Brass is made nowhere more extensively or better than in England, where the materials are found of the first quality, and in great abundance. The operation is very simple: after the short process of calcination, the native calamine is ground in a mill, and mixed at the same time with about a fourth part of charcoal. The whole is now put into large cylindrical crucibles, with alternate layers of copper, cut in small pieces, or in the form of shot. Powdered charcoal is then thrown over the mixture, when the crucibles are covered and luted up. The furnace has the form of a cone, with the base downwards, and the apex cut off horizontally. The crucibles are placed upon a perforated iron plate, at the bottom, with a sufficient quantity of fuel thrown round them, and a perforated cover, made of bricks or clay, is fitted to the mouth, which serves as a register to regulate the heat. After about ten or fifteen hours, the copper is supposed to be sufficiently penetrated with the zinc, and the heat is increased in order to fuse the whole down into one mass, when the crucibles are removed, and the melted brass poured into moulds, and manufactured in the same way as copper plate. If the materials are good, a single fusion is sufficient to make good malleable brass; but the finest sorts undergo a second operation with fresh calamine and char

coal.

Though the process in all places is nearly the same, there are considerable variations in the proportion and choice of the ingredients. In Great Britain, the proportions in weight are about forty parts of copper, and sixty of calaLane, with a sufficient quantity of charcoal; in

France, thirty-five of copper, thirty-five of old brass, forty of calamine, and from twenty to twenty-five of charcoal; in Sweden, forty of copper, thirty of old brass, and sixty of calamine. In Saxony, the cadmia, or sublimed oxide of zinc, is used instead of the native calamine; and the proportions are thirty parts of copper, from forty to forty-five of cadmia, with double the quantity of charcoal.

BRASS, OF BRAZEN. See BRAZEN.

BRASS COLOR, a color prepared by the braziers and colormen to imitate brass. There are two sorts of it; the red brass or bronze, and the yellow or gilt brass; the latter is made only of the very smallest and brightest copper filings; with the former they mix some red ochre, finely pulverised; they are both used with varnish. To make a fine brass that will not take any rust or verdigris, it must be dried with a chafing dish of coals as soon as it is applied. The finest brass color is made with powder brass imported from Germany, diluted into a varnish, made and used after the following manner: the varnish is composed of 1 lb. 4 oz. of spirit of wine, 2 oz. of gum lac, and 2 oz. of sandarac; these two last drugs are pulverised separately, and afterwards put to dissolve in spirit of wine, taking care to fill the bottle but half full. The varnish being made, mix the quantity to be used with the pulverised brass, and apply it with a small brush to what is to be colored. But too much must not be mixed at once, because the varnish being very apt to dry, there would not be time to employ it all soon enough; it is therefore better to make the mixture at several times. In this manner figures of plaster are colored, and look as well as if they were of cast brass.

BRASS, CORINTHIAN, famous in antiquity, is a mixture of gold, silver, and copper. L. Mummius having sacked and burnt the city of Corinth, A.A.C. 146, it is said this metal was formed froin the immense quantities of gold, silver, and copper, wherewith that city abounded, thus melted and run together by the violence of the conflagration. Very little is known, however, of this metal. Its era of being in use must have been very short, as we are told by Pliny that the art of making it had been utterly lost in his time.

BRASS LEAF is made of copper, beaten out into very thin plates, and afterwards rendered yellow. The German artists, particularly those of Nuremberg and Augsburg, are said to possess the best method of giving to these thin plates of copper a fine golden color, by simply exposing them to the fumes of zinc, without any real mixture of it with the metal. These plates are cut into little pieces, and then beaten out fine like leaves of gold; after which they are put into books of coarse paper, and sold at a low price for the vulgar kinds of gilding. The parings or shreds of these very thin yellow leaves being well ground on a marble plate, are reduced to a pow der similar to gold; which serves to cover, by means of gum water or some other glutinous fluid, the surface of various mouldings or pieces of curious workmanship, giving them the appear ance of real bronze, and even of fine gold, at a very trifling expense, because the gold color of this metallic powder may be easily raised ani

improved by stirring it on a wide earthen basin over a slow fire.

BRASS LUMPS, a common name given by miners to the globular pyrites. See PYRITES.

BRASS THRICE CALCINED, in the glass trade, is a preparation which serves the glassmen to give many very beautiful colors to their metal. To prepare it, place thin plates of brass on tiles on the leet of the furnace near the occhis; let it stand to be calcined there for four days, and it will become a black powder sticking together in lumps. Powder this, sift it fine, and recalcine it it four or five days more; it will not then stick together, but remain a loose powder, of a russet color. This is to be calcined a third time in the same manner; but great care must be taken in the third calcination, that it be not overdone nor underdone; the way to be certain when it is right is, to try it several times in glass while melting. If it makes it, when well purified, to swell, boil, and rise, it is properly calcined; if not, it requires longer time. This makes, according to the different proportions in which it is used, a sea-green, an emerald green, or a turquoise color. Brass, by long calcination alone, and without any mixture, affords a fine blue or green color for glass; but they have a method of calcining it also with powdered brimstone, so as to make it afford a red, a yellow, or a chalcedony color, according to the quantity and other variations in using it. The method of making the Calcination is this: cut thin plates of brass into small pieces with shears, and lay them stratum super stratum, with alternate beds of powdered sulphur, in a crucible; calcine this for twentyfour hours in a strong fire; then powder and sift the whole; and finally expose the powder upon tiles for twelve days to a reverberating furnace; at the end of this time, powder it fine, and keep it for use. The glass-makers have also a method of procuring a red powder from brass, by a more simple calcination, which serves them for many colors. The method is this: they put small and thin plates of brass into the arches of the glass furnaces, and leave them there until they are sufficiently calcined, which the heat in that place, not being enough to melt them, does in great perfection. The calcined matter powdered, is of a dusky red, and requires no farther preparation. BRASSA, one of the Shetland isles, lying in the sound of that name. Long. 0°. 10'. W., lat. 60°. 10'. N.

BRASSA SOUND, an extensive sound, on the coast of Shetland, in which 1000 vessels might be commodiously moored. It abounds with herrings. The Dutch have sometimes had 2000 busses in it in one summer.

BRASSE, in ichthyology, a species of perca. BRASSICA, cabbage: a genus of the siliquosa order, and tetradynamia class of plants; ranking under the siliquosæ, in the natural method. The calyx is erect and converging; the seeds are globular; the gland between the shorter stamina and the pistillum, and between the longer ones and the calyx. There are twelve principal species, viz. 1. B. alpina, with the radical leaves egg-shaped, and erect petals. 2. B. arvensis, with scolloped leaves embracing the stem; the highest heart-shaped; and most entire. 3. B.

campestris, with a slender root and stem, leaves uniform, heart-shaped, and sessile. 4. B. Chinensis, with very entire oval leaves; the flora. leaves lanceolated, and embracing the stem; the calyxes longer than the claw of the petals. 5. B. eruca, with lyrated leaves, shaggy stem, and smooth capsules. 6. B. erucastrum, with runcinate leaves, a hispid stem, and polished capsules. In these two species, and the vesicaria, the style is ensiform in all the rest it is obtuse. 7. B. napus, with the root stem spindle-shaped. 8. B. oleracea, with the radical stem growing columnar and fleshy. 9. B. orientalis, with heart-shaped smooth leaves, embracing the stem, and four cornered capsules. 10. B. rapa, with the radical stem growing orbicular, depressed, and fleshy. 11. B. vesicaria, with runcinate leaves, and hispid capsules covered with a tumid calyx. 12. B. violacea, with lanceolated, eggshaped, smooth, undivided, and dentated leaves.

The campestris never varies. It grows naturally on the sea-shore, in the south of England, &c. It has a perennial branching stalk, in which it differs from all the other species. In very severe winters, when the other sorts are destroyed, this is a necessary plant, for the most severe frosts do not injure it. The flower-stalks grow from the end of the branches, and spread horizontally; but those arising from the centre of the plants grow erect, and seldom put out branches. The cauliflower has been much more improved in Britain than in any other part of Europe. In France they rarely have cauliflowers tili Michaelmas, and Holland is generally supplied with them from Britain. In many parts of Germany there were none of them cultivated till within a few years past, and most parts of Europe are supplied with seeds from Britain. The Chinensis, which is generally known by the title of rape or cole seed, is much cultivated in the Isle of Ely, and some other parts of England, for its seed, from which rape oil is drawn; and it has also been cultivated of late years in other places for feeding cattle, to great advantage. The coleseed, when cultivated for feeding cattle, should be sown about the middle of June. The ground should be prepared as for turnips. The quantity of seeds for an acre is from six to eight pounds, and as the price is not great, so it is better to allow eight pounds; for if the plants are too close in any part, they may be easily thinned in hoeing, which must be performed as for turnips, with this difference only, of leaving these much nearer together; for as they have fibrous roots and slender stalks, so they do not require near so much room. These plants should have a second hoeing about five or six weeks after the first, which, if well performed in dry weather, will entirely destroy the weeds, so they will require no farther culture. Where there is not an immediate want of food, these plants had better be kept as a reserve for hard weather, or spring-feed, when there may be a scarcity of other green food. If the heads are cut off, and the stalks left in the ground, they will shoot again early in the spring, and produce a good second crop in April; which may be either fed off, or permitted to run to seeds, as is the practice where this is cultivated for the seeds; but if

the first is fed down, there should be care taken that the cattle do not destroy their stems, or pull them out of the ground. As this plant is so hardy as not to be destroyed by frost, so it is of great service in hard weather for feeding ewes; for when the ground is so hard frozen that turnips cannot be taken up, these plants may be cut off for a constant supply. This will afford late food after the turnips are run to seed; and if it is afterwards permitted to stand for seed, one acre will produce as much as, at a moderate computation, will sell for £5 clear of all charges. Partridges, pheasants, turkeys, and most other fowls, are very fond of this plant; so that wherever it is cultivated, if there are any birds in the neighbourhood, they will constantly lie among these plants. The seeds are sown in gardens for winter and spring salads, this being one of the small salad herbs.

The common white, red, flat, and long-sided eabbages, are chiefly cultivated for autumn and winter use; the seeds must be sown the beginning or middle of April, in beds of good fresh earth; and when the young plants have about eight leaves, they should be pricked out into shady borders, about three or four inches square, that they may acquire strength, and not grow long-shanked. About the middle of June they nust be transplanted, where they are to remain. If they are planted for a full crop in a clear spot of ground, the distance from row to row should be three feet and a half, and in the rows two feet and a half asunder: if the season should prove dry when they are transplanted, they must be watered every other evening until they have taken fresh root. Afterwards, as the plants advance in height, the earth should be drawn about the stems with a hoe, which will keep it moist about their roots, and greatly strengthen the plants. These cabbages will some of them be fit for use soon after Michaelmas, and will continue until the end of February, if they are not destroyed by bad weather: to prevent which the gardeners near London pull up their cabbages in November, and trench their ground up in ridges, laying their cabbages against the ridges as close as possible on one side, burying their stems in the ground: in this manner they let them remain till after Christmas, when they cut them for the market; and although the outer part be decayed (as is often the case in very wet or hard winters), yet if the cabbages were large and hard when laid, the inside will remain sound.

The Russian cabbage was formerly in much greater esteem than at present, it being now only to be found in particular gentlemen's gardens, who cultivate it for their own use. This must be sown late in the spring, and managed as those before directed, only that these must be sooner planted out, and must have an open clear spot of ground, and require much less distance every way, as it is but a very small hard cabbage. This sort will not continue long before they will break and run up to seed. The early and sugar-loaf cabbages are usually sown for summer use, and are what the gardeners about London commonly call Michaelmas cabbages. The season for sowing these is about the end

of July, or beginning of August, in an open spot of ground; and when the plants have got eight leaves, they must be put into beds at about three or four inches distant every way, that they may grow strong and short-shanked; and towards the end of October they should be planted out; the distance that these require is, three feet row from row, and two and a half asunder in the rows. The ground must be kept clean from weeds, and the earth drawn up about the plants. If they are of the early kind, they will turn in their leaves in May; when the gardeners near London, to obtain them a little sooner, tie in their leaves close with a slender osier twig to blanch their middle; by which means they have them at least a fortnight sooner than they could have if they were left untied.

The early cabbage being the first, we should plant the fewer of them, and a greater quantity of the sugar-loaf kind, which comes after them; for the early kind will not supply the kitchen long, generally cabbaging apace, and soon growing hard and bursting open; but the sugar-loaf kind is slow in cabbaging; and being hollow, continues long. It may be planted out in February, and will succeed as well as if planted earlier; with this difference only, that they will be later before they cabbage. Some plants of the early kind should be reserved in a well sheltered spot of ground to supply a defect; for in mild winters many of the plants are apt to run to seed, especially when they are sown too early, and in severe winters they are often destroyed. The Savoy cabbages are propagated for winter use, being generally esteemed the better when pinched by the frost. They must be sown about the end of April, and treated after the manner of the common white cabbage; only they may be planted closer; two feet and a half square will be sufficient. These are always much better in an open situation, clear from trees and hedges; for in those places they are apt to be eaten by caterpillars, &c. especially if the autumn prove dry.

The

The broccoli may also be treated in the same manner, but need not be planted above one foot asunder in rows of two feet wide; these are never eaten till the frost has rendered them tender, being otherwise tough and bitter. seeds of the broccoli, of which there are several varieties, viz. the Roman or purple, the Neapolitan or white, and the black broccoli, with some others (but the Roman is preferred to them all), should be sown about the end of May or beginning of June; and when the plants are grown to have eight leaves, transplant them into beds like the common cabbage; and towards the end of July they will be fit to plant out; which should be done into some well-sheltered spot of ground, but not under the drip of trees; about a foot and a half distant, in rows of two feet wide. The soil ought to be rather light than heavy: if they succeed well (as they will unless the winter prove extremely hard), they will begin to show small heads of a purple color, about the end of December, and will continue eatable till midApril. The brown or black broccoli is by many persons greatly esteemed, though it does not deserve a place where the Roman broccoli can be

obtained, which is much sweeter, and will continue longer in season. But the brown sort is much hardier, so that it will thrive in the coldest situations, where the Roman broccoli is sometimes destroyed. The brown sort should be sown in the middle of May, and managed like the common cabbage, and should be planted about two feet and a half asunder. As they grow very tall, they should have the earth drawn up to their stems as they advance in height. They do not form heads so perfect as the Roman broccoli; the stems and hearts of the plants are the parts which are eaten. The Roman broccoli, if well managed, will have large heads, which appear in the centre of the plants like clusters of buds. These heads should be cut before they run up to seed, with about four or five inches of the stem; the skin of these stems should be stripped off before they are boiled. After the first heads are cut off, there will be a great number of side shoots produced from the stems, which will have small heads to them, but are full as well-flavored as the large. The Naples broccoli has white heads very like those of the cauliflower, and eats so like it as not to be distinguished from it. Besides this first crop of broccoli, which is usually sown in the end of May, it will be proper to sow another crop the beginning of July, which will come in to supply the table the latter end of March, and the beginning of April; and being very young, will be extremely tender and sweet. To preserve good seeds of this kind of broccoli, a few of the largest heads of the first crop should be let remain to run up to seed, and all the under shoots should be constantly stripped off, leaving only the main stem to flower and seed. If this be duly observed, and no other sort of cabbage permitted to seed near them, the seeds will be as good as those procured from abroad, and the sort may be preserved in perfection many years.

The curled colewort, or Siberian broccoli, is now generally esteemed, being extremely hardy, and always sweeter in severe winters than in mild seasons. This may be propagated by sowing the seeds in the beginning of July; and when the plants are strong enough they should be planted in rows about a foot and a half asunder, and ten inches distance in the rows. These will be fit for use after Christmas, and continue good until April. The musk cabbage may be propagated in the same manner as the common cabbage, and should be allowed the same distance: it will be fit for use in October, November, and December; but if the winter proves hard, they will be destroyed much sooner than the common sort. The common colewort, or Dorsetshire kale, is now almost lost near London, where their markets are usually supplied with cabbage plants instead of them. The best method to cultivate this plant in the fields is, to sow the secds about the beginning of July, choosing a moist season, which will bring up the plants in about ten days or a fortnight; the quantity of seed for an acre of land is 9lbs; when the plants have five or six leaves they should be hoed, as for turnips, cutting down all the weeds, and also thinning the plants where they are too thick but they should be kept thicker than turnips, because they are

more in danger of being destroyed by the fly: this work should be performed in dry weather, that the weeds may be killed. About six weeks after, the plants should have a second hoeing, which, if carefully performed in dry weather, will entirely destroy the weeds, and make the ground clean, so that they will require no farther culture. In spring they may be either drawn up and carried out to feed the cattle, or the cattle may be turned in to feed upon them: but the former method is to be preferred, because there will be little waste; whereas when the cattle are turned in amongst the plants, they will tread down and destroy more than they eat, especially if they are not fenced off by hurdles. The two last sorts are varieties fit only for a botanic garden, being of no use. They are annual plants, and perish when they have perfected their seeds. The best method to save the seeds of all the sorts of cabbages is, about the end of November, to pull up some of the best cabbages, and carry them to some shed, where they should be hung up three days by their stalks, that the water may drain from between their leaves. Then plant them in some border near a hedge or pale, quite down to the middle of the cabbage, leaving only the upper part of the cabbage above ground, observing to raise the earth above it, so that it may stand a little above the level of the ground: especially if the ground is wet, they will require to be raised pretty much above the surface. If the winter should prove very hard, lay a little straw lightly upon them, to secure them from the frost, taking it off as often as the weather proves mild, lest by keeping them too close they should rot. In spring they will shoot out strongly and divide into a great number of small branches. Therefore support their stems, to prevent their being broken off by the wind: and if the weather should be very hot and dry when they are in flower, refresh them with water once a-week all over the branches, which will greatly promote their seeding, and preserve them from mildew. When the pods begin to turn brown, cut off the extreme part of every shoot with the pods, which will strengthen the seeds; for these seeds which grow near the top of the shoots, are very subject to run to seed before they cabbage. When the seeds begin to ripen, be particularly careful that the birds do not destroy it. The best method to prevent this, is to get a quantity of birdlime, and daub over a parcel of slender twigs, which should be fastened at each end to stronger sticks, and placed near the upper part of the seed in different places, so that the birds may alight upon them, and be fastened thereto; where they should be allowed to remain, to terrify the rest. When the seed is fully ripe, cut it off; and after drying, thresh it out, and preserve it in bags for use. In planting cabbages for seed, never plant more than one sort in a place, or near one another: for example, never plant red and white cabbages near each other, nor Savoy with white or red cabbages; for they will, by the commixture of their farina, produce a mixture of kinds. See BOTANY. It is owing to this neglect, that the gardeners rarely save any good red cabbage seed in Britain, but are obliged to procure fresh seeds from abroad; whereas if they would plant red