362 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD.-NO. 6, ETC. 
SEASON FOR FELLING TIMBER. 
The true cause of decay in timber may be tra¬ 
ced, in many instances, to felling trees at a wrong 
season, and that wrong season is spring ; for then 
the sap is in a peculiar state, and highly disposed 
to ferment when it can no longer flow through the 
tissues. It may be said to act as yeast acts on 
moistened flour. We do not mean to assert that the 
heart of oak will, in a short period, become as ten¬ 
der as a loaf of bread. The quantity of sap 
which it contains is less in proportion to the solid 
parts than in softer woods. Many kinds of the 
latter, cut late in spring, however, have frequently 
been observed in a state so thoroughly decomposed 
as to be easil y crumbled by the fingers in one or two 
years from the time the pieces were cut; whilst the 
same kinds of wood cut in the beginning of win¬ 
ter, but in all other respects similarly treated, re¬ 
mained perfectly sound. Any person who can cut 
off a limb of a tree in the beginning of December, 
and another limb from the same tree in spring, im¬ 
mediately before the buds expand, may convince 
himself that the beginning of winter is the best 
time to cut timber, and that the use of spring-fell¬ 
ed timber ought to be entirely prohibited in all 
cases where the safety of individuals is liable to be 
affected by the want of strength in structures form¬ 
ed from this perishable material. 
In order that wood may possess its greatest de¬ 
gree of natural compactness and elasticity, com¬ 
bined with hardness and durability, it must be felled 
in the early part of winter; and although means 
may be employed for driving out the fermenting, or 
putrescent sap, left behind in the late spring cut¬ 
ting, and for substituting antiseptic substances, yet 
there is no proof that the desirable properties, 
above mentioned, will be so ensured. On the con¬ 
trary, it has been proved that strength and elasti¬ 
city, or toughness, have been diminished in many 
cases, when wood cut in sap has been subjected to 
preservative processes. 
In stating this, we do not wish to imply that the 
application of preservatives is unimportant. Quite 
the contrary. But the proper season for cutting 
timber should take precedence of all other consi¬ 
derations in regard to its preservation. If this is 
admitted and acted upon, means may then be em¬ 
ployed for preventing that decay to which the 
soundest wood is liable, sooner or later. 
ELECTRO CULTURE. 
There have been numerous experiments of 
late years in the application of electricity to the 
growing of plants. This practice has received the 
name of electro culture. It consists in elevating 
electrical conductors, generally of iron wire, upon 
poles placed in the centre of each end of a bed, and 
conducting the electricity through it with wires so 
arranged as to come into contact with the roots. 
Or, it is more usual to place continuous parallel 
wires, connected with a galvanic battery at one 
end, and thus constitute a circuit through which 
the electrical current passes. 
From the success of a few isolated experiments 
made years ago, which developed vegetable life 
with astonishing rapidity, magnificent calculations 
were made of the future economical application of 
electricity in practical agriculture. Many enthusi¬ 
asts have recently tried various experiments in it, 
and have achieved what they deemed the most suc¬ 
cessful results. But it has been since ascertained, 
that in the ardor of zeal in arriving at satisfactory 
conclusions, their gardeners and other laborers were 
directed to supply an ample bed of rich vegetable 
mold for the electrical wires to revel in, and liquid 
manures and composts of various kinds were added 
from time to time, as being best calculated to pro¬ 
duce an abundant and rapid flow of the galvanic 
current. The provision for this favorable develop¬ 
ment of this new agent of vegetation, has even been 
so abundant in numerous instances as to have ab¬ 
solutely burnt up and destroyed the crops from its 
excess. It was not surprising, therefore, that ex¬ 
traordinary results followed the application of elec¬ 
tricity, when accompanied by such powerful allies. 
In defiance, however, of all these favorable con¬ 
clusions, many less confident experimentalists have 
followed the rules systematically laid down by the 
masters; but when unaccompanied by the chemi¬ 
cal adjuncts of animal, liquid, and other manures, 
they have proved wholly inoperative, and the crops 
have scarcely come up to the ordinary standard of 
contiguous and otherwise similar crops. It has 
even been found, on close scrutiny, that the root¬ 
lets of the plants, instead of running towards, and 
embracing this foster mother, as plants usually do, 
those substances from which they derive support, 
have decidedly cut her acquaintance, and turned back 
upon themselves, and hug and cling to each other in 
the narrow space, midway between the wires, rather 
than approach this new and questionable relation. 
We are led to infer, therefore, that whatever re¬ 
mains yet to be brought to the aid of agriculture 
from electro culture, requires some mode for its ap¬ 
plication not yet adopted by the “ knowing ones.” 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD.—No. 6. 
Sugar. —This article, perhaps, has been subject 
to adulteration more than any other. Fortunately, 
however, the substances generally employed, have 
been comparatively harmless, merely -weakening the 
article rather than imparting any poisonous quality. 
Of inorganic substances, sand, chalk, plaster of 
Paris, and pipe clay have been used ; of organic 
matter, flour, potato starch, and potato sugar, the 
latter of which is made by boiling potato starch for 
many hours with dilute sulphuric acid, neutralizing 
the excess of acid by chalk, and evaporating the 
clear liquid to a certain specific gravity, at which 
point it solidifies into a mass of crystals. These 
are drained, and are then employed for adulterating 
sugar, or for imparting sweetness and strength to 
wine or beer, and also for falsifying honey. The 
addition of this substance to ordinary cane sugar, 
has the effect of rendering the sweetening power 
of the latter much less considerable; for, cane su¬ 
gar possesses a sweetening power two and a half 
times as great as that of potato sugar. Hence, 
a very much larger quantity of sugar thus adulte¬ 
rated must be employed to produce a given effect; 
and hence sugar, in this condition, is much more ex¬ 
pensive in use than pure cane sugar. 
For some years past, moist sugars have been 
largely adulterated with the sweet waste liquor 
(solution of glycerine), evaporated to a proper con- 
i sislency, which is formed in the process of saponi¬ 
fying oils and fats. This liquid may now be pro¬ 
cured, by hogsheads at a time, from the stearine 
