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SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS.
The Gonzales Inquirer says: A flock of some
fifteen hundred head of Mexican sheep and goats
crossed the river at this place last Thursday,
going East. In order that the reader may form
some idea of the extent of this business in our
State, we will here remark that, from a safe cal
culation of one of our sheep-raisers, it is estima
ted that not less than one-fourth of a million of
sheep have been brought into Texas from Mexi
co since the Ist of January last, exclusive of
those imported from Tennessee, Illinois, Missou
ri and Arkansas. It is also estimated that by
the Ist of next January this number will have
been doubled, thus making something like half
a million of sheep brought from Mexico into our
State during the year. Os the number already
brought in it is thought that about seventy or
eighty thousand have crossed the river at this
place.”
Nothing gives us more pleasure than to copy
evidence of the growing prosperity of the South.
"We find from close observation, that the Texas
Musquite grass is one of the best growing plants
that can be grown in Georgia, and no reader
can do us so great a favor in any other way as
to tell us how we can obtain a few bushels of
the seed of this southern grass for cultivation in
this State. Even a few pounds or ounces will
be thankfully received. Our collection of grasses
is already respectable, and constantly increas
ing.
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
ENGLISH GRASSES.
Mr. Editor: Sir : Why is it we do not raise
the English grasses at the South—such as tim
othy, orchard and blue grass; also red, white,
and French clover, or as the latter is more com
monly called, lucerne ?
The only reason that can be assigned for it is,
we have never tried them thoroughly, and
therefore do not know their true value. Many
planters at the South think they cannot be
grown, for the reason when once well sot in
grass, their land can never be cultivated in
other crops without being injured to a great ex
tent or causing a great amount of labor to keep
the grasses trom growing. I will admit such
would be the cas# with Bermuda or Guinea
grass, but not with the kinds above alluded to;
for when once plowed under with a good two
horse mouldboard plow, they are no more.—
Others think our climate so warm that grass
must inevitably be killed, or its growth so re
tarded that it would be of little value to them.
My experience in Virginia for the last fifteen
years (where I was raised) with my father, who
has grown and cut from 100 to 150 tons of good
hay annually, and my short experience in Clark
county Ga., have proven to my satisfaction that
we cau grow as fine hay, have as fine green
fields and meadows as any farmers in the Union,
and raise stock much cheaper than they can in the
Northern States. Furthermore, wo can accom
plish a great good to our Heaven-blessed south
. em country, by reclaiming and improving our
worn out and exhausted lands that were once
rich and fertile, possessing, as wo do, a climate
not surpassed on the globe. The only way to
attain this great object is to raise grass and
stock. Select the proper land and seed, then be
carefiil in plowing to see that the land is well
broken up and turned over, to the depth of eight
or twelve inches with a good two or three horse
plow. Harrow thoroughly with a good iron
harrow, so as to leave no holes or cracks that
the seed can get down in, for grass seed require
but a slight covering. Some, a little more than
others. Then let your seed be sown evenly over
the ground, for a great deal depends on getting
a good set. The only way inexperienced hands
can do it, is to sow half your seed one way, and
then turn and sow the balance the other way;
that is, crossing the way it was first sown.—
Timothy and clover should be sown at the rate
of eight quarts to the acre ; orchard grass from
one and a half to two bushels. In covering tim
othy and clover seed, I find that our rollers cov
er it sufficiently, and much better than anything
else. It packs the earth close around the seed,
and enables it to germinato in a few days. It
also crushes the clods, and leaves the ground in
proper order for the scythe. Where the ground
is free of clods in sowing orchard grass I think
it best to run a light wooden harrow over before
rolling, as it requires a little moro covering than
the other kinds. I believe our best time for
sowing grass seed in the South is in October,
and the early part of November, for the reason
that the young grass has plenty of time to get
well rooted before the next summer’s dry and
hot weather comes on it, although grass seed can
be sown any month in the year at the South by
sowing some plant with it to shade arid protect it
from the hot sun when quite young. One of the
the surest ways to obtain a good stand of grass, is
to sow it with corn immediately after the last
working, and run a small light harrow between
the rows of corn to cover the seed. The corn
shades the young grass which will show itself
in a few days; by the time the com is harvested
it is able to stand what sun comes upon it with
out injury, providing the land is good.
The above directions, from tho pen of Mr. Os
car Bailey, give the reader a clear and concise
statement ot the most approved plan of seeding
land to the English grasses. Mr. 8.. will soon
have 100 bushels of orchard grass seed of this
year’s growth in Augusta, and seeds of the best
other grasses ; and we have mado arrangements
with him to supply such of our readers as may de
sire a bushel or such a matter, of seed. Ad
dress the agricultural editor of this paper.
——— —
Kill Your Rats. — The London Gardener's
Chronicle gives the following receipt for a poison
for Vermin. It has long been sold under various
names; but has generally been kept secret.—
There is no doubt but that it is the best poison
known; and thus prepared, will not take fire of
itself. Our country Druggists, making up a
quantity at a time, might sell it to great advan
tage. Introduce one drachm of phosphorous in
to a Florence flask, and pour over it one ounce
of rectified spirits. Immerse the flask in hot
Water until the phosphorous has melted, then
put a well fitting cork into the mouth of the
flask, and shake it briskly, until the contents are
cold. Tho phosphorous will now be found to
be in a finely-divided state; auu this-, after pour
ing off the spirit, is to be mixed in a hfortar with
an ounce and a half of lard. Tho mlxturt takes
place without combustion, and a little spirit re
maining does no harm. Five ounces of flour,
and an ounce and a half of brown sugar, pre
viously mixed, are now to be added, and the
whole may be made into a paste with a little
water. Cheese may be used instead of sugar,
when intended for rats and mice.
If meadow-moles are injuring an orchard, take
blocks of wood and bore inch holes in them; fill
these holes with meal, mixed with this poison,
and lay the blocks in different parts of the orch
ard, near the trees. This composition is equally
good for roaches, and may, it is said, be applied
to beds for bugs.
XKE SOVXK3EM £X££>» AStS »XE£SXS£.
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
ROTATION OF CROPS.
Green Mt., Burke Co., Aug. 10th, 1859.
Dr. Daniel Lee —Dear Sir: In a pre
vious communication we endeavored to embody
some practical truths, and promised a continua
tion of the article. In compliance we introduce,
first, rotation of crops, as a means of prolonging
and increasing the fertility ofland. The earliest
records of Agriculture bear evidence of the
existence of some knowledge both of the princi
ple and practice of change of crops. However
imperfect and inadequate in this day of agricul
ture, science and knowledge, we may deem the
systems of by-gone days, it cannot but be ac
knowledged that they were preferable to none
at all—yea, more that, in many instances, they
were based on more scientific principles than
those practiced by many intelligent planters of
modern times. Wherever civilization and sci
ence have shed their rays, and tilling the earth
is followed for subsistence and gain, there some
manner of rotation is considered indispensable
to the attainment of the greatest success. In
short, the bare fact of all nations at all versed
in agricultural knowledge practicing some sys
tem of rotation, evidences its great value.
That there exists an urgent necessity for a
change of crops on all lands however fertile, and
especially on exhausted soils, it seems to me at
this enlightened day, no well informed planter
can entertain a doubt. Long since series of well
conducted experiments have shown where lands
have failed to produce one crop remuneratively,
by appropriating them to some other requiring
different elements, or the same elements in other
proportions for food, they have again richly re
warded the labors of the husbandman. The
earth in every field we cultivate, contains so
much lime, potash, soda, phosphoric acid, am
monia, Ac., and every crop we grow consumes
more of the one and less of another of these ele
ments, agreeably to the laws regulating its nour
ishment. Agricultural chemistry as well as the
universal experience of farmers, however, teach
the fact that all plants exhaust the soil in some
degree. The different elements of food which
vegetables require, exist in every fertile soil in
various combinations and proportions, and by the
assistance of water taking them up in solution,
feed plants through. their roots. When the
same crop, as for example, corn, is grown on tho
same land for several consecutive years, it re
quiring a large proportion of the phosphates, the
supply of these elements must become inade
quate where no return is made to the soil in the
way of manure, except the roots, stalks, and
what little may be derived from the air, rain
and dew. If the effort, by simply manuring, is
made to keep a supply of these ingredients suf
ficient to insure a heavy crop, the expenditure in
labor, or money, or both, is necessarily so great
that there can be only a very small profit ob
tained. This method is but little better than
buying the corn, and requires ready capital for
its prosecution. What, to us, seems to be the
most perfect system of farming, is the obtaining
the heaviest crops with the expenditure of the
least amount of labor and money; and a succes
sion of crops will contribute greatly to accom
plish this result.
Again, science and experience teach that all
plants do not exaust the soil in the same ratio.
The natural sources from whence all vegetables
derive their nourishment, arc limited to the at
mosphere, water, and the soil. It is a well es
tablished fact that one class of plants rely more
exclusively on the soil for their pabulum than
others; and of this variety are the small grains
and many of tho grasses. They present but
a limited surface of the air, rain and dew in con
sequence of their small stems and narrow leaves
the texture of whose surface being soft and gla
zed, rendering them unfavorable to absorption,
must obtain their food principally from the soil
When the above plants and all others analogous,
are allowed to mature their fruit, and is then re
moved from the field, the amount of exhaustion
which the soil sustains is great; because of the
much it gives to, in the way of food, and the
little in the way of manure it receives in return
from these plants.
Another class of plants, very abunuant and
contributing largely to the substance and com
fort of the animal kingdom, obtain an important
part of their nourishment from the atmosphere.
Supplied with numerous, large, rough and porous
leaves, thereby exposing much surface to at
mospherical influences, they imbibe carbonic
acid and water, freely. To this class belong
corn, the different varieties of sugar-cane, the
cotton plant, beans, peas, and many others.
A third class, seeming but little dependent on
the soil, obtain their nourishment from water
and the air. Os this number are the mosses,
lichens, the fresh water grasses and weeds, and
sea weeds. These play a part in the economy
of nature, extracting from the two sources of
vegetable nutrition least used, elements for food
by which they are nourished and enabled to
fabricate material to bestow on the soil.
Another principle, showing the value and ne
cessity of succession of crops is, that different
kinds of plants do not exaust the soil in the
same degree, and of the same elements of food
in the same proportions. Chemical analysis of
the ash of different kinds of plants show them to
contain in their composition, different propor
tions of Phosphoric Acid, Potash, Soda, Lime,
Ac., as for example, the grains are composed of
a largo per centage of the Phosphates—the
roots, potatoes, turnips and beets of Potash
and Soda; while the grasses have an excess of
Lime, all of which elements are furnished by the
soil. Plants differ also in respect to the parts of
the soil from which they obtain their food. Tho
grains are supplied with numerous fibrous roots
which branch out and run superficially in every
posible direction in quest of aliment. They of
course appropriate to themselves oniy the sur
face soil with which alone their roots come in
contact. Another variety more independently
endowed, possessing both a tap-root and super
ficial radicles, extract nourishment both from
tho surface and the subsoil —to this class belong
the cotton plant. Still another variety, as beets
and turnips, possessing only a tap-root without
superficial radicle i, receive their nutriment from
the limited portion of earth in contact with the
lower part ot their roots,
Tho value of rotation of CFops is manifested in
another consideration, that “all plants do not re
store to the soil either the same quality or the
samo quantity of manure.” We have already
shown, in a previous part of this communication,
that all plants require to be furnished with cer
tain elements of food for their organization, and
that each class fabricates a structure as to
amount and character of constituents, peculiar
to itself. For illustration, the corn plant produ
ces a grain containing more Phosphoric Acid, and
a stalk containing less Silica than the wheat
plant. The grasses also produce a straw rich in
Lime and Soda, while wheat-straw is poor in
these substances. Hence, we are correct in say
ing that whatever may be returned, in the way of
manure, to tho soil by these plants, must partake
of tho nature of their constituents.
Again, were the entire product of plants re
turned the soil, there would be no deterioration
of its fertility excepting that arising from tho es-
sects of tillage and other extraneous causes.
The fact tliat the soil sustains a heavy diminu
tion of its elements of fertility, by cultivation,
must be evident when we consider the solvent
power of water and the immense influence of the
heat of the sun's rays in producing its evapora
tion. To the loss sustained by tillage must be
added the amount consumed by the crop which
when it matures its seed is greatest, aud less
is returned to the soil in consequence of the
part lett on the ground having parted with most of
its nutritive matter in maturing the fruit. We are
able to see then that the quantity of restitution
made to the soil, by most plants, depends on the
stage of growth at which they are removed
from the earth, and the amount and kind of
roots, stalks and stubble left upon the soil. Some
plants, however, are different from others, as
the leguminous tribe, always making a liberal
restoration to soils, whether they be allowed to
ripen their seed, or be mowed, or depastured.
Still another advantage of a rotation of crops,
independent of the benefit accruing to the soil,
is the assistance it renders to the fanner in
keeping down the classes of insects which feed
on his crop. It is well known that insects, like
the higher order of beings, manifest a choice in
the plants on which they feed, and that they
increase and multiply, other things being favora
ble, just in proportion to the facility and ease
with which they procure their food. No plant,
however unpalatable and even poisonous it may
be to one tribe of insects, but answers as savory
and wholesomo diet for another. Experience
and observation have shown us that the insects
Hessian Fly, Chinch Bug and Bud-worm, which
feast on and almost destroy the grain crops,
rarely over disturb or injure the cotton plant.
So too is it with the 8011-worm, Aphis and
Catterpiller, enemies of the cotton plant, they
never molest the corn, wheat, oats and rye
plants. How wise it would be for farmers, then,
if for no other account than this, and how easy
for them too, not to plant the same crop on the
same land annually, or even in a quick succes
sion when they know the practice favors the
propagation and perpetuity of these pests.
Another consideration evincing a necessity
for the practice of a succession of crops, is that
the same plant will not flourish on the same soil,
for an unlimited period, without imbecility and
disease. Long since observation has shown
that arable land though once bringing fine crops
of corn, cotton or other vegetables, where from
necessity or choice it has been planted to either
of these crops without intermission, produced deli
cate and sickly plants. True it is, that the na
tive fertility and adaptability of the soil to pro
duce these plants and their own innate charac
ter have much influence in favor of the length
of time they will grow on the same soil health
fully. But oftentimes it seems unphilosophic and
unsatisfactory, to attribute the decline in the
condition of plants, to a deficiency or an excess
of organic or inorganic food. For example, how
often does it happen that we see an unfruitful
crop of corn and cotton on land well drained,
well prepared, manured and well cultivated,
during a propitious season ? Observing farmers
have often had occasion to notice, that when
they planted a field in corn or cotton for several
years, though a supply of manure amply suffi
cient for the crop had been applied,'the yield per
acre not unfrequently diminished annually when
the seasons and all things else seemed
equally favorable. Whether this fact depends
on a peculiar disarrangement of the proportions
of the elements of food as they primarily existed,
or upon some deleterious property imparted by
the plants in their transpiration and expiration,
to the soil, or on some mechanical condition of
the particles of the eurth induced by the roots
of the plants, or the modefof culture which they
require, is beyond our capacity to determine. —
In regard to animals, only a higher order of ex
istences, we know that their own excrementi
tious matters are more liable to generate disease
among thair own kind, than that of another
kind, and why the same may not hold true in
part in regard to plants, we can discern no de
cided reason. Allowing this theory to be cor
rect, we can easily account for many of the dis
eases which attack the plants wo grow, which
otherwise would be involved in mystery. We
should at least be induced to practice rotation of
crops, as a measure of prevention.
Trusting enough has been advanced to con
vince all unbiased minds of the value of a rota
tion of crops as a means of prolonging and in
creasing the productiveness of land, and staying,
in a measure, the depredations of insects and
the scourge of disease, we will proceed to
give the system practiced by ourselves, not re
commending it to be the best that can be. but
only assuring the young man (we say young,
because perhaps the old are joined to their idols)
who will practice the same, or another based ou
similar, or improved principles, will be, after a
thorough trial, richly recompensed by witness
ing the improvement of his land and remunera
tive crops. The system of agriculture practiced
in the Southern States, is too little diversified
and too laborious to be attractive, and perhaps
cannot as yet admit a rotation of cropping on the
most scientific principles. The absorbing idea is
money, but whether our present system of farm
ing gives more of the article than another
might, we will not undertake to say. Wc will say,
however, that there is too much stress on the
present, and too little regard for the future in
volved in the treatment of lands. Many a young
planter has started life with fertile land, and
promised himself rich harvests unto the end,
who, ere his course was run. found himself com
pelled either to till land so exhausted as barely
to afford subsistence, or to effect sale and move
to where fresh land might be obtained. The
delusive song, “It will last my lifetime,” engen
dered indifference to the future, and no effort was
made to economise and preserve tho resources of
of his soil
[to be continued.]
—- -»•«-
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
' Memphis, Texx., August 15, 1859.
Dr. Lee— Dear Sir: As you have solicited
information in regard to the cure of that fatal
disease amongst cattle —the murrain—l will
give you a brief history of the successful treat
ment of a caso I had. My cow was a noble an
imal, and a bountiful milker, and I therefore felt
very anxious fbr her recovery. I used a great
variety of remedies, aud, therefore I cannot say
with jiositivo accuracy to which her cure is at
tributable. lam very well convinced, however,
that she derived more advantage from a drench
of melted lard, and strong pepper tea and wheat
bran, than anything else. I gave pint doses of
the lard several times during the day, and in the
interim pepper tea, thickened with bran, so that
it would run from a large mouthed bottle. I
should like for these remedies to be more thor
oughly tested in other cases, and see if they
would be equally efficacious. Please suggest
them to any of your suffering friends, and if tlie
result should be favorable, you might publish it
in your excellent journal
Very respectfully,
W. J. Littlejohn.
[W ritten for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
RES OR MAT WHEAT
Is better adapted for Southern culture , and the late
white for Northern latitudes.
This wheat should be particularly noticed by
Southern farmers ; it has a great deal to recom
mend it. In the first place it can be planted as
late as the first of December, and not earlier
than November, and is ripe for the sickle in May,
whereas the late wheat is planted in October,
and harvested in June. This difference of time
in the latter, often subjects it to rust, fly, and
other accidents usually attending this grain. It
would be well, therefore, if time and circum
stances permitted, to plant a crop of each, but
for a sure crop the red May is best. In grinding,
it makes superfine flour, and is as fine and as
white as most families care for. I have traded
a good deal in this wheat when residing in the
upper part of South Carolina. Some farmers in
Laurens district informed me that they did not
lose a crop , while planting this early wheat, in
twenty-seven years, while other farmers in the
neighborhood who planted the late white, sel
dom succeeded in making a full crop, and often
times a bad failure. This, then, show's clearly
the better adaptation of the one wheat over the
other for our Southern soil.
True, the late wheat makes the extra super
fine flour and the grains heavier; but the disas
ters attending the one and the certainty of the
other in common seasons, should induce farmers
to give it a trial.
All wheat seed before plant ing should be first
soaked in a solution of sulphate of copper, (Blue
Stone) then rubbed in a mixture of slacked lime
and wood ashes, this to be done w hile tho seed
is wet. Respectfully,
Chas. Pemble.
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
REMEDY FOR MURRAIN.
Memphis, Aug. Bth, 1859.
Editor of Southern Field and Fireside: I
see in your paper of the date of June 11th, a
communication from Mr. 11. Raiford, on Bloody
Murrain in cattle. He gives a preventive which,
I am assured by many who have tried it, is ex
cellent, to wit, slacked lime and ashes: but he as
serts that he has seen but two remedies sug
gested for the cure of the disease, viz: cold-tar
and sugar.
I have been in the habit of using with uni
form success the common poke-root, and have
repeatedly cured cattle that were unable to
stand.
I pound a piece of the dry root about the size
of a walnut, and give it every other day either
in the food or by drawing out the tongue and
placing the medicine with a spoon on the root
of the tongue, and it will be sw'allowed on re
leasing it. In the intermediate days I give i
lb. of madder, and | lb. glauber salts to operate.
Tho poke-root is tho best preventive I know,
given once a week when the cattle are salted,
in doses of a tablespoonful. If the root is green,
dry it in an oven until it can be pounded fine.
H.
A WINE DRINKING NATION.
Hon. James O. Putnam, now in Europe, writes
from Spain to the Buffalo Advertiser an interest
ing letter in regard to grape raising and wine
making. In regard to intoxication he says :
A few cents every where buys a bottle of
wine, —its use is universal, —there is never a
meal without it.
What is tho effect of this abundance and this
universal use upon the habits of the people 1
I can only answer that I have sought the
most intelligent sources of information and have
had but one reply, and that has been confirmed
by my own observation, which has not been un
inquisitive, that drunkenness is not a vice of the
country, that excessive drinking of intoxicating
liquors is notits habit; that while there are ex
ceptional cases, as a nation it is one of sobriety.
It is not true that there is no drunkenness ; but
it is rare, not habitual even in individuals, and is
not felt as a public evil. Nor is it true that
tho wines drank in great excess will not intoxi
cate. You will think my curiosity a little im
pertinent—but I have visited hospitals both in
Portugal aud Spain, and enquired of their phy
sicians if they ever had cases of delirium, tre
mens T —that scourge w hich in our country opens
the gateway to death to so many gifted and no
ble natures —and their universal reply has been
that it was a disease unknown to the country.—
Private practitioners told me the samo thing.
During the three months I have spent in Spain
I have seen but a single instance of intoxication;
this was oua “ bull fight” day at Grenada. An
other thing I have observed, there is in Spain no
constant dram drinking. First let me say that
the hotels in this country have no bar or saloon.
Tho loungers, and the country swarms with them,
visit the Cases and Club Houses. The hotels
are as quiet as a private dwelling. But if you
were to visit those evening resorts of the peo
ple to see their life, you might find them all
drinking, but most of them would be drinking
nothing stronger than coffee or lemonade with
out spirits of any sort. Not to particularize any
farther, I will give you a single experience. It
is a representative fact, and therefore more sig
nificant.
I mado the passage on tho Derenger, a Span
ish steameT, from Cadiz to Havana—a voyage
of twenty days. There were fifty-four first cab
in, and fifty-seven second cabin passengers,
among them half a dozen young army officers,
on their way to their regiments in Havana. —
There were but eight or ten ladies, and all the
passengers but two were Spaniards. There was
to bar or “saloon,” or anything answering to
them on the steamer, nor is there on any of the
Spanish steamers. The common wine of the
country was furnished as part of the breakfast
and dinner, of which all drank—but very mode
rately and, so far as I observed, of nothing else.
The only exceptions were a Frenchman, and a
Spaniard who had spent his days in England.
I never saw a passenger drinking spirits of
any sort with these two exceptions, and those
not to any excess, except at their meals. There
could hardly have been more sobriety of conduct
if it had been a body of delegates to a tempe
rance convention. It was so novel a steamboat
experience to me, that on my arrival at Havana
I asked the steward what amount of liquors of
all sorts had been sold during the voyage. And
what result do you supppose the examination of
his books gave us ? It revealed an aggregate
sale of sixteen bottles of brandy, and twenty
four bottles of extra wines to the whole one
hundred and eleven passengers, all told, during
the entire voyage of twehty days.
Every evening would find fifteen or twenty
passengers playing the usual steamboat games,
but with no beverage but tea and coffee, is a spec
tacle you must go beyond tho States to see. I
was so impressed with this, to me entirely new
observation in steamboat life, that I inquired of
the commanding officer if this sobriety were
usual. He assured me it was, remarkiug that
the Spaniard was a very moderate drinker of the
stronger liquors, but that men, women and chil
dren drank tho wiues of the country at their
meals.
From the Floridian and Journal.
. THE HEW CUBE FOB MEAT.
Tallahassee, Aug. 4.1859.
Messrs. Editors: In the Charleston Courier,
of August 2d, is a notice of a “New Method ” of
curing meat, for which a certain firm in Cincin
nati have obtained a patent. However justly
they may be entitled to the pecuniary benefits
arising from their patent—a personal advantage
which in our latitude is not commonly taken
by inventors —they cannot rightly claim the dis
tinction of priority in its discovery or practice.
It is within a few months of ten years since my
friend Lewis LeConte, now deceased, consulted
me upon the anatomical possibility of saturating
the entire animal by injecting briue through the
carotid artery, and after a decided affirmative
from me, put into successful practice this now
called “now method.” This he continued to do
from the winter of 1849-’SO to that of 1851-52
inclusively, three successive years. Nor did
the idea originate with him; for, as he told me,
he had read that at an agricultural Fair, some
where in Europe, there was exhibited a leg of
mutton cured in this way, and the question was
then asked, ‘Why not cure bacon so ?’
Intending to attend the Fair of the Southern
Central Agricultural Society, held at Macon, Ga.,
in the fall of 1852, Mr. LeConte had laid by half
a dozen of his choicest hams for exhibition. He
would also have made known and explained the
process of curing. But, alas, for his family and
the community in which he lived—for he was
one of the most useful and public spirited citi
zens of Liberty county —the week before the
Fair, by a sad and terrible accident, his life was
suddenly terminated, and the world at large de
prived of this useful information, though in his
county it was almost universally known.
In April, 1851, I saw him salt three hogs by
this process in about ten minures, and immedi
ately they were cut up and hung in the smoke
house, then heated with fire and smoke, and
were perfectly cured. I observed the thermome
ter the same day at 11 o’clock, A. M., and the
mercury stood at 80 degrees Fah. Thus the
“method” proved successful under the severest
test.
To many of my friends the above will be but
a repetition of facts they have for several years
past heard me relate, but to the public generally
they may be interesting.
I will add that the process is by no means dif
ficult, as you will understand when I say that
Mr. LeConte’s negro did it all.
Very respectfully,
G. Troup Maxwell.
— i»i ■
WHY STEAM BOILERS EXPLODE.
Steam boiler explosions are becoming every
day occurrences, witfi results altogether too dis
astrous to be quietly acquiesced in. The uncer
tainty of the causes of these explosions seems
hitherto to have rendered all “safety-valve” in
ventions of little use. Explosions are attribut
ed by many to electricity, inasmuch as steam is
known to be an electric generator. Scientific
men, however, assert that steam, when confined
in a statejof rest, is not electric, but only when in
motion, and argue that these explosions can nor
be caused by electricity. At the meeting of
the Association for the Advancement of Science,
Mr. Hyatt, of New York, presented what the
Springfield Kepublican believes to be the true
cause. The Hejmblican gives Mr. Hyatt’s theory,
which seems to be founded upon the principle
that the pressure of steam increases very rapid
ly by only a slight increase of heat A table is
given, showing that the pressure is doubled by
the addition of thirty-six degrees of heat above
the boiling point. The pressure at the boiling
point i$ fifteen pounds to the square inch.
At 251 decree! of heat 80 pound! to square lnoh.
294 “ 60 “ “
842 “ 120 “ *
842 “ 120 “ “
898 “ 240 “ “
464 “ 480 “
868 “ 7,680 “ “
It was stated by Mr. Hyatt that, from exper
iments he had made, this great increase of pres
sure could be obtained in six or seven minutes
with an engine at rest. This degree of heat,
which produces 7,680 pounds pressure to the
square inch, is not much of a heat after all, for
lead does not melt till the thermometer indicates
620 degrees. This rapid doubling of pressure
with but a small increase of heat is due to the
conversion of what is termed latent heat in
steam into sensible heat. If we immerse a ther
mometer in boiling water, it stands at 212; if
we place it in steam immediately above the wa
ter, it indicates the same temperature. The <
question then arises, what becomes of all the
heat which is communicated to the water, since
it is neither indicated by the water nor by the
steam formed from it ? The answer is, it enters
the water and converts it into steam without
raising its One thousand degrees
of heat are absorbed in the conversion of water
into steam, and this is called its latent heat; and
it is the sudden conversion of latent heat into
sensible heat that produces the explosion. If
an engine is stopped, even if there is but a mod
erate fire, if the escape-valve is closed, there is a
rapid absorption or accumulation of latent heat.
The pressure rises with great rapidity, and
when the engineer thinks everything is safe,
the explosion comes. That this is the true cause
of nearly all the explosions which occur, will be
plain to every one who will look at the relations
between latent and sensible heat. Prof. Henry
and Prof. Silliman, jr., endorse the view. What,
then, is the security against explosions ? We
know of no securities but these —a sufficiency
of water in the boilers, and the escape-valves
open at light pressure when the engine is at
rest.
A safety invention for boilers on electric prin
ciples, made by the late Richard L. Lloyd, is
brought forward by Mr. Parry, in New Orleans.
The new instrument is very simple in its con
struction, consisting of a vertical rod passing
through a metal collar, which screws into the
top of the boiler. Attached to this vertical rod,
inside of the boiler, is another rod with points,
to ensure electrical attraction. At the top of the
vertical rod is a ball and chain to carry off the
current.
The Tomato as Food—Dr. Bennett, a pro
fessor of some celebrity, considers the tomato
an invaluable article of diet, and ascribes to it
very important medical properties:
Ist. That the tomato is one of the most pow
erful aperientß of the liver and other organs ;
where calomel is indicated, it is probably one of
the most effective and the least harmful remedial
agents known to the profession. 2d. That a
chemical extract will be obtained from it that
will supersede the use of calomel in the cure of
disease. 3. That he has successfully treated
diarrhee with this article alone. 4th. That
when used as an article of diet, it is almost sov
ereign for dyspepsia and indigestion. sth That
it should be constantly used for daily food; eith
' er cooked, raw, or in the form of catsup, it is the
»most healthy article now in use.
111