VOD. XIV. NO. 4 . 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



29 



his may certninly be done by nttackin:; them tlio 

 first year of its growth, ami continuing to ox- 

 tract tliein for tiiroo or lour years in suoces- 

 lion, not forgetting to ilraw tlio earth up as tlir 

 recteil. Straw, eliips, or trash of any kiiid, servo 

 the purpose just as well. 



Very resi)cetfully, yours, &.c. K. H. B. 

 Jf'ttskington Citi). 



^•ATTENING HOGiS ON APPIiES, 



Mr E. Holmks — In my conimunication of 1834 

 I described to you n)y mode of fattening swine 

 upon apples. I will now state the i-esult of my 

 experiment. I last year fattened an old hog and 

 two pigs, upon apples, with 14 bushels of oat and 

 pea meal, and one bushel of Indian meal only. 

 I began to feed them about the tenth of the Stli 

 month, and they were in rather poor condition. I 

 fed the pigs about three months and they weighed 

 it 7 months old, 113 and 12.5. The hog I fatted 

 ibout 4 months, and when he was about nineteen 

 nouths old he weighed 415, and the leaves weigh- 

 ed 34 lbs. and 10 ounces. Paine Wingate. 



Remarks. — Our readers no doubt recollect Mr 



IWingate's statements of his experiments in fat- 



teniiig hogs witli apples, last year. If not, they 



ill find them in vol. 2d, No. 37, of the Maine 



Farmer. 



Mr Wingate is a practical Farmer — is one of 

 the society of Friends, and like most of thathigh- 

 y respectable cla.ss, an exact observer of things. 

 According to some of his experiments, he cou- 

 •ludes that the fattening of Hogs in our section of 

 he country unless a person has slops, apples, and 

 ;uch cheap food to give them, is a money losing 

 }usiness — or in other words, keeping hogs upon 

 •orn and potatoes alone, will bring your pork to 

 ibout ten oents per lb.,, whereas if you have an 

 d)undance of slops, and food of that kind, it will 

 •educe the cost of pork to a much less sum, and 

 nake it much more profitable. Mr W. brought 

 18 a piece of the hog mentioned above, and fat- 

 ened as he described in a former paper. It was 

 )f as good a flavor and of as solid texture as any 

 )ork we ever saw. In the thickest part it meas- 

 ired five inches of clear fat. Conmnniities are 

 ilow in changing their liabits and opinions, 

 ind especially farmers. Many even now, not- 

 vithstanding the experiments which have been 

 ricd by acute and observing men will not believe 

 hat apples were made for any thing but apple 

 aiiie and cider. And many very worthy men 

 lave resisted the march of the Temperance cause 

 Hcause they would have to sacrifice their or- 

 liaids. And others in their zeal to do away the 

 vils of excessive drinking, have actually cut 

 iown their trees. Now we say the more orchards, 

 Mlier things equal, the better. 



Apples are as valuable for stock and even more 

 m, as for men. Sheep like them. Cattle will 

 i| iatten upon them, and pork can be made more ex- 

 1) seditiously and economically, by them and we 

 l)woidd therefore say to all farmers, If you have 

 )j 1 good orchard take care of it. — If you have a 

 It poor one make it better. — If you have none at all 

 set out one as soon as possible. 



DIVISIBILITY OP MATTER. 



To Professor Silliman, — 



Dear Sir — There has been, as we well know, 

 imuch labored discussion, and much waste of ink 

 i upon the subject of the divisibility of matier. 



.Vs the following has a bearing upon that point, 

 and m.iy be considei'ed as a striking illustration of 

 it, and as the result of my ralcwlatlons was not a 

 little surprising, as well as anmsing to myself, and 

 may be so to others, I eend it to you, that you 

 may, if you think fit, give it a place in your val- 

 uable Journal. 



Several years since, as I was sitting by my 

 fireside, I observed several of my family around a 

 table, reading by the light of a single candle. The 

 thought occurred — how great a portion of the 

 light of that candle is used by those several per- 

 sons reading ? And then immediately, a .second 

 thought — for how many persons does that candle 

 furnish light suflicient to enable tHem to read, 

 provided that it could be so distributed that the 

 whole should be used for that purpose without 

 any loss? The candle was rather a large one, and 

 gave a very clear, bright light. I found on trial 

 that I could read very well with my book at the 

 distance of three feet from the candle, and with 

 my eyes nine inches from the book. The candle 

 then would illuminate the concave surface of a 

 sphere of three feet radius sufficiently for the pur- 

 pose of reading. By measuring, I found that the 

 book 1 made use of contained on an average 

 twenty letters to an inch, and ten lines to an inch. 

 But as the spaces between the lines were broader 

 than the lines themselves, instead of ten, 1 suppos- 

 ed twenty lines to an inch, and, consequently, 

 that four hundred letters would be contained in a 

 square inch. A concave sphere then of six feet 

 diameter would contain six million five hundred 

 and fourteen thousand and lour hundred letters. 

 This number of letters the candle would illumi- 

 nate, so that each would be distinctly visible to 

 an eye at the distance of nine inches. Here I 

 would just observe, that the candle was supposed 

 to be so philosophically made, that, whilst it 

 maintained a constant bright flame, it did not in- 

 tercept its light from a single letter in the concave 

 sphere. 



Again, the light, reflected from a single letter, 

 would render that letter visible to an eye at the 

 distance of nine inches, not in one direction only, 

 but to an eye placed any where in the concave 

 surface of a hemisphere of nine inches radius. 

 To how many eyes, then, is the light reflected 

 from one letter, suflicient to render it visible.' 



I supposed the pupil of the eye to be one eighth 

 of an inch in diameter, which is probably near 

 the truth. On this supposition, the surface of a 

 hemisphere of nuie inches radius is equal to the 

 pupils of flirty one thousand four hundred and 

 sixtyfive eyes. To this nuinber of eyes, or to 

 half this number of pairs of eyes, the light re- 

 flected from a single letter is sufficient to render 

 thaf letter distinctly visible. But here it may be 

 objected, and it is true, that to an eye placed near 

 the plane of the leaf, a sufficiency of light would 

 not be reflected. But it is alsq unquestionably 

 true, that not half the light which falls upon the 

 leaf is reflected. The light, therefore, which is 

 absorbed, would much more than compensate for 

 this deficiency. 



Now, the light which falls upon a single letter 

 being suflicient to render it visible to 20,732 pairs 

 of eyes, and the number of letters in the concave 

 surface of a sfihere of three feet radius being 

 6,514,400, the light which falls upon all these iet- 

 ers is suflicient for 135,056,540,800 pairs of eyes 

 or the light of one candle, should not a particle 

 be lost, and the whole be so distributed, that each 



should receive his equal portion, i.? suflicient to 

 enable 135,056,540,800 i)ersons to read at the same 

 time. If- our earth contains 900,000,000 of in- 

 habitants, and that I believe, is the liiglicst suppo- 

 sition ever ujade, the light of one candle is more 

 than suflicient to enable all the inhabitants of one 

 hundred and fifty such worlds to be reading at the 

 same instant. This conclusion, I am aware, will 

 appear to many, i)erhaps to njost, almost incredi^ 

 hie ; but any one, jossessing but a moderate share 

 of mathematical knowledge, may in a short time 

 easily satisfy himself, that, rejecting fractions, It is 

 rigidly exact. 



A candle like that, to which I have referred, 

 would undoubtedly continue burning at least four 

 hours. What ([uantity of light then, to be deter- 

 mined either by weight, measure, or the number 

 ])articles, will sulfice tor one person to read for 

 one minute ? 



It will readily be perceived, that I have pro- 

 ceeded upon the supposition that the Newtonian 



theory of light is correct American Journal of 



Science and Arts. 



Buffalo Harbor. — Important puUic Improve- 

 ment. — An improvement of great itiiportancc to 

 the commercial interests of this city, which has 

 heen long projected, is, we understand, about to 

 DC accomplished, by individual enterprise. Buffa- 

 lo harbor, as it is well known, is constituted wholly 

 of Buffalo Creek — no part of the lake being sus- 

 ceptible of occujiancy as a harbor ; and as that 

 stream is narrow, though deep, the harbor ex- 

 tends far inland. A difliculty has always existed 

 and yearly increasing, arising from the crowded 

 state of the harbor, near the entrance, rendering 

 it difficult and toilsome to pass vessels in. Hence 

 it is that the remark is often made, namely, Buf- 

 falo harbor is too small ; when in truth less than 

 one twelfth of the harbor is yet occupied. 



To add to the ease of egress and ingress, and 

 to augment the facilities of occupying and im- 

 proving all parts of our harbor front, a contract 

 has been closed, for carrying out the original pro- 

 ject of Ji,seph EUicott, Estj. thus forming another 

 mouth to Bufllilo harbor to the Lake, of sufficient 

 depth for navigation, and secured at the Lake end 

 by a pier extended into the Lake. This entrance 

 will be a mile or more frotn the present one ; and 

 by doublhig the facilities of admission and de- 

 parture, will largely provide for the rapidly au;;- 

 menting commerce of our Lakes. The work is 

 to be completed the ensuing season, and whea 

 done, to be dedicated to the public, without any 

 charge or incumbrance, whatever. — Buffalo Whig. 



New York and Erie Railroad Company. — 

 The New York Anjerican states that great progress 

 has been already made towards the completion of 

 the arrangements necessary for the commence- 

 ment of this enterprise ; and that fifty miles 

 at least, will jirobably be under contract iu 

 the course of the autumn. It also exiiresses the 

 opinion that the company, if supported by the 

 public will be able to extend their road to the Al- 

 :eghauy river, within five years from the present 

 season. 



It is better to tread the path of life cheerfully, 

 skipping lightly over the thorns and briers that 

 obstruct your way, than to sit down under every 

 hedge lamenting your hard fate. 



