drawn some blanks when they expected always which modifies the fall, allowing the wind to to draw prizes. Failures run through the waft it to a considerable distance from the pafruits of industry as much as streaks of lean rent tree-a wonderfully wise provision of nado through pork. For instance, we here, who ture. The seed of the Red Elm will be easily have from one acre to five acres of strawber- recognized, from its striking similarity to the ries, each thought ourselves moderate in ex- seed of the parsnip. There is no marked difpecting a hundred bushels to the acre. It has ference between the two, except in dimensions not rained for four weeks. We may have fifty-the Elm seed being a half inch or more in bushels-I think not so much. There is al- diameter.-Iowa Homestead. ways something the matter, frosts, low prices, or something else. Nations and individuals are prosperous, not because they always are successful, but because they are not discouraged by reverses. The White or Soft Maple trees in the Capitol Park and on our streets have borne seed profusely this season. We know of no tree of its size and beauty, which grows so rapidly as the Soft Maple, hence we recommend its use as a shade tree, where a quick growth is desirable. Q. JOHN G. BERGEN-I believe that with us, flat culture is preferable to ridging, our land being sandy. The best practice is to set the plants after some hoed crop, and upon old land, the plants will stand for years. After thoroughly plowing and making the land mellow, mark it MECHANICAL & COMMERCIAL. off as for corn, four feet by four feet, and set two plants in a hill, and keep the ground mellow by the plow and cultivation until the vines have run so as to prevent further work. It is better to tear up some of the runners, than it is to neglect the Summer cultivation. We should not advise fall planting in this latitude; but this season should be used in preparation of the land for planting next spring. See that every weed is kept out of your corn field or potato patch, if you intend to set it with strawberry plants, and above all white clover should be exterminated. A single plant going to seed will prove a perfect nui sance. Elm and White Maple Seed. Q. We would call the attention of our readers to the fact, that the seeds of the White Maple, and of the Red Elm, are now dropping from the trees, and urge the importance of at once gathering the seed and planting it. If planted now, the seed will be up about as quick as corn, and make a growth of ten to twenty inches the present season. If not prepared to plant at present, or you wish to defer it to next spring, the seed should be gathered and mixed with fine loam or sand, and kept in a dry, cool place, until planting time. According to our observation, of some years back, the White Maple does not produce seed annually, but only biennially. Next year the trees will be barren of seed; hence the importance of gathering the present crop. Both of these trees are admirably adapted to our rich, prairie soils, and are of rapid growth. A plantation of a few acres, would soon afford an abundance of fuel on every farm. The seed of the White Maple is enveloped in a hard, brown covering, with a wing attached, Adobe as a Building Material. During my residence in New Mexico, where everything is built of adobes (pronounced in three syllables) from the houses of the rich, to the garden wall of the poor, I have been particularly struck with the propriety of using them in Wisconsin in the erection of buildings. Their utility must be apparent to every one. They are cheaper than any other material, as they may be composed of any material, which when mixed with water, will make mud, and adhere together upon drying. Surface mould, and pure sand or gravel will not answer; but earth having considerable sand mixed with clayey loam is preferable to brick clay, not being as liable to crack while drying. The New Mexican adobe maker chooses a place convenient to his water ditch, and as near the spot where they are to be used as may be, where he clears off a spot like a brick yard on which he is to spread out the new moulded adobe. On one side he will dig up a bed of the earth, which he will wet and work over with his hoe, adding a quantity of straw or grass cut to two or four inches in length. He next throws the mud into his moulding box with his hands, and empties it on the yard to dry. With no other tools except his hoe and moulding box, he will make each day 150 adobes, containing 1000 square inches, each; that is, he makes 150 sun dried bricks 20 inch they require no lathing before they are plastered, in order that they may always keep dry. The advantages in the use of adobes may be thus summed up. By reason of their cheap es long, 10 inches wide, and 5 inches high, each equal to 12 and a half bricks, of the ordinary size, or 1875 common bricks in one day, or enough to lay up almost 87 square feet of wall. The adobes may be laid in less than oneness, men of limited means may construct half the time that it would take to lay the bricks, and with one fifth part of the mortar. Any person may calculate the difference in the cost between 150 adobes made from the earth taken from the cellar where they are to be used, and 1875 bricks purchased at the brickkiln miles away. I will only say that he will find his estimate, including the cost of laying up, at least four to one in favor of the adobe. So much for the economy. But if they are three times as cheap, is there not some serious drawback in their use, sufficient to exclude them? The only objection I know of consists in the fact that they must be protected from the rains and moisture which arises from the ground. If a man would make use of them he must build a firm stone or brick foundation to receive them. Above that they may be used as filling up behind a brick or cobble stone face, or to a balloon clapboarded frame. Thus making the walls of any thickness desired to give strength to the structure. If they are well made, with plenty of straw and completely dried, they will stand as firmly as a stone wall, if the moisture is kept off.They are a far poorer conductor of heat than brick, or lime mortar, being in this respect ful their walls so much thicker, that the cold cannot penetrate into them, during winter, and thereby make a great saving of wood in winter. They are incombustible as brick, and as durable, if kept dry. I have seen adobe walls which were standing two hundred years ago in New Mexico, and they exhibited no signs of decay. They may be moulded of any desired form so as to expedite the construction of the building. They will make a building of much more equable temperature than any other ma terial. The material for them can be found in almost every place, so that there need be no cost of transportation. Any common laborer can make them; and they will not be damaged by storms as much as are brick, if caught in a half dried state. They can be laid so as to make as even and perfect a wall as brick or stone. In conclusion I will say, that I have no hes itancy in recommending them to persons of limited means, who desire to build a warm and cheap house. If others have any, they can easily satisfy themselves, by making a few by way of experiments. Examples on which they need not spend half an hour, will fully exhibit their qualities. A very pretty experiment might be tried in constructing a chicken house of adobes, 22 inch walls, with a door and windows on the south side, and the outer lining bricks set on their edge. If this were covered with earth resting on beams across the build ly equal to wood itself, thereby making a wall through which the cold of winter or heat of summer will not penetrate. I have no idea that an adobe wall two feet thick would freeze through in the coldest winter in Wisconsin, and for the same reason there would be no heating, before the roof were put on to shed off the in the wall in summer. The room in which I have spent the past winter, which was made of adobes, with a dirt floor, was so evenly tempered, that the thermometer, hanging upon the outer wall, would not vary five degrees during the coldest nights we experienced; and the doors and windows were far from being tight. The vapor in the air of the room never condensed upon the walls, thereby showing that rain, it would add greatly to the comfort of June 23, 1862. J. G. KNAPP. "Nothing Like Leather." During the past week we had a pleasant chat with G. W. Griffith, the energetic and intelligent proprietor of the Lyndon Station Tannery. From him we learned some facts connected with SCIENCE, ART, STATISTICS. his business that will interest our readers. As a rule, the tanneries in the West, especially in this section, are idle. Not because there is no trade, for, as every farmer knows, hides are plenty and the demand for leather is large and constantly increasing, but because of the difficulty of procuring bark of the kind needed to make good leather. In this vicinity we have none, the quantity in the State is comparatively limited, and generally it is of poor quality. To avoid this difficulty many manufacturers have tried the, said to be, chemical substitutes for bark. The result has always been uncertain and unsatisfactory. Consequently Western tanners have been unable to compete with Eastern. The hides have to be sent there to be manufactured, then returned as leather, the western consumer paying to the east, not only the cost of manufacturing, but the cost of transportation both ways. The difference in cost, on the immense quantity used, is enormous, and if a tannery has been, or can be, established in this country and good leather made, its benefit and advantage to our people will be appreciated. Fortunately science is equal to the wants of society. A vegetable substitute for bark has been discovered. The sweet-fern, with which the Lemonwier and Yellow river valleys are well supplied, has been demonstrated to be as good, if not better, than the best bark for tanning purposes. Mr. Griffith is an experienced tanner and currier, he knows the value of bark and has seen and used the many chemical substitutes that spoil hides oftener than make leather, and, after near two years trial, he fers the sweet-fern to any and every substance yet used. pre He has built up quite a business at Lyndon Station. His tannery there has been in operation something more than a year. He is manufacturing all the leather his establishment will give room for, but not a fractional part of that demanded. Here is a good chance for some one to build up a profitable and permanent business. One of our best shoemakers, a man who has used and bought and sold leather for many years, assures us that that made at the Lyndon Tannery is equal, if not superior, to the best bark tanned leather he ever used. With such evidence we consider tanning with sweet-fern no longer an experiment but a decided success. Cannot the business be extended so as to supply this section with all the leather needed? Mr. Griffith will show his process to tanners who wish to learn. When, after fair trial, they become convinced that it is all that could be wished, he will expect them to pay for it. A tannery is needed here. It would pay well. Here is an opening for the successful establishemt of a home manufactory that should be improved. We know it would be well supported.—Mauston Star. Salubrity of the Southern States, Because of the natural anxieties of the numerous friends of our soldiers now in the South, in relation to their supposed exposure to a bad climate, we give the following extract from an article in the Courier, which, as it is the evidence of one who appears to know that whereof he speaks, has been extensively copied by the daily press; and we are confident that it will be received with emotions of grateful love and patriotism by our readers as affecting our national cause and its friends: Be kind enough, sir, to allow a Southerner, who, having traversed the Southern States in all directions, and spent months in tents in the woods and mountains and plains of those States, is thoroughly acquainted with that country and climate, to give through the medium of your patriotic paper, a true statement of the sanitary condition of the Gulf States to be invaded by the heroic army of the Union. The Southern States, especially the so-called cotton States, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, have, generally speaking, a beautiful, genial and saThe winter is short and lubrious climate. cember. Rain is fre mild; it commences in December and lasts to the middle of February. Snow is very scarce, especially in the low country along the coast of the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Ice appears only through a few nights of the season, and melts towards noon. quent during the months of November and DeThe spring is very short,-it commences in February and ends with March. In April, the summer heat sets in and lasts until the middle of October, interrupted at the end of September and October only by a few cool nights. The summer, although long, is seldom as hot and sultry as the few hot days in the Middle States and New England. The nights are generally cool and pleasant. Dews commence only to fall after midnight. Fogs are very scarce at any time during the year, and in some parts of the Southern States, as for instance, in lower Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, nearly unheard of. Generally speaking, there is no healthier country of equal extent in the world than the Southern States. It is a fact, portions of it are unhealthy, and small parts of it extremely so; but the latter applies only to the swamps and rice-fields along the mouths of the rivers, most especially of the Waccamaw, Ashley, Cooper, Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha, Satilla and St. Mary's rivers on the Atlantic coast. The sickly portions of the Southern States are inconsiderable, and generally confined to the mouths of the rivers, the immediate vicinity of the water courses and some swamps in the interior, all of which can be easily avoided. The sickly portions of the State of South extends as far in the interior as Jackson, Brandon, Madison and Canton, but very rarely only. All other parts of the Mississippi are perfectly healthy, as much so as any northesn country. Even the immediate bottoms of the Mississippi river impart only an intermittent fever, which is never fatal, easily cured, and affects the constitution much less than more northern countries. Carolina are confined to the mouths of the Waccamaw, Santee, Ashley and Cooper rivers, and to the rice-fields and swamps below the latter two rivers to the Savannah river. The islands on the coast of South Carolina, the towns of Beaufort and Bluffton are perfectly healthy. The eity of Charleston is frequently visited by yellow fever, and unacclimatized foreigners are subject to very fatal bilious fevers, especially by a change from the city to The sickly portion of the State of Louisiana the country, and vice versa. The interior of is confined to the lower part along the MissisSouth Carolina, above the South Carolina Rail- sippi river and the banks of the Red river. road, leading from Charleston to Augusta, Ga., Other parts of the State are perfectly healthy. is perfectly healthy, and as much so for Nor-The yellow fever visits New Orleans nearly every year, from the middle of July (seldom if therners as for Southerners. The sickly part of Georgia is very unimport-ever before) to the beginning of November, ant, and mainly confined to the rice swamps but not always in an epidemic or contagious along the Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha, Sa- form. After the first of July it is not safe for talla, and the St. Mary's rivers, and to the vi-Northern or any other not acclimatized troops cinity of the Savannah river up to the city of to remain in the city of New Orleans; they Augusta. The cities of Savannah and Augusta are in danger of being decimated by the dreadare now and then visited by yellow fever, but, ful disease, but they may then safely march with the exception of this, the city of Savan-out of New Orleans, and encamp about 25 or nah is one of the healthiest cities on the face 30 miles above the city, on the uplands along of the globe, and its mortality is never as high the railroad leading to Jackson. They may as that of the Northern cities. From the year be sure that the rebel army will not then retake 1829 to the year 1852 Savannah was entirely the city, for the yellow fever is even more fatal free from yellow fever, but in and after the to them than it is to the soldiers of the Union. latter year it has been again, but not frequentThe above truthful statement will show that ly subject to this disease. The interior of Georgia, especially the pine-barrens along the the Southern States are by no means an unAtlantic Ocean and the line of Florida, and healthy, deadly country; if the sickly regions again the mountainous part above the railroad are avoided, our brave soldiers may march leading from Augusta to Atlanta, are perfectly healthy, as much so as any country in the world. Even the immediate surroundings of the large Ockefeenockee swamp in Ware Co., Georgia, on the line of Florida, are not unhealthy. The State of Florida, with the exception of the vicinity of large water-courses and stagnant lakes, and its swamps and everglades, is perfectly healthy. Alabama is generally a less healthy State than Georgia. Its most sickly portions are found around the Mobile Bay, and the lower parts of the Mobile and Alabama rivers. The yellow fever visits Mobile nearly as often as it does ew Orleans, and ascends sometimes as high up as Montgomery, on the Alabama river, and Demopolis, in the fork of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers, are besides favorable to intermittent fever. With this exception the State of Alabama is a healthy one, especially that part of it above the Tennessee river and around the spurs of the mountains which enter this State from the Tennessee and Georgia. with perfect impunity, even in the middle of the summer, into the rebellious States and suppress this unholy rebellion. The climate, then, will not affect them any more than it does the rebel army, and indeed, even less so, for it is a confirmed experience that foreigners, during the first year, are less affected by the climate of the Southern States, even in the less healthy regions, than natives. The relatives of the brave fellows at home may dismiss any fear respecting the Southern climate. There are insects which render the sojourn in warm climates during the summer disagreeable, and and among those in the Southern States are especially the mosquitoes, sand-flies and red-bugs; but the first are only troublesome along the water-courses and in the swamps; there are none, or very few, in the interior.The sand-flies are only intolerable along the sea-coast, but can be expelled by smoke. red-bugs, little red insects rarely visible by the naked eye, infest all the woods and are very troublesome to the careless invader; they penetrate the skin in large numbers and pro The duce intolerable irritation, and sometimes a Again, the State of Mississippi is, generally dangerous swelling; but they may be easily speaking, a very healthy State. The only less kept off by inserting pulverized camphor or healthy portions of it are the bottoms of the sulphur in the shoes, and carrying pieces of Mississippi river. The yellow fever ascends sulphur in the pockets. Although subject to this river sometimes, but very seldom as high their attacks, I have in this way invariably up as the city of Memphis, and infests Wood-kept them off in all my continued rambles and ville, Natchez and Vicksburg. Sometimes it surveys in the Southern forests. X. A Few Interesting Facts. The celebrated leaning tower of Pisa is 815 feet in hight, and has an inclination from the perpendicular of twelve feet. A ball of iron, weighing 1,000 pounds at the level of the sea, would be perceived to have lost two pounds of its weight if taken to the top of a mountain four miles high-a spring balance being used; the attraction of gravitation being less at the top of a mountain than at the level surface of the earth. A thick piece of iron, weighing half an ounce, loses in water nearly one-eighth of its weight; but if it is hammered out into a plate or vessel of such a size that it occupies eight times as much space as before, it loses its whole weight in water, and will float, just sinking to the brim.. If made twice as large, it will displace one ounce of water, consequently twice its own weight. Every substance becomes lighter in water, in proportion to the amount of water displaced by it. The estimated force of gunpowder when exploded, is at least 14,150 lbs. on every square inch of surface which confines it. nia; the machinery of a grist-mill and that of a saw-mill are among the freight. Provisions, supplies for the U. S. post at Fort Benton, Indian goods, fire arms, &c., are of course on the list. Capt. Labarge takes his family with him and a full crew, including ten mountaineers, who intend to stop in the country. The Emilie, Capt. J. Labarge, jr., will follow on Falls of the Missouri must be nearer three the 8th inst. The distance by the river to the thousand than two thousand miles from St. Louis. The region of the Upper Missouri is destined to attract emigration directly after the close of the present war. It is far better timbered, better watered, and has a better soil, than the valleys of the Platte and Upper Arkansas; while its climate, owing to the influence of Pacific winds, is far milder than that of the Upper Mississippi. Gold and other minerals are being found at various points, and will soon attract crowds of adventurers. A new Territory on the Upper Missouri and Yellow Stone will doubtless be organized within the next five or six years.—N. Y. Tribune. The first steamboat on the Ohio river, The highest mountain in the world is 29,000 feet; to that hight M. Boussingault and Col. Hall clambered on the side of Chimborazo, on the Andes, the greatest elevation yet attained says the Indianapolis Journal, was the Indeby man without leaving the surface in a bal-pendence, in 1814. It had formerly been a loon. Madrid, the capital of Spain, is the highest of the European capitals; 200,000 people dwell at the elevation of 2,200 feet, on a naked desert plain, chilled by a biting breeze nine months of the year, and are baked the remaining three. The highest permanent resident in Europe is in the pass of Santa Maria-9,272 feet. In the Andes of South America, where a tropical temperature prevails, man dwells much more aloft than in Europe. Potosi, the highest city on the globe, on the celebrated metalliferous mountain, is 13,350 feet above the sea; and a post-house at Rumihuas is 15,540 feet, which is but a trifle below the peak of Mount Blanc, where mortal never stayed more than two hours. The Far West. large barge, that made several voyages from Cincinnati to New Orleans, consuming eight months in the downward and upward trip. A rudely constructed engine was put into her, and thus furnished and fitted up, the steamer Independence plowed the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Arriving at New Orleans, General Jackson, commander of the American forees, pressed it into service, against the British; and, after the war of 1815, she began her upward trip, and arrived, after a voyage of four months, at Rising Sun, where she stopped for wood. John Jones, proprietor of the town, furnished her with fence rails for fuel, and agreed to take his pay in a passage to Cincinnati. He embarked, but such was the slow speed of the steamer, that when he got to North Bend he left the boat and walked to Cincinnati, arriving some twelve hours before the steamer. The light-draught steamer Shreveport, Capt. John B. Labarge, left St. Louis on the 1st inst., bound for Fort Benton, the Falls of Missouri, A letter from Palestine states that while and Washington Territory. She is to stop at the Prince of Wales was at Hebron (April 27) Fort Benton until the Fall, giving her passen- he and his suite obtained permission to visit gers time to cross the Rocky Mountains, and the cave of Macpelah, Abraham's burial place. "prospect" in various directions. Some of They are the first Christians who have been them intend to establish a settlement in Bitter- allowed to enter it since the crusaders, nearly Root Valley; others expect to visit the newly-seven hundred years ago. They report that discovered and highly-vaunted mines in Wash-everything is kept in the most beautiful order, ington Territory, and perhaps proceed to those and nothing could be more satisfactory than in British Columbia. There are some sixty or the state in which the tombs are preserved.eighty of them in all, partly men of wealth; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Sarah, Rebecsome of them veteran gold-miners of Califor-ca and Leah are buried there. |