NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



311 



lias sustained but little diminution in its product, 

 except on a few spots where the soil has been 

 abraded by freshets. This culture has been forced 

 by peculiar circumstances of position in relation to 

 the river, and the kind of labor used there, but is 

 now about to be changed, as those difficulties are 

 overcome I am sure no land could have borne 

 such a system where the tops and blades were taken 

 off; but the limits of a letter would not afford space 

 for my reasons. 



I left at your office in Petersburg, last June, a 

 specimen from some ground yet covered with wood 

 immediately adjoining, also a third specimen from 

 land that had yielded crops for the last ten or 

 twelve years, from the vicinity, and of the same 

 formation. An examination of these specimens, by 

 o;io (like yourselQ skilled in the analysis of soils, 

 might lead to interesting results. 



Yours, with high respect, 



T. Massie. 

 — Farmer and Gardener. 



i1Tecl]anics' Dcpavtmcnt, ^rts, ^c. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC- 

 TURE OF ALUM. 



Mr. James T. Wilson, of Middlesex, (Eng.,) 

 has recently patented a new process for manufac- 

 turing alum, consisting in subjecting aluminous 

 shales to the direct action of a sufficient quantity 

 of sulphuric acid to saturate at a single operation 

 all the alumina contained in them, and convert it 

 to the state of sulphate, the alum being obtained by 

 subsequent crystalization in the usual way. The 

 shales should be selected of a kind as free as pos- 

 sible from coal, or iron, lime, and other soluble 

 impurities, and after having been exposed to the 

 air two or three months, to reduce it to small frag- 

 ments, and then burned in a lime or other similar 

 kiln, is to be placed in an open boiler, about 15 

 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, lined with 

 lead, and having a false bottom at a height of about 

 15 to 18 inches above the bottom, composed of lead 

 of about 24 lbs. to the square foot, perforated with 

 numerous holes of half an inch in diameter, and 

 supported on an iron frame- work, and provided 

 with suitable conveniences for allowing the bot- 

 tom of the boiler urderneath to be examined and 

 cleared out. Into this boiler, which is to be placed 

 over a furnace of such a position that the flame 

 does not rise to within a couple of inches of the 

 false bottom, the shale is then deposited, the larger 

 pieces being screened out, and laid immediately 

 on the false bottom, and sulphuric acid of a specific 

 gravity of 1"845 added in the proportion of 10 

 cwts. to every 12 cwts. of shale, with sufficient 

 water to reduce the specific gravity to 1-35 or 1*4; 

 and nearly fill the boiler. Heat is applied, and a 

 gentle ebullition kept up for eight-and-forty hours, 

 when the whole of the available alumina will have 

 been dissolved, and the solution will be fit to be 

 treated for crystalization by using sulphate of pot- 

 ash or ammonia. The patentee has, however, ob- 

 served that, when alum is once crystallized from 

 solutions obtained as above described, a certain 

 quantity of the acid in such solution remains in 

 excess, and renders the purification of the alum a 

 matter of difficulty. Now, to obviate this ob- 

 jection, he introduces into the solution either am- 

 moniac \1 liquors of gas works, or condenses therein 



vapors containing ammonia, which combines v.ith 

 the excess of acid, and renders the solution fit for 

 immediate crystallization. 



SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION OF STEAM 



POWER ON OUR CANALS. 



At the foot of Hubert Street, there is, says the 

 Tribune, moored a small steamboat, which though 

 not very inviting in its appearance, combines all 

 the requirements for canal motive power, and the 

 evidence of her ability to do the necessary labor is 

 furnished by the three heavy laden barges which 

 are beside her, and which she has towed from Nor- 

 folk, Va., up the Potomac river to the Cumberland 

 mines, and thence through the Alexandria Canal, 

 the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, up the Dela- 

 ware River, and through the Delaware and Raritan 

 Canal to New York, a distance of nearly five hun- 

 dred miles, and in a kw days she will continue her 

 voyage to Albany. She is a small boat of about 

 one hundred tons burden, and has two engines, 

 rated at fifteen horse power each, and the only 

 things that differ from ordinary steamboats, is the 

 peculiar shape of herbuckets, and the addition of a 

 float back of the wheel, which is in the centre of 

 the boat. The wheels are bent so as to form the 

 segment of a circle, and they enter and leave the 

 water without creating the great motion caused by 

 the ordinary paddles. Should, however, the pow- 

 er required cause any swell, the raging waters are 

 smoothed down and pacified by the float that follows 

 the wheel. This float can be raised or loweied as 

 circumstances may require. The owners of this 

 boat assert that they can take a train of freight 

 boats, loaded with eight hundred tons of coal, from 

 the Cumberland mines to tide-water, at a speed of 

 four miles per hour, at one-third to one-half the 

 price at which the work can be done by horse- 

 power ; and the boats can be passed through the 

 locks without detaching them, and in less time than 

 is required by the same number of boats propelled 

 separately. The boat is called the " Virginia," 

 and we invite those interested (and who is there 

 engaged in business, that is not?) to call and ex- 

 amine her. She was built after the plan patented by 

 G.Parker, Esq., of Massachusetts, and is owned 

 by Messrs. R. S. Denny & Co., of Boston, who, we 

 understand, are constructing another boat at Albany 

 to be used on the Erie Canal. 



£aliic3' Pfpartmcnt. 



ADDRESSED TO THE LADIES. 



Mrs. Gage, who has lately partaken of the hos- 

 pitality of Governor Wood, in a letter to the Ohio 

 Cultivator, thus writes to the governor's wife and 

 daughters — fit models of imitation for all American 

 ladies: — 



These ladies work in the garden, train up the 

 vines, weed the beds, tend the borders, and make 

 around a fairy land of beauty and luxury. Tl //y 

 mai/ not you do the same ? 



Now, dear girls, you whose homes are situated 

 away from the bustle and confusion of the city — 

 by the babbling brooks, or upon the borders of the 

 forest, or even you who live in more favored places, 

 amidst the comforts of wealth and ease, let me ask 

 you sometimes to think about the wife of err r""- 



