411 



Material for BLEAcnrnG wool. — According to a patent lately 

 taken out In Melbourne, by Lande, one-sixteenth part of soap and one 

 part of cyanide of potassium in eighteen parts of water, constitute an 

 excellent material for bleaching wool or cotton. When used it is to be 

 diluted with titty times its bulk of water. 



Speedy growth of radishes. — In the publications of the Accli- 

 matization Society of Palermo, we are informed that radishes may be 

 obtained at any season, and very quickly, in the following manner: The 

 seeds are to be first soaked for twenty-four hours and then placed in 

 bags and exposed to the sun. They will begin to germinate in about 

 twenty-four hours, and are then to be set in a box filled with well-ma- 

 nured eartb, and moistened from time to time with lukewarm water. 

 In five or six days the radishes will attain the size of a small onion. To 

 grow radishes in winter the box is to be placed in a warm cellar, covered 

 with a top, and the earth moistened from day to day with lukewarm 

 water. 



La Plata or Carno guano. — The residuum of the flesh used in 

 the establishments of Buenos Ayres for the purpose of preparing Lie- 

 big's extract of meat, is now to be met with in commerce under the 

 name of La Plata, or Carno guano, and is recommended very highly as 

 a manure. Analj^sis shows that this contains nine parts in one hundred 

 of water, forty-one of organic matter, nineteen of lime, magnesia, oxide 

 of iron, &c., ten of phosphoric acid, from one-half to one part of potash, 

 and the rest of insoluble matter, such as sand, clay, &c. The nitrogen 

 amounts to nearly 6 per cent. 



Liquid soap for gleaning wool. — An excellent liquid soap, for 

 cleaning and washing raw wool, according to Moser, may be pre- 

 pared by using a kettle in which the mass can be heated, by means of a 

 steam tube opening directly into it. The kettle (holding 150 gallons) is 

 first to be half filled with water, which is then to be heated, and 68 

 pounds of caustic soda of 42 B, and 125 pounds of oleiue added to 

 it. This soap is to be boiled thoroughly for twenty to thirty minutes 

 with continued stirring, and is then ready for use, forming a very homo- 

 geneous, so-called, soap-glue, of a sirupy consistency, and esjDecially 

 adapted for washing wool. Should the soap be required for fulling, an ad- 

 dition of some ammoniacal salt will be of advantage, to be introduced im- 

 mediately before nsing. Instead of caustic soda, which it is sometimes 

 difficult to obtain, we may use ordinary soda salt, which is to be ren- 

 dered caustic by leaching through freshly burned and slightly moistened 

 lime. Even ordinary potash lye, obtained from ashes, mixed with fresh 

 quicklime, can be employed in this preparation. 



Eaising apples and pears in dry seasons. — An eminent pomo- 

 logist in Brussels, De Johnghe, has succeeded in obtaining well-grown 

 apples and pears in dry seasons by watering the trees from time to time, 

 and by making holes in the ground underneath them and occasionally 

 introducing some liquid, but not very highly concentrated, manure. 

 This application is stated to be j)articularly important at the time when 

 the fruit is setting. 



Regianine. — According to Dr. Phipson, the English walnut, {Juglans 

 regia,) and probably the American species also, contain, among other 

 substances, one which he cal'ls regianine, (obtained by treating the green 

 husk of the fruit with benzole,) which appears in the form of a yellow- 

 ish substance crystallizing in groups of feather-like crystals. These are 



