NX 480 editor's tablb. 



flavor of tho Sweetwater, with a slight tinge of muskinoss, auJ looked as if it would make 



a good sort for out-of-door culture. Those who have attended the French markets at a 



sulBcientlj early hour, will have probahly lamented over the misery of the people who carry 

 off, at a low price, tho pea-shells for ]X)ttage ; hut they might reserve their sympathy, and 

 would do so if they had partaken of such soup as, at a very trifling cost, may be prepared from 

 tho article. Take three quarts of water in which meat has been boiled the previous day, 

 and place it on the fire, with a small teaspoonful of pepper, and three larger of salt (if the 

 broth has been made with fresh meat), taking care, however, that neither ingredient is 

 jtreddminant. Add the shells of half a peck of peas, and a bundle of herbs, including a 

 good (juantity of chives or sweet leeks, and, if possible, a sprig or two of tarragon — a small 

 quantity only. When the pea-shells are sufliciently boiled, pour the whole through a colan- 

 der, and when the liquor is strained off, pound the pea-shells and herbs in a mortar, return- 

 ing them to the colander, and rubbing through what will pass easily. Add now a small 

 cupful of peas, two lettuces shred ratlier small, the more stalky the better, properly blanched, 

 and a couple of sprigs of mint, and you will have a soup which would not disgrace any 

 table, especially if a little fried bread is added, and an ounce of white sugar. If a thick 

 soup is preferred, a little flour and butter, or other thickening, must be used. It is not 



necessary to have anything stronger than common broth as the foundation. Irish Moss. 



The value of Irish moss collected at Scituate, Mass., in 1855, is said to have amounted to 



$4,855. Seeds of weeds should be carefully prevented from ripening. Thistles produce 



an increase of one hundred and fifty fold. If plants are shedding their seeds at the time 

 they are taken away, the very hoeing insures their safe plantation, while, if left, they might 

 have flown away to a distance. The practice of taking out those and other pests, and throw- 

 ing them in the road just as the seeds are ready to be distributed by the wind, is a most 

 thoughtless process ; they are blown back to the opened soil, or to neighboring grounds, and, 



instead of being extirpated, are very often multiplied. A mode of estimating the value 



of milk, is by the use of an ingenious new machine called a lactoscope, invented in Paris. 

 It consists of two tubes, one of which may be pushed into the other like the joints of a tele- 

 scope, and the end of each tube is closed with glass, so that when milk is poured into the 

 outer tube by a small opening on the side, by pushing in the inner tube a layer of milk of 

 any thickness may be obtained. The apparatus is placed on a stand, the value of the milk 

 is estimated by the thickness of the layer of it through which the light of a small wax 

 taper, at a fixed distance, can be observed, the value of the milk being in the inverse ratio 

 of the transparency ; the larger the amount of fat present, the greater of course will be the 

 opacity. The thickness of the layer of milk is measured by a scale on the instrument, and 



a table sold with it shows the percentage of cream to which it corresponds. The London 



Athenaum, in reviewing the new hook, "Salad for the Social," says, with severity: "The 

 author appears to be, in fact, a pair of scissors, with this difference in favor of the scissors 



— that he has no points of his own. A writer in Frazer^s Magazine asserts : " I am quite 



sure that every man has a much better chance of passing through life comfortably, who can 

 quit a city for a country life; as a nation which depopulates its rural districts to over-popu- 

 late its commercial, will some day learn to its cost." Jonah's gourd has been variously 



supposed to have been ivy, but it neither grows up in a night, nor is consumed by a worm. 

 Augustine called it a gourd, and accused Jerome of heresy for calling it ivy ; yet they both 

 seem to have been wrong. It was, more probably, the kiki of the Egyptians, a plant of the 

 same family as ricinus, or castor-oil ; this plant is of rapid growth, and has such large leaves, 



that the people of the East plant it before their shops for the sake of its shade. Cinnamon 



was so much esteemed by the ancients, that Cleopatra carried it into her sepulchre with her 

 jewels ; it was kept, in wooden boxes, among the rarities of kings, and only employed 

 Txnguents, and on great occasions. 



