Qll)c jTarmcr's ilUniil)lD iligitor. 



27 



teen years, (luriiii;' wiiirli titiip. li!s energies had 

 !)6en directed chiefly to the single object of pio- 

 dlicitlg a first rnlc article of huttcr aiidclieese; 

 those richest of all the products of agriciiltiirul 

 labors. Among- other things, ne afked him what 

 qtiuntity of these delicious articles his farm pro- 

 duced annually, and how much he usitally laid 

 out for lalior, &c. From the answer we learned 

 that Mr.-!. Ford had performed almo.'it the entire 

 labor of the dairy with her own hands, and that 

 Mr. Ford had a regidar account at home of the 

 quantity made each year, the price for which they 

 were sold, &c. At our solicitation he promised 

 to send us a correct statement of his hooUs. 

 Prompt in the fulfilment of his eni,'agenient, we 

 raceived from him, a few days since, a written 

 statement from which we copy as follows: — 



108,807 poinids of butter and cheese, exclusive 

 of what was used in the fiimily, and some sold to 

 families of which no account was jd;iven, made 

 by one woman, (lAIrs. Ford,) during a term of 

 sixteen years last past — exct^pl a very small |n'o- 

 porlion made by others during short intervals 

 while she was absent or out of health. The 

 amount of money for which these articles were 

 sold, was $8,340 80. This is an average ol 

 <),800-i pounds of butter and cheese peryear, sell- 

 ing for ,'*521 30 ; and all made by the hanils of 

 one woman. 



Such a wife is an invaluable tieasure to her 

 husband. What would some of our modern fine 

 ladies say to this.' What vvoidd l\ie fashionable 

 IMiss think, if told on her bridal eve that she 

 would be required during the next sixteen years 

 to manufacture 7,000 pomids of butter and cheese 

 every snmtiier! If told that instead of spending 

 all her husband's money for silks and laces and 

 trumpery, to enable her to make a grejt bivillc in 

 the hall room or at a fashionable watering place, 

 she would be expected by her own industry to 

 add .$500 a year to the wealth of tlie family, how 

 would her delicate bauds be raised in horror at 

 the thouglit! And yet our word lor it, Mrs. F. 

 has been a lia|)pier woman for sixteen years past, 

 than the most tightly laced and fu-ofuscly bustled 

 dandisette who prmiienades Ojoad way or Chapel 

 street. We are almost inclined to read a homily 

 on female education — but it would be out of om' 

 Appropriate sphere. — Conn. Far. Gaz. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. , 



Bone Dust. 



It is understooil that iji Maryland the success 

 which has attended the application of hone dust 

 as a manure is without a parallel. Lands that 

 were sufiposed to he worn out and exhausted 

 have been brought into the most productive fer- 

 tility by the use of twenty or twejity-five bushels 

 to the acre. A farmer in llartford County boughi 

 a tract of this worn out land, at five dollars the 

 acre; ploughed a poilion and sowed buck wheat 

 and clover, and last full his crop of buck wheat 

 paid for the land, the bone dust, and the cultiva- 

 tion ; ami his clover is well set and will lendci- 

 liis land sufficiently fertile foi- any of the usual 

 crops of wheat, corn in- oat.s. Such is the esti- 

 mation of hojie dust in England that cargoes of 

 bones have within the past year been collected 

 and shippcil (Vom Philadelphia, and |)rohably 

 from other of our cities. For years past they 

 have been applying this inamne "to their lands, 

 and their writers anticipate the time as at bund 

 when England will be enabled to siqqdy herself 

 with her bread stufts. 



Like lime, bone dust appeaj-s to have a desira- 

 ble efFt.ct upon the soil, and better than lime it 

 acts without any other manure. Some liitt\ 

 matter, gluten, and phosphate of lime make iq) the 

 principal ingredients of bones,niid all ci-ops a|)pear 

 to be benefitted.That whicdi is taken from the land, 

 says Liebig, should be returned to it, and the for- 

 mation of bones extract a peculiar virtue which 

 has a limit. Chickens half gi-ovvu, taken for cab- 

 in stores to India, feed upon rice, and become 

 large and tat, but their bnn<'S are not nioi-e than 

 half the size of farm poultry, as there is no ma- 

 terial found in rice for bones. 



It is desirable that those who mav, or have 

 tried this article as manure, would make known 

 the results for the good of the countrv. I". 



Remf.dv for Hollow Horn.— A correspon- 

 dent of the Prairie Farmer says : " For about thir- 

 ty years, my fiither kejit a dairy of from iwejMv 

 to fojty caws in the city of New V'ork. For the 



hollow horn, we always used from one to two 

 table spoonsful of spirits of turpentine, poined 

 into the hollow on the top of the head, between 

 the horns; and cutting off enough of the end of 

 the tail to bleed, which may be done by 

 turning the long hair upwards, and culling off 

 a quarter of an inch or less. I have knouii some 

 )>ersons to split the tail, put in salt, and bijul it up. 

 All the good efliicted is by bleeding— therefore 

 the less wound the better. 



I never knew my father to bore the horns un- 

 til he had first tried the spirits of tiu'pentiue and 

 bleeding. If tliis failed, he bored the horns on 

 the under side oidy — never on the top, except 

 when the holes on the under side could not be 

 kept from closing up with matter. J have heard 

 him say, he never lost but one cow with the hol- 

 low horn, whilst bis neighbors who were engag- 

 ed in the same business lost many. His rule was, 

 and my practice has been, when a cow was ob- 

 served with a sunken eye and a dry nose, (which 

 are the sm-e signs of the hollow horn,) to put on 

 turpentine and bleed at the tail, and have had un- 

 varied success." 



From the Maine Farrner. 

 On Iron and Steel. No. III. 



BV THOMAS GILL. 



On hardening and tempering Springs at one 

 operation. — This is particularly applicable to 

 springs made of steel wire, or of sheet steel ; and 

 is found to render them considerably more elas- 

 tic, and less liable to crack in hardening, than by 

 the usual process. It is effected in the tbllow- 

 ing manner : — The springs are heated to the prop- 

 er degree for hardening, in a crucible, placed in 

 a proper furnace ; and instead of being quench- 

 ed in oil or water, they ai-e plunged into a metal- 

 lic bath, kept over another furnace, at a heat a 

 little below their tem|)ering point, which is as- 

 certained by means of a pyroujeter iunnersed in 

 the bath ; and thus they are not coole<l entirely, 

 as in the oidinary methods {« hich renders them 

 exceediu'ily liable to crack in hardening,) but 

 t-w\\/ \.o their proper tempering degree. The metal 

 lor the bath may be plumber's solder, or any 

 other alloy of tin and lead, winch is capable of 

 fusing, at or a little below, the proper tempera- 

 ture. And the pyrometer may consist of a slip 

 of brass, and one of steel, rivettcd together, which 

 are secured at one end, to a metal plate fi)rniini.' 

 the liasis of the instrument ; and, at the other, .act 

 oji the shorter end of .a lever or index, turning 

 upon a pivot or centre, and whose lonirer end 

 marks the decree of heat on .-i gi-aduatcd arc, 

 formed upon the surliice of the metal |date. The 

 whole should be enclosed in a case, to guard it 

 from being clogged by coming in c ontact with 

 the lead and tin. TIm; heat ofliie bath is lowered, 

 from time to time, as reijuired by the addition of 

 more of the metal, or by abating the heat of the 

 furnace. 



Our readers will here see a great simil.irity, in 

 principle, with Mr. Peikius' ingenious in'-tliod ot' 

 preventing his steel blocks from wai-ping or ci'ack- 

 ing, in haidcning; namely, by iiearly cooling them 

 down to their tempering heat, and not enlin-ly 

 cooling them as is usual. It was, however, dis- 

 covered and practised in this country, sevei'td 

 years ago ; long befijre Mr. Perkins made known 

 bis process, by Mi'. .lames Stone, mechanist, of 

 Warwick street, Golden square, who in conse- 

 quence of the great loss sustained by hardening 

 !Uid tempering his springs in the usual method, 

 was forced, from necessiiy, to adopt a bflter ; and 

 was fortimate enough to discover the above; ac- 

 cidents now seldom iHqipcn in hardening and 

 tempering his sprinirs. It should, however, be 

 mentioned, that he finally quenches tlicm in oil, 

 and blazes them ofl^ as usual, in order to secure 

 their toughness, and to coat them with a sort of 

 oily varnish, to guard I hem from rust. 



On restoring the etastiritij of liiirdened and temper- 

 ed Steel .-Irticles. — Saus, sv\ord-bhides, clock ami 

 watch-springs, &c., which, alter beimr Imrdened 

 and tempered, require to be ground and polished, 

 or otherwise brightened, lose their elasticitv or 

 springiness in those o[qierations, so as to appear 

 soft on bending them, allhough they tue ;is hard 

 as ever ; these qualilirs are again restored to them, 

 cither by heating unllbrmly over a clear fire made 

 of cinders, urged by bellows, or over the flame of 

 burning alcohol, or by enclosiiiL' them in a smoul- 

 dering fire made of «ood ashes and embers, 

 ton blue eol»r: which color inaT oilher remain. 



or be removed by the application of diluted tmi- 

 riatic acid, 



On the partial conversion of Iron in/o Steel.— It 

 is fieipiently highly desirable, to form articles of 

 iron, which may afterwards be superficially con- 

 verted into steel. In the instance of rasps for the 

 use of scidptors, it is indeed pariicularly neces- 

 sary ; as thereby, whilst the teeth on their surfii- 

 ces are asbani as usual, the rasps admit of being 

 bent into any form of cnrvalure, suitable to the 

 intendc'd purposes. The editor, through the kind- 

 nes.s of that eminent sculptor, the late Mi-. James 

 Sinilh, is now possessed of a half round rasp, 

 made in Italy, which fully jios.sesses the admira- 

 ble qualities above alluded to ; and indeed, dui-ing 

 the late war, such rasps were become exceeding- 

 ly scarce and dear. Now it is evident that such 

 rasps need only be made of iron, and their surfa- 

 ces afterwards case-hardened in a slight degree, 

 entirely to resemble the Italian i-asps. 



A similar advantage is likewise obtained, in 

 forming slender articles of pure iron . such as that 

 aflbrded by decarbonating cast-steel, and after- 

 wards case-hardening them slijilitly ; as, thereby, 

 their surfaces are fitted to receive a high polish, 

 whilst their interior still continues soft and tough; 

 and, therefore, the articles are less liable to break 

 in u,-e, than if they were made of steel, or case- 

 hardened throughout. 



On Horse-nail-slub Iron, for gun-barrels, ojjicial 

 seals, stop-cocks, &,-c. — Old horse-nails, which, to he 

 fit lor use, are necessarily made of the softest 

 and toughest iron, are collected together through- 

 out the counti-y, on purpose ibr this use: these 

 are first agitated and rubbed against each other, 

 in an angular box of iron, turning round contin- 

 ually, until the greatest part of the rust, hIucIi 

 was upon them when collected, is rubbed off: 

 they are then straightened, and driven ti.;.;ljt into 

 hoops of iron, uilh the heads and points ojipo- 

 siie to each othiir, till the hoop will hold no more; 

 when the mass is fit for being welded, and drawn 

 out into bars, or into any other form, for use, as 

 a very soft veined iron, for making twisted gun- 

 barrels and office-seals, which latter, after being 

 engraved, are case-hardened ; and also for inak 

 ing stop-cocks, ami other apparatus lor perform 

 ing experiments in chemistry, wher<:in mercury 

 is enqdoyed, and the use of brass must be conse- 

 quently ex(-luded. 



Improred mode of mailing Twisted Giin-barrels. — 

 Instead of using horsc-nail-stub iron alone, as iu 

 the last article, the gmi-barrel makers now weld 

 togcihfM' bars of sti^ely iron, such as the old sable 

 Russian iron, and soft stub-iron, laid tdiernately 

 upon each other in icgnlar oider;thns forming 

 striped ribbands for the twisted bartels. 



Where they Nrish, however, to procure curls, 

 ihey first tuist those conqjoui d bars, draw them 

 into small .square rods, and weld them, with the 

 twists disfiosed in conirury directions, upon [d;aes 

 of plain iron, which forms the inside of the bar- 

 rels; when the whole isdra->vn into ribbands, atid 

 used as before described. 



Another bcauiifn! varjety is also prorluced by 

 welding small sqii;u-e rods of .'■triped iron, and 

 others oftui^ied iron, upon pl,-ites of plain iron; 

 thus producing a regular succession of striped 

 ,-md curled twists in tin.' ^iin-bai rels made there- 

 of. 



On an7ieeding Iron and Steel, without oxiding or 

 scaling it. — Tliis is dime by inclosing it in closed 

 cast-iron vessels, and surrounding it with ground 

 flint, such as is used in the manufactory of pot- 

 tery ; and then exposing the vessels to a red heat, 

 in proper furnaces. It is likely that fine loam, 

 mi;;lil also aiisMcr for this [lurposc. 



In this manner, Air. Corcoran, of Marklane, 

 wire-weaver, many years since, aimealeil his iiou- 

 «irc so perfectly, that, allhongli quite flexible, 

 and pliant, yet it was as bright as though it had 

 liot been heated at all. 



Another melhoil \s, to close it in melted lead, 

 in cast-iron vessels; the surface of the lead be- 

 ing covered with charcoal, to prevent oxidation ; 

 and to let it iiBHily cool, before taking out the 

 iron or steel. In this way, the late .Icdm Burr, 

 millwright, of H.-desdown, in Shropshire, anneal- 

 ed stcel-wirc for the needle ;ind fish-hook ma- 

 kers. 



We have been infiirmed that several woolpick- 

 ers enqdoyed in one of the factories at.Saxonville 

 have died suddenly, li-oin n disease supposed to 

 l)e^roitiiiiunicated by the nrliflu njioy which they 



