872 
THE 
JME 3 
Such mishaps, rocks, bricks, chunks of wood, 
pieces of iron and other foreign bodies found 
in the bales could hardly have got there in this 
way; cor could 100 pounds of sand be aeci- 
dentally passed into a single bale; nor could 
the sand that got. in after this fashion have 
afterwards liquefied so as to cause the caked 
masses of lint found in the bales. The fact, is 
that it is very well known to every handler of 
cotton in the South and elsewhere, that there 
are, and always have betn, occasional eases of 
intentional cotton adulteration, but to charge 
this dishonesty of a few selfish rascals on the 
great and honorable body of “Southern plant¬ 
ers,” would be an outrage we could never be 
guilty of. Indeed, it was for their protection 
that we applied such forcible language to the 
conduct of the few scoundrels whose tricks 
were and are doing an injuryand threatening 
a greater one to all the honest cotton growers 
in the country. Strong as our language was, 
too, it was less forcible than that employed in 
the same connection by some of the best of our 
Southern exchanges, such, for instance, as the 
New Orleans Times-Demoerat and the Charles¬ 
ton News and Courier. There is little doubt, 
however, that the charges of adulteration 
made in England were greatly exaggerated, 
as stated editorially in the RtTRALof May Gth, 
yet they were grave enough to secure the 
investigation of the American Consul at Man¬ 
chester and of the American Minister to Eng¬ 
land, and to alarm every friend of Southern 
prosperity and fame. The supposition that 
the Rcka r, has any “venom” against the 
South is, of course, ludicrous. That there are 
a few farmers at the North who resort to 
“tricks that are dark,” to secure dishonest 
gains, we do not deny; nor is there any paper, 
North or South, that has reprobated such prac¬ 
tices in more forcible language than the Ru¬ 
ral; but in each section the number of such 
swindlers is, thank God, extremely small in 
comparison with the vast body of agricultur¬ 
ists—they are the pilferin'* camp-followers 
that, despite just contempt, cling to the grand 
army of farmers.— Eds.] 
trees in the streets, gardens and parks. It is 
the above species—Arroata.—that, too, is so 
much used in California gardens as a clipped 
evergreen shrub, sheared hedge fashion into 
many forms. An acacia called Farnesiana, 
from South America, has deep vellow, highly 
fragrant flowers, from which a delicate per¬ 
fume is made. Tt is naturalized, also culti¬ 
vated in the Southern States along the coast 
of the Gulf of Mexico, and is likewise one of 
the sweetest trees of the Mediterranean coast. 
Acacias are easily raised from seeds sown in 
pots or boxes, but the seeds should be scalded 
well before being sown, else they may take a 
year or more before they germinate. 
* * 
Our seedsmen and florists are at great 
trouhle and expense to get up and circulate 
elaborate catalogues. They wish that we 
should have them, and are always willing to 
send them to us, and if any of us are over¬ 
looked it is because we are not known to them, 
or, if known, considered unlikely customers. 
Now this is good and generous on their part, 
even if it is in the promotion of their own 
business interests, and I would suggest that 
those of us who do not need tfie catalogues 
may pass them over to some of our friends or 
neighbors who would be likely to appreciate 
them. Occasionally, some people who do not 
want them for any legitimate purpose, send 
for them for no other end than for the pretty 
colored plates they contain. I call that shame¬ 
less meanness. If you want a catalogue send 
for it, and for good faith's sak f - inclose a three- 
cent stamp for postage. It is a poor catalogue 
that is not worth that much. 
■* * 
One of my neighbors, a lady, who is con¬ 
siderable of a gardener, raised a lot of gloxi¬ 
nia seedlings last Fall, bub as she had no green¬ 
house and the plants were not an inch high 
iu October, she was afraid by wintering them 
in the house she should lose them they were 
so very small, so she turned them over to me. 
I had them pricked off thickly into shallow 
boxes, which were then set upon a shelf in a 
greenhouse having a 15 deg. uight tempera¬ 
ture. Here they have kept green and grown 
a little, and now they are in good condition 
for transplanting. I will advise her not to 
pot them, but, instead, prepare a slight hot¬ 
bed, and after the heat has subsided to 85 deg. 
plant out the gloxinias in the hot-bed, and 
The Leptosvne belongs to the great Sunflower 
family of plants, is a native of California, a 
somewhat succulent perennial, has bright yel 
low, showy blossoms, some two to three inches 
across, blooms throughout the whole year, but 
especially in the Winter and early Spring, and 
is a good window plant. It loves the sunshine 
and likes a light, open soil, confined pot room 
and a somewhat stinted supply of ivater. 
Seeds of it may be obtained from the leading 
seed stores for a few cents per packet, and, 
sown now and grown on in pots during Sum¬ 
mer, they will make nice blooming plants for 
next Winter; or you may plant out the seed¬ 
lings as you would stocks or asters, and they 
will blossom towards late Summer, and you 
may lift and pot them in the Fall, but as the 
roots are very brittle and fall off iu lifting, it 
is better to grow them on in pots. Other two 
species—namely, Stillman’sand Douglas’s—are 
not uncommon garden annuals, but for con¬ 
tinuity, show, or usefulness, thej r are not to 
be compared with L. maritima. 
* * 
Neighbor Allan has not nearly as much 
favor for cactuses as he has for orchids, dri- 
emuas and ferns; still, he keeps a few cactuses 
to work in in his carpet beds in the Summer 
time. The choicer ones he keeps in the green¬ 
house, but the rough-and ready ones are win¬ 
tered in his celery pit. I saw thpm there the 
other day, and with the exception of the flat¬ 
leaved, Night-blooming Cereus (Phyllocactus 
latifrons), they looked first rate. It was too 
cold for the cereus, and it suffered consider¬ 
ably. 
* * 
Most of us are familiar with saxifrages. 
We know the Virginian Saxifrage that grows 
in colonies in exposed, rocky places in our 
woods, and is one of our earliest of Spring 
flowers; the Swamp Saxifrage, a homely herb 
that grows in buuehes in the meadows anl 
open swamps; and the pretty little Chinese 
Saxifrage commonly known as Strawberry 
Geranium, which we grow as a house-plant in 
baskets ami bracket pots, But our ornamental 
garden saxifrages are not so well kuown. 
There is a host of beautiful species known as 
Mossy Saxifrages, which form thick, mossy 
sods that in Spring are a mass of white flow¬ 
ers; another lot of stronger constitution and 
rougher habit of which the London Pride is a 
good example, and a numerous set of tiny 
swamp plant, perfectly hardy here, and in 
Spring before the leaves appear, it bears tall- 
panicled flower scapes two to three feet high, 
and soon afterwards immense peltate leaves. 
But the best of all saxifrages for the garden 
are the large-leaved kinds from Siberia, which 
are bold and vigorous in habit and perfectly 
hardy in Winter and sun-defiant in Summer. 
They are the Thick-leaved and the Heart- 
shaped leaved. From a bunch of metallic 
green leaves arise in Spring bold, thyrsoid 
panicles of rosy-red flowers. Ligulata, a spe¬ 
cies from the high mountains of India, is re¬ 
ported iu the papers as being the brightest of 
Spring flowers in England’s gardeus this year. 
Its flowers are deeper anti prettier than those 
of the Siberians, and, withal, it is not as 
coarse; but it is not reliably hard here. I 
have it here, also another beautiful Himalayan 
species called Ciliata, but neither is to be de¬ 
pended on for hardiness. Lkon. 
Odin) J^ughflntrnj. 
LARD AND OLEOMARGARINE 
CHEESE 
X. A. WILLARD. 
Several years ago a patent * as taken out 
for an improvement in skimmed cheese. It 
consisted mainly in adding to skimmed milk 
a certain proportion of fit which was 
thoroughly mingled through the milk and the 
mass then set with rennet so that coagulation 
was perfected in from eight to ten minutes. 
The object sought was to supply the cheese 
with enough fat to make It mellow and pala¬ 
table, and by substituting a cheaper fat than 
that removed from the milk in butter to so 
improve the skimmed mi k that it could be 
turned into a fair merchantable product. To 
do this successfully the fat must be properly 
emulsified in the liquid and the coagulation 
perfected so as to hold the fat distributed 
through the curds in minute particles, similar 
to the condition in which the butter is held iu 
curds when whole-milk is coagulated aud con¬ 
verted into cheese. The original idea was to 
set milk at the creamery and take off the 
cream, turning it into a first-class butter, and 
then by going into the market and purchasing 
View in the Farm of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station.— (From a Photograph.)— Fig. 175. 
in greenhouses at this time of the year, when 
their sprayey shoots and arching wands are 
bending with the burden of their golden, 
fleecy blooms! Drummond’s Acacia as a pot 
plant is dwarf, compact, and blossoms freely, 
and makes a gay window plant; so does an¬ 
other acacia called armata. The roots are 
malodorous, which is the greatest objection to 
acacias as house plants. A rich, fibrous loam, 
somewhat stinted pot-room, and lots of water 
at all seasons, suit them well enough. Plunge 
them out-of-doors in Summer. Whoever 
has visited California must remember the 
acacias there—how they are used as shade 
there, under a shaded sasb, keep them grow¬ 
ing throughout the Summer. This is the easiest 
and most satisfactory way of growing glox¬ 
inias that I have tried; the plants grow well 
and keep clean, aud bear heavy crops of blos¬ 
soms. I should treat old roots in the same 
way. Indeed, the gloxinia seedlings that are 
raised this Spring, after they get up a little, 
if planted out in a warm frame, should grow 
strongly and blossom from July to September. 
* * 
In these days, when Sunflowers are fashion¬ 
able and Oscar Wilde admires them, let me 
commend Leptosyne maritima to your notice. 
Alpiue gems, known as Encrusted Saxifrages; 
but all thess garden desiderata are useless here 
except in mountainous regions and in cool, 
moist districts. They may survive our Win¬ 
ters unscathed, but our Summers are too hot 
and dry for them—that is what kills them. 
Twice I got as many as GO kinds, but neither 
out-of-doors nor in cold-frames could I save 
the majority of them. To-day 1 have between 
30 and 40 kinds. Of the Mossy Saxifrages, I 
have a German variety of Hedypuvis that 
lives pretty well on the rockery. The biggest 
saxifrage I know is the Umbrella leaved Saxi¬ 
frage of California, called peltata. It is a 
a low grade of butter at a low price, aud puri¬ 
fying it, to substitute this fat in part for the 
original butter removed from the milk, aud 
thus get a good product and a fair profit out 
of both the butter and cheese made from the 
same milk. It was soon found, however, that 
oleomargarine oil, or fat, could be used in the 
same way as the purified butter oil and with 
less trouble aud expense. When this article 
began to be used freely at certain factories 
for the improvement of skimmed milk, I 
visited some of the establishments and as a 
convenient way of designating the product, 
named it “ Oleomargarine Cheese." By thi s 
