Chapter I: H. Davis

_Answer._—Repeated efforts have been made to cultivate the osier, or basket willow, in the United States, but the labor of peeling and preparing it for the market costs so much more here than in Europe, where this work is done by women and children at trivial wages, that it has been found difficult to compete with the imported stock. The annual importation of prepared willow during the ten years ending in 1879 averaged $33,000, and the willow-work $170,000 a year. The soils best adapted for the osier are rich alluvions and reclaimed swamps. If liable to overflow in spring floods, the ground should have drainage ditches. It is well to have means of irrigating the land in very dry weather. It is propagated from cuttings, selected from the wood grown the year before, cut smoothly into lengths of about ten inches, thrust into soil butt-end first, so as to leave only about an inch above ground. Care must be taken not to peel the bark in setting these slips, and for this reason it is sometimes best to use a hard wood or iron rod to make the hole. They should slope at an angle of 45 degrees toward the north. It is best to plant in straight rows from 20 to 28 inches apart, according to whether they are to be cut every year or every other year, and at intervals of six or eight inches. It is sometimes preferable to set in trenches, and, if the soil is poor, to fertilize with leaf-mold, stable manure, or bonedust, and irrigate with the soakings of manure during dry weather. The ground should be kept mellow and well weeded. The time of cutting should be late in the fall or in winter. The rods should be sorted into sizes, tied in bundles, dried in the sun, and stored in a dry place until ready for peeling. When peeled they should be dried for a day or so in the sun, when if properly prepared they will be white and brilliant; otherwise they will look dull, which impairs their value in market. If exposed to cold and dry winds, the growing osier should be protected by wind-breaks. Dr. F. B. Hough, Chief of the Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., says: “An osier plantation costs about $20 per acre for cultivation and yields about $100 to $125 per acre.” If this holds good anywhere in this country, it is strange that osier cultivation is so generally reported unprofitable.

CHEAP PROCESS OF SILVERING METALS.

WEST LIBERTY, Iowa.

Please give us instructions for plating or silvering cups, spoons,
and other metal articles.

A. H. COX.

_Answer._—Electro-plating is a process that requires apparatus, and a degree of skill in using the same which render it scarcely worth while to enter into a detailed description of it. We outlined the process not long ago, and cannot reiterate it. A cheap and simple method of silvering metals, that any one can put in practice, is as follows:

Clean the articles to be silvered with nitric acid, rub them with a mixture of cyanide of potassium and powdered silver, and wash thoroughly in clear, warm water. Then plunge them into a liquor composed of two parts, by weight, of grape sugar or sugar of milk, two of gallic acid, and 650 parts of distilled water, filtered and kept from the air in tightly-corked bottles until the instant of use. After a few minutes take them out of this liquor and immerse them in another composed of twenty parts, by weight, of nitrate of silver, twenty parts of ammonia solution, and 650 parts of distilled water. Repeat this process, plunging the articles first into one liquor and then into the other, every few minutes, until they are all well coated. The process can be accelerated by heating either the mixture or the articles to a moderate degree. Some persons prefer to mix the two liquors at the moment of use in equal quantities. In such case, shake the mixture thoroughly and filter before immersing the metals. The ammonia solution should be of standard strength. If there is any doubt of this, dissolve the nitrate of silver for the second liquor in the distilled water, add the first liquor, mix thoroughly, and add only enough ammonia to clear the mixture. This is the process for copper, brass, German silver, and similar articles, but before silvering iron or steel they should be coated with copper by leaving them for a little time in a solution of sulphate of copper.

THE GUILLOTINE.

FAIRMONT, Neb.

I should like to know who was the inventor of the guillotine. How
was it constructed and operated.

W. P. JACKS.

_Answer._—For many years the invention of the guillotine, the instrument for inflicting capital punishment adopted by the French during the reign of terror, was accredited to Joseph Ignace Guillotine, a French physician, born in 1738, who in 1785 recommended its use in France from motives of humanity, in place of the barbarous gibbet. However, there is in the Antiquarian Museum of Edinburgh a guillotine made before 1581, which served to behead the Scottish Regent, Morton, who had introduced it into use in that country. It was used in Italy in the thirteenth century in a form resembling the instrument now used in France. The guillotine is composed of two upright beams, grooved upon the inside, and surmounted by a cross-beam. Between these beams and sliding in the grooves is a sharp, iron blade, which falls by its own weight with great speed and certainty, severing the head from the body.

ASSESSMENT OF DEPOSITS.

ANDOVER, D. T.

Has an assessor in Dakota any right to assess money on deposit in a
bank in Michigan?

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—According to the laws of most States and Territories a certificate of deposit is just as assessable as the money it represents. Money is subject to assessment wherever it belongs.

GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA.

GREENVILLE, Ala.

Please give the names of all of the Governors and Senators of
Alabama since the admission of the State into the Union, with the
years during which they served.

SEA.

_Answer._—The Governors were the following: William W. Bibb, 1819-20; Thomas Bibb, 1821; Israel Pickens, 1821-25; John Murphy, 1825-29; Gabriel Moore, 1829-31; John Gayle, 1831-35; Clement C. Clay, 1835-37; Arthur P. Bagby, 1837-41; Benjamin Fitzpatrick, 1841-45; Joshua L. Martin, 1845-47; Reuben Chapman 1847-49; Henry W. Collier, 1849-53; John A Winston, 1853-57; Andrew P. Moore, 1857-61; John G. Shorter, 1861-63; Thomas H. Watts, 1863-65; Lewis E. Parsons, 1865; Robert M. Patten, 1865-68; William H. Smith, 1868-70; Robert B. Lindsay, 1872; David P. Lewis, 1872-74; George S. Houston, 1874-79; Rufus W. Cobb, 1879-81. The present Senators are John T. Morgan, 1883-89; James L. Pugh, 1879-85. For former Senators see “Lanman’s Biographical History of the Civil Government of the United States;” it is too long a list to copy here.

BACCHUS—TRADE MARKS.

WILMINGTON, Ill.

1. Explain the use of trade marks. 2. Who was Bacchus?