A remarkable property of this water, not hitherto observed in any saline spring, is, that when boiled, it becomes turbid, and carbonate of magnesia is thrown down; this appears to depend upon the presence of the carbonate of soda, which, though compatible with the earthy salts in a cold and dilute solution (such as is the water as it rises from the earth), decomposes them at a boiling heat, or when concentrated by evaporation. The following, from the same authority, is an analysis of the Cheltenham water:

Saline contents in one pint of

New South Wales.-From the speech of the Vice-President of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, delivered at their second anniversary meeting, on the 5th of July last, it appears that the agriculture of that colony, though still in an imperfect state, is making rapid advances. Among the articles of which the cultivation is succeeding, is tobacco, specimens of which have been forwarded by the society to England; and the vicepresident states, that he had received a favourable judgment respecting its quality from the merchants to whom it had been consigned, and many of the colonists, it appears, had been induced by this judgment to extend its cultivation. The growth of vines is recommended to the agriculturists with sanguine expectations of a profitable result, but does not seem to have become hitherto at all general. Other plants suggested

as likely to repay well the labour of cultivation in this climate, are flax and hemp. The New Zealand hemp is strongly recommended, on account of its superior qualities, although the extreme slowness of its growth renders it less an object to the agriculturist of New South Wales than the common flax and hemp of England. Attention is also invited to the cultivation of rhubarb and the madder-root, which, it is suggested, should be at first on a small scale, by way of experiment. With respect to the growth of wool the report says little, because the fact of the improvement it had received was sufficiently known to the members of the society; it states merely, that "it not only increases in quantity every season, but by crossing with the Merino breed, has been brought in some instances to vie with the finest wool in Europe." The society, it is stated, has commenced a

spondence with the Isle of France, from whence a collection of valuable plants and seeds has been procured. Part of them unfortu nately perished on the voyage; but some pine-apple plants and seeds for thorny hedges (much wanted in the colony) had been preserved, and were placed in the government garden, until that making for the society should be completed. The society had distributed premiums for improvements in the breed of horses and of sheep, and had paid a considerable sum in rewards to faithful servants, and for the destruction of the native breed of dogs with which the colony was infested. Much valuable information had been acquired during the year, respecting the future resources of the agriculturists in the interior of New South Wales. The discovery of the river Brisbane by the surveyor-general, with its extensive banks of rich soil, had opened a wide field for the culture of many of the most desirable tropical productions. A large track of fine grazing land, extending south to wards Twofold Bay, had been discovered by major Övens; and Mr. Cunningham, his majesty's botanist, had intersected a line of country between Bathurst and Liverpool-plains, to the extent of 100 miles directly north, which he completed by a circuitous route of 500 miles, mostly through a fine grazing country. These discoveries, with those previously made by Messrs. Wentworth and Blaxland, lieutenant Lawson, and Mr. Throsby, presented to the agriculturist an almost unbounded extent of pasturage for his flocks and herds. This society is further most usefully and benevolently engaged in improving the condition

of the convicts, by providing for them honest employment, with every possible personal comfort consistent with their situation, endeavouring at the same time, by strictly inculcating moral duties, to bring them to a proper sense of their former degradation. Various agents, it appears, are employed by the society in England to second by various means the objects for which it has been instituted. The society has only existed two years.

St. Helena Silk The Honourable Company's ship Farquharson arrived at St. Helena, from England, the 26th of February last, bringing captain Pillon in charge of some silk-worms; eighty were landed, with a small quantity of eggs: happily the ship arrived on the very evening the last stock of mulberry leaves were expended. The worms and eggs were removed on shore, and the insects ate most voraciously of the island leaves; they have since gone on in an incredibly progressive improvement-spun their cocoons, and laid eggs to the amount of eight thousand-not more than six were bad, which may be attributed to the first moth being a female, and which had come into existence three or four days before a male made his appearance. They had been exceedingly prolific, and in a short time many hundreds of eggs were hatched. The climate of the island being generally from 74 degrees to 82 degrees of Fahrenheit in the valleys, seems exactly adapted to the rearing of this valuable insect. The mulberrytree grows all over the island, and lately many hundreds have been planted from slips, which are in a promising condition; the island produces two sorts, China and

English, one of which is an evergreen. It is calculated, from the worms expected from the eggs already hatched, that in the course of a few months, should the mulberry leaves not fail for so prolific an insect, as much silk will be produced as will be worth at least fifty thousand pounds sterling.

Produce of the French Vineyards.-The following account of the mean annual produce of the French vineyards in wines of the Claret species, is from the work of Mr. William Frank, recently published at Bordeaux :-Vin de Blaye, 40,000 tuns; Libourne, 60,000 tuns; Larial, 35,000 tuns; Bazas, 10,000 tuns; Bordeaux, 85,000 tuns; Lesparre, 20,000 tuns: total, 250,000 tuns, or 2,283,000 hectolitres.

The Flemish Scythe.-The principal object of the Highland Society, in putting the merits of this instrument to the test of experiment, has been to ascertain its value, as compared with the implements in common use for reaping; in what manner, and in what degree it falls short or excels these last; whether, as it is generally understood, it will surpass the sickle in economy of labour and time, and the scythe, in the regularity with which it will lay down the swathe to the binders; and, lastly, the society expressed their desire that a calculation should be made of the probable comparative expenses of reaping by the Flemish scythe and by the sickle.

The Netherlands being, in all their extent, a flat and open country, and their soil generally composed of a rich deep loam, their crops are mostly very high and strong, and consequently easily lodged by the winds and rain, which too frequently occur in

harvest time. Experience having proved, that both the sickle and common scythe, originally used in those countries, as they are still in Great Britain, could not, with sufficient ease, economy, and expedition, cut lodged and entangled corn, necessity suggested the substitution of the implement called here the Hainault scythe. Such was its original application, about a century and a half ago, in that part of the Netherlands called Le Pays Wallon (the Walloons).

The practical use of this valuable instrument has proved to be, in many respects, so advantageous, that it has, by degrees, entirely superseded the sickle and the common scythe; the first is not used at all; and if the last is occasionally resorted to, it is to cut the daily provender for the beasts of the farm, during a few hours; or a crop of wheat, oats, and barley, when very low and thin, as in this case not offering a sufficient degree of resistance, it would cause much fatigue to the reaper using his ordinary scythe, with less expedition than is to be expected from the common scythe. It is to be remarked, by the by, that a labourer using this last instrument, receives higher wages, and is allowed, besides, a portion of strong beer a day, which is not granted to the other — a proof that the common scythe is considered as more fatiguing than the short one.

Another recommendation has most effectually contributed to its general adoption. The implement is light and works easily; it requires only a slight inclination of the body, and not much muscular exertion; the weight of the arm and of the instrument gives it its chief momentum; and the cut is directed by a jerking of the wrist,

to the lower part of the stalk, at about two inches from the ground. That it requires but a little practice to know how to use it, is sufficiently proved by the rapid proficiency of many of those who have lately tried it under our eyes and direction. It is a known fact, that in the Netherlands, at least a fifth of the reapers using the short scythe are composed of women, and that lads of sixteen and eighteen years employ it with great ease. It follows, that it possesses, over the common scythe, the advantage of being better proportioned to the average strength of the greatest part of the rural population. It requires a stout and robust man to be able to work ten or eleven hours a day with the common scythe; such men form generally exceptions to the common standard, and it is not on exceptions that farmers must rely to secure an early and expeditious harvest. Had the common scythe been adapted to the physical powers of the generality of reapers, is it not evident that it must have superseded the sickle, as the Flemish scythe has done both of them? The working day of a Flemish reaper is of ten or eleven hours. He takes an hour for his breakfast; two hours and a half for his dinner, from half past 11 to two o'clock, the hottest part of the day; and three quarters of an hour, between 4 and 5, to smoke his pipe, to take some refreshment, and repair his implements. With such a distribution of labour and rest, he can continue his exertions, with apparent ease, during the whole time.

Many beneficial consequences follow, from the easy and general employment of the Flemish sithe: it enables the farmers to cut the whole of their crop, in ordinary weather, in the short space of be

tween fifteen and eighteen days, instead of five or six weeks, which the harvest takes in this precarious climate. When all kinds of grain ripen at once, when consequently the reapers are scarce and dear, as they are at this very moment in Scotland, the farmer feels that he is independent of them, and that he is secure against any imposition or the loss of his crop; it happens very often in reality that the farmer, his sons, the male and female servants of his farm, set themselves to the gathering of their harvest, which they are able to achieve within a very short time. They use their short scythe in preference to the long one, because although this last should do more work (which is not the case, however in strong crops), they find no advantage and no economy in it, the difference being more than compensated by the corn being taken up cleaner, and the work being better executed by their short scythe, the swathe laid down more regularly, and in a more proper order for the binder, and ultimately for the thrashing-mill by their wanting no gatherer, but only a binder, whilst the common scythe reaper requires both (a most important saving)-by the work being executed with less fatigue to the labourer, with a great saving of the straw, and no loss whatever of the grain from the ear, a great deal of it being lost by the whirling about of the sickle reaper, as well as by the raking, gathering, and putting up of the corn cut by the common sithe; and at last by the facility with which they can cut lodged and entangled corn, to both of which the common scythe or the sickle is inapplicable.

Nothing has been wanting to put the merits of the Flemish scythe

to a fair test of experiment; it has been successively exhibited in thirteen of the best agricultural counties of Scotland; and we think ourselves justified in the opinion that, generally speaking, their soil may be gradually accommodated to the use of this instrument, by a preparation which will prove itself an improvement, that is, the cleaning away of the biggest stones, and the rolling in of the

small ones. Its ultimate adoption will depend on the combined exertions, encouragement, and example of the several classes of proprietors and farmers, and especially of the farming clubs and agricultural societies, under the guidance of that noble specimen of the power of association, of that grand focus of public spirit, enlightened patriotism, and positive knowledge.

Suspension Railway.-A line of railway on the suspension principle, invented by Mr. H. R. Palmer, having been constructed for practical use, at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, by Mr. Gibbs, of that place, it was opened for public inspection on June last. The line of railway runs from the high road to the lower end of the village, through Mr. Gibbs's land to the river Lea, and is nearly a mile long. It consists of a single elevated line of surface, supported upon vertical posts of wood, fixed in the ground in a peculiar manner, to render their position secure. These posts are at the distance of about ten feet from each other, varying in height according to the undulation of the ground, so as to keep their upper extremities parallel with the necessary plane. In a cleft on these are laid reverse wedges, on which rest a line of bearers of wood, the upper surface of which, covered with a plate of iron, forms the road for the passage of the wheels.

The average height of this road above the ground is from two to three feet. The carriage has two wheels, one

placed before the other; and two receptacles for goods, which are suspended, one on each side, the centre of gravity being below the surface of the rail. A number of these carriages are linked together by chains, and a horse is connected with the whole by a towing rope attached to the foremost machine. The most striking peculiarity of this plan is its extreme simplicity, considering the many obvious advantages it presents beyond the ordinary double rail-road, particularly the great expense it avoids in embankments, culverts, and drains the trifling space of ground it occupies the increased effect which can be produced upon it, from its reduced force of resistance-its comparatively small cost, -its facilities of loading and unloading, &c.

Zinc plates for Engraving.-In Germany at present artists have begun to substitute zinc plates instead of copper plates, and also instead of stone for engravings. The artist draws on the zinc as on stone, and the expense of engravings is thus saved. A large work, being a collection of monuments of