The object of the factory is that of making the patent floor cloths or summer carpets, similar with those of Hare's patent, heretofore always imported, for the perfection of which it is best that there should be no seam; it is, therefore, necessary to weave of this extraordinary width. Connected with this busines is that of renovating woollen carpets or baizes, which are otherwise of little use; they can be done at a small expence; they are coated on one side, leaving the wool on the other untouched, and giving the advantage of a summer and winter carpet: they are neat and durable.

Mr. Robert Fulton, the ingenious inventor of the machines called torpedoes, some account of which was given in our last number, has likewise constructed a steam boat, calculated to sail both against wind and tide. The following letter to Mr. Barlow, containing an account of its first voyage, will be gratifying to every friend to the commerce and agriculture of this country.

TO JOEL BARLOW, PHILADELPHIA.

New York, Aug. 22, 1807.

My dear Friend. My steam boat voyage to Albany and back has turned out rather more favourable than I had calcula'ted. The distance from New York to Albany is 150 miles; I ran it up in 32 hours, and down in 30 hours. The latter is just five miles an hour. I had a light breeze against me the whole way going and coming, so that no use was made of my sails and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the steam engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners beating to windward, and passed them as if they had been at anchor.

;

The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York, there was not perhaps thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat would ever move one mile an hour,

And

or be of the least utility. while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks: this is the way, you know, in which ignorant men compliment what they call philoso phers and projectors.

Having employed much time and money and zeal in accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure to see it so fully answer my expectations. It will give a quick and cheap conveyance to merchandize on the Missisippi, Missouri, and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treasures to the enterprize of our countrymen. And although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting with you on the immense advantage that my country will derive from the invention.

However, I will not admit that it is half so important as the torpedo system of defence and attack; for out of this will grow the liberty of the seas; an object of infinite importance to the welfare of America, and every civilized country. But thousands of witnesses have now seen the steam boat in rapid movement, and they believe: they have not seen a ship of war destroyed by a torpedo, and they do not believe. We cannot expect people in general will have a knowledge of physics, or power of mind sufficient to combine ideas, and reason from causes to effects. But in case we have war, and the enemy's ships come into our waters, if the government will give me reasonable means of action, I will soon convince the world that we have surer and cheaper modes of defence than they

are aware of.

an area equal to two thousand one hundred and seventy square feet, and is now so loaded with fruit, that it is estimated to contain not less than forty bushels of grapes; and it probably contains a much greater quantity. From this one vine Mr. Cooper, last fall, made a barrel of wine; and, this fall, may make a much larger quantity. This wine was made without any addition of sugar; and the writer of this paragraph, who was bred in the Madeira winetrade, and has tasted this wine, feels no hesitation in saying, that it is superior to Madeira wine of the same age; whether it will improve by age, in like manner with Madeira wine, remains to be shown by experiment. The grape from which it was made, is a native grape of the neighbourhood, and appears to be a species of the common chicken grape; which, like that, and most of our late grapes, is distinguished from the European and Asiatic grapes hitherto imported into America (and known among us under the name of English grapes) by a very important circumstance, viz. a slight frost destroys the foreign grape, and discomposes its juice; while the same degree of frost, and even a much greater degree of it, concentrates and enriches the juice of the native grape. This circumstance affords strong ground to presume, that the wine from it improves by time, even more than that of the Madeira grape. There is, also, a further important advantage on the side of our native grape, viz.: the fruit may be permitted to remain on the vine so late in the season, as that the fermentation will not be affected by too great a heat. The facts here stated are not like the distant wonders related by travellers, that are too far off to be examined: for this vine stands within four hundred yards of Cooper's ferry, opposite to Philadelphia, and may be seen for the trifling expence of ferriage across the river. They will also learn what may greatly surprise a foreign vigneron, that, under the shade of this vine,

there has, this season, been cut a full crop of grass!

These facts ought not to discourage the raising of foreign grapes; for it is now well known, that various kinds of the foreign vines will stand over winters, and produce fruit in abundance.

The following easy method of taking honey without destroying the bees was communicated to the editor of the Cornwall Gazette, by a respectable French priest, who asserts that it is the mode generally adopted throughout France: in the dusk of the evening, when the bees are quietly lodged, approach the hive, and turn it gently over; having steadily placed it in a small pit previously dug to receive it, with its bottom uppermost, cover it with a clean new hive, which has been previously prepared, with two small sticks stuck across its middle, and rubbed with aromatic herbs. Having carefully adjusted the mouth of each hive to the other, so that no aperture remains between them, take a small stick and beat gently round the sides of the lower hive for about ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, in which time the bees will leave their cells in the lower hive, and ascend and adhere to the upper one. Then gently lift the new hive, with all its little tenants, and place it on the stand from whence the other hive was taken. This should be done some time in the week preceding midsummer day, that the bees may have time, before the summer flow. ers are faded, to lay in a new stock of honey, which they will not fail to do, for their subsistence through the winter. As many as have the humanity and good-sense to adopt that practice will find their reward in the increase of their stock and their valuable produce.

The bee is well known to be an irritable, vindictive creature; but whether envy or jealousy constitute a part of her character, or whether

she bear any antipathy to the butterfly, I cannot tell.' Rivalship, however, being, in most other cases, sufficient ground for jealousy and hostility, and the bee and the butterfly resorting to the same flowers for food, it may be well worth the agriculturalist's while to observe whether the bee ever attack the butterfly; whether butterflies be so numerous in gardens where swarms of bees are kept, as in those where there are none, and whether dead butterflies (bearing no marks of violence from spiders) be found in gardens where stray bees resort.

If, upon examination, it should appear that the bees kill or drive away the butterflies, then the farmers and gardeners may soon extirpate the whole race of caterpillars, by only keeping on foot (or rather on wing) a standing army of bees, to protect their grounds; a standing army which will yield an increase of revenue to their employer.

Should this idea ever be realized, and the whole country be covered with swarms of bees, the quantities of honey thus produced will be inconceivable ; and then truly may we be said to live in a land "flowing with milk and honey.”

Smearing of sheep.-Immediate ly after the sheep are shorn, soak the roots of the wool that remains all over with oil, or butter, and brimstone; and 3 or 4 days afterward wash them with salt and water; the wool of next season will not only be much finer and softer, but the quantity will be in greater abundance. The sheep will not be troubled with the scab or vermin that year. Tar-water is a safe remedy against maggots.

A specimen of wool from a native sheep, brought from Smith's Island to Arlington*, was forwarded by Mr. Custis to Dr. Mease, and exhi

*The farm of G. W. P. Custis, near Alexandria.

bited by him at a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Philadelphia,, on the 11th of August. It unites the fineness of the Spanish Merinos with nearly the length of the English combing wool, and exhibits, beyond contradiction, the congeniality of our climate with the perfection of that valuable staple of manufacture.

'The exertions which Mr. Custis is making to improve the quality of American wool, are highly meritorious, and rank him, with colonel Humphreys, among the true patriots of our country.

JERSEY AGRICULTURAL REPORT,

Summer, 1807.

Hay.-Large crops, exceeding those of any late year. Some of it damaged, a great deal well got in. Bottom and low meadows escaped floods with less injury than common.

Harvests. Wheat.-More abundant and better than any former year since the revolution. With daily showers and hot suns in harvest-time, somewhat grown in pla

ces.

Rye.-Plentiful and well secured, some few crops excepted.

Oats.-Unusually abundant and good. More sown than usual, and what was sown is better.

Flax.-Large, thick, and well seeded; the coating not yet ascertained.

Corn.-Never more promising, and seldom more planted.

Barley.-But little sown; that little generally good.

On the whole, should Indian corn turn out as well as it promises, a more plentiful year will never have been remembered in this state.

Fruit. No scarcity, except of apples, of which there are very few.

James Deneale, of Dumfries, Virginia, has obtained a patent for an oven which he has invented on entire new principles, for baking all kinds of bread. The advantages of

his plan over those hitherto used are thus stated by the proprietor: In the usual mode the oven is first heated, the fire scraped out, and the dough put in to bake when the oven is hottest, and as the bread bakes, the oven gradually cools. It will easily be conceived, that when bread is first put into an oven, it is most tender, and least capable of bearing heat; by this new plan the bread is put into the oven at the extreme end, or where the heat is least, and, as it bakes, it regularly progresses into a keener heat, until baked. Again: it is acknowledged, the thinner bread is baked the better it is, and the longer it will keep. In the usual mode of baking, the thinner the bread, the smaller the quantity the oven will bake per day: on this plan, the thinner the bread the more the oven will bake; added to this, the labour of splitting of wood is saved, the heating, cleaning, and setting an oven also. An oven on this plan, if well built, is much more durable, takes up less room to do the same business, costs much less money to build it, requires less fuel to bake the same quantity of bread, and fewer hands can do the same business. For an oven of twenty feet length, and three feet six inches width, or the privilege of using it, his price is five hundred dollars, and in proportion for a larg er or smaller one.

A seaman recommends to all masters of vessels who are bound on long voyages, to have their bread carefully packed in rum or brandy casks. Bread put up in this manner may be kept for years, equally as good as when received from the bakehouse. The casks should be perfectly air tight, and the bread well dried before packing: it is necessary in the course of the voyage to start the casks and drive the hoops. Bread has been kept for two years in this manner, in perfect order, when some of the same quality, kept in the usual way, was full of

worms.

VOL. VIII. NO. XLVII.

About ten years ago a lease was granted by lord Crewe of an estate in Madely, England, to Mr. Elkington, the celebrated drainer. It consist ed of about five hundred acres, three hundred of which were so unsound, that a person could not even walk upon it. Half of it has been drain ed, and brought into a state of cul tivation. The crops of turnips raised upon it, both of the common and Swedish sort, have been remarkably fine; and the land is become so firm as to admit of their being fed off by cattle. In the succeeding crops, an unusual difficulty has occurred; for though Mr. Elkington, from the extreme luxuriance of the soil, thought it expedient to sow only half the usu al quantity of seed, the barley-Crops have been so strong, as to be uniformly laid, the grain of course much injured, and the clover and grass-seeds destroyed. Mr. Elking ton has, however, been successful in his attempts to render this land more promising by exhausting crops. Last year he had ten acres of hemp the crop was great, and the grass roots such as to astonish the neighbourhood. From the same motive Mr. Elkington has reduced the soil by successive crops of oats, upon lands that have borne two previous crops of corn without manure. He obtained last year the amazing pro duce of 174 bushels of good oats, from five bushels and eleven quarts of seed sown broad cast. This extraordinary return has been made from land, which a few years ago was not worth one shilling per acre!

The result of a course of experiments has been laid before the Hereford Agricultural Society, by T. A. Knight, esq., from which it appears that the strength of the juice of any cyder apple is in exact proportion of its weight. Thus the juices of the inferior apples are light when compared with the juices of the old and approved sorts, The forest stire outweighed every other, until it was put in competition with the new variety produced by 6

Mr. Knight, from the Siberian crab, and the Lulham pearmain; nor could any other juice be found equal in weight to the latter.

The French excel every nation in Europe in projects. In announcing the following new canals which are projected in France, we think it proper to state that fifty of greater extent have been formed in England within the last twenty years. A grand northern canal, in two branches. The first to effect the junction of the Scheld with the Meuse from Antwerp to Venlo. The second, the junction of the Meuse with the Rhine. A canal to unite the Scheld and the Scarpe. A lateral canal, to improve the navigation of the river La Haine. A canal of the Lys to Liperlée. A canal from Charleroy to Brussels. A lateral canal to the Loire : very advantageous to the neighbouring departments for the exportation of their territorial productions and manufactures. A canal from Niort to Rochelle; on which prisoners of war are to be employed till they are exchanged. A canal from Nantes to Brest. The plan is to join the Loire and the Vilaine; the Vilaine with the Blavet; to be continued to Port-Launay and Brest, by the rivers Doré, Hières, and Anne.

Cuvier has found in the gypseous hills, near Paris, fossil bones, belonging to a species of sarigau, now existing only in America. Several bones of an unknown animal, to which he has given the name of palathorium, supposed to have been eight feet long, and five feet high, have been found in many parts of France. Fossil bones, supposed to have belonged to a small kind of

hippopotamus, have been discover. ed near the Arno, in Italy. Teeth and bones, which, after minute observation, Cuvier assigns to the species of hyena now found at the Cape of Good Hope, have been dug up in various parts of Germany and France. A skull with many teeth, preserved in the cabinet of Stutgard, belonged also to that animal; it was found, in 1700, near Canstadt, on the east bank of the Necker. The adjacent hills contain ammonites, belemnites, reeds; and M. Autenrieth has discovered in the neighbourhood a whole prostrate forest of palm trees, two feet in diameter. There were found, also, elephants' bones, cart-loads of horses' teeth, rhinoceros' teeth, and some vertebra, which seemed to have belonged to the cetaceous tribe. In the same country, the bones of wolves and hyenas have been discovered, mingled in confusion; also vertebræ, asserted to have belonged to a bear of enormous size. "What ages were those," exclaims Cuvier, “when the elephant and the hyena of the Cape lived together in our climates, in forests of palm-trees, and associated with northern bears larger than our horses?"

The number of printing-offices in London are upwards of two hundred, and they employ at least five hundred presses. In Edinburgh, there were, in 1763, six printing-offices; in 1790, twenty one; in 1800, thirty; in 1805, forty. In the forty printingoffices now in Edinburgh, are employed upwards of one hundred and twenty printing-presses. In Dublin there are about forty offices, which employ ninety presses, and upwards of one hundred and forty compositors and pressmen.