John Joseph Mechi, an English agriculturist, born in London, May 22, 1802. His father, an Italian, was member of the English .royal household. The son became a clerk in a mercantile house, speculated in a small patent, and in 1827 set up in business as a cutler. By the sale of a "magic razor strop," aided by liberal advertising, he acquired a fortune; and in 1840 he bought a farm of 170 acres at Tip-tree heath, Essex, where he made the experiments in scientific agriculture for which he became widely known. These experiments at first subjected him to much ridicule, but finally changed the farm from one of the most sterile into one of the most profitable. He collects the manure in a vast reservoir, liquefies it, and distributes it by a steam engine, through subterraneous pipes, over all parts of the farm, which it fertilizes and irrigates at the same time. Mr. Mechi has been an alderman and sheriff of London, and was a commissioner to the Paris exhibition of 1855. He has published "Letters on Agricultural Improvements" (1845), "Experience in Drainage" (1847), and " How to Farm Profitably " (1859; 4th enlarged ed., 1871), etc.