No. 12. 



Medicated Tar. 



367 



disposes the Eleaine or Stearine to separate 

 from each other, which they do, after long 

 boiling and subsequent cooling. I do not, 

 therefore, claim the use of alcohol in separa- 

 ting Eleaine and Stearine from each other by 

 dissolving the fatty matter in heated alcohol 

 and by subsequently cooling the solution ; but 

 what I do claim as of my invention and wish 

 to secure by letters patent, is, the within-de- 

 scribed method of effectively promoting their 

 separation by incorporating alcohol, or highly 

 rectified spirits, with the lard in small pro- 

 portionate quantities, say a gallon, more or 

 less, of said alcohol or spirits, to eighty gal- 

 lons of lard, and then boiling the mixture for 

 several hours, by which boiling, the whole of 

 the alcohol will be driven off, but will have 

 left the Eleaine and Stearine with a disposi- 

 tion to separate from each other on a subse- 

 quent cooling, as herein indicated and made 

 known. (Signed) John H. Smith." 



Messrs. Willis Martin & Co., DiJlwyn Street, Phi- 

 ladelphia, have, for a long time, been engaged in pre- 

 paring in great purity ami by a process peculiar to 

 themselves, the Eleaine or lard-oil, which has been 

 sold under various names, but chiefly as olive-oil for 

 manufaeturing purposes, and which, in the dressing 

 of cloths, has been found quite equal if not superior 

 to every other. They still continue the manufacture, 

 and are furnishing, at $1 00 per gallon retail, or 75 

 cents per gallon by the barrel, a very beautiful article 

 for lamps, which upon a fair and extended trial we 

 feel prepared to recommend to general notice. Jt 

 gives a far brighter light than does whale-oil at tlie 

 same price, emits neither smoke or smell during the 

 burning or at the time of extinguishing, and seems in 

 other respects preferable to all other, excepting, per- 

 haps, the highest refined sperm-oil, which, however, is 

 only two degrees more in levity — a property hy which 

 lamp-oil is to be judged — but many degrees higher in 

 price than Eleaine. Messrs. M. are not yet prepared 

 to manufacture candles from the Stearine, but we 

 wouid recommend our friends to make trial of the lard- 

 oil— which will be supplied either by the barrel, gallon 

 or quart— in the expectation that they will find it a 

 very excellent article, and by far preferable to tish-oil 

 at the same price. En. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Medicated Tar. 



Mr. Editor, — I find that some years ago 

 the gardener of the Duke of Portland, Mr. 

 W. Speechley, discovered an effectual modp 

 of ridding trees and other vegetables of the 

 blight insect by the following dressing. He 

 look one pound of quicksilver, upon which he 

 poured boiling water, which, after agitating 

 for a considerable time, he poured off for use. 

 To every gallon of this mercurial water he 

 then added six ounces of soft soap, with which 

 he washed the trees and plants, and an effect- 

 ual cure is said to have followed. But Mr. 

 M'Mahon very shrewedly observes, " mer- 

 cury is not soluble in any degree in water, 



but if corrosive sublimate be substituted for 

 crude mercury, there would be no doubt of 

 its efficacy." Whatever good has arisen, 

 therefore, from washing with the saponified 

 mercurial water, must have proceeded from 

 the soap, or more properly from the alkali 

 contained in the soap, by which the acidity 

 arising from the diseased plants was neutral- 

 ized, all putricity being found to be highly 

 charged with oxygen, which is the basis of 

 acidity, or the acidifying principle. From 

 the above, then, it would appear that Mr, 

 Hagerston's discovery of the whale-oil soap 

 is not original, effectual as it might have 

 proved for the destruction of the blight in- 

 sects on plants; and that in all probability a 

 saponified solution of corrosive sublimate 

 would prove far more effectual for the pur- 

 pose than merely whale-oil soap dissolved in 

 water. 



In the 5th volume of the Cabinet, page 

 118, there is a most interesting article on the 

 management of orchards, where mention 

 is made of " medicated tar" for the purpose 

 of dressing wounds made in the body or limbs 

 of trees while eradicating canker, and which, 

 there is no doubt would be found highly ben- 

 eficial ; I would suggest, however, the addi- 

 tion of soap to the corrosive sublimate before 

 mixing with the tar; which would in all 

 probability be then found perfectly effective 

 when applied to the limbs and bodies of trees, 

 while a solution of the sublimated soap with- 

 out the tar, would be better adapted to the 

 cleansing of the leaves. By turning to the 

 page above mentioned, it will be found that 

 half an ounce of corrosive sublimate in pow- 

 der, dissolved in alcohol and mixed with 

 three pints of tar, would be found sufficient 

 for the dressing of 200 diseased trees; much, 

 of course, depending upon their size and state 

 of health. It is also recommended to use the 

 medicated tar in simple pruning, anointing 

 the parts as soon as the knite has passed ; and 

 no doubt the use of it would be found of great 

 importance as a dressing after the eradication 

 of worms from peach and other trees, as also 

 while pruning the canker from diseased 

 branches of the plum and cherry. The mix- 

 ture might be thickened by an addition of 

 fuller's earth or fine clay. C. D. 



May 31, 1842. 



Manure for Cranberries. 



When these are cultivated in gardens or 

 fields of firm land, use for manure the muck 

 or mud from the bogs where they grow spon- 

 taneously ; by these means full crops of this 

 most valuable fruit may be procured with 

 the greatest certainty and at little cost or 

 trouble, and of superiour flavour. 



