NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



99 



early harvest of nervous diseases, as well as render 

 their persons filthy and disgusting in polite society. 



Intemperance, also, despite all the efforts as yet 

 made to abolish it, still has its votaries ; and young 

 boys, not twelve years of age, are not too j'oung to 

 become the victims of strong drink. Let the infant 

 be fed with wine from the teaspoon — the prattUng 

 child hold the gin glass in his own little hand — let 

 the youth drink freely the well-mixed brandy and 

 rum, and bloat upon copious draughts of strong beer, 

 nor change his course up to manhood, and at the age 

 of twenty-five, you may behold iu his person the 

 infirmities of age. 



Eating late at night is also injurious to health. 

 After having taken regular meals through the day, 

 and the hour has arrived when the head should be 

 safely pillowed in the arms of " nature's sweet re- 

 storer," the young lad strays away (and some old 

 lads) with his associates to the oyster saloon, and 

 there imposes upon his already weaiy digestive 

 organs the additional task of oysters, clams, nuts, 

 pies, cakes, &c. Now, who will be at all surprised if 

 the remainder of the night is spent in restlessness 

 and frightful di-eams? The number is few, indeed, 

 that can retire upon a full meal and sleep without 

 interruption. Quiet rest is essential to the develop- 

 ment of the physical powers ; and to deny that these 

 and similar practices do Avaste the bodily energies, is 

 to contradict philosophy and experience. Admitting 

 then that such habits do us harm, it is not unreason- 

 able to infer that great advantage must accrue to 

 him, who, whUe in his youth, gives strict attention to 

 rules of temperance, and whose hours for labor, rec- 

 reation, and repose, are carefully prescribed. He who 

 has no si/sfcm of living, is like a noble ship at sea 

 without chart or compass, driven before the ever- 

 varying winds of appetite and passion. If he do not 

 split upon some rock of error, or go in pieces upon 

 some rugged shore of disease and pain, or float dis- 

 masted, unmanageable, and useless, upon the bosom 

 of life's great deep, he wiU at least make a hazardous 

 voyage, and reach the haven of longevity, as the 

 soldier escapes unscathed from the field of bloody 

 conflict, where ninety-nine of a hundred have fallen. 

 Let us then, my young friends, estimate the true 

 value of health, and carefully endeavor to promote it 

 by every suitable means. In a word, let our every 

 act be but a part of a complete system of habits and 

 duties, and it can scarcely be possible that we fail to 

 enjoy health, and secure its attendant blessings, down 

 to a good old age. More anon. M. H. A. 



Hallowell, Feb. 4. 

 — Maine Cultivator, 



i^ealtl) Department. 



Remedy for Asthma. — An individual who has 

 suffered much from asthma, and who has in vain 

 sought relief from regular physicians, wiahes us to 

 give publicity to the following remedy : — 



" Procure common blotting paper, and thoroughly 

 saturate it in a solution of nitre, (saltpetre,) and lot 

 it be carefully dried by the lire, or by exposure to 

 the rays of the sun. On retiring at night, ignite it, 

 and deposit it, burning, on a plate or square of sheet 

 zinc or iron in your bedroom." 



In many cases, it is said, this has enabled persons 

 painfully alflicted to enjoy their rest. — Maine Culti- 

 vator. 



Hundreds of nights within the last five years, 

 when the bitter pain widened the time in proportion 

 as respiration became more difficult — hundreds of 

 nights has the difficulty been lessened by a suspen- 



sion of what seemed an almost interminable agony 

 in the smoke of burning nitre. As a means of avert- 

 ing present suffering, the subscriber can recommend, 

 from his own experience, the use of saltpetre almost 

 identically prepared as above. Many times has he 

 lain down in a smoke condensed seemingly to the 

 smothering of a common healthy breather, and found 

 relief from the worst suffering. — lion. Isaac Hill. 



How TO rRESERVE IIealth. — Medicine will never 

 remedy bad habits. It is utterly futile to think of 

 living in gluttony, intemperance, and every excess, 

 and keeping the body in health by medicine. In- 

 dulgence of the appetite, indiscriminate dosing and 

 drugging, have ruined the health and destroyed the 

 lives of more persons than famine or pestilence. If 

 you will take advice, you will become regular in your 

 habits, eat and drink only wholesome things, sleep 

 on a mattress, and retire and rise very regularly. 

 Make a free use of water to purify the skin, and 

 when sick take counsel of the best physician you 

 know, and follow nature. 



ilTcdjanics' Pepartmcnt, Qivis, $^c. 



Difference between Iron and Steel. — Steel is 

 iron passed through a process which is called cemen- 

 tation, the object of which is to impregnate it with 

 carbon. Carbon exists more abundantly in charcoal 

 than in any other fusible substance, and the smoke 

 that goes up from a charcoal forge is carbon in a fluid 

 state. Now, if j'ou can manage to confine that 

 smoke, and put a piece of iron into it for several 

 days, and heat the iron at the same time, it will 

 become steel. Heating the iron opens its pores, so 

 that the smoke, or carbon, can enter into it. 



The furnace for this purpose is a conical building 

 of brick, in the middle of which are two troughs of 

 brick or stone, which hold about four tons of bar 

 iron. At the bottom is a large grate for the fire. A 

 layer of charcoal dust is put upon the bottom of the 

 troughs, then a layer of bar iron ; and so on alter- 

 nately, untU the troughs are full. They are then 

 covered over with clay, to keep out the air, which, 

 if admitted, would prevent the cementation. Fire is 

 then communicated to the wood and coal with which 

 the furnace is filled, and continued until the conver- 

 sion of the iron into steel is completed, which gen- 

 erally happens in about eight or ten days. This is 

 known by the blisters on the bars, which the work- 

 men occasionally draw out in order to determine. 

 When the conversion is completed, the fire is then 

 left to go out, and the bars remain in the furnace 

 about eight days more, to cool. 



The bars of steel are then taken out, and either 

 sold as blistered steel, or drawn to a convenient size, 

 when it is called tilted steel. German steel is made 

 out of this blistered steel, by breaking the bars into 

 short pieces, and welding them together, draAving 

 them down to a proper size for use. 



Substitute Paint Varnisji. — ReciiJe for a com- 

 position to economize paint. 



To one pound of gum shellac add four ounces of 

 borax and two quarts of water. Boil till dissolved. 

 These proportions may be varied according to the 

 quality of the materials used. After the paint is 

 prepared for use, add nearlj- an equal quantity of the 

 above, and stir until it unites. The paint will then 

 be thicker than before, and must be reduced with oil 

 or spirits of turpentine. The paint will now cover 

 twice the surface as at first. 



