Vol. Vll.—Syo. S. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



59 



of the quantity of ardent spirits the i)resent, as in 

 l)re\ ions seasons, in proi'ortioii to tlie quantity of 

 oilier aiiicles of iiieicliandize. What has produc- 

 ed this diniiniition ill the quantity of tliis article ? 

 Have cold water societies ? " He that runs may 

 read." The spirit of reform is abroad — its effects 

 aie seen. — Rochester Obs. 



THE WORCESTER COAL MINE. 



Tiio o|)eration.s in the Worcester Coal Mine, 

 formerly v/orked by Mr Elliot, have been com- 

 menced on a scale so extensive, and prosecuted 

 with an industry so busy, under the direction of 

 Col. Binney, as will rcTider the locality one of the 

 most intcresiiiig scenes in the Commonwealth. — 

 A deep cuttiiig commenced at the foot of the hill, 

 is worked onward through earth and rock, and 

 will become a j^rand canal for ihe transportation 

 of the mineral from the interior to the surface, on 

 the waters drained from the mine. About twen- 

 ty feet below the surface, on the declivity of the 

 hill, at the point near where the former excava- 

 tion was carried deepest, an opening like a door 

 way adiiiits the visiters into a gallery or shaft, 

 about seven feet in width and height, and now 

 nearly twenty-five in length, descending with the 

 slope of tiie strata. The workmen are employed 

 in pierciusT tiie rock and opening this passage into 

 the hill. The substances excavated are conveyed 

 to the entrance by little cars moving on miniature 

 railways up the inclined plane. The mineral ob- 

 tained resembles very nmch the coal from Nevv- 

 •jJort and is said to improve in quality as the shaft 

 descends. Roads are constructing which will 

 render the the approach easy, and canals are pro- 

 jected to ccn;!nunicate with the neighboring lake. 



J\i"aiionul .^gis. 



Answers an excellent purpose for preparing wheat | Curing blindness.— The story in the A])ocrypha, 

 for seed. A gentleman states, that he pni four or } of Tobit's blindness being cured by the gall of a 

 five pounds of quick lime into a suflicient quanti- j fish, has been much ridiculed. Prideaux thought 



tv of water to soak a bushel of wheat ; tlien ail- ; it not reconcilcable to a rational credibilit' 



F.ui 



ded the wheat, and i)ermittcd it to remain about ; the Richmon<l Family Visitor states, that Dr. Man- 

 twelve hours. The lime by slacking raised the i love, a physician of extensive practice in Dinwid- 

 temperuture of tiie water to about blood heat, and die county, Va. thirty or forty years ago, left on 

 the wheat became soft and parboiled. On sowing ' record, on the margin of Frideau.x's Connexions, 

 it, however, it sprouted much sooner than usual, the following iiote : 



flourished remarkably, and produced an excellent ' " That the gall of an eel, laid on with a soft 

 crop, entiiely free from any a|ipcarance of smut, brush, with great care, and occasionally repealed, 



The following has been recommended by a has successfully removed a film from the eye, is 

 farmer in Vermont : — " My method is this : I take most certain. The writer of this leaves it on re- 

 three quarts of slacked lime to each bushel of cord in this ])lace, with an intention that it may be 

 wheat, put them into a barrel, a layer of wheat useful to some fellow creature, after the writer is 

 anil a layer of lime, alternately. Then pour in no longer an inhabitant of this world. I most 

 water, till it is all covered. In this condition let it solemnly declare, I have exi)erieuced the good ef- 

 stand from two to four days, as the case may re- fects of the api>lication in the course of my prac- 

 q\iire ; and the morning before sowing the wheat, tice. But it .sliould be used when the disorder is 

 tap the barrel and draw off the liquor." ; recent. 



In preparing wheat for grinding it is often 

 made too dry, especially after it has been washed 

 to free it from smut and other impurities. When 

 the wheat is dried too much, the outside of th.e 

 kernel, which should be separated from the floiu" 

 by the boult. is ground so fine tli."t it passes thro' 

 the boult with the floiu'. An experienced miller 

 advises to moisten wheat which is in this situation, 

 by sprinkling it with a litrle water about ten or 

 twelve hours before grinding. But if this U neg- 



( Calvin Benton, Esq. of Lebanon, has purchas- 

 ed within the last few v/eeks, 112,893 lbs. of Me- 

 rino and half blood wool for the Boston market — 

 all the produce of farms, principally in this state, 

 within twenty miles of and including Lebanon. — 

 For this he has paid ,$46,996. The average price 

 be has paid was about 40 cents the pound. The 

 sum of money paid for the products of one sum- 

 mer in one article — and it is not to be presumed 



lecfcd.a slight sprinkhug of the wheat in ,he ^^'^J »"•'''' "'•'"'^ ^^»^ "''"'"''""-'^ '""'"^ ~'- 

 hopper during the time of grinding it will be of i *;1"«,'',''' '.''"" ^'« '.'«^f ever known by any smgle in 

 service ; taking care not to wet it too nuich, and 



SMTIT IN WHEAT. 



[Ry the Editor] 



The following miscellaneous particulars re- 

 specting smut, and ihe means of preventing it, 

 merit attention : — 1. The same water should nev- 

 er be used but once in washing wheat ; even 

 when brine is eniployed, it is safest to have fresh 

 liquor to each parcel. 2. Lime is not only of ser- 

 vice to dry the seed, but by its caustic and anti- 

 septic qualities, it tends to destroy putridity, and 

 animalculae of every descriinion. 3. If smutty 

 grain is not threshed till the June or July suc- 

 ceeding the year it was reaped, the dust, it is said, 

 will become too volatile to attach itself to the 

 grain when threshed, particularly by a mill ; nor 

 is old seed wheat so liable to occasion smut, 

 which by a;.,e loses the power of reproduction. — 

 4. Notwithstanding the violence of threshing 

 mills, they do not bruise the smut balls so much 

 as the flail. 5. Great care must be taken, not to 

 thresh wh.-at on a floor where smutty wheat has 

 been threshed, nor to convoy the seed in a sack in ' 

 which smutty wheat has been formerly pin. i 



On the subject of steeping, it may be projier to 

 add, that it Would be well to extend that operation 

 to other grains besides wheat. Every sort of seed 

 should be steeped enough to promote a quick 

 vegetation, and to secure a more uniform growth, 

 which would greatly improve both the quantity 

 and quality of the grain ; and if the seed of bar- 

 ley and oats, as well as of wheat, were clothed 

 with saline and caustic particles, it would either 

 preserve it entirely from the attacks of vermin, or 

 destroy such as may venture to eat of it. 



We have been informed that unslacked lime 



by stirring the grain, to distribute the moisture as 

 equally as possible among the whole mass. 



ORIGIN OF RIVERS. 



A question has long existed among philnsophcrs, 

 and has never been settled by universal consent, 

 whether the rivers depend solely for their supply 

 upon the water which descends from the atnios 



dividual, in a single article, the produce of our 

 farms. — .V. H. Patriot. 



Care for H'ens. — The following extraordinary 

 fact has lately come to our knowledge : — A plant- 

 er in the vicinity of Raleigh, N. C. had \<i en for 

 some time afflicted with a wen on his neck, which 

 grew so large as to be very inconvenient and dis- 

 tressing. After trying a number of remedies, he 

 phere, or whether there is a kind of circulation of ^Vas advised by one of his neighbors to wash if 



two or three times a day with strong salt water, 

 (water in which salt had been dissolved.) He did 

 so, and to his great relief and comfort, the wen 

 gradually decreased in size, and finally disappear- 

 ed. Let those who are siinilai'ly afllicted, " go 

 and do likewise." — Raleigh Register. 



HOW TO MAKE STARCH. 



water within the earlli, like that of the blood in 

 the animal economy, or that of the winds of the 

 atmosphere, by means f whiidi perennial springs 

 are constantly supplied, by some mechanical pro- 

 cess in nature, from " the fountains of the great 

 deep." Ricciolus aflirins, upon calculation, that 

 the Volga or the St. Lawrence alone discharges 

 annually a greater quantity of water than falls in 

 rain, snow and dew upon the whole surface of '1'° make starch from wheat, the grain is steep- 

 the globe. These and other known rivers are ^"1 '" """'fl vvater until it becomes soft and yields a 

 paid, upon a very moderate calculation, to dis- milky juice by pressure ; it is then put into sacke 

 charge more than five hundred times as much of linen, and prcs.sed in a vat filled with cold wa- 

 vvater into the sea as falls in rains, &c. It w-oiild t*^'" i ^^ 1""F a^ any milky jfice exudes, the jn-es- 

 seern, t erefore, that there must subsist subterra- ! sure is continued; the fluid gradually beconieg 

 ncous communications between the sea and the 

 sources of fountains, rivers and larger s|)rings, by 

 which these are supplied ; and this opinion is cor- 

 roborated by the known existence of Charybdes, 

 which swallow the sea ; if these happen to be 

 stopped, the largest rivers have been said to be 

 dried up, and wholly ceased to run for a consid- 

 erable time. It js 'stated in Rees' Cyclopedia, 

 that there are accounts in history of this having 

 happened to the Thames, the Medway, and the 

 Trent, in England ; the Elve, the Motala, and 

 Gulspang, in Sweden ; and other rivers in other 

 countries. On the contrary, if these Charybdis 

 happen to be too open, fresh water springs de- 

 pending upon them become salt. Pliny relates, 

 that this once happened in Caria, near Neptune's 

 Temple. Various other instances have been stat- 

 ed by historians, ancient and modern. 



1 clear, and a white jiowder subsides, which is 

 \ starch.— Da. I's Elements of Agricrdlural Chcmis- 



Mclhod of preserving Cheese from li'orms and 

 Mites. — Grains of whole pepjier, put into a vessel 

 in which cheese is kept, will drive away the above 

 mentioned insects. 



Probably jiods of red pepper would answer the 

 same purpose. — Editor. 



Economy of Time The Chancellor D'Agues- 



sau, finding that bis wife always kept him waiting 

 a quarter of an hour after the dinner bell had 

 rung, resolved to devote the time to writing a 

 work on .Turisprudence. He put this project in 

 execution, and in the course of time produced a 

 quarto work of four volumes. 



