840. 
public, the author conceiving that 
the best method of raising oaks is 
ascertained and stated in it, 
Should the society be in any de- 
gree inclined to join in this senti- 
ment, tt may, perhaps, induce them 
to .make some alteration in the 
terms of their proposal; as, accord- 
ing to the statement made in this 
paper, and, indeed, from what may 
be seen in every part of the king- 
dom in the character and appear- 
ence of oaks growing without cul- 
tivation, it seems ascertained that 
** acorns set with the spade or dib- 
ble, without digging or tillage,” can 
never be depended on to form good 
timber ; and, even in the most fa- 
vourable circumstances of this case, 
the growth will be exceedingly slow 
and precarious. The same may be 
said of ‘* young plants, previously 
raised in nurseries and transplant- 
ed;” for if the tap root be cut, 
broken, or in any degree injured, 
which, in transplanting, it is almost 
impossible to avoid, that plant will 
seldom become a vigorous and flou- 
rishing tree. ‘To form a course of 
experiments on such a plant as the 
oak, is not a very easy matter. To 
fulfil, explicitly, the conditions of 
the society would xyequire a great 
length of time, and would be attend- 
ed with considerable expence, from 
which future candidates may, in a 
great measure, be exonerated. The 
raising, even one acre, in the man- 
ner here ascertained, might be pro- 
ductive of great pecuniary advan- 
tage, if the faéts and experience de- 
tailed ‘in this paper are permitted 
to prove the inutility of the other 
two methods, and consequently to 
remove the necessity of employing 
so much ground upon them, at an 
expence they will never repay. — 
ANNUAL. REGISTER, 18068. 
Account of Experiments, shewing 
that violent Conflagrations may be 
extinguished by very small Quan- 
tities of Water, by Means of « 
Portable Hand Engine, by M. 
Van Marum, from the ‘+ Annales 
De Chimie.” 
SWEDE, named Van Aken, 
nine years ago, publicly shew- 
ed at Stockholm, Copenhagen, and 
Berlin, that he could very expe- 
ditiously extinguish fires by a small 
quantity of a liquor, denominated 
anti-incendiary, and which he, for 
some time, kept secret. Having 
seen, in the journals, that M. Van 
Aken had repeated his experiments 
with great success at, Berlin, in the 
presence of some of the members. of 
the academy of sciences, I wrote 
to the celebrated M. Klaproth, re- 
questing him to communicate to me_ 
the composition of M. Van Aken’s 
anti-incendiary liquor, if he were 
acquainted with it, with the inten- 
tion of ascertaining the merit of the 
invention by an experiment on a 
large scale. For this purpose, as 
soon as M. Klaproth had communi- 
cated to me the method of preparing 
it, I caused a quantity to be made 
under my own inspection. It con- 
sists of a solution of 40lbs. of sul- 
phate of iron and 30lbs. of sulphate 
of alumine, mixed with 20lbs. of 
red oxyd of iron (colcothar) and 
200!bs. of clay. I then began te 
make comparative experiments, by 
setting fire to two masses of com- 
bustibles, equal in every respect, 
and, by extinguishing one of them, ~ 
with Van Aken’s liquid, and the 
other with common water. I was 
surprised to see, in several trials, 
that by using the two liquids in the 
Same manner, the fire was always 
more 
