MISCELLANEOUS.

Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 37, 6 August 1845, Page 3

MIS CELLANEOUS.

Jo preserve Afp_.es for Winter Use. 7*l he apples intended to be preserved for ac winter should be allowed to remain on the f ees J 1 ! 1 ripe, when they should be ga«wed , n dry we^(her . an(J placed in .he oruveorsix weeks, in order to heat; they would be carefully wiped dry/and those that re perfectly sound, packed in large jars or Jf'' so , a s to be excluded from the air, nicn will keep them souud and plump, and n m their fl aVoU r. — Phillip's Pomarium yntannicum.

:. Origin of vegetables.—-Vegetables were ported from the Netherlands in 1500, there no kitchen gardens in England. Be--6 this time' sugar was eaten with meat to mT lU putl ' escenc y- Turnips and carrots thought to be indigenous roots of France. cir/ aU r liflowers came from Byprus, our arti--oKes fr °m Sicily, lettuce from. Cos, a name

vu garly corrupted into Gos. Shalots, or eschalot,, from Ascalon. What roving ideas on commerce and civilization may arife from a dinner and a desert. The cherry and fi" bert are from Cartana in Asia Minor: the peach and walnut from Persia; the plum rom Syria ; the pomegranate from Cyprus • he quince from Sidon; the olive and fi* trom Greece, as also the best apples and pears, though also found wild in France and eyen m England; the apricot is from Armenia, lhe mountain wines come from the mountains around Malaga, Tent is tinto tinged, or red wine. Sherry from Xerxes Y ne Spanish X is pronounced sh or eh,) in the south of Spain, where the great battle fought between the Christian, and Saracens ended in the conquest of Spain by the latter. Malmsey was from Malvasia in the Peloponnesus, but afterwards propagated at Alicant, the Canaries, and Madeira. Effects of cultivation on Plants.— Cultivation brings forth singular intermediate productions ; and by its magic power, we have seen the corriaceous and bitter almond transformed into the luscious peach : the sloe converted into the delicious plum, and the common crab transformed into the golden pippin. The same facts are observed in vegetables ; the celery sprung from the nauseous and bitter assium yraveolens, and the colewort is raetamaphosed into the cabbage and the cauliflower.—Gardener's Gazette. American Lead Trade.—The lead trade in Wisconsin and Galena is now a business of a million dollars a year. Only ten years ago, Great Britain exported to the United States 9,792,000 lbs. The tables are now turned—for, in the past five years, the Americans have imported none of the article, and in 1841 commenced the exportation of large quantities of it to England. The English heretofore have supplied the China market, where immense quantities are used in lining tea-chests, &c. Three years ago, the Boston merchants made shipments of the article to Canton, and, being able to undersell the British, the trade in one year increased to an export of about 1,550,136 lbs. The exports of the past year have greatly exceeded the previous one. In 1830 the productof all the lead mines in the United States was a little rising 10,000,000 lbs., and they imported for Uieir own consumption, In 1841, they not only supplied themselves, but a regular export of it is now made to various foreign countries. — London Mechanic Magazine. ~ • Moderation in Diet essential to Health in India.—lf ye wish your hardened bodies to stand under the lengthened fatigues of a broiling mid-day sun ; the sinewy leg to bear ye up the steep and uneven face of rocks and crags, over the broad surface of the open meidan, or through the dense and thorny jungle ; the musculat arm, to carry without drooping the heavy rifle or the ponderous boar-spear, from the rising of the sun to the down-setting of the same, avoid, as ye would pestilence, death, or famine ; eschew, I say, the luscious tiffin, the heavy dinner, and the devilled supper. Let your fare be simple and wholesome, and, above all, let moderation be the ruler of every appetite. There cannot be a more mistaken idea than that large quantities of animal food are requisite in order to enable the support of great fatigue. The author, in some of the severest fagging he ever went through during his excursions in the " deep jungle," lived principally on a rice diet. He lias always found the best beverage for hard work to be very weak brandy-and-water. A grateful drink, after enduring great fatigue, and one which is not generally known, may be made with a mixture of milk and water, in which has been thrown about half a teaspoonful of salt. When actually at work in the sun, an indulgence in drink only promotes a greater wish fpr more liquor; and the parched sensation of the throat and mouth may be often kept away by retaining a piece of grass or a straw in the latter, which promotes the action of the saliva, and renders an application to the brandy-pawnee flask unnecessary, — Scenes and Sports in Foreign Lands, by Major E. Napier. Iron Wire' Bridge.—lt is strange that the plan of making bridges of iron wire, so successfully adopted in Switzerland, France, and elsewhere abroad, should not yet have found favour enough in England to be fairly tried on the large scale : the noble bridge at Freyburgh, in Switzerland, is 301 feet wider than the Menai bridge, and though it consists but of one span, it is at least equally strong, and cost only a fifth part of the money. The wire bridge of Freyburg is 870 English feet span; that of Menai, 569, The Menai bridge cost £120,000, that of Freyburg, £25,000. — Capt. Basil Hall. The New Patent Manure. —At a* recent meeting of the Ashtnolean Society of Oxford, Professor Daubeny exhibited a specimen of Mr. Daniel's new patent manure, which is stated by the inventor to consist of •arbonate of ammonia, sawdust, and bitumin-

ous matter. As the materials from which this new kind of fertiliser is drawn appear to consist of inorganic matter exclusively, Mr. Daubeny pointed out its discovery as an instance, among others, of the means which nature has placed within our reach for increasing the amount of vegetable production proportionately to the increase of mankind, and so maintaining the i>ecessary ratio between subsistence and an inneasiiig population. In a purely pastoral or agricultural community it might be unnecessary to have recourse to any other fertilising substances than those which the manure of animals affords, but, in a highly advanced condition of society, in consequence of the large amount of produce consumed by the inhabitants of the great towns, it becomes necessary to seek for new materials to supply the loss which the soil of the country sustains. Thus, bone-dust is procured from South America in such quantities that it is computed, that the calculation on each head of cattle supplies bony matter equal to 84 lbs. in weight, that no less than 1,200,000 oxen are slaughtered annually in that country for the supply of bone manure to England alone. Guano, or the dung of sea birds, is likewise an extensive article of importation for the same purpose ; but as both these sources will fail in proportion as the several countries become more peopled, it is fortunate that we may find substitutes for them in inorganic substances. Such is the nitrate of soda, so much used of late ; such is the new manure invented by Mr. Daniel; and it may be confidently predicted that, by the discovery of such agents, agriculture will be enabled to keep pace with population, if the lattet be not stimulated by unwise regulations ; and that, as animal life increases in a direct ratio to the amount of subsistence, so the nutritious effects of animal nature, by giving greater energy and vigour to the organs of plants, will cause them to draw more abundantly from the "atmosphere, and thereby throw a proportionately larger quantity of them into existence. Dr. Buckland said an important principle respecting stimulating manures had been brought forward, viz., that a plant under their action draws more freely from the atmosphere. In addition to the increase ol human manure with population, the quantity of carbon given out by "animals, and left to be absorbed by plants, is proportionabiy increased. He further adverts to, the discrimination necessary to be exercised in restoring artificially land that has been exhausted, and instanced a case furnished by Professor Johnstone, of Durham, of certain pastures in Cheshire, which had become exhausted of the phosphate of lime by its being absorbed into the cheese made with the milk of ihe cattle fed there, and which were restored by a top dressing of boae manure. The Bishop of Chester consecrated a new church at Bolton on Saturday, under peculiar circumstances. It was once the chapel belonging to a congregation of the Methodist New Connection; but the Incumbent, Mr. Thomas Berry, with the whole congregation, joined the Church of England a few years back. The chapel was altered to fit at being a chapel of ease to the parish-church ; last Sunday it was consecrated by the bishop, and the incumbeut received au episcopal license to preach. A Woman Buried Auvjs.—The inhabitants or Waldkireh, in the Canton of St. Gall, Switzerland, a few days ago, accompanied to her last abode a woman of the district who was supposed to be dead. The interment being ended, the clergyman was preparing to return home, when he heard groans proceeding from the gra\e. He immediately called the gravedijgers, and caused the coffin to be taken up and opened. Unfortunately, it was too late ; the ill-fated woman had ceased to exist. In her despair she had turned round on her side, and had torn off her nails.—Gazette de France. No Go. —Our office was broken open on Saturday night; and the desk rummaged, but nothing was found of any consequence as a reward for their risk and labour. Robbing a printing-office on a Saturday night is a forlorn hope in these times. Shocking Infatuation. —A young man named Herrington, 22 years old, and who has only been three weeks married, after drinking with some companions on Saturday last, declared that he would jump down a pit close by belonging to the Marquis of Londonderry, called Broomside colliery. The infatuated young man, after giving two or three shouts to his companions in token of his courage and heroism, leaped into the fearful gulf, and was dashed to pieces.— Tyne Mercury. Government of Temper.—Every huraau creature is sensible of the propensities to some infirmity to temper, which it should be his care to correct and subdue, particularly in the early period of life ; else, when arrived at a state of maturity, he may relapse into those faults which were originally in his nature, and

which will require to be diligently watched and kept under through the whole course of life; since nothing leads more directly to the breach of charity, and to the injury and molestation of our fellow-creatures, than the indulgence of an ill-temper.— Dr. Blair. Economy.—Economy is one of the chief duties of a state, as well as of an individual. It is not only a great virtue in itself, but it is the parent of many others. It preserves men and nations from the commissian of crime and the endurance of misery. The man that lives within his income, can be just, humane, charitable, and independent. He who lives beyond it, becdmes, almost necessarily, rapacious, mean, faithless, contemptible. The economist is easy and comfortable ; the prodigal, harassed with debts, and unable-to obtain the necessary means of life. So it is with nations. National character, as well as national happiness, has, from the beginning of the world to the present day, been sacrificed on the altar of profusion. Children.—lt is a happy instinct that enables us to value these little prizes so highly, and a curious thing to reflect, as we stumble through the parks, knee deep in children, that there is not one little unit in those diminutive millions that has not (God bless it!) a circle of admiring relatives, to whom it is the prittiest, the dearest, the cleverest in fact, the only child that was ever worth a thought.