and larger and rounder fruit; quality much the same; both remarkably long keepers; of finer texture and more juicy than any apple within his knowledge, after keeping ten or twelve months. Mr. Butler said he considered the Fink highly valuable as a cider apple, as well as a long keeper; it was a great bearer, and made cider that was pronounced equal to that of the Virginia Crab. Choice of a Soil and Location for a Fruit Orchard. As the period will soon arrive when those who desire to make due preparation for setting out a fruit orchard will have to take the preliminary steps for carrying out so laudable Geant des Battailles, (Giant of Battles)."The most popular of all this class of roses; brilliant, fiery crimson, fading to purple; habit dwarf, but vigorous and free bloomer; unsurpassed by any of the new Roses." a purpose, it may not be regarded as inoppor-large, full and sweet." In the first place, then, as to location. That should invariably be on the uplands, for it is indispensable that the subsoil should be dry, and wherever the land is at all wet, resort must be had to underdraining. The best soil for the apple is a strong loam, liberally limed and manured. The pear flourishes best in a stiff soil, with a large admixture of clay, although it will do well in almost any soil that is not too sandy, but care should be taken not to enrich the soil too highly, or the rapid growth of wood will be at the expense of perfect fruit, and will also predispose it to fire blight. If dwarf pears are planted, those being grafted upon quince stocks, & cool situation and a damp clayey soil is to be preferred. With regard to the plum, the more compact the soil the better the tree will prosper, and there is this further advantage in choosing a heavy clay for this fruit-it may be tramped firm about the stem, and thus, to a certain extent, prevent, by the closeness of its texture, the harboring of the curculio. It is owing to this cause that the plum succeeds so well in places that are constantly trodden by cattle, and in the yards of city dwellings. The cherry succeeds well only in warm dry situations, and in sand, gravelly loams. The Our practice is to lay them down in the fall. Make a slight mound at the base of the canes with a spadeful or two of earth, and bend down the canes and cover with about two inches of mellow earth. We think even the hardy roses bettered by protection in winter, especially in Wisconsin. L. L. FAIRCHILD. ROLLING PRAIRIE, Dec. 15, 1863. Vitality of Seeds. The following list furnished by the late Mr. Loudon shows the greatest age at which some of our common garden seeds germinate freely; and this result of experience is quite concurrent with our knowledge of their chemical constitution: One year-peas, beans, kidney beans, carrot, parsnip, oraches, herbpatience, rhubarb, elm, poplar and willow. Two years radish, salsify, scorxonera, purslane, the alliums, cardoon, rampion, alisander, love-apple, capsicum, egg plant. Three years-Sea kale, artichoke, lettuce, marigold, rue, rosemary. Four years-Brassicas, skirret, spinach, asparagus, endive, mustard, tarragon, borage. Five and six years -Burnet, sorrel, parsley, dill, fennel, chervil, hyssop. Ten years-Beet, celery, pompion, cucumber and melon. Now, in this list generally, as already observed, those with the most nitrogenous mat ters among their component parts are the first to decompose, and, consequently, lose their vitality; and those with the greatest amount of starch and lignin, or more carbonaceous constituents, retain their germinating power the longest, and for the evident reason, that such are not prone to decay.-Cottage Garden. MECHANICAL AND COMMERCIAL. Comstock's Rotary Digger. We have noticed several favorable accounts of the trials of this ingenious machine at the Illinois State Fair last fall. A portion of arable land, on the Fair grounds, was set apart for the experiments, and the trials were witnessed by great numbers of people. It was drawn by two horses (though the opinion seemed to be entertained by some that four should have been used), and a strip of soil three feet wide, was thoroughly dug up to the depth of eight inches, at one through. 100 for silk. For guano, indigo and oils there was paid $2,500,000. On the other band, England paid, last June, $5,000,000 for corn (wheat), $5,000,000 for grain of various kinds, $5,000,000 for miscellaneous provisions and wine, $7.500,000 for sugar, $2,500,000 for coffee, an 1 $3,750,000 for tea. On the other hand, England sold cottons to the value of $20,000,000; woollens, linens and worsted (including haberdashery), to the value of $15,000,000, about equally divided among the three classes, and metals, in various shapes, to the value of $12,500,000. -The shipments of petroleum from America to England amounted, during the past year, to over 10,000,000 gallons. All the imported articles, with the exception of the cereal products, are what England does not produce within her own realm, and, from habitude of consumption, cannot now dispense with. In the United Kingdom, it is affirmed, sufficient grain could be raised to supply all the population with bread, but this would turn into arable most of the land now used for grazing purposes, and in some places We are glad to see these favorable reports, and at our next State Fair shall hope to see for ourself. Get well ready, friend Comstock, and your Digger shall have a complete and impartial trial, in the presence of the multi-tillage does not pay as well as cattle-raising. tudes who will then be on hand. Imports and Exports. Notwithstanding the depression of the cotton trade and cotton manufacture, England seems to rub on very well. It is announced, with allowable exultation, that England is doing "more and more business yearly;" that the month of July, 1852, was a better month for English trade and commerce than July, 1861, and that last July was a better month than July, 1862. As a particular example, the month of June is taken. In that month England purchased foreign goods to the value of $82,500,000, or thereabouts, and sold goods of her own to the value of $57,500,000. The foreign articles purchased by England, in that one month, consisted of raw materials for the use of British manufacturers, and provisions for the consumption of her people. There was expended $20,000,000 for cotton, $7,500,000 for wool, $2,500,000 for flax, and $2,500, For the most part, England has to purchase foreign grain. Out of the $30,000,000 which she paid for provisions in last June, two-thirds went for commodities not produceable at home. Grain alone, in that month, cost $10,000,000, the harvest of 1861 not having been good, and the stock low. The crop of 1863 is said to have bee so good that it is worth $100,000,000 more than the crop of 1862. Uusually six and a half million quarters* make a good harvest; it will be eight millions this year. England only buys what she cannot do without and has not produced. Cotton, linen and woollen manufactures make up two-thirds of the whole British trade. England exchanges clothing, (at an enormous profit), with other nations for food and raw materials, and the difference between the cost makes the profit which is her wealth. From America she gets only corn, cotton now being * An English quarter is equal to 8 American bushels. no where, and wine, tea and coffee not being dustry and the enterprise, as well as the capiexported from America. Last June, the great-tal and profits of the country would be vastly est import of grain into England was not augmented. A true woman, who resolved to from America; Prussia sent more, though carry this resolve into practice, would surely much flour was received from America. Our be as comely in a neat cotton dress or a musexports to England have much decreased; not lin de laine made in her own country, as in a proportionately so our imports; and this, gossamer robe from Manchester, a moire anmaking the balance of trade against the Unit- tique from Lyons, or a velvet from the looms ed States, may, and probably will, cause great of Genoa or Florence. The beauty which trouble ere long. If the value of what we re- seeks adornment from abroad is a beauty selfceive exceeds the value of what we send, we distrustful of its own reality. A silken robe, must pay the balance in gold, which this very an ermine-trimmed mantle, or a fifty dollar necessity will tend to keep at a high premium. bonnet do not augment the natural charms of In the first six months of 1861, we sold cot-youth and beauty. The fair sex ought to know ton to England to the value of $100,000,000, this. and grain and flour to the value of $25,000,- Until the balance of trade be in favor of 000. In the first six months of 1861, the this country, which cannot be until our imamount of our exports to England, on these ports are of less value than our exports, there two accounts, had diminished less than $15, will be a continuous drain of gold to pay for000,000 for corn, and less than $350,000 for eign countries for articles which our luxury cotton. We repeat, our importations have not sighs for, but for which neither our necessity declined in anything like the rates of the de- nor our comfort has any occasion. In the creased value of our exports Still, we go on present crisis, three principles should be prebuying articles that we can either wholly dis-dominant-Patriotism, Economy, and Protecpense with or produce by our own ingenuity. tion.-Forney's War Press, From the Bay City Press. The Water Power of Fox River. In order to give an accurate idea of the water power of the Fox, it will be necessary to introduce a few technical terms of which a chine, it is customary to express the effect produced in a definite number of horse powers; this term, horse power, is the name of an arbitrary standard used by engineers and others to compare the relative value of different forces and machines. A man with a large income can afford to live "at a bountiful old rate." But if this income be very seriously diminished, if it be reduced to one-eighth of its original amount, the man will be mad if he continue in anything like his original expenditure. The result must be misery, involvement, ruin. We short explanation will be given. In estimatshould not disdain taking a leaf out of ouring the effect of any force applied to a marival's book. We should follow the example of England, and import nothing that we can produce at home. Already we are dispensing with the heavier articles of iron work, though we continue to get cutlery from Sheffield. In woollens, linens, worsteds, and haberdashery we are capable of producing everything, and of excellent quality, necessary for the ordinary consumption, even for the luxury of life. It is evident that all the water supplied to Would to God that among the patriotic and a wheel for the purpose of driving machinery true-hearted women of this great Republic, cannot produce a useful effect, some of it beand their name is Legion, there could be once ing necessary to overcome friction, &c., and awakened a determination not to wear any some being wasted. The amount which proarticle manufactured in a foreign country! duces useful effects gives what is called the Our customs' duties might suffer, but the in-effective horse power of the machine; this A horse power is a force capable of raising 33,000 lbs. one foot in one minute. amount varies with different kinds of wheels, and with the perfection of the machinery; under the most favorable circumstances it has rarely been made to exceed 80 per cent. of the whole water expended. In the calculations given below, the effective power has been estimated at 63 per cent. of the whole, which may be assumed as a fair average for ordinary machinery. The discharge of the Fox river, at an ordinary stage of water, is about four millions of gallons, or 550,000 cubic feet per minute. It requires about 60,000 cubic feet of water to fill one of the locks, and generally a lock can be filled in about three minutes; so that it would require four per cent. of the whole discharge of the river to keep a lock constantly full and discharging itself. We are perfectly safe, therefore, in allowing that 25 per cent of all the water is more than amply sufficient for the purposes of navigation. With these data the following table has been calculated, in which the first column shows the effective power at each point, and the second the number of bushels of wheat that can be ground in 12 hours: Neenah and Menasha.. Appleton......... Cedar Rapids... Little Chute Kaukana... Rapid Croche........ Little Kaukauna.... Total... taries of any comparative magnitude, it is entirely exempt from those freshets and other fluctuations, which make the water powers of other streams, having even greater capacity, of so little value. The distance from Lake Winnebago to the mouth of the river is about thirty-eight miles; and along this distance are distributed the various rapids whose names are given in the table above. The banks of the stream are, in general, high and bold, but at each one of the points named above, there is a sufficiently large tract of low, level land, for all the manufactories that could be supplied with water from the river. The river has been rendered navigable for steamboats and vessels of 200 tons burthen, drawing three feet of water, by means of locks and dams, so that all the water powers lie directly upon navigable water, and vessels can receive and discharge their cargoes at the manufactories themselves. The outlet of the river is at the port of Green Bay, the best harbor on Lake Michigan and one of the best on the Lakes. Nature could do no more to make the stream perfectly suited to the use for which it is destined, and Effective power. Bu. in 12 hrs. it only remains for us to take advantage of 5.900 23.000 5.310 .21,830 ..30,080 3,835 4.425 4,425 82.600 330,400 the great opportunities thus thrown in our J. KIP. ANDERSON. 7430 429.500 53.700 62,000 ........100,005 1,400,200 GRAIN ELEVATORS.--Numerous strikes among laborers engaged in handling grain, one of which occurred at Buffalo a short time since, have had the effect to bring grain elevators into use, and thereby superceding manual labor by steam power The first floating elevator. was put in operation in Buffalo, less than two years since, and there are now in that city eight floating, beside ten stationary elevators. The quickest time made in loading a vessel was in the case of the Great West, at Chicago. Her cargo was 32,000 bushels, and it was loadin two and a half hours, through three scuttles. The first 24,000 bushels was put in in one hour and fifty minutes-quick work in The wheat crop of Wisconsin for the year 1860 amounted to 27,000,000 of bushels; so that the water power of the Fox is sufficient to flour the whole crop of the State in a little over three weeks, working twelve hours a day. The familiar application of the manufacturing of flour has been made use of in order to give some tangible idea of the immense, and as yet undeveloped, capacity of the Fox Riv-deed. It seems almost incredible.-Ex. er. The Fox river has many characteristics which combine to make it one of the most reliable and valuable water powers in the world. Being the outlet of Lake Winnebago, a sheet of navigable water covering an area of more than 175 square miles, and having no tribu Nineveh was 14 miles long, 8 wide, and 46 miles round, with a wall 100 feet high, and B&thick enough for three chariots abreast. bylon was 50 miles within the walls, which were 75 feet thick and 100 high, with 100 brazen gates. SCIENCE, ART, STATISTICS. Meteorology for 1863. Meteorlogical observations for 1863, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin-Latitude 43° 3 North; Longitude 87° 56' West; elevation above the sea, 593 feet-by I. A. Lapham: Thermometer. January.............51 7 29.76 3 Percentage cloudiness. Barometer re- Max. Min. Mean. 63 29.71 28.81 29 33 Gen. Mitchell's Scientific Achievements. Maj. Gen. O. M. Mitchell did such splendid work in Tennessee and Alabama, while employed in that Department of the army, and afterwards at Beaufort, until his sad and sudden death by yellow fever, that the country, for the time, was in danger of forgetting that his scientific achievements had already won for him an acknowledged place among the most distinguished savans of the age. Among his inventions and discoveries the following 68 29 89 28 81 29.48 are especially worthy of notice: 29.39 March........... .48 11 31.42 23.97 May.. .............84 32 55.55 52 29 60 28 87 June... ..90 43 63.70 33 29.81 39 29 68 29 16 41 29 69 2.96 34 29.76 28.99 43.45 August......... .91 41 69.00 Octob r.......... ..66 28 Novem bo............59 5 36.81 28 94 29 37 29.37 1. The application of electro magnetism to 29 33 the observation of right ascension of stars, and perfecting this new mode of observation until it has, under some modifications, been adopted in the principal observatories of the world. In Europe it is known as the American method. 29.38 29.45 58 29 97 28 74 29 40 Year....... ..91-12 45 55 50 29.97 29.35 29.39 Rain and Melted snow Inches. 2. Inventing a method of determining differences of declination with great accuracy and greater rapidity than had heretofore been 3.33 done. This, for want of a proper instrument, 1.85 could not be perfected in the Cincinnati Observatory, but was applied to the meridian 5.21 circle at the Dudley Observatory, and was in use at the time when he was called to the defence of his country in her armies. 2.48 1.01 0.79 2.41 212 September,........... .432 October... 3. Measurement of the double stars south 2.97 of the equator in Struve's catalogue. In addition to the observations, of which the above is only a brief abstract, a complete autographic record of the wind, showing its exact course and velocity at all times, was made by Burnell's Anemograph, (wind-writer, and sent to Col. Graham, to be used in determining the character and effects of storms, &o. on the Great Lakes. Copies of the obser vations were sent monthly to the Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington, and used by him in making up his monthly reports on the condition of the crops. 4. Discovery of Antares being a double star. EDUCATIONAL. Agricultural Colleges of the United States. AS SEEN BY THE EDITOR. PENNSYLVANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. Last in order of visitation, but second to none in prosperity, and first of all in the brightness of its promise. Leaving Philadelphia in the evening, we were, early next morning, set off at Tyrone, junction of the Pa. Cent. R R. and Bald Eagle Branch of the Central. A comfortable breakfast at a shabby hotel, and at nine o'clock en route for the College, via rail, to Julian Furnace. Scenery mountainous and picturesque, Providence so suggestive of the Lower Alps. [Observations of this character, though they doubtless appear to many quite unimportant, are, nevertheless, of very great practical valne, and entitle those who so carefully and unfailingly, for years, make and report them, to the gratitude of the public. What is there of more practical value than a mas. arranged it that,by climbing Bald Eagle Ridge tery of the great problems of climate, upon to the summit, we could get a ride down the which our agriculture so much depends ?-ED other side to within one mile of the College |