APPROVED VARIETIES OF FRUITS, ETC. 
363 
manufacturers, who obtain it by the saponification 
of lard and tallow. This fraud, however, may be 
detected by the inferior sweetness, and by the moist 
and dirty appearance of the sugar. 
Sand, chalk, plaster of Paris, and pipe clay can 
be detected by dissolving the suspected sugar in a 
considerable quantity of water, and allowing it to 
clear itself by precipitation. The residuum re¬ 
maining at the bottom of the liquid, will indicate, 
in a degree, the amount of adulteration. 
Honey. —This substance is very often adulterated 
with potato starch, v/heaten flour, and in some in¬ 
stances, with bean meal. These are added to give 
brown honeys a certain degree of whiteness, and 
also to increase the weight. Bean meal, however, 
is seldom employed on account of its taste. 
Starch syrup and starch sugar are likewise used 
in reducing the standard of honey, as well as trea¬ 
cle, and sugar cane of various degrees of purity. 
Also, chalk, plaster of Paris, and pipe clay, all of 
which rfiay be detected by mixing the suspected 
article with a large quantity of water, and allowing 
it to clear itself by precipitation, in a similar man¬ 
ner as recommended for sugar. Cane syrup, and 
molasses may be detected in honey both by their 
color and smell. 
BOOK FARMING. 
We had a fine example of hostility to book farm¬ 
ing a few days since. One among the wealthy and 
respectable portion of our citizens, on being invited 
to subscribe for an agricultural paper, broke out 
into a most furious declamation against all attempts 
to improve the agriculture of the country, through 
the means of the diabolical art of printing. “He 
would have any man hung, drawn, and quartered, 
who would presume to attempt enlightening the 
public on agriculture through the means of 
the press, saving and excepting the present 
company. The farming of the present day, 
the crops, the soil, the orchards, animals, and in¬ 
deed, whatever was connected with cultivation, was 
far behind what it was 30 years ago. Writing on 
agriculture, tended only to mislead ; nobody but en¬ 
thusiasts (knaves and idiots he meant), would 
write, and none but a similar class would read any¬ 
thing on the subject. Farming was to be learnt by 
example only ; the old fashion was the best fashion, 
and nearest in accordance with common sense and 
sound judgment. 5 ’ 
About half this tirade against this innovation up¬ 
on the olden time, he believed; the other half he 
feigned; but he gave the lie to the whole of it in 
half an hour afterwards by purchasing a hundred 
dollars’ worth of improved agricultural implements, 
which, but for the spirit awakened, and the know¬ 
ledge developed by the agricultural information 
spread before the people of the present day, by our 
valuable periodicals devoted to this subject, would 
have remained where he thought the fruits and 
other matters connected with ancient agriculture, 
were, viz. in the models of a past generation. 
The man who believes the agricultural press has 
done nothing for the cause in the present genera¬ 
tion, is to be pitied. The man who feigns to be¬ 
lieve it, deserves worse. Both are burying or 
clogging the benefits of that talent, which they will 
be called upon to account for hereafter, with usury. 
PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 
In a recent publication of the Royal Agricultu¬ 
ral Society of England, Professor Johnston says :— 
“ In the Magnesian limestones of Durham, I have 
hitherto found only .015 to .07 per cent of tribasic 
phosphate of lime; I have from our blue mountain 
limestone from Lanarkshire, obtained 1.39 per cent 
and in the burned lime as it comes from the kiln, 
2.33 per cent. A ton of this burned lime, therefore, 
which is full of fossils, contains as much phos¬ 
phate of lime as a hundred weight of bones.” 
What a proof is contained in the above of the 
utility of scientific knowledge when applied to 
practical agriculture. A large number of our in¬ 
dustrious pains-taking farmers never read our agri¬ 
cultural journals, and yet think science when applied 
to their pursuits, is worse than useless. These 
worthy but benighted men, use lime as a manure, 
and one mass of rock that will burn into lime is of 
the same value in their eyes as another. Yet, the 
effects of an equal quantity of the lime furnished 
from three different quarries of stone, or marl beds, 
applied on adjoining and similar fields and crops, 
may be, that one is found to burn up the vegeta¬ 
tion ; a second produces only moderate results ; and 
a third yields a crop perhaps double that of 
any other field receiving an equal amount of lime 
from any other source. He looks at the crops, 
scratches his head, but the operation elicits no ra¬ 
tional idea, and he dreams himself to the conclu¬ 
sion that the moon, or weather, or insects, or witch¬ 
craft, or something else which it would be idle, or 
perhaps book-farming for him to look after, had 
caused the difference. 
If he would take these minerals to a thorough 
chemist, he would find that the first specimen was 
magnesian lime, the second carbonate of lime, and 
the third contained a notable proportion of phos¬ 
phate of lime. He would then know, if he knew 
anything of the effects of each, that one half or 
one fourth of the first (according to the proportion 
of magnesia it contained), would have saved him 
his crop which had been destroyed, and been a last¬ 
ing benefit to his land ; while the use of the last af¬ 
forded a dressing of incalculable value to such soils 
as were deficient in it. 
APPROVED VARIETIES OF FRUITS. 
At the National Pomological Convention, recently 
held in this city, which was composed of many of 
the most eminent fruit growers from the northern, 
middle, and western states, after three days’ discus¬ 
sion, the following select list of fruits was recom¬ 
mended for cultivation throughout the country, as 
thriving the best in the different soils and climates 
of the United States :— 
Peaches. —Varieties recommended for general 
cultivation. Grosse Mignonne, Early York (serra¬ 
ted), Old Mixon (free), Coolidge Favorite, Craw¬ 
ford’s Late, Bergen’s yellow. For particular locali¬ 
ties, Heath Cling. 
Plums Recommended for General Cultivation.— 
Jefferson, Washington, Green Gage, Purple Favorite, 
Coe’s Golden Drop, Bleecker’s Gage, Frost Gage, 
Purple Gage. For particular localities, Prince’s 
Imperial. 
Cherries. —Varieties recommended for general 
cultivation. Black Eagle, Mayduke, Bigarreau, 
