170 Transactions of the American Institute. 



is cheap. In these wet days it is of the utmost importance that 

 we have work done rapidly during good weather. Oxen and 

 horses are too slow. Mechanics do farm work in the winter. In 

 their shops, while snow covers the ground, they construct machinery 

 which does the work of summer. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — Since mowers have been introduced, we 

 have improved our farms, and greatly added to their fertility by 

 removing stones. 



SUPER-HEATED STEAM DRYER. 



Mr. H. G. Bulkley delivered an address on this subject, stating 

 that when above two hundred and twelve degrees, steam becomes 

 more of an absorbent, and so increases to be as the heat is increased. 

 A room containing super-heated steam, becomes a Turkish bath, 

 that is, has a steam atmosphere, and proportionally, so far as the 

 air is concerned, becomes a vacuum. Fruit should be dried as soon 

 as ripe, and before it changes into sugar, that the starch may be 

 secured. Mr. B. showed specimens of apples dried from fruit 

 nearly a year old, which looked very white and nice. By this 

 process, apparatus for drying fruit rapidly and well can be made as 

 low as one dollar and twenty-five cents, and from this to much 

 higher figures. Lumber also is dried by this process. It is placed 

 on cars, and in passing through the building is dried. 



Mr. Allen said he had seen a four-inch scantling dried so thor- 

 oughly as to destroy the grain; still, by good management, this 

 could be avoided, and the wood could be seasoned to any required 

 extent. 



NEWELL's REVOLVING HARROW. 



A committee appointed at a previous meeting to superintend the 

 trial of this harrow, invented by Amos Newell, New York city, 

 reported as follows: 



The harrow used was the first and only of its kind made, and 

 this was its first practical trial. Like a mowing machine, it runs 

 on wheels, and has a platform and seat for the driver. At the rear 

 of the platform, and resting on the ground, is a cylinder about four 

 inches in diameter, and covered with sharp teeth. The motion of 

 the wheels causes the. cylinder to revolve in an opposite direction 

 to that of the wheels. 



The trial was made upon a field which was broken up last fall, 

 and a portion of it plowed again recently. 



The soil was sandy loam, free from stones, but full of live roots 

 of grass and weeds. 



