jar i : TB*EttTsyt 



&l)c ifavmcr's illontljln iHsitor. 



71 



the right over the bay from Faiiiiiouiii ; in the 

 same direction about a mile beyond is the fa- 

 mous Girard college, which lias been several 

 years building at an expense of millions. I5ut 

 close lo llie loot of Faiiinoiint on the oilier hand 

 has lately been erected a suspension bridge, 

 throwing over it upon a single span lo the ex- 

 tent ot fifty to a hundred rods, the whole weight 



of the impending Structure, The burden is sus- 

 tained by immense cords of iron, running over a 

 high stone abutment at either end, and fastened 

 by hooks and clamps. The cords are in the 

 shape of wires, any one of which breaking 

 would go only for a time partially to weaken hut 

 not to prostrate the bridge. 



From the immense quantities of iron produced 

 and to be produced in this country, rendering 

 that a cheap and facile material for building, we 

 would not he surprised to see the plan of suspen- 

 sion bridges adopted over many of our rivers, and 

 especially where thrown above llie masts of ships 

 they may prevent all interruption of navigation. 

 Leaving the bridge to be nearly incombustible, 

 the frequency of thrown down piers by under- 

 mining freshets and breaking up of ice, and the 

 destruction of the bridge by fire, might be 

 avoided. 



In Skinner's Farmer*' Library for April, we 

 find the following notice of a contemplated sus- 

 pension bridge below the great Niagara falls. If 

 such a safe avenue as this bridge would afford 

 may he there opened, connected with railroads 

 on either hand, coming in the direction of Albany 

 and Boston from the fertile region of Canada 

 West, and bringing the whole country of the 

 United States bordering upon the great lakes as 

 nearest here to the sea, the enterprise must be 

 taken as one of great magnitude. Willi this 

 channel of communication along the south of 

 lake Ontario in its whole extent, comes to the 

 aid, on the St. Lawrence at Ogdenshnrgh, several 

 hundred miles lower down, a more direct railroad 

 route: over the river here in the course of time 

 a suspension bridge may and probably will be 

 thrown, which will open to the Atlantic seaboard 

 a still nearer and not less important avenue to 

 the Great West. The extreme northernmost 

 line of the United States is by no means that 

 part destined to contribute least lo the country's 

 prosperity. Singular as it may seem this north- 

 ern country, sometimes covered in a snowy man- 

 tle half the year, is least interrupted in the ready 

 interchange of commodities and in the facilities 

 of railroad travel of any part of the Union. 



Niagara Tails Suspension Bridge. 



It is probably know n to most of our readers 

 who lake au interest in such matters, that the 

 Canada people have under contract and now in 

 the course of construction, a railway, which is 

 intended for high speed and heavy freight, from 

 Windsor on the cast shorejof Detroit river, about 

 a mile below the falls. The distance is 228 

 miles. 



From the eastern shore of Niagara, opposite 

 the terminus of the Canada Railway, a railway 

 through Lock port along the Krie Canal Kj 

 Rochester, is in the course of construction. Iloib 

 of these roads, it is said, will soon be finished. 

 They are, however, separated by llie mighty Ni- 

 agara, which runs between them in a gorge more 

 than Iwo hundred feet deep, with nearly perpen- 

 dicular hanks, and its waters are entirely im- 

 passable, owing to rapids tumbling over a rocky 

 bottom on a great descent through which no 

 water-craft ever attempted to cross. 



To remedy this difficulty, snme enterprising 

 gentlemen of Western New York, and Canada, 

 have set themselves about spanning the river 

 from railroad to railroad with a bridge, to he 



suspended on wire cables, of sufficient strength 

 to cross railroad trims, as well as carriages and 

 horses, and the work is already under way, un- 

 der the superintendence of Charles Ellet, Jr., 

 Engineer. To effect this, they are erecting two 

 towers on each side of the river, built of sub- 

 stantial masonry, about sixty feel high above the 

 rocky banks. Over the tops of these towers six- 

 teen wire cables, four inches in diameter each, 

 are to be stretched and anchored into the rock and 

 fastened in the rear of the towers. These cables 

 will weigh twenty-seven tuns each, and will pos- 

 sess a strength equal to the support of six thou- 

 sand live hundred tons weight. 



From these cables thus extending across the 

 river, the floor of the bridge is to be suspended 

 on a level with the brow ol the hanks; and cars, 

 carriages ami passengers will enter upon llie 

 floor of the bridge between the towers. There 

 will be two footways on the bridge, of four feel 

 width each ; two carriage-ways of seven anil one 

 half leet each, and a railroad [rack. 



The floor of the bridge will he two hundred 

 and thirty feet above the water, and in full view 

 of the (alls above and the whirlpool below, and 

 the lied of ihe river between ; thus adding artifi- 

 cial sublimity to Nature's grandeur, and making 

 each contribute to ihe other. The expense of 

 this bridge will he about two hundred thousand 

 dollars, and the grandeur of ihe work, and ihe at- 

 tractions it will present at this great resort of Ihe 

 curious and the fashionable, would seen to form 

 sufficient inducement for the outlay. 



But such was not the inducement. The gen- 

 tlemen who have undertaken it — like most of our 

 enterprising countrymen — are practical and utili- 

 tarian. Lakes Erie and Ontario are about thirty- 

 niles apart — joined by the noble Niagara, 



anil some- 



six 



passable any time at only a few points, ... 

 times passable now here between the two lakes 

 on account of ihe floating ice. On both sides of 

 the river is a thick population of Anglo-Saxons, 

 carry ing on constant intercourse. To facilitate 

 this, and annex the two countries, and join their 

 railways, they have set themselves to erecting 

 this stupendous and seemingly impracticable 

 structure. Western New York desires to avail 

 herself of ihe transit of the Canada trade 

 through the State and lake its advantages. Can- 

 ada is desirous of giving the Western Stales a 

 passage through her dominions and to avail her- 

 self of whatever advantages may be gained by 

 it. 



.Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin desire a win- 

 ter trade, and are restless at being locked up so 

 many months in the year by ice from i lie Allan- 

 lie, and they desire also lo have a shorter, quick- 

 er, and saler passage to the East than round 

 through lake Erie. Anil ihe farmers in Canada 

 and the interior of llie upper Slates are anxious 

 lo send down their produce, and would not like 

 to be stopped by this impassable gorge in the 

 river. Our readers will therefore see that the 

 public interest of vast multitudes is very deeply 

 concerned in ibis enterprise, and though pre- 

 senting great inducements to the curious and 

 fanciful, it is, nevertheless, a work of vast utility, 

 in which the benefit of millions is coi.cemed. 



The prime mover of this magnificent display 

 of civil engineering and combination of mechan- 

 ical powers, is our worthy fellow-citizen, Lot 

 Clark, Esq., heretofore distinguished in the pub- 

 lic annals of his country; hut certain now to he 

 more widely ami longer known by this momen- 

 tous enterprise. 



This suspension bridge seems worthy lo stand 

 in view of that stupendous display of the gran- 

 deur of Nature, the Falls of Niagara ; the sight 

 of which so well rewards the pilgrims who come 

 annually from all quarters of the world to con- 

 template and admire it. 



No reader of good sense — and we trust we 

 have none others — will need to be reminded of 

 the inseparable Connection which everywhere 

 exists between the Agriculture of a country, and 

 its roads and bridges, which serve — according as 

 they are more or less perfect — to facilitate and 



cheapen transportation and exchanges between 

 rural and manufacturing industry. — Skinner's 

 Farmers'' Library. 



Cceat Fishing. — One day last week, Messrs. 

 Davidson and Russel drew in at a single haul, 

 on Mr. Hallpck's shore, west side of New Haven 

 harbor, iwo millions of while fish, as nearly as 



could be estimated, weighing on an average 

 about three-quariers u pound each. The total 

 weight of the haul, therefore, was about 1.500 000 

 pounds, or 750 tons! li was the greatest haul of 

 fish ever made in that harbor, and we suspect it 

 will not be easy to match it any where. The 

 farmers from the neighboring country were en- 

 gaged three or four days in carrying them oil" in 

 immense cart-loads. They sell at 50 to 75 cents 

 the thousand. The fishermen are much indebted 

 to a bevy of porpoises, who drove the white fish 

 into the harbor, helping themselves meanwhile, 

 no doubt, to a very large number. — Journal of 

 Commerce. 



Mr. Hal lock, one of the able editors of the N. 

 Y. Journal of Commerce, has a henurful villa 

 and residence seventy miles from the city of his 

 business, on the bay two or three miles out of 

 New Haven. To this place he retires in au 

 easy steam-boat ride of four or five hours usually 

 at the end of the week, as the summer residence 

 of his family. Mr. Hallock, having an ardent 

 taste for agricultural improvement, has brought 

 inio cultivation many acres upon this shore of 

 the Long Island sound. He has made the light- 

 est porous soil very productive mainly by the ap- 

 plication of decaying fish as a manure. In what 

 quantities this material may he gathered, let the 

 above great haul be taken as an example. What 

 sort of net or seine could sustain such a weight 

 could not easily be accounted for by any ingenui- 

 ty of ours. The manures accessible to the most 

 of the farmers near the sea-shore give them 

 such an advantage as should not be neglected. 



Great Crop of Turnips. 



As far back as the year 1820, Mr. Joseph W. 

 March of Greenland, N. II., produced 834 bush- 

 els of rota baga turnips upon an acre. The fol- 

 lowing account of this crop furnished by Mr. 

 March was at that time published in the Ameri- 

 can Farmer, then published by J. S. Skinner, 

 from whose Monthly Journal of Agriculture 

 now published in the ciiy of New York, we ex- 

 tract it: — 



Last tall about one-half of the lot was plough- 

 ed, and it was intended the whole should have 

 been ploughed, but ihe early hard frost prevent- 

 ed. Last spring about eight loads of compost 

 manure were spread on the ground and plough- 

 ed in, two-thirds of which probably was swamp 

 and mixed with barn-yard dung. 



On the J 8th of June, 1 began to plant the 

 seed. After harrowing the ground, seven fur- 

 rows were made lengthwise the piece, three and 

 a half feel apart, with a horse-plough, lnlo these 

 furrows good barn-yard manure was shoveled 

 from a cart passing alongside, at the rate of about 

 fourteen loads per acre. Then a strong ox-team 

 with a good plough passing up one side and down 

 the oilier, ploughing very deep, formed a high 

 ridge directly over ihe manure. After ihe seven 

 ridges were ploughed, a horse going between 

 iwo ridges with a light roller leveled Ihe lops; — 

 then a hoe was drawn along to make a small 

 furrow for the seed. Previous lo dropping it, 

 some manure was strewed along at ihe rale of 

 four to five loads per acre, in order to force the 

 growth of the young plains, when first up, ihal 

 the fly might not destroy them. A bov then 

 dropped the seed along the ridges, a few in a 

 place, about a foot apart, then covering them 

 with a hoe completed the manner of sou ing. 



The principal labor in ihe alter culture, was 

 the first weeding and thinning out the plains. — 

 lint as this was done in Ihe season of hay -making, 

 at times when the weather was until fur making 

 hay, the expense is considered trifling. I should 

 judge, however, that the labor of the alter cul- 

 ture is about equal to that of Indian corn. 



The produce of the acre is eight hundred and 

 thirly-four heaped bushels of turni/js, besides ot 

 leaves what was judged to be about five tons. — 

 The expense of harvesting was comparatively 

 very small; the whole being done in a part of 

 one day. Upon calculation made of ihe time, 

 and number of hands employed, it appeared that 



