NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



87 



adopted it to a great extent, in dock-yards; and 

 many public works in England are constructed in 

 whole or in part of Payneized timber. For plank 

 roads it must be invaluable, as well as in ship- 

 building, and other branches of the mechanic arts 

 where the ciiief value of wood consists in its 

 durability. 



BROWN'S HARNE3SS MACHINE. 



Darius C. Brown, Esq., of Lowell, Mass., of 

 the firm of D. C. Brown & Co., has, says the 

 Boston Cabinet, been engaged more or less, for 

 some five years or thereabouts, in study and ex- 

 periments, having reference to the perfecting of a 

 machine for making loom harnesses. Mr. Brown's 

 machine is very simple in construction, of compar- 

 atively trifling cost, and is operated by the small 

 power of a lady's foot upon a pedal, while she is 

 tending it. At one and the same time, a lady tends 

 the machine, asit is making the harness, and gives 

 motion to its operation. It is calculated, fro~m 

 known data, that harnesses can be made upon this 

 machine as good as those made by hand, and at a 

 considerable reduction of price. The firm, now 

 using the machine, furnish harnesses, made of 

 Merrirnac twine of various sizes, at two and one- 

 fouith cents per ibrty eyes or beers. As the ma- 

 chine makes harnesses from twine instead of yarn, 

 it is readily seen that it differs essentially from 

 Vogle's machine. And though the harness is 

 made of twine, yet the eyes are made without 

 knots, above and below them, in this respect, re- 

 sembling the harnesses coming from Vogle's ma- 

 chine, and not resembling those made by hand. 



SMITH'S RAILROAD ALARM. 

 Mr. Charles A. Smith, of Batavia, has invented 

 an apparatus for ringing an alarm bell upon rail- 

 roads, by which an alarm can be given at a station, 

 a curve or crossing, when the cars are a mile dis- 

 tant from the point. By this means collisions may 

 be prevented at places where two opposite trains 

 cannot be seen by each other until too late to check 

 the speed. This is effected by placing a spring sc 

 that the wheels of the cars pass over it. To this 

 spring is attached a wire wiiich may be extended 

 for any distance upon poles, like the telegraph 

 xvires, the opposite end from the spring being at- 

 tached to a bell, which will give the alarm. A 

 model of the invention mav be seen at the store of 

 R. P. Orchard and R. W.'Whitehead, in the Wa- 

 verly Block, who have become the patentees. It 

 has been examined by many gentlemen connected 

 with the railroads, who are much pleased wiih its 

 operations. The patentees are about to put one ol 

 the machin:'.s in operation upon the Rochester and 

 Buffalo roal. a short distance west of this city. It 

 IS simple lukI effectual, and will no doubt com-j 

 into extensive use. — Roch. Dem. 



i;^" Tlie Flax manufacture seems likely to re- 

 ceive an important impetus. Mr. O. S. Leaviti 

 informs the Tribune, that flax can be procured in 

 the unrotted state, the very condition required foi 

 producing fine linen at least cost, for about two 

 cents per lb. Then, by the use of his machinery, 

 flax can be broken out for about two cents per lb. 

 more, producing clean unrotted flax for less than 

 four cents per lb. Consider that cotton in its rav. 

 state costs from 14 to 15 cents per lb. — American 

 Arlizan. 



Catiics' ^Department. 



•WAS IT PROVIDENCE? 



BY MISS SEDGKWICK. 



Take, for example, a young girl, bred delicately 

 in town, shut up in a nursery in her childhood — in 

 a boarding-school through her youth, never accus- 

 tomed cither to air or exercise, two things that the 

 law of God makes essential to health. Slie marries; 

 her strength is inadequate to the demands upon it. 

 Her beauty fades early. She languishes through 

 her hard offices of giving birth to children, suckling 

 and watching over them, and dies early. "What 

 a strange Providence, that a mother should be taken, 

 in the midst of life, from her children !" Was it 

 Providence ] No ! Providence has assigned her 

 three-score j'ears and ten; a term long enough to 

 rear her children, and to see her children's children; 

 but she did not obey the laws on which life depends, 

 and of course she lost it. 



A father, too, is cut off in the midst of his days. 

 He is a useful and distinguished citizen, and emi- 

 nent in his profession. A general buzz rises on 

 every side, of "What a striking Providence!" 

 This man has been in the habit of studying half the 

 night, or passing his days in his olfice and the 

 courts, of eating luxurious dinners and drinking va- 

 rious wines. He has every day violated the laws 

 on which health depends. Did Providence cut 

 him off? The evil rarely ends here. The diseases 

 of the father are often transmitted; and a feeble 

 mother rarely leaves behind her vigorous children. 



It has been customary in some of our cities, for 

 young ladies to walk in ihin shoes and delicate 

 stockings in mid-winter. A healthy, blooming 

 young girl, thus dressed in violation of Heaven's 

 laws, pays the penalty; a checked circulation, cold, 

 fever, and death. "What a sad Providence !" ex- 

 claim her friends. Was it Providence, or her own 

 folly? 



A beautiful young bride goes, night after night, 

 to parties made in honor of her marriage. She has 

 a slight sore throat, perhaps, and the weather is 

 inclement; but she must wear her neck and arms 

 bare; for who ever saw a bride in a close evening 

 dress? She is consequently seized with inflamma- 

 tion of the lungs, and the grave receives her before 

 her bridal days are over . "What a Providence !" 

 oxclaim the world. "Cut off in the midst of hap- 

 piness and hope ! " Alas ! did .she not cut the thread 

 of life herself? 



A girl in the country exposed to our changeful 

 climate, gets a new bonnet instead of getting a flan- 

 nel garment. A. rheumatism is the consequence. 

 .Should the girl sit down tranquilly with the idea 

 iliat Providence has sent tlie rbeumatism upon her, 

 or should she charge it on her vanity, and avoid 

 the folly in future ? 



Look, my young friends, at the mass of diseases 

 that are incurred by inteni[)eiancc in eating or 

 drinking, or in study, or in business, also being 

 caused often by neglect of exercise, cleanliness, pure 

 air; by indiscreet dressing, tight lacing, &c., and 

 is quietly imputed to Providence ! Is there not im- 

 [lietyas well as ignorance in tliis? Were the phy- 

 sical laws strictly observed from generation to gen- 

 eration there would be an end to the frightful dis- 

 eases that cut life short, and of tlie long litst of mal- 

 adies that make life a torment or a trial. It is the 

 opinion of those who best understand the physical 



