118 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
MR. HORSFORD’S LETTERS—No. II. 
London, November, 1844. 
Mr. Editor —At B lanford, I had the pleasure of looking 
upon an English Fair. The streets were crowded with lit¬ 
tle flocks of South Down lambs and yearlings, and flocks 
of other ages and breeds; little droves of swine, crates 
of poultry, loads of rakes, brooms, sheep-racks, groups of 
cows and calves, and indeed almost every kind of thing 
in the exchange of which, farmers could be engaged. 
Each pig drover kept his parcel in a compact group by 
the side of the street, and each shepherd, with the aid of 
a dog, kept his little flock, varying fi om a dozen to fifty, 
distinct from all the others. The sheep were moreover 
marked and branded, so that they could readily have been 
separated. 
As we drove on from Blanford, gipsey encampments 
occasionally met our view; a little tent was pitched by 
the road side,.and near it, a small house, upon wheels, 
which was entered by a ladder. Upon the grass, before 
the tent, the group of children and older persons, were 
seated, engaged in the manufacture of brooms, sheep- 
racks, &c. This most singular people have a physiogno¬ 
my of their own, as well as a mode of life, and system 
of laws. 
Stone-Henge, to which I think I alluded in my first 
letter, is about nine miles from Salisbury, in the midst of 
the plains , and very near a number of mounds. It con¬ 
sists of blocks of stone, dispersed in circular form, most 
of which are now thrown down. The outer circles of 
columns are surmounted by massive coping, and must 
have been not lesss than a hundred feet in diameter. The 
next inner circle was less complete, and the columns 
were dispersed upon three sides in pairs. A third inner 
circle was of columns much less in height, without co¬ 
ping, and far less regularly arranged. Within this, the 
so called altar stone, projects just above the surrounding 
soil. I subjoin a sketch of what I fancied, from a hasty 
examination just at evening, the temple once was. At 
what period in the history of Great Britain, this ancient 
work served the Druid ical priests, remains to be ascer¬ 
tained. It must have been there long before the Chris¬ 
tian era, as the Romans seem to have had as little know- 
ledge of its origin, as the race of the present day. Its 
history is not more obscure, than is all knowledge of the 
mode of applying mechanical powers, which must have 
been employed in the transportation of the blocks of 
stone. Some of them are four by five and a half feet, 
and not less than twenty-five feet long. They are upon 
a foundation of chalk, which extends many miles in eve¬ 
ry direction, anti are themselves of an exceedingly hard 
rock, whose original site, a guide assured me, was in the 
extreme west of England. A block of similar form, and 
identical as a mineral, lying in the bed of an intervening 
stream, favors this opinion. My conjecture on our way 
thither, from what I had read and heard of the vast size 
and weight of the masses of stone, was that the temple 
had been resolved from a gigantic boulder, floated upon 
Salisbury plain by an iceberg; but not a boulder, not 
even a pebble, did I see in all the region about. (The 
little sketch I have given, is from memory, and may be 
defective in some particulars, though it gives (he idea of 
the circular form that I had not received from engra¬ 
vings.) 
While in London, I had the pleasure of attending a 
meeting of the Society of Arts. This institution has for 
one of its objects, the patronage of improvements in arts 
and manufactures. It has a collection of paintings, and 
a museum of models, implements of handicraft of nume¬ 
rous kinds—specimens of manufactures, &c. tec. On the 
evening of my visit, a paper was read by the secretary, 
upon honey and the habits of the bee It had been pre¬ 
pared by a gentleman, who I should think was a dealer 
in honey as well as an apiarian, for there had been 
brought to illustrate the paper, some twenty varieties of 
the article, from as many different localities and about as 
many different latitudes. Some of it was in the comb, 
and in little hives, boxes, glass vessels, &c., but most of 
it was in earthen jars. Some of (he famed varieties were 
from the Islands and coast of the Mediterranean, and 
were impregnated with aromatic scents, said to increase 
greatly their value. The most expensive kinds were 
from Narbonne and Minorca. All the jars were passed 
among the audience of ladies and gentlemen, and tasted 
by all who cared to do so. 
Besides this paper, there was a verbal description of 
two instruments for keeping wheat and other grain dry, 
and for exterminating insects. One of them was what 
may be readily understood, if to illustrate its construc¬ 
tion, two wire gauze cylinders of equal length, but of un¬ 
equal diameter, be placed one within the other, and par¬ 
titions extending from end to end, be arranged so as to 
divide the space between into eight equal parts. The 
ends are closed, with the exception of a circular aper¬ 
ture at one end, in which a winnowing or exhausting 
wheel is placed; and the whole is mounted upon an axle 
which is made slowly to revolve. The model was about 
three feet long; but the instrument would hold, the gen¬ 
tleman who described it said, about 800 qrs. The circu¬ 
lation of air through the grain, was produced by the re¬ 
volutions of the winnowing wheel, exhausting the inte¬ 
rior of the cylinder, and the motion of the grain in the 
different apartments by slow revolutions of the whole 
machine. This motion dislodges also the insects. It is 
called the Grenier Mobile, and I see has been exhibi¬ 
ted since, before the Royal Agricultural Society. (The 
accompanying little dia¬ 
gram will explain the 
-a. a. grain a- 
partments in a gauze 
enclosure, supported by 
strong frames. B. the 
JE 
(Fig. 43.) 
opening within the cylinder.) 
Another instrument for the same purpose was also ex¬ 
hibited and explained. It consisted of two cones one 
within the other, standing upon two similarly arranged 
cylinders. Within the inner one, a fire could be placed, 
the smoke from which passes out through an escape 
pipe, while the heat passed through myriads of minute 
apertures, with which both 
cylinders and cones are pier¬ 
ced into the grain. The heat 
expelled all the moisture, and 
with it,the maggots, it is said. 
The grain is introduced at the 
top, and discharged in a cart 
at the bottom. It can be de¬ 
tained any length of time on 
its passage, and subjected to as 
thorough drying as can be re¬ 
quired. (The accompanying 
diagram was sketched while 
listening to the explanations, 
and is substantially correct.) 
There was exhibited the 
^ same evening, a fixture for 
drying cheeses. It was a 
(Fig. 44.) frame filled with shelves at a 
distance asunder exceeding a little the diameter of the 
cheeses; and was supported upon an axis. On one side 
of the shelves, perpendicular 
strips of board would prevent 
the cheeses from slipping off. 
When the cheeses which were 
disposed alternately on one 
side and the other, at the top 
and bottom, to maintain the 
equilibrium, had remained 
sufficiently long in one posi- 
(Fig. 45.) tion, the whole frame of 
shelves was turned through half a revolution; and all 
of the cheeses w'ere bottom side upwards, resting upon 
what was before the upper surface 
