THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



261 



in the earth to replenish the plant ; but if your 

 loose soil be deep enough, no matter how much 

 or how long it rains it will have scarcely ceased 

 nnlil the roots are relieved. Pour a bucket of 

 water upon a sponge, and you have but just 

 quit pouring until the upper surface is compara- 

 lively dry; so it is with the spongy earth, the 

 water's own weight takes it immediately below 

 the place where harm is done, not to be lost, but 

 to remain there as a reservoir, to replenish the 

 thirsty plant through that season when drought 

 so often does its destructive work. In our lime- 

 stone land, a rain may fill the six inches of ve- 



getable soil, and when full, so hard and imper- 

 vious is the subsoil, that the residue runs into 

 the hollows, and its place of escape among the 

 sink-holes and crevices of the rocks : the heat 

 of a week's sun dries this up, and the wheat re- 

 quires more rain, and it suffers. But if you 

 have twelve inches of water in your reservoir 

 below, there it remains to answer the drafts of a 

 six or eight weeks sun, with that regularity of 

 moisture which the plant requires, and which 

 brings you through all the contingencies of heat 

 and cold, wet and dry. W. 

 Carlisle, Aug. 4, 1844. 



A RASP. 



The cut above represents a rasp much used 

 in the sugar making districts of France for 

 crushing the beet. It appears to us that it 

 might be advantageously used for cutting up 

 roots for stock or for grinding apples for cider. 

 It may be put in motion by either steam, water, 

 horse or hand power, and if propelled at the rate 

 of eight hundred revolutions, makes sixty-four 

 thousand cuts a minute. It is cheap and simple 

 in its construction, and can be readily understood 

 by means of the following references : 



No. I is the rasp containing eighty saws, half 



an inch apart. These may be made of sheet 

 iron. 



No. 2 is the plunger, by which the articles 

 are forced down to the saws and kept there while 

 crushing. 



No. 3, the box to contain the articles to be 

 crushed. 



No. 4, the opening in the receiving box by 

 which the articles when crushed are taken out 

 by a wooden shovel. 



No. 5, the frame or table. 



No. G, the strap by which it is propelled. 



