1S371 



FA i; ,M i-:ijs' R i:r, istrr. 



293 



Fnim what jiraiMicnl cxiiorii'iico I have had ol"ilir 

 lira^-iiiix anii roller, I can .\lti\s! to th(^ir iiscriihiiv.-i 

 on i!(»iiu' :Ji)ils, but (1(1 not coiK^iilcr thoin iiiilis|)(MiPa- 

 IiIp, or !U all usi^tul on many others, unless as a pre- 

 [lantiion llir <xrasses, or drill crops. 



To Mr. (Jay's wish 1o know who I am, and to 

 become heller acquainted with me, I hei; to say 

 tl\at it is not my present wish to ap[iear in the Re- 

 «;is;er oilier than anonymously. Uncicr any other 

 inediUHi of heconiinii; acquainted, I should be very 

 irlail to follow up the advance vviiich he has made, 

 I will only state, that I am also a practical farmer, 

 and an overseer, and as such, cheerllilly offer to 

 him the riirdt hand of a leliow laborer, tliouijh I 

 have been Im-ccI to my profession by hard-workinu 

 practice, in a school, and on a little spot of earth, 

 where airriculture, either as a science or practicial 

 pursuit, is ijenerallv admitted to be well understood, 

 and have subsequently had a considerable share <jf 

 nianairinir experience; yet my experience as a 

 Viriiiiiia corn-planter, is limited, and though .some 

 of my notions may possibly differ from some of my 

 neiifhbors on some points, I must, for this reason 

 alone, decline complying at least for the present, 

 with Air. Gay's wish to know my mode of pre- 

 paring land; merely stating that crops under my 

 care have been from five bushels of corn to the acre, 

 through the field, to upwards of ten on particular 

 f|)ots. N. L. 



ON THK FILTH OF TOWNS, A^Sn THE RF.ME- 

 DIKS PROPOSED. 



To tlio Editor of tfir Fariiiers' Ecgis^ter. 



I read with great interest the articles in yonv 

 last niHuber (for June,) concerning the sanitary 

 poIi(^e of cities and towns. Having resided in one 

 of these for twenty years, I am able, by my own 

 experience, toatteet the truth of the facts you have 

 stated, with regard to the influence of uncleanli- 

 ness on our comfort. The opinions you have ex- 

 pressed as to its ellects on our health, ought, I 

 should think, to commend themselves at once to 

 the reason of every unprejudiced and intelligent 

 mind. The remedy, so i'nr as it seems to convert 

 a nuisance into the means of fertilizing our soil, 

 and supplying us with liaod, seems to be worthy ol 

 all praise. As to its details, I have formed no opin- 

 ion. Possibly there may be some fastidious {)er- 

 sons who may find if offensive to their imagina- 

 tions to think of eating food produced from land 

 thus manured. Perhaps the s(]ueamishness ol 

 some niiglit be removed, by recollecting the habits | 

 of swine, which we all know feed on these arti- 

 cles. Yet, I suppose, no one relishes our Virginia 

 hams, or middlings, or joles, the less on this ac- 

 count. The truth is, that, by the process of di- 

 gestion and assmiilation, the food of the swine is 

 so entirely changed, that the flavor of its flesh is 

 not at all aflecied by his use of the articles in ques- 

 tion. Now, if they were used as manure, they 

 would not only undergo a smiilar change, effected 

 by the organs of the vegetable, whilst it was grow- 

 ing; but the chemical changes wrought even be- 

 fore they had become its food, by their decompo- 

 sition and the new combinations of their elements, 

 would render them entirely diflerent, when they 

 were taken up into the circulation of the plant, 

 from what they had once been. 



With regard to the efli'cfs on health of the de- 

 composition of animal substances, (whether those 



relerred to, or the carcasses of beasts,) and the dif- 



Hision througli the atmospheric air o(" the gases 

 evolved, (even when they are )\o\ sulliciently con- 

 centrated [lerceptibly to allect the senses,) allow 

 me to refer you to the opinions now uiiiversally re- 

 ceived, of the fatal consequences of bur\ing the 

 dead, in large cities, and especially in clnnches. I 

 do not pretend to have formed a judgment on the 

 details of the plans you have proposed. Pmlmltly 

 they need to be patiently examined and fully dis- 

 cussed, and may perhaps require to be miicii mod- 

 ified. Yet that it is im|)ortant to adopt some such 

 plans as you have suggested, f do not doubt. Let 

 me remind you, however, that such changes are 

 rarely made at once. Probaliiy it is well that it is 

 so. Beings of fi:tcultiesso limited as ours, if they 

 were instantly to adopt every real improvement, 

 must do it at the expense of adopting with equal 

 readiness every specious innovation. Persevere, 

 then, in your efforts to enlighten and to rouse the 

 public mind on this suliject, and I doubt not, if 

 your views shall appear on full examination to be 

 as sound, as they certainly are plausible, they will 

 ultimately and universally prevail. 



Urbanus. 



THE DrFFERENCE BETWEEN USIKG BRICICS 

 IN TH K DRY OR WET STATE, FOR MASONRY. 



Proprietois who are about to have brick building;s 

 erected, will do well to attend to the following state- 

 ment—the purport of which is almost universally neg- 

 lected, even by the few persons who are fully aware of 

 its importance. 



"Few people, except builders, are aware of the ad- 

 vantage of wetting bricks before laying them. A wall 

 12 inches thick, built up of good mortar, with bricks 

 well soaked, is stronger in every respect, than one 16" 

 inches thick, built up dry. The reason of this is, that 

 if the bricks are saturated with water, they will not ab- 

 stract from the mortar the moisture which is necessary 

 to its crystallization; and, on the contrary, they will 

 unite chemically with the mortar, and become almost 

 as solid as a rock. On the other hand, if the bricks 

 arc put up ilry, they immediately take all the moisture 

 from the mortar, and leave it too dry to harden, and the 

 consequence is, that when a building of this descrip- 

 tion is taken down, or tumbles down of its own accord, 

 tiie mortar falls from it like so much sand." 



Masons or bricklayers are sufficiently well informed 

 on this subject; but it would seem that they care very 

 little about the durability of their work — and there is 

 at least one reason why they are very unwilling to use 

 bricks in a proper state. Bricks, to be saturated, will 

 absoib so great a quantity of water, that their weight 

 becomes greatly increased, and consequently, the labor 

 of handling and laying them. And unless proprietors 

 were willing to make a considerable addition to the 

 price paid for lajmg dry bricks, the workmen would 

 be greatly the losers by the change. 



The proof of the above position may be seen in al- 

 most every instance of the pulling down of a brick 

 house, of modern and ordinary construction. The 

 bricks which form the walls above ground are ea- 

 sily detached from each other, and cleared of the very 

 weak and crumbling cement between; while in the 

 walls of the cellar, or of the foundation courses, which 

 were always in contact with moist earth, and therefore 

 the briclcs were kept moist, they are so closely ce- 



