©EC. 24 
THE 
RURAL 
664 
are all that Mr. Green described them to be 
on page 7(12. It is one of the very handsomest 
in form of bunch and color, and is an excel* 
lent keeper, retaining the vivacious spright¬ 
liness of its abundant juice well on till Christ¬ 
mas. It rotted nadly one year. This year I 
used paper bags, and most of the buuehes re¬ 
main in them yet (Nov. 25) on trays indoors, 
their bloom and plumpness quite intact. I 
prune and lay the vines down in November, 
as with most other kinds. w. o. vv. 
A New Feature in our Native Grapes, 
It has been thought doubtful if a raisin 
grape could be developed from any of our 
native classes, but judging from a seedling of 
V. yEstivalis origin (fruiting the lirst time 
this season), this object can be brought about. 
I have the size of berry and to all appearances 
the pulpiness necessary to attain this desired 
object. The pulp adheres to the skin, instead 
of to the seeds, as it should, and there is gen¬ 
erally but one seed, the grape differing from 
all other native varieties in this particular, 
and it is of the right color. 8, S. Marvin. 
fieri ntUitml, 
CASSIAS. 
We are all familiar with the little sensitive or 
partridge pea that grows so abundantly in dry 
and sandy lands in the Atlantic States, espe¬ 
cially from New York southwards. It is an 
annual with bright yellow flowers, about a 
foot or more high, and, although a xveed, very 
pretty in late Summer. There are other com¬ 
mon species, ns the small sensitive pea of the 
East and South and the Styptic-weed of the 
West, and handsomer and more important 
than either of these is the Wild Senna(C. Mari- 
landica), a perennial plant common in the 
North. It is often grown as a garden plant, 
but in the face of Japanese and Plantain 
Lilies, Seibold’s Sedum, larkspurs, evening 
primroses, perennial peas, golden columbines, 
and other flowers that are in season at the 
same time as it, it is hardly worth cultivating. 
Among green house or tender cassias are 
some highly decorative kinds, and none more 
so than C. corymbosa, from Brazil. This 
makes a large bush or shrub, which in Sep¬ 
tember becomes a mass of bright yellow blos¬ 
soms; indeed, in its season it is one of the most 
conspicuous plants in our garden. Plants one 
year old blossom freely. Propagate by seeds 
or cuttings of the young wood. Before sow¬ 
ing we steep the seeds in hot water. In May 
wo set out our plants in the garden, where 
they soon take root and grow vigorously. 
They like rich soil and a warm, open, sunny 
place, and some good soakings of water in 
prolonged dry weather. About the end of 
September or early in October, rather than 
get them injured by frost, we lift them, cut 
them back a deal aud pot them. We winter 
them in a greenhouse, but they would survive 
well enough in a tight, frost-proof cellar, pro¬ 
viding they are never allowed to get dry. If, 
instead ol' planting them out in Summer, the 
pots containing them ore plunged out-of-doors 
and lifted up and set back again once or twice 
during the Summer, to check the roots escap¬ 
ing from the bottom of the pots, they may be 
brought under cover before frost overtakes 
them, without being shortened back, and thus 
their flowering period may be prolonged 
and seeds ripened if required. 
Cassias are of great economic vulue. The 
medicine known as senna leaves is obtained 
from some of tho exotic species, and consists 
of the leallets. In commerce they are distin¬ 
guished by the name of tho port or country 
from which they are exported, and the differ¬ 
ent kinds are readily known by the shape of 
their leaves. The Egyptian or Alexandrian 
senna is Cassia aeutifolia, and the East In¬ 
dian, C. elougata. These two are considered 
the best. Our own wild senna has similar 
medicinal properties. 
Cassia Marilamliea grows everywhere in 
the low grounds of the Rural Farm, and dur¬ 
ing its season of bloom is very showy among 
the wild llowers of July. Prom one of these 
our very accurate drawing was made. 
AX bcclUvncous. 
CATALOGUES, ETC. 
Tiie Ki.kj Grange. —The name represents 
a tract of land of about 5,000 acres in Worces¬ 
ter County ,Md. .within 10 hours, by rail,of New 
York. Tho plan of the colony originated with 
Rev. John Dooly, 184 Bowery , New York City, 
and he has interested a gent leman of moans in 
it to such a degree that he has bought the 
tract, nuulo some good improvements, and 
hopes by selling it cheaply to benefit many 
families. Persons in search of homes wishing 
to visit the Grange, can go by steamer at half 
rate. Address for information Rev. John 
Dooly, lo t Bowory, New York City, 
The Cotton Goods Trade of the World. 
—This pamphlet of 882 pages consists of re¬ 
ports from Consuls of the United States on the 
trade in cotton yarns and twist and cotton 
manufactures in their several districts, with 
an introductory letter by the Secretary of 
State. It is valuable to those especially inter¬ 
ested in cotton products for its statistical in¬ 
formation. 
Pedigrees of Short horn Cattle owned 
by Richard Gibson, Ilderton, Ontario, Can¬ 
ada. These cattle were imported in Novem¬ 
ber, and will be sold at Chicago next Spring. 
Programme of 24th annual meeting of the 
prosperity may continue and that they will 
be enabled to fulfill their promises without 
sacrifice. For ourselves, we prefer not to 
make promises. Then if we should Improve the 
Rural, our readers will feel the more pleased ; 
while, if we fail to do so, there will be no dis¬ 
appointment. .... 
Of all the words used in horticulture and 
agriculture the word “hardy” is the most 
misleading. The word is generally accepted 
as meaning that a given plant will endure the 
climate, soil and situation of a given section ; 
whereas there is not one plant on the face of 
the earth that can be said in this sense to be 
butter is made from sweet cream. Indeed, 
the sweeter the cream the more delicate the 
flavor of the butter. He does not deny that 
blitter made from slightly acid cream may 
keep better than butter made from perfectly 
sweet cream. Sweet cream should be con¬ 
sumed at once; and perhaps this is a difficult 
question. But if one lias a local market for 
fresh butter, he says, don’t let the cream get 
sour, but churn it fresh and sell the butter as 
fresh butter at a high price. In point of 
delicacy of flavor, there can be no doubt that 
it is better than butter made from sour cream. 
Again Dr. Voelcker remarks that in some 
Wild Senna—From Life—Fig. 563. 
Missouri Horticultural Society, to be held De¬ 
cember 20-22, 1881, at the Missouri Agricultu¬ 
ral College, Columbia, Mo., S. M. Tracy, Sec¬ 
retary. 
Vick’s (Rochester, N. Y.) Floral Guide 
for 1882. This is one of the handsomest Seed 
Catalogues ever published. It is profusely 
illustrated with fine wood cuts and two col¬ 
ored plates. Mr. Vick is early with his cata¬ 
logue. We usually begin to receive them not 
until the New Year. All should send for it. 
The price (ten cents) is less than one-quarter 
of its co«t. 
Report of the United States Entomolo¬ 
gist to the Department of Agriculture for 
1880. By J. Henry Comstock. Dlustrated. 
Catalogue of Polled Angus and Aber¬ 
deen CATTLE AND TROTTING HORSES. The 
property of F. B. Red field, Batavia, N. Y. 
Special Report No. 38 Department of Ag¬ 
riculture upon condition of crops. 
- -» » ♦ 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
All farm journals unite in advising that 
the leaves lie gathered to use in the pig-pen, 
cow-yard or stable or composted with other 
material. As an absorbent of liquid manure, 
such advise is no doubt good where there is not 
a plenty of other material which answers the 
same purpose already at hand. That writers 
should be of the opinion that it pays te collect 
leaves to be rotted into soil and at the same 
time reject muck as of little value seems in¬ 
consistent. It would proliably require a good- 
sized load of leaves to make u good-sized 
shovelful of muck. But is the soil resulting 
from decayed leaves essentially the same 
as muck . 
It is a mutter to be jubilant over that the 
agricultural press shows signs of strength and 
prosperity rarely seen in years agone. Some 
journals promise an enlargement for 1882 
during tho busy portions of tl;e year at least 
—one has raised its price aud all promise 
better papers than heretofore. We hope their 
“ hard}' ” in all parts of any extended area. 
There are hunireds of plants that are never 
harmed by the cold of the climate of Chicago 
or of New York, that are “ winter killed” in 
Ohio and Pennsylvania. There are rasp¬ 
berries that are “winter-killed” in Illi¬ 
nois and New York that will stand the Win¬ 
ters of Canada. The injurious effects of 
the Summer upon certain plants, which ure 
not apparent until the ensuing Spring, are 
oiten attributed to the cold of Winter. So 
also many plants which are injured or killed 
by the sharp changes of early Spring are sup¬ 
pose! to have been affected by the Winter. 
Even upon restricted areas, as, for instance, 
the acre home grounds, it will often be found 
that iu one part a plant is hardy ; in another 
tender. We are first to ascertain whether a 
given plant can endure the cold of a given 
climate aud then to ascertain whether it re¬ 
quires more or less sun ; a sandy, clayey, dry 
or moist soil ; shelter or exposure. And even 
when all this has been ascertained, excep¬ 
tional seasons will sometimes reverse the con¬ 
ditions we had hoped to supply. Wheuever 
a plant from an unsuitable soil or situation is 
restricted in its season of growth, that plant 
must in some way suffer. But as the dam¬ 
age is not apparent until it has passed through 
the trying seasons of Winter and Spring, the 
remote causes thereof are lost sight of while 
the severity of Winter Is alone held accounta¬ 
ble........ 
-- 
Dr, Voelcker does not entirely ugtv- 1 in 
tho statement that the best butter is made 
from slightly soured cream. As a matter of 
fact, he knew that good butter can be made 
from slightly soured cream; but nevertheless, 
he maintains that the best and finest-flavored 
milk which came from Holland he found, not 
boracie acid, but salicylic acid. This acid is 
largely used on the Continent as a preserva¬ 
tive of milk, and he believes also of fish and 
meat intended to be kept fresh for weeks. It 
certainly does preserve milk, but at the same 
time it is used as a most powerful remedy in 
cases of acute rheumatism. A member of his 
family took it when suffering from that com¬ 
plaint, and it certainly had the effect of tem¬ 
porally alleviating rheumatic pains. Unfortun¬ 
ately salicylic acid is apt to take away the ap¬ 
petite, and to cause deafness and ringing in the 
ears. Now as this acid has such an effect on 
full-grown human beings, it must have— 
though perhaps In minor degree—an injurious 
effect when used in very minute quantities 
on the constitutions of infants; and it is cer¬ 
tainly very objectionable to introduce into 
milk a material which has such powerful 
medicinal properties as salicylic acid cer¬ 
tainly has. 
We make a few extracts from a very inter¬ 
esting address delivered before the Elmira 
Farmers’ Club by the Hon. H. H. Rockwell 
as reported in the Husbandman. He has 
passed several weeks during the past Summer 
in Utah and Idaho. One evil which he found 
everywhere existing, and lo a much greater 
extent in the West than in the East, was the 
propensity of the farmers to run in debt, and 
put themselves in the power of usurers and 
capitalists, and the consequent tendency to 
the concentration of farms, whether for wheat 
or corn or cattle-raising, into larger and 
larger estates.Leaving aside 
the great wheat farms of the Grandins, Dal- 
ry in pies and others, and taking the average 
farmer of the West with from eighty to three 
hundred and twenty acres of prairie land, 
he was of the opinion that, as compared 
with the “side-hill” farmers of his own section, 
the average of comfort and prosperity is with 
the latter. The Western fanner, with his 
rich land, raises larger crops and handles 
more money than his brother in the East, but 
he uses too much expensive machinery; he 
pays too high prices for labor and for build¬ 
ing and fencing material. He is careless and 
wasteful. What he wastes of grain would 
make a fair crop for some of our farmers. 
His house is poor and barns poorer. He does 
not raise a variety of crops or of fruits. The 
country is monotonous, marked up with sec¬ 
tion roads like a checker board. The railroads 
tlx the prices of his crops so as to leave him 
just enough for a living and to pay interest 
and taxes. ..... The time for making 
fortunes by individuals with small capital in 
sheep and cattle raising has, he thinks, passed. 
Consolidated capital is monopolizing the 
business. _ 
Reefing Butter.— Brining butter is a very 
usual process, remarks the agricultural editor 
Of the N. Y. World, lu this plan rolls of but¬ 
ter iu canvas wrappers are packed in. jars or 
tubs containing lnine, lu the report ot the 
Vermont Dairymen’s Association Mr. X. A. 
Willurd stated that he knee from actual ex¬ 
perience that good butler put up after the 
following directions will keep in sound con¬ 
dition one year: Use for a package a tub 
somewhat tapering, with heavy staves and 
heads provided at Doth ends, so as to make a 
package that will not leak. In pack mg the 
tub is turned on the small end and a sack of 
cotton cloth is made to tit the tub, and into 
this the butter us packed until it reaches to 
within an inch of the groove for holding the 
upper head. A cloth is next laid upon the 
top of the butter aud the edges of the sack 
brought over this aud neatiy pressed down ; 
then the head is put in its place and the hoops 
driven home. The package is now turned 
upon the large end and the sack of butter 
drops down, leaving a space on the sides and 
top. Strong brine u then poured through a 
hole in the small end until it will doat the but¬ 
ter. The hole is tightly corked, and the flut¬ 
ter is pretty effectually excluded from the 
air. W here only a small quantity of butter 
is to be preserved, L. B. Arnold advises 
packing it in self-sealing fruit-jara. By this 
plan a Tittle brine is put into the jar, which is 
then packed not quite full of granulated but¬ 
ter, Some bleached muslin is laid over the 
butter, then the little space above filled with 
salt, and finally enough strong brine, made 
from butter-salt, poured in to till the can. Mr. 
Willard advises when packing roll butter in 
jars that the brine lie made strong enough to 
bear an egg. To threu gullous of this brine 
he suggests adding a quarter of a pound of 
white sugar and one tablespoonful of salt¬ 
peter. Boil the brine, and when it is cool 
strain'’arefuliy. Make the butter into rolls 
and wrap each roll separately in white mus¬ 
lin cloth. Pack the jar fuIL, weight the but 
ter down and submerge in briue. 
