296 



THJG GENESEE FARMER 



September 17, 1831. 



DURABILITY OF TIMBER. 



Mrs Griffith, a lady of New Jersey, 

 whose agricultural and economical writings 

 have conferred great benefits on the commu- 

 nity, recommends felling trees for posts and 

 limber in August. Logs designed for posts 

 should be seasoned twelve months, then 

 sawed, and each piece charred at the bot- 

 tom. Posts, says Mrs. Griffith, cut and 

 chaired in this way, will last twenty years, 

 but unless the wood is cut in August, and 

 seasoned in some dry place, it is worse than 

 useless to char them. 



Perhaps we may be accused of a want of 

 respect to the opinions of the fair author, but 

 we confess we are by no means certain that 

 August is the best month to fell trees for 

 timber. We know of no facts, nor are we 

 aware that any experiments have been made, 

 on the comparative durability of timber, cut 

 in different months, from which any thing 

 like certainty can be deduced. On this sub- 

 ject, as well as on the influence of the moon 

 On animals and vegetables, we believe there 

 is more of superstition than truth in the dis- 

 cordant opinions which are prevalent. Were 

 it necessary, authority could be adduced, to 

 prove that severally each month in the year is 

 the most suitable for felling timber. If one 

 month or one quarter of the moon is more 

 favorable than another, how is it that so much 

 diversity of opinion prevails among those 

 who have had the best opportunijy for obser- 

 vation ? 



Conversing with an agad gentleman on 

 this subject, he informed us that about tw n- 



ty-five years ago, he set a range offence 



The posts used, were all cut at the same 

 time, and apparently of the same quality. — 

 Some of them rotted in the course of twelve 

 years, others are now sound, and will proba- 

 bly last several years. In another instance, 

 he about sixty years since, selected several 

 round sticks, from the frame of a house, 

 built in 1720 or 25, and morticed them for 

 posts. Two of these lasted more than fifty- 

 five years, though unpainted, and exposed to 

 the weather during that long period. We 

 have also heard it stated, and have no rea- 

 son to doubt its correctness, that a farmer of 

 this place cut on each of two successive days 

 a load of cedar from the same swamp; the 

 fence made from the first was remarkably 

 durable ; that from the other rotted and be- 

 came worthless in a few years. Such facts 

 as these show that the durability of timber 

 depends not on the month in which it is fell- 

 ed, but on other causes which are not yet 

 well understood. — Barnstable Journal. 



The Hon. William Jones of Philadelphia, 

 died at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on the 

 morning of the 6th inst. Mr. Jones has 

 successively filled the offices of Secretary of 

 Che Navy, President of the U. S. Bank, and 

 Collector of the Port of Philadelphia. — jV. 

 Y. Cour. Sf Enq. 



The Plague. — M. Pariset, who has 

 spent some time;in investigating the causes 

 and nature of the Plague, has established 

 three propositions, as the result of his labors ; 

 — that Egypt is the sole focus of the plague, 

 that it did not appear in the world until E- 

 gypt ceased to embalm the dead and, in or- 

 der to extirpate it, Egypt must return to her 

 ancient custom or adopt general measures of 

 police and health, as in Europe. We are 

 not furnished with the train of reasoning, by 

 which M. Pariset has arrived at this vidua 

 ble discovery, if it be one. He states that in 



the grotto of Samoun, a series of vast and' 

 lofty saloons connected by passages so nar-j 

 row that he was obliged to crawl upon his 

 knees, he found the mummies of crocodiles 

 of all sizes, ranged in layers from the floors 

 to the roofs, to the number of several mill- 

 ions, wrapped in immense quantities of lin- 

 en ; they are better clothed than the Egyp- 

 tian peasantry of the present day. — lb. 



The Coronation. — King William, a- 

 mong his other reformations, has dispensed 

 with the services of the Champion at the 

 Coronation. Mr. Dymoke, who now (ills 

 that honorable office, has certain immunities 

 in consequence of his duties, which are, "to 

 exhibit in an iron jacket and brass breeches, 

 seated on a mountebank's horse, asserting a 

 right which no one disputes, and challen- 

 ging to fight in a manner which he himself 

 knows nothing about, and which has been 

 discontinued for three hundred years." The 

 challenger, at his last appearance, we believe, 

 rode into the banqueting hall, drank with the 

 King, in that dangerous company, uttered 

 his challenge, backed his horse out of the 

 room. The coronation of George IV. cost 

 about £240.000.-/6. 



The situations in which the present King 

 of Belgium, has been placed, are most curi- 

 ous. He became the husband of her who 

 was to have become Sovereign of the Brit- 

 ish realms. He is the uncle of her who is to 

 be their sovereign, and thus nearly allied to a 

 crown, with which he is not by birth connect- 

 ed. He has two other crowns, with which 

 he was not connected at all, placed at his dis- 

 posal. If any thing could render this com- 

 bination of circumstances more curious, it is 

 the fact, that the hand of the Princess Char- 

 lotte of Wales, was to have been given to 

 the Prince of Orange, so was the cro n of 

 Beigium, but in both cases Prince Leopold 

 was preferred. — lb. 



We have before us a list of the collections 

 made in France to aid the cause of Poland ; 

 the amount is 320,000 francs ; it is signed 

 by General Lafayette, as President of the 

 society established at Paris. Amongst the 

 contributions there are such as the follow- 

 ing : — By a Lady, a golden bracelet — By a 

 Surgeon, three cases of amputating instru- 

 ments — By a Lady, a bundle of linen rags 

 for dressing wounds — The amount of a num 

 ber of theatrical representations; of a num- 

 ber of balls, and concerts; amount of arti- 

 cles made and sold by a number of ladies and 

 young ladies, and collections in a great ma- 

 ny masonic lodges. — lb. 



Rotary Pump. — Messrs. Hale, Crane 

 & Co. of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, 

 have obtained a patent for, and established 

 a manufactory of, a new rotoary pump, 

 which promises to be a decided and valua- 

 ble improvement. Two wheels are enclo- 

 sed in a casting which corresponds with 

 them in size, and which fits closely upon 

 their sides. One of the wheels has, on its 

 periphery floats or wings, three in numbi r, 

 at equal distances apart — somewhat like 

 cogs; — the other wheels has cavities into 

 which the cogs or floats may lull, both 

 wheels being so placed in their casting as 

 to revolve together, and their peripheries 

 forming a water-joint. Through the ends 

 or heads of the <;isiii» pass the shafts which 

 support and turn the wheels. 



There are two apertures in the casing, 



through one of which the water is drawn up 

 by the suction produced by the motion of 

 the floats, as they recede from the wheel 

 containing the cavities, and through the 

 other the water is discharged by the ap- 

 proach of the floats towards it. The pump 

 may be put in motion by the hand, or oth- 

 er power. One fourteen inches in diama- 

 ter, with the application of the power of 

 two men, will raise and discharge 160 gal- 

 lons per minute. A pump of this size is 

 already in successful operation at the Sims- 

 bury mines in this State ; and orders for 

 others have been received from several 



States in the Union JV. E. Review. 



The Comet of 1832.— The French 

 Journals have had much to say, these two 

 years past, about the Comet which is to 

 make its appearance in 1832. The Ger- 

 man Journals begin to amuse their readers 

 with the chimical apprehensions, which the 

 future appearance of this star may inspire. 

 The fact is, that this Cometmight approach 

 the earth much nearer than it actually w ill 

 approach it, without furnishing the least 

 ground for fear. It is known that in 1770, 

 a comet approached within 750.000 leagues 

 ot the earth, about nine times the distance 

 of the moon ; and those who are acquaint- 

 ed with astronomy may have not forgot, 

 that Mr. Lalande has computed thirteen 

 thousand leagues to be the distance at 

 whichacometcouldproduc any sensiblede- 



irangement ofour system. The fears which 

 Journals propogate, arise from this, that 

 the Comet of 1 832 will pass near the orbit 

 of the earth, (without fourteen diameters 

 and a half, thirteen or fourteen thousand 

 leagues,) so that if the earth be at that 



[ point of its orbit which shall be for an inst- 

 ant near the comet, some deranging phe- 

 nomenon may perhaps result. But this 

 case is far from possible for the year 

 1832. 



ROCHESTER SEED STORE. 



ROSSITER & KNOX, having engaged ex 

 tensively in the Seed. Nursery and Green 

 House business. They will be constantlysu ppli- 

 ed with a great variety of Agricultural, Horticul- 

 tural, Flower, and Forest Tree Seeds. The, 

 will also soon be able to furnish an extensive vari- 

 ety of Green House Plants, from the New -York 

 Nurseries, and of their own cultivation. 



Jjp Orders will he received by them for '.' 

 Shrub.--, Plan's, ifv. tf-c. from the following i 

 lishments: W. Prince $ Sons', 1 and Parmentier's 

 Island — Floy's, Wi I lorbnm's, and 



A. Smith &Co's, New- York— J. Bud, Albany— 

 Landreth's, Philadelphia — Russell's, 1- 



A Nursery under the control ofN. Goo 

 Editor of the (u-msfr Parmer, with whom thev 

 are connected, is now in progress, and from 

 ••■ill- supplied an extensive varictj of most of the 

 different articles found inNurserics. 



R. & K. will also keep a gem lent of 



Garden Tools, Flower Pots, ' lardi n 



Jlp All orders to I this fall, should 



be sent in previous to the 1st < let; 



Rochester, au g. 19 ar __ 



ESSAYS ON AMERICAN SILK, 



WITH Directions t< or raising Silk 



Worms— by J. D. Homergue andPetei S 

 Duponceau. Also. 



Dea 'I Farmer, and 



Butler's Farmers Manual, for Bale by 



am i pi 'in i.i; * co. 



Pr ince on the Vine, a. few copies for sale M 



jU.lv 



