16 
REVIEW OF THE SEPTEMBER NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
oait, but the boys need not trouble themselves to 
catch and dry a muskrat before they catch a mink. 
Muskrats are the natural food of minks, and there¬ 
fore, old hunters take advantage of the mink’s love 
of musk, and carry a little vial of liquid, strongly 
scented with it, and a few drops of that upon a 
piece of flesh attracts them to the trap; which is 
usually a small steel spring one. 
The Pea Fowl. —I do hope that no farmer will be 
tempted by this very plausible article, to bring a 
stock of these gay birds upon his farm. Not that I 
object to seeing or hearing them; but because it 
will be the means of preventing him from having 
such a garden of flowers and vegetables, as ought 
to surround every farm house; and because that 
peacocks certainly are a nuisance among other 
poultry. 
Liebig's Theory of the Motion of Juices. —I only 
notice this article to recall the attention of readers 
to the sentence in which he speaks of the blistering 
of the skin at great elevations, and accounts for it. 
Conversing the other day with a man direct from 
Oregon, he spoke of the fact of emigrants’ faces 
blistering while crossing the Rocky Mountains, a 
circumstance that I recollect to have read about be¬ 
fore, as well as the bleeding of the gums. Instead 
of attributing this to the right cause, this traveller 
says that it is the universal opinion that it is owing 
to the air being charged with saline particles. 
Canadian Method of Hunting Wild Bees. —Why 
is this called the “ Canadian method?” It is the 
American method. But you have not told the 
whole. At certain seasons of the year, the hunter 
goes into the woods and burns honeycomb, which 
will attract bees from a considerable distance. 
These he feeds with honey, and then watches the 
course they take for home, which being a “ bee 
line,” is easily followed, and the tree, when found, 
as remarked, seldom fails to reward the hunter for 
his trouble. I have known upwards of a hundred 
pounds taken from a single tree. And yet, I never 
knew a professed bee hunter that provided half the 
comforts for his family that he might have done by 
an ordinary degree of industry. Bees are often 
found in winter when there is snow upon the 
ground, by going carefully through the woods and 
looking at the root of every proper looking tree for 
a “ bee sign,” which is seen in the form of the yel¬ 
low excrement and dead bees on the snow after a 
warm sunny day. 
Letters from Abroad, No. 4.—These letters con¬ 
tinue to be exceedingly interesting. And if the 
wines can be kept strictly confined to their proper 
sphere, to be used for medical purposes, and never 
as a beverage, I have no objection to their manu¬ 
facture in this country. But being a somewhat 
strict son of Temperance, I am opposed to any 
other use of them; and as an American citizen, I 
am opposed to their importation, because they can 
be manufactured upon our own soil by paying a lit¬ 
tle attention to the cultivation of the grape. 
The Best American Bee Flowers. —“ Buckwheat 
and white clover; the former produces the best 
honey but is less saleable from its dark color.” 
This is an old story; so old, in fact, that it is al¬ 
most an act of irreverence to dispute it; yet, as I 
never hesitate to combat an error on account of its 
age, I shall attack this. In the first place, then, 
buckwheat is not the best bee feed, either for quanti¬ 
ty or quality. If it makes the best, or even good 
honey, I am greatly mistaken. Indian corn, while 
in bloom, is better, but it affords but little wax. 
The honey is rather thin, but white, and the comb 
very tender. The only thing in favor of buck¬ 
wheat is, that it affords flowers and bee feed a long 
time, and helps to produce a large quantity of 
honey ; but I do not like the flavor. The willow 
affords the earliest spring feed for bees; that is, it 
enables them to provide food for the young brood. 
Unnatural and Injurious Overfeeding of Breed¬ 
ing Animals. —It is one of the “ singular coinci¬ 
dences” of this life that this English writer should 
have written this article almost in my own lan¬ 
guage. It is a disgraceful fact, that nine tenths of 
all the premiums awarded in this country, are 
awarded to great masses of fat, without much re¬ 
gard to any other quality. Until there is a differ¬ 
ent and more just system adopted, I shall look 
upon all premiums for cattle, of little or no benefit 
towards improving the breed of cows, in their milk¬ 
ing qualities. 
The Cotton Crop. —Dr. Philips gives an amus¬ 
ing “ expose” of what I have long looked upon as a 
great humbug. The idea that a commission mer¬ 
chant in New Orleans, should issue his “ circular” 
in advance of all possibility of knowing what the 
cotton crop will be, to tell the world what they are 
to depend upon, is indeed laughable. Will the 
doctor give us more of the particulars about his 
hogs dying from eating the cow peal Are you 
fully satisfied upon that point I I have known so 
many hogs fed upon these, without injury, that it is 
difficult to reconcile the fact with former expe¬ 
rience. I think that if you are able to “kill 800 
pounds of pork per hand” this year, that there will 
be no danger of your negroes starving. By the 
by, Doctor, did you ever see a starved negro in 
your county % We often hear of them up north, 
but I never saw one at the south. I commend you, 
Doctor, to stick to the word “ milk” for milch. I 
assure you that 1 will always be with you there. 
Rough Notes by the Way, No. 1 . —This is an 
article by the father of the editors of the Agricul¬ 
turist, who writes entirely too seldom ; because he 
is just such a character of a writer, as friend Reeve 
is of a nurseryman. When he writes, he intends to 
mean what he writes. I like this “ No. 1” of the 
“Rough Notes.” The statistics of Salem county 
ought to put some other counties to the blush. Is 
it possible that this county raises a surplus of 
600,000 pounds of pork, and 4,450 calves I And 
only think of every man, woman, and child in the 
county selling a market basket! I am also sur¬ 
prised at the value of the furs, $7,500. What are 
they l [The fur of foxes, bears, wild cats, minks, 
muskrats, &c., &c.] Again, a thousand dollars, 
worth of oil of sassafras; and fifty tons of sumac, 
at $35 a ton ! Is that the common kind of sumac, 
and is it cultivated, or does it grow wild \ [The 
common kind, and it grows wild.] This is an in¬ 
teresting feature of an industrious population. I 
should like to visit them. [Then why not do it 'I 
It is only a day’s journey, you know, from your 
own comfortable domicil.] 
Cooked Food for Fattening Cattle.' —I am well 
satisfied that cooking potatoes for fattening cattle 
