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6 THE SOUTHERN WORLD, NOVEMBER 1, 1882. THE NPAAmiNO PLANTER AND DISTRIBUTOR. In the present age, the surrounding cir cumstances of the farmer demand the em ployment of labor-saving machinery in all the operations of farm life. A very impor tant saving of time, labor and money is im peratively necessary in planting seed and distributing guano. In order to leasen the cost of production, it is not only necessary to economise in time and labor, but the ma chine itself must combine the essentials of cheapness, simplicity and durability. The Bprattling Planter and Distributor shown in the cut below combines all these qualities in an eminent degree. While this machine resembles the planters of John Ham and Dow Law, it performs more than either of them, and does every thing and more than the Globe, in flrst-class style. It distributes guano and plants seed with precision, opening the furrow and covering the seed. While the above cut will convey to the practical mind a very correct idea of the machine, certain features of it cannot be shown through the medium of a drawing. These relate to the means by which the amount of guano is regulated, and also the distance between the hills, and the number of seed to each hill. On each side of the wheel there is a hopper of convenient size, one of which is designed for guano and the other for seeds. At the bottom of each of these hoppers there is a slot through which which the guano and the seed are intended to fall into the furrow opened by the point attached to the beam. These slots are pro vided with movable gates so that the open ing may be reduced or enlarged at will. On the face of the wheel next to the seed hop per is a circular flange which fits closely to the under side of this hopper. It is by re moving parts of this flange that the distance between the hills is regulated, and it is so constructed that this can be accomplished with convenience. To illustrate: If it be decided to make the hills twelve inches apart, that portion of the flange is removed which will cause the slot made by such re moval coincide with the slot at the bottom of the hopper whenever the wheel measures the desired distance. This being done the seed will fall through both slots whenever the wheel measures the distance of twelve inches. If it is desired to make the hills six inches apart, this is accomplished by remov ing twice as many sections of the flange at equal distances. These sections of t he flange are arranged in such manner as to be readily taken away or replaced. On that part of the wheel which appears in each of the hoppers, there are pins that project and operate to keep the guano and the seed from becoming packed. The covering device is so adjusted in posi tion that if it should meet solid resistance it would pass over without causing delay or damage to the machine. It has an inclina tion backward, and is attached to flat, elastic rods. The inventor has attained a high degree (if not the highest) of perfection in this ma chine. In all that makes a planter and dis tributor desirable, this surpasses all the planters we have seen. Messrs. W. C. Smith & Co., the proprietors, claim for their ma chine the following features of excellence: 1. It opens the furrow, distributes the guano, plants the seed and covers at the same time. 2. It can be so regulated as to distribute any desired quantity of guano to the acre. 3. It can be so adjusted as to plant any number of seed in a hill, and make the hill any distance apart. 4. It is simple in design and durable. 6. It can be cheaply built and sold for a profit at a price within the reach of every farmer. ft Itisof light draught, being easily drawn by one horse. 7. It is the only machine ever made that plants any desired number of seed in a hill and that regulates, with absolute precision, the distance between the hills. & It savesseventy-five percent, of theseed usually required for planting cotton. Plant-1 ing enough seed in each hill to ensure a good stand, and at the same time avoid crowding ing the young plants, which is generally the case, wiil at once be recognized by practical farmers as a decided advantage. This ad mits the sun's rays to the plant without ob struction, giving them an impetus that they will not receive if crowded upon each other. In addition to this there is a saving of the labor usually devoted to thinning out the young plants. The price is ten dollars delivered free on board of the cars at Atlanta. They ex pect soon to have it on exhibition at the va rious State capitals, where they hope to meet enterprising men who, when they perceive its merits, will promptly contract for the right to manufacture it. W. C. Smith & Co., the proprietors, may be found at 31 South Broad street. Written ipecially for The Southern World.] COMETS. A Depart tiro to Consider the Present Comet and Nome Others In This Con nection. Since I began the series of articles on “Comets, ” co-incidentally, if I may so speak, the beautiful subject which adorns our eastern sky at early morning has come into view. The present comet has excited a great deal of interest and given rise to the usual indefinite and exaggerated statements about these visitors. I shall endeavor to correct a few of the erroneous impressions made, notwithstanding some of these origi nate in the observatories and come from sources I would least expect to hear of them. I have shown that if the observations and calculations of astronomers are to be relied on, the present comet passed its perihelion not less than 200,000 miles further from the sun’s surface than the comet of 1843, and not less than 160,000 miles further than the comet of 1880; and that the comet of 1682 passed nearer the sun than either the comets of 1880 or 1882. As I gave the figures and results of observation in three separate pub lications before, I will not repeat the work here. I have proved it out of the mouths of the astronomers themselves and the public is entitled to the truth. From this, however, it will be seen that if the present is the comet of 1843 and 1880, there is no likelihood of it arriving at the sun in the burry it was announced by Prof. Boss, as its perihelion distance is actually increasing from that body at each return at an enormous rate—a rate measured by thous ands of miles. Certainly Prof. Boss could have improved his opinion somewhat by an actual reference to that part of the elements of tho orbits of those comets which had a special bearing on this point. This comet is in some particulars a re markable body, as it has led some more re cent observers into the conviction that comets do have planetary nuclei—a fact that 8ir Wm. Herschel proved over and over again. But when we are told that the nu cleus of this comet burst into three frag ments, one of which was elongated 25,000 miles, it leaves us in great doubt as to whether our more recent astronomers are well posted in cometology, Mo comet has ever been discovered whose nucleus exhib ited a diameter over 2,500 miles. How, then, could this comet’s nucleus burst into three fragments, one of which measured 25,000 miles in one direction? This statement is said to be corroborated by the observations of other astronomers than Prof. Barnard. But, unfortunately for the first statement, Prof. Brooks discovered the work of conden sation going on and the breach closed up too soon after it was made. Mr. Barnard was simply deceived by appearances. He con founded the inner layers, undoubtedly, with the planetary nucleus; or, it is even more likely that he only witnessed portion's of the coma condensing about the nucleus. It is easy to conceive how large portious of this coma, which, when fully condensed around the nucleus, forms the entire head of the comet, could exhibit themselves in a state of repulsion, and create the impression upon, the observer’s mind from what he saw, that the head of the comet was breaking up. One objection to the startling idea that the solid nucleus split into three parts is that the force required could better have been imparted when the comet was nearer the sun, and however exerted, and when, would have been aufllcient to have shivered and dissipated the entire coma about the nucleus. There can be hardly a doubt that os the body recedes from the sun, immense quanti ties of its-un-perihelioned and highly ex panded mass is re-precipitated upon its sur face and is exhibited in knots or protuber ances. The agitation that must ensue dur ing the comet’s passage of its perihelion from the expansive effect of heat, and the re condensation that follows, must and un doubtedly does, produce great changes on the surface and inward to the nucleus. If the break in the present comet was, a* rep resented, a division of its entire nucleus, it would have been manifest in a separation of the tail. I was watching the comet closely oh the morning of the reputed phenomenal separa tion, and observed evidences of just such ag itation of its un-perihelioned mass as I have described. I have witnessed the same indi cations of disturbances since it has been re ported that the fragments have condensed. These disturbances were manifest in the flashes of light in the tail, and in the con traction of. the appendage from one end to the other. Sometimes the tail would con tract to about a degree in width and widen out again to two degrees, and in contracting would have the appearance of bending along the middle on the left, while the right would appear to be more dense. The swallow-tail terminus would at times be very plain and at other times not visible at all. I hold that these flashes, up and down the tail, are due to the shutting off and letting on of solar re fracted light, caused by the agitation around the nucleus. Meteors have been falling from this comet in the air, corroborating my pre vious views, since the passage of its perihe lion, and if in its swing about the sun it distributed much of this matter along its path, our planet may take up considerable of it yet, notwithstanding the great distance at which the centre of meteoric volume passed from the earth. I have no doubt whatever, but that billions of its meteors were hurled upon the sun’s surface by its near approach to that body. While in some particulars this comet is very remarkable,- in others it is not as much so as some others which have been witnessed in modern times. The tail of this one does not appear to be over twenty degrees, while that of 1843 was sixty degrees in length, and it was so brilliant as to throw a bright light upon the earth. The comet of 1880 had a tail forty degrees in length. The comet of 1811 is described as the most splendid of modern times. It was critically examined by Sir Wm. Herschel, who demonstrated the fact of its planetary character. He found its nucleus to be by measurement not less than 2,500 miles in diameter. Careful obser vation of the first comet of 1811 showed that it contained a nucleus of about 428 miles in diameter, and that of 1807 was 538 miles in diameter, so we see there is no room for the concession, at this late day, of the fact that a comet has a solid nucleus. Many comets have no visible nuclei. The latter may be regarded as more recent agglomerations of nebulous matter, unless on their approach to the sun.in close proximity to it, the outer coatings are so condensed as to resist the usual disintegrating effect of the sun’s heat in separating the layers, and exhibiting the nucleus within. But it is said that stars have been seen through the nuclei of some comets. This can not be true; for such bodies have no nuclei in the strict sense of the word. Stars may have been observed through the heads of a few comets; but still the question would be left in doubt unless they were seen to pass from one side to the other on a middle line, as a small nucleus would not otherwise shut off their light. The no nuclei comets are not of that class usually that excite our wonder. Few of them even attract our attention when re ported from the observatories. Many con taining nuclei are very undemonstrative, either from the small quantity of nebulous matter they carry with them, or because they are too far away to be interesting to the large portion of mankind. It is the massive comet that excites our curiosity—the flam ing visitor to our neighborhood that insti gates the common inquirer to seek informa tion and to expect it from those sources where it is gathered at some expense and where the means are ample for this purpose. But remarkable to say, most of the inf rma- tion imparted from these sources has no foundation whatever. It is clear that the present comet is not a myth of chaos—a floating breeze of insub stantial nothing, but a real thing of the heavens, containing a ponderable, condensed mass within its surface layers, which, if it were to come in contact with the earth, would knock it out of existence as an inhab ited world. 8uch would be the case if a col lision between the earth and the comet of 1807, or either of the comets of 1811, should at any time take place. Such an event as a collision between a comet and one of the planets is not impossible, though very im probable, yet the fact of the ponderable character of some of these bodies, and that I class, too, which calls out the erroneous statements about them circulated at the time of a visit from one of these, is a dem onstrated fact and has been for years as I have shown. This fact is not an occular de lusion—it is no dream of the night. If an aereolite will bury itself into the earth by its fall upon its surface, one of these bodies coming in contact with our planet would drive it out of existence in its present shape, and leave it buried in the debris of its own. molten wreck by the collision. Qxo. R. Cathxb, Athville. Ala. A Better Knowledge. The better results now so apparent from the development of our mineral resources, and the more profitable return from mining investments, must be credited to a more complete comprehension of mining as a pro ductive industry. An era of speculative activity—a craze kept alive by unreasoning and unreasonable men—prostituting the best features of a great industry for money, has for years hidden from the eyes of the great majority of our people, the true char acter of mining as one of the substantial In dustries holding in reserve immense resour ces of the most desirable kind which can be used to the advancement of a common and a permanent prosperity. A better knowledge has been gradually obtained concerning, the part that the mineral resources of this coun try are destined to play in future promin ence and power, and as men have compre hended the truth, it has made them free from the toils of the speculator and the gambler and the real object of the possession and de velopment of a valuable resource has rapidly come into the foreground. This change in public opinion and growth in knowledge, not yet complete, is shown in the increased output from the mines, and a general ten dency to develop mining properties to a pro ducing basis. As this spirit predominates, the halls of the stock-gambler arc dull and deserted, and the field of development is stirring with the busy forces of energy and industry. People are but just beginning to compre hend the real place and power of the mining industry, and the millions of dollars of bul lion which are now each month pouringinto the trade centers of the country, is but the the result of the first touch of dawn upon the threshold, the stirring of a mighty giant at the break of day, before waking from his slumber to put on the strength and armor of battle. The work of placing our mines in a pro ductive position, so that the vast mineral re sources in our possession may be utilized, are but in the beginning and the magnitude of the great storehouse of wealth, that nature has so bountifully provided, is by no means yet comprehended or understood. The territory now known to be underlaid with useful and precious minerals is suffici ent to guarantee to a certainty that mining, as an industry, can and will become, in this country, one of the chief sources of national wealth and greatness. The legislators and people of this day and generation may not possess sufficient wisdom, to be able to grasp and use tbeimmense ad vantages within their reach, and build the massive bulwarks of security and prosperity upon a foundation that can never be removed, but the grandest and most wonderful mineral-bearing terri tory the world has ever known waits, and will wait, to pour out the measureless wealth of its exhaustless treasure upon a people whose intelligence and industry have made them worthy to use to the best advantage the blessings of a permanent prosperity.— Mining Review. Natural Enemies of the Telegraph, There is, apparently, no apparatus so lia ble to be interfered with by what we may call natural causes as the electric telegraph. Fish gnaw and mollusks overweight the sub marine conductors on the subterranean wires; while there is at least one instance of agay and frolicksome whale entangling him self in a deep sea cable, to his own astonish ment, and the cable’s utter disorganization. It is stated that within three years there have been sixty serious interruptions to telegraphic communications in Sumatra by those seriously curious animals—elephants. In one instance, these sagacious creatures, not thoroughly comprehending the singular contrivance, but most likely fearing snares, destroyed a considerable portion of the line, hiding away the wires and insulators in a canebrake. Monkeys of all tribes and sizes, too, use the poles and wires as an improved gymnasia; while the numerous tigers, bears and buffaloes render the watching and repair of the line a duty of great danger. •