12 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aufifiist 5, ISSb". 



i4 miles. The wiiole expense was 9 cents the 

 bushel. It is procured by sinking shafts from 50 

 to -iOO feet. One of the proprietors realized the 



last year, a profit of $40,000 from his coal pits 



Some of the old pits have been on fire many 



SILLIM.4.iN's JOURNAL OF SCIE.VCE AND ARTS. 



The June number of this valuable work has just 

 appeared. The first article is a notice of the vol- 

 canic character of the island of Hawaii in a letter 



from Mr Goodrich, one of the American Missiona- some or tne old pits have been on fire many 

 ries, and various abstracts from the "Journal of a years ; hot air and smoke issue incessantly from 

 Tour around Hawaii." " the shafts. 



The second article is a description of the erup- | The fifth article is "On Fuel," and was commu- 

 tion of Long Lake and Mud Lake, in Vermont, in ; nicated by Dr. Elisha North of New London. Dr. 

 1810, by Rev. S. Edwards Dwig-ht, who in 1833 \ N. is of opinion that peat is the host fuel which the 

 viewed the desolations efl^ected by the rush of the (earth produces, and that it might be made cheap- 

 waters. TiOno- T.nkp_ hpfnro it n/ne /Ivq^TiQrl M-oc .» n^ ;« ^«.-.,„ ^r i.-i_ ,i .. i , ,; 



waters. Long Lake, before it was drained, was a 

 mile, and a half in length, three-fourtlis of a mile 

 in width, and 150 feet deep ; Mud Lake, a smaller 

 one, was 200 rods distant, and aOO feet lower, and 

 its outlet was the source of Barton River, a tribu- 

 tary of Lake Memphremagog. On the 6th of June, 

 1810, about 100 men turned out with spades and 

 pick-axes, with a view to let out a part of the water 

 of Long Lake into Mud Lake and thus furnish a 



er in some of our markets than wood or coal. He 

 says peat grows or increases in bulk rapidly, and 

 thinks a cavity seven feet in depth made by cut- 

 ting peat for fuel would fill up under favourable 

 circumstances in less than 30 years. Some years 

 ago 10,000 men were employed in preparing and 

 transporting peat from one peat marsh near the 

 Loire, in Prance. 

 The title of the seventh article is "Proofs that 



„ — .„...„ ..^ — ^c»„>, .^..^ ,,„,,;, ,uii.i=>i. a iue HUB oi inc sevenin article is "froots that 



hetter supply of water for the Mills on Barton general and powerful currents have swept and 

 River. They dug a small trench, the water enter- worn the surface of the earth." There are many 

 ed It and soon wore down a deep gulf, and in a few j indications that a powerful current has passed over 

 minutes the entire mass m the Lake rushed out the continent of America from north to south, and 

 with inconceiveable force and violence, cutting a i over Asia from south to north, and tlie author of 

 channel through the bank 150 feet deep and 80 this article accounts for these appearances by sup- 

 rods wide. The torrent made its way down to , posing that a change has at some period taken 

 Barton bearing before it trees, earth, rocks, mills, place in tli« velocity of the earth's motion on her 

 &c and sweeping away the waters of Mud Lake j axis. The surface of the earth at the equator re- 

 to the depth of ^h-rty feet Through the distance volves at the rate of more than 1000 miles per hour, 

 of several miles it hollowed out a path from 20 to j or 1500 feet per second, which is about equal to 

 40 rods m width, and from 20 to 60 feet in depth, the velocity of a cannon ball. We have no idea 

 and continued its course with many marks of vio- 1 of circular motion like this. A wheel of ,vi-ou<rht 

 lence to Lake Memphremagog. It ruined exten- iron, of three feet in diameter, will fly in piece 

 sive tracts of fine meadow land by deposits of sand, ! before it reaches a velocity of 400 feet per second 

 and convertea several sunken swamps into good , Supposing the earth should be slightly'^he ked in 

 soil Tens of thousands of cords of wood x.ere do- j her daily motion, the Pacific oceai would in a 

 posited in Barton ; near the church a field of 20 | moment rush over the Andes and Alle^ham'l Ztl 

 acres was covered with timber to the height of 20 ! the Atlantic ; the Atlantic would sweep over Eu- 

 feet and m several places the timber was piled up ! rope, Asia, and Africa; and in a few hours the 

 to the height of GO or 80 feet. The inhabitants ! entire surface of the earth would be covered with 



Mr Dwi"ht'Z^V r '"' '■' ^'T' "'"" '■"^'^'"^^ '°"^"'^' ^^-"P'-g P"h'-'P-^ «- vicinity of 



Mr Dwight was there, yet many acres of meadow the poles. "The appearances presented on the sur- 

 rem^med covered with it Mr D. examined the face of the earth," says this writer, "are pr ci ely 

 bed of Long Lake, which he found so dry that he such as we should expect after such a ca'aSe " 

 could walk over it without difficulty. The bottom _ »ucn acaiasiropne. 



was grown over with sedge, weeds, slirubs and 

 young trees. 

 Article third consists of remarks upon the shell 



once leave oft' their work and make merry upoi 

 the occasion ! A remarkable specimen of humai 

 perverseness and insensibility. [lb.] 



LOWELL FACTORIES. 



It is stated in the " Hints to my Countrymen, 

 that $1,700,000 have been expended at Chelms 

 ford, Mass. (now Lowell) and that the populatioi 

 has increased more than 3000 within four years 

 All the skill of the workmen has been gained ii 

 this country, and the labour is not dearer than ii 

 similar establishments in England. A greate 

 portion of the work is performed by females heri 

 than there, and the laborers are more regular 

 and orderly, fibid.] 



[Hampshire Gazette.] 



AWFUL CATASTROPHE. 



, . „ ..^„ ^ „,.^,, About the first of June last, an explosion took 



marie region of Virginia and Maryland, and upon ' I'l^-ce in a coal mine at Stella, county of Durham 

 the coal forniation of Virginia, by James Pierce.— j England, by which 37 men and boys came to a 

 Mr 1- says that beds of rich shell marie occur fre- ! premature death. Three men who were de^-cend- 

 quenJy in all the alluvial regions of Virginia and \ ing at the moment, were blown out of the shaft 

 Maryland and he thinks the impoverished planla- ' and one man was blown up from the bottom of the' 



loms ot those states may be rendered productive i shaft. Twenty-seven of the sufterers were buried 

 hy the api)lication of this marie as a manure. It has ! in Ryton church-yard. 



been advantageously applied in the cultivation of, The author of " Observations of an American in 

 cotton tobaco, wheat, and Indian corn. Vast tracts | England," published in the Christian Spectator, 

 ot land in the Southern States are now unproduc- 1 visited a coal mine, which he compares to "Tarta- 

 tive, and will remain so as long as the system of, rus, Erebus and Styx, and all the under-o-rouml 

 Slavery prevails. Freemen will not labor where scenery of the lieathen poets." The miners were 



hero are slaves ; every thing is left to the discre- at work by the light of tapers in confined holes 

 noil ot overseers, wlio are too ignorant md indo- which would not permit them to stand erect, with 

 .ent to make agricultural improvements. Mr P. their bodies naked from the waist upwards This 

 lemarksthatifthe blacks of Virginia were sent writer remarks that "the miners are every mo- 

 Ott, and a white population substituted. It would add ment in danger of losing their lives; the mines 

 greatly to the strength, respectability and produc- may be suddenly flooded, or the air, which is al- 

 Thrhif uminf '''^' 1 • r , '''^^' impregnated with sulphur, mav take fire and 



extensiv rr ^ K^f °" °i ^""^''"^ '^ very explode, and other hazard arises from the falling 



fn thU r '"' " " "'^ *^'°"' '^^ '" 50 feet of coal. A mass of fifty tons will sometimes be let 



ohs ^ouZri'' X^""' "'^■^.'Jf"^""^- From the down at once."-When any of the miners are kil- 



o,nPv.^ f p T /'l ^ ?'""°" °^ ^'''^^^' ^^"e led, fifteen shillings are allowed the others by the 

 conveyed to Richmond the last year, distance of | master for the purpose of buyina gro-r • they at 



AGRICULTURE OF BRABANT. 

 The agricultural section of the « Bulletin Uni 

 versel des Sciences," for April, 1826, gives a des 

 cription of the cultivation, rural economy, &c. o 

 that part of Brabant, in the Netherlands, which i: 

 called Campine or Kemped, from which we havi 

 translated the following,( adding a few of our owi 

 remarks.) 



The Campine is about SO leagues long, and 2. 

 broad, and is a part of tliat vast extent of sand' 

 soil, which covers Holland, the north of Germany 

 and part of Poland. The country is level, an 

 much of the soil, we infer from the description, i 

 similar to that of our pine plains ; there are alsi 

 large tracts of uncultivated land called heaths.— 

 The inhabitants are industrious and economical 

 and make the most of every thing ; nothing ii 

 lost, it is said, but smoke. — The farms are from 7i 

 to "JO acres each, and more than half of the land i 

 arable. On a farm of this extent, they keep com 

 monly 15 or 20 cows, a yoke of oxen, 2 horses, 

 or 4 heifers, 4 calves, 4 hog.s and from 40 to 61 

 »hb-Ki>. This is done by manuring abundantly, am 

 not using fallows : the farmers direct their prinei 

 pal attention to making manure, and it is calculat 

 ed that 3000 loads of 12 or 1300 pounds each, an 

 made on farms of 60 or 70 acres. What wil 

 American farmers say to this ? Rye is an im 

 portant object of culture in the Campine ; thej 

 cultivate also buck-wheat, turnips, carrots, pota 

 toes, rapeseed, beans, a species of grass call- 

 ed spurry, flax, hemp, some wheat &c. The 

 greater part of the ploughed and grass lands are 

 manured every year; the proportion for rye is 

 about 40 loads of 10 or 11 cwt. each, to an acre. 

 The stables of the Brabanters are very laro-e, a 

 part of the space being employed for the prepara- 

 tion of manure. The stables have two great 

 doqrs, and the teams for carrying off" the manure, 

 can go in and out without difficulty. The com- 

 po^s are made in a trench in the stable. The 

 bottom is sand ; this is covered with a layer of 

 tu^ and herbage from the heaths ; then the 

 orAire of the cows, turf, and all kinds of filth are 

 collected and thrown in, and special care beino- 

 taljen that all the urine should enter into the 

 coippost. The rye straw is eaten by the cattle, 

 and tlie farmers collect materials for litter from 

 the! heaths. The editor of the Bulletin remarks 

 th^ the Brabant method of making dunghills or 

 coijiposts in the stable is a bad one ; he says this 



operation should be carried on under sheds. 



Wtod is not plenty in Brabant, but turf or peat is 

 abundant, and is the principal fuel. Butter is one 

 of the most important products of the country ; 

 the milk is prepared with great care and neatness, 

 and in making butter the whole milk is churned ; 



