•^iSti 



AND H O R T I C U L T U l{ A L REGISTER. 



PUI;LISHED by Joseph BRECK & CO., no. 52 north market street, (Aghicultubal Warehouse.) 



vol.. XIX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 12, 1840. 



tNO. 6. 



N , E . FARMER. 



For ihe New England Farmer. 



DENNIS'S PATENT TROUGHS. 

 JosF.rii Breck & Co. — I again solict the indul- 

 gence of replying through your columns to your 

 correspondent II., who has again appeared, and in 

 my apprehension he has gone round the subject 

 without comprehending it at all. And I hope to 

 show him that there is something materially differ- 

 ent in my description from what was "invented 

 and freely eonwnunicated to the public before." I 

 have warned him and others not to use my patent 

 circular metallic trouglis with roofs, without my 

 permission in writing, and if they do, they may 

 have "the fear of prosecution with treble damages 

 before their eyes," unless they employ a regularly 

 authorized agent to put them on. H. quotes the 

 communication of l-.. W. Briggs, which describes 

 tin troughs made square, the trough being made of 

 four pieces of tin soldered at the corners, and the 

 roof was made of four more pieces, and soldered to 

 the trough. These troughs were preferable to 

 tarring the trees, but there was much labor neces- 

 sary to keep the packing in order, and when the 

 trees grew so as to burst them, it was very expen- 

 sive making them larger, requiring eight pieces of 

 tin and the soldering of ten joinings. They were 

 found more expensive and less effectual than the 

 circular lead troughs with roofs, v, hich require but 

 one piece of lead and the soldering of two joinings 

 to make them larger. He further cites the experi- 

 ment of George Irisli, who invented the circular 

 tin troughs. As my residence at the time tiie said 

 Irish put the circular tin troughs upon his trees 

 was within two miles thereof, I will state for the 

 information of 11. that they were made of several 

 pieces of tin, a part of which was applied to the 

 bark of the tree, and the others were soldered to 

 them at the lower edge, the upper edge standing 

 out at an angle of 23 degrees from the piece next 

 to the bark, making a circular trough, about 3 in- 

 ches deep and 2 inches wide at the top, without 

 any roof. If my recollection is correct, these trouahs 

 were applied in the summer, and the rough bark 

 was scniped off so that they might fit close to the 

 tree ; and before it was tijne to use them the fol- 

 lowing autumn or the second, the trees had grown 

 and burst open the tin troughs so that they were 

 useless. They were soldered anew, but to little 

 or no purpose, ns they were continually bursting 

 and the liquid leaking out. As there was no pros- 

 pect of these troughs answering the purpose for 

 which they were invented, they were taken off and 

 thrown in a heap, making a monument that was 

 any thing but agreeable to look upon, being the 

 result of an experiment that cost upwards of three 

 hundred dollars : and George Irish, in preference 

 to tarring the whole of one of the largest and finest 

 orchards in New England, cut down one half of it, 

 and continued to tar the balance until 1838, when 

 he paid me one hundred and twentysix dollars for 

 applying the patetjt circular metallic troughs with 

 roofs; and the orchard was more effectually clear- 



ed from worms than it had been belore either by 

 tar or tin troughs. The two foregoing instances 

 were all that I knew of previous to my making the 

 circular metallic troughs with roofs. 



H. farthercites a circular trough made by Haugh- 

 ton, of Lynn, and the recommendation of Gen. H. 

 A. S. Dearborn, to use Danvers pottery or sheet 

 lead, and the actual making the circular troughs 

 without roofs by P. G. Robbins, or with paper roofs, 

 for P. G. Robbins nailed the upper edge of the 

 trough to the tree, and of course could not use it 

 for a roof. I have examined the volumes of the 

 New England Farmer, and read the articles H. 

 cites and many others, to see if any thing there de- 

 scribed would have any effect upon the validity of 

 my patent: and having a very thorough knowledge 

 of the patent laws, and also attended the circuit 

 court over which Judge Story presides, where seve- 

 ral cases touching the validity of patents were tried, 

 and having heard Judge Story give his opinion on. 

 numerous doubtful points, I am firm in the opinion 

 that L. W. Briggs using a square trough with a 

 roof, and G. Irish a circular trough without a roof, 

 or P. G. Robbins a circular trough with a paper 

 roof, nor any thing cited by H., nor any thing pub- 

 lished in the New England Farmer, has in any de- 

 gree whatever, any tendency to destroy the validi- 

 ty of my patent right: because I do not claim a 

 patent for a square trough with a roof, nor for a cir- 

 cular trough made of several pieces of metal with- 

 out a roof, nor for a trough made of pasteboard or 

 of Danvers pottery, nor for a trough made of sheet 

 lead without a roof, or with a pasteboard or sheath- 

 ing paper loof, which I believe includes all the 

 kinds H. has enumerated. But I do claim a patent 

 right for a circular metallic trough and roof, the 

 trough and the roofer any section of it being made 

 of the same piece of metal. And I will further 

 add for the information of H., that any recommen- 

 dations or suggestions of Gen. Dearborn or any oth- 

 er person, would have no effect upon the validity 

 of my patent, unless they were put in practice pre- 

 vious to the date of my invention. 



I hope H. will excuse me for correcting him 

 where he says " that Irish used circular metallic 

 troughs with roofs bent to conform to the shape of 

 the tree, in 1827." The fact is, Irish used circular 

 metallic troughs without roofs in 1827. 



"I feel confident after reading the evidence col- 

 lected " by H. and a thorough "examination of the 

 New England Farmer, that in 183(5 I hit upon and 

 invented " what was not in use nor had been sug- 

 gested or proposed by others, and I hope H. will 

 readily believe from the evidence heretofore offered 

 "that the invention was original av far as it re- 

 gards myself, and he must be sensible that in such 

 case all exclusive rights under the patent do not 

 fall to the ground," as H- would feign have them, 

 but are good and valid to all intents and purposes: 

 and I am so far from throwing my patent open to 

 the public, that I again caution H. and all others 

 against "using it, for fear of the 14th section of 

 the law of 1836." 



Your friend, ' J. DENNIS, Jr. 



Portsmouth, R. 1., 8th mo., 1st. 1840. 



From \he Third Report on the Agriculliirc of Massachusetts. 



EXPERIiVIENT IN FORWARDING SEEDS. 

 The subjoined experiment rests upon unques- 

 tionable authority. No one could be more relied 

 upon for exactness and care than the eminent man 

 who made it. It is a most striking result. What 

 is applicable to one kind of seeds is doubtless ap- 

 plicable, in a degree, to all seeds; and nothing can 

 more emphatically illustrate the importance of care 

 in the selection of seeds. H. C. 



Experiment, showing the importance of selecting the 

 first ripe seeds, communicated to the Trustees of 

 the Jlgricultural Society, by James Freeman, 

 D. D., Sept. 1, 1805. 



To ascertain whether the ripening of seeds can 

 be forwarded, by sowing those which are the ear- 

 liest ripe, I have made experiments, all of which 

 have been successful, on several different sorts. It 

 will be sufficient to mention one only. 



In the year 1801, I planted the case-knife bean. 

 The pods first formed, which are commonly those 

 nearest the root, were reserved ; and when about 

 the quantity of a peck was fully ripe, they were 

 gathered on the same day. The largest and fair- 

 est of seeds were planted the next year, and the 

 first formed pods reserved as before. The same 

 method has been pursued without any variation till 

 the present year ; by means of which, whilst the 

 bean has not degenerated in its quality, the ripen- 

 ing of the seeds has been forwarded twentysix days, 

 as will appear from the following table. 



Planted. Gathered. M). days. 



1801, May 20, Sept. 9, 112 



1802, " 11, Aug. 21, 102 



1803, " 10, " 8, 90 



1804, " 8, « 4, 68 



1805, " C, July 31, 86 



The first column denotes the time of planting 

 the seeds ; the second, that of gathering the seeds 

 which were first ripe ; and the third, the number 

 of days which elapsed between the time of plant- 

 ing and the time of gathering. 



As in the second and following years, I antici- 

 pated tlie lime of planting the seeds, (by which 

 means fourteen days have been gained, in addition 

 to the twenty six noted above,) to determine what 

 effect later planting would produce, by giving the 

 seeds more advantage from the heat of summer, in 

 the years 1804 and 1805, I put into the ground a 

 quantity of seed, about a week later than that which 

 was first planted. The event which took place is 

 exhibited in the following table. 



Planted Gathered. JVo. days. 



1804, May 14, Augusts, 86 



1805, " J 3, " 6, 85 



As very little time has been gained in the pre- 

 sent and in the preceding year, I suppose I have 

 now reached, or nearly reached, the ne plus ultra. 

 I delay not, therefore, to communicate to the Trus- 

 tees of the Agricultural Society, the result of an 



