Homo,Homo, 
MARCH 1. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND l UIII.V NEWSPAPER. 
71 
fujpit aiitr fertuu. 
VEGETABLE ALIMENT* 
1. —FRUITS. 
Botanists give the name of fruit to a sub¬ 
stance reproductive of a tree or plant. Thus 
the acorn is the fruit of the oak, the pear that of 
the pear tree, ifcc. The name of fruit is equally 
extended to every species of grain, whether 
naked or enclosed in anj envelopment what¬ 
ever. In hygiene, wt; only consider the fruit 
used by man as nourishment. 
We may in general, divide fruits in relation 
to their taste : —1st, acid fruits; 2d, sweet fruits; 
3d and lastly, into astringent or acerb fruits. 
1. Acid Fruits. —Fruits, especially those of 
summer, called by the Latins frudus horcei, are 
in general cooling; they appease thirst, and 
excite by virtue of a slight stimulus, the secre¬ 
tion of the saliva and gastric juice ; they also 
possess, but in a less eminent degree, an anti¬ 
putrescent virtue ; hence, they are very salutary 
in inflammatory or bilious diseases. Fruits also 
possess in a high degree, a sedative quality, for 
they very obviously diminish the action of the 
sanguiniferous system : they produce this effect 
as soon as they are received into the stomach. 
It appears that it is to their sedative quality, 
that they owe the property of diminishing ani¬ 
mal heat. It is very probable that by reducing 
the action of the vascular system, they prevent 
the arterial blood from passing rapidly into 
veinous blood, it thence results, that the blood 
does not promptly acquire the carbonated hy¬ 
drogen gas, and less carbonic acid gas is disen¬ 
gaged. In addition as they act sympathetically 
throughout the system, they diminish the fre¬ 
quency of respiration,-and by consequence, less 
oxygen is taken into the pulmonary circulation, 
and less caloric generated. This is the only 
manner of rationally accounting for their refrig¬ 
erant action. Some have wished to explain 
this effect, by comparing these substances to 
salts, which produce cold during their solution 
in water ; but this explanation is not satisfac¬ 
tory, for the cold occasioned by salts only con¬ 
tinues during their solution, whereas fruits pro¬ 
duce this effect upon the system for a consider¬ 
able time. Besides, acids, which with water 
produce a very sensible degree of cold, are pow¬ 
erful refrigerants, when drank in a certain 
quantity with water. 
The virtues of which I have just spoken, ren¬ 
der the use of fruits very salutary in diseases, 
in which the vascular action is much augment¬ 
ed, as well as in nervous affections, which de¬ 
pend upon an excess of energy and tone. Van 
Swieten cites the case of a maniac, who was 
entirely cured by eating a great quantity of 
cherries. We find in the writings of physi¬ 
cians, many cures of this kind performed by 
the use of fruit. However, an excess of fruit 
may be prejudicial to health, especially when 
green; it produces indigestion, diarrhoea, and 
many other analogous affections. Experience 
proves that it may also occasion a relapse of an 
intermittent fever and dysentery. Its debilita¬ 
ting quality singularly promotes the morbific 
action of marsh miasma, which is the cause of 
these diseases, and eminently disposes the sys¬ 
tem to contract them. 
Acids decompose the bile, and cause it to pass 
off by the intestines. Summer fruits produce 
this effect in consequence of the acid they con¬ 
tain, and their moderate use prevents the disor¬ 
ders, which a superabundance and acrimony of 
this fluid occasions. Fruits likewise contain a 
certain quantity of sugar, which renders them 
nourishing. They ferment in the stomach and 
disengage much air. They are diuretics in 
consequence of the acid and water they contain. 
Their use is indicated in summer even by na¬ 
ture, and their being regarded by some physi¬ 
cians of the last century as pernicious, produ¬ 
cing certain diseases, which they on the con¬ 
trary either prevent or cure, -was opposed to 
reason and fact. The Author of Nature has 
caused fruit to grow in abundance in warm 
countries or warmer seasons, they being abso¬ 
lutely useful to man. Hence it happens that a 
kind of instinct excites the human species to 
seek them, in preference to other aliments in 
the countries and in those seasons, as well as in 
cases where the human system tends strongly 
to become bilious. It is proper, however, not to 
abuse their use, as I have already said, espe¬ 
cially in a convalescence from intermittent fe¬ 
vers and dysenteries, and in countries where 
these diseases are epidemic. 
Fruit that is not sufficiently ripe is un¬ 
healthy, and should not be used. Its compact 
tissue renders it less soluble, which causes it to 
remain too long iu the stomach, and it contracts 
an acid fermentation, which if not corrected, 
generally produces disorder throughout the sys¬ 
tem. Ripe fruit when used to excess produces 
disease, by contracting the acid fermentation in 
the prima via ; and especially those that con¬ 
tain much acid. 
In the class of acid fruits, we may include 
bar-berries, cherries, citrons, apples, currants, 
<fcc., <tc. 
1. Bar-berry—(Berberis Vulgaris, Lin.) The 
bar-berry is a prickly shrub, which grows 
throughout Europe and America. The stamina 
of its flowers exhibit signs of irritability when 
touched. Its berries ripen in autumn ; they 
contain the citric acid, and have an exquisite 
taste when subjected to the influence of frost. 
In Egypt, where this shrub grows in great 
abundance, much use is made of its fruit, espe¬ 
cially in inflammatory fevers. Prosper Alpini 
relates, that he was himself attacked with a 
* Translated from a Statin on the “ Influence of Physical 
and Moral Causes on Man,” by Etibnne Tourtelle, Prof, 
of the Special School of Medicine of Strasburg, &c. 
“pestilential fever,” and with a considerable 
diarrhoea,-&nd was cured by this fruit. Simon 
Pauli experienced a like good effect from its 
use, in a similar disease. "With this fruit we 
make syrup, jelly, and preserves, which afford a 
drink and nourishment not less agreeable than 
useful, in all cases where a cooling diet is nec¬ 
essary. 
2. Sour Cherries—(Cerasa acida ; prunas ce- 
rasus, Lin.) —The cherry is a stone fruit, of a 
tree whose trunk is of a middle size. The 
cherries under consideration, are very sour and 
cooling. They contain about the same quantity 
of citric as of malic acid. The pulp of the cherry 
is succulent, and it is as healthy as it is pleasant 
to the taste, and especially when it is cooked or 
sweetened with sugar. This is not always.the 
case, particularly in some forms of dyspepsia, 
where there is a tendency to acid fermentation. 
In such cases, cherries are exceedingly unwhole¬ 
some. 
3. Citrons, (Citreum Malum ; Citrus Mcdica, 
Lin.) The Citron is a seed fruit of a small tree, 
which is an evergreen, and was at first brought 
from Assyria and India into Greece, and thence 
into all Southern Europe. Hence its fruit is 
called in Latin Mala Mcdica, Mala Assyria. In 
the days of Pliny, the fruit of the Citron was 
not eaten. It was first used in the time of Ga¬ 
len and Ancius. It contains a great quantity 
of citric acid, and possesses the same virtues as 
the preceding fruit. N ed. 
“Old Mansion,” Jan. 9, 1856. 
[To be continued.] 
BOOT-GRAFTED TREES. 
From a discussion at a Farmers’ Meeting at 
the State House in Augusta, Me., we copy some 
remarks on the above subject. Mr. Goodale 
said: 
One question of importance to us is root¬ 
grafting, such as cultivating apple seedlings a 
year or two in very rich soil, and thus getting a 
long tape root. This root is cut into pieces, and 
Scions put into them, then set in the ground.— 
It amounts to raising trees from cuttings,—the 
root merely keeping the scion moist and until 
it roots. If such trees, grown in this way, are 
really of value, he would like to know it; if not, 
we ought certainly to know it. Hundreds and 
thousands of such trees are brought into this 
State from the West. If they are found to be 
good by anybody who has tried them, he would 
like to know it. 
Mr. Fairbanks has seen and examined such 
trees. In a bundle of twenty-five trees he 
found that there were not roots enough on the 
whole for one tree. He would not set them out 
to have them. A good root is absolutely neces¬ 
sary to make a good tree. 
Mr. Crane said 18,000 of such trees were 
landed last spring in Bangor. An agent had 
canvassed the whole country around, and very 
many were “ gulled.” The people have been 
dissatisfied, and as many as seven lawsuits 
have grown up from the swindling operation.— 
He knew of a man who had bought 300 of these 
last spring, and set them out carefully, and they 
are all dead now. 
Col. Simmons had tried the experiment of 
raising trees on grafted pieces of roots. They 
would grow well a little while, but soon died. 
He would not have them on his farm, if he 
could get good trees for one dollar apiece. 
Mr. Dana had raised trees from layers. Some 
twenty-five years ago, when he first commenced 
farming, he bought 100 trees raised in that way; 
six or seven are now alive. A few of them had 
fruited a little. The largest of them is not 
more than six inches in diameter. He knows 
an orchard from the same kind of layers. The 
largest one of the trees is not over eight inches 
in diameter, and they are now dying. Trees 
raised from seed in the same orchard are now 
thrifty, and larger than the others. 
PRUNING APPLE TREES. , 
Now don’t, kind reader, turn up your nose, 
because your theory diffi rs from miije. What 
does the surgeon do when he amputates a leg ? 
O, he dresses it carefully as possible. Yery well. 
So do I dress a limb of a tree after it is sawed 
off, and common sense requires it as much in 
one case as in the other. But I find it pleasant, 
as well as convenient, on a leisure day to go 
out and trim off the shoots and dead branches, 
and when a warm day comes in spring, I go all 
over the orchard with a ball of grafting wax, or 
some shellac dissolved in alcohol, and cover 
every wound. If you are not willing to do this, 
then don’t prune till the leaves are set, or, which 
is, perhaps, better, till September and October, 
which with me is a very busy season. I see 
where I have practised pruning and dressing in 
years past, as I have described, that the bark is 
lively, and the healing process is going on all 
around the wound, a point of the greatest im¬ 
portance. My theqry on this subject, is to take 
care and dress your wounds, make them when 
you will.— Cor. A r . E. Farmer. 
Black Knot and Gum.— A correspondent 
writing from McKean, Erie Co., Pa., made some 
remarks at page 55, on the appearance of the 
Black Knot on the Cherry, while in the same 
locality the plum escaped. It occurs to us that 
the disease referred to was the Gum, which is 
somewhat similar in its appearance to the Black 
Knot, and may have been mistaken for it. If 
the Black Knot has attacked the Cherry it*is 
something new. The Gum is an exudation from 
the trunk of the tree, caused by the bark being 
wounded or pierced by insects, and when the 
gum which exudes has been for same time ex¬ 
posed to the atmosphere, it resembles the Black 
Knot. Has our correspondent observed the gum 
also on his cherry trees ?—s. 
CHERRY GRAFTING. 
Eds. Rural :—Your correspondent over the 
signature of "VV". P. T., of Erie, Pa., Feb. 16th, 
says :—“ The great secret of success in Cherry 
grafting, is to set the scions very early in the 
season, before the sap begins to start. In ordi¬ 
nary seasons I graft in Febuary, usually during 
the 1st and 2d week.” 
Now, if the above theory is correct, Avhile the 
roots of the trees are bound in icy chains, the 
branches frozen, and the whole tree in a dor¬ 
mant state, then most assuredly winter grafting 
should never be neglected. But were you, Mr. 
W. P. T., to attempt the operation the present 
February, or in either February of the last two 
years, your progress, I think, would be like 
F ulton’s steamboat, “ go a little way and then 
stop.” Again, what is the advantage of this 
“winter grafting?” Mr. W. tells us that, “if 
deferred until tile sap commences flowing, all 
efforts will be useless.” Now every man knows, 
or ought to know, (who has had any experience 
in the cultivation of the Cherry,) that the above 
statement is incorrect; and that the Cherry can 
be grafted after the sap commences flowing, and 
that with good success. Does it look reason¬ 
able, that scions set six or eight weeks before 
they can receive any nourishment, and exposed 
to all the changes of the weather, would do as 
well as those set at the time the sap begins to 
flow, and receive their nourishment at once ? 
Were I to attempt to give any instructions in 
regard to grafting the Cherry, I would say cut 
your scions in February, (if the weather permit,) 
and deposit them in a good scion house, or some 
convenient place, where they would remain in 
about the same state as when cut; and there 
let them remain until the weather becomes 
warm, ank the sap begins to start, but not until 
the leaf-buds burst,—and if then set, in a good 
and workman-like manner, you need not fear 
the result. I have reference to grafting on 
nursery stocks, of course. i. s. c. 
Greece, N. Y., Feb., 1856. 
ftorautii fOTumy. 
CRACKERS AND OTHER GOOD THINGS. 
Mr. Moore: —In the last Rural I notice a 
request for recipes for Crackers, (“ and others 
we know to be good.”) I hereby send such as 
I have, and which have been freely distributed 
in my own neighborhood. If they prove ac¬ 
ceptable, I have others at your service. [Thanks 
—“ please forward.”— Ed.] 
Crackers. —Three quarts flour, 1 cup of but¬ 
ter, 1 pint water, 1 tablespoon salt. Pound un¬ 
til the dough snaps. 
Another. —One pint of cold water, 1 teacup 
of lard, a little salt, 2 teaspoons of soda (or sal- 
eratus)—dissolved in a little vinegar ; work in 
flour with your hands until quite hard ; bake in 
a quick oven. - , 
Doughnuts. —Take 7 coffee cups of bread 
dough when light, mix into it one and a half 
cups of melted lard, with one of sugar, and a 
teaspoonful of saleratus; when it has again be¬ 
come light roll it out, cut into what shape you 
please, and boil in hot lard. To succeed well, 
the dough should be mixed with milk. 
A very nice Fruit Cake. —One pound sugar, 
half a pound of butter, 4 eggs, 1 teacup of sweet 
milk, 3% cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of saleratus, 
nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves—as many raisins 
as you can afford. 
Cup Cake. —Five cups of sifted flour, 2y, cups 
of white sugry - , 6 eggs, 1 cup of butter, 1 of soui- 
cream, 1 teaspoon of soda, nutmeg. If sweet 
milk is used instead of sour cream, put in two 
teaspoons of cream of tartar. 
Hard Gingerbread. —Ttvo cups of molasses, 
1 of buttermilk, 8 tablespoons of melted lard or 
butter, 4 teaspoons of saleratus, 6 of ginger, a 
little salt, flour enough to roll (not very hard.) 
Cinnamon Cakes. —One cup of sugar, 1 of mo¬ 
lasses, 1 of butter, 1 tablespoon of ginger, 1 of 
cinnamon, 1 of saleratus, dissolved in half a cup 
water—flour enough to roll; to be rolled very 
thin and cut in round cakes. 
Cookies. —Two cups of butter, 2Lj of sugar, 
4 eggs, half a teaspoonful of saleratus, caraway 
seed, flour enough to roll—made very thin. 
cA eam Cookies. —Two eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 
half a cup of butter, half a cup of sour cream, 
1 teaspoon of saleratus, caraway seed, 2 tea¬ 
spoon cream of tartar—flour enough lo roll. 
These recipes I have used for some time, and 
find none better. If persons who try them do 
not succeed, they must blame themselves alone, 
if they have good material. 
Canandaigua, N. Y., 1855. A Farmrr’s Wife. 
V -►- 
To Cook a Cheek, or Jole. —Having separa¬ 
ted it from the head and cut off the fore part, 
take the cheek only, clean it thoroughly, let it 
lie in cold water twenty-four hours to draw out 
the blood, put it into a weak brine, and let it 
remain one, two, or three weeks. Now parboil 
it—score and season it for baking. Have ready 
a dish of beans, (if you are fond of the article,) 
place the cheek thereon and bake it thoroughly, 
and if the operation has been well performed, 
you will have “ a good dinner.” It may be 
eaten warm, but is best when cold, even to 
freezing. h. 
Crackers — Excellent Recipe. —Half a tea-cup 
of shortening, 3 tea-cups of cold water, 1 table¬ 
spoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful of soda, 2 tea¬ 
spoonfuls of cream of tartar, and nearly 5 quarts 
of flour. Rub the shortening, soda, cream of 
tartar and salt, well into the flour, then wet up 
with the water — the dough will be very stiff, 
needs no pounding nor extra kneading. Cut 
out, prick, and bake in a quick oven. 
fjfetframt ftte, &t. 
LIST OF PATENTS, 
Issued from the United States Patent Office for the 
week ending February 12, 1856. 
Wm. Adamson, Philadelphia, improvement in machine¬ 
ry for cutting sand-paper. Dated Feb. 12,1856; ante-dated 
August 12, 1855. 
John Allender, New London, improvement in scissors. 
B. J. Barber, Ballston Spa., improved method of tongue- 
ing and grooving tapering boards. 
Wm Baxter, Newark, improved wrench. 
Erastus B. Bigelow, Boston, improvement in power- 
looms. 
Felix Brown and Adolph Brown, New York, machine for 
boring and turning wood. 
Jno. Clark, Washington, and Geo. W. N. Yost, Pitts¬ 
burgh, improvement in plows. 
Chas. W. Copeland, New York, improvement in valves 
and exhaust passages of steam engines. 
Waldo P. Craig and Wm. R. Righter, Newport, Ky., im¬ 
provement in signals for vessels. 
Clement Dare, Cincinnati, improved method of regulat¬ 
ing feed-gates for mills, etc. 
C. H. Denison, Green River, Vt., rotary planer for felloes. 
' Levi S. Enos, Olean, improvement in oil cans. 
Wm. E. Everett and M. M. Thompson, New York, im¬ 
provement in devices for removing incrustations of boilers. 
David N. Flanders, South Royalton, Yt., improved ad¬ 
justable carriage seat. 
P. G. Gardiner, New York, improvement in railroad car 
axle. 
J no. S. Gallaher, Jr., Washington, improvement in gas 
and steam cooking apparatus. 
Thaddeus Fowler, Waterbury, improvement in sticking 
pins in paper. 
Rob’t and Wm. L. Gebby, New Richland, 0., improve¬ 
ment in seed planters. 
Wm. Gee, New York, lubricator. 
Elijah Hall, Rochester, improvement in power-looms. 
Anson Hatch, Forestville, Conn., improved hand-press 
for stamping letters, etc. 
Birdsill Holly, Seneca Falls, improvement in condensing 
steam engines which are used for pumping. 
J. L. Horn, Edgecombe county, N. C., improvement jn 
cotton seed planters. 
Westel W. Hulburt, Utica, improved method of hanging 
and adjusting circular saws. 
Solon S. Jackman, Lock Haven, Pa., improved elevator 
forpuddlers’ balls. 
Ferdinand Keennold, Bridgeport, Connecticut, improved 
wrench. 
James T. King, New York, improvement in steam con¬ 
densers. 
R. W. Lewis, Honesdale, improvement in sealing pre¬ 
serve cans. 
Edward Lindner and Conrad Hoffman, New York, im¬ 
provements in porte-monnaies. 
John L. McPherson, New Vienna, Ohio, and Jacob 0. 
Joyce, Cincinnati, O., improvement in diaphragm pump. 
Christian Moeller, Newark, improvement in wick hold¬ 
ers for argand lamps. 
Elisha P. Newton, Green Island, N. Y., improved wrench. 
Job Phillips, Harrisburg, improvement in grain har¬ 
vesters. 
John Prince, Washington, improvements in ship com¬ 
passes. 
Lea Pusey, Philadelphia, improved method of extin¬ 
guishing fires. 
Wm. H. Robertson and Geo. W. Simpson, Hartford, im¬ 
provement in breech-loading fire arms. 
Chas. H. Sayre and Geo. Klinck, Utica, improvement in 
cultivator teeth. 
John Seithen, Coblentz, Prussia, improved envelopes for 
bottles. Dated February 12, 1856. Patented in England 
August 29, 1854. 
Edwin F. Shoenberger, Marietta, Pa., improved safety 
spring coupling. 
Christian Shunk, Armstrong Co., Pa., improvement in 
fluxing blast furnaces. 
Timothy F. Taft, Fitchburg, Mass., improved bolt ma¬ 
chine. 
Benj. Taylor, Philadelphia, instrument for grating green 
corn. 
Thos. Thompson, Niversville, N. Y., improved machine 
for folding paper, etc. 
Wm. D. Titus, Brooklyn, improvement in oil box for 
axles with conical journals. 
Wm. H. Towers, Philadelphia, improvement in clothes 
clamps. 
Lorison D. Towne, Worcester, cutter heads for planing 
machines. 
James Whitcomb, Detroit, improvement in railroad 
switch. 
S. W. Wood, Washington, improvement in railroad car 
couplings. 
Geo. W. N. Yost, Pittsourg, improvement in grain and 
grass harvesters. 
C. C. Hoff, Albany, assignor to E. P. Russell, Manlius, 
improvement in the construction of mastic roofing. 
James M. Kern, Morgantown, Ya., assignor to Enoch P. 
Fitch and Isaac Scott, of same place, improved method of 
concaving circular saws. 
Alfred Swingle, Boston, assignor to Elmer Townsend, of 
same place, improvement in pegging boots and shoes. 
Chas. Morgan, Philadelphia, assignor to Samuel Emlen, 
of same place, improvement in potato planters. 
Henry Newsham, Baltimore, improvement in cauldrons. 
Charles Burleigh, Fitchburg, assignor to the Putnam 
Machine Co., of same place, improved gearing for feed 
rollers of planing machines. 
RE-ISSUES. 
Albert Broughton, Malone, improvement in polishing 
stone, metals, &c. Patented November 7,1854; ante-dated 
Oct. 24, 1854. 
Ammi M. George, Nashua, improvement in spike ma¬ 
chines. Patented Dec. 18, 1855. 
Isaac M. Singer and Edward Clark, New York, assignees 
of J. James Greenough, improvement in machines for sew¬ 
ing or stitching straight seams. Patented Feb. 12, 1842. 
DESIGNS. 
Lawrence Johnson, Philadelphia, design for printing 
type. 
James M. Thompson, Philadelphia, design for moulded 
bricks. 
H. E. Wesche, Philadelphia, assignor to Robert Wood, 
of same place, design for gates. 
R. Gleason, Jr., Dorchester, Mass., assignor to R. Glea¬ 
son & Sons, of same place, design for bottle castors and 
egg cup stands. 
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 
In answer to inquiries made on the subject of 
gun-cotton—whether it could take the place of 
gun-powder—the "Washington Star says that in 
blasting rocks the article is used quite exten¬ 
sively. The objections to its use are the ine¬ 
quality of its action compared with gun-powder ; 
the effect on the gun is greater, its projectile 
force varies with the compression of it in the 
gun, it attracts more moisture, alters slowly 
from loss of acid, and explodes under some cir¬ 
cumstances at 154° Fahrenheit. 
M. Leval has shown that bismuth, even in 
very small quantities, exerts a very injurious 
action upon the durability of copper. An alloy 
of pure copper with 1-100th of its weight of bis¬ 
muth had a crystalline texture, and a well 
■ marked gray tint, and was torn under the ham¬ 
mer. A second alloy, formed of pure copper, in 
the state of very fine wire, with 1-1000th of 
bismuth, had also a crystalline texture, and had 
but a very slight ductility. M. Leval directs 
attention to these results, as pointing out the 
the necessity of looking for traces of bismuth in 
the copper of commerce, and that avoiding 
many disagreeable results which have frequent¬ 
ly ensued from the employment of certain cop¬ 
pers, and which, he thinks, are attributable in 
many instances to the presence of bismuth. 
Atmospheric air, when it enters the lungs, 
contains about two gallons of carbonic acid in 
every five thousand of air ; when it escapes from 
the lungs it contains two gallons in every one 
hundred. From this it is easy to see how much 
solid carbon is continually thrown from the 
human sytem, and how much must necessarily 
be constantly supplied. 
Mr. Mulliner, an engineer, proposes to con¬ 
struct a tunnel of huge iron tubes, made in sec¬ 
tions, bolted and cemented together, and laid 
down in the channel between Fiance and Eng¬ 
land. He asserts that the bottom of the Dover 
Straits is suitable, (it must be level for this 
purpose,) and that such a tunnel will be the 
cheapest. 
The petition of Mr. J. S. Richardson, of Bos¬ 
ton, for aid in an experiment upon what is 
called an Atmospheric Telegraph, was recently 
presented by Mr. Sumner to the United States 
Senate. Since that time, Mr. S. has received a 
letter from Dr. Luther Y. Bell, also of Boston, 
who claims to have invented the same thing 
several years ago. This is another illustration 
of conflicting claims to priority of discovery in 
the matter of the great inventions,—such as the 
case of Professor Morse, inventor of the mag¬ 
netic telegraph, and also that of Doctors Morton 
and Jackson, in their respective claims to the 
discovery of the anaesthetic properties of ether. 
Agate stones, when soaked in a solution of 
sulphate of iron, and then placed for a few 
hours in an oven, acquire a fine cornelian red 
color, and thus it not unfrequently happens that 
very coarse and common stones are made to 
pass for the first quality. It is only within the 
last forty years that this process has been known 
in Germany ; but the Italian lapidaries were ac¬ 
quainted with it centuries ago. This accounts for 
the exquisite color of antique cameos and other 
ornaments once numerous in the cabinets of 
Italy, and now to be seen in museums and pri¬ 
vate collections in various places. • 
The French, who have been making experi¬ 
ments on one thousand miles of telegraph wire, 
are going to try to print from Paris to Kamiesch, 
and are contemplating the discharge of projec¬ 
tiles by telegraph. Signor Zantedeschi, writing 
from Venice to the French Academy and the 
Royal Society, says he announced the possibil¬ 
ity of the simultaneous passage of opposite cur¬ 
rents in metallic circuits, in 1829, and that he 
can now demonstrate it between two stations 
with only one wire. 
DURABILITY OF RAILROAD IRON. 
The complaints respecting the inferior quality 
of recently manufactured rails, naturally attrib¬ 
utable to the attempts made by companies to 
reduce the price, have attracted attention both 
in this country and in the United States, and 
have led to some practical and scientific inqui¬ 
ries. On the first introduction of railroads, it 
was confidently asserted by their promoters, 
that the rails would last for indefinite periods, 
but experience soon demonstrated that railway 
bars were subject to lamination and disintegra¬ 
tion, from the repeated rolling of heavy loads. 
Their duration, in some instances, has not ex¬ 
ceeded two or three years ; and in some of the 
earliest constructed lines in England, the rails 
have been changed twice, or even three times 
since their opening. 
Opportunities have accordingly presented 
themselves to the engineers on these lines of 
ascertaining the actual powers of endurance of 
iron rails, and of calculating the amount and ex¬ 
tent of traffic which they are capable of with¬ 
standing under the varied circumstances to 
which they are exposed. Where the conditions 
are favorable, and the bars themselves perfectly 
sound, it is believed that the traffic which rails 
of ordinary quality are capable of bearing will 
not fall very short of 20,000,000 tons. 
The rails laid down on many of our railways 
have not, however, carried one-fourth of this 
traffic ; and large quantities have $ten, in some 
instances, renewed which have not borne a tenth 
of that weight. Well recorded observations on 
this subject are much to be desired, and would 
prove of the greatest benefit, not only to rail¬ 
road companies and their share-holders, but 
also to engineers, and even to the iron trade in 
general.— London Mining Journal. 
GLASS-CUTTING. 
A company has been formed for the engraving 
of glass, called the New York Glass Company, 
with a capital of $200,000. It owns the patent. 
The glass engraving machines, were invented 
by L. W. Whipple, of Boston, by which, at a 
small cost, the thinnest glass can-receive the 
finest and most elaborate impression of orna¬ 
mental figuring. The machines are driven by 
steam. The die is fixed in a lathe, which is 
made to turn against the glass which is to re¬ 
ceive the impression, the glass* being fixed 
lengthwise in the machine and made to revolve 
rapidly, those portions of the glass which are 
to be engraved being covered with emery paste. 
The pressure of the die forces the emery to cut 
its own figure on the glass as it is made to re¬ 
volve. It is extensively used in ornamenting 
the glass globes which cover the gas-burners of 
chandeliers.— N. Y. Evening Rost. 
