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The Albert Institution.

The Training Institution at Glasnevin was established in 1838, with a farm of 50 acres, extended somewhat in 1849 and in 1850 to 180 acres, its present size. Its pupils are “boarded, lodged and educated at the public expense," with few exceptions-there being for example, but three paying pupils in 1858. The requisites for admission are the age of 17 years, certificates as to good character and health, and the ability to pass an examination in the simpler branches of study, such as reading, writing, grammar, geography and arithmetic, together with some knowledge of book-keeping and geometry. The extent of the course is two years. Dr. Kirkpatrick the Superintendent, has entire supervision, both of the educational and agricultural departments-assisted by two literary teachers and an agriculturist, Mr. BOYLE, who is the practical farm manager. There is also a gardener employed. Dr. HODGES of the Queen's College at Belfast, lectures on Animal Physiology, the Diseases of Domestic Animals, &c., Mr. Moore, the curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, on Botany and Vegetable Physiology, Prof. Sullivan on Chemistry and Geology in their relation to agriculture, Mr. Baldwin on Agriculture, and Mr. Campbell on Horticulture—each lecturer giving a course in each of the two sessions into which the school year is divided. The branches of study, aside from those embraced in the above lectures, are English grammar and composition, arithmetic, book-keeping and mathematics, including land surveying, levelling and mapping. The instruction in agriculture "embraces all those branches which constitute the science of farming, as well as a detailed account of the enlightened and improved practices of the day; and in order that the pupils may become thoroughly acquainted with improved practical husbandry, they are called upon to take part in the performance of every farm operation, and the feeding and management of live stock. They have an opportunity, too, of practically studying the application of steam power to agricultural purposes, as well as the use of a large assortment of those modern implements and machines, which are found economical substitutes for manual labor." All the labor of the farm is performed by the pupils, to whom its appearance is certainly most creditable.

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The Italian rye-grass is sown in autumn, immediately after the harvesting of the potatoes and beans, and a most luxuriant crop is thus obtained. In the season of 1858 they had grass three feet long, and yielding ten tons per statute acre on this farm early in May.

Thus every opportunity is given the pupil here to acquaint himself as thoroughly as possible with the practical superintendence of farm operations on different systems and degrees of extent. The Albert Institution, remarks Dr. K., in his Report for 1856, is “the life and center of the entire system of agricultural education, and it is the great prize to which intelligent aspirants in the National Schools look." It appears, in fine, to be the intention of its managers to take up the agricultural education of the pupil where the other schools leave it, and by two years farther and more careful training, qualify him to go to farming for himself, to seek a place as farm manager for others, or to act as teacher in any of the other schools. The report for 1858 states that of the 48 young men who completed their course the previous year, there were then 21 farming at home for themselves or parents, 7 occupying positions as land stewards, 4 as agricultural teachers, and 2 as literary teachers.

There are $500 awarded annually among the Students at Glasnevin in prizes-$50 in each of the following branches, Chemistry, Botany, Animal Physiology &c., Horticulture, and Literary subjects, and the remaining $250 in various strictly agricultural prizes. These prizes are determined by oral and written examinations upon the lectures and studies of each session-in the latter (the written examinations) a scheme of questions being submitted, to which the pupil writes out the answers to the best of his knowledge and ability, in a given time—I suppose of course, without the opportunity to consult any authorities, but compelled to rely upon the knowledge acquired by him during the studies of the term. As an example of these examinations in one branch of study-Practical Agriculture-I am able to give the following series of questions, which I copy here for the purpose of showing what kind of practical "training" it is that the pupils are expected

to receive:

The land in connection with the institution comprises two farms. One of them, called the large farm, containing a little more than 145 acres, is divided into four sections, of which one is largely composed of pasture land and is farmed on a system of its own, while upon the other three, three different rotations are employed for the purpose of illustrating the different methods most com- these courses is best adapted. monly approved, as follows: Twenty-one acres under a three course rotation of

1. Green crops, manured.

2. Grain, with Italian rye grass, and clover.

3. Grass, for soiling and for hay.

Thirty-six acres under the ordinary Norfolk four course shift, of

1. Green crops, manured.

2. Grain, with grass seeds, generally Italian rye grass.
3. Grass, for house-feeding cattle, and bay.
4. Oats.

Lastly, twenty-five acres under a five-course system, only differing from that last given, in keeping the land under grass two years instead of one. The balance sheet on this farm for the year ending 31st March, 1858, showed a balance of about a thousand dollars (say, £217 3s. 1d.) in favor of the pupils' labor.

The other, or small farm, of about 28 acres, was established in 1856, for the purpose of affording an illustration

PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE-Examiner, MR. BALDWIN. "1. Give the order of succession of the crops in the three, four and five course rotation, and state the circumstances to which each of "2. Supposing a farm of 20 statute acres of good land, under the three crop course, how many head of cattle could be maintained on it throughout the year? Give the particulars.

3. Give the dates of sowing the several cultivated crops, and the soils best suited to each.

4. Assuming the value of horse labor at 2s. 6d. a day, men's wages 1s. 3d., and women's wages 10d., and farmyard manure 4s, a ton-estimate the cost of an acre of turnips. It will be necessary to give the number of 'hands' required for each operation.

5. Name the four varieties of each of the following crops most in favor among intelligent agriculturists-mangel, turnips, wheat, and

oats.

6. State the merits of Italian rye grass as compared with other forage plants.

7. What are the relative merits of mangel wurzel and Swedish tur

nips? "8. State your views on the theory of the rotation of crops. The answer must embrace the two following, among other points:-1st. How far a farmer should bind himself to any prescribed course. 2d. How prevent the land from becoming clover sick, turnip sick, &c. best time for serving dams. 9. Give the periods of gestation of the domestic animals, and the

what the probable profit on an ox so fed, which weighs 64 cwt, when 10. What is the most economical way of fattening cattle; and put up to fatten? It will be necessary to give the quantities of the several kinds of feeding, &c."

The questions submitted upon the other subjects of study cover similarly extensive ground, and require equal

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At the same time it is thought both expedient and beneficial to conduct occasional farm experiments, in which, as may be readily imagined, intelligent pupils would at once take a deep interest, while in the course of their development there must be many opportunities of impressing useful lessons upon the memory. The report for 1858 contains accounts of experiments carried on during that season, with regard to the relative value of different manures in raising Swedish turnips, and as top-dressings to grass lands-also with respect to the comparative merits of different varieties of Mangolds, of which the "new yellow oval" was found to yield considerably better than any other.

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J. W. L. of Solsville, Madison Co., N. Y., incloses to me in a letter dated June 19th, some insects which he says are "committing great depredations upon the bean crop in this vicinity. They eat mostly under ground. After the beans are well sprouted, and within half an inch of the surface of the ground, they bore minute holes on the inner side of each half of the bean, and it is, of course, stunted, and soon turns black. They sometimes attack the stalk below the bean, also, and follow it down an inch or more, though this is not common. These insects are very lively, and it is difficult to catch one of them. They do not seem to fly, but hop. Two or three of the specimens are larger, and may be a different insect; yet they are found together, all engaged in the same occupation, that of destroying the beans."

I find three different insects in this inclosure, which, being taken associated together, merit a notice, as the real culprit will hereby be more clearly pointed out to any one

who searches for it.

The two largest specimens are young soft field crickets, recently hatched from the eggs-black, with a whitish band across the middle of their backs. Whether these feed on vegetation or on other insects is not fully ascer

tained.

destroyed by it. And these leaves being not thin like those of the mustard, but thick and succulent, it is usual for the insect here to merely nibble little holes into, without reaching through them, some of the holes being sunk in the upper, others in the under surface of the leaves. Nor do these leaves become discolored at the wounded points, as in the mustard, but retain their green hue. Perforations occur, it is true, reaching through these leaves, but these appear to be made seldom by this, but mostly by other in

sects.

Though the injury sustained from this striped flea-beetle is usually slight and but little regarded, it is sometimes quite formidable and vexatious to the gardener. Around Albany I am told that, some years, whole beds of cabbage plants, if not watched and attended to, are destroyed by four hours. In the winter of 1857, Hon. E. A. Lawrence these flea-beetles, sometimes in the short space of twentyinformed me that, what I recognized to be this insect, had been very destructive to the cabbage crop in all the gardens around New York the previous summer. In his own grounds at Flushing, he had planted six acres to cabbages, but to such an extent were they wounded and killed by this insect that he finally cultivated but one acre, and to accomplish this he was obliged to set the ground over repeatedly with new plants, as those previously set disappeared. And this insect was the principal cause of the scarcity and high price of this vegetable in the city markets that winter, it being nearly double its ordinary price.

Accustomed as we are to seeing this beetle openly exposed upon leaves in the clear sunshine, and feeding upon plants which possess an acrid, pungent taste, we should not expect it would penetrate under the ground to get at the mild and almost tasteless seed-leaves and root of the bean. But Mr. L.'s account of its gnawing minute holes upon the soft inner sides of those seed-leaves, is so like the work of this insect, that, in connection with the specimens he sends, it appears to render the fact sufficiently authentic. fore, be added to the plants to which this insect has hereThe bean before it sprouts from the ground must, theretofore been known to be destructive.

This striped flea-beetle is a very small, shining, black insect, scarcely the tenth of an inch in length, with a pale yellow stripe on each of its wing covers, which stripe is not straight but is slightly bent or wavy. Notwithstanding the smallness of this insect, the whitish stripe upon each side of its back may be distinctly seen by the eye, in this insect's leaping with the briskness of a flea, will suffice the clear light of day, and this mark, in connection with to distinguish it from all the other insects which are liable to be met with in the situations where it occurs.

In some specimens, however, the stripe alluded to is partly obliterated, its two ends only being present, thus forming four spots upon the back, and then the insect has a considerable resemblance to the four-spotted Bembidium above mentioned. This four-spotted variety was discovered and scientifically described anterior to the normally marked insect, by Fabricius, in the year 1801, who gave it the name of Crioceris bipustulata. But as this is only the name of a variety, it is not entitled to stand as the designation of the species. On a subsequent page of same volume, Fabricius described the species more correctly, nam

Next in size is a specimen of a small black beetle with two pale yellowish spots on each of its wing covers, and hence named the Four-spotted Bembidium (B. 4-maculatum.) This is very common in our gardens. It never hops, but sparkling like a diamond in the bright sunshine, it runs briskly in a very serpentine or zigzag track, a few inches, till it gains some crack in the ground, or other covert, in which it abruptly disappears. It feeds on other insects, its strength and agility enabling it to overpowering it Crioceris vittata, but he had already given this those that are much larger than it in size.

Finally, there are three specimens of the striped fleabeetle, the Haltica (Phyllotreta) striolata of Illiger. This s also an insect which is quite common in our gardens and often does much injury. Its favorite food, evidently, is the leaves of the mustard. About the middle of June many of the leaves of this plant may be seen perfectly riddled with small holes by this insect. A hungry beetle gnaws a hole sometimes the eighth of an inch in diameter but most of the perforations are smaller, scarcely large, enough to admit a pin, and each of them is edged by a white ring, which again is inclosed in a blackish circle.

But in addition to the mustard, all plants of the Natural Order crucifera, are fed upon by this beetle, and it thus happens that the young tender leaves of radishes, cabbages and turnips are attacked and often seriously injured or even

name, vittata, to another species of Crioceris, hence it could not be employed to designate this species also. In 1806 it received the name striolata, from Illiger, not Fabricius as Dr. Harris incorrectly says, and by this name it has been usually designated since. In the catalogue of Coleopterous Insects published by the Smithsonian Institution, two very distinct insects are confounded together under this name, the elongata of Fabricius and Olivier, which is also the tæniata of Say, being a southern species quite different from the striolata, and unknown to our entomologists at the present day, though specimens of it have been sent me by both my valued correspondent, Wm. S. Robertson, from west of Arkansas, and my daughter, from Mississippi.

I have only to add, that dusting the plants infested by these flea-beetles, especially when the dew is on, with

lime, ashes, plaster, Scotch snuff, or soot, or with two or three of these mixed together, is the remedy popularly resorted to for repelling them. I have not tested these articles with sufficient attention to form an opinion respecting their efficacy. The insect is very shy and timorous, and whenever I see it on radish or cabbage leaves, I am accustomed by striking the hand towards it, and by brushing and shaking the plants, to scare it away; and I entertain the opinion they will mostly forsake spots where they are frequently menaced and disturbed in this manner, and resort to situations where they find they can remain unmolested. ASA FITCH.

CULTURE OF GRAPES IN POTS.

EDS. CULT. AND CO. GENT.-I would like to ascertain through the medium of THE CULTIVATOR, the best practical method of raising grapes in pots. By a description of the system, at your convenience, you will oblige one at least of your many subscribers. N. H. PERRY. Conn.

The culture of grapes in pots requires more skill and attention than by other modes, at the same time that it possesses some peculiar advantages. One of these advantages is the small space they occupy, nearly double the amount of fruit being obtained from a house occupied by vines in pots, as by the ordinary method. Another is the facility with which the plants may be transferred from one place to another, as growth, warmth, &c., may require, and thus they need not occupy space in the house when not growing. A third is the small amount of prepared soil needed for filling the pots, as compared with that required to make or fill a large border.

The skill required is more especially needed in watering. The earth in which they grow being in small quantity, requires great care to be kept exactly at the right degree of moisture. The quantity applied must also vary with the size of the vine and the rapidity of growth.

Eyes are usually employed in propagating the vines, one being placed in each pot. If they grow vigorously they may be made to bear fruit the second year, but more usually the two first years are consumed in preparing the vine, and the third gives the crop. Some cultivators change the pots often, as the plant advances, but where fruiting is an object the second year this frequent transfer would check growth too much, and three changes throughout are enough. As there will be a large amount of prepared earth in a large pot, unoccupied by roots, when a small vine is first placed within it, the watering should be given only at the center, that the soil may not be needlessly soaked and soured before the roots reach it and pump up and carry off the water.

but a tenth part of the water required for one with thirty leaves; and also besides this that a fast growing vine will consume water in proportion to its increase. When the wood turns brown the watering should be diminished, and when the frult begins to color it must be still more sparringly administered, if a fine flavor is desired. The water should be of the same temperature as the air in which the grapes grow.

The time for starting the eyes may be in the latter part of winter, or very early in spring. The strongest, plumpest, and best ripened buds must be selected; the mode of propagating will be found in most books or fruits, and is shown in figure 1. If desired to fruit the second year, a good bottom heat will be necessary during the early part of the season to hasten growth; and a frequent and judicious pinching back will be required to prevent the strongest buds from forming only on the upper part of the vine. A similar result is obtained by training the vine downwards. If the fruiting is commenced the second year, cut back the vines about three down, and new canes trained for the succeeding year. feet high; if the third year, they should be cut nearly Even when every care is taken to have bearing vines the second year, a portion will be too weak, and will require cutting back for a third year's bearing. Five to eight bunches will be enough for one vine. If heavily fruited, If they sparingly bear, they may be removed afterwards the vines will bear but one crop and become exhausted. to a new pot, pruning the roots and spreading them out, and after one year's growth of a new cane, bear a second year again. Good cultivators, however, generally prefer raising new plants from eyes, finding it less trouble than to recover an old vine, and giving better fruit. pend the growth as early as possible the previous autumn, Where early forcing is adopted, it is important to susso as to give a period of repose. This is accomplished by watering sparingly, placing the pots on the north side of a building, and, if necessary, by turning them on their sides to allow the water to drain off.

The after treatment of the vines during the bearing season, is quite similar to that in common grape houses-the shoots being stopped when the branches form, and again when the grapes swell. The best and most evenly distributed bunches must be selected, the rest removed-it is much better to have too few than too many-five or six bunches to a vine will usually be quite enough. The accompanying cut (fig. 2,) will show the mode of constructing the supports, consisting of four wooden rods, supporting horizontal wires.

Pots or tubs twice the size of a common Support for grapes in pots. 12 quart water-pail are of a good size for the bearing vines. The Hamburgh and Muscadine succeed finely cultivated in this way.

small space which the vines occupy, and the perfect conA great convenience of pot-culture, consists in the trol of position, as circumstances require. Any vacant portion of a small or large green-house will afford the required space; a moderate or a rapidly forcing heat may be given them, observing to keep the temperature of the will ripen by the first of summer, otherwise three or four roots a little above that of the air. If forced, the fruit months later; and if set aside in a cool room, the late ripened grapes may be kept on the vines for months, during which time they may even be employed as a parlor

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The compost for filling the pots may be an equal portion of leaf mold, sand and turf, for starting the eyes and for the early part of their growth. It should not be very fine, but somewhat porous. If, however, the soil from which the turf is taken is light or sandy, the leaf mould and turf only will be required. Subsequently, where they are removed to a larger pot, a compost of the same materials with an addition of one-third rotted stable manure, and one twentieth leached ashes should be used. To produce a rapid growth, liquid manure should be employed for watering-it may be the drainings of the manure heap, a mixture of fine manure with water and a little ashes, with the clear liquor afterwards drawn off; or guano water, made of one pound of guano to ten gallons of water. Care must be taken to water quite moderately at first; but as reached its Twenty-fifth Annual Fair, which is to be The Bourbon County (Ky.) Ag. Society has the plants advance rapidly in growth, and fill the pots with held at Paris on the fine grounds belonging to the society, roots, it must be given copiously. It should be remem- Sept. 4-7; President, Brutus J. Clay-Secretary, A. M. bered as a guide that a plant with three leaves will need Brown.

ornament.

But there are

HINTS FOR THE SEASON. The summer harvests are now secured-the chief and remaining labors of the season are the sowing of winter grain, and securing the crops of autumn. many other operations that should not be neglected. In many places there are muck swamps, now comparatively dry, that may afford a large quantity of the material for manures. If it may be shovelled or drawn out on a dry platform or hard earth surface, it will be more convenient for drawing in winter. A large pile of this kind, thatched with straw or covered with a rough shed, will continue to become drier till winter, by which two important points will be gained. Swamp muck, when saturated, contains some five-sixths of its weight of water. The labor of drawing when wet would therefore be six times as great as when thoroughly dried. Wet muck will not absorb the liquid parts of manure-but when dry it will take in and hold several times its own weight. The great point therefore, in using peat or muck for composting, is to get it thoroughly dried.

Compost heaps, for farm use, should be made wherever practicable, near the field or spot to which they are to be applied, with a view to save cartage. If large muck-heaps can be deposited at those places, a great advantage will result; for the stable cleanings, as they accumulate, may be drawn out there and laid in their alternating layers with the muck, the new heap being made closely alongside the oblong pile of muck. If the swamp happens to be near a remote part of the farm, which is to be enriched, many days labor in drawing first to the barn-yard, and then back again, would thus be saved. By making quite thin alternating layers, the labor of mixing over may be

avoided.

Cellars should be thoroughly cleaned, ventilated, whitewashed when needed, and prepared for the crops of astumu vegetables-that these may be kept neat and in perfect condition. A cellar in confusion and infested with foul matter, is a most unsuitable place to stow eatables; while one neatly kept and handsomely filled, is an interesting sight.

Hogs should be fed early to fatten a few weeks at the commencement, early in autumn, may be more than equal to as many weeks towards winter. Keep them clean, and they will thrive better; feed them regularly, and they will fatten faster; and as there is an abundant apple crop this year, half the cost of fattening may be saved by feeding refuse apples in sufficient abundance.

Be

Do not neglect to save a good supply of the best selected seed corn. In cutting up corn, a great deal of valuable fodder is lost by carelessness in putting up the shocks. If they stand erect, the stalks will be uninjured; if they incline or become prostrate, the fodder will be half rotten and of little valne, to say nothing of the diseased and feeble animals resulting from feeding such stuff. careful, in putting up the shocks, to place the stalks evenly and compactly on all sides, and tie them up firmly, and they will remain so; but pile them all on one side in a careless manner, and they cannot stand. We occasionally pass a corn-field in autumn where the shocks stand as they should do; but more frequently we see many prostrate heaps.

DRILL CULTURE-PLOWING IN GRAIN. The Homestead, (Hartford, Ct.,) after some discussion of the Drill vs. the Broadcast system of sowing seed, re

marks as follows:

Preparation should be made early for ample winter "An approximation to drilling is covering with the shelter for stock, where not already fully provided. One-plow-running broad, shallow furrows, so that the ground third of the amount of food consumed by animals is saved shall be left in ridges between them, the grain being first sown broadcast. When it grows, it springs up almost exby proper warmth; one-third more, in value and insu-clusively on the ridges; here will be a double depth of rance to the animals, and dairy animals give about one-soil-in wet land drainage will be provided-on all but third more milk and butter. The farmer who has, say very dry or washy land, no danger will be apprehended twenty head, will thus save about one hundred and fifty | from either too great dryness or washing out of the seed dollars each winter, according to a safe estimate-an amount which would soon pay for the whole expense of the buildings, to say nothing about the increased value of manure where facilities are afforded for saving it.

Wet portions of ground, which could be neither cultivated nor drained in the spring, if now submitted to thorough underdraining, will be increased immeasurably in value.

Briers, elders, &c., if cut immediately, will be much checked in growth another season; and if the process is repeated, will be mostly destroyed.

The vacant portions of time which every driving farmer may secure for this purpose, should be expended in building stone fences or walls. Such walls should always be laid in a trench as deep as frost usually penetrates, filled with small stone. Unless this is attended to, the heaving and subsiding yearly by frost, will ultimately throw down the most perfectly built wall. A good stone fence will never decay, and the removal of refuse stone from the land is a great advantage-let it be therefore not neglected. Root crops, which have been kept clean during the early stage of their growth, are apt to be now neglected and become weedy. By dressing them out when needed, the crop will be better, and the ripening and scattering of seeds for a troublesome crop of intruders another year will be prevented.

or young plants before they are well established, and after they cover the soil and begin to tiller, there will be no danger from either of these causes. Land in such shape will take the sun better; there will be less danger from winter-killing the ridges keeping dry. Moreover, if the snow blows off, only one side of the ridge will be exposed -if injured, that on the other side will fill up the space."

"These arguments," adds the Homestead, "are presented for criticism without our experience or observation to back them. We think it would be worth while to test the practice thoroughly side by side with drilling and broadcast sowing," where the grain was covered by the harrow. In some sections of this State, wheat is frequently sown broadcast and then covered with the gang-plow, and one of these implements is manufactured in Niagara county with a seed-hopper attached, so as to sow the grain and cover it at one operation. Most usually, however, the seed is distributed by the hand, then covered with the triplegang-which does its work very well on any soil fit for wheat-growing. The field is harrowed before sowing, so that the grain may lie on a nearly level surface, and the gang-plow covers it very uniformly from three to five inches deep, leaving slight ridges, and throwing up the loose clods and stones, so as to make a rougher surface than would be left by the harrow. The grain springs up more or less in rows along the top of the ridges; not, however, with nearly the regularity of drill sowing, nor is it

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as uniformly covered properly. If the furrows run up and down the slopes, and are provided with an outlet ditch through the hollows, they act as drains-otherwise they rather hinder than help the passage of surface water. is true, however, that the tops of ridges are generally dryer than the soil would be were it level, and may thus be beneficial in the wet weather of the season.

The great objects of plowing in grain are, we believe, first to secure a better and quicker germination of the seed, and second, to give the field a rougher surface, which better holds the snow from blowing or melting away, and affords an important protection for the young plants during the season of frosts, preventing in a considerable degree winter-kill or heaving out. It is well known that from the effect of wind, a field with a smooth surfaceone, for instance, rolled down after plowing-will be bare of snow, while a field left with the furrows untouched will retain a considerable covering. It is also true that after the show has gone, but while frosty nights are frequent, level soils suffer more from heaving out than rough ones— the ridged land, moreover, crumbling and falling down by day, covers to some extent the roots lifted at night. The spring rains may also have the same effect. These are some of the reasons for leaving wheat fields with a ridged surface, as in plowing in, and to some extent in drilling, and in covering with a coulter harrow.

But to return to the first object-the better germination of seed secured by covering with the plow. At the time for sowing winter wheat-very often the surface soil is too dry—sown broadcast and harrowed in, it would be covered with the dry soil, and lie waiting rain, perhaps weeks, before germination. The gang-plow covers more deeply, and brings the seed more certainly in contact with the moist earth. This enables the farmer to sow his wheat with safety, without waiting for rain until the best time has passed by. Wheat, of course, can be plowed in with a single small plow, but not as rapidly as with a gang.

The above are the arguments of those who have long practiced and observed this method of covering winter grain; we offer them in part for our friends of the Homestead, but more for those who may not have tried this method for themselves.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] The Law of Reproduction with Fruits and Seedbearing Plants.

Ens. Co. GENT.-Although the above topic may have been extensively discussed in our agricultural or horticultural works, yet it has never been my good fortune to meet with an article on the subject, and, believing it of much practical importance, I propose to offer a few sug. gestions, hoping that some abler pen will take up the matter and discuss it as it deserves.

It is a common saying that "like begets like," and in the formation of fruits and herbs, each was appointed to yield "seed after its kind." Still we are constantly told that "it makes no difference what kind of apple-seeds we plant, we never know what the fruit will be till seen."

And the same is true also of peaches, pears, cherries, and the endless varieties of fruits produced; their seed gives no assurance as to what quality of fruit we shall gather.

Is not the same true of squashes, melons, cucumbers, beets, carrots, and the endless varieties of vegetables and seed-bearing products with which our fields and gardens abound? We plant summer squash, and gather pumpkins or a cross between pumpkins and squashes which is only fit for pigs. We sow blood-beet seed, and gather white beets, pale red ones, and a few such as our seed purported to be, and turn away with impatience to accuse

Nature of being false to her professions. But is she so? On the contrary, is there not an important law of hers which we have failed to observe?

The law is this. Different varieties of fruits and flowering plants mix, by the pollen of the one falling on the stigma of the other. The immediate product is not thereby materially changed, but the seed is; and the result is developed in the product of the seed when sown.

Thus, I have growing in the same orchard, Seeknofurthers, Spitzenbergs, Baldwins, and Northern Spies. Deseed of that fruit; but when it comes to bear, behold I siring to increase the number of my Baldwins, I plant the have neither Baldwin, Northern Spy, or anything else such as my orchard had previously borne.

Again, I set in my garden-for seed-a blood beet, a turnip beet, and a sugar beet. They are in close proximity, it is true, but I gather the seed with care; put the different varieties in different papers, label and put away for future use. On sowing my different varieties in different beds, I find the product “all mixed up." I have neither blood beets or turnip beets or sugar beets where they belong, but all sorts and no sorts, any where but where they were sown. Now, where is the trouble? Simply here. I set my seed beets where they mixed in flowering time, and the result is seen in the heterogeneous mass of stuff which is grown on the different beds.

The same principles apply-with certain limitations-to all flowering products. The mixing is in the seed, by reason of its having been produced where its flower was impregnated with the pollen of some other variety of the same general kind. Farmers sometimes say their potatoes mix by planting in proximity. This, however, is a mistake. The seed within the balls mix, and if they plant these, the result will be some new kind. Their corn mixes, their wheat and other grains. But here the seed and the it is true, by planting in proximity; and so doubtless do fruit are identical. You cannot separate them as you can an apple from its seeds; a melon or a squash from its, and a beet and turnip from theirs.

their varieties on the same cob, but separate these varieWhite corn and yellow corn, side by side, will mingle ties and plant again at respectful distances, and there is nothing more seen of the mingling.

The conclusion of the matter therefore is, that Nature is not treacherous to her laws. She observes the rules given her at the beginning; but, if we would produce from seed, plants such as we desire, we must know that our seed has been kept free from mingling with other varieties of the same general kind, during its flowering stage. Clinton, August 3, 1860.

NEW JAPAN PINKS.

S. W. R.

Several new varieties of Pinks have been introduced into this country this spring for the first time, and have just flowered with us.

Dianthus Chinensis Heddewigii, or Heddewig's Japan Pink, is a dwarf annual growing six inches high, bushy, flowers borne on a short upright stem, and which are about two and a half inches in diameter, of colors generally a marbled velvetty crimson, sometimes rose or violet. The flowers are single and open well, with flat and smooth petals deeply fringed. These pinks, it is said, will be in flower three or four months.

Dianthus Chinensis Laciniatus, a perennial variety, much similar to the last, but with finer leaves and more strag gling in habit of growth. The flowers are larger than Heddewigii, being fully three inches in diameter, of various colors; some double but generally single; said by Mr. Heddewig to blossom from the end of May until the beginning of frost.

These new pinks we think will become great favorites; they are certainly remarkably brilliant and showy flowers. Another season we presume the seeds will be sold at such a price that persons in moderate circumstances can afford to purchase them, the price this year having been what may fairly be termed a "fancy" one, viz., fifty cents for twenty seeds.

G. B. H.

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