692 



FARMERS" REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



I copmence about the 10th of April— rows four 

 and H half feet wide, and two and a half in thp 

 step. For tiiis close planting I have heen cengiired 

 b_v my neiohbors, but I have never found my crop 

 to sutler more from drouirlit than theirs; and, in- 

 deed, this year, ihuu<i'h so remarkably dry, all who 

 saw my crop pronounced it less injured than any 

 in the neighborhood. My seed corn has no previ- 

 ous preparation, having ntiore than once suiiered 

 loss by soaking, &c. I was induced once to try 

 ashes and plaster in, the hill with my corn; the re- 

 sult was, that not more than one hall' came up. 

 This year, 1 put the same mixture 071 the hill of 

 corn — it did well and made fine corn. But asain 

 to return : the plough is not used in my crop at all 

 after the land is broken up; but in its stead, the 

 double-shovel ploughs are used, which are, in my 

 opinion, prelerable to either the plough or cultiva- 

 tor, and I have used both; they do their work 

 well and expeditiously — twice in the row being 

 lufficient to work up the whole well. These are 

 started as soon as the corn is large enough to 

 weed and thin, (say three inches) — the hoes im- 

 mediately follow, weeding out and thinning the 

 corn to one plant in a hill ; the hoes 2:0 over once, 

 and the double-shovels twice, or oftener, if possi- 

 ble, before harvest; after which, they are laid 

 aside, and a small iron tooth harrow substituted, 

 which is run twice in a row — the hoes follow, lay- 

 ing by the corn, taking care to earth the hills very 

 slightly. It will be perceived that I do not break 

 up my baulks or middles, until after my corn is 

 planted. This I prefer doing as the corn is com- 

 ing up, for two reasons; first, because I am there- 

 by less troubled with grass through the season; 

 and secondl}^, the ploughs, in doing their work, 

 turn up to the surface worms and other insects; 

 and crows, preferrini; meat to bread, will leave the 

 corn to eat the worms. This I know to be the 

 case from experience — it will cost you nothing to 

 try it. Pursue the lbreo;oing plan, and keep "wide 

 awake and duly sober," and if you lail in a crop, 

 it will not be your fault, or mine either, I hoi)e. 

 Peter I. Derieux. 



From tlie Mining Journal. 

 CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS. 



The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company are 

 adopting a new mode of constructing the upper 

 works of railways, under a patent granted to Mr. 

 Thomas Parkin, who has delivered several lec- 

 tures upon the subject in London. 



As the subject of railways is generallv interest- 

 ing, and must be especially so to the inhabitants 

 of this part of South Wales, which, throuoh the 

 advancement in science, seems destined to become, 

 at no distant period, a very important seat for the 

 manufacture of iron, we shall not hesitate to give 

 a particular description of Mr. Parkin's plan. The 

 road, being prepared of longitudinal bearers of 

 kyanizcd oak, or other hard wood, from four to six 

 inches in the base, two at the top, or four or five 

 feet deep, dovetailed into one another, thus f^irm- 

 inff a continuous linf, with upriiihis, twelve mches 

 long and about three in diametei;, screwed firmly 

 at every yard into their bottom, are fixed, at a 

 proper height and level, in trenches dug m the 

 road, from eitjhteen inches to two feet wide and 

 deep. The trenehes^are then filled with concrete, 



I composed of gravel, eand, and A bertha w lime, in 

 I proper proportions, when only the top of the bear- 

 j ers is visible on the surliice ol the road, all the rest 

 j being completely buried in and consolidated with 

 i the concrete, which uumediately sets and hardens, 

 j and in a short time becomes a solid rock, the 

 whole lenclh of tlie road fornuno", as an engineer 

 who inspected the work said, "an everlasting rail- 

 way." The foundation being complete, patent 

 felt is laid upon the top of the bearers Avhereto 

 bars of iron, two inches wide, and half an inch 

 thick, are firmly screwed, and the road is finished. 

 The dimensions of the trenches must be regulat- 

 ed by the nature of the soil on which the railway 

 is made, while the parties adopting the plan may 

 use wood and iron of any size they think proper. 

 The rails, as at present fixed in iron chairs, mount- 

 ed on stone blocks, at every yard, form unyielding 

 points of support, and intermediate flexible spaces. 

 The carriages, of necessity, alternately descend 

 below, and rise above, the mean line of progres- 

 sion, and produce concussions on those points, the 

 severity ol" which is according to the degree of 

 variation from a straicrht line and the rapidity of 

 the motion. At a speed of twenty-five miles per 

 hour, they would occur 733 times in a minute. 

 On the Manchester and Liverpool line, Professor 

 Barlow "found the whole road to tremble;" and 

 the deflection in the rails so great as materially to 

 diminish their strength, in consequence of their 

 beintj permancnily fixed to the chairs. 



Upon Mr. Parkin's plan, no vibration of the 

 least possible degree, is felt, the bars being screw- 

 ed to continuotis wooden bearers, bedded upon an 

 unyielding mass of concrete, of the strength and 

 durability of which cement the Roman roads are 

 irrefragable evidence. Besides, the patent felt, 

 between the iron and the wood is a non-conduc- 

 tor of vibration, and aids in lessening the tremu- 

 lous motion attendant on carriages running even 

 on a perfect plane. The stone blocks in the ordi- 

 nary mode of construction, being insulated and in- 

 dependent of each other, the preservation of a 

 level surface, (even if its attainment were practi- 

 cable) and of parallelism in the rails, is impossi- 

 ble, as differences in the subsoil must occur; and 

 when a block has sunk, in ever so trifling a de- 

 gree, below those next it, the next will either re- 

 main in the permanent flexure, or be loosened from 

 the chair, or loosen the chair from the block, or 

 hold the l)Iock in suspension. The rails and chairs 

 form a series of levers and fulcra, the action and 

 re-action of which are incompatible with perma- 

 nent stability. 



Upon Mr. Parkin's plan, an even surface and 

 parallel lines may be had, with almost mathemati- 

 cal exactitude, which neither the magnitude of the 

 weights passing on the rails, nor the rapidity of 

 their motion, can disturb, after the concrete has 

 acquired a proper degree of hardness. When a 

 block on one side of an ordinary railway has sunk 

 onl)' in a slight degree, while the corresponding 

 one opposite obtains its position, increased weight 

 will, of necessit}', he thrown on the former, and 

 its tendency to sink still further as well as to be 

 Ibrced out of a parallel line be augmented, in the 

 ratio of the sinking. But with Mr. Parkin's rails 

 no such sinking could be anticipated, even were 

 its occurrence possible. 



With level parallel rails, scarcely any lateral 

 prest ure can be felt, except in curves, where means 



