154 • Miscellaneous hUelligence. 



4. On engrafting Trees. — Trees are frequently grafted by 

 making a transverse section of the bark of the stock, and a per- 

 pendicular slit beneath it ; the bud is then pushed down to give 

 it the position which it is to have ; this operation is not always 

 successful, it is better to employ an inverse method, i. e. to 

 make the vertical slit above the transverse section, and to push 

 the bud upwards into its position. This method rarely fails of 

 success, because as the sap descends by the bark, as has been 

 proved of late years, and does not ascend, the bud placed above 

 the transverse section, receives abundance, whereas, if below, the 

 sap cannot get to it. Annates de Chimie, xi. p. 110. 



5. Mildew in wheat prevented. — " Salt one part, water eight 

 parts. With this mixture sprinkle the diseased corn. Where 

 the corn is sown in drills, this may be done with a watering-pot, 

 but the best and most expeditious mode is with a flat brush, 

 such as white-washers use, having a tin collar made water-tight 

 round the bottom, to prevent the mixture dropping down the 

 operator's arm, and running to waste. The operator having a 

 pail of salt and water in one hard, and dipping the brush into 

 the mixture with the other, makes his regular casts, as when 

 sowing corn broad cast ; in this way he will readily get over ten 

 acres in the day. About two hogsheads will do one acre : 

 wherever the mixture touches, in three or four days the mildew 

 will disappear ; upon those parts that escape, the sprinkling 

 must be repeated. If judiciously cast, the mixture falls in drops 

 as uniformly as rain." 



II. Chemical Science. 



§ Chemistry. 



1. On Oxygenated Water, by M. Thenard.—M. Thenard, in his 

 further researches on oxygenated water and its properties, has 

 ascertained that_the remarkable eiFects produced, when it is 

 placed in contact with platinum, gold, silver, Sfc, are occasioned 

 also by the contact of several animal substances ; and that all 



