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poimds of oil-cake, and tlie stalks may be either burnt to fiirnish potash, 

 or, when treated like flax, may be made to yield a fiber as soft as silk, 

 aud iu large quantity. 



Egg-oil. — Few of our readers are aware, we presume, that an oil can 

 be made from the yolk of eggs, or that this is manufactured or used iu 

 any quantity. We are informed, however, that such is the case in 

 Kussia, and that a large quantity is there prepared for various pur- 

 poses. The better qualities are used for salad dressing, and considered 

 very much superior to olive oil ; while from the more common kinds is 

 manufactured the well-known Kasan soap. Both articles are too ex- 

 pensive for ordinary use, the soap especially, which is only employed 

 among the cosmetics and toilet articles of the wealthy Russian ladies. 



Sand compost. — A German agricultural paper recommends the 

 application of a kind of sand compost upon mossy meadows as highly 

 successful. Sand, or sandy soil, is piled up, aud daily watered with the 

 liquid of stable drains or siuks. To prevent the escape of ammonia, a 

 sprinkling of gypsum is applied. This compost is to be worked over, 

 and after four to five weeks it is fit for use. The writer claims that the 

 heavy sand smothers the moss, while the fertilizers promote the growth 

 of grass, and he refers to his favorable results as proof. 



Growth of plants in aqueous solutions. — Experiments have 

 been prosecuted of late by German physiologists in regard to the culti- 

 vation of plants in aqueous solutions of different substances, without 

 the addition of any earth ; and, as the general result, we are informed 

 that a plant will grow, bloom, and ripen fruit, without being inserted 

 in soil of any kind, but simply in a liquid which contains eight different 

 substances, namely: potash, lime, magnesia, iron, sulphuric acid, phos- 

 phoric acid, chlorine, and nitric add, the nitric acid being capable of 

 being replaced by ammonia or hippuric acid, uric acid, &c. It is further- 

 more stated that neither the nitrogen compounds, iron, nor any other 

 of these eight bodies can be omitteil from the flaid in question if the 

 plants are to pass through their various stages of development without 

 becoming bleached or prematurely dwarfed. It is also shown by the 

 experiments that while only these eight bodies are necessary elements^ 

 of our culture-plants, others, found iu ashes, such as silicic acid, manga- 

 nese, copper, fluorine, and soda, are to be considered, if not essential, at 

 any rate useful. Finally, the experiments appear to show that a plant 

 is capable of deriving the whole of the carbon necessary for its growth, 

 for the increase of its foliage, for the formation of sugar, starch, &c., 

 from the atmospheric air, iu the form of carbonic acid, by means of the 

 stomata of its leaves. This novel method of iirosecuting investigations 

 upon the growth of plants and the formatiou of their tissues and com- 

 ponents, it is believed, tends much toward securing exact results in 

 such researches, and iu time may enable us to acquire a thorough 

 knowledge of the phenomena involved. 



Dyeing wood of different shades of anilinf; red. — ^Ir. Stu- 

 benranch, of Ffirth, has recently made the announcement that any 

 woods naturally white, such as maple, linden, &c., can be easily dyed 

 red, of varied and brilliant hues, by means of some of the aniline 

 preparations, as corolin, rosein, &c. The wood is first soaked in 

 or washed with Marseilles soap, after which a dilute alcoholic solution 

 of the aniline color is applied, which may be repeated until the desired 

 shade is produced. If the wood is impregnated with any pigment, 

 it should be first bleached. For this purpose it is placed, for about half 



