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8 ®be4fwltl ani | iwsii*. 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. To give brilliancy to the eyes shut them early at night and open them early in the morning, and let the mind be constantly intent on the acquisition of knowledge, or on the exercise of benevolent feelings. A pleasant wife is a rainbow set in the sky, when her haahand's mind is toned with storms and tempests. tiooo PBJonras. The Proprietors of the Sosrmnnrw Fan* and Fiswdi offer a Premium of Seven Hundred and fifty Dollars for the best Story, and Two Hundred and fifty Dollar* for the best Poem, handed ia by the first of Hay. The story must be suitable, and of sufficient length to occupy five columns of the paper for about twenty numbers; and the poem must be from one hundred and fifty to three hundred lines In length. The accepted articles to be copy-righted for the benefit es the proprietors. The manuscripts .will be submitted to a com mittee of impartial gentlemen, and but one es each class accepted. The proprietors reserve the right to reject all articles offered, if not deemed by the com mittee of sufficient merit. SOUTHERN FIELD* & FIRESIDE. A FIRST CLASS FAMILY JOURNAL Containing choice Original and Balactod ROMANCES, • ESSAYS, and POETBY. With Practical Information and Swipe* Itor THE HOUSEWIFE, THE FARMER, THE HORTICULTURIST. PUBLISHED AT A IIOCITA, HA, 'CICH.AIS : hi' MONTHH ..lO . O Invariably la Advance. Near* Deelar* supplied at |IS per hundred. The Proprietors pledge themselves to spare no effort to maintain the high standard of this favorite family journal. They have an ample supply of paper to Insure Its regular publication beyond nil reasonable coatlagen eles. All letters should be addressed to STOCKTON & CO., Augusta, Oa. JOB WORK! Having an amplb supply or PAPER, w« am NOW PMPAKin TO IXBCCTK, IN A WO BI MINI. ll* MANN 18, WITH DISPATCH, IVIRT DIBCBIFTION OF PLAIN, OSNAMENTAL, OR DECQMTIYE PRINTING. Books, Pamphlets, «teo, Alao, LETTER HEADS, LAWYERS' BLANKS, CARDS, BILL HEADS, BECEIPTS, Ac. Also, all kinds or Blank Forms, ijaed in the different departments of the army. STOCKTON A CO., Constitutionalist Office. Southern Beauty Recogniied by France. MADAME LECOMTE, just from Paris, offers to the ladies and gentlemen As most valna icipe that can be offered to the pnblic for caring all eruptions of the skin and face, giving to the face that beautiful and smooth surface ana rosey color. It removes dsndraff from the head, and gives new life to the hair—one of the fiasst tooth washes in the world, it preserves the twth, removes the acid matter from around the tooth, and gives a sweet breath. Address Madame Lecomte, Box 100, Hamburg Postoffice, S. C., enclosing $5 00 with return postage stamps. On the receipt of the money it will be forwarded by first mail to any office ia the Confederacy. Write your name and postoffice plain. apl2 2* THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. The only AGRICULTURAL MONTHLY JOURNAL in the Confederate States, Is published at Augusta, Oa., at the very * low price of Three Dollar* per year, in advance; Addrw: D. REDMOND. Augusta, Oa. A A Planter.