982 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
cattle, and when pounded, they produce a fair 
article of flour for bread. No tree is more val¬ 
uable in the desert, nor does anything surpass it 
as an ornamental tree. 
It is also very valuable as a hedge plant. It is 
important that its worth for cattle feed and hedg¬ 
ing, as well as for ornamental purposes, should 
be faithfully tried in the upper part of the State. 
If it can stand the cold, it will be found very 
hardy in every respect. It grows on almost any 
soil, without water. This and the cottonwood are 
the only varieties of wood found in the Colorado 
country. The tree is of the Acacia species, 
having the appearance of an inverted bowl, that 
is, it is semi-spherical. 
The foliage, very thick evergreen. Its palmeta 
or fern-like leaf has from five to twelve leaflets on 
each side of the axle. The branches shoot out 
low down like those of a neglected scrub apple- 
tree, armed with hard sharp thorns. One variety 
bears a screw shaped bean, the other one resem¬ 
bles the common string bean. 
The tree grows about twenty-five feet high, 
seldom higher. The gum is excellent for medi¬ 
cal purposes, and for pasting is equal to gum 
arabic, which it resembles. The gum exudes 
from all parts of the hark quite plentifully. An 
Indian will aollect a double handful in half an 
hour.’’ 
Will some of the California readers of the 
Agrieulturist, favor us with any additional 
information in regard to this tree. If half of 
what is said above be true, it will be worth 
looking after. —Ed. 
A WORD FOR THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Our observation during the past Summer, as 
well as in past seasons, has convinced us that 
enough attention is not given to the kitchen 
garden. The farmer neglects it, in order to be¬ 
stow more time on his field crops, and others 
neglect it from thoughtlessness, or the pressure of 
other oares, or supposing lhat no special cave is 
needful in its cultivation. This is all a mistake. 
Of how many healthful and delicious vegetables 
and fruits do such persons deprive themselves ! 
We beg leave to urge a more thorough attention 
to the humble but useful kitchen garden. 
In the first place, then, we say, let the soil be 
made suitably porous and dry. If naturally sand}* 
or gravelly to a considerable depth, no draining 
will be needed. But if not, one or more substan¬ 
tial drains should be cut through it, and then the 
whole should be trenched or subsoil plowed. No 
superfluous water will lie in that garden, at any 
season, and in the dryest time, it will suffer little 
from drouth. In somo cases, even this will not 
be enough to prepare the ground for garden pur¬ 
poses. It may be such a stiff, clayey soil, that 
draining and digging and manuring will not make 
it porous and w’arm. A garden soil should be 
light and kindly, one easily worked in Spring, ami 
in which vegetables will grow rapidly. If heavy 
and tenacious, it may be improved by carting 
sand upon it, and mixing it intimately with the 
clay. It may be too great an undertaking to reno¬ 
vate a whole garden in a single year: if so, take 
one quarter of it at a time, and so on from year 
to year, until the whole is completed. 
Some cultivators practice the burning or char¬ 
ring of clay soils with much benefit. They first 
make a pile of faggots and brush, then lay over it 
lumps of clay. After the brush is fired and partly 
burned, more rubbish is thrown on, and then 
more clay, and so on, as long as may be desired, 
making a half smouldered fire, which will burn 
sevoral days. The heap of charred clay is then 
scattered over the garden, and its effects are 
sometimes truly surprising. 
We have not yet spoken of the importance of 
barn-yard manure in the garden. Whatever may 
be true of field crops, the kitchen garden cannot 
get on at all without an abundance of this useful 
article. Small, tough, fibrous, insipid vegetables 
and fruits may be grown without it, but none 
other. Give the ground an annual dressing of it, 
and one may expect to raise large, tender, juicy 
and beautiful products, such as it is a luxury to 
look at and to eat, and such as will command 
the highest prices in market. If any one com¬ 
plains that he cannot obtain manure for this pur¬ 
pose, we would refer him to our numerous arti¬ 
cles on former pages, showing that by a little 
care in saving the refuse matters about every 
one’s back door, fertilizers enough can ordinarily 
be provided for the wants of every garden. 
We only add, that old gardens which seem to 
have lost their fertility, may be improved by 
thrusting the spade a few inches deeper, in the 
Autumn trenching, two or three years in succes¬ 
sion, and bringing up a little virgin soil to mix 
with the old. And where insects are known to 
harbor, an annual coating of salt and lime will 
not be wasted. 
THE HOP TREE. 
We present an engraving from a Daguerreotype 
of a tree now growing in the grounds of Edward 
N. Shelton, President of the Manufacturers Bank, 
at Birmingham, Conn. This cut we give, partly 
as a matter of curiosity, and partly to elicit re¬ 
liable information from those uninterested in in¬ 
troducing it as a commercial speculation. Before 
us is an advertising card on which we see strong 
commendations from persons we know, whose 
statements are contrary to the opinion we formed 
of this tree a few years since from an imperfect 
examination. Its flowers called “ tree-hops,” 
a little resemble those of a tree called “ ironwood," 
with which we were quite familiar at the West, 
in our boyhood days. The one above shown is 
we suppose what is called the hop-hornbeam ( Os - 
try a Virgimca). 
A great change in life is like a oold bath in 
Winter—we all hesitate at the first plunge. 
THE LINNrEUS RHUBARB. 
We have this season given this variety of Rhu¬ 
barb or Pie-plant, a fair trial by the side of the 
Victoria, which has been a favorite variety. In 
April we set out alternate roots of the Linnaius 
and Victoria in a row. All the roots grew of 
similar size, and they were taken up and planted 
at the same time ; in short, they were treated 
alike in every respect On the 16th of August 
the last trial was made with the Victoria, when 
it had become entirely unfit for use. We are 
now, the first week in September, (three weeks 
later,) still using the Linnaaus, and find it almost 
as good as at any time during the Summer. The 
growth ot the two varieties has been nearly uni¬ 
form ; the Linnaeus has, however, produced some¬ 
what the largest stalks. 
Sept. 15.—To-day Messrs. Freeman & Kendall, 
ot Ravenswood, I,. I., inform us that they are 
still bringing the Linnams Rhubarb to this mar¬ 
ket, and supplying pie-bakers at 4 cents per. lb. 
PRESERVING GRAPES. 
[We are sorry the following article was not received in 
time for our last issue. It will still be useful, however — 
Ed.] 
To theEditor of the American Agriculturist. 
I was surprised on reading the article in the 
August Agriculturist, to see how many ways are 
resorted 'to for the preservation of that valuable 
and delicious fruit, the grapo—all of which have 
proved failures for the want of that knowledge 
which is necessary to the preservation of all 
fruits. I have been able, for a number of years 
past, to keep grapes until March and April, as 
fresh as when they were taken from the vines irl 
the Fall, and without any saw-dust, sand, cotton- 
batting, paper cuttings or anything of the kind. 
The process is so simple, that every lover of 
fruits should have understood it long ere this. 
With your permission, I will give you the meth¬ 
od by which I have been so successful. My 
mode of gathering and preserving grapes for 
Winter use is as follows : When they are fully 
ripe, suspend a basket by a strap or cord passed 
around the neck, thereby giving liberty to both 
hands for picking ; with one hand hold the clus¬ 
ter, and with the other cut it from the vine ; re¬ 
move from the clusters all unripe or decayed 
fruit, and deposit them in the basket until it is 
filled. (I use a market basket that will hold about 
a half bushel.) Carry the grapes thus gathered 
to the place for packing. I use boxes about two 
feet square by six inches deep in the clear, with 
covers made to shut tight. In packing lay a 
newspaper on the bottom of the box, then a layer 
of grapes, then a paper and a second layer of 
grapes, which, when closely packed, usually fills 
the box ; set the box in some dry and airy place, 
with the cover open or off, and let the box remain 
opea for ten days, or until the sweating process 
is passed ; then close the box and set it in the 
fruit room, cellar or garret, any place where the 
fruit will not freeze, or which is not extremely 
damp. 
Grapes packed as above directed, will open at 
any time during the Winter or Spring following, 
as fresh as when packed. The only secret or 
mystery is, that the moisture which spoils the 
fruit when packed in saw-dust and other absorb¬ 
ents, passes off during the ten days that the box 
remains open, instead of being absorbed, and re¬ 
maining to keep the grapes damp, and ultimately 
mould and spoil them. I have practiced this 
method for several years without the loss of a 
single bunoh of grapes. So perfect has been nn 
success that I have more confidence in the pres- 
