AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 375 
For the American Agriculturist. 
GROWING CUCUMBERS. 
head with. In the latter operation be guided 
by the weather, and in the former by the 
wants of the plant. Also water about once 
a week with very weak manure water. 
Train the main-stems to stakes, allowing 
them to branch out right and left, never 
pinching the side-shoots back, except when 
one seems to take the lead of the others. 
By following these directions, we are cer¬ 
tain that every success will attend your 
labors. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CEDAR-HOLLY-PYRALANTHIA, &C. 
REPLIES TO C. C. G. 
A correspondent of the American Agricul¬ 
turist inquires for a sure method to vegetate 
cedar, holly, and (what’s that?—) pyralan- 
tliia ? What is the quickest mode of procur¬ 
ing a hedge ? What will make the best 
hedge ? 
I can not answer these inquiries directly, 
but I have tried and am trying some experi¬ 
ments, and I will give my best present knowl¬ 
edge on each point. 
1. With holly, I have been equally unsuc¬ 
cessful with your correspondent, after bury¬ 
ing fresh holly berries in a mass,over a year, 
and then planting them. 
2. The quickest way to get a holly hedge 
is to import the plants. I did so, in a very 
small way, three years and also two years 
ago, and have succeeded far beyond my ex¬ 
pectations. The English holly is much 
handsomer than the American, and, I had 
supposed, would be much more tender ; but 
a very large proportion of all my plants have 
lived through the winter, in a rather shel¬ 
tered situation, in the latitute of New-York, 
and have grown as rapidly as the American 
holly during the summer. 
3. The best and quickest-grown hedge, in 
the climate of Virginia, would be formed, I 
have no doubt, of the Osage orange. I am 
trying Norway spruce, imported plants, and 
have confidence that it will make a capital, 
heavy hedge. 
The plants of this and of the holly can be 
imported to order. 
And now, will your correspondent, who 
dates in Virginia, be good enough to tell us 
northerners what he means by “ cymlins," 
and what a “crawfish soil ” is ? Some other 
odd names for land they have in use at the 
South, as I see by the Patent Office Reports, 
and otherwise. Will he give us a list of 
them, with their definitions? What is “mu¬ 
latto land,” and what “chinquapin' and “black¬ 
jack soil?” What measure, in struck bushels 
of wheat, would be the “barrel of corn," in 
which the amount of southern crops is half 
the time reported ? 
The laborers in my neighborhood are 
chiefly Irish. I have had two that have 
been to Virginia or Maryland, and who have 
come back and will not go again. They 
say, although wages are higher there, they 
can do better here, and they do not like to 
work with “ them nagers”—“ it makes a man 
feel like as if he was a nager himself.” Is 
not the heat of the weather in Virginia so 
debilitating to white men, that they are not 
able to work so hard as the blacks ? S. I. 
Seed sown according to previous direc¬ 
tions will now have germinated and produced 
plants ready for turning out in the farms. 
Supposing the hot beds prepared with the 
best materials on hand, when they have set¬ 
tled, three sticks, six inches around and two 
feet and a half in length, should be placed 
crosswise of each sash on the bed, on which 
place some boards of the same length which 
will prevent the heat of the manure from 
burning the roots. Some rich vegetable 
mold may be placed on the boards, and the 
plants set out. A heat from 70° to 75° must 
be maintained if possible, and the vines 
sprinkled morning and evening in fine weath¬ 
er with water of the same temperature. 
Mold may be added as the plants advance 
in growth, since they grow more rapidly 
than when all the mold is applied at once, 
they must be frequently stopped to induce 
the growth of fruit-bearing wood. Air must 
be admitted on every favorable opportunity. 
Mustard and cress may also be sown thickly 
in pans and pots, and covered with matting, 
kept constantly wet, by which means the ex¬ 
cellent salad will in a few days be ready for 
use ; the seed must not be covered with 
mold. A succession should be kept up, as 
it is of easy culture, and an excellent salad. 
HINTS FOR THE LATTER PART OF FEBRUARY. 
Vine beds may now be put in for growing 
in pots, or planting out. Pans about six 
inches in depth are best for this purpose, 
well drained, and filled within an inch 
of the top with light, vegetable mold. 
The buds may then be placed an inch 
apart on the surface, and covered lightly 
over with mold, and placed Avhere there is 
a bottom heat of 70° to 75°, which must be 
maintained if possible. If this can not be 
had, place them in the warmest part of the 
vinery. 
DAHLIAS. 
Any choice roots showing any signs of 
decay may be put to work, as it is better to 
start thus early than to lose them altogether. 
W. SUMMERSBEY. 
THE CURCULIO 
A great many persons have given up the 
idea of raising plums, because they say that 
there is something that bites the plum before 
it is grown, which causes the fruit to fall be¬ 
fore it is ripe. The past season I tried four 
different remedies, all of which are said to 
keep the curculio from the plum ; but only 
one of the four I found to be worth anything, 
which was air-slaked lime. As soon as the 
trees are in flower, begin dusting your crops 
while they are damp with dew, and continue 
dusting as often as the lime gets washed off 
until the fruit is out of danger. The mode 
of applying the lime is as follows :—Be sure 
that your lime is well slaked, then take a 
piece of fine, thin cotton, or any other cloth 
that wdll let the lime pass through, made in 
the form of a bag. Make it fast to the end 
of a pole, long enough to reach over the tops 
of your trees : in this way you can dust 10 
or 12 trees all over in ten or fifteen minutes. 
The trees that I dusted with lime, bore so 
heavy that they had to be supported with 
poles, while the trees upon which I tried the 
other remedies did not have fruit enough to 
pay for the labor. When the lime gets 
washed off, lose no time in applying it again; 
for the curculio will be ready, as soon as he 
can find the way clear to leave his card on 
the unfortunate plum. Some of your read¬ 
ers will probably try this remedy; if so, they 
will please to report the result. C. G. 
Worcester Co.,Mass. Northern Farmer. 
Top-dressing for Grass Lands. — I shall 
feel obliged by your informing me, through 
the medium of the Agriculturist, what you 
consider the best top-dressing for old grass 
land, that has for several years been pas¬ 
tured by cows and a crop of hay alternately. 
The soil is of rather a light brown loam, not 
very deep. S. 
Your system of cutting for hay and graz¬ 
ing alternately, is most injurious, and cut¬ 
ting should be abandoned, if you wish to 
have a valuable meadow for depasturing. 
As the soil will be most probably impover¬ 
ished of the phosphates of lime, apply super¬ 
phosphate of lime, at the rate of from 4 to 
10 cwts. per acre. This may be applied 
during fresh weather, in January or February, 
and a fall of snow or rain will tend to wash 
it into the soil. Half a cwt. of nitrate of 
soda or sulphate of ammonia, if applied in 
the end of March or beginning of April will 
be most probably well repaid by increased 
produce.— North British Agriculturist. 
Potatoes. —The Neueces Valley says : 
There is a piece of ground on St. Joseph 
Island, two or three acres in size, which was 
planted last spring in sweet potatoes. The 
potatoes grew and the weeds—the cultiva¬ 
tion of the ground was neglected and the 
owner had no idea of digging it, till curiosity 
one day prompted him to examine and see 
if he could find any potato vines among the 
weeds. He found vines, and this very nat¬ 
urally encouraged him to look for potatoes. 
This he did, and to his astonishment he 
found, to use his own language—“ an abund¬ 
ance of the finest my blue eyes ever blazed 
upon.” After digging a winter’s supply for 
his family, he sold the “patch” for a round 
sum. The purchaser supplied his cellar 
with potatoes, sold enough to pay the prin¬ 
cipal and a handsome interest on his invest¬ 
ment, when he sold out to a third. The 
purchaser followed the example of the pre¬ 
vious one, and sold to a fourth. The land 
changed hands six or seven times, each pur¬ 
chaser making something of a speculation 
on the purchase and sale, when it finally fell 
into the hands of our fellow-citizen, Capt, 
Jenkins, who is digging yet. 
New Method of Irrigating Rice. —Mr. 
DeLeon, of South Carolina, United States 
Consul in Egypt, has addressed a letter to 
Dr. Gibbes, of Columbia, S. C., covering a 
proposal of an Italian named Lattis, who is 
engaged in agricultural pursuits in Egypt, to 
reveal to the people of the United States a 
discovery he has made, by which two crops 
of rice can be grown in a single season and 
with great saving in the expense of irrigation. 
The method is very simple, and he thinks it 
may apply with equal advantage to other 
grains besides rice. 
Approach of Spring. —The Gonzales Texas 
Inquirer of the 3d February says : Our far¬ 
mers have commenced preparing for another 
crop in real earnest. Many have finished 
breaking up their lands, and we hear of some 
who have already planted corn, while others 
are waiting for a rain, which is very much 
needed at present, to enable them to follow- 
suit. One of our farmers on Peach Creek, 
in this county, we learn, already has corn 
up about three inches. This is what avc call 
“ early in the field.” 
A Neav Vegetable. —It is said that the 
Tannye, or Sandwich Island potatoe, has 
been introduced into cultivation in several 
of the Southern States. It is described as a 
“ delicious vegetable,” and the plant is very 
productive. The editor of the San Antonia 
Texan says that a gentleman in that vicinity 
raised six bushels of the article upon a piece 
of ground fifteen feet square. 
