NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



109 



The leather should be made quite warm, and the 

 composition applied in a warm state, and the leather 

 again exposed to as much heat as it will bear, without 

 injury. Apply it to upper and sole leather, till it is 

 fully saturated, even so full that it begins to come 

 through the upper leather. Repeat the application 

 occasionally during the wet season, and very often 

 when constantly exposed. A little extra expense and 

 pains, to preserve health at this season, is economy. 



Balm-of-Gilcad buds, bottled up in Now England 

 rum, make the best cure in the world for fresh cuts 

 or wounds. Every family should have a bottle of it. 

 The buds should be gathered in a peculiar state ; 

 just when they are well swelled, ready to burst into 

 leaves, and well covered with gum. They last but 

 two or three days in this state. 



If not convenient to add rum to the buds at the 

 time of picking, put them into a bottle, and cork the 

 bottle tightly, and the buds will keej) in good condi- 

 tion for a long time. 



ilTccljamcs' Pcfiartincnt, ^rts, ^c. 



New Application of India Rubber. — The Liver- 

 pool Albion describes an ingenious application of 

 caoutchouc, or prepared India rubber, and which 

 shows the expanding power of the preisaration. It 

 has been made and patented by Mr. Sangstcr, of 

 Regent Street, to a very useful purpose. It is to 

 supersede springs of metal for the expansion of 

 parasols, and for compressing the ribs of them, and 

 of similar articles. The India rul^ber is prepared 

 by a chemical process, or by some process of science 

 made into the shape of a small pipe or hose ; it is 

 also vulcanized. By these means the elastic power 

 and the tenacity of the gum are increased to a per- 

 fectly marvellous degree. A small ring of the ma- 

 terial so prepared, less in width than the eighth 

 of an inch, is cut from the pipe, and placed around 

 the top of the ribs. When the ribs are expanded, 

 the elastic power of the ring enables it to be 

 stretched so as to suit the exigency, while its leverage 

 and power of contraction are so great, that directly 

 the power is removed bj'' which the expansion is 

 secured, it forces the ribs together, and keeps them 

 firmly compressed. As an application of science to 

 a practical advantage, it is very curious and con- 

 venient. — Fanner and Mechanic. 



A New Tuinq in Mechanics. — Mr. Joseph Har- 

 ris, Jr., of this city, has invented and patented a box 

 and axle, which requires no oil, and yet almost com- 

 pletely escapes that destroying angel of all machi- 

 nery — friction. At least so we cannot but hope, 

 from seeing a working model, which, Ave understand 

 from Mr. Harris, has been put in a lathe and turned 

 one thousand revolutions in a minute, — a motion 

 which, with a common-sized railroad truck wheel, 

 would carry it about two miles in a minute, or one 

 hundred and twenty miles in an hour, without 

 producing any perceptible heat, and without the 

 use of a particle of oil. The mechanism by which a 

 result so desirable and astonishing is effected, is 

 somewhat after the manner of that discovered by the 

 prophet Ezekiel in his vision, " a wheel in the mid- 

 dle of a wheel," or rather six wheels in the middle 

 of one. The box is about five inches in diameter, 

 and the axle three inches ; and in the space between 

 them are disposed, at equal distances, six anti-frictioa 



rollers, which are kept in their places by teeth at 

 both ends, playing into corresponding circles of teeth 

 in both the box and axle. There is no bearing upon 

 these teeth, which are cut to the anti-friction curve. 

 The bearing is entirely upon the smooth portion of 

 the rollers between the teeth. The only service of 

 the teeth is to prevent the possibility of the rollers 

 getting out of place. 



That this invention will work admirably in the 

 first place we have very little doubt. How it will 

 wear, is a question which must l)c tested by experi- 

 ence. At all events, it is a thing which railroad 

 directors and engineers will find it for their interest 

 to look at carefully. — Clironotijpo. 



COMPOSTS. 



Eds. Cultivator. — You ask about my compost 

 heap. I live in a large manufacturing town, with a 

 population of twelve thousand or more. I have a 

 cart with a tight box, holding thirty-six square feet. 

 I send this cart out with my oxen, and give the 

 parties driving and filling it seventy-five cents for a 

 full load of night soil ; having first made a basin of 

 dry marsh mud, of which I have abundance, into 

 which this night soil is emptied. We have several 

 large founderies, that use much charcoal ; the dust 

 they cannot burn. This dust they give to me ; and 

 it only costs me cartage to bring it to my night soil. 

 Again, we have several large factories, that use 

 anthracite coal. I take from them their sifted ashes ; 

 this costs me nothing but cai-ting. 



Again, we have other factories that use half coal, 

 half wood. For these ashes I give one cent per 

 bushel. Now, I mix all these ingredients into a 

 home-manufactured poudrette. I ought to have said, 

 that to each load of night soil I add one bushel of 

 Plaster of Paris, which, with the charcoal dust and 

 plaster, will render it inodorous. 



Next, I buy oyster-shelLs at three and a half cents 

 per bushel ; burn them with cedar bush, from a 

 mountain lot I own. One bushel of shells makes 

 two of lime ; but I cover the heap with an equal 

 quantity of marsh mud, which, in fact, is a species of 

 turf. And here I have a large source of cheap ma- 

 nure, at one cent per bushel. As for anthracite coal 

 ashes, I am satisfied that on all my lands they are 

 useful, particularly for atop-dressing for fruit trees ; 

 and on clay lands, they act mechanically in opening 

 the soil, so that air can get down to the roots of 

 plants. 



Our soil is a red, decomposed sandstone ; and lime 

 acts most beneficially on it. I prefer small doses, 

 say forty bushels of slaked lime per acre, repeated 

 every two or three years, with a bushel of Plaster of 

 Paris per acre each year. I have found the Wiwte of 

 a flaxmill, after twelve months' decomposition, very 

 valuable manure. — Cultivator. 



ROLLING WHEAT. 



On the advantages, if any, of rolling wheat, I am 

 sorry to say I can furnish nothing from personal ex- 

 perience ; but they arc so manifest to the observing 

 farmer, that it is a matter of surprise that any one 

 should neglect the trial of the experiment. Although 

 I do not know, yet I should think that we of this 

 latitude — thirty-nine degrees — were more exposed 

 to loss from our winter ^xaiw freezing out, than in colder 

 climates ; for it is not the degree of cold that causes 

 the injury, nor its long continuance, but the inde- 

 cisive way our Spring has of coming in, which is to 

 advance two steps during the day, and fall back one 

 at night, and then, as though unequal to the task, 

 the gentle goddess shrinks back to lier winter retreat, 

 — the fountains and flowing streams, — and the grim 



