THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
373 
j March 13.] 
or three stones of hot fresh burned lime, and place it in 
a pail or other utensil. Pour on to this some boiling 
water; stir, and add to it as much water as will make it 
the proper consistency; then add a few ounces of 
sulphur vivum, keep it well stirred with a stick, and 
make use of it immediately, brushing it well into all 
cracks, crevices, and holes. 
Charbino Tan, either old or new. This operation 
may bo performed in the same way as recommended for 
saw or wood-dust. Old tan may be trodden together 
while moist, and moulded into bricks or cakes, or made 
use of as au outside casing for charring other mate¬ 
rials. All are most valuable for drilling in with 
seeds, or for making use of about cattle-sheds, pig-styes, 
cesspools, or other unpleasant smelling localities, for 
absorbing all noxious, fetid vapours; after which, if 
made use of in the cultivation of the soil, the valuable 
and beneficial influence of the materials are greatly 
enhanced. 
Peat .—That of late brought into note, and said to be 
secured by a patent, cannot or ought not to prevent any 
one charring peat to any extent they may please, upon 
the principle pointed out by myself many years ago, 
accounts of which have been published in various 
periodicals and journals for years past. The extent of 
peat in the United Kingdom, and within a short distance 
of almost every locality, can, as I at that time pointed 
out, be turned into a national wealth if charred for 
manure ; and it could be disposed of so reasonably, that 
it would cause a vast deal of that money to be expended 
at home in labour, which for some years past has been 
paid for foreign, and other less valuable artificial 
manures; and, as we have previously stated, one of its 
most beneficial effects being its power of absorption of 
all fetid and offensive smells, whether from the atmo¬ 
sphere, stagnated water, cesspools, night soil, &c., &c., 
its influence may be made so beneficial and purifying to 
some localities, as to render them more wholesome to 
reside in. We have had many years experience in 
charring, and in the use of charred materials, to a con¬ 
siderable extent, for all kinds of exotic plants, hard- 
wooded New Holland plants, heaths, soft free-growing 
floricultural plants, pine apples, cucumbers and melons, 
and, indeed, every kind of plant, both in-doors and out, 
as well as every kind of kitchen-garden crop, dredging 
the young plants with its dust to prevent the ravages of 
the fly. And we have also used these materials to some 
extent with field crops, &c., upon all of which it has 
a most beneficial effect, more particularly where the 
soil is kept well surface-stirred. Peat may readily 
be charred in the same way we have recommended for 
clay and sod charring, either in conical-shaped kilns or 
mounds, or in continuous ridges, with chimneys left at J 
corresponding distances to the height which it is packed. 
Peat may be cut, dried, stacked and thatched, to any ' 
extent desired, in the summer months, and conveyed 
to any locality to be charred when convenient, if 
not desirable to char in the locality where it is cut. 
After this, it may be sorted and packed away, the dust 
by itself. All should be kept dry, by being packed or 
stored in dry situations. It being of such an absorbing 
quality, it will soon increase in weight, where it has the 
opportunity of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. 
James Barnes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INEOBMATION. 
CONCRETE WALKS—TRI 
I have read, with a good deal of care, our worthy friend 
“ D. Beaton’s ” rather intricate, but interesting lucubrations 
on Concrete Walks and Roads. So far, I think, I could make a 
road on his principle, provided I had the same materials or 
similar; but he uses theplirase “ chalk lime.” Now itmaybe 
my ignorance, but I do not think we have such a material 
with us ; all our lime is burned, and the stone previous to 
burning is of a hard, unbinding character. Now if Mr. 
Beaton can give me some idea how to proceed with our 
Scotch lime, I should take it as a favour, as I have some 
walks to form this spring and should like to try it. My 
notion was to take our “lime shells,” as the burned lime is 
called here, and break it up on the top of rough stones or 
bottom, so to speak, before the concrete comes to be laid. 
Perhaps after all it is the difference of terms that confuses 
me. I purpose using engine ashes screened, and the slag 
from the iron furnaces broken small. Such materials will, I 
suppose, be suitable? 
[Chalk lime and shell lime are both alike in property. 
Do as you propose.— Ed. C. G.] 
Sometime ago you gave a recipe for making potato soup. 
Now as this happens to be an especial favourite dish of 
mine, and also, I think, essentially a’Scotch dish, it will not 
be out of the way, if I correct your recipe in one important 
point, viz., that the potatoes ought to be boiled by them¬ 
selves before making the soup, and the water so used in 
boiling thrown away, as it is not only useless, but injurious. 
[ You can scarcely believe the difference this makes in the 
soup. 
In No. 123 in “Various Receipts for Various People," I 
find the old fashioned, but very cruel method of treating 
burns and scalds, by the application of cotton, is recommended, 
j Now when it is considered that in many parts of the coun- 
try cotton is a commodity not easily got, would it not be 
better to turn to something to be found in everybody’s house, 
| that is much more efficacious and speedy in its effects than 
1 cotton? I mean “ cold water.” I know this is quite heterodox 
j to the generally received opinion as regards bums and scalds; 
1ATMENT OF BURNS, &c. 
but any one who can bring to their mind’s eye any party 
whom they have seen burned or scalded, and treated with 
cotton, and cau recollect the painful state of the wounds 
from the cotton sticking in, also the long period that elapses 
ere such wounds healed, and then contrast it with the 
following cases under cold water treatment, 'will at once 
see the superiority. 
A friend of my wife’s, who has a farina gum manu¬ 
factory, during some operation with one of his workmen, 
got himself and also the man severely burned, so much 
so that they were carried to their homes in a very critical 
state; he being a great hydropathist, at once applied cold 
water, and in three weeks he was at work again nearly quite 
restored; but the workman was treated in the old fashioned 
way, and after six or seven weeks came to pay a visit to his 
employer at the works in a miserable plight still, although 
it so happened that the employer was the most severely 
burned of the two. 
The next case was in my own house. One evening my 
servant was ironing a few small clothes, and had laid to the 
fire, amongst the larger smoothing irons, a small one, which 
she had neglected until nearly red hot, and on taking it from 
the fire laid it on the fender to cool; my little boy, a child of 
three years old, got sight of it, rushed at it and grasped the 
handle; the consequence was, the pain was so great that he 
either could not open his hand, or did not know what to do— 
and the girl shook the iron out of his hand You may conceive 
the state his tender skinned hand was in, being a mass of 
blisters ; he was at once stripped and put to bed ; a basin of 
cold water and some rags got, which were dipped, applied, and 
changed just as they got warm, every five minutes at first, 
during the great heat of the burn; this was continued for an 
hour, when the child fell into a sound sleep;—his hand was 
then tied up in a wet cloth, and several folds of dry cloth above 
| it; he slept well all night, and the first shout I heard in the 
morning was, “Papa, hand quite well!” and so it was; only 
that the child, not feeling any pain, could not be got to take 
care, and so broke some of the skin of the burned parts, 
