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SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS-NO. II.

My

always, by the way, in too great quantity,) is cov- that I have succeeded in having the single shovel, ered by a triangular, wooden-toothed harrow, with or bull-tongue, made of cast iron; the sweep and a roller attached. This roller should be of cast cultivator teeth all doing excellent work. iron, at least 12 or 14 inches in diameter, and some cultivator teeth I consider a decided improvement. 18 inches long, and will weigh perhaps 150 lbs. Trial of Plows.-Since writing the preceding, This may be considered by some as too heavy; but I have had another trial of plows. I was breakthey must bear in mind that the greater the diam- ing up a piece of ground, part of an old field, which eter, the greater the extent of surface upon which had lain some three years undisturbed, during it rests, and therefore the weight must be increased which time it had been trodden by stock in all proportionably. The advantages of increased di- weathers. That ground I have just planted in ameter are the great lessening of draft to the corn and peas. My first planted corn having horse, and the application of a more direct perpen-shown its silks the 21st of May, I had three plows dicular pressure. The roller may be so cast as running-Ruggles, Nourse, & Mason's Eagle plow, that its weight may be increased for light sandy with a pair of horses; Hall's No. 2, and Sloop's land, and very dry weather, by being filled with No. 2, each drawn by a pair of mules. I was sand or mortar. Few complain, even this year, of with them three fourths of the time during three a poor stand, who have used such rollers or their days, with foot-rule in hand, making frequent measequivalent. urements and notes. I may rate the entire average furrow of the Eagle at 12 by 6 inches; the Hall and Sloop each at 8 by 6 inches-the Eagle running perfectly steady, and leaving the plowman nothing to do the others jumping out and in, varying greatly in their work, and throwing out large chunks, as the plowman expressed it, every now and then. The Sloop plow required least draft, decidedly, next Hall's, and last the Eagle. Hall's is the best tending and ridging plow. I found the draft of the Eagle plow much increased and that of either of the others proportionably diminished, when I permitted one of them to follow the Eagle plow round, depriving it of the advantage it gains by cutting out some inch or two of earth from under the next furrow. I should say that the Eagle plow was made specially with an eye to being drawn by oxen, as the quick walk of my horses caused it to turn its furrow badly, now and then. I have broken up a piece of stiff Bermuda grass sod in fine style with this plow-a thing I could not have done with any other plow I have.

When the young plant bears from two to four leaves, it is cut out or scraped to a double stand, leaving plants at half the distance they are intended ultimately to stand, and scraping the sides of the ridge clear of the young weeds and grass. This is most commonly done with the hoe. Some use what they call scrapers, which I find greatly facilitate the work. Unfortunately I have not one at hand to copy from, and I am not artist enough to give you a sketch without.

Previous to scraping, whether with the hoe or scraper, it is customary to bar-off with a plow, casting a furrow from the cotton on each side, and generally within four to six inches of the plants. When there has been much rain, or the ridge is very foul, this is indispensable; but in such a season as this, I think it a ruinous practice. To enter upon this subject would lead me off too far from the one now in hand. I would just advise planters and overseers to examine the roots of a plant of cotton, at this age, and see what a small proportion the top roots bear to the horizontal ones, and to what a distance these last extend, and especially in a dry season, and they will be very careful how they permit those roots to be laid bare. To dirt the cotton, as it is termed, after cutting out, a common turning plow is generally used. I am now using double half-shovel plows, warmly recommended to me by Dr. Phillips, and Mr. Hamilton, spoken of above. Dr. P. sent me one to work from, and with the aid of an ingenious mechanic in my employment, Mr. Dubois, I have had a lot made, with cast shovels, of which I have tried to make you a sketch, but can not succeed to my mind. They consist simply of two cast mouldboards, with points, cast all in one, but no landside, and are stocked like a shovel plow, the beam being made broad enough to have two chips or uprights attached, the one behind the other, to each of which is bolted, with a single bolt, one of the shovels spoken of. Each shovel cuts about seven inches, the plow thus clearing about sixteen inches, and throwing a little mellow dirt very nicely to the young cotton plant. During a wet season, when crab grass (or crop grass) grows with such rapidity as to form a pretty good sod between each tending of the crop, this implement does good work. I find, however, I am carrying this epistle to too great length, and will merely add, I can inform us.

I have said this much of Messrs. R., N., & M.'s Eagle plow, because it is the first really first-rate implement I have had in my hand in the south. That there are others equally good I think quite likely, but I must see them together to be satisfied of the fact. You speak of the subsoil plow of the same makers. I find that my cast bull-tongue, run after a good plow, and drawn by a good team, makes quite a good subsoil plow. Sur up your makers of plows and other implements, not forgetting Bachelder's Planter, to send on specimens to our fall trial. Ship to Wm. J. Minor, Esq., the President of our Society, so as to reach here by the 15th October, at latest. They will reach us, of course, free of charge, or at at all events with instructions to pay charges out of price of implement, if sold. Full justice shall be done everything that is sent. I should like to have a good small woodcut, or cast of cut, with each implement. You shall have a full report of the trial. Please let us know if a perfect, or good dynamometer is yet made, by whom, and the price.*

THOMAS AFFLECK.

Ingleside, Miss., June, 1844.

*We know of no really good dynamometer which can be depended upon, and shall be obliged if any of our readers

-[ED.

would permit. In three or four years, however, the timothy and clover began to show, coming from seed lodged by the wind, or by cattle lying upon it. The result is, this old brick-bed, lying high and dry (for it had to be made so to dry the brick), has been for several years past the most productive piece of grass ground within my knowledge. Every year when we have a fair quantity of rain, it yields at the rate of two to three tons to the acre. The patch is, perhaps, a quarter of an acre in extent. I passed it yesterday, and although not fit to cut for a fortnight to come, it is lodging with its overgrowth; and the surrounding grounds have a crop of full one and a half tons to the acre, and not a spoonful of manure has been put upon any part of it, but what the cattle have dropped in feeding on it. So of all the lands in the vicinity-a stiff, clay soil; and, shame to their owners! a single soul of whom does not reside there, leaving the farms to be skinned and "deviled" over for the past twenty years. I really do not know of so good a speculation as these lands would be to enterprising farmers, who would come and purchase them at fifteen to twenty dollars the acre, as they may be had, and all too, within six to ten miles from the centre of the populous city of Buffalo, fronting on the Erie canal. But "the west" is all the rage; and when the emigrant once starts "from the east," no temptation will stop him short of his cherished El Dorado in Wisconsin, or Iowa; even Ohio, Michigan, or anything short of the extreme west, although millions of acres of their good land are yet unsettled, are also passed over, having become "an obsolete idea."

CLAY LAND FOR GRASS. THERE is an unwarrantable prejudice existing among our farmers generally, against clay soils, although when well situated, and properly managed, they are universally acknowledged as the best for wheat, and for grass. I have had some experience in this matter, and as I speak, like Othello, "only of what I do know," I will state a few facts which have occurred under my own eye. You know that the beautiful position you lately occupied on the Niagara river, three miles below my own residence, is now owned by Dr. Lyman, who purchased it last year. This farm is a stiff, unyielding clay; its only objection to any one desiring a delightful country residence. When you came into its possession, it had been for years "deviled over"-(a very significant phrase)-and the fields yielded only a miserable bite of bluegrass (poa pratensis), moss, and fivefingers. These fields were plowed up at once by you, and put into a rotation of root and grain crops, and fed with a small quantity of manure from the stables and piggery, and as soon as leveled, and laid into suit able lands, seeded down to grass-a mixture of clover and timothy. I was there the other day, and looked over the grounds. They have had no top-dressings, and but little manure, as I understand, from any quarter. But the grass crops are beautiful. The mowing land will cut from one and a half to two and a half tons to the acre, and of the finest quality; free from weeds and foul stuff of any kind. The soil is almost a dead level, and all that has been done was to throw the land into beds, or ridges, say fifteen to thirty feet wide, with the plough, and carry off the falling water But to the clay soils. I much doubt whether into the natural ravines by the same process. (a) we have, in America, ascertained the true value I know no good reason why this land will not, of these lands. The farm I cultivate, although of with either the after-math occasionally left for a considerable extent, has a diversity of soil, consistwinter covering, and top-dressing, or a slight coating of sandy and gravelly loams, clayey loam, and of stable manure, say ten cords to the acre, once a red, stiff clay. I have ploughed and cultivated in four or five years, applied either in the early them all. The sandy and gravelly loams work spring, or immediately after mowing in summer the easiest and freest; they are better for roots, (I like the latter best, as the wheels are apt to cut that is, in the working. So are they the easiest the soil in the spring), last an interminable time plowed; but they require the most manure, and in grass, and yield the finest crops. Many fields retain its virtues the shortest time. The clayey of like character in the neighborhood have pro- loams are decidedly the strongest, and without duced grass abundantly for years, without either manure yield well for many years, both grain, top-dressing or manure of any kind, and under the grass and roots, and with a slight sprinkling of worst possible management. An instance I give dung throw up a heavy crop, and retain its beneyou: the Morehead farm, just below your late fits for years; while the stronger and unyielding residence, has long been neglected. It has been clays, in good seasons, when full plowed and regularly mowed every summer (and yet at this properly treated, yield good crops of grains, but time has a crop of one and a half tons to the acre laid into grass, produce both pasturage and mowstanding upon it), and immediately afterward, ing unsurpassed in quality and luxuriance. Nothing cattle have been turned upon it, gnawing it down but long and severe droughts affect them. They to the ground before winter. Still it yields well. then crack, and the grass ceases to grow; but a The soil is a stiff clay. On this place, eight or ten slight rain reinvigorates them, and they produce years ago, was a brick-yard. After two or three more bountifully than any other lands within my years' working, it was abandoned, by merely dis- knowledge. continuance, the old clay-pits, the brick-bed for drying, &c., left, and not even the miserable spiked rollers with which the clay was mixed, were removed. The old drying-bed, in particular, stood conspicuous for several years, a dry, red, arid object, packed as hard as pounding, rolling, and a continuous tramping of years could make it, and the subsequent neglect of the "skinning" tenants

This, however, is a secondary and a limestone region. Our soils are mixed, more or less, with lime, rendering them strong and enduring; yet I have little doubt that the clay soils generally in the United States and the Canadas are both productive, and permanent grass lands; and with proper care and attention, and that of the cheapest kind, will yield more in proportion to their gen

erally estimated value than any other lands in the country. Let me give another instance :--I have a small piece of heavy clay land near my residence, say three or four acres. Before I came into possession of it, some seven years ago, it had been miserably neglected. It produced nothing but moss, fivefingers, and strawberries, and was gnawed to the very dirt by horses and hogs. It had never been plowed, but was well situated to drain. I drew one or two slight ditches through it with the plow, scattered some hay chaff over it, spread over a tolerable coating of stable manure, and ever since it has annually yielded two to three tons of hay to the acre, growing so stout that I have usually had to cut it before it was properly ripe, because of its lodging.

I have been told that much of the fine grazing and extensive county of York, in England, as well as the principal parts of Durham and Northumberland, adjoining, are heavy clays. (b) These are the great grazing counties, where the massive Short Horns are bred in the highest perfection; where thousands of Scotch cattle are annually grazed by the farmers; and the enormous drayhorse and Cleveland bays of England are produced. These, too, are the most northerly counties of England, and severe in their climates; yet their pastures are the most productive. And these heavy soils, I learn, were among the last to be appreciated; but when their value was ascertained, they at once took rank in value with the most favored soils of the kingdom. Will it not be so with the clays of America? Let them be analyzed, their constituent parts ascertained, and I have little doubt, in process of time, with the aid of right cultivation, and cheap, yet friendly stimulants, these, to many disagreeable and repulsive soils, will become among the most desirable and profitable in our country. L. F. ALLEN.

Black Rock, June 26, 1844.

(a) In addition to laying up the land in beds, with wide open furrows left between them, wherever any spot was so low as to retain the surface water, we made with the plow and road-scraper, an open ditch from such low spot to the main ravines running through the farm, for the purpose of drawing off the standing water.

(b) Parts of these counties contain the stiffest clay soil we ever saw cultivated, except in the low grounds of Staffordshire. In our drier climate, we are confident no crop except hay could be profitably grown upon them; and even in England, they pay much better to be kept constantly in grass. We examined lands of this description which had been kept in grass for centuries, and they were among the finest and most productive meadows that ever fell under our observation. It is considered fatal to break them up for hoed or grain crops, and then re-seed; for it would take a century to restore the grass to its present state of perfection. We were shown different fields of grass which had been broken up and re-seeded, twenty, forty, sixty, and one hundred years ago, and the difference in the quality and product of grass in them was very great. The longer they remained in grass the better they grew.

ADVICE-FINDING FAULT.

and find fault. First, then, for advice: purchase It is the province of an old man to give advice no more land than you can make productive. Land doubles its first cost, on an average, once in nine to eleven years, by reckoning compound interest on first cost, together with taxes and other contingent expenses; so that if you pay $10 per acre for your farm, in ten years it will stand you in $20; in twenty years, $40; in thirty years, $80; and in forty years, $160 per acre! I mean on that part of it which is unproductive. What an enor mous sum! and how few think of it who are ambitious to be the owners of large tracts of land without regarding the profits of its cultivation!

bandry, in renting their estates, that "no land be It has been a principle laid down in British husintrusted in the hands of men who have not capital, skill, and industry, to cultivate them with profit to themselves and the community; nor to suffer any man, let his capital be what it may, to hold more land than he can personally superintend, so as to pay the requisite regard to the minutiae of cultivation." But in this country, it may be said, it is far otherwise than in England; land is bought here for the purpose of making an investment of money, looking for a profit on the rise of it. Understand, however, that I am not giving advice to speculators, nor writing for their benefit. I have known $2 per acre paid for land forty years ago, and the land is now in the same family, and could, not be sold at this time for that price; and many an instance have I known where families have been land-ridden all their lives, and kept poor by purchases made on speculation. But this has nothing to do with my present purpose; speculation has had, and always will have its votaries and victims.

I now proceed to find a little fault.

My business called me, a few days since, to visit The barn was a noble one; in the yard of which a farm containing about 300 acres of cleared land. was deposited, as near as I could judge, one thouing and gazing with astonishment at such a sight, sand loads of well-rotted manure. While standan ox-wagon with two large yoke of oxen attached, was driven through it into the barn, to take on a load of grain, the wheels sinking nearly to the hub, and the oxen up to their knees. I found, on inquiry, that this had been accumulating four years, and the heaps of manure all round the barn were in such piles as to make it difficult any longer to pass the dung from the stable through the windows.

of the farm, by which I was convinced that the From the barn I passed over a considerable part land was not suffering for want of manure, for such clusters of burdocks I have never before seen! The stalks at the root were nearly as large round as "a piece of chalk" (and as much larger as my readers may please to imagine), while the branches were sufficiently spread to shelter calves and sheep; and the way their hair and wool were burred up was a caution! The noxious weeds in many places were equally prolific; and then the way the sprouts were shooting up from the old stumps, would have cheered the heart of any one who is

BOTTS' STRAW-CUTTER.

BOTTS' STRAW-CUTTER.

309

fearful that this country is going to be short of wood in a few years. More than two hundred I AM much obliged to you for the kind offer tons of good English hay have been cut upon this contained in your note of the 9th, and most gladly farm in a single year, and pasturage had the same avail myself of the opportunity afforded by your season in proportion, and equally abundant crops popular journal, to extend a knowledge of the of grain; but the meadows now are running into merits of my straw-cutter. I herewith send you spear and other grasses, and many acres are not a pretty faithful illustration of the implement. worth mowing. There are two farms adjoining in a far worse condition. I need not say, they all belong to non-residents, and the tenants have their own way of managing them. OCTOGENARIAN.

The history of the cutter is simply this:-As a practical farmer, I felt the need of a simple and efficient cutter, that should come within the capacity of a common laborer. I purchased a great variety, consisting, of course, of those of most

celebrity; and while I found many that operated] cutting part consists of four knives, about four sufficiently well as they came from the hands of inches square, as flat and straight, and as easily the manufacturer, I met with none that retained ground, as a plane iron. In short, without wishits capabilities in the hands of the common farm ing to disparage other cutters, many of which laborer. I moreover remarked, that the instru- have great merits, and some, too, that I can not ment usually began to depreciate just after the first claim for mine, I think I do not arrogate too much grinding and readjustment of the knives. I there- when I say, that this knife is better adapted to the fore set my wits to work, to see if I could not farm laborer, of the south at least, than any other devise a knife, the feeding apparatus of which in use. At any rate, I can procure certificates, if should be simple and permanent, and the knives of necessary, from hundreds of the best farmers in which should be readily ground and adjusted by Virginia, bearing me out in this opinion. the commonest capacity. These two points I Mr. Ellsworth, the Commissioner of Patents, thought were to be desired, even if they could be advised me several years ago to patent this knife obtained only at the expense of a little facility and in England. He has had one in use for several rapidity of execution." After much expense of years, and I know entertains the highest opinion time and money-more, I fear, than I shall ever be of it; although motives of delicacy prevented me repaid for-I flatter myself I have obtained these from asking, as it would undoubtedly prevent him objects; and I have also been fortunate enough to from giving, a certificate of the value of any imcombine with them, if not the greatest rapidity, plement in his office. It was only yesterday that. certainly sufficient speed of operation to satisfy the Mr. Stevenson, the ex-minister to England, who, I most impatient temperament. The feeding appa- assure you, sir, deserves to rank as high in your ratus is. I believe, the most perfect and durable I esteem and mine, for his devotion to agriculture, ever saw. In four years' experience I have never as he does among the statesmen of America as known it deranged in the slightest degree. The a politician, not only advised, but urged me to

310

FRUIT GARDEN OF DR. RHINELANDER.

take this cutter to England, in the kindest manner | frequently beneficial to others. It is from this offering me letters to his friends there; being pleased to say, that such an improvement in agricultural implements would, of itself, afford me an introduction to Lord Spencer, more potent than a letter from any diplomatist in Europe.

C. T. BOTTS.

cause that successive crops of grain, or any other product, from the same soil, produce poorly, and that a proper rotation of crops is deemed indispensibly necessary to the success of every farmer. The plum and its kindred fruits discharge far more I have now, in pursuance of your suggestion, of this matter than the apple or the pear, and are made this statement with respect to this knife. If therefore far more likely to be injured by its superyou think it will add to the gratification or in- abundance in the soil. A rich, heavy mould, or struction of your readers, you are at liberty to pub-retentive soil, prevents its escape, while a porous, lish so much of it as seems meet unto you. gravelly soil will allow the rain to pass through it freely, and wash away all offensive matter. As Dr. R.'s soil was of this porous nature, he had no difficulty of this kind to contend with, and directed The curculio is well known as the most serious his attention to other equally important points. enemy to the plum, peach, apricot, and nectarine. To put an end to their destructive ravages, Dr. R. uses clam and oyster shells, small stones, and simaround the body of the tree, and as far as the ilar materials, to make a hard, compact surface branches extend. The benefit of this is obvious; the curculio deposites its eggs in the fruit, just beneath the epidermis, the worm from which makes its way to the stone, and along it to the stem, which when it reaches, the fruit falls, with the worm, to the ground. This hard, compact surface of shells, &c., prevents the worm, as it issues from the fruit, finding its way into the earth, forth in the shape of a fly, to renew its depredathere to remain until the next season brings it tions on the fruit. Having thus left the fruit, the worm finds no way to enter the earth, and is soon destroyed by the heat of a summer's sun. It is for this reason that stone fruits, which many find it impossible to perfect in this part of the country, succeed so well in New York, where a hard pavement surrounds the tree.

Richmond, Va., Aug., 1844. We take great pleasure in saying, that we have examined the above straw-cutter of Mr. Botts, and think it the best contrived for the southern States of any that has yet come under our notice. It combines great strength with simplicity, and is just the thing to be placed with the careless hands on a plantation. Mr. B. expressed the fear that it might not be strong enough to cut the large cornstalks of the south. We have none whatever on this score, provided they do not exceed three inches in diameter, and are not over twenty feet high, as a gentleman, when we were on the Mississippi, modestly assured us they thus grew to shelter "bar" (bear), like a cane-brake in Arkansas. Mr. Freeborn of this city has the above cutters for saleprice $27 50.

FRUIT GARDEN OF DR. RHINELANDER.

On a recent visit to Dr. Rhinelander, of Huntington, L. I., I found so much of successful experiment in the cultivation of fruit, that I deem it scarcely fair that horticulturists should remain in ignorance of his exertions. The Doctor having, a few years since, exhausted the field of medicine, and imparted his varied knowledge to a numerous class of pupils, retired to his present residence, and turned his attention wholly to the study of horticulture, and more particularly to the cultivation of grapes and stone fruits, the latter well known as subject to several diseases. Having but little previous knowledge of fruit culture, he studied it as a science founded on correct principles, and of his entire knowledge of those principles, his great success is the best evidence.

He treated his trees as he did his patients. He could not, it is true, give them calomel, jalop, or salts, but he purged them in an equally effective way; and so thoroughly has this cathartic treatment driven disease from them, that he is enabled to fruit plums, peaches, nectarines, and apricots, with as much ease as apples or pears. His soil is admirably adapted to the cultivation of those fruits, being of a gravelly nature, with a porous subsoil. It is a generally admitted fact, that all plants discharge from their roots more or less excrement ory matter, which, if left in the soil, is decidedly injurious to the plant from which it came, although *We have seen this doubted latterly, if we recollect right, by no less an authority than Professor Lindley of England; also, by German vegetable physiologists.-ED.

*

Having thus placed the trees in a condition to perfect the fruit when produced, Dr. R. endeavored to discover the most effective mode of rendering them very productive. For this purpose he has successfully adopted the en quenouille mode of training, and other ways of bending the branches of the tree from their natural position, that the sap, being furnished by the root faster than the unnaturally twisted limbs can dissipate it, becomes thick and forms flower instead of leaf-buds. I saw one plum-tree, about as thick as a man's finger, with two branches forking off and trained horizontally about a foot from the ground, which were studded with plums of rich and healthy appearance. He also practises a judicious system of summer pruning, which he finds far more important than winter pruning, inasmuch as the sap of the tree is thus economized and directed to the formation of fruit. His success is not with the plum alone; his peaches are as fine and healthy as I ever saw in New Jersey or Delaware. The apricots were equally promising; and the nectarines, which it is generally deemed impossible to perfect in the open air, show as fine an appearance as any cultivated under glass. Many of his trees had died after being planted several years, and he attributes it to their having been inoculated on peach stocks. Too much care can not be taken on this point. The peach is, comparatively, a short