172 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER 10, 1834. 



From the New York Farmer. 



wmErmuG pigs on raiv akd steamed 



POOD. 



We take the following report of experiments ofj 

 feediiif^ pigs on raw and steamed food, by Mr. 

 Robert Walker, Ferrygato, Haddington, from tlie 

 Prize Essavs and Transactions of the Higbland 

 Society of Scotland. 



We put up to feed, on the 4th of March, 1833, 

 five pigs on steamed potatoes, and five on raw i)0- 

 tatoes, Willi an allowance of 2J lbs. of broken bar- 

 ley each lot: the barley, for the steamed lot, being 

 steamed along with tlie jjotatoes. They were al- 

 lowed the same quantity of potatoes, but, from the 

 circumstances of their being, when put up, only 

 2^ months old, and from the same brood, we were 

 not able to keep so accurate an account of the 

 quantity of potatoes consumed, because, as they 

 increased in size, they ate more potatoes. 



The following Table will exhibit the improve- 

 ment in pounds weight. 



18.33. Weight in lbs. 



March 4. Live weigluof five pigs on raw 



food, - - - 108 



Ditto of 5 ditto, steamed food, lOtJ 



19. 



Difference in fivor of raw food, 

 Live weight of five pigs, on 



steamed food, - 114 



Ditto of .5 ditto, on raw food, 111 



Difference in favor of steam- 

 ed food, 

 ♦' 30. I/ive weight of 5 pigs, on 

 steamed food, 

 Ditto of .5 ditto, on raw food, 



Difference in favor of steam- 

 ed food. 

 May 1. Live weight of 5 pigs, on 

 steamed food, 

 Ditto of 5 ditto, on raw food. 



Difference in fjtvor of steam- 

 ed food, 

 June 1. Live weight of 5 pigs, on 

 steamed food, 



Ditto of 5 ditto, on raw food. 



137 



l23;l- 



13 J 



205 

 176 



279 

 223 



30 



56 



Total difference in favor of steamed foot 

 In the three months, the pigs on steamed food 

 have increased 173 lbs., being G7 llis. more than 

 double ; while those on raw food have only in- 

 creased 115 lbs., being 7 lbs. more than dou- 

 ble their first weight, so that there can be very 

 little doiil)t that steamed food is more profitable 

 for feeding pigs than raw food. In fact, the re- 

 porter does not think it po.ssihle to make pigs fat 

 on raw potatoes, without other food, when confin- 

 ed to them alone. 



OVICIDE. 



Several hundred sheep a day or two since, 

 were temporarily confined in a large pen outside 

 the town — and in the course of the night a num- 

 ber of the prisoners undertook to effect their es- 

 cape. Accordingly the malcontents rushed to the 

 fence, under the shelter of which lay a large body 

 of the more quietly disposed — and jumping upon 

 their |)rostrate companions, thence sprang over 

 and got ofi'. In the morning some forty or fifty 

 hapless animals were found to have been trampled 

 to death 'ly this desperate process. Verdict of the 

 crowner — " died in the wool." — JVantucket Inq. 



From the New York Farmer. 

 JBWETT'S CHEMICAl. WATER-PROOF. 



Among tlie superior articles exhibited at the re- 

 cent Fair of the American Institute was Col. Jew- 

 ett's water-proof paste. A boot which had been 

 saturated with it had been standing in water three 

 days without being in the least moist on the in- 

 side. A lady's slipper was similarly exposed, with 

 the same result.*. We have tried it on hoots and 

 can speak favorably of it, although as yet we have 

 made hut a partial trial. The information we have 

 given on this subject in former numbers of the 

 New-York Farmer, together with the following 

 subjoined certificate, cannot liiil of recommending 

 it to the notice of onr readers. Should it prove a 

 desideiatum in protecting the feet from wet, it will 

 be of incalculalile benefit to the health of all classes, 

 particularly to farmers, who are constantly exposed 

 iiu)St of the year roun<l, to rain, a damp and wet 

 ground, or to dewy grass. 



"Executive Office, Columbus, O/tio, June 21,1834. 

 " Having worn shoes for the past five months, to 

 which Col. Jewett's Chemical Water Proof had 

 been apj)lied, I can from experience recommend it 

 to the community at large, under the impression 

 that all who use it will find it much to their inter- 

 est and comfort. I immersed one of these shoes 

 under water, which had been saturated, and found 

 that the leather was made perfectly impervious to 

 water and remained soft and pliable. 1 believe 

 that leather thus saturated will wear longer than it 

 otherwise would, and conceive the paste to be an 

 article of iitnnense value, and its discovery of great 

 importance to the public. 



Robert Lucas, Governor of Ohio." 



DELETERIOUS GAB. 



We learn from Riom in the Cantal, that a ser- 

 vant of M. Lamadon having been sent into I lie 

 cellar, it was remarked with astonishment that she 

 remained an unusual time.. It was remembered 

 that she was obliged to pass through a low place 

 where wine was in a state of fermentation, and it 

 was naturally presumed that she had been suffo- 

 cated by the deleterious gas, hut the difficulty was 

 how to extricate her without exposing others to 

 the same fate. Lighted candles let down into the 

 cellar were iuunediately extinguished. A young 

 physician descended carefully, having in his hand 

 a vessel tidi of chloride of ,lime, which is suppos- 

 ed to possess the property of destroying the nox- 

 ious gas; but belore fie arrived at the bottom of 

 the stairs, he fell in a state of sufl'ocation and dis- 

 appeared. Others descended and iell in like man- 

 ner; but in consequence of their being held by 

 those above, they were easily extricated and re- 

 covered in the open nir. An hour and a half 

 elapsed, during which eflforts were made in vain 

 to discover the first suftt:rers. At length it oc- 

 curred to the bystanders to |)unip large quantities 

 of water into the cellar, by which means the nox- 

 ious atmosphere was in some measure got rid of 

 Lights were no longer extinguished, and the per- 

 sons engaged in this work of benevolence could 

 now venture farther into the cellar. Tlie doctor 

 was first found, after having been entombed for 

 three hours, and was brought again to lilt;. The 

 servant was extricated soon after, and was in like 

 manner restored. 



TO STEAM POTATOES. 



Put them clean washed with their skins en, 

 into a steam saucepan, and let the water under 

 them be about half boiling ; let them continue to 

 boil rather quickly till they are done. If the water 

 once relaxes from its heat, the goodness of the pota- 

 to is sure to be affected, and to become saddened, be 

 the qucdily ever so good. A too precipitate boiling 

 is equally disadvantageous ; as the nigher part to 

 the surface of* the root begins to crack and ojien, 

 while the centre part continues unheated and un- 

 decomriosed. 



Kirwan says, that " Carbonic acid, by superior- 

 ity of its specific gravity soon precipitates, and is 

 then condensed in or niechanically absorbed by 

 soils, and is contained in dew." — p. 114. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR INDIGO. 



The New York Gazette contains a notice of 

 several useful articles exhibited at the late fair in 

 that city ; among them is enumerated a substitute 

 for indigo, as exhibited in its operation upon cloth. 

 The fidlowing is the notice : 



" We examined also with great interest and 

 much satisfaction, a sample of blue cloth dyed 

 without indigo. Cloth worn for several years 

 dyed by a similar process, was shown, which re- 

 tained its brilliancy. It was exhibited by F. Fos- 

 sard of Philadelphia. He has given it a good 

 name, viz. ' Lafayette Blue.' The success of this 

 attempt to dispense with indigo will be important 

 to our country, and an annual saving of a very 

 large amount." 



A gentleman yesterday showed us a coat made 

 from cloth that had been colored with the Lafay- 

 ete Blue, which appeared to he of the true blue. 



From the Gardener's Magazine. 

 DESTROYING THE RED SPIDER. 



I :•■ J. B. W. will use the following compound, he 

 will find it completely eradicate those unwelcome 

 visiters the red spiders, without in the slightest 

 degree disfiguring or injuring any part of vegeta- 

 tion to which he may think proper to apply it. 

 To each of four gallons of clean rain water, heat- 

 ed to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, add a small 

 tea-cupful of soft-soap, stirring and mixing both 

 well together. Then apply it with a syringe, in 

 the same manner, same proportion, and about the 

 same time as water is generally applied ; that is, 

 well drench, between five and six o'clock in the 

 afternoon, every part that is in the least infested, 

 or likely to he so, and repeat the operation three 

 successive afternoons ; the fourth, instead of the 

 nostrum, use clean water. Then again the nos- 

 trum for three successive afternoons, using on the 

 fourth clean water, and so on ; recollecting never 

 to syringe with clean water on any of the days thati 

 the nostrum has been used ; nor with the nostrum 

 on any of the days allotted for clean water. I have 

 invariably found that nine syringings with the mix- 

 ture totally destroyed every appearance of the in- 

 sects, and have never found them make their ap- 

 pearance during the season after its application. It 

 will be perceived, by a minute inspection, after the 

 first two or three syringings, that the foliage has as- 

 sumed what botanists would call a "slightly glau- 

 cous" appearance. It is this glaucous appearance 

 which battles every effort of the insect ; as every 

 leaf and branch is thinly coated over with soft-soap, 

 yet so thinly that in vegetation there is no percepti- 

 ble difl'erence. The object of syringing with cleam 

 water every third day is to remove the glaucous ap-l 

 pe.irance, and allow vegetation twenty-four hours' 

 respite ; which enables the plant to sustain, witlioul 

 the slightest percejitible difference, the next three 

 dressings with the nostrum. Were the glaucous 

 appearance not removed at the specified time, but^ 



