400 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



riculturist, which we insert as showing his opinion 

 of the Devons. 



Holkham, Jpril 21, 1831. 

 Sir — I am this moment favored with your kind 

 letter, and most flattering account of the Devon 

 oxen. It is a pleasing reflection to me, that I was 

 the first person that introduced them into Ameri- 

 ca, through my friend Mr. Patterson. I thought 

 them at that time, and I am still more confirmed in 

 ray opinion now, that they are the most superior 

 breed of cattle in the Island, if well selected. But 

 I beg to be understood, when I speak of the De- 

 vonshire red cattle, it is in praise of the North De- 

 von cattle, with yellow noses and indented fore- 

 heads, and yellow around their eyes, which mark 

 their character beyond that of the South Devons, 

 which have black noses, or intermixed with black. 

 These I beg to be distinctly understood not to re- 

 commend as a superior breed of cattle. Be so 

 kind as to express my acknowledgments to Mr. 

 Hurlbut, when you see him, and to assure him 

 that I shall be at all times most happy to show 

 him, or any of hia American friends should they 

 come to England, every attention in my power, in 

 the agricultural Une. 



Tho. Wm. Cokk. 



From the Essex Gazette. 

 STEAM POWER. 



The invention of the steam engine, and the va- 

 rious ways in which this philosophical and me- 

 chanical power is brought to perform the labor of 

 men and other animals, is among the most curious 

 and interesting subjects to which we can possibly 

 turn our attention. Steam has already made a 

 greater chance in the pursuits of man, in the 

 mode of travelling, and the easing of labor, than 

 any other discovery or invention in all the history 

 of past time, and is doubtless destined to a much 

 more extended use ; indeed, it is highly probable, 

 that the time is not far distant, when steam en- 

 gines of all dimensions and powers, will he in com- 

 mon use to perform domestic labor. The same 

 fire which warms the mechanic's shop, will set 

 his saw, his plane and his auger in motion ; and 

 we have no doubt but that the present generation 

 will witness steam engines, perhaps not much 

 larger than cookinrr stoves, driving washing ma- 

 chines, sawing wood, and perlbrming many of the 

 more laborious services of domestic life. 



But it was not our purpose, in this article, mere- 

 ly to speculate on possibilities ; but rather to state 

 a few i'acts as to the power of steam and of coal 

 expended in the generation of steam. 



By a set of accurate experiments made in 1835, 

 at the copper mine of St. Austel, in Cornwall, it 

 was made to appear that one bushel of coal, 

 weighing 84 lbs. consumed in the best constructed 

 engine, exerted a force equal to raising 125,500,000 

 pounds one foot high, or equal to raising 1,255,000 

 pounds one hundred feet high ; and everv pound 

 of coal exerted a power equal to raising 667 tons 

 one foot, or more than 6 1-2 tons one hundred feet ! 

 Each ounce of coal was found to exert a power 

 equal to raising 42 tons one foot, or 18 pounds 

 to the height of a mile ! 



The largest pyramid of Egypt weighs, by cal- 



culation, 12,760,000,000 pounds, and employed 

 100,000 men twenty years in building it ; but the 

 whole required to elevate the stones to their pre- 

 sent situation could be produced by the combus- 

 tion of 479 tons of coal. 



The Menai bridge is about 500 feet long, a sin- 

 gle arch suspended on chains 120 feet ii-om the 

 water, and weighs 4,000,000 pounds ; and the 

 whole could be lifted fi-om the water to its present 

 situation, by the burning of 4 bushels of coal ! 



The burning of an ounce of coal being sufficient 

 to elevate 18 pounds 1 mile, it requiring but 18 

 pounds' draught to draw two tons on a level rail- 

 road, it follows that the combustion of an ounce 

 of coal is sufficient to draw two tons a mile, on 

 such a road. 



From these data, without any allowance for fu- 

 ture improvements, it is easy to perceive that the 

 principle is capable of endless diversification, and 

 application to almost all the labors of life, and 

 that whenever those improvements in manufac- 

 tures are made, which shall afford small machines 

 at a reduced price, they will become as common 

 as turning lathes or grindstones. 



There can be no doubt that whenever a perma- 

 nent power is wanted tor any laborious employ- 

 ment, steam is vastly cheaper than it is to employ 

 either men or horses; and the only reason why 

 it is not even more profitable than it is, on rail- 

 roads, is, that engines of an expense and power 

 are used, vastly beyond the labor they have to per- 

 form, and if any engine were so placed as to find 

 employment ecjual to its capacity for labor, it could 

 do that labor for half, and perhaps for a quarter 

 of the expense of horse power ; hence the utility 

 of extending railroads, and bringing on new lines 

 of travel, as almost every road in this country is 

 furnished with steam power equal to double the 

 amount of labor they can find to do. 



CIV FEEDING WET LEAVES TO SILK-WORMS. 



Mr. George Fitch, of Bridgton, made an expe- 

 riment last season, on feeding silk-worms on wet 

 leaves. A iew days after they were hatched he 

 divided the worms into two lots ; one lot was fed 

 on dry or wet leaves as they happened to be, ac- 

 cording to the weather ; and when leaves were 

 dirty they were washed and given to the worms ; 

 this lot grew faster, and became larger, and spun 

 a week sooner than those fed on dry leaves. It 

 required forty threads, before doubled, from the 

 cocoons of those fed on dry leaves, to make a 

 thread of sewing silk of rather a large size ; it took 

 eighty threads of those fed on wet leaves to make 

 a thread about the same size. The cocoons from 

 wet leaves were the largest and heaviest ; some of 

 them had threads 800 yards in length. The 

 length of the threads from the cocoons of the silk- 

 worms fed on dry leaves was not measured. 



We publish these particulars, as it has been 

 considered necessary to have dry leaves for silk- 

 worms, and it has been recommended to pick 

 leaves before a storm, in order to have a supply of 

 dry leaves on hand. A few years ago, there seem- 

 ed to be, according to writers on the subject, a 

 great deal of difficulty in managing silk-worms and 

 manuliicturing silk. Close rooms, with stoves and 

 thermometers to regulate the temperature, and 



