334 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



than had been hitherto attempted, some additional 

 precautions were deemed necessary ibr the pre- 

 servation oi' the ice. Tlie ice hold was an insu- 

 lated house, extending from the after part of the 

 forward hatch to the (ijrvvard part of the after 

 hatch, about fifty feet in length. It was construct- 

 ed as ibllows : — a floor of one-inch deal planks was 

 first laid down upon the dunnage at the bottom of 

 the vessel; over this was strewed a layer, one foot 

 thick of tan; that is, the refuse bark from the tan- 

 ners' pits, thorougl)ly dried, which is found to be a 

 very good -and ciieap non-conductor: over this was 

 laid another deal planking, and the four sides of 

 the ice-hold vvere built up in exactly the same 

 manner, insulated from the sides of the vessel. 

 The pump, well, and main-mast, were boxed 

 around in the same manner. 



The cubes of the ice were then packed or built 

 together so close as to leave no space between 

 them, and to make the whole one solid mass . 

 about 180 tons were thus stowed. On the top was 

 pressed down closely a foot of hay, and the whole 

 was shut up from access of air, with a deal plank- 

 ing one mch thick nailed upon the lower surface of 

 the lower deck timbers; the space between the 

 planks and deck being stuffed with tan. 



On the surface of the ice, at two places, was in- 

 troduced a kind of float, having a guage rod pass- 

 ing through a stuffing-box in the cover ; the ob- 

 ject of which was to denote the gradual decrease 

 of the ice, as it melted and subsided bodily. 



The ice was shipped on the 6th and 7th of May, 

 1833, and discharged in Calcutta on the 13th, 14th 

 and 15th, and 16th of September, making the 

 voyage in lour months and seven days. The 

 amount of wastage could not be exactly ascer- 

 tained from the sinking of the ice-guage; because, 

 on opening the chamber, it was found that the ice 

 had melted between each block, and not from the 

 exterior only, in the manner of one solid mass, as 

 was anticipated. Calculating from the rods, and 

 irom the diminished draughtof the ship, Mr. Dix- 

 well estimated the loss on arrival at Diamond 

 Harbor, to be fifly-five tons; six or eight tons more 

 being lost during the passage up the river; and 

 probably about twenty in landing. About one 

 hundred tons, say three thousand maunds, were 

 finally deposited in the ice-house on shore; a lower 

 room in a house at Brightman's Ghaut — rapidly 

 floored, and lined with planks for the occasion. 



The sale has not, we believe, been so rapid as 

 might have been expected, amounting to no more 

 than ten maunds per diem, although Mr. Rogers 

 has fixed the price at the low rate of four annas 

 per seer, one half of the price estimated for the 

 Hugil ice, which was calculated to be somewhat 

 cheaper in proportion than saltpetre. The public 

 requires to be habituated to it, and to be satisfied 

 of the economy of its substitution for the long-es- 

 tablished process of cooling. There may also be 

 some doubts of the best mode of preserving so 

 fleeting a commodity; but on this head we cannot 

 but advise an imitation of the methods pursued 

 on a large scale on board of the Tuscany. For 

 the application of the ice to the purposes of cool- 

 ing, ample directions have been given in the 

 "Gleanings of Science," vol. iii. p. 120. A box 

 or basket, or tin case, with several folds of l)lan- 

 kets, or having a double case lined with paddy 

 chafij or any non-conducting substance, will pre- 

 serve the ice until wanted ; and for cooling water 



or wine, the most effectual method oi all is to put 

 a lump of the clear crystal into the liquid. The 

 next best is to spread fi-agments upon the bottles 

 laid horizontally, and have them wrapped in flan- 

 nel for a couple of hours. 



So effectual was the non-conducting power of 

 the ice-house on board, that a thermometer placed 

 on it did not differ perceptibly from one in tlie ca- 

 bin. From the temperature of the water pumped 

 out, and that ol" the air in the rim of the vessel, 

 Mr. Dixwell ascertained that the temperature of 

 the hold was not sensibly affected by the ice. 

 Upon leaving the topic, and running rapidly into 

 higher latitudes, it retained its heat for some time ; 

 but aOer being several weeks in high latitudes, 

 and becoming cooled to the temperature of the ex- 

 ternal air and sea, it took more than ten days in 

 the tropics before the hold was heated again to 

 the tropical standard. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 SMALL MATTERS. 



These are the very things about which farmers 

 in general are far too negligent. The great things 

 are allowed to engross the whole time and care, 

 while the important facts that every thing great is 

 composed of parts, is wholly overlooked. If the 

 parts are taken care of, the whole is salir. ; but a 

 neglect of items fi-equently causes serious or total 

 loss. It is the neglect of small matters in farming 

 that makes such an annual reduction in the profits 

 of" the farm ; and more agriculturists fail of secu- 

 ring competence in consequence of this fiiult than 

 any other, or perhaps all others put together. A 

 lew kernels of chess, or a little smut in your seed 

 wheat, are small matters of themselves, but the 

 influence they exercise on the crop is generally a 

 serious affair ; yet too many deem their presence 

 so small a matter, that an hour or two of fanning 

 and liming is considered as time thrown away. 

 A shingle from the roof of the barn is a small 

 matter, so small that many fiirmers think it un- 

 worthy of notice; yet that shingle opens a place 

 through which the rain falls on the wheat or the 

 hay. and does sufficient damage in the mow to pay 

 for a thousand shingles, and the expense of putting 

 them on in the bargain. A rail fallen fi-om the top 

 of the fence, a board knocked off the gate, a hole 

 made under the lence by the pigs, are also among 

 the small matters, that too many fiirmers pass by 

 as unworthy of notice. Yet when he gets up 

 some fine morning, and finds his herds pasturing 

 in his wheat, occasioning the loss of some half a 

 dozen head — when he sees some unlucky stroller 

 in the highway take advantage of the defect in big 

 gate and demolish the remainder — and when he 

 finds that his pigs have destroyed half an acre of 

 potatoes, and made a feast of his garden vegeta- 

 bles, then he begins to think five minutes spent in 

 preventing such accidents, springing fiom pure 

 carelessness, would be better than a week spent in 

 remedying or regretting them. The man who 

 never pays attention to small matters, is precisely 

 one of those who suffers most from unruly cattle 

 and horses, who spends the most money in paying, 

 and the most time in repairing, damages, and who 

 will, unless he lurns over a new leaf, most assured- 

 ly find that the whole cannot be greater than the 

 parts, and that he is lunning on a rock which has 

 been the ruin of thousands. 



