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s 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER* AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
191 
DIOSCOREA JAPONICA. 
PROSPECTS OF THE FRUIT CROP. 
The extreme cold of last winter caused much 
apprehension at the time for the safety of the 
fruitcrop,and consequently an unusual amount 
of interest has been centred upon the solution 
of the question as to the extent of the injury. 
The coldest days here were the 6th and 7th of 
February. At sunrise on the morning of the 
6th, the thermometer stood at 18° below' zero, 
and at sunset 18° below, and at 9 P. M., 20° 
below. At sunrise on the morning of the 
7th, it also stood at 20° below. In a climate 
where the thermometer rarely falls more than 
3 or 4° below zero, the cold of last w inter was 
entirely unprecedented, and, of course, its ef¬ 
fects upon the fruit buds aud fruit trees, were 
expected to be very injurious. 
So far as the peach crop is concerned, 
the worst fears have been fully realized, al¬ 
though the trees themselves have not been as 
seriously injured as was anticipated. Some 
old tree3, and the weak branches on young 
trees, are killed. The trees did not start as 
early as usual in the spring, and what few flow¬ 
er buds w r ere not destroyed did not blossom 
until after the apple, which is something quite 
unusual. With the exception of one tree, bud¬ 
ded on the hard shelled almond, which had per¬ 
haps one-twentieth the usual amount of blos¬ 
soms upon it, my trees did not average a dozen 
blossoms each, but nearly every blossom has 
set for fruit. A neighbor has a tree on the 
plum stock, which he says blossomed well.— 
This proves that the peach is more hardy when 
worked on plum or almond stocks. Peach 
trees are now growing thriftily, and seem to be 
afFected less than usual by the “ leaf curl.”— 
Apricot trees seem to have been injured about 
as much as peach trees, and the same may be 
said of the fruit. I find a few apricots upon 
my trees. 
The grape, where not protected, is injured 
to some extent, but not as seriously as was an¬ 
ticipated. The buds were many of them kill¬ 
ed, but latent buds have started out, so that 
the growth of the vines w'ill not be seriously 
injured ; still, as these produce no fruit, the 
crop w r ill be less than usual. 
Apples never promised better. The trees 
were literally loaded with blossoms, and the 
fruit has set well. The same is also true of 
pears. Some of the weak buds were killed, 
but if one-half of the fruit ripens that has set, 
the trees will be overloaded. 
Of plums and cherries, there would be an 
exormous crop if the ravages of that inveterate 
Turk, the Curculio, could be checked, but he 
is more destructive, if possible, than usual.— 
Already his crescent shaped incisions may be 
Eeen on almost every plum and cherry, and he 
has even attacked the pear aud apple. But 
there is strong encouragement for the belief 
that Mr. Matthews’ remedy will prove effec¬ 
tual, and if so, the fruit culturist will be rid of 
one of his greatest enemies. The black knot 
threatens to be more injurious than usual to 
plum trees this season.—perhaps the winter 
may have something to do with it. 
Strawberries wintered extremely well, (prob¬ 
ably on account of having a liberal covering 
of snow during the coldest weather,) aud will 
produce abundantly. Currants aud gooseber¬ 
ries are plenty. On the whole, the prospect 
was never better for a good fruit crop than at 
present. 
A word in rolation to the effects of the past 
winter upon the Osage orange, may not be out 
of place. I have a hedge three years old, 
which lias stood the extreme cold of last win¬ 
ter with scarcely any injury. Many of the 
branches were not killed at all, and only' two 
or three inches on the ends of any. Last year 
they were killed down from eight to twelve 
inches. This show's that they become accli¬ 
mated with age, and no doubt will be perfect¬ 
ly hardy at four or five years old. I have only 
one objection to it, aud that is its liability to 
die out in spots. Sometimes three or four plants 
will die out in one place, and perhaps not 
another be injured in the whole hedge,—at 
least this is my experience with it thus far.— 
I can discover no cause for this, and would 
like to ascertain whether others find the same 
objection to it, and if they can tell the cause. 
Yours, &c., r. n. w r . 
Alabama, N. Y., Juno 7th, 1855. 
Bugs on Melon Vines, &c., are a great 
pest aud injury, as a correspondent remarks, 
lie is also correct in stating that “ many 
things have been recommended, but they gene¬ 
rally fail, or injure the young plants” — and 
hence “ a sure death to such 1 vermin’ would 
be very desirable at this season.” On read¬ 
ing his complaint and inquiry to an exper¬ 
ienced gardener, we are assured that the most 
effectual remedy is a crop of young turkeys 
located near the vines. Those who can apply 
the remedy will find it a sure exterminator of 
the insects, and have something “ over” for 
Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
Bleeding Grate Vines. —A writer in Ihe 
N. E. Farmer, says that common hard soap 
applied to the end of a recently pruned vine 
will effectually stop the bleeding. 
Having Eeen an article going the rounds in 
agricultural papers respecting the introduction 
of this species of the genus Dioscorea into 
France, where it is thought it will supercede 
the cultivation of the common potato, I have 
thought that a description of some of the 
leading characteristics of the genus might not 
be uninteresting to the readers of your paper. 
This plant belongs to the 22d Class of the 
Linnean arrangement D : acia., and 6th Order. 
The name of this plant implies that the male 
and i emale flowers grow upon separate plants. 
Loudon reprasents twelve species belonging 
to this genus, four as beiDg natives of the East 
Indies, one of the West Indies, Ihree of South 
America, and one of North America. This 
genus was named in honor of Pedacius Di- 
oscorides, a Greek physician, who is general¬ 
ly supposed to have lived under Nero. 
Dioscorea sativa is largely cultivated for 
food in the East and West Indies, on some of 
the Islands in the Pacific ocean, and in Afri¬ 
ca, and is known by the common name of yam. 
Dioscorea aculeata, Loudon says, “ by some 
considered only an improved variety of the 
Sativa, is universally cultivated in the East 
and West Indies, in Africa, and in all the 
islands of the Southern Oc. an, within the 
torrid zone, and even as far as New Zealand. 
The tubers are frequently three feet loDg, and 
weigh thirty pounds. All the edible species 
aud varieties are propagated in foreign coun¬ 
tries, like the common potato, but they arrive 
much sooner at maturity.” They are twining 
plants, and in leaf and stalk bear a resem¬ 
blance to the sweet potato. 
Whether this new plant will prove a new 
species, or only a variety of one of the species 
named, remains to be pioved by trial. o. 
Sucker Plum Trees.— Not long since you 
published an article from a correspondent, 
stating that sucker plum trees would not bear 
fruit. This is a mistake. I have fifteen suck¬ 
er plum trees in full bearing. They are of the 
green gage, horse, egg, common blue and 
French varieties. And in the neighborhood 
there are fifty more ; and they leave as soon 
aud as well as any of our grafted plums. 
Burlington, Mich. T. Hamilton- 
THE APPLE BORER. 
We find in the May number of the Horti¬ 
culturist a communication from Wm. M’Kie, 
of Salem, N. Y., relative to his mode of pre¬ 
venting injury to his young apple trees from 
the borer. After saying he lost seventy beau¬ 
tiful trees by this pest, he had succeeded in 
protecting his trees by first removing the knits 
of the insects from the stems, and then wrap¬ 
ping around them some woolen stuff, com¬ 
mencing two or three inches below the surface 
of the ground, and winding up two feet above, 
and in some instances up to the forks of the 
limbs, &c. He says, farther, that early in 
May, in that region, is the proper time to ap¬ 
ply the bandages, &c. 
Now, while Mr. M’Kie has hit partially 
upon a plan, at much trouble, which will af¬ 
ford him, perhaps, the protection desired, we 
can inform him that if he had commenced his 
operations. earlier, he would have had much 
less labor to perform, and a much surer pro¬ 
tection for his trees. We have had some ex¬ 
perience in protecting the quince stock of pear 
trees, as well as the quince tree also, and have 
at no time been troubled with the borer. It 
is the same grub that infests the apple tree— 
being the larvae of a beetle called Saperda bi- 
vittata. 
Instead of hunting the egg3 upon the stems 
of the trees, put round your bandages not 
later than the first of March, starting some 
two inches below the surface, and extending 
ten or twelve inches above, not two feet, as 
we doubt that Mr. M’Kie has ever seen any 
eggs more than six or eight inches above the 
surface. Any kind of cloth answers for the 
purpose, if well secured to the stem with cot¬ 
ton twine ; even stiff paper will do very well. 
The beetles which lay the eggs are to be seen 
in this region sometimes in the warm days of 
February, for the purpose of propagatir g their 
species, by laying their eggs on the stems of 
trees near the ground, where they remain un¬ 
til hatched by the sun, when the insect crawls 
down until it reaches the tender bark just be¬ 
low the surface, where it enters and com¬ 
mences its habitation, which lasts always two 
and sometimes three years, before the grub 
produces the beetle. Sometimes, especially in 
the apple, it will penetrate a foot up and down 
the trunk, riddling the tree completely, and 
causing its early death. The beetle is brown 
and white striped, is about three-fourths of an 
inch in length, and comes from the tree in June, 
gathering food and companionship only in the 
night.— Germantown Telegraph. 
j ttmit 
COLLIES’ FEW STEAMSHIP. 
LIST OF PATENTS 
Issued, from tite United States Patent Office for IM week 
ending May 29, 1865. 
The Apple Tree Caterpillar. —We are 
surgrised at the carelessness which prevails in 
regard to this injurious insect. In some in¬ 
stances even good orchards are permitted to 
be overrun with it. In this section of the 
country, however, such cases are not common, 
though on the very borders of orchards which 
are carefully kept clear of these vermin, we oft 
ten see the wild cherry tree filled with their 
webs. This tree is, in fact, the favorite 
haunt of the insect, and if unmolested here 
it breeds a stock which settles on the neigh¬ 
boring trees the following year. The enemy 
might be annihilated if it could only be kept 
down for one year, and this might at any 
rate be so nearly accomplished in a few years 
that little or no damage would be done by the 
straggling remnant.— Boston Cult. 
Leaves are the Lungs of the Tree.— To 
take away the leaves from a well balanced tree 
so that the fruit shall ripen earlier and better, 
would be like cutting away a portion of the 
lungs of a well proportioned boy, so that his 
body might be more rapidly developed and 
matured. In this climate, particularly, we 
need an abundance of leaves. So after cutting 
away nearly all the small limbs in grafting a 
tree, nature throws out numerous suckers (as 
they are very improperly called) in order to 
supply leaves which may prepare the sap to 
carry on the usual work of the tree, that is to 
go on with its regular habits. Scions them 
selves will grow better where there are some 
“ suckers,” because the natural vigor of the 
tree is kept up.— New England Farmer. 
Currant bushes need trimming yearly.-— 
The sprouts grow up in clusters, and the 
moss gathers on the old stalks for w'ant of 
sufficient room. And then the spiders make 
their nests among the fruit and make it diffi¬ 
cult to gather a clean harvest Currant juice 
makes an excellent and cheap drink. It needs 
no kind of spirituous liquor to preserve it 
through the year, aud currant wine is as 
easily made as cider from apples. 
It is much easier to destroy the caterpillar 
nests now while the vermin are small. No 
lover of neatness or admirer of trees will sutler 
a nest to exist in his sight. Be busy and de¬ 
stroy them as fast as possible. 
The Curculio. —Inquiries are constantly 
made for a remedy against the curculio. We 
know of nothing better than jarring the trees 
and catching the insects on cloths spread un 
derneath. This, if followed up every day or 
two from the time the fruit is set till it is two- 
thirds grown, will ensure a crop. A mallet 
with India rubber or several thickuesses of 
cloth fastened on it may be used for jarring 
the tree, giving the limbs a smart blow.— 
Morning is the best time for the work—the 
insects being then less active—though it is 
better to do it in the evening than in the mid 
die of the dav.— Bost Cult. 
Yellow Bugs. —Howard Savre, of Thet- 
ford, Vt., tells the editor of tbe Country Gen 
tlenian that for the last thirty years he has 
practiced the following method of keeping the 
yellow bugs from his cucumber, melon and 
squash vines, and has never known it to fail 
viz , take the feathers from a lien’s wing and 
dip them in spirits of lurpenliue, and stick 
one or two in a hill; after a shower ihey will 
want to be dipped over again. It can do no 
harm to try ii.— Rural Intelligencer. 
Imesik 
Orange Pudding.— Grate the yellow part 
of the rind, and squeeze the juice of two large 
oranges. Stir together to a cream, half a 
pound of butter, and half a pound of powder 
ed white sugar, and add a wine g.ass of mixed 
wine and brandy. Beat very light, six eggs, 
and stir them gradually into the mixture 
Put it into a buttered dish with a broad edge, 
round which lay a border of puff paste neatly 
notched. Bake it half an hour, and when cool 
grate white sugar over it. 
You may add to the mixture a Naples bis¬ 
cuit, or two finger biscuits, grated. 
Substitute for Buttermilk. —We have 
seen it recommended to supply tbe lack of 
buttermilk or sour milk for cakes, Ac., by 
keeping on hand gruel, made by thickening 
boiling water with flour or Indian meal, and 
letting it stand until sour. This may do well 
as a source of acid to mix with soda, but it 
will not supply the casein found in sour milk 
or buttermilk which adds so much to the rich¬ 
ness and nutritiousness of articles prepared 
with the latter substances.— Am. Ag. 
Thomas Arnold, Mobile, improvement in invalid bed¬ 
steads. 
John Avery, Lowell, Mass., improvement in shuttle 
motion of looms. 
Charles F. Brown, Warren, R. 1., improvement in car¬ 
tridges. 
Samuel W. Brown, Lowell, improvement in gas regu¬ 
lators. 
E Daniels, New York, improvement in invalid bed¬ 
steads. 
E. W Goodale, Clinton, Mass., improved machine for 
making paper bags. 
John Henderson, Horseheads, improvement in huh and 
axle fastenings. 
Wm. W. Hubbard and David Matthew, Philadelphia, 
improvement in vapor engines. 
Homer Holland, Westfield, Mass., improvement in 
processes for treating auriferous and argentiferous sul- 
phurets. 
Dean S. Howard, Lyonsdale, N. Y., waterwheel. 
Joseph Hollely, Brooklyn, fluid faucet. 
Edward G. Hyde, Camptown, N. J., improvement in 
the construction of ear trumpets. 
JohnN. King, Murray, N. Y., improvement in swing 
bridges. 
T. J Kindleberger, Springfield, 0., improvement in 
cider mills. 
Gabriel Leverich, Well3burgh, N. Y., apparatus for 
paging hooks. 
William Landsdell, Memphis, improvement in buoyant 
propellers. 
George W. La Baw, Jersey City, mitre machine. 
William Maurer, New York, improvement in door 
locks. 
Tbos. S. Minniss, Meadville, Penn., improvement in 
seed planters. 
Henry Mellish, Walpole, improved shoe for grain mills. 
Erasmus A. Pond, Rutland, Vt., improvement in pill- 
making machines. 
Silas S. Putnam, Eoston, improvement in forging ma¬ 
chines. 
Francis Peabody, Salem, improved grass harvester. 
E. Truman Prentiss, Philadelphia, improvement in 
lubricating compounds. 
Henry A. Rosenthal, New York, improvement in ute¬ 
rine supporters. 
David Stoddard, Cincinnati, improvement in cut off 
valves. 
Jacob C. Sclilough, Easton, Pa., improvement in grate 
bars for furnaces. 
Web ter Shibles, Thomaston, Me., assignor to himself 
and Edward O’Brien, of same place, improvement for 
reefing topsails. 
Isaac M. Singer, New York, improvement in sewing 
machines. 
Daniel W. Snell, Woonsocket, improvement in looms. 
Alfred B. Seymour, Claverack. N. Y., improvement in 
machines for helically creasing sheet metal pipes. 
Richard A. Stratton, Philadelphia, improvement in 
chairs for dentists’ use. 
Chapin Street, Barre Centre, improvement in grain 
drills. 
Francis Fitzpatrick, Cincinnati, improvement In straw 
cutters. 
J. B. Terry, Hartford, improvement In pin sticking 
machines. 
Harvey Webster and Alonzo Webster, Montpelier, im¬ 
provement in whifle trees. 
Wm. D. Wilson, Richmond. Va., improved corn grind¬ 
er and crusher. 
Milton D. Whipple. Charlestown, Mass., improvement 
in preparing wood for paper pulp. 
K. D. Williams, Wilmington, Del., improvement in ve¬ 
hicles. 
Courtland Wilson, and Wm. Moore, Jr., Yardleyville, 
Pa., improvement in mowing machines. 
Joseph Welsh, Philadelphia, improvement in looms. 
Francis Walle, Bethlehem, Pa., machine for making 
paper bags. 
Sigismund Beer, New York, assignor to Lewis Feucht- 
wanger and Sigismund Peer, New York, aforesaid, im¬ 
provement in de-vulcanizing India rubber. 
AddDon Capron. of Attleboro’, assignor to himself, 
Jos. S. Dennis, Somerviile, and Bervey M. Richards, 
Attleboro’, improvement in sewing machines. 
Alfred Swingle, Boston, assignor to Elmer Townsend, 
Boston, aforesaid, improvements in hand pegging ma¬ 
chines. 
Lucien E. Hicks, Boston, assignor to himself and Hi¬ 
ram D. Hall, Beverly, improvement in pads for hernial 
trusses. 
Abraham Gesner, Williamsburgh, assignor to “ the 
North American Kerosene Gas Light Co.,” improvement 
in burning fluid compounds. 
Leander R. Streeter, Lowell, assignor to himself and 
Ira Leonard, of same place, improvement in amaigama 
ting the precious metals. 
designs. 
Samuel D. Yose, Albany, design for cooking stores.— 
Ante dated April 9. 1855. 
John North, Middletown, Conn., design for sewing 
birds. 
Abner J. Blancba d. South Reading, Mass., assignor to 
Blanchard, Tarfcell & Co., of same place, design for par¬ 
lor stoves. 
Abner J. Blanchard, South Reading, Mass., assignor to 
Blanchard, Whittemore A Co., of same place, design for 
cooking stoves. 
Mr. Collins haviDg completed a contract 
with Messrs. George and James R. Steers, for 
the construction ot another large steamer for 
the New York aDd Liverpool line, as a substi¬ 
tute for the Arctic—being the fifth built for 
this line—the contractors are actively engaged 
in preparations to lay the keel, at Jacob A. 
Westervelt’s old yard, foot of Stanton street. 
A large proportion of the timber is already on 
tbe spot, and more is landing. The pieces of 
white oak for floor timbers, &c., were cut last 
January in the forests of Maryland aud Vir¬ 
ginia, and are considered remarkably fine 
sticks. 
We are informed that the new steamer is to 
exceed in magnitude any of her predecessors, 
and will no doubt stand peerless among the 
fleet of American steamships. It is said that 
Stillman, Allen & Co. will build the engines, 
and that oscillating engines will probably be 
adopted. The hull will be ready for launching 
by the 28th of February next, should antici¬ 
pations be realized, and three or four months 
more will suffice to complete the vessel. Os¬ 
cillating engines are preferred, on account of 
their occupying less space, and requiring a 
smaller weight of metal in their construction. 
Mr. George Steers, the builder, has had a 
brilliant career. A few years ago he was a 
mechanic in humble circumstances, chiefly en¬ 
gaged in constructing sail boats ; be now 
stands among the foremost in his profe sion, 
and his name is known in distant lands. Hav¬ 
ing become skilled in his art, he constructed a 
yacht which bore off the palm, when the rep¬ 
resentatives of all enlightened nations were com¬ 
peting for the mastery. As a sequence, he was 
entrusted with the building of the largest of 
the six steam frigates ordered by Congress— 
the Niagara—and which promises to be the 
pride of our navy. Ere she is ready for launch¬ 
ing, fresh accessions are made to his laurels, 
and he now commences a steamship for the 
merchant marine, which will doubtless reflect 
honor upon the builder and the country.— N. 
Y. Jour, of Com. 
The New Steam Frigate. —The Tribune 
thus speaks of the new steam frigate “ Niag¬ 
ara,” for which Congress appropriated a mil¬ 
lion of dollars, and which Mr. Steef.s is now 
buildiog at the Brooklyn Navy Yard : 
‘ The Niagara is, we learn, the largest of the 
five screw steam frigates which are now in 
process of construction for the Navy, and as 
we have stated, the largest ship in the world ; 
and we have no doubt that she will be as pre¬ 
eminent in beauty and in all the qualities 
which a ship should possess, as she will be in 
size. 
The actual dimensions of this magnificent 
vessel are as follows : Tonnage, 5.200 ; ex¬ 
treme length on deck, 345 feet; load line, 323 
feet; extreme breadth, 55 feet; depth of hold, 
31 feet; there are three decks beside the orlop. 
The armament will consist of 12 eleven-inch 
pivot guns to carry 170 lb. shot, and a charge 
of 15 lbs. of powder. She is to be full rigg¬ 
ed, her main-mast being 111 feet loDg and.3 
feet 4 inches in diameter; the main yard will 
be 55 feet, and the mizzen spanker boom 67 feet. 
Baking Ham. —Most people boil ham. It 
is much better baked, if baked right. Soak 
for an hour in clean water and wipe it dry ; 
next spread it all over with thin batter, and 
then put it into a deep dish with sticks under 
it, to keep it out of the gravy. When it is 
fully done, take off the skin and matter crust¬ 
ed upon the flesh side, and set it away to cool. 
You will find it very delicious, but too rich 
for dyspeptics. 
A Plain Custard Pie. —Mix a tablespoon¬ 
ful of flour, smoothly with a conpel of table¬ 
spoonfuls of milk, and stir it into one quart of 
boiling milk ; let it boil a minute, stirring it 
constantly ; take it from the fire, and when 
cool, put in three eggs, well beaten; sweeten 
it to your taste, add a little nutmeg, and bake 
it iu deep pie-plates, with only an under crust; 
bake the pies directly, in a brick oven.— Ohio 
Farmer. 
Sponge Cake. —Take six eggs, one pint of 
flour, one cup and a half of sugar, half a tea- 
spoonful of soda, one of cream of tartar. Dis¬ 
solve the soda in a tablespoonful of warm wa¬ 
ter, and mix the cream of tartar with the 
flour—stir briskly and bake half an hour.— 
Ohio Cultivator. 
Sweet Apple Pie. —Take sweet apples, 
grate them fine, mix with sweet milk, add a 
teacupful of sweet cream and one egg to each 
pie; season with nutmeg or cinnamon, and 
hake with one crust, and you have a simple 
yet delicious pie.— Ohio. Cult. 
Sugar Cake. —One cup and a half of sugar, 
one egg, half a cup of butter, half a cup of 
sweet milk, one tea^poouful of soda, two of 
cream of tartar—roll thin and bake on but¬ 
tered pans. 
Soda Cake. —Four eggs, one piut of su¬ 
gar, one teacup of butter, one cup of sweet 
milk, one quart of flour, one teaspoonful of 
seda, two of cream of tartar. 
Lemon Pudding. —May be made precisely 
in the same manner as the above ; substituting 
lemons for oranges. 
HOLLOW BRICK MACHINE. 
The Milwaukee Sentinel gives the following 
description of a new machine for the manu¬ 
facture of Hollow Brick : 
We saw yesterday at the Wisconsin Iron 
Works, on the Water Power, the machine 
mentioned yesterday, and for which A. J. 
Langworthy, associated with another has ap¬ 
plied for a patent The object desired beiDg 
the application of a tremendous pressure upon 
a small surface,—the material to be compressed 
being liuie and sand in certain proportions,— 
of course great strength of machinery is neces¬ 
sary ; and yet, to be useful, the machine must 
be portable and compact, occupying but 
small space. 
The inventor of this machine seems very 
fully to have attained the desired end. The 
machine occupies a space of about 3 feet 
square by 4 feet in length, and weighs 1,500 
lbs., being carried on small iron wheels. The 
process of working is very simple. Two 
moulds of very hard and planed iron, are seen 
at the top of the machine, into which the ma¬ 
terial is thrown. The thickness of the brick 
is regulated by moving the bottom piece of 
the mould up or down. The mould beiDg 
full, the turn of a wheel slides over it a solid 
iron cover, which is secured from rising by 
being grooved iuto a massive iron upright.— 
This done, the operator, by the use of a lever, 
acting upou a combination of joints some¬ 
what similar to those of the printing press, 
forces up against the bottom of the mould a 
pressure of over 100 tons. A turn of the 
wheel slides off the cover, and auotber lever 
raises the bottom of the mould with the brick 
to the level surface, whence it is taken off to 
be hardened into stone by the action of the at¬ 
mosphere. While ODe operator is raising the 
mould aud taking of the brick in much less 
time than we have taken to tell it, another ooe 
•at ike other eud of the machine is applying 
the pressure, and bringing another brick into 
form, so that two men can keep steadily at 
work. 
Altogether, this is a very ingenious piece 
of work, aud, as this new style of brick seems 
likely to come extensively into use, will prove 
to be an efficient machine for the purposes. 
Those interested are deeded to call and see it. 
Another Discovery in Paper Making- 
The Louisville Courier comes to us printed on 
paper made from undressed fax, by a process 
lately invented by a Mr. Kellogg, foreman in 
a paper mill in the city from which this nov¬ 
elty reaches us. For a first experiment the 
paper looks and feels well, though it might 
have a little more body, and be more free from 
sheave with benefit. Still, it is a hopeful ex¬ 
periment, and suggests to printers a pleasant 
prospect of cheaper material and a release from 
their irksome bondage to rags. The peculiar 
advantage of this material is that it can be 
procured for almost nothing. In district 
where flax is only grown for seed, the straw is 
worthless, except for manure, and has hereto¬ 
fore been destroyed in many sections of the 
country. If it can be thus made to minister 
to one of the greatest wants of civilization, it 
will become, in lieu of an incumbrance, a 
blessing. We hope to see the invention suc¬ 
ceed, as we are particularly interested in the 
cost of paper.— Buff. Dem. 
The Maynooth Battery.— From the long 
letter of Prof. CallaD, of Maynooth, we learn 
that his battery consists of cast iron, for a 
negative metal, and amalgamated zinc for a 
positive motal, and the use of a single fluid, 
instead of two different fluids in separate 
cells, such as nitric acid in one, (negative,) 
and dilute sulphuric acid in the other (posi¬ 
tive,) as in the Grove battery. 
The single fluid used by Prof. Callan con¬ 
sists of diluted muriatic acid, or muriatic and 
sulphuric acids mixed together, and diluted 
with a little more than twice their quantity of 
water; (salt and sulphuric acid answer the 
same purpose.) 
All that is new about the battery is the 
exciting of the cast iron and the zinc, by the 
same fluid. The fluid itselt is not new as an 
excitant, nor is the cast iron new, as a solid 
element, but these two metals, he asserts, have 
never been used together before, and excited 
by the same fluid.— Scientific Am. 
The Morocco Dressers’ Sumach. —There 
have been introduced from the South of France, 
the seeds of the morocco dressers’ sumach, for 
experiments in this country, the leaves and 
branches of which are used instead of oak 
bark in tanning leather, and are believed to be 
the same with which the Turkey morocco is 
tanned. It is exceedingly rich iu tanning, pro¬ 
ducing more than double ihe American su¬ 
mach, which is already used in considerable 
quantities. It. prospers best in a dry loam, 
though it will grow in any common garden or 
soil iu the cemrai aud Southern laii'udes m 
the United States. The Tripoli merchants 
sell the seeds at Aleppo, where they are iu 
common use to produce an appetite. The 
taste of the fruit is very acid and astringent, 
but does uot possess the poisonous qualities for 
which some of the species of this genus are so 
remarkable. 
