(Drtjrarfr at# darkit. 
GRAPE CULTURE.—INQUIRY. 
Eds. Rural :—I have found almost every¬ 
thing in your paper, but the management of 
the Grape Vine—if convenient, I would like 
you to inform me when to prune and how— 
and how to prepare a vine for winter, first or 
second year’s growth.— n. j. l. 
We have given frequent articles on Grape 
Culture, but noiie perhaps this fall, so we 
gladly recur to the subject, for it is one of 
much interest and importance. It i3 not now 
generally recommended by writers on the sub¬ 
ject to prune grape vines before early spring, 
but some practice differently—and we know 
they are very successful cultivators of this 
delicious fruit. Neither is it usual to give 
hardy grape vines any special protection in 
this vicinity—but they sometimes fail from 
the want cf it—hence it i3 safe to do so. 
In pruning grape vines two things must be 
remembered—first, that to get a vine well 
rooted and established, it must not be check¬ 
ed much by pruning for two or three years ; 
and second, that when established, it bears its 
fruit on shoots of the current year, produced 
from eye3 on the previous year’s wood ; hence 
we should prune with a view of keeping up a 
supply of bearing wood on those parts of the 
vine where the fruit will best mature.— 
Whether we prune in the fall or in the spring, 
whenever we lay a knife to the vine, let these 
• principles be kept in view. 
A friend, and an ardent horticulturist, to 
whom we referred this query, knowing his 
practice to differ in some particulars from our 
own, gives us the following account of his 
method of pruning and preparation for win¬ 
ter, saying it is one he finds to operate well, 
always securing him a good crop of fruit— 
this season, when many have failed, his crop is 
good. “ Five years out of six,” he adds, 
“ the grape may need no protection, but the 
disappointment of a failure, even cne year in 
six, more than overbalances the trouble of 
protecting them every season. In sheltered 
situations they may never fail, and conse¬ 
quently need no protection. 
“ I prune my vines early in December, be¬ 
fore I retnove them from the trellis, for the 
reason that I can then do it more systemati¬ 
cally, and give them a better form than after¬ 
ward. Much judgment is required to prune 
correctly, and no rule can be given to apply 
to every vine. Be careful to keep up a due 
proportion between all the parts. The shoots 
intended for leaders—three or four are enough 
—should he cut back from one-third to one- 
half of the last season’s growth, and the side 
branches to two or three buds. The leading 
shoots or bearing vines should be cut back at 
least one-half, and the side branches to two 
buds, and all superfluous shoots entirely re¬ 
moved. If proper attention is given to ma¬ 
nuring, this treatment wiH keep them in full 
vigor for a long time. They may be pruned 
at any time from the first of December to the 
first of March, but if done early, it will be 
sure not to be neglected. 
“ After pruning, I simply remove them 
from the trellis, and lay them upon the ground. 
They need no other protection, and thus treat¬ 
ed, will never winter-kill.” 
The only objection to pruning an unpro¬ 
tected vine in early winter, is the fact that the 
cut shoots sometimes dry or freeze up so as to 
injure the buds near the ends. When laid on 
the ground, this would not be likely to occur. 
HOUSE-RIPENING PEARS, 
Facts were stated by members at the late 
meeting of the N. Y. Horticultural Society, 
corroborating the general opinion amoDg intel¬ 
ligent cultivators on the importance of ripen¬ 
ing most varieties of the pear after gathering. 
Austin Finney, of Clarkson, exhibited a dish j 
of finely ripened Bartlett pears, all of them ' 
remarkable for a very brilliant red cheek. He 
remarked that when gathered the red color of 
those specimens was scarcely perceptible, and 
that it was mainly owing to maturing them 
in the dark. This was confirmed by others 
who had observed similar results. F. Barry 
has found the Bartlett, even when gathered 
before fully grown, to ripeu well in the dark, 
and to acquire a flavor fully equal to that at¬ 
tained by specimens gathered later. He had 
found shallow boxes, containing not more 
than three layers of fruit, very convenient for 
this purpose. The temperature should be 5G 
to CO deg. for securing the best quality; if 
warmer, they would mature sooner, but at the 
expense of flavor. He regarded the subject as 
one of great importance, inasmuch as the fla¬ 
vor of winter pears depends still more upon 
the ripening process. II. E. Hooker had 
found that caution was Eeeded that the fruit 
does not receive a taint from the wood of the 
box or drawer in such close confinement, and 
that open shelves would be better without this 
care. 
Mildew is one of the greatest pests of green¬ 
houses and all sorts of plant structures. The 
following remedy has been tried in the houses 
of the Loudon Horticultural Society, and it 
is thought will prove ellicacious : “ Sulphur 
ar,d unslaked lime put into a tub of water, in 
which they are quickly and intimately mixed, 
and the trees and plants syringed with the 
clear liquid after these substances have settled 
at the bottom. 
CRANBERRIES—THEIR CULTIVATION. 
I chose for the experiment a maple swamp 
on high land, containing peat (95 100 vegeta¬ 
ble matter) from one to ten feet deep. We 
commenced draining it in June, 1849, and 
having set a few vines for trial, we proceeded 
to cultivate corn and potatoes ; but finding, 
after two or three years, that we were obliged 
to keep it too dry for cranberries, we conclud¬ 
ed to set it all with vines, in older to flow it, 
which would injure other crops, and I have 
now nine acres of vines, mostly set within 
about three years. My mode of cultivation is 
as follows, viz: we clear up the swamp by 
taking eff the top, roots and all, to the depth 
of one foot or more, (which makes excellent 
manure for the adjoining upland) and having 
drained it by ditching, mark out the ground 
with the corner of the hoc, and set out the 
vine3, which we have obtained from the com¬ 
mon wild bogs, wherever we could get them ; 
and having dropped five or six vines in the 
hoe mark, stamp them with the heel, and haul 
on some d;rt with the toe, covering the vices 
about two-thirds up with d.rt. This opera¬ 
tion may be performed at any time of the year, 
when the ground is not frozen, if not too dry. 
It is then necessary to keep them clear of 
weeds. 
I have heretofore thought that gras3 would 
not hurt them after the vines got well spread ; 
but I am convinced by thi3 year’s experience 
that they cannot be kept too clean. I have 
one acre that was set four years ago. About 
three quarters of the acre has been covered 
with rushes, and is now; while the other 
quarter at one end of the lot has been kept 
clean. I have the past week measured off one 
square rod of the clean vines, and gathered 
two and a half bushels of berries from the red, 
which is no more than an average of the 
quarter acre, which will be testified to by the 
gentleman who assisted me in picking them, 
as also by several other gentlemen who have 
seen them since, as the other berries yet re¬ 
main on the vines. The other three-quarters 
acre covered with grass, has been mostly 
picked ; and although the vines are a3 large, 
I shall not get 25 bushels of berries from the 
three quarters acre—the one yielding at the 
rate of 400 bushels per acre, the other about 
30, showing tRe great advantage of keeping 
the vines clean. 
My meadow would probably have yielded 
100 barrels more this year, had it been kept 
clean. I pick my berries by hand, as I am 
convinced there is no advantage in raking 
them. We have to pick af.tr the rake, and I 
do not think the vines will bear as well the 
next year. The rake also bruises the berry, 
and causes it to rot. I flow my meadow 
about two feet deep in the month of Decem¬ 
ber, and keep it on until the month of May, 
when I draw it down, leaving about two 
inches of water on the surface under the vines, 
as long as there is any fear of the frosts ; then 
keep it as near the top of the ground as I can. 
1 find the cranberry will begin to bear well 
from three to five years afier setting. The 
cost of cultivation I shall put in round num¬ 
bers as follows, viz : Cost of land $12 per 
acre, cleaning $100, vines and setting $50, 
cost of cultivation $10 per year—for 4 years 
$40 ; total $202. But the top that we take 
off is worth $20 for manure, leaving $182.— 
Interest for 4 years, makes $229.34 per acre. 
My four-year old vines that are clear from 
grass, (say half an acre more or less,) will 
average 300 bushels per acre. I have been 
offered $2.50 per bushel above the cost of 
picking, which gives one a e'ear profit over 
and above the cost of land and cultivation en 
the half acre, of $200.33. I do not gather 
my berries until they are ripe ; for if picked 
while green, they are bitter and unfit for use ; 
although by spreading they may become quite 
red, still they are not worth half price.— Ed¬ 
mund Bagley, in Journal of Commerce. 
AIanure for Fruit Trees.— “ What is the 
best manure for fruit trees, to spade or work 
in near the roots, of general application ?” 
g. c. 
The following has been found, after several 
years experience, to constitute one of the best 
manures for fruit trees generally : A mixture 
of peat or swamp muck, with one-half to one- 
quarter of its bulk of stable maxure, and about 
one-twentieth of leached ashes. These ingre¬ 
dients should lie in a heap together for a few 
weeks, and then be worked over. If for peach 
trees, the soap-suds from the laundry thrown 
over the heap will improve it. If for cherry 
trees, which will not bear high manuring, the 
proportion of peat or muck should be larger, 
and with less of yard manure and ashes. 
Luck with Trees. —We have noticed that 
certain men always have much finer peaches, 
and pears, and plums, than most of their 
neighbors, and are called lucky. Their luck 
consisted, in the first place, in doing every 
thing well — taking what their neighbors 
called foolish pains—leaving nothing un¬ 
finished ; and in the second place, in taking 
good care of what they had ; that is, giving 
their trees wide, deep, and mellow cultivation, 
applying manure when necessary, and especi¬ 
ally the liquid manure from the chamber and 
the wash-tub. Great pains taken, whether 
with fruit trees or with children, scarcely ever 
fail to produce good results. 
Profitable Orchard. — The American 
Agriculturist says:—“A gentleman within 
our knowledge has a small orchard on the 
Hudson River, of le^s than seven acres, which 
produces from $500 to $750 dollars worth of 
apples annually. This is not one year of 
plenty, and another or two of famine, but is 
a regular, steady, average yield. All this is 
secured by the simplest process, viz., good 
management.” 
In rearing apple and pear stocks, sow good 
seeds only, and use no seedlings to place in 
the nursery rows except those of the first 
growth, for those that start up in the seed¬ 
bed the second year come from poor seeds, 
and never make vigorous stocks. 
A CHINESE FLORAL EXHIBITION. 
One day I attended a native horticultural 
exhibition, which was held in an old temple, 
within the walls. The open courts of the 
building were filled with rows of flowering 
plants, in earthen pots and vaees, which were 
also arranged in circles around some weak 
fountains in the centre. There were some fine 
specimens of the mau tan, or peony, white, 
pink and crimson, and with an odor very 
similar to that of the rose ; but the most ad¬ 
mired flower seemed to be the lan-whei, a bul¬ 
bous water-plant, with a blossom resembling 
that of the orchids in form, yet of a dirty 
yellowish-green hue. The great aim of the 
Chinese florist is to produce something as 
much unlike nature as possible, and thus this 
blossom, which, for aught I know, may be 
pure white, or yellow, in its native state, is 
changed into a sickly, mongrel color, as if it 
were afflicted with a vegetable jaundice, or 
lepresy. There wa3 a crowd of enthusiastic 
admirers around each of the ugliest speci¬ 
mens, and I was told that one plant, which 
wa“ absolutely loathsome and repulsive in its 
appearance, was valued at three hundred dol¬ 
lars. The only taste which the Chinese ex¬ 
hibit to any degree, is a love of the monstrous. 
That sentiment ef harmony, which throbbed 
like a musical rhythm through the life of the 
Greeks, never looked out of their oblique 
eyes. Their music is a dreadful discord; 
their language is composed of nasals and con¬ 
sonants ; they admire whatever is distorted 
or unnatural, and the wider its divergence 
from its original beauty or symmetry, the 
greater is their delight. 
This mental idiosyncrasy includes a moral 
cne, cf a similar character. It is my delib¬ 
erate opinion that the Chinese are, morally, 
the most debased people on the face of the 
earth Forms of vice which in other coun¬ 
tries are barely named, are in China so com¬ 
mon, that they excite no comment among the 
natives. They constitute the surface-level, 
and below them there are deeps on deeps of 
depravity so shocking and horrible, that their 
character cannot even be hinted. There are 
some dark shadows in human nature, which 
we naturally shrink from penetrating, and I 
made no attempt to collect information of 
this kind; but there was enough in things 
which I could not avoid seeing and hearing— 
which are brought almost daily to the notice 
of every foreign resident—to inspire me with 
a powerful aversion to the Chinese race.— 
Their touch is pollution, and, harsh as the 
opinion may seem, justice to our own race 
demands that they should not be allowed to 
settle on our soil. Science may have lost 
something, but mankind has gained, by the 
exclusive policy which has governed China 
during the past; centuries. 
DEATHS BY SCALDING AND BURNING. 
We still see reported, almost daily, an ap¬ 
palling number of deaths by burns and scalds, 
not one of which, we take it upon ourselves 
to say, need prove fatal, or would do so, if a 
few pounds cf wheat flour could be promptly 
applied to the wounds made by fire, and re¬ 
peated till the inflammatory stage had passed. 
We have never known a fatal ca e of scalding 
or burning, in which this practice has been 
pursued, during more than 30 years’ experi¬ 
ence, and have treated hurdreds in both 
public and private practice. We have known 
the most extensive burns, by falling into caul¬ 
drons of boiling oil, and even molten copper, 
and yet the patients were rescued by this 
simple and cheap remedy, which from its in¬ 
fallible success should supplant all the fash¬ 
ionable nostrums, whether oil, cotton, lead- 
water, ice, turpentine, or pain extractors, ev¬ 
ery one of which has been tried a thousand 
times with a fatal result, and the victims have 
died in excruciating agony, when a few hand- 
fulls of flour would have calmed them to sleep, 
and rescued them from pain and death. Hu¬ 
manity should prompt the profession to pub¬ 
lish and re-publi3h the facts on this subject, 
which are established by the authority of 
standard medical works on both sides of the 
Atlantic. Flour is the remedy, and the only 
one, in severe cases of scalding and burning, 
casualties which else so often"destroy life.— 
Let us keep it before the people, while the 
explosion of steam boilers and burning fluid 
lamps are so rife all over onr country.— Amer¬ 
ican Medical Gazette. 
Sweet Potato Pies.—T he sweet potato is 
used boiled, baked, i3 excellent in making 
bread, and makes a pie nearly or quite as 
good as the squash. It has a peculiar, agree¬ 
able flavor, and is called easy of digestion, is 
wholesome and nutritious. The recipe for 
making pies of the sweet potato is as follows: 
Boil soft, peel and mash them. To every 
quarter of a pound, put one quart of milk, 
three table-spoonfuls of butter, four beaten 
eggs, together with sugar and spices to the 
taste. 
Baked Sweet Apples. —Wash well the 
apples ; place them in a pan with a very lit¬ 
tle water, that the juice may not burn, if they 
are to be cooked in a brick oven ; then put 
the apples in a jar, cover them close, and 
bake them five or six hours. Sweet apples 
should be baked long after they are tender. 
Old bread may be made almost as good as 
new,. by dipping the loaf in cold -water, then 
putting it in the oven after the bread is 
drawn, or a stove, axd let it be well heated 
through. 
Isinglass is a most delicate starch for fine 
musiins. A hen bailing 1 coinmou starch, 
sprinkle in a little fine salt; it will prevent 
its sticking. Some use sugar. 
LIST OF PATENTS. 
limed from the United States Patent Office for the week 
ending Oct. 30, 1855 —each hearing that date. 
Robert Anderson. Brooklyn, and John E. Anderson, 
New York, improvement in rice hulling machines. 
Wm. R. Crocker, Norwich, Conn., machine for manu¬ 
facturing corks. 
Luther B. FL her, Coldwater, Michigan, for improved 
device for ganging and setting saw mill dogs. 
Isaac N. Forrester, Centreville, Va., for improved 
method ©f hanging muiley saws. 
Julius Fink, Philadelf kia, improvements in cooking 
ranges and air heaters. 
Luther B. FLher, Coldwater. Michigan, improvement 
in straw cutters. 
Livera3 Hull. Charleston, improvement in machinery 
for braiding. 
Robert Griffiths, Allegany City, improvement in nut 
machine. 
Peter Hogg, New York, improvement in surface con¬ 
densers for steam engines. 
Richard G. Holmes and William H. Butler,New York, 
improvement in locks. 
Jno. Stuber and Thomas Harden, Utica, N. Y., im- 
provemtnt in lamps 
James O Leech, Ballston. improvement in looms. 
H L. B. Lewis, Philadelphia, for ventilating railroad 
cars. 
Henry Luther, Providence, improvement in ring and 
traveler spinning frames. 
L. W. Langdon, Rochester, improvement in sewing 
machines. 
Wm. Mootry, New York, improvement of stoves. 
E. N. Horsford, Cambridge, and James R. Nichols, 
Haverhill, Mass., improvements in lamps for burning 
volatile liquids. 
Geo. Patten, Wa:hington, D. C., improvement in corn 
and cob mills. . 
Owen Redmond, Rochester, for spoke and axe-helve 
machine. , 
J K. Taylor, Binghamton, for method of ventilating 
^James West, Syracuse, improvement in roofing com¬ 
positions. . . 
Aretus A. Wilder, Detroit, improved lath machine. 
C. P. S. Wardwell, Lake Village, N. H., for machine 
for cutting double tenons. 
Jno. W. Yothers, Spruce Grove, Pa., improvement in 
bedstead fastenings. 
Henry W. Dickinson, Rochester, assignor to Lansing 
B Swan, of same place, for machine for feeding paper 
to printing presses. 
Daniel E. Eaton, Boston, assignor to himself and Per- 
ley O. Eaton, of same place, for improved burglars’ 
alarm. 
John H. Eunter, Baltimore, assignor to Samuel B. 
Blair, Philadelphia, improvement in gas brackets. 
Chas. E. Bertrand, New York, improvement in sugar 
filterers. 
Samuel Krauser, Reading, Pa., improvement m cider 
or wine mills. 
dssigxs. 
Calvin Fulton, Rochester assignor to Samuel McClure, 
Rochester N. Y., and Bedell & Parry, cf Albion, ior de¬ 
sign for stove plates. 
James Horton, Philadelphia, assignor to Leibracdt, 
McDowell & Co., of same place design for coal stoves. 
An row O’Neill, Portsmouth, Ohio, assignor to O Neill 
& Hunter of same dace, des’gn for stoves. 
Ezra Ripley and N. S. Vedder Troy, assignor to John¬ 
son, Cox, Lasley & Co , New York, design for cooking 
stoves. 
ALUMINUM. 
This “ new metal” is one of a class of which 
potassium and sodium are examples, the one 
produced from potash, and the other from 
common salt. Aluminum is the product of 
common clay,—the metal, of which clay may 
be called the earth or oxyd. Its existence has 
long been known, but the process of extracting 
it in its present form has but recently been dis¬ 
covered ; and to M. Deville, of France, be¬ 
longs the honor of applying it to practical 
use in the arts. 
Its properties are thus described by the 
Scientific American: “ It is two and a half 
times heavier than water, only one-eighth that 
of platinum, and one-third that cf iron, so 
that it is exceedingly light. It is white like 
silver, but has a slightly bluish tinge. It is 
malleable and very ductile; it can be drawn 
out into the finest wire, or beaten into the 
thinnest plate, and in this respect it resem¬ 
bles gold. It is a superior conductor of elec¬ 
tricity, and is stated to surpass copper in this 
respect. Its melting point is a little higher 
than that of zinc ; it does not easily oxydize ; 
water appears to exert no action upon it, and 
it is nearly unalterable in the atmosphere. It 
appears to hold a position between the pre¬ 
cious metals,—platinum, gold and silver,—and 
the common ones—iron, lead and zinc.” 
It3 production is still rather expensive,—it 
has to be reduced by acids and then precipi¬ 
tated by an alkali—both slow and costly pro¬ 
cesses. It has been used in making watch 
wheels—and i3 found to answer well that pur¬ 
pose—and also in various articles of use and 
ornament. To make it generally available, a 
cheap reducing process and an abundant sup¬ 
ply of rich raw material are needed—neither 
as yet attainable. The attention already 
turned to it will, no doubt, yet produce valu- 
ble results. 
TnE American Inventors, represented at the 
Paris exhibition, have received about twenty 
gold and silver medals, which gives a medal to 
every eighth exhibitor—a higher proportion 
of first class medals than will be received by 
any other nation. McCormick’s reaping and 
Pitt’s threshing machines, Blanchard’s for 
bending wood, Singer’s sewing machine, Good- 
year’s vulcanized India rubber, Fowler & 
Preterre, for artificial teeth, Richmond’s ma¬ 
chine for cutting iron for steam boilers, and 
Maury’s maps and charts, are amoDg the ar¬ 
ticles which took the medals. Colt’s guns 
and pistols met with great opposition, and had 
many competitors from France and Belgium, 
and he, in consequence, gets but a third-class 
medal. Fairbairne, the celebrated engineer, 
before the British Association, paid a marked 
compliment to the many new and useful inven¬ 
tions which he found at the Paris exhibition 
by American contributors. 
Ahead of the Yankee.—A n Englishman 
has taken out a patent for an ingenious meth¬ 
od of transferring the designs of graining on 
choice wood, such as mahogany, rosewood, 
yew, &c., from engraved metalic heated roll¬ 
ers, cr flat surfaces, to surfaces of common 
woods, such as pine, whereby a close imita¬ 
tion of choice and expensive woods is pro¬ 
duced. 
“SHAM” BRONZES. 
The Crayon — a journal for artists and art- 
lovers—thus exposes the cheat so unblushing- 
ly carried on in works of cheap art, among 
which bronzes are most conspicuous. Bronze 
is a metal per.uliarly beautiful in itself, pos¬ 
sessing the merit of great durability, as well 
as an agreeable color to the eye; but it is 
costly, difficult to cast, and easily imitated. 
The casts of different celebrated statues are 
only caricatures of the originals, besides being 
shams, instead of bronzes. The Crayon says: 
“ There i3 no bronze about them—not even 
the color. These statuettes are, generally, 
composed of zinc. A mould of a figure is 
made in metal, say iron, on the principle of 
the bullet-mould, except that it is made in 
sections, and by a common workman—at all 
events not an artist. A quantity of metal is 
poured into this mould until it is full, when 
it is at once poured out again ; the mould 
being of metal, and cold, it congeals the zinc 
immediately in contact with it, and the result 
is, a metal skin of the subject; it is the sim- I 
plest and cheapest process imaginable. Now, 
zinc shrinking considerably in the process of j 
cooling, the effect of it may be imagined, the j 
figure comes out smaller, limbs are shorter, i 
bodies out of proportion and expression, and 
attitudes materially changed. Think of a 
squat Apollo cr Diana, a spirited l orse with 
weak legs, or the energy of a Discobolus ex¬ 
aggerated into a caricature by an imperfect 
expression, owing to the shrinking nature of 
the metal. This bulle"-casting process is the 
way most of the bronzes we see and buy are 
made. The color is a very simple matter, it 
being superimposed by an acidulated wash 
acting chemically upon the zinc, or else steep¬ 
ed in an eiectrotyped bath, and brazed. Such 
is the manu'aetuve of bronzes, and such works 
find their way into the parlors of the wealthy 
and the good—people who are sensitive about 
integrity and principle, and who yet conv< rb 
their rooms into a heathen temple, who pay 
for the possession of, literally, false gods, and 
who are proud of fcrm3 and divinities a pa¬ 
gan would be ashamed cf. 
“ The bronze imposition Ls only one out of 
many; the same characteristics of manufac¬ 
ture be'.ODg to biscuit figures and porcelains, 
both of which change form in the process of 
baking and drying ; to snuff-box pictures and 
copies of the old masters, only each has its 
own peculiar means for deceiving the eye. It 
i3 only a whste of paper to enlarge upon 
them.” 
BARR PAPER. 
TnE high price of rags has of late 
tie attention of several persons, both in Eu-' 
rope and America, to the discovery of a sub¬ 
stitute from which paper may be made, and 
we are glad to learn that one of our own citi¬ 
zens has succeeded in finding such a substitute 
for wrapping paper. About one year since 
Mr. Charles H. Hall, of this city, was passirg 
by one cf our wood-yards upon Union Wharf 
when he casually took up a piece of hemlock 
bark, and put it in hi3 mouth. The pungent 
taste of the tannin contained in the bark 
being agreeable to him, he continued to chew 
the same, when he found that it formed a 
mucilaginous paste similar to the pulp in the 
first process of manufacturing paper. The 
thought then struck him that this bark might 
answer as a substitute for r 2 gs, and he at 
once commenced experiments with various 
barks. 
After much application he has perfected a 
process, and a company, embracirg some of 
our heaviest capitalists in Portland, has been 
formed for the manufacture of paper from all 
descriptions of bark, under a patent which 
Mr. Hall has obtained. The company have 
purchased a paper mill at Waterville, and 
fitted it up with machinery adapted to the 
new process. Their paper is already exten¬ 
sively used in our market, and we learn that 
they have just made a contract with a carpet 
dealer in Massachusetts for one hundred tons 
of their paper. As yet they have only made 
wrapping-paper, but from experiments mak¬ 
ing, we think they will be able soon to furnish 
even printing-paper from bark.— Port. Adv. 
Constant Supply Electric Battery. —An 
electric battery has been invented which, from 
the method adopted to renew itself with fresh 
exciting liquid, we conceive might be useful to 
many of our electrotypists. It is similar to 
our common ones, in which is used a solution 
of the sulphate of copper, but in order to avoid 
the frequent renewal of the solution, a spheri¬ 
cal bottle, filled with dissolved sulphate of 
copper, is placed in the battery with its neck 
dipping under the liquid in the cup, thus 
forming an elevated supply fountain. As the 
liquid lowers in the cup, by the decomposition 
of the zinc, it flows out of the glass, and thus 
the battery may be fed at once with liquid to 
last a month .—Scientific American. 
Microscopic Photographs.— Some micro¬ 
scopic photographs exhibited at Manchester, 
Eng., the other day, excited much admiration. 
One of the size of a pin’s head, when magnified 
several hundred times, was seen to contain a 
group of seven portraits of members of the 
artist’s family, the likenesses being admirably 
distinct. Another micmcopic photograph 
of still less size, represented a mural tablet 
erected to the memory of William Sturgeon, 
the electrician, by his Manchester friends, in 
Kirby Lonsdale church. This little tablet 
covered only l-900th part of a superficial 
inch, and contained 680 letters, every one of 
which could be distinctly seen by the aid of 
the microscope. 
Curious Statement —It is stated that the 
flame from a blowpipe is from twenty to 
thirty times more electric than ordinary flame 
—from which it is concluded that there is a 
voltaic current, and that of no mean intensi¬ 
ty, due to flame, and not dependent on ther¬ 
mo-electricity. 
