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JUNE 28 . 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
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WEEDS. * 
If there is one subject more than another 
among the many which command the attention 
of the careful cultivator at this season, itis that 
of “ weeds.” Charged by the law of organiza¬ 
tion with an almost invincible vital force, these 
free and spontaneous products spring up un¬ 
bidden and unwelcome at every step over the 
surface of fhe cultivated soil. Some well 
meaning and easy minded moralists believe 
that in their presence they see but the contin¬ 
ued proofs of divine displeasure—embarrassing 
their daily operations—a punishment inflicted 
for past errors committed by our progenitors.— 
Thorns and thistles shall the soil bring forth, 
seems to be the mandate, while to us it is but 
the natural result of a perfect system. Who 
now believes, unless indeed the desponding 
uncultivated toiler, that the necessity of labor 
is an evil or a punishment. Without this un¬ 
avoidable condition in the enjoyment of life, 
what a miserable existence should that of man 
prove. 
When first this fair earth emerged from the 
chaotic mass with which we are led to believe 
it was incorporated, its surface was destitute of 
vegetation. The conditions which are necessa¬ 
ry to sustain the organized vegetable but then 
began to be established—then all such organ¬ 
isms as were produced by the mysterious 
agency of Creative Power were plants, not 
weeds, for this distinction of civilized society 
was not then imposed. It suits us not in this 
place to marvel over the subtle agency which 
clothed in verdure that naked surface, but it 
becomes us to express our gratitude for this 
wise provision, which to all future ages must 
prove a source of life and enjoyment. 
The intelligence which enables man to dis¬ 
tinguish the useful esculent plant from the 
comparatively useless one, or weed, as it is now 
termed, is his special characteristic, but how 
little that power of comparison and observation 
has been nurtured by the mass of those who 
live by the cultivation of the soil, the general 
ignorance of the spontaneous products of the 
soil of our country which prevails, too clearly 
attests. It may be true that to enable the cul¬ 
tivator to destroy the noxious weeds which in¬ 
fest his growing crops, it is not necessary for 
him to know their history, nature or systematic 
relations, but how much more pleasing and 
satisfactory would such knowledge render his 
daily pursuits ! 
We could not content ourselves to eradicate 
from day to day a plant which we only knew 
from tradition or custom should be eradi- 
ca'ed. In rejecting the rationale which the 
scriptural account presents, viz., that weeds are 
sent us as a penalty to the tiller of the soil for 
the errors of his progenitors, it may be suppos¬ 
ed we impose on ourselves the task of substi¬ 
tuting some other theory to account for their 
presence wherever the soil is submitted to the 
plow, and under circumstances which we might 
suppose totally inimical to their growth and 
development, but as we regard weeds or herb¬ 
age as the legitimate covering which has been 
provided by nature for the earth’s surface, which 
is ever ready to spring up where man neglects 
his office aucl furnishes by a well arranged sys¬ 
tem of growth and decay, organized matter 
necessary to improve aud meliorate the stiff and 
impervious soils hitherto destitute of vegetation, 
we should murmur at one of the most wise 
provisions were we to find fault with this ex¬ 
haustless source of health and wealth. Soon 
as the crumbled rock is capable of offering a 
bed to the passing germ, it falls there, and 
springs up, produces roots, stem, and leaves; in 
the course of its growth and decay adding a 
hundred fold to the organic matter so scarce 
and so indispensable to the increase of vege¬ 
tation. 
Practically considered, however, weeds are 
regarded very differently. But for their un¬ 
welcome appearance, the garden would produce 
its sweets, in fruits and flowers while man 
might quietly reap the harvest after having 
sown the seed, the interval being little else than 
a season of indolence aud inactivity. The 
moral effect of such a routine is well known, 
for such is indeed the system carried out in 
some parts of the globe where the peculiar na¬ 
ture of the soil and the crop renders constant 
tilling unnecessary and impracticable. In our 
modern and highly artificial system of culture, 
if we may properly use the term artificial in 
this sense, weeds are to the enterprising gar¬ 
dener, orchardist, and farmer a great source of 
expense and anxiety. Their exhausting effect 
upon the soil is one of the most prominent dis¬ 
advantages which arise from their presence.— 
Possessing all the organs and requiring all the 
important elements to complete their develop¬ 
ment which the growing crop demands, they 
rob that crop, whatever it may be, of just so 
much of the food as they appropriate, for it is 
seldom that weeds are judiciously treated in 
the manure heap, so as to afford a full compen¬ 
sation in organized matter for the amount taken 
from the soil by them. In some particular cases 
it is not judicious to incorporate them with the 
manure to be returned to the soil, for so tena¬ 
cious are their roots and stolons of life thatthey 
can resist decomposition and spread again over 
the field, spring up Phoenix-like to the dismay 
of the farmer. 
Again, the seeds of others are produced at a 
very early stage of the growth of the parent 
plant, and these, possessed of sufficient vitality, 
resist decay, and finding their way to the con¬ 
genial soil, fulfill the purpose of their creation. 
Others drive their strong and woody roots deep 
into the subsoil, defying the plow and cultiva¬ 
tor as they pass and repass, and only yield to 
the special application of direct manual labor, 
giving up their claim to a position only at con¬ 
siderable expense and care. 
The injurious tendencies of certain species of 
plants (weeds) on the trees and grain with 
which they become intimately associated, form 
another very important feature in their history. 
They grow so rapidly as to choke and smother 
the useful plant, as the tares did the wheat of 
old. Such weeds form a section of which the 
Bindweed, or Convolvulus, Dodder ( Cuscuta,) 
Tares, ( Ervum ,) Trailing Bistort, ( Polygonum 
convolvulus,') and many others, are familiar ex¬ 
amples. These are by far the most to be 
dreaded, for once permitted to establish them¬ 
selves among a crop its value is gone. 
Many inquiries are made from time to time 
in these columns as to how certain weeds, pre¬ 
vailing in certain districts, may be overcome or 
eradicated. Lately a correspondent inquires 
how a common Daisy may be eradicated. We 
presume this refers to the Dog or Ox-eye Daisy 
( Chrysanthemum lecanthemum.) This is seldom 
found, unless on poor clay pastures, and maybe 
got rid of only by improving the soil and thor¬ 
ough cultivation. This remark will apply to 
several species of weeds, a change in the rota¬ 
tion of crops being the most certain method._ 
A root crop well cultivated should leave the 
ground in a clear state. In the garden, nursery 
and orchard, the subject of weeds is one of 
vital interest. When we observed near this city 
a few days ago a gang of men amounting to 
nearly one hundred, all engaged in eradicating 
weeds, we concluded that the firm which was 
to pay nearly one hundred dollars per day for 
weeding, would almost be disposed to believe 
that the subject of weeds was an important one. 
If, by a little knowledge and precaution, some 
of this labor could be dispensed with, would it 
not be worth obtaining ? 
Let cultivators study the structure, organiza¬ 
tion and habits of these weeds, and provide for 
their destruction by an intelligent course of 
treatment. Burn up all such as have creeping 
roots or stolons, and do not permit them to be 
thrown on the manure heap. Destroy those 
which produce 3nd ripen their seeds very early 
before they expand their flowers. Let docks 
and thistles be specially grubbed out. Provide 
in fact, the proper system for each section, so 
that the-hoe need not be daily at work and the 
weeds still flourishing.—s. 
-- 
S. ON STRAWBERRY MANUAL. 
Quite reluctantly I am prompted by some 
down east horticulturists to say that the criti¬ 
cisms of S. on the Strawberry Manual, in the 
Rural of May 31, do not seem to be very feli¬ 
citously drawn ; and some how or other he has 
managed to fall into various errors of inference 
or fact, to two or three of which I beg leave 
briefly to refer. 
1. The author has not exhibited an unusual 
or excessive desire to impart his knowledge to 
others, as strongly intimated. On the contrary, 
the work was delayed long after various solicit¬ 
ations, and personally, the author has never of¬ 
fered a copy for sale, or asked a puff from writer 
or editor. The publishers are competent to 
the sale of it. 'When it became a fixed fact, 
that the little work would sell in every State in 
the Union, and sell well, and the publishers 
wished to stereotype it, of course the author 
could do no less than to revise it as thoroughly 
as in his power, to leave it in its present per¬ 
manent and satisfactory form. 
2. It is certainly a mistake to say that his 
laudable zeaHias rejected the opinions and re¬ 
ports of experiments of professional Horticul¬ 
turists. On the contrary, he has freely and ex¬ 
pressly acknowledged his obligations to a large 
number of cultivators of fruits, <fcc. See page 
10, of the revised edition, or page 7 of the old 
edition. 
3. He does neither reject or adopt “mete 
theory” until he has practically and personally 
tested it; and he confesses that a large propor¬ 
tion of his experiments during a score of years 
have proved to be but mc-e theories —as our 
horticultural friend of Macedon once said, “ a 
kernel of wheat in a bushel of chaff.” 
4. S. cannot fairly leave it to be inferred that 
because the author’s present pursuits—during 
the last three years—have not been advantage¬ 
ous for experiments, therefore, they have been 
always thus. For nearly twenty years he was 
on a farm, the son of a working farmer, and for 
more than twenty years since he has enjoyed a 
full and almost constant pleasure in personally 
tickling the soil, and in seeing not only the 
strawberry, but other fine fruits and flowers 
bust forth into life, luxuriance and beauty. He 
hopes ere long, at least on a very small scale, to 
resume some of his former habits. r. g. i>. 
The Season. —Since our last notice of the 
progress of vegetation, a week of warm and 
favorable weather has ripened several addition¬ 
al varieties of fruits, and enlivened the flower 
garden by a shower of roses. 
Cherries.—B auman’s May, May Duke, Early- 
Purple Quigne, aud Belle d’Orleans, are fully 
ripe, and a few others nearly so. 
Strawberries. —In addition to Jenny Lind, 
already noticed—which fully reaches the char¬ 
acter claimed for it at Boston—and the Due de 
Brabant, a Belgian variety, we have observed 
the Genesee, Monroe Scarlet, Burr’s Pine, Bos¬ 
ton Pine, Walker’s and Jenny’s Seedlings, 
Longworth’s Prolific, McAvoy’s Superior, and 
several others which have come to maturity._ 
In another week strawberries and cherries will 
be plentiful in this section.—s. 
Never train or support a plant unnaturallv. 
| Climbers will not do hanging about. Trailers 
will not do climbing. 
SUGGESTIONS FOB THE GARDENER. 
Squashes. —There are few vegetables culti¬ 
vated on the farm more valuable or more uni¬ 
versally admired than the squash. The soil 
best adapted to the cultivation of this vegetable 
is a light sandy loam, but it may be grown on 
almost every kind of soil, from the heaviest and 
most tenacious clays, to the lightest sands, if 
properly manured. It is much like the pump¬ 
kin in this particular, though it does not perhaps 
possess the same degree of hardness, and re¬ 
quires more careful nurture under circumstances 
uncongenial to its nature, especially when 
young. You may grow good squashes on pas¬ 
ture land, of a salubrious texture, by manuring 
wflth strong compost formed of clay, putrescent 
manure and ashes, thoroughly incorporated, and 
placed in the hills, and giving the plants an 
occasional dressing of lime, gypsum and soot. 
Hoe often, and keep down the weeds. When 
the vines commence fruiting, remove all super¬ 
fluous blossoms, and shorten in the runners; 
this will increase the energy of the plants, and 
secure large and well developed fruit. The 
squash may be dried the same as the pumpkin, 
and applied to the same uses. 
Soap Suds. —Save all the suds from the sink 
and the laundry. If you do not want it for 
purposes of irrigation, let it be conveyed to 
your manure heaps, or mixed with materials 
for compost. No article of a liquid nature 
possesses more powerful alimentary properties, 
and its economization will be found a source of 
considerable profit to any one -who will properly 
use it. It contains the food of plants in a state 
of solution, and therefore is prepared to act at 
once and with energy. By mixing it with sods, 
chip manure, muck, refuse straw, green vegeta¬ 
ble matter, or indeed, any kind of decomposed 
rubbish, and allowing the whole to ferment 
slowly, a most excellent fertilizer for Indian 
corn may be prepared, and one that will bring 
forward the crop with greater vigor than almost 
any other article that can be named. It is also 
very valuable as a manure for culmiferous veg¬ 
etables—melons, squashes, cucumbers, &c. 
Urine. —Prepare a system of spouts and res¬ 
ervoirs in your barns and out-houses for the 
preservation of the liquid voidings of your do¬ 
mestic animals of all kinds. This is an article 
of great efficiency in promoting the growth of 
plants. If allowed to stand till it becomes pu¬ 
trid, its effects are more immediate than that of 
any other stimulant, not even excepting soap 
suds. When applied to plants it tends to pre¬ 
serve them from the attacks of insects, and also, 
at the same time, imparts new energy to the 
circulatory and assimilating system. No arti¬ 
cle is more desirable for irrigating gardens. It 
should be saved in large quantities.— German¬ 
town Telegraph. 
Manuring Orchards. —When orchards bear 
profusely, or the soil through which their roots 
extend, yields crops which are removed from 
the ground, the trees ought to be supplied with 
an ample dressing of manure, as often at least, 
as once in four or five years. Common sense 
would teach this.— Selected. 
towKc ftatinmy. 
SEASONABLE RECIPES. 
Strawberries Stewed for Tarts. —Make a 
syrup of one pound of sugar and a teacup of 
water; add a little white of eggs; let it boil, 
and skim it until only a foam rises ; then put 
in a quart of berries, free from stems and hull; 
let them boil till they look clear, and the syrup 
is quite thick. Finish as is usual for tarts, 
with puff paste. 
Cherry Marmalade. —Remove the stones and 
stalks from the cherries, and rub the cherries 
through a sieve, and to this result a little cur¬ 
rent juice, say half a pint to every three pounds 
of cherries ; put the whole over the fire, stirring 
into it three-quarters of a pound of fine sugar 
to every pound of the fruit, aud boil it until it 
becomes a thick jelly ; pour it into jars or 
moulds, and when it is cold, spread on the top 
of each jelly a paper dipped in brandy, cover 
each jar or mould tightly, and keep it in a cool 
and dry place until it is wanted. 
Currant Marmalade or Jam. —This is made 
in the same manner as cherry marmalade, using 
currants alone and adding to every pound ot 
currant pulp and juice one pound white sugar. 
Raspberry Marmalade or Jam. —Pass the 
raspberries through a fine sieve to extract their 
seeds, add to them their weight in fine sugar, 
and boil them, and stir them over the fire until 
you can just see the bottom of the stew-pan ; 
treat it as quince marmalade. 
Currant and Raspberry Jelly. —Pick over 
a quart of red currants, a quart of white cur¬ 
rants, and a quart of raspberries ; put the whole 
over the fire, stir them and boil, them about ten 
minutes, then rub them through a sieve ; strain 
the liquor while hot through a jelly-bag, add a 
pound of fine white sugar to every pint of the 
liquor; boil and treat it <os directed for apple 
jelly.— Selected. 
Beverages for the Field—Molasses Beer.— 
Six quarts of water, two quarts of molasses, half 
a pint of yeast, two spoonfuls of cream tartar. 
Add the grated peel of a lemon ; and the juice 
may be substituted for the cream tartar. Bot¬ 
tle after standing ten or twelve hours, with a 
raisin in each. 
Harvest Drink. —Mix with five gallons of 
good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart 
of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. 
This will make not only a very pleasant bever¬ 
age, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 
irt3, &t. 
LIST OF PATENTS, 
Issued from the United States Patent Offlce Tor the 
week ending; June 11, 1856. 
Wm. W. Bachelder, New York city, improvement in 
hand pefreinft. 
Wm. Baxter, Newark, N. J., improved hydro-steam en¬ 
gine. ***-—-■ 
Chas. K. Bradford, Lynn, Mass., improvement in har¬ 
ness trace couplings. 
John Broughton. Chicago, Ill., improved rotary pump. 
Jonathan Burdge, Cincinnati, Ohio, improvement in 
cutting flour mill. 
Jeremiah Carhart, New York city, improvement in reed 
boards for melodeons. 
John M. Carlisle, Williamston Springs, S. C., improved 
head blocks of saw mills. 
James Chattaway, Hamden Co., Mass., improved water¬ 
proof percussion caps. 
S. W. Brown, Lowell, Mass., improved steam pressure 
gauges. 
Hiram Collins, Salisbury, Mass., improved shutter op¬ 
erator. 
Daniel Cushing, Wheeling, Va., improvement in coating 
cloth with paint. 
Daniel Cushing, Wheeling, Va., machine for rubbing and 
polishing painted cloth. 
A. G. Day, Seymour, Conn., improvement in cleaning 
india rubber. 
J. C. Dickinson and Robt. Bate, Hudson, Mich, im¬ 
proved pocket book. 
C. E. Russell, St. Louis, Mo., improvement in sealing 
preserve cans. 6 
H. C. Dole, Adrian, Mich., improved shears for sheet 
metal. 
R B Gorsucli, New York city, improved double acting 
steam pumps. 
J. H. Gould. New York city, improved three-wheeled 
carriages for children. 
Wm. Hart, Maysville, Wis., improved tool for watch¬ 
makers. 
Wm. Holmes, Brooklyn, N. Y.,improvement in thresh¬ 
ing machines. 
James Reynolds, New York city, gutta percha. 
David Russell, Lockport, N. Y , improvement in fire en¬ 
gines. 
Wm. Mount Storm, N. Y. city, improved ships’ safes. 
J. B. Terry', Hartford, Conn., improvement in sticking 
pins. 
Wm. R. Thompson, Cleveland, Ohio, improvement in 
railroad car wheels. 
E. A. Tuttle, Williamsburgh, N. Y., improved registers 
and ventilators. 
Philip Warner, Lancaster, Pa .improved bolt for shutters. 
Marshal Wheeler, Honesdale, Pa., improved governor for 
steam engines. 
G. W. N. Yost, Pittsburgh, Pa., improvement in reaping 
and mowing machines. 
Daniel Judd, Hinsdale, N. Y., improved rotary excavator. 
Geo. B. Kaign, Lnmberton, N. J., improvement in at¬ 
taching horses to vehicles. 
C. 0. Luce, Freeport, Ill., improvement in seeding ma¬ 
chines. 
Ebenezer Morrison, Franklin, N. H., improvement in 
corn shellers. 
R. W. Benedict, Bryant, N. Y.,improvement in carriages. 
George Blancha rd, N ew York city, improvement in cut- 
ing strings. ; __ 
O . E. Flagg, Shelburne, Mass., improved platform sup¬ 
porters. 
A. L. Grinnel & J. Z. Williams, Willet, Wis., improved 
potato diggers. 
P. B Green, Chicago, Ill., and E. A. Kennedy, Newark 
Ill., improvement in seed planters. 
George A. Meacham, New York city, improved seed 
planter. 
H. G. Robertson, Greenville, Tenn., improvement in 
stuffing horse collars. 
Thomas Wiles, Somerset, Ohio, improvement in straw 
cutters. 
Henry Gross, Tiffin, Ohio, improvement in breech load¬ 
ing fire-arms. 
Wm. W. Hubbell, Philadelphia, Pa., sabot for rotating 
shot and shell. 
Wm. Huntress, South Berwick, Me., improvement in 
bedsteads. 
James Ives, Mt. Carmel, Conn., improvement in attach, 
ing pads to saddle trees. 
Joseph KurizemaD, Lancaster, Ohio, improvement in 
operating head blocks of saw mills. 
A. S. Macomher, Beunington, Vt., improvement in 
wheelwright's n achinery. 
Patrick McGlew, Waterford, N. Y., die stock for cutting 
screws. 
Jason Palmiter, Jamestown, N. Y., improved rotary 
shingle machine. 
M. L. Parry, Galveston, Texas, improvement in repair¬ 
ing circular saw teeth. 
John I Howe and Truman Piper, (assignors to the Howe 
Manufacturing Company,) Derby, Conn., improvement in 
japannir g pins. 
Lucien H. Allen, (assignor to himself and E. M. Ivens,) 
Tamagua. Pa . improvement in casting car wheels. 
Alexar der^Uall. (assignor to himself and James G. Cald¬ 
well.) New Yotk city, improvement in repeating fire arms. 
Joseph Parrisett, Indianapolis, Ind., improved ice cream 
f, eezers. 
James Reynolds. New York city, improvement in mak¬ 
ing gutta percha tubing. 
John I. Howe and Truman Piper, (assignors to the 
Howe Manufacturing Company,) Derby, Conn., improve¬ 
ment in stoking pins. 
J. C. and L. u Plucke, Cape Vincent. N. Y., improve¬ 
ment. in attaching teeth to sickle bars of harvesters. 
Rufus Porter, Washington, D. C., sounding whistles for 
fog signals. 
Joshua K. Ingalls, Brooklyn, N. Y., (assignor to M. H. 
Howell, New York city, improvement in metal beams. 
re-issue. 
Robert Arthur, Philadelphia, Pa. Patent dated Jan. 2d 
1856. Improved self-sealing preserve cans. 
BENEFITS OF MACHINERY. 
It has become so customary for the people of 
the present day to see everything done by ma¬ 
chinery, that they take it as a matter of course, 
without a thought of the vast benefit thus con¬ 
ferred upon the world. The hand labor of an 
entire nation would be required to perform the 
work connected with many single branches of 
industry, were not the steam engine, the water 
wheel, and the special machinery constructed 
for the purpose, called into requisition. 
Take the printing press for an example. One 
of Hoe’s eight cylinder presses is competent to 
print, on both sides, ten thousand quarto sheets, 
like the Rural in form, (though not in perfec¬ 
tion of execution,) in one hour. This multiplied 
by ten, the number of working hours in a day, 
and we have printed one hundred thousand 
sheets. A force, of say thirty men, lor a day 
would suffice to set the type and man the press 
for its publication. If, now, the entire contents 
of one of those sheets was to be transcribed 
with a pen, each leaf would on an average be a 
day’s work for an active man, thus requiring 
four men to the sheet, or four hundred thousand 
for the daily issue of the press. Multiply this 
by the vast amount of matter issued from the 
book, newspaper and job presses of all the 
cities and villages of the United States, and we 
can readily see that the publishing business, 
even of this country, would absorb the entire 
labor of the world. 
The same general truth prevails in all the 
inechauic arts. The self-acting mule of the 
cotton mill enables one man, with two or three 
boys as assistants in splicing the fillets and 
mending broken ends, to attend one thousand 
spindles ; which, on the single spindle wheel, 
(and even that was a great advance on the 
primitive mode of spinning with a leaden 
weight,) required the labor of one thousand 
persons. A single manufactory of New Eng¬ 
land that runs forty thousand spindles, would 
thus, under the old system, require for spin¬ 
ning alone forty thousand hands, with a pro¬ 
portionate force in all the other departments, 
the work of which is now also perlormed by 
automatic machinery. Three men are sufficient 
in a mill of four run of stone, to receive the 
grain and deliver the flour packed in barrels 
for the market; where, if the elevating, the 
transfer, cooling, and packing (to say nothing 
of grinding and bolting) were done by hand, 
a hundred men would scarcely be sufficient. 
One of our large steamers will carry two 
thousand tons of freight. This would load one 
thousand four horse teams with two tons each, 
which, allowing them three rods of space, would 
reach more than nine miles. If we consider 
that the steamer progresses twelve miles while 
the team will go but three, the effective labor of 
the steamer will equal a line of teams near 
forty miles long ; and, if in addition, we reflect 
that the steamer can continue its progress for 
several days and nights without cessation, while 
the horse must rest at least one-half the time, 
the contrast becomes almost incalculable. To 
place this burden on men’s shoulders, at one 
hundred pounds each, would require an army 
of forty thousand men. 
A single railroad train, with five hundred 
tons of freight, would, at the same rate, load 
down ten thousand men, who would move under 
the burden two miles, while the train moved 
fifteen. 
What would the puny arm of a human being 
amount to, unaided by machinery, in forging an 
anchor or a steamboat shaft? in lifting a man-of- 
war out of its element upon a sectional dock, or 
projecting a Paixhan shot ?—in propelling a 
steamer through the waves, or a train of cars 
acioss the country ?—in driving a gang of saws 
through a mass of marble, or elevating the 
drainage water from the depths of the mine ? 
By aid of mind, man. physically so feeble, 
can with his little finger set agencies in motion 
so tremendous that, if he did not know also 
how to control them, would crush in an instant 
a thousand of his fellow men to death ! And 
yet, with a full knowledge of these fearful re¬ 
sponsibilities resting upon the fidelity of a 
single person, men commit themselves to his 
care without a thought of danger, or a prayer 
for safety. 
AMERICAN STEEL. 
Unless we are greatly misinformed, the diffi¬ 
culties under which the manufacture of steel 
labors in our coutry, arises entirely from the 
small scale on which it has so far been conduct¬ 
ed. The English steel works, although we be¬ 
lieve, possessing to a great extent a monopoly 
of the famous Danamora Iron, are able to com¬ 
mand the market only by the superior uniform¬ 
ity of the product, and not by any actual 
superiority in the metal when properly car¬ 
bonized. In the cast steel, for example, each 
bar, as broken and mixed in England, is rapidly 
assorted into several varieties, some of which 
are finally made into different qualities of steel, 
or if not, are compelled to undergo somewhat 
different processes in the manufacture. 
The American Works, on the contrary, too 
often adopt the temporary sj stem of waiting for 
an older, and then carbonizing as well as may 
be and mixing all together—a process which 
cannot produce as uniform results. Different 
bars of iron even from the same bloom, will 
become steelified in different degrees, but it is 
easy to see that all the lack of uniformity ever 
charged upon the American article springs 
directly from the moderate scale on which the 
business is conducted, and thus again from a 
feeling of insecurity and uncertainty in the 
protection. American steel makers can never 
feel certain that a few months will not spring 
upon them some such new tariff as Senator 
James is now urging. The great fact established 
beyond a doubt, that we have the materials and 
the skill, a settled feeling that the duties on iron 
and steel are not to be meddled with, giant 
establishments may be expected gradually to 
develop themselves, which would soon put the 
business beyond the fear of foreign competition. 
— Tribune. 
Treatment of Alabaster. —Alabaster may 
be hardened by exposing it to the heat of a 
baker’s oven for ten or twenty hours, after tak¬ 
ing it out of the quarry, and giving it the in¬ 
tended shape ; after removing from the oven,it 
is immersed for two minutes in running water, 
aud when cold the same process of immersing 
is performed again ; upon being exposed to air, 
after this is done, alabaster acquires a hardness 
almost equal to that of marble. The article is 
liable to become yellowed by continued expo¬ 
sure, and is particularly injured by smoke and 
dust, but may be partially restored by chemi¬ 
cal means. The harder kinds are used for the 
sculpture of large figures ; the softer varieties 
are perfectly white and semi-transparent, and 
are used for the manufacture of smaller orna¬ 
mental articles. The articles produced are 
turned by lathes after the rough stone has been 
cut into blocks by saws; fine chisels and 
graving tools are used in fashioning the higher 
works of art.— Rochester American. 
India Rubber.— The tree that produces the 
gum so largely used now-a-days, under the 
name of India rubber, grows in tropical climates 
eighty or a hundred feet high, with a smooth 
trunk, covered with a light-colored bark. It 
bears fruit the size of a peach, divided into thin 
lobes, and containing a small black nut. The 
gum is obtained by tapping, like that from the 
maple, the juice issuing in a state resembling 
cream. The watery part is evaporated by heat, 
and the gum put into any desirable form for 
sale. The original name is cachucu, corrupted 
to caoutchouc. The botanical name of the tree 
is sippilla elastica. — Tribune. 
. . . . . / ... 
