MISCELLANY. 



S7 



ow temperature (15), the author could 

 not detect ammonia in snow. 



Cultivation by Steam. At an agricul- 

 tural meeting, recently held in Scotland, 

 some interesting statements were made re- 

 specting the origin, progress, and results of 

 cultivation by steam in Europe. In 1855, a 

 Mr. John Fowler, of Essex County, England, 

 started his first steam-plough. Now, in Great 

 Britain, there are single establishments for 

 manufacturing steam-ploughs, so extensive 

 that they furnish constant employment for 

 not less than 1,200 men. In England, be- 

 tween 400 and 500 sets of steam-ploughg, 

 held, some by companies and others by indi- 

 vidual owners, are worked for hire, and are 

 found to be a profitable investment. A tract 

 of 500 acres, near London, so unproductive 

 that it could not be rented for $3 per acre, 

 was bought by an enterprising farmer, who 

 removed the fences, under-drained, and, with 

 a steam-plough, put the whole into grain- 

 crops. Last year, after allowing 10 per 

 cent, on the money invested in the land, his 

 clear profits were $1 8,000. The soil he thus 

 improved by deep steam-ploughing is a stiff 

 clay that could not be profitably worked by 

 horse-power. Another tract of 5,000 acres, 

 that had been regarded as worthless, wa3 

 bought by a farmer who ploughed it with 

 steam-power to the depth of 3 feet, and wa3 

 rewarded by crops of astonishing thrift. In 

 Scotland, cultivation by steam is becoming 

 general, and producing results equally mar- 

 vellous. Joint-stock companies are invest- 

 ing in land and steam -machinery, and secur- 

 ing large dividends, while individual farmers 

 have invested from $6,000 to $10,000 in 

 steam-machinery with very profitable re- 

 sults. In Germany also steam-power is 

 working a revolution in agriculture. 



It was also stated that the Pasha of 

 Egypt now employs on his extensive do- 

 main 400 steam-ploughs, and is building " on 

 his farm" 400 miles of railway, and, for 

 transporting and manufacturing the raw 

 material produced, has ordered thirty loco- 

 motive-engines and $3,000,000 worth of su- 

 gar-machinery. 



Perhaps the most successful cultivator 

 by steam in America is Mr. E. Lawrence, 

 of Magnolia Plantation, parish of Plaque- 

 mine, Louisiana. In a letter to the Agricul- 



tural Department, he speak3 of the results 

 of his trial of the steam-plough as follows :' 



" Two hundred and twenty acres of my 

 cane-crop, 140 acre3 of which were plant- 

 canes, and 80 acres first-year rattoons, were, 

 I believe, as thoroughly ploughed and cul- 

 tivated by steam as could be desired. The 

 80 acre3 of first-year rattoons, grown from 

 the stubble3 of the steam-ploughed cane 

 planted in a similar manner last year, were 

 barred off and well dug in the month of 

 March, then subsoiled and cultivated by 

 steam precisely as the plant-canes. The 

 yield was over 2,500 pounds of sugar to 

 the acre." 



Mr. Lawrence closes his letter with the 

 prophecy : 



" Necessity will soon compel us to take 

 a ' new departure.' The constant increase 

 of immigration and population in the grain- 

 growing States of our country will soon de- 

 mand a better cultivation and increased 

 production. In England, steam-ploughing 

 has increased the yield of wheat from 16 

 bushels to 28 bushels to the acre. 



" I do not believe the agricultural in- 

 terest of our country can much longer turn 

 a deaf ear to this last and greatest achieve- 

 ment of steam its successful application 

 to the cultivation of the soil. It has bro- 

 ken the yoke and lifted the burden which, 

 for ages, held both man and beast in bond- 

 age, ameliorating their condition by making 

 that which was most onerous easy and at- 

 tractive ; it has elevated labor, and dignified 

 the plough." 



Ozone by a New Process. An apparatus 

 for manufacturing ozone, patented by Dr. 

 Loew, is mentioned in the Journal of the 

 Franklin Institute. Some time since Dr. 

 Loew observed that cold air blown through 

 a flame is in part converted into ozone, and 

 his apparatus is constructed with a view to 

 turn this observation to practical account. 

 It consists of a number of Bunsen burners, 

 set up in a row, with an equal number of 

 horizontal tubes at some distance above tho 

 burners. The cold air is blown through the 

 tubes against the flames, and is then col- 

 lected, in the shape of ozone, by a number 

 of funnels placed on the opposite side of tho 

 flames. The ozone is to some extent con- 

 taminated by acetylen and nitrou3 acid. 



