1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



15 



variety being the beautiful smooth headed white 

 wheat, obtained in this country a few years ago, 

 from Mr. Johnson, of North Carolina. 



Two bushels wei'e drilled on one acre, and the 

 remaining twenty-eight bushels were drilled at 

 the rate of one bushel and sixty-one hundredths 

 of a bushel per acre, at which rates the thirty 

 bushels extended over eighteen acres and four- 

 tenths of an acre. 



The growth was enormous, being so dense that 

 two persons, eight or ten feet apart in it, were in- 

 visible to each other, and the tallest specimens 

 were six feet four inches in height, but it was 

 generally about five feet six inches in height. 



A few days ago, I carefully measured the whole 

 of the ground drilled with the said thirty bushels. 

 [The land and produce were divided with the in- 

 tention of applying for a premium.] 



Tij.e following is a statement of the yield : 



The 18 4-10 Acres Yielded, 

 Bushels. Bushels of 60 lbs. 



30fl prime wheat weighing 63 lbs 315.00 



493 prime prepared for seed, weighing 63j Iba 523.67 



795 prime wheat weighine; 838.87 



24 ralied wheat weighing 62 lbs 24.8') 



64 screenings and headings weighing 56 lbs 59.73 



883 923.40 



883 divided by 18 4-10 gives 48 bushels (meas- 

 ured) per acre. 923.40 divided by 18 4-10 gives 

 50 18-100 bushels of 60 lbs. per acre. 



The 9 1-10 Acres Yielded, 



495 prepared, used for seed, weighing 63| lbs 528.87 



7 prime, weighing 63 lbs 7.35 



502 prime, weighing 631 22 



12 raked wheat, weighing 62 lbs 12.40 



46 i screenings and headings, weighing 56 lbs 43.4 J 



5601 587.02 



560^ divided by 9 1-10 gives 61 6-10 bushels 

 (measure) per acre. 587.02 divided by 9 1-10 

 gives 64^ bushels of 60 lbs. per acre. 



A MAWS BODY A LIVING STOVE. 



The Eclectic Review, treating of the caloric or 

 heat in a human body, compares our body to a 

 "living stove — walking fire-places — furnaces in 

 the flesh," if those terms can be applied to any 

 apparatus for the express production of human 

 caloric. After stating the fact of the latent heat 

 of the human frame, the writer says : Suppose 

 it to bo the month of January, when winter is pre- 

 sumed to be reigning in full vigor, and every in- 

 animate object appears to have been drained of 

 its caloric ; still the human structure Avill exhibit 

 a surplus of sixty degrees above the freezing 

 point. Why is this ? How does it happen that 

 while a bronze statue fluctuates in its temperature 

 with every passing breeze, the living organism 

 maintains its standard heat unimpaired, and pre- 

 serves its tropical climate within, although the air 

 should be full of frost and the ground enveloped 

 in snow ? It is manifest that we must have some 

 power of "brewing" caloric for ourselves. As- 

 suming that our bodies are veritable stoves, the 

 reviewer proceeds to explain where we procure 

 our fuel. Fortunately our coal and fire-wood, he 

 adds, are stored up in a very interesting form. 

 They are laid before us in the shape of bread and 

 butter, pudding and pies, rashers of bacon for the 

 laborer, and haunches of venison or turtle soup 



for the epicures. Instead of being brought up in 

 scuttles, they are presented in tureens, dishes, or 

 tumblers, or all of them in pleasing succession. 



Speaking seriously, and looking at the question 

 from a mere human point of view, could any pro- 

 ject appear more hopeless than one for burning 

 fuel in a soft, delicate fabric like the human body 

 — a fabric composed, for the most part of mere 

 fluids — a fabric that might be easily scorched by 

 excess of heat, or damaged by excess of cold ? 

 Does it not appear like a touch of quixotism in 

 nature to design a stove with flesh for its walls, 

 veins for its flues, skin for its covering ? Yet here, 

 we have seen, is an apparatus which, as if by 

 magic, produces a steady stream of heat — not 

 trickling penuriously from the fountains, but flowj 

 ing on day and night, winter and summer, with- 

 out a moment's cessation, from January to De- 

 cember. 



Carry this splendid machine to the coldest re- 

 gions of the globe — set it up in a scene where the 

 frosts are so crushing that nature seems to be 

 trampled dead — it still pours on its mysterious 

 supplies with unabated profusion. It is an appa- 

 ratus, too, which does its work unwatched, and, 

 in a great measure, unaided. The very fuel which 

 is thrown into it in random heaps is internally 

 sifted and sorted, so that the true combustible 

 elements are conveyed to their place, and applied 

 to their duty with unerring precision. No hand 

 is needed to trim its fires, to temper its glow, to 

 remove its ashes. Smoke there is none, spark 

 there is none, flame there is none. The pulmona- 

 ry chimney is never clogged with human grime. 

 All is so delicately managed, that the fairest skin 

 is neither shrivelled nor blackened by the burn- 

 ings within. Is this apparatus placed in circum- 

 stances which rob it too fast of its caloric ? Then 

 the appetite becomes clamorous for food, and in 

 satisfying its demands the fleshy stove is silently 

 replenished. Or, are we placed in peril from su- 

 perabundant warmth ? Then the tiny flood-gates 

 of perspiration are flung open, and the surface is 

 laid under water until the fires within are reduced 

 to their wonted level. Assailed on one hand by 

 heat, the body resists the attempt, if resistance be 

 possible, until the store of moisture is dissipated ; 

 assailed on the other by cold, it keeps the enemy 

 at bay until the hoarded stock of fuel is expend- 

 ed. Thus protected, thus provisioned, let us ask 

 whether these human hearths are entitled to rank 

 among the standing marvels of creation ? for is 

 it not startling to find that, let the climate be mild 

 or rigorous, let the wind blow from the sultry 

 desert or come loaded with polar sleet, let the 

 fluctuations of temperature be as violent as they 

 may without us, there shall be still a calm, un- 

 changing, undying summer within us ? 



A Word for Blacksmiths. — Dr. Dadd, in 

 closing an article in the American Stock Journal, 

 on Shoeing Horses, says : "It is my firm belief 

 that blacksmiths are often, very often, blamed 

 without any rational excuse for censure." And 

 even in regard to bad shoeing he remarks : "It 

 is my opinion that many smiths do not obtain a 

 fair compensation for their services in the prose- 

 cution of their laborious and dangerous vocation." 



