1847. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
TwsffiMEaaaww 
S3 
and time is given for the process, but if you set it so as 
to grind as fine as common mills do, when they do their 
best work, you will not, probably, get more than from 
four to five bushels through it in an hour. As to the 
power required, I answer, the more the better, until 
you are able to sustain a motion of fifteen hundred re¬ 
volutions a minute while you push the ears down hard 
for the teeth to get hold; but for a small business, 
this is not necessary. About the power of two horses 
would do good business. 
“ A mill owner, two miles from me, has expended 
probably $1500 in erections for grinding corn in the ear, 
and I can, probably, grind two bushels to his one, and 
not $200 invested. The only thing required to keep 
my mill in order, is, once in, say three hundred bushels, 
to grind the teeth and set them in the machine, perhaps 
an hour’s work. 
“ Grinding has become quite an object with me since 
I purchased Pitt’s mill. I intend to grind all my feed, 
and do as much custom work as I can get. 
11 As to feeding cob meal, my opinion is, that it is 
just the kind of food for working horses, and I feed it, 
cooked, to my swine and cattle that I fat. I can grind 
it cheaper than I can thresh the corn.” 
Since the foregoing was written, I have been informed 
that Mr. Pitts has made a very important improvement 
in his mill, by dropping the bed plate and concave a 
little, by which means the feeding is more perfect and 
its powers very much increased. 
The only objection to this mill, that I have discover¬ 
ed, which is the fault of several others ; it requires the 
constant attention of one person to feed it, as only one 
ear can be put into the tube at once. When shelled 
corn, or oats and corn, are to be ground, a hopper with 
a tube to fit the mill is required. This tube should 
have a slide to regulate the feeding, otherwise the 
weight or pressure of the corn will retard the motion 
and lessen the speed. 
The price of these machines is forty dollars, and may 
be had either of Mr. John A. Pitts, of Rochester, or at 
the Albany Agricultural Warehouse, of Luther Tucker, 
editor of the Cultivator. 
C. N. Bement. 
Albany , December , 1846. 
“ SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.” 
The Genesee Farmer for [this month, contains two col- 
ums of criticism, by Dr. Lee, editor oi that paper, on 
an essay prepared by me last winter, and published in 
the Transactions of the State Agricultural Society. I 
had concluded to pass this attack without remark ; but 
it has been urged upon me that some explanation is 
needed, and is especially due to the committee who 
awarded a premium on that essay. The committee in¬ 
deed are abundantly able to defend themselves from the 
implied censure in Dr. Lee’s remarks ; but then they 
ought not to be blamed for any omission of mine, altho’ 
that omission would be readily supplied by the good 
sense of a candid reader. 
It may perhaps serve as some apology for the essay, 
that it was hastily written for the Transactions referred 
to, without the remotest expectation or thought that it 
would be offered for the premium. Hence it was not 
guarded at every point against captious criticism ; and 
hence in giving the compositions of some manures to 
show their relative strength, on the authority of the 
English Agricultural Gazette, I did not state, what is 
generally known, that such manures vary in composi¬ 
tion. Scarcely indeed, should I have deemed such state¬ 
ment necessary, as the quotation was merely intended 
to convey a general idea for illustrating a principle. 
The composition there given may not be strictly correct, 
but I believed it near enough to show the great and gen¬ 
eral difference between common manure and guano 5 
and I quoted it with less hesitation as it accorded nearly 
with the results of my own practice. I could not re¬ 
gard it therefore, as Dr. Lee does without any assigned 
reason, as a “ humbug.” 
The practice of giving the result of a single analysis, 
as a general average, is common among the most emi¬ 
nent chemists ; and Dr. Lee frequently does so himself, 
both by quoting the results obtained by others, and by 
assertions without authority, even of some substances 
which vary greatly in composition.* Hence the strong 
* Examples from Dr. Lee's writings could be furnished in 
abundance, but the reader will find several instances on pages 49, 
50, and 51, of the same volume of the Transactions in which the 
essay in question was published. He there gives m part, the com¬ 
position of several vegetable substances, without the slightest inti 
mation of any variation in their ingredients, although such va¬ 
riation has been fully shown by the various analyses of Sprengle, 
Berthier, Davy, and others. These eminent chemists have proved 
phrases which he applies to my remarks, of “ errors,” 
u absurdities,” “ humbugs,” u sweeping conclusions,” 
and “ gross perversion,”—would apply with equal force 
to his own writings. 
Dr. Lee occupies nearly a column in controverting 
the fact that animals secrete highly fertilizing substan¬ 
ces \ and concludes by saying, 11 No farmer must ex¬ 
pect his domestic animals to supply him with more or 
better manure, than their food and drink will furnish.” 
According to this assertion then, the richest stable manure 
is no “ better” than hay, straw, oats, and water, spread 
over the surface of the land—a ridiculous error, which 
every farmer must see at a glance. 
I have thus shown the injustice of Dr. Lee’s two 
charges 5 and that instead of proving errors against me, 
he has himself fallen into errors in the attempt. 
I regret this indication of his hostility, for which I am 
not conscious of having afforded any cause. Indeed it is 
with much reluctance that I have consented to point out 
his errors, and have no wish for controversy of any 
kind. J. J. Thomas. 
Macedon, 11 mo. 28, 1846. 
Good Sheep. —The Maine Farmer states that Mr. 
Charles Perley, of Woodstock, New Brunswick, has 
a flock of long-wooled sheep of the Leicester and Lin¬ 
colnshire cross, 73 of which gave, at the last shearing, 
524 lbs. 1 ox. of clean wool, being an average of over 
7 lbs. per head. 
Beech-nuts for Poultry. —The Maine Farmer 
says that Wm. Hutchinson, of Read field, is in the ha¬ 
bit of fatting troops of turkeys on beech nuts. He 
drives them, it is said, out into beech-groves, and there 
they feed themselves; and after being thus driven a few 
times, they will go of their own accord. They eat the 
nuts with avidity, and when they are killed, their flesh 
is said to be excellent, having a peculiar flavor given 
by this kind of food. 
that some of the constituents which Dr. Lee names, vary 100 to 150 
per cent in some cases. A still more striking case of variation is 
given by Johnston, on the authority of Hermbstadt, where the 
quantity of nitrogen in grain was increased nearly 400 per cent, 
merely by the application of certain manures. 
The only difference between these cases from Dr. Lee, and that 
which he so strongly denounces in the essay, is, that he stated them 
entirely on his own authority, while I only copied from another 
work, naming the authority. 
