The English Gooseberry At Home

Few of our readers can have any idea of the enthusiasm with which a resident of Great Britain views a gooseberry bush. At Cawdor Castle the plants are ten feet high, and ten feet thick. The slang phrase "How is that for high?" might have come from an admirer of a bush like these.

Waste Coal As Manure

Mr. J. A. Price, Scranton, Pa., believes that coal dust will make an excellent fertilizer. Mountains of it, brought from the mines as screenings, are piled up in the coal regions. Its dark color is in its favor. Dark soils are always more favorable than light ones for many purposes, by reason of their absorption of heat; and its carbonaceous properties ought to give it additional value.

Turpentine

We see it stated in a Government publication, that taking but one crop of turpentine from a pine tree kills it, and "hence dead trees readily inviting fierce forest fires, abound in turpentine districts." We were under the impression that crops could be taken, as of sugar, from trees in many successive seasons. Do any of our correspondents know that the Government document is correct?

Tulip Poplar Lumber

There appears to be a large demand for this lumber in Boston. About 300,000 feet that came over the New River Division of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, was delivered in a single week last year. It came from the head-waters of the Guyandot and Big Sandy Rivers in Virginia, and brought about $30 per 1000 feet.

Tea Culture

Unless we are wise, Italy will get the start of us in tea culture. A plantation at Novaro has been so successful that the Italian government is arranging to plant largely the coming year.

Plants On Which Mistletoe Grows

Mr. Issac Burk informs us that in many parts of Southern New Jersey, the Red maple seems to be the only plant on which the mistletoe grows, and Dr. Brinton says that it is as often at least found on the Red maple in Delaware as on any other tree.

The St. Louis Academy Of Science

In opening the Shaw School of Botany, the Chancellor of the Missouri Washington University, gave an account of the origin of this body, showing that it arose rather from a feeling of its necessity to the community, than an outgrowth of science itself. Not one of the founders "knew enough of Science to found a primary school, except Dr. Engelmann." This was more than forty years ago.

Floral Barometers

The Illustrirte Gar-ten-Zeitung says that the flowers of the well-known Spiderwort, Tradescantia zebrina, always open their flower buds twenty-four hours before rain comes. The plant is placed in a room where it receives the full rays of the sun. When the plant is in a flowering condition, buds follow each other rapidly, and it is very easy to note the facts as stated.