324 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



For the New England Farmer, 

 STRAIGHT COMB. 



Mr. Editor,: — I fully agree M-ith Mr. Quinby 

 as to the advantage of the movable comb hive. 

 Indeed, it is difficult to understand how any one 

 •who has given it a fair trial could come to any 

 other conclusion. Mr. Quinby says that he should 

 be pleased to have all admit that the triarKjular 

 guide was public property. I understand that it 

 is, and that any one has a right to use it. Soon 

 after I commenced keeping bees in the Lang- 

 stroth hive, Mr. Clark's partner or agent called 

 on me, and forbid my using the guide. I subse- 

 quently learned from the Patent Office that 

 neither Mr. Clark nor Mr. Langstroth had ob- 

 tained a patent for this part of the hive. Which 

 of the claimants is entitled to the invention is a 

 matter of little interest to me, as I do not now 

 use it, and consider it of no value. 



Mr. Clark's partner or agent did not succeed 

 in forcing me to pay him five dollars for his pre- 

 tended patent, but he did succeed in calling my 

 attention to the possibility that there might be 

 other ways of securing straight comb quite as 

 good, and perhaps better. I shall now endeavor 

 to describe a plan so easy in its arrangement, so 

 certain in its results, that I doubt if a better can 

 be desired. 

 • Take M-orker comb one or two years old and 

 cut it into strips one and a half or two cells wide. 

 With a small brush, coat the under side of the 

 top strip of the frame with melted rosin and 

 bees wax, and immediately lay on one of the 

 pieces of cut comb, placing it so that the divis- 

 ions between the bottom of the cells will form a 

 line through the centre of the top piece of the 

 frame from end to end. If the comb is crooked 

 it can be straightened, and as it adheres firmly to 

 the wood, it will remain so. One frame full of 

 comb will cut enough for several hives. As the 

 comb does not cut smooth and neatly with a cold 

 knife, I make use of a plan by which the knife 

 is always kept warm, cutting the comb so 

 smooth that the bees take up the cells where the 

 Knife leaves them, and proceed with their work 

 without cutting away any of the comb. This ar- 

 rangement for obtaining straight comb costs less 

 than the triangular guide, is more reliable, and 

 is free to all. E. A. Brackett. 



Winchester, 



For the Nev> England Farmer. 

 HOTW CUT NAILS WERE INTRODUCED. 



Mr. Editor: — In your paper of March 12, 

 under the head of "American Inventions," is a 

 communication from Caleb Bates, Kingston, 

 Mass., upon the invention of screw augers and 

 cut nails. I have some facts in regard to the first 

 invention of cut nails, received mainly from the 

 Hon. John Folsom, formerly of Chester, once 

 well known in various public offices, and as the 

 keeper of a public house, which I will relate per- 

 haps more in detail, and be more personal than 

 will be generally interesting, but I think will in- 

 terest many individuals. 



Mr. Folsom told me that his father, David 

 Folsom, was the first inventor of cut nails. The 

 idea was suggested to him by seeing some person 

 cutting with a pair of shears, some pieces off the 



end of an iron hoop. He commenced cutting 

 nails with shears, and heading them in acommoa 

 vise. He then improved by having his cutting 

 ap[)aratus operated by a crank motion with a fly 

 wheel, and a treadle operated by the foot. Iq 

 heading, the vise was superseded by dies, a sta- 

 tionary one fastened to a bench, and a movable 

 one attached to a lever, and drawn together by 

 the foot. When this was first invented, every 

 nail was taken from the dies, as well as pui in, 

 with the fingers. They soon bored a hole through 

 the bench, so that the nails could drop out by 

 their own gravity. 



The introduction of the business, I think, was 

 at Tamworth, N. H., or that vicinity. My infor- 

 mant was born in 1776, and I think that Avhen 

 he was eleven years old, which would be about 

 17S7, his father removed with his family to Har 

 risburgh. Pa., and there set up the business, but 

 died in a few months, leaving another son, Wil- 

 liam Johnson Folsom, some four or five years 

 older than John, and they carried on the business 

 there until John was about sixteen, or about 1793, 

 when they removed back to Tamworth, and se4 

 up the business. 



In April, 1794, Hon. Joseph Blanchard, of 

 Chester, N. H., who owned the mills at what ia 

 now Auburn village, married the widow Folsom, 

 who was a daughter of the Rev. William John- 

 son, of West Newbury, Mass., and in the course 

 of a year, the young Folsoms removed there, and 

 carried on the business, and after a while, com- 

 menced cutting by water, but still heading by 

 hand. 



After tlie New Hampshire State Prison was 

 established, nails were cut there and carried to 

 Concord to be headed by the prisoners, but the 

 self-heading machines having come into use, it 

 became a losing business, and was given up. 



Auburn, N. U., May 3, 1859. B. Chase. 



MIDDLESEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This Society, although the oldest county soci- 

 ety in the State, is still hale and hearty. Its af- 

 fairs are systematically managed. Its officers 

 are energetic men, and the programme of its last 

 exhibition was promptly carried out. The sum 

 awarded in premiums was .$708,30. 



Their last Transactions has several valuable 

 reports of committees. One on heifers con- 

 tains several useful suggestions to breeders. — 

 The paper by Asa Clement, of Dracut, is both 

 witty and instructive, and tells the truth plainly 

 about dwarf pears. The result of this depart- 

 ment of fruit culture has not hitherto proved 

 very satisfactory. We think there has been 

 money enough expended in it, and we cannot, in 

 conscience, recommend it, except in localities 

 that have been found peculiarly favorable. 



The report by Samuel H. Riioades, of Con- 

 cord, on stallions, is a good one. That upon 

 bread, by MixoT Pratt, of Concord, shows that 

 he both knows what good bread is, and how to 

 make it. Several of the statements by competi- 

 tors for premiums are rather meagre. We should 



