COTTON-GIN STANDS. 
85 
of all poisons, upon its skin; a horse will take a 
pint of castor oil without danger ; rhubarb will not 
act upon him at all, though it produces its usual 
effects on a cat; and opium, which so readily stu¬ 
pefies man, will hardly operate that way on a dog. 
A dose of chlorine which killed all the foliage of 
Escallonia rubra, hardly touched a Cineraria guard¬ 
ed by its natural wool, and did not in any way 
affect the young, tender, expanded leaves of Berberis 
aquifolium, although the old leaves were destroyed ! 
in another case, when a strong dose of muriatic 
acid gas was thrown into a box containing various 
branches newly cut in the autumn from the trees, 
the following was found to be their condition 
twelve hours after the experiment:— 
Scotch fir-—little affected; larch—nearly every 
leaf killed; ash—every leaf killed; oak—youngest 
leaves only injured, old leaves not; whitethorn— 
youngest leaves killed, old, browned at the edges 
in various degrees, or not affected; sycamore—some 
leaves quite uninjured, others half killed, others 
quite; the leaves were only affected where the cor¬ 
rosive vapor had been condensed upon them in con¬ 
siderable quantity; alder—old leaves safe, younger 
leaves variously affected and curled; hazel—the 
same; elms—the same; grass—variously but not 
much affected, a good deal quite green, some quite 
brown. 
Another curious circumstance on which the de¬ 
fendants’ counsel much relied, was the presence of 
single dying trees among others that appeared un¬ 
injured. For example, a “ stag-headed 55 oak might 
be found among healthy oaks, a dead Spanish 
chestnut tree in a wood near where another escaped, 
and so on. This w T as true ; and it was argued that 
such cases completely overset the opinion that 
injury to the trees was caused by noxious matter 
brought to them through the air from a distance ; 
for, said the counsel, “ if the cause were referable to 
vapor, clumps of trees and not isolated trees would 
have been withered and destroyed.” But these 
cases admit of an easy and satisfactory explanation, 
independently of the fact that they formed a great 
exception to the rule, which was that the trees did 
die in long lines or large patches. There can be 
no doubt that individuals of the same species have 
different vital powers ; that what physiologists call 
idiosyncrasy, occurs among plants as well as ani¬ 
mals, and that one individual is susceptible of a 
dose of poison which would be disregarded by 
another. In all epidemics the weakest persons 
perish first; if vermin attack animals the unhealthy 
are first seized upon; one man is intoxicated by a 
glass of wine, another will drink his bottle; one 
lady faints when violets are presented to her, 
another wears them on her person; one man is 
killed by four grains of opium, and another habi¬ 
tually indulges in nine ounces of laudanum daily. 
Here it is evident that there are great differences in 
the vital power of the same species; for there is 
a vital power which overrules all other forces, 
whatever materialists may say to the contrary. And 
so it is with plants, which are much like animals 
in many curious respects, not the least remarkable 
of which is the w 7 ay in which they are influenced 
by poisons of whatever kind. This, then, is the 
undoubted explanation of what would at first ap¬ 
pear an inexplicable mystery. A tree is naturally 
of a weak constitution; a stream of muriatic acid gas 
plays for an hour or two on its leaves, and it falls 
a victim. Another near it, in full vigor, resists the 
action so far as not immediately to die; but it is 
injured and becomes unhealthy, and when again 
exposed to a sufficient dose is advanced another 
stage in its downward road ; and this action going 
on at various times, under various circumstances, 
will of itself produce a complicated result. 
Two of the cases were decided in court in favor 
of the plaintiff, one was compromised, and one re¬ 
ferred, in the latter of which the arbitrator awarded 
£300 for the damages committed, and directed the 
defendants to pay all the costs of the reference, so 
that the total damages were as follows :—Muspratt, 
£1000; Crossfield, £400; Gamble, £300; Kurtz, 
£300. 
COTTON-GIN STANDS. 
A few years ago, I thought of testing the rela¬ 
tive value of cotton. I took from the pile I had 
been ginning a small parcel of seed cotton ; also a 
sample from the pick room. The first I ginned on 
my spinning ginnet, wffiich has small fine teeth, and 
cards that pass with sufficient velocity to clean each 
tooth. I sent to an excellent judge, a commission 
merchant, in Vicksburg, and also to New Orleans, 
samples of each for examination. I then went to 
work, raised mj T grates so as to give fewer teeth 
access to the cotton, to make them pass it out 
parallel with the grates, I decreased my speed by 
diminishing the whirl on the brush, and increased 
the size of the drum on the saw cylinder, and put 
it to work. This was the labor of my own hands ; 
the consequence of which was, that I have sold cot¬ 
ton by the same agent at a cent a pound higher than 
others who had outsold me before. 
I will give the figures. My driver on the old 
stand is 50 inches in circumference; the whirl that 
gives motion to the brush, I cut down to eight inches, 
thus giving my brush over six revolutions to one of 
the saw. The saws had about 200 to 220 revolu¬ 
tions to the minute, and my brush had over 1200 
revolutions. 
A gin-stand should be run very steadily, and 
very regularly, with a gin-band seven or eight 
inches wide at least. Keep it well oiled with neats - 
foot oil and tallow mixed , to prevent slipping. This 
wfill be worth the subscription of your paper ten 
times told, to many young planters, for I have tried 
everything but the oiling, and never knew a man to 
do it before this winter. I have had to cut and tie, 
have had strings break two, three, and four times a 
day from tightness of band, and now r I have ginned 
out 23 bales without a single stoppage on this ac¬ 
count. Another matter—get No. 1 leather, and 
make it with copper rivets; have the gin-stand level, 
and square with your wheel; fix the band so it can¬ 
not vibrate, if possible. Have a heavy, strong 
frame to gin-stand, every portion inside thoroughly 
sand-papered as smooth as glass ; have fine teeth, 
ten to an inch, let them pass out parallel with 
grates; let the saw through the grates into the cotton 
box so as to measure one inch in the centre of the 
saw, and three-fourths of an inch above ; put bristles 
thick along the wings, into small holes, so as the 
