110 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2. 



From the Richmond Enquirer. 

 HAIL STORM. 



We have accounts of a hail storm, on Monday 

 last, which continued from five o'clock in the 

 evening, to eleven at night; from Fluvanna to 

 Charles City.' It came on early in the evening, 

 in Goochland; and its effects in the neighborhood 

 of Dover, on both sides of the river, were most 

 distressing. The hail varied from the size of a 

 hen's egg, to the smallest bird's egg. Some of 

 the stones measured eleven or twelve inches in 

 circumference. On some iarms, it has done great 

 injury to the wheat, (already a very short crop,) 

 corn, clover, &c. The damage on one farm is 

 estimated at 5 or 6,000 dollars. We have heard 

 of one farm in Charles City, where the wheat has 

 suffered from the hail which fell in the night. 



Extract of a letter from Goochland, dated Jane 3d, 

 1835. 



"I rode up yesterday to witness the terrible de- 

 vastation produced on Mr. Sampson's farm, by the 

 hail storm on Monday night. It was distressing 

 to witness it. The finest crops of wheat, corn, 

 oats and clover, perhaps, on James River, totally 

 destroyed. The greatest power of the storm fell 

 on his low grounds, and such was its force, that. I 

 assure you in riding through his wheal field of 60 

 acres in Sabot Island, I counted liom one end to 

 the other, but twelve heads of wheat standing. It 

 was not beaten down, but literally mowed, leav- 

 ing strong and smooth stubble, and more neatly 

 harvested than I have ever seen a field. Mr. 

 Sampson calculated on a yield from the field of 25 

 or 30 bushels to the acre. If there are 30 heads 

 standing on the whole 60 acres, it is as much. Mr. 

 Scott, of Manakin Town, Avho was with us in our 

 ride, stated his and the crop of Mr. Beverly Ran- 

 dolph, to be nearly in the same condition. We, 

 thank Heaven! escaped, but I dread to hear from 

 the tobacco country west of us." 



0d= We have not learned the extent of the 

 storm, but we are informed by a stage passenger, 

 that six miles above Wilmington, the hail stones 

 measured nine inches in circumference. Pigs ol 

 good size. — and many turkeys were destroyed — 

 and, indeed, almost every thing that came in its 

 range. 



HAMMERING BY STEAM. 



There is no pause, no stop to the inventive ge- 

 nius of our countrymen. A physician of Boston 

 has invented a machine, consisting of numerous 

 hammers which go by steam, the force and rapid- 

 ity of which will enable the owners of the rich 

 granite quarries of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire, to dress and face blocks of this hard rock for 

 building in a very short time, and at a cheap rate. 

 This had heen a serious difficulty, and it is now 

 overcome. 



From the Eoston Transcript. 

 ICE AND ICE HOUSES. 



It is quite warm enough at this present writing 

 to discourse of ice, but whether it will be when the 

 types are giving publicity to the labors of the pen, 



depends entirely upon the future, which may be 

 noted as a very wise remark. We intend, how- 

 ever, to say a lew words of ice and ice houses, 

 that may interest the reader. There are persons 

 younger than ourself who can remember when 

 the only ice sold in Boston, was brought, to the 

 city in parcels of ten or fifteen pounds in the box 

 of a market gardener's cart, and sold as a very 

 great luxury at a corresponding price. There 

 were then no ice houses in the vicinity, except a 

 lew gentlemen's country seats, and they were 

 built under ground, and were of small capacity. 

 Within the last twenty years the consumption has 

 become so general, and the cost is so small, that 

 ice is no longer deemed a luxury, but one of the 

 necessaries of lite. The amount exported also 

 irom Boston to southern climates is incredible. 

 The art of preserving the ice is very simple, and 

 in well constructed houses, there is scarcely any 

 loss from dissolution, and it may be preserved for 

 years. We rode out last winter, with Col. Met- 

 calf, of Cambridge, to witness the process of fill- 

 ing one of his ice houses, on ihe borders of Mys- 

 tic Pond in Medford, about six miles from the city. 

 The ice house is built entirely above the ground, 

 as is now the well approved custom, even in trop- 

 ical climates. It is 85 leet long, 50 feet wide, and 

 25 feet posts, and holds nearly 3000 tons of ice. 

 The house is built of pine boards, and the ice is 

 protected from external heat, by filling in the walls, 

 which are a loot and a half thick, with the ex- 

 hausted bark of tan pits — a non-conducter of 

 caloric that has been found perfectly efficacious. 

 The Mystic Pond ice house is very happily lo- 

 cated, being so situated that the ice may be dis- 

 charged directly from the house into the boats of 

 the Middlesex Canal, or (he cars of the Lowell 

 Rail Road, and can therefore be brought to the 

 city at much less expense and loss by waste, than 

 from any other establishment. The pond itself is 

 supplied with water from another pond just above 

 it, which upper pond is fed by such abundant 

 springs, that we are told it never freezes in the 

 coldest season. The water, therefore, is of the 

 purest and most limpid quality. Col. Metcalf has 

 lately loaded with this ice a vessel for Rio Janeiro, 

 and another for Bombay. He has also sent 

 freights to Norlblk, Savannah, and other southern 

 ports. It is transported on the canal, and hoisted 

 on board the vessel by machinery, made- for the 

 purpose, with great facility. 



The process of cutting "the ice, getting it from 

 the water, and storing it in the ice house, is inge- 

 nious, but simple. The ice house is built on the 

 border of the pond, and one end projects over the 

 water. At this end there are two openings or 

 doors, which extend from the floor to the roof. 

 When the ice has made to a sufficient thickness, 

 say 15 inches, a spot is selected where it is of the 

 purest, most transparent, and solid quality. It is 

 then marked out into oblong squares, 21 inches wide 

 by 3£- feet long. At every 21 inches of width, a 

 groove is ploughed, half an inch wide, and four or 

 five inches deep, by a plough made ibr the pur- 

 pose, and drawn by a horse; the ice is then sawed 

 across, at distances of 21 inches, and one series of 

 blocks being removed, the rest is easily set loose 

 by a staff with a broad, chisel-formed end, driven 

 into the groove, and used as a lever. A canal of 

 a corresponding width to the blocks, is then made 

 from the place where the ice is selected, to the 



