bering, also, that narrow limitations cramp and bedwarf the powers of the soul. Let us, in the future, more than we have been wont, emulate this sublime virtue of the great Exemplar and so lift ourselves up upon the higher plane upon which he stood. The Great International Exhibition. NO. IV. GREAT BRITAIN, CONTINUED. The Coals on exhibition were numerous and highly interesting, as illustrative of the vast resources of the kingdom. The most important coal fields were well represented-the Midland and Welch best-those of Durham and Northumberland, of Lancashire and Cheshire But there were likewise fine samples from the Yorkshire, the Scotch and the Irish mines. next. Hunt gives the following as the number of collieries and rate of production: Tons of coal raised 1860. 10,900,500 18,244,708 heated, so as to form one mass, unless broken up. It breaks into small irregular fragments. The coals of Newcastle, whose extensive fields we had the pleasure of surveying during our northward tour in England, are of this class. Caking coal is also derived from many other localities. Splint coal was shown in large blocks, representative of the Glasgow and other fields. It is more like stone in its hardness, and is quarried with more difficulty than the softer varieties. It does not kindle easily, owing to characterize other coals, but when lighted afthe absence of the inflammable gases which fords a clear, lasting fire of strong heat. The Anthracite coals of Wales properly belong to this class. Gniscedwyn Co. exhibited a fine block from their mines at Hendreladis, weighing 38 cwt. The Cherry or soft coals are an abundant and beautiful variety. Velvety and shining in hue and lustre, easily broken, readily kindled and yielding a bright light, with a residuum of white ashes, they are everywhere popular for domestic use. The Staffordshire coals are 7,648,300 chiefly of this class. 6,254,813 6,215,000 It thus appears that the total number of collieries in the United Kingdom is 3,009; the whole number of tons of coal raised being 74,042,698. Of this enormous quantity, much the greater part-nearly all-is consumed at home; still, the total of the exports is considerable, amounting for that year (1860) to 6,788,060 tons. But the foregoing table but partially represents the great number of varieties which, considered in detail, enter into the commerce of the country; seventy different denominations being imported into London alone. These, however, may be included under four general heads, to-wit:-1, Caking coal; 2, Splint, or hard coal; 3, Cherry, or soft coal; and 4, Cannel, or parrot coal. Caking coal derives its name from its property of fusing or running together when Cannel is supposed to be a corruption of candle, and to have been applied to the variety of coal known by that name on account of the readiness with which it kindles and the brightness of its burning. It has a waxy lustre and resinous fracture, and the best quality leaves but little ash, which is white and light. Some varieties of Cannel coal take a good polish and can be worked ihto various articles for ornamental use. Jet is nothing else than an extreme variety of this coal. The quantity and quality of illuminating gas derivable from Cannel coal exceeds that of any other, and it is accordingly very extensively used for this purpose. Such are some of the coals of the United Kingdom. Though the area of their fields is not more than half as large as that of our own, as determined by surveys already made, their resources are nevertheless immense, and they exert a mighty influence on the industry of the country. Indeed, without them, England could never have been a great and powerful from coal for several years, and of late it has nation, such as she is to-day. THE MINING OF COAL. In this country where many of our best coal fields are accessible by lateral or horizontal working the coal being often drawn out from its bed directly by teams, without any labor of hoisting and pumping, we have but little idea of the business of mining in Great Britain, where facilities of this sort are very exceptional—a great majority of the mines requiring perpendicular shafts many hundreds of feet given origin to a large number of the beautiful colors used in the printing of calico. BRITISH PEAT AND ITS PREPARATIONS. The peat bogs of Ireland are as famous as the Green Isle itself, and we early sought among the coals for samples of this interesting product of nature. We were not disappointed; not only Ireland but several English localities being represented. The supply of this half-formed coal is quite inexhaustible, and manufacturers of iron, of deep, and a ceaseless working of the most pow-gas, of blacking, of phosphorous, &c., are erful engines to keep them ventilated and free turning it to good account. from water. It is there that mining is done at the peril and almost certain sacrifice of the miner-that families dwell in the night of the mines from generation to generation-that pallor and wretchedness and disease mark their thousands of victims-that often hundreds, by one fearful explosion, or in-flooding of waters, are, in a moment, destroyed. Several specimens of prepared peat were on exhibition. When wet, the peat is moulded by machinery; it is then dried by artificial heat, and finally subjected to the carbonizing process, by means of which a hard charcoal is produced, said to stand a greater blast than ordinary wood charcoal, and to be, on other accounts, more valuable. this account, it naturally suggests the vast bogs which furnish it, together with the innumerable shanties and the wretched groups of half naked, dirty, starving children, where and in the midst of which, we have often seen it smouldering. What could poor, distressed, poverty stricken Ireland do without it? But much the larger portion of peat conScience has done much for the race of Eng-sumed is used in its crude state as fuel, and on lish miners, however, within the past few years and it is still doing more and more to ameliorate their condition. During our travels we had the opportunity several times to descend into the mines, and can testify from what we have seen. In many of them the system of ventilation is excellent, the means of exhausting the water, which would otherwise render them entirely unworkable, quite adequate, and the safety-lamps such as to secure almost perfect immunity from danger. MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL PRODUCTS OF COAL. The Aberdare Steam Fuel Co. and others had on exhibition specimens of what was called "Puri ed Block Fuel." It is manufactured from the small particles of coal, heated with coal pitch, or other bituminous substance, over a furnace, and then compressed by hydraulic machinery in iron moulds. By this means it acquires a density even superior to that of many coals, and a form which greatly increases the facility of transportation and handling. "Mineral Black Paint" has been prepared BRITISH IRON AND OTHER METALS. The specimens of Iron ore were numerous and varied, representing the Red Hematite, of Wolverstone and White Haven; the Brown Hematite from Cornwall, South Wales, Devonshire, and numerous other localities; Spathose Ore from the Brandon Hills, and other localities; the Argillaceous Carbonates and Clay Ironstones from the coal measures generally; Carbonates of the Protoxide of Iron, from Cleveland; Hydrated Oxides, from Staffordshire, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, &c.; and the Black Band Ironstone, from Scotland, and South Wales. Many of these ores are of superior quality, and the mines whence they are derived are seemingly inexhaustible. Some of the Brown Hematites make the best steel manufactured in Europe. The Manufactured Iron constituted one of the most interesting branches of this class of the Exhibition; particularly when considered in connection with the history of iron manufacture. According to the Report of the Keeper of the Mining Records, &c., the quantity of pig iron produced in 1750 did not exceed 30,000 tons. In 1860 there were 582 furnaces in blast, yielding 3,826,752 tons of pig iron. In the Department of Manufactured Iron, many remarkable examples were shown-a "double-throw" crank-shaft of 1,850 horse power, intended for Her Majesty's Steam ram, Northumberland, being a most wonderful product of the forge. Its weight as it came from the hammer was 24 tons, 10 cwt., 3 qrs. and 19 lbs. the largest double crank-shaft ever made. The ores embraced the more valnable commercial varieties, such as Copper Pyrites, Yellow Copper Ore, Grey Copper Ore, Malachite, (green carbonate of copper), and Red Oxide of Copper. The quantity of Copper produced in Great Britain is very much less than sufficient to supply the demand. In 1860 the value of the produce of the English mines was about eight and a half millions of dollars, derived from the sale of 15,968 tons of copper. In 1861, England imported 74,163 tons; in the same year exporting 14,865 tons in bricks and pigs, and 2,359 tons of sheet copper. The specimens of copper smelting were marked: "Calcined Ore-copper ore after the extraction of the sulphur. Coarse Metal-obtained by the 2d process of smelting, producing about 40 per cent. Calcined Coarse Metal-3d process, for the extraction of sulphur from the coarse metal. Metal Brych'-4th process, producing about great dimensions. But the most notable thing 65 per cent. of copper. Several armor plates were likewise shown, of in the way of hammered iron-next after the crank-shaft referred to-was a plate 5 inches thick, 6 feet wide, and 30 feet long! The exhibitions of Steel were also highly interesting. An improved process, illustrated by W. Hawksworth & Co., exhibitors, for making various shaped tubes, is worthy of notice. It is as follows: "We take a piece of properly prepared steel, from six inches to a foot long, by from two to six inches diameter, through which a hole of a certain size is drilled, and afterwards by a series of drawings through a wordle and over a mandril (both of peculiar construction), the metal is elongated and highly polished at the same time, and reduced to the given shape and size, internal and external. Should the tube be desired for a gun or rifle barrel, it is afterwards passed through elliptical rolls and the desired cone given; then placed in a matrix and the mandril drawn through to straighten the bore and bring it to the proper size. One machine, worked by five men, will throw out six hundred barrels per week. The process is simple, expeditious and cheap. Cast steel barrels made under it can be sold at but little over the cost price of the present ordinary iron ones; and the principle is, moreover, applicable to all ductile metals." COPPER ORES AND MANUFACTURED COPPER Close Regule 5th process, producing 70 per PRODUCTS OF LEAD MINES OF GREAT BRITAIN. The ordinary commercial ores were well represented. They were chiefly the sulphides, consisting of lead 85.13 and sulphur 13.02 per cent. In connection with the ores from Car Were present in variety and quantity, the former from the Cornwall district, Wales, Dev-diganshire were some tools and a pig of lead, onshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Scotland and Ireland; the latter chiefly from the Mona Smelting Works in Anglesea, and from Swansea. discovered near the close of the last century, and bearing undoubted evidence of having belonged to the Roman miners in the time of the Emperor Adrian. The ores contain silver in quantities varying from 2 to 40 ounces to country in the crude state for manufacture. the ton. The production of the lead mines of the United Kingdom in 1860, was, of lead ore 89.081 tons (yielding 63,505 tons of lead), and 549,720 ounces of silver. By the earlier, indeed by the quite recent methods, less than 20 ounces of silver to the ton scarcely paid for the expense of working; but by a new process discovered by the late Hugh Lee Pattinson, ores containing only 3 ounces to the ton are economically worked. According to Mr. Patterson, This process of desilvering lead is founded on the physical fact, that lead crystalizes at a temperature above that at which silver solidifies, and in this process of aggregation, the silver is separated from the commoner metal. It is effected by the use of hemispherical cast-iron pans, holding about three tons of metal, which are heated by a fire below them; the silver-bearing lead is placed in this and melted, after which the fire is withdrawn and all made air-tight below. The workman now begins to agitate the mass, which he does with an iron rake, removing the solid parts from the edges, as the solidification takes place. With an iron strainer the solid crystals are removed as fast as they are formed; these are nearly pure lead, the liquid mass left behind being rich in silver. This process is repeated three or four times; the mass left after the last operation, which contains from 300 to 400 ounces of silver to the ton, is then submitted to the process of cupellation (heating in shallow crucibles), by which the lead is oxydized, and the silver left in a state of purity behind." Beautiful specimens of gold, silver, platinum, iridium, arsenicum, sodium, potassium, &c., &c., were on exhibition in this department of the British Court. But the most interesting of all-because of its more recent discovery, its peculiar properties, and the many uses to which it is being put-is THE BEAUTIFUL METAL ALUMINIUM. A few years ago, who could have imagined that the clay trod under foot in street and field, as dirt or a very troublesome kind of mud, was really based upon one of the most beautiful of metals in the world? And yet such is the case, for the base of clay is Alumina, and this is simply the oxide of the metal Aluminium or Aluminum. According to M. Deville, in his report to the French Academy in 1855, the most common clays contain 25 per cent. of their own weight. He therefore concludes that "it is eminently suited to become a commonly used metal." It is at present obtained with considerable trouble and expense, but the experience of the past should teach us that the method must be eventually so simplified and economized as to insure its cheap manufacture. THE TIN MINES OF CORNWALL AND DEVONSHIRE Are famous as being the chief source for the whole world of this beautiful metal. There is but little doubt that they were worked long before the invasion of the island by the RoWhen pure it possesses a beautiful greyishThe Phoenicians certainly traded with white lustre, and is so inoxidizable as to be the early Britons for tin, and it has been sur- handled for any length of time without tarmised, not without good ground, that the bronz-nishing; indeed it is capable of resisting the es which decorated the palaces of ancient Nin-action of the air in a "muffle" furnace, heated eveh and Babylon derived their tin from this mans. same source. But notwithstanding this drain upon them for two or three thousand years, the mines of Cornwall and Devonshire are still highly productive, yielding in 1861 more than ever before, to-wit: 10,965 tons of ore, or 6,986 tons of metallic tin. MANY OTHER METALS, Including nearly all the precious metals used in the arts, mechanical and decorative, and some which are used solely in the chemical and medicinal, are either found natively in the British Kingdom or are imported into that to the temperature at which gold is assayed; while it is not the least affected by a heat which consumes lead, or melts litharge. Its great lightness adapts it to many uses for which the other metals are inconvenient. The oxide of the metal is pure in the sapphire and the ruby. With copper it forms a most beautiful goldcolored alloy, which was exhibited under the name of Aluminium Bronze. This alloy also resists the action of the atmosphere, and is excessively hard. The polished surface is exceedingly smooth and soap-like; which property, added to its lightness, and hardness must give it great value in the construction of those portions of certain kinds of machinery which are subject to constant friction. Articles of jewelry of every description, decorative ornaments for rooms, watches, clocks, and a thousand other things are being made of it. Another beautiful evidence of the measureless beneficence of the All-Giver-another triumph of the Genius of Science ! Drilling Wheat.-Grain Drills. For many years the drill has been popular in those European countries wherein agriculture has flourished most. But its use in America, to any considerable extent, has been limited to within the past few years. The principle upon which the practice is founded is philosophic, and its popularity must continue rapidly to increase. IMPROVING OLD PASTURES.-At a recent agricultural meeting in Cheshire, England, RichWe have repeatedly urged upon the attention ard Dutton read a paper on the "Agriculture of our readers the advantages of drilling and of Cheshire," in which he remarked: "An old and must continue to do so until all have been pasture field, rich in good herbage, should never be brought under the plow, on a dairy or graz- induced to make the experiment. The following farm, without an urgent necessity. On ing, from the American Agriculturalist, will our best dry soils, old pastures are apt to become rough, and in seme cases covered with show that we are not alone, among the jourmoss. This may be prevented to a great extent nalists, in an advocacy of this method of seedby a top dressing of salt, during the winter at ing: the rate of 10 cwt. per acre; or, in some cases, a good dressing of lime, at the same time freely harrowing the surface; or. what is less expensive, stocking them with sheep, anring the winter months, at the same time feeding them with turnips or corn. In a very productive summer, or when a farmer has been unfortunate with his stock, he may with advantage mow such parts of his pastures as can be spared for the purpose. It is superfluous for me to say that on a very large proportion of our grass lands, draining and bone dusting are the great means of improvement. A question of some importance may be asked: Are all our clay soils improved by draining for mowing and pasture purposes?' I think not. When there is nothing in the herbage produced which indicates the presence of too much water, I think draining will add nothing to the fertility of such soils so long as they are in grass." FARM HEDGES HONEY LOCUST.-We have, among other varieties, suggested the honey locust as a plant worthy of pretty general trial, for a farm hedge. It is a strong-growing plant, forming, in its natural condition, a tree of good size, and therefore will require severe pruning to form a hedge. Some have tried it and failed, perhaps from too close planting. It requires considerable room, and if grown as close as the hawthorn or osage orange, will become choked. Dr. Warder recommends it as the most promising hedge plant we have; and Wm. Reid, Elizabethtown, N. J., who has many fine hedges, is satisfied, after twenty-five years, trial, that it is more easily kept and better adapted for a farm fence than any other plant that has yet been used. Those, however, who expect to have a good hedge, in a few years, of this or any other plant that we are acquainted with, will be sorely disappointed.-Rural New Yorker. "There is scarcely any operation of farming concerning which practice, in different parts of the country, varies more than in this. The grain drill is a rare sight in New England, and rare also in many parts of the Middle and Western States and Canada. Still wherever its use is eommon it is held in very high estimation. In saving seed alone, a drill more than pays the interest on its cost. The risk of winter killing is greatly diminished, and an even seeding is readily secured. In the following communication from Mr. A. Linton, of Chester Co,, Pa., written in response to a request from ourselves, the advantagea are very simply and strongly set forth, and deserve the attention of every wheat grower who does not use the drill: THE USE OF THE DRILL. To say anything advocating the use of the drill in sowing wheat in this section of the country, would be as superfluous as to discuss the excellence of anthracite for fuel, or the of the wheat drill is so nearly universal here utility of steam as a motive power. The use on all land where it can be used, that the sight of a field sown in the old fashioned broadcast way is a rare occurrence. The advantages of drilling wheat may be very briefly stated as follows: It distributes the seed more evenly over the ground than is generally done in broadcast sowing; the wheat is not so liablo to be thrown out by the freezing and thawing which occurs here during the winter; the depth at which the seed is placed in the ground can be regulated to a certain ex tent as the moisture or dryness of the soil may require, to insure its speedy germination. It takes less seed; the crops look better and ripen more evenly than if sown in the old fashioned way; and lastly, the use of the drill insures a |