114 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCTOBEU iti. issn. 



7. Iflinie or its sulphate bs employed as the 

 means of raising green crops, which have but small 

 exhausling powers, the fertility of a soil may be 

 maintained by plonghing them in, er increased by 

 nsing them to feed cattle whose manure is appli- 

 ed to tlie ground. 



wsm'is"&& £i.^^Ma 



Mammoth Potato. — Mr James Tisdale of this 

 town recently dug from bis garden, a potato weigh- 

 ing two pounds and six ounces. 



Mammoth Horse. — There is now at the .stable 

 of Capt. Thomas, of the Burlington Hotel, a horse 

 imported from England, 5 years old und. well 

 made, that weighs 1750 ]bs.— Burlington Sent. 



Mammoth Calf. — We learn from the Fayette 

 Democrat, that Mr Shortwell of that county, has 

 raised a calf of the Durham breed, that when only 

 61 days old weighed 200 fmunds ! The Demo- 

 crat says, 'this is a real Harrison triumph for old 

 Franklin township.' 



Bitununous coal of good quality, and of inex- 

 haustible quantity, has been discovered in Calhoun 

 county in Illinois, about two miles above the 

 mouth of Illinois river. 



A bridge four thousand feet long is now erect- 

 ing over the Susquehanna at Harrisburg, by the 

 Cumberland Valley Rail Road Company. It has 

 rough stone piers and a wooilen superstructure. 



There is a factory for hoes at Reading, Penn., 

 which goes by a steam engine of 6 horse power. — 

 The hoes are made from rolled iron, then cut and 

 puncbed. The amount [laid for hoes imported is 

 one aiid a half millions of dollars annually. 



Over 3,000,000 of busbels of fine salt have been 

 manufactured at Syracuse during the past year — 

 besides the coarse. 



There are 50 railroads in France ; in England 

 300 miles completed, and 513 in progress; in 

 America about 3000 miles completed or in i)ro- 

 gress. 



The Hon. Caleb Cushing has been chosen to 

 deliver an Address at the Annual Fair, at New 

 York. 



Spontaneous Combcstion. — A hay stack be- 

 longing to Mr Charles Randall of this town, took 

 fire on Monday last, and was consumed. It was 

 seen to smoke, when they took a hay knife anil 

 cut a channel round the top of it. Immediately 

 it burnt into a blaze. No cause W assigned. The 

 bay was well cured and p.ut up in as dry a state as 

 usual. — JVorivich Jour. 



A melancholy case of insanity is described in 

 the Taunton Chronicle. The subject is a lad 

 about 14 years of age. It was caused by a habit 

 of "standing on his head," as the feat is familiarly 

 termed. Would it not be well for parents to cau- 

 tion their children in this res|)ect ? 



Ten years ago, the population of Rochester 

 nmounted to five thousand ; its inhabitants are 

 now seventeen thousand. 



In the session of the New York Board of A1-. 

 dermen on Monday last, a letter was received from 

 N. Somes proposing an invention of bis to super- 

 cede gas lights. 



The Baltimore papers say that Cacoetin Moun- 

 tain near Frederick, in Jlaryland, was on Wed- 

 nesday of last week, co 

 depth of six inches. 



Rail Road acrnas llie Isthmus of Darlcn. 



TI.e project of opening a channel of communi- 

 cation across the Isthmus of Darien, which has 

 fin- many years been a subject of newspaper com- 

 ment and conjecture, appears now in a train at no 

 very distant period to be realized. It appears by 

 recent intelligence, that the congress of Ne>v Gre- 

 nada, during its last session, which terminated in 

 May, passed an act making a large ap[)ropriation 

 of land for a Rail or McAdamised roacl,and grant- 



ing the same, with the exclusive privilege for forty- 

 five years, to Col. Charles Biddle, a citizen of the 

 United St.ates, who it is said has acted in soliciting 

 the contract as the agent of several large capital- 

 ists in this country. The distance across the Isth- 

 mus, from Porto Bello to Panama, is only thirty- 

 seven miles; — but it is interrupted by a consider- 

 able rocky elevation forming a part of tho chain of 

 the Andes. 



The advantages to commerce should this pro- 

 ject finally succeed and be carried into operation 

 are thus alluded to in the N. Y. Commercial Ad- 

 vertiser: — "The voyage to the Pacific, by the 

 way of Cai)e Horn, will be in a great measure done 

 away with ; and the teas and silks of China, the 

 spices of Polynesia, the furs of the North West 

 coast, and the valuable products of the whale fish- 

 ery, will reach us by a navigation abbreviated to 

 less than half its present length and consequent 

 expense. The commerce of other nations, too, 

 will of necessity be directed into this new chan- 

 nel of communication. The capes of Good Hope 

 and Horn will no longer be tiie trial-points of 

 weather beaten marines ; monsoons and trade 

 winds will lose mightily in interest ; a vast city 

 will spring into existence with unexampled celeri- 

 ty at either extremity of the road, proudly stand- 

 ing like the citadels of trade, one njjon the margin 

 of the Pacific and the other upon that of the At- 

 lantic, gathering toll from every box of tea, 

 every bundle of skins, and every barrel of 

 blubber that finds its way to this country or 

 to Europe ; and for anything we know to the 

 contrary, in the course of centuries, a vast system 

 of lateral rail roads may be created, extending to 

 diverging lines, like the rays of the sun, from the 

 great roacl between the oceans, to the remotest 

 borders of North and South America, serving as 

 the medium of transportation for all the inland and 

 oriental trade, and so far as this whole western 

 continent is concerned, entirely supplanting all 

 navigation except that of rivers liy innumerable 

 steamboats. Political consequences of no less 

 magnitude may perhaps be in like manner pro- 

 duced, but we have not time or space at tho pres- 

 ent writing for even a random conjecture of their 

 extent and nature. — JVfif Bedford Mercury. 



of 



Tanning. — A few years since we alluded 

 general terms to a new mode of tanning, lately 

 invented by DrE S.Bell and ;\Ir Daniel Bell ' 

 Virginia. From one of the Patentees, now in 

 this (dace vve have been informed that the system 

 has been well received, and the leather has well 

 sustained the test of use. Some have supposed 

 that this operation is effected by tjie use of heat, 

 acid steam, &c. ; this, however we are assured is 

 not true, the leading principle being to free the 

 hide from all foreign substances, as grease, &c., 

 rered with snow to the | together wit'i the weakened liquor from which 

 the tannin has been absorbed, and thus leave the 



hide free to receive a fresh charge of the tanning 

 principle, which being unobstructed in its opera- 

 tion by grease or other foreign substance, is left 

 free to act immediately upon the gelatine of the 

 bi<le ; and very soon the tannin having combined 

 vvilh the hide, the weakened liquor may be again 

 made to give way to a fresh change of stronger. 

 The operation of freeing the hide from these for- 

 eign and detrimental substances, is effected by me- 

 chanical pressure, by means of rollers passing 

 overthe hides when drawn from the vats and laid 

 upon platforms adapted for the purpose. In order 

 to effect this compression conveniently the vats 

 and platform are so arranged as to enable the 

 workmen to pass them through the operation with 

 great facility and case. In order too, that the ooze 

 may act as freely as possible, the hides are sus- 

 pended in the vats, which adds likewise to the 

 convenience of pas.-ing them successfully under 

 the roller. 



While the steaming and heating process which 

 had been heretofore proposed, and in some instan- 

 ces reduced to practice, injures the leather, by 

 cooking it so as to make it harsh and unfit for 

 use, we can see nothing in the above calculated to 

 produce that effect ; and we are assured that the 

 process differs from all that can now be found in 

 the i)atent office or in practice. We learn, also, 

 that a more perfect union, appears to take place 

 between the material of the hide and the tannin, 

 than under the old method, which has been prov. 

 ed by submitting the action of chemical agents. 

 The time necessary for the perfect tanning of a 

 hide, varies from two to eight weeks, as has been 

 proved by repeated experiment ; it is then at the 

 option of the tanner to permit to lie longer or to 

 finish it immediately for sale. 



We have not attempted to detail the plan of 

 these gentlemen, or even to allude to many parts 

 of their process ; we only desire to call the atten- 

 tion of tanners and others intererested, to the fact 

 that good leather may be made by a much shorter 

 process than some have thought practicable : and 

 to impress the distinction betweea tanning by 

 steam and the mode here proposed. We know- 

 there is a mountain of prejudice against innova- 

 tion to be overcome, but whilst improvements are 

 being made in every branch of business, why 

 should this important operation remain stationary ? 

 Here is a [>lan proposed by which labor is to be 



saved time is to be saved, (and time is money, 



especially to the man of small capital) — a good 

 article is to he produced — and the experiment is 

 not expensive. It is surely worth an attentive 

 invesligation ; and the patentees say they ask no 

 more. If they cannot effect all that they propose, 

 they ask no man to adopt their system. Mr Dan- 

 iel Bell will remain in Zanesville a few days, and 

 will give full satisfaction on the subject ; and at 

 any time a letter addressed to Dr Edward S. Bell, 

 Middleway, Jefierson counly, Va. will receive 

 prompt attention. 



We are requested to say that the patentees hope 

 editors will give such notice of their ]ilan as 

 they think proper. — Zanesville Gazette. 



Ikon Roofs — The New York Star speaks in 

 terms of high admiration of a plan recently invent- 

 ed in that city for covering houses with sheei iron. 

 The editor has examined the roof of a large ware, 

 bouse constructed of iron and asserts that for du 

 rability, strength, tightness, and lightness, it is 

 greatly superior to roofs of any other material. It 



