222 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



the means are invariably adequate to meet the 

 required ends and wants. 



The causes why orrass and cattle crops should 

 exceed grain and manutacturing crops, are these. 



Man is organized to subsist, as that they should 

 do so. 



The laws of vegetation require that they should 

 do so. 



To supply each individual with his legitimale 

 food, requires much more land in cattle than in 

 grain crops. 



Vegetable matter, and animal manures, are the 

 essential principles ol' fertilit}'. 



Grass crops greatly exceed the grain crops in 

 variety, and the period of ripening lor harvest- 

 ing. 



Thev are much more economical in their culti- 

 vation. 



They endure much longer in the soil. 



Georgk Heahy Walker. 



AVERY S ROTARY STEAM ENGIIVE. 



To tlie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



In your last number;- I notice a request for in- 

 formation concerning the rotarysteara engine. I 

 presume you allude to "Avery's Rotary Engine," 

 which is in extensive use in the north and west, 

 ibr driving saw and grisf rrtills. In compliance, 

 ■therefore, with your wishes, I send a nuiiiberol' 

 the "American Rail Road Journal,"' for February 

 last, containing a description of the engine, with 

 •certificates of its power and performances. 1 had 

 another number which gave a more particular 

 account of it, but I am unable to lay my. hands on 

 it. From extensive inquiry, i am induced to be- 

 lieve that, lor the purposes above mentioned, 

 Avery's engine is superior to any Other in use. It 

 has, likewise, received the very iiivorable notice of 

 the editor of the "Journal of the American Insti- 

 tute." 



Yours, P.' 



would be wholly incompetent to work a piston 

 engine, first excited our attention; and upon a 

 careiul examination of the machine, elicited our 

 united applause. It is unnecessary for us to give 

 an elaborate description of the engine, which is 

 estimated at 20 horse power. 



The power is applied to the saw in the most sim- 

 ple manner by bands; the motion bemg reduced 

 by increasing the size of the drum, so as to give 

 the saw anv required velocity. The saw that we 

 examined made 220 strokes in a m.inute, sawing 

 three boards fiom a log twelve feet long, and two 

 feet in diameter, in nine minutes, or cutting at the 

 riite of over 1,150 feet per day, if it could be kept 

 in constant motion — but allowing one half the 

 time to be lost in running the carriage back and 

 adjusting the logs, it would cut from five to six 

 thousand feet of lumber per day. The mill was 

 arranged for two saws, which the workmen as- 

 sured , us they usually kept constantly at work; but 

 the bqnd to one of the rag-wheels having been 

 sent to the shop to be repaired, we witnessed the 

 peritjrmance of but one saw. The workmen told 

 us that the power was sufficient for both saws. 



The plan for confining the saw without a saw- 

 gate, was, as we were informed, invented by Mr. 

 Mooley, and appeared to answer the purpose 

 well. 



It is- with pleasure that we assure you, sir, that 

 we were highly gratified with the whole perform- 

 ance, and with the utmost confidence, recom- 

 mend Jivery''s Rotary Eni^ine as a moving power 

 Ibr saw-mills. 



Respecfully, your most obedient, &c. 



George McCormick, 

 J. J. Speed, Jr., 

 Henry Ackley, 

 Hexry Ingersoll, 



From tlie Rail Road Jonrnal. 



The constant applications from all parts of the 

 country, for information in relation to this wonder- 

 ful machine, induces us to give such fiicfs in re- 

 lation to it as come within our knowledire. 



The following letter signed by four gentlemen 

 of the highest respectability and intelligence, re- 

 siding at Ithaca, Tompkins county, N. Y., gives 

 the facts and impressions of a short visit to a saw- 

 mill, erected by Abraham Bell, Esq., of Jersey 

 -city, and Seth Geer, Esq., of this city, in the 

 midst of a pine forest, in Tomkins county, eleven 

 miles from Ithaca* 



Ithaca, N. Y. ■Dec. 13, 1836. ' 

 To D. K. Minor, 



Sir — In compliance with your request, we 

 cheerfully give you our views and opinions of the 

 performance of Seth Geer and Abraham Bell's 

 saw-mill, driven by "v-Z^ery's Rotary Engine,''' 

 situated in the town of Enfield, Tompkins coun- 

 ty. New York. 



The simplicity of the Engine, and consequently 

 the ease and facility with which it can be man- 

 aged by persons of ordinary intelligence, and who 



[*The description of a drawinaj of the engine, 

 which would be useless without the figure, is omitted. 

 — Ed. Far. Reg. 



An engine of this description, without boilers 

 and machinery, to drive tii:o savvgates can be fiir- 

 nished for six hundred dollars — and the boilers, 

 pumps, furnace-irons, and fire bars, governor, 

 and all the necessary machinery, up to, and in- 

 cZuc/mg the walking-beam, or drums, [ot fifteen 

 to seventeen hundred dollars; or 2,100 to 2,300 

 dollars for the wliole machinery up to the saw; 

 and the same for one saw-gate will be fifteen to 

 sixteen hundred dollars, delivered at the shop of 

 E. Lynds & Son, Syracuse, Onondaga County, 

 or at the ^^Novelty Works,'''' in this city, by appli- 

 cation to Mr. Joseph Curtis, 132, Nassau-street. 

 The power of this engine will be ample to drive 

 one saw in one gate, and three or four in the 

 other — or to drive two saws in the single mill, or 

 mill with one gate. 



Since writing the above, we have been furnish- 

 ed with the following statements, from gentlemen 

 who fully understand the subject. 



The first is from Henry Seymour, Esq., late — 

 and fiom commencement of the Erie Canal — one 

 of the acting canal commissioners. Mr. Seymour 

 is himself the owner of a saw-mill of the ordinary 

 kind, and he flilly undertands what a saw-mill 

 should do. 



The other is from the owners and millers of 

 the new grist mill erected in Cayuga county. New 

 York, in relation to which we recently published 

 a letter from Mr. Avery. 



These certificates are from gentlemen who un- 

 derstand the subject, and they may be relied upon. 





