214 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



THE UTILITY OF LEAVES. 



Every person conversant with vegetable philoso- 

 phy is aware that the all important requisite in the 

 growth of fine fruit is a good supply of big, vigor- 

 ous, healthy leaves. A tree which is kept defoli- 

 ated for a single season must die; and fruit grow- 

 ing upon branches which are deprived of their 

 leaves cannot ripen — examples of which are fur- 

 nished by the instant cessation of growth and 

 ripening of fruit on trees which become stripped by 

 leaf blight. In one instant, a dense mass of plums 

 remained half grown and flavorless for several weeks 

 in consequence of the permature dropping of the 

 foliage — a second crop of leaves, three weeks after- 

 wards, effected the completion of their growth and 

 their ripening to honied sweetness. The editor ot 

 the Michigan Farmer mentions the following in- 

 teresting case, illustrating the same principle: Mr. 

 More, of Detroit, has a magnificent grape vine, 

 spreading itself over one side of his house, which 

 was in September richly laden with fruit. After 

 the clusters were formed, a cow entered the enclo- 

 sure, ate the leaves entirely, but left the fruit un- 

 touched. The consequence was that upon that portion 

 of the vine which was beyond the reach of the animal , 

 there never were finer clusters, while upon the 

 portion from which the leaves were removed, the 

 clusters dwindled away, and have come to nothing; 

 and that, too, up to the very line of separation be- 

 tween the mutilated and unmutilated portions. 



iUciljanics' Clfpirtiucnt, ^rt3, ^t. 



HORSE SHOEING. 



The following exceedingly sensible remarks are 

 from the pen of Mr. Miles, veterinary surgeon to 

 the Queen of England's Lite Guards, and author of 

 several valuable veterinary works. We commend 

 them most particularly to the notice of every per- 

 son who has that valuable, and almost indispensa- 

 ble animal, the horse, in his charge. 



"The shoes of the horse should be of equal thick- 

 ness throughout, with a flat ground surface, as those 

 with high heels, which asinine smiths make in im- 

 itation of their own, are dangerously absurd. The 

 toe, which ought to be raised, is thus lowered, and 

 nature's plan reversed, whicli elevates the point in 

 order to avoid obstructions. The web should be 

 wide, and of the same width throughout, instead of 

 being pinched in, because the vulcan operator likes 

 to see the shoe well set off at the heels. This is 

 both unphilosophical and detrimental; it deceives 

 the eye of man, and injures the foot of the horse. 

 The ou/er edge of the foot rests on the inner edge 

 of the shoe, and the remaining width of the web 

 projects beyond the hoof; so that the master who 

 thinks his horse has a good open foot, only has to 

 be proud of a bad open shoe, which both conceals 

 deformities underneath, and invites with open 

 arms a bad road to come and do its worst. The 

 heels are made bare just where the navicular joint 

 is most exposed; and if that be inflamed, what must 

 the agony be when the unprotected foot treads on 

 a sharp flint? The horse falls suddenly lame, or 

 drops as if he had been shot — piirases in much too 

 common use to require explanation; and small is 

 the pity which the suflbring animal meets with 

 from 'Pin. who, having first destroyed the use of 



his victim's feet, abuses him because he cannot go; 

 and imputes 'grogginess' to him as a crime, as if 

 he were in liquor like a groom, and not in agony." 



— American Agriculturist. 



TO DYE IVORY. 



In many branches of business it is very desirable 

 to know how to color ivory. The red balls of the 

 billiard tal)lc, and the red colored chessmen, are ev- 

 idences that the art of coloring ivory is known to 

 many, but the number is not numerous, and we 

 have not been able to find anything said, satisfacto- 

 rily, on the subject, in any printed work. The 

 Chinese appear to be the most eminent in making 

 fancy ivory articles, and they color them with 

 great taste, but red appears to be the only color 

 for which they are distinguished, and it is the pre- 

 dominant one — the red and white forming the va- 

 rieties. We have had our attention called to the 

 subject lately, and we present the following as the 

 result of experiments: — 



Red Color. — The hands should be washed in 

 soap and water to free them from any grease that 

 may be on them; the ivory should be washed in 

 some cold strong soap suds, and then well rinsed 

 in cold water. A clean copper or brass dipper, or 

 any small copper vessel, filled with soft water, 

 should be placed on a fire and kept boiling, with 

 some ground cochineal, for about ten minutes, 

 (about two tea-spoonsful of the cochineal will dye 

 three billard balls.) After it has been boiled for 

 this length of time, add a pinch of cream of tartar, 

 between the fingers, and six drops of the muriate 

 of tin, (if the tin cannot be obtained a little alum 

 will answer;) this is all stirred about and the ivo- 

 ry put in. After the ivory has boiled about one 

 minute, it is taken out and dipped in a vessel of 

 clean cold water, and then put into the boiling co- 

 chineal for the same length of time and taken out 

 again. It is thus dipped in and taken out of the 

 boiling cochineal, until it attains a beautiful red 

 color, when it is well washed in warm water, and 

 rubbed over with a white cloth which has been 

 lightly greased. Care must be taken not to use 

 too much cream of tartar or the chloride of tin, for 

 these substances injure the surface of the ivory. — 

 Those who do not care about the price of the co- 

 chineal, may use four tea-spoonsful, and the ivory 

 will be colored quicker. The greater the amount 

 of dye stuff used the deeper will he the color. 



Black. — For this color the ivory should be 

 cleansed the same as for red. An iron or tin ves- 

 sel may be used to dye this color. Take about 

 four ounces of ground logwood, and boil it for fif- 

 teen minutes, then add one-fourth of an ounce of 

 copperas, and put in the ivory and boil it gently 

 for about ten minutes, when it may be taken out 

 and washed. If the color appears slaty (light,) 

 more logwood should be added, and the ivory 

 boiled some time longer. The ivory can also be 

 dyed black by boiling it for about ten minutes in 

 the same quantity of copperas as that mentioned, 

 and a little of the bicliromate of potash, then airing 

 the ivory and boiling it in the logwood afterwards. 

 When the color is deep enough it must be washed 

 and rubbed with a greasy cloth, when it will ap- 

 pear jet black. 



These two colors are the most common in ivory 

 articles, especially the red. Ivory is bleached 

 white by exposing it to the sun, after being washed 



