AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
149 
which the breeding animals, of the races cul¬ 
tivated for the secretion of fat, were exhibi¬ 
ted at the meetings of the Royal Agricultur¬ 
al Society, but in the end without avail, for 
while it was admitted that such a condition 
injured the various animals themselves, and 
tended to render them permanently sterile, 
yet it was alleged that if they were in low or 
only tolerable order, persons could only 
vaguely conjecture, and not at all know, the 
degree of their aptitude to secrete fat evenly 
and deposite it on the most valuable parts. 
* * * * * * 
I remain, my dear father, ever yours, 
FRANCIS R. RIVES. 
A STEAM IAND-RASPER. 
- ♦- 
The idea of a steam-rasp for grating down 
the soil into a fine seed-bed, first enunciated 
by Mr. Hoskyns in these columns, has been 
adopted by numerous inventors, so that 
something of the sort may be expected at 
Carlisle. Wishing to prepare the agricul¬ 
tural public for the novelties likely to com¬ 
pete for the j£200 prize, we would direct at¬ 
tention to the practical objections weighing 
against some of them. 
The theory of the operation of minute and 
deep pulverization we leave for future con¬ 
sideration; merely observing that it may be 
useful for preparing ground for certain kinds 
of cropping, and at some distant time, when 
the action of the atmosphere upon fine par¬ 
ticles of earth is better understood than at 
present, may be proved profitable and effect¬ 
ual as a means of fertilization. But as yet 
the crops raised from our land seem unable 
to repay any very costly operation ; and it 
may, therefore, lead to future success if 
steam power shall first perform like present 
processes. And we believe that Mr. Hos¬ 
kyns himself—taking into account the ne¬ 
cessity for an exposure of the soil in rough 
clods at some seasons, the spontaneous 
crumbling of such clods which occurs at 
others, together with the frequent cleansings 
from root-weeds which must be provided for 
—is prepared to welcome any modification 
of the rotary rasp capable of tilling heavy- 
land more efficiently than the plow. 
What is the general expectation with re¬ 
gard to a successful steam-cultivator ? Why, 
that it will effect the ordinary tillage of our 
fields—in an improved manner it may be— 
with greater cheapness and expedition than 
at present. The earliest idea awakened by 
the advent of a steam-plow was the extrava¬ 
gant supposition that land would be now 
prepared in hours instead of days; and we 
still consider that no invention will answer 
which does not include economy of time 
among its advantages. Can a farmer be ex¬ 
pected to sell off the most of his teams for 
the sake of substituting an engine, unless' the 
latter will facilitate the breaking up of his 
turnip land or stubble for spring corn, pro¬ 
ceed with unprecedented dispatch, in autumn 
cleaning, and prepare a seed-bed for wheat 
or any other crop in double quick time ? No 
data exists by which we can foretell the 
amount of work due from a steam-rasp; but 
the very nature of the process of grating or 
scratching necessitates either an enormous 
expenditure of power, or a tediously slow 
rate of performance. One of the most care¬ 
fully studied inventions of this kind is calcu¬ 
lated (according to the specification) to till 
with a powerful engine, about 200 square 
yards per hour, or only one acre a day. Mr. 
Mechi, after constructing and testing one of 
these mincing or powdering machines, has 
concluded that the process is altogether im¬ 
practicable ; and that the soil must be dealt 
with in masses larger than mere dust, and 
must be cut and raised by a slow, steady 
motion. 
A steam digging machine has been in¬ 
vented in Germany; the power required for 
all its motions has been ascertained from ex¬ 
periments, and every detail corrected by cal¬ 
culation; and the patentee estimates that 
the strongest engine which can be employed 
in spite of its weight will dig to the depth of 
one foot not more than li acre per day on 
the average quantity of cultivated land. Mr. 
Usher’s steam plow in 1852, according to 
Professor Wilson, broke no less than seven 
acres per day, the costof working being only 
2s. 6d. an acre ; and though the style and 
depth of its work may have been far infe¬ 
rior to that made by the German engine,this 
rapid rate of labor is far more likely to get 
the farmer’s patronage. Our advice to in¬ 
ventors is: however ingeniously you may pul¬ 
verize, dig, or plow ; however perfectly you 
may accomplish any of the heavier labors of 
tillage ; you must work econoihiically , and 
promise a saving to the husbandman, before 
you can reap success.—I. A. C., in Agricul¬ 
tural Gazette. 
NITRO-PHOSPHATE. 
We lately saw the works at Belleisle, near 
King’s Cross, where the Nitro-phosphate, or 
Blood Manure Company, at present manu¬ 
facture their fertilizer until their works in 
Plaistow Marshes are completed. And as 
blood is used now by several companies ad¬ 
vertising in our columns, such as the London 
Manure Company, the Manchester Sewage 
Manure Company, and the Cyanic Manure 
Company, we may refer to the operation of 
the last as characteristic, if not of the pro¬ 
cess employed by all, at least of the value 
now set upon a substance most of which 
used generally to be wasted. 
The manner in which it is used at Belleisle 
is as follows : Bone-dust and crushed cop- 
rolites are placed in a long tub, along the 
central axis of which is the shaft of a revolv¬ 
ing agitator—so many casks full of blood 
are poured in over the bones and well mixed 
by the arms upon the working shaft. Sul¬ 
phuric acid is added to the mixture, which 
boils and effervesces under the action of the 
vitriol on the bones and blood, and after thor¬ 
ough commixture for about ten minutes the 
liquid mass is allowed to escape through the 
opened end of the vessel, and it runs in a 
heap upon the earthen floor, where, as it 
cools, it hardens and dries. Some 10 or 18 
large vessels full of this mixture tire thus 
poured out in the course of the day, forming 
at the end of it a large mass of probably lO 
or 50 tons of manure. It soon hardens,and 
in a day or two is turned over with the spade 
and broken small, and is found already dry 
enough for drilling. This is the turnip ma¬ 
nure of the Nitro-phosphate Company. In 
their wheat manure the same materials are 
used in different proportions, and a larger 
quantity of blood being used, artificial heat 
is needed to dry the resulting compound. 
The turnip manure contains about 2 or3 per 
cent of nitrogen along with 10 per cent of 
soluble phosphate of lime; the wheat ma¬ 
nure contains about 7 per cent of nitrogen 
and the phosphate is reduced to 10 per cent. 
The proportion of ingredients needed to pro¬ 
duce these results we have, of course, no 
right to publish, as it is on the determination 
of these that the relative merits of the plans 
adopted by the different companies depend. 
Several thousand gallons of blood are daily 
the using now at Belleisle, and at the works of 
other companies which use it in very large 
quantities are being also turned to agricul¬ 
tural uses; so that this maybe considered 
one of the most prolific of the home sources 
from which the enormous demand for ma¬ 
nure is now supplied. 
How rapid the growth of this demand has 
been appears in the history of the London 
Manure Company, which sells about 10,000 
tuns annually of manures of all sorts, and 
which, from three tuns of guano in the first 
year of its formation (sold at £2G per tun), 
has risen in its transactions to the quantity 
of 3000 tuns, sold last year. 
The great room for extension of the ma¬ 
nure trade appears also in the number of 
companies which have latterly engaged in 
it. To some of these companies we have 
referred in past numbers of this paper. The 
substance manufactured by one of them_ 
the British Economical Manure Company— 
was fully described in last year’s volume 
from analyses by some of our best chemists, 
and readers of this paper were warned both 
from the recorded experience of those who 
had used, and from the recorded opinions of 
our best writers on the food of plants, that 
the substance was neither worth the sum de¬ 
manded for it, nor calculated to do the good 
which it pretended. We regret to find that 
a repetition of this warning is required, and 
that the sale of a substance little calculated 
to be useful is being pushed in Scotland as 
well as England, in spite of the abundant 
evidence which exists of its low agricultural 
value.— Agricultural Gazette. 
Whooping-cough, so often severe and dan¬ 
gerous, is now very generally treated with 
chloroform internally, in doses of 1, 2, or 3 
drops, in the 1st, 2d, and 3d year of child¬ 
hood, and repeated when the paroxysms de¬ 
mand it. It may be conveniently given in 
the syrup or wine of ipecacuanha, and will 
be found always innocent and eminently 
useful.— Medical Gazette. 
Strangulated Hernia, which but a few 
years ago was incontinently doomed to the 
knife by most surgeons, is now very gene¬ 
rally relieved by the application of cold to 
the tumor, in various forms. We have re¬ 
cently seen two successful cases, by pouring 
ether on the parts concerned, and hastening 
its evaporation with a pair of bellows. This 
will be found everyway preferable to any of 
the frigorific mixtures in vogue.— lb. 
Dyspepsia. —Lactic acid, in doses of 20 
drops, to be taken in half an ounce of water, 
is reported to be highly useful in those forms 
of dyspepsia which resist alkalies. It de¬ 
serves trial.— lb. 
Camphor is said to have proved itself effi¬ 
cient as an intidote to the poison of strych¬ 
nine. It is to be administered largely, by 
the mouth and by injection.— lb. 
Tea at Half Price.— Laysel, a French 
chemist, asserts that if tea is ground like 
coffee, before hot water is poured upon it, it 
will yield nearly double the amount of its 
exhilarating qualities. 
The World a Tribunal. —A man passes 
for what he is worth. Very idle is all curi¬ 
osity concerning other people’s estimate of 
us, and all fear of remaining unknown is not 
less so. If a man knows that he can do 
anything, that he can do it better than any 
one else, he has a pledge of the acknowledg¬ 
ment of that fact by all persons. The world 
is full of judgement days, and into every as¬ 
sembly that a man enters, in every action he 
attempts, he is guaged and stamped. In 
every troop ofboys that whoop and run in 
every yard and square, a new comer is as 
well and accurately weighed in the course 
of a few days, and stamped with his right 
number, as if he had undergone a formal 
trial of his strength, speed and temper. A 
stranger comes from a distant school, with 
better dress, with trinkets in his pockets, 
with airs and pretensions. An older boy 
says to himself. “ It’s no use ; we shall find 
him out to-morrow.” 
