AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 57 



advanced some three or four rods, the chain was taken up, and they were turned back with- 

 out any unhitching, the roots in the mean time cracking and making a noise like a pistol 

 exploded under water. The ground gradually rose about the stump, and in five minutes its 

 gnarly roots, which had securely laid there for ages, were brought to light. At the expiration 

 of ten minutes, the old hero was fairly turned over, and the roots on the upper side pointing 

 to the heavens. Upon actual measurement, we found the roots extending something more 

 than sixteen feet from each side of the stump. 



"The experiment was one of the most astonishing exhibitions of mechanical power that we 

 have ever witnessed. The machine is exceedingly simple, and not liable to get out of repair." 



The prices of these machines range from $125 to $200, including town-rights, which brings 

 them within reach of moderate means, and cannot but be a good investment for the enter- 

 prising farmer. 



An improvement in machinery for extracting stumps has also been recently invented by 

 Edward Vaughn, of Alliance, Ohio. "The bearing of the screw employed in this stump- 

 extractor is a half sphere fitted within a concave plate ; the hub of the sweep for working the 

 extractor has a projection resting upon anti-friction balls, and the screw passing through a 

 recess is so arranged that the friction usually attendant on operating it in ordinary stump- 

 extractors is greatly reduced, and at the same time the screw is allowed to oscillate and 

 conform to the line of pressure when out of a vertical line. This machine is made with a 

 frame to be drawn on wheels to the field where the stumps are to be extracted, and by a 

 peculiar arrangement the wheels can be attached or removed at pleasure." 



The Michigan Farmer's Companion thus describes a new stump-extractor recently intro- 

 duced into that State : — 



It is a very powerful, effective machine, turning out solid oak stumps three feet in diame- 

 ter with as much ease as a dentist would extract a molar. Its lever power is the screw. 

 The directions here given will enable any mechanic to make one : First, there are two bed- 

 pieces of best oak, 8 by 5 inches, 10 feet long, put together like a common crotch-drag, 

 spreading 10 feet at the rear end ; the cross-piece is inserted 2 feet from the forward end, 

 and just behind this is inserted a strong bolt with a nut and screw, to prevent spreading. 

 Three posts, 6 feet between joints, and 5 by 8 inches, oak, are mortised into the bed-pieces, 

 forming a triangle ; the hind posts are 8 feet apart at the foot, measuring across the frame : 

 the top of these posts are let into a head-block, 10 inches thick, 18 inches wide, and 3£ feet 

 long, made of the toughest oak ; a knot would be better. A hole is made through this block, 

 3 inches in diameter at the top and 8 inches at the bottom ; through this is passed a common 

 cider-mill screw, 4^ feet long, with a clevis made of Swede's bar passing through the lever 

 holes in the screw, to admit two holes for bolts an inch and a half thick; then a chain made 

 of f -inch iron, 4£ feet long, with a ring on one end ; a large hook on the other for hitching 

 to roots ; the nut in which the screw works is let firmly into the sweep, (like an old-fashioned 

 cider-mill sweep,) to the end of which a horse is attached; the screw is lowered sufficient to 

 hitch; the horse is then started, and the stump is raised out with great ease. Indeed, it was 

 wonderful to see with what power and ease it drew into pieces a solid oak stump ; it being 

 so firm in the ground that it came into parts rather than yield entirely at one hitch. The 

 whole cost of the machine is $24. 



Patterson's Compound-action Clod-Crusher. 



A silvee. medal was awarded at the recent exhibition of agricultural implements at Car- 

 lisle, England, for an improved clod-crusher, the invention of Mr. Patterson. Its novelty 

 consists in the employment of a straight axle, with a series of eccentrics upon it, for the 

 purpose of placing each disc in a backward and forward position with regard to its neighbor. 

 The eccentrics are so arranged upon the shaft, that their centres shall be in the same hori- 

 zontal plane, or equidistant from the ground line. By this arrangement, a perfect self- 

 cleansing action is obtained, owing to the peripheries of the discs continually crossing and 

 recrossing each other. In this way a grinding action is exerted upon the clods, which re- 

 duces them to a fine mould. 



