54 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
which air can enter. Eggs have been found 
sweet after being kept in this manner over 
three years. Wood sunk several feet be¬ 
neath the surface of the peat bog is preserved 
from decay, the oxygen absorbed by the or¬ 
ganic matter above it not being able to reach 
it. __ 
CHAIN PUMPS. 
These are very convenient for use in wells 
of moderate depth. In those of great depth 
too much time is required for starting the 
water, and the weight to be raised before the 
delivery of any at the spout, makes them too 
hard for boys and females. In the absence 
of a force-pump water may even be raised 
with the chain-pump from a greater depth 
than with a common “ suction-pump,” which 
can only be used for less than 32, or at most 
33 feet—that is, theoretically ; practically 
they do not work durably at a greater depth 
than 15 to 20 feet. 
The chain pump has been used in wells 
50 to 60 feet deep, but rapid motion of the 
chain and a strong arm is required, and we 
should seldom recommend them for more 
than forty feet. 
There are also wells occasionally found con¬ 
taining considerable quantities of sulphuric 
or other acids, which corrode the chain. In 
such wells this kind of pump is impracti¬ 
cable. We have seen a chain entirely de¬ 
stroyed in three months. Such wells, how¬ 
ever, are not common, and the discovery 
that one of these pumps is corroding rapidly, 
is worth more than the cost of the pump, for 
such water is not fit for man or beast. The 
same acids that would destroy one of these 
chains would soon destroy the teeth, to say 
nothing of other injurious results. 
We have noticed at agricultural shows, 
and in agricultural warehouses, a variety of 
frames or curbs, which are quite ornamental. 
We give a cut of one of them: 
They are made of cast iron, neatly paint¬ 
ed, and occupy but little space. The cost 
of one of these curbs in New-York, includ¬ 
ing say 15 feet of chain below the surface of 
the ground, with other necessary fixtures, is 
about $10. For extra chain, including tub¬ 
ing, the charge is usually about 20 cents 
per running foot, we believe. 
Without the curb the usual charge is, for 
crank, windlass and lower wheel, $1.50 ; for 
tubing 10 cents per foot; and for chain 
(double) 10 cents a foot: thus for a well 20 
feet deep : 
Crank and wheels.$1.50 
22 feet of tube.2.20 
23 feet double chain.2.30 
Total.$6.00 
Or, with curb like that shown in the figure : 
Curb, wheels and crank.$6.00 
22 feet of tube.2.20 
23 feet double chain.2.30 
Total.$10.50 
The chain is made 23 feet instead of 20, 
to allow for three feet above the surface of 
the ground. 
The most prominent advantages of these 
pumps are, that the water is always kept 
free from the taste of the pump-stocks, and 
that they do not freeze in winter. 
The same pump will answer to raise water 
to two different elevations, and a spout may 
also be attached to the two opposite 
sides, and water drawn from one or the 
other, by reversing the motion of the crank. 
A description of such an arrangement, on 
the farm of Mr. Hazard, is given on page 201 
ofVol. XIV of this journal. 
FLAX COTTON. 
At the recent Annual Exhibition of the 
American Institute, several most elegant 
specimens of flax cotton, made under the 
patent granted to Jonathan Knowles, Febru¬ 
ary 14, 1854, were exhibited by the Knowles 
Patent Linen Fiber Company. For beauty 
of coloring, fineness, delicacy, strength, and 
pliability of fiber, they surpass other sam¬ 
ples of flax that we have seen. It has long 
been known that the stalk of the flax plant 
was capable of conversion into cotton, and 
that when thus prepared it possessed many 
important advantages over the staple now 
so extensively cultivated in the United States 
and so universally used by the population of 
the world. Flax may be spun, woven, and 
manufactured into every variety of goods 
that are made of common cotton. It may 
be used in many kinds of cloth, combined 
with wool, where cotton is excluded, and in 
all cases forms a superior substitute ; it 
holds color better than cotton, or even wool. 
Flax is very easily cultivated, and grows 
with vigor wherever corn and wheat flour¬ 
ish. Nothing can be more plain than the 
fact, that if there were any economical pro¬ 
cess whereby the flax stalks could be easily 
changed into cotton, its cultivation would be 
rendered universal. It would become one of 
the great staples of the world. In the back 
volumes of the Scientific American we have 
published much valuable information re¬ 
specting flax, and the methods of its prepara¬ 
tion. Claussen’s process, which at one 
time attracted considerable attention, we 
have fully described. It is said that Claus- 
sen could not produce the prepared flax so 
cheaply, nor of so good a quality as the or¬ 
dinary cotton of commerce, and hence his 
discovery was of little avail, and lias almost 
passed into oblivion. The Knowles Com¬ 
pany now present themselves to the public, 
and claim to have succeeded where Claus- 
sen failed. 
Knowles’ process consists in cutting the 
flax stalks, whether rotted pr not, into prop¬ 
er lengths for staple, boiling it in a weak al¬ 
kaline solution of soda or potash, until the 
shives separate on rubbing. It is then 
bleached by chlorine, adding at the same 
time, borax, salt, saltpeter, Glauber’s salts, 
Epsom salts, sal ammoniac, or other similar 
salt. It is then washed with water and dried. 
The Company assert that in this manner 
the farmer can produce flax cotton at a cost 
under five cents a pound, whereas common 
cotton sells for from eight to twenty cents. 
The apparatus required costs from $500 to 
$1,000, to which, we suppose, must be add¬ 
ed the cost of the right to use the patent. 
If the statements of the Knowles Company 
are correct, and we have no reason to doubt 
them, the invention is certainly one of ex¬ 
traordinary value and iaiportance. The 
subject is worthy the most careful examina¬ 
tion by all agriculturists and manufacturers. 
A mong the members of the Company we 
notice the names of several of our most re¬ 
spectable citizens ; Mr. Charles M. Keller, 
is the President. The original capital sub¬ 
scribed was $5,000. Subsequently it was 
increased to $1,000,000, in order to purchase 
the English and French patents. Mr. 
Knowles appears to be a very lucky in¬ 
ventor.—Scientific American. 
FALL PLOWING. 
The custom of plowing in Autumn for 
early spring crops has been steadily increas¬ 
ing among us for nine years. The advan¬ 
tages of it are so many and so decided that 
it has but to be tried to commend itself to 
practice. 
In our northwestern climate there are 
some peculiar inducements to it which do 
not exist to such an extent elsewhere. Our 
spring seasons are very uncertain. Some¬ 
times we have a spring, and sometimes we 
do not. The frost is likely to hold on, or 
the rain deluges the ground to such an ex¬ 
tent that there is no time for plowing, and 
the spring crops which await it are either 
very much curtailed in quantity or are put 
in at so late a period as to turn out but poor¬ 
ly. On the other hand our autumns are 
glorious. They are that on which we plume 
ourselves. Anybody who wants to know 
what autumn can be, should live in the vi¬ 
cinity of these great lakes, whose waters, 
when once thoroughly warmed by the sum¬ 
mer, keep the air about them warm, till win¬ 
ter has come to others. Hence, while we 
have little time to plow in spring we have an 
abundance of it in autumn. 
The testimony of experience is that fall 
plowing for early crops is not only as good 
as that in the spring, but that it is Letter, on 
a large class of our soils, since the. tenden¬ 
cy to lightness is such that the settling 
