tillage, other than what the corn alone would receive. After securing enough for seed the peas are usually fed off the lands to hogs, and in that way are a very important auxiliary to the crop of corn, many farmers nearly fattening their pork on peas and potatoes, but in addition to the peas made for hogs, we are beginning to cultivate white peas much more than formerly as a sale crop, usually finding them ready of sale at fair prices, but the present has been a bad year for the whole pea family, and the crop may be put down as twenty-five per cent. below that of 1845. According to the analysis of peas, the inorganic basis of this fruit was the following:

The quantity of ash from 100 parts of substance, was, in seed 3.23, straw

4.15

Some interesting articles on the pea and its cultivation may be found in the Southern Cultivator for 1847, but we have not room to quote them here. The class of plants which rank under the name of the cabbage plants are cultivated to a limited extent, but furnish a considerable amount of products both for the use of man and the domestic animals. They contain but little. nutritive matter in comparison to their bulk, but yet are more or less used. Among these we may mention the thousand headed cabbage, a name which seems to have been considered by some a mere imposition, unworthy of the least credit. We refer to it here, because the seed of this plant was distributed from this office formerly. To show, however, that it has its merits, we may quote from the London Gardeners' Chronicle, edited by Prof. Lindley, one of the first botanists of Europe, and who could never be instrumental in palming on the public a thing so utterly unworthy as it may have been conjectured, without any knowledge of the plant, to be. One correspondent of the Chronicle says, "In reply to a question lately put in your Chronicle, I beg to inform you that I have one and a half acres of the thousand headed cabbage. The half acre I began stripping the last week in October, and up to the end of December I had from it twenty to twenty-five bushels of leaves for my cows per diem. It has been subjected to the alternate frosts and thaws, snows and rains of this very severe winter, and for some days was under water, in consequence of the Thames overflowing its banks. I am so convinced of their excellence for dairy feeding, that I shall this year grow four acres on the plan recommended in Baxter's Book of Agriculture, in the intervals between rows of beans. My method of culture, which I found to succeed, is this: In March last I sowed one pound of seed in my garden. In June I planted out three feet distant, every day, in land broken up by the spade from the grass during the preceding winter. The weather being very dry, I employed one or two old men to water each plant well, having first put round each plant as much of a mixture composed of one part of super

phosphate of lime to three parts ashes, as could be taken up by the thumb and two fingers. As soon as the plants were well rooted, I earthed them up in ridges, and forked the intervals, and in September the luxuriance of the cabbages was such, and the ground was so completely covered by their long and broad spreading leaves, that it was no easy or comfortable matter o attempt to walk up the rows." Another person also says, "I know of no green more hardy, Lapland kale not excepted."

Another still says, "I have been in the habit of growing this kind of brassica for at least twenty years. It is perfectly hardy, so much so that it will stand any temperature in England or Scotland. I from experience consider it a great help to the farmer, particularly in the lambing season, and sheep and cows are very fond of it. The produce of this green crop is very abundant when well managed." And yet another, "I tried some, and found them so useful that I grew more every year. They are the har diest plant I know of the brassica tribe. I have at this moment a flock of

seventy sheep with their lambs, deriving fully half their keep from them, having the run of a large bed of them. They are also a most excellent cow food for this month (March) and April. Last year I weighed some of the stronger when in full vigor, first ready for use, and found them twenty-four pounds; I have no doubt they may be grown to thirty or thirtyfive pounds."

After these statements we trust any further vindication of its distribution to be unnecessary, and would hope that those who may have deemed it matter of censure will do us the justice of feeling that they were greatly mistaken in their estimate of it, as deserving to be classed among the impositions of the day.

Large quantities, likewise, of pumpkins are often raised for the use of stock; and this vegetable may perhaps deserve more attention, as it requires no additional ground, and is raised among other crops without impairing their productiveness. As an instance of the productiveness of this plant, we notice that of J. B. Noll, of Monroe county, Ohio, who, on seventyseven rods of land, or not five-eighths of an acre, raised 19,000 pounds, besides seventy bushels of potatoes, which would give of pumpkins at the rate of fifteen tons to the acre.

Onions have also been mentioned in some of the former reports. We merely refer to them now, to quote from a French publication, a mode of raising them in Russia, as furnished to the Imperial Economical Society of St. Petersburg. The onion is cut into four parts, leaving the quarters, however, hanging together at the root, the onion also having first been hung up and dried in the smoke. The same plan, however, it appears by experiment, will answer without drying by the smoke. The quarters thus united are planted, and produce four fine onions. The onion thus treated is the potato onion, and this course has been successfully pursued in one instance for thirty years, resulting in abundant crops.

Asparagus belongs rather to the culinary vegetables as its use is confined solely to the table, but.prized as it is as a healthful esculent, the following description of its mode of culture in Germany, sent with a specimen of rare excellence, weighing six pounds for the hundred heads, to the editor of the London Gardeners' Chronicle, may be acceptable to many of our fellow citizens. The writer mentions that the asparagus in Germany is not suffered to become green, but is eaten white for the same reason that it is most

raised above ground in England, first that the eatable part may be larger, and secondly that the flavor may be finer.

The manner of growing it is as follows: "It is never planted otherwise than in a deep, light and sandy soil, which has been trenched to a depth of 3 feet, well drained and well manured. A thick layer of horse dung is put on the bottom of the trench and mixed with the soil. Strong loamy and clayey soil is decidedly disadvantageous to the growth of this vegetable. It will not thrive in it, does not become tender and will very often become spotted, and which the common people here call iron mould, especially if drainage has been neglected. We take plants of 2 or 3 years old according to their vigor, and usually plant them in furrows which are made at two feet distance and from 14 to 14 feet deep. The distance between the furrows is likewise two feet. In these furrows the plants are permitted to grow uncovered from the month of March or April, the usual and best time for planting, till the beginning or middle of November, at all events before severe frost is coming on. The soil which has been taken out of the furrows and heaped up at the sides is then put in, and the beds are completely levelled. The plants have had time during summer to establish themselves sufficiently. Next spring the young shoots will make their appearance above ground and if every thing has been duly attended to; if strong and healthy plants have been selected, and if besides water has been given during a given season, not a single one ought to fail. Some people begin to cut the strongest shoots in the third year, but a better result will be obtained by leaving them undisturbed till the fourth summer, only giving them every spring in February or March, a good dressing of cow dung. Manure is the most essential requisite for growing fine and tender asparagus. The shoots are cut at sunrise and late in the evening at a length of not more than nine inches, cutting them with a long knife under ground as soon as the top of the shoot is lifting the soil. Asparagus will always have the finest taste if eaten immediately after having been gathered, but ought never to be kept longer than one day, and should be covered meanwhile with light earth, sand or some other material of this description. It is a very bad practice lately in use with our market gardeners to immerse asparagus immediately after cutting in a tub with water, leaving it in the water till they bring it tomarket. By this practice the finer flavor is altogether lost, and the cooks should be warned against doing the same. Whenever manure is not very expensive, the culture of asparagus pays well, since the highest and most sandy land where nothing else can be grown with advantage can easily be adapted to its culture, and will yield a rent for a long series of years. Besides the same land may be made use of for carrots when the time of cutting is over. Living myself some hundred steps from the Baltic, and having read different accounts of the famous asparagus culture at the sea coast near San Sebastian in Spain, I have last year made the experiment to grow it in pure sea sand containing no humus or vegetable matter whatever. It only received a moderate supply of manure, and has even not been watered during the last hot summer, nevertheless it is growing this year so well, that I might have cut a tolerable quantity as big as a lady's finger if I would be foolish enough to do so. I have several times caten green asparagus in Italy and France, but I dare confess for want of better. As far as regards tenderness I am at a loss to understand how asparagus can be improved by being exposed to the drying influence of the air, wind and sunshine." The

above account is dated at Travemunde near Lübeck, and the mode menioned of raising asparagus would seem to be worth the trial.

In this connexion we may mention a common plant which is regarded as a mere weed, but which is highly recommended as a vegetable for the table; we mean the common nettle, to be used like spinach. In the London Gardener's Chronicle the following directions are given for its use. "Boil the young tops and after pressing out the water from them, warm them again with a little cream, butter or dripping and a very little pepper and salt." The editor of the Chronicle adds, the young nettle sprouts are among the best of all ingredients in spring soups.

The oil plants as they are termed, are quite numerous, though but little has yet been done in cultivating them in this country. We have heretofore alluded to them in our former reports, and some of them have been particularized. In addition to those notices we may mention a new species of rape seed, which is spoken of as having been noticed in the Royal Agricultural Society of England with commendation. This is the brassica chinensis, or Chinese rape seed, called also the shangai oil plant, a hardy annual, which is grown for the sake of its oil over the whole country, round that city, but which may be cultivated in every kind of soil. It yields an abundance of oil. It is hoped that we may be able in the course of another year to procure some of the seed for distribution.

Another Chinese plant which may perhaps be suitable for cultivation in the warmer sections of our country, and respecting which we hope to gain information hereafter, and perhaps obtain the seed, is the tallow tree of China, Stillingi sebifera, called by the Chinese oo-kicon, which yields a beautiful vegetable taflow. It is about the height and appearance of a pear tree, with twisted branches and a large rounded head. The fruit is enclosed in a husk like a chesnut, and when ripe the husk opens of itself showing three white grains of the bigness of a filbert. These grains are subjected to pressure or boiled in water, and the oily matter collected is hard and white like tallow. Three pounds of vegetable oil are mixed with every ten pounds of the tallow, and the candles made of it are also coated with wax. They are said to be nearly equal to wax, candles. The trees themselves having leaves of a deep purple or brilliant red, and the blossoms being of a bright yellow, the groves formed by them are said to be very beautiful. For a fuller description of the process, see Fortune's China, pp. 65-67.

The ground pea of the south, or as it is sometimes called, the gouber or pindar pea, is highly recommended in the Tallahassee Floridian as an oil plant. The account of it is as follows: "To a few only it appears to be known that the product of this plant gives out an oil in some respects unequalled, as an accompaniment to the table: in its natural state this oil has no rival, clear and mild, with a peculiar taste extremely gratifying to the palate, rich and buttery; it is of that consistency so much admired in the preparation of salads, anchovies, &c., for table use." "Among plants the gouber ranks deservedly as one of the surest crops, not withholding a generous yield even on poor land, and amply acknowledging the superiority of rich land if light and friable. The pea is easily gathered and with less labor than any of the seeds or beans is ready for the press. When hulled, which is most readily effected, and ground, the oil flows most freely and uncommonly clean from the press; but when submitted to the known modes of clarifying oil, it becomes liquid and pure, and when immediately bottled and sealed appears to remam in a state of freshness, and retains the fine odor so highly agreeable to the ameteurs of vegetable oils in the prepa

ration of food. The refuse, after expression, is admirable for hogs, and the vine for stock, if not returned to the soil in gathering the pea; if saved and cured, which is effected with much ease, it mixes in the cutting box well with rye, barley oats and rice. The product of the fodder is estimated at more than a ton to the acre; and of peas when cultivated alone and well, fifty to seventy-five bushels. The plant is cultivated much north of us, but from fair trial it is found that, like other producing plants, it delights in the rays of a warm southern sun and soil, and that the product is richer with a finer aroma, than the oil from the same plant produced in Virginia and Carolina. Í have no hesitation in saying that if this oil was fairly introduced into the northern states, it would take a high rank at the table of the bon-vivants. This oil is more readily and with less labor and expense, procured from the pea than it is from any other seed, bean or pea, we know of. It is hulled and ground by simple machinery, and the press required for the extraction of the oil is neither very powerful nor expensive. The production of this oil for commerce challenges the early attention of planters and small as well as large capitalists. Any quantity could be produced and prepared for market, a great part of the labor being of that kind that would suit all; the child, old age, aud the cripple-all might be employed in the production of this new material. I feel confident that after a little use it would become a successful rival of the best table oil of Europe." If the above account be correct, it would seem that the article is well worth a thorough experiment, and the question may thus be easily decided.

The analysis of the rape plant in respect to its inorganic constituents, is thus given by Dr. Rammelsburg.

The quantity of ash from one hundred parts of substances, therefore, is seed 4.54, straw 5.21.

In the Journal d'Agriculture Pratique et de Jardinage, we find the men- " tion of a new oleiferous plant, which is warmly urged upon the attention of the cultivators of France, as possessing many advantages. It is stated that it may be raised even in the temperature of the north of France, and requires but little expense. We have translated it and insert it here, thinking it may be useful. Some of the advantages it possesses are thus stated: "Children of twelve to fifteen years old, girls and boys, are enough for the labor, which is only a slight weeding, so as not to injure the roots of the plant, but which must be done four or five times a year. The gathering of the fruits is within the capacity of children of the same age. The tree only reaches to the height of a metre (about three and a third feet,) and scissors ? are sufficent to take off the fruits, almost exactly as the grapes in the vineyards of Medoc. There are no severe labors which require adult men, except in the preparation of the soil and the planting of the shrubs, after which