686 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



made is converted into gas, then there would be a 

 supply for seven such cities as London, equal to 

 231,000 chaldrons of coal. Eut; the estimated 

 crop of cotton for 1S36, is Bales. 



1,500,000, 



Or lbs. 675,000,000. 



Seed of which is 2,025,000,000. 



Half of which is 1,012,500,000. 



Cubic feet. 

 Which would afford gas 9,618,750,000. 



More than enough to supply 24 such cities as 

 London, and equal to, Chaldrons of coal. 



792,000. 



The flame of cotton seed gas is distinguished 

 for it:^ purity and softness. 



2dly. In the Farmers' Register, vol iii. p. 295, 

 is a sumn)ary of the cotton seed oil manufactured 

 dov.-n to that, date: 



The cotton seed huller wns invented, as is well 

 •known, by Mr. Francis Follet, of Petersburg, 

 about seven years ago. Several other hullers 

 have been made since, but whether on a new prin- 

 ciple, or not, seems not to be generally known. 



The patent right of Follet's huller was pur- 

 chased b}- a Mr. Plumer of Mississippi, for near- 

 ly all the principal cotton growing countries in the 

 union, who has refused, it is said, high prices for 

 sub-patents, and thus the cotton seed oil manufac- 

 ture has been subjected to all the evils of a mo- 

 nopoly, capital and enterprise being excluded. 



In the mean time Mr. Baxter, a resident of Pe- 

 tersburg, has procured a patent for a new hydros- 

 tatic press, with a pressure of 400 tons. This in- 

 vention, I doubt not, will form an era in the oil 

 manufacture ; and it is remarkable how little it is 

 as yet known. The press is however of no use 

 without the huller, and that, it is seen, is restricted 

 by a monopolizing patent, in almost the entire 

 south-west. Fortunately this patent will expire 

 in seven years. Whether the hydroi?tafic press 

 is destined to come into the hands of a monopoli- 

 zing purchaser or not, remains To be seen. 



3dly. The value of the surplus cotton seed of 

 the United Stales, converted into oil, cannot be 

 less than ten millions of dollars — a respectable 

 item in the wealth of" the country. 



The cotton seed oil is used to burn in lamps in 

 Petersburg, and is said to burn beautifully. It is 

 highly spoken of as a paint oil. X number of 

 houses in Raleigh, North Carolina, are painted 

 with it. It is said to be a fine salad oil, and as a 

 friction oil stands pre-eminent. The oil cake is a 

 capital food for stock, and will itself pay all the ex- 

 penses of the manuliicture. 



Baxter's press will make 40 gallons of oil per 

 diem, with a hired labor of three dollars a day. 

 The oil is worth §1 25 per gallon, which will be 

 $50 a day, or .^ 15,600 per annum. 



Such are a few hints I have picked up on this 

 matter, and hastily set down. Unfortunately for 

 the public, practicrd men, who are most com[)ptent 

 to give infiirmalion on such subjects, are the least 

 apt of all others ever to put pen to paper. 



C C 



Jan. 20, 1837. , 



process now in operation at the Barriere de Gre- 

 nclle, near Paris, for forming artesian wells, has 

 already penetrated 1088 feet without finding wa- 

 ter. His contract is to bore as low as 1200 feet; 

 and if no wafer is found at this depth, the engineer 

 is ready to make a new contract with the city of 

 Paris, to go to the enormous depth of 2000 feet ; 

 such a depth has never yet been sounded on the 

 surflice of the globe. (yJthenccnm, 1836, p. 740.) 

 If the depth of 2000 feel can be attained, at any 

 thing like a moderate expense, it is probable that 

 a still greater depth is practicable ; and if so, wa- 

 fer may probably be found in every spot on the 

 face of the earth. The fertility of the most arid 

 deserts would thus be secured, and the whole 

 world rendered one fertile garden. The next step- 

 would be to call do\tn fire from the clouds, in the 

 form of electricity, so as to ficililate the operations 

 of cooking, and the driving of machinery. 



From Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 

 ARTESIAN WELLS. 



M. Mulot, who has the management of the 



From Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 



ACCELERATING THE GROWTH OF SEEDS BY 

 SCALDING. 



Cobbett, in treating of the locust, says, that he 

 was reconuTiended by an American gentleman 

 (Judge Mitchell of Long Island) to boil ihe seeds 

 previously to sdwmg them. (See j/rb. Brit., p, 

 624.) And the idea is not so ridiculous as might 

 at first sight be imagined. The subject was no- 

 ticed by Professor Henslow, at the meeting of the 

 British Association at Bristol; and (he following 

 is an extract from a communication by the profes- 

 sor to the Magazine of Natural History, vol. ix. 

 p.'477:— 



" Sir John Herschel lately sent some seeds of 

 an acacia fr-om the Cape of Good Hope, to Cap- 

 tain Smith of Bedford, with directions that they 

 should be scalded, in order to secure their germin- 

 ation. Captain Smith having presented me with, 

 a dozen of these, I subjected them to the follow- 

 ing experiments: — Two were placed in boiling 

 water, and left to soak for an hour, until the water 

 had become cool ; two were kept at the boiling 

 temperature for 1^ minutes; two for 3 minutes; 

 two for 6 minutes ; and one for 15 minutes. Some 

 of" these were sown immediately, under a hand- 

 glass, in the open border; and the rest were kept 

 for 3 or 4 days, and then sown in a hot-bed. The 

 following are the results obtained: — 



Under the hand-glass, — 



1, boiled for 1-^- minutes, failed. 

 1-3 minutes, came up in 14 days. 

 1-6 ... 13 days. 



1, not steeped at all, did not germinate. 

 In the hot-bed, — 



1, boiled for 1^- minutes, came up in 8 days. 

 1-3 minutes - - 7 days. 

 1 - 6 - - - 7 (lavs. 

 1-15 - - - 13 days. 



2, in boiling water, left to cool - 9 days. 

 2j not steeped - - - 21 days. 



We cannot draw any decided inference from the 

 single seed, which was boiled for 15 minutes, hav- 

 ing been more retarded than the rest, as it might 

 have been a bad specimen ; but it seems very 

 clear, that the heat to which these seeds were ex- 

 posed must have acted as a decided stimulus to 

 theii^ germination; whilst it is a very singular fiict, 



