state of suppleness ; it prevents the drying of cataplasms, is a valuable ingredient in 

 pomatum, cerate, and soap, and gives perfumes of a liigbly cosmetic quality ; is useful in 

 baths aud lotions ; alimentary and other substances, coated with it, retain their fresluiesB 

 for a long time, and it improves salted meats ; and, in weaving and facing woven goods, it is 

 said to excel any kind of mucilage or paste. It is even supposed, that the meat and vegetablea 

 exhibited at Paris, as keeping for an indefinite length of time, were prepared with glyce- 

 rine ; it is also administered internally, as a medicine, and horse doctors have availed them- 

 selves of it with the happiest results. — There is now but one opinion regarding the irresist- 

 ible remedy for the grape-vine disease ; sulphur, dusted copiously upon the parts aflfected as 

 soon as it appears, the precaution being first taken to syringe the vines. — A monument is 

 to be erected to Alexander Wilson, the most able writer upon North American ornithology, 

 in his native place of Paisley, Scotland, during the present summer. — Rats are the annoy- 

 ance of everybody. We gave a receipt, lately, of fried cork cut in small pieces, which they 

 will eat and cannot digest. Waterton got rid of a houseful, by catching one and dipping 

 his hinder parts in warm tar, and then turning liim loose in his old run. Tlie others, see- 

 ing his condition, and smelling such a rat, thought it prudent to take themselves off. On 

 examination, it was found they had actually gnawed away the comer of a peculiarly hard 

 brick which had obstructed their thoroughfare. — Were I asked, says the same remarkable 

 naturalist, my opinion of a highly cultivated flower-garden, I should say it is the loveliest 

 sight in rural nature ; and, moreover, that if it afforded me an opportunity of listening to 

 the song of birds, I should pronounce it little short of absolute perfection. But, in general, 

 the charming melody of birds is of too rare occurrence in the modern flower garden. — Cats, 

 he says, amongst birds, are like the devil amongst us ; they go up and down, seeking whom 

 they may devour. You must absolutely chase them away for good and all, othei-wise there 

 will be no place for your birds. A small quantity of arsenic, about as much as the point 

 of your penknife will contain, rubbed into a bit of meat, either cooked or raw, will do their 

 business effectually. — Gardeners are, in general, choice observers ; to them 



" Not a tree, 

 A plant, a leaf, a blossom, but contains 

 A folio volume." 



— Rational people now-a-days, will scarcely believe, that near the close of the last century, 

 most men considered that the appearance of the horse was considerably improved by de- 

 priving the poor beast of one-half of its ears. Yet this was the case ; then the tail was 

 cropped, and both fashions coming at the same time, it was no uncommon sight, each ex- 

 tremity presenting a distressing picture of mutilation and deformity. People were found 

 who took horses to board, to have their ears properly clipped, and their tails docked. A 

 sticking plaster was attached to the back, and the tail fastened to this canvas, to mount it 

 in the air. About as rational, you will say, as some of our more modern/as/t«ons. — A corre- 

 spondent says : " I have the ten volumes of the Horticulturist bound, and they could not be 

 bought of me for money ; I consider them indispensable for reference on fruits or flowers, 

 and they are all as valuable to me as they were the day I first received them." — Five agri- 

 cultural warehouses, in Boston, sell, annually, two and a half millions of dollars' worth of 

 agricultural tools. — Okra is proposed for making paper and rope, and, probably, it will 

 answer a good purpose. It is readily stripped of its bark by threshing. — A New Property 

 OF Steam. Persons in the city, who are in the habit of receiving winter fruit, such as apples, 

 &c., per railroad, complain frequently of the great reduction in quantity, which the fruit 

 suffers in transitu. This, we presume, is attributable to the motion of the cars, or the whistle 

 of the steam, although a suspicious friend suggests, that steam would hardly be able to force 

 out of barrels, and cram them into the mouths of the brakesmen. — A California letter, 

 ing of the extravagant spirit that prevails everywhere in that State, says : " Appl 



