4:60 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
either case if you are deceived you suffer. Let 
the examination be thorough; note the sur¬ 
roundings, if the district is settled and cropped; 
carefully examine the condition of crops on the 
farm and upon those adjoining it. If they are 
sickly looking and weak, if the corn-stalks in¬ 
stead of being seven or eight feet in liight are 
but two or three, you had better lose your 
time and expenses and get home again, than 
take the farm as a gift. But should there 
be no corn or other crops by which to test the 
quality of soil, an examination should be made 
by digging down at short distances all over the 
ground. The top, or “ true soil,” should not be 
less than nine inches in depth ; the best color is 
a dark brown. The subsoil, or stratum lying 
immediately under the top soil, should be of a 
porous nature, and it is usually, in first-rate soils, 
of a yellowish, sandy loam. Occasionally we 
find a gravelly subsoil underlying soils of good 
quality, but this is not so common. Less fre¬ 
quent still is a subsoil of blue or yellow clay, 
such a clay as might be used for brick making. 
A subsoil of this kind when near the surface is 
a certain indication of a poor quality of soil for 
the purposes of either farming or gardening. 
To illustrate the value of different soils for 
our market gardening purposes—we have in our 
immediate neighborhood men,who now pay 7 $100 
per acre annual rent, and who in the past ten 
or twelve years have made snug little fortunes 
upon eight or nine acres in cultivation. At a dis¬ 
tance of not more than half a mile, there are 
others paying less than half that amount in rent, 
who have during the same time been struggling 
to make both ends meet. Though equally in¬ 
dustrious and having an equally good knowledge 
of the business, their success has been quite 
different, and all simply for the reason of a dif¬ 
ference in the normal condition of the soil. In 
the one case the land would be cheaper for the 
occupant at $200 per acre annual rent than the 
other would be if it could be had for nothing. 
Our best lands for vegetable growing in this 
district (Jersey City, N. J.,) which is a mere 
suburb of New York City, are rapidly getting 
absorbed for building purposes, so that before 
many years the market gardens, for the supply 
of the great Metropolis, must be on Long Island. 
There the land is generally well fitted for the 
purpose. Immense tracts of level prairie-like 
lands are being devoted to ordinary farm crops 
in the vicinity of Flatbush and Flatlands, L. I., 
which in a few years will, without doubt, be 
occupied by garden vegetables and fruits. 
Hybrid Grapes. 
Those who have maintained that there has 
been no true hybrid produced between the for¬ 
eign Vitis vinifera and our several native species, 
will be obliged to abandon their position. 
Leaving the Rogers’ Hybrids out of the question, 
there arc now several which have been produc¬ 
ed since in which the characters of the native 
and foreign are so positively manifested, that 
the most sceptical can no longer doubt that true 
hybridization has taken place. The varieties 
sent out by Mr. Clias. Arnold, of Canada, show 
a distinct trace of foreign blood. The Senasqua 
of Mr. Underhill is a cross between Black 
Prince and Concord, and shows the foreign 
character in the fruit and the native in the leaf. 
Later, still, we have some fine hybrids by Mr. 
J. H. Ricketts, of Newburgh, N. Y., in which 
the peculiar flavor of the Muscat Hamburg is 
imparted to a fruit possessing in most respects 
the characters of the natives. One of Mr. 
Ricketts’ hybrids, which took the first prize at 
Bliss & Sons’ grape exhibition, in September 
last, is a triumph of careful cultivation, and we 
hope to hear of its success elsewhere. It is to 
bear the honored name of Charles Downing. 
Notes from the Pines. 
One Pine the Less. —“ There was a bliff- 
blang; the house slmk as if the roof was roll¬ 
ing off uv it. Katy was kilt entirely with the 
fright, the very dogs jumped in at the parlor 
windoys and hid under the sofy, and sur there 
was a smell as if iverytliing was burning up 
jist.”—Such was the account Peter gave of a 
terrific thunder storm as we drove home from 
the station one day last August. My fears were 
too well founded. One of the noblest of the 
pines showed in its ruptured bark that it had 
been struck by lightning. It remained un¬ 
changed, and stood there so green and sturdy 
that I tried to forget what had happened, and 
even to hope that it might survive. Looking 
out this November morning, I see that the last 
hard frost has told the story. All the other 
pines are bright and green, but this droops the 
tips of its branches and pales to a sickly yellow. 
It seems hard that the patient growth of a cen¬ 
tury should be demolished in one sudden crash. 
There is nothing to do but accept it with resig¬ 
nation, and think that the tree died nobly in di¬ 
verting the bolt from something more precious. 
The removal of the tree will open a bit of land¬ 
scape now shut out, and perhaps there are oth¬ 
er blessings if one could only see them. Nev¬ 
ertheless, I mean to be away when it is cut down. 
The French Mulberry is the name given 
in the Southern States to a shrub known in our 
nurserymen’s catalogues as Callicarpa Ameri¬ 
cana. It is not a Mulberry at all, but belongs 
to the Verbena Family. Its clusters of fruit 
are very numerous and of a fine violet-purple 
color, and is really a pleasing object in autumn. 
This and the Snowberry, which stands near by, 
make a fine contrast; and now that the flowers 
are all gone, it is pleasant to have some bits of 
color for the eye to rest upon. 
Rhododendrons. — A good Rhododendron 
can he bought for two dollars, and I do not see 
how so much satisfaction can be had for the 
same amount of money expended in any other 
plant. Perhaps so much has been said about 
Rhododendron soil and the necessity for peat, 
that many think they will not grow without 
elaborate preparation. This is a mistake; they 
will flourish in any soil that does not contain an 
excess of lime. The spot where ours stand is so 
sandy, that but few would think of planting any 
garden crop in it without an abundance of ma¬ 
nure. There was an old sod upon the ground 
and this was spaded under; no peat, muck, nor 
leaf-mould was added, and the Rhododendrons, 
Azaleas, and even the water-loving Rhodora 
have made a fine growth, and are stocked with 
abundant buds full of promise for next spring. 
Akebia quinata. —There is no vine that has 
given me more satisfaction than this. It is a 
good grower, its stems are slender and manage¬ 
able, and I have found it a capital subject for a 
low screen to the veranda. After the frost has 
despoiled the other vines growing near it, the 
very neat and dark green foliage of this looks 
as bright and fresh, as if winter had not come. 
The Madder Plant, 
Among those plants of considerable com¬ 
mercial importance, the cultivation of which in 
this country would retain here large sums of 
money annually paid to foreign producers, 
Madder possesses great interest. The root is 
extensively used in dying, and yields a deep-red 
coloring matter. The plant is native to South¬ 
ern Europe and the Levant, bears the winters 
MADDER PLANT. 
of Holland, Central France, and parts of Ger¬ 
many, well, and has been successfully culti¬ 
vated in various parts of the United States. 
The sprig which is represented in the accom¬ 
panying engraving, gives a good idea of its 
habit of growth. It resembles some of our 
common Galiums or Bedstraws, very much, 
both in stems, leaves, and bloom, and belongs 
to the same natural family 7 . The root is the 
portion of value; and the object of the cultiva¬ 
tor who raises Madder is to produce as much 
root as possible. There is a great difference in 
the quality 7 of the product of different soils, as 
well as in the amount of the crop. The soils 
upon which the deepest colored roots are ob¬ 
tained are rich, light, and deep, of a calcareous 
and alluvial character, deeply worked, free 
from weeds and in fine tilth. The crop as cul¬ 
tivated in France and Holland, requires a great 
deal of hand labor at first; but it occupies the 
land some two or three yrears, and often more, 
and gives little trouble after it is laid by 7 . Har¬ 
vesting the roots again requires a good deal of 
hand labor, but as a ton or a ton and a half of 
the dried roots is a common product to the acre, 
it is very remunerative. 
Madder is either raised from seed, which is 
sowed in the spring in beds five or six feet wide, 
where the plants are to grow, or cuttings of the 
roots are preserved from the previous y r ear’s 
harvest, and these are planted out early in the 
spring, ten inches assunder, in rows about 
twenty inches apart. Where the latter system 
is followed, four rows form a bed, and a space 
equal to the omission of one row is left between 
the beds. As the plants grow, branches are 
bent down and covered with earth to induce 
them to strike root again, and this operation is 
continued as long as any unoccupied ground re¬ 
mains. Meanwhile the soil is kept open, mel¬ 
low, and free from weeds at first, by a common 
plow, or one-horse subsoil plow, and subse- 
