1825.] 



NEAV ENGLAND FARMER. 



2ii. 



when warm weather is followed by colJ, or the 

 water is more directly acted upon by a body of 

 ice upon its surface. The .lournal contains n 

 third letter on this sul)iect, the writer of which 

 states that it is the univerjul opinion that mills 

 move faster in the night than in the day, but hav- 

 ing performed some experiments, he fr^nnd that 

 they did not move more rapidly by night than 

 by day. 



Moving rocks. — Several accounts have been 

 published of roclis situated in a pond or lake 

 gradually approaching the shore, and there is no 

 longer any doubt of the truth of these statements. 

 Some of these rocks move only a few feet, others 

 one or tivorods, every year; leaving a channel 

 in the mud behind them, and pushing up the 

 earth before them. These phenomena have 

 been attributed to various causes, but a writer 

 in the Journal is satistied that the motion is pro- 

 duced by the operation of the ice. The ice 

 Ibrms tirmly abont the rock, and as it expands 

 from the middle of the pond towards the shore, 

 carries the rock along with it. It is evident to 

 those who have observed how ice is formed, that 

 in all cases it expands from the middle towards 

 the borders. When water is frozen in a vessel 

 it expands from the middle to the outside and 

 breaks the vessel. A frozen egg bursts from 

 the same cause. On lakes and ponds the weight 

 of the ice prevents the expansion upwards; the 

 water resists it below ; its expansion will there- 

 fore be directed towards the shore ; and if the 

 shore is so inclined as to offer tittle or no resist- 

 ance the ice will project beyond the water. — 

 The writer states that he has observed ice at 

 the edge of ponds projecting upon the shore a 

 considerable distance. If this ice had formed I 

 upon a rock, it must have carried it towards the 

 sliore, and every time the ice formed, the rock 

 would be carried farther forward. It has been 

 observed that fences standing erect in autumn, 

 near the edge of grounds covered by water dur- 

 ing the winter, have considerably inclined to- 

 wards the shore as soon as the ice was formed. 



The author of another communication at- 

 tempts to explain the phenomenon of moving 

 rocks on the following principles. At the break- 

 ing up of winter, the ice nearest the shores first 

 dissolves ; rains and melted snow raise the wa- 

 ter of the pond, whereby the ice and the rocks 

 attached to it are raised ; a strong wind then 

 drives the ice and rocks towards the shore. — 

 according to this exposition, the rocks on one 

 side of the pond would be carri.ed not to the 

 shore, hut from it. — jXorthamfton Gazette. 



IMPROVEMENT OF WOOL. 



A plan of an Association has been formed, to 

 be called "TAe JVcw-Ejigland Society for the Im- 

 provement of Wool;'''' the constitution of which 

 already bears the signatures of 



.lohn Quincy Adams, Samuel C. Allen, Wil- 

 liam Bainbridge, Francis Baylies,Joshna Clapp, 

 B. W. Crowninshield, David Cummings, Samu- 

 el Dana. .lames H. Duncan, Henry W. Dwight, 

 .Tames Lloyd, E. H. Mills, Jonas Sibley, William 

 Sturgis, and Daniel Webster, of Mascachusetl.i. 



Ichabod Bartlelt, Samuel Bell, Matthew Har- 

 vey, John F. Parrott, and Thomas Whipple, Jr. 

 o( JVew-Hampshirc. 



William Burleigh, Ebenezer Ilerrick, John 

 Holmes, Enoch Lincoln, and Stephen Thatch- 

 er, of Maine. 



William C. Bradley, D. Azro, A. Buck, Sam- 

 uel Crafts, jlenry Olin, William A. Palmer, and 

 Horatio Seymour, of Vermont. 



Stephen Van llanselaer, and Moses Hayden, 

 ofJVeze-YorL 



James De Wolf, and Job Durfee, of RJiode 

 Island. 



James Lanman, of Connecticut. 



Samuel Breck, and Samuel D. Ingham, of 

 Pcnn.iylvania. 



James Monroe, and James Barbour, of Vir- 

 ginia. 



Wm. Cranch, and Wm. Wirt, of the District 

 nf Columbia. 



By the provisions of the Constitution, the 

 President of the Society may belong to any 

 State, the Vice Presidents to be from each of 

 the six New-England States. The seat of the 

 Society, to be in Boston, with branches in other 

 New-England capitals. First election to be in 

 June. 



The duties of the Society to be— to find out 

 the best breeds of sheep which now exist in 

 the country, in order to ascertain the degrees' 



regularly clean the inside of the kettle. No 

 crust forms on common sauce pans which are 

 cleaned whenever Ihey are u^ed. 



To make salt butter fresh. 

 Put four pounds of salt butter into a churn, 

 with four cpiarts of new milk, and a small por- 

 tion of arnotto. Churn them together, and, in 

 about an hour, take out the butter, and treat it 

 exaetly as fresh butter, by washing it in water, 

 and adding the customary quantity of salt. 



This is a singular experiment. The butter gains 

 about three ounces in each pound, and is in ev- 

 ery particular equal to fresh butter. It would 

 be greatly improved by the addition of two or 

 three ounces of fine sugar, in powder. A com- 

 mon earthen churn answers the same purpose 

 as a wooden one, and may be purchased at any 

 pot shop. 



To 



the 



taste of turnips from milk or 

 butter. 

 The taste of the turnip is easily taken off 



of perfection to which sheep have afready i)'"* and butter, by disolving a little nitre iii 



• - spring water, which being kept in a bottle, and 



a small tea-cup-full put into eight gallons of milk 

 when warm from the cow, entirely removes any 

 taste or flavour of the turnip. 



been brought in the United States — to procure 

 as far as their means may enable them, from 

 other countries, specimens of their best breeds, 

 in order to ascertain how far the breeds now in 

 this country, or any breeds mixed from them, 

 will thrive and become productive in the Eas- 

 tern States — to disperse the different breeds over 

 New England, in order to ascertain what food 

 and pasturage is best adapted to the ditferent 

 breeds— and, generally, by reports, essays, and 

 otherwise to excite a spirit for the improvement 

 of sheep and »vool in every part of the country. 

 Every person subscribing to the Constitution 

 '■'■ with his own proper hand" and becoming sub- 

 ject to assessments,to be a Member. It is hoped, 

 that to the above list there will be larsre additions 

 of our Yeomatiry ; and we are cnnlilent much 

 good will be the result, both to the agricultural 

 and manufacturing interests of New-England, 

 from the Association, 



Horticulture. 

 A New York paper mentions that the number 

 of Fellows of the London Horticultural Society 

 is between t-uso and three thousand, embracing all 

 classes of the community, from the King who is 

 its Patron, and who subscribed 500/. for the pro- 

 motion of its objects, down to the daily labourer, 

 who has distinguishnd himself by a knowledge of 

 horticulture. Its associates and correspondents 

 are dispersed through every country of the 

 globe, and are to be found upon the remotest 

 islands of the sea. In the list of members, resi- 

 dent in the United States, we find the names of 

 Gov. Clinton and Dr. Hosack : and as correspon- 

 ding members, Messrs. Floy, Hogg, and Wilson, 

 of N. York, Mr. Buel of Albany, Mr. Prince of 

 Flushing. L. I., Mr. Thomas of Cayuga county, 

 Messrs. Lowell and Perkins of Boston, Mr. Cox 

 of New-Jersey, and Mr. Dick, of Philadelphia. 



To prevent the formation of crust upon the inside 

 nf tea kettles. 



Put into the tea kettle a flat oyster shell, and 

 keep it constantly there; it will attract the stony 

 particles that are in the water, to itself, and pre- 

 vent their forming upon the tea-kettle. 



Or, as the shell occasions a disagreeable noise 



Useful invention — Much curiosity was excited 

 about 9 o'clock yesterday evening in the Strand, 

 by the appearance of a gentleman on horseback, 

 from whose feet streams of light issued forth, and 

 show'd the pavement for several yards before and 

 round the head of his horse, as clearly as in day- 

 lime. He stopped at our oflice, and ive foond, on 

 examination, that the light proceeded from a set 

 of lamps of his invention, one of which was fixed 

 under each stirrup, and, having three sides dark- 

 ened, emitted in front a blaze which was pre- 

 vented by the rider's ffet from rising to dazzle 

 his eyes, and fell on the foreground with such 

 power as to make every hollow or impediment 

 visible, and render it as safe to ride in the dark- 

 est night as in the brightest noon, The lamps 

 are supplied with common oil, and so ingenious- 

 ly arranged, that the light is not afiected in the 

 least by the motion of the horse, — Eng. pap. 



Melting Iron by Steam. — It is said that Mr. 

 Stephen P. Conn,ofGeorgetown, District ofCo- 

 lumbia, has really discovered the practicability 

 of melting iron with steam only; and he has so far 

 succeeded as to bring the iron down to welding 

 heat by this process. 



Mr. Gideon Davis who accurately describes 

 Mr. Conn's method of generating steam, says — 

 " I have no doubt that a steam generator can be 

 made, on the principle of this improvement, that 

 a man could take up under his arm and carry, 

 that would generate s^am sufficient, to work aa 

 engine of twenty horse power." 



Molasses Cake. — Three tea cups of molasses, 

 three tea spoonsful ofsaleratus, 1 quart of milk, 

 and 1 tea spoonful of salt. Dissolve the salera- 

 tus in a cup of the milk, and mix the whole as 

 you would pound cake. 



For the stings of Bees and other poisonous insects. 

 Wash the part with spirits of hartshorn or ihe 

 lye of wood ashes. 



