1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



421 



Those who had the manliness to enter the lists, 

 •were engaged on Monday in gearing their ma- 

 chines, and in trying the teams. There was the 

 veteran Obed Hussey, of Baltimore, who claims to 

 be the "original" inventor, and who had as his 

 youngest bantling a mammoth reaper, wliich cuts 

 a swath of ten feet. Equally advanced in years, 

 (although it is but recently that he had invented 

 the machine which he brought,) was Pells Manny, 

 father of the late J. H. Manny, whose widow en- 

 joys a large income from her husband's patent. 

 It was to these J. H. Manny machines, with Wood's 

 improvement, that premiums had been awarded 

 the week previous at the Maryland, and at the 

 Ohio State trials, so that the gentlemen from Hoo- 

 sick Falls had high hopes of success. Previous 

 triumphs had also inspired with confidence Mr. 

 Allen, of New York, and Mr. Ketchum, of Buffalo, 

 while Mr. Caryl of our State, had the approval of 

 the Boston gentlemen who assume supremacy in 

 the agricultural matters of Massachusetts. Light 

 machines constructed entirely of iron, from differ- 

 ent parts of the State of New York, attracted at- 

 tention, as did the "Kentucky Harvester," which 

 has met with a large sale this year at the west. 

 The examination of the machines and the opportu- 

 nity of conversing with the inventors and paten- 

 tees, was to me the most interesting feature of the 

 exhibition. 



Others have probably informed your readers 

 how on Tuesday, (after the opening ceremonies,) 

 nineteen machines clattered off at once in a badly 

 lodged field of clover, and how on Wednesday and 

 '1 hursday, some twenty-five mowing and combined 

 machines were tested in groups of four in large 

 fie.ds' of timothy. On Friday, fourteen reapers 

 were set at work together in an uneven field of 

 rye, and the remainder of the time has been occu- 

 pied wi*.h "dynamometer" tests in wheat, rye and 

 grass fields. The committee, sub-divided into class- 

 es, were at work from "early morn till dewy eve," 

 and never, I w'.ll venture to assert, has there been 

 such a thorough, impartial trial in the field. Ev- 

 ery feature of th-s construction, principles and ac- 

 tual working of each machine has been carefully 

 scrutinized, and duly recorded. 



A "dynamometer" recently invented by Mr. 

 Leonard, of the Am.ericar.' institute, at New York, 

 worked to a charm until p-u >o practical use, when 

 the motion of the machines to which it was applied 

 threw it out of gear, and soon tised it up. Fortu- 

 nately, there was an "oil dynam^^meter" on the 

 ground, belonging to Emery Brotjiers of Albany, 

 which enabled the committee to prosecute their 

 experiments. They also had a simp.t apparatus 

 for testing the "side draft" of the mac Lines, but 

 the close observation of such practical mr-r was, 

 after all, of the most value. Some mowers wh.ch 

 worked to a charm when drawn at a fast wa.x hy 

 quick-stepping heavy horses, absolutely failed to 

 cut when worked at a slow pace. 



When the reapers went into the field, McCor- 

 mick's was among them, a brother of the inventor 

 having arrived the night previous. Nothing could 

 be finer than the way in which this trans-atlantic 

 favorite cut up a rather steep hill. Hussey's mam- 

 moth machine did not work at all, and others 

 were forced to give up, although they did their 

 best. 



The report of the Board of Judges will not be 

 made until the annual Exhibition of the Society, 



which will take place at Louisville, Kentucky, the 

 first week in September. It will contain the "tab- 

 ulations" and the "calculations" by which the ver- 

 dicts will be decided, and will prove a valuable 

 contribution to agricultural literature. In these 

 days, when fire engines are made the prominent 

 feature in some "agricultural (?) exhibitions," and 

 in others horse-trotting is inaugurated by eloquent 

 divines, it will be refreshing to have an authentic 

 record of an Exhibition which cannot fail to be of 

 real practical value to the yeomen of the land. 



Essex North. 

 Syracuse, JV. Y., July 21st, 1857. 



SALT. 



Common sea salt (chloride of sodium) is an arti- 

 cle, the importance of which, in its action as a pu- 

 rifier in some chemical processes, has been but re- 

 cently known extensively. Scores of processes af- 

 fecting the preparation or rectification of various 

 important materials involve the employment of this 

 cheap chemical with other ingredients, under in- 

 tense heat, and one of the processes for making 

 steel, which has lately attracted considerable atten- 

 tion, consists in purifying scrap iron by salt, and 

 carbonizing it with the same materials used for 

 years in the simple "case-hardening" operation. 



According to some of the foreign journals, the 

 addition of salt to the materials in the smelting and 

 puddling furnace, has been attended with very ben- 

 eficial results in the quality of the iron produced. 

 But all these uses are at present trifling compared 

 to the immense quantities of this material used in 

 the preservation and seasoning of food. 



The amount of salt consumed in this country (for 

 various uses) including the salting of hay, &c., for 

 animals, the salt inserted between the timbers of 

 vessels to preserve the wood, and the like, is about 

 sixty pounds to each inhabitant. There are about 

 twelve million bushels of salt manufactured within 

 our limits per annum, and about fifteen million 

 bushels imported. The salt is manufactured part- 

 ly by boiling, and partly by evaporating in the sun. 

 The cost of manufacturing by these processes is 

 about equal, and the product is of about equal val- 

 ue, pound for pound ; but the solar salt weighs 

 about seventy pounds to the bushel, while the boiled 

 salt weighs about fifty-six pounds to the bushel, va- 

 rying, however, according to the position of the ket- 

 tles, to a weight considerably above, and also con- 

 siderably below the standard. Onondaga county, 

 in this State, furnishes about half of the whole quan- 

 tity manufactured in the United States. The brine 

 for these works is obtained altogether from springs, 

 and the salt is reduced to the cyrstaline form al- 

 most exclusively by boiling. The amount manu- 

 factured at the solar works of Onondaga in 1856, 

 was about half a million bushels. The quantity 

 manufactured in kettles in that county at the same 

 time was five and a half million bushels. 



A recent letter from S. Hotaling, a prominent 

 salt merchant of this city, in answer to one from a 

 committee of the British Parliament, on the salt 

 trade of our country, after presenting much of the 

 statistical information already given, describes a 

 salt block at Onondaga, of the largest size, as made 

 of brick about twelve to fourteen feet wide, four to 

 five feet high, and forming two parallel arches, ex- 

 tending the whole !*».igth of the block. Over and 

 within the top of these arches, are placed common 



