AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
153 
soon as the barrel becomes red hot the wood 
will change to gas, which will escape in a jet 
through the priming hole, and taking fire will 
form a beautiful gas flame, which will last till 
all the wood in the tube is consumed. Experi¬ 
ments are now being made to produce all gas 
for light from wood alone, and we have good 
reason to expect that candles, lamps, and the 
dangerous burning fluids, will soon give place 
to a more beautiful gas light produced entirely 
from wood. 
How simple and yet how interesting and won¬ 
derful are the changes that are constantly going 
on around us. Who would think without look¬ 
ing into the matter, that in our candle or lamp, 
the wick is a retort producing a beautiful gas, 
and that the brilliant flame is caused by heated 
diamonds or particles of coal, made hot by 
two other simple air-like substances uniting and 
forming watery vapor. Yet this is entirely 
true, and it would be still more interesting to 
trace one of the gases formed by the disappear¬ 
ance of these diamond particles, as it goes off 
from the candle flame in an invisible state into 
the air, is again absorbed by the leaves of 
plants, and forms part of their substance ; these 
plants are then eaten by animals, and by them 
again transformed into tallow for a new candle. 
-»»-•- 
THE PIE PLANT. 
How seldom do we see this plant growing in 
the farmer’s garden; and yet it is one of the 
most delicious of fruits —if we may so call it. 
It is no more difficult to cultivate than potatoes 
or corn. It is usually fit to cut by the last of 
April in an early spring, and it may be kepi 
growing and in use nearly all the sujnmer. 
With no particular attention to ours this season, 
we cut it on the 6th of May ; and had we taken 
the pains to manure it last fall, cover it during 
the winter with litter, and top-dress it early in 
March, late as this spring has been, we think 
we should have had it ready to cut two weeks 
earlier. 
Stewed in water, with a little sugar added, it 
is much superior to gooseberries, and to our 
taste, comes next to strawberries. For pies it 
is more delicious than apples. Its sub-acid on 
a warm spring day, is no less healthful than 
agreeable. The great merit, however, of this 
vegetable or fruit is, that it comes when no 
other is in season, save the longest keeping and 
highest priced winter apples. 
-» - 
Mastich for outside of Buildings. —A sub¬ 
scriber asks for the best and latest improvements 
in the application of mastich as an outside coat¬ 
ing for buildings. Will some of our correspond¬ 
ents furnish any information they have on this 
subject ? 
-♦{>»- 
TENACITY OF LIFE IN A FOWL 
A correspondent residing near Yonkers, 
Westchester County, communicates the follow¬ 
ing remarkable fact, which our readers may 
rely upon as correct. During a heavy snow 
storm in March last, he missed one of his hens, 
and after looking in vain for her, gave her up as 
lost. On the thirty-fourth day after the occur¬ 
rence, his attention was attracted by a slight 
scratching noise inside a wooden spout which 
conducted the outer air to his furnace in the 
cellar, and upon taking off one of the boards he 
found his hen inside—alive, but in so exhausted 
a state, that he was unable to restore her, al¬ 
though she lived for three days longer. 
She was a fine black hen, a cross between a 
Shanghai and Poland, about two years old. 
During all these thirty-four days it was impossi¬ 
ble she could have received any food or water, 
and there was a strong current of the coldest 
air constant^ rushing past her. 
Our correspondent regrets exceedingly, he 
cannot report her now alive, after such an effort 
to retain the vital principle. Has any one ever 
heard of such tenacity of life in a chicken ? 
STATE POULTRY SOCIETY. 
ARRANGEMENTS FOR A FALL SHOW. 
At a meeting of the Managers of this Society, 
held in Utica, on Friday last, it was decided that 
the next grand exhibition should be held at 
Utica, in November next. Messrs. Richard U. 
Sherman, of Utica; A. A. Hudson, of Syracuse; 
Richard C. McCormick, Jr., of Long Island; 
Francis Rotch, of Morris, Otsego Co., and D. 
S. Hoffvon, of Utica, were appointed a com- 
mitte to make all necessary arrangements, and 
instructed to have the premium list and regula¬ 
tions printed and ready for circulation on or be¬ 
fore the 1st of August ensuing. We trust that 
the people of Utica and vicinity will give the 
Society as hearty a reception at its second exhi¬ 
bition, as it received from the Albanians on the 
occasion of its initial show, held in February 
last. 
Utica is a central and easily accessible loca¬ 
tion, and the month chosen is in some respects 
-uperior to any other in the year, for the pur¬ 
poses of a fowl gathering. 
-0 •-*-- 
Acknowledgments.— By the courtesy of Mr. 
Edward Aborn, of Providence, we have received 
four volumes of the “Transactions of the 
R noDE Island Society for the Encouragement 
of Domestic Industry.” 
We are also indebted to Mr. C. L. Flint, Sec. 
of Mass. Board of Agriculture, for a copy of 
“ The Agriculture of Massachusetts as shown 
in returns of various Agricultural Societies.” 
We have not now time or space for further 
notice of the above valuable documents. 
-♦♦♦--- 
United States Magazine.— The first number 
of this new candidate for public favor is received 
from the publishers, Messrs. A. Jones & Co., at 
No. 1 Spruce street. This number contains 32 
large pages of substantial and instructive matter, 
and in this respect differs from the usual maga¬ 
zine literature of the day. The editor’s inten¬ 
tions and views may be gathered from the fol¬ 
lowing extract from his salutatory: 
We have lived long enough to feel that the 
journey of life has its end, to be reached in a 
few and rapid stages at the longest; and that 
the most interesting and pertinent question any 
one can ask himself is, “what good can Ido 
while I stay here?” Thus impressed, it will be 
our endeavor to give to the United States Mag¬ 
azine a useful, practical, instructive character, 
rather than light, imaginative, and sentimental. 
But though the face of our magazine may be 
grave, we do not mean it shall be austere, but 
hope and trust it may ever wear a smile that 
shall make it attractive to many and repulsive 
to none. 
* * .Sj? ' * ^ 
Now then, let us go ahead without any cere¬ 
mony, and spread our humble board. We do 
not promise, like the hotel-keepers, that it shall 
be covered with “ all the delicacies of the sea¬ 
son ;” but we hope it may present an abundance 
of wholesome, substantial, farm-like fare, upon 
which any one who hungers for mental nour¬ 
ishment may make a comfortable meal. If lie 
finds not abundance of honey, he may now and 
then perhaps get a taste of mustard; and though 
he may miss the soft custards and sweetmeats 
of magazine literature, we trust he will gener¬ 
ally find a good cut of roast beef within his 
reach, and occasionally a plum-pudding; and 
in default of asparagus in its season, lie may at 
all times rely upon us for a dish of greens. 
Now, reader, fall to, and help yourself to 
what you like best. 
-« © f-r— 
THE GREAT ECLIPSE ON THE 26 TH. 
We intended to have written out a plain des¬ 
cription of this great eclipse of the sun for the 
boy’s column of this week ; but not having time 
for this, and as our next paper will not reach 
distant subscribers before that event, we copy 
the following short account from the Evening 
Post, with the single remark, that before the 
recurrence of another such eclipse our present 
boys will be grown up men, and we shall begin 
to be numbered among the aged. 
On the 26th inst. there will be an eclipse of 
the sun, which will deserve to be remembered 
here as one of the most remarkable of this cen¬ 
tury. 
Because the moon happens at this time of the 
month to appear smaller than the sun, it will 
nowhere cover the sun, but in the most favora¬ 
ble positions a narrow ring of light will be seen. 
The places where this ring can be seen arc in 
a tract from 110 to 130 miles in breadth, the 
middle of which passes through Portsmouth, N. 
II., coming from the northwest across the south¬ 
ern part of New-Hampshire, the middle part of 
Vermont, the northern part of this State and 
West Canada. In the middle of this tract the 
ring will be perfect and about a thirtieth part 
of the sun’s diameter in breadth. 
Both the beginning and the end'of eclipse will 
be visible throughout the whole of the United 
States, and observations of them will be of great 
use for the determination of longitudes. 
The shadow of the moon coming across the 
the Pacific first reaches the coast of California, 
near San Francisco, at about half past two in 
the afternoon, by Washington time, or at about 
half-past eleven in the morning, by the time of 
San Francisco; and in two hours will have cov¬ 
ered nearly the whole continent of North Amer¬ 
ica, with its southern limit in the southern part 
of Mexico, and its northern limit beyond the 
northern pole. 
It will continue on the whole of the United 
States nearly an hour and a half, when, first 
ending on the Pacific coast, it will pass from the 
whole country in less than fifty minutes. 
The eclipse will begin in this city about six¬ 
teen minutes past four in the afternoon, and end 
about thirty-eight minutes past six ; the moon 
will cover from ten to eleven-twelfths of the 
sun’s diameter. 
The effect of an annular eclipse on the earth 
and sky is less striking than that of total 
eclipses, which are described by those who have 
seen them as presenting an awful aspect during 
the short time that total darkness lasts. The 
advance of the total shadow around the horizon 
can be seen from an eminence, and as it comes 
on it plunges the regions in its path into appall¬ 
ing darkness, while a gloom hangs over the rest 
of the country. 
But the appearances of the earth and the sky 
during an annular eclipse, though worthy of 
more notice than is often given, are not the 
principal features, unless the day be cloudy. 
The formation of the ring will be, where it can 
be seen, the great attraction of the occasion, and 
will, probably, injure the eyes of many admirers. 
