male parts in one flower, and the female in another. Still the latter varieties are reckoned the finest flavored fruit. Keen, a successful cultivator of this fruit, observes, that great care is necessary to be taken in selecting young plants of these sorts for making out new plantations; that there be a proper proportion of male plants to the female, not having too many of the former, as they bear no fruit, and are more prone to run into leaves and runners than the others. He considers that the proportion ought to be one male to ten females, and states his reasons for making such a choice. Having been formerly in the habit of selecting female plants alone for his beds, he failed in being able to procure crops; but in 1809, suspecting his error, he obtained some male blossoms, which he placed in a bottle on the bed of female hautboys. In a few days he perceived the fruit near the bottle to swell. On this observation, he procured more male blossoms, and in like manner placed them in bottles in different parts of the beds, removing the bottles to fresh places every morning, and by this means obtained a moderate crop where he had no fruit the preceding year." See Loudon, M'Mahon, and others. Lindley is the only writer who appears to favor your correspondent's theory, and he admits that there are fruitful and sterile plants, yet what is very extraordinary, he does not give the botanical character of these plants. I have examined Keen's seedling with great care, upon one set of flowers the stamens and anthers were absent, and the pistils only existed; on the other the stamens and anthers were present without the pistils, and this will be found to be invariably the case with this kind of hautboys; and I will venture to assert, that S. S. may put virgin soil, guano manure, or Bommer's, or any other that he pleases, and he will not produce a perfect strawberry; and for this simple reason, that he can not violate a law of nature, which requires two sexes to produce a species. Besides all this, the male plants are not less distinguishable in their flowers than in their runners; for every practical gardener knows that the runners are always reddish in the male, and greenish in the female. Again, S. S. says: "Now to call any perfect strawberry plant a male or female plant, is to assert a fact at variance, the writer believes, though no botanist, with the habits of all other plants; that is to say, there are no intermarriages of plants changing the sexual character of their progeny, and passing them from the description of those like the strawberry, Icosandria polygynia, (males and females on the same plant,) to those like the hemp and palms with male and female on different plants." Now, if I understand S. S., his argument is, that no monœcius can produce a dioecius plant. Here S. S. is again at fault, for the grape, (vitis,) which is pentandria monogynia, does produce a diccius grape, called the Scuppernong: and the common sweet-scented grape, (vitis riparia, or odoratissima of some authors.) This I think knocks his argument into a cocked hat. The writer again says, that he never saw a wild he strawberry. If he will look less after the shes and more after the hes, he will be gratified; for in this part of the world the hes have established a complete monkery, so that not one female is to be found. It is evident then, that a monœcius plant can produce a diœcius, and if it can on the grape, there is no reason that the same result should not be shown on the strawberry. It may be called a sport of nature, but it is one of those means she takes to produce varieties so important to our comfort and welfare. S. S. has made some important remarks upon the cultivation of fruit well worthy of consideration; and as he appears to be a lover of horticulture, I have deemed it right to direct his attention to an error which has escaped his usual sagacity. T. R. R. Long Island, near Huntington, Jan., 1844. EXPORTATION OF FRUIT. In my opinion, the importance of growing fruit as an article of export, has been most generally overlooked in this country. It is true the fruitdealers of Boston have been shipping apples and cranberries to Europe for many years, and of late, apples have been shipped to Calcutta. There is no doubt that quinces and the finest quality of winter pears could be shipped to some parts of Europe with the same success as our other fruits. The business being new in this section of the country, I propose saying something relating to the export of fruit for the benefit of new beginners. All fruits sent abroad should be of the very first quality. The Boston dealers ship their celebrated Baldwin apples. The most valuable variety in this vicinity is the Newtown pippins, as they keep sound and retain their flavor late in the spring, when most other varieties are gone. A distinguished horticulturist of New York, ships his apples to London in the following manner: After be ing carefully picked, and placed by hand in baskets, they are carried by men and put in an open barn for the purpose of sweating 15 or 20 days. Some are then packed in barrels with perfectly dry sand, some in buckwheat, and others are put in barrels without anything with them. (a) They are then taken on a sled, or in the box of a wagon hung with spiral springs, to a boat on the North river, and thence to the vessel which takes them to London. In all these trans-shipments the barrels are never rolled, jolted, or jarred, so that the apples escape bruising, and the consequence is they arrive in London in far better order than they are in general when brought to the New York market. These precautions in shipping apples agree perfectly with some facts I obtained from Mr. Serrell of the American Institute, formerly engaged as a managing ship-owner in London, connected with the fruit-trade. In drawing charter parties for a vessel to take fresh fruits from Spain and Portugal to London, a special clause is inserted that the boxes of oranges shall be hoisted into the vessel by the takle being attached to each; and that the boxes also are to be stowed on their bottoms, and never on their sides or ends. On landing in London, the same care is taken in hoisting them out of the vessel. The boxes are then placed on the ENGLISH METHOD OF FATTENING CATTLE. 107 heads of men known as fruit-porters, and by them | that some hints may be gathered from our method, carried to the warehouse, where they are examin- which graziers in this country might turn to aced and assorted, and then sent out in the same count; and before making any remarks upon the manner to the places of consumption. The same matter, I will give in as concise a form as possible, precautions are used in taking the oranges from the plan I have pursued in England upon my own the garden to the shore, from the shore to the farm. lighter, and from the lighter to the vessel. The Boston fruit-dealers, when shipping cranberries to New Orleans or Europe, assort them by letting them run over a platform slightly inclined. Only the perfect fruit runs over the whole length of the platform, the rotten and bruised fruit lodge going down, and are thrown away. The choice fruit is then put in tight barrels, and, when headed up, filled with water. The fruit will arrive at its destination in perfect order, and has frequently been sold in England and France at $20 per barrel. B. G. Boswell. My stock is of the Durham breed. It has been my object, when possible, to have my cows calve some time in January or February, and I would never rear any produce for fattening that fell later than the last of February; my reason is, that they would not be ready to make a start with the grass in May, and consequently be a year behind the earlier ones in coming to perfection. I wean my calves when a fortnight old, (I allude to those intended for grazing,) feeding them on milk, oats, bran, carrots, and, in fact, something of everything that the farm produces, and which they can be made to eat. At this period I consider the calves require the greatest care and most constant attention; and keeping them clean and warm are not the least important requisites. I give them a little food at a time, but feed them six or seven times a day. Almost the only ailment I have found my calves subject to at this age, is scouring; this, if not checked by times, will weaken the animal greatly, and not unlikely cause death. The remedy which I apply is at once simple and efficacious, viz., boiled rice with or-ed, if the calves will not drink it, from a bottle. a small quantity of powdered ginger; administer Philadelphia, February, 1844. (a) This last is unquestionably the best method of shipping apples. The barrels should have a few holes bored in each head with an inch and a half-augur, and ought always to be shipped on deck. See Vol. II., page 193. In addition to sand and bran, we have heard of apples being shipped in charcoal, sawdust, cider, and a variety of other substances; but so far as our experience and information extend, they never arrive in so good der as when packed entirely by themselves. ENGLISH METHOD OF FATTENING CATTLE. I HAVE been greatly interested in reading your "Tour in England," as contained in the first two volumes of the American Agriculturist. Did your remarks and general detail of English farming operations require confirmation, I, as a practical English farmer, should be exceedingly willing to subscribe to their general correctness. But such, I feel, your readers can not deem necessary, inasmuch as the clear and lucid style in which your interesting Tour is written, as also the absence of any of those tales, surpassing credit, with which modern travellers love to interlard their works, bears sufficiently evident upon itself the impress of reality. You cleverly remark in one portion of your Tour, that "you are not particularly ambitious of becoming the Trollope of English manners," and I congratulate you most heartily in withstanding the temptation of passing severe, or even just strictures upon peculiarities, which a traveller will more or less find to belong to every people. However, such indulgence among travel-writers is of course a matter of taste, and allow me to add, I think yours to be good in refraining from such indulgence. In reading your Tour, it struck me that there was one subject which might with benefit to farmers in this country, be more fully enlarged upon. I allude to the English method of fattening cattle. I do not wish to be understood as believing that the entire system would be applicable to American grazing; but I do believe, after close observation, As soon as there is grass and the weather is warm, which is generally with us about the 1st of May, my calves are turned out in the morning and taken up again at night-well littered, with wheatstraw, (barley-straw engenders lice,) and fed with a little corn, &c. As the weather gets warmer, I allow them to remain out all night, always feeding them night and morning with oil-cake or oats. This treatment continues through the summer. In the October following, they are taken up and yarded for the winter; running in an open yard, with a shed which they use at pleasure, behind the bullocks which are tied up and fattening. In this yard they have the odds and ends of vegetables, which the bullocks will not eat, some rough hay, and 3 lbs. of oil-cake each per day; or sometimes, in its place, a bait of bean-meal. On or about the 1st of May in the following year, they are turned out to grass for the summer; except in the hottest weather, when I have them driven into the yard during the heat of the day to protect them from the flies, and supplied with a few green tares or a little clover; but they seldom eat much of either during the excessive heat. In October they are again taken into the yard, but this time to be tied up to fatten, as we now call them bullocks, and that year's calves take their places in the open yard. I commence feeding them with turneps, hay, and 3 lbs. of oil-cake each per day-generally Dutch cake, which is inferior to our English cake. When the turneps are all gone, I go on upon beet root, and increase the quantity of cake to two quarts per day. I next change the cake from Dutch to English; and I • NOTE.-When the term "corn" is used, I mean beans, peas, oats, or barley. may here remark incidentally, that American oilcake is the best for grazing purposes, and on this account used very extensively by many of our principal breeders. The principle upon which I graze is simply this, constantly to change, and always improve, when I do change, the feed of my bullocks. Thus when my bullocks are being what we term "topped up," (the last stage of fattening,) they are feeding on the best hay or clover I have, beet-root, oil-cake, and perhaps bean-meal. In February and March they are ripe or ready for the butcherthey being just two years old. Their weight will vary from 750 to 850 lbs. I will now, as nearly as I am able, lay before you the expense which I consider these beasts have been to me during these two years. 1st Year. I calculate the prime cost of the calf at Keep from January to May Do. from May to October 2d Year. Keep from Oct. to May £. S. d. 1 0 0 10 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 2 10 0 12 0 0 £19 2s. Od. Supposing my fat beef to be worth 7s. 6d. per stone of 14 lbs., that at 800 lbs. would be £21 7s. 6d., thus leaving me £2 5s. 6d. profit besides the manure, the value of which it would be difficult to estimate. Suffice it to say, that if we obtain the manure only, as our profit, we consider ourselves amply repaid for our outlay. In making inquiries of butehers and graziers during my hith erto somewhat limited travels in this country, I have been surprised to learn that artificial food is seldom or ever used to force your beef to market, and that consequently, it is four to five years old before fit for the butcher. When expressing my astonishment at this, I have invariably been met with the answer: "The price of meat will not warrant our going to much expense in fattening our beasts in this country." Now, sir, I would respectfully submit, through your columns, to the farmers of this country, whether it would not be preferable to obtain two returns for their money instead of one; or to be content with small profits every two years, instead of larger ones every five; besides improving to an inconceivable extent, the quality of their farmyard manure. The above calculation is of course not at all applicable to grazing in America; I have merely inserted it to show the relative bearings of expense and returns attendant on forcing beef in England. Another advantage belonging to fattening early, I consider to be lessening the risk and chances of loss or accidents to the beast. It is fair to suppose that five years will be more prolific in casualities than two. I have thus laid before your readers a subject which I believe worthy their attention and consideration; and I feel convinced they will receive • NOTE.-The writer might have said with greater truth, five to six years old, which tells still more strongly against our slow, wasteful, half-starving method of rearing and fatting cattle.-ED. | my observations and hints in the same spirit which influenced me in writing them-the pure spirit of good feeling, and a sincere desire to see the agriculture of the world prosper and advance. DENDY SHARWOOD. New York, Jan. 10th, 1844. CHARCOAL AND ITS USES. FIVE years since, I received from Italy several hundred mulberry trees, comprising the rarest and most tender varieties-packed in pulverised charcoal dust, in tight boxes. On their arrival, I found the roots as well as the buds had grown to the length of six inches. The growth was of course perfectly white, and when exposed to the atmosphere wilted immediately-the trees were in the most perfect order. cast. This led me to try various experiments with charcoal dust; such as striking soft wooded geraniums, of one summer's growth, wax plants, grape cuttings, and various other plants, with complete success. I likewise use it in growing vegetables, planting grape-vines, trees, shrubs, &c.-in considerable quantities on strawberry beds, potato fields, grass and wheat lands, sown broadLast February I cut a young grape-vine into a single eye, in the open garden, and freely manured it with charcoal dust. Before the 20th of August it had grown 32 feet. My gardener soaked a kernel of sweet corn in spirits of ammonia, double F. F., for the space of 20 minutes, and planted it in a pot filled with pure pulverised charcoal dust, which he then thrust in a well-prepared hot bed; in 24 hours it had grown one inch; other grains he soaked 25 minutes, and killed the vital principle of the kernel. So strong were the fumes of the ammonia, that it destroyed a bed of cucumbers in 20 minutes, placed in a saucer in the midst of the vines under glass. The object in putting it there was to kill insects, which it did most effectually in three minutes; and had it been then removed, the probability is the plants would have been improved by the gas-there were cucumbers on them at the time six inches long. Charcoal as a manure will be found invaluable : it is pure and incorruptible, absorbs from the atmosphere 90 volumes of ammoniacal gas, 55 of sulphuretted hydrogen, and 35 of carbonic acid gas. By uniting with oxygen, it forms carbonic acid gas, and constitutes about 42 per cent. in sugar, 41 per cent. in gum, 43 per cent. in wheat starch, 52 in oak wood, 51 in beach wood, 46 in pure vinegar, 36 in tartaric acid, and 41 in citric acid; as carbonic acid gas, it is found in all culti vated soils, in all waters, and in the atmosphere. It is absorbed by every plant that grows, the carbonic acid gas being composed of oxygen and hydrogen; it will therefore be readily conceded that being necessary to plants, in all stages of their growth, there can not be applied to them a substance more requisite. Charcoal from pine wood is the best for agricultural purposes, on account of its fine texture, which enables it to absorb moisture, together with the other gases before enumerated, more rapidly, and may be easily incorporated with the soil, where it protects plants, not only stance as a manure. TANNING ON THE PLANTATION. All farmers are familiar with the fact that coalbeds, where pits have been formed for the purpose of preparing charcoal, produce a most luxuriant growth of vegetable substances or weeds. It has been generally supposed by those who have witnessed the fact, that it was caused by the ashes remaining on the bed, which is not so. It is owing to the hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, azote, &c. absorbed by the carbon. If the coal were even deprived of all the qualities specified, its black color alone would make it valuable, if only to attract the sun's rays, and thereby warm the soil. 109 from decay, but worms. It insures them without | ken off with the back of a drawing-knife. They cessation, all the elements most required, and es- must be examined twice a day, and as soon as the sentially necessary to their healthy growth, and hair will come out easily, let the operation be done; gives them a beautiful green appearance, and lux- they must then be washed out in clear water and uriance, not obtained by the use of any other sub- divested of all the lime in them, and immediately put in tan. A vat, barrel, or tub will answer for tanning; this and your bark for tanning must be ready beforehand. Oak-bark is generally used for tanning, and when it is used it must be well pounded or ground, that the water may saturate it properly, and imbibe the tannin matter tobe com. municated to the hide. But I write principally for my neighbors, and to them I say that we have plenty of palmetto, the roots of which are as good for tanning as anything else, and they are merely to be dug up with grubbing hoes, cut in pieces, and put into water with your hides; they are so porous as not to require pounding or grinding, and at the same time that we are procuring these we are divesting our ground of a noxious root. In placing your hides have some of this at the bottom of your vessel, and place some between every fold, so that no one part of the skin shall come in contact with another. If your hide is large it is best to cut it in strips of two to four pieces, so as to handle and be able to put it in tan more conveniently. While in the process of tanning, it is necessary to take it out now and then, in order to wring or allow the water to drip out, that it may ROBERT L. PELL. TANNING ON THE PLANTATION. ONE of my neighbors last year induced me to subscribe to your work, with which I am much pleased, as I find it embraces information of utility to the inhabitants of every part of the country, and well merits its title, "The American Agricultu rist." I do not know whether you have ever treated on the process of tanning, in fact it is not an agri-receive stronger ooze, and to see that every part cultural business; but in the way I am about to mention it, one that I consider as very necessary to cotton planters, and perhaps to some others. By tanning small quantities of leather for our own use, not only a saving of money may be effected, but our plow and cart gears, saddles, bridles, &c., would always be kept in good order, to the great comfort of working animals, and profit of the planter. We daily see old leather, half rotten, and pieces of rope used instead of good, sound, and soft leather, to the great annoyance of the animal and loss to the owner, in back-bands, head-stalls, &c. I am no advocate to the doctrine of every man living as much within himself as possible, by raising everything at home that he wants, but on the contrary, to the old adage of "not having too many irons in the fire," for, the fewer branches of business a man follows, the better will they be done; but in the present instance we furnish ourselves with a very essential article for carrying on our agricultural pursuits, with little loss of time, and comparatively no expense. is receiving the ooze equally. Take every opporof the flesh as you can, that will be found adhering tunity of this kind to cut and scrape off as much three weeks, it will be benefited instead of receivto the hide. If half a day out of tan every two or ing injury by it; but it must be kept in the shade, as the sun would greatly injure it. Take out your tanning matter frequently, and supply fresh; it is better to do this than to crowd your leather too much. When thoroughly tanned, which you may know by cutting a small piece and letting it dry, take it out, and before quite dry, grease it with a part of it in your hands, beat it well on a block, whale (tanners') oil, or neats-foot oil, and holding changing the place of holding every now and then, so that every part may receive a proper pounding, and that this pounding may stretch it in every di rection; then have a strong table or bench, and on this double and roll it and stretch it in every direction, turning first one side and then the other out, so as to make it perfectly soft and pliant. If on drying you find it not worked enough, grease I would advise planters to have nothing to do and go on again. This is for harness or shoe leathwith old, dry hides, which require soaking to soft-er; sole leather does not require this greasing and en, and breaking, as the tanners call it; but to use green hides just taken from the animal. These are to be put into lime and water of considerable strength, in order to raise the grain, swell the skin, and open the pores, to prepare them for receiving the tan, and allow the hair to be easily ta working, but simply to be hung up in the shade to dry. Every time your leather is taken out of tan, you ought to pull and cut off as much of the flesh working it as above mentioned. Strong ashes as you can-especially just before greasing and will answer in place of lime. Do not crowd your leather too much, and let your ooze be always strong. Currying is a distinct branch, and requires an experienced hand; but after cutting out your girths, bridle reins, &c., almost any carpenter or man knowing how to use a drawing-knife, may, with a smooth board placed under it, or the wooden 110 TREE DAHLIA.-FARM OF MR. FRANKLIN MORGAN. horse he uses for drawing shingles, making axehelves, &c., shave it down sufliciently. It ought never to be too much curried down, as the strength of the leather is between the flesh and the grain. All leather ought to be greased frequently to keep it pliant, and render it durable. White tanned leather was much in vogue here some years ago, that is, leather tanned with salt and alum. The process is easy and quick; but the leather is not durable. Leather receives little or no tan during freezing weather, and consequently it is not necessary to examine it so often. In hot weather it must be strictly attended to. Temperate weather is best for tanning. Louisiana, Jan. 2d, 1844. PHILIP WINFREE. TREE DAHLIA. IN December, 1839, we first saw a tree dahlia flourishing in the conservatory of the Jardin des Plantes of Paris. A tree dahlia is a novelty in horticulture, and we will state what little is yet known of its history. A farm of 270 acres, lying within half a mile of the railroad depot, in the town of Palmer, Hamden county, Massachusetts, has remained in the same family down to the fifth generation, or until It is originally from Mexico, as well as its fam- October, 1839, when it was sold. There had ily, and was introduced into England three or four never been a barn upon the farm until within the years ago. From England it passed into Belgium, last 14 years, as I was informed. The manure had where it was established in the conservatory of M. been suffered to collect around the stack-yards, and Mawy, the celebrated horticultor of Liege. Thence alongside the fences where the cattle had shelterit was brought to the Jardin des Plantes, in the ed themselves from year to year, and dropped it. spring of 1839. It was a small plant, and was The refuse of the hay,, corn-stalks, and straw, set in the ground in the conservatory by M. Neu- was also left upon the ground until it had accumann. Eight months afterward it had grown mulated to the depth of six feet, more or less, aceight or nine feet high, and showed its first flow-cording to the situation of the ground, and its ers. The root is large and tuberculous, and seemed to have no disposition to produce other bunches of roots like the other dahlias. This plant has one stem, branching a little at the top-it has become woody at the bottom, smaller at the base than in the middle of its height. The upper part of the tree remains green and hollow, furnished with large warts. The part of the stem nearest to the ground puts out many single roots, they are stiff, and some of them strike into the ground; such as do not reach the ground dry up. The leaves are much larger than those of the other dahlia, some of them being as much as three feet long. They are set opposite to each other, are pennated, and their petioles, leaf-stalks, are sheathed around the stem, forming, of this plant, a species altogether different from the herbaceous species. My adaptation to retain the materials thus dropped, and to collect leaves as they were blown from the forest, which in a lapse of time of nearly a century, amounted to considerable in certain positions. informant did not speak much in favor of the buildings or fences at the time of sale. The crop of hay was estimated at 25 tons, and this not of a very good quality. The stock pastured that year was six cows, six yearlings, one yoke of oxen, and two horses, and these not kept in a thriving condition. The road leading to the church, village, stores, mills, &c., &c., was circuitous, nearly two miles to get to a point that can now be reached in less than half a mile. We will now reverse the picture from "no book-farming" to one of an opposite character. Mr. Franklin Morgan purchased this farm at the time above stated, October, 1839, and commenThe flowers are axillaires; on the top of the ced improvements on "book-farming" principles. plant, are largely pedunculate and diverging-are In 1840 he mowed the brush upon the whole farm, of a clear lilac color-about three inches broad-(except such parts as he intended to grub,) in the in the form of an anemony; that is to say, the ex-months of June and September. This he did for terior petals are, in number, from five to eight, are long, flat, quite narrow and numerous in the centre of the flower, but shorter and irregular in form. They would have been considered very beautiful fifty years ago; but in our day, the herbaceous dahlia is so wonderfully beautiful and varied, that this tree dahlia will probably find admission only into those great botanical establishments where all the beauties of the vegetable world are concentra three years in succession, whenever he could find a young sprout starting up. He has sowed plaster upon all the pasture ground in the month of May in each year, at the rate of 100 lbs. per acre, and he now thinks it will not be necessary to sow any more for some years, as the feed is very luxu riant, and I found it as thick as a mat at the time I visited it, which was in November last. There were then 66 head of cattle grazing upon it, all in fine condition, although the weather was cold, and |