No. 12. 



Experiments on Land. 



373 



of the battery in Washington, a wire ex- 

 tends to Baltimore, and there encircling the 

 iron bar, returns to Washington. The re 

 turn wire is not absolutely necessary. 



From the tirst commencement of the 

 working of the Telegraph at Baltimore, but 

 one of the wires upon the poles has been 

 used. The wire, instead of going back to 

 Washington after it leaves the coils, de- 

 scends to the ground and is soldered to a 

 copper plate buried in the earth in Balti 

 more. At Washington, a copper plate of 

 the same dimensions is buried in the cellar 

 of the Capitol, from which a wire is taken 

 and soldered to the key. So that the fluid 

 travels upon one wire from Washington to 

 Baltimore, and returns to Washington through 

 the earth as its conductor. 



Prof. Morse has his alphabet so arranged 

 upon a square board, that by drawing a slide, 

 one letter is substituted for another, thus 

 changing throughout the common alphabet. 

 By this means a merchant in New York, 

 may write to his correspondent in Philadel- 

 phia, without the possibility of its being in- 

 telligible to any one except the individual 

 to whom it is addressed. Not even the 

 writer upon the instrument in New York, 

 or the attendant in Philadelphia, can de- 

 cipher it. 



With perfect ease the key can be changed 

 every day, or at every ten words of the cor- 

 respondence. 



This mode of secret correspondence is 

 more sure and safe than that of ordinary 

 ciphers used for that purpose. Our limits 

 will not permit us to go into a further de- 

 scription of other plans which Prof. M. has 

 for condensing much in a little, when long 

 communications are sent. 



This beautiful and wonderful invention 

 was made by Prof Morse in 1832, five years 

 before any thing of the kind was known in 

 Europe. The Electric Telegraph now used 

 in England, and invented by Prof. Wheat- 

 stone, does not record its communications. 

 The attendant is obliged to watch the move- 

 ment of several magnetic needles, upon 

 which are the letters of the alphabet, and 

 as they appear in sight to note them down. 

 If one should escape his eye, it is lost and 

 cannot be recalled. Therefore the superior 

 advantages of Morse's American Electro 

 Magnetic Telegraph, in recording its intel- 

 ligence, without even the attendance of any 

 one, can be easily appreciated. 



The Government should possess itself at 

 once of this triumph of American genius, 

 and give to every city throughout the Union 

 the advantages which may be derived from 

 it. Thousands beholding its sure and per- 

 fect performance, awe struck and confound- 



ed, have asked, "what are we coming to'?" 

 "what next can the inventive and restless 

 genius of man produce more beautiful and 

 destined to work greater changes in this 

 broad land of liberty"!" May this Govern- 

 ment foster it with all her care, and give to 

 the Union this bond of her perpetual stabil- 

 ity, and may she also reward her son of 

 Bunker Hill with sub^tance and honour. 



Professor Morse presides at the Electric 

 Register in the Capitol at Washington, and 

 by manipulating there, writes upon the Re- 

 gister in Baltimore, whilst Alfred Vail, Esq., 

 presides at the same kind of instrument in 

 this city, and by similar manipulations, in 

 like manner writes on the Register at Wash- 

 ington. 



The politeness and accommodating dispo- 

 sition of both these gentlemen, in giving 

 explanations and affording information to 

 those who have visited the Telegraph, du- 

 ring its operations, have been spoken of in 

 the highest and most complimentary terms. 



Mr. T. C. Avery, who has charge of the 

 batteries in this city, is also very polite and 

 obliffinir. — Baltimore Patriot. 



Experiments on Land. 



By J. Whitten. 



I BEG leave to lay before the Society, the 

 results of some experiments which I tried 

 this year, in a cold, wet, and hilly part of 

 this county, on a field of turnips, and from 

 one of them 1 am convinced that all landed 

 proprietors who deter their tenants from 

 practising it, act very much against the in- 

 terest of those, and, as a matter of course, 

 against their own also. I mean scorching, 

 or, as it is often called, charring, and be- 

 tween which and burning into ashes, there 

 is a material difference ; for in the former 

 there is nothing scorched but the roots and 

 seeds of weeds, which with all the tough 

 clods are collected together by raking, and 

 well heated until all pernicious matter is 

 destroyed in them ; insects are also killed, 

 the land warmed, and all rubbish of the kind 

 converted into a light manure, which is both 

 cheap — and what is equally good, within the 

 reach of every poor man. 



In the same field 1 used different kinds of 

 manure, and I found what was merely 

 scorched, as productive as even that sown 

 with guano, which 1 had carefully mixed 

 with bog mould, at the rate of four cwt. of 

 the former to eighteen cart-loads of the lat- 

 ter, to the Irish acre, and had it carefully 

 mixed for about five weeks previous to put- 

 ting it out, having been delayed that length 

 of time in consequence of the weather being 



