among thieves, rather than friends. Mr. Syle surely ought not to be abandoned to the lowest found them in a deplorable condition, at sailor specimens of our "civilization," which a great boarding-houses, &c. city affords.

To say nothing of the novelty of the thing, or of the inducement of low wages, I really believe there is an opportunity here of doing good at a cheap rate. For the credit of our country, our benevolence, our Christianity, these strangers

I will take the further liberty of requesting those who feel disposed to employ any of these men to communicate directly with the Rev. E. W. Syle, 53 Broadway, New York. S. FLETCHER. Winchester, July 13, 1854.

BOWLAND J.

THE EXPANDING AND REVERSABLE

HARROW.

all domestic animals.

For the New England Farmer. SWINE.

The expanding and Reversable Harrow is so There is but little of the Jewish blood in our veins, constructed as to admit of being widened or nar- or Mohammedan faith in our hearts, yet perhaps rowed, to do coarser or finer work, as circum- the most devoted Mussulman would fail in the atstances may require. The two bars on top of the tempt to show a more striking proof of his averframe work, are connected with the four under and boys of many a yankee farmer sion to swine, than is given by the "hired help" bars by the outside teeth, the upper parts of True, there is little that is engaging in a hog's which are rounded and shouldered, with nuts and manners, or amiable in his disposition, or inviting screws on the top, and on which the entire frame in his appearance, yet we cannot conceive why his swivels or turns in expanding and contracting, ill-nature should make him the most abused of which is done simply by shortening or lengthenHe is not made more tractable, nor more profiing the chain on the top. Thus the harrow is table, by the kicks and pelts he receives. His made any desirable width, and any degree of fine- stubbornness is not overcome, by being compelled ness, while the teeth in every position operate in- to fast through the day, because it may not be dependently of each other. The harrow is con-ed by being kept in cold weather, in some cold, convenient to feed him. His thrift is not promotstructed to be drawn either end forward, so as to dark, damp place, with the bare planks, or the secure sharp teeth, and is folded completely to- planks covered with ice, for his bed. His porker gether for transportation. Various sizes, made qualities are not increased by being compelled, heavier or lighter, are supplied to order. some dozen times a day, to perform the feat of leaping some 4 to 6 feet, from pen to yard and ASHES ON POTATOES.-More Evidence of Value. yard to pen; and all this merely because he is -Our readers may remember that Mr. Barret, of "nothing but a hog." Men complain of his filthy Cayuga, published a statement that he and his appearance, yet keep him where nothing else can neighbors had prevented all rot in their potatoes live, yet, reflect not that he will thrive well while Jor several years, by sowing ashes over them, at filling the same place among farm laborers that the rate of from two to three bushels per acre, scavengers do in city governments. The unsightonce a week for six weeks, commencing immedi- ly brake, the withered fruit and refuse roots, are ately after the second hoeing. Rev. Lyman Smith, to him a luxury, yet a luxury of which the indoof Charlotte, Vt., confirms this statement in a lence or neglect of his owner often deprives him. letter to the N. E. Farmer. He says he has preThe cry-"the hogs are out"-is often raised on vented the rotting of potatoes by sprinkling the farming premises, and harsh maledictions are tops with ashes as soon as they made their ap- poured upon the head of poor pig for uprooting pearance, a table-spoonful to each hill; after hoe- his fence, when in fact, the hog was merely giv ing, applying the same amount again. The ashes ing a practical illustration of what use he might were applied immediately after a shower, or upon be, would his master but furnish the materials, a heavy dew. After such applications, he has no such as muck, leaves, &c. rotten potatoes.-Count. Gent. Swine, like all other domestic animals, must be

well cared for and well treated to be profitable, being packed with gutta percha, so as to exclude and when so treated, their industry, their thrift water under hydraulic pressure. and improved appearance, will "preach humanity To finish the dovetailing of the joints, he has invented a machine that performs the work of

to man.'

The longest count in the charge against the forty men. The walls are made hollow, and the hog, is that "the mothers neglect or ill-treat their enclosed space is filled with a non-conducting offspring.' In answer to this charge, I reply that composition of beach sand, and other substances, "like begets like." If we treat our hogs as mon- so that when finished they become perfectly firesters, not to be approached without the bestowal proof.

of kicks and blows, we should not complain of The roof and floor are made of cast iron frames, their being what our cruelty has made them. Let resembling heavy window sashes, the interstices the same course be pursued with swine as with being occupied with plates of glass of any reneat stock, let them be carded and handled, well quired thickness. This glass, it is stated, is not fed and kindly treated, and then if they are so un- our common glass, but a new kind called malleable natural as to slay their young, we will let sen- glass, from its wonderful property of toughness, tence of "guilty" be passed upon them and aban-it bending freely without breaking. don them to their fate-death by the butcher.

It also asserts that this glass can be drawn out

For twenty-five years we have known but one into threads of any fineness, and so tough and cross hog, yet have reared more or less pigs every flexible that they are about commencing the manspring, and our experience is that there is no more ufacture of piano and violin strings from the uncertainty about raising pigs (the general com- same material. plaint to the contrary notwithstanding) than in rearing any other stock.

With me, hogs are among the most profitable animals on the farm, yielding a triple incomethe slaughtered porker, the young pigs, and last, yet not least, their valuable services in the manure yard.

Chester, N. H., June, 1854.

IRON HOUSES.

M.

A string of this glass was exhibited to the writer, who says it was as small as the E string of a violin, and could be bent around the finger like catgut.

Plates of this glass being let into the frame work of the floors, the whole is then covered over with a peculiar transparent cement of Mr. Sexton's invention, which makes the floor look like one solid plate of glass. The cost of roofing with this material, is 75 cents per square foot. The walls inside can be covered with plaster, or finished with iron or glass at the option of the builder.

All the interior ornamental work, such as man

tle pieces, panels, &c., may be made of this mal-
leable glass.

houses, but yet it is comparatively cheaper than
This looks like an expensive mode of building
the advantages of his mode as follows:
many other modes adopted. Mr. Sexton sums up

A friend of ours who is building a tenement, complained, not long ago, that he found it difficult to obtain such lumber as he wished for the purpose, adding, "I never thought there would be any trouble here in obtaining any kind of lumber that one wanted; what will folks do when the lumber is all gone?" "Build iron houses," said we. "There is iron enough in different sections of the State, to build houses for hundreds it allows construction, it effecting a saving of one1. Its great cheapness and rapidity with which of years.' "Yes," said he, "and it will be third in labor over any other mode. He could conthousands of years before they will build any struct an ordinary house in 40 days. thing of the kind here.”

2. The variety of style and finish that can be Now we do not see why, even at the present mo- obtained at small cost, by different combinations ment, iron houses cannot be built as cheap in of the same patterns. Maine, as in some other States. We have iron

enough we have wood enough to heat the fur- be taken down and removed. naces to smelt it, and lime enough to make flux

3. The facility with which such a building can

to facilitate its reduction from the ore to a me-ning, thus saving insurance. tallic state. All, therefore, that is wanted, is,

4. Its security from damage by fire or light

5. Its durability, freedom from vermin, &c.

capital to start the business, enterprise enough to Maine Farmer. begin it, and faith enough to carry it out to suc

cess.

We see in the N. Y. Leader, a glowing account of building iron houses, by Mr. Sexton, of Brooklyn, N. Y.

We make a few extracts from this account in order to shew our readers how much this mode of building houses has advanced.

Mr. S. constructs the frame-work of his building entirely of cast iron, in sections which are made to interlock by very close fitting, and ingenious joints secured by keys. This mode of fitting avoids the labor of drilling and bolting which has been a great inconvenience of iron buildings.

The frame work he covers on the outside with plates of iron, by a similar system of interlocking

The way to gain a good reputation, is to

without any bolts or other fastenings-the joints endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

FEEDING OF ANIMALS.

wards in every 100. The proportion is increased On the feeding of animals.-Main visible functions of the living from 50 to 100 times. Much carbonic acid, thereanimal.—The food must supply the wants of respiration.fore, is given off from the lungs of animals durNature, wants, and purposes of this function.--The daily waste of the muscular parts and tissues of the body.--Fooding breathing. In other words, living animals necessary to repair it.—Saline and earthy matters contained are continually throwing off carbon into the air, in its several parts, and daily rejected by the body.-Waste or since carbonic acid contains about two-sevenths of increase of fat supplied by the food.-Special waste in the per- its weight of solid carbon.

spiration.-Forms in which the solid matter of the tissues escape in the urine of animals.-General balance of food and

position of the blood.--Importance of a mixed food.

A man of sedentary habits, or whose occupation excretions.--Kind of food required, as indicated by the com- requires little bodily exertion, may throw off in The food of plants we have seen to consist es- four hours-one who takes moderate exercise, about this way about five ounces of carbon in twentysentially of two kinds, the organic and the inor-8 ounces-and one who has to undergo violent ganic, both of which are equally necessary to the bodily exertion, from 12 to 15 ounces. In our living vegetable-equally indispensable to its climate about one-fifth more is given off in sumhealthy growth. A glance at the purposes served mer than in winter.

by plants in the feeding of animals, not only con

If we take the mean quantity respired at 8

firms this view, but throws also additional light ounces, then, to supply this carbon alone, a man upon the kind of inorganic food which plants must must eat 18 ounces of starch and sugar every day.* be able to procure, in order that they may be fit- If he take it in the form of wheaten bread, he will ted to fulfil their assigned purpose in the economy require 13 lb. of bread; if in the form of potatoes,

of nature.

MAIN VISIBLE FUNCTIONS OF LIVING ANIMALS.

Man, and all domestic animals, may be supported, may even be fattened, upon vegetable food alone. Vegetables, therefore, must contain all the substances which are necessary to build up the several parts of animal bodies, and to supply the waste attendant upon the performance of the necessary functions of animal life.

about 74 lbs. of raw potatoes to supply the carbon which escapes through his respiratory organs alone.

When the habits are sedentary, 5 lbs. of potatoes may be sufficient; when violent and continued At the same time, it must be observed that when exercise is taken, 12 to 15 lbs. may be too little. the supply is less, either the quantity of carbon given off will be less also, or the deficiency will be

All living animals perform three main or lead-supplied at the expense of the body itself, especiing functions necessary to the continuance of healthy life.

1. They breathe, alternately inhaling and haling air by means of the lungs.

ex

2. They digest, dissolving the food in the stomach, and selecting from it the materials necessary to form blood.

3. They excrete, rejecting in the solid excretions and the urine, or giving off from the skin and the lungs

a. That part of the food which cannot be dissolved and made use of as it passes through the alimentary canal.

will be impaired, and increased supplies of nourally its fatty part. In either case the strength ishing food will be required to recruit the exhaust

ed frame.

Other animals give off from their lungs quantities of carbon proportioned to their weights. A cow or a horse, eight or ten times the weight of a man, will give off 4 to 5 lbs. of carbon. The quantity of food required to supply this carbon will be proportionably greater.

the whole of the carbon given off from the lungs I have in the above calculations supposed that is derived from the starch, sugar, or gum of the b. The materials derived from the decomposed food. This view is the simplest, and most easily tissues or parts of the body which are undergoing in the system the starch is separated into carbon intelligible. It only requires us to suppose that

a constant waste.

To the wants of an animal performing these and water, of which, as we have seen, (p. 43,) it visible functions in a healthy and regular manner, is given or burned off from the lungs in the form may be represented to consist; and that the former the food must be adapted in kind and quantity of carbonic acid. But many physiologists do not I shall briefly illustrate what these wants demand. regard the process as being really so very simple. To the numerous minor and invisible functions They consider that the carbon given off is partly performed within the several parts of the living well as from the starch or fat-in which case the derived from the gluten or flesh of the food, as body, it is unnecessary to advert in detail. I may have occasion incidentally to advert to one or two quantity of starch or sugar in the food, as I have of the more interesting of these; but as a healthy tain that where animals live on food which concalculated it, need not be so large; and it is cerblood contains all that is necessary to the dis-tains no starch or sugar, and but little fat, the charge of these functions, it would only compli

cate our present inquiry to consider their several gluten or fleshy fibre it contains must yield the direct relations to the undigested food as it is in-carbon which is given off by the lungs.

troduced to the stomach.

TION. NATURE, WANTS, AND PURPOSES OF

2. But when the air escapes from the mouth of a breathing animal, it contains much moisture THE FOOD MUST SUPPLY THE WANTS OF RESPIRA- also. It enters comparatively dry, it comes out so moist as readily to deposit dew upon any cold surface, or to form a white mist in a wintry atWhile an animal lives it breathes. It alter-mosphere. This water is given off by the lungs, nately draws in and throws out atmospheric air along with the carbonic acid, and, like it, is deby means of its lungs. rived from the food, solid or liquid, which has

THIS FUNCTION.

1. When this air enters, it contains about two been introduced into the stomach. It may either gallons of carbonic acid in every 5000; when it es- be part of the water which has been swallowed capes from the lungs it contains 2 gallons or up-as such, or the water which may be supposed to

exist in the starch and sugar of the food. Or it white fibrous substance, to which the name of may be water formed by the union of the hydro- fibrin has been given by chemists. The clot of gen of the other kinds of food with the oxygen in- the blood consists chiefly of the same substance; haled by the lungs. It is probably derived in part while skin, hair, horn, and the organic part of from each of these sources, in proportions which the bones, are composed of varieties of gelatine. must vary with many circumstances. This latter substance is familiarly known in the

3. But the lungs actually feed the body. The form of glue, and though it differs in its sensible air which enters contains more oxygen than when properties, it is remarkably similar to fibrin in its it returns again from the lungs. The oxygen elementary composition, as well as to the white of which disappears equals in bulk very nearly that the egg, (albumen,) to the curd of milk, (casein) of the carbonic acid which is evolved. This oxy-and to the gluten of flour. They all contain nigen enters the lungs, through them into the blood, trogen, and the three latter consist of the four orand with the blood flows on and circulates through ganic elementary bodies very nearly in the followthe body. It also enters partly into the composi- ing proportions: tion of the tissues, so that it is a real food, and is as necessary to the construction of the human body as the other forms of food which are usually introduced into the stomach. The weight of oxygen taken up by the lungs exceeds considerably that of all the dry solid food which is introduced into the stomach of a healthy man.

Carbon,
Hydrogen,
Nitrogen,

Oxygen, with a little sulphur and phosphorus,

55

7

16

22

100

Gelatine or dry glue contains about 2 per cent. more nitrogen.

4. The purposes served by the oxygen thus in- The quantity of one or other of these substances troduced into the system are very difficult and removed from the body in 24 hours, either in the complicated. But an incidental circumstance, perspiration, or in the excretions, amount to about which accompanies all its operations in the sys-five ounces, containing 350 grains of nitrogen; and tem, is the evolution of heat. From the time the this waste at least must be made up by the gluten, solid digestible food enters the blood till it escapes fibrin, or other protein compounds of the food. from the lungs, or in the other excretions, it is In the 13 lb. of wheaten bread, supposed in the continually uniting with oxygen into new forms previous section to be eaten to supply the carbon of combination, and at each change heat is pro- given off by the lungs, there will be contained also duced or given off. Thus the animal heat is kept about 3 ounces of gluten-a substance nearly up, and thus it is, in a certain sense, correct to identical with fibrin, and capable of taking its place that oxygen is taken in by the lungs for the in the animal body. Let the other two ounces purpose of giving warmth to the body,-or, more which are necessary to supply the daily waste of poetically, that the body is a lamp fed with oil muscle, &c., be made up in beef, of which half a from the stomach, and with air from the lungs, pound contains 2 ounces of dry fibrin, and we which burns with a slow and invisible flame, but havewhich ever does burn while life lasts, and maintains a gentle warmth through all its parts.

say

THE FOOD MUST REPAIR THE DAILY WASTE OF THE
MUSCULAR PARTS AND TISSUES OF THE BODY.

From every part of the growing as well as of the full-grown body, a portion is daily abstracted

For waste

1

8

of muscle, &c. lb. of bread yielding 18 oz. starch and 3 oz. of gluten. oz. of beef yielding

For respiration

2 oz. of fibrin.

If, again, the 7 lbs. of potatoes be eaten, then by natural processes, and rejected either through in these are contained about 24 ounces of gluten the lungs and skin, or in the solid and fluid exere- or albumen, so that there remain 24 ounces to be tions. This proportion is so great that in sum- supplied by beef, eggs, milk, or cheese. mer the body loses one-fourteenth, and in winter The reader, therefore, will understand why a one-twelfth of its weight daily, when no food is diet, which will keep up the human strength, is taken. And if food be continuously withheld, easiest compounded of a mixture of vegetable and the mean duration of life is only fourteen days, animal food. It is not merely that such a mixand the weight diminishes two-fifths. But the ture is more agreeable to the palate, or even that waste or change of material proceeds more rapid- it is absolutely necessary-for, as already observed, ly when the animal is well fed, so that the opin- the strength may be fully maintained by vegetable ion now prevails among physiologists that every food alone;-it is because, without animal food in twenty or thirty days the greater part of the mat- one form or another, so large a bulk of the more ter of the human body, when adequately fed, is common varieties of vegetable food requires to be constantly renewed. This waste of the tissues is consumed in order to supply the requisite quantimore rapid in women than in children, in men ty of nitrogen in the form of gluten, albumen, &c. than in women, and most of all in men between Of ordinary wheaten bread alone, about 3 lbs. the ages of 30 and 40. The amount of waste is daily must be eaten to supply the nitrogen,† and there would then be a considerable waste of car

the measure of life.

The materials for this change must be supplied bon in the form of starch, by which the stomach by the food. And the quantities required must would be overloaded, and which, not being worked be adapted to the nature, age, and sex of the ani- up by respiration, would pass off in the excretions. The wants of the body would be equally supplied, The muscles of animals, of which lean beef and and with more ease, by 13 lb. of bread, and 4 mutton are examples, are generally colored by ounces of cheese.

mal.

blood; but when washed with water for a length Oatmeal, again, contains at least one-half more of time, they become quite white, and, with the nitrogen than the wheaten flour of our climate exception of a little fat, are found to consist of al and hence 2 lbs. of it will usually go as far

in supplying this portion of the natural waste as tle feeding as the best clover hay; and when 3 lbs. of wheaten flour, and the stomach will be chaffed and mixed with chopped roots or meal, it less oppressed. This fact throws much light on makes a feed eagerly partaken of by stock of evethe use and value of what has been called the na- ry description.-Germantown Telegraph. tural food of Scotland.