^\)C jravmcr'0 illontl)lij Visitor. 



139 



steamor, which in the last three iiioiitlis lias made 

 the Old Colony and F'all River route the favorite 

 for travel from Boston to Nevv-Vork — a ship 

 whose expense of construction and fnrnisliin^' 

 would seem of itself to consume the entire capi- 

 tal and wealth of a considoralilc town — was an 

 experiment of the surplus enterprise of Fall 

 River alone : n consort steamer, to run out and 

 buck from New-York on opposite days, is in the 

 course of construction. These steamers are built 

 with special view to the strenp^th and protection 

 necessary to he encountered while passing a part 

 of the ocean liahle to the greatest exposure iVoin 

 wind and storm. If the experiment had failed 

 as a passage route for travellers, the ficilities for 

 the quick and safer transport of merchaiulise was 

 relied upon as authorizing the undertaking. 



The following summary sketch of the business 

 and manufactures of Fall River will give the 

 reader some idea of what that place had become 

 in 1847 : it is taken from the Baltimore Ameri- 

 can :— 



Fall River, situated on the Taunton river, about 

 eighteen miles from Newport, R. 1., has been re- 

 cently brought into more intimate relations with 

 New York by the estalilishment of a daily line of 

 steamers. The additional importance wliirh this 

 flourishing town of l"J,000 inhabitants acipiired in 

 this way has led to an invesligalioti of the nature 

 and extent of its business operations by a corres- 

 pondent of the N. York Courier. Abundance of 

 rnmiing water furnishes the propelling power of 

 n large inimber of maiiulactur;jig establishinenis 

 at Fall River, the producliuiis of which are most- 

 ly forwarded to the New York market; and it 

 was the necessities of the manuCactiirers for a rap- 

 iil and direct means of transportation that origi- 

 nated the line of steamers between tl.c two pla- 

 ces. VVe condense from the letter of the Courier 

 some of its prominent facts: 



The F'all River Jron Works Company employ 

 050 hands, and its buildings cover several acres, 

 and embrace within its limits 4 double and 20 

 single ("urnaces, for pudilliug and heating, 1 air 

 and 2 cupola furnaces, 3 steam engines of40 

 horse power, 1 of 90 do, and 1 of 30 do. All 

 these engines are driven liy steam generated by 

 the fires from the furnaces, the heat i'roni which 

 is used without additioiud expense and without 

 detriment to the primary object at the fm'naces. 

 15,000 tons bituminous coal, from Picton and 

 Virginia, are used per annmii. This establish- 

 ment turns out 2OO,0OO pounds of nails per week, 

 4 to 5 tons castings per day, and idiont 80 Ions 

 of hoop ami merchantable iron per week. The 

 Pig Iron is frotii Maryland. 



The American I'riiit Works Cotnpany has a 

 stone bnilJiugand employs 335 hands, and prints 

 193,000 yards ot' cloth per week. The house of 

 McCnrdy, Aldrich and Spenccu-. of New York, 

 sold last year more than Haifa million of dollars 

 worth of the productions of those works. 



The Fall River Maimtacturing Company uses 

 water power, enijiloys 150 hands, runs 9,240 spin- 

 dles, 206 looms, and produces 38,000 yards No. 

 32 printing cloths per week. The building is 

 stone. 



The Watnppa Manufacturing Company has a 

 stone building, uses water power, employs 107 

 himds, rims 9,t)00 spindles and 224 looms, and 

 turns out 45,000 yards No. 29 printing cloth jjcr 

 week. 



The Pocasset Manufacturing Company cm- 

 pIoys-300 hands in the Quequechau Mill, which 

 is a stone buildiug, containing 15,000 spindles 

 aud 400 looms. The same Company has just e- 

 rected .-mother very large stone building, called 

 the Pocasset Mill, whicii will contain 18,000 spin- 

 dles, and, like the Qucqnochan, be driven by 

 water. 



•The iMcticomet Mill employs 300 hands, runs 

 22,000 spindles and 504 looms, and uses both wa- 

 ter and steam power. The iMill is capable ol 

 producing (1,090,000 yards of No. 30 printing 

 cloth per annum. 



A. Itobeson & Son's Print Works employ 

 300 liamls, octupy a stone building, use water 

 and sleatn power, and print about 170,000 yards 

 per week. 



The Annawan Co. occupies a hi ick building, 

 uses water power, employs 150 hands, runs 8088 

 spindles, 191 looms, and mannljictures 1,400,000 

 yards of No. 35 prirjiing cloth pel annum. 



Hayes, iMarvel and Ilavoll's Machine Works 

 employ 170 hands, uses steam power, aud maim- 

 fictures all kinds of Cotton Machinery. Htone 

 building. 



The RTassasoit Steimi IMill Co. has recently 

 erected a very large stone building which con- 

 tains 12,000 spindles ami 300 looms,— 170 hands 

 are employed. The machinery is driven by a 

 steam engine of 120 horse power, and in a few 

 days the whole will be in operation and produce 

 57 to 58,000 yards of No. 28 printing cloth per 

 week. 



The Troy Cotton and Woollen Man'g Co. em- 

 ploys 125 liands, runs (i,400 spindles and 175 

 looms driven by water, and produces 30,000 yards 

 per week of No. 28 warp and 30 filling [iiinting 

 cloth. The buildings are of sKnie. 



A new Woollen .Mill has recently been con- 

 structed of stone, four stories high, to be driv(m 

 by ste.im, and is expected to turn out 200 yards 

 of fincy cassimeres per ilay. 



The Globe Print Works employ 175 hand.s, 

 and n.se water and steam power in a stone buil- 

 ding. 



Chase's Cotton Factory runs over 2,000 spin- 

 dles in a stone building by water power 



Bnffiugton's Cotton Factory runs about 1,000 

 spindles in a stone building, also by water power. 



Some of the factories are now lighted by gas, 

 and it will bo introduce. I into all of them next 

 winter. The whole town is to be lighted in the 

 same wav. 



Improved Plan for Growing Melous. 



We noticed last summer, in the garden of W. 

 Nefl", Esq., at Yellow Springs, a mode of grow- 

 ing melons, &c., that was entirely new to us; 

 and, as we thought, decidedly superior to any 

 plan we had before seen. The following letter, 

 recently received from Mr. Nefl', though written 

 in hasie, is sufficiently expli<'it lo enable our 

 readers to understand and adopt the plan : — Ohio 

 Cullivalor. 



Ci.vciNNATi, March 20, 1845. 



M. B. Baleham, Esq. — My plan for growing 

 melons, and similar vines, (which you saw in 

 practice at my garden last summer) is as fol- 

 lows :— In the centre of a bed about 20 feet square, 

 form a moulil of yellow earth about two feel high 

 and 7 feet in diameter at the base ; on the top of 

 this mound, place a barrel, with both heads out, 

 the lower rim forced ati inch or two into the sur- 

 face of the mould ; then fill the barrel with rich 

 mamu'e, to the t«p. On the slope of them romid 

 bom the barrel to the base, plant seeds; and as 

 the plants begin to run, direct the vines from the 

 mould over tlie bed. I only spread the ground as 

 the vines np|iroach, so that they have newly turn- 

 ed soil to run npcni. 



When the rains arc not suHicient, pour two 

 buckets of water in the barrel, in the evening; 

 which passes through the warm mamire, Jheated 

 bv the sun during the day,) becomes a most ex- 

 cellent fertilizer as it oozes among the roots, down 

 tlie sides of the mound. The trotdile of adopting 

 this method is but liltle — the expense, nothing ; 

 and the vines can be nourished as is desired. 



The product is vastly increased thereby, and, 

 in a dry season, the benefit is iticalculable. 

 Sincerely yours, 



WILLIAM NEFF. 



The Wool Trade at Spriugfield, Me. 



An iirq)ortant addition to the bnsiiie.ss of Spring- 

 field is the Wool trade, which bom nothing worth 

 noticing two years siin:e, has now beiiome a very 

 large item in the comtnerce of the town, and is 

 rapidly extiujiling. A reasonable estimate is, that 

 one million pounds of wool will lie brought here 

 and sold to manuliiciurer.s, far ami near, during 

 the present year. But a trilling portion, compar- 

 atively, of this amount of wool, \.i raised in this 

 region of course ; the bulk of it conies t'rom New 

 York, Michigan, Ohio, Pemisylvaiiia, and Vir- 

 ginia. Messrs Perkins &. Brown, who commen- 

 ced business here, are agents and large growers 

 in the three last named States, and do by tiir the 

 greatest ainnmit in it at present ; last week they 

 effected a sale of 200,000 pounds of fine qualities 

 to the Burlingion, Vt., Mills Company, at prices 

 ranging from 45 to 85 cts. per pound. Messrs 

 Phelps & Mills, and Messrs .lohn Curtis & Co., 

 are also dealitig in the article to a great extent; 

 the (ijriiiHr as our right buyers ami sellers — the 

 latter, with Perkins &. Brown, as Commission 

 agents for the groweiis. Other individuals have 

 either engaged in the buisiness or are soon lo do 

 so, and it will undoubtedly contiimc to increase 

 very greotly. — Springfield Rep. 



Manufacturing at Lowell.— .According to 

 Mr. Appleton, an extensive manufacturer, the 

 manufacturing capital of Lowell, has realized 

 from its earliest investment to the present time, 

 an average profit of ten per cent. That capital is 

 at this moment estimated at §12,000,000. What 

 cotton plantation has done this in Mississippi ? 

 Labor is more difiicult to obtain, and higher now 

 than formerly, although the number of factories 

 has vastly increased. 



The numberof femalesin the fiictnries is 7,915, 

 and ol' inales3,3l0. The average wages of fe- 

 males, clear of board, |)er week, is §2 00; of 

 males, $4 80. The total raw cotton consumed 

 per week, is 1,200 bales, or 02,400 per amium. 

 The Merrimack Company is the largest — its cap- 

 ital is $2,000,000. Some of the companies have 

 onlv $600,000 invceted. 



To Drain Ponds that have no Natural Outlet. 



Ponds are olten drained by digging pits in their 

 margin deep enough to go through the straluiii 

 of clay that the water cannot penetrate. The 

 Rev. Mr. FJiiolt, of Connecticnl, who wrote a 

 century ago on the subject, and gave many use- 

 ful direcliouson farming in general, gave instan- 

 ces in which ponds were completely drained into 

 the sandy stratum below the stratum of clay — 

 no other outlet being necessary to convey off the 

 surplus water. 



The American Agriculturist for July has the 

 following remarks on the same subject: 



"In many parts of the country there exist deep 

 depressions or hollows in the surface of the earlh, 

 commonly known under iho names of sink- 

 holes, frog-ponds, ifcc, which are filled a great 

 part of the year with stagnant water, rife w ith 

 pestilence and disease, and eonlaniinating the air 

 during the summer months for miles around. 

 These pools, when drained, afibrd an abundance 

 of muck of the most valuable kind for making 

 composts, or mixing with barn-yard manure ; or 

 they may readily be converted into rich tillable; 

 land. In many places where these holes ahniind, 

 at some distance below the surface there is a 

 stratum of loose sand, whicli will freely admit 

 the passage of water; and it is generally found 

 that their bottoms consist of a thin stratum of 

 clay or impervious mud, overlying the sand. In 

 order to drain them, all that is neces.sary, is to 

 dig or bore one or more holes in the bollom, till 

 you reach the stratum of sand, when the water 

 will be immedjately absorbed, ami the pond be- 

 come dry. Several ponds of this description, on 

 Long Island, have lately been drained in this way 

 with perfect success." 



Scientific tfrms. As we are frequently niuler 

 the necessity of using scientific terms, the mean- 

 ing of which may not be readily comprelieiided 

 by ihe rctider, we have deemed it expedient to 

 iiiseit the following glossary, containing and ex- 

 plaining many of the scieiuific phrases used in 

 a:.'riculiure, &c. , as well as some chemical terms . 



Sulphate of copper — bb;e vili iol ; blue stone. 



Sulptuilc of iron — copperas; green vitriol. 



Sniplinle of lime — gypsum ; plaster of paris. 



Sulphnle of soda — Glauber's salts. 



Sniplmic of zinc — white vitriol. 



Snlplmlc of potash— -A chemical salt, composed 

 of sulphuric acid and potash. 



Sid phuret of potash— su\\)\\ur&\\A potash fused 

 together. 



Sulphate of Magnesia — Epsom salts. 



Sulphuric Acid— o\\ of vitriol ; vitriolic acid. 



.Maine Fanner. 



Frying Fish.— A writer in the Boston Courier 

 says that fresh fish should never be put into cold 

 fit v\hen they are to be fried : they thus absorb 

 it, and becomo unfit to eat. The fat should be 

 plenty enough to prevent the fish sticking to the 

 pan, and boiling hot when the fish is put in : it 

 is thus cooked quickly, and is in fine eating or- 

 der when taken up. These rules will not apply 

 to mealG. 



