414 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



as will make one gallon. Or in other words, 

 suppose the cask intended to be used to be 30 

 gallons. In this put 30 quarts of currant juice, 

 90 lbs. of double refined sugar, and fill the cask 

 to the bung with water ; roll it over until the 

 sugar is all dissolved. This will be told by its 

 ceasing to rattle in the barrel. Next day roll it 

 again, and place it in a cellar where the temper- 

 ature will be sure to be even. Leave the bung 

 loose for the free admission of air. In the course 

 of one, or two or three days, fermentation will 

 commence. By placing the ear to the bung-hole, 

 a slight noise will be heard such as may be ob- 

 served when carbonic acid is escaping from cham- 

 pagne or soda water. Fermentation will con- 

 tinue for a few weeks, converting the sugar into 

 alcohol. As soon as this ceases, drive the bung 

 in tightly, and leave the cask for six months — at 

 the end of which time the wine may be drawn 

 off perfectly clear, without any excess of sweet- 

 ness. 



The reason why double refined sugar should 

 be used may thus be understood. Ordinary sugar 

 contains a half of one per cent, of gum, which, 

 when dissolved in water, becomes fetid. Sup- 

 pose, then, four, or five ounces of gum dissolved 

 in a barrel of water, we can readily understand 

 that at the end of a few months this water will 

 be very foul in flavor ; and most of the currant 

 wine offered for sale, made from loaf sugar of 

 common quality, and often from sugar very infe- 

 rior to this, such as white Havana, &c., contains 

 gum in this fetid.condition, and its foul flavor is 

 an amalgamation of sugar, currant wine and fe- 

 tid gum. When double refined sugar is used, 

 all these difficulties are avoided. 



No alcohol should be added. The practice of 

 putting in small quantities of brandy and other 

 liquors, makes a cordial, and not a wine. All 

 the sugar used may be so much fermented as at 

 least to change its character chemically, and this 

 change will produce all the alcohol required. — 

 Working Farmei: 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MOWING MACHINES. 



Mr. Editor : — "Essex" says, in the Farmer 

 just come to hand, "there is reason to believe 

 that the principle on which the Heath mower is 

 constructed, will be found the very thing that is 

 needed. I wish he ha'd been more explicit in 

 the description of the principle to which he re- 

 fers ; and which distinguishes it from Allen's or 

 Manny's machines, if there be any such principle. 

 I have seen them all operating in the same field, 

 at the same time ; and seen the ground where 

 they had operated ; and the only dintinction I 

 could observe on the ground was, that the swath 

 cut by the Heath was from six to nine inches 

 wider than that cut by either of the others. On 

 inquiry of those who guided them, each gave the 

 preference to the machine he guided. 



The Allen machine appeared to me the most 

 compact, and easiest guided, and least likely to 

 get out of repair. I am informed by an indus- 

 trious farmer of this neighborhood, that he has 

 already cut three hundred tons of hay this sea- 

 son, with his Allen machine, without incurring 

 one dollar expense for any repairs, other than 

 the ordinary sharpening of the knives, such as is 



ap;pHed in the grinding or whetting of scythes 

 This would seem to be a near approah to com- 

 plete work, in the cutting of grass. I admire the 

 facility with which it could be thrown out of gear, 

 by the application of the hand to a lever in front 

 of the driver. It seemed to me, other things 

 being equal, this appendage gave it a decided 

 preference over either of the other machines. 

 But it may be, a skilled mechanic can discover 

 in the others something to counterbalance this 

 advantage. 



If we are to have such a continued superabun- 

 dance of wet as we have had for a fortnight past, 

 it will be of little use to grow hay or to cut it, 

 for it will be Avorth little or nothing when cured, 

 under such influences. a. B. 



July 24, 18o8, 



THE CUIiTUKE AND HABVESTINQ OF 

 BEANS. 



It may, perhaps, be received as an indication 

 that the bean loves a rather dry and warm soil, 

 because it is a native of far eastern and warm 

 countries, as it was cultivated in Egypt and Bar- 

 bary in the earliest ages of which we have any 

 records. The bean is now in very common use 

 as food for man, and is frequently found in one 

 form or another, on the tables of all classes of 

 people in our country, and the demand for them, 

 we think, is perceptibly increasing. Their pro- 

 portion of nutritive matter, compared with other 

 grain, is, according to Einhof, as follows : 



Bii icei^ht. 



Wheat 74 per cent. 



Rye 70 " 



Barley 65 " 



Oats 53 " 



Beans 68 " 



Peas 75 " 



French Beans 84 " 



Or in a ImaJiel. 

 .about 47 ibs. 



39 " 



33 " 



23 " 



45 " 



49 " 



54 " 



In England, large varieties of beans, such as 

 the Flowering Marsh, for instance, are raised in 

 quantities, ground into meal, and fed to horses ; 

 indeed, they compose the principal food of the 

 farm and team horses. This practice has not 

 found favor in this country yet, probably from 

 the want of some one or more to lead in it. In 

 the former country, bean meal, given to oxen, is 

 supposed to fatten them rapidly, and mixed -with 

 water, and given as a drink to cows, greatly in- 

 creases their milk. With this declaration, and 

 their long and multiplied instances of experience 

 before us, ought we not to experiment for our- 

 selves in this matter, and learn whether we can- 

 not fatten our stalled cattle to better advantage 

 on bean meal, or jiartially so, than to feed them 

 exclusively on corn meal ? 



The idea is certainly common with our people, 

 and is illustrated in thousands of instances every 

 year, that beans do not require a rich soil, and 

 we therefore see them all over New England, at 

 least, growing on the lightest lands of the farm, 

 such as plains, or very light loams. It is s' pposed 

 by many th^t they will actually do better on such 



