1874. j 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
89 
filled to repletion with old and new tilings in flowers 
and vegetables. 
D. H. Brown & Sons, New Brunswick, N. J., send a 
catalogue of the leading vegetable seeds, and follow the 
English plan of offering premiums for the best exhibi¬ 
tion at their store of varieties raised from their seeds. 
R. II. Allen & Co.'s catalogue of garden, flower, and 
field seeds and grains is a characteristically neat’ produc¬ 
tion. Besides the standard varieties and current novel¬ 
ties, the portion devoted to garden implements is very 
full and well illustrated. 
D. T. Curtis & Co. (successors to Curtis & Cobb), 161 
Tremont St., Boston, Mass., send three catalogues, one 
each devoted to flower and vegeu-ble seeds, and the third 
contains the novelties of the year in both departments 
Besides the matter of a catalogue, they give a list of the 
leading agricultural and horticultural journals and books. 
Young & Elliott. —This old-established firm, at No. 
9 John street, send out a catalogue containing all the 
usual varieties of vegetables and flowers, with several 
special novelties of their own. 
Sutton & Sons, Eeading, Eng., send us their “Spring 
Catalogue and Amateur’s Guide,” a large and very ele¬ 
gant volume, and the only foreign one we have seen 
that approaches the catalogues of some of our seedsmen. 
The wood-cuts are generally of great excellence, but the 
colored plates do not equal those of Peter Henderson & 
Co., Yick, Bliss & Sons, Briggs Bros., and others in this 
country. It is a very full and interesting document, as 
becomes a catalogue of such a widely known house. 
NURSERY CATALOGUES. 
Arthur Bryant, Jr,, Princeton, Ill., sends a cata¬ 
logue of the best varieties of fruits, and pays especial 
attention to evergreen and deciduous ornamental and 
forest trees. 
Dutchess Nurseries, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., are now 
conducted by W. L. Ferris, Jr., & Co., who succeed L. 
M. Ferris & Son, and propose to keep up the reputation 
of the establishment for furnishing “their customers 
with such stock that they will merit further orders.” 
Bloomington (Ill.) Nursery.— Our friend, F. K. Phoe¬ 
nix, has outgrown Bloomington, and has run over into 
Normal with his extensive nurseries. He offers about 
everything that any one has in the way of nursery stock 
in his own original style. 
Pine Grove Nursery, TVm. Horton & Son, Allen’s 
Corner, Cumberland Co., Me., offer fruit and ornamental 
trees, especially adapted to the colder parts of the coun¬ 
try. They emphasize the sensible advice to plant young 
trees, and offer young evergreens from the forest at 
ridiculously low prices, and give proper directions for 
planting them. 
S. B. Parsons & Sons, Flushing, L. I., N. Y., devote 
themselves especially to ornamental evergreen and de¬ 
ciduous trees and shrubs. They make a specialty of 
rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, and some other plants 
of slow growth, as well as of tender and hardy roses. 
That the plants sent out by Mr. J. R. Trumpy, the cele¬ 
brated propagator of the establishment, are of most ex¬ 
cellent quality, we can testify from personal knowledge. 
Fruitland Nurseries.— P. J. Berckmans, Augusta, 
Ga., has in his catalogue all the fruit and ornamental 
trees and shrubs that succeed in the warmer states. It 
of course includes many kinds the names of which are 
unfamiliar to the northern cultivator, but which experi¬ 
ence has shown to be most valuable to the Southern 
planter. We never saw finer stock than that in these 
nurseries. » 
T. S. Hubbard, Fredonia, N. Y., send a wholesale list, 
in which the leading varieties of grape vines and fruit 
trees are offered to planters and dealers at low rates. 
Georgetown (Del.) Nurseries.— R. S. Johnston offers 
the usual assortment. Peach trees a specialty, and at 
very low rates. 
Storrs, Harrison & Co., Painesville, O., make a spe¬ 
cialty of the American chestnut trees and seed; they 
offer, besides, other forest trees in large quantities. 
Mount Hope Nurseries.— Ellwanger & Barry, Roches¬ 
ter, N. Y., have one of the largest nurseries in the world. 
Their various catalogues, including hardy and greenhouse 
stock of all kinds, when bonnd together, form an attrac¬ 
tive volume, which comprises about everything that is 
worth growing in the lines of fruits, ornamental trees, or 
greenhouse and bedding plants. 
Randolph Peters, Wilmington, Del., is the proprie¬ 
tor of the '■ Great Northern and Southern Garden and 
Nursery.” While he gives special attention to the peach 
and pear, he offers a general assortment. In a visit to this 
nursery two years ago, we found the peach stock re¬ 
markably thrifty and handsome, and the pear orchard 
probably not to be excelled this side of California for 
productiveness and fine fruit. 
F. J. Kinney, Tatnuck, Worcester, Mass., sends a se¬ 
lect list of small fruits, including grapes. The catalogue 
is judiciously small, but contains all the really valuable 
and well tested sorts. 
GREENHOUSE AND BEDDING PLANTS. 
F. K. Phoenix, Bloomington, Ill., does not confine 
himself to the nursery, but is largely in the plant busi¬ 
ness. His new catalogue of this department contains 
several novelties that we have not seen elsewhere. 
Storrs, Harrison & Co. send out a neat illustrated 
catalogue, in which they offer new and old greenhouse 
and bedding plants and roses in great variety. 
Peter Henderson, 35 Cortlandt street, N. Y., sends 
the twenty-sixth annual catalogue of his extensive 
greenhouses at Jersey City Heights, N. J. The novelties 
as well as the standard varieties are illustrated by nu¬ 
merous wood engravings, and the catalogue embellished 
by two large, fine colored plates—one of Verbenas and 
the other of Fuchsias. 
Bellevue Nursery Co., Paterson, N. J., H. E. Chitty, 
Supt., send a combined plant and seed catalogue. Though 
a comparatively now establishment, this shows com¬ 
mendable enterprise in offering new plants as early as 
the earliest; and we have had frequent occasion during 
the past year to speak of the fine and rare pla ; its sent 
out by them. 
LIVE STOCK. 
Claude Matthews, Clinton, Indiana, issues a cata¬ 
logue of the “ Hazel Bluff” herd of Shorthorn cattle, 
which is handsomely illustrated with portraits of choice 
animals. 
F. J. Kinney,W orcester, Mass.—Brown Leghorn fowls. 
IMPLEMENTS. 
The Buckeye Mower and Reaper.— Accompanying | 
their price-circular, Messrs. Adriance, Platt & Co., send 
out some illustrations of their machines on the road and 
in action which are remarkably fine and spirited. 
The Higganum M’f’g Co., Iliggannm, Ct., publish a 
catalogue of their plows and other farm implements in 
the form of “ The New Almanac,” in which useful in¬ 
formation and advertising are judiciously combined. 
The publishers have had the good sense to take a portion 
of their “agricultural clippings” from the American 
Agriculturist, and what is more, to acknowledge their 
indebtedness. 
Patents. 
We presume that there are but very few of our readers 
who are not interested one way or another in patents. 
In fact, there is hardly an article of every-day use, 
whether it be an expensive personal ornament or the 
homeliest household implement, but bears the magic ad¬ 
jective “ patented.” As there are very few persons who 
understand our patent system, we state in brief its fun¬ 
damental principles. 
The public say to the inventor—You have a valuable 
secret which may benefit us. To disclose it without 
protection would be to lose it. To keep it would de¬ 
prive us of its use. If you will disclose it to us by so 
describing and illustrating that we may fully understand 
it, and may avail ourselves of it without difficulty, we 
will agree that for seventeen years yon shall be protected 
in its use ; you may make out of it what you can. When 
your limit of time has expired we shall have it without 
further payment. Wc can not pay you in money, we will 
pay yon in time. This is a fair bargain. A new thought 
developed, explained, described, illustrated, put on re¬ 
cord for the use of the nation—on the one side. The 
right to the exclusive benefit of this new thought for a 
limited time and protection in that right-on the other. 
This is the patent system; a fair contract between the 
public and the inventor under this system. The in 
ventor’s best and only security is to take out a patent 
that shall fully and carefully describe and show his in¬ 
vention in proper form, and of sufficient scope to protect 
him in the exclusive use of his invent! during the 
seventeen years that the patent is granted. It is safe to 
say that a very large proportion of all the patents 
granted are for inventions of real valne, and that the in¬ 
ventors would reap handsome rewards for them, if they 
displayed as much business tact as they do inventive 
genius. Here is the reason so many patented inventions 
fail to bring the reward hoped for by the inventor. The 
invention is valuable enough, and the publie will appre¬ 
ciate if you put it before them in the right way, but it is 
this putting before the public, in other words, the man¬ 
agement of the business growing out of the invention, 
that causes the disappointment in so many instances. 
If the inventor locks his patent up in his bureau-drawer, 
and expects it will make him wealthy without further 
effort, he does not have to live very long before he dis¬ 
covers his mistake. We therefore advise our friends 
who patent valuable inventions to conduct the business ! 
growing out of their patent in a judicious manner, aud 
they will be rewarded. In response to the frequent in¬ 
quiries of our friends we have established, in connection 
with the Agriculturist, a Patent Department through 
which inventors may patent their inventions, and have 
all their business concerning patents promptly, faithfully, 
and ably attended to, with the additional assuranco that 
their business will be conducted honestly and at reason¬ 
able rates. A pamphlet giving full particulars may be 
had on application. 
Hardened Sweet-Potato Plants. 
BY J. B. ROOT, ROCKFORD, ILL. 
Sipce the cultivation of sweet-potatoes has been found 
to be so easy, and has become so general even in the 
northernmost States, the demand for “ slips ” or plants 
has been so large as to make their growth an important 
business. But during the past few years a strong and a 
well-founded prejudice has arisen against Northern- 
grown potatoes, because when cooked they are more 
watery and less sweet than those from the South, and 
moreover do not yield nearly as largely. 
This, it is generally believed, is because our seasons 
are not warm enough to fully mature the roots. This is 
certainly a mistake, for during our warm weather the 
temperature is quite as high as that of the South, hut it 
is not so long continued, and it therefore behooves us to 
put our plants in that condition that they can derive ben¬ 
efit from all the heat we do have, and shall be in excel¬ 
lent working order from the first day of sufficient tem¬ 
perature for them. For several seasons I have sought 
this condition by bedding my potatoes at least three 
weeks before the usnal time in this latitude, say by the 
20tli of March, and then bringing them forward as rapidly 
as possible until ready to pull. They are then transplant¬ 
ed or “ heeled in ” about three or less to the inch in rows 
four inches or more apart in a mild bed. Here they 
quickly begin the process usually undergone in the open 
ground a month later—throw out their secondary or true 
roots and become independent plants, drawing susten¬ 
ance from the soil instead of the mother potato. It is 
while undergoing this radical change that so many die, 
and the others are so put back as to not make any per¬ 
ceptible growth for two or three weeks. This change is 
much more quickly made in the certain and even tem¬ 
perature of the hot-bed than in the open air with its sud¬ 
den changes and often its long cold rains. Moreover, 
aside from the quickness and safety with which the plant 
strikes true roots, it is already three weeks ahead of the 
general crop. 
In this second bed, if the vines grow too rampant be¬ 
fore the open ground is ready for them, shear off the run¬ 
ners and draw a knife between the rows to root prune, 
as recommended for tomatoes. This induces the growth 
of a new mass of roots, and doubly insures the life and 
thrift of the plant when put in the field. After they are 
well rooted in the second bed, give them all the exposure 
they will stand without injury, and harden them so they 
can be set in the open field as soon ns danger of frost is 
past. But few are lost when transplanted into ridges, and 
they quickly cover the ground with vines, and not only 
yield more and larger potatoes, but vastly better ones. 
I think I have eaten as sweet and dry potatoes of my own 
growing as any we receive from the South. 
This method, of course, entails considerable labor, and 
In growing the plants for sale the experiment should not 
be entered upon largely the first season, for buyers rarely 
feel willing to pay the increased price for any quantity of 
the plants until they have given them a year’s trial. But 
in raising plants for home use you certainly will not 
regret treating a good many in this way. 
Forest Trees from Seed. 
Tree planting has become in some parts of the country 
a subject of great importance. Trees for timber, fuel, 
shade, and shelter are needed in all prairie countries, and 
while we appreciate the great necessity for tree planting, 
and would urge every one, East or West, to consider 
whether timber is not the best crop he can put upon parts 
of his land, we have not had so much to say about raising 
trees from seed as perhaps our friends think they have a 
right to expect. We would not lead.our readers into ex¬ 
periments that if not expensive arc likely to be fruitless. 
How many persons opening up a new farm on the prairie 
can find time to take proper care of a vegetable or a 
flower garden? Yet the raising of trees from seed de¬ 
mands as much or more care than do vegetables or 
flowers, and our hardy white pine and other evergreens 
require in their early years much greater attention than a 
delicate flower. Premising that we advise no one to un¬ 
dertake to grow trees from seed unless he is quite able 
to give them as much care as the same number of let- 
