50 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Candles -j:iih wooden ■a.ichs. — A writer in 

 the Aurora, states the result ol" an experiment 

 he has made with wood for the candle wick. 

 The wooil was of a cypress shingle, siilit to 

 the size of a rye straw and made round, so tiiat 

 the coat of cotton which was applied, niiiflit be 

 more easily put on by rollint; the stick u|)('n a 

 card which contained the cotton, and whicii liail 

 l)cen previously well carded. The candle i\ itii 

 the wooden wick lasted 7 hours while i>ne of 

 the same size (six to the pound) with cotton 

 wick, lasted but 5 hour*. Agreeably to this 

 experiment, a pound of candles will last forly- 

 fwo hours, when they would only last thirty 

 made the usual way. 



SAIL CLOTH.— Wc are ploa'od to bo able 

 to announce the successful establishment of a 

 manufactory of Sail Cloth, on a new and improv- 

 ed principle at Stoncham, near this city, by a 

 Mr. JoiiNsox. Bolts of Jifl'erent numbers" of Mr. 

 J's manufacture have been sent tor inspection 

 to the Charlestown Navy Yard, whose fabric 

 has been declared by competent judges, to be 

 decidedly superior^ in beauty and streni^th, to 

 any article of this kind ever exhibited in the 

 U. States. — Boston Statesman. 



WOOL. — A correspondent informs us, that 

 from January 1st to June 30th, of the present 

 year, there has been imported into this district 

 Irom foreign ports, one hundred and niartij seven 

 thousand nine, hundred and four pounds of Wool. 

 A very sound reason for our farmers to grow 

 more of that useful article, as it will coinmand 

 readily the money, from thirty-two to sixty 

 cents per pound. — ib. 



The Long Island Farmer states, that eleven 

 pounds of well washed fine white wool was 

 sheared, a few days since, t'rom a merino buck 

 belonging to Mr. James Scott. — jV. Y. Gazette. 



Canada Thistle. — Mr. Butler states from his 

 own experience, for the information of farmers 

 and agriculturists, that if the Canadian thistle is 

 cut down in this month it will decay, for these 

 reasons : the seed will be rendered abortive, 

 and the stock, which is hollow, will fill with 

 water and destroy the plant. 



Ulster Pkheiun. 



Easy cure for the Ague. — When the fit is on, 

 take a new laid egg in a glass of brandy, and 

 go to bed immediately. This very simple re- 

 ceipt has cured a great many, after more cele- 

 brated i)reparatioiis have proved unsuccessful. 



Jlrsenic. — A man, says an English paper, was 

 poisoned in a very singular maimer. His physi- 

 cian prescribed for him a dose of arsenic and 

 sent it to a druggist to be yiut u|). The drug- 

 gist ha\ ing adju'^ted his scales with the proper 

 weights, turned to get the arsenic ; while in the 

 act of getting it, a worm or catterpillar crawled 

 up the scales in which the weights wore, and in 

 this situation added its own weight, which occa- 

 sioned the dose to be too large, and thus des- 

 troyed the patient. 



Dense Population. — .Vt Pawtucket, near Prov- 

 idence, on an area of from eighty to ninety 

 acres of land, there are three hundred and sev 

 f.niij seven families, and tzco thousand three hun 

 dred and ninety Jhrce individuals. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



liOSTOX.—SATVlUJJlY, AUGUST 24, 1822. 



A friend to our establislimt-nt, and a member of the 

 Massachusetts .4?riciiltMial .Society, liaving- suggested 

 to us thp propriety auil probable utility of republishing 

 till- Notice of the Cattle Show, List of Premiums, &c. 

 with which this number commences, we have given it 

 a place to the exclusion of some others articles intend- 

 f <l for this day's paper. We are happy in being in any 

 degree instrumental in furthering the views of the So- 

 ciety ; and those to whom our first article conveys 

 nothing new, will excuse its republication when they 

 are informed that we have distant subscribers, who, 

 prubably, have not seen the list of premiums, and who, 

 perhaps, may yet be induced to become competitors 

 for tlio.se rewards, with which the bounty of the gov- 

 ernment and the liberality of the Trustees of the Socie- 

 ty propose to remunerate superior skill and industry in 

 various departments of Agriculture and Domestic Man- 

 ufactures. 



Rye Coffee. — A writer in the N. E. Palladium of the 

 23d inst. with tlie signature " A Middlesex Farmer," 

 has controverted the assertions and theories of a 

 ■' Friend to Health," (published in our last No. p. 19,) 

 relative to the injurious effects of rye when used for 

 Domestic Coffee, &c. We do not wish to condemn 

 one of the staple articles of our country without at 

 least giving it a fair trial, and its advocates a full and 

 ijnpartial hearing. We shall, therefore, give the re- 

 marks in favor of Rye Coffee, by " A Middlesex Far- 

 mer," in our next number. 



COOKING FOOD FOR CATTLE. 



{^Cuntinuid from page 23.) 



.4 great advantage, which results from preparing 

 food for cattle by steaming or boiling is obtained by its 

 converting U'afer into solid food. This may appear in- 

 credible to those who have either not thought at all, or 

 thought somewhat superficially on the subject. A few- 

 grains of reflection however, together with a spice or 

 two of philosophy may serve to show that water is ca- 

 pable of affording a great deal of nutriment eiUier in a 

 liquid or solid form. We pass over the fact that some 

 jthints will grow with no other nourishment than what 

 is afforded by water and air, and proceed to show that 

 much nutriment for animals may be obtained from 

 water, when combined witli other substances, by the 

 agency of heat. 



It is a fact, which will be acknowledged as soon as 

 suggested that a pound of Indian meal, or of rice, when 

 boiled, gives more nourishment to man, or bea.st, than 

 several pounds in a raw state. Count Rumford says 

 " From the result of actual experiment it appears 

 that for each pound of Indian meal employed in making 

 ha«ly pudding, we may reckon three pounds nine ounci.t 

 of the pudding."* And again '' Three pounds of Indi- 

 an meal, three quarters of a pound of molasses, and one 

 ounce of salt, having been mixed with five pints ol' 

 boiling water, and boiled six hours produced a pudding, 

 which weighed I tn pounds and one ounce. "t The gain ol 

 weiglit in boiling rice is still greater. Now it is evident 

 that these dishes must contain much more nourishment, 

 as well as more substance after having been cooked 

 than could have been derived from their materials, if 

 swallowed in a raw state. 



But we will give another example to show that 

 water is not only capable of being converted by heat 

 into solid nutriment, but may even be made to compose 



* Riiniford^s Essai/.i, vol. \.page 258, Eoslon Edition. 

 + liumford''e Essays, page 26^1. 



a constituent part ol sugar, oi.t of the aiost nutiitious ol 

 all substances. It is remarked by De Saussure thut 

 "As Starch boiled in water with sulphuric aid, a I 

 thereby changed into Sugar, increases in weight -ni ii- 

 out uniting with any sulphuric aid or gas, or with, ut 

 forming any gas wc are under the necessity of ascribing 

 the change soltly to the fixation of ualtr. Hence \.( 

 must conclude that Starch sugar is nothing else than a 

 comliination of starch u-ilh leater in a solid state. T\i< 

 sulphuric acid is not decomposed, or united to tl.. 

 starch as a constituent.* Should any person still doii 

 whether water can exist in a solid state, combined 

 with other bodies let him take the trouble to weigh a 

 small quantity of quick lime, then slack it with water. 

 and mark the increase of its weight. If then .10/ J 

 nourishment can be obtained from water by any chi ap 

 and practicable process, that husbandman must be 

 blind to his own interest who omits to make use of such 

 process. 



Having thus as we conceive settled the point that it 

 is good economy to steam or boil food for cattle, we will 

 now attend to some enquiries respecting the best mode, 

 of executing such processes. Our observations will bo 

 plain and practical : and should we fail to point out 

 the best methods of effecting our object, we may p. r- 

 haps be of service by directing the attention of others i . 

 the subject, who may be more capable of its investiga- 

 tion. 



We are not fully acquainted with all the impro\ f - 

 ments in producing steam for steam engines and otlur 

 purposts. We shall however advert to some inven- 

 tions of the kind which appear to us simple as well as 

 ingenious and perhaps superior to the means generally 

 employed for similar uses. 



A boiler invented by Count Rumford, and presented 

 to the French National Institute is described in Aikin^p 

 Atheneum. The substatice of the description is as 

 follows. 



Tilis boiler was made on a small scale being a cop- 

 per cylinder only twelve inches in diameter, and as 

 many in heightli, closed at top and bottom with cir- 

 circular plates. From the bottom seven tubes projected 

 downward, each nine inches long, and three inches , 

 across, open next the cavity of the boiler and closed at 

 their further extremities. From the top of the boiler 

 a short tube arose six inches in diameter, and three 

 inches high, shut at the top by a copper plate, through 

 which passeil one tube for the safety valve, anoth- 

 er to convey the steam when wanted, and a third 

 to admit water fiom the reservoir to supply the evapo- 

 ration. This last tube passed downwards to within an 

 inch of the bottom plate, where it was furnished with a 

 cork and floating ball, that was so placed as to keep 

 the water six inches deep in the cavity of the boiler 

 above that in the tubes. t The furnace in which this 

 boiler was placed was of sheet iron three inches high, 

 and seventeen inches in diameter, lined with masonry, 

 which is not particularly described ; but as the grate 

 is mentioned to be but six inches in diameter, it is 

 probable that the cavity of the fire-place was of a con- 

 ical shape from it to the bottom of the seven tubes. 



Count Rumford reports that the boiler exceeded his 

 expectations — he supposes that a boiler made in this 

 form would have more strength in proportion to the 

 surface exposed to the same internal pressure than one 

 in the usual shape, and that it would be less liable to 



* See a Treatise on Manxires, printed in the same 

 volume vith Sir Htnnplirrt/ Oavi/^s ^igncullural Che- 

 mistrij, PhitadcJiiliia Edition. 



t This contrivance is probahli/ the same, or bears so7ur 

 analogy to what Mr. Smith calls the '■'■ se!f-supi>li/{f l- 

 valrc, which is apt to get out of order.'''' Sec our lu.- 

 A~o. p. 23, 'id col. 



