1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
7 
grape culture. 7. The renewal system in strawberry cul¬ 
ture has its advocates, and in localities where labor is 
scarce, may pay better than cultivation in separate hills. 
A California. G rape IBook.—“ Grape 
Culture; or Why, Where, When, and How to Plant and 
Cultivate a Vineyard, Manufacture Wines, etc. Especial¬ 
ly adapted to the State of California, and to the United 
States Generally.” By T. Hart Hyatt, San Francisco. H. 
H. Bancroft & Company. A work of 204 pages, which 
discusses Grape Culture mainly as followed in California, 
but which will hardly be of much use elsewhere. It con¬ 
tains many useful statistics and descriptions of the varie¬ 
ties cultivated on the Pacific Coast, and will, no doubt, 
be found useful in that remarkable grape region. 
Grape Cuttings.— “Novice.” If you have 
only 10 or 12 single eyes, and the kind is rare, you had 
better get some experienced propagator to start them for 
you. If as a “Novice ” you wish to amuse yourself, you 
can try your eyes in a pot, in a hot-bed, the last of Febru¬ 
ary or early in March. Propagators differ as to the 
amount of wood left on the cutting, and the form of it. 
We cannot give the space now to describe them. A half 
an inch of wood above and below the bud will probably 
answer your purpose as well as any. 
Essays on localities.-- A surprising num¬ 
ber of very long, and often well written, articles come to 
us, particularly from the Southern States, praising a par¬ 
ticular township, in a particular State, as the earthly para¬ 
dise to which all people are invited to emigrate. Some 
of these articles are evidently written with an eye to 
land speculation, while others are of a disinterested 
character. Did we publish all the articles of this kind 
we should have little room for anything else. While 
such information is of use to ns in various ways, our 
friends who write very long articles must not be dis¬ 
appointed at not seeing them in print. 
Fruits iroisi Iowa. —“N. B.” The speci¬ 
mens you send are the well known Ground Cherry, or 
Strawberry Tomato ( Physalis viscosa). We have commend¬ 
ed it for many years as an agreeable fruit. 
A 3B;a«l Weed.— Hugh Miller, Mich. The 
specimen is Xanthium spinomm, the Thorny Clot-bur. 
It is an ugly customer, and we shall publish its portrait. 
We never knew it so far away from the sea-coast before. 
Wl&at’s in a iVame ?— At the meeting - of 
the American Pomological Society, the Beurre Diel was 
discussed; a St. Louis paper reports it as the “Beau Ideal.” 
Fine Crnubcn-ics.—Mr. Orrin Cook has 
gent us very fine specimens from his cranberry meadow. 
We do not know but they might be excelled in size and 
beauty, but we never saw finer cranberries. 
Rene.—C. H. C., Shelby, Mo. This is culti¬ 
vated for its leaves only. One or two of them, placed in 
a tumbler of water, will in a short time form a thick mu¬ 
cilage, which is used in affections of the bowels, in place 
of gum arable water and other drinks of the kind. 
Ral»l»its isi tlie Orchard. — C. L. Jes- 
sop, Baltimore Co., Md. The use of blood to prevent 
rabbits gnawing trees, is a Western practice, and there it 
is found that one application answers for the winter. It 
is spattered upon the trees by means of a swab; one 
may be readily made of corn-husks, and tied to a stick. 
^liutters for Slot-bods a»s«l Frames. 
—In England, they make a light shutter, by tacking a 
straw mat to a frame, cover the mat with gas-tar, and then 
sprinkle on all the sawdust the tar will hold. Said to be 
very durable, and excellent as a protection against frost. 
Hittatinny IBlaclcherry. —J. S. Conk¬ 
lin, Ohio. The discussions at the meeting of the Amer¬ 
ican Pomological Society showed that this variety main¬ 
tained its reputation for productiveness and hardiness all 
over the country. Superior in flavor to all others. 
IBeaiitifail IBesosiias.— For richness of 
foliage few plants exceed the Begonias. Some of the 
most beautiful of these we have ever seen are in a recent 
importation by Olm Bros., of Springfield, Mass. 
Work from. Measure. —Much bungling 
in mechanical work of all kinds would be avoided if 
amateur mechanics would only first make an accurate 
working drawing. Tf one is to lay out a garden, whether 
fbr trsotfr ornament, it is be'st to make a plan, drawn to st 
&chTe. ft Will sfove a grefif dtM of tints When the work is 
in progress, as there heed be no stopping for consultation. 
All the head-work can bo done these winter evenings, and 
when changes are to be made, they are much easier done 
on paper than on the ground. A large sheet of stiff, 
smooth, brown paper will answer; draw the plan first 
with pencil, and when satisfactory, go over the lines with 
ink, and put down the measurements in plain figures. 
IBad ILmclt with Tonltry.—W. P. Page, 
of Knights Ferry, Colorado, is sadly in need of informa¬ 
tion about poultry ailments. We would he glad to pub¬ 
lish any information which is to the point. He writes : 
“ The past year I hatched over 800 turkeys, and shall raise 
twenty. Most of them lived till they were about four 
weeks old, and some a longer period, when they would 
refuse to eat, and die in a day or so. Their first food was 
corn meal, and as soon as they would eat it, wheat, which 
is the universal feed for poultry in Colorado. I had twen¬ 
ty-one liens and fifteen gobblers, which I neglected to 
dispose of in season, and kept over. Besides, a disease 
has broken out among my grown chickens and old hens. 
The tongue, roof of the mouth, and windpipe, became 
coated with a yellow, offensive substance. It eats into the 
tongue, fills up the windpipe, and causes suffocation. I 
lost one to-day, and found the windpipe was coated down 
three inches. Others are constantly gaping, the mouth 
is frothy, and they will live a week or more. I can dis¬ 
cover nothing the matter with them otherwise ; no run¬ 
ning at the nostrils, or froth in the eye. A few have their 
eyes swelled; it commences in one eye, and if they do 
not recover, spreads into both. I am located on a dry, 
sandy hill, with a free range of the whole country around. 
It is very hot in the summer, and I have no shade trees 
near. The water I have to bring and place in shallow 
vessels, which arrangement I do not like. I think water 
in a larger body would be better. In tlie winter and 
spring, a mining ditch of clear water runs near tlie house.” 
“ Six>I,eaved Clover.”— 1 “S. H. B.” We 
never noticed a plant in which all the leaves were divided 
into more than three parts. Yours with six leaves, all 
through, is a curious sport. 
Ks-tidicating - Ivy. — W. D. Arnold has a 
large quantity of Poison Ivy on land he wishes to plow ; 
the vine poisons him badly, and lie is afraid to grub it up. 
ne asks if it cannot be killed by applying salt. Salt 
enough to kill the Ivy would keep the land useless for a 
long time. The poison affects but a very small proportion 
of people, and it would not be difficult to find workmen 
who are insensible to its action to grub the tiling up. 
Kyasaiaiaig - . —Andrew Bean, Cortlandt Co., 
N. Y. Kyanizing is, strictly, the use of a solution of cor¬ 
rosive sublimate for the preservation of wood: this was 
the original process of Kyan, the inventor, but the name 
has since been used in speaking of the employment of 
other preparations. A solution of blue vitriol, (sulphate 
of copper,) one pound to three gallons of water, will an¬ 
swer for your hop-poles, hut why not use Coal, (or ga«,) 
tar, which is cheap, easily applied, and effective ? 
StBitter-worlciiift - Churns..—George D. 
Fort, Burlington, (?). We have seen several butter-work¬ 
ing churns. Some are very good, like the “ Julien,” but 
none work the butter thoroughly enough. They are 
convenient to get out most of tlie buttermilk, but after 
this, the butter should be removed, and worked over. 
Clotted or BBIoo<ly Milk. —Chester 
Palmer, of Lake Co., reports his practice as follows: 
“ Take a potato or two, and with a penknife boro out a 
hole in each, large enough to insert a piece of the root of 
bloodroot, which do, and feed to the cow. You will see 
a change for the better in 12 hours.” 
l>og I.aw in Tennessee.— They pro¬ 
pose in this State to exempt one dog to each family- 
enough, certainly, to make sheep scarce. We are curious 
to know how many pups constitute an outfit for an aver¬ 
age Tennessee family. Will some of our exchanges tell us ? 
ES»S - Cholera—Tar as a CBire.—Tar 
has frequently been recommended as a cure for hog chol¬ 
era, which name is probably given to two or more dis¬ 
tinct diseases. Our correspondent, F. L. Walker, of 
Caswell Co., N. C., has such success, that we give his 
communication: “As soon as I find the hog is sick, I 
have it caught and thrown upon its back ; and take a ball 
of tar, a little larger than a hickory nut, on the end of a 
small 6tick, and put it down tlie hog’s throat, and hold 
the hog until the tar is swallowed. I then cut off his tail 
or cut the ear, although I don’t know that the bleeding is 
an advantage, but think the tar is what effects tlie cure. 
I ctrrefl ft go'od many very bad cases in this manner. Tar 
lias Peek given by* rtibbifig It on the corn, but in that 
wily I don’t think the hogs Swallow enough of it.” 
Tainted. Meat Barrels. —Several per¬ 
sons have sent us their methods of cleansing meat barrels, 
from which we select the following. E. .1 Cole, Iowa, 
washes the barrel first, and crushes a roil of brimstone 
two inches long, and puts it on a small Are, over which 
he inverts the barrel. Then bricks are placed under the 
edge of the barrel, tQ give the necessary draft. The barrel 
is allowed to remain in this position until the brimstone 
is consumed. Another, at Correy, Pa., says: “Fill the 
barrel with good hay, (herds grass is best.) pour on boil¬ 
ing water, cover tight, and let stand until cool. Repeat 
the operation if necessary.” “ G. S. S.,” Lincoln, Del., 
recommends soaking them in boiling hot water and ashes. 
The vessels thus treated in scalding hogs are made sweet. 
Moths in Fairs. —L. F. Whitaker. Tlie 
eggs are hatched the same season they are laid, and there 
is no probability that any are now in the furs ; the larva, 
or that form of the insect which does the mischief, may he 
seen if there. A careful baking, or shutting the furs in 
a tight box, first sprinkling with pure benzine, will kill it. 
Street Sweepings are an excellent fertil¬ 
izer, and ought to be a source of income to all city cor¬ 
porations. In Paris, they arc sold for $600,000, annually, 
in gold. In New York, they tax the people a larger sum 
to get rid of them. Tax payers ought to study the cause. 
Money.— Mr. G. Steiner, of Atchison Co., 
Mo., hived two swarms in one hive, on July 3d and 4th. 
The yield of the hive was 130 pounds of fine honey. 
Salt around Gate Posts.— J. B. Hill, 
Vt. You ask if it will pay to use salt around fence posts 
to keep them from being heaved in clayey land. It will 
pay, we think, to sprinkle a handful or two every season 
around gate posts, and where it is of especial importance 
that posts should not be heaved. Refuse brine would do 
as well. It works so long as it remains in the soil near 
the surface around the posts, by preventing its freezing, 
or so weakening the ice in the soil that it cannot lift the 
post. It may be applied any time before the frost come* 
out of the ground. 
American Sheep Shears. —We have 
hitherto been too much dependent upon England for our 
best cutlery, and sheep shears were no exception. Hard¬ 
ly willing to trust, without the test of use, our own favor¬ 
able impressions in regard to the excellence of these 
sheep shears, made by Henry Seymour & Co., of this city, 
we have submitted them to the judgment of practical 
sheep shearers, who are much pleased with them, and to 
experts in steel manufactures, who pronounce an un¬ 
qualified approval, confirming us in our own opinions. 
Itose, “ Gem of tlie Prairies.”— Mr. 
A. Burgess of Glen Cove, N. Y., a few years ago raised a 
seedling which is a cross between the well known Queen 
of the Prairies and the Hybrid perpetual, Madame Laffay. 
It is a beautiful climber and very fragrant. Mr. Peter 
Henderson paid $300 for the stock of it—about 20 plants 
—a fact which shows that native seedlings are appreciated 
in commerce, provided they have merit as well as novelty. 
M illi in oft; Machines. —D. N. Barnes, of 
Kansas, seeing cow milkers advertised in some agricul¬ 
tural papers, writes to inquire about their value. We 
find it very difficult to learn much about them. Those 
who sell them keep very shy of the American Agricul¬ 
turist ,—so do dealers in humbugs generally. We are 
willing and desirous of giving any such thing a fair in¬ 
vestigation and trial, if possible, and have tried, and 
failed, even to witness a trial of the cow-milker. 
Mow to Renovate Velvet. —Henrietta 
Clark, McLean, Ill., writes: “ Have a flat-iron hot enough 
for ordinary ironing, with any contrivance that will sup¬ 
port it with its face upward, (small pieces of boards nail¬ 
ed together like the sides of a box, or a thick rug in your 
lap,) fold a towel until it is just large enough to cover tlie 
face of the iron, wring it very dry from water, as hot as 
you can bear, and place it on the iron ; then the velvet, 
with its right side upward. Now with a soft brush, or a 
piece of soft woolen goods, brush it lightly, all the time 
one way, until the creases are removed; then spread it 
on a fiat surface to remain until it is perfectly dry.” 
S*otato Queries. —J. H. and others. The 
Early Goodrich is no doubt the best and most productive 
variety, generally obtainable of dealers. Sebec is smaller, 
rounder, not quite as early; esteemed in New England. 
Harison is a good winter potato, not of quite so fine a 
quality as. the Peach-blow and Mercer, but more healthy 
and productive. As to where they may be had, wo can- 
* not refer you to one seedsman rather than another. Any 
fifsl-clftsS GbablisTmleht cliil Supply them. See btir a*, 
vertising columns for potatoes and seeds Of all lrindS. 
