148 
CURIOUS DEVICE IN GRAFTING, ETC. 
Wire Fence .—“ If Mr. Peters is correct,” &c. 
Well he was not quite correct, for he made the 
fence too cheap; but even at the price that it 
would actually cost, it would be the cheapest 
fence, in many parts of the country, that could be 
built. It is a material so well calculated for fencing 
the great western prairies, that it is a wonder that 
it has not been adopted before this time, since peo¬ 
ple will persist in the foolish fashion of fencing, 
instead of insisting that every man should take 
care of his own stock ; by. which means every 
other man could sow and reap wherever he pleased, 
without being compelled first to build a fence 
strong enough for a fortification, to keep his neigh¬ 
bors’ pirating cattle and hogs off of his premises. 
The Table of Statistics of Productions of the 
U. S. in the February number of the Agriculturist 
should be carefully preserved for reference and 
comparison. And yet, with a soil almost free to 
all that choose to cultivate it, and thus not only 
procure gold, but all the comforts of wholesome 
food, and abundance of it, our population are up 
and off like frightened ducks, to hunt gold in Cali¬ 
fornia, where, if they live through more hardships 
in getting there, than often falls to the farmer’s lot, 
it is greatly to be feared that some of them will die of 
starvation, while reflecting that there “ is plenty in 
my father’s house,” without being able to “rise up 
and go there.” It seems as though the world was 
subject to periodical fits of insanity. This Cali¬ 
fornia mania is not the first by any means. Ame¬ 
rica was first peopled by just such another golden 
humbug. 
Legal Weights and Measures .—No doubt these 
are all legally accurate. Now the thing most ad¬ 
vantageous to us, who buy by weight and measure, 
would be for congress to devise some plan to have 
them used. The amount of fraud daily practised 
by false weights and measures, if told, would be 
beyond human belief. We seize and confiscate the 
poor, petty, short pound of butter, while the short- 
weight hogshead of sugar goes free. And the 
head of a tobacco hogshead, weighing alone more 
than the whole cask is tared at, is looked upon as 
a good joke. And it is a notorious fact that many 
yard sticks are only 35 inches long. Are children 
ever taught in school, I never was, that there is no 
standard, or beginning point, of weights and mea¬ 
sures J [The metrical system of France is found¬ 
ed on the fourth part of the terrestial meridian. 
This quadrant is divided into 10,000,000 equal 
parts, one of which is equal in length to a metre. 
The standard yard of Great Britain and the United 
States, when compared with a pendulum vibrating 
seconds of mean time in the latitude of London, in a 
vacuum, at the level of the sea, is in the proportion 
of 36 inches to 39.1393; that is, if all that part of 
the pendulum, which lies between the axis of sus¬ 
pension and the centre of oscillation, be divided 
into 391,393 equal parts, then will 10,000 such 
parts be an inch, 12 whereof make a foot , and 36 
whereof make a yard. Take a cube of one such 
inch of distilled water, at 62°F.; let it be weighed 
by any weight, and divide such weight into 252,458 
equal parts, then will 1,000 of these parts be a 
grain troy; and 7,000 of those grains will be a 
standard pound avoirdupois. Then, 10 of these 
pounds of distilled water, at 62°F., the barometer 
being at 30 inches, will be one imperial gallon of 
Great Britain, which gallon will contain 277 
cubic inches; consequently the imperial pint will 
hold 11 lbs., and the imperial bushel , 80 lbs. of dis¬ 
tilled water, at the above-named temperature. The 
wine gallon of the United States contains only 231 
cubic inches, and the Winchester bushel 2,150 t 4 ^j 
inches.— Eds.] “ Three barleycorns make an 
inch;” but how long is a barleycorn I And how 
much is the weight of a “ grain V 1 What odd 
customs prevail among dealers in buying and sell¬ 
ing articles. For instance, what is always sold by 
the bushel , and never measured but weighed—60 
lbs. making a legal bushel. Salt is usally sold by 
the bushel, barrel, or sack, yet is sometimes weigh¬ 
ed to ascertain the measure. New-York salt is 56 
lbs. to the bushel, while western salt, I believe, is 
only 50 lbs. Dried apples are generally sold by 
the bushel; yet, in many places, they are never 
measured, but weighed, 22 lbs, only to the bushel, 
which will make about three pecks. Cotton seed 
is sold by the bushel, but every 25 lbs. is counted 
for that measure. The usual custom, upon sugar 
plantations, is to weigh molasses, every 12 lbs. be¬ 
ing counted a gallon, yet nobody ever thinks of 
selling it by the pound. And so I might go on 
through a long chapter of similar absurdities. 
Reviewer. 
RACE HORSES vs. THE POOR OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
It is said that upwards of thirteen hundred race 
horses ran in Great Britain last year, and about one 
hundred and fifty in Ireland. To supply this stock 
from breeding mares, young animals not arrived at 
maturity, and such as have broken down, or are not 
in condition for the course, at least ten times this 
number would be required of horses reared exclu¬ 
sively for the turf. How much then is it to be 
deprecated, that, amidst the want and suffering in 
the United Kingdom, where hundreds and thousands 
of human beings have actually died, of starvation, 
and disease, consequent upon scant or inappropri¬ 
ate food, within the last two years, such large 
sums as are necessary to sustain this immense 
stock kept almost solely for gambling purposes , 
could not have been spent in feeding, clothing, and 
educating the famishing poor. 
The food consumed by the very hounds and 
other worthless dogs of Great Britain, would amply 
supply numberless almshouses and families with 
nutritious and healthful soups, which would go far 
to alleviate an incredible amount of suffering in 
that country. 
Curious Device in Grafting. —The gardeners 
of Italy sell plants of jasmines, roses, honey¬ 
suckles, &c., all growing together from a stock of 
orange, myrtle, or pomegranate, on which, they 
say, they are grafted. But this is a mere decep¬ 
tion ; the fact being, that the stock has its centre 
bored out, so as to be made into a hollow cylinder, 
through which the stems of jasmines and other 
flexible plants are easily made to pass, their roots 
intermingling with those of the stock. After 
growing for a time, the increase in the diameter of 
the stems, thus enclosed, forces them together, and 
they assume all the appearance of being united to 
one common stem. 
