able the learner to use both hands at once, in which case it can be tied very quickly. It is easily made after learning the flat knot, by passing one end across or under the loop instead of through it. It is obvious that in having the free end of the loop long it can be used instead of another end, and thus heavy bodies, as window-sash weights and clock weights are hung.

Fig. 3.- The Binding Knot

In prac

in ordinary life are of daily occurrence. tising, take the fixed or standing part of the rope

in the left hand, turn the free end under it, and put it over the thumb; repeat this, and the hitch is made. (Fig. 5.) When the clove-hitch is made on the standing part of the rope, after it has passed around a post or box, it is called two half-hitches, and is the best method of fastening boxes or bundles. In this case it should never be fastened to the cord at right angles to its own, but that in a line with it. (Fig. 6.)

In

Is made more quickly than any other tie, can be instantly undone, and is very secure. It is used to fasten ends of ropes in rings, etc., when they are to be quickly cast off, and may be used for slinging light bodies of small diameter. It is also put over the tops of bottles to fasten in the corks, and is then called the beer-knot: in this case the two ends are afterwards tied. By reversing it it becomes a running knot, or "sailor's knot." practising, at first take the fixed or "standing" part of the line in the left hand, make a loop in it; then make a second loop in the right-hand part, and put it through the first (a, Fig. 4). Afterwards try it through rings, and around rods and small posts (b, Fig. 4). For large posts use the clove-hitch; the single half-hitch will slip. Remember that when it is to hold, the strain must come on the standing part. It differs but slightly from the common single bow-knot, and can be made as easily with a little practice.

Fig. 5.-The Clove-hitch.

One of the most useful of all fastenings; it is not properly a knot, for it is neither tied nor untied. It is largely employed on ship-board and in reducing dislocations, but opportunities for its use

b

Is used in slinging heavy bodies; it cannot slip, and will never jam under the heaviest strain. It is difficult to understand at first, but with a little practice can be made very rapidly. Take the fixed or standing part of the rope in the left hand (this should be done in making all knots), lay the free end over it, and then by a twist of the wrist make a loop in the standing part which shall inclose the free end (a, Fig. 7); then carry the free end behind the standing part and through the loop, parallel with itself (b, Fig. 7). This knot will well repay the trouble spent in learning it.

KNITTING.

Shetland Wool Shawl (for the Centre). Cast on 200 stitches on needles No. 7. First Row. Knit two; knit two together; thread forward: knit one; thread forward; knit two together; knit one; knit two together; thread forward; knit one; thread forward; knit two together; knit one.

Second Row.-Plain knitting.

Third Row. -Knit two together; knit one; thread forward; knit three; thread forward; knit three together; thread forward; knit three; thread forward; knit three together. At the end of this row plain knit the two last stitches.

Fourth Row.-Plain knitting.

Fifth Row. -Knit two; thread forward; knit two together; knit one; knit two together; thread forward; knit one; thread forward; knit two together; knit one; knit two together; thread forward; knit one.

Sixth Row.-Plain knitting. Seventh Row.-Knit three; thread forward: knit three together; thread forward; knit three; thread forward; knit three together; thread forward. At the end of this row bring the thread forward; knit

two.

Border for the Shetland Wool Shawl—( This is for one-half.)

Cast on 600 stitches on needles No. 3.

First Row. Knit two together four times; thread forward; knit one eight times; knit two together four times; purl one; knit two together four times; thread forward; knit one eight times; knit two together four times; purl one.

Second Row.-Purl knitting. Third Row.-Plain knitting. Fourth Row.-Purl; commence again as at first row. After having knitted a piece half a yard in depth, knit six rows plain and purled alternately; then six rows of holes, worked thus: one row plain, second row thread forward; knit two in one, and so on; third plain; then six rows of plain and purled. To form the corner two and three stitches must be knitted together in the centre and at the ends, commencing from the plain rows.

A Knitted Muff, in Imitation of Sable-pretty for

Children.

Cast on 70 or 80 stitches.

First, Second, and Third Rows.-Plain knitting. Fourth Row. Bring the wool forward; knit two together, taken at the back; continue the same to the end of the row.

Repeat these 4 rows until the piece be about 18 inches long, admitting that the shading comes in correctly.

Two No. 19 needles are required, and double German wool, in 4 distinct shades, to match the color of sable. Commence with the lightest shade; then the second, third, and darkest, reversing them again to the lightest.

Another Muff.

Cast on 45 stitches.

CROCHETING.

A pretty Toilet Slipper.

Make a chain of fifteen stitches in single crochet; crochet two stitches in the middle stitch of every row, until you have completed twelve rows, which is sufficient for the front. Take up twelve stitches on one side; crochet thirty rows, and join them to the other side of the front; then catch the stitches up round the top, and crochet one row.

For the frill, crochet the stitches in every loop in single crochet, very loose, to form a full frill.

When finished, turn the slipper inside out, and sew in a cork sole; then pass the ribbon round under the frill and tie in front in a bow. The above is exceedingly pretty in shaded Berlin wool.

MANAGEMENT OF CANARY BIRDS

Breeding.

The breeding cage should have plenty of fine gravel or sea-sand at the bottom, and a lump of old mortar, for the birds to pick. Goats' hair must be supplied for the nest. The birds when put up should be fed on bread, the yolk of boiled Let them have fresh eggs and a little sugar. greens in moderation. The birds should not be allowed to breed more than twice or thrice a year. weather, 13. The last of March is early enough The period of incubation is 14 days; in very warm to put the birds in the breeding-cage.

If the hen desert her eggs, they are probably bad, and should be thrown out.

If the hen eat her eggs, feed her well very early in the morning, or late at night. If the male break the eggs, let him have two hens; these must not be allowed in the same cage, or they will fight.

If the hen neglect to feed her young, stir her out of the nest and supply her with an abundance of delicate food. As soon as the young are hatched, place beside the usual feeding-trough a cup containing finely grated bard-boiled egg and stale bread rubbed fine and soaked in milk; also, one containing crushed rape-seed, boiled and afterwards washed with fresh water.

The young may be placed in separate cages in about 4 weeks.

Feeding.

Canary-seed alone is sufficient, but usually a mixture of canary, hemp, millet and rape, known as bird-seed, is used. Each cage should have a piece of cuttle-fish bone. Food is best supplied in the evening, and all stale food and refuse of every kind should be removed daily. The bottom of the cage should be strewn with fine gravel or sand, fresh water supplied daily, and a saucer of water for bathing twice a week. Greens should be cautiously supplied.

To Distinguish the Sex.

The throat of the male vibrates while singing; this never happens with the hen. The males are larger, more yellow above the bill, under the throat and in the pinions of the wings. The body of the male is longer and more tapering.

Singing.

It will require a piece of about 20 inches long to make a moderate-sized muff, which must be lined with silk, and stuffed with wool and a sufficient quantity of horse-hair to retain it in shape. Cord and tassels to match the color of the muff may be sewn at the ends, or it may be drawn up with ribbons.

Diseases.

Surfeit from improper or excessive food is shown by swelling of the belly, which, on blowing up the feathers, appears transparent and covered with little blood vessels. In birds from 1 to 3 years old it shows itself in scabs and humors about the head. Take away canary-seed, and add some

To Destroy Fleas on Animals.

Wash with infusion of coculus Indicus, or with eval-oil, and then with soap and warm water.

Chloride of Lime to Destroy Insects.

By scattering chloride of lime on a plank in a stable, biting fleas are driven away. Sprinkling beds of vegetables with a weak solution of this salt effectually preserves them from caterpillars, slugs, moths, etc. It has the same effect when sprinkled on fruit trees or shrubbery. Mixed in a paste with fatty matter and applied in a narrow band around the trees, it prevents insects from creeping up.

Coal-oil a Remedy for Insects.

At a late meeting of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, Mr. Wells made the following statements: He said he had found coal-oil a very effectual remedy for all insects, both on plants and trees. When he desired to rid his trees of the troublesome pests, as had been the case a year ago, when his plum crop threatened from their inroads to be a total failure, he had used with entire success the following truly valuable preparation : One pt. of soft soap mixed with half the quantity of coaloil, the whole then being stirred into 7 or 8 galls. of rain-water. The application he had made with a powerful syringe, deluging the tops after the blossoming of the tree, and when the immature fruit began to fall, continuing the operation for 3 or 4 nights in succession, and afterwards once or twice a week.

He had also tried coal-oil on his cabbage plants, to prevent the depredations of the cut-worm, and had found the remedy uniformly successful. In this case he saturated the coarse chips from a planing-mill with undiluted oil, placing a handful of them, so prepared, around each plant.

He had tried experiments on plants, using different preventions with the following results: One hundred cabbage plants treated in the customary manner, with ashes, were still attacked by the worm, and suffered from the. depredations of the louse. One hundred plants surrounded with common planing-mill chips-one plant slightly eaten; worm found dead beneath the leaves. One hundred plants surrounded with chips saturated with coal-oil-free from lice and untouched by the worm. He had been equally fortunate in his application of Coal-oil to melon and other vines to prevent the inroads of the bugs.

To Destroy Slugs and Earthworms Water the plants with a solution of carbonate of ammonia, 1 oz. to the gallon. They will come to the surface and perish. The ammonia will promote the growth of the plants.

Roach Poison.

Put a drachm of phosphorus in a flask with 2 oz. of water; plunge the flask into hot water, and when the phosphorus is melted, pour the contents into a mortar with 2 or 3 oz. of lard. Triturate briskly, adding water, and lb. of flour, with 1 or 2 oz. of brown sugar. Plaster of Paris, with oatmeal, is said to destroy roaches.

Roach Wafers.

heated in wafer irons.

Ant-Trap.

to dip the sponge in boiling water when the ants will be destroyed, and it may be set over and over again. Cyanide of potassium is employed in Cuba, but is a violent poison and its use is not recommended.

To keep Ants out of Closets or Drawers. Draw a line with a brush dipped in the following solution around the shelf to be protected. The ants will not cross it. Corrosive sublimate, 1 oz.; muriate of ammonia, 2 oz.; water, 1 pint. This solution may also he used to destroy bed-bugs by applying it to the cracks with a feather or brush, Destruction of Insects in Grain.

In M. Louvel's plan the grain is put into a hollow cast-iron cylinder, from which the air is partially exhausted. No animal can there live, fermentation itself ceases as it has neither air nor moisture. On the large scale, the vacuum is created by filling a communicating cylinder with steam, which is then condensed. A vacuum of 20 inches is quite sufficient.

To Drive away Moths.

It

If the articles are to be wrapped up, enclose camphor, snuff, or Persian insect powder. Furs should be kept in cedar boxes, and opened out and beaten occasionally during the summer. is stated that the Russians preserve furs by wrapping up with them a quill containing a small quantity of mercury and securely corked. In collections of birds open bottles of ether are placed in the cases; benzine is much cheaper and would When articles become infested probably answer. the surest remedy is to bake them in an oven at a temperature below that which would scorch them. Feathers may be preserved by dipping them in a solution of 16 grs. of strychnia in a pint of alcohol.

Bibron's Antidote for Snake-Bites.

Take of bromine, 24 drs.; iodide of potassium, 2 grs.; corrosive sublimate, 1 gr.; diluted alcohol, 30 fl. drs. Dose, 1 f. dr., in 1 tablespoonful of wine or brandy, to be repeated as required by the

case.

For Bites and Stings of Small Reptiles and Insects.

The local pain produced by the bites and stings of reptiles and insects, in general, is greatly relieved by the following application: Make a lotion of 5 oz. of distilled water, and 1 oz. of tincture of opium. To be applied immediately.

Another. Mix 5 oz. of soft water, and oz. of water of ammonia. Wash the part repeatedly with this lotion until the pain abates.

To Remove Bugs, etc.

The bedsteads ought to be taken down three or four times a year, the screws rubbed with pure oil, and a good manual cleaning given to all its parts. This plan, which has been slightly noticed under the general head of cleanliness, will render all poisonous mixtures unnecessary.

To Avoid Injury from Bees.

If bees swarm upon the head, smoke tobacco and hold an empty hive over the head, and they will enter it.

PETROLEUM.

This name, meaning rock oil, is applied to certain bituminous fluids found in the earth. Solid bitumen, or asphalt, differs but little in chemical composition from petroleum, both being compounds of carbon and hydrogen.

Many varieties of petroleum, and perhaps all, become thicker by exposure to the air, and finally solid, resembling asphaltum. Bitumen, and doubtless petroleum also, was known from the earliest ages, being the "pitch" which Noah used in building the Ark, and the "slime" used for mortar in the Tower of Babel, being dug from pits in the Valley of Sodom, precisely as is done in the same region at the present day, where the Arabs annually extract considerable quantities.

The fluid petroleum has been collected in Burmah for at least 15 centuries. It is used by the inhabitants for light and fuel. The product obtained, at the present time, from 520 wells, is said to be 420,000 hogsheads annually. In the United States, petroleum is not, as many suppose, a new discovery. Years ago springs of it were known at many localities, but its use was very limited. No method of purifying it was known, so that it was looked upon as valueless, and several wells bored for salt water were abandoned on account of the oil rendering the salt impure. In 1861 it was purified, and introduced extensively as an illuminating oil, to take the place of burning fluid (camphene and alcohol), the price of which was greatly enhanced, and which, by the explosive qualities of its vapor, was causing many severe accidents. The trade increased, new wells were bored, and some of them yielding several hundred barrels a day, and making their possessors at once wealthy, started what has been known as the oil fever. Lands sold for fabulous prices, sometimes for 500 times as much as 2 or 3 years before.

Petroleum has probably been formed by a slow decomposition of organic matter under the earth's surface. It is found in cavities and crevices, and through the substance of the rock. In mining for it, a well 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and sometimes 700 or 800 feet deep, is bored by drills, generally by steam-power. When rock containing petroleum is being bored through, what is called "a show of oil" is found. The chips and water drawn up from the well show and smell of the oil, but, unless the drill strikes a cavity or crevice filled with oil, the well is not productive. This uncertainty is the most unfortunate peculiarity of oil-mining, and makes it, to a great extent, a lottery, for there are no surface indications by which these cavities can be discovered.

Petroleum is much lighter than water, of a dark green or black color, with a peculiar, and, to most persons, unpleasant odor. It is commercially divided into two kinds, the heavy, or lubricating oil, and the light oil. The former is more dense, and sometimes of the consistence of thin molasses. It is used, without preparation, for lubricating machinery, for which it is admirably suited. The light oil, before it can be used, is submitted to several purifying processes, the most important of

which is distillation.

For this purpose the crude oil is pumped into stills holding from 200 to 1000 galls. each, and submitted to a gradually increasing heat, the vapors being passed through a worm immersed in cold water. At first there comes over a very light, mobile, and volatile liquid exceedingly inflammable. This is benzine, largely used as a cheap substitute for turpentine in painting, and as a solvent for India-rubber. It differs from benzole (obtained by distillation from coal-gas tar), and the beautiful colors obtained from the latter can

not be made from the benzine of Petroleum. The terms benzine and benzole are often confounded, and even used as synonyms, but the name benzole is properly applied only to one of the many substances contained in coal-tar, and from which the aniline colors are obtained.

Next, there condenses a less volatile and inflammable liquid, of greater specific gravity. This is the burning oil, and is generally the most abun. dant and valuable product. When the heat rises to near 500° Fahr., the oil that comes over is no longer suitable for burning, but is an excellent lubricant for light machinery. Finally, a substance (paraffine) solid at common temperatures, distils over, and there remains in the retort, as the heat has been less or greater, a thick tarry matter, or a porous coke. When the lubricating oil, just mentioned, is exposed to cold, a considerable portion of paraffine separates from it, and can be collected upon filters, purified, and used for candles, and for other purposes.

All these products, and especially the burning oil, require further purification after the distillation. This usually consists in agitation, first with water, followed by strong sulphuric acid, caustic soda, and finished with water. The effect of this is to render the oil colorless, and to diminish the odor.

The relative amount of these several products varies very greatly in different regions, and indeed in the oil of different wells in the same region. Thus, the oil from Canada contains little or no benzine, much burning oil, and much paraffine, while that from Ohio and Western Virginia contains much benzine, about the same amount of burning oil as the former, and but little paraffine.

Petroleum is found in many localities on this continent. Among these may be mentioned as the most important, Canada West, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Western Virginia, California, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The first four yield more than ninetenths of all now obtained, but it is probable that other regions will yield equally well when as thoroughly explored.

To Test Burning Oil.

Burning oil is sometimes adulterated with benzine, or with the heavy oil. To detect the former, pour an ounce or two into a small tin cup, and put it on a stove or over a lamp, placing the bulb of a thermometer in the oil. Then as the temperature rises, try with a lighted taper when the oil gives off inflammable vapor. If this be below 100°-110° Fahr., the oil is dangerous to use, as its vapor becoming mixed with air in the lamp may take fire and explode. The adulteration after having burned for some time, accompanied with heavy oil is shown by dimness of the flame by a charring of the wick.

To Extinguish the Flame of Petroleum or Benzine.

Water, unless in overwhelming quantity, will not extinguish the flame of petroleum or benzine. It may, however, be speedily smothered by a woollen cloth, or carpet, or a wet muslin or linen cloth, or earth or sand being thrown over it. These act by excluding the air, without which combustion cannot be maintained.

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.

This telegraph is based upon the principle that a magnet may be endowed and deprived at will with the peculiarity of attracting iron by connecting or disconnecting it with a galvanic battery; all magnetic telegraphs are based solely upon this principle. The telegraphs bearing the names of the several inventors, as Morse (who may be called the pioneer in this invention), House, Bain, etc.,