THE CULTIVATOR. 
87 
and twenty-six bushels of potatoes. Some experiments 
reported to this society in former years, we believe show¬ 
ed about the same results. 
Effects of Ashes.— Mr. Peter Crispell, of Hurley, 
Ulster county, informs us that he raised last year, on one 
acre of land, three tons twelve hundred'and eighty pounds 
of hay, at one crop. The hay was in merchantable con¬ 
dition and of good quality, as will appear from the fact 
that it was sold at eight dollars per ton, and was all 
weighed on the scales. The soil where this crop grew, 
was a dry, loamy alluvion, and had been in grass many 
years. Last spring Mr. C. spread on a hundred bushels 
of leached ashes to the acre, which cost eight cents per 
bushel. The ashes increased the quantity of hay nearly 
one-half, and from former experiments in the use of 
them, it is known th.t their effects continue for several 
years. 
Mr. Crispell has made sohie trials with both leached 
and unleached ashes, and the results, in his case, would 
seem to show that the unleached are not more valuable 
than the leached. He thinks that ashes which have laid 
some time after being leached, are much more valua¬ 
ble than when they are applied immediately after leach¬ 
ing. He informs us that this is also in accordance with 
the experience of several of the Long Island farmers with 
whom he has conversed. We are aware that results do 
not appear to have been uniform in regard to the action 
of ashes, but we have heard the same views as are held 
by Mr. Crispell frequently given by other farmers. 
portant and useful lesson, that it is the true interest ot the 
farmers throughout the cotton growing sections, to raise 
a full supply of provisions, and after they have done that, 
to divide the balance of the labor between cotton and 
other valuable articles. I will mention two at this time, 
to wit, wool and silk. There will no doubt be great 
falling off the present year, 1845, in the amount of cotton 
planted, as it is the greatest folly imaginable to make 
cotton to purchase any article that the soil and the climate 
afford, to say nothing of the imperious necessity as well 
as propriety of our raising our own provisions of every 
kind.” 
Mr. McDonald takes particular note of all his farming 
operations, and informs us that his memoranda for 1844, 
amounted to 183 pages. He also informs us that he has 
produced a good supply of provisions, in addition to the 
cotton crop, which latter he says is the finest article he 
has ever seen. 
HORTICULTURAL ITEMS. 
(Condensed from the Gardener’s Chronicle.) 
Gas Tar vs. Rabbits and Mice —William May, of 
Bedale, Yorkshire, says he has tried this substance re¬ 
peatedly for some years upon the fruit trees in his nurse¬ 
ry, and in all cases it has kept off hares and rabbits, with ¬ 
out the least injury' to the trees. But it is necessary to 
apply it in winter while the trees are in a dormant stale, 
as at any other season it destroys them. (Would it not 
be a simple and efficient remedy against the nibblings of 
mice, so often destructive to our fine young trees in win¬ 
ter ?” 
CULTURE OF MUSTARD. 
Several subscribers, among which is our friend C. J. 
Sanders, Esq., of Lexington, Ky., have requested an 
article on the cultivation of mustard. Our own experi¬ 
ence in its culture is very limited. Several years ago we 
raised a small crop, and the method we practiced was as 
follows: The soil was a sandy loam. The seed was sown 
in drills, with a turnep drill; the rows about sixteen 
inches apart. The spaces between the rows were kept 
clean by the hoe. This was the white mustard. The 
black variety is larger and requires more room. 
Mr. James H. Parmelee, of Duncan’s Falls, Ohio, raised 
last year, twenty-seven acres of the black or brown mus¬ 
tard. We gave an account of this crop in our last vo¬ 
lume, page 354. It appears that it was planted in hills 
one foot apart one way and two feet the other, the crop 
being well worked during the season. The twenty-seven 
acres produced, by Mr. P.’s account, 457 bushels, or nearly 
seventeen bushels per acre. It may be sown as soon as 
the ground is in proper condition to work. 
COTTON CULTURE IN ALABAMA. 
East India Cotton.— We give the following extract 
from a private letter of our esteemed correspondent, Dr. 
Cloud, of Macon county :—“ Enclosed I send you a small 
sample of a variety of East India cotton, which grew at 
my place the past season. The stalk from which this sample 
was taken attained the height of thirteen and a half feet, 
had on it at frost sixty-two bearing limbs, and measured 
fifteen inches in circumference between the tw*o first 
limbs from the ground, and contained at one lime, about 
the first of September, upward of twelve hundred bolls, 
blooms and squares! My opinion is that this variety pro¬ 
mises to make a great produce in our climate. The stalk 
now stands in my yard as its own witness. When other 
cotton was selling at four and half to five cents per pound, 
last fall in Montgomery, I was offered fifteen cents per 
pound for a sample of this. It is the true green seed, 
the natural tendency of our climate and soil, and there¬ 
fore the kind upon which our improvements should be 
made.” 
Alexander McDonald, of Eufalla, Alabama, writes 
us in reference to the unprofitableness of the cotton crop, 
as follows :—“ Our most valuable and important southern 
staple has gone down so low as to pay but poorly for its 
cultivation and preparation for market; but the present 
low pi’ice of cotton will work its own cure. We will, 
in all the south and southwest, be taught that most im- 
Authority for Names. —During some discussion in 
the agricultural part of the Gardener’s Chronicle, diction¬ 
aries having been cited as authority, the following facts 
are stated:—Melocoton (the name of a peach, generally 
written Malacotoon) is evidently from Malum cotoneum 
of Pliny, which was our quince; it has hence been appli¬ 
ed to certain yellow peaches, from their resemblance in 
color and skin, to the quince. A correspondent of the 
paper says, “ In some fruit catalogues, I find it changed 
to Melocoton and Mallacoton; in English and German 
dictionaries, I find the original pure Melocoton, but for an 
explanation I must turn over to Melicotony, where I see 
it translated “a Quince,” “ a Peach.” Not satisfied with 
this information, I referred to a Spanish and English dic¬ 
tionary, where in the mean time, it had grown into “a 
peach tree ingrafted in a quince tree!” (This is about 
equal to Virgil in his second Georgic, where, leaving 
fact, and running wild into imagination, he speaks of 
walnuts engrafted on arbutes, apples on plums, and beech¬ 
es on chestnuts; adorns the wild ash with the white blos¬ 
soms of the pear, and represents s'vvine crunching acorns 
under elms. In keeping with the whole of this, he final¬ 
ly gives life and sense to his engrafted trees, making 
them wonder at the unknown leaves and fruits with which 
they are loaded. Equally sensible, but infinitely less 
poetical, are the stories which go the rounds of the pa¬ 
pers every few years, of budding peaches on walnuts and 
on willows, &c.) 
Covering for Flower Beds —It is an excellent 
plan to cover clumps with moss, to prevent the soil get¬ 
ting dry in hot weather, for which purpose it may be 
skinned off in large patches, and neatly laid down, which 
gives it a fine appearance. By occasionally watering it 
in dry weather, and especially shaded by shrubs and trees 
it will keep fresh for the season. 
Asparagus.— A correspondent says, “ I have an aspa¬ 
ragus bed, 30 feet by 5 feet, on which I put one hundred 
weight of salt, about the middle of March, last year, and 
also this year. The increase of crop, both with regard 
to size and number, is most extraordinary.” In another 
place, a case is given where too heavy and often repeat¬ 
ed a dressing of salt, destroyed the asparagus, though the 
precise amount of this over dose is not given. 
Scientific Words. —The terms spores, sporulce , spori- 
dia, &c. have either been applied synonymously or vague¬ 
ly by different authors. The more modern practice ap¬ 
pears to be, to use spondas for the ultimate granules, an¬ 
alogous to seeds; sporidia, for the cases or vessels con¬ 
taining them; and spores for an additional covering, 
which sometimes includes several sporidia. 
