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The Begonia Parvifolia, Or Small teaved Elephant's Ear, is one of the prettiest of this singular family of plants. It has the good feature of continuing a very long time in flower, commencing early in the spring, and continuing throughout the summer and autumn. Its flowers are blushwhite, and produced in the greatest profusion. It has small, angulated oblique leaves, and is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. It is sometimes called B. floribunda, and B. semperflorens. It is a bulbous kind, and after flowering requires to be kept nearly dry till it commences growing again. It should be liberally but not over potted, using plenty of drainage, while it is growing; using for soil turfy loam, and peat, equal parts, well mixed with white sand. It strikes readily from cuttings, which will commence flowering immediately after they are struck. It will succeed in a green-house, but does better in a hot-house. EDGAR SANDERS.

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Remedy for the Black Knot.

In conversing with a friend a few days since, he informed me that he had been successful in removing the black excrescences that have proved so injurious to plum trees, as follows: Saturate the knot with spirits of turpentine, and in time it will dry up and heal over. He thinks the disease is caused by an insect, which the spirits of turpentine destroys, and thereby remedies the evil. He had recommended it to his neighbors, and in all cases it has proved alike beneficial. In looking over some of the back volumes of the CULTIVATOR, I find the general remedy recommended, is excision, and knowing that this sometimes proves injurious to the tree, I thought I would send you this remedy,-80 simple and yet so beneficial,-for publication, not doubting but that I should get some ideas in return from your correspondents.

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I see the cherry is affected, in some sections of the country, with the black knot, and I presume the above

remedy will prove alike beneficial to them. D. GRIFFEN. Albany, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1855.

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Manuring with Sheep.

MESSRS. EDITORS-The experiment of Mr. BALDWIN of Conn., in the application of sheep manure to meadows, as detailed in your paper No. 110, page 87, brings to mind the ways of my neighbor R. S. FAY, of Lyons, Mass., who keeps a flock of 500 superior sheep. He uses a moveable fence made of wire, costing $1.50 a rod, which he places around about 40 poles of land, and confines his flock, until their droppings have suffiently fertilized the space enclosed. The fence is then moved to a space next adjoining, and in this way he fertilizes at least ten acres in the season. I saw his fields thus treated, the last season; and notwithstanding the general drought around, his crop over his meadow was quite luxuriant, averaging from two to three tons of superior grass to the acre. The effect is probably nearly the same, as that produced by Mr. B.'s sheds, but the machinery is much less cumberous, and the applications more extended. The fence used by Mr. F. can be easily rolled up, and housed, and when thus used, it continues without depreciation in value for a long time. It was the opinion of Mr. FAY, that his crop was doubled by the use thus made of his sheep. He is a man of discriminating observation, who makes no assertions beyond his knowledge. I have rarely seen an experiment, where the advantages were greater in proportion to the cost. Very truly yours. J. W. P. Feb. 9, 1855.

Manuring Meadows.

Seeing an article in a late number of the Country Gentleman, on the renewing old meadows, when to manure, &c., called to mind an inquiry some years since in the N. E. Farmer, on similar subjects, to which I replied in the language of the Poet:

Would you know the best time to laugh and to sing. 'Tis summer, 'tis autumn, 'tis winter, 'tis spring." And again in language of a higher authority-" In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not, whether this or that shall prosper, or whether both shall be alike good." After more than a half century's experience in manuring meadow lands, and seeing so much depend upon the timely coming of rain, I have adopted the practice of putting manure upon meadow or mowing land, at any and all seasons of the year from the time one erop is taken off, till the grass is so large the following spring, as apparently to be injured by the operation. I have known, fine manure spread on in the spring after the grass was up two or three inches, and do admirably, rain coming soon; and I have known coarse manure put on early, and followed by a dry summer, and the crop not apparently benefited at all, but the next season it was of great benefit. I have put on coarse manure immediately after taking off a crop of hay, and rain coming soon, the grass shortly resembled a field of rye when 5 or 6 inches high, so that I believe it a safe rule to put manure on to land at any time when the standing or growing crop will not be injured by it, and it will be like bread cast upon the waters-return, after many days, if not few, will be very certain. A READER OF THE CO. GENT.

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Winner of the 1st Prize in his class at the N. Y. State Show in 1853, and the 2d Prize at the N. Y. State Show in 1854-the property of L. G. MORRIS. Mount Fordham, by whom he was selected and imported.

Rich Milk.

MESSRS. EDITORS-You have often heard me express the opinion that no other than Alderney cows would compare with the Ayrshire in richness of milk; and yet I am ashamed to say that I never put the latter to the test of the scales until last week. I then weighed nine pounds five ounces of very beautiful yellow butter, made from 118 lbs. of milk, taken in during the three previous days. In another trial since made, 68 lbs. milk yielded 6 lbs. 2 oz. butter. The cream was taken off in the ordinary way, and churned without the milk. The feed of the cows was good hay only.

My attention was now called to the subject, by reading an article in one of your former nos, in which it is stated that 204 lbs. milk in autumn is given as the average weight necessary to produce a pound of butter, while in the two trials given above, the product of butter was one pound to 12 lbs. of milk; and the butter has a richness of color and taste, that I have never noticed in any other than Alderney, at this season. E. P. PRENTICE. Mount Hope, Feb. 24, 1855.

We are much obliged to Mr. PRENTICE for the above, as also for some beautiful samples of the rich yellow butter produced by his Ayrshires. The product is extraordinary, and we shall be glad to learn from those who keep Alderney cows, whether they can equal it.

SALE OF IMPORTED JACKS.-The Jacks and Jennets imported from Spain by the Kentucky Stock Importing Company were recently sold at Georgetown, Ky., at public auction. Eleven Jacks sold for $7.901, varying from $350 to $1.550 each. Four Jennets sold for $2,689. These prices are said to be remunerative.

Feeding Straw and Hay.

The present scarcity of feed for stock, has prompted me to communicate my experience in feeding straw. I find many people think cattle will not eat straw in connection with hay, and consequently feed all straw, or all hay, which, I think, is wrong, because in feeding all straw, the stock must be losing, when, if they would feed hay once a day, and straw the rest of the time, their stock would do quite as well as if fed all hay. My plan of feeding, which I have followed for several years, is this. In the morning about 6 o'clock, (and by the way, regularity is very essential in feeding any thing,) I feed them corn stalks as many as they will eat clean; then at noon, feed them straw in the yard, and then fill their manger with straw, which they pick over during the night, and what is left, is spread under them for litter. This routine I follow through the winter, using hay in the place of the stalks when they are gone. The result is, my stock comes out in the spring in as good condition as those who had all bay. My cows I feed a little meal from the middle of March The secret, in my opinion, is in the regular feeding F. F. S. Moravia, N. Y.

CRUSHING OATS FOR HORSES.-It has been said that the stomach of a horse would digest oats when swallowed whole, or without mastication, and that therefore it was unnecessary to crush them. The veterinary surgeon connected with the immense establishment of BARCLAY & PERKINS, the great London brewers, in order to test this point, gave some horses unbruised oats made into balls, when he found that nearly half of the grain was voided quite sound and even vegetated when put into the ground.

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Our readers, we are confident, will be gratified by the exhibition in the above portrait, of another of Mr. MORRIS' beautiful prize animals. "Young York" was imported by Messrs. MORRIS and BECAR, but is 10w owned by L. G. MORRIS, Mount Fordham, and won the first prize at the New-York State Show in 1854.

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Barn with Basement or Cellar. MESSRS EDITORS-1 send you a short description of a barn, in answer to an inquiry in the Country Gentleman of Feb. 1st, which I think will answer the purpose, as there are two within a few miles of me which are much approved. They are about 40 feet in length, 30 feet wide, and 22 feet high from the underground' room, whose walls are 7 feet. The bays extend below the threshing floor 8 feet. Under the floor is the granary, with bins for the different kinds of grain, which are filled from the upper floor through small openings; the cleaning mill being set over these, the grain runs into the bins below, saving much labor. The hay is passed down to the stables below, through doors, into perpendicular troughs about three feet square, two on each side of the floor.

The stables are made in from the outside about ten

feet, affording a good unenclosed shelter for the stock in the yard.

part, by two flights of stairs, the first to the grain room," The threshing floor is ascended from the underground the other to the upper floor.

The stables are parted by gates made the width of the stable, to swing both ways. The stables are cleaned out by a hand cart. The great advantage of such a barn is the easy descent of all the contents above.

When the hay is below the floor, the troughs are filled through doors which open into the bays. J. B. H. Newtown, Feb. 9, 1855.

E. J. MAXON of West Genesee, Alleghany Co., N. Y. states in the Rural New Yorker, that he has found from an experience of fifteen years, that currier's oil is a sure cure for foul in the feet.

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Harvey Wing's Dairy Room. During a recent visit to Otsego county, we examined a dairy-room belonging to HARVEY WING, of Morris, combining in an unusual degree the necessary requisites for successful butter making, a deseription of which may prove valuable to our dairy readers.

The room, (on the north side of the house) is sixteen feet long by ten feet wide, and is situated directly over a cold cellar, from which the air may be drawn at pleasure by means of ventilators, for the perfect regulation of the temperature of the room. The places of these ventilators, (between the room and the cellar,) are shown in the plan Fig. 1, by the dotted lines on each

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Fig. 1.

SHELVES

side of the room, and they consist each of a single slit or opening, under the shelves, running the whole length of the room, and closed by a board with hinges precisely like a trap-door. These slits are only six inches wide; it is believed that more perfect ventilation would be afforded, and a more complete control of the temperature attained, if they were nine inches or a foot wide.

Overhead, there is another ventilator, also closed by a similar trap-door, 6 or 7 fect long and a foot wide, opening upwards. An elevating stick with holes or notches, enables the attendant to raise them to any desired degree. When the upper ventilator is opened, the heated air of the room passes out by reason of its specific levity, and the cold air from the cellar, immediately rises to supply the space,-in the same way that water rises to fill a pump when the air is drawn out above.

A ventilated space of one or two feet surrounds the room, and prevents the heating so often resulting from confined air in the adjacent walls. This ventilation is only partially effected in the instance before us, a temporary board partition being made to form the outer wall on the exterior side of the room-we have consequently figured in one plan, what it is intended to be in this respect, rather than what we found it in actual practice.

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The room is entered by a double door, the outer being a tight one to exclude hot summer air, and the inner, of lattice or wire-gauze, to admit cool night air

when necessary.

The shelves are not flat boards, as usually constructed, but are formed of two narrow strips of inch board on edge, on which the pans rest, thus admitting a free circulation of air on every side. The mode of con

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The strips forming the shelves are 9 inches apart outside for each, and each strip one by two inches, set on edge. The shelves are eight inches apart, or with 6 inches of clear space between them for the reception of the pans.

It is found of great importance not to fill the pans to more than one half their capacity-one third is still better. The dairy, consisting of about 15 cows, requires rearly 200 twelve-quart pans at the season when milk is most abundant, the rising of the cream continuing longer than is common, on account of the perfect control of temperature which is secured by the ventilation of the room. There are eleven shelves on three sides, with the exception of a space for windows, and they are capable of holding 250 pans if required.

As a proof of the superiority of this dairy room, nearly twice as much butter is made here, as at the dairy of a neighbor with an equal number of cows, but with only ordinary arrangements.

H. Wing uses the thermometer churn. He formerly employed a large dasher churn, which was worked with great labor. When he first procured the thermometer churn, he was assured by the vender, as one of the conditions of purchase, that it would save one pound of butter in ten. He took it on trial, and perquantities of freshly stirred cream alternately into this formed the experiment three times, by dipping equal and into the dasher churn. The thermometer churn retarded the production of butter by the more perfect regulation of temperature, and at the three different 18 lbs. afforded by an equal quantity of cream in the churnings, gave uniformly about 20 lbs. of butter for

dasher churn.

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This plant is extensively cultivated in various parts of Europe, for the sake of the seed, from which oil is extracted by grinding and pressure, and is used for the purpose of illumination. It is extensively used in England for the succulent food which its thick, fleshy stem and leaves supply to sheep and cows when other fodder is scarce. Large quantities of this feed are annually imported into the United States, at an expense of $3 or $4 per bushel, for feeding cage-birds.

A quantity of rape seed has been imported by the Light House Board, with a view of testing the practicability of cultivating the plant in this country for the purpose of manufacturing oil. The seed is distributed in small packages from the Patent Office, among the farmers, who are requested to give a fair trial both in spring and autumn. We presume there is yet a quantity at the Patent Office, and any one wishing to experiment with it, could procure seed by writing to one of our Representatives in Congress.

Hardy Pears.

MESSRS. EDITORS-Allow me to inquire through the columns of the Country Gentleman, what varieties of Pears would be likely to prove hardiest, and best adapted to the cold latitude of Northern New-York: Also whether Dwarfs upon Quince Stocks, are as hardy as those upon the Pear, and as well adapted to cold. latitudes. By answering the above inquiries you will much oblige A NORTHERNER. Lowville, N. Y.

Most varieties of the pear will endure a severe degree of cold, but we would name among those promising the best success, Osband's Summer, Tyson, Seckel, Flemish Beauty, Virgalieu, Vicar of Winkfield, Duchess Angouleme, Napoleon, Oswego Beurre, Onondaga, and others. Dwarfs, so far as our observations go, are as hardy as standards Some years ago, we knew many young standards destroyed by a cold and wet winter, when the dwarfs entirely escaped; while more recently we have many cases in some parts of the country, where standards have not suffered nearly so much as dwarfs. On the whole there is probably but little difference in this respect,

Transplanting Large Trees.

MESSRS. EDITORS-Can you not give in your paper, directions for transplanting large forest trees, such as ash, maple, elm, &c. The Western people are behind the age in their mode of beautifying lawns, and directions for proceeding properly in the above matter would do us good. I wish to know how to transplant a tree of some size and make it grow. W. W. B. Keokuk, Iowa.

The great secret of success in transplanting all trees, is to secure as large a portion of the roots as practicable-other requisites, such as security from drying, mutilation, &c., and filling evenly and compactly with fine earth, among the well, spread fibres, being observed.

Some trees, as the hickory, send down long tap roots, and consequently a hole almost like a well, must be dug in getting them out. Others like the elm and beech, spread widely, and such must be secured by digging a broad circle. Trees which readily throw out new shoots in replacing lopped branches, (such as the sugar maple,) may have large portions of the top removed, to balance any necessary cutting off of the roots; others, like the elm, which do not readily reproduce branches, should be more sparingly pruned, and more care be taken to secure a large circle of roots. This will also help to brace against the wind; swaying of the trunks of transplanted trees being a a most fruitful cause of failure.

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Trees of much size may be safely transplanted by adopting the following practice. One, two, or three years before removing, dig a trench all around the tree, so as to cut off all the roots at a proper distance from it-this will cause numerous shorter ones to spring from the larger roots, and when the tree is removed, a much fuller mass of fibres within the dug circle will be obtained and but little check given to the tree in consequence. The safety will be increased if this mass of fibres is removed with a ball of earth. If the trench has been dug or renewed and the hole dug for the tree, the previous autumn, the ball of earth and tree may

be carried on a zled in winter in a frozen state. It should be remembered to make the hole considerably larger, say one foot all round, than the ball, and fill this space with rich soil. Remember also to mulch the trees before midsummer.

With these directions, fully and faithfully performed, the most difficult trees may be safely removed. It may be proper to add, that trees from open ground will succeed by far the best..

The Best Hardy Grapes.

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MESSRS. EDITORS-I wish you would favor me through the Cultivator, with some information in the culture of grapes-which is the best variety? Where can they be obtained? What is the manner of planting-and what time should it be done? And what would be the probable cost or starting an acre? SUBSCRIBER. Montgomery Co, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1855. The best hardy grape for this state north of 42°, is the Isabella,-provided it can be trained on the south side of a wall or building or other warm place and be kept properly summer pruned. Judicious pruning will hasten the ripening at least one or two weeks earlier than by neglected pruning. The Clinton is a very hardy free-growing vine, but the grape is rather small, and of second-rate quality. The Diana is about two weeks,earlier than the Isabella, hardy, as large as the Clinton, and far better in quality. The Concord, a new sort, is also very hardy, a free grower, bearing very large and exceedingly showy bunches, of good quality, but not equal in flavor to the Isabella and Diana. It is said to be even earlier than the Diana, which we question, but it will undoubtedly prove a very valuable sort for all the northern portions of the Union, especially for marketing. The Elsinburg is an excellent hardy grape, but quite small.

For vineyard planting, where each vine is trained to a stake. 1500 to 2000 vines are required for an acre. A fewer number is needed for trellis training. The Isabella and Clinton are usually sold at $12 or $15 per hundred, and probably lower by the thousand; the Diana for about one dollar each, and the Concord at three dollars too high for vineyard planting at present. All may be had of most of the principal nurserymen. Dr. R. T. Underhill, of Croton Point, N. Y. deals: largely in Isabella vines, and furnishes minute practical directions to purchasers.

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The soil should be deep, loose, and very rich-properly subsoiling, and manuring by very thorough interinixture, would cost fifty to a hundred dollars per acre. The vines are planted in spring. The pruning and management we have already described in an article published a few weeks since.

FALL OF BLACK SNOW-The Ohio Farmer contains a communication from Prof. FAIRCHILD, of Oberlin, Ohio, stating that, on Feb. 7, they had in that region n fall of dark colored or sooty snow. The crystals were in the form of dense icy pellets, about the twentieth of an inch in diameter. It fell to the depth of nearly an inch and when melted it yielded about a half inch of water. The snow had a distinct smoky › taste, and on filtering it through paper a dark sooty substance was obtained.

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