On the benefit of Salt to Cattle, with the method of using it.

I

Do not find that the farmers in England know the great advantages which may be derived from the ufe of falt in the business of fattening cattle; whereas in America we think it in a manner abfolutely neceffary, and accordingly give it to almost every kind of cattle; and those with parted hoofs are particularly fond of it.. There cannot be a greater inftance of this fondness than the wild cattle reforting to the falt lick, where they are chiefly kill ed. We give this name of falt licks to the falt fprings which in various places iffue naturally out of the ground, and form each a little rill.

Horfes are as fond of falt as black cattle for with us, if they are ever fo wild, they will be much fooner brought to a handful of falt than to any kind of corn whatever.

We also give falt to our sheep; and to this practice it is generally afcribed, that the American cattle in general are fo much more healthy than the fame animals in England; certain it is, that they are there fubject to much fewer diseases.

There is one very advantageous practice we have, which I cannot enough recommend to the notice of the farmers here in England: it is mixing falt with our hay-ricks when we ftack it, which we call brining.

Juft before I left America I had a crop of hay, which was in a manner fpoiled by rain, being almost rotten in the field; yet did this hay

fpend as well as if it had been got in never fo favourably.

When my fervants were making up the ftack I had it managed in the following manner; that is, as foon as a bed of hay was laid about fix inches thick, I had the whole fprinkled over with falt; then another bed of hay was laid, which was again fprinkled in like manner; and this method was followed till all the hay was ftacked.

When the feafon came for cutting this hay, and giving it to my cattle, I found, that fo far from refufing it, they eat it with furprizing appetite, always preferring it before the sweetest hay that had not been in this manner sprinkled with falt.

A method of making all kinds of Wood more durable than they naturally are, successfully tried upon beech wood.

BEECH wood is well known to be very much fubject to breed the worm, which presently deftroys it: this worm is fuppofed, not without reason, to feed on the fap that remains in the wood after it is cut out into scantlings, and wrought up; therefore I imagined the best way to preserve it was to take away the food that the worm fed on, by extracting, in fome manner, the fap.

There was, as I have been informed fome years ago, an attempt made to prepare beech-timber in fuch a manner as to make it fit for the purposes for which elm is often ufed in fhip-building; and a patent was obtained for the invention ; but I never heard of this scheme

meeting

meeting with encouragement, which I am apt to think might partly be owing to the expence attending the preparation of the timber.

The manner in which it was

done was as follows: after the timber was fawed into fcantlings, or hewed only, if it was to be used in an entire piece, it was laid in a bed of fand, which fand was contained in a building of brick work, contrived in fuch a manner as to be heated, by means of properly-difpofed furnaces, to any degree.

This heating of the fand caufed the wood which it covered to fweat out its fap, which was all imbibed by the dry fand, and the timber was left, after the operation, in a state much improved.

I do not deny but that this method was very efficacious, but it appears on the face of it to be expenfive.

I ufe, for the purpose or improving this wood, two feveral methods. When the fcantlings are large, I lay them, after they are rough-wrought, to foak in a pond of water for fome weeks, more or lefs, according to the girt of the pieces, and the feason of the year; in the heat of fummer the operation is fooneft done. If they are planks or boards, and there is danger of their warping, I lay them to dry under cover from the fun and rain, putting bits of laths betwixt the boards to prevent their lying clofe together, and a confiderable weight of ftones, &c. over all. If they are blocks of a large fcantling, for beams, joifts, &c. for which this wood is fome

times used, I take no other caution than letting them dry gradually, without being expofed either to the fun or the rain, which would be

apt to make them shiver, and be spoiled in the working.

The first method never failed me. The timber, when applied to ufe, was at leaft as good, and as durable as elm. Between thirty and forty years ago I used beech thus prepared, for beams, joifts, and floors, which are to this day as found as ever, and likely to remain fo; I had, however, the precaution to give the wood a thick coat of pitch wherever it touched the brick work, for it does not love any kind of dampness, which inclines it to rot, like elm; but keep it dry, and I cannot fay how long it will laft in my method of preparing it.

The beech I ufed was felled in the heat of fummer, when in full fap, as I judged the fap was at that feafon in the most fluid ftate, and would the readier quit the wood than when it was dead, and congealed, as it were, in an inactive state in winter.

If I remember right, the beams and large pieces were left above twenty weeks in the pond, the joifts, and rafters about twelve weeks, and the thinner boards eight; and afterwards they were all gradually dried in the manner above directed. I boil in a large copper, which holds near two hogfheads, for two or three hours, all the beech wood I employ in fmaller ufes, which is no inconfiderable quantity in a year, being a chair-maker and a turner by trade; and then, before I dry it, I bestow another fhort boil on it of about a quarter of an hour, in fome fresh water, the first being ftrongly impregnated with the fap, and acquiring a high colour and a bitter tafte. This way of managing the wood takes out all

the

the fap it works pleafanter, is more beautiful when finished, and lafts, without comparison, longer. I have often thought, that for many ufes it would be a great improvement of this wood, if it was a third time to be boiled in fome vegetable oil, or at leaft, if not boiled in it, managed in fome manner that the pores of the wood fhould be filled with the fat juice; but as this is expenfive, and I had no immediate occafion for fuch an improvement, I never made the trial; and it is too late in life for me to do it now.

haps will expect that I fhall inform you in what manner this wood was prepared, and I am happy in having it in my power to oblige you. The method is fimple; it is only foaking the wood in water, in which equal quantities of common falt and vitriol have been dissolved; but the water fhould be nearly faturated, or the fuccefs will not be fo certain; the wood is to be dried, and is afterwards fit for any ufe, and feems particularly to be adapted to wainscoting, as that is most in danger when fire breaks out in a houfe.

Extract of a letter from Vevai in Switzerland, July 25th, 1764: containing an easy method of making Wood less combustible.

BE

EING fond of every thing that promises to be of public utility, I was the other day much gratified by seeing an experiment made to prove the efficacy of a method difcovered by Dr. Henchoz, for making wood lefs combuftible. When the company was affembled, feveral fir billets were produced which had been previoufly prepared according to the doctor's directions. We made a large fire, and laying on one of the above billets, it remained a confiderable time uninjured, feeming to repel the fire; at laft however it was with fome difficulty confumed, or rather it mouldered into afhes, but without emitting any flame. We repeated the experiment feveral times, and always with the fame fuccefs; by which we found, that in an ordinary fire this wood remained unconfumed. You per

A

SI am very fond of mahogany furniture, I immediately (on reading a paper relating to a method of imitating it) entered on fome experiments for that purpofe; but as a particular narrative of each would be too tedious to repeat, I fall only observe, that the method which fucceeded beft with me was as follows:

I took two pieces, one of elm, and another of plane, both of which I ftained well with aquafortis.

I then took two drachms of powdered dragon's blood, one drachm of powdered alkanet root, and half a drachm of aloes; from all which I extracted a tincture, with half a pint of fpirits of wine: this tincture I laid over the wood with a fpunge for two or three times, and it gave it the colour of a piece of fine old mahogany.

But may not wood be more uniformly

formly and durably coloured while growing, fince the bones of animals, as I myself have often seen, are fuccessfully coloured by feeding them on madder-roots? The anhe lent tubes, by which trees fuck their nourishment from the earth, are analogous to the mouths of ani. mals, and the circulating veffels of the former are much larger than thofe in the bones of the latter.

greatest demand; the confequence of which may be reasonably fuppofed an increafe of its price, unless greater fupplies greater fupplies can be difcovered than what at prefent are known.

Thefe confiderations have frequently induced me to with, for the fake of the middle and lowest ranks of people, that more frequent trials might be made for this valuable mineral; and as I live in the neighbourhood of many collieries, I have, as opportunity and leifure would permit, made frequent in

IN

mines.

Nquiries of this nature will, I am very apprehenfive, become every year more neceffary, as many parts of this island are almost deftitute of that, without which we cannot fubfift, I mean fuel for fire. And many other parts, from which thofe were once fupplied with wood for fuel, have now very little to fpare; for which caufe, not only our large cities and principal towns, but also great part of the inhabitants in country places, muft be supplied with something as a fubftitute, as turf, peat, or coals.

From the first no great fupply can be expected, except to thofe who refide near fuch barren fandy heaths where petty whin, heather, and fhort furze, plentifully grow: from the fecond, it is true, fomething may be expected, as large quantities thereof may be bad in many counties; but as an unpleafant fmell accompanies the burning it, it is not likely there will be any more of it used for culinary ufes than what bare neceffity obliges; fo that it may be juftly concluded, coals will ever remain that kind of fuel for which there will be the

most probable figns of it on the furface under which it is to be expected; fome of which I now propofe to communicate, as, perhaps, from these hints, an inquiry of this nature may be carried further by perfons better qualified for fuch undertakings.

One general, and I think it may be faid certain fign is, iron ore: for wherever this is to be met with, coal is near.

But the better to guide, it may not be amifs to fix fome certain and easy-to-be-known fign, on or near the furface, as a ftandard by which to direct the fearch: inafmuch as the earth is compofed of feveral ftrata, confifting of different kinds of earth and fiones, all which have a fall or dip to fome point between the north and fouth eastward, their feveral fections appearing on the furface in the oppofite points, andare by miners, at least thofe who dig coal, called the crop of the veins.

This being premifed, I would propofe the ftratum of free ftone, or what may be be better known by the name of Bath-ftone, for the ftandard, as being the easiest to be difcovered on the furface; laying it down as a certain maxim (at

leaft