314 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



CHARLIER HORSE-SHOE. 



A new horse-shoe introduced in Paris by M. Charlier has 

 been favorably received. It consists of a narrow rim of iron, 

 thoroughly protecting the edge of the hoof without cramp- 

 in o- its sole in the least. The material to be used must be of 

 the best quality, but the weight being considerably less, the 

 cost is not increased. Thousands of horses of the many pub- 

 lic conveyances in Paris have been provided with these shoes, 

 and they give general satisfaction. 10 (7, May, 58. 



DRAINING WITH FASCINES. 



The choking up of clay drain-pipes, especially when used 

 to carry water containing iron in solution (from which the 

 oxide of iron is precipitated), has frequently caused great 

 difficulty in keeping up a proper drainage ; and, in view of 

 this fact, the propriety of adopting the old method of using 

 fascines, or bundles of wicker-work, has been urgently rec- 

 ommended. For this purpose, a coarse wicker-work, made 

 of alder or willow, is to be loosely plaited together into a 

 tube of about ten inches in diameter, braced by cross-pieces 

 at intervals of two feet. A number of these are to be united 

 into a continuous tube, and laid in the ditches prepared for 

 their reception. Sod is then to be laid on the top, with the 

 grass-side down, and the trench filled with earth. In this 

 way a very cheap system of drainage is obtained, which will 

 remain for a long time without filling up, while earthen-ware 

 tubes do not answer their purpose for more than six or eight 

 years. The use of the wicker-work has the additional ad- 

 vantage of allowing the air to penetrate upward through the 

 soil, thereby increasing its productive properties. 2 A, Feb- 

 ruary 1, 1871, 24. 







INJURY OF GREAT BATTLES TO VEGETATION. 



A remarkable feature attendant upon the late French-Ger- 

 man war is said to have consisted in the destruction of vege- 

 tation in the vicinity of the great battle-fields, this being not 

 simply the result of mechanical injuries, but of some more 

 potent agency, and, according to one writer, the result of the 

 enormous mass of powder burned during the battles. As 

 soon as the powder is exploded sulphuric acid is distributed 



