WHITEWASElira OEIiI-ABS. 
One good agency for keeping the atf 
the cellar sweet and wholesome, says U 
C. Ked.ie, in the Tribune, is ivMe 
wash made of good white 
only. The addition of glue or size, oi a y 
thing of this class, is only a dama^, y 
nishing organic matter to speedily pu n y. 
The use of lime in whitewash is not simply 
to give a white color, hut it greatly promotes 
the complete oxidation of effluvia in the 
cellar air. Any vapors that contain com¬ 
bined nitrogen in the nnoxidized form con¬ 
tribute powerfully to the development of 
disease germs. 
Lime powerfully promotes oxidation, espe¬ 
cially in damp situations. I have seen cellar 
walls where the mortar was covered ivith a 
white efflorescence of nitrate of lime. So 
powerfully does lime accelerate the oxida¬ 
tion of nitrogenous matter for the formation 
of nitrates that it causes the “lime rot* in 
the foul alleys of cities. The niti-ate of lime 
is very soluble, and the rain soon \\ ashes 
away the lime of the mortar, leaving only 
the sand to hold the bricks together. The 
same tendency to oxidation may keep the 
cellar free from foul odors by oxidizing the 
volatile nitrogen compoimds into innocent 
nitrate of lime. 
CHEWnie THE CTO. 
Every child living in the country has stood 
and watched this curious operation, and 
wondered what the lump was which he saw 
come up in the cow’s throat, and then go 
down again after she had chewed it for a cer¬ 
tain length of time. And perhaps he may have 
seen the anxiety and turmoil produced on a 
farm by the report that some one of the cows 
had “lost her cud,” and as the result of this 
excitement he may have seen the absurd at¬ 
tempt to “make a new cud,” in the hope 
that the cow would by such means be re¬ 
stored to good condition. There is in the 
minds of a large proportion of readers so 
little correct understanding of the true 
nature of “chewing the cud” that a few 
words concerning it may not be amiss. 
A very large tribe of animals, of which 
sheep and cows are only familiar examples, 
are called in works of natural history Ru- 
minantia, because they all ruminate, they 
chew the cud. They do so because their 
peculiar organs of digestion require it; they 
can get their nourishment in no other way. 
They have, it is said in the books, four stom¬ 
achs , but the statementisnot strictly correct, 
for the entire digestion is done in a single 
one, that which is called the fourth, the other 
three being only places for preparatory 
work. Their food is swallowed without being 
chewed; the chewing is to come later. When 
this nnohewed food is swallowed it passes 
directly into the first stomach, to use the 
common term; but the drink which the 
animal takes goes straight past the entrance 
of the first into the second. These two 
serve only to mak and soften the coarse food. 
When the first has done what it can, the 
food passes out of it into the second, and 
then the cow or sheep is ready to “ chow the 
cud.” 
The second stomach, while busily at work 
in soaking the food, keeps it in motion, and 
graduallyrolls it up into masses, sothati’n the 
small upper part there is formed an oblong 
solid lump of the size that we recognise as 
rch“:tieluasthe- 
cation gives us when w put ^ is 
cate morsels between oui tee 
sufficiently chewed, the mas 
and its place take^^ 
been rolled up in the mean ime. 
But the “asUcated^^j^.^^ 
return to the second stomach ft 
had come. « Pas*®® „ and then 
a place for fdigestion be- 
into the fourth, where the true b 
is the s.ame as in oim own case, only tha 
iV^different stage of the food’s 
and we see also what “ losing the cud 
really is. The cow or sheep is s';^f"ng ft o 
indigestion; the “ second stomach has failed 
to roll up the little masses suitable for chew¬ 
ing, and there is nothing which the poor 
beast can bring up. Of course, therefore, 
the one thing required is to restore the 
tone and power of the stomach ; not to burden 
it with an “ artificial cud,” which would only 
increase the difficulty instead of relieving it. 
—Scicn tifie American. 
USES OF THE COCOA-NUT, 
A Chinese proverb says that there are as 
many useful properties in the Cocoa-nut 
Palm as there are days in the year; and a 
Polynesian saying tells us that the man who 
plants a Cocoa-nut plants meat and drink, 
hearth and home, vessels and clothing, for 
himself and his children after him. 
The solid part of the nut, says Grant Allen, 
supplies food almost alone to thousands of 
people daily, and the milk serves them for a 
cWnk, thus acting as an efficient filter to the 
water absorbed by the roots in the most pol¬ 
luted or malarious regions. If you tap the 
flower-stalk you get a sweet juice, which can 
be boiled down into the peculiar sugar call¬ 
ed (in the charming dialect of commerce^ 
jaggery; or it can be fermented into a very 
nasty spirit known as palm-wine, toddy, or 
arrack; or it can be mixed with bitter herbs 
and roots to make that deleetable compound 
“ native beer.” If you squeeze the dry nut 
you get Cocoa-nut oil, which is as good as 
lard for frying when fresh, and is “ an excel¬ 
lent substitute for butter at breakfast,” on 
tropical tables. Under the mysterious name 
of copra (which most of us have scon with 
awe described in the market reports as 
firm or weak,” “receding” or “ steady ”j 
It forms the mam or only export of many 
Oceanic islands. The thicker portion is 
called stcarino, and used for making sundrv 
candles with fanciful names, while the clear 
0.1 IS employed for burning in ordinary lamps 
In the process of purification it yields glycL’ 
mo; and It enters largely into the inanufL 
ture of most bottoi'-class soaps. 
The fiber that surrounds the nut makes un 
the other mysterious article of comme,^ 
hnown as cmr, which is twisted into Zu 
ropes, orwoyon into Cocoa-nut 
ordinary door-mats. B..:;!;; i:,'; 
aro also made of it, and it is used ,mt 
in the most honest fashion, i„ 
horse-hair, in stuffing cushions 
Thosholl, cut in half, supplies .mod 
and IS artistically caryed by thoPolv, 
thens, who have not yet learned^" 
methods of civilized machine-made 
maniifaeture. 
The leaves serve as excellent thatch 
the flat blades, prepared like papvn**’ 
most famous Buddhist manuscripts ar 
ten ; the long mid-ribs or branches (strT’^' 
speaking, the leaf-stalks) answer admky^ 
for rafters, posts, or fencing; the fib ^ 
sheath at the base is a remarkable nata^ 
imitation of cloth, employed for strain 
wrappers, and native hats; while thetn^’ 
or stem, passes in carpentry under thena *’ 
of porcupine-wood, and produces heau%, 
effects as a wonderfully colored cabinet-malt 
ers’ material. These are only a few selected 
instances out of the innumerable uses of the 
Cocoa-nut Palm. 
GUANO TESTS. 
Probably there is no better method of de- 
termining the purity of guano, says the 
Scientific American, than the combustion test 
which is as follows: ’ 
Pour half an ounce of the guano into an 
iron ladle, such as is used in casting bullets 
and place it upon red-hot coals until nothing 
but a white or grayish ash is left, which must 
be weighed after cooling. The best sorts of 
Peruvian guano do not yield more than thirty 
or thii’ty-three per cent, of ash, while inferior 
varieties, such as Patagonian, Chili, and 
African guano, leave a residue of sixty or 
even eighty per cent. Genuine guano leaves 
a white or gray ash; and a red or yellow ash 
indicates the adulteration with earthy matter 
or sand, etc. 
This test is based upon the fact that the 
most important ingredients, viz., the nitrog¬ 
enous compounds, become volatilized, and 
escape when subjected to a sufficient amount 
of heat. The difference of odor of the vapors 
evolved in the process, according as we are 
working with first or third class guano, must 
also be noticed. The vapors from the bettor 
kinds have a pungent smell like spirits of 
hartshorn, with a peculiar piquancy some¬ 
what resembling that of rich, old decayed 
cheese, while those arising from inferior 
varieties smell like singed horn shavings. 
TAMABINDS. 
There aro but few people to whom the 
flavor of preserved T.amarinds is not agree¬ 
able ; but do those who frequently uso Tam¬ 
arinds know how they aro prepared t 
According to the Gardener’s Chronicle, they 
como into commorco both from the Last a" 
West Indies; tho latter aro simply thefruifti 
or rather pods, from which tho shell or ep'^ 
carp has boon removed, and tho pulp, toget e 
with tho strong, fibrous frame-work upon 
which it is built, and tho seeds aro place i® 
altornato layers with poivdorod sugar i® 
cask or jar, over which boiling syrup is u 
ward poured. 
in tho East Indies it soonis they u®® 
pared by first roinoving tho opioarpand soet 
by hand, after which tho pulpy portiu® 
nsually mixed with about ton per con • 
salt, and trodden into a mass with 
toot. Of those Tamarinds so voralqualitie* 
huown in tho market, tho host being ^ 
IB'or and husk, and tho worst 
both, togothorwith thohard, stono-liheso® ^ 
which aro commonly oaton in the East W 
after being roastod and soaked. 
