No. 7. 



Boilers — Mechanics. 



215 



farmer set to and make it on his farm, which i 

 will not be an atfair of any ijTeat difficulty, ! 

 if he has tlie least niodicuui of ino-eniiity or 

 industry, for every body knows how to dior a 

 well, make a cistern, or dig- a ditch. 



One-half of the job witli whicii we set out 

 being now accomplished, let us see if we can- 

 not make another million and a half of dollars 

 with equal ease, for an old man of my ac- 

 quaintance used to say, that when a work 

 was once begun it was half done. So here 

 goes for the balance. A number of farmers, 

 of late years, having grown wiser as they 

 have grown older, have procured large boilers 

 and had them properly enclosed in brick work 

 or masonry, in which to boil or cook the corn 

 and other grain fed to their ho2"s and cattle, 

 instead of having itground or fed whole; and 

 the uniform testimony of those who have 

 adopted this plan is, that there is great econo- 

 my in it, and some think they save one-half 

 th :'ir grain by cooking it before it is fed, and 

 tliat it keeps the animals in better csndition. 

 One small farmer thinks that he saves more 

 than twenty dollars a season by following out 

 this practice. Now I put it down that each 

 fiimer in the state will save ten dollars by 

 acting rationally, and for his own interest in 

 t'nis particular. This makes exactly one 

 million and a half more, and the two sums 

 aided together, makes the enormous amount 

 of three millions of dollars per annum, to 

 be saved by the farmers of Pennsylvania 

 alone ; a pretty sum this, and well worth look- 

 ing after in these hard times. What the 

 amount would be if extended to the whole 

 United States, I have not yet had time to cal- 

 culate, but it v/ould be astonishing no doubt; 

 and if what I have written should be accept- 

 able to your readers, and they should generally 

 adopt the sufrgestions, after the next census 

 of tlie United States is taken, which will be 

 during the current year, perhaps I may drop 

 you an estimate for the whole Union ; so in 

 the meantime I bid adieu. 



Agricola. 

 January 5, 1840. 



For the Farmers" Cabinet. 

 Boilers, 



In some former numbers of the Farmers' 

 Cabinet I have read essays on the subject of 

 tlie advantages of boiling grain and roots 

 for stock, v.'hich arrested my attention and 

 induced me to examine some of the boilers 

 which are in operation, and I find that they 

 fiir exceed the expectation formed of them. 

 Those who have erected them in a proper 

 manner, and have brought them into use for 

 coCiking corn, oats and potatoes for hogs and 

 cattle, would not be willing to part with 

 them for three times their original cost. A 

 fhrrner who has had one in use for some 



years, says that he i.s now sure his stock 

 gets the whole of tiie grain, and what is of 

 great consequence, it is all thoroughly di- 

 gested. There is now no going to mill ami 

 giving away ten per cent, of the grain, be- 

 sides the otherwise unavoidable waste which 

 some allege amounts to about lour per cent, 

 more, lie says the feeding of cows witli 

 boiled oats is the most profitable application 

 of it which he has ever made, f()r it puts 

 marrow into their bones, and in the sprino- 

 and summer the dairy maids draw it out in 

 the shape of fine rich butter which always 

 brings a good price since these piping days 

 of steam-boats and rail-roads whicli have set 

 the whole world a travelling. Some have 

 erected expensive structures for steaming, 

 but it seems now to be admitted that a sim- 

 ple boiler, set in a proper manner in brick 

 work with a grate underneath to support the 

 fuel is the cheapest and best plan hitherto 

 adopted. The demand for these boilers hav- 

 ing increased has induced the manufacturers 

 of them to improve them, and also to sell 

 them at a less price than was formerly given 

 for them, and recently a friend of mine pur- 

 chased one of great beauty and excellence, 

 at a fair rate, at No. Market street, Phila- 

 delphia, just below Second, on the north side ; 

 Dilworth, I think, is the name of the seller; 

 those sold there are lighter and handsomer 

 than any castings of the kind I have seen, 

 and come cheaper ; Savery & Co., who are 

 the founders, it is said, use the iron which is 

 made at Lyman's furnace, Pottsville, with 

 anthracite coal. P. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Mechanics. 



" Out of nothing— uotliing comes." 



The laws of nature, unlike human laws, 

 can neither be changed nor evaded ; and, for 

 want of a proper knowledge of simple and 

 unchangeable laws, niuny men waste time 

 and money in trying to produce great eflects 

 by insufficient means. 



The mechanical powers, as they are called, 

 do not, and never can, create power — they 

 only modify its application. 



The power most easily measured is that 

 of gravity, or weight : and it is the cheapest 

 of all powers, or first movers, when, as in 

 the case of a water-fill, nature constantly 

 winds up the weight for us for nothing. 



Suppose tlion we have one thousand pounds 

 of vv^ater fixlling ten feet in a minute. No 

 human contrivance can make that water raise 

 more than its own weight to the height of 

 ten feet in the same time. It cannot raise 

 quite as much, for the friction of the ma- 

 chinery must waste part of the power; but, 

 as it may be a small part, let us omit the 

 friction from these calculations. 



