Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/688

668 by being applied to softened steel plates produced almost indefinite multiplication of the original engraved plate. For commercial purposes this invention proved of immense value in the production of bank-notes, receipts, and postage-stamps.

To ignore the exertions of the Society of Arts in the direction of agriculture, and especially arboriculture, would be to omit an important page in its history. The introduction of new varieties of grasses and roots was sedulously encouraged, while drill-ploughs, the drainage of land, root-slicers, chaff-cutters, scarifiers, reaping-machines, and means of harvesting hay and corn in wet seasons, were all subjects of premiums. Big things and little things came in for their share of attention. In the early days of the Society sheep were marked with tar, to the great loss of wool-growers. The Society sought strenuously to modify and improve the mode of marking sheep, and meanwhile instituted a crusade against that bold invader, the Norway rat, who had recently overrun the country.

The preservation of timber was an object of earnest solicitude. In this age, when coal has effectually displaced wood as a heat-producer, and iron has been successfully applied to the construction of houses and ships, it is difficult to realize the anxiety of our forefathers at seeing whole forests destroyed for smelting purposes. For a long time past the work of destruction had been going on, when the Society of Arts stepped in to advocate the planting of trees on a large scale. The production of oak was a special object of the Society's attention, the planting of acorns was carried on to a very large extent, and gold medals for raising that description of timber were awarded to many noblemen and gentlemen, among whom were the Earl of Wilton, the Marquis of Tichfield, Mr. Morse, Mr. Curwen, and others. The cultivation of the ash—for which the Bishop of Llandaff received a gold medal—of the Scotch fir and larch, and of fruit-trees generally, received active encouragement. Under the auspices of the Society millions of trees were planted, to the enrichment and adornment of many previously-barren slopes. It is worthy of remark that to a neglect of these precautions is assigned an actual change of the climatic conditions of parts of Italy, and that the reduction of the Arno to an insignificant stream is ascribed to the reckless denudation of the mountains among which that historic river takes its rise. Travelers in Switzerland also have not failed to observe in the side valleys many relics of ancient mines, deserted, at last, because all the wood within carrying distance had been recklessly destroyed without any attempt being made to replace it by planting.

Considerable effort was devoted to encouraging the introduction and culture of spices into the British possessions. The cinnamon-tree was introduced into Jamaica; the nutmeg-plant into St. Vincent; the clove-tree into Trinidad; the mango and the bread-fruit tree were also planted in the West Indies. Attention was also directed toward such