144 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



INo. 3. 



ked eye in the form of worms or maggots. The 

 cuts that had been steeped never showed the 

 slightest appearance of any such thing; and they 

 retained their solidity and firmness when the other 

 ten cuts were completely decayed and rotted. 

 Still unwilling to believe without further proof. 

 he tried the experiment five or six times, and 

 planted them, distinctly marking a division be- 

 tween those cuts which were steeped and those 

 that were not. The consequence was, the al- 

 most total failure of one kind and the complete 

 success of the others placed the question beyond 

 the possibility of a doubt. He considers that, the 

 air has a powerful effect on the potato, and may 

 sometimes impregnate it with this destructive mat- 

 ter. 



From Scientific Tracts. 

 HAMMERING STONE. 



A physician of this city has invented a ma- 

 chine, recently patented, for hammering and fa- 

 cing sranite, or anv other kind of buildinsr stone. 

 The mechanic who constructed a model for the 

 patent office, at Washington, informs us that he 

 considers it in the light of a happv discovery, ns 

 faced stone may be shortly afforded as cheap as 

 brick. A number of hammers, weighing not far 

 from twelve pounds each, are set in motion either 

 by steam or water power and move with such 

 rapidity that the fragments fly like dust in a windy 

 day. All the hammers move diagonally across 

 the stone, in two directions, thereby completely 

 levelling and smoothing it by simplv passing the 

 block onward under them and back ntrain. One 

 of these machines, on a larcre scale is being erect- 

 ed at South Boston. Should it answer the expec- 

 tations of the inventor, the old fashioned method 

 of hanvmering stone will be wholly neglected as 

 one machine will accomplish as much in a day as 

 twenty or thirty men. 



[A wiseacre who conducts a northern paper boast- 

 ing of some 20,000 subscribers, after publishing the 

 foregoing statement remarked that "this is very well 

 — provided that the money saved by the invention 

 shall be given to the stone cutters thrown out of em 

 ployment by the use of the new process." Having 

 mislaid the paper, we quote the words from memory 

 and therefore probably not exactly— but the luminous 

 idea is not stated incorrectly. Its promulgator is a 

 true supporter of the principles of the restrictive poli- 

 cy — of the protecting duty school: and the same 

 views would have prohibited the first use of ploughs 

 and mills — and in short, every labor-saving implement 

 and process that have 'benefited the world, and have 

 served to distinguish men in the civilized, from the 

 savage state.] 



From the Troy Whig. 



burden's horse shoe machine. 



The mechanical skill and inventive power ot 

 our townsman, Mr. Burden, appears to be in con- 

 stant and active exercise. We had the pleasure 

 of examining, a few days since, at the Troy iron 

 and nail factory, a recent invention of his for the 

 manufacture of horse shoes, which, for curious 



mechanism, and practical importance, is equal to 

 any thing which the genius of constritctiveness 

 has produced lor many years. By the operation 

 of this machine, a heated bar of iron is converted 

 — as if almost by magic influence — into horse 

 shoes, of any size that may be required, that for 

 cheapness, neatness, and smoothness of external 

 appearance — firmness of texture, and practical' 

 utility, are greatly superior to the article now in 

 general use. The admirable adaptation of the 

 machine to the purposes for which it is intended, 

 and the great rapidity with which it operates, is 

 truly wonderful. 



Extract from Featherstoiihnugh''s Geological Report, Published 

 by order of Congress, 1835. 



ACCOUNT OF THE LEAD ORE, AND MINES OF 

 MISSOURI. 



* # * * j became now desirous of finding 

 some natural sections that would assist in explain- 

 ing the phenomena around me, but I could find 

 none, and could hear of none, so that it became 

 necessary for me to examine the localities where 

 mining operations were conducted, in order, by an 

 examination of the subterranean arrangement of 

 the metallic beds, to form some estimate of their 

 direction and extension towards those parts of the 

 country where the public lands lay. I according- 

 ly visited the most ancient "diggings" which had 

 been partially carried on ever since the French 

 had had possession of the country, but I found that 

 the irregular maimer in which those diggings had 

 been conducted almost, baffled every attempt at 

 systematic investigation. Thesulphuret of lead, 

 or "mineral," as it, 'is called in the lead country, 

 has been, in certain localities, at all times found in 

 fragments near the surface of the ground, from 

 the size of a pin's head, in which it can be picked 

 up in great quantities where the rain has washed 

 the soil, to masses weighing several hundred 

 pounds. Sometimes pieces of an intervening size 

 are found, which have been affected by attrition; 

 but, more frequently, the "mineral" preserves its 

 angles very fresh, as it, might be expected to do 

 from its brittle cubic structure. Various opinions 

 have been entertained of the cause of so singular 

 a distribution of this mineral substance in loose 

 pieces, and occasionally in such great quantities, 

 near the surface of the earth — a circumstance 

 which has occasioned the whole adjacent country 

 where the mineral has been found, to be excavated 

 into pits from six to twenty feet deep, so that in 

 the, localities of such districts it would be impossi- 

 ble to drive any carriage by daylight, and imprac- 

 ticable to ride securely on horseback by night. 

 The disorder into which the country has been thus 

 thrown, is entirely owing to ignorance of the geo- 

 logical structure of the country, and the common- 

 est principles of mininc, and is much to be re- 

 gretted, as it will greatly embarrass future efforts, 

 in those localities, at systematic mining. It would 

 be superfluous to enter into any mineralogical de- 

 tail of those diggings, or to render a very particu- 

 lar account of any of them, since nothing can be 

 more rude than the attempts at collecting ore 

 which they exhibit. In particular localities im- 

 mense quantities of sulphate of barytes, or "tiff," 

 as it is named, masses of quartz rock, cellular, 

 and occasionally coated with mammillary crystals 

 of great brilliancy, and, in other instances, a pro- 



