NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New Enjland Fanner. 

 PALMA CHISTI,— CASTOR BEAN. 



Messrs. Editors : — In your paper of Ac 20th 

 Dec, you ask, "will some one who has the knowl- 

 edge, inform us whether any particular course of 

 culture is necessary for the Castor Bean, what its 

 product is per acre, and the best method of obtain- 

 ing the oil." 



Perhaps some person may answer your queries 

 more accurately and fully than I can do. But as 

 far as I am able, I comply with your request. The 

 Castor Bean is one of the main products in the 

 southern portion of Illinois, where I have resided. 

 1 have never cultivated it, however, and speak on- 

 ly from seeing it in the field and from the informa- 

 tion of others. The mode of culture is much like 

 that of corn ; that is, it is planted in rows and 

 bills. The tillage is also similar. The southern 

 portion of the State, where the Castor Bean is 

 raised, is inferior to the northern and middle por- 

 tions in fertility. It is mostly a pretty stiff clay, 

 or sometimes a clay loam. The same description 

 of land that is used for corn and wheat, being hill 

 lands. I cannot say what the product is per acre, 

 though I think I have been told about thirty 

 bushels. The oil is made in mills. The producer 

 sells his product at the mills, at about one dollar 

 per bushel, where the oil is pressed out. The 

 pulp remaining after the extraction of the oil is 

 used as a fertilizer, and I have been told is ex- 

 ceedingly good for that purpose. Illinois. 



the forerunners of apoplexy, will be announced by 

 perturbation in the molecules. Fever always exists 

 when the molecules under the action of a magnet- 

 ic current circulate on a vertical ground — some- 

 times in one sense, and sometimes in another ; and, 

 when this movement of gyration becomes more pre- 

 cipitate, the patient experiences the singular sen- 

 sation of turning, as it were, upon a wheel of ix- 

 ion.'" 



THE AIR RENDERED VISIBLE. 



The Paris correspondent of the Washington Re- 

 public says : — 



"At the last sitting of the Academy of Sciences 

 a very remarkable paper was read. It was pre- 

 sented by a well known engineer, M. Andraud, 

 who has made many public experiments on com- 

 pressed air as a substitute for steam on railways. 

 I gi\ e you a resume of the contents of this paper. 

 It is entitled JEroscopie, or the Visibility of the 

 Molecules of the air. Some of the deductions made, 

 hi a medicinal point of view, -are in the highest de- 

 gree curious. M. Andraud proves that, by a very 

 simple contrivance, the air is rendered visible. By 

 taking a piece of- card, colored black, and piercing 

 it with a fine needle, this interesting fact is estab- 

 lished. If we look through this hole at the sky, 

 on a fine day, or at a strong lamp, having a ground 

 glass, we see a multitude of little transparent 

 globes moving in the midst of confused nebulosities 

 These little globes, some of which are more trans 

 parent than others, are molecules of air. Some of 

 them are surrounded with a kind of halo. These 

 latter, says M. Andraud, are the elements of oxy 

 gen, whilst others are elements of azote. After 

 continuing the observation for some time, we shall 

 see small points detach themselves and disappear 

 in falling ; these, says M. Andraud, are atoms of 

 carbon. This phenomenon of vision, it is essential 

 to remark, passes within the eye itself; the mole- 

 cules of air which are observed, are those which 

 float in the liquid, which occupies the anterior part 

 of that organ. According to the author of this pa- 

 per, the discovery is not interesting merely as a 

 phenomenon, but may be applied to important pur 

 poses in medicine. He says: 'The physician will 

 one day make use of the asroscope as an important 

 means of diagnosis. Vertigo, giddiness, which are 



PRODUCT OF THREE AND ONE-THIRD 

 RODS OF GROUND. 



In the Farmer & Mechanic of last week, we 

 published an article showing what could be raised 

 from seven-eighths of an acre of ground, since 

 which we have witnessed a still more striking in- 

 stance of the remarkable product, of a mere 

 "patch" of ground in a small back-yard in the city 

 of Brooklyn. Our friend's yard contains at the 

 present time, 16 bearing vines ; 10 do. 2 years old, 

 do. ; 32 do. 1 year old, do. ; 17 seedling, 1 and 2 

 years old; 45 bearing gooseberry shrubs; 19 

 bearing currants, do. ; 24 raspberry ; 24 goose- 

 berries and currants, 1 year old ; 30 apple and 

 pear seedlings ; 4 do. grafted ; 3 cherries, grafted ; 

 4 bearing peaches; 4 budded, do; 20 roses; 120 

 bearing strawberry plants, winter greens, &c, 

 &c, together with a glass frame with lettuce 

 &c., &c. 



Thus on an insignificant spot of just about one 

 forty-eighth of an acre are found 75 vines, a part 

 of which are bearing ; 112 gooseberry, currant 

 and raspberry shrubs ; 45 fruit trees, together with 

 strawberry plants, salad, &c, &c. This to our 

 knowledge is a veritable fact, an J may afford a hint 

 to those who think a very large farm can only be 

 cultivated with profit to the farmer. If any of 

 our cotemporaries can give an instance of miniature 

 husbandry exceeding this, we will try again. — 

 Farmer and Mechanic. 



St. Paul's Clock. — A writer in the Foreign 

 Quarterly thus describes the machinery of this 

 great London clock : 



" The pendulum is fourteen feet long, and the 

 weight at the end is one hundred weight ; the dial 

 on the outside is regulated by a smaller one with- 

 in ; the length of the minute hand on the exterior 

 dials is eight feet, and the weight of each seventy- 

 five pounds ; the length of the hour figures two feet 

 and two and a half inches. 



The fine-toned bell, which strikes, is clearly dis- 

 tinguished from every other bell in the metropolis, 

 and has been distinctly heard at the distance of 

 twenty miles. It is about ten feet in diameter, and 

 is said to weigh four and a half tons. The bell is 

 tolled on the death of any member of the royal 

 family, of the lord mayor, Bishop of London, or 

 dean of the cathedral. 



The whole expense of building the cathedral was 

 about a million and a half pounds sterling— an the 

 United States currency, about six and two-thirds 

 millions of dollars." 



Suffolk Pigs. — We have just received, and 

 shipped, three pigs of this breed from the famous 

 stock of J. L. Loverino, Esq., of Hartford, Vt., 

 which we ordered for a gentleman in Virginia. 

 They arrived here in fine condition, and amply sus- 

 tain the character we have given them before. 



