7 10 MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



at the rate of 4 miles an hour. One-horse power is equal to the lifting, by a 

 pump, of 250 hogsheads of water 10 feet in an hour; or it would drive 100 

 spindles of cotton yarn twist, or 500 spindles of No. 48 mule yarn, or 1000 of 

 No. no, or 12 power looms. One-horse power is produced by 19 pounds of 

 Newcastle coal, 50 pounds of wood, or 34 pounds of culm. Coal i, wood 3, 

 and culm 2, give equal heats in the production of steam. 



The Law of Friction. As an exponent of the laws of friction, it may be 

 stated that a square stone, weighing 1080 pounds, which required a force of 

 758 pounds to drag it along the floor of a quarry, roughly chiselled, required 

 only a force of 22 pounds to move it when mounted on a platform and rollers, 

 over a plank floor. A power of 250 tons is necessary to start a vessel weigh- 

 ing 3000 tons, over greased slides, on a marine railway. When in motion, 150 

 tons only is required. 



Coal and Water Used. Good practice requires combustion of the carbon 

 and hydrogen available in the fuel. Insufficient air causes a dense, black 

 smoke to issue from the chimney, and the loss of heating effect and too much 

 air lower the temperature of the flame and dissipate the heat. Of good coal, 

 62.2 per cent goes to form steam, and I pound will, in good practice, evaporate 

 7\ pounds of water. 



Shrinkage of Grain. Farmers rarely gain by holding on to their grain 

 after it is fit for market, when the shrinkage is taken into account. Wheat, 

 from the time it is threshed, will shrink 2 quarts to the bushel, or 6 per cent, 

 in 6 months, in the most favorable circumstances. Hence it follows that 94 

 cents a bushel for wheat, when first threshed in August, is as good, taking into 

 account the shrinkage alone, as $i in the following February. 



Corn shrinks much more from the time it is husked. One hundred bush- 

 els of ears, as they come from the fields in November, will be reduced to not 

 far from 80. So that 40 cents a bushel for corn in the ear, as it comes from 

 the field, is as good as 50 in March, shrinkage only being taken into account. 



In the case of potatoes, taking those that rot and are otherwise lost, to- 

 gether with the shrinkage, there is but little doubt that, between October and 

 June, the loss to the owner who holds them is not less than 33 per cent. 



This estimate is taken on the basis of interest at 7 per cent, and takes no 

 account of loss by vermin. 



Measuring Grain. By the United States standard, 2150 cubic inches 

 make a bushel. Now, as a cubic foot contains 1728 cubic inches, a bushel is 

 to a cubic foot as 2150 to 1728 ; or, for practical purposes, as 4 to 5. There- 

 fore, to convert cubic feet to bushels, it is necessary only to multiply by f or .8. 



To measure the bushels of grain in a granary : 



Rule. Multiply the length in feet by the breadth in feet, and that again 

 by the depth in feet, and that again by |. The last product will be the num- 

 ber of bushels the granary contains. 



In Pennsylvania, 80 pounds coarse, 70 pounds ground, or 62 pounds fine 

 salt, make one bushel ; and in Illinois, 50 pounds common, or 55 pounds fine 

 salt, make one bushel. In Tennessee, 100 ears of corn are a bushel. A heap- 

 ing bushel contains 2815 cubic inches. In Maine, 64 pounds of rutabaga tur- 

 nips or beets make i bushel. 



