420 [Assembly 



We will not say that the mosses are coutagious, but they do 

 multiply with great facility aud are very fond of languishing 

 trees. 



Scraping them oft' is not enough, for their roots will remain in 

 the little fractures of the bark. Take quick lime and paint the 

 tree ; this cheap plan is effectual. It is not new, but it is not as 

 much in use as it should be, for we have seen old trees renew 

 their vigor, become loaded with flowers and fruits, and their bark 

 as smooth as young ones by this process. The best time to kill 

 mos* i« after the fall, so that it acts on the tree during the winter. 



[From A. Vattemarc, Herpin, Parij.] 



Researches on the Bran of Wheat and other Grains. — Nothing 

 seems easier (says Edin) than making bread. Grind the grain, 

 mix it with water, and put it in the oven. Those who are habit- 

 nated to the enjoyment of the finest human inventions, without 

 reflecting on the pains they have cost before they were complete, 

 look at all these operations as ordinary and trivial. Before man 

 succeeded in making good bread, he had to cook the grain in wa- 

 ter, make a sticky (viscous) cake, of a disagreeable taste and hard 

 of digestion. It is only within the last century that men have 

 known the exact nature and composition of grain — the quantity 

 of nutritious matter which it contains. To show how behind- 

 hand we were an hundred years ago or more, let us look at Ar- 

 ticle 24 of the Law of Bakers, in the time of Louis XIV, in 1658 : 



" All bakers are forbidden to mix bran with the bread, for it is 

 unworthy to enter the human body. Fine for doing it. sixty 

 livres for each offence." 



This law was renewed in 1680. At the end of the sixteenth 

 century they derived from grain only one-half of its weight in 

 bread ; that is to say, one-half less than we now obtain. This 

 appears distinctly in the rations of armies. — Extracts by H. Meigs. 



[London Farmera' Magazine, Nor. 1851.] 



On the Culture of Parsnips. — The profitable growth of parsnips 

 requires a deep, rich, warm loam. The rotted farm yard dung is 

 laid on the stubble, in the end of autumn, and plowed under with 



