228 



Lime. 



Vol. hi. 



«' Few per.'ons are aware liow small a quan- 

 tity of mechanical power is sufficient to dram 

 a larp-e tract of fen land. Generally ppeak- 

 ing there are no natural springs; and when 

 tlie upland waters are banked out and carried 

 into the rivers by catch-water drains, we have 

 to lifl that water alone which falls from the 

 clouds." 



He gives a decided preference to hteam 

 Engines over Wind Mills; there being a .sav- 

 ing^in first cost of the number required for a 

 o-iven effect, and the engine can be used at 

 all times, while the wind-mills are frequently 

 useless when most wanted. To continue 

 quoting from this interesting essay, he says, 

 " I have not only caused ' two blades of 

 grass to grow where but one grew before,' 

 but I have had the pleasure to see abundant 

 crops of wheat take the place of the sedge and 

 the bulrush. 



"In most cases it is not necessary to raise 

 the water more than three or four feet higher 

 than the surface of the land intended to be 

 drained. 



" I have found it expedient in practice to 

 keep the water in the drains within the dis- 

 trict about eighteen inches below the surface 

 of the cultivated land ; and if we must raise it 

 three and a half feet higher than the surface, 

 our lift will be five feet. I have generally 

 caused the principal or main drains to be cut 

 seven and a half feet deep and of width 

 sufficient to contain the rain water as it falls, 

 and bring it down to the engine, which re- 

 quires a descent of one and a half to three 

 inches in a mile. I have always used scoop 

 wheels, the float-boards of which dip five feet 

 below the waters' surface, where powerful 

 engines are used. 



"These scoop- wheels are made of cast 

 iron, with wooden float-boards, like the under- 

 shot' wheel of a water mill, but, instead of 

 being turned by the impulse of water, they 

 are used to lifl it, and are kept in motion by 

 steam power." 



He estimates that on an average a ten horse 

 pow(;r engine is sufficient for draining 1000 

 acres of land ; the engines work about four 

 months out of the twelve,— and estimates the 

 annual expense at 2s. Qd. or fifty-six cents per 

 acre. The first cost of machinery and build- 

 ings for an engine of forty horse power which 

 should drain 40110 acres of land, is about 

 £4000, or about four and a half dollars per 

 acre. "The districts wherein I have been 

 employed," says Mr. Glynn, "are eleven in 

 number: thecjuantitv of land drained or im- 

 proved is about yO,000 acres, and the steam 

 power used is equal to C20 horses." He 

 represents the lands thus drained to have risen 

 throe to four fold. 



Fie gives the performance of an eighty and 

 a sixty horse power engine, at Deeping Fen, 



a district of 25,000 acres, for six years. In 

 the year 1835, as an instance, each engine 

 worked about ninety days of twelve hours 

 and raised 14,157,975 tons of water about 

 six feet high. 



He estimates "that a good steam engine, 

 will consume about ten pounds of coal in 

 the hour for each horse's power, and in that 

 lime lilts and discharges :3168 cubic feet, or 

 19,800 gallons of water (at a height of ten 

 feet) per horse's power per hour." 



Now I fully believe there are many extensive 

 tracts of land in New Jersey, Delaware, Ma- 

 ryland and Virginia, and probably some in 

 our own State, that wouhl well compensate 

 the owners by draining and cultivating them. 

 And even steam, it is more than possible, 

 might be advantageously used where fuel is 

 cheap compared with the price of productm 

 land. A steam engine used for draining 

 might at the same time be adapted to othei 

 purposes on an extensive farm, or severa 

 farms combined. Such, for instance, as thresh 

 ing, grinding, &c. Trusting that these ex 

 tracts from the actual experience of a Britisl 

 engineer, and the few hints I have given oi 

 their application here, may lead those inter 

 ested to reflection, i commit them to you 

 Mr. Editor, for a place in the Cabinet, or un 

 der the table, as you may deem best. 

 Yours, &c. 

 A Penn Township Farmer. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



I..iine. 



The history of this fossil manure, the un 

 certainty respecting its properties, and mode 

 ofaction, the great diversity in its applicalicr 

 the variety of its efl^ects, adds one more t 

 the many instances before us, of the grea 

 want of practical knowledge among farmerf 

 combined with and founded uycn scientific 

 principles. It demonstrates also the neces 

 sity, in order that Agriculture may attaii 

 that high eminence it deserves, of seme ox 

 •ranised plan for collecting and conccntralin| 

 The expenVrjcp of practical farmers, in thei 

 various methods of cultivation. It may b«' 

 safely affirmed, how-ever difierent may be thi 

 practices of those residing even on adjoinin| 

 places, that one just theory founded on immu 

 table laws, applies to, and should regulate al 

 their operations. It would he far better ant 

 less expensive that a sound theory or rule foi 

 these operations, should be well known, am 

 nnder.'itood before the practice, than that, ai 

 is now too much the case, practice precedei 

 the knowledge of the theory, and years d 

 repeated effiut and perhaps los,-^, only brings 

 us back to the st-irting point, and convince! 

 us at last of the value of a few leading Fcien- 

 tific principles. On no subject are rules mow 



