THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



255 



ed by making a floor of plank, say circular, and 

 procuring a good sized stone, to be affixed by a 

 ehal't to an upright post, throw the coal into the, 

 circular planked way, and attach a horse to the 

 shaft passing through the stone, and drive him 

 round, carrying the stone, in its passage, over the 

 coals. A very simple and easy process, precisely 

 similar to the old fashioned way of grinding or 

 breaking up bark, practised by the tanners, pre- 

 vious to the invention of the cast iron mill now in 

 use. The cost of covering an acre would be 

 trifling, and if it produced no other eflect than 

 that of forming a permanent vegetable basis in 

 the soil, for lime to act upon, it appears to me it 

 would well repay a greater amount of labor and 

 expense than would be necessary to try it. 



1 have just been made acquainted with anoiher 

 result of the application of charcoal to arable land, 

 that if general, from its application, will induce its 

 use by every one who can procure it at a reasona- 

 ble price : that is, wherever charcoal has been 

 applied rust never affects the growing crop of 

 wheat!'. My friend who has communicated this 

 fact to me states, that he has observed it particu- 

 larly, and when the field generally has been 

 " struck with rust," as it is called, those places 

 where he had applied the charcoal invariably 

 escaped. J. H. Hepbuiin. 



Jersey Shore, Lycoming Co., Pa. 



From llie (London)-Farmers' Magazine. 

 CAUSES OF FIRE. 



Mr. J. Murray has published a letter in a Li- 

 verpool paper on the frequency, causes, and pre- 

 vention of fire, which contains many facts well 

 worthy of attentive consideration. Among other 

 observations, he says — 



"There is far too little attention paid to the lo- 

 comotive engine on our railroads. The ignited 

 coals that fall below are often blown to considera- 

 ble distance, carried into the adjoining fields, and 

 ma)', in contact with (arming stock prove a serious 

 evil ; and I have witnessed brushwood and tufts 

 of grass consumed by this means. A green ta- 

 per, colored as it is by means of oxide of copper, 

 when blown out, acts on aa aphlogistic principle, 

 and may continue to the end of the coil in an ig- 

 nited though flameless state, and, in contact with 

 combustible materials, may prove seriously de- 

 structive. It has set a mahogany table on fire — 

 providentially discovered in time. Damp rags, 

 en masse, may spontaneously take fire, and have 

 consumed the premises. Linseed and other oils, 

 but especially that of linseed, have been the fruit- 

 ful sources of conflagration in cotton factories and 

 the warehouses of merchants. Nets dipped in 

 oil, and cast over the rafters in an outer shed, set 

 them on fire j and a bale of cotton wool burst into 

 a flame from linseed oil being poured upon it. 

 Even animal matters, such as woollen, under such 

 circumstances, come within the precincts of dan- 

 ger. I find that strong red fuming nitric acid will 

 set fire to straw ; and an accident of this kind 

 once occurred to myself: The vapor of sulphuric 

 ether, instead of being volatile, and ascending, as 

 is generally supposed, falls to the ground lil<e wa- 

 ter; and accidents in the laboratory and shop of. 

 the druggist, from ignorance of this fact, are by 1 



no means unfrequent. I am personally acquaint- 

 ed with three distinct cases, wherein the premises 

 were set on fire originating in this source. Specks 

 of bull's eyes in window glass may, on the prin- 

 ciple of burning lens, ignite inflammafle sub- 

 stances brought within the limits of their locus ; 

 hence the curtains used in some factories may be 

 easily ignited ; thus, too, a water-bottle left in a 

 window, may in sunshine be the means of settino- 

 premises on fire, especially in a house shut up 

 during the absence of the limiily; and I have 

 seen a silk curtain consumed to tinder by the con- 

 centrated rays of the sun, in passing through the 

 show-botile in the druggist's window. Spirits of 

 turpentine will inflame if poured out in the hot 

 sunbeam ; and I am inibrmed by the distillers of 

 tar and turpentine that the head of the still cannot 

 be salely removed for thirty hours after the fire 

 has been extinguished, as an explosion might be 

 otherwise anticipated. Lucifers, or Congreve 

 matches are one of the fruitful sources of^fires. 

 Those that are called Dutch, containing phospho- 

 rus and having a very (ietid phosphoric smell, are 

 exceedingly dangerous : they may ignite sponta- 

 neously at the temperature of summer heat ; and 

 it may now suffice to say that a recent conflagra- 

 tion has been traced to this cause. The cigar^nd 

 the pipe are pre-eminent sources of modern con- 

 flagration ; and I have no doubt that of the seat of 

 the Marquis of Londonderry, and the late one of 

 York Minster, are entirely attributable to the pipe 

 or cigar used by the workmen engaged in repairs. 

 It is not generally known that tobacco contains 

 nitre, and that, like touchwood, it continues ignit- 

 ed lor hours. Fires occuring from this cause are, 

 I apprehend, too notorious to need specific detail. 

 It is clear that the end of a cigar dropped among 

 wood shavings might be fanned into a flame by a 

 current of air ; and tossed from the top of a coach 

 into an adjoining field, and carried by the breeze 

 into a farmer's stack-yard, hay ricks and wheat 

 stacks may even burst into a flame. I believe 

 many a cigar smoker is an unintentional incendi- 

 ary. 



" Fires in farm-yards also may originate from 

 quick lime left in a cart under ashed, and mois- 

 ture getting to it. Heat sufficient to cause com- 

 bustion is developed. The spontaneous combus- 

 tion of hay-ricks fiom the dampness of the hay, 

 is a danger to which the negligent farmer is often 

 exposed. In our present state ofchemical know- 

 ledge it is idle to attempt to follow this phenome- 

 non through its course, or to explain the reasons 

 lor the heat produced in fermentation. As water 

 must be present in fermentation, it is probable 

 that it is decomposed, and it is commonly said 

 that the flame produced is the result of intense 

 chemical action ; but, as Dr. Thompson remarks, 

 (System of Chem., vol. iv. p. 364)— 'All the phe- 

 nomena of fermentation lay for many years con- 

 cealed in complete darkness, and no chemist was 

 bold enough to hazard an attempt even to explain 

 them. The)' were employed, however, and with- 

 out hesitation too, in the explanation of other 

 phenomena ; as if giving to one process the name 

 of another of which we are equally ignorant, 

 could, in reality, add any thing to our know- 

 ledge.' " 



