2^48 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



A small boiler for generating steam, with a larger 

 one to hold the bones, and a connecting tube, each 

 capable of sustaining a pressure of twentj'-five 

 pounds to the inch, are all that are required for this 

 purjiose ; or should a steam boiler bo already in use 

 about the premises, this would supply the place of a 

 steam generator. Where wood ashes are procurable 

 at fair rates, they are economically used with fresh 

 bones, first by leaching and boiling the bones in the 

 lye. If this process is thoroughly ciu^ied out, the 

 oil is converted into soap, and the bones are prepared 

 for ready decomposition in the soil. The spent lye 

 yielded by the soap, and the leached ashes and lime 

 remaining, may also be added to the soil, with the 

 utmost advantage. — American Aijriculturist. 



Remarks by Editor N. E. Farmer. — There is 

 aaother mode of preparation, but we have not the 

 proportions of the materials, nor the mode of opera- 

 tion. A strong lye of wood ashes, or solution of 

 potash, will dissolve bones ; and farmers sometimes 

 use these substances to soften or dissolve bones, 

 which they give to cows for the bone disorder. 

 Potash is an excellent manure, particularly on grav- 

 elly or sandy soils. 



AMERICAN ENTERPRISE. 



Take the article of calicoes. Wo now monopolize 

 the whole trade — a trade which, b'ut a year since, 

 the English had the whole control of. Very few 

 cotton goods of this style are now imported at all, 

 and we are fast getting the knack of making the finer 

 dress muslins. Of mousseline de laines, wo probably 

 manufacture, at a good profit too, far more than we 

 import. Of cloths there is not one bale of English 

 entered at the custom-house, where there were one 

 hundred five years ago. It is true the English have 

 found great competitors in the French and Germans, 

 who, together with our own mills, have nearly driven 

 every piece of English cloth out of the market. 



The English are also losing their great hosiery trade 

 with us, the Germans beating them most decidedly 

 in this article. So with many other articles. In 

 fact, our English competitors are fast losing a market 

 which they have had the almost exclusive monopoly 

 of for years ; and a steady perseverance on our part, 

 not dei^cnding too much on government aid, but 

 more on our natural energies, perseverance, and 

 mechanical skill, will in time not only give us our 

 "home market," but the markets of the world. — 

 N, Y. Journal of Commerce. 



DEPRECIATION OF RAILWAY PROPERTY 

 IN ENGLAND. 



The English papers received by the last steamer 

 state that the depreciation of railway property in 

 England during the last three months cannot be less 

 than from 40 to $.50,000,000. 



This is in consequence of the disclosures in relation 

 to the fraudulent conduct of the directors of their 

 roads. All confidence in this kind of property seems 

 utterly lost. 



ASHES AS MANURE FOR GRASS LANDS. 



There is scarcely any part of the country where 

 leached ashes cannot be obtained in greater or less 

 quuntity ; and in the vicinity of ashcries, abundance 

 may generally be had. If the following remarks by 

 Count Chaptal are applicable to soils, of whatever 

 materials they may be composed, a knowledge of this 



property of leached ashes would, in many instances, 

 be of very great value. At all events, the experiment 

 is easily perfonned on a moderate scale. 



" The ashes, produced by the combustion of wood 

 in our common domestic fires, give rise to some very 

 remarkable results. Without being leached, these 

 ashes are much too active ; but after having been 

 deprived by the action of water, of nearly all their 

 salts, and employed in this state, under the name of 

 buck-ashes, they still produce great ett'ect. 



"The action of the buck-ashes is most powerful 

 upon moist lands and meadows, in which they not 

 only facilitate the growth of useful plants, but if 

 employed constantly for several years, they will free 

 the soil from weeds. By the use of them, land con- 

 stantly drenched with water may be freed from rushes, 

 and prejoared for yielding clover and other pltmts of 

 good kinds." 



It has been frequently supposed that ashes applied 

 to wet, heavy soils, is injurious. This is probably 

 owing to the application being too uneven, and in 

 too large quantities, and to the want of mixing them 

 Ultimately with the soil. Chaptal says, " Wood ashes 

 possess the double property of amending a wet and 

 clayey soil by dividing and drying it, and of promot- 

 ing vegetation by the salts they contain." 



It is well known, that the evenly spread and in- 

 timately intennixcd layer of ashes which soils receive 

 by burning the turf, produces extraordinary eifects 

 upon grass lands. — Genesee Farmer. 



TO CURE SWELLING OF THE THROAT IN 

 HOGS. 



In order to contribute to the usefulness of your 

 valuable periodical, and to inform the public of what 

 I find from experience to be an infallible cure for a 

 certain disease with hogs, viz., the swelling of the 

 throat, I herewith send you a receipt for the disease, 

 with a desire that you publish the same in your work 

 if you deem it of any import, and the same meets 

 your approbation. 



Take of molasses one half a pint, and a tablespoon- 

 ful of hog's lard ; to this add of brimstone a piece 

 an inch in length. Melt it over the fire, and when 

 cold or in a liquid state, drench the hog with it ; and 

 nine times out of ten it will be found to have the 

 desired effect. ^ly hogs were attected with this 

 disease during the past year, and I found the above 

 to be effective when all things else failed. — Farmer's 

 Reylster. 



THE CAUSES OF THE VARIETY AND VIV- 

 IDNESS OF COLORS IN FLOWERS. 



The petals of flowers do not owe their beauty to 

 the color that paints them, for that, when drawn off, 

 is dull and dead ; neither do they owe their brilliant 

 tints to the skin that covers them. Their lovely 

 appearance is derived chiefly from the bubbles of 

 water which compose their pabulum. Receiving the 

 sun's rays, they are enlivened and brightened by re- 

 flection and refraction from those drops of water, and 

 from that spot or point of light being seen in every 

 bubble, and striking to the focus underneath. By 

 these means the whole flower would at times be one 

 blaze of light, had not nature, to soften the same, 

 covered the petal with an upper and an under skin, 

 which curtails their diamond-like rays, and leaves 

 them instead a lightness and beauty unequalled by 

 the most exquisite art of the painter. 



Beware of little expenses : a small leak will sink a 

 large ship. 



