FARMERS' REGISTER— EXTINGUFSHING FIRES— GAS. 



683 



root is superior, in its nutritive qualities, to oats or 

 barley; and we may thcrelbre slipht the misplaced 

 compassion ot" those wlio lament the hard fate ol 

 the Hiahliuider in the Islands, where a sufljcient 

 supi'ly of oaime;i! cannot he |;rocured, and where 

 the inhabitants dep.end on the potato."* 



Let me remark, in conclusion, that the potato 

 seems to have been the only plant wanlinir to 

 complete the agriouliurc of tfie J]ri:ish Islands. 

 Vast portions of land, in all the three countries, 

 are by no means fitted for the cultivation of grain; 

 yet there the potato will flourish. It will thrive 

 where no other esculent vegetable will grow, and 

 has this grand advantage, that, in such situations, 

 it can he grown at very sm;ill expense. It has 

 also this superiority over all kinds of grain, that it 

 is perfectly secure airainst those heavy late rains 

 which so often destroy the hopes of the farmer. 

 The potato has rendered us entirely independent 

 of foreign nations for a supply of food, and placed 

 us almost bej-ond the reach of those frightful 

 famines, which, in former times, so oflen devas- 

 tated the land. It furnishes a proof that a single 

 vegetable, when its imp'ortance comes to be pro- 

 perly appreciated, ma\^ work an entire change in 

 the habits, the enjoyments, and the fortunes of a 

 people. 



From the [T^oiidon] Examiner. 

 EXTINCTION OF FIRES. 



The safety of the inhabitants being ascertained, 

 the first objects at afire should be the exclusion of 

 all fresh and the confinement of all burnt air — suf- 

 focate the flames — remember that burnt air is as 

 great if not a greatei- enemy to combustion than 

 even water; the one, till again mixed with oxygen, 

 can never support flame; the other, especially if 

 poured on heated metal, is converted into its ele- 

 ments, the one hydrogen, in itself most highly in- 

 flammable, the other oxygen, the food of fire. For 

 both purposes, of excluding the one air and con- 

 fining the other, all openings should be kept as 

 careful!}' closed as possible — ^the prevailing prac- 

 tice of breaking the windows is peculiarly mis- 

 chievous. The only excuse for this is the admis- 

 sion of water; but if the firemen were provided 

 with proper self-supporting ladders (Gregory's, or 

 any other, that need not lean against the walls,) 

 they might direct their branches through a single 

 broken pane with ten times more accuracy thanliy 

 their random squirting fiom the street. Water 

 should be made to beat out the fire by its impetus; 

 aspersion is but useless. An attempt should al- 

 ways be made to stop up the chimney-pots; wet 

 rags, blankets, or an old carpet, will serve this 

 purpose, and thereby confine a considerable quan- 

 tity of burnt air. The same materials, well wet- 

 ted, shoidd be freely used in covering the nearest 

 roofs and windows; and, in order that ivater may 

 be freely conveyed to the very tops of the neiirh- 

 boring houses, and for many other purposes, out- 

 riggers with ropes and pulleys should accompany 

 the engine. 



From the Montlily Magazine 

 GAS. 



The mode of adapting it to lighting our streels 

 and houses, was discovered by a Frenchman, an 



engineer, named Lebon, about twenty-five years 

 ago, who gives the following particulars of the 

 circumstances which first led to its application. It 

 was about 1G(33, that liechcr, a skiliul chemist, 

 discovered ihat coal, when calcined in close ves- 

 sels, yielded a kind of oil resembling tar, and capa- 

 ble of serving fijrthesume uses. Experiments made 

 in 1758, in Alsace, lor the extraction of this oil, 

 proved ihat the calcined coal left in the reiort was 

 of excelient (|uality lor melting iron, and ti>r all 

 domestic purposes. In 1786, M. de Limbourg, 

 having eiiijJoycd the same processes at the lorgea 

 oi' Thei.se, in the principality of Liege, substituted 

 for earthen leloris, which till then had been made 

 use olj retorts of cast iron, which are more durable, 

 and in which an opening ma\' be made, pi'ovided 

 with a door tor putting in and taking out the coal. 

 These experiments \vere repeated with success in 

 Kngland and France. In the prosecution of them 

 it was found that besides the sohd and liquid pro- 

 ducts, there was disengaged an iniiammable gas, 

 composed of carbon and hydrogen, and which was 

 therefore denominated carburutecl hydrogen. In 

 1799, Lebon conceived an idea of adapting this 

 carburated hydrogen gas to a useful purpose, and 

 realised it the same year at Paris, by exhibiting 

 the interior of his house and garden illuminated 

 with it, issuing from a large reservoir, where it 

 underwent a slight compressure, and was conduct- 

 ed to the lamps by small tubs furnished with cocks, 

 that could be opened at pleasure to light the gas, 

 or closed to extinguish it. Lebon set up en j of 

 these apparatus, which he called thermo lamps, at 

 the Theatre de Loervois, where every body had 

 an opportunity of seeing it for several months. It 

 was the very same apparatus now employed in 

 England, but on a much larger scale. The only 

 difl'erence is, that Lebon obtained his gas by the 

 calcination of wocd, and the English from coal. 



* Western Isles. 



From the Horticultural Register. 



ON ACCEIvERATING AND RETARDING THE 

 MATURITY OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 

 IN THE OPEN AIR. 



Every gardener who supplies markets is aware 

 that fruit and vegetables exposed for sale early in 

 the season generall}' obtain hiirher prices than 

 those brought when the bulk of the crop comes 

 forward. Private gentlemen keeping gardeners 

 are also equally alive to the luxury of having 

 their tables spread with fruit and vegetables at 

 least as early as lliey appear at market. It seems 

 therefore a point of some importance to gardeners 

 to seize every advantage which situation, the na- 

 ture of the soil, or the experience of others ofTin-s 

 to efl'ect this purpose; and while I lay before the 

 readers of the Register the result of my own ex- 

 periments and observations, I earnestly solirt fi'om 

 others, communications on a subject wliich opens 

 a field of so much interest both to the intelligent 

 observer of the laws of vegetable life, and to the 

 practical horSiculturist. 



In one of the numbers of Loudon's Gardener's 

 Magazine, I observed a method of obtaining early 

 strawberries b_v planting thein in intervals between 

 bricks laid like a bank slanting towards the south; 

 — pursuing this idea I raised a bank of rich earth 

 about three feet high, running east and west, that 



