278 



an liour, in a bath of chloride of lime and soda; a bath of dilute sul- 

 l)huroiis acid may then be used to remove the chlorine. A thorough 

 washing in pure water after this should precede the dyeing treatment. 



InTew yarieties of potatoes in Germany. — German agriculturists 

 speak quite favorably of some of the new varieties of potatoes recently 

 brought to their notice. Dr. Eanch sajs of the early rose potato that, 

 among a thousand varieties, none can be found like it. It is the 

 earliest, as well as the most prolific, of all early potatoes, ripening 

 within six weeks, and keeping well until the following spring, and even 

 improving in taste by being thus kept. It is pronounced excellent for 

 table use, very valuable for stock-feeding, and the richest in starch for 

 manufacturing purposes. The bovinia, or stock-feeding potato, is of 

 gigantic size and astonishing in its yield. Its quality is also quite 

 satisfactory to the housekeeper. The new ash-leaved kidnej" potato — 

 ashtop tluke — is a very fine table variety, quite early, keeps well, and 

 has very few and shallow eyes. It is highly recommended as a garden 

 vegetable. 



Eemoying moss from trees. — The removal of moss from fruit 

 trees, as well as their judicious pruning, is of great importance to their 

 health, this growth being not only detrimental to the vigor of the tree, 

 but also serving as a convenient hiding-place for injurious insects. Its 

 eradication may be accomplished by first scraping off carefully and 

 then covering the places where it grew with a thin paste of equal parts 

 of plaster and potters' clay, in water. The moss will disappear and the 

 bark of the tree become smooth and healthy. Dead and broken limbs, 

 suckers, &c., should also be removed annually, and the head of the tree 

 always kept open to air and light. Pruning is usually done late in the 

 fall or winter; but many horticulturists now recommend the latter iiart 

 of the summer as the fitting time. 



Copying the grain of leather. — The Mechanics' Magazine informs 

 us that by a recent process a perfect electrotype copy of the grain of 

 leather can now be produced, which may be used in imparting an exact 

 imitation of the grain of morocco, seal, or other skins, upon ordinary 

 .leather, so as to render them almost indistinguishable from the original. 

 The deposit is attached to the mandril of an ordinary machine-roller, 

 and, on passing the skin through this, the finest variation of the grain or 

 modification of the surface, in imitation of the original, is produced. 

 The operator takes any skin that may be desired, and supplies from it 

 the means of preparing a fac-simile of it. 



Hard water yersus soft. — Dr. Letheby, at a recent meeting of the 

 medical officers of health of Great Britain, took occasion to renew his 

 statement, already referred to in our pages, of the superiority, in a sani- 

 tary point of view, of a hard-water supply to towns over that of soft 

 water. Basing his arguments first upon physiological considerations, 

 he maintained that the earthy matters in the hard waters were essential 

 for the construction of the osseous tissues, and that they supplied much 

 of the calcareous salts necessary for the nutrition of the frame, and 

 that, by reiiudiating their use, we should be throwing away one pro- 

 vision of nature for this purpose. No one could say that a hard water 

 was not far more agreeable to drink than a soft water. He maintained, 

 in the second place, that the finest specimens of the English race were 

 to be found in regions where the waters were hard, from flowing out of, 

 or over, calcareous strata. The same was the case with cattle and horses ; 

 witness those reared in such counties as Durham and Leicester, and the 



