fo extenfive a ufe in whitening not only flax and hemp, but alfo filk and wool.

M. Mercandier found that the Horfe-chefnut contains an aftringent faponaceous juice, of very great fervice in manufactures, not only in bleaching, but alfo in washing of linens and stuffs. In order to obtain this juice, he peeled the nuts, and then ground them in a fteel malt-mill; or they may be rafped. Rain or running water is the best to mix them with, and when impregnated with their juice, is fit for the purpose of whitening or wafhing. Twenty nuts are fufficient for ten or twelve quarts of water. To give this infufion the greater efficacy, M. Mercandier heated it to fuch a degree as that the hand could not be held in it. If, by this means, we may not entirely difpenfe with the ufe of foap, we fhall at leaft make a great faving in it.

M. Marcandier milled wove caps and stockings in this Horfe-chefnut water: they took the dye perfectly well; and trials which he and others made of it in fulling of stuffs and cloths, proved equally fuccefsful. Linen washed in this water takes a very pleafing light fky-biue colour, efpecially after it has been wafhed again in a clear running water. Repeated experiments confirm these effects.

If hemp is fteeped in this infufion for fome days, its filaments feparate eafily; the juice of the chef nut having the power of diffolving that gummy fubftance by which they are made to adhere fo ftrongly together.

The author of this Memoir relates the following experiments.

"After having peeled forty fresh

chefnuts which had fallen from the tree of themselves, I ground them. I then took two earthen pans, and put in each the meal of twenty chefnuts. I poured on the one cold-and on the other warn water. The cold water, after having raifed a froth like the beft foap, gradually ended in a white liquor, refembling milk. The effect of the warm water was very different: it raifed no froth, and after having perfectly foaked the meal, it took a fea-green_colour. I let thefe infufions ftand twelve hours, and at the end of that time the water in both the pans was of the fame colour; that is to fay, a pale yellow, like the meal of the chefnuts. The warm water had therefore loft its colour in cooling.

water.

"I afterwards divided the infufron made with cold water into two parts. I poured into the one cold water, and into the other warm The effect was the fame as before. That into which the cold water was put, after having frothed a good deal, became white; and that into which the warm water was put did not froth, but became of a fea-green, and as it cooled took the pale yellow as before. I made the fame experiments on the infufion in the other pan, and with the fame effects. The cold infufion, and even that which had cooled, felt foft and oily; but when it was warm it felt harth: and I obferved that the infufion which had been warm, did not froth eafily after it became cold.

"I now proceed to washing. I caufed firft linen cloth, and then woollen ftuffs, to be washed in my prefence in each of thefe infufions. Spots of all kinds were taken out of them, and after having rinfed

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them

them in fpring water, they re-affumed their former appearance as to colour and neatnefs. I concluded from thefe experiments, that if the meal of the chefnuts could be made into either cakes or bails, it might in general fupply the place of foa in wahing and in fulling. The only question then is, how to give it a certain confitence, to render the ufe of it eafy and more convenient; and that does not feen to me to be difficult.

"It may be faid, that the preparation of this liquor is tedious and expenfive; the nuts must be gathered, be kept in ftore, be peeled, be reduced to meal, and then be infufed, while this labour is faved in the ufe of foap. The expence of the whole is but trifling, for most part of the work may be done by children; and. if the nuts are dried, they may be ground in a common mill: and as the infufion in cold water is as good, if not better, than that in warm water, it is done in a few minutes. In deed my infufion was ftronger than M. Marcandier's; for instead of ten or twelve quarts of water to twenty nuts, I ufed only four. It may alfo be objected, that the cloth fteeped in it may be damaged by the acrid juice with which the infufion is loaded. Experience fhews that it is not; and reafon declares, that the juice of nuts cannot be fo acrid as pot-afh or lime, both of which enter into the compofition of foap.

M. Marcandier fays, that the pafte which remains at the bottom of the infufion, having loft its bitter tafte, becomes good food for fowls when mixed with bran. In order to be convinced of this, I tried the following experiment.

"After having peeled the nuts and chopped them in pieces, I gave them to hogs; but they would not touch them. I fteeped them in water for fome days, but ftill they would fcarcely taste them. I after wards took fome meal of the nots prepared in hot water, and offered it to my poultry for their breakfast ; but they would not touch it, except the ducks, which eat of it. Next morning, I prefented them some of it mixed with pollard; they carefully picked out the pollard; and if by chance they tafted a bit of the nut, they rejected it immediately. The next and following days, I increafed the quantity of pollard, till at laft they were in equal parts; and then both hogs and poultry eat it. Hence it appears, that in order to render the nuts agreeable food, they must be reduced to meal, and then fteeped in hot water.

"As to the reft, the tree itself is not of fo little ufe as it has commonly been deemed, provided it be found. Its wood is good for all carved works; and its leaves are ferviceable for covering beds in gardens which are to be kept warm, their weight and fize guarding them from being eafily blown away by the wind."

I ought not to conclude this article without adding a further quotation, ten ing to fhew from indif putable authority, yet other virtues in the Horfe-chefnut, and thofe of fo important a nature, as highly to merit the ferious attention of every well-wisher to his country.

We are informed in the Memoirs of the Royal Society of Agricul ture at Tours (tom. I. p. 121,) that the fruit of this tree, which has been generally looked upon as ufelefs, is fo excellent a food for horses,

efpecially

walls, he fhould be able to place them at any diftance from each other he should incline. It has now been practifed by him for feveral years with fuccefs, and by feveral gentlemen to whom he com, municated it; and as it is attended with lefs trouble and expence than any other method, and has feveral advantages not to be found in any of the ways of fixing trees that I have hitherto feen defcribed, I fhall communicate it to the public; and it will probably come into general ufe, if the trials are fairly made, and the trees managed with proper care. The wires may be placed oblique, or in any direction the planter pleases.

Suppofe now, that your wall is finished, no matter what its height be, or of what materials it is built; that your fruit-tree is planted and headed down; drive into a feam near the top of your wall, or within a few inches of the projection, a fingle plancher-nail, not quite to the head. Directly below this, near the furface of the border, and within four or five inches of your tree, on the fide where you find a feam, drive in another nail of the fame kind, in the manner as above directed. Take a piece of iron or brafs-wire, which you pleafe, from number fifteen to twenty; the fizes may be larger, or lefs, as you incline; fuch as is commonly made ufe of for making cages to finall birds will do very well; twist the end of the wire about the neck of the firft nail, then drive in the nail to the head, pull the wire clofe by the wall in a ftrait line to the other nail, keeping it very tight, till you have it fixed by two turns round the neck of the lowest nail; then turn the wire backwards and for

wards till you break it off; or you may fnap it off with a pair of pincers, and drive the nail clofe to the wall, in fuch a manner as it may keep the wire firm, Where interftices offer near the wire, in the middle fpace, drive in nails here and there, ftiffening the wire by carrying it off the line, and keeping it below that fide of the head of the nail that is fartheft from the line, till you have driven it in to the head, and it hold fast the wire. Three or four nails will be fufficient for the middle fpace, in the highest walls. The nails that you make ufe of should have large heads.

In adding of new wires to keep the branches faft, as they advance in growing, measure off the distance on the wall above and below, and keep them equal, which will make the wires run parallel to one another. The diftance may be from eight inches to twelve, defs or more, as you fhall judge proper for the particular tree that is to be trained. When the wires are dry, give them a coat of oil and lead ground together, or varnifh; when this is hard and fufficiently dried, tie your branches with rufhes, birches, or baffes, to the wires, placing the branches. horizontally at fuch regular dif. tances as you fhall incline to dif pofe them at.

When the wires are painted or varnished, they will last for many years; nor will they injure the bark of any of the branches, if they be tied close to the wire, and care taken not to hurt them in tying.

This management keeps the trees clofer to the wall than any other method, and the trees may be

pruned