perfect, that to use the expressive words of one of the poor women at the trial, "it was a gleaning as well as a reaping machine.”

The

There are many farmers who have waited patiently for a really good grass mower and corn reaper before they purchased a machine of this sort. For years we have had mowers that would cut corn, and by the aid of man deliver the grain in bundles at the rear of the machine. But we have not yet had a combined machine with a good self-acting side-delivery for corn. day is not far distant when this will be accomplished. In its present form we don't think that Mr. M'Cormick's new machine will cut stout meadow grass, although it may do clover pretty well, but Messrs. Burgess and Key can soon adapt it for any grass by lowering the We feel concut and supplying a smooth edged knife.

fident that with this sort of combination, and a few minor alterations in the reaper, this machine will be by far the cheapest and most useful that has yet been brought before the agricultural public.

The trial on Monday was in every respect satisfactory; later in the day three horses were attached to the reaper, and driven at a brisk pace, and proved that the sheaves were more perfectly formed by the rapid action of the rake. Some of the corn was trampled on and rolled down, but even then the machine cut and delivered it very well. As the farmers in East Norfolk have not generally finished harvest, and as reaping machines are now no novelty, but few of the neighbouring agriculturists attended the trial. But Baron Ricasoli, the late prime minister of Italy, and a few other distinguished foreigners were present, as was also Mr. Burgess with Mr. M'Cormick himself.

C. S. R.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOWERS?
BY H. BELCHER.

Have you seen the mowers reap,
While the gales the brown corn sweep
On the plain ?

When stalwart reapers throw
The yellow prize below-
Golden grain?

Have you seen the reapers stand,
And grip the twisted band
In the sun?

Though tired they work away,
From morn till twilight grey,
Ere they've done.

Have you seen the laden team
At the close, the garland green-
Heard the noise

And song of "Harvest Home!"
And shout of "Here they come !"
From farmers' boys?

Have you seen the MOWER reap,
And beheld the mourner weep-
Heard the sigh?

The MOWER'S golden prize,
Just ripe for yonder skies-
Seen it lie?

Have you seen that MOWER stand,
And cut the closest band-
The earthen tie?
And heard the mighty song,
As He bore the prize along
Through the sky?

- The YORKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. trial of reaping-machines took place at Heslington, near York, upon the farm of Mr. Carr, the agent of Mr. G. J. Yarburgh, of Heslington Hall. There was also a trial of combined reaping and mowing-machines, the society having offered a prize of 101. for the best of each description. There were thirteen of the former entered for competition-Samuelson's, of York; Dray's, of Farningham; Bamlett's, of Ripon; Hopkinson's, of Goole; Beckwith's, of Ripon; Cuthbert's, of Newton-le-Willows, Bedale; Kearsley's, of Ripon; Sawney's, of Beverley; Abbey's, of Dunnington; Barker's, of Dunnington; and Spencer's, of Doncaster. Two fields, of mine acres each in extent, one containing wheat, and the other barley and oats, were selected for the trials. The machines solely intended for reaping first commenced operations in the wheat field, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and in the first instance they each went once round. The machines generally seemed to do their work very well. Cuthbert's was drawn by one horse only, and the others with two, and with the exception of Samuelson's, they were on the manual-delivery principle, The weather was favourable, and the site selected was well adapted to the purpose. The combined mowing and reapingmachines tried were those of Messrs. Brigham and Bickerton, of Berwick; Samuelson, Kearsley, and Dove, of York; and Cranston's (Wood's) machine, of London. The judges were Mr. J. D. Dent, M.P. (who officiated in the absence of Mr. Druce, of Oxford); Mr. T. P. Outhwaite, of Goldsbro'; and Mr. Scott, of Broom-close, Boro'bridge; and their awards as follow:-For the best reaper, 10., Cuthbert, of Newtonle-Willows; highly commended, Samuelson; commended, Bamlett and Dray. For the best combined reaping and mowing. machine, 10, Samuelson; highly commended, Kearsley; commended, Dove, of York. The trials occupied about seven hours.

THE TURKISH BATH FOR CATTLE.-A bath of

this description, designed specially for the treatment of cattle, but largely made use of also by the people in the neighbourhood, has recently been erected by Lord Kinnaird, in the vicinity of the farm of Millhill, occupied by his lordship's factor, Mr. M'Laren. The curative properties of the bath have already been demonstrated in a marked manner in the case of several calves suffering from scɔur, &c.; but still more wonderful is the influence it has had upon two or three feeding stots affected with pleuro-pneumonia. Out of three patients, two that we saw have every appearance of progressing towards perfect health. They eat well, walk about with seeming comfort and ease, the cough has lost its nasty metallic sound, the discharge from the nose is stopped, they are no more hide-bound, and their coat has no longer the staring aspect of disease. The third patient, a larger animal than the other two, is not yet so far recovered, but the beast is a great deal better than it was. Of course, this one experiment is not enough to justify any one in declaring the Turkish bath to be a specific in the cure of pleuro; but it is valuable so far as it goes, and it is upon an accumula tion of such facts that a science is reared. The heat required to produce a favourable impression in cases of pleuro needs to be very great-up to 200 or 212 degrees, boiling point in fact. At a less temperature the curative effect was not very visible. In other diseases of a primarily less dangerous, but, if neglected, in the end of a hardly less fatal character, the bath has been found "a pertect cure." It can be erected and carried on for a comparatively trifling cost-one that we think would repay large stock-owners to expend.- North British Agriculturist. [There is a cattle bath open at the Oriental Bath Company's premises, Victoria-street, Westminster,-ED. F. M.

Eucheuma speciosum and Gigartina speciosa are edible seaweeds, eaten in Australia.

Sargassum bacciferum is the celebrated gulf-weed of the Atlantic; the stems are said to constitute the goître-sticks chewed in South America when that disease is prevalent; it is more probable, however, that the stems of the Laminaria digitata furnish these.

Chondrus crispus and C. mamillosus, Irish or Carrageen moss. These afford demulcent and nutritive jellies, and of all algæ are the most used in England for food and medicine; the market supply is obtained from Clare and the west coast of Ireland. The plant is sometimes employed in Ireland as a substitute for size. The C. crispus contains 79 per cent. of a peculiar gelatinous principle, called carrageenin; it differs from ordinary gum in not being precipitated by alcohol, from gelatine by affording no reaction with tincture of galls, and from starch jelly by giving no blue colour with tincture of iodine. It is precipitated by alcohol, acetate of lead, and infusion of galls, and converted into grape sugar by boiling with dilute sulphuric acid. It contains C 12 H 10 O 10 according to Schmidt, and C 24 H 19 O 19 according to Mulder. It is employed in pulmonary complaints, and in making bandoline. Gelideum corneum.-This plant is the algue de Java, which is made into an iced jelly, and sold in Ningpo, under the name of niu-mau (ox hair vegetable). It has lately been made the subject of an important discovery by M. Payen (Rep. de Pharm., Jan., 1860). He has extracted from it 27 per cent. of a peculiar principle, which he terms gelose, having ten times the gelatinizing power of the best isinglass. With the same reactions as carrageenin, it differs from it in its wonderful gelatinizing power. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Daniel Hanbury for the very fine specimen of crude gelose, imported from Japan, which I am enabled to exhibit. I recently experimented on a large number of British algæ, to ascertain if these gelatinous principles were common to many species. I was somewhat surprised to find that very few contained them, and certainly none in anything like the proportion found in the Chondrus and Gelidæum. Taking the Laminaria saccharina as a type of the membranous species of algæ, I found it to contain, besides mannite, 34 per cent. of a gum soluble in water, and much resembling dextrine. Boiled with a mixture of equal parts of nitric acid and water, this Beaweed furnished 22 per cent. of oxalic acid, in fine crystals, probably from the decomposition of the gum. By boiling this seaweed with water, evaporating the solution, and treating the residue with spirit, the mannite is dissolved out, leaving the gum, which may be of commercial value, either as it is, or as a substitute for sugar in making oxalic acid. The mannite may be crystallized from the spirituous solution.

The following algae are also largely imported from the islands of the Indian Archipelago to China and Japan, for the manufacture of gelatinous compounds; they probably all contain carrageenin, or gelose, in large quantity:-The most important is the Plocaria candida; this plant, called agar-agar by the Malays, and bulung at Java, is also imported into this country as commercial Ceylon moss. (The Fucus spinosus has been imported under the same name.) It has several synonymes Gracilaria lichenoides, Sphærococcus lichenoides, Gigartina lichenoides, &c. The edible bird's nests, esteemed as a delicacy in China, are probably constructed from this weed by a species of swallow-the Hirundo esculenta. It is said by Mr. Craufurd to form part of the cargo of every junk leaving the Archipelago, and the price on the spot is stated at from 58. 8d. to 7s. 6d. per cwt. Though used largely as a food, it is also employed as the best material for varnishing the Chinese lanterns.

Laurencia papillosa-tan-shwui: This, as well as the Gelideum corneum, is used in the preparation of tang-tsai, or Chinese moss.

Gracillaria crassa-Ki-tsai (hen-foot vegetable)-is cooked with soy or vinegar, and is also used as a bandoline for the hair by the Chinese ladies.

Nostoc edule is also eaten in China, and Nostoc Arctium in the Arctic regions.

There are many other algæ used exclusively as food by the Chinese, the botanic names of which are not known; but from the opening up of China and Japan to our countrymen, we may shortly expect much information on this subject. The

....

....

Chinese are evidently the alga-consuming nation, and there is no doubt that, in our own country, the algæ as food have been much neglected. Dr. Davy found the proportion of nitrogen in 100 parts of the dry plants to be as follows:Laminaria digitata 1-583 | Aliaria esculenta...... 2.424 Rhodomenia palmata.. 1.656 Chondrus crispus 2.500 Gigartina mamillosa..2.198 Iridæs edulis ..3 088 Fucus vesiculosus ..2.397 Porphyra laciniata ...-4.650 This is a very large per-centage, and equal to any of our the algae as food would doubtless widely extend our present other vegetable esculents. Researches directed especially to number of edible species. It may be remarked, however, that those already enumerated require much cooking and flavouring, in order to induce the national palate to acquire a taste for them; that John Bull, although so truly a man of the sea, certainly does not take kindly to an algine diet, and there is no doubt, if it can be shown to his entire satisfaction, that a lucrative mannfacture of chemical products can be conducted wherever there are seaweeds, hitherto esteemed useless, he dulse, laver, or any other such marine delicacy, particularly if would prefer vegetables grown in an ordinary garden, to the weeds can, by any means, be coined into money. It will be my aim, in this paper, to show that this is possible; but before leaving this part of my subject, I would call attention to special cases where the algae may be very useful as food.

That scourge of our seaman, the scurvy, has been considered by many scientific men to be due to the insufficient supply of potash in the salt meat, the juice of which has diffused into the brine. The juices of limes and lemons are largely imported for its cure; if these act, as is supposed, by virtue of the potash they contain, a far better source may be found in the marine algae. Let the most edible of these be selected for their use, and cooked as vegetables; they are well worth a trial, as they keep when dried, or may be often obtained fresh at sea, and, if successful, would save large sums to the nation, at present annually expended in the juices of limes and lemons; or, if the railors cannot be induced to acquire a relish for marine vegetables, let the chloride of potassium, prepared from them, be used with common salt in due proportion for salting their provisions; the admixture could not be detected, and there can be no doubt that such a brine would be far superior, in its effects on the meat, to that commonly employed, where we take the juice containing the potash salts out of the meat, and substitute for it a saturated solution of chloride of sodium, with occasionally a small portion of nitre.

For cattle, let the use of seaweed for food be more extensively employed; they thrive on nitrogenous roots, containing phosphate of lime and salts of potash. The algae are strictly comparable to these, as I shall show further on, with the addition that they contain common salt, which cannot be con sidered a disadvantage. We know that many species are eaten by cattle with great relish, the economy of the food is obvious, and its nutritive value need not be dwelt on.

SEAWEED AS MANURE.-The value of seaweed as manure is most appreciated in the Channel Islands. The "varec" or "vraic," as the weed is there called, is considered so valuable that special laws are enforced for its regular collection and fair distribution amongst the agriculturists, many of whom use no other manure. "Point de vraic, point de haugard” (“no seaweed, no corn-yard"), has passed into a local proverb. The seaweeds are of two kinds-" vraic venant," and "vraic scié." The former is the drift weed cast up by stormy seas on their sandy, but rock-bound, shores; this is the most valuable, consisting chiefly of Laminaria digitala and L. saccharina, very rich in iodine and salts of potash; it is allowed to be raked up and collected all the year round, from sunrise to sunset, the time being prolonged during the winter to 8 p.m. This is the constant employment of the cottagers on the coast, both of Guernsey and Jersey, and the collection is at its height in stormy weather. The work is very laborious, the large wooden rakes used being often torn out of the hands of the "vraiqueurs" by the waves. The beautiful sandy bays which abound in these islands are the scenes of their toil. The weed is either thickly spread on the land, and ploughed in fresh with a deep plough, or dried on the beach, and burnt on the cottagers' hearths as fuel, certainly not on account of the cheerful appearance of the fire, or its pleasant odour, but because the charred ash thus produced sells at 6d. per bushel for manure. The fire smoulders quietly; it is never extin

guished, but constantly renewed, and the whitest of all smoke ascends day and night from the rude chimney of these humble dwellings. The "vraic scié" is the "cut weed," cut off the rocks at low tide, consisting principally of Fucus vesiculosus, F. serratus, F. nodosus; the time of cutting it is fixed by law, at Guernsey, from July 17th to August 31st, and at Jersey twice a year, commencing March 10th and June 20th, and lasting about ten days each time. The summer cutting is made a regular holiday in both islands, and to the young "vraiqueurs" of both sexes it is an occasion of great festivity. It is computed that about 30,000 loads of vraic of all kinds are annually obtained from the rocks and bays of Guernsey and the adjacent small island of Herm, valued at £3,000, or 28. per load; this is a mere nominal price if the value of the potash and iodine alone be taken into consideration. The quantity of vraic collected at Jersey is, probably, quite equal to that obtained in Guernsey; but it seemed to me, during a recent visit, that the vraic used was generally not so rich, and that more is burnt and less ploughed in than at Guernsey. In one cottage I found the mother and all her family employed in drying and burning weed, composed entirely of the marine plaut known as the grass wrack, Zostera marina (Nat. ord. Naiadac æ), one of the poorest and most common of our seaweeds; the best front parlour was given up to its ignition; this was accompanied by an insufferable odour, which the lady informed me was esteemed very healthy. This is a prevalent opinion amongst the peasants wherever seaweeds are burnt, and in this case I must confess that her statement was fully borne out by appearances, if I might judge by the rosy cheeks of her little assistants. She was getting the ash ready in a hurry to sow with corn on the following day, having, no doubt, the proverb before quoted weighing on her mind. The best seaweeds are stacked in Jersey; a dozen stacks of " vraic venant," thatched over, are common objects in a farm-yard, and small barns are given up to its storage when dry. The value set on vraic may be judged of by the fact that the inhabitants of Sark, having none on their island, import it in fishing boats from Herm, five miles distant; fifty Guernsey and Sark boats may be seen at once at Herm engaged in this traffic; and those who are acquainted with the precipitous nature of the rocks of Sark and its dangerous currents, will appreciate the value of vraic in that island. "Drift-weed" is also largely used in Ireland, as the only manure for the potato crop; this is interesting, because the potato requires a considerable supply of p tash. This alkali can hardly, however, be required in the Channel Islands, as the granitic subsoil would, in disintegration, furnish it in abundance; it is proba bly the earthy phosphates that render the weed so fertilizing there; this is borne out by the fact that the lixiviated seaweed ash, from which the alkalies have been removed, meets with a ready sale in Guernsey, and is esteemed, indeed, richer, no doubt on account of the increased per-centage of phosphates. The residual seaweed ash from the iodine factories in France is highly valued as a manure, and constantly carried a distance of thirty miles from the factory. The agriculture in the western islands is also enriched by this manure, and some of the tangle is brought into Oban by fishermen in boats, and sold at Is. per load. On the S.E. coast of Fife it is laid on the stubble at the rate of twenty cart-loads an acre, and ploughed in; the clover crop never fails, and this is a crop requiring much phosphate of magnesis, an important constituent of seaweed ash. In the Isle of Lewis twenty tons of seaweed are considered ample manure for a Scotch acre. The agricultural produce of the Isle of Thanet, in Kent, is said to have been tripled by the use of this manure, and the farms on the Lothian coasts let for twenty or thirty shillings more rent per acre where the tenants have a right of way to the sea coast, where the weed is thrown ashore. In England, generally, however, seaweed is little valued by agriculturists as an actual manure, and appears to be regarded rather as an economical and useful covering to protect turnips and other roots from winter frosts. Farmers object to its bulk and expensive carriage, particularly now so many portable artificial manures are offered for sale and recommended so strongly by their manufacturers as possessing great fertilizing value in a small compass. There can be no question that many of these are worthless rubbish, and perfectly useless, except to line the pockets of the vendor; and the farmer would do well to turn his attention to the composition of seaweed ash, which really does, as I hope to prove, contain all the constituents of a good manure in a small bulk.

A process has been recommended by Dr. Stenhouse (Philosophical Magazine) for the manufacture of acetic acid from wet weeds by fermentation. His experiments were conducted with some of the Fuci; these were mixed with lime, and kept moist at a temperature of 90° Fahr.; he obtained by distillation with sulphuric acid an average of 1.5 per cent. of anhydrous acetic acid! it is contaminated with butyric acid. This might, however, be separated and turned to account in the manufacture of butyric ether or essence of pine-apple. I have not heard of this suggestion being carried out, but it might be tried on those weeds intended for manure. In this case the best method would be to ferment them in pits with lime or chalk, at the ordinary temperature in the summer, leaving each portion in for two or three months, and supplying its place by a fresh load until the lime was saturated; the liquid would then be pumped out, evaporated to dryness, the residue sold as crude acetate of lime, and the weed carried to the manure heap. The whole process could be crudely and economically carried on by an agriculturist near the sea.

The ashes of several fuci have been found by M. Malafati to contain silver, as well as lead and copper in minute proportion. The silver in the ash of Ficus serratus is estimated at 1-10,000th of its weight, or about 3 oz. to a ton. Other algæ probably contain this metal, as it has been found universally present in sea water; but, desirable as it may be to increase our stores of it, this would not be an economical source, and it is probable that the 2,000,000 tons, calculated by M. Tuld to be dissolved in sea water, might be better extracted by the copper sheathing of our ships, in which the copper is gradually replaced by the silver; the sheathing thus becomes after a time rich in silver. It has been found in the sheathing to the extent of 17 oz in the ton.

The manufacture of paper is so important to a civilized nation-so many sources of the raw materials have been suggested that we are not surprised to find seaweeds amongst the number. Two patents were obtained in 1855, the first dated June 20th, by Martenoli de Martiuoi and others, of San Francisco, for the employment of seaweed in the manufac ture of paper; and the second, dated November 29th, by Charles Maybury Archer, for the employment of seaweed in the manufacture of paper, and for the production of textile fabrics. Neither of these was proceeded with; the true algæ, in fact, having no fibres in their structure, would appear to be singularly inappropriate for the strength required in paper. Another patent was recently obtained by Ebenezer Hartnall of Ryde, dated May 31st, 1861, for the application of the grass wrack, Zostera marina, to the manufacture of pulp for paper, to be used alone or in combination with other fibrous materials. This sppears more practicable, as this plant is not one of the algae, and it does coutain fibre resembling the grasses. This patent, however, was not proceeded with.

Another patent was obtained in 1858, dated August 5th, by Donald M'Crummen, " for the application, use, and treatment of marine plants, heaths, or heather, and other vegetable productions, as well for the manufacture of paper as for the production of alkaline and other salts." According to his specification, the plants are crushed or bruised, and exposed to the action of boiling water or steam, until the soluble salts are removed; the insoluble residuum, after treatment with various agents of disintegration, is to be employed in the manufacture of paper, millboard, and papier machié. The solutions This is the only patent which has been proceeded with. I obtained to be evaporated to dryness to recover the salts. have received small specimens of the crude fibre and black salt from Mr. M'Crummen, but in justice to him I am bound to state that they are sent to me as the first crude results, and he has not yet worked the process on a large scale. (To be continued.)

By desire of the Committee of Council on Education, Sutton's collection of specimen grasses and grass seeds will, at the close of the International Exhibition, be per manently arranged in the Educational Department of the South Kensington Museum. The Albert Agricultural Institute, Dublin, wish to secure a similar collection for the use of the students of that College.