378 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



by what means he hail finished milking sooner 

 than usual. The boy was silent and the secret 

 remained undiscovered for several days, when 

 the father accompanied him to the barn and had 

 his curiosity fully gratified. The boy opening 

 a box which contained a number of rye straws, 

 one of which being introduced into each teat, 

 the cow was speedily milked without the small- 

 est exertion. The straws are introduced about 

 half an inch, which is done with great facility, 

 the cow discovers not the least impatience, but 

 in withdrawing the straw a little force is requir- 

 ed. Small quills made entirely smooth at the 

 end would be preferable ; but milking tubes 

 may be made of silver or tin, and it is not im- 

 probable that those articles will soon be num- 

 bered among our indispensible utensils. The 

 size should be a little larger than a quill from 

 the wing of a hen. Whether the habitual em- 

 ployment of the tube will tend to impair the re- 

 tentive power of the teat or otherwise prove 

 injurious must be determined by experience ; 

 but 1 am inclined to the opinion, that no injury 

 will be produced as the substance of the teat is 

 not very susceptible of irritation or of inflam- 

 mation. We may now congratulate our milking 

 men and milk maids on this very important ac- 

 quisition from which may be anticipated the 

 following advantages. 



1st. A dairy of 50 or more cows employs 

 twice in a day 6 or C persons in milking — by 

 this new method, if the tube is made of the 

 lull size of the orifice to receive it, the whole 

 business may be performed in one third of the 

 time, and with greater ease to the milker and 

 the animal. 



2d. We may be relieved from the utiplea- 

 sant apprehension ot dirty hands employed in 

 milking. 



3d. When the udder is in an indurated or dis- 

 eased state, or the teats tender and excoriated, 

 the animal may be milked without pain'. 



4th. Fractious kicking cows may in this way 

 V; milked without trouble and danger. 



Had this curious discovery been made by 

 jihilosophcrs and jihysiologists in past ages, they 

 might have claimed a rank with Franklin and 

 .Tenner, but tlie iMiddlcboroiigh boy is surely 

 entitled to public consideration for his ingenuity. 



I cannot resist the ilesire (if the association 

 may be permitted) on this occasion, to suggest 

 another happy consequence that may result 

 :"rom this discover}', one in which our personal 

 feelings are more particularly interested. 



JAMES THACHER. 



Plymouth, June, 1824. 



[.Since the above was in type, and part of it struck off, 

 Mie Editor has been favored with a letter from Dr. 

 Thacher, from whirh we give the following extract to 

 i-idmonish against entrusting unskilful or careless peo- 

 ple to perform an operation which may be attended 

 with serious injury.] 



" The cow on which I witnessed the experi- 

 ment, is still milked with straivs, with perfect 

 facility and unattended by the least unfavorable 

 effects, but in other instances, under the manage- 

 ment of boys, I understand that serious difficul- 

 ties have ensued ; such as obstructions in the 

 teat, and diminished quantity of milk, he. in- 

 stead therefore of copying my communication 

 into the New England Farmer, I will thank you 

 »nly to refer to it and stale the information 

 ivbich I now communicate. But if you should 



I prefer to insert the whole article or an extract 

 from it, please to observe that cows have re 

 ceived injury by the unskilfulness of boys intro- 

 ducing rough quills and straws, and that further 

 experience by the careful use of smooth tubes, 

 must decide as to the utilily of the method." 



From the American Farmer. 



BEST FOOD FOR YOUNG TURKIES. 



Mr. Skinner, — Permit me through the medi- 

 um of the " P'armer," to present my grateful 

 acknowledgments to my Cousin Tabitha, for 

 her instructions on the subject of preventing 

 the gapes in young turkies and chicken?. No 

 disease perhaps, is more destructive to those 

 species of poultry. My Cousin's philosophy, 

 doubtles, is sound, as to the nature of the dis- 

 ease ; for not being a professional anatomist, I 

 am not disposed to controvert the opinions of 

 those more scientific than myself 1 am no 

 theorist but for my practical knowledge in mat- 

 ters of domestic concern, am indebted to per- 

 sonal observation and the experience of others. 

 As our progress towards perfection in the im- 

 provement of domestic comforts and convenien- 

 ces is greatly accelerated by taking advantage 

 of the discoveries of those who are well vers- 

 ed in such matters, perhaps it may not appear 

 presumptive in me to suggest to our cousin, and 

 your other readers, a mode of preparing food 

 for young turkies, which, for a long time I have 

 successfully adopted, and which recommends 

 itself by its simplicity. Two eggs boiled to 

 hardness, cut fine ; a handful of young mustard, 

 also cut fine; Indian meal scalded in boiling 

 water, all mixed together with a small quantity 

 of ground pepper, are sufficient to feed at one 

 time one hundred young turkies, to be increased 

 in quantity as they increase in size, until five or 

 six weeks old. They are very fond of this mix- 

 ture. Eggs that remain after the setting hens 

 are supplied, though unfit for other purpose, 

 answer this end. Feeding my young turkies on 

 food prepared as above described, 1 have never 

 known an instance of one dying with the gapes, 

 though until I adopted this pre|>aration 1 

 found it extremely difficult to raise any con- 

 siderable number of them. 



1 have usually sown mustard seed at such 

 time as to have it young and lender about the 

 seasons in which turkies are hatched. Per- 

 haps it may not be a useless hint, that many 

 poulterers permit the gentleman in the gang to 

 acquire too long a beard. Eight females with 

 one male, a year old, are suflicient to raise from 

 eighty to one hundred turkies. Should mus- 

 tard be scarce, lettuce may be substituted. 



AUNT BETTY. 



THE MINER'S S.AFETY L.-VMP. 

 Extracled and abridged from Parkes'' Chemical Essays. 

 In the history of mining, nothing has perplex- 

 ed the proprietors of our collieries, or annoyed 

 the workmen, so much as the fire-damp ; and 

 yet many thousand men, who had no other 

 way of maintaining their families, were con- 

 stantly obliged to submit to work in situations of 

 the most imminent danger. It was usual for 

 these poor men to creep with a lighted candle 

 in their bands, inch by inch, as it were, alono- 

 the galleries of a mine suspected to contain what 

 they call foul air, in order to ascertain its 



presence, and guard against its dreadful effects 

 Bet notwithstanding all their caution, explosions 

 frequently occurred and the consequences were 

 often of the most melancholy kind. The min- 

 eis, with the horses and machinery were some- 

 tines thrown through the shaft into the air, and 

 those individuals, who might happen to escape 

 the violence of the concussion, were often gra- 

 dually suffocated in being obliged to breathe 

 the carbonic acid gas and azotic gas, which al- 

 ways remains in the mine after sueh explosions. 

 Great numbers of men and boys are sometimes 

 kilhd on such occasions ; and not long ago no 

 less than ninety-six persons, who were working 

 in the fuelling colliery were, in an instant, de- 

 stroyed by a similar accident. 



Sir Humphrey Davy undertook to investigate 

 the nature and chemical properties of the fire- 

 damp for the purpose of endeavoring to arrest 

 its action, and prevent the ravages which it oc- 

 casions. During his experiments he found that 

 the fire damp is light carburretted hydrogen, or 

 hydrogen gas holding carbon in solution ; that 

 it will not explode unless mixed with a portion 

 of atmospheric air; that is explodes with most 

 vehemence when mixed with seven or eight 

 times its volume of air; that it retains its ex- 

 plosive power when mixed in the proportions of 

 only one; of gas to fourteen of air ; and that when 

 the atmospheric air is in greater quantity, the 

 light of a taper merely becomes enlarged when 

 brought within it, and that effect is perceptible 

 even in a mixture of thirty parts of air to 

 one oigas. He found also that the fire-damp is 

 much less combustible than other inflammable 

 gasses; that it is not exploded by red-hot char- 

 coal or red-hot iron, though iron at a white heat 

 will explode ; and that " on mixing carbonic 

 acid with seven parts of an explosive mixture 

 o^ fire-damp, or one part of azotic with six parts, 

 their powers of exploding were destroyed." 

 In the prosecution of these inquiries he found 



lifficult tf 



damp in small tubes; and that in tubes of only 



fore 



lelal 

 ieatt 



In the prosecution of these inquiries he found 

 it difficult to explode the mixture of air and fire- T 

 damp in small tubes; and that in tubes of only ° 

 one seventh of an inch in diameter, and opentc 

 the atmosphere it could not be inflamed, and es- 

 |)ecially if the tubes were metallic. 



In reasoning upon these various phenoment 

 it occurred to him, as a considerable heat was 

 required for the inflammation of the fire-damp, 

 and as it produced in burning, comparatively s 

 small degree of heat, that the effect of carbonic 

 icid and azotic, and of the surfaces of small tube! 

 in preventing its explosion, depended upon thch 

 noting poii-ers, — upon their lowering the tem 

 jierature of the exploding mixture so much tha 

 it was no longer sufficient for its continuous in 

 fli'mmation. 



This idea led to an immediate result — th« 

 possibility of constructing a lamp, in which tht', 

 cooling powers of the azotic and carbonic acii. 

 formed by combustion, or the cooling powers o 

 the apertures through which the air entered oi 

 made its exit, should prevent the communicatioi 

 of explosion. 



" I made," says Sir Humphrey Davy, « sev 

 eral attempts to construct safety lamps, whicl 

 should give light in all explosive mixtures o 

 fire-damp ; and after complicated combinations 

 1 at length arrived at one evidently most sim 

 plo, — that of surrounding the light entirely b 

 wire gauze, and making the same tissue feel 

 the flame with air and also emit light. 



" In jdunging a light surrounded by a cyliu 



ID), I 

 pij 



Mtml, 



leW 



iJlhis 

 'toll 

 llieei 

 ive ki 

 'i?inil 

 isooiiei 

 ikttiii 



lan Cue 



'"Sn f, 

 K-li 

 ;orei 



Tliete: 

 oik 



Mm 



Me of I 



irieidf (, 



""«!liir, 



saf{' 



