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AGRICULTURAL.
SATURDAY, APRIL.3O, 1864.
In answer to numerous enquiries, we have
to state that we do not knew where the lucerne
seed can be procured.
Indigo.
As the cultivation of this most important
vegetable substance is receiving, and is des
tined to receive, particular attention, we be
lieve that we will be rendering a good service
br iurniahing all the information within our
reach. The following, which contain valuable
hints, we take from an excellent work, devoted
to science and the diffusion of useful knowl
edge :
Tho undents were acquainted with indigo
under the name of indieum. Pliny knew that
it waa a preparation of a vegetable substanoe,
though he was ignorant of the plant which
furnished it, and of tho procesa by which it was
prepared. From its color, and the country from
which it was imported, some authors call It
atrammtum indieum, and indieum nagrum. The
American name is nil or anil, from which the
Portuguese have adopted their antteira, the
other European nations generally call it
indigo:
In treating it indigo it will be the most con
venient to explain, in the first place, its physi
cal and chemical properties, and afterward to
alinde to the sources from which it is derived
and the method by which it is manfifactured.
As it is found in commerce, it presents the form
of little square or oblong cakes, of an intense
blue color, approaching to black; is brittle and
friable ; rather light, and without taste or odor.
When heated it has a disagreeable odor, sub
limating at fifty-five degrees. Fahrenheit, a de
gree of heat near that at which it is decom
posed. Its vapor is of a rich violet red color,
and condenses by cold into delicate acioular
crystuls, which consist of pure indigo. Water,
by being boiled on indigo, dissolves only about
a ninth or twelfth of its wefcht; the solution
is of a reddish brown color, and contains what
may be called the extractive part, or the sub
stance ; but the coloring matter remains unal
tered, except in having assumed a brighter hue.
Alcohol and ether, when digested upon it, are
also attended with similar effects. Sulphuric
acid is the only single agent that dissolves in
digo without destroying its color. When pul
into this acid a yellow solution is at first formed,
which, after a few hours, acquires a deep blue
color. From the solution, diluted with water,
potash and its sulphate throw down a deep,
dark blue precipitate, capable of imparting to
water, containing only one five hundred thous
andth of its weight, a distinctly blue tinge. It
is no longer subject to vaporization, however,
from which circumstance, are its property of
, solubility in water, it is inferred to be a differ
ent klbstance from indigo, and has received the
name of cerulin. When properly diluted with
water it forms the liquid blue, or Saxon blue
of the dyers.
Another compound of indigo and water, under
the name of phtnecin, is obtained when water
is added to a solution of indigo in sulphuric
acid, which has been suffered to stand for sev
eral hours, till it has lost its yellow color, and
become blue. It appears to consist of oue
equivalent of indigo and two rs water. In the
formation of these substances, indigo is con
ceived to combine with water; but whether the
effect is produced by the sulphuric acid, or
whether the sulphuric acid operates merely to
prepare the indigo for combining with water
afterward, is not yet fully determined. When
indigo, suspended in water, is brought into
contact with certain deoxidizing agents, it is
deprived of a part of its oxygen, becomes green
and is rendered soluble in water, and still more
so in the alkalies. It recovers its former color,
however, on exposure to the air, by again ab
sorbing oxygen of one seventh or one eighth
of the whole weight es the resulting indigo. Its
deoxidizement is effected either by allowing it
to ferment along with bran, or other vegetable
matter, or by decomposing in contact with it
THE SOUTHERN FIELD AND FIRESIDE.
lime. Substances dyed by deoxidized indigo
receive a green tint at first, which becomes
blue by exposure to the air. This is the usual
method of coloring cloth by means of indigo,
which, when fully oxydized, affords a 'perma
nent dye, not removable by soap or acids.
Chlorine, whose power in extinguishing veg
etable colors, destroys the color of indigo; and
from the known fact that a given quantity of
free chlorine discolors always the same quan
tity of pure indigo, a solution of indigo in sul
phuric acid has been employed for measuring
the strength of solutions chlorine and chloride
of lime, in order to regulate their application
to the art of bleaching, and, reciprocally, a so
lution containing a known quantity of chloride
of lime may be employed as a teat of the
strength or value of indigo.
In our next number we will give the conclu
sion of the article on the calture of the indigo
plant.
The Pea ITnt.
Although we believe the nutritive qualities
of the chufa to be far superior to {hat of the
peanut, we would still urge upon the firmer to
plant extensively of the last Its culture is so
simple, and generally known, that we think
it unnecessary to give any directions, except to
say, that the custom of covering the vine with
earth is a waste of time.
In the Spanish colonies the pea nut is prin
cipally cultivated for its oil, of which a very
good quality is obtained, and why we should
not turn our attention in the same direction,
we can assign no good reason, for the reason
that none can be assigned.
To Print .Gold Letterbox Morocco —First
wet the morocco with the whites of eggs; when
this is dry, rub the work over with a little
olive oil, and lay on gold leaves. Then take
some common printing types, and heat them to
the temperature of boiling water, and Impress
the letters on the gold; rub the whole with a
piece of flannel, and the superfluous gold will
come off; leaving the letters handsomely gilt.
Another method is to strew pounded rosin over
the morocco previous to laying on the leaf; the
beat of the types melts the rosin, which occa
sions the gold to adhere in the impressions,
while the other may be brushed off.
To Maku Loaf Rice Bread,—Boil a pint of
rice soft, and add a pint of leaven, then three
quarters of the flour, put it to rise in a tin or
earthen vessel until it has risen sufficiently ;
divide it iuto three parts, then bake it as other
bread, nud you will have three large loaves.
On Bice Planting.
Mn. i'niTOß : There are two principal kinds,
the gold -eed and the white ; the former culti
vated hi Hi great skill and success on the tide
swamp* > i the seaboard of South Carolina and
Georg i ud to a considerable extent on the
Missi-'. ‘i river, where, below the city of New
Orleans u re is a fine rice mill. I am not
acquainted with the improved modes of cul
ture, and what is said will be from the relation
of otbai a. The white rice, generally called up
land rice, is cultivated in patches and on a
small scale for family use, and may be planted
very early in Marsh, in rows three feet apart,
to give room for the plow. When fully up it
should be chopped across with the hoe, leaviug
the stalks ten or twelve inches apart to tiller
out, and if you have a good rain in July before
it ears out, you can calculate to make on tole
rably good land thirty bushels of rough rice to
the acre. If too dry when curing, it pushes out
its head without milk, and no subsequent rains
will pat it there or fill out the grain, and how
ever flourishing it may look it is only fit for
fodder, of which it makes the very best, and
very abundant, and should be cut on the turn
of color, and just before ripe. Beaten out by
the hand pestle as to be used and makes a very
palatable dish for family use and assumes many
acceptable shapes in getting to the table. It
is so valuable for either grain or forage, that
there should be some land in it on every plan
tation—when the plant makes grain the fodder
is dry and valueless. .*•
The gold seed is preferable (or a crop, and
being essentially an aquatic plant it is necessary
to have a command of water to give assurance
Os a crop, and with it, it is more certain than
any other. This certainty is given on the sea
board riven of the Atlantic, in a rise and fall
of five feet in their tides, by which the fields
are flowed at high water and made dry at low
water. I can see no reason why its culture on
a large scale may not very profitably be ex
tended to the swamps of the seaboard of the
Gulf States. lam acquainted with the land
from Pensacola to New Orleans, and there are
large bodies of marsh and wooded swamps very
rich and very level ont of all reaah of salt wa
ter, that can be flooded by canal oat of the
river or creeks above them, and be made dry
by the draining machine throwing the water
out from some one point to which every square
in the field should be drained to.
The conveyance to market would be inland
and generally very safe, and the price in New
Orleans and Mobile for rice, and all ita offal, is
generally double that either of Charleston or
Savannah.
The draining machine is steam, and the same
power could thrash, beat and prepare the rioe
for market. These machines sre not vsry ex
pensive, and have exceeded in efficiency every
where what was expected from them. They
have for many years been in use in New Or
leans in keeping the lots drained on the swamp
side of the city, which, through a portion of
every year are below the surfeoe water of the
Mississippi river on ita front and the bayous in
its rear. The water is thrown isto the bayou
or creek when two feet higher than the land
dried by them.
I have been informed that you caa make a
crop of rice with certainty if you can flood yonr
lands as deep as you please, and make them
as dry as you please, and these great requisites
are obtained if what is above said ia correct,
and I feel ooafldence in saying that they are.
The pine woods border on these lands suitable
for convenient quarters.
The price of rice ranges from seven to nine
dollars per cwt., and its offal in the shape of
rioe flour at donble the price of that of wheat
which is about the value of its real use.
The tidal table kept by tho government
makes its height fourteen inches once in twen
ty-four hours, and is so much influenced by
whether the winds blow on or from the shore
that the tid cannot be depended on either for
flowing or draining, except to a portion of the
water. The levees or banks are not required
to be high, and the percolation or transpiration
water would soon more than fill the ditches,
and they are easily kept dry.
A Plaktsb.
Wabrentok, Oa., April 4, 1864.
Editor Field and Fireside:
I noticed in your last issue an inquiry made
by Mt. Airy, whether or not you knew a pre
ventative and remedy for hog cholera. I last
week had the first hog with cholera that I ever
had in my life, although have seen a great deal
of it, and a great many remedies prescribed,
and all pretty much without the desired effect
I placed the hog in a close, dry pen, without
water, for ten days, and gave him one oy two
ears of corn per day, (according to his appetite
for eating), or its equivalent in dry meal with a
small quantity of salt; at the end of ten days
be was perfectly well. As a preventative, I
have been keeping from ten to fifteen hogs in
a dose, dry lot for the past two years, although
allowing them water in troughs in the warm
season, and I ave never yet had a ease of chol
era among loom, whilst my neighbors have lost
some, as mauy as half their number of hogs. 1
always keep a good supply of fresh tar in their
slop troughs, and give them plenty of salt and
occasionally a little sulphur and ashes in their
glops.
I believe the treatment and preventative to
be a good one, and would like to hear the re
sult of a more extended trial.
Respectfully,
W. J. Walker.
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benevolent feelings.
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and tempests.
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