SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
203 
. SASSAFRAS A^D CHINA BERRIES. 
Editor Southern Cultivator — I see in your issue for 
April, an inquiry by one of your correspondents for infor- 
mation how he can prevent Sassafras sprouts from com- 
ing up in his fields, and how he can exterminate them 
after they are up. 
For the first evil, I have no remedy. For the second I 
have one that I have tried with success for many years, 
and would say to your friend, “Cut the sprouts during the 
full moon in July,” and, take my word for it, the sprouts 
will give him no more trouble. 
I see in the same number of the Cultivator, an inquiry 
in relation to China Berries killing Hogs, 
I am aware that they will kill pig’s and shoats, and I 
will give, on the word of one of my neighbors, a remedy. 
He tells me that he has proved, to his satisfaction, that 
salt is a sovereign remedy. Give the common salt in solu- 
tion, say two tablespoonfuls dissolved in a tea cup of 
water, and pour it down the pigs throat when you first 
discover symptoms of its having eaten China Berries, 
and the cure will be speedy and sure. He has experiment- 
ed with this in several cases and has not failed to save the 
pigs. 
The symptomsfgiven by your correspondent are identi- 
cal with those on the pigs of my neighbor, and there is no 
doubt of this simple remedy saving many pigs in our 
Sunny South, if resorted to by farmers, 
John Adams, 
Clarke County, Miss., May, 1859, 
RIFE IN NEW YORK. 
A medical correspondent of the South Carolinian gives 
us the following graphic picture of life in the “ Great 
Babel.” Let wi be thankful that our lot is cast in the free 
and open fields, far from such scenes of tumult, confusion, 
and feverish unrest : 
“To a stranger, nothing is more impressive than the 
wonderful activity of New York life. Everything moves 
with a maelstromic rush and an oceanic impetuosity. The 
omnibus leaps along Broadway with a spasmodic celerity, 
drays dash along the thoroughfares with the defiant ve- 
locity of Jehu’s storm-driven chariot wheels ; ferry-boats 
dart to and fro with a puff and a snort and a scream ; 
men absolutely rush along the streets like furious pis- 
mires in an upturned ant-hill ; railroad cars sweep by at 
the daring hand-gallop of flying artillery upon a gore- 
drenched battle-field. Go into a hotel— men rush to the 
table, scramble into seats, gulp down the drinkables and 
cram down their meats, champing with the resounding 
mastication of a famished pig-sty, and are gone before you 
can realize that the meal has begun. So into a factory— 
you are brusquely addressed with the pithy ellipsis, 
“Serve you to-day, sir T’ If you reply that you are 
merely looking around, around you may look till dooms- 
day, but not a word from agent, or operative, or handi- 
creiftsmen can you get, unless introduced by some well- 
known acquaintance. You hear the incessant puffing of 
fire-fed engines ; you feel the tremulous agitation of whir- 
ring wheels, resounding forges, clanking anvils or whiz- 
zing saws. Every man seems running a race with the 
machinery around him. A nod might lose a link ; a look 
might drop a stitch ; a salutation might sacrifice a bobbin 
or snap a thread. Stop into a store on Broadway — pro- 
prietors rush, clerks rush, draymen rush, porters rush, 
customers rush ; men buy a yard of ribbon with a mad 
anxiety — women snatch a scrap of cambric with a hurried 
impetuosity. Thus this wondrous intensity of life goes 
on. Without cessation, from year to year, only increas- 
ing, forever this sweeping tide of humanity presses onward 
to the same goal — success in making money. Gold is the 
god, and never had Jupiter more loyal worshipers. But 
do not understand me as saying this of all. Here are 
good men, zealously laboring for the salvation of men’s 
souls ; enterprising men, earnestly working for the gener- 
al advancement and good of society; learned men per- 
sistently striving for the reason why ; artistic men steadily 
laboring to make something beautiful and pure and true ; 
in fact, here are ail kinds of men, and women, too, from 
the highest to the lowest — from the best to the worst. 
Such are some of the impressions made upon the mind of 
a country cousin, accustomed all his life to the quiet fe- 
licity of rural happiness.” 
Ladies Dresses — Fire ! — A correspondent, says the 
Petersburg {Va.') Press, writing to us on the above sub- 
ject says, after mentioning the recent death of a young 
woman in Richmond, by the extended use of crinoline, 
(which had taken fire,) that such things may be expected 
to occur every day as long as tyrant fashion causes the 
women to hedge around their persons as they are now 
called to do. The only way is to try and mitigate the 
evil by finding out some preventive when the catastrophe 
occurs. Our correspondent, an eminent medical gentle- 
man, says on this subject : 
“Several hundred stuffs have been recommended to 
guard the texture of linen, cotton, &c., against combus- 
tion, but, as the safest and surest, and not injuring the 
cloth, (like borax and alum will do,) the best German 
chemical authorities have lately suggested the phosphate 
of ammonia — a stuff which can be obtai ned from the drug 
store— and will secure all kinds of texture, even paper, 
from ready ignition and blazing. Two ounces dissolved 
in one quart of water and applied to the cloth, either 
alone, by saturating the same with the mixture or by ad- 
mixing it to the starch, will answer the purpose. How 
many lives that fell the victims of exploding camphene 
lamps could have been saved by the general use of a simple 
remedy like the above-mentioned, we leave the reader to 
imagine for himself.” 
The following may be of service as an application 
to agricultural implements, machinery, &c., exposed to 
the action of water : 
ALLOY FOR SHEATHING SHIPS. 
A method is proposed for protecting the bottoms of 
iron ships from the action of sea water, by the use of a 
composition of litharge, made into a smooth, thin paste, 
with turpentine, to which is added an equal weight 
resin. The whole is then put into a close iron vessel, 
placed over a fire, naptha added through an aperture in 
the lid from time to time, and the boiling kept up slowly 
for about two days, until the whole has assumed ei tenaci- 
ous, andhesive character, and consistency. It is then fit 
to be applied to the irOT of the vessel, as a primary 
coating. A second coating is given to the iron 
with a composition of resin, combined with one-fifth of an 
oxyd of mercury and powdered charcoal mixed in tur- 
pentine. This outer coating fills up all cracks or paps left 
in the first application, and the nature of the composition 
is stated to be such that it prevents barnacles adhering to 
the iron, and resists corrosion.— Com, Bulletin. 
Keep an eye to your horses’ shoulders ; as the 
weather grows warm, they will scald. Pad your collars 
and bathe the shoulders with cold water, or alum and- 
vinegar solution. 
Slock require a good deal ‘of salt at this season add 
ashes, lime and sulphur, occasionally, and it will have a 
good effect. — Parmer Planter . 
