To raise from seed, gather the balls after they have matured, hang them in a dry place till they become quite soft, when separate the seeds and dry them as others, and plant as early as the temperature of the soil favors vegetation. Chance varieties from seed of balls left to decay in the fall, as tomatoes, are recorded. Probably our present best varieties had such an origin. Raising new varieties requires much care and patience. Keep each one separate, plant only the best, and then you must wait four or five years to determine whether, out of a thousand, you have one good variety.

Varieties.—These are numerous. Those best adapted to one locality, are often inferior in another. That excellent potato, the Carter, so firm in New England and western New York, is ill-shapen and inferior in many localities in Illinois. The Neshannock or common Mercer produces a larger yield in Illinois than in the Eastern states, but of a slightly inferior quality. Most seeds do better transported from a colder to a warmer climate, but with the potato the reverse is true. The best potatoes of Ireland are usually inferior in the warmer latitudes of this country. In ordering potatoes for seed it is better to describe the quality than to order by the name. We omit any list, of even the best varieties. They are known by different names, and are not equally good in all localities. And all varieties are scattered over the whole country, very soon, by dealers, and through the agency of agricultural societies and periodicals. Different varieties should be kept separate, as they look better for market, and no two will cook in precisely the same time.

Plant the large potatoes and plant them whole. From a small eye or a small potato to the largest they will vegetate equally well. And in a wet, cool season, the small seed will produce nearly as good a crop as the large. But the large seed matures earlier, and in a dry season produces a much larger crop. The moisture in a large potato decaying in the hill, is of great use to the growing plants, in a dry season. It is also generally conceded that potatoes growing from cut seed are more liable to be affected by the rot.

Quantity of seed per acre.—The practices of farmers vary from five to twenty bushels. It takes a less number of bushels per acre when the seed is cut. The quantity is also affected by the size of the seed, the larger the potatoes the more will it take to seed an acre.

Plentiful, but not excessive, seeding is best. It is a universal fact that you can never get something for nothing. Hence light seeding will bring a light yield. We think it best to put one good-sized potato in a place and make the rows three feet apart each way. We think they yield better than at any other distances or in any other way. We have often tried drills, and found them more trouble, with no greater yield. The soil should be disintegrated to the depth of sixteen inches and the potatoes planted four inches deep, and cultivated with subsoil plow, and other suitable tools, in a manner to leave the surface nearly flat. Hilling up potatoes never does any good. We advise always to harrow the crop, as soon as they begin to appear through the soil.

Soil.—Any good rich garden soil is good for this crop, provided it be well drained. Potatoes like moisture, but are ruined by having water stand in the soil. New land and newly broken-up old pastures are best.

Manures.—All the usual fertilizers are good for potatoes, but especially ashes and plaster. The application above all others, for potatoes, is potash. Dissolve it in water, making it quite weak, and saturate your other manures with it, and the effect will always be marked. The tops contain a great deal of potash, and should always be plowed in and decay in the soil where they grow, otherwise they will rapidly exhaust the land. It is supposed that nothing will do more to restore the former vigor and health of the potato than a liberal application of potash in the soil in which they grow. The crop will be much increased in a dry season by manuring in the hill, dropping the potato first and putting the manure on the top of it.

Gathering and Preserving.—The usual hand-digging with hoe or potato-fork are well known, and do well when the crop is not large. But for those who grow potatoes for market, it is better to employ the plow in digging. Modern inventions for this purpose can everywhere be found in the agricultural warehouses. Potatoes are well preserved in a good cool cellar, in boxes or barrels; and are better for being covered with moist sand. The usual method of burying them outdoor is effectual and safe, if they be covered beyond the reach of frost, and have a small airhole at the apex, filled with straw.

The Potato Disease.—This is altogether atmospherical. A new piece of land was cleared for potatoes. In the middle was a close muck, on a coarse, gravelly subsoil. In the lowest place a ditch was dug, to carry off the superabundance of water; from that ditch the coarse gravel was thrown out on one side, and suffered to remain at considerable depth. Only two or three rods distant, on one side the plat extended over a knoll of loose sand. Potatoes were planted, from the same seed, at the same time, and in the same manner, on these three kinds of land, side by side. They were all tended alike, needing little hoeing or care, the land being new. The rot prevailed badly that season. On digging the potatoes, it was found that in the coarse gravel, where the air could circulate almost as freely as in a pile of stove-wood, all the potatoes were rotten: on the muck, which was unlike a peat-bog, very fine and tight, almost impervious to the atmosphere, they were nearly all sound; on the sand, which was quite open, but tighter than the gravel, part were decayed and the rest sound. Their condition was graduated entirely by the condition of the soil. It is an apparent objection to this theory, that when the rot prevails, the best potatoes are raised on light, sandy soils. It is said that they are open to the action of air. To this it is replied, that whether they rot or not, in sandy soils, depends on the kind of sand. On some sand they rot very badly, on others hardly at all. Sandy soils differ very materially: some are almost pure silex; while others are filled with a fine dust, and, although apparently loose, are much more nearly impervious to the air than heavier soils; on the former, nearly all will decay, and on the latter, most will be preserved.

Look at the immense potato crops near Rochester, N. Y., on sandy land. We have personally examined it, and find it to be filled with dust, that excludes the air, and saves the potato from rot. Why, then, is a heavy clay useless for potatoes? Is not clay a very tight soil? Unbroken it is; but, when plowed, it is always left in larger particles than other land—it is but seldom pulverized. The spaces between the particles are all open to the free action of the air; hence, instead of being close, it is one of the most open of all our soils. This confirms the theory.

The influence of manuring land is still another confirmation. We are directed not to manure our land for potatoes when the disease prevails. It is said we can raise no sound potatoes on rich land when the rot is abroad. This is an error. The richness of the soil does not promote the disease; but if any kind of manure be applied that, from its bulk and coarseness, keeps the soil open to the air, the potatoes will rot. But fertilize to the highest extent, in any way that does not make the soil too open, and let in the air, and the crop will be greatly increased with perfect safety. Thus, this theory, like every truth, perfectly fits in all its bearings.

There is, then, no perfect remedy for the disease but in the power of Him who can purify the atmosphere. Numerous remedies and preventives have been recommended, by those who suppose they have tried them with success. But in other localities and soils, all their remedies have failed, as will all others that will yet be discovered. A careful examination of the texture of the soils, upon the principles here indicated, and a repetition of their experiments, will show the discoverers that their success depended upon their soils, while others failed in using the same remedies on other soils. The practical uses of this theory are obvious. When the disease is abroad, we should select soil that excludes, as much as possible, the atmosphere, and plant deep; on all land not liable to have water stand on the subsoil. Do not be deceived into the belief that all sandy land will bear good potatoes, in the seasons when the disease prevails. The worst rot we ever had was in 1855, on very sandy land. This year (1857) we have witnessed the worst rot in open sand and gravel. Add to this, great care in preserving the health of the tubers. Plant very early, only whole potatoes, and of mature growth, thoroughly ripe; apply a little salt and lime, plaster rather plentifully, and potash, or plenty of wood-ashes—and you will succeed in the worst of seasons.

PRESERVING FRUITS, &c.

The essentials in preserving fruits, berries, and vegetables, during the whole year, are, a total exclusion from atmospheric action, and, in some vegetables, a strong action of heat. We have a variety of patent cans, and several processes are recommended. The patent cans serve a good purpose, but, for general use, are inferior to those ordinarily made by the tinman. The patent articles are only good for one year, and are used with greater difficulty by the unskilful. The ordinary tin cans, made in the form of a cylinder, with an orifice in the top large enough to admit whatever you would preserve, will last ten years, with careful usage, and they are so simple that no mistakes need be made. It is usually recommended to solder on the cover, which is simply a square piece of tin large enough to cover the orifice. Soldering may be best for those cans that are to be transported a long distance, but it is troublesome, and is entirely unnecessary for domestic use. A little sealing-wax, which any apothecary can make at a cheap rate, laid on the top of the can when hot, will melt, and the cover placed upon it will adhere and cause it to be air-tight. All articles that do not part with their aroma by being cooked, may be perfectly preserved in such cans, by putting them in when boiling, seasoned to your taste, and putting on the covers at once. The cans should be full, and set in a cool place, and the articles will remain in a perfect state for a year. The finest articles of fruit, as peaches and strawberries, may be preserved so as to retain all their peculiar aroma, by putting them into such cans, filled with a sirup of pure sugar, and placing the cans so filled in a kettle of water, and raising it to a boiling heat, and then putting on the cover as above; the heat expels the air, and the cover and wax keep it out. Stone jugs are used for the same purposes, but are not sufficiently tight to keep out the air, unless well painted after having become cold. Wide-mouthed glass bottles are excellent. But, in using glass or stone ware, the corks must be put in and tied at the commencement, leaving a small aperture for the escape of steam, and the process of raising the water to a boiling heat must be gradual, requiring three or four hours, or the bottles will be broken by sudden expansion. Make the corks air-tight by covering with sealing-wax on taking from the boiling water. Some vegetables, as peas, beans, cauliflowers, &c., need considerable boiling, in order to perfect preservation. Tin cans may stand in the water and boil an hour or two, if you choose, and then be sealed. The bottles should be corked tight, have the cork tied in, and then be immersed and boil for an hour: take them out, and dip the cork and mouth of the bottles in sealing-wax, and all will be safe.

By one of these processes, exclusion of the atmosphere and thorough boiling, we may preserve any fruit or vegetable, so as to have an abundance, nearly as good as the fresh in its season, the whole year, and that at a trifling expense. All fruits and vegetables may also be preserved by drying. By being properly dried, the original aroma can be mostly retained. The essentials in properly drying are artificial heat and free circulation of the air about the drying articles. Fruit dried in the sun is not nearly so fine as that dried by artificial heat. An oven from which bread has just been taken is suitable for this purpose; but a dry-house is better. A tight room, with a stove in the bottom, and the fruit in shallow drawers, put in from the outside, serves a good purpose. Construct the room so as to give a draft, the heated air passing out at the top, and the process of drying will be greatly facilitated, and the more rapid the process, without cooking the fruit, the better will be its quality. This process is applicable to all kinds of vegetables. Roots, as beets, carrots, parsnips, or potatoes, should be sliced before drying. The object in drying the latter articles would be to afford the luxury of good vegetables for armies and ships' crews, in distant regions, and in climates where they are not grown. Milk can be condensed and preserved for a long time, and, being greatly reduced in quantity, it is easily transported. It is not generally known in the country that Mr. Gail Borden, of New York, has invented a method of condensing milk, fresh from the cow, so that it will perfectly retain all its excellences, including the cream, and by being sealed up in tin cans, as above, may be kept for many months. The milk and the process of condensation have been scientifically examined by the New York Academy of Medicine, and pronounced perfect, and of great value to the world. We have used the condensed milk, which was more than a month old; it had been kept in a tin can without sealing and without ice, but in a cool place. It was sweet and good, differing in no respect from fresh milk from the cow, except that the heat employed in condensing it gave it the taste of boiled milk. If kept in a warm place, and exposed to the atmosphere, it may sour nearly as soon as other milk: but it may be sealed up and kept cool so as to be good for a long time. The condensation is accomplished by simple evaporation of the watery part, in pans in vacuo. No substance whatever is put into the milk. Four gallons of fresh milk are condensed into one. When wanted for use, the quantity desired is put into twice the quantity of water, which makes good cream for coffee; or one part to four of water makes good new milk; and one part to five or six makes a better milk than that usually sold in cities. Steamers now lay in a supply for a voyage to Liverpool and return, and on arrival in New York, the milk is as good as when taken on board. The advantages will be numerous. Such milk will be among regular supplies for armies and navies, and for all shipping to distant countries. All cities and villages may have pure, cheap milk, as the condensation will render transportation so cheap that milk can be sent from any part of the country where it is most plenty and cheapest. The process is patented, but will be granted to others at reasonable rates, by Borden & Co.; and eventually it will become general, when farmers can condense and lay by, in the season when it is abundant, milk for use in the winter, when cows are dry. This will make milk abundant at all seasons of the year, and plenty wherever we choose to carry it. It will also save the lives of thousands of children, in cities, that are fed on unwholesome milk or poisonous mixtures. There is no temptation to adulterate such milk, for the process of condensation is cheaper than any mixture that could be passed.

Preserving hams is effectually done by either of the following methods. After well curing and smoking, sew them up in a bag of cotton cloth, fitting closely, and dip them into a tub of lime-whitewash, nearly as thick as cream, and hang up in a cool room. This is a good method, though they will sometimes mould. The other process, and the one we most recommend, is to put well cured and smoked hams in a cask, or box, with very fine charcoal; put in a layer of charcoal, and then one of hams; cover with another layer of coal and then of hams, and so on, until the cask is full, or all your hams are deposited. No mould will appear, and no insect will touch them. This method is perfect.

Another process, involving the same principles as the preceding, is to wrap the hams in muslin, and bury them in salt. The muslin keeps the salt from striking in, and the salt prevents mould and insects.

PUMPKIN.

There are some five or six varieties in cultivation. Loudon says six, and Russell's catalogue has five. The number is increasing, and names becoming uncertain. Certain varieties are called pumpkins by some, and squashes by others. The large yellow Connecticut, or Yankee pumpkin, is best for all uses. The large cheese pumpkin is good at the South and West. The mammoth that has weighed as high as two hundred and thirty pounds, is a squash, more ornamental than useful. The seven years' pumpkin is a great keeper. It has doubtless been kept through several years without decay. Pumpkins will grow on any good rich soil, but best on new land, and in a wet season. Do best alone, but will grow well among corn and better with potatoes. A good crop of pumpkins can seldom be raised, two years in succession, on the same land. Care in saving seed is very important. The spot on the end that was originally covered by the blossom, varies much in dimensions, on pumpkins of the same size. Seeds from those having small blossom-marks, bear very few, and from those having large ones, produce abundantly.

They are good fall and winter feed for most animals. They will cause hogs to grow rapidly, if boiled with roots, and mixed with a little grain. Fed raw to milch cows and fattening cattle, they are valuable. Learn a horse to eat them raw, and if his work be not too hard, he will fatten on them. They may be preserved in a dry cellar, in a warm room as sweet potatoes, or in a mow of hay or straw, that will not freeze through. But for family use they are better stewed green, and dried.

QUINCE.

This fruit, with its uses, for drying, cooking, marmalades, flavors to tarts and pies made of other fruits, and for preserving as a sweetmeat, is well known and highly esteemed.

The quince is rather a shrub than a tree. It should be set ten feet apart each way, in deep, rich soil. It needs little pruning, except removing dead or cross branches, and cutting off and burning at once, twigs affected with the insect-blight, as mentioned under pears. The soil should be manured every year, by working-in a top-dressing of fine manure, including a little salt.

Propagation—is by seeds, buds, or cuttings. Budding does very well. Seedlings are not always true to the varieties. Cuttings, put out early and a little in the shade, nearly all take. This is the best and easiest method of propagation.

There are several varieties; the apple-shaped, pear-shaped, and the Portugal, are the principal.

The apple-shaped, or orange quince (and perhaps the large-fruited may be the same) is, on the whole, the best of all. Early, a great bearer, and excellent for all uses. The pear-shaped is smaller, harder, and later. It may be kept longer in a green state, and therefore be carried much farther. The only reason for cultivating it would be its lateness and its keeping qualities. The Portugal quince is the finest fruit of all, but is such a shy bearer as to be unprofitable. The Rea quince is a seedling raised by Mr. Joseph Rea, of Greene county, New York, and is pronounced by Downing "an acquisition." The fruit is very handsome, and one third larger than the common apple or orange quince. The tree is thrifty, hardy, and productive. It is a valuable modification of the apple-shaped or orange quince, superior to the original. Such varieties may be multiplied and improved, by new seedlings and high cultivation.

RABBITS.

To prevent rabbits and mice from girdling fruit-trees in winter, is very important to fruit-growers. The meadow-mouse is very destructive to young trees, under cover of snow. Rabbits will girdle trees after the green foliage on which they delight to feed is gone. Take four quarts of fresh-slaked lime, the same quantity of fresh cows' dung, two quarts of salt, and a handful of flour of sulphur; mix all together, with just enough water to bring it to the consistency of thick paint. At the commencement of cold weather, paint the trunks of the trees two feet high with this mixture, and not a tree will suffer from rabbits or mice. Treading own the snow does good, but it is very troublesome, and not a perfect remedy. Experience has never known the foregoing wash to fail.

RADISH.

This is a well-known root, eaten only raw, and when young and tender. A rich sandy soil is best. Like most turnips, the roots are more tender and perfect when grown in rather cool weather; hence, those grown in early spring are better than a summer growth. They do well in an early hotbed.

The Scarlet and White Turnip-rooted are fine for early use. They are always small, but fair, and very early.

The Scarlet Short-top comes next, and is a very fine variety. These may be had through the whole season, by sowing at proper intervals; hence, others are unnecessary. Other good varieties are the Summer, or Long White Naples; Long Salmon, a large, gray radish, not generally described in the books (a splendid variety in southern Ohio); and the Black Spanish for fall and winter use. This grows large like a turnip, and is preserved in the same way. The best method of guarding against worms is to take equal quantities of fresh horse-manure and buckwheat-bran, and mix and spade them into the bed. Active fermentation follows, and toadstools will grow up within forty-eight hours, when you should spade up the bed again and sow the seed; they will grow very quickly, be very tender, and entirely free from worms.

Radish-seed is sown with slow-vegetating seeds, as carrots, beets, parsnips, &c. The radishes mark the rows, so that they may be cleared of weeds, and the ground stirred before the plants would otherwise be discernible, and also shade the germinating seeds and the young plants from destruction from a hot sun. The radishes may be pulled out when the main crop needs the ground and sun. For this purpose the scarlet short-top variety is used, because the long root loosens the soil in pulling; and as the crown stands so much above the surface, they may be crushed down with a small roller, and thus destroyed without the labor of pulling. Sowing radish-seed among root-crops, and cultivating early with a root-cleaner, an acre of roots can be raised with about the same labor as an acre of corn.

RASPBERRY.

The common black raspberry we have noticed elsewhere as one of the most profitable in cultivation. The other varieties, worthy of general cultivation, are the Franconia, the Fastollf, the red, and the white or yellow Antwerp. Any good garden-soil is suitable for raspberries. It should be worked deep, and have decayed wood and leaves mixed with barnyard manure and wood-ashes. In all but very cold latitudes, raspberries should be planted where they may be a little shaded. None of the finer old varieties produce a good crop of fruit without winter-protection. The canes may live without it, but will bear but little fruit. The best method of protection is to bend down the canes at the beginning of winter, before the ground freezes, and cover them lightly, with the soil around them. They should first have some well-rotted manure put around the canes. Stools should be four feet apart, and have about five or six canes in a stool. Cut away the rest. The best of all manures for raspberries is said to be spent tan-bark. Put it around in the fall to the depth of two inches; work it into the soil in the spring, and put around fresh tan-bark, to the same depth.

The varieties for general cultivation are few. The common black is one of the best. The common wild American red, native in all the Middle and Eastern states, is greatly improved by cultivation. As it is perfectly hardy, and a great and early bearer, it should have a place in every collection. The Franconia is a fine fruit, and, among those generally cultivated, occupies the first place. The yellow Antwerp is fine-flavored and good-sized, but too soft for a general market-berry. The same is true of the Fastollf. The red Antwerp is good, but quite inferior to the new red Antwerp, or Hudson River Antwerp. The Ohio Evergreen is a new variety, hardy, prolific, and a long bearer, fine fruit in considerable quantities having been picked on the 1st of November. On this account, it should be in every garden. There are two kinds of red raspberries brought to notice by Mr. Lewis P. Allen, of Black Rock, N. Y., that deserve extensive cultivation, if they warrant his recommendation. Mr. Allen says he has cultivated them for a number of years, and, with no winter protection, they have borne a large crop of excellent fruit every year, pronounced by dealers in Buffalo market superior to any other variety. Should these varieties prove equally good elsewhere, they deserve a place in every garden in the land.

RHUBARB.

There are several varieties of rhubarb now in cultivation.

The Victoria, Mammoth, and Scotch Hybrid, all of which (if they be really distinct) are fine and large, under proper culture. There is much of the old inferior kind, which generally affords only small short leaves, and which is of no value, compared with the large varieties. The method of growing is very simple, and yet the value of the plant depends mainly on right cultivation.

Propagation is by seeds, or by dividing the roots. By seed is preferable. The idea that the largest kinds will not produce seed is incorrect. We raised four or five quarts of seed from a single plant of the largest variety, in one season. Young plants are suitable for transplanting after the first year's growth. They should be set three feet apart each way. The soil should be thoroughly enriched and trenched two feet deep, with plenty of well-rotted manure in the bottom, and mixed in all the soil. Plant the crowns two or three inches below the surface to allow stirring the ground in the spring, without injury. After this they will only want enriching with well-rotted manure in rather liberal quantities, worked in with a fork in the fall or spring. Covering up with manure in the fall is good. Those who raise the largest leaves, lay bare the crowns in spring, and with a sharp knife, remove all the smaller crown-buds. The leaves will be greatly reduced in number, but increased in size. We have often seen a single stem of a leaf that weighed a full pound.

The roots live many years. We know a single root, in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., from which we ate pies and tarts twenty-two years ago, and which is now so vigorous as to yield more than a supply for two families through the season. The only care it has ever had, has been liberal supplies of well-rotted manure. The seed stocks have generally been broken off. They should always be, unless you wish to raise seed, then save one or two of the strongest. New crowns come out on the sides, from year to year, until each plant will cover a considerable space. The one mentioned, as being twenty-two years old, has never been moved during the whole time. It is not the giant kind, but the leaves are large and long. Rhubarb has a better flavor and requires much less sugar, by blanching. This is best done by placing an old barrel, without a bottom, over the hill as it begins to grow. The leaves will grow long, with white tender stems. Use it when the leaves are half or full grown, as you please.

RICE.

This, in its value to the world as an article of food, is next to Indian corn. It is the main article of diet for one third of the human race. It is produced only in certain parts of the world, and its cultivation is so simple and easy, and so much a department of agriculture by itself, that we omit directions for growing it. The ravages of the rice-weevil, so destructive to rice lying in bulk, are prevented by the application of common salt, at the rate of half a pound to the bushel.

ROCKS.

We frequently find, on some of our best land, large boulders, very hard, and too large to be removed, with any team we can command, and which would be in the way, in any place to which we might remove them. The best way to get rid of them, when it can be afforded, is to burn or blast them into pieces small enough to be easily handled. When this can not be afforded, the best method is to make an excavation by the side of them, deep enough to let them sink below the reach of the plow, and allow them to fall in, being careful not to get caught by them.

ROLLER.

This is quite as indispensable to good farming and gardening as any other tool. It serves a great variety of useful purposes. The first is to pulverize soils. No man can get a full crop on a soil not made fine on the surface, however rich that soil may be. It is often the case that land needs rolling two or three times before the last harrowing and sowing the seed. Another purpose is, on all light soils, to place the soil close around the seeds after they have been covered. When this is not done, seeds will vegetate very unevenly, and, in dry weather, some of them not at all. Another advantage of rolling a field-crop is the greater facility and economy with which it can be harvested. It makes a level, smooth surface, sinking small stones out of the way of the scythe or reaper. Rolling makes grass-seed catch, when sown with a spring-crop. All beds of small seeds—as onions, beets, carrots, parsnips, &c.—should be rolled after planting. It will so smooth the surface, that hoeing and cultivating can be done without injury to the plants. The rows are also much more easily seen while the plants are young. Any crop will grow better and larger by not being too much exposed to the action of the atmosphere on its roots. When the soil is coarse, part of the seeds and roots are greatly exposed to the action of the atmosphere, and this exposure is very irregular. The roller so crushes the lumps and fills up the openings in the soil as to cause the atmosphere to act regularly on the whole crop. Few farmers stop to think that the pressure of the atmosphere on their soils is fifteen pounds' weight on every square inch, and that, hence, the air must penetrate to a considerable depth into the soil; and where the soil is coarse, the air enters too freely, and acts too powerfully for the good of the plants. Rollers are made of wood, iron, or freestone. For most purposes, wood is best. A log made true and even, or, better, narrow plank nailed on cylindrical ends, are the usual forms. From eighteen inches to three feet in diameter is the better size. Iron or stone rollers, in sections, are best for pulverizing soil disposed to cake from being annually overflowed with water, or from other causes.

ROOT CROPS.

It is important that American farmers learn to attach much greater importance to the culture of roots. The potato is the best of all roots for feeding; but, as the yield has become so light in most localities, and the demand for it for human food has so greatly increased, it will no longer be grown extensively as food for animals. Farmers must, therefore, turn their attention to beets, carrots, and parsnips. Reasonable tillage will produce one thousand bushels to the acre of beets and carrots, and two hundred more of parsnips. These roots, raw or cooked, are valuable for all domestic animals. A horse will do better on part oats and part carrots, or beets, than upon clear oats. For milch cows, young stock, and fattening cattle, and for sheep and fowls, they are highly valuable. With the facilities now enjoyed, they may be raised at a cheap rate. Plant scarlet short-top radish-seed in the rows, to shade the vegetating seed and young plants, and to mark the rows, to facilitate clearing and stirring the ground, while the plants are very young, and using the most approved root-cleaners, and the same amount of food can not be grown at the same price in any other crops.

SAFFRON.

This is a well-known medicinal herb, as easily grown as a bean or sunflower. It is principally used in eruptive diseases, to induce moisture of the skin and keep the eruption out. Sow in any good soil, in rows eighteen inches apart, and keep clean of weeds. When in full bloom, the flowers are gathered and dried.

SAGE.

This is a hardy garden-herb, easily grown. Its value for medicinal and culinary purposes is well known. It is propagated by seeds, or by dividing the roots. With suitable protection in winter, roots will live for a number of years, bearing seed after the first.

Varieties are, the red, the broad-leaved, the green, and the small-leaved green. The red is most used for culinary purposes, and the broad-leaved is most medicinal. All the varieties may be used for the same purposes. Any garden-soil, not decidedly wet, is suitable for sage. Raise new plants once in three or four years. Plants may be renovated, by certain culture and care, but it is better to grow new ones. Cut the leaves two or three times in the season, and dry quickly, and put away in paper bags; or, better, pulverize and cork up in glass bottles. This is the best method of preserving all herbs for domestic use.

SALSIFY, OR VEGETABLE OYSTER.

This is a hardy biennial vegetable, resembling a small parsnip, and as easily grown. When properly cooked, its flavor resembles the oyster, whence its name. Sow and cultivate as parsnips or carrots. It is suitable for use from November to May. It is better for being allowed to remain in the ground until wanted for use, though it may be well kept, in moist sand in the cellar. Care is necessary in saving seed as it shells and blows away like thistle seed, as soon as ripe. It must be sown quite thick, on account of its proneness not to vegetate. It should be more extensively cultivated.

SCRAPING LAND.

This is a process needed only on land that has not been under cultivation long enough to become level. All new land has many knolls of greater or less size. As soon as the roots are out sufficiently to allow it, the knolls should be plowed and leveled with a common scraper. Most farmers neglect it as injurious to the soil, and too expensive. But when we consider that rough land never gets well plowed, and that the gradual wearing away of the knolls will continue their unproductiveness for a number of years, it will be seen that the cheapest way is to plow and scrape the land level at once, and thoroughly manure the places from which the soil has been scraped.

SEEDS.

The best of everything should be saved for seed. Peas, beans, corn, tomatoes, &c., should not be gathered promiscuously, finally preserving the last that matures, for seed. Leave some of the finest and earliest stocks, and from them save seed, not from the first or the last that matures, but from the earliest that grows large and fair. Save tomato-seed from those that grow largest, but near the root. Gather all seeds as soon as mature, as remaining exposed to the weather is unfavorable to vegetation. Dry in a warm place in the shade, but not too near a stove or fire. Keep in paper bags, hung in a dry airy place, beyond the reach of mice.

Trying the quality of seeds is important, as it may save loss and disappointment, from sowing seeds that will not vegetate. A little cotton wool or moss in a tumbler containing a little water, and placed in a warm room, will afford a good means of testing seeds. Seeds placed on that wool, will vegetate sooner than they would do in the soil. But a more speedy, and generally sure method, is by putting a few seeds on the top of a hot stove. If they are good they will crack like corn in parching; otherwise they will burn without noise, and with very little motion. The improvement or declension of fruits, grains, and vegetables, depend very materially upon the manner of gathering and preserving seeds. Gather promiscuously and late, and keep without care, and rapid declension will be the result. Gather the earliest and best, and plant only the very best of that saved, and constant improvement will be secured.

SHEEP.

These are the most profitable of all domestic animals. The original cost is trifling, and the expense of raising and keeping is so light, and the sale of meat, tallow, hide, and wool, is so ready, that sheep-growing is always profitable. So important has this always been considered, that in all ages of the world, there have been shepherds, whose sole business it has been to tend their flocks. Were the flesh of sheep and lambs more extensively substituted for that of swine, in this country, it would be equally healthy and economical. American farmers do not attach to sheep-growing half the importance it deserves. We recommend a thorough study of the subject, in the use of the facilities afforded by the writings of practical men. We can only give the outlines of the subject in a work like this. A theory has been scientifically established by Peter A. Brown LL. D. of Philadelphia, in which it is shown that all sheep are divided into two species, Hair-bearing and Wool-bearing. These species crossed, produce sheep that bear both wool and hair, as the two never change. The hair makes blankets that will not shrink. The wool is good for making fulled cloth. Blankets made from the fleeces of sheep that are the product of the cross of these two species, will shrink in some places and not in others, just as the hair or wool prevails. It is also true that the hair-bearing sheep delight in low, moist situations and sea-breezes, while the wool-bearing sheep does best on high, airy, and dry land. These fleeces all pass as wool, but the microscope shows a marked and permanent difference, and one can easily learn to distinguish it at once, by the touch and with the naked eye. This is thrown out here to induce a thorough examination of the whole subject. There are three staples of wool, short, three inches long, middling, five inches, and long, eight inches. Varieties of sheep are numerous. We shall only mention a few. The question of the best breeds has been warmly controverted. We have no disposition to try to settle it. The question of the best variety must depend upon locality and design. If the wool is the object, then the Vermont Merino for the North, and the pure Saxony for the South, are evidently the best. If located near large cities, where the flesh is the main object, then the large-bodied, long-wooled breeds are much preferable. Among those much esteemed we note the following:—

The Cotswold mature young, and the flesh will vary in weight from fifteen to thirty pounds per quarter. The New Leicester is less hardy than the Cotswold, but heavier, weighing from twenty-four to thirty-six pounds per quarter. The Teeswater sheep, improved by a cross with the Leicester, is considered valuable. The Bampton is one of the very best grown in England. Fat ewes average twenty pounds per quarter, and wethers from thirty to thirty-five pounds. The Sussex, Hampshire, and Shropshire varieties of the Down sheep, are all highly esteemed. The Leicester are very valuable. An ordinary fleece weighs from three to five pounds. Mr. Joseph Beers of New Jersey had one that sheared thirteen pounds at one time, and the live weight of the sheep was 378 pounds.

There are French, Silesian, and Spanish Merinoes, much esteemed in Vermont and elsewhere. The average weight of a flock of ewes of French merinoes after shearing was 103 pounds. Their fleeces averaged twelve pounds and eight ounces. The fleece of one buck of the same flock weighed twenty pounds and twelve ounces.



The Silesian Merinoes are smaller, but produce beautiful fleeces. In a flock of nineteen ewes, the average weight of fleece was seven pounds and ten ounces, and that of the buck weighed ten and a half pounds.

A large flock of Spanish Merinoes yielded an average of a little over five pounds of well-washed wool. All these varieties are valuable for wool. The wool of the pure Saxony sheep, however, is best.

The Tartar sheep, called also Shanghae and Broadtail, is a recently-imported breed, of great promise for mutton. Their fleece is a fine silky hair, making fine blankets that will not shrink, but not good for fulled cloths. The ewes are remarkably prolific, producing sometimes five lambs at a time, and often twice a year. One ewe bore seven lambs in one year, all living and being healthy. The flesh is of the highest quality. This may stand at the head of all our sheep as a market animal. The cross of this with our common sheep has proved fine. They need to be further tested in this country. A new kind of sheep has also been imported from Africa, within a few years; a variety unknown to naturalists, but having some points in common with the Tartar sheep.

Diseases of Sheep.—There are several that have been very troublesome, but which experience has enabled us to cure. Scours is often very injurious. A little common soot from the chimney, or pulverized charcoal, is a sure remedy. Mix it with water, not so thick as to make it difficult to swallow, and give a teaspoonful every two hours, and relief will soon be experienced.

Water in the head is a disease caused by long exposure to wet and cold. This is prevented by a small blanket on the back of the sheep. The wool on the backs of sheep will be seen to be often parted, exposing the skin. Water falling on the back will penetrate the wool and run down, and wet and chill the whole body. A small cotton blanket, fifteen inches wide, and long enough to reach from the neck to the tail, fastened to its place by tying to the wool, and painted on the outside, will cause all the water to run off, saving the health of the sheep, and causing him to require less food. In the cold, wet season, every sheep should have such a blanket; they would cost three or four cents each, and be worth many times their cost in the saving of feed for the animals. The more comfortable an animal is, the less food will he require. Applying tar above the noses of sheep at shearing, that they may be compelled to smell it and eat a little for a long time, is considered favorable to their general health, and a preventive of rot.

The foot-rot, in cattle, sheep, and hogs, is a prevalent disease. Boys walking the path, barefoot, where such diseased animals frequently pass, may contract the disease. This is always cured by washing in blue vitriol. Most cases are cured by one application, and the most confirmed by two or three. Make a narrow passage, where only one animal can pass at once. Put in a trough twelve feet long, twelve inches wide, and as many deep. Put in that fifty pounds of blue vitriol and fill with water, throwing a little straw over the top. Cause the diseased animals to pass through that, and they will be cured. This is thought to be an invariable remedy. If sheep do not appear healthy on lowland pasture, give them small quantities of fine charcoal and salt, and they will be as healthy as on the hills. A little salt for sheep is useful during the whole year. The health of sheep is injured more in fall than at any other season; they are very apt to be neglected at the beginning of winter. They grow poor rapidly when their green feed first fails; a little hay and grain and a few roots then will keep them up, prevent disease, and make it less expensive to keep them through the winter. Feed in racks or troughs, when they can not get their food under foot, and as far as practicable, under shelter, and in a warm place. It is much cheaper, and keeps the sheep much more healthy. They should have fresh water, where they can drink, two or three times a day. Salt, mixed with wood-ashes and pulverized charcoal, should also be constantly within their reach. A few beets, carrots, or parsnips, are always valuable. Some green feed is very essential for ewes, for some time before the yeaning season. Corn is good for fattening sheep; but, for increasing the wool, it is not half as valuable as beans. Good bean-straw is better than hay. Corn-fodder is excellent. The product of one and a half acres of land, sowed with corn, will winter, in fine condition, one hundred sheep—the corn sowed the 20th of June, and cut up after it has begun to lose its weight slightly, and shocked up closely, bound round the top with straw, and then allowed to stand till wanted for feeding. To have healthy sheep, do not use a ram under two, or over six or seven years old, and raise no lambs from unhealthy ewes or rams. The expense of keeping sheep, as all other animals, is much less when they are kept warm. Much feed is wasted in keeping up animal heat, which would be saved by warm quarters.

Sheep-manure is better than any other, except that of fowls. No other parts with its qualities by exposure so slowly. Some farmers save all labor of carting and spreading sheep-manure, by having movable wire fences, and putting their sheep on one acre for a few days, and then removing to another. One hundred sheep may thus be made to manure an acre of land in ten days, better than any ordinary dressing of other manure. We should prefer carefully collecting and saving it under cover, mixed with muck or loam, and apply where and when we choose. Keeping a suitable number of sheep on a farm is very important in keeping up the farm. A farm devoted to grain or vegetables, without a suitable number of animals, usually runs down.

The time when lambs should be allowed to come is important. We much prefer letting them come when they please, if we have warm quarters, and can take a little extra care of them. This will give a larger growth, and furnish large lambs for market, at a season of the year when they are most desired, and bring the greatest price. For those who will not take the necessary pains, let them come when the weather has become warm and grass plenty. Sometimes a ewe loses her lamb, and you wish her to raise one of another ewe's, that has two. To make a ewe own another's lamb, take off the skin of her dead lamb, and bind it on to the other lamb, and she will smell it and own the lamb; after which the skin may be removed.

Sheep-culture is a subject to which farmers should give increased attention, until the average weight of sheep in the United States shall become one third greater than at present, and until there shall be ten sheep to one of all we have at present.

SHEPHERDIA OR BUFFALO BERRY.



This is an ornamental shrub, growing from six to fifteen feet high, bearing a roundish red fruit, much esteemed for preserves. Trees are of two kinds, male and female, one bearing staminate and the other pistillate flowers. Hence no fruit can be grown without setting out the trees in pairs from six to fifteen feet apart. If you set out only two, and they chance to be of the same kind, you will get no fruit.

SOILS.

The nature and management of soils must be measurably understood by any one who would be a thorough cultivator. The productive power of a soil depends much upon the character of the subsoil. A gravelly subsoil is, on the whole, the best. A thin soil lying on a cold clay subsoil—the hardpan of the East, and the crowfish clay of the West—however rich it may be, will be unproductive; while the same soil, on a gravelly subsoil, would produce abundantly. The best soils, for all purposes, are the brown or hazel-colored. Plowed in wet weather, they do not make mortar, and in dry weather they will not break in clods. Dark-mixed and russet moulds are considered the next best. The worst are the dark-gray or ash-colored. The deep-black alluvial soils of the Western prairies are an exception to all other soils, possessing, under proper treatment, great powers of production. Soils do not, to any considerable extent, afford food for plants. A willow-tree has been known to gain one hundred and fifty pounds' weight, without exhausting more than two or three ounces of the soil, and even that might have been wasted in drying and weighing.

In our article on manures, we have shown that it is the texture of soils, and their power to control moisture and heat, that renders them productive: hence, no soil can be poor that is stirred deep and kept in a friable condition, without being too open and porous; and no soil can be good that is hard and not retentive of moisture, without having water stand upon it. Hence, the great secret of successful farming, is, such a mixture of the soils, and of fertilizers with the soil, as shall keep it friable and moist, and such thorough drainage as will prevent water from standing so as to become stagnant, and to unduly chill the roots of growing plants. Nature has provided, near at hand, all that is essential to productiveness; all that is necessary is to properly mix them. We do not believe that there is an acre of land now under cultivation in the United States, in a latitude where corn will grow, on which we can not raise a hundred bushels of shelled Indian corn, without applying anything but what may be raised out of that soil, and procured in the shape of manure by animals in consuming that product. The poorest farm in America may be brought up to a state of great fertility, without applying one dollar's worth of any foreign substance. Plow deep, turn under all the green substances possible, and feed out the products on the farm and apply the manure, and mix opposite soils, that may be found in different localities. Three years will secure great productiveness, and the same course will increase its value, from year to year, without cost. Three things only are essential to convert poor land into the best; deep and thorough stirring and pulverization, suitable draining, and thorough mixture of soils of different qualities, and the incorporation of such animal and vegetable substances as can be produced on the land itself. We would not declare against foreign manures, but insist that the necessary ingredients are found, or may be manufactured near at hand. The philosophy of deep plowing and thorough pulverization is obvious. A fine soil will retain and appropriate moisture in an eminent degree, on the principle of capillary attraction, or as a sponge or a piece of loaf sugar will take up water. There is also room for excess of water to sink away from the surface, and return again when needed. It also affords room for the roots of plants. Such a soil also receives moisture from the atmosphere. The atmosphere also contains much water, and more in the heat of summer than at any other time. The air also, with a constant pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, enters to a considerable depth into the soil, and the deeper it is stirred, and the more thoroughly it is pulverized, the more it will enter. In coming in contact with the cool moisture below, it is condensed and waters the soil, on the principle that a pitcher of cold water in a warm room has large drops of water on the outside; that water is a mere condensation of moisture in the atmosphere. The cool subsoil acts in the same way upon the atmosphere at night. A deeply disintegrated soil, also, seldom washes by rain. Shallow-plowed and coarse land sends off the water after a slight rain, while deep-plowed and thoroughly pulverized land retains it. The philosophy of manures involves the same principles. All the fertilizers act upon soils in such a manner as to render them fine, and open an immense surface to the action of the atmosphere, and form large reservoirs for moisture through their innumerable fine pores. Draining is to carry off an excess of water that would stand on an unfavorable subsoil. That water, on undrained land, causes two evils; it stagnates and renders plants unhealthy, and it is too cool, rendering land what we call cold. Thus, the deeper you plow land, and the finer you make it, the warmer it will be, and the more perfectly it will control moisture. Mixing soils by subsoiling, trenching, and deep plowing, and by carting on foreign substances, is wholly on this principle. Sand that drifts about with the wind is too light to retain moisture, and needs clay carted on. By this means the poorest white sand has often been converted into the most productive soil. Definite rules for this mixture of soils can not be safely given. The rules must differ in different localities and circumstances; it must, therefore, be determined by experiment. Analyzing soils is sometimes of use, but usually has too much importance attached. We do not advise farmers to study it. Let them try applications and mixtures, at first on a small scale: they will soon learn what is best on their farms, and may then proceed without loss. Some lands are of such a character that the carting on, and suitably mixing, the substances in which they are deficient, may cost as much as it did to clear the land of its original forest; but it will pay well for a long series of years. So well are we persuaded of the utility and correctness of these brief hints, that, in selecting a farm, we should regard the location more than the quality of the soil. The latter we could mend easily; while we should find it difficult to move our farm to a more favorable location. Poor land near a city or large town, or on some great thoroughfare, we should much prefer to good land far removed from market, or in an unpleasant location.

SPINAGE, OR SPINACH.

Both these names are correct; the former is the general one among Americans. This plant is used in soups, but more generally boiled alone and served as greens. In the spring of the year, this is one of the most wholesome vegetables. By sowing at different times, we may have it at any season of the year, but it is more tender and succulent in the spring. The male and female flowers are produced on separate plants. The male blossoms are in long, terminal spikes, and the female in clusters, close at the stalk, on each joint.

Varieties—The two best are the broad, or summer, and the prickly, or fall. There are three others—the English Patience Dock, the Holland, or Lamb's Quarter, and the New Zealand. The first two are sufficient. Sow in August and September for winter and spring use, and in spring for summer. Sow in rich soil, in drills eighteen inches apart. Thin to three inches in the row, and when large enough for use, remove every other one, leaving them six inches apart. To raise seed, have male plants at convenient distances, say one in two or three feet. When they have done blossoming, remove the male plants, giving all the room to the others, for perfecting the seed. Success depends upon very rich soil and plenty of moisture.

SQUASH.

There are several varieties of both summer and winter squashes. All the summer varieties have a hard shell, when matured. They are usually eaten entire, outside, seeds and all, while young and tender, from one quarter to almost full grown. They are also used as a fall and winter squash, rejecting the shell and that portion of the inside which contains the seeds. The Summer Crookneck, and Summer Scolloped, both white and yellow, are the principal summer squashes. The finest is the White Scolloped. The best winter varieties are the Acorn, Valparaiso, Winter Crookneck, and Vegetable Marrow or Sweet Potato squash. The latter is the best known.

Cultivate as melons, but leave only two plants in a hill. They do best on new land. Varieties should be grown far apart, and far removed from pumpkins, as they mix very easily, and at a great distance. Bugs eat them worse than any other garden vegetable. The only sure remedy is the box covered with gauze or glass. As they are great runners, they do better with their ends clipped off. Used as a vegetable for the table, and in the same manner as pumpkins, for pies.

STRAWBERRY.

None of our small fruits are more esteemed, or more easily raised, and yet none more frequently fails. Failures always result from carelessness, or the want of a little knowledge of the best methods of cultivation. We omit much that might be said of the history and uses of the strawberry, and confine ourselves to a few brief directions, which, if strictly followed, will render every cultivator uniformly successful. No one need ever fail of growing a good crop of strawberries. In 1857, we saw plats of strawberries in Illinois, in the cultivation of which much money had been expended, and which were remarkably promising when in blossom, but which did not yield the cultivators five dollars' worth of fruit. In the language of the proprietors, "they blasted." Strawberries never blast; but, for the want of fertilizers at suitable distances, they may not fill. There are but three causes of failure—want of fertilizers, excessive drought, and allowing the vines to become too thick. Of most of our best varieties, the blossoms are of two kinds—pistillate and staminate, or male and female—and they are essential to each other. The pistillate plants bear the fruit, and the staminates are the fertilizers, without which the pistillates will be fruitless. There are three kinds of blossom—pistillate, staminate, and perfect, as seen in the cut.



The first (1) is perfect; that is, has both the stamens and pistils well developed: this will produce a fair crop of fruit, without the presence of any other variety. The second (2) has the stamens large, while the pistils (the apparently small green strawberry in the centre) are not sufficiently developed to produce fruit: such plants seldom bear more than a few imperfectly-formed berries. The third (3) has pistils in abundance, but is destitute of stamens, and hence, will not bear alone. The two latter are to be placed near each other, to render them productive; they may be readily distinguished when in blossom. It is always safe to cultivate the hermaphrodite plants; that is, those producing perfect blossoms; but the pistillates and staminates, in due proportions, produce the largest crops, and finer fruit.

Soil.—Much has been said against high fertilization with animal manures, and in favor of vegetable mould only. We feel entirely satisfied that the largest crops of strawberries are grown on land highly manured with common barnyard manure. To plant and manure a strawberry-bed, begin on one side, and dig a trench eighteen inches deep (from two to three feet is much better) and as wide; put six inches of common manure in the bottom; dig another trench as deep, and place the soil upon the manure in the first trench; fill the last with manure as the first, and so on over the whole plat. Manure the surface lightly with very fine manure and wood-ashes.

Transplanting is usually better in the month of August. If done at that season, and it be not too dry, the plants will get such a growth the same season as to produce quite a good crop of fruit the next season. Planted as early in the spring as it will do to stir the soil, they are more sure to grow and yield a very few berries the first season, and very abundantly the next. If you would cultivate in hills, put them two feet apart each way; if otherwise, two feet one way, and one foot the other. Cut off the roots to two or three inches in length, and remove all the dead leaves; dip them in mud, which is a great means of causing them to grow; and set them in fine mould, the crown one inch below the level of the soil around, and leave it in a slight basin, and water it, unless the weather be damp. Many plants are lost from not being set low enough to escape drought. The basin will hold water, and nearly every plant will grow; excessive water will destroy them. Set out three or four rows of pistillate plants, and then one of the staminates, or fertilizers. Some set them out in beds and allow them to cover the whole ground, and cultivate by spading up the bed in alternate sections of eighteen inches or two feet each year, turning under, in the spring, that portion that bore fruit the previous season—which has long been recommended by good authority. This was the lamented Downing's method. We think rows preferable for this reason. The young plants formed by the runners are less vigorous after the first; hence, the tendency is to deterioration by this mode of culture. And this method does not afford so good an opportunity for stirring the soil around the plants as planting in rows; this stirring the soil is a great means of protecting from drought, and securing the most vigorous growth. Deep subsoiling between the rows early in the spring, or after fruiting, is valuable; hence, we always advise to cultivate in hills two feet apart each way, and renew them after they have borne two, or at most three crops.

Hermaphrodites are best for cultivation in beds. Many strawberry-beds do well the first year of their bearing, but are almost useless afterward. The cultivator says they all run to vines. In such cases, they overlook the fact that the staminate plants grow altogether the fastest, because their strength goes to support foliage in the absence of fruit, while bearing vines require much of their strength to mature the fruit; hence, if they are allowed to run together the second, or at most the third year, the fertilizers will monopolize the ground and prevent fruiting. This is the greatest cause of failure of a crop, next to a want of both kinds of plants. This is the origin of fears of having land too rich. It is said it all runs to vines without fruit; this is because the wrong vines have intruded—the staminates have overcome the pistillates. We reject the whole theory of the luxuriance of the vines preventing the production of fruit. The larger the vines the more fruit, provided only the vines are bearers, and not too thick: hence this invariable rule—always have fertilizers within five feet, and never allow the two kinds to run together. Manures should be applied in August, well spaded in. Applying in the spring to increase the crop for that season, is like feeding chickens in the morning to fatten them for dinner—it is too late. Fertilizing in August is a good preparation for a large crop for the next season. Strawberry-vines, in all freezing climates, should be covered, late in the fall, with forest-leaves or straw, to protect from the severity of winter, and enrich the land by what can be dug into the soil in spring. Rotten wood, fine chips, sawdust, &c., are all good for a fall top-dressing. After well hoeing and weeding in spring, until blossom-buds appear, just before the blossoms open, cover the bed thoroughly with spent tanbark, sawdust, or fine straw. This will keep down weeds, preserve moisture in the soil, enrich the ground, and protect the fruit from injury by rains, and in part from worms and insects. This should never be omitted.

Varieties are numerous, and, from the ease with which they are raised from seed, will rapidly increase; it is so frequent to have blossoms fertilized by pollen from several different varieties. Some of the most marked varieties are known in different parts of the country by very different names; hence, we advise cultivators to select the best in their locality. Every valuable variety is soon scattered over the country. The following are good:—

Burr's New Pine.—Originated at Columbus, Ohio, in 1856. Hardy, vigorous, and quite productive; very early; tender for market, but superior for a private garden.

Western Queen.—Originated at Cleveland, Ohio, by Professor J. P. Kirtland, 1849. Very hardy and productive; larger than the Hudson or the Willey; good for market; bears carriage well.

Longworth's Prolific.—Origin, Cincinnati, 1848. Regular, sure, full bearer of large, delicious fruit; good for market; an independent bearer.

M'Avoy's Superior.—Cincinnati, 1848. Received one-hundred-dollar prize from the Cincinnati Horticultural Society in 1851. Exceedingly large; hardy; female or pistillate flowers; needs fertilizers, and then is one of the best ever grown; rather tender for carriage, though it is extensively sold in Western markets.

Jenney's Seedling.—Valuable for ripening late; fruit large and regular; very productive, 3,200 quarts having been gathered from three quarters of an acre.

Hovey's Seedling.—Elliott puts it in his second class; but we can not avoid the conviction that it is one of the best that ever has been raised. It is pistillate, but with fertilizers it yields immense crops, of very fine large fruit. Boston Pine is one of the best fertilizers for the Hovey Seedling.

Hudson Bay.—A hardy and late variety, highly esteemed.

Pyramidal Chilian.—Hermaphrodite, highly valued.

Crimson Cone.—An old variety, quite early, and something of a favorite in Eastern markets.

Peabody's New Hautbois.—Originated in Columbus, Georgia, by Charles A. Peabody. Said to bear more degrees of heat and cold than any other variety. Very vigorous, fruit of the largest size, very many of the berries measuring seven inches in circumference. Flesh firm, sweet, and of a delicious pine-apple flavor. Rich, deep crimson. It may be seen in full size in the patent office report on agriculture for 1856. If this new fruit sustains its recommendations, it will prove the best of all strawberries.

Downing describes over one hundred varieties. We repeat our recommendation to select the best you can find near home. The following rules will insure success:

1. Make the ground very rich.

2. Put fertilizers within five feet of each other, and never allow different kinds to run together.

3. Cover the ground two inches deep with tan-bark, sawdust, or fine straw, just before the blossoms open; tan-bark is best.

4. Never allow the vines to become very thick, but thin them out.

5. Water every day from the appearance of the blossoms until done gathering the fruit; this increases the crop largely, and, at the South, has continued the vines in bearing until November. Daily watering will prolong the bearing season greatly in all climates, and greatly increase the crop.

6. Protect in winter by a slight covering of forest-leaves, coarse straw, or cornstalks.

7. To get a late crop, keep the vines covered deep with straw. You can retard their maturity two weeks, and daily watering will prolong it for weeks.

8. Apply, twice in the fall and once in the spring, a solution of potash, one pound in two pails of water, or two pounds in a barrel of water in which stable-manure has been soaked.

9. The best general applications to the soil, in preparing the bed, are lime, charcoal, and wood-ashes—one part of lime to two of ashes and three of charcoal. The application of wood-ashes will render less dissolved potash necessary.

These nine rules, strictly observed, will render every cultivator successful in all climates and localities.

SUGAR.

There have, until recently, been but two general sources of our supply of sugar—the sugar-cane of the South, and the sugar-maple of the North. Beet-sugar will not be extensively manufactured in this country. We now have added the Sorgho, or Chinese sugar-cane, and the Imphee, or African sugar-cane, adapted to the North and the South, flourishing wherever Indian corn will grow, and raised as easily and surely, and much in the same way. Of the methods of making sugar from the old sugar-cane of the South, we need give no account. It is not an article of general domestic manufacture. It is made on a large scale on plantations, and is in itself simple, and easily learned by the few who become sugar-planters.

The process of manufacturing sugar from the maple-tree is very simple and everywhere known. It is to be regretted that our sugar-maples are being so extensively destroyed, and that those we pretend to keep for sugar-orchards are so unmercifully hacked up, in the process of extracting the sap. To so tap the trees as to do them the least possible injury, is a matter of much importance. Whether it should be done by boring and plugging up with green maple-wood after the season is over, or be done by cutting a small gash with an axe and leaving open, has been a disputed point. Many prefer the axe, and think the tree will be less blackened in the wood, and will last longer, provided it be judiciously performed. Cut a small, smooth gash; one year tap the tree low, and another high, and on alternate sides; scatter the wounds, made from year to year, as much as possible. Another process of tapping is now most popular with all who have tried it. Bore into the tree half an inch, with a bit not larger than an inch, slanting slightly up, that standing sap or water may not blacken the wood. Make the spout out of hoop-iron one and a fourth inches wide; cut the iron, with a cold chisel, into pieces four inches long; grind one end sharp; lay the pieces over a semicircular groove in a stick of hard wood, and place an iron rod on it lengthwise over the groove—slight blows with a hammer will bend it. These can be driven into the bark, below the hole made by the bit. They need not extend to the wood, and hence make no wound at all. If the wound dries before the season is over, deepen it a little by boring again, or by taking out a small piece with a gouge. This process will injure the trees less than any other. The spouts will be cheaper than wooden ones, and may last twenty years. Always hang buckets on wrought nails, that may be drawn out. Buckets made of tin, to hold three or four gallons, need cost only about twenty-five cents each, and, with good care, may last twenty years. A crook in the wire of the rim will make a good place to hang upon the nail. A hole bored in the ear of other buckets will answer the same purpose. In all windy situations, the bucket must be near the end of the spout, or much will be lost by being blown over by the wind. Great care to keep all vessels used, clean and sweet, and not burn the sugar in finishing it, will enable any one to succeed in making good maple-sugar. The various forms in which it is put up, and the manner of draining, are familiar to all makers. It is only necessary to add, that there are few small farms on which the sugar-maple will grow, where there might not be raised two or three hundred maples, within fifteen or twenty years, that would add greatly to the beauty, comfort, and value of the farm. On the highway as shade-trees, or on the side of lots, they would be very ornamental and profitable, without doing injury. We can not too strongly recommend raising sugar-maples. Always cultivate trees that will bear fruit, yield sugar, or be good for timber.

Sorgho, or Chinese sugar-cane, is raised much as Indian corn—only, it will bear some ten or twelve stalks in a hill, instead of three or four. In all parts of our continent, it produces enormous crops of stalks. The trials thus far indicate, that the quantity of saccharine matter it contains is not quite equal to that of the common sugar-cane; but, with the necessary facilities for manufacturing, it makes quite as good sugar and as fine sirups as the other cane. Suitable machinery, that need not be expensive, owned by a neighborhood of farmers, may enable all Northern men, where other cane will not grow, to make their own sugar cheaper than to buy. But it will be made probably by large establishments as other sugar. We give no method of making it. The subject is so new, that every method of manufacture finds its way into all the newspapers, and what might appear the best to-day would be quite antiquated to-morrow. We have seen as fine sugars and sirups, of all the different grades, made from this new cane, as any others we have ever tasted. The question is settled that imphee and sorgho will make good sugar in abundance. A few years will place such sugars among the great staple products of the country.

SUMMER-SAVORY.

This is a hardy annual, raised from seed on any good soil, with no care but keeping free from weeds. The seed is small, and may not vegetate well in dry, warm weather, without a little shade or regular watering. Its use for culinary and medicinal purposes is well known. Gather and dry when nearly ripe. Keep in paper bags, or pulverize and put in glass bottles. For the benefit of persons who keep those sprightly pets called fleas, we mention the fact that dry summer-savory leaves, put in the straw beds, will expel those insects.

SUNFLOWER.

This large, hardy, annual plant would be considered very beautiful, were it not so common. Three quarts of clear, beautiful oil are expressed from a bushel of the seed, in the same way as linseed-oil. The seed, in small quantities, is good for fowls. It may be grown with less labor than corn.

SWEET POTATO.

This is a Southern plant, but is now being acclimated in Northern latitudes. Good sweet potatoes are now grown in the colder parts of Vermont, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. There are many varieties, and they are increasing by seedlings. Not long since, they were said to bear no seed; but recently, in different parts of the country, seeds have been found, and new varieties grown from them. Certain varieties are best in different localities. They will always find their way through growers of plants. The process of growing is simple, but must be carefully followed to insure success. Plant the seed potatoes in a moderate hotbed, at the time when grass begins to start freely. Keep well watered, and do not allow them to get too warm. An hour's over-heating will cause them all to decay. The heat, when it begins to rise too high, is at once checked by a thorough drenching with cold water: if too low, the heat is raised by a tight cover, in a warm sun, and by watering with warm water. Water them every day after they are up. The sprouts, when six inches high, are pulled off from the potato, and set out as cabbage-plants; this should be done as soon as all danger of frost has ceased. The same potatoes will sprout as many times as they are pulled off.

Sweet potatoes need much sun and warmth; they are, therefore, planted on round hills, or, better, on ridges, which may be principally thrown up with a plow, and made from a foot to eighteen inches high. Set the plants in the top, about fifteen inches or two feet apart; keep clear of weeds, making the hill or ridge a little larger by each hoeing. The tops, being long running vines, will soon cover the ground. They produce better tubers for throwing the vines, in a twist, up over the top of the rows. They will take root at each joint of vine, when undisturbed, which roots will draw from the main tuber. These roots would be as good and large as any, if they had time: hence, at the South, one half of the crop is grown from sets, from cuttings of the ends of the early-planted vines. At the North, where seasons are short, these joints must be prevented—by throwing up, as above, or loosening—from taking root. The tubers will need all the strength; the plant and tuber are tender, and a little frost will kill the vines and cause the potatoes to decay. They may be kept for use until January by packing, when dug in a warm day, in the soil in which they grew;—kept through winter, packed in straw or chaff, in boxes that will contain about two or three bushels each, and kept in a room with a fire: the room should be at a temperature of from forty to sixty degrees; fifty-five is best, though seventy will not destroy them; more or less will cause them to decay. The boxes may be placed one upon another, but should be left open, that their moisture may evaporate. Dry sand (kiln-dried), sifted over and close among them, will preserve them. Free circulation of air is indispensable. It is usually cheapest to buy the plants of those who make a business of raising them. They are very hardy—may be transported one thousand miles and do just as well. To transplant with perfect safety in a dry time, after the plant has been put in its place, pour in a pint of water, and cover it with a little dry soil to prevent baking—and not one out of fifty will perish.

These few brief directions will enable any one to be successful wherever corn will grow. A new variety has just been brought into Alabama from Peru, that is pronounced superior to all others; a prodigious bearer, even on poor sandy land, and far more hardy than other varieties, the root retaining its excellence as it came out of the ground till the following May.

SWINE.

Hogs are evil in their propensities, mischievous and filthy in their habits, and yet profitable to the farmer. Every farmer should keep a few in proportion to the refuse grain and various slops that his establishment may afford. Buying hogs and then purchasing grain on which to fatten them in the usual way is the poorest economy. Such pork is often made to cost from twelve to twenty cents per pound.

There are many breeds of swine highly recommended. Some of the varieties of the Chinese are the most prolific and have the greatest tendency to fattening of any known. They have formed the basis of the great improvements in the breeds in Great Britain. Farmers will be able to select the best breed from their own knowledge and observation, better than from any directions we can give them. Every new variety will be introduced by dealers, and farmers must be cautious how they accept their representations.

Age of Swine for Pork.—It is most profitable and least troublesome, to keep over winter, no swine but breeding sows, to have pigs early in spring, to kill in autumn. Of any of the good breeds, they can be made to weigh from 300 to 350 pounds, by the proper time for killing. The practice of keeping swine till eighteen or twenty-four months old, and only fattening them late in the fall and beginning of winter, is very unprofitable. It is best to give pigs about what they will eat, from the time of beginning to feed them until they are slaughtered. This is in every way most economical. It secures fattening in the hot weather in summer, when pork can be made faster and cheaper than at any other time. Many farmers begin to fatten their pork, after the season in which it can most rapidly and cheaply be done.

Hogs having been kept poor, on being fed freely for fattening, become cloyed, and much time is lost, while those that always have had what they would eat, of good wholesome food, always have a good appetite for as much as they need, and not root over and injure more.

Food for Swine.—They do better shut up in a pen, but where they can get access to the ground. All edible roots are good and all the grains. But grain should be ground or soaked. It pays well to cook all food for swine. Boiled potatoes, carrots, beets, and parsnips, are all good. Ground feed should be mixed with cooked vegetables. The disposition that swine have to root deep in the ground, indicates the want of something, not found in sufficient quantities in their ordinary food. Numerous experiments show that that deficiency is abundantly supplied by having charcoal within their reach. The stories of fattening pork wholly on charcoal, which we find in the books, we do not credit. But that small quantities of it are uniformly healthy for swine, is an established fact. The question of sour food has many respectable advocates. Cultivators and writers take different sides of the question, based as they say upon their carefully-tried and noted experiments, one affirming that fermented food is superior, and others that it has done his hogs positive injury. This discrepancy grows out of not carefully distinguishing the different kinds of fermentation, the sweet, the vinous, the acid, and the putrid. The first makes excellent food, the second will do quite well, the third is injurious, and the last absolutely poisonous. As it requires much care and observation to get this right, and mistakes are easy, it is best to take the sure method, give them food in a natural state, ground, and either cooked or fed raw. Either will make good pork at a reasonable cost, but cooked food is preferable.

Sows are prevented from destroying their young by quiet, plenty of food, and little animal food, and but a very little straw in a dry pen, or washing the pig's backs with a strong decoction of aloes.

TOBACCO.

This is a plant abhorred by everything but man and the tobacco-worm. Its use for chewing and snuffing is happily becoming more and more offensive to refined society, and we hope it may, after a long struggle, go out of use. For those who will cultivate it as an article of commerce, the following brief directions are sufficient. Burn over a small bed, on which sow the seed early in March. When the leaves are as large as a quarter of a dollar, transplant them in deep, rich soil, or on new land, in rows three feet apart each way, or four feet one way and two the other. Tend as cabbage. It is necessary, twice in the season, to destroy, by hand, the large green worms that feed on this plant. When the plants are from two and a half to three and a half feet high, according to the richness of the soil on which they grow, pick out the head or blossom-buds, except in the few plants you would have go to seed. Pinch off also the suckers, or shoots behind the leaves, as they come out. When the leaves are full grown and begin to ripen, which is known by the small, dusky spots appearing on the leaves, cut up the stalks and lay them down singly to wilt; when they are thoroughly wilted, lay them together, that they may sweat for forty-eight hours, then hang them up in a tolerably tight room to dry—hang across poles, one on each side. A sharp stick put through the but of the stalks and laid over the pole, leaving one stalk on each side, is a very good method. When it becomes well dried, pick off the leaves, and tie the stems together in small bunches, and pack away in hogsheads or boxes, in a dry place.

We recommend to every agriculturist to cultivate a little tobacco—not for himself or others to chew, snuff, or smoke, but to use in destroying insects. A strong decoction, used in washing animals, will destroy lice on horses and cattle, and ticks on sheep. Tobacco-water applied to plants, or trees, will effectually destroy all insects with which they may be infested. Boil tobacco-stems or stalks, or the refuse-tobacco of the cigar-makers, until you make a strong decoction, and apply with a syringe, or in any other way, and it will prove more effectual than anything else known. Tobacco-stems, stalks, or leaves, laid around peach-trees in the month of May, will protect them from the attacks of the borer. This is also a good manure for peach-trees.

TOMATO.

This vegetable is well known, and has recently come to be generally esteemed. It can always be grown without failure, and more easily and at one fourth of the cost of potatoes. Its use for cooking, eating raw, and pickling in various forms, is known to all. There are several varieties. The best of all is the large red—not the largest, but the smooth ones: although smaller, they contain more, and are much more conveniently used, than the very large rough or scolloped variety. The large yellow are less liable to decay on the vines, and have less of the tomato taste. The small plum-tomato, both red and yellow, and the pear or bell-shaped, are good for preserving as a common sweetmeat, and for pickling whole. They should be started in early hotbed—in February in the Middle States—and transplanted after frosts are over, in rows eight feet apart each way. That distance will leave none too much room for letting in the sun and for the convenience of picking. They will mature on the poorest land; but the amount of the crop is graduated altogether by the richness of the soil, and the care given them. They will produce frequently a bushel to a vine, lying on the ground. But they ripen better, and as the vines are not injured by picking the early ones, they will produce more, by being trained up. A few sticks to hold them up at first, and let them break down over them later, is of no use. Train them, and tie up all the principal bunches, and they will be greatly benefited thereby. Tied to slats, or any board fence, in a kind of fan-training form, they do very well. In all cities and villages, enough for a large family can be grown on twenty-five feet of board-fence, exposed to the southern or eastern sun, and not occupy the ground a single foot from the fence. Drive in nails, and tie up the branches as they grow. Removing some of the branches and leaves, and letting in the sun, or placing the fruit on a shingle or stone, hastens its ripening.