NEW ENGLAND 



PUBLISHED \\\ GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH IM iRKET STREET, (at the Ag in km. Warbjiui 5e.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. XII. 

 --- - 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 25, 1834. 



NO. SO. 



THE SCARIFIER AND CULTIVATOR. 



— Ok which the above is a representation, is an 

 implement of great value, is beginning to be right- 

 ly appreciated, and coming into general use n dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. It has five teeth, or 

 scarifiers as represented in the figure ; etch of 

 which answers most of the purposes of the coulter 

 and share of a plough as well as supplies the place 

 of the hoe with less labor and greater effect. 

 These scarifiers are so constructed as to raise and 

 pulverize the ground, leave it level, and in fine 

 tilth, and at the same time destroy weeds. ' 



Implements for similar purposes have bien in- 

 vented and recommended by European firmers. 

 Among, these are the Scotch Scarifier, Parknson's 

 Cultivator, Hayward's Cultivator, and Bmtson's 

 Cultivator. Cuts and descriptions of theie may 

 be seen in Loudon's Encye. of Agr. pp. 3S , 2, 3. 

 It is obvious, however, at the slightest glanse, that 

 these machines are more expensive, cowj^icated, 

 and we should believe less effective thai, the above, 

 which is called Seaver's Cultivator, from the name 

 of its ingenious inventor, of Pennsylvania. 



Loudon in describing the. above lamed Euro- 

 pean implements makes the fo'llow'mgobservations : 



"The use of pronged implements as substitutes 

 for the plough, is comparatively a retent invention. 

 They differ from the plough, in stirring the soil 

 without reversing its surface, or altering its form, 

 unless, indeed, they in some cases tend to even or 

 level inequalities; they act both as he plough and 

 harrow at the same time, and on su table soils, and 

 at proper seasons, much more huor is effected 

 with less expense of men and cattle. Wherever, 

 therefore, lands require to be stirred for any pur- 

 pose, excepting that of reversing the surface or 

 laying them into beds or ridges, recourse may be 

 had to pronged tillage implements.'' 



Seaver's Cultivators are well adapted o stirring 

 the soil J>etvveen rows of hops, likewise is a good 

 substitute for a harrow in covering glain after 

 sowing. The facility with which it is expanded 

 and contracted, so as to be adapted to different 

 widths of spaces between rows of vegenbles, &c. 

 is an improvement which adds greatly to the value 

 of the implement 



The above Cultivator is for sale at the Agri- 

 cultural Warehouse, 51 & 52 North M.uket street. 

 The proprietors of tins establishment laving the 

 right of this improved patent Cultivatornow offer 

 it for sale with all its improvements: asthey have 

 a large supply now on hand shall hi happy to 

 supply their customers, friends and tie public. 

 They have been at much trouble and «peuse in 

 introducing this new implement as we| as many 



Other labor saving machines. They hope to meet 

 with that support and encouragement their atten- 

 tion and labor demands. 



OX Sl'CKERIJ,'G CORK. 

 I HAD the pleasure, about four years ago, to 

 spend a clay in company with old Mr. Macon of 

 .North Carolina, when our conversation was prin- 

 pally on subjects of agriculture ; and among others 

 the cultivation of Indian corn. After having in- 

 quired whether 1 had the suckers which grew from 

 the roots of the corn pulled off, as is the common 

 practice, and received my answer in the affirma- 

 tive, he informed me that he had suffered them to 

 remain, having, from repeated experiments, ascer- 

 tained that they did not injure the corn ; but on 

 the contrary, the suckers more frequently than 

 'otherwise produced good ears of corn ; and that if 

 they failed to do so, there was an increase of fod- 

 der. I have since tried the experiment, and wit- 

 nessed the following results: That after carefully 

 examining the ears of corn on the stalks producing 

 suckers, they were found to be as good as the ears 

 nn the surrounding stalks not producing them — 

 that a large majority of the suckers produced good 

 corn, though the ears generally were smaller than 

 those on the mother stalk, and that (of course) 

 there was an increase of fodder. Without entering 

 into an inquiry, whether corn ought not to be 

 planted so thick as to prevent its producing suck- 

 ers, (if thick planting will prevent it, of which I 

 am not sure,) or whether the pulling them off may 

 not injure the corn, by inflicting wounds on the 

 stalks, I can now safely recommend Mr. Macon's 

 practice, as saving the time and labor of pulling 

 off suckers, and what is of more consequence, as 

 producing an increase of the crop of com and fod- 

 der. I ought to add, that none but the suckers 

 growing from the root ought to be suffered to re- 

 main.— W. M. Watki.ns. Charlotte co. March 4. — 

 Farmer's Resistor. 



From the Mechanic. 



STRENGTH OF CORDAGE. 



I 



The Boston hemp manufacturing company have 

 lately put up a machine, at their ropery on the 

 Milldam,for the purpose of determining the strength 

 of their cordage, spun in the common method by 

 hand. A great number of experiments have been 

 made by breaking ropes of various sizes and kinds 

 on this machine, and the following exhibits the 

 average result of these trials. The figures show 

 the number of pounds required, by each inch of the 

 square of the girt of the rope to part it. 

 Whale line spun by hand, best that could 



be procured, ... 

 Whale line spun by machines, 

 Russia bolt rope, 1st quality, 

 Bolt rope of machine spun yarns, 

 Running rigging, 1st quality Russia, 

 Running rigging, American, spun by 



hand, - 



Running rigging of machine spun yarns, 

 Cotton line, - 



Coire rope, - 



Rope made of Manilla hemp 

 Rope made of New Zealand flax, Plior- 



mium Tenax, - - - 722 



Mean of all hand spun hemp rope, 633 



776 lbs. 



994 



723 



915 



442 



631 



717 

 604 

 215 

 610 



Mean of all machine spun hemp rope, b~5lbs. 

 Showing the machine spun rope to be 36 per 

 cent, stronger than the hand spun. If however, 

 we reject the trials on Russia cordage which is 

 vnry weak, the superiority of the machine spun 

 ropes is reduced to 24 per cent, over all others. 



In no instance whatever, was the trial on ma- 

 chine spun ropes made on selected specimens, 

 but the pieces to be tested were taken from com- 

 mon coils as made for use. InoV'd j t happen -I 

 that the machine spun ropes,, 2J^mt ?Se v. 

 lines, were made of hemp infcnfjj^i. quality to 

 that usually wrought in the mi The mod- 



ulus of cohesion, of the strongest ropes in these 

 experiments is 30,700 ; or a rope of this strength 

 could be let down into a .pit 30,700 feet, or 5-8ths 

 of a mile before it would be broken by its own 

 weight. A rod of iron can sustain itself ac- 

 cording to Mr. G. Rennie, only for a length of 

 19,700 feet. 



On the 27th of March by the politeness of Mr. 

 Treadwell, we witnessed the operations of the ma- 

 chinery for preparing the hemp and spinning the 

 yarn ; and we were also shown the method of im- 

 pregnating the ropes with tar, which is done uni- 

 formly throughout their whole thickness, the tar 

 being ki pt at a temperature below the boiling 

 point. The ropes made of these yarns have the 

 appearance of being stained rather than tarn '. 



The superior strength of the ropes made from 

 yarn spun by machinery, appears to consist in 

 this, that the fibres in the middle of the yarn are 

 nearly of the same tension as those of the ou;.-:il", 

 whereas in the yarn spun by hand, they are much 

 more tense in the middle ; and the short fibres be- 

 ing the first to give way, the whole stress is thrown 

 upon the outside ones, which being fewer in num- 

 ber, consequently cannot bear so much strain as a 

 rope made up of fibres of equal tension. 



The machine for trying the strength of ropes, 

 is so constructed as to try them fairly and accu- 

 rately. The following experiments on the strength 

 of three ropes were tried in our presence, and we 

 have no doubt of their correctness. 



No. 1. Whale line spun by hand — girt 2 

 inches ; broke by 2240 pounds. 



No. 2. Whale line made by Boston hemp 

 company, spun by machinery — girt 1 7-Sth inch- 

 es ; broke by 3520 pounds. 



No. 3. Running rigging made by the Boston 

 Hemp company — girt 2 l-8th inches; broke by 

 3440 pounds. 



As No. 2 was one seventh smaller than No. 1 

 we should add 502 pounds to the weight it actu- 

 ally bore, making 4022 pounds, for the weight it 

 would have borne, if it had been of the same size 

 as No. 1. Consequently it was 64 per cent, strong- 

 er than No. 1. Again, No. 3 was one ninth larg- 

 er than No. 1 ; we must therefore deduct from the 

 weight it actually bore, 3S2 pounds leaving 3058 

 as the weight it would have borne, had it been as 

 small as No. 1. It was therefore 25 per cent, 

 stronger than No. 1. 



Rhubarb, or Pic Plant. The cultivation of this 

 plant is on the increase. The stalks are put up in 

 bunches, like asparagus, and sold in the markets 

 at fair prices. 



