VOr,. XVI. NO. 8. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL, 



61 



Is designed to show liow tjjr; business may profit- , stalk, — the diffej-etice, however, so strikiiiftly in 

 \l)ly lie eonneete<l with an;ricultiirn wittioiit inter- ! favor of the corn alluded to in these letters above. 

 fering with the regular industry of the farmer. It \ may l)e easily aeconnted for, in the great superi- 

 ority of the soils in whfeli they have been grown 

 — the prairie lands of Indiana, and the highly ma- 

 nured lots in the vicinity of the capitol, being 



s precisely the way it is proposed to introduce it 

 lere and render it lucrative in this ciumtry — he 

 ;ives a practical illustration : 

 a 



■" I will take the case of a farmer who owns doubtless much better adapted to nrg; it forward 

 nerely a small house sufficient for the resilience I '" excessive yielj, than that of ours, which is nejo 



f bis family, and about ten acres of land. With 

 lut the least sacrifice or diminution of the produc- 

 iveness, if he would merely surround it with a 

 ledge row of Mulberries, planted with judgment 

 tid according to the best methods, it is certain 

 hat it would cost him to do so only a few <lollars 

 if expenditure for the purchase of the trees, but 

 he beauty and value of his farm would be im- 

 iiensely improved. At the end of the third year 

 he trees will have arrived at such a growth as to 

 iirnish leaves in considerable abundance. 



But suppose that llicy will produce leaves 

 nough only to feed the silk worms from two oun- 

 es of eggs, yet sucli a number if carefully nur- 

 iired would yield at a moderate estimate, one 

 undred and sevcntyfive pounds of cocoons, whicl; 

 t twenty cents a pound would give a profit of 

 163 6-lOOth. The care of so small a number of 

 rorms would not be a great burthen to the far- 

 ter. One woman with the assistance of a boy, 

 >r the labor of gatheritig the leaves during five 

 f'eeks wonld suffice. Nor would it he requisite 

 ) enlarge the house for the accommodation of the 

 iTorms. The kitchen or sleeping room, if well 

 entilated, would be sufficient to contain the 

 forms from two ounces of egg.s without incoiive- 

 ience. The fixtures necessary forthe accommo- 

 ation ofth<! worms wouhl be so trifling that their 

 Dst can scarcely be calculated, especially as this 

 «pense would only be incm-red in the first year, 

 rom this calculation made on an e.x|)eriment so 

 mited, it is easy to estimate how profitable it 

 ould be for farmers and [troprietors of extensive 

 rounds to cultivate the silk worm, where they 



an have large plantations of Mulberry Hart- 



vd Democrat. 



ground not remarkable for its viigin strength. So 

 far as we are capabli! of judging, we are of opin- 

 ion, that the Baden Corn is superior to any we 

 have seen grown. Besides its prolific yield of 

 ears, it affords as ?nuch if not more, fodder, than 

 any otiier variety that has yet come under our ob- 

 servation. — Bait. Fur. 



SpRi?iG Wheat a.no Baden Corn A gentle- 



lan in Washington writes thus to his friend in 

 lis city. 



" I write to inquire how your spring wheat 

 icceeded. I have bad a fine croj) in Indiana. 

 ly son writes that we shall have 30 bushels an 

 ;te, and the quality very fine. The land was 

 Bard ploughed in 1836, and the wheat harrowed 

 1 last May or the close of April. 1 have 200 

 iishels on 7 acres. 



My Baden Cam is doing well. Some stalks 

 9ve 11 ears on them ; many stalks, 5, 6 and 7 

 lis. 



Oats also have done exceedingly well on the 

 rairies ; varying from 40 to 70 bushels to the acre, 

 ;r estimate, not being threshed yet." 



The gentlemen who favored us with the above 

 ctract, in his letter enclosing it, says : 



" Mr B (a gentleman in Washington who 



titivates it in town lots) has 24 ears of corn on 

 vo stalks of Baden seed, as 1 am informed, not 

 iving seen it." 



[These products each beat the yiebl of this ex- 

 illent variety S)f corn with us. We have a few 

 •res in it, and were delighted in passing through 

 a few days since to find from 3 to 7 ears on a 



Indian Corn. — The New Haven Herald says : — 

 " We have passed our observation upon the mar- 

 kets of New York and Philadelphia, within a few 

 days. Among other remarkable productions, we 

 noticed several stalks of Indian com, each of 

 which had seven separate ears upon it, and one 

 had eight. This was of a peculiar species, the 

 seed having been procured by H. L. Ellsworth 

 while Indian Commissioner at the "Far West." 



We suspect the editor of the New Haven Her- 

 ald is in error in stating that this was of a pecu- 

 liar species, the seed having been procured by Mr 

 H. L. Ellsworth while Indian Commissioner of 

 the ''Far West." Our own opinion is, that it is 

 the Baden corn, and instead of being procured at 

 the "Far West," was procured by ivir Ellsworth 

 of that excellent old pattern of Maryland Farmers, 

 Thomas N. Bailen of Prince George's county, in 

 this state. For the introduction of it to the no- 

 tice of the agriculturists of our country, 3Ir Ells- 

 worth deserves great credit, and for one we ten- 

 der to him our most grateful homage. It was 

 through him we were induced to cultivate it, and 

 judging from present appearances, we are of 

 opinion that there is no other variety of corn that 

 can compare with i;, either in yield of grain or 

 fodder lb. 



DuTTON Corn. — On examining some of our 

 ears of Button corn oa the 17th instant, we were 

 ple.ased to find the grain perfectly hard, requiring 

 nothing but a little drying to fit them for grinding. 

 The advantage of growing this variety after a year 

 of scarcity can be duly appreciated by agricultur- 

 ists. From our experience we are justified in be- 

 lieving that two crops could be grown in the same 

 season in part of Virginia, North and South Car- 

 olina, Georgia, and the other Southern States 



Ibid. 



New Weevil. — All the facts that can be recor- 

 ded in regard to the insect in wheat called grain 

 worm, weevil, &c. which is making depredation 

 on the wheat crop in this country at this time may 

 be of service to the public. 'J'liis day, (9th of Au- 

 gust,) a warm rain is falling, and a neighbor of 

 mine has brought me a head of wheat which has 

 become loaded with thewprm. Tliey are crawl- 

 ing out from the liusk or chaff of the grain, and 

 were on the beards, and he says he saw great 

 numbers of them on the ground ; and in one in- 

 stance saw an ant carrying one of them off. 

 Another neighbor has a jiiece of wheat where he 

 had the same crop last year, which is almost 

 wholly spoiled. I forbear making any comments. 

 ELIJAH WOOD. 



Winthrnp, 1837. Maine F'irmer. 



Explosion of Steam Boilers — a Piemedv 

 PROPOSED. — Dr Whitehead, professor of Chemis- 

 try, and formerly of the University of OxfonI, has 

 published an interesting and instructive article, 

 in relation to the explosion of steam boilers. He 

 expresses the opinion that the decomposition of 

 steam by the oxydation of the interior iron surface, 

 is actually carried on in the holier, wht'U the wa- 

 ter is kept constantly up to the line it is intencied 

 to reach ; and that this being the case, every boil- 

 er is constantly supiilicd with a quantity of hydro- 

 gen gas, only requiring the presence of atmospheric 

 air to combine and explode. Ho elucidates the 

 matter further, and then adds the following sug- 

 gestions with regard to a remedy. 



" We obtain froiu the above reasoning the fol- 

 lowing highly imporlant proposition, viz : that 

 ' steam boilers, presenting in their interior a surface 

 of iron to the steam an.! water, are dangerous, ami 

 altogether improper for steam navigation.' Every 

 such boiler always must contain a certain volume 

 of explosive gas, proiluced by tl.e constant gener- 

 ation of hydrogen gas through the action of the 

 iron, and will be in danger of a sudden explosion, 

 to produce which, the following circumstances 

 alone will be sufficient. 1st. That the tempera- 

 ture be raised to a certain point. 2d. That the 

 constant escape of the gasses be checked by the 

 stopping cf the engines ; or 3d. That the ra|)idity 

 of the generation of gas exceeds the rapidity of 

 its escape; or 4th. That a volume of atmospheric 

 air be introduced with the water by the feeding 

 pipe, &c. 



" Under some one of these circumstances, it is 

 well known that most, I believe all, explosions 

 have taken place. It will also be evident that in 

 such cases the safety valve affords no security 

 whatever, for, whatever (piantity of hydrogen gas 

 may be contained in the boiler, it will not of itself 

 raise the safety valve, and at the instant of its 

 comTaining with atmospheric air, it is too late to 

 raise it, as then it raises boiler and all, that is, it 

 explodes. Again, an explosion may take place at 

 any time when the elastic force of the steam is 

 not great enough to act upon the safety valve. 



" J'he remedy against explosion is happily as 

 simple and as easy as the disease has hitherto 

 proveil fatal and frequent ; and it is, to coat or 

 cover the whole interior of every iVore steam boiler 

 with cop])er, or any other suitable metal or alloy, 

 which will prevent the disengagement of hydro- 

 gen gas Ijy the decomposition of steam or water, 

 those metals not having the same high degree of 

 attraction for the oxygen of the water as to pro- 

 <luce its decomposition, and the consequent ]iro- 

 ductiou of hydrogen. 



" The above theory receives strong confirma- 

 tion from the consideration of a very remarkable 

 fact, namely, that on the waters of the seaboard, 

 where the boilers are entirely of copper, explo- 

 sions are seldom known to happen, or, when they 

 do, may be traced to culpable negligence; where- 

 as, on our interior waters, which are fresh, the 

 boilers are constantly exploding, without any ap. 

 parent cause. The mystery, however, will cease 

 when we recollect that they are all made of iron. 



Importantto Stea.m Machinery. — It has been 

 discovered in France, by Mr Chaix, that the in- 

 crustations on the insides of boilers is totally pre- 

 vented by mixing clay with the water. The Gov- 

 ernment has rewarded the discoverer with 20,000 

 francs. 



