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there is no substance equal to leached ashes of this kind for manure, 

 not excepting even the richest gnanos ; the vegetation of the cereals 

 becoming broader than common by its use, and the stalks more tubular, 

 while the leaves gTOW of a dark, bluish green. The value of this ap- 

 plication is seen more particularly in meadows, where, curiously enough, 

 nearly all the ordinary grass disappears in consequence, and instead of 

 it a thick vegetation of red clover is met with, which will be renewed 

 year by year for a long time, vrithout additional supply. 



Preservation of dead salmon for an indefinite time. — Of 

 late years salmon have been quite abuudant in our markets throughout 

 the winter season, a period when previously they were unknown, owing 

 to the fact of their being then, with few exceptions, in the deep waters 

 of the sea. For this purpose they are taken in the summer months, 

 when the fish are in the rivers and in best condition, and are packed in 

 snow as soon as caught, and in that condition carried to the establish- 

 ments where they are to be preserved. They are first overhauled and 

 sorted, and then put into a room where, by means of a mixture of ice and 

 salt placed between zinc plates, the temperature is kept many degrees be- 

 low the freezing point. The fish are soon frozen, and can be kept in that 

 state many months and even years, provided the temperature be kept 

 steadily down to the proper degree. In the winter season, the salmon 

 thus frozen are shipped, properly packed in ice, being carried in that 

 condition all over the country. It is said that the taste of these fish, if 

 cooked directly after having been thawed, is fully equal to what it would 

 be if eaten at the time of capture. 



Treatment of wood for paper pulp. — Mr. Mane informs us that 

 the proper method of treating wood to make it a suitable material for 

 the manufacture of paper consists in first reducing it to a state of shav- 

 ings or sawdust, and then placing it for a time (the duration of this 

 dei^ending upon the nature and state of division of the wood) into 

 water, and leaving it there to rest, as is done with flax. By this treat- 

 ment a great many substances are removed from the wood, which is 

 consequently afterward more readily reduced to pulp. The rotting in 

 water has the eflect of disintegrating, and partly decomposing the 

 nitrogenous matter of the woods, which is also afterward more readily 

 bleached ; not demanding the use of chlorine, as is the case where these 

 matters have been left in the wood. The rotted wood, previous to any 

 other treatment, is to be thoroughly washed with boiling water and 

 steamed, and next treated with an alkali. 



Effect of manure on plants. — A communication, illustrated by 

 diagrams, was lately presented to the Horticultural Society of London, 

 in reference to the eflect of manures upon plants in the experimental 

 gTounds at Chiswiek. As a general rule, plants in unmanured boxes 

 were less vigorous than in those manured; and while purely mineral 

 manures had little effect upon the grasses, they produced a marked im- 

 provement in the case of the clovers. Experiments with solutions of 

 ammonia salts and with nitrate of soda, showed specific difl'erences in 

 the results in the case of almost all the diflerent species of plants, and 

 it was found that a plant aflected favorably by one of these groups of 

 salts was influenced in quite the opposite manner by the other. 



The compass plant. — Many travelers and residents in the West 

 have called attention to a peculiarity of the so-called " compass plant," 

 (SilpJiium laciniatum,) of the western prairies, which is alleged to pos- 

 sess the remarkable tendency to have the plane of its leaves directed 



