents to you,reader, just credit 
the Agriculturist with half your subscription 
returned. We would like to keep a running 
account, so that you may know whether you 
get your money’s worth during the year. 
Well, for the pies—we mean the receipt. 
Good or not, you will of course not buy the 
receipt now : 
“Dissolve two-thirds of a tea-spoonful of 
tartaric acid in two cups of water; halve 
three crackers, and put them into the solu¬ 
tion, letting them remain until thoroughly 
soaked, then place them carefully in the pie, 
and pour on the acid water remaining. Then 
sprinkle on cinnamon, and afterwards a cup 
of sugar, add a piece of butter the size of a 
walnut; and a little salt.” 
A WORD FOR THE TYPES. 
We suppose few of our readers have any 
idea of the amount of manual as well as 
mental labor expended upon a single number 
of the Agriculturist. Take, for example, the 
letters, which are all single pieces of metal. 
Then there are also spaces between the 
words, as well as little slips of lead between 
the lines. In printing this July number we 
have used about half a million [500,000] pieces 
of metal. Had these all been placed in a 
box or on a table, and one of our boy or girl 
readers undertaken to have counted them, 
at the rate of 25 a minute, or fifteen thou¬ 
sand during each day’s work of ten hours, it 
would have occupied over thirty three work¬ 
ing days , or about one and a quarter months 
to have simply counted the pieces used. 
Yet our printers have taken this type from 
the forms of the June number, distributed 
the letters, spaces, &c., into appropriate 
boxes, and then picked them all up again and 
arranged them in the present order. You 
will see that the letters are all or nearly all 
right side up, the words are properly spaced 
so that a certain number of words occurring 
together, should just make up a line, and the 
whole 24 pages are properly arranged, paged, 
&c. Is it any wonder that sometimes an 
error in a single word or letter should oc¬ 
cur? Is it not a wonder that there are so 
few of these errors ? We will give you an 
illustration or two to show how much differ¬ 
ence the exchange of a single letter will 
make. In the type cases the letter c, re¬ 
sembles an o, and owing to this, but a short 
time since we noticed in one of our ex¬ 
change papers, the sale of 5,000 bushels of 
cats. Another paper has an article upon 
milking a crow three times a day. Our April 
number had ahead line on “Early Tomatoes .” 
The article itself treated of Early Potatoes. 
In the May number, an article was headed 
“ Set out a Fruit Tree the heavy roller of 
the steam press broke off the top of the 
word set, and the last copies of the paper 
had an article headed “ Out a Fruit Tree.” 
So much for our printers. We will say 
nothing of our mental work in collecting fifty 
or sixty articles and items from a great 
number of sources, where ten to twenty ar¬ 
ticles are examined and read, for every one 
selected for these columns.— [Ed. 
VALUABLE NEW BOOKS. 
The American Handbook of Ornamental 
Trees, by Thomas Meehan, Gardener, Phi¬ 
ladelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1856.— 
This book owes its origin to a purpose of the 
author to describe, somewhat minutely, the 
trees in the famous old garden of the botan¬ 
ist, Bartram, near Philadelphia. Such a 
work of itself would have been interesting 
to all lovers of rare trees. But the writer 
having proceeded thus far, was induced by 
friendly advisers to enlarge his plan and 
to prepare a more general work, concerning 
all known ornamental trees suited to the 
climate of North America. So far as we 
can judge, he has done his work. He set 
out with a determination to be accurate in 
his descriptions, and has asserted nothing 
which is not the result of his own experi¬ 
ence and observation. 
In the introductory chapters, he treats of 
soils, the choice of trees, raising of trees, 
the best size for transplanting, the best sea¬ 
son in which to plant, the operation of trans¬ 
planting, pruning, &c. This part of the vo¬ 
lume is very valuable : it contains sugges¬ 
tions ra'rely found elsewhere ; and they are 
given in the fewest possible words. 
When he proceeds to describe individual 
trees, he seems to us unnecessarily brief. 
Especially, when he speaks of the newer 
and rarer trees, deciduous and evergreen, 
he hardly satisfies us. W T e want to know 
all about them. Above all things, we desire 
to know, definitely and positively, how far 
north they are hardy , what soils, aspect and 
peculiar treatment they require, if any, &c. 
His book would have been more complete, 
also, if he had given us an index at the close, 
referring to the page on which each tree is 
spoken of. These things can be corrected in 
a future edition. 
We heartily welcome this volume as an 
important contribution to the literature of 
trees. It will stimulate zeal, and impart 
useful information, and serve to promote the 
real adornment of our public grounds and 
our homes. G. 
Marbles, Marble and Stone Cutting.— 
There were in this county 14,076 stone and 
marble cutters in 1850, and the number has 
increased largely during the last five years. 
We know a number of these are readers of 
the Agriculturist, and they will be glad to be 
