MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 1. Suggestions regarding the Employment of Kelp as a Manure.The Le gislature, by having allowed barilla to be imported free of duty, has annihilated the manufacture of kelp, in so far as regards the purposes to which it was formerly applied. It therefore becomes a matter of some im'portance to proprietors of kelp estates, and to a numerous class of his Majesty's poor but industrious subjects, formerly employed in that manufacture, to discover any useful purpose to which kelp or the fuci from which it is made, can be applied. The Highland Society, which is ever attentive to the interests of Scotland, has offered premiums for reports of experiments made with kelp as a manure. It has already been used as such with advantage, and there can be no doubt that satisfactory reports and much valuable information will be obtained. Kelp is as portable as bone.dust, and the alkali which it contains, it may be supposed, will have powerful effects in improving lands unaccustomed to sea-ware, and containing a large portion of inert vegetable matter. It is well known that sea-weed or ware driven on shore by the violence of the sea, has been long and advantageously applied to land as a manure; and it is also known that the sea-ware which has hitherto been chiefly applied for this purpose, has also been applied to the making of kelp. It is only, however, after stormy weather, and at certain seasons of the year, that the ware is separated from the rocks, and cast on shore. Sea-ware in its wet state, and as it is found upon the shore, is gathered and carried to the distance of six or seven miles, where it is sold. On the shore, each cart-load costs 6d. Thirty tons of ware are required to produce one ton of kelp, which it has been said contains equal power as a manure, as the ware from which it was produced. A ton of kelp cannot be manufactured under L. 3, 15s. It certainly may be doubted, whether a ton of kelp is equal as a manure to the ware or fuci from which it was produced, as the mucilaginous parts must be dissipated in burning. The ware necessary to produce a ton of kelp, may be cut, carried on shore, and dried, for from 25s. to 30s. During the summer season it may be dried without losing any of its active properties as a manure, and when dried, as much may be carried upon one cart as would load six in its wet state. Now, suppose that a load of wet ware can be cut and carried on shore for 6d., that it can be dried upon the shore for 3d., and when so dried, that six wet loads will be required to make one load of dried ware, then a load of dried ware on the shore will cost 4s. 6d. Suppose again, that the ware in its wet state had to be carried to the distance of four miles from the shore, and that the carriage of each load would cost 2s, then 6 loads would cost at four miles distance 12s. The same quantity of ware in a dry state would cost 4s. 6d., and for carriage 2s., and therefore the dried ware would cost 5s. 6d. less than the wet, supposing it, in either case, to be got without any other price than cutting or gathering. It would appear to follow as a natural consequence, that ware might with advantage be carried to a greater distance from the shore in its dry than in its wet state, and that a supply might be got at all seasons. For when the ware was dried it might be put up in ricks or stacks the same as hay, until disposed of. It has been said that the kelp or fast or black ware, is not so fit for manure as the red or loose ware, and that it is long before it decomposes in the soil. The black ware is certainly not so easily acted upon by moisture or the atmosphere as red. There can be little doubt, however, that it will rot in the ground within a reasonable time, and become an efficient manure. But it may be used, 1st, in decomposing moss, according to Lord Meadowbank's system; 2d, In mixing soil and making compost; 3d, In reducing and bringing to a state of fermentation, stable-yard dung; 4th, As litter for cattle when straw is scarce; and, 5th, In some situations it might be used as fodder for cattle. Farmers will give 10d. for the straw of a bushel of oats, chiefly with the view of augmenting their stock of manure. A single cart will drive 18 bushels of straw, which at 10d. per bushel is 15s. ; a load of dried ware, which is certainly equal to a load of straw for making manure, would cost 6s. 6d., which would leave a difference of 8s. 6d. in favour of the ware. These hints are thrown out in the hope that those connected with kelp shores, if they consider the matter deserving their attention, will make experiments with dried ware, and report the result to the public. From a Correspondent. 2. Progress of Manufactures in Australia.-The following very interesting sketch of the state of the useful arts in this flourishing colony, is abridged from the annual speech of Sir John Jamison, the President of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of New South Wales, as reported in the Sydney Gazette of October 16. 1830:-" Mr S. Lord, after many years' perseverance, has succeeded in manufacturing coarse cloth and blankets, which are very durable, and are readily sold to the extent of the supply. Mr Robert Cooper, besides his splendid distillery, is engaged in erecting a building for the manufacture of cloth, and has sent to England for skilful manufacturers and machinery. His success cannot be doubted. It is amongst the drawbacks to our prosperity, that we have not yet manufactured all the coarse cloth, blankets, flannels, &c. necessary for our own use, and it may be apprehended, that the durability and superiority of our wool will not be known so as to be justly appreciated, until it is manufactured free from the mixture of inferior European wools: The manufactories of Messrs Dickson, Wilshire, Mackie, and Aspinal, already make soap and candles, not only sufficient for the consumption of the population of New South Wales, but also for export to Van Diemen's Land. The soap, in quality, is allowed to be as good as the best English, and candles are approaching to European perfection. A discovery has been made by Mr Mackie, that the ashes of the mangrove tree, which grows wild on most parts of the sea-coast, are as good a subcarbonate of soda as Spanish barilla, and these trees are so numerous, that the supply must be quite inexhaustible. The price of the best soap, in consequence of this advantage, ought never to be more than one farthing per pound above that of tallow, now from 2d. to 3d. per pound. In the course of last year only, Mr Aspinal paid L. 1200 for colonial barilla, used in his manufactory. To Mr Wilshire is due the credit of establishing the first tan-yard; he last year tanned and manufactured 2000 hides, 5000 kangaroo skins, 8000 sheep skins, and 7 rolls of parchment of 60 skins each. Mr W. had so many competitors, that there is enough of leather prepared for colonial use, and a surplus of green hides exported to England; he last year paid no less than L. 500 to persons for collecting mimosa bark. Flax enough is obtained from New Zealand, at a cheap rate, for colonial purposes, and a surplus for exportation." Sir John concludes this branch of his subject by emphatically observing, "I hope the period is not far distant, when we shall manufacture all the woollen goods we require, distil our spiritous liquors, brew as much beer as we want, and, above all, make the whole of the wine and oil we stand in need of." The newspaper from which we have quoted the above, is itself a proof of the advance of Australia; it is of as large a size, as well edited, and as well printed, as the most respectable of our English journals. It appears thrice a week.-Mechanics' Magazine, September 1831. 3. On collecting Wild Plants on account of their Value as Medicinal Herbs.— To suggest some slight aids to rural industry may not be deemed beyond the province of the botanist, however much it is beyond his power to put his suggestions into practice. A few women and children might be agreeably and perhaps profitably employed for some days in summer in gathering and drying medicinal herbs, of which some valuable kinds grow abundantly in our district. Hemlock, foxglove, henbane, deadly-nightshade, the tops of broom, and the berries of juniper, are of this description. To secure a sale and a fair return for them, it will be necessary that the utmost care should be taken in gathering the respective plants at the proper season, and preserving them in the best manner, but the rules are few and simple, and might be procured from any respectable medical practitioner. As it is now ascertained, on unquestionable authority, that the Chondrus crispus is sold, by the most respectable apothecaries, in lieu of the Iceland moss, and in many cases may be the preferable article, so there is nothing to prevent our druggists procuring a sufficient supply from their own shores. There are some herbs used to a greater extent amongst our peasantry and labourers, than those who have not mixed with them, and inquired into their habits, will readily be lieve; and to some of these simples they ascribe an efficacy in certain diseases equalled only by the specifics of the newspapers. But to prescribe these remedies in proper cases is not beneath the dignity of the physician, and he may thereby lessen the expenditure of the poor. A poultice of the leaves of the mallow or maas is cheaper than one of bread and milk, and equally efficacious. An infusion of the clary or of chervil is a very bland fomentation, and will be used sedulously by the patient when the prescription of warm water alone would be regarded as almost trifling with his complaint. The buckbean, the chamomile, and the mugwort, are bitters in common use amongst them, and are in some cases little less powerful than gentian or quassia, and perhaps more so when prejudice aids the operation of the former. The roots of bur. dock and dandelion will always supply excellent substitutes for the very expensive sarsaparilla; and the roots of Carex arenaria and hirta have been said to possess similar properties. There are not better tonic astringents in the Materia Medica than what the common avens and tormentil afford, and the latter in particular might be gathered in any quantity on our moors. Perhaps our fishermen might procure from its roots a good tan for their nets. If the water-cress were regularly brought to our market, there would soon in all likelihood, arise a demand for it, for it is a very wholesome salad, too bitter perhaps to be eaten by itself, but which would mix well with other herbs of similar properties. And were our fisherwomen instructed in the mode of preparing laver, I do not doubt that we might also in time acquire a relish for this hitherto expensive delicacy, the more particularly as there is a general, and, I think, a well-grounded belief in its usefulness in scrofulous constitutions. Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed. By Dr Johnston, 1831. 4. Nutriment from Bones.-M. Darcet continues his ingenious researches on this subject. At a meeting of the Académie des Sciences last month, he read a memoir, of which the following are some of the particulars. The fifteen parts of bone commonly contained in one hundred parts of the butcher's meat, will yield six of a pure and substantial alimentary substance; consequently the hundred parts of butcher's meat, which have hitherto produced no more than about twenty-four parts of aliment, will now produce thirty, if the gelatine and fatty substance of the bones be made use of: thus increasing the available portion of animal's flesh by one-fourth, or making four oxen go as far as five. The learned academician then stated some of the results arrived at by the Committee of the Faculté de Medicine, who have distributed during the space of three months the broth of bones (or, as it is called, the bouillon à la gelatine) to forty patients and attendants of the Clinique Interne, and thereupon make the following report:-1. That the employment of gelatine not only introduces into dietetics a great improvement, but an economy that should not be neglected; 2. That the broth of bones is as agreeable as that which is usually employed in the hospitals; and 3. That it is not only nourishing and easy of digestion, but wholesome, and by no means productive of any bad effect in the animal economy. The Hospital Saint Louis possesses an apparatus capable of producing 900 rations of this broth each day; and the apparatus has been in operation during the last twenty months, so that the hospital has thus been supplied with 550,800 rations of the bouillon à la gelatine, attested by the physicians of the establishment to be excellent, and promising the most easy and advantageous means of subsistence for the poor. The Hotel Dieu, also, has an apparatus of the same nature in use these fifteen months; it has furnished 443,650 rations of the bouillon; and six reports from the establishment, addressed to the Administration of Hospitals, fully bear testimony to the advantage of making use of the gelatine, which may be so abundantly procured from bones.-Medical Gazette. 5. Press for compressing Flour or Meal into Casks.-The Bulletin de la Societé d'Encouragement gives a description of a press employed in the United States of America, for compressing flour or meal into casks. The nature of the -press, and manner of using it, are as follows: Every barrel ought to be of the size to contain 196 English pounds of meal or flour, when compressed. An empty barrel, with a false one of the same size (that is, one without the top and bottom), placed above it, are first put upon the scales. The tare is made; and the opposite end of the balance is charged with a weight of 196 lb. Meal to that weight is then put into the two barrels standing in this position, as, in its uncompressed state, one barrel could not hold this quantity of meal. The barrels are then placed under the press, where a rammer, exactly fitting the barrel, is made to descend upon them; the shaft of the rammer mounts and descends between two muffling boards, which serve to guide it. It is ⚫ furnished with two small beams, which are fixed in a sort of pivot, and which form the extremity of a large lever. When this lever is lowered, it causes the rammer to descend upon the meal, and a sufficient degree of pressure is thus produced. But, should it be required to augment the power of the lever, this can be done by applying another lever to assist in working the large lever. When the pressure is finished the lever is raised, and the false barrel, which is now empty, is removed. The barrel filled with meal is then closed, and the operation is completed. Another empty barrel, with the false one placed above it, are put upon the scales, and the work recommenced. This press is simple, efficacious, and cheap, and may be constructed by a common carpenter. 6. An improved method of making Gouda Cheese (a particular kind of Dutch Cheese).—When the milk is all collected, the rennet, which is prepared in the following manner, must be put into it. Six rennets must be taken and cut into small pieces; on these must be poured three kilogrammes of water, in which about five kilogrammes of kitchen salt, have previously been dissolved. It may be proper also to add two ounces of saltpetre, or the salt of nitre, and half a bottle of the vinegar of wine. This mixture must be allowed to remain for about three weeks, when it is put into bottles. The bottles must be corked with great care, the influence of the air being pernicious to the rennet. When the rennet, thus prepared, is poured into the milk, it must be stirred very gently in a plain unpainted wooden trough, without the addition of warm water. It is not advisable to add warm water, unless when the milk comes from a very distant pasturage, or when, on account of the coldness of the weather, the heat necessary for promoting the operation of the rennet is wanting. It is, however, still preferable to heat the trough directly by means of fire, as is the custom in Switzerland, where they heat the copper basins employed for this purpose. In those farms, where the pasture is very rich, it is proper to add a little warm water to the milk. Particular care must be taken not to mix portions of milk which have been drawn upon different days, or even at separate hours of the same day, as cheeses made in this manner are always of a very inferior flavour. When, by means of gentle and regular agitation, the different parts of the milk begin to separate, and when the whey is skimmed off, the curd must be kneaded with great care, in order that the large and small particles may not be put together confusedly in the frame, and that they may be as small and as equal in size as possible. The curd must then be wrapped in a thin linen cloth, of a fine but strong texture, and put into the frame. The frames used by M. Van Bell, are different from those usually employed, their sides being vertical. The lids ought to be made to fit exactly. The walls of these frames must be pierced with small holes, through which the whey will exude. If any difficulty be found in taking the cheese from the frame, it will be sufficient to blow into those apertures, as in this way the tension of the air will be removed, and the cheese easily taken out. The frames ought to be placed upon a pedestal, near the press, in order that they may be easily put beneath it. The cheese, with its cloth, ought to be repeatedly returned to the frame, and particularly at the commencement of the pressure. When the cheese is placed under the press, the pressure must at first be light, and afterwards increased by slow degrees. Care must be taken that the pillars of the windlas |