140 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



stomach, and absorbs the putrescent gasses by which 

 they are generated, and they consequently die." " All 

 kinds of stock will freely eat charcoal and salt mixed 

 with their food, and they will greatly increase in weight 

 by the free use of charcoal." I have long known that 

 it answers well to keep a heap of cinders in the corner 

 of a sty. Pigs will crack them like nuts, and chew 

 them " to their advantage," as Joseph Ady would say. 

 Our author further recommends the top-dressing of 

 potato and hop plantations Avith charcoal or peat 

 (charred I presume) as a preventive against blight 

 and the fly. Charcoal put into a glass of water with 

 an acorn or root will prevent the water from perishing 

 or becoming putrid, as it would otherwise do, and the 

 acorn will grow therein and become a small oak. 

 '' Should a joint of meat smell when put in the pot 

 to boil, if a piece of charcoal be put in the water 

 the meat will become sweet." "A piece or two of 

 fine charcoal put into a parcel of game will preserve 

 it sweet." Should " a joint of meat smell, rub fine 

 charcoal on, and it will turn it sweet." " Again, 

 florists and ladies who love beautiful flowers should 

 always sprinkle charcoal on the soil, as it will create 

 in the flowers the most delightful hues and brilliant 

 colours." 



The discovery " of the uses of charcoal in the various 

 forms of disease" our author disclaims, and attributes 

 to Moses, who has " recorded its virtues in the scrip- 

 tures;" inasmuch as he directed the Israelites to put 

 on sackcloth and ashes when they had " brought them- 

 selves into an unholy, an unhealthy state of body. The 

 sackcloth was an open coarse kind of linen, and the 

 ashes were burned wood, commonly termed 'charcoal.* 



