NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



195 



eration of the world, because they were scourged to 

 •work eighteen hours out of the twenty-four ; but 

 there is many a theoretic republican, who is a harsher 

 Pharaoh to his stomach than this ; who allows it no 

 more resting time than ho does his watch ; who 

 gives it no Sunday, no holiday, no vacation in any 

 sense. Our pious ancestors enacted a law that sui- 

 cides should bo buried where four roads meet, and 

 that a cartload^of scones should be thrown upon the 

 body. Yet, when gentlemen or ladies commit suicide, 

 not by the cord or steel, but by turtle-soup or lob- 

 ster-salad, they may be buried in consecrated ground, 

 and under the auspices of the church ; and the pub- 

 lic are not ashamed to read an epitaph upon their 

 tombstones false enough to make the marble blush. 

 Were the barbarous old law now in force, that pun- 

 ished the body of the suicide for the offence which 

 his soul had committed, we should find many a 

 Mount Auburn at the cross roads." 



illccljanics' Pcpartment, Qirls, Uc. 



The Hydro-Electric Light. — After a period of 

 six years, employed in a series of experiments, con- 

 ducted upon the most philosophical principles, and 

 continued with indefatigable perseverance, Mr. Henry 

 M. Paine, of Worcester, has completed his " Mag- 

 neto-electric Decomposer," — an ingenious apparatus 

 for evolving hydrogen and oxygen gases from water, 

 by the agency of electricity, generated by mechan- 

 ical means. The gases thus obtained may be used 

 for light, heat, and motive power, and have already 

 been practically tested for the two first named pur- 

 poses, on a considerable scale, with wonderful effect. 



At his residence, on Tuesday evening, April 23, 

 Mr. Paine exhibited the operation of his invention to 

 a number of gentlemen of Boston and Worcester, 

 some of whom have considerable experience in the 

 gas business ; and others have taken great interest in 

 plans and projects having in view the production of 

 artificial light at cheaper rates than it can be fur- 

 nished by the means hitherto employed by gas man- 

 ufacturers. ^Ir. Paine had his house brilliantly 

 lighted up, although he used only one small burner 

 for each room. The light was exceedingly strong 

 and white, and so pure that the most delicate shades 

 of blue and green, in some colored prints, could be 

 instantly distinguished at a distance of several feet 

 from the burner, (a common gas-burner, ) which was 

 supplied with gas from a pipe whose diameter did 

 not exceed one quarter of an inch. 



At the same time that the light was being exhib- 

 ited, the mode of using the gas for heating was also 

 shown. A small jet of pure hydrogen, bct\\een two 

 circular plates of iron, raised a few inches from the 

 floor, was lighted, and in a few minutes an equal and 

 genial heat was diffused throughout the apartment. 

 Thus the astonished party had the liglit and heat 

 together, supplied from the same source below, and 

 their expressions of admiration were unbounded ; 

 nor were they abated when they wore led down into 

 the cellar to examine the exceedingly small machine 

 by which the gas was made. The box containing it 

 was about eighteen inches square and eight in depth. 

 We cannot give the details of the interior of tlie 

 macliinc, but will simply state that, as its name indi- 

 cates, it evolves magneto-electricity by purely me- 

 chanical action. From the above-mentioned box 

 there ran fiat copj er wires into the decomposing jar, 

 which was about two feet in height, and six or eiglit 

 inches in diameter, partly filled with Mater ; in this 

 jar, by the action of the electricity just spoken of, 

 pure hydrogen gas alone was formed from the water, 

 ■whence it passed into two gasometers or reservoirs 



about the size of a barrel each. The pole, at which 

 oxygen gas is hberated, on this occasion passed into 

 the ground, so that hydrogen oidy was evolved by 

 the action of the machine. The process of carbon- 

 izing the hydrogen for illumination is exceedingly 

 simple, and was open to view. It is very cheap, so 

 much so, that Mr. Paine says that the cost of car- 

 bonizing the gas he has burned in his house in three 

 burners, every evening for a week, has not yet 

 amounted to one cent. The hydrogen is used for the 

 general purposes of light and heat, and the oxvgen 

 can also be secured in a second jar, and may be used 

 with the hydrogen to produce the " calcium light" 

 for lighthouses. 



Mr. Paine has also discovered a principle by which 

 he can rcgiilate the quantity of electricity to be dis- 

 charged into the decomposing jar. A large machine 

 has recently been perfected by Mr. Paine, of suffi- 

 cient power to supply three thousand burners with 

 gas ; it is set up in the Worcester Exchange, and 

 only occupies a space of three feet square by six 

 inches in height. 



One cubic foot of water will make two thousand 

 one hundred feet of gas ; and a weight of sixty- 

 seven pounds, falling nine feet ui an hour, will make, 

 from this large machine, one thousand feet of gas. 

 The apparatus can be applied to gas works o any 

 kind, and be used with any of the gas fixtures at 

 present in fashion. — Boston Post. 



SELECTION OF SOILS FOR ANALYSIS. 



We arc often asked how soils should be selected 

 for analysis, whether entirely from the surface, or 

 part from below, what quantity is required, &c. 



As earth is not a crystallized substance, whose com- 

 position may bo ascertained by its geometrical form, 

 but is heterogeneous in its character, we must be 

 careful that the sample selected should represent an 

 averaged quality ; and to do this, it will be neces- 

 sary to bear in mind that the lighter and soluble por- 

 tions of soils are both to be found in excess in low 

 parts of fields or at the bottom of slopes, and indeed, 

 even accidental deep furrows in flat fields mav, by a 

 single shower, be rendered the recipients of more 

 than a due proportion of particular constituents. 



Other parts of a field, by being underlaid by a 

 tight subsoil, may remain wet for a suflicient length 

 of time to induce the decomposition of some of the 

 integrants of the soils, and subsequent evaporation 

 of the more volatile portions. For the proper selec- 

 tion of a specimen of soil for analysis, where the 

 results obtained are to enable the cultivator to select 

 the proper manxircs for his crops by knowing the 

 deficiencies of the soil, it is necessary to select from 

 a large number of places, and at different depths, 

 mixing them all together, and tlicn taking a pint or 

 less of this mixture as the average of the surface 

 soil of the field. 



A sample so selected, although it cannot be ex- 

 pected to represent an exact average of the quality 

 of the surface soil, will still be sulfieiently near for 

 all practical purposes. 



The a*JOve directions apply particularly to the sur- 

 face soil, or that which has been freely worked, and 

 which has sustained vegctal)les ; but when the advice 

 of a consulting agriculturist is intended to be asked 

 in relation to the abilities and proper crops for such 

 a soil, and the manures required for its greater fer- 

 tilization, fee., then an analysis of the subsoil should 

 also be made. Py the subsoil, is meant that under 

 poi-tion which has not previously been disintegrated 

 by the jjlough ; and the parts of the subsoil selected 

 for analysis should be equally assorted in position 

 and depth, to at least as great a depth as could be 



