275 
1846. THE CULTIVATOR. 
provided with food. When he reaches a stream, he 
puts half a handful of this corn in a cup, and filling it 
up with water, stirs it to melt the sugar, and drinks it 
off; or, if he gets a fire, he heats the water and stirs in 
the corn. For many weeks during a journey from the 
north of Mexico to the south, exposed to some hard¬ 
ships and great fatigue, I lived, and with truth I may 
say , fattened on this preparation of corn. At breakfast, 
at the halt of the mid-day, and at the setting of the sun, 
my cup of hot water was on the fire, the parched corn- 
meal with its sugar and spice was put into it, and in a 
minute or two my repast was prepared. I thought 
nothing could be more agreeable or nourishing. I can¬ 
not relate the mode by which the Mexicans parch the 
corn, for I never saw it done. The grinding of it was 
on the stone so constantly described by all travellers who 
mention the corn cakes of Mexico, called 4 tortillas.’ ” 
THE STRAWBERRY. 
Mr. Tucker —In your Cultivator of this month, 3 r ou 
speak of the Iowa strawberry, as a variety recommended 
by me. Mr. Disney, about 6 years since, brought me 
plants from the prairies of Iowa. A part were stami- 
nate and a part pistillate. The fruit of the pistillates 
was very small and of no value. The staminate is a 
good bearer for that class of plants, and the fruit large 
and handsome; but it will not on an average, produce 
perfect fruit on one-fourth of the blossoms, nor do I 
know of any large fruited staminate that will. Its only 
value is as an impregnator, and fcr that it is subject to 
one objection. It is the most vigorous grower that I 
am acquainted with, and if not watched, will soon root 
out all the pistillate plants. 
The Sw'ainstone Seedling, of which you speak highly, 
has not with me borne one perfect fruit to 20 blossoms. 
From England, the British Queen has been obtained as 
both staminate and pistillate. Which is the genuine is 
not known. I wrote to Liverpool to inquire, but they 
acknowledged that they were not aw r are of the existence 
of staminate and pistillate plants, but knew the Queen 
soOn became barren. The Deptford Pine, is staminate, 
and of no value for a crop. The Elton is the same as 
the Methven Scarlet, Methven Castle, Warren’s Seedling. 
It is pistillate, but produces but few blossoms, and of 
course is not an abundant bearer. The fruit is next to 
Hovey’s Seedling in size, but of inferior quality, and is 
the same that was cultivated in Philadelphia, under the 
name of Kean's Seedling. Of all the large fruited stami- 
nateslhave seen the RossPhcenix is the best bearer, but 
it is of no value for cultivation where Hovey’s Seedling, 
Hudson, Kean’s Pistillate Seedling, and other pistillates 
can be obtained, and their cultivation understood. Till 
it is, the Cincinnati market will continue to be supplied 
with more strawberries than New-York, Boston, and 
Albany united, and the fruit will cost too much to 
come within the reach of all their citizens. 
Cincinnati, July 18, 1846. N. Longworth. 
Note. —It must be understood that in the above re¬ 
marks, Mr. Longw ,rth speaks only of his own obser¬ 
vation, and in reference to the character of strawberries 
as exhibited in his own garden or neighborhood. But 
it should be remembered that climate and soil greatly 
affect the productiveness of all plants, strawberries in 
particular. We did not examine the blossom of Mr. 
Wilson's Iowa strawberry, but are informed that it ap¬ 
peared to be perfect within itself. At any rate, it is 
certain that a very unusual proportion of the blossoms 
produced perfect fruit. Mr. Longworth considers the 
Elton the same as the Methven Scarlet, Warren’s Seed¬ 
ling, &c. We will not now say he is incorrect, but 
gardeners here differ with him on this point. Again 
he considers Ross’ Phoenix of no value where Hovey’s 
Seedling and some others can be obtained. To this we 
have only to remark that in Mr. Wilson’s garden we 
saw both the Ross Phcenix and Hovey’s Seedling in beds 
nearly contiguous, and the former was decidedly the 
most productive, and fully equal in average size.— Ed. 
REFUSE OF BREWERIES. 
At a late meeting of ihe Agricultural Chemistry As¬ 
sociation, Scotland, Prof. Johnston spoke of the value 
of the refuse of breweries, as food for cattle and other 
animals. He divided the refuse into three kinds, the 
two first of which are most valuable, viz., the “ cum¬ 
mins,” or the dried roots of the barley, and the “ draff,” 
which we suppose to be what is commonly called grains. 
In reference to the analysis of draff, Prof. J. stated, that 
it contained about 75 per cent of water, leaving 25 per 
cent of dry matter—resembling potatoes in this respect, 
they containing about the same quantities. Twenty 
per cent of this dry matter was stated to be husk, the 
rest, consisting of' a little starch, sugar, gum, and com¬ 
pounds of protein, chiefly albumen, attached to the husk. 
“These compounds,” he said, “amounted to six-tenths 
of a per cent in draff.” The ash was about one-fifth 
more than the potato; he thought it- therefore, very 
much like the potato, the latter only containing more of 
the protein compounds. He stated that the ash of the 
draff contained one-half its weight of phosphates. 
“ These,” he said, are extremely valuable as they sup¬ 
ply the material of bones, and also the feeding of cattle 
as they are contained in the milk, as seen from the fol¬ 
lowing table 
Composition of Milk of the Cow. 
Casein,. 4.5 
Butter,. 3.1 
Milk-sugar,. 4.8 
Saline matter,. 0.6 
Water,. 87.0 
100 . 
“ Milk contains more than half a per cent, of saline 
matter, chiefly phosphates. Ten gallons of milk con¬ 
tain one-half a pound of them, and 100 lbs. of draff con¬ 
tains the same. Draff weighs about 46 lbs. per bushel; 
if a cow, therefore, eats one-half a bushel a day, that is, 
about 25 lbs., it gets but a very small quantity of phos¬ 
phates—much less than it ought to get. The protein 
compounds supply casein; now milk contains 4| per 
cent, of this valuable substance. It exists in wheat to 
the amount of ten or twelve per cent, and in oats, to 16 
per cent.” 
Prof J. then spoke of the large proportion of the pro¬ 
tein compounds contained in peas and beans, and men¬ 
tioned the comparative cheapness of these articles for 
certain purposes. If, for instance, it was wished to 
have cheesev milk, bean-meal should be given to the 
cow, on account of the quantity of casein. He thought 
the “ value of draff was more to the cow-feeder than to 
the farmer, as the former wanted milk. It contained,” 
he remarked, “a large quantity of water; but there 
was another advantage, as the water was diffused through 
every part of it; it was therefore much more soluble, as 
it was brought by this diffusion of the water to some¬ 
thing like what it w T as in the green state; and like 
green grass it was more soluble in the stomach than 
hay.” 
Prof. Johnston spoke of the “ cummins.” These, 
we believe, are what is here called sprouts —the roots of 
the grain, which are rubbed off before brewing. He said, 
“of all the substances he knew, they were the most valu¬ 
able as dry food. They contained more of the protein 
compounds than oat-meal, having about 29 per cent, of 
that substance necessar 3 r for forming the curd of milk, 
and for laying on muscle. The ash contains more than 
half of its weight of phosphates; and they are therefore 
valuable for forming bone. Cummins leave about 7 
per cent, of ash, while white draff leaves about one.” 
In this country, in the vicinity of breweries, grains or 
i( draff” afford a cheap and valuable food for milch 
cow r s. In this vicinity they can be had at from four 
to eight cents per bushel—the former being the summer, 
and the latter the winter price. At these rates, they 
afford the cheapest food for those cow-keepers who sup¬ 
ply the city with milk. We are informed that the 
