276 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



I have restored fish to life, which were frozen solid, by puttrng' them into 

 cold water, the temperature of which was raised very gradually. Frozen 

 hands, feet or ears should be treated in the same way. 



Mr. Dodg'c said he had noticed that potatoes which had been frozen 

 always had a sweet taste when cooked. 



Mr. George Bartlett said it was because the starcli was converted into 

 sugar. 



Improved Curser Corn. 



Mr. John Van Antwerp presented specimens of ears of the improved 

 Curser corn, growing upon his farm at Throgg's Nex;k, N. Y., 1,410 bushels 

 of sound corn upon 10 acres. It is eight rowed, and ears are about 15 

 inches long. 



Cloths from a New Fibre. 



Dr. Guernsey, of this city, exhibited a variety of specimens of cloth, some 

 plain colored and some dyed, made from tlie lint of the common milk weed 

 (Asclepias Syriaca). Some of the specimens were of the pure fibre, some 

 mixed with six per cent, of cotton, and others with a small amount of silk 

 and wool. The cloths are very soft and strong, and the milk-weed fibre 

 takes color just as well as wool or silk. " These specimens were all carded, 

 spun and woven by hand from about twenty-live pounds of fiber, gathered 

 from the stalks, which had previously been twice mown the same season for 

 the purpose of destroying them. The secret in this successfuf manufacture 

 of this fibre, which has before been frequently attempted and abandoned, 

 lies in the discovery by James P. McClean, the patentee, of a mode of treat- 

 ing it with vegetable oil. It is well known that wool cannot be manufac- 

 tured without oiling it, and that none but animal oil will answer. Cotton 

 is naturally oily. Asclepias fibre, when viewed through the microscope, 

 appears like rods of glass. It cannot be worked without oiling. In all 

 previous attempts animal oil has been used. Now, by the, use of vegetable 

 oil, the manufacture of the fibre is likely to prove completely successful. 

 A patent has been applied for, and fifty cents a pound is offered for the 

 fibre. It has been estimated that it can be grown at the rate of 500 pounds 

 per acre, and that one pound will go as far as one and three-fourths of cot- 

 ton. And while cotton does not mix well with silk and woolen, on account 

 of the difficulty of dyeing, this fibre agrees exactly with both of these sub- 

 stances." 



Prof. Tillman said he had made a good many experiments with this fibre, 

 but the objections of manufacturers to it were its glassy smoothness and 

 want of strength. 



Dr. Guernsey said that was just the difficulty that he had overcome. He 

 is aware that it has been maii}^ times tried and failed, and he has now fully 

 proved that by the preparation tliat he has given the fibre, it can be as 

 easily worked as flax or wool, and these fabrics now presented show its 

 great strength. The fibre is natul-ally very light. The preparation gives 

 it a dingy color, like unbleached cotton, the yellow color of which is given 

 it by the natural oil. But this cloth can be bleached as white as cotton, 

 onlv it will require more time, or a stronger i)reparation of ciilorine. Tiiere 

 is one important fact which he has discovered in bleaching some of this 



