1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
227 
leaving the rest untouched, the precise benefit of the 
charcoal might have been known. 
Draining Pipes. —-A correspondent at Paterson, N. 
J., informs us that the draining pipes, spoken of in our 
May number, are sold by W. K. Price, Middletown 
Point, Monmouth county, N. J., $16 per thousand 
pipes, each pipe a foot long. Two “ flats,” or soles, 
are necssary to each pipe, and these cost $2 to $4 per 
thousand; “so that 1000 feet of pipe drain will cost 
about 18 to 20 dollars.” 
Spruce Shingles.-—Inquiry.- —E. M. Hoyt, of New 
Haven, Vermont, asks: Can you or your contributors 
inform us how to render spruce shingles durable 
in a roof? Spruce is sawed into shingles in our 
mountain towns, and furnished to us at a low price. 
They rot, so that the roof becomes leaky in from seven 
to ten years, depending much upon the steepness. 
Have any experiments been tried of immersing them 
in oils, or other liquids, to add to their durability? If 
so, will you please communicate the results of such ex¬ 
periments, cost, &c. 
Manufacture of Agricultural Implements.— 
The Boston Traveller notices the implement manufac¬ 
tory of Messrs. Prouty & Mears, in South Boston, 
Mass. An account of this establishment was given in 
the Cultivator for 1845, pp. 44, 45. We are glad to 
hear that the concern is still in a flourishing condition. 
The improvements of Messrs. P. &. M. in the construc¬ 
tion of the plow, and other implements, have been of 
great importance to the cause of agriculture. 
A Good Horse. —A physician of Hampshire county, 
Massachusetts, thus describes one of his horses in the 
Spirit of tjie Times: “He is a chestnut sorrel with 
white snip, fourteen hands high, and seventeen years 
old this spring; came from Canada twelve years ago, 
and appears like a Morgan horse. Since he was 
broke, he has never been out to pasture a day; never 
been lame a day, or off his feet, and has travelled over 
these mountains, either to a heavy sulkey or a common 
buggy-wagon, over 120,000 miles. The owner says 
he has the “ documents” to prove this, and that he is 
ready to back him to go a mile in three minutes any 
day when the loads are in fair order. 
Fair and Plowing Match. —The Rochester Daily 
Advertiser furnishes an account of a fair and plowing 
match which took place at Avon, Livingston county, 
on the 27th of May last. Twelve teams engaged in 
the match, all of whom performed their work so per¬ 
fectly, that it was difficult to tell who was entitled to 
the premiums. Large numbers of excellent oxen and 
steers, and several pair of fine horses, were exliibited. 
A large number of people, of both sexes, were in at¬ 
tendance. Great preparations are making for the fall 
fair, which is to take place at the same place on the 
29th of September. 
Appropriation of the Sales of Public Lands. 
—R. L. Colt, Esq , of Paterson, N. J., has petitioned 
Congress that a section of ten miles square of the pub¬ 
lic lands, shall be given to each state and territory of 
the United States, for the purpose of endowing an Ag¬ 
ricultural College in each State. 
Exports from the United States from July 1, 
1846, to June 30, 1847.-—According to a statement 
prepared at the Treasury Department, it appears that 
the exports from this country, within the dates above 
mentioned, were as follows:—Flour, 4,382,496 bbls.; 
Wheat, 4,399,951 bush.; Indian Corn, 16,326,050 
bush.; Corn Meal, 948,062 bbls.; Rye flour, 48,982 
bbls.; Ship bread, 160,980 bbls., and 31,082 kegs; 
Rye, oats, &c,, value $1,600,962. Total value of the 
above articles, $53,262,457. 
Death of Pines at the South. —The South Caro¬ 
lina papers speak of the death of pine trees in that sec¬ 
tion Immense numbers of them are said to have sud¬ 
denly perished, and the cause has not yet been discov¬ 
ered. 
Feeding Sheep.— -The following are results of ex¬ 
periments recently made in Germany. The value of 
the Ruta baga compared with potatoes for sheep, is 
as 7 to 2; for the growth of wool merely, as 20 to 
17. 
Sheep kept without shelter, required more food than 
those in good ventilated sheds, as 30 is to 22; while the 
sheltered animals increased more rapidly in weight than 
the others, as 3 is to 1. 
Precision. —In Kentucky, a “ barrel ” of corn is 
five bushels of the shelled grain. In New-Orleans, it 
is a flour barrel full of ears. A barrel of flour is sev¬ 
en quarters of a hundred weight, or 196 lbs. A bar¬ 
rel of tar is 20 gallons. A barrel of gunpowder is 
only a small keg holding 25 lbs. At Chicago, lime is 
sold by the barrel, where the smallest sized cask that 
is called a barrel, will pass muster. 
Corn Crop. —The corn crop of the United States, 
according to the estimate of the Commissioners of pa¬ 
tents, for 1847, was 540 million bushels—being about 
four times in value the whole production of cotton. 
Eggs. —The egg trade of Cincinnati amounts to 
nearly three million dozen annually. One half are sent 
south—the rest consumed. 
Excrements of Birds —The excrements of birds, 
both from the kidneys and the intestinal canal, are voi¬ 
ded together; the dung, therefore, contains both phos¬ 
phates and ammoniacal compounds, so essential in the 
formation of gluten and other nitrogenized matters of 
crops. It is only by both the solid and liquid excre¬ 
ments of animals, that the inorganized constituents of 
plants are represented. This is probably the reason 
why guano is so powerful a manure. 
Analysis of Urine. —The following are analyses of 
the urine of cows and horses, the former made by M. 
Brande, and the latter by Fourcroy and Vauquelin: 
Cows.—Phosphate of lime,. 3 
Muriates of potassa and ammonia, .. 15 
Sulphate of potassa,.. 6 
Carbonate of potassa and ammonia, . 4 
Urea,. 4 
Water,.. 65 
97 
Horses. — Carbonate of lime, . 11 
“ soda, 9 
Benzoate of soda,. 24 
Muriate of potassa,. 9 
Urea,.. 7 
Water and mucilage,. 40 
100 
Iron and Gallic Acid. —When a piece of iron is 
driven into a stick of green oak, a blue colored stain is 
frequently seen on the wood. This is caused by a 
union of the gallic acid of the oak with particles of 
iron. It is, in fact, genuine ink, and only needs to be 
combined with a little gum arabic to give it a body, to 
be used in writing. 
Case-hardening Iron. —H. Webster gives the fol¬ 
lowing account in the Prairie Farmer , of his mode of 
case-hardening iron, which he has found by twelve years 
experience to be superior. 
Take one part of oxalic acid and two parts prussiate 
of potash; pulverize them together, and put them upon 
the iron when red hot—hold the iron in the fire to dry. 
Ifit is desired to harden very hard, repeat the operation 
several times. The iron does not need to be kept from 
the air, as by the old process of hardening. 
