478 Hints for Improvements. 



Art. VII. Domestic Economy. 



SpbuCe Beer. — Early in the spring, cut off the young branches of* the pine 

 or fir three or four inches in length, and break them into small pieces; 

 boil them in water, and, after filtering the extract through a sieve, add to 

 sixteen gallons of it about six pounds of sugar. It may then, by boiling, 

 or evaporating in a hot-house, be reduced to a syrup, which will keep in 

 bottles for a length of time. For beer, mix three pints of this extract with 

 thirty of water ; boil it for about two hours, and, when cold, put it into a 

 cask, and ferment it in the usual method. 



Tea and Balm Tea. — With regard to tea, for which we pay such im- 

 mense sums to China, it is stated that the first leaves of the whortleberry, 

 properly gathered and dried in the shade, cannot be distinguished from 

 real teas. This is the berry on which the black cock feeds, so that by the 

 culture of it we may secure two good things. Be it known to all that 

 John Hussey, of Sydenham, who lived to 1 19 years of age, took nothing to 

 his breakfast, for fifty years, but balm tea sweetened with honey. {Art of 

 Preserving Health. ) 



Bread from Turnips. — Let the turnips first be peeled, and boiled in 

 water till soft and tender ; then, strongly pressing out the juice, mix them 

 together, and, when dry (beaten or pounded very fine), with their weight of 

 wheat meal ; season it as you do other bread, and knead it up ; then, letting 

 the dough remain a little to ferment, fashion the paste into loaves, and bake 

 it like common bread. Some roast turnips in a paper under the embers, 

 and eat them with sugar and butter {Evelyn's Misc. Writings, p. 756.) 



Cheap Soap. — Potatoes, three parts boiled, afford a very good substitute, 

 especially for washing the hands. {Brit. Mir.) 



Tainted wooden Casks, of every description, may be rendered perfectly 

 sweet and wholesome by washing with diluted sulphuric acid, and after- 

 wards with lime water and pure water. {Journal d' Agric des Pays Bas, 

 December, 1326, p. 574.) 



Art. VIII. Hints for Improvements. 



New Ideas. — In The Mummy, a tale of the twenty-second century, an 

 attempt is made to predestinate the application of steam, and other modern 

 improvements, which, whether intended in the way of ridicule or effect, it 

 may not be altogether useless to notice. A patent steam mowing apparatus 

 is set to work in a hay field, and the weather being foggy the hay is dried 

 with the use of a burning glass ! A field of barley, in a very dry state, is 

 watered by the farmer, who, seeing " a nice black heavy-looking cloud sail- 

 ing by," gets out his electrical machine, and draws it down in five minutes. 

 Communications are held with every part of the world by means of tele- 

 graphs, and a private gentleman, whose son is engaged in battle in Ger- 

 many, hears the result of an engagement a few minutes after it happens. A 

 steam digging machine is mentioned ; cooking is effected by a chemical 

 preparation, without the use of fire ; it is the fashion for great people to 

 have only one dish, and fricasees and ragouts are only devoured by the 

 canaille ; beds are inflated with air instead of feathers; house servants, of 

 every description, are poets, artists, and philosophers; water is turned into 

 ice by mechanical pressure; fog and vapour is turned into snow or rain at 

 pleasure, by withdrawing electricity ; all travelling is performed in balloons ; 

 the tour of the whole world can be made in six weeks ; and great people, 

 finding it so very easy to be transported from one place to another, have 



