200 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



differs in quantity by more than a third to what it would be if pota- 

 toes which had not advanced had been used, and further, that 

 besides this diminished product, the quality also is very inferior*. 



25. PRESERVATION OF FROZEN POTATOES. 



In time of frost the only precaution necessary is to retain the pota- 

 toes in a perfectly dark place for some days after the thaw has 

 commenced. In America, where they are sometimes frozen as 

 hard as stones, they rot if thawed in open day, but if thawed in 

 darkness they do not rot, and lose very little of their natural odour 

 and propertiesf. 



26. CURE OF WOUNDS IN ELM TREES. 



Those elms which have running* places, or ulcers, may be cured as 

 follows: Each wound is to have a hole bored in it with an auger, 

 and then a tube, penetrating; an inch or less, is to be fixed in each. 

 Healthy trees which are thus pierced give no fluid, but those which 

 are unhealthy yield fluid, which increases in abundance with the 

 serenity of the sky and exposure to the south. Stormy and windy 

 weather interrupts the effect. It has been remarked that in from 

 twenty-four to forty-eight hours the running stops, the place dries 

 up, and is cured J. 



27. PRESERVATION OF FRUIT TREES FROM HARES. 



According to M. Bus, young fruit trees may be preserved from the 

 bites of hares by rubbing them with fat, and especially hogs'-lard. 

 Apple and pear trees thus protected gave no signs of the attacks of 

 these animals, though their feet marks were abundant on the snow 

 beneath them. 



28. WATERSPOUT ON THE LAKE OF NEUFCHATEL. 



On the 9th of June, at nine o'clock in the morning, the weather 

 being moist and the thermometer at 64 F., a waterspout was seen 

 at Neufchatel, on the other side of the lake, about a league from 

 the port. From a fixed black cloud, about eighty feet above the 

 surface, descended perpendicularly a dark grey cylindrical column, 

 touching the surface of the lake. Much agitation was seen at the 

 foot and top of the column, a dull heavy sound was heard, and the 

 waters of the lake were seen to mount rapidly along this sort of 

 syphon to the cloud, which gradually became white as it received 

 them. After seven or eight minutes had elapsed a north-east wind 

 pressed upon the column, so that it bent in the middle, still however 

 raising water, until at last it separated. At the same moment the 

 cloud above, agitated and compressed by the wind, burst and let fall 



* Bib. Phys. Econ., 1829. f Recueil Industriel, xiv. 81. 



I Journal dus Forets, 1829. Bull. Univ. D. xiv. 381. 



