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ART IV.-Notoria; or Miscellaneous Articles of Philosophy, Literature, and Politics.

USEFUL ARTS.

On salting meat, as practised in South America;-It is generally observed, that the lymph contained in glands, under the ligaments of joints, or between the muscles, and their cellular membranes is what most indisposes flesh-meat from taking salt well, and consequently keeping long.

An obvious practice has obtained, only perhaps among a few, of steeping meat for some hours in cold water, and afterwards wiping it dry, and pressing it well with a dry cloth, previous to salting, for private family use. This with tongues, or flank pieces, seems almost indispensible in warm weather, in all countries, and is found to answer in all

cases.

The practice in salting, particularly flitches of pork, as also ships' beef for the navy, is to discharge as much as possible the lymph from either, by salting once moderately, and when the salt has dissolved in a small degree, to pile the meat sometimes with weight upon it, at others acting by its own weight, by which the same end is in a degree answered.

The

Meat killed off from grass feed, or green meat of any kind, never takes salt so well as that which has been kept on dry, and less succulent food. cause arises from a superabundance of lymph, difficult to be discharged, contained in the whole texture of the animal fed upon grass. This however does not go to invalidate the propriety of preferring fat meat, if fed some time previously upon Indian corn, hay, oats, beans, or other dry food, such as is calculated to impart a firm consistency to the flesh of the animal.

But, as the wild cattle of South America cannot be controlled in their pasturage, it is well to understand that grass-fed cattle may be rendered the more capable, (if not nearly equal to cattle fed on dry food) of taking salt, by salting moderately at first,-and after -pressing by enormous weight, so as to expel the lymph, re-salting in the usual manner. But, in that case, it is expedient previously to lay the meat in cold water, for some little time, to alienate the lymph, and then wipe it dry &c.

The use of sugar, where it is as cheap salt, may be well recommended for

trial, to the quantity of one half sugar, and one half salt, or say, one third sugar.

Dr. Stephen Hales, and the Hon. Robert Boyle, in their repeated experiments on the various modes of preserving meat for long keeping, found that sugar alone preserved it from putrefaction, quite as well as salt; but left rather a vapid taste, which rendered it not so pleasing to the palate, though not less nutritive, perhaps more so, than in the usual manner of salting.

A small proportion of salt-petre wil greatly tend to prevent putrefaction, or any approach to it, in meat, without rendering it hard.

The following proportions of sugar, salt, and salt-petre, constitute the famed Hambro-pickle, which has been found to preserve meat most effectually in hot as well as cold climates.

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those incidents an impressive effect, with a view to transfer to it a portion of the public favour, already powerfully prepossessed by the original works; of this the play of Guy Mannering furnishes the most successful example. We have thought that Rob Roy might be converted into a dramatic performance with considerable effect. A parallel might not inaptly be run between a chieftain with his clan, and the captain and banditti in the Forty Thieves, while Rob Roy's cave, so celebrated in history, might compare with the like retreat in that opera, which, at the commanding sound of 66 open Sesame," knew to obey the countersign.

A piece entitled Rob Roy has been introduced upon the London boards, founded upon the narrative already so well received by the public, but it does not yet appear with what success. Much judgment, spirit, and versatility ofgenius is necessary to adapt such a tale, so various and refined in its transitions, so abounding in description of the secret workings of the human mind, which no outward representation can reach, to he laws of the stage; and precipitation arising from the urgency of the occasion, with the probability of competition, is by no means favourable to the success desired. The following is the prologue to the play.]

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DIANA VERNON, once of nought afraid, Is now a timid, self-retiring maid; HELEN, more great in virtue and in crimes,

Stands like a granite in the shock of times;

And more is broken from the Novel's scene,

Like ruins, telling of the things have been.

Be gentle, friends, nor with too rude a blow

Crush a young plant, that, suffered still to grow,

May live in one and not far distant hour,

To offer to your hand a sweeter flower. Oh! might my voice-but 'twere unfit, reveal

The pangs your Poet now is doom'd to

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'Tis true his toil has woven but a

wreath

Of flow'rets springing wildly on the heath,

Yet gratitude's fair blossomings now bind

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Poets and Painters.-It is dangerous to disoblige either a great Poet, or Painter. Virgil in his second book of the Georgics, had bestowed very high eulogiums on the fertile territory of Nole Campania; but the inhabitants of this city not choosing to allow their waters to run through his lands, he erased Nole, and put Ora in its place. Dante also placed his master Brunetto, who had offended him, in his "Inferno"

chel Angelo constituted the pope's master of the ceremonies, Biggio, an imperative personage in Hell, in his picture of "the last judgment!"-Such is the vengeance of painters.

Etymological Anecdote.-A dispute once arose in the way of raillery, between the earl of Temple and the first lord Lyttleton, on the comparative antiquity of their families. Lord Lyttle--such is the vengeance of poets! Miton contended that the name of Grenville was originally Greenfield; lord Temple insisted that it was derived from Grande Ville. "Well then," said lord Lyttleton, "if you will have it so, my family may boast of the higher antiquity; for Little towns were certainly antecedent to Great cities; but of you will be content with the more humble derivation, I will give up the point, for green fields were certainly more ancient than either."

Admiral Roddam.—The good admiral attributed his capture to the ship missing stays at one time, under the management of lieutenant James Wallace, while he was taking some refreshment. This was some hours before the Greenwich was taken; but the missing stays got the ship entangled with those of the enemy, in some way or other, so that the misfortune was never recovered. The admiral used to relate with much good humour, that when he gave the printer at Kingston directions to publish the minutes of the court martial, he ordered a copy to be first given to each member of the court martial, to his brother officers, to some other friends, and to sell the remainder. It was some time afterwards that he again saw his publisher, when, in order to settle accounts, the book was referred to, and the man stated, that, according to order, so many copies had been disposed of. "Why that is the number I ordered you to give away in my name, how many have you sold?""Not one," was the reply, "though I advertised in all the papers."-That is strange!" said captain Roddam, "for admiral Byng's trial went through two or three editions in a week." That is a different case," said the printer; "if ou had been condemned to be shot,

Philip, Duke of Burgundy.-This prince was often accustomed to disguise himself, and to visit the different public-houses, that he might hear what the people were saying: one day he met, in a resort of this kind, with a man who spoke very ill of him, and who, knowing the duke the moment he cast his eyes on him, fell at his feet and implored his pardon. The duke granted it immediately: bnt gave him this warning, "Never again to speak of the conduct of princes; for if thou speakest well of them," said he, "thy words are false; and if ill, thou art liable to suffer every misfortune that power can inflict.

Paul, the Asiatic Hunter.-Paul was, for many years, employed as superintendent of the elephants stationed at Danpore, generally from fifty to an hundred in number. This remarkable man was about six feet two inches in hight, his make was more than proportionably stout, and his disposition was completely indicative of the country* which gave him birth. Nothing could ever rouse him to a state of merriment, even amidst the uproar of midnight festivity, of which he partook freely; but without being affected in the least by the copious libations, even of spirits, while others confined themselves to wine. Paul would sit nearly silent, with an unvarying countenance, twirling his thumbs, and occasionally volunteering with a German song, delivered with closed eyes, the thumbs still twirl

* He was a German.

ing, and with obvious tokens of delight at the sound of his own voice; which, though not offensive, was by no means equal to his own opinion of its merits. Paul never took offence; he was bent on making money, and his exertions were in the end amply successful. He was possessed of a coolness and presence of mind, which gave him a wonderful superiority in all matters relating to tiger-hunting. He rarely rode but on a bare pad, and ordinarily by himself, armed with an old musket, and furnished with a small pouch containing his powder and ball. He was, however, remarkably nice in the selection of elephants for this purpose; and as he was for many years in charge of such numbers, in which changes were perpetually made, from requisitions for service, and from new arrivals, we may justly conclude, that he did not fail to keep himself well provided, by the reservation of such as were, in his opinion, best qualified for his views.

The consciousness of his own corporeal powers, as well as the steadiness of the animal that bore him, and the continual practice in which he lived, could not fail to render Paul successful, even had his disposition been somewhat less phlegmatic, and his mind less steady. Accordingly all were governed by him, when after game; for which he would search to a great distance, and would perhaps set off thirty or forty miles with as many elephants, on hearing of a tiger having committed depredations. As to hog-hunting, Paul thought it beneath his notice; and, as he used to express himself, left that to the boys.' Indeed, it was very rare to see him on a horse. His weight and disinclination, no doubt, were partly the causes of his rarely taking to the saddle; but, as he was a great dealer in elephants, we may fairly conjecture, that the display of such as were ready for the market, was the motive which operated principally towards his riding elephants on all occasions.

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Paul's aims were at the head or the heart, and in general his shots were well placed; rarely deviating many inches from the parts at which he levelled his musket. He charged very amply, and never missed of effect for want of powder.

He used often to remark, that he could instantly, at the sight of a tiger,

decide whether or not it had been in the habit of attacking the human race, or whether its devastations had been confined to cattle, &c. He observed that such as had once killed a man, ever after cared but little for any other prey; and that they could be distinguished by the remarkable darkness of their skins, and by a redness in the cornea, or whites of the eyes.

Paul was assuredly a competent judge, but this assertion partook more of hypothesis than reason.-Oriental Field Sports.

AGRICULTURE.

The following easy, simple, and infallible Method of forcing every Fruittree to blossom and to bear Fruit, has been translated from the German of the Rev. GEO. CHARLES LEWIS HEMPEL, (Secretary to the Pomological Society of Altenburgh in Saxony), by George Henry Noehden, LL. D. F. L. S. &c. -In my early years I saw my father, who was fond of Pomology, and skilled in that science, cutting a ring on several branches of trees, which already were in blossom, for the purpose of producing, by that means larger fruit than usual. This was not his own invention, but as far I recollect, derived from a French journal. 30 years ago, when I was a boy, I practised this operation, in imitation of him and thereby obtained larger pears, and plums. In repeating this operation of ringing the branches, which I did merely for the purpose of getting larger fruit, I observed that the branches so operated upon always bore the next year By this reiterated appearance I was lead to the idea, that perhaps this mode of ringing the bark might be a means of compelling every unproductive branch to yield fruit. With this view I cut rings upon a considerable number of branches, which as yet showed no blossoms; and found, by repeating the experiment, the truth of my supposition indisputably confirmed by experience. The application of this experiment, whereby upon every bough or branch fruit may artificially be produced, is very simple and easy. With a sharp knife make a cut in the bark of the branch, which you mean to force to bear, and not far from the place where it is connected with the stem, or, if it be a small branch or shoot, near

to where it is joined to the larger bough: the cut is to go round the branch, or to encircle it and to penetrate to the wood. A quarter of an inch from this cut, you make a secone cut like the first, round the branch, os that, by both encircling the branch, you have marked a ring upon thebranch, a quarter of an inch broad, between the two cuts. The bark between these two cuts you take clean away with a knife, down to the wood removing even the fine inner bark, which immediately lies upon the wood, so that no connexion whatever remains between the two parts of the bark, but the bare and naked wocd appears white and smooth. But this bark-ring, which is to compel the tree to bear, must be made at the right time, that is, when in all nature the buds are strongly swelling or are breaking out into blossom. In the same year a callus is formed at the edges of the ring, on both sides, and the connexion of thebark, that had been interrupted, is restored again without any detriment to the tree or the branch opperated upon, in which the artificial wound soon again grows over. By this simple though artificial means of forcing every fruit-tree, with certainty, to bear, you obtain the following important advantages: I. You may compel every youn tree of which you do not know the sort to show its fruit, and decide sooner whether, being of a good quality, it may remain in its first state, or requires to be grafted. 2. You may thereby, with certainty, get fruit of every good sort of which you wish to see the produce in the next year. 3. This method may probably serve to increase considerably the quantity of fruit in the country. The branches so operated upon are hung full of fruit, while the others, that are not ringed, often have nothing, or very little, on them.

This

effect is easy to be explained from the theory of the motion of the sap. For, when the sap moves slowly in a tree, it produces fruit-buds, which is the case in old trees; when it moves vigorously, the tree forms wood, or runs into shoots, ashappens with young trees. Though I arrived at this discovery myself in consequence of trying the same process ith a different view, namely, to inease only the size of the fruit, but to force barren branches, that were furnished with leaf-buds, to bear,

this latter application being before quite unknown to me; I will, on that account, by no means give myself out for the first inventor of this opperation: butI was ignorant of the effects to be produced by this method, and only discov ered them by repeated experiments of my own, which I made for the promotion of Pomology. Frequent experience of the completest success has confirmed the truth of my observations. Nor do I think that this method is generally known; at least, to all those to whom I showed the experiment, the effect produced apeared new and surprising."

EFFECT OF HOT WATER ON FLOWERS.

By the following process, the lover of flowers will be able to prolong, for a day, the enjoyment of their short-lived beauty. Most flowers begin to droop and fade after being kept during 24 hours in water; a few may be revived by substituting fresh water but all (the most fugacious, such as the poppy, and perhapsone or two others, excepted) may be completely restored by the use of hotwater. For this purpose, place the flowers in scalding water, deep enough to cover about one third of the length of the stem; by the time the water has become cold, the flowers will have become erect and fresh, then cut off the coddled end of the stems, and put them into cold water.

MECHANICS.

Mr. Ackermann has taken out a Patent for a most useful and ingenious invention, viz. a Moveable Axle applicable to all Four-wheeled Carriages. Its advantages over the stiff axle are numerous:-A carriage with the Moveable Axle will turn in a much more limited space:-It permits a carriage to be built shorter, and of course diminishes the draught. It affords complete security against upsetting, and is, in like manner, a safeguard against accidents in turning, the wheels never changing their position, but only their direction. -With the Moveable Axle the forewheels can be made much higher, while the body may be hung lower. A high fore-wheel adds much to the beauty of a carriage, while it also greatly reduces the draught and surmounts obstructions with much greater facility.-It is by no means so liable to break as the stif axle; and the breaking of the perchbolt is rendered next to impossible.-A carriage with the Patent Moveable

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