72 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
New-York, Wcdmesday, Oct. 11. 
COVERS TOR BINDING NOT MAILABLE. 
We have received several orders, to mail 
covers for volumes XI and XII. It is entire¬ 
ly unsafe to send them by mail, as they are 
quite large and would unavoidably be spoiled. 
From nearly every town in the country there 
is some book merchant or other dealer, send¬ 
ing to New-York for packages by express 
or otherwise, and we will always send a 
cover to any point in this city where such a 
package is being put up, on the receipt of 25 
cents. These covers are a matter of no 
profit, but we cheerfully procure and forward 
them whenever it will accommodate any 
subscriber and facilitate his keeping his 
numbers together and getting them bound in 
uniform style at a cheap rate. These vol¬ 
umes, if kept, will, in the future, become 
more and more valuable. The Old Series of 
Ten Volumes we had stereotyped, and have 
reprinted several large editions to meet the 
constant demand for them. The New Se¬ 
ries, commencing with volume XI, is too 
large to be stereotyped without an enormous 
expense, so that after parting with some 
fifty volumes, which is all we now have of 
volume XI, we can supply no more of them, 
Our advice, then, is, carefully preserve all 
the numbers, and have them stitched or 
bound. Of volume XII we have a larger 
edition. 
SELECTING SEED. 
We have, upon our table, a pod of the 
Scipio bean, with nine perfect beans in it. It 
is one of the best sorts of pole beans, and 
usually grows with four and five in a pod, 
rarely with six. Four years ago, we found 
one in our garden with six, and it was the 
only one we found on quite a large number 
of hills. We carefully saved the pod, 
marked and planted them the next year by 
themselves. We had several pods with six 
beans in it from the produce, and some with 
seven. These were again kept by them¬ 
selves, and planted, and bore many with 
seven pods, and one with eight. We thought 
we had reached the limit of our improve¬ 
ment with these ; but this year we find them 
still progressive, and our faith is so much 
strengthened, that we now think Scipio 
hereafter may be produced with a dozen 
beans in a pod. A bean patch looks much 
better with long well filled pods, and is far 
more profitable. 
Almost every garden product may be im¬ 
proved by a similar selection of seeds, for a 
succession of years. The present season 
should be improved to make the selection 
for such articles as are still in the garden. 
Take your seed corn from the stalks that 
bear the most ears, tie up the ears by the 
husks, and hang them in a dry place, where 
you can find them next spring. Choose the 
finest squashes, cucumbers, egg plants, mel¬ 
ons, peppers, beets, carrots, &c., and put 
them where you can find them when wanted. 
The seeds should be carefully dried, put in 
papers, labeled and dated. It is well also to 
put on the weight of the fruit, from which 
seeds are taken, that you may see the im¬ 
provement the next season. In nothing are 
we more prone to be careless than in saving 
the seeds of fine fruits and vegetables. 
We are fully persuaded, that time cannot 
be more profitably spent, than in making 
this selection. There is a fixed law in 
nature, that we may avail ourselves of, to 
make almost unlimited improvement in the 
product of the garden. Market gardeners 
understand the advantage of this practice, 
and are very careful in raising their own 
seeds, and make exchanges with each other 
in preference to purchasing at the seed 
stores. Every one who owns a garden 
would find it equally for his advantage. 
Aside from the improvement of fruits and 
vegetables, it is one of the best means of 
mental improvement. The manw-ho pursues 
this course realizes something better than 
fine fruits for his pains taking. His mind is 
kept constantly alive to the beautiful pro¬ 
cesses of vegetation, and every visit to his 
garden is a source of the purest enjoyment. 
There is no relaxation from professional 
cares and business life like it. 
GATHERING SQUASHES. 
It is already time they were plucked from 
the vines, and put in a dry cool place, where 
they may have the sun during the day, and 
be kept from frost at night They should be 
handled with great care, as the least bruise 
is soon followed by decay, which will spread 
through the whole fruit. We have tried 
several methods of keeping them, but have 
found no place equal to an upper room that 
receives the heat of the kitchen stove. The 
old fashioned kitchen with wooden beams 
over head, well filled with spikes for hang¬ 
ing up articles, was the perfection of tem¬ 
perature for preserving squashes. A cellar 
will not answer well if you wash to keep 
them through until spring. A dry atmo¬ 
sphere and perfect freedom from bruises, are 
matters of the first importance. If these 
fruits are guarded, even the marrow squash¬ 
es may be kept with little care until March. 
GREASE OR SCRATCHES. 
A correspondent inquires as to remedies 
for them. The best and most simple w r e 
have met, are those in the “ Modern Horse 
Doctor,” by George H. Dadd, M. D. See 
pages 292 to 298. 
We had an aggravated case of the 
scratches last month, in a fine horse in use 
before our buggy wagon. As he was nicely 
groomed every day, his feet kept well washed 
and clean, we were rather surprised at it. 
Upon thinking the case over, we concluded 
he had been given too great a proportion of 
Indian and oil meal ?n his food during the hot 
weather of the past summer. We instantly 
stopped this, and reduced him to two quarts 
of oats and four quarts of wheat bran per 
day; and as he had been constantly stabled 
with hay, we turned him on to a grass lot to 
run through the day. The fresh grass and 
bran operated upon, his system like a gentle 
loosening medicine, and consequently saved 
the necessity of giving him aloes, or some 
gentle purgative, which would have been re¬ 
quisite in cold weather when there was no 
grass.. The small quantity of oats kept him 
from falling away in flesh too rapidly. His 
feet and fetlocks were now carefully washed 
for several days in succession, every morn¬ 
ing in warm soap suds, and then poulticed 
with smart-weed. Flax seed, slippery elm 
bark, or anything softening, that tends to re¬ 
duce inflammation, would have done just as 
well. After four or five days of this treat¬ 
ment, we left off the poulticing, and then 
simply washed his feet and legs four times 
each day in sea-water, which was running 
near our stable. Brine of moderate strength 
would have done just as well as sea water. 
In about a fortnight the horse was well 
enough to use gently, and in two weeks more 
was perfectly cured. 
In all cases of disease we would recom¬ 
mend first ascertaining the cause of it, and 
this being removed, pay particular attention 
to his food and water—for these are medi¬ 
cines—pure air, and cleanlines. These alone 
are often sufficient to cure most diseases; but 
if they do not produce the desired effect, next, 
apply the most simple medical remedies. In 
all aggravated cases or such as you do not fully 
understand, apply at once to a good veterin¬ 
ary surgeon—not an ignorant quack. If none 
is at hand, then consult your village doctor, 
if he does not think it beneath his dignity to 
alleviate the sufferings of a poor dumb ani¬ 
mal. But he must recollect that a horse is 
not a man; before he prescribes, he must 
know something of its anatomy and internal 
organization. 
Grapes from the Croton Point Vineyard. 
—Dr. R. T. Underhill is again in town with 
his choice Catawba and Isabella grapes. We 
do not know exactly how it is, but whether 
we have a deluge or a drouth, or something 
half way between, the Doctor always gets a 
good crop of grapes. We suppose we ought 
to infer that enlightened science added to 
long experience in their cultivation, combine 
to annually bring about this desirable result; 
but science too many of us ignore ; and as 
for experience, some look to have that come 
by nature. However, be this as it may, yet 
to those who wish to test the superior qual¬ 
ity of the grapes in question, we would say, 
call at Dr. Underhill’s depot, 293 Broadway, 
where they will find them daily fresh from 
the vineyard, and in quantities to suit any 
length of purse, from very short to very 
long. 
Pumpkins. —The most effectual method of 
preserving pumpkins, during the winter, is 
to select the largest and most perfectly ma¬ 
tured, and having deposited a stratum of dry 
straw on a close floor, place them theron— 
not so near as to touch each other, and cover 
them carefully with straw on taking espe¬ 
cial care to fill in the instertices or space 
betwen the pumpkin, till the receptacle is 
filled, or until you have laid by as large a 
quantity as your inclinations or necessities 
require. 
