1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



609 



on the preserving of wood by lime water. The 

 Cabinet already contains some information on this 

 subject, but perhaps, it would be well to show that 

 the experience in England agrees with that ofour 

 own country. The most likely way, in my opiru- 

 on, to bring it into general use, woiikl be l()r some 

 industrious person to take out a patent tor it, and 

 sell out state, county, and township, as well as 

 individual rights, to use the process ; — say cliarge 

 each and every larmer five dollars for the privilege 

 of steeping his posts in lime water, and it would 

 soon become universal ; some would pay the fee, 

 and others would make a merit of evading the pre- 

 tended patent right. The old Iblks would atfiiin 

 that there was nothing new about it, that they 

 knew it before the patentee was born, though they 

 had omitted to try it themselves; and the young 

 ones would shrewdly suspect that it did not differ 

 much in principle from the well known practice of 

 white-washing. Z. 



Preserving wood by lime wafer. 



Sir, — I some years ago called the attention of 

 the readers of your instructive periodical to Sir 

 Charles Steward JMenteith's, (of Closeburn, Dum- 

 li'ieshire,) simple unpatented method of preserving 

 timber ; I think it so valuable a process that it can- 

 not be too often published. It is as follows: after 

 cuiting the timber to the size it will be wanted, it 

 is steeped in a pond of lime and water for a fort- 

 night, or more or less time, according to the size 

 of the wood. Sir Charles has now some farm build- 

 ings on his estate, the timber of the roofs of which 

 is the common young Scotch fir, but having under- 

 gone the lime-water process, it is as sound, after a 

 lapse offoriy years, as the day it was put up ; the 

 same timber, under ordinary circumstances, and 

 in similar situations would rot in from tliree to 

 seven years. The carpenters find, in working the 

 wood thus treated, that the edges of their plane- 

 irons soon become dull, and on examination, it is 

 found that the acid contained in the wood is crys- 

 tallized by combining with the alkali of the lime. 



Yours faithful iy, 



Arthur Trevelyan. 

 TVallingtone Newcastle, 7'yne, ? 



7th of May, 1S39. S 



CUI.TURE OF BROOjr CORN IN SALEM, N. J. 



From tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 



Your letter of the 20lh July was received on the 

 following day, asking information respecting the 

 cultivation of broom corn, and the quaniity raised 

 on my land per acre. In answer thereto, I say 

 that my land is a loamy soil, and in good condi- 

 tion, producing generally about sixty bushels of 

 Indian corn per acre — of vvlieal from twenty to 

 thirty — and of barley from thirty to filly. 



My usual method is to cart out all my manure 

 from the barn-yard through the winter and early 

 in the spring, so that the greater part thereof is 

 upon the fields by the lime the plough can be put 

 into the land. The cultivation of the broom corn 

 by Mr. Brown (the paper you say hrretofljre sent 

 to you being lost, giving an account thereof) and by 

 iiim attended to until tiie brooms manufactured by 

 him were sent to market, amounted^ according to 



his estimate furnished me, to -396 50. While in 

 conversation with him, he drew from his pocket a 

 paper containing the following words : — -'Was 

 raised on eight acres of land, the properly of 

 Robert G. Johnson, broom corn that made four 

 hundred dozen of brooms, that weighed one and a 

 quarter pound each. Many of the stalK's measured 

 sixteen teetsix inches in length, and produced lour 

 hundred and thirty bushels of seed. 



IsRAEF. E. Brown." 



I would observe that I commonly manure my 

 land at the rate of liom thirty to forty toads per 

 acre — such was the dressing the land got previ- 

 ous to the planting of the broom corn. The land 

 being in high tilth, produced, fri'm carellil atten- 

 tion, a most luxuriant crop of stalks ; I think they 

 must have averaged from fourteen to sixteen feet in 

 heiirht throughout the whole field. I have not been 

 inclined to encourage the rearing of the broom corn 

 more than a sutTiciency for family use. I consider 

 the broom corn a much more exhausting crop to the 

 soil than any other grain. There appears to be 

 an oleagineoiis quality peculiar to if, and somewhat 

 analogous to tiax seed, which in my judgment 

 has a tendency to produce the impoverishiTient of 

 the soil. The seed makes excellent food for hogs 

 and cattle. 



Its nutritious quality may easily be discovered 

 from the fine color and taste which it imparls to 

 butter li-om the cows which are fed on it. The 

 best way to use the grain is to grind it with a por- 

 tion of oats — say about one-third of oats to ivvo- 

 thirds of the seed. Indeed it is so hard and flinty 

 that it should always be ground before feeding it 

 to any kind of stock. 



Good broom corn seed weighs about fifty 

 pounds to the bushel. lis value compared lo oats 

 may be considered as about half as much aijain • 

 j so that should the market price of oats b(^, say 

 twenty. five cents per bushel, the broom corn seed 

 would be worth thirty-seven and a half cents. 



Ji rooms. 



I think there is a diffijrence of twenly-flve, i( 

 not thirty per cent, in the quality of brooms sent 

 tornarket, li-om such as I generally use in my fa- 

 mily. I always endeavor lo procure fi-om the 

 manuiiicturer, and for which I pay him an extra 

 price, such as are made from the stalks before the 

 seed ripens on them. A broom made liom such 

 tops will last much longer Ihan one made fi'om the 

 ripe brush. But the peculiar excellency of the 

 broom consists in its fibres being more soft and 

 elastic, and performing the act of brushing or 

 sweeping, similar to the brush made of bristles, 

 without injuring the carpet if used prudently. 

 After the broom shall have been used in sweepin'ir 

 the parlor, and the finer parts worn away, it wiM 

 then be as good to sweep the other paris of the 

 house, as the best new broom made from ihe ripe 

 I corn. Ladies who set so deservedly such a hiirli 

 lvalue upon their beautiful Turkey and Brussels 

 I carpels, should purchase none other than such as 

 are made from the unripe brush. The broom made 

 , from such may be easily known by the color of 

 the straw, which is that of tea or sage; the Ohre 

 or straw is much finer and of a softer feel than that 

 of Ihe broom m.ade from Ihe ripe corn — the color 

 of which is red. or inclining to red. 



Yours very respectfiilly, 



RoBT. G. Johnson. 



