due on the volume now in progress, he must at Philadelphia, have both of them been not be disappointed should the ensuing numbers fail to reach him, for it is determined to enforce this rule; it is necessary to the existence of the work, to the comfort of the person conducting it, and to the welfare and profit of all parties concerned. Lend your aid, then, by a prompt liquidation of the claim which I trust you will all admit me to hold upon your purses for another year. Be prompt, and you will feel none the poorer, while the poor workmen will be satisfied in their weekly demands. But the proposition is so plain and so palpably just, that it is a waste of time to expend arguments upon it. The rule is simple, so that all may comprehend its import; and the interests of the work, the comfort of the editor, and more than all, the satisfaction of the reader requires that it shall be decidedly enforced. I am aware of the difficulty some persons feel in making remittances. This is much diminished by the present postal arrangements, and may be made still more easy by two or more persons uniting; and further still, in the few instances which exist, by sending the back dues, and if you choose to trust me, by sending an advance for two years, which may be done by inclosing five dollars, and this sum will entitle the subscriber to receive the work for two years, or the two volumes. visited with profit as well as pleasure, in the valuable pomological information to be obtained upon such occasions. Every effort is made to improve each opportunity to render the pages of the Review more and more valuable to the reader; and for all this, subscribers are only asked to be prompt, and to exert their influence to extend the subscription list, which is urged for their own benefit, in the improvement of the work, which is promised to ensue if increased means be furnished. Societies are requested to take under their consideration the propriety of awarding books as premiums. The successful candidates will thus receive a valuable memento of their triumphs, and at the same time be enabled by their increased stock of knowledge to compete again with renewed and increased prospects of success. But it is hardly necessary here to say more upon this topic, since many of our state and county societies have already incorporated this idea in making up their premium lists; and there is no doubt that great satisfaction will ensue to most of those who win the prizes. Reader, I have made you my annual congée. A good year to you all. May your numbers increase to my satisfaction, and may you become more and more satisfied with your friend and well-wisher, THE EDITOR. The Editor is and has been obliged to travel extensively, embracing every oppor- NEW ENEMY TO THE PEAR.-A horticultural tunity to use his eyes and ears in obtaining friend yesterday showed us a number of pear correct horticultural-information for the ben- leaves, with a number of small green worms efit of his readers: The great State Fairs upon them, some so small as to be almost inand horticultural shows of the country have inch in length. They are very ravenous, visible and the largest three-quarters of an been visited as generally as possible, with and some trees have been entirely stripped especial regard to the horticultural depart- by them. The whale oil soap (about a pound ments. The State Pomological Convention to three gallons of water) kills them instantof Ohio, at Columbus, referred to on anothly. They commence by eating a small circular hole in the leaf; but soon demolish the er page under the head of Transactions, whole, including the stem.-Salem (Mass.) and the great gathering of Fruit Growers Gazette. seem to them as a half forgotten dream.Then let the question at once be put to all, what article is now cultivated in America that has not been at one time unknown to America? The following extracts from the communi- | reflect for the people's welfare; they may cation of Mr. Bonynge, to the National Intelligencer, are commended to the consideration of the thoughtful reader, especially in the South, in which we are to witness great changes in the course of agriculture: All the articles enumerated above may, with the same success as cotton and rice, be cultivated in some one or other section of the United States. Chinese cultivators, on an average, sell their teas at seven cents per pound. Javanese, to the Dutch government, sold their teas, by contract, for five cents per pound. To enter into an argument to show the absolute necessity of extending agriculture, and of introducing staples for that purpose, I have not time, on the spur of the moment, to do so; nor probably would you have space for such arguments. Let it suffice for the present to state, that by commercial returns, it seems you import some fifty millions of dollars more than you export. Now, without touching on the subject of protective American consumers pay for this herb, tariffs or free-trade subjects, I believe the which is produced at so small an amount, means of remedying the deficiency is easy-sixty to one hundred and fifty cents per perfectly so. In two articles alone you consume as follows: Coffee, 145,000,000 lbs., value, say $34,000,000 Tea, 28,000,000 lbs., value, say 7,000,000 $41,000,000 There is a sum nearly embracing the fifty millions that might be saved; and these articles do really cost the nation much more than fifty millions of dollars, because of the expense of shipping, and of the men employed in conveying these articles to Am erica. Again America imports from the other side of the globe-from our antipodes wool, hides, saltpeter, indigo. The first two and last of these can be produced here for domestic use, and probably saltpeter exists in some of your old earths; and even that article may be cultivated too-saltpeter pro duces itself in the earth with great rapidity. These staples can be produced for domestic use, and in any quantity for exportation. The words, "introduction of exotics," may startle, or may not interest generally, and perhaps even those more exalted minds who In Assam, the writer made his teas under four cents per pound-a tea far superior to any imported into this country. pound. It is curious so much time should elapse and no efforts be made to introduce these staples; and it can alone be solely ascribed to all absence of inquiry, and a reckless want of investigation on the part of the few individuals who experimented on a few plants. Coffee has been already produced from the West Indies, and a change of thirty degrees of latitude made at once. Tea has been introduced, by a gentleman from South Carolina, from the scorching latitude of Canton, twenty-three degrees north, to Greenville, thirty-five degrees north latitude.There is not a latitude in the world hotter than Canton, and so different from that of Greenville, South Carolina. The genuine teas are cultivated from latitude twenty-seven degrees to thirty-two degrees north latitude, under severe frosts and snows, and many of the mountains, high upon whose sides the plant grows, are capped with perpetual snow. Tea can be produced in this country under seven cents a pound, calculating labor at fifty cents per diem. A tea plantation requires care the first and second years; after which it is a most hardy plant, and will been very succesful in its organization, and is destined to achieve great good for the interest of the islands in assisting the productions of its soil. yield tea from twenty-five to thirty years. [ to promote the cultivation of the land of the So the only labor is plucking the leaves and kingdom under the most improved and most drying them, which is labor for women and advantageous system of agriculture. It has children. A man actively engaged ten hours in the day may collect fifty to sixty pounds of green leaf, and another would manufacture them, and the quantity of dried tea would be twelve and a half to fifteen pounds. A fair plantation would produce three hundred pounds per acre. I have made as much as four hundred and eighty pounds per acre in the year, on some land I held on the western border of China. INDIGO. No one doubts the capability of America to produce indigo; and the same cause alone, that this country is not the world's indigo mart, is want of inquiry. It is said that the manufacture of indigo is unhealthy. This is a perfectly erroneous impression. I cultivated and manufactured it for five years, and never suffered from it; nor, in the whole of my experience, did I ever hear it mentioned by planters that it was unhealthy. Indigo can be produced here under thirty cents per pound. Prices of indigo, for the last forty years, vary from one dollar to two dollars per pound. The expenses of introducing the tea, indigo, and coffee plants, the date-tree for sugar, mango, lechee, and a great variety of other fruit trees, various grasses, cereals, pulses, millets, etc., natives of latitudes similar to latitudes of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and across under thirty-six degrees north latitude to the west, would not be more than five thousand dollars at most. Is there no spirited man or body of men in all America-is there no one to feel a generous resolve to give to his country these staples, and give employment to the numbers now in want? FRANCIS BONYNGE. Agriculture in the Sandwich Islands. THROUGH the politeness of the editor of the Polynesian, we have received a copy of a pamphlet publication of Transactions of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, at its first annual meeting at Honolulu, in August last. The papers and reports on Hawaiian agriculture, which are compiled in this publication, are highly interesting, and many of them have never before appeared in print. The society is composed of some of the leading residents, and its object is, of course, Were our columns less occupied this morning, we should take pleasure in furnishing those of our readers who feel an interest in agricultural matters, a sketch of the condition and progress exhibited in Hawaiian affairs by the reports before us. We can not make use of more of the work, however, than the following extract from an instructive statement relative to the Hawaiian seasons: "The general division into wet and dry months furnishes one important clue to Hawaiian seasons. The rainy months in the islands are generally from October to April, seven in number. Altogether frequently little rain falls either in October, November, or April. The wet season varies somewhat in different years and in different islands, but not generally very much. "But the time for planting the same articles in different soils and different localities, varies somewhat widely. And in respect to these planting seasons is the main field for inquiry before us. Not only is the rainy season to be consulted, but the natural moistures of the soil, its elevation, its position on the northern or southern slope of a hill, especially the side of a pali. Many crops may be delayed a month or two in places where irrigation can not be practiced. On the windward coast, especially near the sea, the seasons of high surf, when the salt spray sweeps over the coast with the power of a destructive frost, must be consulted and avoided. During that season corn, beans, potatos, etc., if planted in exposed situations, are sure of destruction. In many places the season for the caterpillar and grubworm must be consulted. Natives on Oahu rarely think of planting potatos, corn, beans, etc., until the season for these vermin has passed." The writer here enumerates the various productions of the Island, with observations on the periods of planting, and general directione for the guidance of the farmer. The report closes with a few intelligent remarks on the climate, and the effects of the season of Kaiko, or high surf. "On the windward side of the islands round them, carrying with it sufficient heat there are certain periods in the fall or winter to prevent freezing of the ocean, even on when there is a high surf connected with a the northern coasts. In consequence of north or north-west wind. At such times a this, the average mean temperatures of sumsalt spray spreads over the adjacent shore, mer and winter differ less in Britain than in and in the distance, often resembles a New- any other country in the world equally disfoundland fog. tant from the equator. The following table, calculated from twenty-six years of daily maxima and minima temperatures, exhibits the average mean range throughout the year at Chiswick: "The salt spray is ruinous to many, perhaps most vegetables that may be exposed to it. Corn, wheat, beans, peas, potatos of all kinds, beets, carrots, parsnips, etc., wither before it as if cut down by northern frost. Even the leaves of the tamarind fall as if smitten by a November blast in New England. "Natives are cautious of planting in places exposed to the Kaiko until the season of its violence has passed."-Alta California. THE HONEY BEE IN CALIFORNIA.-Mr. W. W. A. Buckley, of Newburg, N. Y., has succeeded in introducing the honey bee in California. Out of three hives taken from New York, he succeeded in crossing the Isthmus with one, which arrived at San Francisco recently in healthy and working order. Great difficulty has been experienced in importing bees to the Pacific, in consequence of the wax melting in the tropics. Numerous experiments have failed on this account. The Climate of England. We suppose the climate of England to be to most Americans a profound mystery. That a country situated between fifty and fifty-five degrees north latitude, should possess a far milder climate than we enjoy between forty and forty-five degrees, is a strange fact, but nevertheless a "fixed" one. We have before said, the cause of it is, that England is warmed by ocean currents. But we find an article in the Gardener's Chronicle so fully explaining the matter, that we are sure our readers will like to peruse and preserve it. Prairie Farmer. The geographical position of the British Isles renders their climate peculiar. They lie in the way of a current which proceeds from the equatorial ocean and circulates. Moscow, 46.25 17.45 These places have comparatively little variation of mean temperature; and it is remarkable that its uniformity is greater in the Orkneys than in Cornwall. It is also found that at Sandwich the mean temperature of December and January average 20 higher than that of the corresponding months at Chiswick. The former place must, therefore, be more immediately under the influence of a warm current of the ocean. It is impossible to account for the circumstance in any other way. 13.57 3.45 At Uist, in Shetland, lat. 60° 45', the mean temperature of January is 40°. At Tomsk, in Siberia, lat. 56° 30′, it is 4o below zero. At Yakoutsk, in Siberia, lat. 62° 1', the mean temperature of January is 45° below zero, or 850 colder than in Shetland. In order to find as high a mean temperature in January as that of Uist, if we except places near bays and estuaries accessible to the tropical currents, we must go to the South of France, or of Italy. In January, Uist is only 10 colder than Constantinople, although the latter is 20°, or 1390 miles further to the south. From these instances, it appears evident that much heat is continually conveyed by Probably these currents may act at times currents urged from the tropical ocean, so with greater or less intensity than usual.- as to render the winters in the British Isles It is certain, however, that they maintain a comparatively mild-not only in the southpermanent modification of the climate of this ern, but even in the northern parts, where, country. Were not this the case our shores in the winter season, little heat can be dewould become ice-bound, and most ever- rived from the sun, then scarcely appearing, greens and south of Europe plants, that now and but for a brief period of the day, above flourish throughout the kingdom, would soon the horizon. The tendency of these curdisappear. How much our climate is miti-rents is to produce a constant mildness, as gated by the warmness of the ocean currents may be inferred from the following comparative temperatures of places situated on the same, or very nearly the same, parallels of latitude. At Gosport, Hampshire, lat. 50° 47', the mean temperature of January is 40°. At Orenburg, Russia, lat. 50° 46', the mean temperature of January is 0°. Dublin, Liverpool and Manchester are almost on the same parallel of latitude with each other, and with Bermaul, Siberia; and the following is the mean temperature of January: Dublin, lat. 53° 21′, 38.49° 39.95 36.70 -5.57 Selecting another parallel of latitude, we find Glasgow, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Moscow, and Kasan, all between lat. 52° 41' and 55° 68', and for the purpose in hand may therefore be considered as being on the same line. The mean temperature of January is, at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, appears from the average here given; and many things are in consequence cultivated, which could not otherwise be attempted in the open air in so high a latitude. The late Severe Winter. ITS EFFECTS UPON VEGETATION.-The following is extracted from an article in the last number of the New England Farmer: Reports from various parts of the country establish the fact that the severe cold of the late winter has proved destructive to many fruit trees and plants. When we say the severe cold, we do not mean to declare that it was the intensity of the cold in itself that has proved so fatal, for that we do not pretend to know. The question still remains an open one, and demands the careful investigation of those best able to settle it. Is it the intensity of the cold that has killed the trees and plants? It is said that the tree becomes frozen so hard that the sap vessels are burst, and that causes its death. There are not many winters in New England but that the trees are all frozen so solid that logs of them may be 29.25 split almost by a single blow of an axe from 38.23° 37.38 |