S BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB, 
n; nv | V fA Making Cuttings of 8hrnb».—Dee. 22. 
'v | (l -Xl It l (111 Jj l, —Cuttings of hardy shrubs may bo made 
____ i _at almost any time during -winter; but if 
tiilcen oil from the plants brfOM very severe 
DAILY BUBAL LIFE. weather, they will be more certain of grow- 
FROM THE DIARY OF A GENTIEMAN NEAR NEW YORK CITY. ,u &* during pleasant weather I have a 
quantity of the young shoots, of kinds de- 
Cuttinga of Roots.— Dec. 18.—In the sired, carried into t he cellar, and these are 
oldest book I have on forest tree culture, made up during stormy days. The larger 
t hat of Mosr.s Cook, 1075, the author rccom- proportion of our hardy ornamental shrubs 
mends raising various species from root cut- arc readily propagated in this manner, and 
tings. This system is of course adopted there is no reasonable excuse for tliqjsearcity 
only with those species which do not grow which is frequent in country towns, Dcul- 
rcadily from cuttings of the branches, such «i«s, Philudclphm, tyeigelatr, Lonicras, 
as Elm, Ash, Hickory, and Maple. As our and scores of other beautiful species, may 
nurserymen have had considerable ex peri- be propagated from cuttings of the. ripe 
cnoe in propagating raspberries, blnckbcr- wood taken off at this season and kept in a 
rics, and various kinds of ornamental shrub- cellar unt il spring. The shoots should be 
bery by root cuttings, perhaps they might cut into sections of about six inches in lengt h 
extend the same system to forest trees, and then buried in earth, sawdust, or some 
Florists propagate many kinds of plants by similar mat erial that, will prevent drying, 
root cuttings, and I have been making root 
cuttings to-day of some choice IiouvardUm, 
hence these remarks on this subject. 
Double Chinese Primrose*.— Dec. 19. 
—No one kind of plant hns given me more 
pleasure this winter than my Double Chinese 
Primroses. Thoy commenced blooming 
early In autumn and are still full of their 
exquisite double flowers, resembling small 
roses. From a dozen plants in live-inch 
pots scores of flowers have been cut, and 
still the number is scarcely lessened, as now 
ones come forward every day. This is just 
the plant for ladies to keep in their parlors 
or conservatories, as it requires little care, 
moderate heat and it blooms at the very 
time we want flowers most and arc likely to 
appreciate them very highly. They are 
propagated by cuttings of the side or lateral 
shoots taken off in spring and then pot ted 
in sand, t hen placed under a bell glass or in 
a hot-bed, where a close, warm atmosphero 
can be secured. 
Japan Ivies.-Dec. 20.—Every time I 
receive anything from Japan in the way of 
plants I Instinctively ask myself, “what 
next?” I had supposed that ull our Eu¬ 
ropean cousins possessed the ivies, but 
here comes a lot from Japan witli the most 
beautiful variegated leaves imaginable. 
The Japanese, like their near relatives, the 
Chinese, are very particular about keeping 
the various “castes*’ among their people 
distinct and pure; but when it comes to 
plants they have gone to the other extreme, 
and mixed species and varieties to such an 
extent that botanists will have enough to 
do if they ever attempt to classify them. 
The Japanese seem to be very fond of varie¬ 
gated plants, and t he oddit ies of this kind 
already received are really marvelous. 
Their variegated oaks and maples arc splen¬ 
did acquisitions to our gardens, but there 
arc many more in the same line yet to bo 
bad, if we only get the right man well estab¬ 
lished in that far-off, but very interesting 
count ry. Perhaps (Jen. ( ’apron is the man 
to bring about an agrigultural and horticul¬ 
tural exchange between the two countries; 
but of this we shall k now more in a few years. 
Rose of Jericho. Dec. 21.— Every one 
who has passed through the streets of New 
York in the last two or throe years, must 
have noticed on the stands of sidewalk mer¬ 
chants, small moss-looking plants, labeled 
“ Resurrection Plants, or Rose of Jericho.” 
Tho latter name is perhaps the more at- 1 
tractive of the two, because anything that 
comes or purports to have conic from the 
Holy Land, possesses a particular value to j 
many people. The little plants, however, 
sold in our market, are not the true Roses 1 
of Jericho, but merely a species of Bird's- 1 
nest-moss, Srtnglnclln leptdnphylUi from • 
Lower California. If these apparently dry j 
and dead plants are placed in water, they I 
soon swell out, their beautiful leaves ox- ‘ 
panding until they assume the original size ! 
and color, hence the common name of “ Res- j 
urrection Plant, t 
Tho old and original Rose of Jericho re- 1 
semblos its American namesake, but. is 1 
known to botouists an A nastatica hicro- a 
chuntina , and might, with as much proprlc- [ 
ly, bo called a cabbage as a rose, it is a l 
very small and insignificant plant, but its 1 
hygrometioal properties have always at- * 
traded tho attention of travelers in its t 
native country. During the rainy season t 
t he plant flourishes, but when a dry time I 
comes t ho root stock breaks off, the leaves H 
roll up into a ball, the winds blowing it over y 
the sands until rain again falls. Many vol- u 
times and monographs have been written t 
about this insignificant little plant, the ear- n 
liost of which, that have come to light, is 1 , 
thut of John Storms, 1(507, exhumed from f, 
tho shelves of some old book-worm in Hu- h 
rope a few years since. g 
The ('alifomia aperies, so abundant in our h 
strec-t, is really a pretty plants for house jj 
culture, and especially adapt ed to Wardian t'l 
cases. 
until the time arrives for planting. 
A Cold Snap.—Mercury went down last 
night to 8® below zero—the coldest weather 
we have had this season. The ground is 
covered with snow, therefore small plants 
are well protected. 
Too Many Kinds of Plants.— Dec. 23. 
One of tlie most serious mistakes which 
almost every one makes in cult ivating house 
plants, is in t rying to keep too great a va¬ 
riety. Professional florists, as well as ama¬ 
teurs, full into the same error, and the re¬ 
sults are, failures with a greater or Icsr 
number of species. If (lie house is kept 
warm enough to make a certain species of 
plant thrive, others are likely to fail because 
the temperature is too high for them, and 
mildew and rust follow. An atmosphere in 
which Geranium and Heliotropes thrive is 
too warm for Camellias, Heaths, and Aza¬ 
leas. The beautiful Orchids are certainly 
very tempting plants, but one needs a house 
especially arranged for their culture, and 
tho same is true with many other orders, 
families and genera; and it is far better to 
confine ourselves to a few species and of 
these select the best varieties growing there 
to perfection than to undertake more than 
we can accomplish. 1 certainly do not 
claim to have escaped falling into this far 
too common error of trying to cultivate a 
great variety selected from a wide range of 
families; but each year ( resolve to lessen 
the number and come nearer perfection 
with the remainder. Ladies often complain 
or certain plants failing under ( he best care 
1 hey can give, while others succeed per¬ 
fectly, which only shows that different 
plants require widely different treatment. 
m* 3pi;tri;in. 
BEE HOUSES. 
In a late issue of the Rural New-Yorker 
appears the following:—“ I have never scon 
anything in the Rural about bee houses. I 
would like to build one, and desire informa¬ 
tion. Please inform me how to build one, 
and what size to make it for three or four 
swarms." 
We. never saw a boo house for summer use 
that was of anv value, Intelligent bee 
keepers have no boe houses for summer use. 
1 he best place to locate bees during sum¬ 
mer is under t reos. Wo place our bees under 
apple and cherry trees —oue hive to each 
tree—on the north side, so as to be in the 
shade at mid-day. *The hives front the 
southeast. They should be kept apart from 
each other, at least a rod. Two rods are 
better still. We sometimes set the hives 
within four feet of each other, but only 
when crowded for room. When t he hives 
are on separate stands, and kept apart as 
indicated, it is more pleasant and conven¬ 
ient to examine their contents. Jf several 
hive;- are on a board and sit within a few 
inches of each other, as is (lie practice 
among those who still adhere to the old box 
hive, the bees are altogether too neighborly 
to be profitable. On such stands it is ex¬ 
tremely difficult to examine any one of the 
hives without disturbing the‘rest. 'Phis 
makes bees irascible. 
For winter use it will hardly pay to make 
a house for simply “three or four” hives 
of bees. A house suitable for wintering 
bees in is somewhat expensive. A good 
house cellar will answer ■•very purpose. Put 
them into the cellar as soon as cold weather 
sets in. My hoes this year were moved to 
the cellar December 2d. Somet imes we put 
them in as early as the 20th of November. 
T 11 this latitude they ore not moved to t heir 
summer stands till about t he 20t h of March 
or the 1st of April. All depends on the 
weather, as they should not he taken out 
unless the weather is warm enough for 
them to fly freely. The temperature should 
not be less t han (10® ; at 50® bees will chill. 
A cellar under a house is a good place for 
bee* in winter if it be drr, warm, and free 
from vegetable exhalations. All cellars that 
have sandy, loamy, or gravelly bottoms are 
generally dry enough. But do not sot the 
hives on the bottom of the cellar. Set them 
<ficld (Crops. 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES. 
About t he Flax Crop.—I should be glad 
to learn from those who have had expe¬ 
rience the past season, whether the crop 
has been a profitable one; if no, whether the 
profit has been derived from the seed or 
from the fiber, or both. Also, in what mar¬ 
ket it has been disposed of. — A Flax 
Grower. 
Cut Grass Early.—A field on the flats, 
seeded with grass in 1870, failed to catch 
good. Very early in spring of 1871 it was 
rc-seeded with timothy and clover, twelve 
quarts to tho acre. This caught good, but 
the hmd being rich brought forth a heavy 
crop of weeds which, when eighteen inches 
high, June 20, I began to cut; completed 
the harvest July 4. To rny surprise, this 
cold December weat her, the alieep are doing 
well on it. Cut grass early.— m. h. n. 
The result, was twenty-two and one-half 
pounds of corn, and at the rate of seventy- 
seven bushels and thirty-five pounds per 
acre. It will be readily observed that the 
shelled corn was just one half the original 
weight of corn and cob. This corn was of 
the Dent variety but appeared to be well 
ripened. V e believe it. to be quite common 
to estimate the corn crop by calling seventy 
pounds a bushel. Had the above-named 
crop been decided on this basis the result 
would have been one hundred and live bush¬ 
els instead of seventy-seven.” 
dhe ^ifine-ijcrd. 
MORE ABOUT CHESTER WHITES. 
“ Snow Corn."—Is there a variety of 
corn known by the above name? I have 
heard of it and that it is an excellent hom¬ 
iny corn; but I never could find any. Can 
you tell us anything about it?”—C. B. 8., 
BTsf !'f rglnla. 
Some years ago, travelling in the Valley 
of A irginia, we found a snow-white corn 
which was highly esteemed for t his purpose 
—a Hint corn. We never saw it anywhere 
else and do not remember the name of the 
man who grew it, hence we can give our 
correspondent no information. 
Hanford Corn. — I planted two quarts 
of seed on one-t hird acre of land ; hills3 1-2 
feet, apart, three kernels to the hill. About 
one-third failed to grow. Land not first- 
rate. Tho only manure applied was a hand¬ 
ful of ashes to the hill, when the plants were 
four or five inches high. Produce—thirty- 
six bushels of hard corn, no soft. It suck¬ 
ers more t han sweet corn. I took from one 
hill eight good ears growing from two ker¬ 
nels. 1 simply give facts. Your readers 
can form their own opinions as to failure or 
success.—T. B. P., Akron, <). 
Peerless Potato Crop.- As 1 have seen 
so little spoken of tho Peerless Potato as a 
potatoe for general crop, I will give a state¬ 
ment of about two and a quarter acres f 
planted of t hem. J hail 580 bushels of t hem, 
grown in hills t hree feet apart each waj, 
planted on timothy sod, and manured with 
about 1(K* pounds of Peruvian guano to the. 
acre; had only 15 bushels of small pota¬ 
toes in the whole 530 bushels. Have sold 
8461 worth of them and have 12<* bushels 
left. 1 tilled one barrel with 92 potatoes; 
dug one potato that weighed 5 14 pounds. 
My Early Rose planted beside them did nut 
doono-half as well. The Peerless, with me 
cooks very dry and mealv.—P. D. 1L, East 
Peufidd n N. Y. 
Comparative Weight of Corn and 
Cobs—At Geneva, 111., on Saturday, Nov. 
25. according to the Republican of that 
place, eight farmers compared samples of 
their corn of this year’s crop. Four ears of 
one lot wore weighed and the weight found 
to be 2 lbs. 11 oz. An equal weight of each 
sample was then taken, when each was 
shelled and the .shelled corn weighed, These 
weights varied from 2 lbs. 2 1-2 oz., to 2 lbs. 
4 1 - 2 oz. The eight samples uuahelled weigh¬ 
ed 21 lbs. 8 oz.; fchoiled 17 lbs. 11 oz. The 
weight of ( he cob then was 17.7 per cent. of 
gross weight. These samples wore all of 
Dent corn and may be supposed to be of the 
best corn raised in Northern Illinois this 
year. In selling corn in the ear the weight 
allowed for a bushel of shelled corn varies 
considerably—ranging from (18 to 72 pounds; 
the latter when tlie Corn is not well dried; 
the former for good corn late in the season. 
Those selected lots showed a weight of a lit¬ 
tle less than 12 1-2 pounds of cobs for each 
bushel of shelled corn; or 08 1-2 pounds in 
the ear would give 50 pounds of shelled 
corn. 
Shrinkage of Corn.—The New England 
Homestead says: —“On the ninth of last 
October, a committee of the Hampden 
County Agricultural Society examined a 
field of corn belonging to William Mat- 
toon of Springfield, and harvested an aver¬ 
age portion containing two hundred and 
sixty-two feet, being ten feet leas than one 
square rod. The corn was taken to the 
agricultural store for safe keeping and dry¬ 
ing. At the time of harvesting it weighed 
forty-five pounds. Being suspended from 
on a boardaud.^ the upper part of the store it was left until 
Ion fill... Y. t *. 11 . tfto itTYritil'lt. dn. ..V TkT_» » 
lur bottom. I hr boards in juy cellar rest on 
the ends of barrels. M. M. Baldridge. 
Kune Co., HI. n ■ . • 
the twenty-ninth <la.y of Novenber, when 
its weight whs thirty-one and one-fourth 
pounds. 'It-was now shelled and cleaned. 
h F. D. Curtis in the Rural New-Yorker 
l of Dec. Pith, in commenting upon my com- 
8 munication relative to the Chester White 
g hog as a t horough-bred, don’t, seem to under¬ 
stand the point I made in proof of the posi¬ 
tion that tho ('hosier White is a thorough- 
f bred, or rather lie does not embrace the 
r ' whole testimony in his reply, when ho says 
' •'* effect, that my argument was based upon 
1 the fact that a cross between a Chester 
1 White and a Poland China sow produced 
flint' white pigs. He overlooks the second 
cross of one of t hose half-breeds being again 
1 crossed upon a Poland China sow and the 
’ produce being ft nr white pigs and three spot¬ 
ted ones. My argument was founded, not 
upon the single cross, but upon both the 
first, and second, and showing I Imt the white 
blood must be the strongest, from the fact, 
that a pig from a Chester White hoar and a 
Poland China sow being hair Poland China, 
when bred to a Poland China sow got a ma¬ 
jority of white pigs. From the fact that 
t here were three black crosses to one white 
cross, and a majority of the pigs being white 
and resembling in build, shape mid sizo of 
ears tho Chester White, I hold that the 
Chester White must he a thorough-bred— 
capable of impressing its own likeness upon 
its descendants down to the third gene¬ 
ration. 
Mr. Curtis goes on to say“ Much con¬ 
fusion has arisen concerning this breed (the 
Chesters) from tho fact that there are two 
families—one with lopped ears and one with 
straight or erect ears." Now, 1 do not ad¬ 
mit that there are any Chester White hogs 
wit h “ st raight or erect ears." When a man 
shows me a pig with straight or erect ears 
and calls it a Chester White, 1 either con- 
elude that he thinks me a fool and desires 
to Impose upon me, or that he is a fool him¬ 
self and has been imposed upon by some 
sharper, dealing in Suffolk, or some other 
straight and erect eared white pigs. Hence 
I protest against Mr. Curtis, or any other 
man’s trying to create the impression that 
there are two families of Chester White 
hogs, one of which has st raight or erect ears. 
In regard to Mr. Silver's Improved Ches¬ 
ter White hogs, t have to say t hat they are 
not thorough-bred Chesters, for Mr. Silver 
claims that he lias, by crossing them with 
other while breeds, improved upon tin* 
genuine ('hester White hogs, as bred in Ches¬ 
ter Co., Pa. f purchased ray Chester Whit 0 
hogs, from which my present stock is de¬ 
rived, from Thomas Wood, Geo. 11. Hick¬ 
man, Jah. Young and N. I*. Rover of Ches¬ 
ter Co., Pa.; and while 1 claim that J have 
improved upon the stock purchased from 
them, I have not done it by crossing with 
other white breeds, but have accomplished 
the Improvement by a careful selection of 
I animals for breeding purposes. 
Mr. Ccrtjh’ description of a thorough¬ 
bred Chester hog is, in the main, correct; 
but I am breeding off the large legs, big tails 
and large, heavy, lopped ears. I select for 
breeding purposes, pigs with a good coat of 
bright white hair, a short nose, broad and 
dished face-, ears small and thin, with points 
hanging over tlie ©yes, long bod v, short neck, 
small legs below the hock and knee, smoot h 
skin, without wrinkles or folds, ft full ham, 
running down well to the hock, a broad 
back a little arched, deep sides, and one that 
keeps fat and til. to butcher all the time, 
when properly fed. This is my kind of a 
Chester White hog. 
Air. Curtis’ proposition to have a Swine¬ 
herd book, may be original with him; but I 
have been Advocating if for the last two 
years, and as long ago as lu4 March had an 
article published in the National Livestock 
Journal upon the subject of requiring pedi¬ 
grees for hogs exhibited at Fairs for pre¬ 
miums. Not only so, hut 1 have written 
articles upon the same subject for the Iowa 
Homestead, t he Council Bluffs Bugle, Cen¬ 
tral Union Agriculturist, ami several other 
Agricultural papers. Inclosed 1 semi you 
my ideas us expressed in ft letter to the 
Central Union Agriculturist, Aug. 23, Itf, I, 
together with the editor’s reply thereto, 
bot h of which, as they accord v ilh your 
views and with those of Mr. Cruris, might 
be published a- giving additional strength 
to Mr. Curtis’ proposition. 
Lvsander W- Babbitt. / 
