1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



551 



4th. "The dots pointed out by you, on the 

 specimen potato sent, are not perforations caused 

 by the puncture of insects, but belong to the 

 structure of the tuber." 



5th. "That eggs do not exist whei-e you assert 

 them to be." 



Gth. "That a method of cure operating upon a 

 non-existing disease must be a fallacy." 



It is unnecessary to give here particulars of 

 this long examination at the Patent Office. It 

 must be, however, understood l)y the reader, that, 

 according to the rules of the Office, no patent can 

 be granted unless all the various objections cited 

 by the Commissioner are refuted, either by es- 

 tablished authority, or ocular demonstrations 

 convincing to the Commissioner of Patents. It 

 is sufficient in this case for Mr. Goldsbury to 

 know, that, a careful and rigid investigation was 

 made by Commissioner Holt, aided by the ablest 

 scientific examiners in Washington ; by the Judges 

 of Appeals and their own selected witnesses, all 

 with a view to refute authorities and facts, which 

 I placed before them at the several examinations. 

 Their attempt failed. They could not sustain 

 even a single one of their own objections. All 

 were refuted ; and the Commissioner acknowledged 

 to rao personally, at the last examination, that 

 "the proof was clear in my favor, that the Judges 

 of Appeals did not sustain the objections of the 

 Office, therefore, my patent was granted." Can 

 Mr. Goldsbury, by "logic," annul this high official 

 decision ? Can he make you and your readers be- 

 lieve that seventeen members of Congress, the 

 Smithsonian Institute, the Commissioner of Pa- 

 tents and his scientific examiners, the Judges of 

 Appeals, with their witnesses, and Secretary Flint, 

 have all been "deceived" by me, and by "fore- 

 stalled assertion" all "jumped at a conclusion ?" 

 Does he really believe in such a wholesale "decep- 

 tion," and that I have not refuted the arguments 

 of these high functionaries selected to examine 

 a\\ new discoveries'^ I ask him to furnish his 

 proof about "deception ?" There is abundant au- 

 thority and facts to settle conclusively that some 

 insects leave a poison at the fountain of their 

 nourishment. This particular subject it is un- 

 necessary here to discuss. The discovery which 

 I have made is new to Mr. Goldsbui-y, as also to 

 others. It is truly as he says, a "new and strange 

 economy of vegetable and insect life" v/hich I 

 have microscopically discovered. These new and 

 strange facts are the "ocular demonstrations," 

 •which Mr. Goldsbury will not believe. He is 

 skeptical, and denies the attestations of the com- 

 mittee of the U. S. House of Representatives, 

 "that new and important discoveries have been 

 made by me." He says if I would not talk so 

 much about "ocular demonstrations, and direct 

 my attention to the cause of the rot," I should 

 be "sure of his respect and make some converts." 



I can assure Mr. Goldsbury that I have been 

 "directing my attention" each summer for nine 

 years to the investigation of the cause of the po- 

 tato blight and rot. By microscopic research I 

 have revealed, from spots, all opaque to him, "oc- 

 ular demonstrations" which his "logic" cannot 

 refute. It is the "ocular" yac^s, I presume, which 

 annoy him so much. They are more reliable than 

 any man's "logic." And what the public want is 

 facts. They have had enough of theories and 

 "logic" on this subject. Mr. Goldsbury has 



declared that there are "seventeen Yankee farm- 

 ers" whose judgment is more reliable than the 

 "seventeen members of Congress." 



I have heretofore asked him to furnish the 

 names and publish their investigations of this sub- 

 ject ? This he fails to do. I have also asked him 

 to give the authority and evidence, "that insects 

 are the consequence of disease ?" This he also 

 fails to do. The insects in Mr. Flint's bottle and 

 on other specimens, were not the "consequence" 

 of disease, of "decay," or of "rot !" Now, I ask 

 Mr. Goldsbury where th^s insects came from, 

 which Secretary Flint saw on that nndecaycd 

 potato taken from the corked bottle in his pos- 

 session ? Lyman Reed. 



Baltimore, Oct. 15, 1860. 



PROFESSOB HOBSFORD'S MODE OF 

 PRESERVING CIDER. 



At this season of the year, when so many peo- 

 ple are making or laying away cider for future 

 use, they will be looking for some mode of pre- 

 serving it in a sweet or mild form. So here is Prof. 

 Horsford's, which has been tried and found ef- 

 fective : 



When the cider in the barrel is undergoing a 

 lively fermentation, add as much white sugar as 

 vtill be equal to half or three-quarters of a pound 

 to each gallon of cider, and let the fermentation 

 proceed until the liquid attains the right taste to 

 suit ; then add an eighth to a quarter of an ounce 

 of sulphite (not sulphate) of lime to each gallon 

 of cider in the cask ; first mixing the powder in 

 about a quart of the cider, and then pouring it 

 back into the cask, and giving it a thorough shak- 

 ing or rolling. After standing bunged up a few 

 days, for the matter added to become incorporated 

 with the cider, it may be bottled or used from the 

 cask. 



Don't mistake sulphate of lime, which is a nat- 

 ural production, and known as plaster of Paris, 

 for sulphite of lime, which is a manufactured ar- 

 ticle, and is worth by the barrel about 33 cents a 

 pound and by the cwt. 37i| cents, and by the single 

 pound, 50 cents. It has been of late years much 

 used by sugar-makers to prevent fermentation of 

 cane juice ; and in our opinion it Avill be found 

 more effective as a preventive of fermentation 

 in cider than an arrester of it after it has pro- 

 ceeded nearly to completion. 



Fences in Ohio. — Acres of enclosed land in 

 Ohio, 18.000,000 ; one mile of fence to each 40 

 acres, 450,000 miles ; cost 80 cents per rod, or 

 $256 per mile, is $115,200,000; yearly expenses 

 equal to renewal every fifteen years, $7,680,000. 



Suppose our farmers should adopt the soiling 

 system more generally, the saving in expense of 

 fences would enable them to perform tlie good- 

 natured act of paying the interest on the national 

 debt of Great Britain, by merely leaving out their 

 division fences. Ohio is not alone in this matter ; 

 it is one of the silly heirlooms entailed upon us 

 by our forefathers, who required some easy mode 

 of getting rid of excess wood ; we keep up the 

 fas!;ion v/ithout the slightest excuse for so doing. 

 — Worldng Farmer. 



