V6l.. XI. NO. 35. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOUIlNAL. 



27.5 



can be procured, or vegetulile mould, tliey apiiear 

 io be tiie best of top-dressings, if aujiiKUed eitlier 

 by a mixture of linie rubhisli, or witli ashes and 

 aniiiialized matter, collected front streets and com- 

 mon sewersw Peats mixed witli Tniie for a twelve 

 month, and used as a top-dressing, did no good 

 for several years, while fat earth treated in the 

 same way did a great deal inmiediately. 



Peat ashes were not found to ferment peat, nor 

 to operate as a manure, except for a single year, 

 when they did raise turnips. In England they 

 nre, in some districts, used as a top-dressing for 

 wheat ; but the late very accurate chemist Dr. 

 Kenedy, found those there employed contained 

 sulphate of lime, (gypsum) in a large proportion ; 

 whereas it was only in a very small one that any 

 gypsum was found in the compost. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 SOAP. 



As this is the season of the year when most of 

 ^our housekeepers attend to making soft soap for 

 the use of the family, we trust a few observations 

 Jiiay be acceptable. 



Much difficulty is frequently experienced in this 

 l)usiness, and many vulgar errors have been con- 

 nected with it ; and we have heard vvomeu declare 

 that they believed their soap was bewitched. When 

 the principles are once understood, the whole pro- 

 cess is easy and simple. First, then, it is proper 

 tliat housekeepers should know the properties of 

 the component parts of soap. 



There are two fixed alkalies used in soap mak- 

 iiig, viz. potash and soda. Potash is called the veg- 

 etable, and soda the mineral alkali. Either of 

 these alkalies will unite with grease and form 

 soaps; potash and grease make soft soap only, 

 but soda and grease make hard soap. Both these 

 alkalies have a strong affinity for acids — uniting 

 with them, and forming what is generally called 

 neutral salts. Thus potash and nitric acid form 

 saltpetre; soda and sulphuric acid form glauber 

 salts, and soda and muriatic aeid, or spirits of salt, 

 form common salt. 



Now no woman in her senses would think of 

 making soap with either of these salts ; and yet the 

 base of either, when separated from the acid, 

 would form when mixed with grease, as good 

 soap as if they had never been united. 



There is also another acid which combines with 

 these alkalies, which will equally prevent their 

 uniting with grease as either of the before men- 

 tioned acids — that is carbonic. Now this acid is 

 continually floating in the atmosphere unseen, and 

 will combine with potash or soda wlienever it 

 comes in contact, forming a carbonate of soda or 

 potash — neither of which will unite with grease 

 to form soap. 



Much of the difficulty which house-keepei's 

 meet with in soap making, arises from their ley 

 having become more or less saturated with car- 

 bonic acid. Ashes which have laid long in a 

 damp place, or become damp by any other means, 

 will absorb carbonic acid, or if the ley is allowed 

 to stand too long after it is leached in an open ves- 

 sel, the same thing will take place. Lime is often 

 placed in the bottom of tlie leach, and but few can 

 tell why they do it. If the question is asked, the 

 reply is — because it makes the ley clearer. Lime 

 lias a stronger affinity for carbonic acid than pot- 

 ash has, and of course will separate it from it. 

 Common limestone is lime and carbonic acid; — 

 when limestone is burned in a kiln, the carbonic 



Mcid is separated by heat, and quicklime is formed. 

 Now if this quick or fresh-burnt lime is placed in 

 the bottom of the leach and the ley made to pass 

 through it, it becomes purified from the acid, and 

 the only thing necessary then to have it unite with 

 grease, is to have it of sufficient strength. This 

 may be ascertained by its specific gravity— to learn 

 which, put a new laid egg into it ; if the egg floats, 

 the ley is strong enough ; if it sinks, the ley must 

 either be evaporated by boiling, or by again leach- 

 ing it through ashes. — The grease made use of is 

 the refuse fat of animals, and before it is united 

 Willi the ley, should be freed from all the salt by 

 boiling it in water. The quantity necessary for a 

 barrel of good soap is about sixteen pounds, or 

 half a pound to a gallon. 



Soap, when well made, should be thick and 

 salve-like, capable of being spread thin upon cloth 

 without flaking or rolling offi If to such soap 

 about an equal quantity of soft water is added, the 

 soap becomes hard and liver-like, capable of being 

 taken up in the hand. This many think is desir- 

 able, — especially the soap-boilers who make it for 

 sale, as they make double the profit they would on 

 the other quality. 



Some housekeepers practice making their own 

 hard soap. This is done by adding salt to the 

 soap after it is well made, while it is yet boiling. 

 The effect is thus explained. Salt is soda and 

 muriatic acid. Potash has a stronger affinity for 

 muriatic acid than soda has, and when they come 

 in contact, as in this case, the potash decomposes 

 the salt and combines with the muriatic acid, liarm- 

 ing a muriate of potash — leaving the soda pure to 

 form a hard soap with the grease ; the muriate of 

 potash will be found on cooling, in solution at the 

 bottom, being of greater specific gravity than the 

 soa|i. The salt should be added by small quanti- 

 ties until the separation takes place, which may 

 be known by the soap becoming curdled ; after 

 which it should be allowed to stand until cold, 

 when it may be cut into bars or cakes, as suits the 

 operator. Many suppose that rosin is necessary 

 to harden the soap. This is not the case, it is 

 used as a matter of profit — not of necessity. 



The common yellow color of soft soap is owing 

 to the iron contained in it, as the oxide of iron is 

 dissolved by potash. Where white soap is desir- 

 able, it may be made by substituting pearlash or 

 carbonate of potash, and abstracting carbonic acid 

 by lime — and by using lard or other white grease, 

 the purest white soap may be made. 



ITEMS OP Economy, arts. &c. 



To make Green Wax. — Take two ounces of 

 bees-wax, melt it, add one ounce of verditer ; lei 

 the pipkin be large eilough as it will immediately 

 boil lip; stir it well, and add one quarter of an ounce 

 rosin: it will be sufficiently hard and fit for use. — 

 Kennebec Farmer. 



Cheap Wash or paint. — In answer to the inquiry 

 of your correspondent W, in page 17, as to a white 

 wash for fences and out-houses, I ofler the follow- 

 recipe. 



To six gallons of hot water add three pounds of 

 soap, three pintsof oil of turpentine, or something 

 like these proportions, and of white clay enough 

 to make a wash of the proper consistency, which 

 apply with a common vvhite wash brush, stirring 

 up and mixing the ai tides frequently with a slick. 

 A red p.iint may be made by useing red clay in- 

 stead of white. Every part of the country in 

 wliich I reside, affords fine clays for these purjioses ( 



and I presume they are to be found every 

 where. 



The expense of painting in this way a house 

 of one story, 20 feet square, roof and walls, with 

 two coats, I have estimated in labor and iriaterials, 

 at from four to five dollars, and the paint or wash 

 is in a good degree neat, durable and useful; — - 

 .American Farmer. 



Scientific Excursion. We understand that Mr. 

 Browne, whose efforts in the cause of Natural 

 History we have often noticed in our columns, is 

 prosecuting the excursion which his friends re- 

 cently enabled him to undertake with great suc- 

 cess. He has found several important portions of 

 the Southern coast to a good degree unexplored 

 by the Naturalist. We feel confident that his 

 tour will |)rove highly satisfactory to all concerned. 



PIiASTER AND LEACHED ASHES, 



Mr. Goodsell. — I have observed inyourpapei" 

 much said on the effects of plaster. From my 

 own experience, lam much in favor of plaster. I 

 use from three to five tons yearly; and when I 

 apply it to corn, which I have done for three years) 

 past, I mix it with one half leached ashes, as they 

 are leached for common family use, put it in a cart 

 and shovel and mix it well. I then put one gill to 

 the hill immediately after the first hoeing, and the 

 same thing over after the second hoeing. I have 

 tried the same quantity of clear plaster, side and 

 side twice, and find the mixture to produce the 

 greatest effects. The two ingredients, when mixed 

 appear to produce a much greater power of attrae- 

 tion. My neighbors tried it last season, to great 

 satisfaction, and will hereafter use them mixed 

 even if the cost were the same. 



Genesee Farmer. J. SPICER. 



FUNGI. 



The natural history of these plants is replete 

 with interest, and they are constantly laboring fof 

 the general advantage. The quickness of their 

 growth, says Professor Burnet, is astonishing, and 

 the rapidity of their increase all but past belief. — 

 The bovista, or full-puft"-ball, has been computed 

 to grow at the rate of many million cells per minute, 

 upwards of a million per second ; and to be, when 

 at maturity, so many times larger than when be-' 

 gining to germinate that figures shrink from the ex- 

 pression of the sum; and Fries asserts that he has 

 counted in a single individual plant of the smaller 

 kind called smuts, ten millions (!) sporales, so sub." 

 tile that they rise into the air like smoke; and hence, 

 although lost in astonishment at their prolific pow- 

 eis,our wonder ceases that they should be every 

 where dispersed and colonize every spot that af- 

 fords fit niitrihient for their growth. There are 

 three groUpsor orders of fungi ; blights, blasts, and 

 mildews; puff-balls, truffles, &c. and mushrooms 

 and toadstools. 



In George Shaw's garden (under keeper to the 

 Hon. Mrs. C. OlHey, at Madeley,) were grown this 

 year, from three roots, the following potatoes. In 

 number 367, weight 72 lbs. anil upon a square yard 

 of land : one of them weighed 2^ lbs. and twenty 36 

 lbs. the whole as above. — Staffordshire (Eng.) Mv^ 



Cotton. — Letters from New Orleans say that the 

 news of the capture of the Castle of Antwerp, 

 which reached there from Havre on the 12!)i, pro 

 duced ipiite a stir in the cotton market, 6000 bale* 

 having been sold after dark. 



