360 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Jptmctm 
New-York, Wednesday, February 15,1854. 
DRYING GRASS.-A NEW PLAN. 
Mk. Henry Saunders, of Staines, England, 
has patented a process of curing grass, straw, 
corn-stalks, &c., by enclosing them as soon as 
convenient after cutting, in a drying apparatus, 
through which hot or warm air is forced. We 
see no reason why some plan of this kind may 
not yet become generally adopted. Several 
tons, even, might be placed in a drying-house— 
which might be the hay-mow itself—and a large 
quantity of hot air admitted from the bottom, 
would rapidly carry olf all the moisture. The 
cost of the fuel to heat the air, would in few 
locations exceed the loss usually suffered from 
exposure to rain and dews. If dried in this 
way, at a low temperature, the grass would re¬ 
tain its natural aroma and sweetness. Of the 
economy of such a practice we cannot of course 
speak advisedly till extensive experiments are 
made. 
We will suggest a plan that has occurred to 
us as being quite simple. 
Place a large (common) hot-air furnace out¬ 
side of the barn and below the level of the 
storage-mow, so that the hot air could be con¬ 
veyed under it. Inside of the mow, say at in¬ 
tervals of five feet, place upright hollow shafts, 
made by nailing together four boards six inches 
wide. At distances of say three feet, let the 
four sides of these shafts be pierced with au¬ 
ger holes, over which a small strip of board 
is tacked down so as to be easily removed. The 
top of these hollow shafts are also closed. 
When the green hay is ready, the lower holes 
on the shaft are to be opened by removing the 
covering-board, and when the hay is put in two 
or three feet in depth, the fire can be kept up 
till the air rising through the hay is compara¬ 
tively dry. Before waiting for this, however, 
additions of green hay can be made, and new 
sets of holes be opened. With such an arrange¬ 
ment, it would be necessary to have ventilators 
in the upper part of the barn for the ready 
escape of the moist air. It will be seen that 
the drying process can be kept up night and 
day, and in all weathers. A single furnace will 
answer for a large barn holding thirty or forty 
tons or more. No expensive apparatus or new 
buildings, or extra handling of the hay, would 
be required. 
We have thus proposed a plan of our own. 
How it will operate we cannot tell, for it has 
not been tried. We have not applied for a 
patent. If any one else patents it, we bespeak 
a share of the profits. 
-e o e- 
PEARS ON QUINCE. 
Can any body point us to an orchard of a 
hundred Pear trees worked on the Quince stock, 
and planted within the past ten years, which 
has been satisfactorily successful in growth and 
bearing? We should like to hear from it or 
them, as the case may be. Great zeal has been 
manifested, thousands of trees transplanted, and 
fortunes been made by the nurserymen on this 
hobby—wonderfully valuable, if successful, and 
quite unfortunate if not so—but nevertheless, a 
hobby for the time. The fact we want to get 
at is, whether, used in such cultivation as will 
pay, the pear can be produced on the quince 
stock ? If so, its cultivation cannot be too much 
extended. If not, the public ought to know it, 
that an unprofitable delusion should no longer 
exist among our pomologists. We invite the 
pens of those whose experience or observation 
can give us light. 
■-»——- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
BRIEF NOTES ON A HOMELY TEXT. 
“as a man tuinketii, SO IS nE.” 
Yes, as a man thinketh. But does he think ? 
There is the difficulty. I have employed a great 
many men in the course of my farm labors, and 
al though I did not hire them to do my thinking, it 
was natural enough to suppose they would think 
of what they themselves were about, for the 
time being. But how often when a job, although 
ever so plainly directed to be done, and so sim¬ 
ple in itself, was botched or neglected in some 
important part, when I inquired the reason, the 
only satisfaction I could get was, “I did’nt 
think!” as if that confession of the laborer’s 
stupidity was ample recompense for the injury. 
A shrewd old clergyman who lived long in an 
out-of-the-way country parish, where he was 
occasionally annoyed by an inveterate bore of 
the neighborhood, remarked one day in his im¬ 
patience, “Why sir, some people’s heads are 
just like an old garret, full of worthless traps 
and worn-out lumber, and yours is one of them.” 
It is even so; and many others, one would 
suppose, hardly ever think at all, so little exer¬ 
cise have their brains in their employment. It 
need not be said that such men never thrive in 
the world. They are bound to be hewers of 
wood and drawers of water to those who do 
think, so long as they live. They wonder why 
some get rich, while they remain poor; con¬ 
sider it “very hard,” and complain of Providence, 
but never think of their own want of considera¬ 
tion. This, in fact, is the difference between the 
man of comfortable means and the destitute, in 
nine out of every ten cases in our farming pop¬ 
ulation. 
No, my friends; think, think, and then think 
again. In setting ignorant men at work to 
carry out your own thoughts, let your direc¬ 
tions to them be of the simplest kind, contain¬ 
ing, if possible, but one idea. Most of such 
heads as you employ cannot contain two differ¬ 
ent ideas, or a compound one at one time; and 
if you undertake to charge them with a pair of 
ideas at once, ten to one but you will find both 
of them muddled. A Countryman. 
For tlie American Agriculturist. 
HUMBUGS-GEN. TWIGGS’ HAIR MIXTURE. 
I read on page 280, present volume of the 
Agriculturist, that “A Subscriber” asks you to 
give recipes for various purposes, including one 
for making “Gen. Twiggs’ Mixture for the 
Hair.” With this you say you are unac¬ 
quainted, which I am sorry to learn, for I should 
be glad to find in your showing up of “Popu¬ 
lar Fallacies” and “ Humbugs,” a true expose 
of the properties of this preparation—-made 
popular some three years since by “going the 
rounds” in the papers. Perhaps, Mr. Editor, in 
the absence of personal knowledge by you on 
the subject, and in order to carry out your de¬ 
termination to expose error, more especially 
where its consequences arc clearly pernicious, 
you will permit one who has had experience to 
present a few plain truths for the benefit of 
“A Subscriber” in particular, and the readers 
of your journal generally. 
Some three or four years since, Gen. Twiggs, 
while in Washington, was troubled with a slight 
eruption upon some part of the head, and applied 
to a physician for relief. A solution of Sugar of 
Lead and Lac Sulphur in Rose Water was 
ordered to be applied freely to the affected part. 
After using as directed for some time, the Gen¬ 
eral was astonished to find his somewhat frosty 
locks giving place to those of a darker hue. 
Without inquiring into the cause or ultimate 
effect, our worthy General communicates his 
experience, “pro hono publico," and the public 
prints—self-styled conservators of that good— 
with equal lack of inquiry, passed it around. 
Now, to be brief, the continued application of 
any preparation of lead to the skin, causes it to 
be absorbed and carried into the circulation— 
and such introduction into the system is the 
source of “Painter’s Colic.” 
Of the thousands who have used this prepa¬ 
ration, very few, probably, exhibit a marked 
case of this terrible disease. I have seen only 
one which could be traced directly to this 
cause. Yet every particle of the poison so in¬ 
troduced produces a deleterious effect upon the 
system, and a permanent constitutional injury 
is often sustained. 
Many—if not all—of the nostrums sold as 
Hair Dyes, owe their efficacy to some salt of 
Lead. These are not so injurious as the solu¬ 
tion in Aqua Rosa as above, from the fact that 
they are not so profusely applied, nor in a man¬ 
ner so readily to be absorbed; but they should, 
however, all be avoided. So at least thinks 
S. G. Lewis. 
Bloomington , III ., Jan . 30, 1854. 
We thank our correspondent for the above 
important suggestions. We have had no occa¬ 
sion to investigate the thousand and one “ hair 
mixtures” abroad in the community. Plenty 
of water, a fine comb with teeth not too sharp- 
pointed, and a brush not too stiff, are the only 
applications needed for the hair. In nine cases 
out of ten, irritation is the producing cause of 
dandruff. As for color, we have not vanity 
enough to care for the particular hue it shall 
have, nor time to spend in changing it artifi¬ 
cially. When age and care shall have changed 
our heads to a silvery white, we shall rather 
esteem it an honor than otherwise. 
Our correspondent is right in warning against 
the continued use of lead preparations gene¬ 
rally. All things have their use, and the most 
poisonous substances may at some time be ben¬ 
eficial as medicine. We once took as a medi¬ 
cine a preparation of arsenic, with the most 
marked beneficial effects. But medicine taking, 
and medicine applying, has come to a fearful 
pass in the community. We unhesitatingly 
condemn as injurious, nine hundred and ninety- 
nine thousand of all the patent medicines, mix¬ 
tures, salves, and washes which are in use. In 
this country alone, more than one hundred mil¬ 
lions of dollars ! are every year paid for these 
nostrums, which are far worse than useless. 
While some of them may remove or modify one 
disease, they are sowing the fruitful seeds of a 
score of others. 
A plain, moderate diet of mixed food, with 
proper exercise, is the best safeguard against 
the attacks of disease. Abstinence is gene¬ 
rally the best medicine. When the system has 
become disarranged, give it time to right itself, 
not load its weakened vessels with new work in 
digesting and disposing of new materials which 
furnish the elements of irritating substances, 
requiring medicines to remove them from the 
