r charcoal, with a diminution of fifty per cent. in the expense of
labour and fuel. For breweries, distilleries, and the raising of steam,
anthracite coal is decidedly preferable to other fuel, the heat being
more steady and manageable, and the boilers less corroded by sulphureous
acid, while no bad effects are produced by smoke and bitumen. The
anthracite of Pennsylvania is located between the Blue Bridge and
Susquehannah; and has not hitherto been found in other parts of the
state, except in the valley of Wyoming.

_Holly Hedges._

At Tynningham, the residence of the Earl of Harrington, are holly hedges
extending 2,952 yards, in some cases 13 feet broad and 25 feet high. The
age of these hedges is something more than a century. At the same place
are individual trees of a size quite unknown in these southern
districts. One tree measures 5 feet 3 in. in circumference at 3 feet
from the ground; the stem is clear of branches to the height of 14 feet,
and the total height of the tree is 54 feet. At Colinton House, the seat
of Sir David Forbes; Hopetown House, and Gordon Castle are also several
large groups of hollies, apparently planted by the hand of
Nature.--_Trans. Horticultural Society_.

_Egg Plants._

In this country, the egg plant, brinjal, or aubergine, is chiefly
cultivated as a curiosity; but in warmer climates, where its growth is
attended with less trouble, it is a favourite article of the kitchen
garden. In the form of fritters, or farces, or in soups, it is
frequently brought to table in all the southern parts of Europe, and
forms a pleasant variety of esculent.--Ibid.

_Vinegar Made From Black Ants._

It is singular enough, that a discovery of modern chemistry should long
have been practically employed in some parts of Norway, for the purpose
of making vinegar from a large species of black ant. The method employed
in Norlanden is simply this: they first collect a sufficient quantity of
these little animals, by plunging a bottle partly filled with water up
to the neck in one of the large ant-hills; into which they naturally
creep, and are drowned. The contents are then boiled together, and the
acid thus produced is made use of by the inhabitants as _vinegar_, being
strong and good.

_Soil For Fruit Trees._

Low grounds that form the banks of rivers are, of all others, the best
adapted for the growth of fruit trees; the alluvial soil of which they
are composed, being an intermixture of the richest an