FARM ERS' REGISTER— EVILS OF THE ROAD LAW. 



535 



heat then absorbed and carried off by the par- 

 ticles of aqueous vapor or steam, is confined in 

 the ajiartinent, (as it may be done by close stoves 

 and pi|ies, ibr steam is extensively used in healing 

 rooms) it must bceniirel}^ lost: some id 'a of which 

 loss may be tbrmed, when we consider tliat one 

 cubic inch ol" water, will expand into 172S cubic 

 inches of steam; and of course, one cubic foot of 

 water or sap, (which weighs 62.^ pomids) will 

 swell our, or expand, into 1,388,400 cubic inches 

 of steam or watery vapor, carrying olT with it, an 

 amazing quantity of heat into the atmosphere; 

 which is necessary to u|'hold it in its expanded 

 state, and if suddenly condensed by cold, will be 

 again aiven out. 



Thirdlv. A great nnndier of smoky chinmeys 

 may be curfld by burning dry wootl; (or as many 

 of them smoke, chiefiy at the kindling, or making 

 the green wood burn, it" dry wood was used, it 

 would burn off immediately, and by producing a 

 draught, would dis])el the smoke up the chimney. 



F ourthly. Less wood is required, to ]>roduce the 

 same fire or degree of heat. The common opin- 

 ion IS, that it requires more of dry than of green 

 wood, to make the same fire. But when we con- 

 sider the quantity of dry wood required to set the 

 green wood on fire, and keep it t)urning — the slow 

 combustion afterwards — the quantity of" heat lost 

 by expelling the water from the wood — and the 

 vast quantity absorbed or swallowed up by sfeam 

 — it nmst require a great deal less of dry, than of 

 green wood, to generate the same unilbrm degree 

 of heat, or quantity of fire. 



Filthly. It is certainly more hea'ihy to imrn dry 

 wood, especiidlyin sick rooms. Few persons seem 

 to have considered the inij^ropriety of putting wet 

 or green wood on the fire place, considering the 

 great volume of watery vapor that is expelletl from 

 it. If wetting or washing the hearth, or the dry- 

 ing of wet clothes beffjre a fire, be deleterious to 

 health, certainly the burning of sappy, or at least 

 wet wood must be. 



Sixthly. It affords much less sont when season- 

 ed wood is burnt; tor, producing a greater degree 

 of heat, it consumes more of the soot, and this 

 heat, of course, causing a stronger draught, the 

 residue of the soot is driven out of the chinmey: 

 besides, not half the soot is formed; lor as soot is 

 the unconsumed particles of the matter of the 

 wood, produced by a slow and imperlcct combus- 

 tion, it is almost entirely consumed in the quick 

 hot fire produced by dry wood. 



Seventhly. The combustion is more rapid, and 

 of course the heat is greater. Other reasons might 

 be assigned, but it is sufficient to mention at 

 present, that the draught is stronger and better 

 in a fire place where seasoned fuel is consumed: 

 and as the management of a fire place depends 

 wholly upon this, it will further appear, how much 

 advantage the seasoned, has over that of the un- 

 seasoned wood, from considerations on the con- 

 struction of the fire |)laces. 



From this it would seem that there is little rea- 

 son, or at least little economy, in spending so much 

 combustible matter, (or in other words, using so 

 much of the Avood, in drying the balance before it 

 can burn) when this could be done in the sun and 

 wind, and the balance used for fuel. 



We might also from these facts, improve our 

 economy in clearing land; instead of burning the 



wood in heaps as usual, stack it to season it, and 

 it will be good lor twenty years or more. 



But these remarks are more applicable to pine 

 wood, which although unfit for fiiel in a green 

 state, yet when dry, gives as much heat, and per- 

 haps more, than any of the woods in common 

 use for fuel, such as oak, hickory, &c., and cer- 

 tainly more than all the swamp woods. For this 

 purpose it might be belted and allowed to stand, 

 or cut down, mauled, and stacked. 



NICHOLAS E. READ, 



Twitiie's Creek, Charlotte County. 



EVILS OF THE ROAD LAW, AIVD HINTS FOR 

 ITS AMENDMENT. 



To tlie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Rockhridse, Dec. 30th, 1834. 



I am much pleased to find one of your corres- 

 pondents in the last Register (No. 7) has taken 

 up the subject of our defective road law, and is 

 determined in future numbers to point out the evils 

 arising therefrom. And what place more fit (or 

 the discussion of this (tuestion, than in a Avoik de- 

 voted to the interests of agriculture? For without 

 roads to convey the products of our farms to mar- 

 ket, sufficiently good to prevent the freight over- 

 running the profits, there would be an end to all 

 incitement to enlarge our cro[ s. It is indeed won- 

 derful that a law so vitally important to the best 

 interests of the stale, should so lon*^ have been 

 suffered to disgrace our statute book, without al- 

 most any effort on the part of the legislature to 

 alter or amend it, until the last winter, and then 

 not until the heel of the session, when the minds 

 of the members were more occupied with the ap- 

 proaching electioneerino; canvass, than with legis- 

 lation. But" it is one of the evils of the present 

 political excitement, that our representatives loill 

 not venture on any innovation on established 

 usage — or cannot indeed with safety, for fi^ar it 

 will be seized on by their political opponents as a 

 pretext to eject them from their seats. It is never- 

 theless true that our legislature is more prone to 

 the discussion of hair-splitting abstractions, than 

 to more practical business legislation; and whilst 

 they are talkins;, other legislatures are act ins;, and 

 outstripping us in every species of public im- 

 provement. But those of our legislature of 

 strong talking propensities, might find ample ma- 

 terials to feast their appetites in portraying the in- 

 equalit}^ — and therefore the injustice, as well as 

 the utter inefficiency of our present road system. 

 A little reflection will point out to them the ample 

 room for complaint daily heard by the surveyor of 

 every precinct, where the sturdy yeoman is com- 

 pelled to perform his task along side the menial 

 slave; whilst the exempted master is indulging in 

 ease and idleness at home; and this it is, that 

 drives much of the bone and sinew of our state 

 from its borders. It may be that this is a mechanic 

 having a son of sixteen, or upwards, annually 

 renting the house to shelter his family, without 

 waggon or horse, and yet in consequence of the 

 present odious features of the law, is obliged to 

 give the public highways the same amount of la- 

 bor in propria persona, as does the owner of two 

 slaves with permanent residence, and perhap.s 

 thousands vested in waggons or stages The 

 poor felloAv with scarcely the means to buy the 



