The _Journal Des Reconnaissances Useless_ gives the following method of curing legs of mutton like ham:--It is necessary that the mutton should be very fat. Two ounces of raw sugar must be mixed with an ounce of common salt and half a spoonful of saltpetre. The meat is to be rubbed well with this, and then placed in a tureen. It must be beaten and turned twice a day during three consecutive days; and the scum which comes from the meat having been taken off, it is to be wiped, and again rubbed with the mixture. The next day it should be again beaten, and the two operations ought to be repeated alternately during ten days, care being taken to turn the meat each time. It must be then exposed to the smoke for ten days. These hams are generally eaten cold. _Potato Chestnuts_. A mode has been adopted to prepare potatoes as food, which has at least one advantage--that of economy. The potatoes are roasted in a kiln or oven, and are thus prevented from sprouting, (which injures their quality so much at this season of the year,) and are thus preserved for some time in a fit state for consumption. They are better for being again heated before they are used, and though it is to be regretted that persons should be reduced to such food, yet they are cheaper and more wholesome than the bread usually given in times of scarcity to the poorer classes. _New Pyrometer_. A new air-thermometer has been invented by M. Pouillet, for the purpose of measuring degrees of heat in very high temperatures; an object hitherto of very difficult attainment. By means of this instrument it has been ascertained, that the heat of melted silver is 1677°; of a melted mixture of one part gold and three parts silver, 1803°; and of melted pure gold 2096°. _To Destroy Slugs_. A correspondent of the _Gardener's Magazine_ states, that after in vain trying salt, lime, and dibbling holes for preserving young cauliflowers and cabbages from slugs, he succeeded by spreading some well cut chaff round the plants under hand glasses, and some round the outsides of the glasses. The slugs in their attempt to reach the plant, find themselves immediately enveloped in the chaff, which prevents their moving, so that when he raised the glasses to give the plants air, he found hundreds of disabled slugs round the outside of the glasses, which he took away and destroyed. _To make Kitchen Vegetables tender_. When peas, French beans, &c. do not boil easily, it has usually been imputed to the coolness of the season, or to the rains. This popular notion is erroneous. The difficulty of boiling them soft arises from an excess of gypsum imbibed during their growth. To correct this, throw a small quantity of subcarbonate of soda into the pot along with the vegetables.--_From the French_. _Beet Root Sugar_ Has now become an article of some practical magnitude in French commerce; since the annual consumption is between seven and eight million pounds. _Silk Trade_.