to cast hia eye down, he started in alann, 
exclaiming, after a word or two that we 
shall not print, “ I did’nt know you kept 
gunpowder exposed in this careless way.” 
Things now' are a little different. The leading 
English and some of the French seed houses 
send over what we call Drummers, but wliat 
they call Commercial Traveler's, to solicit, 
orders, and the first point these men make 
for, on their arrival, is the Government Seed 
Shop at Washington, where they expect to 
make a good trade. Perhaps it is not right 
for these foreign seedsmen to take our 
money and then laugh at us, but really, we 
never felt so ashamed of our country as 
when we heard of the performances of Gov¬ 
ernment seed buyers, and learned that we 
were the laughing stock of the world. And 
yet can we blame them for laughing, “for 
he that wins may laugh,” Finally we had 
to laugh, too—how could we help it. when 
we read in an order sent by the Great Amer¬ 
ican Government, to a seed house in London, 
special directions to “ put the seed in papers 
as unlike those of American seed dealers as 
possible,” and to “be sure and give the 
packages a foreign aspect.” No special anx¬ 
iety regarding the quality of seeds, but di¬ 
rections thrice repeated about the fashion of 
the bags, so thatHbey might have a foreign 
appearance. The Government not only pur¬ 
chases seeds abroad, but has them put up in 
the common paper packages in London or 
Paris, at. considerable expense, so as to give 
them a “ foreign aspect.” Is it not time 
that Congress put an cud to this stupid 
quackery ? 
The American people are not paupers. 
They can afford to buy and pay for what 
seed they require ; and even if they needed 
seeds, Congress is not designed for a charita¬ 
ble institution; if so, it has done its work 
very badly. These seeds are sent to doctors, 
lawyers, mechanics, &e., not. one in a dozen 
having any use for seeds, and bushels have 
been eaten up in this city and every city, by 
the mice and rats, while many a flock of 
Brahmas and Cochins has fattened on Gov¬ 
ernment seeds put up in packages “ with a 
foreign aspect.” 
All this is done, it is said, to encourage 
Agriculture and Horticulture. We did not 
know that these interests needed special en¬ 
couragement at. the expense of the whole 
people. We have always heard of the “in¬ 
dependent fanners,” and jus for Horticul¬ 
turists, we have yet to learn of the first one 
who does not pronounce this system a hum¬ 
bug. Why not “ encourage ” the Dairy in¬ 
terest, by passing around a few fine blooded 
calves ; and some Cheshire pigs would not 
be bad among the farmers. The poultry 
people should not be neglected ; a few 
Shanghai eggs might be-distributed at ran¬ 
dom over the country ; or, pel haps, bet ter 
yet, incubated at Washington, which seems 
to be a good place for hatching ; and a little 
glass and putty would st.it most of the Hor¬ 
ticulturists bettor than any seeds the Gov¬ 
ernment can furnish, no matter how unlike 
they may be to American packages. It is 
certainly a wise thing to charge American 
seedsmen twenty per cent, on all seeds they 
import, which, of course, their customers 
must pay, and then spend this money, 
which the seed planters of the country have 
furnished, in purchasing common seeds to 
give away to those who do not need them, 
or are too mean to purchase. There may be 
something about the Washington atmos¬ 
phere that makes this look very wise, but to 
all the world be*ides it seems exceedingly 
stupid and unjust. The Government lias 
sent us propositions to furnish it with rye 
and cabbage and turnip seed, but we would 
never have anything to do with the pauper 
concern. If Americans wish to do anything 
worthy of their name and character, why do 
they not send a competent man to explore 
California, Oregon, and the new Territories, 
and tell us of the unknown plants that flour¬ 
ish there ? While our wise men at Washing¬ 
ton are peddling out turnip seed, foreign 
countries are sending explorers through our 
new Territories, and our finest trees, like the 
bilities of a flax crop for this year, and it 
was stated that some Eastern gentlemen had 
offered to build an oil mill if the farmers 
would guarantee a sufficient quantity of the 
raw material. The correspondent who sends 
this item of information in the interests of 
farmers moving west, says that, in Ohio, the 
flax crop used to be a most profitaWe one. 
Half a bushel Of seed to the acre would pro¬ 
duce from 10 to 20 bushels, worth $1.50 per 
bushel. Taking the yield at 10 bushels, the 
seed was worth $15.00 per acre ; and allow¬ 
ing $8.00 per acre for expenses, (which in¬ 
cluded the delivery of the seed to the mill,) 
the net profit to the farmer was $7,00 per 
acre. The straw also was worth $6.00 per 
ton ; and the yield was half a ton to the 
acre. Nebraska is more sal table for flax cul¬ 
tivation than Ohio; and farmers who mi¬ 
grate to this promising State, where the land 
is virgin, rich and cheap, may wisely keep 
this subject in view. 
PLOWING VINEYARDS, 
LOCEKNE OR ALFALFA 
A correspondent of the Rural World ar¬ 
gues that plowing, if done properly, from 
the time the vineyard has been planted 
whenever needed, and especially in the fall, 
is one of the most, beneficial operations the 
vintner can perform. He says :—As I have 
followed it for more than twenty years, 
whenever I thought It needed it, I ought to 
know something of its effects. But it should 
be commenced as soon as the condition of 
the vineyard requires it, which is every time 
during the summer when it is weedy and 
grassy, and only in dry weather, and not 
when the ground is wet. I commence in the 
spring with a common corn plow, throwing 
a shallow furrow from each side of the row, 
then hoeing lightly in the row around the 
vines with u two-pronged hoe or karst, stir¬ 
ring ail the soil but not deeply. Then the 
pulverized soil is thrown back to the vines 
with the plow, and as many furrows plowed 
in the row as it requires to mellow and stir 
all the soil, leaving a shallow furrow in the 
middle. As my plowing and hoeing is done 
three to four times every summer, Jn about 
the same way, only substituting the com¬ 
mon garden hoe for the two-pronged hoe 
later in the season, and always us shallow as 
the plow can run, say from two to three 
inches, it will be very readily seen that I 
never tear any large roots, nor are they ex¬ 
posed to the action of the frost, but the sur¬ 
face is kept in a mellow condition, which is 
especially necessary in dry weather, as the 
mellow soil is about the best mulch we can 
give the vines'. Even ill wet seasons the fur¬ 
rows in the middle of each row serve as 
drains to lead the water from the vines. I 
can, however, well imagine how late plow¬ 
ing can be injurious to vines that have been 
“ let alone” through almost the whole sum¬ 
mer, and where weeds and grass have be¬ 
come a tangled mas -; and to get t hrough 
such vineyards at all the plowman must run 
bis plow deeper, mid will necessarily tear 
some roots ; the uncultivated, hard soil will 
turn up in clods mjd thus allow the frost to 
play the mischief with the tender rootlets. 
We all know that the most tender part of 
any plant is its collar or crown ; that is, the 
part from which the roots start. Fall plow¬ 
ing, by bringing up the well pulverized earth 
around and over the collar of the vine, pro¬ 
tects it thereby. It also serves to cover the 
weeds and grass, if tliei e are any, and the 
fallen leaves of the vines, thus giving the 
vine the best manure it cun possibly have, 
its own decayed leaves. The vine, by its 
own action, stands on a ridge, and the mois¬ 
ture is drained from its roots by the middle 
furrow in each row. But plowing, like sum¬ 
mer pruning and all other operations in the 
vineyard, should be followed regularly and 
systematically to be beneficial ; rot spas¬ 
modically by fits ami starts, when time and 
convenience will allow. There must always 
be time for it as for everything else. Those 
who are not willing to do this have no reason 
to complain of its bad effects if done badly 
and irregularly. 
containing 50.7 partn to 41.2 in clover. Like 
clover, it. cover, the ground with a dense 
slia )e, t !nr- enriching the soil, while the roots 
• ,ko do vn nto the subsoil to the depth of 
se oral feet, defying drouth, and leaving the 
land in admirable condition for subsequent 
cultivation. 
“Lucerne resembles clover in appearance, 
v,di h a smaller leaf, and If left to ripen, lias a 
more wordy idem, I would not recommend 
it t . take ' :o place of clover for general 
purposes, but I do mot* emphatically endorse 
it for a soiling plant, to meet, the great want 
of the dairyman and stcck breeder. For 
horses it lifts special merits; not being soft 
and washy, they are not liable to scour on it, 
1 is perenn. il. O.ice get it rooted, and with 
a clean soil, it will thrive for years, yielding 
its successive burdens of richness. The crop 
may be sown with grain, rye being the best., 
cut it. is preferable to sow alone, from eight 
to ten pounds to the acre. 
“ Mr. Robert Gibson, the well-known far- 
mer and herdsman at New York Mills, hes 
h i an extensive experience with the culti- 
v uion and feeding of lucerne, and may justly 
be called the veteran in its introduction and 
sue essful tillage in America. The large 
sto lc at New York Mills is fed in summer on 
t grass, and their condition is proverbially 
excellent, Mr. Gibson says the great, point; 
h to get tl re crop started. To do this success¬ 
fully it is best to plow tlic ground deeply in 
the fall, after some hoed crop, am 1 then again 
in Hie spring, so as to thoroughly pulverize it 
a >d lit it for the reception of small seeds. 
“The seed should be put in as early as 
possible in the spring t.o gut the start of 
the hot sun, that the young plants may have 
growth enough to shade the rootlets. The 
surest method would be to sow the seed in 
drills wide enough apart to allow the rows 
to be tilled with a Cultivator or horse hoe, 
and the weeds and other grasses removed or 
they ■ ill choke out the lucerne. Tills plant 
is -x 'oedingly sensitive in tills respect , and if 
it .s expected .to last for years, it must be 
protemed from the encroachments of all such 
: nterlopers, Two crops may be taken off the 
first year. So rapid is the growth that the 
ORCHARD GRASS 
Ira Porter, Chautauqua Co. N. Y., writes 
to the Live Stock Journal My faith in the 
value of orchard grass grows more decided 
each year, and I strongly recommend it to 
dairymen especially as a pasture grass. Many 
of my neighbors, have already sown it, and 
the demand for the seed this spring is many 
times greater than ever before. As for the 
question of its heaving out. and winter kill¬ 
ing, I have seen nothing of it, and hence can¬ 
not discuss it,. It stands our summer drouths 
better than any other grass 1 ever saw, al ter 
cutting, when timothy meadows arc brown 
and bare for weeks. Orchard grass starts up 
immediately, no matter how dry the weather 
may be. For soiling purposes this gives it 
great value, as it will produce the second 
crop earlier even than clover, and in its 
green state it is highly relished by all kinds 
of stock. Yet, in my opinion, its greatest 
value is as a pasture grass, not to be sown 
alone, for no plant will till the soil, and cover 
its surface with that succession of succulent 
herbage which a good pasture should always 
afford. I would sow it alone only when 
intended for seed. Although it may be, as 
shown by chemical analysis, slightly Inferior 
to timothy in nutritive value, yet its many 
good qualities certainly entitle it to more 
consideration than it lias heretofore recei ved. 
THE GOVERNMENT SEED SHOP 
(At last our friend Vick has awakened on 
the subject of our Government seed store. 
It will be seen he takes much the same posi¬ 
tion relative to it as the Rural New-Yorker 
has maintained for several years ; but he 
gives us some lively facts in his Floral Guide 
which we arc glad to copy herewith for the 
edification of the very few foolish persons 
who think the Government seed store at 
Washington a great national blessing.— Eds. 
Rural New-Yorker.] 
It may not. be known to all of our readers 
that the Americ an Government is engaged 
in the retail seed business, and that its shop 
is at Washington ; yet it is a fact. For many 
years the Government has been wasting the 
people’s money in buying seeds,—just such 
THE DELAWARE AN AMERICAN GRAPE 
It seems F. R. E. has been asserting that 
the Delaware Grape is a foreign variety. 
Thereupon the old discussion is again revived 
and the difference between tweedle dmn 
and tweedle dee is likely to be settled ; for 
M. B. B., m Ohio Farmer, promptly enters 
the lists in this wise Now I have “read up 
its history thoroughly from the first,” ? nci 
repeatedly ate of the fruit from the old 
“Heath” vine at Delaware before it look 
the name of that town ; and I have also seen 
the Trammer growing side l>y side wi li it— 
and in common with the majority of horti¬ 
cultural writers, I am confident it is an 
American grape, having no counterpart 
among foreign varieties, although some, like 
the Tramiuer, do resemble it in appearance 
of vine and fruit. 
The real origin of the Delaware has never 
been discovered; but its hardiness of vine 
and comparative exemption from diseases 
that speedily affect the Tramiuer, and all 
other foreign varieties in this country, was 
pretty conclusive evidence of its being 
American ; hut more conclusive proof of this 
is afforded by the character and appearance 
of the thousands of vines that nave been 
produced from the seeds of the Delaware— 
the majority of which have been so strongly 
marked with the features of the labrusca or 
fox family as to convince the most skeptical 
observer that the mother vine was American. 
I am sure that our friend Campbell and 
others who have had experience in raising 
seedlings of the Delaware will coroborate 
this statement. 
i LAX CULTIVATION IN NEBRASKA 
It was once supposed that flax would only 
thrive on the seashore .; and hence Holland 
had what might be regarded as n great mo¬ 
nopoly in the growth o£ flax, and the manu¬ 
facture of linens. But the plant flourishes in 
braska and the soil is too rich for even 
i hi -1 xhaasting crop easily to affect it. The 
■ul ivation vt the crop is therefore yearly 
i. creasing—at present with a view to the oil 
ires cd from the seed, though (as there is 
n 'v no linen manufacture worthy of the 
nn in th Siate,) it may be ultimately to 
p’ .fie fiber for the mills. Certainly the 
7 .i Nebraska may look to this conclu- 
■- e ; settlers in the State ought not. to 
tV . : that, flax may be made a profitable 
U n recen meeting of the Farmers’ Asso¬ 
ciation of Litcaster County, held at Lin¬ 
coln, (t..e e .unty seat; and capital of the 
Stare,) a ciscuision took place on the proba¬ 
