PRACTICAL FARMER. 



Native Silk Manufacture. — '■ Two skeins of 

 sewing silk liave been exliibitcid to us by Mr Cal- 

 vin Messenger of this town, which are the pro- 

 finct of worms fed upon the mull)erry planted by 

 him two years since. The silk was manufactured 

 by Mrs Messenger on a common s[)iiiuing wheel, 

 4iud wound frotii the cocoons by the aid ofacom- 

 moii reel. Mis M^ has had no other infoi-mation 

 in relation to the mode of manufacturing silk, ex- 

 cept what she derived from books, and has been 

 enabled to gatiier casually from others — no ex- 

 perimental knowledge. One' of the skeins we 

 examined was wound from 100 cocoons, the other 

 from 200. The former, although of even anduui- 

 ferm texture, is not sufficient sized thread for com- 

 mon use: the latter, in our opinion, is equal in 

 size, texture, and beauty of manufacture, to any 

 we have ever examined. \v'e hail these frst fruits 

 of Mr M's success as an omen of the triumph of 



lht> sJllU |>usm<i^s iu New EngiaoJ. A^ctv Il'ttnp 



shire Argus, 



War with the Locusts. — Ibrahim Pacha 

 Governor of Syria — who, if we mistake not, has 

 formerly distinguished himseif in arms against 

 .men — has latterly added to his brow a new 

 wreath of glory by his achievements against the 

 locusts. 



In the beginning of the summer, there was such 

 a prodigious flight of locusts as to threaten all the 

 crops with certain destruction. Hereupon the 

 brave Pacha ordered out his troops, putting hintself 

 at their head, scoured the country, lie also put 

 in requisition all the [)0]Hilation of Aleppo, and 

 some other districts; and dividing then^ into sec- 

 tions, compelled them to march against the lo- 

 custs. 



The conse<picnce was, that after an uninter- 

 rupted war of forty days, the enemy were com- 

 pletely vanquished. The number of slain wasim- 

 mejise — or, perha;>s we siiould rather say the 

 quantity of the s'ain — for they were measured — 

 not iiuinhered. According to a statement drawn 

 up bv Ibrahim, there were 482,160 ardobs. Each 

 ardel) is equal to eight bushels. The whole amount 

 therefore, was no less than 3,517,280 bushels «)f 

 slain locusts; wliich would make a pile equal to 

 all the man slain by Julius Caesar in all his wars. 



Warm Clothing vs. Croup. — Eberle in his 

 excellent work on the diseases of chiidren, says, 

 the mode of clothing infants with their necks and 

 uijj.er part of the breast bare, cannot fail to render 

 them more subject to the influence of cold, and its 

 dangerous consequences. In this country, espe- 

 cially among the Germans, who are in the habit 

 of clothing their children in such a manner, as to 

 leave no part of the breast and lower portion of 

 the neck exposed, Croup is an exceeding rare dis- 



ease. Whereas in cities, or among people who 

 adopt the mode of dress common in cities, this 

 frightful disease is, in proportion to the population, 

 vastly more frequent. During a practice of six 

 years among the ' Pennsylvania Dutch,' he met 

 with but a single case of this affection ; and this 

 case occurred in a family, who bad adopted the 

 present universal mode of suffering the neck and 

 superior i)art of the breast to remain uncovered, — 

 Bait. Trans. 



Quick Work. — We were yesterday an eye 

 witness to a specimen of despatch, which, had it 

 not fallen under our own inspection, we should 

 have heen sceptical in delieving. It was the op- 

 eration, at the Fair of the American Institute, of 

 reducing wheat in straw, to baked bread in ten 

 minutes. The process was as follows : — Twelve 

 bundles of straw were placed in u machine in the 



gardun. ■wtttoli otxiuc tint thitrolicrl iir» « tniniito unci 



a half; the winnowing was effected in a minute; 

 the grinding and bolting occupied a minute and a 

 half: the dough was kneaded and the cakesform- 

 ed in tvvo minutes. The whole contents of the 

 twelve bundles were placed in a kitchen range, 

 and came out thoroughly baked in f<iur minntes 

 — making, in the whole, ten minutes. The cakes 

 were distributed around", and they only wante<l the 

 aid of a cooler, and a few pounds of Goshen but- 

 ter to have been swallowed in another minute, 

 without the aid of mastication. — ^JV*. Y. Gaz. 



Carbonic acid in the air. — Dr. Dalton, an 

 English physician, who has for years turned his 

 attention to the amount of carhonic acid in the at- 

 mosphere, says that he has satisfied himself that its 

 average quantity in one part in 1,000. He is also 

 of o[)mion that the quantity of this gas in the at- 

 mosphere is constantly the same in town ai^d coun- 

 try, and that even in a crowded theatre it seldom 

 rises to one per cont. 



Advantages OF Railroads, — During the last 

 war, a Company of volunteers left Balti'nore for 

 the Capitol — and by forced marches reached 

 Biadtjnsburg in two days and a halfi A few days 

 since, a volunteer Company left Baltimore in the 

 morning in the rail road cars, arrived at Wash- 

 ington, and spent a greater portion of the day in 

 that city, and returned home at an early hour in 

 the evening. This circumstance shows the im- 

 mense advantage which vvoidd result from the use 

 of rail roads, in the event of a war with a foreign 

 power. 



Method of preserving Cheese from Worms 

 AND Mites. — Grains of whole pepper, put into a 

 vessel in which cheese is kept, will drive away 

 the above mentioned insects. 



