editor's tablk. 



Gossip. — Tho foreign papers say that Messrs. Schroeiler .iii'l Dusch make it apparent that 

 meat may be kept fresh for a long time in filtered air. Tho filtration is effected by very 

 simple means, namely: panels of cotton wadding to tho safe or closet in which the meat is 

 hung. Butchers' meat has risen to so extremely high a price in Paris, that there has been 

 some talk of the Imperial Government undertaking to sell preserved fresh meat at a reason- 

 able rate. A new yam, as it is called, has been sent from Mexico to the Academie at 



Paris. It is of prodigious size (two metres fifty-one centim6tres long, eighty-nine centimetres 

 circumference), and weighs eighty-six kilogrammes. Some of the academicians say it is 

 rather a rhizome than a root ; not a yam, but a hitherto undetermined vegetable (jierhaps a 

 dioscorea) — a question to be settled by botanists. In Mexico, as we are informed, it is not 

 at all uncommon for the roots to grow to a length of four metres. They are a palatable 



article of food, notwithstanding their size. Macbride's flax scutching machine cleans 



more than five hundred pounds of fibre in ten hours, and when driven to the utmost, will 

 turn out nine hundred pounds in the same space of time. Compared with hand-labor, 



there is a gain of more than half in favor of the machine — at least, so say the initiated. 



Mr. R. Errington, a name well known to gardeners, says, in a late article on peach pruning, 

 " there is no occasion for much fuss about it. Trees have been repeatedly seen bearing 

 better crops, badly pruned, than those which had received the most scientific knifing. This, 

 however, does not prove that pruning is quite immaterial, but that it is not the ' keystone' 

 of the arch. Young peach-trees, as soon as they have grown one year from the bud, are 

 termed ' maidens.' They have one straight shoot, with generally a few side-spray. Below 

 this latter are generally four or five dominant side-buds which have never sprouted, and 

 the pruning knife is generally entered immediately above these. In the second year, the 

 tree sprouts from three to five shoots, according to its power, and these are pruned back in 

 the rest season for a double reason — to remove ill-ripened portions, and to cause the tree to 

 branch more, in order to cover the wall. Henceforth, the thing gradually assumes the charac- 

 ter of a fruit question rather than one about wood, and the business is, that whilst every 

 regard is paid to the bearing wood, attention is also given to a proper succession of wood 



shoots." A letter writer, addressing the U, S. Patent Office, from Kerr County, Texas, 



expresses surprise that that department has not noticed the pecan-nut, which grows abund- 

 antly in Texas, About 200,000 bushels of the nut have been exported from that State to 

 Europe and elsewhere, producing $400,000. One tree will often produce from fifteen to 

 twenty bushels, worth from $30 to $40. A pretty philosophical toy is exhibited in Phila- 

 delphia. It is a toy balloon, and is a Paris invention, made of India-rubber, filled with 

 common burning gas. The levity of the gas carries it up to the top of the window where 

 it is exhibited, when it rebounds and descends again, keeping up this motion continually. 

 The invention is better than a kite, for it depends upon no current of air to make it ascend^ 

 and it can be fastened by a string to a child's hand, or the button-hole of his jacket, and be 

 made to follow all his movements. The California Agricultural Society speaks of a remark- 

 able case of success in the product of the bee : Mr. Briggs, of San Jose, brought out with 

 him, the last year, from the States, a large swarm of bees ; from this one swarm, eiyht 

 swarms were hived the first season. There is no parallel case to such a product on record, 

 and the same prolific character is manifest in all natural history there as well as in the 



products of farm, grain field, and orchard. The Committee who report to the Society, 



went to see a Spanish Don, and there they found the following matter of interest to relate : 

 " A two year old grizzly bear, having been caught in the barley-field the night previous to 

 our arrival, the natives belonging to the establishment amused themselves, just after we 

 came up, by tying the fore-leg of a bullock to the hind-leg of the bear. After sundry toss- 

 ings and huggings, while we were faring sumptuously at the table of the IWn, his bearship, 

 we were informed, took just one horn too much, and died from the effect of an extemporary 



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