566 
VARIETIES. 
as  a  washing-powder,  instead  of  soda,  in  the  proportion  of  one  large  hand- 
ful of  powder  to  about  ten  gallons  of  boiling  water.  They  save  in  soap 
nearly  one-half.  All  the  large  washing  establishments  adopt  the  same 
mode.  For  laces,  cambrics,  etc.,  an  extra  quantity  of  the  powder  is  used  ; 
for  crinolines,  requiring  to  be  made  stiff,  a  strong  solution  is  necessary. 
Borax  being  a  neutral  salt,  does  not  in  the  slightest  degree  injure  the 
texture  of  the  linen.  Its  effect  is  to  soften  the  hardest  water,  and  there- 
fore it  should  be  kept  on  every  toilet  table.  To  the  taste  it  is  rather 
sweet ;  it  is  used  for  cleaning  the  hair,  is  an  excellent  dentifrice,  and  in 
hot  countries  it  is  used,  in  combination  with  tartaric  acid  and  bi-carbon- 
ate  of  soda,  as  a  cooling  beverage.  Good  tea  cannot  be  made  with  hard 
water.  All  water  may  be  made  soft  by  adding  a  teaspoonful  of  borax 
powder  to  an  ordinary-sized  kettle  of  water,  in  which  it  should  boil.  The 
saving  in  the  quantity  of  tea  used  will  be  at  least  one  -  fifth  —Med:  &  Surg. 
Rep.,  Sept.  29,  1866,  from  Druggists'  Circular. 
Agates. — The  Reese  River  (California)  Reveille  say3,  that  about  three 
miles  north  of  lone  there  is  an  isolated  mountain,  some  five  hundred  feet 
high,  which  is  called  Agate  mountain.  Its  entire  surface  upon  all  sides 
from  summit  to  base,  is  covered  with  agates  and  concretions,  and  on  dig- 
ging into  the  soil  they  are  found  like  potatoes  in  a  hill.  The  agates  are 
usually  oval  and  sometimes  globular  in  form,  and  varying  from  one  to  four 
inches  in  diameter,  and  are  beautifully  banded  and  striped.  In  the  hands 
of  a  skilful  lapidary  they  could  be  fashioned  into  pleasing  ornaments. 
The  various  concretions  are  found  in  great  abundance,  and  many  of  them 
are  particularly  beautiful.  In  their  sphericity  they  are  sometimes  found 
as  perfect  as  a  ball,  though  generally  the  spherical  shape  is  quite  distort- 
ed. They  are  hollow,  and  usually  filled  with  crystals.  On  breaking 
them  open  their  interior  is  often  found  to  be  irregularly  hollow  and  lined 
around  with  a  layer  of  quartz  crystals,  forming  what  is  termed  a  geode — 
a  "  little  crystal  grotto."  Some  of  these  hollow  concretions  contain  a 
smaller  concretion  inside,  which  rattles  when  shaken  in  the  hand. — Drug. 
Circ,  Aug.,  1866. 
Honey  and  Bees  in  California. — Many  citizens  have  engaged  extensively 
in  keeping  bees,  and  it  is  found  that  they  multiply  and  thrive  in  the 
most  satisfactory  manner.  A  good  hive  will  produce  two  hundred  pounds 
of  honey,  or  may  be  made  to  produce  twenty  new  swarms  in  a  single  sea- 
son. Mr.  Hamilton,  of  Stockton,  reports  that  from  thirty-five  hives  with 
which  he  began  in  February,  1860,  he  had  five  hundred  hives  and  twenty 
thousand  and  seventy-five  pounds  of  honey  on  the  first  of  October  of  the 
Bame  year.  The  bee  is  dormant  in  California  only  two  or  three  months, 
and  they  find  abundant  food  even  in  the  driest  time. — Drug.  Circ,  Aug., 
1866. 
