!508 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Sept 



length of the driving pipe B must be increased, 

 and to such an extent that the water in it is not 

 forced back into the spring, when the valve in 

 E closes, which will always be the case, if the 

 pipe B is not of sufficient length. 



Fence Making. 



Mr. Editor : — I began to build fence on the 

 following plan 17 years ago, and it answers well. 

 It is generally approved and rapidly getting into 

 use. I first stake out the ground where I want 

 the fence built ; then set or drive my posts about 

 18 inches in the ground, and then roll in all my 

 big stones and place them so that they will not 

 be over about two feet high. Then line the top 

 of the posts and get the top of the fence as near 

 level as the ground will admit, not over 4 a feet 

 in height. 1 usually put on three boards, about 

 six, seven, or eight inches wide, beginning at 

 the top with the narrowest and put them about 

 seven and five inches apart. All that remains 

 to be done is to fill up under the boards with 

 smaller sized stones, and banking the fence up 

 te the boards with dirt. This should be well 

 seeded with grass seed. Boards may be used 14 

 feet long, with one post in the middle ; or the 

 boards may be 16 feet and two posts in the mid- 

 dle. When the posts are well fastened in this 

 way, I do not think capping pays the cost. 



Yours, Nath'l Smith. 



Gorham, July, 1847. 



Improvement in Hemp-Brakes. 



[We copy Uie following description and illustrations of 

 an improved Hemp Brake from the " Farmers Library and 

 Monthly Journal of Agriculture." It a matter which will 

 interest, and perhaps benefit, many of our readers in the 

 south and west.] 



John S. Skinner, Esq. — Dear Sir: — I send 

 you the description and drawings of a Hemp- 

 Gin, invented and recently patented by my broth- 

 er, Franklin P. Holcomb, under the following 

 oircumstanees : My brother, who is a civil engi- 

 neer by profession, but possessing fine mechani- 

 cal talents, was stopping with me at my farm, 

 when I happened one day to be reading, from 

 the Farmer's Encycloptedia, what Mr. Clay 

 says in an article he furnished to that work on 

 the subject of Hemp-Machines, which is'to the 

 effect that no mechine had ever been invented, 

 and he feared none ever would be, to answer as 

 a substitute for the hand-brake. I told my broth- 

 er that he owed it to the fact of his having been 

 a farmer'' s boy to supply, if possible, this great 

 desideratum to the hemp-growing interest ; and 

 also expressed the opinion that we might proba- 

 bly grow hemp here to advantage, if the break- 

 ing and scutching could be done by machinery. 



He finally went to work at it, and I sowed a 

 small quantity of hemp, wliich we water-rotted. 

 This we got out with the machine. Still he did 



im- 

 g, for 



.not think it perfect or right, and went on 

 proving, and altering, and experimenting, _._ 

 almost f.nother twelvomoiith ; and meantime I 



'grew a tejond crop of hemp (or him. This we 

 also got out with the machine, and had a portion 

 of it manulactured into rope. And, finally, the 

 great difliculty that liad troubled him so much — 

 the waste in the scutching— was overcome, and 

 v<e had the satisfactien of seeing this simple little 

 machine break and scutch, with the least possi- 

 ble waste, at the rate of about 1,000 lbs. of clean, 

 merchantable hemp per day — doing the work of 

 some twelve or fourteen men. 



But meantime Mr. Billing's machine had 

 made its appearance ; and our frier.d Gen. 

 Tallmadge had commended it so highly in his 

 Address before the American Institute, that my 

 brother, supposing the final object had been at- 

 tained, and never having entertained any pecu- 

 niary views in connection with it, proposed do- 

 ing nothing farther with his machine. But he 

 subsequently learned that Mr. Billing's ma- 



I chine, though no doubt an excellent one, was 



I large, somewliat complicated, and costing four or 

 five times the price of his, and probably intended 

 r<-ther for a stationary power to work in a man- 

 ufactory, than for the general use of hemp-grow- 

 ers, to be worked by their hands, on the planta- 

 tion, or in the fields. Under the circumstances 

 he applied for a patent, which was granlfed, and 

 Mr. Obed Hussey, of Baltimore, machinist, the 

 ingenious inventor of the Reaping Machine, has 

 become interested in it, and will take means to 

 introduce it to the attention of the hemp-growers 



! of the West. 



Nothing can be more simple in its construc- 

 tion. The rudest and roughest hands can work 

 it, and with little danger of its getting out of 

 order. The cost of it will only be from ^ITy to 

 •$100, exclusive of the liorse-povver. It requires 

 about a two horse power to work it. From my 

 own experience in the use of it, I can confident- 

 ly say, and assure my brother farmers of the 

 West, that the largest crop of hemp they grow 

 would hold out no terror, so far as the breaking 

 and scutching of it was concerned, with the u,se 

 of this machine. My clear conviction is that it 

 will go into very general use in the hemp dis- 

 trict, and prove an important acquisition to this- 

 branch of Agriculture; and if it does, though 

 not having the slightest pecuniary interest in it, 

 I shall feel myself highly rewarded for the inter- 

 est I have taken in the enterprise. 

 Truly yours, 



Chauncey p. Holcomk. 



Devoiidale Farm, near Newcastle, Del., 1847. 



SPECIFICATION OF HOLCOMB'S HEMP-HRAICE. 



To all fo iL'hani these presrnt .':ha/l cnme : 

 Be it known, that I, F. P. Hoi-comb, of the town and 



county of Newcastle, and State of Delaware, have invented 

 ja new and useful machine for breaking and cleaning hemp 

 |at one and the same operation; and tliai the following is a 

 I fall, clear and exact dessription of the principle or charac- 



