VOL. XII. NO. 3. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



21 



1 Come, Tim, let me see your sample ?' So go- 

 ing to the threshing floor, he produces a handful 

 of wheat, which contained as many grains of rib- 

 bery and halls of smut, as of sound corn. Why, 

 Tim, how could you expect to get a good price for 

 such trash as this !' 



' Och, then, how can the likes of me help it ?' 

 Hav'nt I put it through the wind in the hill twice ; 

 the wife has our best quilt all as one as spoilt, sun- 

 ning it and picking it : 'tis a bad sample, plase yer 

 honor, but what can a body do, after doing his en- 

 deavor ?' 



'Tim, now for once be an honest man, and tell 

 the truth. Did you ever in all your life change 

 your seed, or did you ever steep your wheat before 

 sowing.' 



' Troth, sir, I never did. It's not for the likes 

 of me to be going after these new fangled ways; 

 my father, and he that went before him, did well 

 without any such doings ; this is the oultl Irish red 

 wheat, that is nathral to the land, and may be I'd 

 have no crop at-all-at-all, where I to be making 

 such ventures.' 



' Indeed ! — don't you see that my land is just 

 the same as yours ; but I manage a little better — 

 keep the ground a little clearer — change my seed 

 often — and always steep it to get rid of smut ; and 

 here is a sample of my red wheat, and observe that 

 there is neither smut, ball or ribery, mixed with it, 

 and it is therefore worth 16s. per barrel more than 

 yours, because its tail is not as black as yours is.' 



I cannot say that I was successful with Tim 

 Flannery ; perhaps I may be more so with the 

 reader, if he have occasion to sow wheat ; and the 

 practice, as adopted successfully in Flanders, in the 

 eradicating of smut, and which has also, to the 

 fullest extent succeeded in -Ireland, is this — To 

 dissolve a pound of Roman vitriol, or blue stone, 

 or sulphate of copper, in twenty gallons of water, 

 in a vessel containing about forty gallons ; steep as 

 much wheat in it as will allow two or three inches 

 of the solution to flow over the corn ; then leave 

 it, (skimming off the smut balls and light corn) for 

 one hour, and then raise it and rinse it in common 

 water, and dry it in the usual way with slacked 

 lime. In this way a large quantity of seed wheat 

 can successively be steeped ; and it is only neces- 

 sary occasionally, until our whole seed is picked, 

 to add some more blue stone, dissolved in the 

 same proportion of water, to make up for waste. 

 With these observations I shall conclude my agri- 

 cultural hints for the present. 



From the Family Lyceum. 

 BREAD MAKING. 



The business of making bread, is not enough 

 attended to in our country. The yeast is too often 

 not perfectly sweet, and when it has become sour, 

 alkaline substances, as salteratus, or pearlash, or 

 soda, do not restore it to its original fitness for the 

 process of fermenting the dough. Another defect 

 is, that the dough when put into the oven, is fre- 

 quently not enough, or too much fermented, the 

 consequence of which is, that the bread is rather 

 clammy or sour. Another, and almost universal 

 defect is, that the bread is not baked enough. The 

 thickness of the loaf may be too great for the heat 

 of the oven; or the heat may be so great, as to 

 burn or crisp the outside of the loaf, before the in- 

 ner parts are done. 



The whole vegetable kingdom is composed of 

 three simple elementary substances, viz : oxygen, 

 hydrogen and carbon. Of these three, starch is 



composed. And starch constitutes a large part of 

 must grains, and many roots ; into some of the 

 grains, especially wheat, and in less quantities of 

 rye, another substance, entirely unlike starch, en- 

 ters. This is called gluten, which is also com- 

 posed of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. 



The starch and gluten composing wheat can be 

 easily separated, either in grain or flour. The 

 starch is soluble in water, and the gluten is not ; 

 consequently, if kernels of wheat be retained in 

 the mouth a short time, the starch will be dissolved 

 and removed, leaving behind the gluten. Or if a 

 gill of wheat flour be put into a cup, and exposed 

 to repeated washings, pouring off the water after 

 it is applied, it will gradually dissolve, and car- 

 ry off the starch from the flour, leaving the 

 gluten by itself. The gluten is unlike starch in 

 being insoluble in water, but it is tenacious and 

 elastic resembling Indian rubber. 



To the gluten we are entirely indebted for light 

 bread. The flour of Indian corn, rice, potatoes, and 

 many other vegetables, though they may be used for 

 bread, can never be raised so as to make light 

 bread. In the process of fermenting bread, car- 

 lionic acid is formed, which is retained only by the 

 gluten, the starch permitting it to escape as fast as 

 made. 



The art of making bread, especially light bread, 

 then depends upon diffusing the yeast through it 

 equally ; in other words, thorough kneading it. 

 When that is done the carbonic acid is generated 

 in nearly equal quantities through the whole mass, 

 the gluten retaining it so as to render the bread 

 uniformly light. 



When the yeast is diffused unequally through the 

 mass, some portions of the dough are raised be- 

 fore others, leaving parts of it unraised, or heavy, 

 while other parts are carried so far as to become sour. 



From ih Piisburgk Advocate. 

 FACTORY GIRLS. 

 There is a great deal of mawkish sensibility in 

 the newspapers, about factory girls having to work 

 all day ; but there is nothing said as to the girls 

 who work in the kitchen, stooping for a long sum- 

 mer day over a wash-tub or a coal fire. These 

 things most abound in the English newspapers; 

 and in relation to that country, are doubtless cor- 

 rect. But the condition of our factory girls and 

 those of the English factory, differs as greatly as 

 the condition of the men employed at those facto- 

 ries in the respective countries. The strongest 

 men can hardly make a bare subsistence in those 

 factories, if the accounts from thence are to be re- 

 lied upon ; whilst, in this country, in many cases, 

 factory girls make from §3 to $4 per week. In 

 all cases they make a decent livelihood ; and in 

 all cases they prefer factory work to house work, 

 or to being confined all day and part of the night 

 to their needle. We sometimes see these English 

 accounts about factory girls, copied into our Amer- 

 ican newspapers, without such explanations as 

 should accompany them ; and occasionally we are 

 treated with a doleful ditty, something after the 

 manner of " Poor John Woods," to work upon 

 our feelings, and to show that a bell is a vastly 

 uncivil article with which to admonish people that 

 they ought to be at their work. The truth is, 

 there is much misery in all monarchical countries. 

 In England, especially, the poor are ground to the 

 dust. Such is the case as well among farmers as 

 manufacturers, and it extends itself through every 

 department of life, in which individuals have to 



earn their living by the work of their hands. — But 

 this thing of exciting prejudice against manufae-i 

 turing industry in the United States, because such 

 industry is not rewarded in England, is, to say the 

 least of it, altogether wrong. No freeman, deserv- 

 ing of the name, wishes to see labor so poorly re- 

 warded in this country as it is in England ; no 

 one wishes to see the time at which the workman 

 should not feel himself as independent as his em- 

 ployer, and as able to provide himself with a good 

 joint of meal for his dinner and that of his family. 

 No one wishes to see our workmen ground down 

 to a state of half pauperism. Hence it is that the 

 protective system was so warmly supported in 

 Pittsburgh, and in every other large manufacturing 

 community. If the time shall come, at which our 

 manufacturers will be left without adequate pro- 

 tection against those of England, our factory girls 

 and factory men too, wtll have had times. Mourn- 

 ful ditties will then be applicable. 



CURIOUS EFFECTS OP LIGHTNING. 



We learn from Waltham, that during a severe 

 thunder storm, on the afternoon of the 8th inst. 

 the Waltham Factory was struck with lightning. 

 The fluid passed down the rod on the small facto- 

 ry until it reached the part of the roof to which 

 the forcing pump is attached. It then separated, 

 a portion of it passing through the roof upon the 

 pump pipe, and making quite a hole. Another 

 portion passing along the rod until it reached the 

 dressing room window, where the copper pipe 

 was resting almost upon the glass; it passed 

 through the window, breaking ten panes of glass, 

 and melting the end of the pipe; the remainder of 

 the charge passed into the ground near the picker. 

 There is a pipe which leads from the forcing pump 

 at the bottom into the size-room, to convey water; 

 and another that leads from the boiler in a wooden 

 box under ground to convey steam. The pipe 

 ends near the furnace. As the fluid passed down 

 the pump pipe, it struck the boiler, and knocked 

 off some of the bricks — passed along the steampipe 

 to the large mill — went up the furnace, and smoke 

 pipe — passed along the hot air-pipe on the floor — 

 ignited a number of pieces of cotton waste — blew 

 off and split the cap on the top of the upright shaft, 

 and passed down to the water wheel ! Both mills 

 were in operation at the time, but no person was 

 in the least injured! 



We think the circumstances above narrated, 

 clearly prove the power and efficacy of lightning 

 rods, provided they are judiciously treated. Had 

 not the forcing pump been placed almost in con- 

 tact with the conductor, all the electric fluid would 

 undoubtedly have been conveyed to the ground 

 without doing any injury. But the pump being 

 of iron, also acted as a conductor, and performed 

 its duty so faithfully, that it actually conveyed a 

 portion of the fluid from the top to the bottom of 

 the building, then under ground, a distance of 20 

 or 30 yards to another building, and the conse- 

 quences from this circumstance had nearly proved 

 serious. — Lowell Journal. 



NEW CEMENT. 



The late conquest of Algiers by the French, has 

 made known a new cement, used in the public 

 works in that City. It is composed of two parts 

 of ashes, three of clay and one of sand ; this com- 

 position, called by the Moors Fabbi, being again 

 mixed with oil, resists the inclemencies of the 

 weather better than marble itself; 



