Volume 24 (1872) (424 pages)

246 SCIENTIFIC PRESS} [April 20, 1872. Steam Communication and Engine Power for Isolated Mines. The large number of enterprises recently introduced to the notice of British capitalists, and connected with the development of the enormous mineral resources of the far western portions of the United States, has led to many inquiries as to how it happens that men so admittedly acute as the Americans should offer valuable mining concerns in the English market instesd of retaining them for themselves, and the almost invsriable confirmation of the vendors’ statements as to the intrinsic value of the minerals by independent English engineere to clear up the mystery. The facts, however, are extremely simple. Most of the mines are situated so far from railways, etc., thatitis not profitable to earry the ore to market, and the necessary plants and machinery cannot be got to the mines without far larger capital than the ownere have at their disposal, especially where, 28 in many cases, the mines have been heavily encumbered to obtain the requisite funds for prospecting and proving the mine; but when once the mine is furnished with a good park of machinery there is nothing to fear, for as bullion is carried at the same price per ton as ore, the profits on sending it down are ample. The profits earned by the companies already on the English market have been eminently satisfactory, yet most of the mines would have been far more advantageously placed had they had facilities for cheap and rapid transport, and for the erection of ample machinery at the mines. In countries so thinly populated as Utah, Colorado, New Mexico. eto., the construction of railwaye must, for sometime, be so limited that comparatively few will be benefited by them; but now that it has been demonstrated that a speed of 20 miles an honr can be obtained with a traction-engine of eubstantial coustruction, there is no reason why any mine within 1,000 miles of a railway should not be brought within forty-eight hours of established communications, especially when the route is through fertile valleys, where there is an abundance of fuel and water to keep the traction-engine going. With snch means of communication there should be no difficulty in keeping the mines well supplied with materials, without much additional expense, as compared with the prices paid at the nearest manufacturing cities. In mining operations, moreover, considerable advantage results from plenty of steam-power being at disposal, and in providing thie (aided by modern inventions) a mine a few hundred miles from a line of railway is really no less favorably situated than one buta few miles distant. Tube boilere, no part of which weighs more than % ewt., are eo easily conveyed on the backs of mules, or even of men, when absolutely necessary, that steam equal to 300 or 400 horse power can be readily had in the most isolated district. With boilers of this classthe quantity of steam generated depends simply upon the number of (say) 60 tb. tubes used, and as all of these are filled with water, andincommunication with one and the same steam chamber, which may consist of a tube capable of bearing a maximum pressure per square inch, explosions, with their attendant delays, are almost impossible. Assuming a tractionengine line to be established between the mines and the railway (and thie really involves but the ontlay for the price of the engine), carriage of boiler sections and parts of engines would offer no difficulty whatever, and all delays in putting such mines in profitable operation would be at an end. In Australia and South Africa there is, the great difficulty arising from the absence of water and fuel, but on the Pacific elope of the United States there is abundance of both, so that the eetablishment of good traction-engine lines in those regions would be alike advantageons to the minersand remunerative to those supplying the capital to purchase them.—London Mining Journal. Farsine Onn Hunprep Yrars Aco.— In 1790, Franz Fuse, of Bohemia, one of the authorities of hie age, spoke of the prevalence of the inventive spirit, which he donounced. He was himself a witness that ‘‘ the folly had been pushed to euch an extent” that people were tryingto make eowing and reaping machines. But he “thanked God” that the farmers had still some judgement left, and thus these stupid efforts to get something new met with their proper reception—neglect. Tux stock of mill iron ie lower than it has been for years, Gould and Curry Improvements. The Gould and Curry Company, says the Virginia Enterprise of the 4th inst., are making very extensive and important improvements at their main shaft. The old hoisting frame and all connected therewith is being taken down preparatory to the erection of new and more powerful and substantial hoisting machinery. The works were shut down day before yesterday for the purpose of making this change, and the new works arein such a state of forwardness that they will be ready to start up in about ten days from the present time. A new and most substantial fireproof building of etone and brick, forty by eighty feet in size, is being erected over the Bonner shaft, and in this is now being set up anew and powerful hoisting engine. This engine is of the same capacity as the large new engines in use at the Crown Point and Belcher mines, and it will be used for hoisting up from the new incline about to be commenced below the 1,500-foot level. All the machinery is very heavy, the fly-wheel weighing 6,200 pounds, the spur-wheel 9,600 pounds, and all else in the same proportion. The opening for the commencement of the incline is completed, and now stands the largest untimbered cavity on the Comstock range, being a grand artificial cavern forty-two feet wide by sixty-five in highth. But that this work is done in hard blasting-rock it would be very nnsafe to make so large an opening without socuring it with heavy timbers. The bottom of the Gonld and Curry shaft is now lower than any other point reached by the Comstock. The bottom of the shaft is 1,800 feet below the surface, and below this has been eunk a sump twenty-one feet deeper. At the bottom of thesump has been blasted out, to the westward, in the solid rock, a reservoir capable of holding 35,000 gallons of water. The bottom of the shaft and bottom of the sump are perfectly dry, but it was thought best to make the reservoir in order that any rush of water (from anysource) could be controlled. It is not likely that they will ever be troubled with water from below, but in ease of accident to the pumping machinery that above might flood the incline, in case no receptacle for it was provided at the bottom of the shaft. The new building will be covered with an iron roof, and every precaution taken to guard against fire from the row of frame buildings standing immediately to the west. An improvement worthy of note in the sheaves of the hoisting frame, over which the wire cable will run, is that they are all lined with wood. This improvement was the suggestion of Mr, Lackey, Superindent of the mine, and is one which will doubtless be adopted in all our leading mines. The cable running over wood, instead of iron, will prevent the weakening of the strands by eryetallization. Workmen swarm about the shaftand everything is in such a state of forwardness that we have no doubt of the new works being ready to start up at the time mentioned. Legends of the Yellowstone. Here, the trappers tell us, is the ‘‘mother region” of the gold, where the Indians told Father de Smet it was found on the surface. Here are the burning plains, so testifies Bridger, at the head of the Yellowstone, and large lakes, and boiling springs like the geysers of Iceland. Here he eaw his Two Ocean River, which, after flowing for some distance, eeparates into two large etreams—one traveling to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific. In one of these vales is a large tract of sage brush, every leaf and branch perfect, and here and there are rabbits, sage hens, and even Indians, all turned to solid etoue. Il fares it with whosoever penetratee these mysteries, for the genius of the place at once adds him tothe group of statuary. More wonderful still—and our trapper told it with great awe—these bushes bear rare fruit—thousands of rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralde large as walnuts. ‘‘I tell you, sir,” said one veracious narrator to Captain Reynolds, ‘‘it is true, for I gathered a quart myself, and sent them down the country.” A party of whites were once hotly pursued by Indians, and could only travel by night, when they were aided by the brilliant light shot from a huge diamond ina neighboring mountain, by which they traveled on for three coneecutive nights. Here once an old trapper was loet on his road from Fort Laramie to Taos, and wandered for many days; and in drinking from a stream found pieces of yellow metal large as hazel-nuts which he carried to Taos and found to be gold. He spent many years seeking the place again, but in vain. These and many other legends and traditions of these regions the trapper gave us as truths familiar in the mountains as household words, which it would be impiious to doubt.—Lippincott’s Mag. Gone of Sequoia Gigantea. This Sequoia is a native of California only, and though ranked among the tallest and largest of trees, its seed bearing cones are among the very smallest of all the conifers. The trees are found principally in Calaveras, Mariposa and Fresno counties, but are seen in a few other placer’in the Sierra Nevads. They attain a hight of between three hundred and four hundred feet, with diameters from one inch at a year old, to 87 feet, or 112 feet in circumference at the base of the trnnk. There was one tree in the Calaveras grove that when first discovered was prostrate, that must have messured when in the vigor of its growth very nearly 450 fcet high. The grove was first discovered by one of a party of American miners on a hunting expedition in the mountains in 1850. The seeds have heen widely disseminated and the trees are now found growing luxuriantly in nearly all parts of the United States, England and many places on the European continent, apparently as healthy and vigorous as in their native soil. The illustration herewith given shows the natural size of the cones. California Pears in Europe. C. W. Reed, of Yolo county, last fall asa matter of experiment shipped several hoxes of Easter Beuree pears to different points in England. Some to London, some to Glasgow and some to Liverpool. The pears were shipped late in the season and were in the snow blockade on the railroad from three to four weeks. Some went hy the way of Boston, and some by the way of New York. He has lately received an account of the experiment. The pears sent by New York arrived in perfect order, and condition; while those sent by Boston had apparently been touched by the frost and were in rather poor condition. Onthe whole, the experiment is regarded by Mr. Reed as a perfect success, and proves that California pears can be laid down in any of the above named cities in a good merchantable condition. It also satisfies Mr. Reed thst pecnniarily the husiness will pay. In_ confirmation of the above, B.S. Fox of San José, sent some pears to Ireland, his old home, and although it was a small shipment to friends, it proves that the frnit can he shipped and arrive in good condition. These experiments are of great valueto our State. We have already a large market in the Atlantic States for our fruits, and particularly for pears, hut if we can supply England with her millions of people, with our delicious pears at remunerative prices, we have a market literally beyond our ability to supply. Our fruit growers will make a note of the above facts. Dr. Franeniy’s Toast.—Dr. Franklin once dined with the English and French ambassadors, when the following toasts were drunk: The British ambassador said:—‘‘England —the eun whose bright beams enlighten and fertilize the remotest corners of the earth.” The French ambassador, glowing "with national pride, but too polite to dispute the previous toast, drank : —‘‘ France—the moon whose mild, steady and cheering raye are the delight of all nations, coneoling them in darkness, and making their dreariness beautiful.” Dr. Franklin then arose, and, with his usual dignified eimplicity said:—‘‘ George Washington,—the Joshua who commanded the eun and the moon to stand still, and they obeyed him,” Animal Power. _ Enrrors Press:—Allow me to ask the following questions, viz.:— ist. Working a horse or an ox all day, how much-taking in account their respective weight—can Rie pull and not be over worked ? 2d. What is equivalent in the working capacity of three oxen, in horse power ? 3d. Pound for pound, which will pull most easily, a desd load, like corn, or a springy one, like hay ? TFB. Marengo Ranch, Los Angeles Co. In the foregoing qneries there are a few nice points involved. We once took a contract for hauling wheat by the ton a distance of ten and a quarter miles over a generally level road, but with 2 or 3 elevations and depressions of about a fourth of a mile in length each, and of about equal ascent and descent; other than this, the road was hard and good. We put on two new wagons of the same size and weight, and made hy the same man. To one {wagon we puta pair of large common farm horses, and to the other a large, good yoke of oxen, ‘We commenced by hauling a single ton on each wagon, every day with no return load but the empty wagons. Both horses and oxen were fed an equsl quantity of ground feed each, and all the good hay they would eat. Both teams left at the same hour in the morning, but the horses would arrive home three hours the first, heing able to trot most of the way returning. The distance both ways amonnting to twenty and a half miles a day; we found at the end of a single week that the horses—to use a farmerg’ phrase—held their own, whilst the oxen were losing weight and suffering from] fatigue, as they would lie down, almost immediately on being turned out, and sometimes before they had finished their food. We now hitched on another yoke of oxen, nearly equal in strength to the first; but the result after another week was the same; the four oxen were more fatigued than the two horses drawing equal loads and changing wagons every day from horses to oxen, so that any differcnce in case of draft would he equalized. It was evident, therefore, that the distance traveled, was what was worrying the oxen and not the weight of the load. We now puttwotons upon the fwo yoke of oxen and wagon and taking one dsy to go and the next to return; the horses being loaded and going daily ss before. After two week’s work, the oxen doing the,{same amount of work as the horses in the same time, were cvery day improving till the job was completed. During the whole time, the load for the horses was an cven ton weight or averaged that day by day; and with thst load, it required full feeding with ruhhing down and much care, to keep the horses up to their starting condition. On all good roads we should prefer horses before oxen; but in all bad places or in timbered land, where the labor is logging or getting around among brush and bad places with stumps and rocks or mudholes, the paticnt ox is to he preferred. An elastic weight, as feathers or unpressed hay, against a dead weight as corn.or lead, pound for pound, the elastic materia] will draw the easiest. First, because the whole load of the elastic substance does not start at the same instant, and it is easier to start half a load than the whole of it at once; and secondly, hecause the elastic load will allow of the wheels rising over short inequalities or small stones without crushing them, which if it did crush them would reqnire extra power, because, with the dead weight you would expend the same power in drawing the load proper, and the additional power required to crush the stones. If our correspondent should hold to a different view than we have expressed, we would be pleased to hear from him. Vatue or Stow Resapive.—Frederick W. Robertson, the distinguished Englieh preacher, once wrote toa lady friend: “1 never knew but one or two faet readere, and readers of many booke, whoee knowledge was worthanything. Miss Martineau saye of herself that ehe is the slowest of readers—eometimee a page an hour. But then what she reads she makes her own, Girls read too much and think too little. I will answer for it that there are few girls of eighteen who have not read more booke than I have; and ae to religioue books, I can count upon my fingers in two minutes all I have ever read. But they are mine.’ Tus President of the Northern Pacifio Railroad company denies the statement that a quantity of railroad iron had arrived in New York from England for the above company, and says that it is the intention to use none but American iron on that road.

246 SCIENTIFIC PRESS} [April 20, 1872. Steam Communication and Engine Power for Isolated Mines. The large number of enterprises recently introduced to the notice of British capitalists, and connected with the development of the enormous mineral resources of the far western portions of the United States, has led to many inquiries as to how it happens that men so admittedly acute as the Americans should offer valuable mining concerns in the English market instesd of retaining them for themselves, and the almost invsriable confirmation of the vendors’ statements as to the intrinsic value of the minerals by independent English engineere to clear up the mystery. The facts, however, are extremely simple. Most of the mines are situated so far from railways, etc., thatitis not profitable to earry the ore to market, and the necessary plants and machinery cannot be got to the mines without far larger capital than the ownere have at their disposal, especially where, 28 in many cases, the mines have been heavily encumbered to obtain the requisite funds for prospecting and proving the mine; but when once the mine is furnished with a good park of machinery there is nothing to fear, for as bullion is carried at the same price per ton as ore, the profits on sending it down are ample. The profits earned by the companies already on the English market have been eminently satisfactory, yet most of the mines would have been far more advantageously placed had they had facilities for cheap and rapid transport, and for the erection of ample machinery at the mines. In countries so thinly populated as Utah, Colorado, New Mexico. eto., the construction of railwaye must, for sometime, be so limited that comparatively few will be benefited by them; but now that it has been demonstrated that a speed of 20 miles an honr can be obtained with a traction-engine of eubstantial coustruction, there is no reason why any mine within 1,000 miles of a railway should not be brought within forty-eight hours of established communications, especially when the route is through fertile valleys, where there is an abundance of fuel and water to keep the traction-engine going. With snch means of communication there should be no difficulty in keeping the mines well supplied with materials, without much additional expense, as compared with the prices paid at the nearest manufacturing cities. In mining operations, moreover, considerable advantage results from plenty of steam-power being at disposal, and in providing thie (aided by modern inventions) a mine a few hundred miles from a line of railway is really no less favorably situated than one buta few miles distant. Tube boilere, no part of which weighs more than % ewt., are eo easily conveyed on the backs of mules, or even of men, when absolutely necessary, that steam equal to 300 or 400 horse power can be readily had in the most isolated district. With boilers of this classthe quantity of steam generated depends simply upon the number of (say) 60 tb. tubes used, and as all of these are filled with water, andincommunication with one and the same steam chamber, which may consist of a tube capable of bearing a maximum pressure per square inch, explosions, with their attendant delays, are almost impossible. Assuming a tractionengine line to be established between the mines and the railway (and thie really involves but the ontlay for the price of the engine), carriage of boiler sections and parts of engines would offer no difficulty whatever, and all delays in putting such mines in profitable operation would be at an end. In Australia and South Africa there is, the great difficulty arising from the absence of water and fuel, but on the Pacific elope of the United States there is abundance of both, so that the eetablishment of good traction-engine lines in those regions would be alike advantageons to the minersand remunerative to those supplying the capital to purchase them.—London Mining Journal. Farsine Onn Hunprep Yrars Aco.— In 1790, Franz Fuse, of Bohemia, one of the authorities of hie age, spoke of the prevalence of the inventive spirit, which he donounced. He was himself a witness that ‘‘ the folly had been pushed to euch an extent” that people were tryingto make eowing and reaping machines. But he “thanked God” that the farmers had still some judgement left, and thus these stupid efforts to get something new met with their proper reception—neglect. Tux stock of mill iron ie lower than it has been for years, Gould and Curry Improvements. The Gould and Curry Company, says the Virginia Enterprise of the 4th inst., are making very extensive and important improvements at their main shaft. The old hoisting frame and all connected therewith is being taken down preparatory to the erection of new and more powerful and substantial hoisting machinery. The works were shut down day before yesterday for the purpose of making this change, and the new works arein such a state of forwardness that they will be ready to start up in about ten days from the present time. A new and most substantial fireproof building of etone and brick, forty by eighty feet in size, is being erected over the Bonner shaft, and in this is now being set up anew and powerful hoisting engine. This engine is of the same capacity as the large new engines in use at the Crown Point and Belcher mines, and it will be used for hoisting up from the new incline about to be commenced below the 1,500-foot level. All the machinery is very heavy, the fly-wheel weighing 6,200 pounds, the spur-wheel 9,600 pounds, and all else in the same proportion. The opening for the commencement of the incline is completed, and now stands the largest untimbered cavity on the Comstock range, being a grand artificial cavern forty-two feet wide by sixty-five in highth. But that this work is done in hard blasting-rock it would be very nnsafe to make so large an opening without socuring it with heavy timbers. The bottom of the Gonld and Curry shaft is now lower than any other point reached by the Comstock. The bottom of the shaft is 1,800 feet below the surface, and below this has been eunk a sump twenty-one feet deeper. At the bottom of thesump has been blasted out, to the westward, in the solid rock, a reservoir capable of holding 35,000 gallons of water. The bottom of the shaft and bottom of the sump are perfectly dry, but it was thought best to make the reservoir in order that any rush of water (from anysource) could be controlled. It is not likely that they will ever be troubled with water from below, but in ease of accident to the pumping machinery that above might flood the incline, in case no receptacle for it was provided at the bottom of the shaft. The new building will be covered with an iron roof, and every precaution taken to guard against fire from the row of frame buildings standing immediately to the west. An improvement worthy of note in the sheaves of the hoisting frame, over which the wire cable will run, is that they are all lined with wood. This improvement was the suggestion of Mr, Lackey, Superindent of the mine, and is one which will doubtless be adopted in all our leading mines. The cable running over wood, instead of iron, will prevent the weakening of the strands by eryetallization. Workmen swarm about the shaftand everything is in such a state of forwardness that we have no doubt of the new works being ready to start up at the time mentioned. Legends of the Yellowstone. Here, the trappers tell us, is the ‘‘mother region” of the gold, where the Indians told Father de Smet it was found on the surface. Here are the burning plains, so testifies Bridger, at the head of the Yellowstone, and large lakes, and boiling springs like the geysers of Iceland. Here he eaw his Two Ocean River, which, after flowing for some distance, eeparates into two large etreams—one traveling to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific. In one of these vales is a large tract of sage brush, every leaf and branch perfect, and here and there are rabbits, sage hens, and even Indians, all turned to solid etoue. Il fares it with whosoever penetratee these mysteries, for the genius of the place at once adds him tothe group of statuary. More wonderful still—and our trapper told it with great awe—these bushes bear rare fruit—thousands of rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralde large as walnuts. ‘‘I tell you, sir,” said one veracious narrator to Captain Reynolds, ‘‘it is true, for I gathered a quart myself, and sent them down the country.” A party of whites were once hotly pursued by Indians, and could only travel by night, when they were aided by the brilliant light shot from a huge diamond ina neighboring mountain, by which they traveled on for three

coneecutive nights. Here once an old trapper was loet on his road from Fort Laramie to Taos, and wandered for many days; and in drinking from a stream found pieces of yellow metal large as hazel-nuts which he carried to Taos and found to be gold. He spent many years seeking the place again, but in vain. These and many other legends and traditions of these regions the trapper gave us as truths familiar in the mountains as household words, which it would be impiious to doubt.—Lippincott’s Mag. Gone of Sequoia Gigantea. This Sequoia is a native of California only, and though ranked among the tallest and largest of trees, its seed bearing cones are among the very smallest of all the conifers. The trees are found principally in Calaveras, Mariposa and Fresno counties, but are seen in a few other placer’in the Sierra Nevads. They attain a hight of between three hundred and four hundred feet, with diameters from one inch at a year old, to 87 feet, or 112 feet in circumference at the base of the trnnk. There was one tree in the Calaveras grove that when first discovered was prostrate, that must have messured when in the vigor of its growth very nearly 450 fcet high. The grove was first discovered by one of a party of American miners on a hunting expedition in the mountains in 1850. The seeds have heen widely disseminated and the trees are now found growing luxuriantly in nearly all parts of the United States, England and many places on the European continent, apparently as healthy and vigorous as in their native soil. The illustration herewith given shows the natural size of the cones. California Pears in Europe. C. W. Reed, of Yolo county, last fall asa matter of experiment shipped several hoxes of Easter Beuree pears to different points in England. Some to London, some to Glasgow and some to Liverpool. The pears were shipped late in the season and were in the snow blockade on the railroad from three to four weeks. Some went hy the way of Boston, and some by the way of New York. He has lately received an account of the experiment. The pears sent by New York arrived in perfect order, and condition; while those sent by Boston had apparently been touched by the frost and were in rather poor condition. Onthe whole, the experiment is regarded by Mr. Reed as a perfect success, and proves that California pears can be laid down in any of the above named cities in a good merchantable condition. It also satisfies Mr. Reed thst pecnniarily the husiness will pay. In_ confirmation of the above, B.S. Fox of San José, sent some pears to Ireland, his old home, and although it was a small shipment to friends, it proves that the frnit can he shipped and arrive in good condition. These experiments are of great valueto our State. We have already a large market in the Atlantic States for our fruits, and particularly for pears, hut if we can supply England with her millions of people, with our delicious pears at remunerative prices, we have a market literally beyond our ability to supply. Our fruit growers will make a note of the above facts. Dr. Franeniy’s Toast.—Dr. Franklin once dined with the English and French ambassadors, when the following toasts were drunk: The British ambassador said:—‘‘England —the eun whose bright beams enlighten and fertilize the remotest corners of the earth.” The French ambassador, glowing "with national pride, but too polite to dispute the previous toast, drank : —‘‘ France—the moon whose mild, steady and cheering raye are the delight of all nations, coneoling them in darkness, and making their dreariness beautiful.” Dr. Franklin then arose, and, with his usual dignified eimplicity said:—‘‘ George Washington,—the Joshua who commanded the eun and the moon to stand still, and they obeyed him,” Animal Power. _ Enrrors Press:—Allow me to ask the following questions, viz.:— ist. Working a horse or an ox all day, how much-taking in account their respective weight—can Rie pull and not be over worked ? 2d. What is equivalent in the working capacity of three oxen, in horse power ? 3d. Pound for pound, which will pull most easily, a desd load, like corn, or a springy one, like hay ? TFB. Marengo Ranch, Los Angeles Co. In the foregoing qneries there are a few nice points involved. We once took a contract for hauling wheat by the ton a distance of ten and a quarter miles over a generally level road, but with 2 or 3 elevations and depressions of about a fourth of a mile in length each, and of about equal ascent and descent; other than this, the road was hard and good. We put on two new wagons of the same size and weight, and made hy the same man. To one {wagon we puta pair of large common farm horses, and to the other a large, good yoke of oxen, ‘We commenced by hauling a single ton on each wagon, every day with no return load but the empty wagons. Both horses and oxen were fed an equsl quantity of ground feed each, and all the good hay they would eat. Both teams left at the same hour in the morning, but the horses would arrive home three hours the first, heing able to trot most of the way returning. The distance both ways amonnting to twenty and a half miles a day; we found at the end of a single week that the horses—to use a farmerg’ phrase—held their own, whilst the oxen were losing weight and suffering from] fatigue, as they would lie down, almost immediately on being turned out, and sometimes before they had finished their food. We now hitched on another yoke of oxen, nearly equal in strength to the first; but the result after another week was the same; the four oxen were more fatigued than the two horses drawing equal loads and changing wagons every day from horses to oxen, so that any differcnce in case of draft would he equalized. It was evident, therefore, that the distance traveled, was what was worrying the oxen and not the weight of the load. We now puttwotons upon the fwo yoke of oxen and wagon and taking one dsy to go and the next to return; the horses being loaded and going daily ss before. After two week’s work, the oxen doing the,{same amount of work as the horses in the same time, were cvery day improving till the job was completed. During the whole time, the load for the horses was an cven ton weight or averaged that day by day; and with thst load, it required full feeding with ruhhing down and much care, to keep the horses up to their starting condition. On all good roads we should prefer horses before oxen; but in all bad places or in timbered land, where the labor is logging or getting around among brush and bad places with stumps and rocks or mudholes, the paticnt ox is to he preferred. An elastic weight, as feathers or unpressed hay, against a dead weight as corn.or lead, pound for pound, the elastic materia] will draw the easiest. First, because the whole load of the elastic substance does not start at the same instant, and it is easier to start half a load than the whole of it at once; and secondly, hecause the elastic load will allow of the wheels rising over short inequalities or small stones without crushing them, which if it did crush them would reqnire extra power, because, with the dead weight you would expend the same power in drawing the load proper, and the additional power required to crush the stones. If our correspondent should hold to a different view than we have expressed, we would be pleased to hear from him. Vatue or Stow Resapive.—Frederick W. Robertson, the distinguished Englieh preacher, once wrote toa lady friend: “1 never knew but one or two faet readere, and readers of many booke, whoee knowledge was worthanything. Miss Martineau saye of herself that ehe is the slowest of readers—eometimee a page an hour. But then what she reads she makes her own, Girls read too much and think too little. I will answer for it that there are few girls of eighteen who have not read more booke than I have; and ae to religioue books, I can count upon my fingers in two minutes all I have ever read. But they are mine.’ Tus President of the Northern Pacifio Railroad company denies the statement that a quantity of railroad iron had arrived in New York from England for the above company, and says that it is the intention to use none but American iron on that road.