78 Domestic Notices : — England. 



to Mr. C. S. Cockbren, for Clerodendrum frligrans, 4 dollars; to Mr. Stru- 

 par, for flowers, 5 dollars ; and to Alexander Maclart}', Denis Maclarty, and 

 Jane Thompson, slaves of Clydesdale, for potatoes, each 1 dollar. 



A letter from Mr. Atkinson was read, accompanied with specimens of 

 Indian rubber produced in the island, and of the juice from which it is made. 



Mr. R. Smith was elected a member of the Council in the room of the 

 Rev. Mr. Mann. — X. Y. Jan. 13. 1829. 



The Mulberry Tree grows indigenously throughout the United States, 

 and it is thought silk can be raised with facility from the northern to the 

 southern boundary of the Union. This article costs the country now 6 or 

 7,000,000 dollars. Very beautiful specimens of silk have been exhibited in 

 Baltimore, which are the product of worms raised in that city, and spun by 

 a machine, of which Mr. J. A. Blane is the maker. That gentleman, who 

 is by birth a Piedmontese, was largely engaged in the manufacture of silk 

 before he was compelled to leave his native land. He is of opinion that no 

 climate is better adapted to the silk-worm than Baltimore. {Neivsp.) 



Sugar. — Letters from St. Augustin (Florida) mention that the culture of 

 the sugar cane is thriving there beyond all original expectation, and that 

 this produce promises to become in a few years a branch of that important 

 trade. The Journal du Commerce of Saturday last gives a return for the 

 year 1827 of the beet-root sugar produced in the northern departments of 

 France, the whole quantity of which amounts to 1,218,000 kilogrammes, 

 (2,650,000 lbs.) It is thereby shown that this new branch of industry has 

 risen to an importance that calls for the future attention of the commercial 

 department of the state. {Scotsman, April 2.) 



Art. II. Domestic Notices* 



ENGLAND. 



Weather Prognostics. — When the clouds are red in the west, with a tint 

 of purple, it portends fine weather, because the air when dry refracts more 

 red or heat-making rays ; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they 

 are again reflected in the horizon. A coppery or yellow sunset generally 

 foretells rain ; but as an indication of wet weather approaching, nothing is 

 more certain than a halo round the moon, which is produced by the pre- 

 cipitated water; and the larger the circle, the nearer the clouds; and con- 

 sequently the more ready to fail. As to the rainbow, the old proverb is 

 correct, — 



" A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning : 

 A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight." 



It may be thus explained : — A rainbow can only occur when the clouds 

 containing or depositing the rain are opposite to the sun, and in the evening 

 the rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west ; and as our 

 heavy rains in this climate are usually brought by the westerly wind, a rain- 

 bow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the road by the wind 

 to us ; whereas the rainbow in the east proves that the rain in these clouds 

 is passing from us. When swallows fly high, fine weather is to be expected 

 or continued; but when they fly low and close to the ground, rain is almost 

 surely approaching, because swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies 

 and gnats usually delight in warm strata of air ; and as warm air is lighter, 

 and usually moister than cold air, when the warm strata of air are high, 



