Nov. 28, these may afford useful dyes; and in the Highlands of Scotland the natives obtain a glary juice, like the whites of eggs, from the root of the fern, which they account a sovereign remedy for sprains and burns. They all grow with great luxuriance on barren soils, where few other plants could be made to thrive; so that if they were properly cultivated there, it is highly probable that some kinds of them may be found in time to afford a much more valuable produce than could otherwise be obtained from such soils. Its use in making potash is well known. SIR, ANECDOTES OF SAMUEL BERNARD. To the Editor of the Bee. SOME traits which have been preserved of Samuel Bernard, unite the ideas of piety and vice, of a great and a little, of a steady and a capricious mind. This man was a rich Jew, who lived at Paris in the beginning of the present century.--Being appointed banker to the court, he consented to bear the iniquities of government by pretending insolvency. One of his sons was a President of parliament, another, Master of Requests, and his daughter was married to a gentleman who was promoted to the rank of first President of parliament; yet Samuel himself adhered inflexibly to the religion of his fathers. He resisted the flattery of courtiers with all the dignity of an independent philosopher. He was modest and 'unafsuming at his own table, a circumstance which rendered his company more supportable than that of his brother financiers. His carriage and horses stood in readiness from the moment he rose till he went to bed. His porter was obliged to watch and listen to every noise, so as to have the gate opened before his coach drove up to it. The soup, 149 in virtue of a standing order, was served up as soon as he entered the house from transacting his business in the morning. He was fond of brelan, but angry when he lost. Habits of method and temperance protracted his life beyond ninety years. He was addicted to superstition, and firmly believed that his fate in this world was linked to that of a black hen, which he fed and treated with special care. This He fowl gave up the ghost in January 1739, and Bernard resigned his breath in the course of the same month. left behind him thirty-three millions of livres. I am, Mr Editor, your most obedient humble servant, R. W. ARCTIC NEWS. Continued from p. 78. Silk worms. WITH regard to the large cocoons of coarse silk` found by Sir William Jones in the east, Dr Pallas says he has seen something like them from China; and he remembers likewise to have seen about the year 1760 or 1761, when in London, a large species of cocoon containing a strong silk, at the house of the late worthy Mr Collins, (the Sir Joseph Banks of that period,) which he had received from America, probably Philadelphia, where his principal correspondence lay on that continent. However, all are inferior to the produce of the true silk worm; although in the hands of the interprising and inventive manufacturers of Great Britain, many things become articles of commerce and public use which lay despised and neglected in lefs industrious states. Dr Pallas's time is so completely occupied at present, with the different works he has in hand at the Emprefs's expence, with the arrangement of her cabinet of natural history, and with intsructing the great duke in Nov. 28 that amusing and useful study, that he is obliged to drop a great part of his former correspondence, otherwise the Bee might have been enriched with his occasional communications, as he much approves its judicious plan and useful tendency. You will receive inclosed however a paper signed Nemo, from another writer in Rufsia, in a different line, who has more leisure than the naturalist, and who proposes to contribute his mite occasionally to the Bee. ARCTICUS. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON AGRICULTURE. SIR, To the Editor of the Bee. I AM glad to see an attempt to make the Bee a vehicle for the communication of useful observations relating to domestic economy, and shall be glad to contribute to give it a free course. The exhibition of the Languedocian mode of fattening geese and ducks is curious. The duck called Indian, is the Anas Indica of Aldrovand, and our Muscovy duck, which certainly tends to improve the size, though not the number or tranquillity of our duckeries, as he is a most impetuous drake, and extremely irregular in his connections, in so much that I was once forced to expel him from my poultry yard. We are not sufficiently attentive to the economy of feeding poultry of any kind, which brings that amusing and useful department of female economy into disrepute. I should be glad to see this inconvenience removed, by a distinct account of profit and lofs, upon a systematic plan of rearing these useful birds, and others, upon a large scale, both for private use, and for the market. The goose is monogamous; and if you give him more females than one, he becomes so far useless, and afterwards on agriculture. 1792. troublesome by destroying the eggs. If allowed to range at liberty after they are fit for feeding, they wash away their flesh and their fat, and destroy the economy of keep-ing them. All kinds of poultry ought to be taken up at due times and fed for the larder. Mashed potatoes, (of the refuse,) with cabbage, and other vegetables; the dust of corn mills, buckwheat, and the like, should be employed in preparing all these birds for the kitchen, and the stock for breeders carefully attended to. Capons too among our dunghill fowl has fallen into disuse, which occasions a considerable lofs, as capons take on much sooner than others, and preserve the tranquillity of poultry yards. In light lands buckwheat may be raised to great advantage as a lucrative crop *. When green, it is a fine feed for milch kine, and when ploughed in a fine preparation for the land. -- It fattens pigs with great economy, and pafsed through the mill, is, with carrot, a capital feed for work horses. Accept, Mr Editor, of these slight notices from your constant reader and bumble servant, PHILOGUNES. ANECDOTE OF MAGLIABECHI. MAGLIABECHI, SO much noted for his uncommon memory, you know was librarian to the grand duke of Tuscany. An Italian gentleman once told me a very diverting anecdote of a stupid theft of his, of a parcel of curious books, I have some doubt if buckwheat can be reared in Scotland with profit. I have tried it on several soils, and in various situations, but always with so little succefs, as to induce me to think, if it can ever be cultivated with profit in Scotland, this can only be in a few very, uncommon situations. Edit. from a Nov. 28. which he caused to be packed up in a box in his li brary, under pretence that he had got them broad, when they were traced and searched for. But he caused the box to be made big enough to hold them all; and it was accordingly of a size that could not have entered the room either by the doors or windows, so that he was detected. So true is it that memory and judgement seldom go together. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Could THE Communication from Brito is received and will appear soon. it have been shortened a little it would have been still more acceptable. Should this correspondent favour the Editor with farther communications, a little greater rapidity in the narrative, would heighten the interest of the reader. The hint by R. fhall be attended to. The Editor thought that he had formerly acknowledged the receipt of the piece signed one of the people. The direction given respecting it fhall be attended to. The essay by C. L. is received, and fhall be duly attended to. The reading memorandums by an Old Correspondent are thankfully received. The Editor is obliged to Clio for his hint; but he doubts if it will be in his power to comply with his request, for reasons that could only be communicated in private. The favour of Asiaticus is received, and fhall appear soon. The Editor regrets that Humanus fhould put himself to so much expence in postages, as his writing is not legible without great difficulty; and were the Editor to try to decypher it, he fears many of his readers would not thank him for the trouble. As it is always his wifh however to indulge his correspondents, he gives the following as a fhort specimen. If more of it be called for by his readers, he will try to decypher some more of the lines: To the Editor. Your last to me, Sir, was so very short, Or would a constant reader not offend. HUMANUS. This word cannot be made out, |