280 



Fossil Corn. 



Vol. XI. 



The column will now be complete. The 

 sunken space at the top of it may, if desired, 

 be filled with mould ; and mignonnette, or 

 any other annual flower of suitable growth, 

 may be grown in it, and which, hanging 

 pendently over the edge of the column, will 

 present a very graceful appearance. 



The pruning and training of the shoots of 

 the vine will be the same as if planted against 

 a straight wall. The circular surface of 

 a column of these dimensions will contain 45 

 superficial feet; a few years therefore after 

 its erection, the vine will annually yield 501b, 

 weight of grapes. The whole cost of erect- 

 ing one, including the enclosed materials, 

 will be about 25*. , 



Columns may be erected of a larger or 

 smaller size than that here described ; but if 

 the diameter be much less than three feet, 

 the shape must be that of a polygon of many 

 sides, if built with bricks, of the usual shape, 

 on account of their ends being rectangular. 



Horse Power. — We are frequently asked 

 the question, what is understood by a horse 

 power? and why that way of reckonmg 

 power came to be adopted, and brought into 

 general use? 



Before the power of steam was generally 

 known and applied to mechanical purposes, 

 horses were used to raise coal and other 

 heavy bodies, and Mr. Motts, in his experi- 

 ments, carefully compared the relative power 

 of the different breeds of horses, and found 

 its average equal to raising 33,000 pounds 

 one foot per minute, or what is equivalent, to 

 raise 330 pounds 100 feet, or 100 pounds 

 330 feet during that space of time, when at- 

 tached to a lever or sweep of a given length. 

 Thus, this afterwards became the standard 

 of measuring power or force applied to me- 

 chanical purposes, and which is still retained 

 in common use. — Farmer ^ Mechanic. 



Singular Habits of Swallows. 



House martens have a singular practice 

 throughout the breeding season, and more 

 particularly towards the latter part of it, of 

 flying up against the walls of buildings, just 

 below the eaves, and daubing them with mud 

 apparently without any intention of con- 

 structing a nest. Perhaps they do not go 

 twice to the same spot: at any rate, these 

 patches of dirt are not applied with any re- 

 gularity, but may bo seen sticking to the 

 brick-work, at intervals of two or more inches 

 all along the front of the building. Just at 

 the present time my own house has a line of| 

 these mud patches carried round nearly three 

 sides of it. f fancy l notice, that the birds 

 are more inclined to this sort of proceeding 

 in some states of weather than others. Oc- 

 casionally, twenty or thirty martens will be 



engaged in this manner from morning till 

 night, when, perhaps, for several days before 

 and after, not one is to be noticed. A damp, 

 cloudy day, especially if also warm, seems 

 to call them most to this employment, during 

 which they appear actuated by some feeling 

 or excitement which it is difficult to explain. 

 It is surely something more than an instance 

 of their " caprice in fixing on a nesting place," 

 (alluded to by White,) which induces them 

 to " begin many edifices, and leave them un- 

 finished." In the present instance I suspect 

 they may be the first broods but lately 

 fledged, whose instinct begins to operate and 

 show itself in this manner before it is wanted. 

 We see something analogous to this in the 

 behaviour of caged birds, who seem to expe- 

 rience a pleasurable sensation in carrying 

 about in their bills, at the proper season for 

 building, any little pieces of thread, straw, 

 or other materials which happen to be within 

 their reach, even when they have no mate, 

 and no convenience for making a regular 

 nest. This is evidently an instinctive action, 

 increased, perhaps, by high and stimulating 

 food. — Jenyns' Observ. in Nal. Hist. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Fossil Corn. 



To THE Editor, — Morris Longstreth hav- 

 ing incidentally called up the subject of 

 " fossil corn" in his Agricultural Address, 

 published in the last Cabinet, (see page 223), 

 without helping his readers out of what many 

 of them have felt to be somewhat of a geologi- 

 cal dilemma, I must ask the privilege to do so. 

 Those who possess the second volume of 

 the Farmers' Cabinet will find a notice of 

 the sa.me fossil corn at page 139. As many 

 of the present readers of that useful paper do 

 not find access to the early volumes of the 

 work, I will quote a short passage therefrom. 

 " In the 2nd part of the first volume of the 

 Transactions of the Geological Society of 

 Pennsylvania, page 145, is a letter from J. C. 

 .Johnson, M. D., of Louisville, Kentuckv, to 

 U. Harlan, M. D., of Philadelphia, dated the 

 6th of July, wherein the writer says: — 'I 

 send you by Mr. Frazer, the fossilized corn, 

 of which I spoke when I first saw you. It is 

 found in the alluvial bank of the Ohio river, 

 about twenty miles below Wheeling, both 

 above and below the mouth of Fish Creek, 

 and extending up the creek some distance, and 

 four or five miles on the Ohio; it may extend 

 farther, but shows itself only that distance by 

 the washing of the river against the bank.' 



" The stratum is generally from eight to 

 ten inches thick, and from five to six feet 

 below the surface, and contains nothing but 

 the corn grains closely impacted together 

 Avith the black dust, which you perceive 



