SCRIPTURE'S CARRIAGE WHEEL, ETC. SCRIPTURE'S CARRIAGE WHEEL. Description.-A, Is a perspective elevation of the wheel entire. B, Is a detached, or one-half part of the nave or hub, in which rests the ends of one-half of the spokes. C, Is a cross section of the entire wheel, showing the position of the spokes and the separate parts the hub. of 113 attention the spokes are kept constantly to their proper bearing, and the felloes firm to the tire, in consequence of which the tire will not require to be reset until worn out, and the woodwork being kept firmly in its place will wear much longer. In case of an accident to a spoke requiring it to be replaced, unscrew the nut flange, draw the pipebox from the nave, remove the broken spoke, insert a new one, then replace the pipe-box, and screw up a a a, Represent the pipe-box, passing through the the hub, and your wheel is at once as firm and two naves, or cheek pieces, c c, having on the inside strong as ever. The ends of the spokes do not rea connected flange of the same diameter as the quire to be tennoned where they rest in the hub, naves, and covering the open end of the one next but enter with their whole size, giving them all the the vehicle, while at the other end a screw thread is bearing surface they can have, and adding to their cut to receive the screw flange, or front of the hub, durability. In all other respects the wheel is put represented by b, which, by means of a wrench, is together and tired, as is the wheel now in use. Any screwed firmly upon the pipe-box; by which means farm or plantation hand is fully competent to keep the two naves being accurately fitted to the pipe, the wheel in order; and in case of the breaking of are made to approach each other, thereby causing a spoke, the most ordinary skill is sufficient to rethe spokes to act as powerful levers, and producing pair the damage, without resort to the wheelwright. the same effect that is sought to be obtained by re- Among the advantages claimed for this wheel is setting the tire of the ordinary wheel, but with the its great economy in use, consisting in the duravery important difference, that while the one is bility of the hub, which will last for a generation, effected by a considerable expense of time and the saving of two or three visits to the wheelwright, money, and with a positive injury to the wheel, the while each tire is wearing out, and his bills for resame result is brought about in the other by a few setting the tire, &c., as many times, and the conseminutes' application, and without incurring any ex-quent protection of the woodwork from the burning and shrinking of the tire. pense or injuring the wheel. B FIG. 33. с In its construction the wheel presents far greater strength than the common wheel, besides having the convenient application of mechanical power, as before set forth, to keep the wheel in constant order for use until the tire is worn too thin to be run any longer with safety. This wheel is applicable to every description of vehicle, both light and heavy, and will prove of great importance in warm climates, where the alternate wet and dry seasons are very destructive to ordinary wheels, the evils of which are without expense avoided by the above method. E. S. SCRIPTURE. Stapleton, Staten Island, N. Y. EXPERIMENT WITH GUANO.-I had plowed one acre of greensward about the 1st of August last, and divided it into equal parts for quantity and quality, as nearly as could be. On the 3d of August, on one half I spread 51 bushels unleached ashes; on the other half I sowed broad-cast, 250 lbs. Guano; then sowed turnip seed broad-cast, through and through, and harrowed all in, going through and through without regard to the division. In two weeks the line of division was perfectly Ordinary wheels become rim-bound in conse-perceptible to the eye one hundred rods distant. quence of inadequate support in the hub; while by From that part on which the guano was sowed I this method of constructing wheels, this difficulty is gathered 113 bushels turnips; on the part ashed, The ashed turnips obviated at once, by applying the wrench to the I gathered only 43 bushels. hub, and turning it up, more or less, as the case were gathered four or five days later than the guarequires. I commenced gathering about the 8th of November, and finished about the 16th. The guano was from a cargo imported by Messrs. Miner, Lawrence & Co., of this City. noed. In dry weather, wheels are apt to become loose, from the shrinking of the wood, and one day's use in that condition damages them more than one month's wear when in good order; which can always be maintained by a proper pressure of the spokes to the rim. The felloes of wheels may become loose under the tire, also, by the settling of the spokes in the hub; but constructed on the above Take good care of your meadows now, that cattle principle, it is maintained that by the most ordinary do not poach them and feed off the early grass. Cost of 51 bu. ashes, $8.50. Produced 43 bu. turnips. 114 NECESSITY OF A KNOWLEDGE OF CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES TO A FARMER. NECESSITY OF A KNOWLEDGE OF CHEMI- moment from the growing plant, till the entire work of reproduction is accomplished, and the seed is fully matured which is to perpetuate other generations through the whole course of time. The most striking exceptions to the expansive effects of heat, are in clay, and water below a certain temperature. The former contracts through the highest known temperature that can be given to it; Heat is one of the great agents of nature in ef- and a thermometer for furnaces, called, from the fecting her changes, and modifying her results. name of its inventor, Wedgwood, has been conWhat heat is, whether matter, or some effect or structed from this material, which is not injured result of matter, is yet unknown. Great heat is by the most intense heat known. Water con. always attended with light, and it is probable that, in tinues to contract till it reaches a temperature of all its degrees, it is inseparable from electricity, and 39° Fahrenheit, when by a merciful exception perhaps is identical with it. But it is my present to the general law, it begins to expand, and conobject simply to show, by some practicable exam- tinues till it reaches 32°, the freezing point, ples of every day occurrence, some of the laws by when it congeals. This keeps the cold water on which it acts. the surface till it freezes, and this change of Heat expands, with some slight exceptions, all the liquid into a solid still farther diminishes the objects into which it enters. Thus, a cold the density, thus keeping the whole body of hand is shrivelled; but warmed, it is more plump water in lakes and rivers beneath, in a condition and full. Every one knows that a boot or shoe to minister both support to its inhabitants, and the that is too tight for summer use, can be comforta- wants of man, and allow the surplus water to pass bly worn in the cold of winter. An ordinary me-off towards the ocean. tallic pendulum that keeps correct time in summer, by its contraction, will beat too quick, and consequently produce fast time in winter. An iron bolt, when fastened while hot, will contract on becoming cold, and close up a seam, which the power of man, with the lever and screw, could not effect. The blacksmith sets his iron on the wagon wheels while red hot, and immediately cooling it, he sinks it sometimes half an inch on every side in the wood. The common thermometer is another illustration of this principle. The admission and retention of heat in bodies is much affected by their substance and surface. A dense body will receive and retain more heat than such as are light and porous. A rough surface imbibes heat much quicker than a smooth one when exposed to the rays of the sun or a fire; and when at a higher temperature than the surrounding atmosphere, parts with its surplus heat more readily than such as are smooth. The color of bodies has much to do with receiving and repelling heat, and retaining or parting with it. A black surface, when exposed to a high temperature, soon becomes hot, while such as are white require a much longer time, under similar exposure, to reach the same temperature. Many substances of nearly equal density conduct heat with much greater facility than others. Let us consider for a moment some beautiful examples of the application of these laws. Fluids partake largely of this expansibility by heat. But its effects are more strikingly illustrated in air or gases, than in any other substances. The particles of matter of which these are composed, are more easily separated and kept ásunder, and they feel the influence of heat in a wonderful degree. A cubic inch of water when converted into steam occupies 1700 times its original space, even Animals and birds inhabiting the arctic regions, when nearly of the same temperature. The princi- where the cold is intense, are not only covered with ple on which all steam engines are propelled, is thick fur and down, both of which are the best solely that of the expansive power of water and known conductors of heat, but on the approach of vapor by the application of heat. Thus, the heat winter most of these change to a white color, yielded by a handful of wood, passing through a which of all others is the worst conductor. Duhalf-inch iron boiler into water, and then expanded ring a great portion of an arctic winter, there is abinto steam, will produce an effect that the combined solutely no sun, and for the remaining portion but strength of 100 horses could not accomplish. a mere glimmering of his rays. All the warmth of Heat produces nearly all the changes of weather, living things in that region, therefore, is generated by the rarefaction (or expansion) of the air, and within the covering of fur or feathers, by the comthe consequent currents of that fluid which necessa- bination of the carbon of the blood derived from rily follow; for as the heated air becomes neces- their food, and the oxygen of the air inhaled into sarily lighter by expansion, and rises, heavier air the lungs, and all of which heat is most economirushes in, frequently from an immense distance, to cally husbanded for the comfort and preservation of supply its place, and hence storms and sometimes the living being. hurricanes, whose violence is proportionate to their The warm-blooded animals that live in the Arctic cause; and so if the air suddenly loses its heat, the ocean, whales, porpoises, seals, walruses, &c., &c., neighboring warmer air hurries to supply the par-are not less protected than those on land, though in tial vacuum. a different manner. Fur or feathers, if constantly Heat (another form of electricity perhaps, or in immersed in water, would after a time admit it all cases associated with it), is also the great agent next the body, when a rapid lowering of its temof vegetable life, giving direction and effect to the perature would take place. Almighty wisdom has moisture and other elements of vegetables, when guarded the animals which live in that element in the embryo plumules and cotyledons burst from the a manner totally different, yet equally effectual with germ; nor is its vivifying influence withheld for a such as live in the air. They have a smooth, SHEEP AT fr SOUTH. naked skin, or sometimes covered with a thin hair, which is no impediment to their rapid passage through the water; and underneath is a thick covering of fat, which, though vastly denser than fur or feathers, is nearly equal in its non-conducting properties. So, too, in our own climate, the hog, which is the only animal not sufficiently protected against the rigors of winter by an external covering, takes care to supply this deficiency effectually, if allowed to indulge his gormandizing propensities, by loading the exterior of his carcass, immediately under his skin, with a thick coating of fat. The temperature of the human being has to be provided for, through the extremes of winter and summer, by external clothing, though in extreme hot weather, a portion of his excessive heat is carried off by perspiration, which involves another beautiful principle of chemistry, that we have not time at present to illustrate. Black is the warmest clothing when exposed to the sun's rays, and the coolest when deprived of them; white is directly the reverse. Consequently, there is no more unsuitable color for clothing, where temperature alone is regarded, either for winter or summer, than black, and none more proper than white. The effect of black is somewhat obviated by using white linen and under clothes. 115 used about a farm; even carts and sleighs and car- Black soils are more productive than such as are light colored, when in other respects they are equally charged with the elements of vegetable nutrition. They rapidly absorb heat when exposed SHEEP AT THE SOUTH. to the rays of the sun, and as rapidly cool when You say you are desirous of having from me they are withdrawn. Both of these effects are some account of the different flocks of sheep I saw highly beneficial to vegetation. The heat which during my hurried trip North. This I have pleathe soil acquires during the day, stimulates the sure in giving you; and hurried though my trip action of the roots and growth of the plants; and was, I saw much that interested me, and particuthe rapid cooling of the surface causes the dew larly connected with sheep matters, such having with which the air is charged to be deposited early, been the main object of my journey. and in large quantities, during the evening. Some Every thinking cotton-grower is fully convinced gardeners use white sand on the top of the soils, that too much of that staple is produced. All are because," as they say, "it is so heating." Had anxious to lessen that over-production; but they they a knowledge of some of the first principles of also feel the absolute need of a substitute that will chemistry, they would at once see the absurdity of profitably employ their negroes, and occupy their the practice. Were the sand black, or of a dark lands. What this substitute shall be, is the difficolor, the practice would be commendable, as it cult point, and one that will not readily be overwould conduct the rays to the roots of the plants, come. The cotton crop affords no time for attendwhich its white color reflects. The sand is highly ing to others; from New Year's day until Christuseful when mixed with many soils, but is objec-mas, it keeps every hand engaged in its culture tionable when placed on the surface. Pure sand is incessantly occupied. Like corn, it can only be frequently hotter than dark earth in similar situa-grown to advantage on good land. Something that tions; but it is because it is drier and a non-con-will yield a profitable return on the poor and worn ductor, and retains what heat is imparted to it, parts of our plantations, at the same time admitting while the evaporation of the moisture, and the heat- of such a system in their cultivation as will imconducting properties of the dark soils, carry off the heat. A pure white or very light colored earth can never be fertile. Very luxuriant vegetables are always dark colored when growing, and their color helps their growth in two ways-and for the same reason that dark soils do, viz: by conducting the heat into the plant while the sun is up, and again conducting it off when down, by which there is a rapid and plentiful deposit of dew upon it. White buildings reflect the sun's rays, while darker colors absorb them; consequently, those which are white are vastly more durable than such as are very dark. It would be more economical to use white for all the buildings, fences, tools, &c., prove the soil, and not interfere too much with the main crop, cotton, is what we want. Other crops, unless it be oats, millet, and other fodder and grain crops, such as peas, sweet potatoes, and so on, interfere too much with cotton. And though I am of opinion that it could easily be proved that almost any of these, and tobacco, flax seed, castor oil leaf, mustard seed, and many others are, any of them, more profitable than cotton; yet the fact of their occupying such land as the planter would desire to put in his accustomed crop, and requiring considerable labor at those times that it is most needed in the cotton field, will render it difficult to introduce auxiliary crops. It has always seemed to me that, after employing improvement, though differing in kind perhaps. all the labor we can in home manufactures; in the But I am forgetting the intention of my present raising of heavy crops of grain so as to supply the writing. home demand, keep work animals fat, and raise and fatten abundance of pork; next to these we could keep sheep enough to sell 100 pounds of good wool to the hand-employ a few hands profitably, and so as to have them in the cotton field when most needed-occupy our worn lands to advantage, and, by a little judicious management, bring them back to their original state of fertility. All these would be objects well worth attaining, if practicable; and of this I could very quickly convince you, had I the leisure. The poorest worn lands of this part of Mississippi will grow Bermuda grass enough to support an average of two of our native sheep to the acre, and will improve each year to such an extent, that within as many years from five to seven head may be kept. Sheep enrich land more rapidly than any other kind of stock; the Spaniards, you know, say that "sheep have golden feet,”—and, in this sense, they certainly have. This grass, too, keeps all it gets of top-dressing, until its sod becomes sur-rior animals-Saxony-Merinos-being a cross from prisingly close. I commenced the handling of your northern flocks at Utica. The exhibition there was a very fair one, though more might well have been expected of the largest sheep-owning State, at her State show. I afterwards saw several of the flocks on their own walks. Of the Merinos exhibited, the ram belonging to the Messrs. Carpenter seemed to me the best animal; his coat was exceedingly close, and must weigh well; and the staple as fine as that of any Merino I ever saw. Mr. Reed Bur. ritt, of Tompkins Co., N. Y., showed some large, finely formed animals, if one might judge of their form under such a coat of wool. Their fleece had not been cut last spring, and though heavy was full of yolk, and not remarkably fine. Mr. Blakeslee's flock is a very superior one; and not only those he himself had there, but the draft from the flock of Col. Sherwood, which originated from Mr. B.'s, attracted, and justly, great attention. Judge Smith, of Woodbury, Conn., had some very supe Mr. Blakeslee's best rams upon a very superior lot I would by no means wish to be understood as of Saxony ewes. It was this flock which first advising any one to abandon the growth of cotton opened my eyes to the foolish prejudice, existing entirely, for that of wool and mutton-unless, in- amongst a great many, to this cross; and I afterdeed, the land has become so much worn as no wards had repeated proofs that the best wool grown longer to yield a remunerative crop, and the planter in the Union, if not in the world, is borne on the might be inclined and have the means to open an- backs of the Saxony-Merino; and that the animals other plantation. But I would urge every hill-themselves are just as hardy, and nearly, if not planter to procure a stock of sheep sufficient to yield say 100 lbs. of wool to the hand-first setting his worn lands in grass, to an extent sufficient for their abundant support. quite, as large as any others, producing even moderately fine wool. Judge Smith is daily improving his flock. There were beautiful Saxonies, with their soft, pure, white, clean coats, from Vernon, To satisfy myself as to what kind of sheep N. Y.-drafts from the flocks of Messrs. Crocker, would suit us best, was one great object of my Church, and others. Their fleeces, and those of the journey. That we can grow as fine wool as is Saxony-Merinos, will yield more perfectly clean produced in any part of the world, I think is cer- wool than any Merino fleeces I have yet met tain; though the assertion has been so often made with, having any claims to equal fineness, which and reiterated, that in our southern climate the finest few of them have; and I am fully inclined to bewools soon become mere hair, or at best assume alieve that they will produce more pounds of wool much coarser character, that even our most intelli-than any other breed, and perhaps as many of mutton. gent planters have, many of them, taken it as an I saw an excellent communication in the last numestablished fact-when, in truth, it is the mere assertion of your closet philosophers, without a single fact to sustain it. The belief has done much to prevent the growth of fine wool in the South. ber of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, on this subject, which is taken up in the proper manner. And the writer may be correct-that on applying a powerful microscope to fibres of wool from It is not, however, necessary that sheep, to be sheep of different breeds, that of the finest Saxonies profitable, should be of the fine-wooled breeds. in the country is found to be but little, if any, Our native sheep, indifferent as their wool-produc- less in diameter than that from some of the largest ing qualities are, give us the finest mutton in the sized Merinos, which to the naked eye seems comworld. They are light-bodied, and long-legged-paratively coarse. He remarks at the same time, in my opinion the result in a great measure of their that the (apparent) cavity within the fibre is much in and in breeding; give us about a pound, not larger in the Saxony; and adds that it is this, he more, of wool about the quality of Southdown, but believes, which gives it its silky lustre and soft of a much softer character-much of it closely re-fee!. Now, in my opinion, it is its silky lustre that sembling that imported from Cordova, under the five per cent. duty. Even as they now are, they are profitable; and to render them richly so, all that is needful is to cross them with almost any other breed. You may recollect the very superior samples of wool I showed you, from the lambs of those same naked-bellied ewes, by a superior Merino buck. The Saxony, Southdown, Cotswold and Bakewell, all bring about as great a degree of causes the appearance of a cavity, where, in fact, none exists, to be greater in this variety. He says nothing of the spiral turns in the fibre, and comparative number and fineness of the serratures, which produce its felting properties, and determines its value to the manufacturer, which last, by the way, is all the grower cares for. But I am again forgetting myself. The only passable Southdowns were a few AGRICULTURE AND LANDS OP FLORIDA. 117 shown by Mr. McIntyre; and his, though good, will AGRICULTURE AND LANDS OF FLORIDA. not rate with some I could show you in this neighborhood. Indeed, I was disappointed throughout east to the prairie lands and forests of the West, and WHILE SO many farmers are emigrating from the in the Southdowns I saw everywhere. The Bake- even to the country whose shores are on the wells, unless I may except two or three very fat Pacific, it may not be unacceptable to many readers wethers, fell far short of my expectation. The to know the capabilities of this southern land. Cotswolds, on the other hand, as far exceeded them. There exists a very general impression that Florida With greater size than the Bakewell, and a much consists almost entirely of swamps and lowlands, more valuable fleece, they seem to me, and I am the exhalations arising from which are so destrucconfident are, animals of much better constitutions; tive to human life as to render the country almost they breed readily and regularly, which the others unfit for agricultural purposes. There is unquesdo not; though I presume the Bakewells will fat- tionably much lowland, but very many locations ten at an earlier age. Mr. Sotham, of Albany, had can be found where it is high and entirely healthy, a small lot of these beautiful and valuable animals, even in the summer. that pleased me exceedingly. At New York I af- and noble stream for 50 miles, is navigable for 200 The river, St. John's, a wide terwards saw a few from the flock of the Messrs. miles from its mouth. For the first 30 or 40 miles, Hallock, which showed better keep than Mr. So- the land on its banks is very sandy, and its natural tham's, and were consequently much larger, and growth is pine. Such is the climate, however, that equally fine otherwise. At Woodbury, Conn., is another flock of very will yield very good cotton, sugar, tobacco, and even this land is said to be quite productive, and fine animals-that of Mr. Marvin-which he asserts corn. As you proceed up the river towards Lake are pure Saxony. The wool is beautiful, nicely George and Monroe, the land becomes better, and washed, and neatly put up and stowed away, wait- there frequently occur rich hummocks, whose fering for a higher price. He and his neighbors tility is indicated by heavy growths of the cabbage, assure me that his flock averages 31 lbs. per head, palm, ash, maple, and wild orange trees. These of well-washed wool. What flock of pure Me- lands produce excellent sugar, the canes measuring rinos, producing wool worth fifty cents per pound, several inches in diameter. At Pilatka, the climate will yield more, washing the wool clean, so as to is of a decidedly milder character, and orange trees remove the yolk? At Lowell I met a number of which have been seriously injured below, have the western Pennsylvania and Virginia growers, there entirely escaped the injurious effects of the sewith their wool for sale; and in the Messrs. Law-vere weather of the present season. rence's store-rooms I saw a number of the clips of opposite Pilatka is one of the best orange groves Immediately that year. Much of it is finer than any wool grown in Florida, and I can imagine few things more beaunorth of them, and was so pronounced by Mr. Law-tiful than this collection of some 500 bearing trees. rence in my presence. The samples I brought with They are planted in rows twenty feet apart, and me from Lowell, as also those I took from the present a regular symmetrical mass of rich, glossy backs of the sheep when amongst them, tell the foliage. same tale, and it is all Saxony-Merino. I cannot hitherto escaped the ravages of the insect, and the This grove, and those above it, have now specify the flocks west of the mountains; but fruit produced is said to be of a remarkably rich and enclose you a few loose samples, the growth of luscious quality. As the river passes into Lake western йocks, which you can examine and report George, there is an island of some 3,000 acres, upon. They have simply been washed on the called Drayton, on which are several fine groves, sheep's backs. Mr. Aaron Clement, of Philadel- from which some 50,000 oranges were sent to marphia, showed me some very superior Southdowns ket the past autumn. This also has thus far and Bakewells, which he had purchased to fill escaped the ravages of the insect, which has been orders-which he makes a business of doing; and so destructive in St. Augustine and other parts of I know of no one I would sooner trust with a com- the South. mission of the kind. Lake George is a fine sheet of water, about fifteen Your northern and eastern sheep-masters charge miles in diameter. The land on its banks is said to such prices for their animals as we cannot afford to be of good character, but very little is yet taken up. pay, unless it be for a single ram occasionally. From Lake George to Lake Monroe the river winds The freight and expenses upon stock brought such beautifully among the hummocks, and is fringed a distance are enormous; which, added to the with the elm, the maple, and the alder, now in full prices asked, will prevent many being sold south leaf and bloom, while an occasional grove of wild or west. The breeders in Pennsylvania and Vir-oranges or clump of palms lend their novel beauty ginia have caught the lesson from their eastern to the scene. As evening approaches, the tall neighbors, and ask equally exorbitant prices, so cypresses become the roosting-place of numerous high that I came home without buying a hoof. wild turkeys. They are often of great size, and They have all got an idea that the demand is going are scarcely inferior to the domestic ones. to be very great, and that it behooves them to charge accordingly. They will spoil their market. The inquiry of which is the best breed for this latitude, I have discussed at some length in the New Orleans Commercial Times, and regret that want of leisure prevents my saying anything more at this time. THOMAS AFFLECK. Ingleside, Miss., 2d December, 1845, Some 30 miles before you reach Lake Monroe, the boat passes Beresford Lake, a small sheet of water, on which is an old plantation, formerly taken up and cultivated by Lord Beresford, but now deserted and overgrown. Just beyond this is Blue Spring, said to be the gem of Florida. Some 500 yards back from the river, is a very large spg, and a multitude of smaller ones, throwing up to |