MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 36, 14 June 1845, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

Neatsfoot Oil. — At the Sydney Horticultural Show, in March last, colonial manufactures were very properly admitted, though not distinctly connected with horticulture. Among these were two samples of neatsfoot oil, one limpid and colourless. Neatsfoot oil we remember to have seen used among the farmers of England in dressing harness. It has peculiar

properties. In a tour we made last year to the Hawkesbury, we saw a settler boiling, ih an [ iron pot, the hoofs of cows and bullocks, having I brought a cargo of them from Sydney^ He skimmed the oil and sold it among his neighbours, to burn, in their lamps :• the " cowheel" he gave to h^growrag"pi£s. Theconsajporp^oo,, of bullocks and cows in Sydney is great. What becomserof the hoofs ? It appears they are useful to make oil, and as food for swine. Are they used for this 1 purpose, or are they generally thrown aside as useless ? We are fully aware that many bags of hoofs are exported in the London vessels, but we question whether it would not answer the purpose of the settlers in the interior to make use of the article as- above shown, than to put themselves to the expense of forwarding them to Sydney for exportation. Cowheel and tripe used formerly to be sold in abundance about the streets, but the.cheapness of prime beef and mutton has lessenned the demand for these commodities at a remunerating price to the industrious preparers. What then, -becomes of the scores of tons of offal which of | all sorts are weekly brought into existence in Sydney by the slaughter of sheep and cattle ? A host of pestilent dogs, no doubts destroy a great deal of it, and it is the abundance of offal which so greatly encourages their increase. But if pigs were kept on that offal, after being boiled, and afterwards fattened on maize, and oil made from the hoofs, there would be a saving worth consideration at the end of the year. It is not by despising, but by cherishing, industry in little things, which-, by making a " mickle" at the end of the year,, will accustom' the colonists to frugal, saving habits^by which alone the American colonies have become what they are, and without which, New Siouth Wales can never be what it might be. A capital might Ye sunk to great profit in purchasing and disposing of the offal of butchers. It includes a great many articles ; tallow, tripe, hoofs, horns, and bones. From these substances, a number of valuable articles could be produced for exportation. The bones could be ground for manure, to fertilize the gardens and orchards of Sydney and Paramatta. It is equal to guano in some soils, and superior in others. — Sydney Australian.

Sugar prom Potatoes. — Weobserve amogst other inventions and discoveries of the present day, that our sugar growers here are likely to find a rival where few of former days would have thought of looking for it — in the potato : a set of works having been established for that purpose at Stratford, in Essex, which are, according to all accounts, producing large quantities of the article, at a remunerating cost ; for it has- been discovered that, weight against weight, the potato yields one-third of sugar. If this be carried out to any extent, as- we have reason to believe it will, home-made sugar will become a formidable rival to colonial and foreign produce ; for we are assured that, in point of quality, it fully equals that made from the juice of the cane ; and even were it not so, the quantity it yields in proportion to the relative production of the soil, will enable it to compete with fair success, if not altogether to undersell that imported ; especially as this latter labours under the disadvantage of being burdeued with so heavy a duty. It will be, moreover, a rather curious question for Sir Robert Peel, also, to find himself met by the home produce of an article on which he has been striving so earnestly to preserve a high scale of contribution to the revenue ; and we should like to see how he would meet the difficulty — whether by making home-grown sugar an exciseable commodity, or by lessening the duty on foreign and colonial produce, so as to enable the importer to come into the market at reduced rates, and thereby preserving a competition. We should hope, for the sake of our Indian interests, the latter will be adopted ; for it will fall heavily on our trade just as we have been allowed to come into the market, and contending, as we have been, against low prices, and other obstructions, to find our efforts frustrated by such a disadvantageous and unexpected competition in an entirely new quarter. — Bengal Harkuru, 6th Dec, 1844. We learn from competent authority, says the Editor of the Sydney Australian, that of all sugar proper to be mixed with wine, to aid its strength in a rainy season, sugar from potatoes is found to be the best, accomplishing the great end, strength or spirit to the wine, with the least effect on its natural flavour