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Apple-tree Blight-Cause and Remedy. PROF. J. W. HOYT.-Dear Sir:-Mr. Hinkley's querry, as to the cause of the bark of the apple-tree turning black at the crown, is a question of much importance; and to give an explicit answer, I ask your patience for a moment while I refer to other questions that are in reality involved in the above inquiry.

My experience has taught me that the evil is produced by extreme freezing, after thaws in winter and spring; and the ground upon which the trees stand, being cultivated and kept free from vegetation, is from its nakedness rendered more susceptible to the influence of sudden changes.

latter reflects the same.

For instance, the ploughed field thaws to a greater depth than the grass field, because the former absorbs the heat of the sun, while the The tops of the trees are not effected by these sudden changes, because, being continually in contact with them, it becomes a natural condition incidental to the growth and development of all trees in latitudes where Nature has designed each species to grow. In the forests and openings they are all carefully protected by leaves, grass and low shrubbery of various descriptions, and when civilization comes among them, we find some of the hardiest varieties of our native trees actually perishing from the severety of our winters.

We fail to secure those conditions to the orchard which Nature has given to the forest, hence they are winter-killed, or very much injured.

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And by examining trees that have been injured by the winter, it will be found that the mean depth to which they have suffered will be about four inches; this being about the depth to which the earth is subjected to the greatest changes of temperature. The bark of the tree will be black or brown to the above stated depth, according to the amount of injury it has sustained. Below this depth the roots will be found sound and healthy.

In this condition, with the crown of the tree

killed or injured, the flow of sap is more or less obstructed from the lower roots to the branches, hence originates the disposition to sprout from the roots. Here lies the cause of all the difficulties in fruit growing in the West. A. and B.'s recommendations in regard to winding them with straw to prevent sun scald on the south side, and scrubbing, scraping and washing to keep out the wood worm, is of about as much importance towards the removal of the primary cause of the difficulty as the perpetual application of quack medicines are to poor Humanity. The worm does not seek shelter in a healthy tree. But they very soon make their way to the feast when the poor tree is suffering from disease. Take it for granted, reader, that if your tree had not suffered previously from cold toes, the wood worm would have passed it by unnoticed. Go into the forests and learn this truth. You will seek in a healthy tree in vain for the worm that is devouring its dead or diseased companions. This worm seems to prey upon all or nearly all diseased trees here. I have never supposed them to be what is called the borer, which I think I have never seen in this country.

Now for the remedy for all these difficulties, which after all is so simple that no one is excusable who does not apply it: Take as much straw as you can carry in your arms, place it about the crown of the tree, put a shovelful or two of earth next to the tree to guard against mice, or a wheelbarrow load of any kind of litter, spread it about the tree. This furnishes all that Nature requires to guard it against the vicissitudes of our climate.

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It is scarcely twenty years since the first lot of from Mobile, consigned to E. D. Peters & Co. common river sawed boards arrived in this city The trade has grown since then. In 1845 the ship builders of Boston sent out men all through the South to cut hard pine and oak for ship building, and from this, and also from the fact that hard pine boards were generally accepted as the best for certain purposes, we have come

to believe that we could not do without the southern lumber. This is a mistake.

LAKE SUPERIOR IRON.-In 1855 the shipments of iron from Lake Superior were 1,447 tons. The amount gradually increased until 1860, when 150,000 tons were shipped. This year the shipments will not exceed 40,000 tons. The total value of all the ore shipped, and that melted, since the mines were worked, is about $1,326,000 at Marquette. The capital invested in the mines amounts to $2,286,000. Lake Superior News, of November 2d, from which we gather the foregoing facts, says:

The

The lumber trade of this country, according to the Boston Commercial Bulletin, was for years confined to New England, and particularly the present State of Maine. Within the past ten years, the trade has greatly changed its direction, and within the past five years almost Of the companies now doing business here, wholly. A well-written essay upon the causes we know of none but what, with judicious and effects of this would be an interesting his- management, can realize a handsome profit uptorical record. The home trade in lumber has on whatever branch they are engaged in. This pressed to the extremes-from the Penobscot year, however, is a peculiarly hard one upon to the Great Lakes. In 1851, a member of a all doing business in the Upper Peninsula. The firm in the lumber business, at Boston, con- general stagnation caused by the war has afceived the idea of working Western and Cana- fected us severely, and now, with a six months' da lumber for the Boston market, a long expe- winter before us, during which time there is rience having satisfied him that the forests of no possibility of getting our products to marMaine would, in a short time, become essen-ket, the chance is, that all the manufacturing tially deficient in the supply of some of the most desirable qualities of lumber for building and shipping. To show what has been the result of this enterprise, we can state that the sales made by this firm, in the first year afterwards, (1852), were not over three hundred and fifty thousand feet. Now they sell about twenty-five millions annually. The business has already outgrown the proportions of one concern, and there are others here who are engaged in the business, as agents of Western and Canada houses.

This lumber now takes the precedence for shipping over all other kinds; its widths, its lengths and its adaptness to carriage, all excel the Eastern lumber. It is taken mostly from the forests of Michigan, Upper Canada, and Western New York, and is conveyed to the seaboard by way of the canals and the St. Lawrence, and by railroad, via Ogdensburg and Burlington. The better qualities are sent in large quantities to the west coast of South America, California and Australia.

The traffic in Eastern lumber has decreased proportionately; where our old firms ten years since used to average a cargo per day from the Penobscot and Kennebec, they scarcely average a cargo per week.

It has been supposed by many that we were dependent on the South for hard pine, or rather that we could not find a substitute for hard pine.

companies will be straitened for available means. Yet, as there is plenty of provisions in the country, if all will "bear and forbear," they can weather the point; and from all inditions, we have no doubt that the next year will be one of general prosperity for Lake Superior.

THE NEW FIELD TELEGRAPH. Engineer Rodgers, of New York, has put in operation his newly invented cordage or insulated line, for field operations, and it proved eminently successful, giving entire satisfaction in the manner in which it operated. It is run off reels upon the ground with great rapidity, (as required for instant use), across streams, through woods, or over any localities. Lines were yesterday, in extraordinary short time, thus laid between the head quarters of General McDowell and two or three of his most advanced camps, and were worked in immediate connection with the telegraph station in the War Department. It is worthy of note that the heaviest artillery may run over this Rodgers' cordage without damaging its effectiveness in the least. It differs in many respects from the field telegraph used by Louis Napoleon in the Italian war, and embraces many advantages of convenient and certain operation, under any possible circumstances over that (Louis Napoleon's) which contributed so signally to the success of the French arms.— Washington Star.

Shoddy.

Woollen fabrics furnished for soldiers' wear, have been the means of giving the defenders of the country an idea of the thing represented by shoddy. In many instances, a whole corps have found their coats on their backs dropping to pieces after a few day's wear, showing their worthlessness for ordinary use of the garments allowed to be imposed upon them by the carelessness or fraud of inspectThese frail textures owe their rottenness to the liberal mixture in the fabric of an article called "shoddy," which is a discovery of a recent period, and may be ranked, we suppose, among the "latest modern improvements."

ors.

The raw material for shoddy is old rags.Woollen rags that were once consigned to the manure heap furnish this material. When the new demand for them first arose, the price was about $5 per ton; since then it has advanced. They are collected and assorted, and then baled for manufacture into carpets, shawls, linsey and black cloths. Selected rags, thus baled, when of the best description, are worth over $100 per ton. The assorters sell to the shoddy manufacturer. This agent, in the process of making old garments into new, takes these rags and passes them through a 'rag machine,' which is a cylinder, armed with teeth, that, revolving at high speed, pulls them to pieces, reducing them to wool, and freeing them from dust. It is now shoddy, and in this state it is saturated with oil or milk, and frequently

scoured in heaters, in combination with some chemicals. The process completed, the shoddy is ready for manufacture into cloth. For this purpose it is mixed with new wool in as large proportions as possible. White is used in light colored goods and blankets, and the dark descriptions for coarse cloths, carpets, &c. The shoddy" is the product of soft woollens, but the hard or black cloths, when treated in a similar manner, produce "mungo," which is used extensively in superfine cloths, which have a finish that may deceive a good judge. It is used largely in felted fabrics.

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The shoddy parts of a garment made of the mixed material give way very soon, rubbing

out of the cloth. It accumulates between it

and the lining. Formerly it was largely imported from England. After a while, the demand for it here was found to be so good, that machines were sent over for its manufacture here. In New York there are six shoddy mills. As we have intimated, the impositions of contractors in palming shoddy uniforms on the volunteers, left the soldiers, after a few days' trial of the rotten fabrics, almost naked. It is probable that the shoddy fraud was carried to a more outrageous excess in these instances than in ordinary dealings. But it is believed that a large proportion of the clothes sent to market in ordinary times is, so to speak, adulterated by this base-born material, and that fortunes

are made and pockets picked through its instrumentality to an extent of which the cheated community of shoddy cloth wearers have no idea.-Merchant's Magazine.

Japanese Paper.

We may take some instructions from the Japanese, who do not use rags for making paper, but the inner bark of trees. From a recent account in Blackwood's Magazine, it appears that this peculiar people are far in advance of the rest of the world in some specialities of paper making. The writer of the article which we refer to, in describing the peculiarities of the Japanese, says:

"It is wonderful to see the thousand useful

as well as ornamental purposes for which paper is applied in the hands of these industrious and tasteful people, Our papier mache manufacturers should go to Yedo to learn what can We saw it made into a be done with paper.

the difference.

The

material closely resembling Russian and Morocco leather; it was very difficult to detect With the aid of lacker, varnish an skillful painting, paper makes excellent trunks, saddles, telescope cases, the frames of microscopes; and we even saw and used excellent water proof coats made of paper, which did keep out the rain, and were as supple as the best Mackintosh, (India rubber). Japanese use neither silk nor cotton handkerchiefs, towels or dusters; paper in their hands thin, and of a pale yellow color, plentiful and serves as an excellent substitute. It is soft, cheap. The inner walls of many a Japanese apartment are formed of paper, being nothing covered with a fine translucent description of more than painted screens. Their windows are the same material.

We saw what seemed to be balls of twine, which were nothing but long If a shopshreds of tough paper rolled up. keeper had a parcel to tie up, he would take a strip of paper, roll it up quickly between his In short, without hands and use it for twine. paper, all Japan would come to a dead lock. **Japanese mothers-in-law invariably stipulate in the marriage settlement that the bride is to have a certain quantity of paper allowed her."

NEW TELEGRAPH LINES.-The telegraph cable between London and the Ajaccio, on the Island of Corsica, has been successfully laid over a length of 205 miles, and an average of 1,500 fathoms in depth.

The wires of the new telegraph line from Boston to Washington, are laid already to Providence. The line is constructed by the Independent Telegraph Company, consists of three wires, and is what is called a metallic circuit. The wires may be fastened to trees or any convenient object, or pass through water without impairing their efficiency, and they cannot be tapped to take away what is passing.

Flocks, Shoddy and Noils.

As there is a great discussion about the composition of woollen fabrics for the army, and as the terms commonly used are not familiar to the generality of people, and as many are apt to be misled through ignorance, we have thought it of sufficient interest to obtain all the facts connected therewith, and we have been kindly furnished with samples of the different materials known as "flocks, shoddy and noils," by a practical manufacturer of this city, with explanations accompanying :

SAMPLES.

No. 1.-Noils.-That is, short wool combed from long wool to fit the latter for worsted, for kerseys and blankets.

No. 2.—Washed and unwashed Russian and South American wool; the first for blankets, the second for kerseys.

No. 5.-Noils.-Suited for kerseys and blankets, of finer class than No. 1.

No. 6.-Shoddy-Made of old carpets-such as is used in English blankets-and, perhaps, some American. Price, 10 cents a pound; English blankets, 40 cents. This is mixed with long wool and spun into filling.

SCIENCE, ART, STATISTICS.

About Diamonds.

The Paris correspondent of the N. (). Pickayune, writes to that journal on the above theme, from which we take the following almost incredible story of the treasures, pleasures, and measures of the Duke of Brunswick, the "most profound adamantologist in the world:"

He has in his possession three millions of dollars worth of diamonds. He has just published a catalogue of his diamonds, and in the appendix there is a notice of the most celebrated diamonds in the world. This catalogue numbers not less than 263 quarto pages. It gives, with great detail, a list of his white transparent, first-white, second-white, steelwhite, blue-white, light blue, black-blue, lightyellow, bright-yellow, amber-yellow, straw, No. 3.-Shoddy.-Blue for kerseys and stock-champagne, deep-rose, rosy, light-rose, opalesing yarn; black for satinets and mixed goods. cent, pome-granate, violet, greenish, green, No. 4.-Flocks. For satinets and cotton sea-green, brown, light-brown, deep-brown, warp goods and kerseys. dusk-black, opaque-black, London, fog, sandy, frosty, black-spotted, cracked, split, scratched, ill-cut, uncut, square, round, oval, oblong, octagon, pointed, pigeon-eyed, almond, Chineseeyed, diamonds. It relates how this once adorned a Turkish sabre, that a royal diadem, another an imperial collar, a third a grand electoral hat; this black diamond was an idol's eye, that brilliant rosy diamond was taken from the Emperor Baber, at Agia, in 1527, it weighs 41 carats, and is worth $69,000; those were the waistcoat buttons of the Emperor Don Pedro; this diamond ring, with the Stuart coat of arms and the cypher M. S," belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots; that pair of earrings hung once on Marie Antoinette. The Duke of Brunswick has in his possession fifteen of the ninety known diamonds, weighing thirThe grain movement will form one of th ex-ty-six carats, but he has not a diamond worth traordinay features of the year 1861, and contributes largely to the strength of the country in sustaining an expensive war. The aggregate receipts to 14th November, at tide water,

LARGE EXPORTS TO EUROPE.-The month of November has shown a marked change in the business features of New York. A continued activity has prevailed in the export trade to foreign countries, showing, as general results, exclusive of specie:

Exports......

Imports..

October, 1861.
$13,157,000
10,201,000

were as follows:

Flour, bbls.

1860...... 1,051,900

1861...... 1,221,200

Ten Months, 1861.
$109,934,000
141,754,000

Barley, bus.

Wheat, bush. Corn, bus.
15,771,600 13,400,300 2,393,000
25,054,700... 20,559,600 1,703,900

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By reducing the wheat to flour, the quantity of the latter left at tide water this year, compared with the same period last year, shows a gain equal to 1,625,000 barrels of flour. The receipts at tide water, since the opening of the canals, for three years, to the 14th November,

have been as follows:

1859. Canals open,... April 15. Flour, bbls............ 600,600 Wheat, bus........... 3,523,200

1860.

April 25.
1,051,900

15,771,600

Corn, bus............. 2,488,700 13,409,300

Barley, bus.......... 1,909,200

2,393,000

Rye, bus.................... 320,000

Oats, bus....

4,697,500

5,948,600

-Hunt's Merchant's Magazine.

304,500

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$200,000. He has plenty of diamonds worth two worth $60,000 each, one worth $70,000, $20,000, $30,000, and $45,000 apiece he has worth $200,000. He is in treaty now for two and one worth $80,000; but he has'nt one diamonds, one of which is worth $232,000, and the other $650,000, and which rank in the order of precedence established by adamantothe Regent's diamond, and former in the eighth logists, in the sixth rank, which is next after rank, that is, next after the Orloff diamond of

Russia. In his list of celebrated diamonds he

places in the front a brilliant white diamond weighing 250 carats and belonging to some East Indian prince, and worth $2,500,000; next comes the Kohinoor, which weighs 186 1861. carats, and which he sets down as worth $1,May 1. 383,840; next comes the Rajah of Matar's 1,221,200 25,054,700 (Borneo) diamond, it is of the most beautiful 20,559,600 water conceivable; the governor of Batavia 1,703,900 offered the Rajah $150,000, two brigs of war, 4,806,200 armed, equipped, and provisioned for six months, and a large quantity of cannon balls,

725,000

Trades and Employments in France.

powder, and congreve rockets; the Rajah re- dozen six barreled revolvers, loaded and capfused them all, and preferred keeping his dia-ped, lies open upon a table within reach of his mond, which passes for a talisman; it is worth bed. Would you like to be in his place? $1,339,455. Next comes the great Mogul, which is of a beautiful rose color, and of the shape and size of an hen's egg, it is worth $784,000, according to the Duke of Brunswick's An interesting document has lately been valuation, though Tavernier, the traveler, sets published in Paris, giving the number of the it down as being worth $5,344,655; the Re- individuals in France at the date of the last gent's diamond of France (and which, by the census (1856) who were engaged directly or way, belong to Lord Chatham's grand father, indirectly in various professions and trades, who brought it from India, concealed in the from which they derived their support. The heel of his shoe,) comes only in the fifth rank; returns include not only adults, but also chilit weighs 135 carats-it is worth $739,840; it dren, and are thus classed: is the purest diamond known, it required two Agriculture........19,034,071 | Clergy of all peryears to cut it before it was cut it weighed Manufactures......10,690,961 suasions. 410 carats; the chippings of it were sold for Commerce... 1,652,331 Persons without

any trade

or

142,705

$40,000. The Duke of Brunswick says the Professions........... 1,462,144 profession....... 3,241,457

Orloff diamond of Russia is worth only $344,-
350, and not $18,516,580, as some persons
have pretended; and he says the Nancy dia-
mond, which Prince Paul Demidoff purchased
at the price of $400,000, is worth only $29,-
160; but then the Duke of Brunswick reckons
its historical value as nothing, although it
once adorned the sword of Charles the Bold,
was found after his death on the battle field of
Nancy, was sold in Switzerland, carried to
Portugal and there sold, belonged to King An- Without profes'n or trade 1,022,063
tonio, to Henry III, was swallowed by a noble
to whom he confided it-swallowed by a faith-
ful noble rather than deliver it to robbers, and

A comparison between the population re-
turns of 1861 and 1856, shows a sensible dimi-
nution in the number of persons engaged in
agricultural labor, and an increase in the class
following manufacturing pursuits.
the figures:

was found in his body, which was disinterred for the purpose of discovering it. The Duke of Brunswick dares not leave Paris at any period of the year; his diamonds keep him chained there. He dares not sleep from home (some people reckon this liberty of pillow one of the great franchises of Paris,) a single night. Then, he lives in a house not constructed so much for comfort as security. It is burglar proof, surrounded on every side by a high wall, the wall itself is surmounted by a lofty iron railing, defended by innumerable sharp spear heads, which are so contrived, that if a person touches any one of them, a chime of bells begins instantly to ring an alarm. This iron railing cost $14,127. He keeps his diamonds in a safe built in a thick wall; his bed is placed against it, that no burglar may break into it without killing, or at least waking him, and that he may amuse himself with them without leaving his bed. The safe is lined with granite and iron; the locks have a secret spring which must be known before they can be opened; if they are opened by violence, a discharge of fire-arms takes place which will inevitably kill the burglar, and at the same time a chime of bells in every room in his house are set ringing. He has but one in his bedroom: the sash are of the strongest iron, the shutters are of thick steel iron. The door opening into it is of solid sheet iron, and cannot be entered unless one be master of the seeret combination of the lock. A case of a

Agriculture...
Manufactures,
Professions

1851

Here are

1856

21,992,874

19,034,071

9,233,895

12,202,391

3,483,538

3,262,282

1,480,925

36,009,669

35,732,370

During the preceding year (1854) the receipts from the octroi in Paris were fifty-four millions of francs, being an increase of twentyone millions of francs in ten years; and the total receipts of the metropolis, in the same year, amounted to 110,306,124 francs, while the expenditures, during the same period, was 97,720,554.

A curious discovery was made the other day at the National Observatory at Washington, from which Lieut. Maury seceded. On attempting to use some of the instruments for observation, it was found that a large tree had grown up in front of them so as to completely obstruct the view-thus giving conclusive evidence that the instruments have not been used for years! A striking commentary on the manner in which the seceding superintendent discharged his duties. Workmen are now cutting away the mute but unimpeachable witness against him.

That gigantic plant, the Victoria Regia or Royal Lily, is producing a succession of its gorgeous blossoms in the aquarium of Kew Gardens, England. The leaves of the lily are three feet in diameter.

Among the curious weapons of war captured in India, which have been brought to the tower of London, is an ax more than one hundred pounds in weight, used by the king of Oude's executioner.

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