AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
9 
injuring the crop. Perhaps if the guano were 
plowed in during March, six weeks or so previ¬ 
ous to re-plowing and planting, the ammonia 
from it would be so well mixed with the soil as 
to prevent danger to the corn. 
- # •« - 
CIRCULAR SAWING MACHINE FOR SAWING 
LOGS. 
We have frequent inquiries about a circular 
saw-mill for cutting boards from logs. The fol¬ 
lowing information, furnished by a correspond¬ 
ent! of one of the best machines we know of, 
will doubtless be acceptable to many of our 
readers. 
“ It is a circular saw board machine, with two 
head blocks, twenty-four feet carriage and forty- 
eight inch diameter saw, will weigh about 
two tons, and costs from $450 to $550, accord¬ 
ing to its mode of construction. It requires 
steam or water to drive it, of about 12 or 15 
horse-power. This machine has a number of 
new and valuable improvements, and it is giving 
entire satisfaction for cutting lumber as there is 
but little waste. Logs can be sawn from 5 
to 24 inches diameter. With small logs they 
cut from six to eight thousand between sun 
and sun. One machine, with a good head of water, 
and a choice selection of pine logs, (just for an 
experiment to see what could be done in driving 
the machine to its utmost capacity,) sawed 1200 
feet in one hour by the watch, but this is not a 
fair average of what it will ordinarily do. 
Very small logs of course would require more 
time in getting them on and off, than larger 
ones containing an equal quantity of lumber.” 
- • a * —— - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CAN BONES BE DISSOLVED IN ASHES? 
There seems to be little danger that farmers 
will not be sufficiently urged to collect bones 
for manure, as nearly every paper that has an 
agricultural column, appears to be calling then- 
attention to the subject; but it is important, 
not only that the bones be saved, but used to 
the best advantage after they are saved. I no¬ 
tice a paragraph “going the rounds,” stating 
that bones may be dissolved by making them 
into a heap with fresh ashes, moderately wet, 
and allowing them to remain a month or two. 
Now I have not tried this, but am very much 
inclined to doubt the efficacy of wet ashes as a 
solvent for bones, even though they remained 
in it a much longer time than a month or two. 
Will you be so good as to favor your readers 
with your opinion, whether this is one of the 
many worthless recipes that float through the 
newspapers, without any pains being taken to 
ascertain their origin or value, or whether it is 
reliable? If reliable, bones might be dissolved 
by this process much cheaper and easier than 
by the use of sulphuric acid. H. S. V. 
We cannot now put our hands upon the para¬ 
graph alluded to. There are so many recipes 
for this and that, “going the rounds,” which are 
entirely worthless, that we despair of correcting 
them, and generally let them pass unnoticed. 
It is really amusing to see many persons writing 
on chemistry, who have not the least practical 
knowledge of this science. We think there 
would be a hundred times less written on the 
chemistry of farming, if many of the editors of 
agricultural papers knew a hundred times more 
about it than they now do. 
Bones are composed of two distinct parts, a 
fleshy (organic) and an earthy (inorganic.) 
Burn a bone, and you destroy its organic (fleshy) 
part, and leave a white mass—chiefly phosphate 
of lime—which retains nearly the form of the 
original bone. Caustic alkalies (caustic means 
burning) will in like manner destroy the or¬ 
ganic part, and at the same time render the 
earthy part a little more brittle than burning, if 
the alkali is strong. But it is out of the ques¬ 
tion that a mass of moist ashes, containing at 
most but a small per centage of alkali, (potash,) 
should dissolve the whole bone. A correspond¬ 
ent writes us, this week, that he reduced bones 
to a powder , by boiling them in strong ley for 
four hours. We think he must have kept them 
stirring during most of the time, or they would 
not have become powdered. 
We know of no dissolving process equal to 
using sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) where this can 
be obtained easily and cheaply, for most soils that 
need bone earth, seem to be benefited by the 
acid. To dissolve unground bones well, several 
months time is often' needed. If they are 
ground, a few days at most is required. If they 
are first boiled in strong ley, so as to destroy 
the animal matter, the solution will be quite 
rapid. Where the acid cannot be obtained, it 
might be well to boil the bones in ley, or in 
water containing a large amount of ashes, for, 
in this way, the animal matter would be re¬ 
tained in a soapy form instead of being burned 
away, and the bones being made brittle, they 
could easily be crushed, and the whole mass be 
thus spread upon the land, after being mixed 
with muck, peat, &c. 
-• * *-- 
HEAVY SPADE vs. LIGHT FORK. 
Dickens, in Household Words, gives an ac¬ 
count of a trial of the comparative merit of these 
two implements at an agricultural gathering at 
Tiptree, the seat and farm of Mr. Mechi. The 
spade used was the ordinary farm spade, while 
the fork was two pounds lighter than the ordi¬ 
nary agricultural fork. It was ascertained that 
the fork would dig up easily hard strong ground 
that the spade could not efficiently do. The 
prongs of the light fork yield place to the stones 
and bend round them, loosening the soil and 
springing instantly when withdrawn into their 
original form. 
A trial was .also had between the light fork 
and the ordinary rigid and broad-bladed fork. 
“ The man with the light fork earned four shil¬ 
lings while the other was earning two shillings 
and three pence, and the heavy fork after the 
match, required an outlay of sixpence for re¬ 
pairs. The savings in repairs and renovation, 
pay for the light fork several times in the course 
of the year, and in the labor the saving is so 
great that the man using this fork is said to lift— 
by the saving of two pounds in each effort — five 
tons less in tlie course of a day's work than his 
old-fashioned neighbor. It was ascertained by 
repeated trial that laborers with the light fork 
were able to perform their work more thorough¬ 
ly with a saving of twenty per cent, of labor. 
These forks were composed of five narrow 
prongs of cast-steel, completed in one solid joint 
without joint or weld.” 
We believe Mr. Henry Partridge, formerly 
of Sherburne, now of Medfield, Mass., was 
the first person who made the clastic hay and 
manure or spade fork, from a single piece of 
cast-steel; and that the English and other na¬ 
tions are the copyists of his invention. 
Mr. P. first made the elastic cast-steel hay 
fork, “completed in one solid joint without 
joint or weld,” in 1813. One of these was then 
purchased by a neighboring farmer, who used 
it every season till his death in 1851— thirty- 
eight years ! It was still a good fork, and was 
then sold at auction with the otherjjimplemcnts 
belonging to the estate. 
In the year 1815, Mr P. commenced the man¬ 
ufacture of the elastic steel manure and spade 
fork, of four to eight tines, from one solid piece 
of cast steel as above, and these he continues to 
manufacture to the present day. His son, Mr. 
Henry Partridge, Junr., is also engaged in 
their manufacture, and has become quite as em¬ 
inent in the business as his excellent father. 
Forks for handling tan and oysters are made 
the same as the above with ten to fourteen tines. 
Mr. Partridge has greatly improved the 
small trip hammer and its movements; and has 
exercised his ingenuity in improving many other 
things connected with his manufacturing busi¬ 
ness. 
In the above trial spoken of in Dickens' 
Household Words , it seems the cast-steel fork 
did the same labor, at an expense of Jive tons 
less lifting in a single day. What a boon this 
is to the laboring man ; and for this he may 
thank the mechanical ingenuity of our worth)' 
countryman, Mr. Henry Partridge. 
A NEW DESCRIPTIVE HEN’S-NEST. 
Under this head, our venerable friend, the 
Knickerbocker , says in its March number that, 
he finds the following in a Southern journal: 
This is one of the most ingenious contrivances 
of the age, and is the invention of a downeast 
Yankee. The design is to deceive poultry into 
the speedy and liberal laying of eggs, which is 
accomplished by the peculiar construction of the 
machine. At the bottom of the nest there is a 
trap-door, which works on a hinge, being sup¬ 
ported by a spring. The moment an egg is placed 
on this, the trap opens and lets it fall through 
into a cushioned apartment prepared for its re¬ 
ception. The consequence is, that the bird, just 
as she is preparing to cackle, glances at the 
nest, and seeing nothing, actually reasons her¬ 
self into the belief that she has not laid at all, 
and resumes her position on the nest, in hopes 
of making a more successful effort. On the first 
trial of this curious contrivance before the Com¬ 
missioner of Patents, to test its virtues, a singu¬ 
lar result was effected. A large imported Rus¬ 
sian hen was “ located” on the nest, and left to 
her meditations. On account of pressing busi¬ 
ness, the hen was forgotten until the next day, 
when, to the utter astonishment of the commis¬ 
sioner, a half-bushel of eggs was found in the 
cushioned chamber below. 
The Knickerbocker then goes on to intimate 
that the above Southern paper has been infring¬ 
ing on his own patent, long before obtained for 
the “ Self-Acting Hen-Persuader." We should 
be glad if our fun-loving neighbor would give us 
the exact date of the caveat for the said patent, 
for we too have a “claim” of an invention to 
register; but whether it is as great an antique 
as that of our venerable contemporary, we shall 
leave him to determine. Suffice it to say, that 
upwards of six years ago, in the seventh volume 
of our journal, a grave contributor of ours, in 
bis veritable history of “ Yankee Farming,” thus 
causes one of his heroines to speak : 
“Du tell, Sargeant, now,” interrupted the im¬ 
patient Mrs. Doolittle, “have you beam any 
thing about that ’ere patent ben’s neest, way 
down to Tnventionville, that keeps the bens 
layin’ all the time? We haven’t bad a egg all 
winter, and I am dreadful fearful we shan’t get 
one for settin’in the spring. Mr. Doolittle says 
he don’t believe a word on’t; but I do, every 
bit; fori see it in the almanac; and the way 
was, as soon as the hen bad laid the egg, it 
rolled down through a little trap-door into a 
