There are but few who realize the value of charcoal applied to the soil. Whoever will observe fields where coal has been burned, will see that grass or grain about the bed of the former pits, will be earlier and much more luxuriant than in any other portion of the field. This difference is discernible for twenty years. It is the best known agent for absorbing any noxious matter in the soil or in the moisture about the roots of the trees. No peach-tree should be planted without a few quarts of pulverized charcoal in the soil. This would also prove highly beneficial to cherry-trees on land where they might be exposed to too much moisture. Its color also renders it an excellent application to the surface of hills of vines. It is quite effectual against the ravages of insects, and so absorbs the rays of the sun as to promote a rapid growth of the plants.
CHESTNUTS
Are among our best nuts, if not allowed to get too dry. When dried hard they are rather indigestible. The tree grows well in most parts of the United States, provided the soil be light sand or dry gravel. If the soil be not suitable, every man may have a half-dozen chestnut-trees, at a trifling expense. Haul ten or fifteen loads of sand upon a square rod, and plant a tree in it, and it will flourish well. Five or six trees would afford the children in a family a great luxury, annually. The blossoms appear so very late, that they are seldom cut off by the frost. The second growth chestnut-tree is also decidedly ornamental.
CIDER.
The usual careless way of making cider, in which is used all kinds of apples, even frozen and decayed ones, and without any reference to their ripeness; without straining, and neglecting all means of regulating the fermentation, is too well known. This is the more general practice throughout the country; but it makes cider only fit for vinegar, although it is used for general purposes. We give the most approved method of making and keeping cider, that is better for invalids than any of our adulterated wines (and this is the character of nearly all our imported wines). Our domestic wines, and bottled cider, should take the place of all others.
Select apples best suited for cider, and gather them at the commencement of hard frosts. Let them lie a few days, until they become ripe and soft. Then throw out all decayed and immature fruit. Grind fine and uniform. Let the pulp remain in the vat two days. It will increase the saccharine principle and improve the color. Put into the press in dry straw, and strain the juice into clean casks. Place the casks in an open shed or cellar, if it be cold weather, give plenty of air and leave the bung out. As the froth works out of the bung, fill up every day or two, with some of the same pressing kept for the purpose. In three weeks or less this rising will cease, and the bung should be put in loose, and after three days driven in tight. Leave a small vent-hole near the bung. In a cool cellar the fermentation will cease in two days. This is known by the clearness of the liquor, the thick scum that rises, and the cessation of the escape of air.
Draw off the clear cider into a clean cask. If it remains quiet it may stand till spring. A gill of fine charcoal added to a barrel will secure this end, and prevent fermentation from going too far. But if a scum collects on the surface, and the fermentation continues, rack it off again at once. Then drive the vent-spile tight. Rack it off again in early spring. If not perfectly clear, dissolve three quarters of an ounce of isinglass in cider, and put it in the barrel, and it will soon be perfectly fine. Bottle between this and the last of May. Fill the bottles within an inch of the bottom of the cork, and allow them to stand an hour, then drive the cork. Lay them in dry sand, in boxes in a cool cellar, and the cider will improve by age, and is better for the sick than imported wines.
CITRONS
Are only used for preserving. Their appearance and growth resemble in all respects the watermelon. Planted near the latter, they utterly ruin them, making them more citron than melon. They are injurious to most other contiguous vines. They are to be planted and cultivated like the watermelon. Are very fine preserved; but we think the outside (removing the rind) of a watermelon better, and should not regret to know, that not another citron was ever to be raised.