21'4 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



March i3, 1833, 



For the New Ens^lami Farmer. 

 PATENT DOMESTIC SILK SPINIVER AND 

 TWISTEK. 



With confidence I iiitiodiice this Machine to the 

 piihlic whicli I have learned from experience to he 

 the host of any yet in use ; as I liave tried various 

 ways for reelinjr and spinning silk, but found noth- 

 ing hut what required too njuch ]al)or and loss to 

 he profitahle until I made this machine. This 

 can he used to draw the thread and twist at 

 the same time, cocoons enough to make the 

 thread of any size recpiired, and make it as much 

 or as little as is wanted for weaving, knitting and 

 double and twist the sewing silk in the neatest 

 manner ; all with one operation by twisting it wet 

 from the cocoon into a finished thread, smoother, 

 stronger, and more even, uniting it in its natural 

 gum, better than it can be after it is dried. Silk 

 can he spun on this Machine from the cocoons in- 

 to a thread with less expense or labor than linen, 

 cotton or woollen yarn, and its steady diawing 

 does not break the fibres, as was experienced on 

 other reels. 



There is another advantage in using this Ma- 

 chine. There is often a loss and perplexity from 

 the silk's tangling, breaking and separating before 

 it is twisted, but with this we may have it all saved 

 and good with a little care in managing the co- 

 coons. 



I have had a piece of silk handkercliief spun, a?ul 

 woven in a common loom-reed and harness, 

 Which obtained a premium at Bridgewater Agricul- 

 tural Exhibition. It wove as strong as any other 

 cloth. 



Any person, who purchases a Machine may 

 learn to spin in two days, and shall have such in- 

 structions as are necessary to do it in the l»est man- 

 ner gratis by coming to my house, or they may with 

 a few day's trial, by following tl)e directions, learn 

 themselves. 



Printed directions shall he furnished to the pur- 

 chasers of each Machine, describing the exact 

 process from the cocoons to warp and tillingfor cloth 

 or finishing sewing silk. ] have had completed on 

 this M.ichme from the cocoons fifteen skeins of well 

 wrought sewing silk in ninety minutes. 



Adam Urooks. 



Scitnale, 3:1 Month, 7, 1833. 



For further information relative to this Machine 

 inquire at ihe Agricultural Warehouse No 52 North 

 Market street, Boston. 



Hi/ the Editor. 

 PE.\T FOR MANURE. 



[C.u.llnue.l from page 258.] 

 Peat made up with sea-weed gets into heat, 

 and appears to undergo the same change as when 

 Jivepared with dung; but on enq)loying the com- 

 post to raise wheat the crop was good, and taller 

 than that raised by the connuon comjiosf; but a 

 week later, and did not come on to ripen so 

 equally. As it was an object to obtain a compost 

 by menus of sea-weed, in order to make out ol 

 that article a permanent manme, which otherwise 

 iiourislics only one or two crops, it was attempted 

 to prepare it l.y the addition of more sea-weed ai 

 tlie turning over of the compost, as also to try the 

 ctiect ol add.ng to the preparation a small quantity 

 a. aminal mailer, which in general may be j)ro- 

 eured without much dirticulty near the sea-coast, 

 and in the neighborhood of towns or fisheries, and 

 both wore found to answer in making a perlectly 

 good jjreparatiou. 



Peat was exposed, dming part of a summer to 

 the fumes of a putrefying carcase, and the experi- 

 ment was varied by mixing it with ashes, lime- 

 rubhish or otherwise. The i)eat proved a manure, 

 hut more or less weak ; and as at the time it was 

 supposed impossible to bring it into heat without 

 mixture with fresh dung, or fresh vegetable mat- 

 ter, and heat was supposed requisite for a plentiful 

 absorption of putrid vapors, these experiments were 

 not carried further. 



A considerable quantity of field turnips was laid 

 up with peats, to be preserved from frost in the 

 winter season. The turnips sprouted, and a con- 

 siderable heat resulted ; but the peat though ren 

 dered pliable and used as a top-dressing, did not 

 operate as a manure ; and when subjected to fer- 

 mentation by reiterated mixture with hashed tur- 

 nips and other fresh vegetables, it still turned out 

 a poor manure at first, and afterward worse than 

 none, the chrystals of the sulphate of iron a))pear- 

 ing on it. 



The Author was never able to prepare peat by 

 means of lime alone ; hut liaving received a very 

 particidar account of a friend having in this way 

 in)t only brought it into heat, hut raised excellent 

 wheat, he made particular inquiry into the circum- 

 stances, when he learned, that the heat might he 

 perfectly exi)lained by the action of the moist peat 

 on the burnt lime-shells, and that the wheat crop 

 was as good on a corner of the fielrl, where the 

 lime and peat had been carteil on, and plouglie<l 

 in without any previous admixture, as where they 

 had ))reviously been mixed, laid up in a dung-hill, 

 and turned over as a composition in preparation. 

 In one instance, the mixture of peat and lime wiis 

 found by the Author to be actually pernicious tci 

 ihe wheat crop; hut the ensuing crop of oats was 

 ixccllent. Tan combines with animal jelly, and 

 loses its astringency ; and sundry vegetable matters, 

 such as wheat contain gluten ; while the compo- 

 nent parts of which gluten is composed, are very 

 irenerally distributed among a variety of substan- 

 ces. At the same time in common temperatmi s, 

 lime-water does not unite with the tan in peat, 

 nor does mine. Hence, possibly, the gradual pn p- 

 aration of peat, in a certain sense, by exposure to 

 the atmosphere, or mixture with the soil may be 

 explained ; while, otherwise, it may be retenlivi , 

 \hr a time of (]ualities adverse to its decomposition, 

 and evcTi unfavorable to vegetation, in certain 

 proportions. 



Peat thrown into cow-urine becomes a sort ol 

 sleech or mud, resembling that of a well frequent- 

 ed public road in moist weather; and having been 

 used as a top dressing, was found to answer as ,i 

 good manure. Something of the same sort takes 

 place if soap suds are used, or water of connnon 

 sewers. The peat, thus converted into nuni, 

 should have been laid up in order to dry a lilth, 

 and then should have been turned over, when it 

 would have heated and undergone decomposition, 

 but when these experiments were made it was not 

 suspected that l>eat could form an union with ani- 

 mal matter under pulri faction, wliich wouH ena- 

 ile it to undergo an active fermentation, accom- 

 panied with beat, as if still a vegetable substance 

 recently deprived of life. 



It is impossible to prescribe with any precision, 

 the quantity of con, post required to manure pai- 

 ticular crops or soils. Hitherto the Author has 

 luund it, when jiroperly prepared, equal, and in- 

 ieed in some respects preferable, to common fiuin- 

 yard dung, weight for weight, during the first | 



three years, and to surpass it afterward. It has 

 been inferred from the appearance and effects of 

 the compost, that a considerable proportion of it 

 is less volatile and soluble than dung; but that it, 

 nevertheless, yields to the crop what is sufficient 

 as a manure, when subjected to the action of the 

 living fibres of vegetables, and in this way wastes 

 slower; and lasts longer. Whatever be in this in- 

 ference, nothing however, has appeared more re- 

 markable than its superiority in njaiiitaining (for 

 four or five years,) fresh and nourishing, the pas- 

 ture of thin clays, that had been laid down with it, 

 and in making them yield well again when broken 

 up, without any top dressing or new manure or 

 any sort. When cmjiloyed in this way the effect 

 of common dung, laid on in the usual quantity, is 

 soon over ; the soil resumes its state of over 

 consolidation, and the pasture grows unkindly. 

 Hence such soils have the reiuitation of being sel- 

 dom cidtivated by the plough with advantage, unless 

 with the aid of quantities of dung procured by 

 purchase and nmch exceeding what such ground 

 will yield by cro|)ping, till enriched by .several ro- 

 tations, sustained in that adventitious manner. 



The difliculty in adjusting the quantity of com- 

 post to be used for an acre belongs to manmes 

 generally, and appears to be little understood by 

 the connnon run of farmers. Not oidy the riclies 

 of the soil to be manured, but the season of the 

 yciu- when it is to be ai)[)lied, and the natural tex- 

 ture of the soil, and the stale of tilth in which it is 

 at the time, all require consideration. If the 

 grouiul is loamy, the stirring it Uj) well with the 

 plough and harrow, brings up a fresh soil from 

 belou', and excites a general chcnjical action 

 ilinuigh the .surface, which, with tlie aid of a 

 little putrescent inamire, operates like a fidl dress- 

 ing with dung. If it is a hungry gravel, that is 

 a sandy gravel with little loam, a considerable 

 ipiantity of carbonaceous matter is required to sup- 

 ply its wants; and peat conq)Ost is, in (iicl, better 

 tor it than common dung, containing much more 

 carbon and consuming much more slowly. In 

 thin clays, containing a little poor sand, the com- 

 post appears in a wonderful maimer to excite the 

 vegetative power of this uniironiising clay, if it 

 has got in it a little calcareous earth. But in the 

 rich clays, where there are in general both carbo- 

 naceous and calcareous earths in considerable ])ro- 

 portions, the Author has had no experience, and 

 would expect that animalized dung was of most 

 consequence. But as to sands of all descriptions, 

 and thin clays, and hazel loams, and other such 

 soils, he can s|)eak from experience of its ad- 

 vantages, and w<Mild recommend it in particular as 

 superior in raising potatoes, and in furnishing 

 what is requisite for turnip crops. It is natural 

 to presume that the compost must be of singular 

 arlvantage to chalky soils; hut of these the Author 

 has no experience, though he suspects that the 

 practice of sowing dry peat earth may, in part, be 

 derived from the want of disengaged carbon im 

 such soils. If einj)loyed in land in a coarse state 

 of tilth, a large proportion of compost is required 

 ill the same way as of lime or any other manure. 



The compost answers also as a top-dressing r 

 hut for this purpose in order to prevent the with- 

 ering and consequently imperfect solubility of the 

 harder parts of the peats, when exposed on tlie 

 surface the compost should remain longer tijan 

 usual in the dunghill, and a mixture of animal 

 matter, by promoting decomposition, is of peculiar 

 importance to its virtues. But when rich earth 



