THE GENESEE FARMER 



269 



Mr. Emtou : — I herewith send you a sample of currant 

 wine, made a year ago, in accordance with the recipe an- 

 nexed. It deemed worthy of note, it is at your service: 



Select good ripe currants, and bruise theui tlioroughly ; 

 strain the juice tiirougli a close bag ; to a quait of juice 

 idd two quarts of water and three pounds of common 

 brown sugar ; let the cask or keg be thoroughly clean, and 

 (ill it full ; have a sufficient quantity of liquid to replace 

 as the fermentaiion proceeds ; and when the scum ceases 

 to rise bung the cask firmly, and in a few months you will 

 have very pleasant, refreshing native wine. 



July, 1S54. 



The currant wine received with the above note is a capi- 

 tal beverage for this hot weather, when properly diluted 

 with cold water. Sweet black cherries make an excellent 

 wine ; and the business is capable of indefinite extension. 



Sale of IIokses in New York. — A sale of valuable 

 horses recently took place at the " New York Tattersall's," 

 in Sixth avenue. Nearly a thousand persons were in at- 

 tendance, and the bidding was active. From twelve to 

 fifteen horses were up during the early part of the sale, 

 and were bid off at prices varying from $200 to $250. 

 The main interest that attached to the sale was the an- 

 oouncement that the celebrated trotters, Mac, Tacony, 

 Frank Forrester and Barnum, would be sold under the 

 hammer. Mac was struck off at $4,100, to Mr. Mann, of 

 Baltimore ; Tacony was sold for §3,700, to Mr. J. G. Be- 

 VENS, of New York ; Frank Forrester was sold to Mr. 

 SfAXN also, who paid §2,350. Barnum was withdrawn 

 from the auction, he having been sold at private sale during 

 the morning for the sum of $2,850. 



Sheep from Ohio in Illinois. — A couple of our ac- 

 quaintances, residing in Cadiz, Ohio, purchased last Feb- 

 ruary a year ago, 5OU0 sheep in that vicinity, for $3 per 

 head. They sheared them, and sold the wool at fifty-seven 

 cents per pound — or $1.75 per fleece. This left the sheep 

 at $1.25. These they drove to near Springfield, Illinois, 

 where tiiey summered them on cheap pasture, and corn 

 that cost them about seven cents per bushel, and hay in the 

 same proportion. They lost but few by death, and this 

 spring, in addition to their old flock, they will have 2,000 

 lambs ; and their crop is almost as near market at Spring- 

 field as though it were in Cleveland or Boston. It is easy 

 to figure up the profits of such a business, and they are 

 sure for years to come. — Ohio Farmer. 



The above looks well on paper — all but the purchase of 

 corn near Springfield at " seven cents a bushel." Illinois 

 ought to be a great wool-growing State, and we trust that 

 it soon will be. 



The Cashmere Goat. — The Philadelphia Ledger says: 

 " We have heard a great many guesses and opinions 

 whetfier the goat that produces the fine hair, out of which 

 are manufactured the justly-celebrated Cashmere shawls, 

 can be propagated in this country ; and we are happy to 

 announce to our countrymen that it can be done. A friend 

 has deposited with us, for a short time, three specimens of 

 this hair — one of a buck, one of a ewe, and the third of a 

 kid, nine months old, all of the pure breed, which are now 

 being bred and are in a thriving condition in the western 

 part of the State of Georgia." 



God never designed this world for our home ; it is only 

 the place where we are educated for eternity. 



A New Useful Metal. — The existence of the metal 

 aluminum, the base cf alumina, has been long knovvn. M. 

 WoHLER obtained aluminum in the state of powder, by 

 treating the chloride of aluminum with potassium. M. 

 H. St. Claire Deville, of the Normal School of Paris, 

 has been conducted, by a careful study of this body, to 

 the discovery of a process, comparatively simple, by which 

 this metal may be obtained. If a mass, composed of the 

 chloride of aluminum, and some metal, is taken and heatd 

 in a porcelain crucible to a bright redness, the chloride is 

 decomposed, and there remains a saline mass, in the mid- 

 dle of which globules of perfectly pure aluminum are 

 stated to be found. This metal is as white as silver, 

 and in the highest degree malleable and ductile. It is 

 completely unalterable in either dry or moist air, retaining 

 its brilliancy under conditions in which zinc and tin tarnish. 

 It is quite unaffected by sulphurated hydrogen gas. Cold 

 water has no action on it, and it remains untarnished in 

 boiling water. Several of the acids only attack it with 

 difficidty. but it is readily dissolved in hydrochloric acid, 

 forming a sesquichloride of aluminum. The specific gra- 

 vity of this metal is stated to be 2.56 ; therefore it is not 

 heavier than glass. This metal, existing most abundantly 

 in nature, every argillaceous compound containing it, must 

 become of remarkable value in the arts. 



The Poetry of Physic. — Doses have always been as- 

 sociated in our minds with wry faces, and medicine has 

 seemed, from the days of childhood, another word for nau- 

 sea and disgust. Its remedies are the worst part of sick- 

 ness, and pain was not so hard to bear as the revolting po- 

 tions we were compelled to swallow for its relief. Dr. 

 Ayer's preparations herald another era. His Cherry Pec- 

 toral is like honey on the tongue, and healing balm on the 

 stomach. His Pills! Try them — they are sweet morsels 

 to the taste, and glide sugar-shod over the palate, but their 

 enerary, although wrapped up, is there, and strikes with 

 telling force to the very foundation of disease. — Cincinnati 

 Citizen. 



English Reviews and Blackwood's Magazine. — 

 "We have frequently commended these valuable periodicals, 

 which command the best talent in the British empire ; and 

 we now allude to them merely to call attention to the fact 

 that the London, Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews, 

 and Blackwood, commence new volumes in July, so that 

 the present is a favorable time to subscribe for any of these 

 standard works. The North British begins a new volume 

 in May. The postage on the four Reviews and Blackwood 

 is only 80 cents a year, viz. : 14 cents on each Review, and 

 24 on Blackwood. Price of the whole, $10 a year. 



Sheep-raising in Illinois. — A single family in Sanga- 

 mon county, says the Register, have seventeen thousand 

 sheep, and all of good blood. The yield of wool is larger 

 than the finest in Ohio. It is a fact that there is no better 

 country on earth for wool-growing than Illinois. Every 

 farmer who has tried the business has amassed a fortune 

 at it. The expenses are less, and the profits three times 

 larger than in any other State in the Union. 



