THE CULTIVATOR. 
307 
your readers to judge whether we are not entitled to 
confidence, or at least to a trial. 
Respectfully yours, A. Dey, 
Pres’t of the Lodi Man’g. Co., 50 Liberty-st., N. Y. 
New-York, August 14, 1845. 
BLACK SEA WHEAT. 
Mr. Tucker —Having in several former numbers of the 
Cultivator, seen notices of the Black Sea Wheat, and 
learning that where it had been raised it was con¬ 
sidered a valuable variety, I concluded to make a trial of 
it myself. Accordingly I last spring procured one 
bushel and a half for seed. This was sown the 24th of 
April on a little over an acre of ground. The crop I 
have just harvested, and for many years I have not had 
so good a one. The straw was bright, the heads long 
and remarkably well filled. Still I think it was some¬ 
what injured by the drouth, as it was on dry land, and 
the season with us has been very dry. As many farmers 
in this vicinity have made no change of seed for many 
years, would it not be for their interest so to do? I 
think I have found it so. My wheat is not yet threshed, 
or I would give the number of bushels. In some pieces 
in this vicinity, a small worm has made serious depreda¬ 
tions. Will you give the name? Have heard it from 
others, but not satisfied. It is about the eighth of an inch 
long, of an orange color, and it is found by the side of 
the kernel, or between the kernel and the hull. 
In the last number of the Cultivator was a notice of a 
trial of the Centre Draft Plow. I have used this kind of 
plow several seasons, and believe that as yet, too much 
has not been said in its praise. In the beautiful work it 
performs, in the ease with which it is held, and in its 
lightness of draft, the farmer is sure of finding his reward. 
Plainfield , Ms., Aug. 21, 1845. Wm. N. Ford. 
P. S. Any person wishing to procure the Black Sea 
Wheat for seed, can be supplied by the subscriber. 
INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY. 
L. Tucker, Esq.—Several years ago, on a cold raw 
day in November, public business called me to the house 
and farm of Mr. Dudley Chase, then and still residing 
in the town of Winchester, in this state. I was so highly 
pleased with the amount of labor performed in doors 
and out, with the help employed, that I then made mem¬ 
orandums of the same in writing, and think it worthy 
of a place in your very worthy agricultural journal. 
I have no doubt of the truth of what I state, although it 
may seem extraordinary. The work was none of it 
slighted, but was all, in doors and out, done in an ex¬ 
cellent manner, and in due season. 
They then lived in an old inconvenient house in the 
middle of their farm, and had no public road to the house, 
but have now a good convenient house, and a good road 
passing by it. Mr. C. was, as might be expected, a sub¬ 
scriber to the New England Farmer, published at Boston, 
perhaps the only agricultural periodical then published 
hereabouts. He had that year kept and milked 16 cows, 
and made 6,500 lbs. cheese, 450 lbs. butter, and fatted 
2,700 lbs. pork, to aid in doing which, he bought a load 
of bran and 70 bushels of corn. 
Mrs. Chase and a hired girl did the work in the house. 
They had three children, the oldest then four years old, 
and the youngest born the preceding August. 
Mr. C., with the help of a boy 16 years old, had done 
all the work on the farm, raised 3 acres of corn and po¬ 
tatoes, made 16 rods of stone wall, got out his manure, 
made and got in his hay, collected materials for a large 
and convenient farm-house, and his year's wood; made 
575 lbs. of maple sugar, of which he saved for his own 
use 30 lbs., and cleared on the rest over expenses of 
transportation, $59.20, and 2 galls, of molasses sold for 
$2.50. Sold 5,400 lbs. of his cheese for 8 cents a pound, 
and his calf-skins for $9.28. Collected the apples for 
25 barrels of cider, carried them more than a mile to the 
mill and brought back the cider. 
His team consisted of a singe horse and no more, and 
be used no other during the year, except to break up one 
acre of sward land for planting. And with that same 
horse, he went to market in trips from 7 to 53 miles 
out, each, amounting in the whole to 428 miles, and he 
thinks about the same distance in shorter trips. 
He bought his farm on credit, but by the industry and 
economy, not parsimony, above described, had been ena¬ 
bled to pay for his farm, and furnish himself and family 
with all the comforts of life. My daughter drank tea at 
his house a few days ago, and informed me that every 
thing is managed as well as when I was there. 
Le§t it should be thought I have some interest in puff¬ 
ing a particular friend or connection, I can say, and say 
truly, that I never saw or heard of the man or any of his 
family, till the occasion first mentioned, nor have I now 
any connection with them or any more friendship for 
them than for any others, that by industry and good 
management, make themselves comfortable and respecta¬ 
ble. Such folks I wish to encourage, and as far as in my 
power, present to others for example, and therefore hope 
you will not refuse this a place in the Cultivator. 
C. Butler. 
Plymouth, Conn., June 16, 1845. 
THE TANNING PROCESS. 
Mr. Editor —Tanning is a chemical process, but I 
doubt whether it keeps pace with the present march of 
improvement in science and knowledge. 
The following information would be of general utility 
to tanners in the south and west, to wit:— 
1st. Is there any philosophical instrument to ascertain 
the strength of tan ooze, or the tanning liquor? If yea, 
what is it? 
2nd. What is the strength of the first liquor the hides 
are put into? And what the strength of the last? 
3d. Are there any improved tanning machines of late 
invention, and what is their utility? Who are the in¬ 
ventors, where do they live, &c., &c.? 
4th. Is there no improved plan of scouring off the 
hair, cleansing the hide of the lime, &c.? 
A Subscriber. 
Livingston, Ala., July 29th, 1845. 
In reference to the foregoing, we offer such information 
as we possess, hoping that others will more fully answer 
our correspondent’s inquiries. 
A new process of tanning was invented in England a 
few years ago, for which, we have been told, a patent 
was granted by the crown. About the year 1838, or ’39, 
an Englishman then residing at Zanesville, Ohio, ob¬ 
tained letters patent from the United States government, 
for what we understood was the same process. The 
name of this man we cannot now recollect, but presume 
I any information can be furnished in relation to him, or 
to the process of tanning, by Mr. Joseph Stacy, of 
Zanesville. In Johnson’s Farmer’s Encyclopedia, a. de¬ 
scription is given of a new process of tanning, which we 
suppose to be the same as is above alluded to. The sub¬ 
joined extract embraces the substance of the account: 
“ A discovery has recently been made, which seems 
likely to revolutionize the tanning trade. By means of 
a tanning machine, or pair of horizontal rollers, fixed 
over a tan-pit, between which is fixed a band or belt of 
hides attached by ligatures to each other, to the number 
of 50 to 100, and by which the rollers are constantly fed 
or supplied, the hides are lifted out of the pit on one 
side of the machine; as they pass between the rollers, 
the exhausted ooze or tanning liquid is pressed out of 
them, and they are deposited in folds in the pit on the 
other side, where they absorb another supply of fresh 
tannin. The first hide having been inserted between 
the rollers, the others follow in succession, and upon 
arriving at the end of the band, the motion of the roller 
is reversed, and the belt is returned through the ma¬ 
chine to receive another squeeze. This alternating mo¬ 
tion is constantly repeated, the pit being replenished 
from time to time with fresh solutions of tan, till the 
operation is completed. The effects produced by this 
simple plan, are—1. The shortening of the time of tan¬ 
ning to one fourth of that generally required. 2. The 
production of a considerable increase of weight. 3. 
The leather tanned by this method resists water longer 
than that tanned by the old process. 4. The new me- 
