1851. 
much easier understood, such an inquiring mind is very 
Advantageous, and the gentleman aforesaid has found it 
$o; not only financially, hut he has been “ heard from” 
m the reports of the Patent Office. 
If water can be decomposed so as to furnish a “ burn¬ 
ing fluid,” it will be a brilliant discovery. The success 
of the matter is not yet fully established ; to insure it, 
will no doubt require patience and paine. The scientific 
and the unlearned may cry out “ humbug;” so they did 
when Pulton launched his first steamboat on the Hudson. 
But when the success of this water light is established, 
it will be a more brilliant discovery than that of the 
properties of steam, and equally as beneficial for the 
million. 
Perhaps many farmers may think that they have 
nothing to do with philosophy, and that there is no ne¬ 
cessity of studying it. Such persons are very much 
mistaken. It is true they have not the time to devote to 
books that the professional man has, but our great men 
were not made by books alone, but by studying nature, 
men and things. And no one has better opportunities 
to study nature than the farmer. He may if he will, 
find 
“ Sermons in stones, tongues in trees, 
Books in the running brooks, 
And good in everything.” 
Not only chemical changes, but philosophical changes 
are constantly taking place in the farmer’s presence. 
Those familiar occurrences, the rising of fog and the 
falling of dew, or rather the condensing of vapor that 
forms dew, are explained upon philosophical principles, 
and are among the many things that the farmer sees but 
does not know. 
In every day life may be seen instances of —— philo¬ 
sophy if you please. If you want to see a model farmer 
and farm, just go with me to neighbor P.’s. Weeds do 
not grow in his garden or cornfields, or bushes by the 
side of the fences that enclose his cultivated land. Every¬ 
thing speaks of good management, industry and thrift. 
Perhaps his “ bump” of order may be fully developed, 
but that is not all the philosophy of it. He is a man 
of information, “ takes the papers” of course, and 
brings the result of his observation, intelligence and 
reading into active service; hence that state of things 
about his premises that is so pleasant to behold. 
Shall we pass on to neighbor O.’s. In passing his 
premises you might suppose you were going “ by the 
field of the slothful.” Nothing in place; work done in 
a hurry, and consequently half done; the cultivated crops 
choked by weeds, and so forth , to the end of the chap¬ 
ter. He don’t take the papers, not he, and as for “ book 
farming” he don’t believe in it. His father raised good 
corn, and had fat hogs, and books did him no good, and 
he can do as well as his father did. He could not afford 
to take an agricultural paper, if he wanted to, and he 
could not get time to read it if he did, and as for “ slick¬ 
ing up round,” and being so “awful nice,” it did not 
amount to anything. Mistaken man, “ there are more 
things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in his 
philosophy.” W. L. Eaton. 
Talking. —The best rules to form a young man are, 
to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what 
has passed in company , to distrust one’s own opinions 
and value others that deserve it. 
117 
Digging Wells. 
BY DAVID THOMAS. 
The great denuding process left the rocks of the Ham¬ 
ilton group in this neighborhood with very irregular 
surfaces,—such as narrow vales, or basins of many acres 
in extent, and sometimes to the depth of more than 50 
feet; but it is no less remarkable that none of these 
rocks project above the northern drift which has given 
us so smooth a country, although in some places they 
appear very near the surface. As we recede from the 
Cayuga Lake however, the covering of drift deepens, 
and these remarks chiefly apply within the first three 
miles. 
But so smooth a surface is unfavorable to the issuing 
forth of springs or fountains, and comparatively few are 
found in this district. To dig wells has therefore been 
the general resort. When convenience has directed the 
excavation into this state—which is very compact—the 
chance for obtaining durable water is small; and of four 
wells which were dug on my farm, scarcely one has been 
more than a reservior in drouth, the whole contents 
at such times having been emptied to the bottom. After¬ 
wards indeed, we sunk a well (50 feet) where the drift 
was deep enough without reaching the rock, and there 
we have never had occasion to measure the supply. 
In 1826 we dug a well at the kitchen door 20 feet deep. 
The first 8 feet were through the drift, when we came 
to polished state, slightly inclined, over which a little 
pure water was soaking or moving westward. On this 
was all our hopes for a supply except in wet weather, 
when it would be greatly increased ; and the remaining 
12 feet which we cut into the rock, was only intended 
as a reservior. The value of this effort however, was 
greatly diminished by filling up three quarters of the 
excavation with the wall ,* so that every dry season we 
were scant of water. 
In 1844 we dug another well, about three rods from 
the former on the opposite side of the house; and having 
become sensible of our error in starting the wall from 
the bottom, we began it on the top of the rock, which 
occurred 10 feet below the surface. To do this con¬ 
veniently however, required some preparation. Having 
dug putlog holes at proper distances round the circum¬ 
ference, close above the rock, we excavated it down¬ 
wards 9-| feet when water came in through a small cleft, 
yielding scarcely two pailfuls in 24 hours. We could go 
no deeper without blasting, which was not deemed ex¬ 
pedient. We then placed the putlogs, and laid a tight 
floor to receive the earth which should be cut from the 
sides in preparing the foundation for the wall. On the 
rock, the excavation was 18 inches wide, forming a cir¬ 
cular shelf, but it contracted upwards to the height of 
6 feet, like the lower part of a cone. Above this point, 
the well was not widened, so that the wall would leave 
the opening or mouth only 3 feet in diameter, though 
it would be 6 feet across at its foundation. 
Having provided shapely stone, and considering that 
this wall would be a horizontal arch, bracing itself at 
* Cylinders having the same altitude are to each other as their 
bases; and their bases are to each other as the squares of their diame¬ 
ters. Hence the open part of the well (or 3 feet squared,) is to the 
whole excavation, (or 6 feet squared) as 9 is to 36—or as 1 is to 4. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
