PROPER  TIME  OF  YEAR  FOR  CUTTING  WOOD.  413 
KUSSIAN  METHOD  FOR  THE  PRESERVATION  OF  FRUITS, 
VEGETABLES,  Ms, 
At  the  last  exhibition  at  St.  Petersburg,  the  following  mode 
of  preserving  fruits,  invented  by  the  maitre  d 'hotel  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas,  attracted  great  attention  from  amateurs.  Quick- 
lime is  slackened  in  water,  into  which  four  or  five  drops  of  cre- 
osote for  each  quart  of  water  have  been  mixed  ;  the  lime  must 
be  neither  too  much  nor  too  little  slacked  ;  there  is  a  certain 
knack  which  practice  alone  can  teach.  Take  a  box  and  lay  in 
its  bottom  a  bed  of  the  slacked  lime  ;  above  this  spread  a  layer 
of  the  materials  to  be  preserved  ;  at  the  four  angles  and  else- 
where lay  packages  of  powdered  charcoal  ;  then  make  another 
bed  of  the  lime,  followed  by  another  layer  of  the  fruit.  When 
the  box  is  full  put  on  the  lid,  and  close  it  air-tight.  Thus  pre- 
served, the  fruits  will  last  a  whole  year. — Journ.  Frank.  Inst., 
Mai/,  1862,  from  Cosmos. 
PROPER  TIME  OF  YEAR  FOR  CUTTING  WOOD. 
Four  pine  trees  of  the  same  age,  equally  sound,  which  had 
grown  on  the  same  soil  and  under  the  same  conditions,  were 
chosen.  The  first  was  cut  at  the  end  of  December;  the  second 
at  the  end  of  January  ;  the  third,  at  the  end  of  February  ;  and 
the  fourth,  at  the  end  of  March.  They  were  shaped  in  the  same 
manner,  into  beams  of  the  same  dimensions,  and  seasoned  under 
the  same  conditions.  Their  resistances  to  bending  were  then 
determined  by  laying  them  on  supports  and  loading  them  at  the 
middle.  The  resistance  of  the  first  beam  (that  felled  in  Decem- 
ber) being  called  100  ;  that  of  the  second  was  88  ;  of  the  third 
80,  and  of  the  fourth  62. 
Similar  results  were  obtained  as  to  the  durability  and  strength 
of  posts  made  of  sticks  cut  at  the  end  of  December  and  of 
March.  The  first  were  still  perfectly  sound  after  16  years  ; 
the  second  at  the  end  of  3  or  4  years  broke  with  the  slightest 
effort.  All  were  buried  in  the  same  soil  and  under  the  same 
conditions. 
Four  oaks  as  like  as  possible,  and  placed  in  the  same  condi- 
