THE GENESEE FARMER. 



109 



LORD PALMERSTON ON UNDERDRAWING. 



Lord Palmerston, the present Prime Minister 

 of England, has written a long letter embodying 

 the results of his /experience in draining. " This 

 valuable letter," says the London Agricultural 

 Gazette, " remarkable because it was written with 

 instant dispatch in the midst of momentous mat- 

 ters of national importance, is to be published in 

 the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, and 

 we shall then see the grounds upon which our 

 gifted Premier could descend from the high region 

 of war and politics to cope with engineers within 

 the precincts of their own Institution upon a sub- 

 ject peculiarly their own." 



REMUNERATIVE PATENTS. 



Whatever doubt the sceptical may entertain as 

 to the superiority of the United States over Eu- 

 rope in art, arms, and literature, it is certain that 

 in one thing, at least, they "whip all creation," 

 and that is, in making patents remunerative. In 

 this country, patentees are often content if, by 

 means of a patent, they can obtain some slight 

 advantage over a competitor in respect of the cost 

 of production, never dreaming that the invention 

 will be required beyond their own works. Others, 

 again, will protect what they consider a good 

 thing, and leave the world to find out its merits, 

 never troubling themselves further than to reply to 

 applications for the patentee's terms for a license 

 to use the patent. And even those who patent 

 with the view of pushing their inventions to the 

 utmost, will not unfrequently reject all offers for 

 the privilege of working under their patent. Thus 

 opportunities are neglected or frittered away, 

 which would not only bring large profits to the in- 

 ventor, but the benefits to be derivable to the pub- 

 lic for his discovery are retarded, or perhaps en- 

 tirely lost, new circumstances arising to render the 

 patented process altogether inapplicable. In the 

 United States, however, patentees seem to have 

 learned the art and mystery of making money to 

 an extent scarcely credible by sober-minded Euro- 

 peans ; but that there is no romance about the state- 

 ments, or exaggeration of the facts, which every now 

 and then are published, is manifest, from the pecu- 

 niary interest of the inventor being to estimate his 

 profits at the lowest sum consistent with truth. 



It is only when an extension is required of an 

 expiring patent that the profits of a patentee are 

 brought to light. The extension is sought in the 

 States or in this country on the ground of inade- 

 quate remuneration ; and to prove this, a sworn 

 statement of the outgoings and incomings has to 

 accompany the petition. From such accounts we 

 learned that the original patentee of the sewing- 

 machine had realized the large sum of £97,000, 

 which was deemed by the Patent Commissioner 

 disproportionate to the benefits conferred by his 

 invention on the community, and he therefore, be- 

 came entitled to a renewal of his patent. In a 

 recent number of the United States Railroad and 

 Mining Register we find that the inventor of the 

 reaping-machine, which carried off a gold medal at 



the 1851 Exhibition, applied for an extension of his 

 American patent, but failed, from not being able to 

 prove to the satisfaction of the Patent Commis- 

 sioner the inadequacy of, his profits. From the 

 filed accounts it appears that the receipts from his 

 manufacturing business nearly touched $4,000,000, 

 and that his clear profits amounted to $1,409,000. 

 To realize this sum from an implement of such 

 limited use as a harvesting machine, is to the Euro- 

 pean mind almost incredible, but the truth cannot 

 be questioned. 



There are other American patents which we 

 know to have been more profitable than this; but 

 we cannot call to mind one English patent that has 

 yielded to its owner one-third of this sum. A 

 singular case occurred, some years ago, of a patent, 

 during the first year of the grant, producing a 

 profit of £20,000; but having to do with dress, 

 the fashion changed, and there was an end of it. 

 The Times reviewer of Dr. Percy's book on Met- 

 allurgy, refers to Dr. Muntz's patent for yellow 

 metal, or ships' sheathing, as one of the most luc- 

 rative patents known, and bases his assertion on 

 the fact that its proprietor died leaving property 

 that was sworn under £600,000. This is, how- 

 ever, an unjust conclusion of the value of the 

 patent; for Mr. Muntz's evidence, adduced before 

 the Privy Council, when applying for an exten- 

 sion of this patent, showed that his profits did not 

 exceed £55,000. 



Again, the enormous fortunes made by Sir Rich- 

 ard Arkwright and the first Sir Robert Peel give 

 no satifactory evidence of the value of the patents 

 which helped them to those fortunes; for it is not 

 unlikely the greater bulk of their profits was de- 

 rivable from their prudent mercantile enterprize, 

 which, if otherwise directed, would most probably 

 have yielded them similar returns. The fact then 

 remains, that American patentees possess a secret 

 which European inventors have as yet failed to 

 discover, but which, as we think, is deserving of 

 careful investigation, both on account of the pat- 

 entees themselves, and of the public ; for we hold 

 that, in respect of the extended working of an in- 

 vention really worthy of the name, the interests 

 of the patentee and of the public are identical. — 

 We would therefore advise that, instead of ignor- 

 ing statements which cannot be controverted, the 

 proprietors of valuable British patents should seek 

 to apply the means' by which American patentees 

 are enabled to bring their inventions so extensively 

 into use, and instead of obstinately persisting in a 

 course which has created the odious term of "ob- 

 structive patents," follow in the steps of their mop© 

 " cute" cousins. — Newton's London Journal of Arte 

 and Sciences. 



Cows — Kicking — Cause for It. — It is a fact 

 that stripping cows with a jerk is one cause for- 

 their kicking; and another prominent cause is, the- 

 finger nails of the one who milks are long and. 

 sharp, or rough and scraggy. Please examine' 

 Biddy's or Tommy's finger nails, and pare them; 

 off smooth and nice before letting them begin to 

 milk, and it will pay in two ways at least. We 

 shall have more milk, and our cows will stand and 

 be milked quietly. Who would not dodge if pinch- 

 ed with sharp finger nails? — Bexa Dunbab> liorth 

 CMU. 



