298 Kyanizing Wood. 
vals, which presented fine bottom lands. On the high ground 
were found principally hickory, oak and walnut, while the low 
ground was covered with elm, basswood and sugar-maple; in 
many places were seen large tracts entirely devoid of timber, and 
showing many signs of having once been in a state of cultivation. 
This kind of land encountered the predjudice of the early set- 
tlers; it was supposed to be barren and of no value. Necessity 
at length induced some to attempt the cultivation of it, and we 
may imagine their surprise at the luxuriance of the crops pro- 
duced upon it. After croping several years in succession, its fer- 
tility was found but little diminished. The same land which six 
years previously could not have been sold at 25 cents an acre, was 
now thought cheap at ten dollars. These openings were numer- 
ous in different parts; and on the Genesee river, 10,000 acres of 
open flats could be found in one body, where not even a bush 
would meet the eye, but where the grass grew so dense and tall, 
that cattle were hid from view a few feet from the path. Through- 
out the country there were numerous signs of its having once been 
extensively cultivated at a very early period. 
West Dresden, June 7, 1848. 
KYANIZING WOOD. 
The process of preserving wood and fabrics composed of vege- 
table fibre, is likely to become very serviceable, and is already 
very extensively employed in Great Britain. Its efficacy in pre- 
serving timber from the dry rot, had been amply demonstrated in 
various experiments made in the ship yards of England. Wood 
and various vegetable fabrics, which had undergone the prepara- 
tory process, had been exposed for years, to the influence of mois- 
ture and bad air, without sustaining any apparent injury, while 
the like materials, not submitted to the process, suffered rapid de- 
cay and destruction. The process of Kyanizing, as it is now 
termed, consists in immersing the wood or cloth, for a few hours 
or days, in a mixture of water and corrosive sublimate, in the 
proportion of one pound of the latter to five gallons of water. 
The mercury combines with the albumen of the vegetable matter, 
its most perishable part, and renders it insoluble, in the same 
manner that tan renders the gelatinous matter in hides so. Wood, 
or linen or hempen fabrics, which are to be exposed to the weather, 
particularly in humid situations, or in the earth, may, by this pro- 
cess, be preserved for a great length of time. 
