AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 77 



lime-water is added ; and about half as much as was used for the first process will generally 

 be sufficient to produce the requisite defecation. Heat is then applied, and before the syrup 

 boils superphosphate of lime is added until the syrup ceases to produce any apparent alka- 

 line action upon the test-paper; and by these means the phosphate of lime will be precipi- 

 tated. The syrup must then be filtered as before, for the purpose of separating it from its 

 impurities ; after which the filtered juice or syrup is to be concentrated and crystallized as 

 before, for the purpose of obtaining from it a further quantity of sugar. Centrifugal 

 machines may be used for separating the crystallized sugar from juices or syrups. 



The second residual syrup obtained by this last-mentioned process may also be subjected 

 to the same process as that just described for treating the first residual syrup, in order to 

 obtain, as results, a further quantity of crystallized sugar, to be separated from a third resi- 

 dual syrup as before. 



In the same manner the process above described may be repeatedly applied to each resi- 

 dual syrup, which may remain after a previous process, until the syrup or juice operated 

 upon shall be exhausted of sugar, or as much so as may be economically practicable. 



The Tile-laying Machine, 



HORACE GREELEY, in a recent correspondence with the New York Tribune, states "that 

 the tile-laying machine of which only drawings and descriptions, so far as I am aware, have 

 reached our country, is commending itself to the judgment of British improvers. This 

 machine, now worked with movable steam instead of horse-power, takes up its position at 

 one side of the field to be drained, and commences the first drain at the point opposite on 

 the other, slowly drawing thence to itself a chain, to which is attached an apparatus which 

 cuts a mere crease from the surface downward to the required depth, at which it makes a hole 

 barely larger than the tiles, which closely follow on a string, being firmly attached to the 

 perforating apparatus, and paid out from the starting-point just as fast as required. Thus 

 each foot of the drain is perfected the minute after it is begun, while the labor of throwing 

 out and replacing several cubic feet of earth for every foot of drain is obviated. Obviously, 

 this would not answer in a rocky nor in a miry soil, though in the latter this mode of cutting 

 would tend to give firmness to the earth immediately surrounding the drain, at least for a 

 time. . 



Machine for Thinning Turnips. 



At the recent Exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society (England) at Carlisle, a machine 

 for "thinning turnips" was exhibited by Messrs Garret & Son. 



This invention, shown in the engraving, is designed for thinning ont the plants in the 

 drills, leaving only small bunches at regular intervals, varying from ten to eighteen inches 

 apart. This is effected by means of a wheel which revolves at right angles to the axis of the 

 machine when in motion, to the outer edge of which are attached a series of horizontal seg- 

 mental knives revolving with considerable rapidity, describing, in consequence of the forward 



