248 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



hear from him. I am a keeper of sheep, and make 

 my figures no higher than my experience proves 

 to be true, Avhich I think will pay a larger profit 

 than setting land to pines, and guessing at the 

 quantity of wood it will produce in thirty years. 

 Hatfield, March, 1860. J. E. w. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WOBMS IN APPLES. 



Mr. Editor : — In the Farmer of February 25 

 there is a communication from ISIr. S. L. White, 

 headed '-Wonns in Apples." I have been for a 

 long time expecting, yet fearing, to see something 

 like that. It may well produce alarm, for it threat- 

 ens the destruction of all the summer and the au- 

 tumn apples. 



In 1835, an apple Avas given to me that grew 

 about four miles west of my home. In it I found 

 the maggots as described by Mr. White, adding to 

 his description black heads. Five years later they 

 appeared in the sweet apples of my orchai'd, and 

 rapidly increased, until now, for some years, we 

 cannot have a summer or autumn apple come to 

 perfection, excepting one fine sweet variety that 

 ripensin August — this appearing to get the start 

 of the pests by its early maturity. The bug ]\Ir. 

 White saw, I think, was not the perfected insect. 

 The iwj'm makes a very small brownish-red fly, I 

 am cfltiQ sure. There is any amount of them in 

 the fruit rooms, in the late fall and early Avinter, 

 but I have never found one when the fruit is grow- 

 ing on the trees. How the egg gets into the ap- 

 ple is more than I can guess, for there is not the 

 least appearance on the surface of injury. 



The orchards a few miles below us in Plymouth 

 that are exposed to the winds direct from the sea, 

 do not appear to be affected by this nameless dep- 

 redator. Caleb Bates. 



Kingston, Mass., 1860. 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



uoint-inflammable dress fabbics. 



The ladies will be glad to learn that a method 

 has been discovered by Mhich any dress fabric 

 may be rendered uninflammable. By direction of 

 Queen Victoria, two distinguished English chem- 

 ists undertook a series of experiments which have 

 resulted in determining that a solution containing 

 seven per cent, of the crystals or sixty-tvt-o per 

 cent, of anhydrous salt is perfectly anti-flamma- 

 ble. They remark : "Tungstate of soda ranges 

 among the salts which are manufactured on a 

 large scale, and at a cheap rate. A solution con- 

 taining tvv'enty per cent, renders the muslin per- 

 fectly non-inilanimable. It acts, apparently, by 

 firmly envL'loping the fibre, and thereby excluding 

 the contact with the air. It is very smooth and 

 of a fatty appearance, like talc, and this ]n-operty 

 facilitates the ironing process, which all other 

 salts resist." The following formula is given as 

 having ])roved efiicacious, and will simi)lify the 

 application : "A concentrated neutral solution of 

 tungstate of soda is diluted with water to 28° 

 Twaddle (an alkaliometcr, so called,) and then 

 mixed with three per cent, of phosphate of soda. 

 This solution was found to keep and to answer 

 well. It^has been introduced into Her Majesty's 



laundry, where it is constantly used." The solu- 

 tion can be applied to any fabric. It is only ne- 

 cessary to dip the cleansed article in the prepared 

 fluid, then drain and dry it, after Avhich it may be 

 ironed ; or, if preferred, the solution may be in- 

 corporated Avith the starch to be used in the stiff- 

 ening. The lightest materials, Avhen submitted to 

 this preparation, may char and shrivel, but they 

 Avill not blaze. 



NEEDLE-WOEK. 



There is something extremely pleasant, and 

 even touching — at least, of very sweet, soft, Avin- 

 ning eflect — in this peculiarity of needle-Avork, 

 distinguishing Avomen from men. Our OAvn sex is 

 incapable of any such by-play aside from the main 

 business of life ; but Avomen — be they of Avhat 

 earthly rank they may, however gifted Avith intel- 

 lect or genius, or endowed with aAvful beauty — 

 have always some little handiAVork ready to fill the 

 tiny gap of every vacant moment. A needle is 

 familiar to the fingers of them all. A queen, no 

 doubt, plies it on occasion ; the Avoman-poet can 

 use it as adroitly as her pen ; the Avoman's eye 

 that has discovered a neAv star, turns from its glo- 

 ry to send the polished little instrument gleaming 

 along the hem of her kerchief, or to darn a casual 

 fray in her dress. And they have greatly the ad- 

 vantage of us in this respect. The slender thread 

 of silk or cotton keeps them united Avith the small, 

 familiar, gentle interests of life, the continually 

 operating influences of Avhich do so much for the 

 health of the character, and carry off Avhat Avould 

 otherwise be a dangerous accumulation of morbid 

 sensibility. A vast deal of human sympathy runs 

 along this electric line, stretching from the throne 

 to the Avicker-chair of the humblest seamstress, 

 keeping high and Ioav in a species of communion 

 Avith their kindred beings. Methinks it is a token 

 of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women 

 of high thoughts and accomplishments love to 

 sew, especially as they are never more at home 

 with their oAvn hearts, than Avhile so occupied. — 

 Hawthorne's New Romance. 



Cleanliness. — The first thing to be attended 

 to after rising, is the bath. The vessel Avhich is 

 dignified, like a certain part of a lady's dress, Avith 

 a royal order, is one on Avhich folios might be 

 Avritten. It has given a name to tAvo towns — 

 Bath and Baden — renowned for their toilets, and 

 it is all that is left in three continents of Roman 

 glory. It is a club room in Germany and the 

 East, and was an arena in Greece and Rome. It 

 Avas in a bath that the greatest destroyer of life 

 had his OAvn destroyed, Avhen he had bathed all 

 France in blood. But Clarence, I am convinced, 

 has been much maligned, ge has been called a 

 drunkard, and people shudder at his choosing that 

 death in which he could not but die in sin; but 

 for my part, so far as the Malmsey is concerned, 

 I am inclined to think that he only shoAvcd him- 

 self a gentleman to the last. He Avas determined 

 to die clean, and he kncAV, like the Parisian la- 

 dies, Avho sacrifice a dozen of champagne to their 

 morning ablutions, that Avine has a peculiarly soft- 

 ening effect upon the skin. ' Besides champagne, 

 the exquisites of Paris use milk, Avhich is supposed 

 to lend Avhiteness to the skin. — Habits of Good 

 Society. 



