MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
DISCOVERY OF A VEIN OF PHOSPHATE 
OF LIME. 
This locality of phosphate of lime, I dis¬ 
covered, at Crown Point, in 1847, and pub¬ 
lished an account of it in my report, under 
the name of eupyrcliroite, regarding it as 
j a new kind of mineral. Since that time, 
I have also made reference to this mineral, 
and particularly in the agricultural journal 
which 1 conducted a’.one time; and I often 
! expressed the wish that some one would 
open the vein and determine its value and 
extent. But no one seemed to regard it in 
a favorable light. I was instrumental last 
foil, in opening this mine. It turns out to 
be a solid vein of phosphate of lime, eight 
feet thick, at least, and has been traced a 
> long distance from north-west to south-east. 
| It is known to contain 92 per cent, of phos¬ 
phate of lime, with fluorine and chlorine, 
> iron, or a sulphuret of iron and copper, in 
small proportions, furnishing thereby, phos¬ 
phoric acid for bones, muscles, and organs 
of the body, fluoric acid for the formation 
of the teeth, sulphur for the protein com¬ 
pounds— and if you add the alkali, we may 
easily prepare a compound suitable to meet 
the wants of animals and vegetables, so far 
as inorganic matter is concerned. It is an 
important discovery for agriculture, as it 
gives us a source for this expensive fertil¬ 
izer, phosphoric acid, a substance which en¬ 
ters into the composition of all living things, 
and is second in importance to oxygen, only. 
This phosphate may be furnished to a 
great extent, though I may not say that it 
is inexhaus ible, yet it will last a long time. 
I would obligate myself to furnish 100,000 
tons. For Long Island farmers and for the 
; south, it may be made to take the place of 
guano and bone dust. It must be used as 
a super-phosphate, although the simple use 
as plaster, would supply the waste of fields 
of the phosphates; yet, it would be dissolv- 
1 ed slowly in its present state. In the long 
run, it would benefit lands equally well; yet, 
> people now-a-days like to feel and see the 
I immediate effects of the labor of their 
| hands. 
’ In addition to the vein of phosphate of 
lime, there is a trap dyke beside it, which 
contains also, 40 to 50 per cent of the phos¬ 
phates. I have engaged Professor Norton 
to make a critical examination of the sub¬ 
stances connected with these veins. I have 
made only one experiment with the phos¬ 
phate. I find that for wheat on a sandy 
soil, it works admirably; it produces a dark 
green stout blade, and bears the absence of 
rain much better than when the ordinary 
fertilizers are employed. 
In a geological point of view, this locali¬ 
ty of phosphorite, is f yoeadingly interesting, 
and I think it will lead to other discoveries 
of the same kind; and I think, too, that 
it will be found that many of our trap 
dykes and igneous rocks abound in this min¬ 
eral, and that this will explain the fact, 
that soils derived from them are often 
very fertile, and produce excellent grass.— 
The condition of the Crown Point phospho¬ 
rite is the same as that which is contained 
in the soil. Carbonic acid is the solvent in 
nature. Those, who are engaged in the 
manufacture of artificial fertilizers, will find 
it a valuable addition to their compounds. 
— E- Emmons, in Am. Agriculturist. 
TO RAISE GOOD POTATOES. 
A Farmer, writing to the editor of the 
Ohio Cultivator, as to his method of raising 
Potatoes, says: — 
My object in writing, at this time,* is to 
give you my method of growing potatoes 
free from the rot. I have practiced it two 
seasons with entire success, and have now 
six hundred bushels of fine Mercer potatoes 
in my cellar, and all free from the disease. 
My method is, to plow the ground late 
• in the fall or early in the spring, harrow 
it smoothly before planting time, then haul 
out, say fifteen tons rotted manure, spread 
it broadcast, then take two horses and a 
plow, and back up two full furrows, the 
furrows just meeting in the backing; leave 
a strip a foot wide, and back up two more; 
and so continue till you have completed the 
lot. Then turn about and split these double 
furrows open with a single furrow, then 
commence dropping potatoes (pieces of 
cut potatoes containing at least four eyes,) 
in the furrow, six inches apart. After the 
lot is dropped, take your horses and plow, 
throw two good furrows, (one round of the 
team to a throw,) just meeting on the top; 
dress off the top, clearing the row of stones, 
clods, &c., then sow broadcast five bushels 
of common salt over the ground immediate¬ 
ly after planting; cultivate potatoes when 
in blossom. 
When the crop is ready to gather, clear 
the ground, and turn a furrow from each 
side of the row; hoe down the ridge, then 
harrow down the ground, pick up the re¬ 
maining potatoes, and the work is done. It 
is apparent that by this process we get a 
broad, loose bed for. the potatoes to grow 
in, also a double depth of soil. 
A Strong Paste for Paper. —To two 
large spoonfulls of fine flour, put as much 
pounded rosin as will lie on a shilling; mix 
with as much strong beer us will make it 
of a due consistence, and boil half an hour. 
Let it be cold before it is used. 
ftertifultuntl. 
TWO GOOD THINGS FOR THE GARDEN. 
Rhubarb, or Pie Plant.— One of th'e 
most useful plants for the kitchen garden, 
is the rhubarb or pie plant, as it is common¬ 
ly called. It is easily produced —comes in 
early in the season, when both green and 
ripe fruit are scarce, and makes a most 
healthy and palatable dish, either stewed 
with sugar, or made into pies and tarts,— 
for the latter it is fully equal if not supe¬ 
rior to green gooseberries. 
To raise it in perfection, trench a piece 
of ground about two feet deep, turning in 
the strongest manures to be had, at the rate 
of a barrow-full to every square yard. Set 
the plants two feet apart, and you will have 
stalks as thick as your arm and so tender 
as scarcely to sustain their own weight. It 
is ’the greatest feeder of all kitchen garden 
plants, and this is the reason why we see 
the great bulk of that sold in the markets, 
small, tough, and flavorless—the plants are 
starved. 
A good plantation of rhubarb near a city 
where powerful manures are to be had in 
abundance would be one of the most profit¬ 
able articles of culture. It is, I admit, al¬ 
ready cheap, but considering the quality, 
very dear, and if a really good, well grown 
article were offered, it would drive all the 
poor stuff out of market,—make it more 
generally used, and be very gratifying to 
the consumers. 
The Peony.— Among the thousands of 
perrennial plants in cultivation, the peony 
is one of the most deserving. It is so easy 
of culture, that it grows, and even flourishes 
gaily in the most ordinary soil, and under 
the most indifferent treatment. Its flowers 
are magnificent, large, brilliantly and deli¬ 
cately colored, and then they are produced 
in such profusion, and last so long—sure 
enough, it is a flower for the million. 
The rose possesses more varied attrac¬ 
tions both in colors, perfume, seasons of 
flowering, and above all, in poetic associa¬ 
tions; yet without kind and generous treat¬ 
ment it will not flourish, and it is therefore 
only for those who are thorough cultivators; 
but give the peony a couple of square feet 
of any ordinary soil, and occasionally a little 
manure, if you please, and you will have a 
rich display of flowers, without fail. The 
old Double Crimson is a well known, and 
general favorite. The Chinese White has 
flowers nearly as large, of a creamy white,, 
and delicious rose odor. The Hurnei is a 
Chinese variety, very large, of a purpleish 
rose, and slightly fragrant. These are com¬ 
mon, cheap and good. In the Nursery¬ 
mens’ catalogues are many new and fine 
ones, presenting rare combinations of colors 
and forms. 
—Speaking of flowers, reminds me of 
Robinson’s Defiance verbena, noticed in 
your paper. I have found it superb—rival¬ 
ing all others in vigorous habit, luxuriant 
foliage, and large brilliant trusses of bloom, 
but it does not cover the ground with flow¬ 
ers so completely as many of the older 
sorts; the blossoms are too much confined 
to the points of the shoots. This is its de¬ 
fect, and it is well that it be known. 
An Old Gardener. 
STRAWBERRIES —ONCE AGAIN. 
Strawberry beds should be attended to, 
as soon as the ground gets settled and suf¬ 
ficiently dry. After being thinned out, and 
all the grass and weeds removed, scatter 
unleached ashes over the beds in proportion 
of twelve quarts to the square rod. Plas¬ 
ter should be sown upon strawberries twice 
a year, in the fall, and in the spring before 
blossoming; if sown while in blossom it is 
injurious to their fruiting. 
Last season I cultivated a patch of straw¬ 
berries in beds, 100 feet long and 5 feet 
wide, of the following varieties, viz.: Burr’s 
New Pine, Columbus, Iiovey’s, Bishop Or¬ 
ange, Crimson Cone, and Rival Hudson, 
and for a fertilizer a row of Burr’s Old 
Pine between each bed. They all produced 
a good crop; the ground had never been 
trenched nor even spaded, but simply plow¬ 
ed ; the plants were set out in the* fall of 
1848—the previous crop had been corn and 
potatoes. 
The Hovey’s produced the largest berries, 
Burr’s New Pine next, Columbus next, &c. 
The Rival Hudson produced the greatest 
quantity—there were sold from this bed 
05 quarts, after being hulled, and 37 quarts 1 
before hulling; the whole equal to 92 qts. 
hulled. The New Pine was the next best 
producer; Columbus next; Hovey’s next, 
&c. I ought to say, that having allowed 
the Crimson Cone and Bishop Orange to 
stand too thick, it was injurious to their 
production. 
Durr’s New Pine is the best, and one of 
the largest and earliest of berries. Rival 
Hudson is one of the very best berries for 
market; being very firm, it bears trans¬ 
portation well. Crimson Cone is a remark¬ 
ably handsome berry, and is known in some 
places as the Pine-apple berry. 
Every body knows or ought to know, all 
about Hovey’s; though a great many in 
this vicinity that are called Hovey’s Seed¬ 
ling, are not, and much discredit has there¬ 
by attached to them. Any one who culti¬ 
vates the old Methven or the Ohio Seedling 
that came from Cleveland a few years since, 
supposing they are Hovey’s will be very 
apt to form a poor opinion of its bearing 
qualities. Genuine Hovey’s is notonlvone 
of the very largest of berries, and a good 
quality, but is a very fair producer. Boston 
Pine, for a staminate plant, is an excellent 
bearer and fruit large; but its habit of 
throwing out many runners, requires par¬ 
ticular attention in keeping them thinned. 
In no way can delicious and yet luxu¬ 
rious food be so abundantly, cheaply, and 
universally obtained, as in the cultivation of 
fruit. However hilly, rugged, and rocky 
the land, although it refuse the plow and 
the scythe, there is scarcely an acre in our 
country which will not produce good fruit 
of some kind. The marsh which bids de¬ 
fiance to cultivation without expensive drain¬ 
age, yields whortleberries and cranberries, 
each highly valuable in its way. The glen 
and mountain side may easily be made 
prolific in the cherry, pear, peach, and ap¬ 
ple; and on the more favored portions of 
the soil, where wheat, corn, and grass are 
easily and abundantly produced, will fruit 
repay the room and labor in a rich reward. 
It is believed that a good fruit tree will 
yield more real market and nutritive value 
than any other crop that can be produced 
from the soil. No labor of the farmer, and 
no use of the soil pays more abundantly 
than when applied to the culture of good 
fruit. As a tree of choice fruit covers no 
more land than a poor one, it is of the first 
importance to make the best selections, and 
render the most faithful attention to its full 
development Man does not use one half 
the quantity of fruit that he should do as 
an article of food. Thousands of farmers 
live mainly on salt beef, pork, and fish, who 
might have the luscious luxury of fruit at 
every meal, every month in the year. Be¬ 
sides, man is adapted in his nature to sub¬ 
sist principally on a vegetable and fruit diet, 
and would be far more healthy, happy, and 
long-lived for so doing. As an article of 
general food, fruit in its vast variety is with¬ 
out a parallel. Our friends, at a distance 
from cities, will find it a source of profit, as 
railroads now bring them so near the mar¬ 
ket as to enable them to compete with far¬ 
mers in the suburbs of cities. We have 
felt keen regret in traveling in diflierent 
portions of the country to see so little atten¬ 
tion paid to the subject of good fruit—and 
have been still more pained to see orchard 
forests of miserable, sour, rusty apples, only 
fit for vinegar. Let firewood be made of 
such miserable trees. 
The Spaniards have a maxim, that a man 
is ungrateful to the past generation that 
planted the tree from which he eats—and 
deals unjustly with the next generation—un¬ 
less he plants the seed of that fruit, that it 
may furnish food for those who come after 
him. Thus when a son of Spain eats a 
peach or pear by the road side, wherever 
he is, he digs with his foot in the ground, 
and covers the pit or the core. Consequent¬ 
ly, all over Spain, by the roadside, and else¬ 
where, fruit in great abundance tempts the 
taste and is ever free. This is an easily 
wrought charity, and an evidence of a no¬ 
ble soul. Let this practice be imitated in 
our own country, and the weary wanderer 
will be blest, and bless the hand and the 
liberal charity that ministered to his comfort 
and joy. We are bound to leave the world 
as good, or better than we found it, and he 
is a selfish churl who basks under the shadow, 
and eats the fruit of trees which other hands 
have planted, if he will not also plant trees 
which shall yield fruit to coming genera¬ 
tions. No young man should vote or marry 
until he has planted at least one tree as an 
evidence of good citizenship. Who planted 
the elms of Boston Common, and of New 
Haven, which are so justly celebrated? 
Surely not the present generation. Let 
fruit trees be in like manner bequeathed, 
that unborn generations may be grateful to 
this.— Phrenological Journal. 
Weeds exhaust the strength of ground, 
and if suffered to grow may be called ear- 
den sins. 
LIST OF PATENT CLAIMS 
•ISSUED FROM THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. 
For the wee/c ending April 1, 1851. 
To Henry Boot, of New Bedford, Mass., for 
improvement in machines for folding and measur¬ 
ing cloth. 
To Marshall Burnett, of Boston, Mass., for im¬ 
proved horse-shoe nail machine. 
To C. O. Crosby, of New Haven, Conn., for 
mproved machine for sticking pins on paper. 
To Jehu Hollingsworth, of Zanesville O., for 
improvement in wheat fans. 
To G. D. Jones, of Jersey City, N. J., for im¬ 
provement in mills for grinding paints and drugs. 
To Peter McKinlay, of Charleston, S. C., for 
improvement in rice hullers. 
To ( has. Monson, of New Haven, Conn., for 
improvement in blasting rocks, etc. 
To Jaboz Walker, of East Bloomfield, N. Y., 
for improved ma hine for forming a lock on sheet 
metal. 
To Jessee White, of Barnesville, Ohio, for im¬ 
provement in wheat fans. 
To J. M. Carr & J. Hughes, of Cambridge city, 
Ind., for improvement in bran dusters. 
To Simeon Haywood, of Claremont, N. FI., for 
improvement in connecting and disconnecting 
wheels and axles. 
To David McCurdy, of Newark, N. J., for im¬ 
provement in the manufacture of India rubber. 
To Henry Mellish of Walpole, N. II., for im¬ 
provements in splint machines. 
To Archibald Wieting, of Middletown, Pa., for 
improvement in seed planters. 
To II. Gross & W. Campbell, of Tiffin City, 
O., for improvement in machines for cuttingscrews 
on bedstead rails. 
To G. II. Knight, of Cincinnati, O., for stone 
and metal conglomerate for paving, etc. 
To J. J. Riddle of Covington, Ky., for improve¬ 
ment in brick presses. * 
DESIGNS. 
To N. P. Richardson, of Portland, Me., for de¬ 
sign for air-tight stoves. 
To Frederick Schultz, of Philadelphia, Pa., for 
design for air-tight stoves. 
NE W ELECTRO CHEMICAL TELEGRAPH. 
The Boston Atlas says that recent and 
wonderful improvements in the transmission 
of messages by the electric telegraph have 
recently been exhibited in France. The 
instrument is the invention of Mr. Baine, is 
called an electro-chemical telegraph, and 
conveys its messages in the very handwriting 
of the persons who send them. It claims 
to have great advantages over the electro- 
magnetic telegraphs in general use. While 
tho latter transmit dispatches at an average 
rate of eight words per minute for each 
conducting wire, this new invention can 
transmit from 250 to 400 words per minute. 
A committee of the French Legislative 
Assembly, at the head of which was the 
celebrated astronomer Le Verrier, was ap¬ 
pointed to investigate the merits of this in¬ 
vention. They caused experiments to be 
repeated in their presence. A message 
consisting of several thousand words was 
transmitted to Lille and back, along a sin¬ 
gle wire, (the wire being united at Lille so 
as to carry back the message,) at the rate 
of about 1,500 letters, or nearly 400 tel¬ 
egraphic words per minute. 
The committe reported favorably on the 
project, and the government ordered a 
set of apparatus to be constructed, to be 
placed in the first instance on the line be¬ 
tween Paris and Calais. This line was 
completed in the early part of the last 
month, and its performance was witnessed 
by the correspondent of a London journal, 
from whose account of this discovery we 
gather our information. His own dispatch 
which Avould occupy about two columns of 
our paper was transmitted and written by 
the apparatus in his presence, at the rate of 
1,200 letters per minute. The characters 
were perfectly distinct and legible, and the 
dispatch was read from them also in his 
presence.— Baltimore American. 
DOUBLE ROTARY GRINDING METALLIC MILL. 
Mr. C. W. Van Vliet, of Milton, Ulster 
Co., N. Y., has invented and taken measures 
to secure a patent for an improvement on 
rotary grinding mills, which is well worthy 
of general attention, because such a mill 
can be made at but little expense, and it is 
not liable to get out of order. 
The mill is double, and has a revolving- 
circular grinder in each case, something it 
may be said like a large cog wheel and pin¬ 
ion running in two cases, with an opening 
from the one into the other. The peri¬ 
phery surface of the grinder, which is 
shaped like a circular stone, is serrated, and 
there is a serrated face with conveying 
channels on the inside ot the case. This 
is the same in each. The large case is the 
one where the grain is fed, and it answers 
the purpose of a cracker. There is a 
channel into the small case through which 
the cracked grain is driven and then sub¬ 
mitted to the more rapid motion of the 
small grinding wheel. These grinding 
wheels can be driven by band and pulley. 
For farmers, such a mill would be very 
useful and economical. Messrs. Haviland 
& Elmer, of Milton, are the assignees.— 
Sci. American. 
BROWN'S IMPROVED TURNING ENGINE. 
The Boston Cabinet says: Mr. Henry W. 
Brown, foreman in the machine shop of 
Messrs Pierpont & Co., Boston, has lately 
made improvements upon the construction 
of one part of the turning engine, which we 
have lately examined, and which he will 
soon patent. The platting of a turning en¬ 
gine has usually been held down to the 
ways by means of weight, suspended from 
the sub-surface of the platting, and between 
the ways of the lathe. The weight is usual¬ 
ly large or small, as is the size of the lathe, 
and its cost has been in proportion to the 
size. 
The improvement avoids the necessity of 
a weight, and consists in having the platting 
fastened to the ways, by having bolts of 
convenient size pass through it downward 
into a platting, which is made to pass along 
on the under sides of the ways. These are 
smoothly planed, over which the sub-plat¬ 
ting moves upon rollers or cross axles. 
Ihese rollers bear on the planed under 
sides of the frame or ways of the engine, 
and are moved to and fro by the bolts which 
attach them to the upper platting. The 
advantages of this arrangement are: 1st. 
That the upper platting cannot be raised, 
as may be done on common lathes by a 
power which is sufficient to raise the weight; 
and 2d. Very much friction is saved from 
the bed-piece, and upper ways, which is 
generated by the lateral motion of the plat¬ 
ting. 
The improvement can be applied, with 
but little cost, to all lathes now in use, which 
have the under surfaces of their ways planed. 
Nearly all the lathes recently built have 
been planed on the underways, and hence, 
to all such, this improvement can be ea¬ 
sily applied, as it has already been to lathes 
in the shop of Messrs Pierpont <fc Co., and 
we believe it is received with much favor. 
Its easy application and simplicity of con¬ 
struction can but commend it to the ex¬ 
amination of machinists. 
NEW SMUT MACHINE. 
Mr. Alfred Joplin, of Chesterfield, S. C., 
has invented and made application for an 
improvement in machines for cleansing all 
kinds of grain, which promises to be valua¬ 
ble,. as being simple of construction, effect¬ 
ive in action, and not easily deranged. There 
is a conical fluted roller with two or three 
broad channels extending its whole length, 
and this roller works in the inside of a per¬ 
forated metal case. The grain is fed 
in through this case, and finds its way to 
the end of the roller, being acted on by the 
fluted projections spoken of in its passage. 
This action separates all the smut and im¬ 
purities from the good grain, and at the 
channel out of which the scoured grain is 
passing, it is met by a current of wind 
which blows away all the impurities of a 
less specific gravity than the good grain, 
while the good grain falls down through the 
: current into a proper receiver.— Sci. Am. 
j NEW FENCE. 
Mr John R. Remington, of Montgom¬ 
ery, Alabama, tl\e inventor of the Remington 
Hirial Bridge, has patented a new and use¬ 
ful invention. It is a cement, for ma king 
solid fences, as durable as granite and at a 
very reasonable cost of construction. The 
chief ingredient is sand, and it can be easily 
manufactured by plantation hands. The 
cement panels are conveyed to the spot 
where the fence is to be located, and the 
two legs of each let into the ground like 
common posts. The cost to the planter 
is estimated at 10 cents per panel of ten 
feet by five—four inches thick—far cheaper 
than the wire fence. 
New Letter Copying Press.— A new 
letter copying press has been invented by 
Messrs. Chase, Brothers & Co., 7 Liberty 
square, which, from the simplicity of its 
construction, saving of labor and space, will 
be quite likely to take the place of those 
now in use. The pressure upon the letter 
book is obtained by the mere moving of a 
lever to one side, which acts upon four small 
revolving balls, the size of musket bullets, 
and by their motion upon a sort of circular 
inclined plane, give a true and even im¬ 
pression. The labor and strength required 
by the presses now in use, is by this inven¬ 
tion entirely obviated, and the price is also 
much less than those of the old style. 
A Tire-Compresser of a new patent 
(Massey’s) combining a Compresser, Ben¬ 
der, Punch and Shears in one machine, by 
which a wagon-tire may be speedily short¬ 
ened or upset without cutting or welding, is 
on exhibition in New York City. The Tri¬ 
bune says;—This is an entirely original in¬ 
vention—American at that—and richly 
worth attention. We may speak of it more 
fully hereafter. 
Iron Masted Vessels. —The London 
Times states that a Dutch East Indiaman is 
lying in Liverpool, which has an iron mast, 
constructed of iron plates, formed into cylin¬ 
ders and firmly riveted together. Inside 
at various intervals, cross-bars are inter¬ 
locked, preserving the shape and the 
strength of the mast— Sci American. 
