1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



229 



Nutrition of Corn Cobs. 



Mr. Editor : — Allow me to inquire if there 

 is any nourishment in the cobs of corn ? It is a 

 question too important to remain unsettled. For, 

 on the one hand, many farmers, supposing that 

 there must be some nutriment in the cobs, have 

 their corn intended for feeding horses and neat 

 cattle, ground in the ear. On the other hand, 

 many, believing that the article possesses no nu- 

 tritive property, throw away, or burn their cobs. 



If then, you will please to bring a portion of 

 cobs to the test of your chemical labratory, and 

 give to the public the result of your experiment, 

 whatever that result may be, you will in doing 

 so, perform the service of a benefactor. 



Canandaigua, 1847. A Subscriber. 



Remarks. — A good analysis of cobs cannot 

 be made at less than fifteen or twenty dollars. 

 They contain however very little nutritive mat- 

 ter. It is because corn meal is very concentra- 

 ted food and lacks due bulk to fill the stomach, 

 that cob meal can be advantageously combined 

 ■with it. An equal bulk of well cured and pul- 

 verised cornstalks would doubtless contain more 

 nourishment than clear cobs. 



Preparation of Seed Wheat. — By sieves, 

 of suitable size, the largest and best grain may ' 

 be separated. By washing in water, light seeds 

 of various kinds, and the lightest grain will swim, 

 and may be skimmed off. By adding salt to the ; 

 "water, which will increase its specific gravity, | 

 old imperfect grains, and barley and oats will 

 rise to the surface. Then it will be well to steep 

 the seed a day or two in salt and water ; after 

 ■which add half a peck of fresh slaked lime to a 

 bushel of grain, mix thoroughly, that every ker- 

 nel may become coated with lime. Let it re- 

 main half a day, or night, after liming, and then 

 sow. — Ex. pcqyer. 



Heavy Wool Operation. — William McKie, 

 a heavy wool operator of Salem, N. Y., has ve- 

 ry recently effected a cash sale of upwards of 

 three hundred thousand pounds of crossed and 

 pure Saxon wools, to the Middlesex company at 

 Lowell, Mass., all of which was grown in the 

 counties of Washington and Rensselaer. In ad- 

 dition to this, the company have purchased from 

 other individuals, over a million and a half pounds 

 of very superior wools, all of the present clip. 



Agriculture, says Socrates, is an employ- 

 ment the most woi-thy the application of man, 

 the most ancient and the most suitable to his na- 

 ture ; it is the common nurse of all persons, in 

 every age and condition of life ; it is a source of 

 health, strength, plenty and riches ; and of a 

 thousand sober delights and honest pleasures. It 

 is the mistress and school of sobriety, temper- 

 ance, justice, religion, and in short, of all virtue, 

 civil and military. 



Hydraulics for Farmers. 



BY C. N. BEMENT. 

 NUMBER III. 



Bensoti's Ram. — The first water ram erect- 

 ed in this country was imported a few years 

 since from England, at an expense of one hun- 

 dred dollars ; and put in successful operation at 

 Fairy-Knowe, the residence of J. H. Latrobe, 

 Esq., near Baltimore, Maryland. 



Within a ievi years, some of our ingenious 

 mechanics have taken hold of the subject, and 

 they are now made for a trifling expense in com- 

 parison to the one imported by Mr. Latrobe. 

 Among the earliest to improve the machine, I 

 would name B. S. Benson, near Baltimore, Md., 

 by which pure spring water may be forced up by 

 a stream or brook of impure water. 



The following is a representation of Benson's 

 Patent Water-ram, for raising spring or other 

 water for supplying farms, towns or vilages. 

 By means of this ram, persons having a small 

 branch or spring, that will afford one gallon per 

 minute, with a small stream of impure water, 

 can have a portion of the spring or any other 

 water, raised to his house or barn, through a 

 small leaden tube. This ram, says the inventor, 

 will raise twice the water that any forcing pump 

 will with the same water power, there being on- 

 ly three valves to keep it in motion, in place of 

 the heavy water-weel and piston. This ram can 

 be driven by branch water, and raise spring or 

 branch water to the house at pleasure, by simply 

 turning a cock, without any derangement of the 

 ram, and is very simple, and easy to keep in or- 

 der — the valves being faced with leather, and ea- 

 sy of access, can be replaced by any person, 

 there being no other part that can wear. 



This ram difl^ers from most others, in having 

 three valves, and a passage for spring water at 

 the head. 



Description. — V is an impetus-valve in cham- 

 ber A, opening inwards ; when open, permits 

 the spring water to flow from resorvoir N, 

 through valve C, and driving the branch water 

 out of the end of the pipe D, that having acted 

 as a piston in the last stroke ; also permitting the 

 branch water to flow from reservoir I, through 

 the pipe J, and passing through the opening of 

 the impetus-valve V, with increasing velocity, 

 closes the valve ; thus suddenly shutting off the 

 escape of water. The ram pipe J, being fifty 

 feet long, and six feet fall, filled with water, be- 

 ing nearly an uncompressed fluid, exerts its force 

 against the columns of spring water in pipe D, 

 as a piston, forcing it into chamber B, and clos- 

 ing valve C, driving it up through the air cham- 

 ber valve B — the air chamber being supplied 

 with air for a spring, receives the water, and 

 gradually presses it up through pipe P, to the re- 

 quired height. When the water in the long ram 



