1864] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
18 
men’s garments, this side of Dixie.) Another 
use to which the leaves are put in Northern Eu¬ 
rope,—namely, as winter fodder for sheep and 
goats,—will be no recommendation of the plant. 
Necessity of Developing Agriculture. 
The following truthful and eloquent extract 
from the address of Alexander H. Bullock, be¬ 
fore the Bristol County Fair, (Mass.,) deserves 
to be generally considered. It is of wider ap¬ 
plication than the State to which it refers: 
“We have in Massachusetts about the same 
proportion of persons engaged in the cultiva¬ 
tion of the earth, as is returned by the English 
abstracts, and the smallest extent of the pro¬ 
ducts of the land which would be proportionate 
to the magnitude of oilier departments, should 
be, not forty millions, but a hundred millions. 
The agriculture of the State has every induce¬ 
ment for a larger -development, which can be 
derived from the most minute organization of 
its industry, and from the most complete ex¬ 
pansion of its powers of consumption. And 
the time has now come when manufactures and 
trade will require but little further encourage¬ 
ment,—they will take care of themselves,—but 
it is agriculture 'which must achieve higher ad¬ 
vances, or degeneracy will begin its work. If 
we expect to maintain the position w r e have ac¬ 
quired in the community of States, or to hold 
unimpaired the adjustment and symmetry of 
our social character, we must preserve in its 
full vigor the element of an agricultural popu¬ 
lation,—responsive to the growth of other de¬ 
partments, and irradiating the future, as it has 
n-radiated the past, with the lustre of its pa¬ 
triotism and integrity, its sobriety and frugality, 
its virtue and religion. And especially in the 
present epoch of uncertainty and change, when 
the gilded prizes of trade so frequently crumble 
to ashes, and the riches of skill and art so easily 
ake to themselves wings, let us hope that the 
fifty thousand farmers of the State will hold 
fast to their profession—that they will remain 
themselves, and that others will join them in 
the safe and serene paths that were marked out 
by the Divine hand in the beginning of all 
things. With a commonwealth thus organized 
and classified—the masterly energies and com¬ 
prehensive grasp of its manufactures, and arts, 
and commerce, resting on the pure and solid 
base of an unfailing and increasing agriculture 
—and all blending in the culture of those chari¬ 
ties which impart even to present life a benefi¬ 
cence that is imperishable—we may fondly 
hope to repeat, in our experience from year to 
year, the happy and lofty climax of the poet: 
“ Man is the noblest plant this realm supplies, 
And souls are ripened in these Northern skies.” 
Some More Cabbage Talk. 
When the stump from which a head of early 
cabbage has been removed, is left in the ground, 
it will not unfrequently form several other and 
smaller heads. In this case the axillary buds 
mentioned in December Agriculturist , grow and 
form heads. For convenience of reference and 
comparison, we introduce the same figure again. 
Some of the uppermost buds (fig. 1, 6), devel¬ 
op in this way, and make a second attempt to 
provide for an abundance of flowers the next 
Spring. When cabbage stumps are set out in 
Spring these buds develop and form branch¬ 
es which, when young and tender, are used as 
f ood. In a curious variety of the cabbage called 
Brussels Sprouts, the stem grows much taller 
than in the ordinary cabbage, and the bads, 
which in cabbages are very small, are here as 
large as walnuts, and are like little cabbage heads 
distributed all along the stem, as is shown in 
fig. 2. No compact head is formed at the top of 
the stem, but it would seem that the material 
which in the cabbage goes to form one large 
head, is here distributed among a great number 
of small ones. Brussels Sprouts have long been 
cultivated at the place from which they are nam¬ 
Fig. 2.—BRUSSELS SPROUTS. 
ed, and are supposed to have originated there. 
They are but little grown in this country, but in 
Europe the little heads, or sprouts, are consider- 
ed a great delicacy. The well-grown specimen 
from which the drawing is taken, was sent to 
us by Mr. William Erwoocl, of Long-Island. 
The Kale, or Borecole which is so generally 
seen in our markets in Winter, is also a variety 
of cabbage. It, however, forms no head, but in 
its place has a cluster of loose leaves upon the 
top of the stem, which, after they have been 
frozen, form very good greens. This variety is 
nearly like the cabbage in its natural state. 
Kohl-Kabi, or the Turnip-cabbage, as it is 
sometimes called, is a very curious variety of the 
cabbage. Like the Kale it does not make any 
head; and the stem, instead of elongating as in 
the other varieties, swells out just above the 
root into a flattened turnip shaped body, which 
is the eatable portion. Upon examination it will 
be found to be just like a depressed cabbage 
stalk, with broad scars marking the places of 
Fig. 3.—KOIIL-RA:BI. 
the leaves. Burr, in his work upon garden veg¬ 
etables, singularly enough classes this with the 
esculent roots. A slight inspection will show 
that it is a stem and not a root. The statement 
which has been going the rounds of the papers 
that it is a cross between the turnip and cauli¬ 
flower, is simply nonsense. It is only a variety 
of the cabbage with an unusual shaped stem. 
The plant should grow quickly and be used 
while young and tender, when it is a very ac¬ 
ceptable vegetable. It hardens as it matures. 
Air and Ocean—Interesting Items. 
The air is made up of a mixture of two gas¬ 
es, oxygen and nitrogen, and it always con¬ 
tains considerably wateiy vapor and carbonic 
acid. In his new work on Chemistry, Prof. 
Youmans states, that if all the air were reduced 
to its average density at the earth’s surface, it 
would extend about five miles high, and that 
if the above constituents were arranged in lay¬ 
ers one over the other, we should have first, at 
the bottom, a bed of water all over the earth’s 
surface 5 inches deep; next a layer of carbonic 
acid 18 feet deep; next above, a layer of oxygen 
gas about 1 mile deep; and above this a layer of 
nitrogen gas about 4 miles deep. This will help 
the memory.- Sea Water contains about 4 
ounces of salt in every gallon. Estimating the 
ocean to average 2 miles in depth, the salt if 
separated in a solid bed would line the bottom 
of the entire ocean to a depth of 140 feet. 
New-Jersey Tea. —The leaves of this plant 
have recently been analyzed by Prof. Gibbs, of 
the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, 
and no Tliein or other analogous substance was 
found. As it is to Thein that tea owes its pecu¬ 
liar value, it will be seen that the New-Jersey 
article is no nearer being a substitute for it than 
many other plants from which “herb drink” is 
made. To those who take tea, as many peoole 
