NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



391 



iilletl)amcs' Slcpartmcnt, ^its, ^c. 



PAPER FROM FliAX. 



A great part of the printing paper used in this 

 country is made from foreign rags — the nations of 

 cultivated Europe having more of the raw material 

 than is needed for the very limited amount of papei 

 which their despots permit them to enjoy. These 

 rags often come to us freighted with filth, infection 

 and disease. Repeatedly has an extensive district 

 been scourged with the small-pox, or other pesti- 

 lence, derived through a paper-mill from these in- 

 fectious rags. Our paper is inferior to the English 

 because its stock is mainly cotton, while that of 

 the English is linen. 



A little entei prise and inventive genius might 

 effect a happy change here, in the substitution of 

 flax lint for cotton rags as the basis for paper. — 

 Flax may be grown profitably at ten dollars per 

 ton for the unrotted straw or stalk, of which six 

 tons yield a ton of lint or fibre, making the cost of 

 growing the fibre three cents per pound. This 

 can be broken out and dressed for about one cent 

 per pound more. We think Clemen's Machine, 

 now on exhibition at the Castle Garden Fair, will 

 do this, and we do not consider that perfection. A 

 mere trifle — say half a cent at the outside — will 

 defray the cost of bleaching and softening that 

 fibre so as to fit it admirably for paper-making. — 

 These are but approximations, yet we feel confi- 

 dent that, on an extensive scale, and with the best 

 machinery, flax lint, suited to the manufacture of 

 paper, may be produced for less than five cents per 

 pound, which is certainly less than an inferior ar- 

 ticle of clean white rags can be bought for. Will 

 not our great paper-makers look into this matter? 

 — New-York Tribune. 



FIRE VARNISH. 



The Paris correspondent of the St. Louis Re- 

 publican says: 



"An important discovery, even better than Mr. 

 Phillips's famous extinguisher, is the fire varnish 

 recently brought out by a Spaniard, Don Jose 

 Gueseda. It was first tried at Matanzas in the 

 presence of the Governor and city authorities, and 

 succeeded to the admiration of everybody. It has 

 since been tried at Madrid. Five small frame 

 houses, covered with tar and turpentine, were 

 erected in an open square. Two of these houses 

 were covered with the varnish and the others were 

 not. The latter were reduced to ashes almost as 

 soon as they were set on fire, whereas the former, 

 in spite of the tar and turpentine, remained perfect- 

 ly uninjured to the end of the trial, which lasted 

 two hours. The trial was the more severe as the 

 five houses were close together, and all of them 

 were on fire in the inside, but the flames did not 

 break forth at all from the varnished houses; be- 

 sides this, in the midst of the conflagration, two 

 gallons of some strong essence was thrown upon 

 the varnished houses and they were immediately 

 entirely enveloped in flames ; but when the liquid 

 was exhausted, the walls appeared perfectly intact 

 as before. Don Gueseda is about to get out a pa- 

 tent for this wonderful varnish, which he says 

 will become as cheap as it is valuable, and^he can 

 put it within the reach of everybody." 



Boji'3 llJi'pavtnicnt. 



REMEMBER THIS, BOYS. 



Will the young men whose evenings are now 

 spent on store boxes and other places of idle re- 

 sort, or in idleness even at home, read and reflect 

 upon the following 1 



"I learned grammar," said William Cobbett, 

 who became an eminent printer and writer, "when 

 I was a private soldier on sixpence a day. The 

 edge of my guard-bed was my seat to study in, my 

 knapsack was my book-case, and a board lying on 

 my lap was my desk. I had no money to buy can- 

 dles or oil; in winter it was rarely that I could get 

 any light but that of the fire, and only my turn 

 even at that. To buy a pen or a sheet of paper, I 

 was compelled to forego a portion of food, though 

 in a state of starvation. 1 had no moment at that 

 time that I could call my own, and I had to read 

 and wiite amid talking, singing, whistling and 

 bawling of at least half a score of the most thought- 

 less of men, and that too, in hours of freedom from 

 control. And I say, if I, under circumstances 

 like these, could encounter and overcome the task, 

 can there be in the whole world, a youth who can 

 find excuse for non-performance 1" 



LION CATCHING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Mr. Lemue, who formerly resided at Motito, and 

 is familiar with the Kalliharri country, assured 

 me that the remarkable accounts sometimes circu- 

 lated as to the people of that part of Africa catcJiing 

 lions by the tail, and of which I confess I was very 

 incredulous, were perfectly true. He well knows 

 that the method prevailed, and was certainly not 

 uncommon among the people. Lions would some- 

 times become extremely dangerous. Having be- 

 come accustomed to human flesh, they would not 

 willingly eat anything else. When a neighbor- 

 hood became infested, the men would determine on 

 the measures to be adopted to rid themselves of the 

 nuisance; then forming themselves into a band, 

 they would proceed in search of their royal foe, and 

 beard the lion in the lair. Standing close by one 

 another, the lion would make his spring on some 

 one of the party — every man, of course, hoping he 

 might escape the attack — when instantly others 

 would dash forward and seize his tail, lifting it up 

 close to the body with all their might; thus not 

 only astonishing the animal, and absolutely taking 

 him off his guard, but rendering his efforts power- 

 less for the moment; while others closed in with 

 their spears, and at once stabbed the m.onster 

 through and through. — Rev. J. J. Freeman''s Tour 

 in South Africa. 



HONOR AND PROFIT OF INDUSTRY. 



The greatest of men have been trained up to 'hoork 

 with their hands.''^ If there is an encouraging sen- 

 tence in the English language, it is the above. 

 God ordained that man should live by '^ the sweat of 

 his face,'''' and intelligence can breathe and live 

 only in a being of an active life. Aikenside, the 

 author of "The Pleasures of Imagination," was a 

 butcher until twenty-one, and first took to study 

 from being confined in his room, by the fall of a 

 cleaver. Marshal Ney was the sou of a cooper; 

 Roger Sherman, Allan Cunningham, and Gifford, 

 were shoemakers; Sir William Herschell was a 



