MOOSE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
great secret. This was no less than the se¬ 
cret of instinct by which dogs do so many 
wonderful things, that some men with all 
their big looks, their learning, yes, and oven 
their wonderful knack of talking, cannot do. 
It was curious to see how the little span¬ 
iel who had turned philoshper, gave himself 
a up to this fancy that had got into his head. 
S Ho had a comfortable kennel, where he 
) might have been well fed, and had a jolly 
\ time of it liko other dogs. 
S But no, ho was far too wise for that. He 
> had, as ho said, found out something that 
jc would alter the whole "platform” on which 
A dogs stood, something that would help them 
£ to carry their heads higher than many men 
l ho could name, instead of being obliged to 
'( play second fiddle to the horse. If the com- 
) munity of dogs in general would but listen 
> ) to him, lie would teach them not only how 
<> c to bo always wise and rich, how to be strong 
t S and hearty, but above all, how to preserve 
s > their scent—for the scent is a pleasure that 
) l dogs prize as much as some old ladies who 
) ) take snuff. In short, the knowledge of this 
\ ) wonderful discovery would bring about a 
> t canine millennium—for lie assured them 
) \ that not only w t us every one of them enti- 
s ; lted to his “day,” but that “a good time was 
S ( coming,” even .tor dogs. 
( s And why, yea will s;.y, did not our philos 
l 7 opher divulge fir theoenefitof the whole 
y ) family of dogs? "It is so pleasant to do 
) ( something for the elevation of our race,” as 
) 5 t f o traveled monkey thought when ho was 
l > teaching his brothers to walk on their hind 
} ^ legs. All the dogs in the country could not 
) but owe him a debt of gratitude, since they 
X ; would soon become so wise that they might 
b t even teach their masters something of in- 
) ) stinct. And then they would bo so happy 
■? ) —since there would not bo a downcast tail 
) ) in all the land—for the whole country would 
; s bo in one perpetual wag of delight. 
) / Ah! dear reader, wo see that you, who put 
) < s ich questions,knownothingeitherofphiios- 
I ) Ophy. or tiio world. As if the people who 
l discover why the world turns round, and the 
<■ stars shine, throw their knowledge into the 
S street for every dog to trample on. No, 
indeed! They will have a patent for it, or 
) a great sum ot money from the government, 
or something of that sort. It would bo a 
) sorry follow who should think that every 
7 new thing found out is to be given away to 
c every body for nothing at all, in that inan- 
) nor. To bo sure, it would, perhaps, benefit 
; mankind all the more, but that is only half 
) the question. “If you think the moon is 
made of green cheese,” said our curly phi- 
i lo sop her to his friends, “you are greatly 
7 mistaken. I am well satisfied, for my part, 
) that that is only a vulgar error. If it had 
) bet n, John Bull would have eaten it up for 
) luucii a long time ago.” 
W Bo our philosopher went about among his 
^ f Row dogs, far and near, and spent most of 
t i i is tittle patrimony in waiting on distinguish- 
) t ed mastiffs, Newfoundlands, and curs of high 
} s degree. Ho went, also, to all conventions 
< S or public assemblies, where wise terriers 
) ) were in the habit of putting their heads to- 
) getlier for the public good. Wherever ho 
< ) went, you would see him holding some poor 
S victim by the button, expounding bis great 
$ secret, and showing how. the progress, yes, 
) ^ and the very existence of dogs, depended 
\ ( upon the knowledge of his secret —sinco it 
> < would really explain in a. moment everything 
) i that had been dark since the days when their 
< ) great-grandfather wore kept from drowning 
) ( in the ark. Only let the congress of grev- 
hounds agree to pay him a million of money, 
) ) and he would make known principles that 
( ) would make the distemper cease, and all the 
> ■ } other ills that dog-flesh is heir to, fade clean 
):|3 out of memory. 
C ) Some of the big dogs to whom ho told his 
S l secret, (always, remembor, in the strictest 
a |S confidence,) shook their lieads, and looked 
? ) v.ise; others, to get rid of his endless loc- 
S l tores, gave him a certificate, saying that 
) S Solomon was wrong when he said thero was 
) / nothing new under the sun: and all agreed 
\ that there was no' denying that there is 
> ) somethina; in it, though they could not ex- 
) S actly say it was a now discovery. 
< ( Finally, after a long time spent in lobby- 
j s iug, and after wise talks with all the nu m- 
) ^ hers that would listen to him, yes, and after 
f / exhibiting to every dog that had an hour to 
j ( give him, his collection of dogs’ bones that 
) ) had died solely because of the lamentable 
? 7 ignorance of liis secret in dog-dom, ho 
( < <j found a committee that took hold of his doc- 
> ) trino in good earnest—quite determined to 
( do justice to him, and vote him a million if 
t ij ho deserved it, but. nevertheless, quite do- 
tormined not to be humbugged by anyfalso 
/ 7 doggerel, however potent it might have been 
( 7 t > terriers less experienced in this current 
$ a commoditly of many modern philosophers. 
) ; j It was a long story, that the committee 
a ) were obliged to hear, and thero were plentv of 
y 7 hard words thrown in to puzzle terriers who 
j> < might not have had a scientific education 
?j|> seized in their youth. But the dogs on the 
yi( committee wore not to bo puzzled; they 
7 t hold of the fundamental principle of the 
a 7 philosophic spaniel, tossed it, and worried it, 
( ) and shook it. till it stood out, at last, quite 
> ( a simple truth, (how beautiful is deep phi- 
( 7 losophy,) and it was this— 
( Y The great secret of perfect instinct in 
y \ doers , is to keep their noses cool. 
(;,) Of course, the majority of the committeo 
( 7 were startled and delighted with the novelty 
< 7 and grandeur of the discovery. There were, 
^i) to bo sure, a few who had the foolhardiness 
(|0 to remark, that the thing was not new, and 
<ijf had been acted upon, time, out of mind, in 
yjs all good kennels. But the philosopher soon 
(i 7 put down such nonsense, by observing that 
yv the fact might, porchanco. have been known 
C|< to a few, but who, boforo him. had ever 
y;s shown the principle of tho thing? 
( 7 And now, wo should like to see that cur 
0 Y who shall daro to say the canine philosopher 
yA who has spent his life in studying nature 
/|fS and the books, to such good results, shall 
< ; ]C not have a million for his discovery? — 
Horticulturist for 1851, p. 153. 
^ A 
Cl/I l 
anil (iarkn. 
HOW TO MAKE A HOT LED. 
Though little explanation seems neces¬ 
sary after art examination of tho annexed 
engraving, yet we will give condensed direc¬ 
tions for the formation and management of 
Hot Beds: 
The frame of the hot bed is made of two 
inch plank, nailed to upright posts in each 
corner. Ten feet l*ng ind six feet wide is 
a good size — the back may be 30 inches 
high and tho front one-half that, to give a 
proper slope of roof for shedding rain and 
throwing tho light and heat upon tho plants. 
For the saslios to rest and slide upon, a strip 
0 inches wide is placed across tho frame, 
even with the edge of the same. Tho sashes 
are made in tho ordinary way, but without 
cross bars ; and the panes of glass are set 
to lap on oach other one-fourth of an inch, 
so as to shed the rain. For the preparation 
of the bed we find the following directions 
given by Mr. Barry : 
Hot beds should occupy a dry situation, 
where they will not be affected by the lodg¬ 
ment of water during rains or thaws. They 
should be exposed to tho east and south, 
and be protected by fences or buildings from 
the north and northwest. 
Whero it is intended to merely grow 
plants lor transplanting to the garden they 
may be sunk in tho ground to the depth of 
18 inches, and in such a case require not 
more than 2 feet of manure; but when 
forcing and perfecting vegetables is design¬ 
ed, a permanent heat must bo kept up, and 
the bed must bo made on the surface, so 
that fresh and warm manure may he added 
when necessary. A depth of three to four 
feet ot manure will in such cases he want¬ 
ed. Manure for hot beds requires some 
preparation. It should be fresh stable ma¬ 
nure, placed in a heap, and turned and mix¬ 
ed several times, promoting a regular fer¬ 
mentation. It is thus made to retain its 
heat a long time; otherwise it would burn 
and dry up, and become useless. 
The mold should be laid on as soon as the 
bed is settled, and has a lively regular-tem¬ 
pered beat. Lay the earth evenly over the 
dung aboutsix inches deep. Radishes and 
lettuce require about a foot of earth. After 
it has lain a few days it will be fit to receive 
your plants, unless"the mold has turned to 
a whitish color or has a rank smell, in which 
case add some fresh mold for the hills, at 
tho same time vacancies should bo made to 
give vent to the steam, by running down 
stakes. 
Those who wish to forco cucumbers, &e.. 
should begin, if tho weather is favorable by 
the first of March. For raising plants, tho 
middlo is time enough. 
WHEN TO PRUNE. 
A correspondent has furnished us with 
the lollowing text: “At what times in the 
year should the different kinds of pruning 
bo performed, in tho cold latitudes of the 
north and in tho milder climates of tho 
south?” 
We hold that pruning in general, in our 
northern climates, is saiest after the severe 
trosts ot winter are over, immediately be¬ 
fore tho swelling of tho buds.* When per¬ 
formed early in tho winter, or in tho au¬ 
tumn, as is practiced properly in mild cli¬ 
mates. the ends of the cut shoots dry up, 
shrivel and die : losing tho buds intended to 
make leading shoots, and leaving dead points 
that require much labor to prune off after¬ 
wards ; or if largo branches are cut off. 
leaving a broad, fresh surface, tho wood and 
hark dry up and require a long time to heal. 
Wo perform most of our pruning in the 
month of March, although a great deal of 
the less exact nursery pruning is dono in 
February. Southward, as tho winter is mild 
and spring early, wo should prefer pruning 
very early in the winter or immediately af¬ 
ter tho fall of the leaf, because activity in 
tho functions of the treo commences early, 
or scarcely ceases, as we must believe it 
does during out intensely cold weather, and 
by pruning early wo economise tho sap and 
strength of tho tree. 
“ Pruning in the season %-:hen the leaves 
are on. ’ The only pruning we hold to be 
sound, safe, and commendable, at this sea¬ 
son, is that ot tho finger and thumb, in other 
words pinching. It is quite inconsistent with 
good management to rear a crop of good 
shoots and then cut them away. This can 
only bo avoided“by nipping superfluous and 
misplaced shoots at two or three inches 
growth, before they attain to woodiness.— 
Ibis economises the force of the treo and 
turns it into a channel where it will pro¬ 
mote, instead of frustrating the ends wearo 
aiming at For instance, if we plant a 
young treo, and have pruned it with a view 
to a certain form, and contrary to our ex¬ 
pectations a shoot breaks out at an unex¬ 
pected point, and assumes a vigorous habit 
and robs all other parts, it would evidently 
be unwise to tolerate this intruder until it 
arrives at full growth and then cut it away. 
Too many trees are thus managed, by tho 
neglect of summer pruning or pinching.— 
We admit, however, that there aro cases in 
which tho summer pruning, or entire lop¬ 
ping off or cutting out branches of consid¬ 
erable size, may be judicious and safe. For 
instance in the case of neglected orchard 
trees, in a luxuriant state, with dense heads 
in which tho fruit is deprived of air and 
light. In such cases’branches may bo thin¬ 
ned out and. the cut surface heals over more 
rapidly and smoothly than at any other 
time. But it is unsafe to produce any very 
sensible diminution of foliage, as it arrests 
the growth of the tree. 
All pruning m the growing season, tends 
to arrest growth. Nurserymen know that 
a slight pruning of stocks before budding, 
will so arrest growth as to make the bark 
adhero firmly; when, b-.fi v the pruning, it 
i iifted freely. It is on this principle that 
most all pruning, to promote fruitfulness, 
must bo cone at a point of a greater or less 
activity of growth. Late spring pruning is 
often resorted to as a means of subduing a 
superabundant vigor, and it has the same 
effect as root pruning to a eertaint extent. 
—Horticulturist for Jan. 
White Blackberry.-TIus fruit is noticed 
in a late number of Hovoy’s Magazine, by 
Robert Manning. He says the color is liko 
that'^of a very ripe Sweetwater grape; shape 
liko tho black ;, berries slightly smaller: fla¬ 
vor good. Its most remarkable proporty is 
“ its productiveness, in which, (says 11. Man¬ 
ning) it far surpasses anything else of the 
kind I have over seen. The fruit is borne 
on long clusters, two of which come from 
every bud ; and on two of these, fifty ber¬ 
ries have been counted as the product of a 
s'ngle bud.” In consequence of the poor 
success which has attended all attempts to 
improve the blackberry by seedlings, R. 
Manning recommends that it bo crossed 
with this pale variety. 
giiraiestu: (etmminu. 
“DRIPPING” MARROW BONES. 
It may not bo generally known to all our 
good housewives that -nearly all the bones 
in the body of a fat animal, are “full of 
marrow,” and that a large quantity of the 
best “dripping” may easily be obtained 
from them; yet such is the fact. To ob¬ 
tain it, tako all tho large bones, as those of 
tho legs, tho thick parts of the shoulder 
blade, and those constituting the pelvis, 
(these three kinds are tho best,) and tho 
spino, (the ribs are hardly worth the trouble,) 
break thenr- up into small fragments, by 
splitting the thick, or joint ends, breaking 
tho fiat portions, &c., put them into a quan¬ 
tity of water, boil them two or three hours, 
(or longer, if you wish to make soup of the 
liquid.) and the fluid marrow will be found 
on the surface, and may bo collected at 
pleasure. The liquid makes an excellent 
soup, for those who are fond of the article. 
Iceland Moss. —A lichen, occasionally 
employed in invalid diet, to form a jelly 
which possesses certain tonic and nutritive 
properties. In tho sterilo island whoso 
name it bears, it is however an important 
article of food, as a substitute for wheat-flour. 
It is washed, dried in the sun, and reduced 
to powder, by stamping in strong bags, after 
which it only requires sifting to make it ap¬ 
plicable to the ordinary purposes of meal or 
flour. Tho plant consists ot upright leaves, 
of the peculiar membranous texture com¬ 
mon to lichens; these are soft and pliant 
when moist, but rigid and brittle when dry. 
The organs of fructification are sprinkled 
over tho exterior surface like small black 
warts, and the edges of the leaves are fringed 
with short hairs. The whole plant is smooth 
and shiny, and inclines to a reddish hue 
towards tho roots. 
For Pickling Eggs. —If the following 
pickie were generally known, it would be 
moro generally used. It i 3 an oxcollent 
pickle to be eaten with coid meat, &e. Tho 
eggs should be boiled hard (say ten min¬ 
utes.) and divested of their shells; when 
quite cold put them in jars, and pour over 
them vinegar (sufficient to quite cover them) 
in which has been boiled the usual spices 
for pickling, tie tho jars down tight, with 
bladder, and keep them until they begin to 
chatige color. 
Excellent and Cheap Caee. —Two 
pounds and a half of flour, threo quarters 
of a pound of sugar, three quarters of a 
pound of butter, half a pound of currants, 
or a quarter of a pound of raisins, quarter 
of a pound of orange peel, two ouncos of 
earraway seeds, half an ounce of ground 
cinnamon, or ginger, four teaspoonfuls of 
carbonate of soda, mixed well with rather 
better than a pint of new milk. The butter 
must bo well melted previous to being 
mixed with the ingredients. 
Economical Family Podding. —Bruise 
with a wooden spoon, through a colander, 
six large or twelve middle-sized boiled po¬ 
tatoes; beat four eggs, mix with a pint of 
good mlik, stir in tho potatoes, sugar and 
seasoning to taste ; butter a dish ; bako half 
an hour. Tins receipt is simple and eco¬ 
nomical. as it is made of what is wasted in 
most families, viz., cold potatoes, which may 
be kept two or three days, till a sufficient 
quantity is collected. It is a weekly dish 
at our table. A teaspoonful of Scotch ship 
marmalade makes a delicious seasoning. 
A few drops of creosote on brown paper, 
put in tho holes of rats, will drive them 
away. Nux vomica and oat meal is a sure 
poison. 
hm Slits, h. 
LIST OF PATENT CLAIMS 
ISSUED FROM THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 
For the week ending February 15, 1853. 
Horatio Allen and D. G. Wells, of New-York, 
N. Y., for Improved Adjustable Cut-Off Gearing, 
for Puppet Valve Engines. 
John Briggs, of Boston, Mass.,for Improvement 
in Railroad Car Seats. 
Darius C. Brown, of Lowelk Mass., for Im¬ 
provement in Machines for Manufacturing Har¬ 
nesses for Looms. 
Joshua C. Cary, of Richmond, Va., for Impro¬ 
ved Adjustable Heading Lever in Spike Machines. 
Richard M. Leslie, of Philadelphia, Pa., for Im¬ 
provement in Paging Books. 
Louis P. Shephard, of Alhambra, Ill., for Im¬ 
provement in Artificial Teeth. 
Rand B. White, of Meriden, N. Y., for Improv¬ 
ed Saw-Setting Machine. 
David and Herman Wolf, of Lebanon, Pa., for 
Improvement in Seed Planters. 
RE-IS3UE. 
Edward Hamilton, of Bridgeport, Conn., As¬ 
signor to H. B. Goodyear, Administrator of Nel¬ 
son Goodyear, deceased, for Improvement in Ex¬ 
cluding Dust from Railroad Cars. Patented May 
27, 1851. Re-issued Feb. 15, 1853. 
DESIGN. 
Chas. Waterman, of Meriden, Conn., for Design 
for a Sewing Bird. 
NEW CORN SMELLER, 
Messrs Editors ’—I have to-day witness¬ 
ed the operation of an improved Corn Siiel- 
ler, which is being introduced into this and 
adjoining States. It is said by judges of 
such machines, to be a superior article, and 
seems, to mo, to combine simplicity, dura¬ 
bility and perfection of work in a greater 
degree than any which I ever examined. 
It is a frame 23 by 30 inches square and 
about 2 J feet high. The shelling apparatus 
consists of a horizontal, concave cylinder, 
17 inches |ong, about 10 inches in diameter 
at the er.ds, and perhaps 7 in tho centre, 
faced with thick plates of cast iron armed 
with spiral rows of teeth. Near to tho cyl¬ 
inder, and immediately in front of it is a 
steeply inclined breast beam, on which tho 
cobs pass out at the side of tho machine, 
separated from the corn. T wo springs play 
freely just above the breast beam, which 
holds the ears against the cylinder until 
shelled. The springs aro independent of 
each other, thereby enabling it to shell large 
and small ears at tho same moment—they 
can be regulated by means of a screw, to 
shell damp or dry corn, at pleasure. It is 
adapted to hand or horse power—one hand 
or two, and is said by those who use them, 
to run as light, with one man to turn, as the 
common hand shellers. One great and im¬ 
portant advantage claimed for this sheller, 
is the fact that it. will shell the ear purfect- 
ly clean at the ends; and is capable of shel¬ 
ling from 30 to 50 bushels per hour. 
It was patented June 12, 1849, by Jacob 
Mumma, living near Mt. Joy, Lancaster Co. 
Pa., and has been awarded several first pre¬ 
miums at different State Fairs. 
Grecncastle, Pa., Feb. 1853. E. .E 
FENNY WISDOM. 
Silver in Lead. —If a ton of load con¬ 
tains three ounces of silver—one ounce in 
twelve thousand ounces—will it pay to dig 
out this silver, mechanically or chemically ? 
Will it save a penny ? Mr. Pattinson, a 
manufacturing chemist at Newcastle, says 
and shows that it will; although, before bis 
improvements were introduced the attempt 
was a losing one, unless the lead contained, 
at least twenty ounces of silver to tho ton. 
Nearly all load oro contains a trace of sil¬ 
ver. which becomes melted and combined 
in the ingot or pig of lead. Vast are the 
arrangements which the manufacturers are 
willing to make to extricate this morsel of 
silver from tho mass in which it is buried ; 
huge furnaces, and melting vessels, and crys- 
talizing vessels are provided, and elaborate 
processes are carefully conducted. The lead, 
itself, is all tho better for losing its silvery 
companion; whilo the silver makes its ap¬ 
pearance afterwards in tho form of dazzling- 
tea-services, and such like. 
Coal Dust. —Com proprietors are, per¬ 
haps necessarily, very wasteful people.— 
They accumuiie around the mouths of their 
pits large heaps of small coal, which for¬ 
merly rendered service to no one, and in 
somo parts of the country they burn this 
coal simply to got rid of it. But thanks to 
tho Legislature, it sometimes doos good by 
interfering in manufacturing affairs. It or¬ 
dained that locomotives should not send 
forth streams of smoke into tho air, and we 
aro thus freed from a nuisance-winch sadly 
effects our river-steamers and our steamer- 
rivers; while, at the same time, coke being- 
used as a, non mckeablo fuel, and the sup¬ 
ply from the gas-works being too small,coke- 
makers have looked to the heaps of small 
coal at the pit's mouth; and the result is, 
that thousands of locomotives aro now fed 
with coke made from tho small waste coal 
at the collieries. The railway companies 
get their coke cheaper than formerly ; tho 
coal owner makes something out of a (com¬ 
mercial) nothing: and the ground around 
tho coal-pits is becoming freed from incum¬ 
brance. And what the coke makers would 
leave, if they leave anything, the artificial 
iucl makers will buy; tor in most of the 
patent fuels now brought under notico coal- 
dust is one of tho ingredients. 
Gelatine. —How to get a pennyworth of 
beauty out of old bones and bits of skin, is 
a problem which the French gelatine-ma¬ 
kers have solved very prettily. Docs the 
reader remember some gorgeous sheets of 
colored gelatine in tho French department 
ot the Great Exhibition ? We owed them 
to the slaughter-houses of Paris. Those es¬ 
tablishments are so well organized and con¬ 
ducted, that all the refuse is carefully pre¬ 
served, to be applied to any purposes for 
v> nich it may bo deemed fitting. Very pure 
go.atme is made from tho waste fragments 
ot skin, bone, tendon, ligature, and gelatin¬ 
ous tissue of the animals slaughtered in 
the 1 arisian abattoris; and thin sheets of 
this gelatine aro made to receive very rich 
and beautif ul colors. As a gelatinous liquid, 
when melted it is used in tho dressing of 
woven stuffs, and in tho clarification of wine, 
and, as a solid, it is cut into threads for the 
ornamental uses of tho confectioner, or 
made into very thin white and transparent 
sheets of paper glace for copying drawings, 
or applied in the making of artificial flowers’ 
or used as a substitute for paper on which 
gold printing may ho executed. In good 
sooth—when an ox has given us our beef, 
and our leather, and our tallow, his ca¬ 
reer ot usefulness is by no means ended ; 
we can get a “penny out of him as long as 
there is a scrap of his substance above 
ground. —Household Words. 
STOVES ON STILTS. 
VyTiat is tho philosophy, we should bo 
glad to know, of setting a stove intended to 
warm the whole body, on stilts ? Some aro 
not satisfied with the excessively long shanks 
with which the manufacturer has endowed 
them ; but forsooth they must put them up¬ 
on a table, or a pedestal almost as high.— 
Don t people know, that we do not want to 
eat tho fire, but only to use it for the warm¬ 
ing of those indispensable parts of the sys¬ 
tem—the feet .- Is it net as absurd to place 
a fire on a level with the head, as it would 
be to dump a looking-glass upon the floor 
for our feet to contemplate their image in ? 
No. no; tho common practice is absurd. 
Reform it altogether. Hot air ascends.— 
If the lower stratum in a room is not heated 
by a fire near the floor, it will not be heated 
at all. You may have a roaring furnace at 
tho ceiling, and yet all the time an icc-house 
below. Philosophy is obstinate, and has de¬ 
cided that light, warm air shall float. You 
cannot, with all your persuasion, coax it to 
diffuse an agreeable warmth near the floor, 
where tho feet arc condemned to be, but by 
making a fire there. One might as well 
hope to benefit the humble classes of society 
by being charitable to tho wealthy. You 
must labor in the sphere, you intend to help; 
and it you want to have your feet warm and 
dry——a very comfortable and salutary thing 
—you must not put coals of fire on your 
head, but at the opposite extremity.— New¬ 
ark Advertiser. 
PLASTER CASTS OF LEAVES AND FLOWERS. 
The leaf, as early as convenient after be¬ 
ing gathered, is to be laid on fine-grained 
moist sand, in a perfectly natural position, 
with that surface uppermost which is to from 
the cast, and to bo banked up by sand, in 
order that it may bo perfectly supported.— 
It is then, bv means of a broad camel-hair 
brush, to be covered over with a thin coat¬ 
ing of wax and Burgundy pitch, rendered 
fluid by heat. The leaf is now to bo re¬ 
moved from the sand, and dipped in cold 
water, the wax becomes hard, and sufficient¬ 
ly tough to allow tho leaf to bo ripped off, 
; without altering its form. This being dono, 
| the wax mould is placed.in moist sand, and 
1 banked up as the leaf itself was previously; 
i made thin, due care being taken that the 
plaster be nicely pressed into all the intersti¬ 
ces of the mould, by means of a camel-hair 
brush. As soon as "the plaster has set, tho 
warmth thus produced softens tho wax, 
which in consequence of the moisture of tho 
plaster, is prevented from adhering to it., 
and with a little dexterity it may be rolled 
up. parting completely fiom the"cast, with¬ 
out injuring it in the least. 
Casts obtained in the manner thus de¬ 
scribed are very perfect, possessing a high 
relief, and form excellent models, either for 
the draughtsman or for tho moulder of arch- 
. itcctural ornaments .—Scientific American. 
TANNED GELATINE OR ARTIFICIAL HORN. 
A Manufactory has been established in 
| Paris for the construction of a variety of or- 
; namental articles with this substance. The 
! gelatine is usually obtained from bones by 
j treating them with a weak solution of muri- 
1 atic acid, and is afterwards tanned by the 
common process, as in making leather.— 
1 Upon becoming hard and dry, it assumes 
tho appearance of horn or tortoise-shell, and 
I is employed for the same purposes as those 
: natural productions. It is softened by bo- 
| ing boiled in water with potash, when it may 
bo formed into any shape, and the figure 
preserved by drying the articles between 
i moulds. In the soft state, it may also be 
! inlaid with gold, silver, or other, metals, and 
■ it may be streaked with various colored 
materials, so as to resemble the finest and 
i most beautiful woods. It is probable that 
this substance will soon be brought very ex¬ 
tensively into use, on account of its ele- 
: gance and cheapness.— Scientific American. 
There is a hog on exhibition at Cincinnati, 
of such size and fatness, that Professor Som- 
erindyke says that if his tail was lighted 
and kept properly trimmed, he would burn 
for a year; and with such brilliancy as to 
light a large portion of the city. Where’s 
your sperm whale now ? 
