Vol. 1.— No. 48. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



370 



had occasion to regret bavin? done so. In 

 all neighborhoods, there are <muc men over- 

 much-wise. as to the business ol their neigh- 

 bors. Such men grow fat upon it, whenev- 

 er a Farmer sells off some of bis land, nev- 

 er once doubting, that he who does so, must 

 be growing poor. Such are some of the 

 reasons why our Farms are almost all too 

 large, and will be. till diminished in size by 

 pure necessity. Small farms, lead tu im- 

 proving Husbandry. 



The prevalent fault of our Agriculture, is, 

 perhaps, a disposition to run over too much 

 land. Dung may be spread so thin, as to 

 lose all good effects from it. So also may 

 labor, by which it costs more than it comes 

 to. A guinea, in the pocket of a Fanner, is 

 not only a sol id substance, but will exchange 

 for any other he may chance to want, as will 

 gold, in coin or in bullion, because the repre- 

 sentative of value of substantial things, con- 

 nected with the real wants and comforts of 

 life. When beaten out to gold leaf, howev- 

 er, though still gold, spread amazingly thin, 

 it passes into an article for use in the fine 

 arts, the value of which depends not so much 

 on the real, as the imaginary wants of life, 

 and its value is very uncertain. I often see 

 inexpeiienced persons, calling themselves 

 Farmers, perhaps 'great Farmers,' because 

 the owneis of great Farms, beating their 

 gold into ' leaf,' to be wafted away by the 

 winds ! Though such men often set them- 

 selves up for teachers of others, as writers 

 for the Journals. Mr. Editor, yet we real 

 Farmers have none the less pity for their 

 mistakes, of which nothing but experience 

 can convince them. Full of theory, but ve- 

 ry empty of practice, such heads succeed 

 best in Farming on paper, with paper pigs, 

 as mentioned before, and their immense 

 crops of turnips, and wool, all vastly profit- 

 ?ble, with other things, 'grown' on the F;nn, 

 all paper, and a paper Farm .' If there 

 were less reality, in this grouping, it would 

 be still less ludicrous, for it is ' too true to 

 make a jest of,' as every one knows who has 

 kept pace with our ' inarch of mind,' on pa- 

 per, in Agriculture. The improvement, 

 however, has been steadily progressing, and 

 the general state of this ' art-of-all arts,' as 

 the Printers call theirs, is vastly superior to 

 what it was, some 50 years ago, and is even 

 improving, every >ear. Yet not so much by 

 ' fits and starts,' as many people seem to im- 

 agine, but by steady effort, solids acting, on 

 solids, minds on o.inds, grave, sedate, calcu- 

 lating, seeking certain piofits, such as we 

 Farmers are principally concerned about. — 

 Speculations will not do for us, your 'slow 

 and surpe'men, the real back-bone ol social, 

 civil and moral order. 



From the American Farmer. 



CLOVER MILL— SUNFLOWER OIL. 



The clover mill at Spring Dale, (the resi- 

 dence of Charles A. Barnitz, Esq seine ac- 

 count of which we gave in our last,) is wor- 

 thy of particular notice. It is one of the 

 many improvements in agricultural economy 

 effected by the publication of the American 

 Farmer, as Mr. Barnitz had it made from a 

 drawing and description published in the 6th 

 volume of our journal. On examining the 

 mill we determined to republish the article, 

 which we do in the present number. We 

 are induced to this by the consideration that 

 we have a great many subscriders who did 

 not take the Farmer when the article was 

 first published, as well as for the purpose of 



bringing it again to the attention of old sub- 

 scribers. The machinery is very simple, 

 and occupies about the space of a common 

 threshing machine) and costs about the same. 

 It is fully described in another part of this 

 number. Its advantages over the common 

 mill are very great : it gets out the seed 

 cleaner, and does not bruise it. Since Mr. 

 Barnitz has had one in operation, all the oth- 

 er mills in the neighborhood have been stop- 

 ped, — none being able to compete with it — 

 Tins is the best possible proof of its excel- 

 lence. Mr. B. has erected three machines, 

 all turned by a band from the water wheel 

 of .i small grist mill. The clover mill is 

 equally well adapted to getting out lucerne 

 seed. 



In the same building with the clover mill, 

 is an oil mill for the extraction of linseed 

 and sunflower oil. There is nothing pecul- 

 iar in the extraction of linseed oil, except in 

 the press This is on the wedge principle. — 

 A long trough receives the crushed seed, 

 which is pressed longitudinally by wedges 

 driven perpendicularly by machinery. The 

 advantage ol this mode .s derived from the 

 continual alteration of the surface exposed 

 to pressure. 



The sunflower oil is extracted in the same 

 manner as linseed, except that the seed is 

 hulled by passing it through a machine for 

 the purpose. Mr. Barnitz informed us that 

 the production of linseed oil is declining 

 rapidly, and that sunflower oil would soon 

 supersede it altogether, as it is much more 

 profitable. to the farmer. The sunflowei oil 

 has been tried in paint, and found to be ad 

 mirably adapted to it, as it dries wiih great 

 facility. For lamps it answers a good 

 pose, and in some respects is superioi to 

 sperm, especially in its perfect freedom from 

 all offensive smell. For the table we think 

 it vull certainly supersede olive oil, as it i 

 much cheaper, and to many of a more a 

 greeable flavor. For the last purpose we 

 have used a great deal of it, and while we 

 can get i' shall certainly never use olive oil. 

 By Mr. Barnitz's mode of extracting it he 

 gets a gallon from every bushel of seed. — 

 This fact we have asserted in another place 

 in the present number, and repeat it here to 

 correct erroneous impressions that we per- 

 ceive have been made on the public mind. — 

 Many persons suppose that they have only to 

 take their seed to a common oil mill, and 

 get a gallon ol oil from a bushel; but this 

 is a mistake; i he seed must be freed from its 

 hull, and to do this a machine of the stiuc 

 Hire of which Mr. B will give every infor 

 mation ) must be used. Mr. Barnitz has 

 made a large quantity of this oil this fall. and 

 showed it to us in all its stages. He at pres- 

 ent gives 50 cents a bushel for sunflower seed, 

 and gets a dollar a gallon for the oil. When 

 the business gets established the price of seed 

 will be considerably more or that of the oil 

 less, as at the present prices a mill steadily 

 at work would be very profitable ; the oil 

 cake nearly pays for the extraction of the 

 oil, it being an excellent article of food foi 

 horses and cattle. 



The chaff from the clover mill supplies an 

 immense quantity of the finest manure for 

 the farm. It is thrown into a large pile by 

 the side of the mill, to rot, and is carried up- 

 on the land in the same manner as stable 

 manure - to which it is very superior. We 

 should suppose that the addition of lime loi 

 this manure would be verv useful. 



SUNFLOWER OIL. 



A .correspondent of the New Englanl 

 Farmer, Mr. Joseph Mann, gives an accoun, 

 of the experiment of making sunflower oilo 

 which was a complete failure ; or rather an 

 unprofitable job ; and he thence concludes 

 that the value of the article " has been over- 

 rated by at least one half." We beg Mr. 

 Mann to be assured the fault to which the 

 failure in his case is properly attributable 

 was not in the sunflowei, but in himself. — 

 He merely resorted to the old method of ex- 

 tracting the oil, hv which every body knows 

 only about two quarts of oil can be obtained 

 from a bushel of seed. As long ago as 175K 

 sunflower oil was made on this plan and with 

 this result, and Mr. Mann had no reason to 

 expect a better product from the same pro- 

 cess. The process he used was giinding 

 and pressing the seed, by both cold and hot 

 pressure, and the most he could obtain was 

 two quarts. Now we can put him in the way 

 of extraciing four quarts of oil from a 

 bushel of seed, and with the hope of indu- 

 cing him to make another trial we will do so. 

 The new process for exuacting this oil, the 

 credit of which belongs to Charles A Bar- 

 nitz, Esq. of York, Pa. is to clear the seed 

 of the Hull or shell and press the kernel by 

 itself. The hull may be taken off readily 

 by running the seed through a buckwheat 

 hulling machine, or any other mill the 

 stones of which can be kept so far apart as 

 merely to crack the hull as the seed passes 

 through them. The great obstacle hereto- 

 fore met with, in extracting this oil was the 

 absorbing quality of the large quantity of 

 hull. Tins is removed in the new process 

 of Mr. Barnitz, and if Mr. Mann will try 

 it he will find that his own " wrong impress 

 ions" stood most in need ol correction. 



From the Lancaster (P") Examiner, 



A German agricultural work, published a' 

 Halle in 182+, la ely fallen into our hands, 

 and we take this occasion to translate the 

 following paragraphs from an article on the 

 culture of the Sunflowei". 



Sunflower seed yields an excellent oil, 

 richer ban ollive oil and yet equally bland 

 and mild ; it is also purer and more transpa- 

 rent, tinged with a slight shade of yellow. It 

 is destitute of smell, and in taste somewhat 

 resembles that of almonds. In Upper Sax- 

 ony it is much used i.istead of olive oil. It 

 !s thought to be equally good andmuch more 

 economical, as two gills of it will suffice 

 where three gills of the other would be re- 

 qniied. As a I imp oil it burns with a beau- 

 tiful flame, producing no smoke and diffu- 

 sing no disagreabie smell. Curriers have 

 found it particularly useful in dressing leath- 

 er, as it aids in imparting a permanent and 

 clear black ebony. 



The leaves of the Sunflower, among oth- 

 er uses to which they may be applied, are 

 serviceable in the art of colouring. They 

 are to be dried in the shade, by spreading 

 them thin on a table or a clean floor and 

 turning them frequently. A small handful 

 of these dried leaves boiled in a pint of soft 

 water in a well glazed earthen vessel, with 

 half a teaspoonful of alum added, is said to 

 produce a beautiful and permanent yellow 

 dye, bu whether adapted to dying linen, 

 cotton, or woollen goods, is not stated. 



Sir Matthew J. Tierney, of London, states that 

 the Cajeput oil, is a sure remedy for the Cholera, 

 whether Indian or the common kind. 



