98 



NhW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Cake of House Plants. — Plants in the house, 

 require attention in keeping clean, as they are apt 

 to throw off their foliage some little when first put 

 in the house; have them carefully watered, and 

 not kept too wet, at this season ; give the plants 

 sufficient water when they need it, and don't be 

 giving a little at a time, whereby the roots receive 

 no moisture — this is too often done, whereby many 

 plants lose their buds, especially Camelias. Give 

 them plenty of air when the weather is fine, and 

 syringe occasionally; also fumigate, to kill the in- 

 sects, and keep moderate fires, but do not force to 

 a high temperature, without it is intended to sup- 

 ply an early bloom of flowers in the beginning of 

 the winter. — Am. Far. 



filenames' ^Department, 2lrts, &t. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MANUFACTURE OP CUTLERY. 



From the increase of establishments for the man- 

 ufacture of cutlery in this country, it would appear 

 that we are able to compete, in our own markets 

 at least, with the English makers ; more especial- 

 ly in the coarser kinds, such as shoe and butcher 

 knives, and table cutlery. Not but that we can 

 make pocket cutlery, scissors, &c, equally as good 

 as our neighbors across the water, — for we have 

 seen American specimens of the best quality and 

 highest finish, — but that in those kinds in which 

 the higher price consists in the finish, which is all 

 labor, they can undersell us at the present rate of 

 wages in the two countries. 



But, as stated above, the common article is, by 

 means of improved machinery and division of labor, 

 now made here at such rates as to nearly exclude 

 the foreign article from our markets. 



But to return to the more immediate object of 

 this brief article, which was to notice the formation 

 of a company in Claremont, N. H., for the purpose 

 of manufacturing shoe and butcher knives, and ta- 

 ble cutlery. The company goes under the name of 

 Kimball, Clark & Co. They have expended some 

 ten or twelve thousand dollars in machinery, and 

 fitting up a building 100 by 40 feet, and four stories 

 high. Considerable quantities of shoe and butch- 

 er knives have been made, and they are now be 

 ginning to make table cutlery. The wholesale 

 prices of their wares are very low — say shoe knives 

 4 cents, and stout butcher knives 8 cents each. 

 This establishment originated in Croydon, N. II., 

 where the business is still carried on. 



n. w. n. 



THE ELECTRIC FIRE ALARM. 



We copy from To-day, the new Literary Journal 

 published in Boston by Charles Hale, the following 

 account of the machinery recently put in operation 

 in Bostj m : 



"Likely enough, before theso paragraphs are 

 printed the Electric Alarm will have told its own 

 story in louder tones even than our journal can. 

 But our readers out of Boston, will not be the less 

 interested in its operation. 



For many weeks past the town has been covered 

 with a reticulation of telegraph wire. With no 

 connection Avith the different news wires, the centre 

 of which is generally near State Street, here is an- 

 other web radiating from the City Hall. They say 

 that a large bird cannot well light in any part of 

 the town, because hindered by the wires ; as if it 

 were a well preserved cherry orchard, at which 

 the cherry birds look hopelessly from above. But 

 really, this we are afraid is an exaggeration ! 



These wires radiate from the City Hall, as we 

 have said. One set of them extends to nineteen 

 different bell-towers, most of them on the churches. 

 These are the towers or steeples, in which are the 

 nineteen alarm bells. 



Another set of the wires radiate to the alarm 

 stations, of which there are forty. Very likely, 

 our readers have already seen these boxes, for 

 boxes they are, in their walks through the town. 

 They are of cast iron : and so compact a town is 

 Boston, that it seems there is in it no spot more 

 than fifty rods from one of these boxes. 



The key of each box is in the keeping of some 

 responsible person in the neighborhood. Suppose 

 now, dear reader, your house, or shop or ash-bar- 

 rel takes fire — and that Mr. Barnum has not fin- 

 ished your fire-annihilator for you — and that your 

 Cochituate fascet is out of order — so that, in short, 

 you cannot do without the Fire Department on 

 hand. Do not shout "Fire !" Why alarm your 

 neighbors who cannot help you, when so much 

 more easily you can summon the Fire Department, 

 who can ? No ! you will go at once to this cast 

 iron alarm box, whichever is nearest you — finding, 

 as you go, him who has the key. Instantly you 

 unlock it. You find in sight, only a modest crank, 

 with the words above — "Turn six times slowly." 

 Take hold and turn. 



You have not turned your six times, and fairly 

 stopped, before every one of these nineteen bells 

 we told you of, is announcing with all its brazen 

 voice, the number of your fire district. There are 

 seven such districts. Do you live in No. 3? 

 Then every bell from the North End to South Bos- 

 ton, from Brattle Street to Cedar Street, is tolling 

 out, dom, dom, doni; three fatal claps telling 

 every fireman where to go. And not only the dis- 

 trict, but the precise number of the signal station, 

 certainly within fifty rods of you, may be signal- 

 ized with unerring certainty. Every hose com- 

 pany, every engine is concentrating towards you ; 

 you are in the centre of the town ! What a great 

 matter your little fire has kindled ! 



Nobody has opened the church doors. Nobody 

 has "inquired at the opposite door" for the church 

 keys. Only these inquisitive wires have set the 

 bells a-tolling, and if you keep your fire a-going 

 all day, all day will these bells toll if need be, 

 dom, dom, dom — all day will they tell the town of 

 your ashes in your barrel in your No. 3. 



For in your alarm-box, your crank turning closed 

 the connections of the electric battery, so as to tell 

 the one watchman who cares for all this system, 

 in the City Hall, which district was in need. This 

 signal is effected by a simple mechanical contriv- 

 ance. Before him are seven keys, numbered 1, 2, 

 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. At once he touches No. 3 ; because 

 you five in No. 3. That starts the proper circuit ; 

 and the clock-work arranged in each tower, ready 

 to strike the bells, begins, as we have told you. 



The contrivance of this clock-work, by which it 



