140 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



you can break so much more land in the same 

 time than can be done in the old way, that is, 

 with the common coulter; for if the jumping 

 coulter comes in contact with any thing that 

 cannot be cut in two (even if it is a stump) it 

 will immediately hop over, and strike into the 

 ground on the other side. Instead of hanging 

 in a root or stump, and whooping and hallooing 

 to back the horses and extricate the coulter, with 

 this fixture, your plough is continually going 

 on, doing the best work I ever saw done in new 

 ground. 



Your obedient servant, 



R. C. Dickinson. 

 Spring Grove, Todd Co., Ky , April 19, 1843. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUPPORTERS, 

 no. U. 



Water. — Water is one of the great vegetable 

 and animal supporters ; it exists in three distinct 

 forms — solid, fluid and vapor or gas; if a small 

 degree of heat enters water in a solid state it 

 becomes liquid ; if a still greater, it is changed 

 to a state of vapor. Water is a compound, and 

 not a simple elementary substance ; containing 

 oxygen and hydrogen in the proportions of eigh- 

 ty-five parts of the former, to fifteen of the latter. 

 It congeals at 32° of Farenheit's scale, boils 

 and becomes vapor at 212°, and evaporates at 

 every point of the thermometer without being 

 decomposed: a vety high or very low tempera- 

 ture promotes combustion, hastens its decompo- 

 sition, and if confined, it becomes ignited. The 

 atmosphere sustains water 34 feet, viz : a co- 

 lumn of water of a given diameter is equal in 

 weight, to a column of air of the same diame- 

 ter, extending to the height of the atmosphere : 

 so that we can by removing atmospheric pres- 

 sure from fountains, raise water 34 feet ; beyond 

 it, forcing pumps are necessary. W T ater is con- 

 veyed over valleys, under ground, and may be 

 carried over mountains whose height does not 

 exceed 34 feet above the fountain ; provided a 

 syphon be first filled with water to exclude air. 

 Springs are supplied from elevated fountains — 

 they are continued, reciprocating, intermitting, 

 or remitting, depending on the supply of the 

 fountain : there are also, natural and artificial 

 jets of water ; daily, weekly and monthly springs, 

 and occasionally rivers. Such springs have sy- 

 phons under ground, communicating with the 

 bottom of the reservoir above, and as the angle 

 of the syphon reaches the height of the fountain, 

 water cannot flow until it passes the angle ; then 

 it descends through the longest arm of the ca- 

 nal, and falling below the bend of the syphon, 

 causes the stream to weep, stop and run alter- 

 nately, according as more or less time may be 

 required to fill the fountain. The atmosphere 



is loaded with water in a state of vapor, and if 

 suddenly condensed would deluge the earth: 

 when raised by heat, it is condensed and returns 

 again to the earth, variously modified into dew, 

 mist, rain, hail and snow. The particles of wa- 

 ter, have a strong affinity for each other ; clouds 

 passing over arid countries, seek a humid at- 

 mosphere and find their way to water courses ; 

 blending and uniting with moist clouds from the 

 ocean. Many tribes of plants, are nourished and 

 supported by air and water alone ; our seas are 

 frequently covered with weeds and mosses in 

 such large masses as to obstruct the progress of 

 ships. 



Water is contained in all bodies, in a greater 

 or less quantity, and is either in a state of sim- 

 ple mixture, or in a state of combination. In 

 the first, it renders bodies humid, is seen by the 

 eye and maybe disengaged with facility: in 

 the second, it exhibits no character showing it 

 to be in a state of mixture. It exists in this 

 form in the wonderful variety of salts, crystals, 

 plants and animals ; imparting to them trans- 

 parency, strength and firmness. Crystal ized 

 quartz, gems and diamonds, lose all transparen- 

 cy when deprived of their water of crystaliza- 

 tion. Many bodies are indebted to this fluid for 

 their fixity, the acids, for example, acquire fixity 

 by combining with water. This element is the 

 grand solvent, and the grand ceirent of nature ; 

 without it the vegetable and animal kingdoms 

 become skeletons, the mineral world loses its 

 force of cohesion and tumbles into dust; the 

 great globe itself a pulverulent mass, and if at- 

 traction be removed it will cease to exist ! Wa- 

 ter facilitates the coagulation, re-union and con- 

 sistence of the particles of matter, and when 

 disengaged from its combinations and in a state 

 of liberty, is one of the most powerful agents 

 on earth. It bears a part in the formation and 

 decomposition of all bodies in the mineral world — 

 is the life of vegetation, aye, and the death too — 

 animals are dependant on water for the free ex- 

 ercise of all their functions, and it hastens and 

 facilitates decomposition as soon as they are de- 

 prived of the principle of life. This fluid has 

 never been compressed, but is very obedient to 

 the action of heat, by which it expands and fills 

 immensity. Its pressure upwards, downwards 

 and laterally, is the same at any given depth ; 

 the upper particle in any column presses upon 

 the next particle with its whole weight, and is 

 equally pressed upwards by the re-action of the 

 second: the pressure upon the bottom of a ves- 

 sel, is equal to the product of the area, multiplied 

 into the perpendicular altitude of the longest 

 column ; and in two vessels of equal bottoms, 

 the pressure will be proportionable to the per- 

 pendicular altitude. To find the pressure on a 

 mill-dam, multiply the area of the dam in square 

 feet, by half the depth and that product by 62 

 pounds, the weight of a cubic foot of water. 



