vol,. XVI. NO. 19. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



of order, if well used. I was advised of Mr Hus- 

 sey, of the necessity of keeping some of the parts 

 well greased ; this I have punctually attended to, 

 and no perceptible wear yet appears, beyond or- 

 dinary wear of any other machinery. 



It is immaterial to the machine, whether the 

 speed he a walk or trot; although a walk will 

 make the most perfect work. My speed was a 

 common walk, hut a trot is sometimes necessary 

 to counteract the effect of a strong wind when 

 blowing from behind, in orler to incline the grain 

 backwards on to the platform, to make good bun- 

 dles. A quick walk is required to make good 

 work in very short anil scattering grain. The 

 machine performs well, up and down hill, provi- 

 ded the surface be not too much broken. By its 

 compactness and ease of management, rocks and 

 stumps too high to be cut over, can be easily avoi- 

 ded. Although a rough surface is very objec- 

 tionable, yet I have cut over very rocky ground, 

 with no material difficulty. I can say one thing 

 which to some may appear incredible, but it is 

 not less true ; the cutters of my machine have not 

 Iieen sharpened since I have had it ; nor have I 

 yet seen any apjiearance of a need of it, in the 

 equality of its work. How many harvests a ma- 

 chine would cut without sharpening is hard to 

 sffy ; I projiose sharpening mine once a year only. 

 I have used two horses at a time in the machine, 

 and sometimes clianjed at noon ; they work it 

 with case, the draught being light. I took no ac- 

 count of what 1 had cut in any one day, with this 

 exception ; in less than half a day, I cut 6 acres, 

 and was often detained for want of the requisite 

 number of binders ; by which much linic was 

 lost, fliy machine being something narrower than 

 those generally made by Mr Hussey, I could cut 

 but about one acre in going two miles; this at the 

 moderate rate of two and'a half miles per hour, 

 would amount to twelve and a half acres in ten 

 hours, and at 4 miles per hour, a speed at which 

 the work is done in fine style, the amount would 

 be twenty acres in ten hours. I should judge my 

 quantity per day, ranges between ten and fifteen 

 acres— yet, f am decided in the opinion that I 

 can cut twenty acres in a day, in good grain, on 

 good ground, by the usual diligence of harvest 

 hands, with a little increase of my usual speed, 

 and a change of horses. Two hands are required' 

 to work the machine, a man to push off tiie grain, 

 and a boy to drive, besiiles a number of bitiders 

 are necessarily increased in heavy grain, except 

 an additional speed be given in light grain. Un- 

 der every circumstance, the number of binders 

 will vary from four to 'en ; and when the usual 

 care is practised by the binders, there will be 

 much less waste, than in any other method of cut- 

 ting. 



I speak with more confidence of the merits and 

 capacity of Mr Ilussey's reaping machine, from 

 the cucumstance of having pushed the grain off 

 for several days, in order to make myself prac- 

 tically and thoroughly acquainted with it before 

 putting it into the hands of my laboring men. 



The land in this county being rather rocky and 

 uneven, it is hard to say what will be the ultimate 

 advantages of these machines to our farmers, but 

 from what little experience I have had, [ an'i re- 

 solved not to be without one or two of them. I 

 can therefore recommend the machine with con- 

 fidence, especially to those who have a large por- 

 tion of smooth ground in cultivation. It is un- 



49 



doubtedly a labor saving machine, and worthy of 

 their attention. John Stokebbaker. 



Hagerstown, Aug. 15, 1837. 



Smelting Iro.n with A.nthracite Coal.— We 

 are gratified to be able to lay before our readers 

 further information in regard to this discoverv, so 

 highly interesting to our State, and to the Union 

 at large. At the Liverpool meeting of the Bril- 

 sh Association for the' advancement of science 

 the discoverer, Mr CJraiie, read a paper, an ali- 

 tstract of which we find in the London Literary 

 Gazette, of Sept. 16, as follows : 



U. S. Gazette. 

 "Mr Crane, of Toriscedwyn iron works, near 

 Swansea, read a paper on his successful introduc- 

 tion of anthracite coal, by the combination of heat- 

 ed air, for the purpose of smelting iron ore. The 

 reduction of the quantity of fuel expended, to less 

 than one third of that before required of the bitu- 

 minous kinds, for the production of the best pig 

 iron — the increase of from forty to fifty per centt 

 upon the former make, by the process— and the 

 greatly increased strength of the metal, when com- 

 pared with that previously obtained by him from 

 the native ores of the South Welsh basin, with 

 the use of coke of the bituminous veins, anil cold 

 blast, were the leading points of the paper. This 

 is a subject of great interest in a commercial point 

 of view; as, if perfectly successful— and from the 

 experiment of Mr Crane, on a large scale, there 

 seems to be strong ground foi supposing it may 

 be so — it is a question whether the discovery vviil 

 prove more beneficial or injurious to the prosper- 

 ity of this country. On ihe one hand it was urged 

 by Mr Crane, that at least one third of the hn- 

 mense coal pits of South Wales is composed of 

 anthracite coal, which will thus fix the first time, 

 be brought into extensive use for the purposes of 

 smelting; but on the other hand, it must here- 

 membered that this description of coal exists, to- 

 gether with iron ore, in greit abundance in' the 

 United States of America, as well as in various 

 parts of the continent, the inhabitants of which 

 would, if the theory hold good, be enabled to rival 

 our works, at a chea]) rate. Mr Crane stated that 

 he had smelted a ton of iron, on an average, with 

 less than 27 cwt. of anthracite coal ; and in regard 



to quality, the result was perfectly satisfactory. 



His works had long been noted for producing 

 iron, equal, if not superior, to others in South 

 Wales; and by means of anthracite coal, he had 

 been enabled to improve its quality. Anthracite 

 coal, being almost entirely composed of carbon, it 

 was his opinion that he woidd be able, at no dis- 

 tant period, to produce, by its means, iron not in- 

 ferior to that formerly smelted by charcoal. Hav- 

 ing beds of bituminous coal, as well as anthracite, 

 in his possession, he had instituted comparisons 

 as to the amount of iron which could be produced 

 by the most economical application of coal, and 

 he found that there was a considerable saving in 

 the use of the latter. Mr Crane then gave a hTgh- 

 ly descriptive account of the manner in which^he 

 had first discovered the means of applying his dis- 

 covery to the combustion of the coal. 'I'he mode 

 in which he now conducted the smelting, was by 

 means of a ciipalo furnace, into which lie urged 

 a stream of air, heated to such a degree as to be 

 al)l8 to melt lead ; the efect of this hot blast be- 

 uig all that was necessary to produce that com- 

 bustion of the coal, requisite for the reduction of 

 the ore.'' 



Patent Safety Fuze. — Messrs Bacon, Bick- 

 ford, Eales & Co., have commenced the manu- 

 facture of this article at Kast Granby in this state. 

 It is designed to ignite the powder used in blast- 

 ing rock, &c., and in such a way that it may 1 c 

 used without danger. We learn froui one of the 

 firm, that this is the only manufactory of the kind 

 in the United ishites. Not the least importaiil 

 part of the invention, is, that the fuze will burn 

 under water without any difficulty. Those inter- 

 ested in the subject can see a sample of the arti- 

 cle at our office Conn. Courant. 



We find the following notice of it in the New 

 York Kxpress : 



Jlmericnn Inatilute. — Among the interesting ar- 

 ticles exhibited at the Fair of the American In- 

 stitute, the Patent Safety Fuze, manufactured by 

 Bacon, Bickford, Eales & Co., at East Granby, 

 Connecticut, is deserving especial attention. The 

 design of the fuze is to ignite the powder used in 

 blasting, for purposes of mining, quarrying, or re- 

 moving rock, and is said to be a perfectly safe, 

 mode of firing the charge. It adds to the power 

 of the blast, is a saving of cost and labor, and 

 nuiy be used as well under water, as in the dri- 

 est situations. To persons acquainted with the 

 danger and destruction of life, by firing charges 

 in the ordinary way of blasting, and especially 

 the difficulty of blasting rock in deep water, an 

 examination of the fuse will be highly gratify'ing, 

 as overcoming difficulties from which they have 

 long sufiered anxiety and a^moyance. Every in- 

 vention which reduces the risk of human life, in 

 hazarilous employments, is especially deserviu" 

 notice, — and the fuze will be found hardly less a 

 preservation of human life, than the Safety Lamp 

 of Sir H. Davy, which has given fame to that dis- 

 tinguished philosopher. 



Measuring Potatoes — A fact which come un- 

 der our observation last s|)ring, while buying our 

 seed r potatoes, has convinced us that it would 

 grei^ly tend to promote the csiuse of justice be- 

 tween -buyer and seller, as well as advance the in- 

 terests of potato growers, if they were sold by 

 weight. We engaged .S5 bushels from a dealer, 

 out of a lot of 55 that he had bought. Prior to 

 our sending for them, the dealer told us he had 

 sold 40 bushels and wished us to take the bal- 

 ance ; upon our remonsti-ating against his bavin"- 

 sold a portion engaged by us, he laughed, and 

 said there was more left than we had engaged 

 and much to our surprise, the residue ineasurcd 

 37 1-2 bushels, making the 55 bought by the deal- 

 er actually contain 77 1-2 bushels. On expres- 

 sing our surprise at these facts, he stated that he 

 had bought the potatoes in bags, and that they 

 contained more than the estimate of their contents, 

 which lie had at the request of the consignee, fix- 

 ed himself Here was a clear loss in measure to 

 the owner of these potatoes, of 22 1-2 bushels 

 whereas, ha<l the (piantity been ascertained by 

 weight the juilgment of an interested purchaser 

 could have been dispensed with, and justice to the 

 farmer would have been done. We deem it our 

 duty to lay this statement of facts before our agri- 

 cultural readers, because we honestly believe that 

 great advantage would arise, were the measure of 

 potatoes ascertained by weight, instead of the loose 

 manner of measuring in baskets, bags, and half 

 bushels. — Bait. Far. 



