THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



495 



peripatetic one, like Boytlill's ;iiul those of our own in- 

 vention. It is a great pity lliat they could not realize 

 the force of .Mr. Hoskyn's arguments, as given in his 

 "Talpa, or Chronicles of a Clay rami." 



I could not avoid noticing at Chester last summer the 

 bulk and weight of your agricultural implements as 

 compared with those which are exhibited at an American 

 show. For instance, a potato-digger, which was said to 

 be one of your best, weighed some eight hundred pounds, 

 whilst our own will not much exceed eighty, and I 

 scarcely think much better work can be desired than is 

 ordinarily accomplished by the light tools we use. One 

 of the most effective is that called " Pitkin's digger." 

 From a central rib curved fingers spread at either side, 

 the spaces between them allowing the dirt to pass 

 through, while the potatoes are thrown out, and roll 

 together on the surface of the soil, midway bf tween the 

 the rows. The centre rib and its lateral fingers are 

 made on a curve, like a two-way or double-breasted 

 plough, so that a furrow is turned, and the lower layers 

 of soil, those in which the tubers are imbedded, are 

 brought to the top, and the surface completely buried. 



Your horse-hoe, the one employed for hoeing wheat 

 and other cereals, is not even Icnown to the farmers of 

 America. We do not, in the first place, sow our grain 

 in rows so straight as to admit of the employment of a 

 horse-hoc ; and furthermore, our farmers would think 

 themselves unwarranted in an expenditure of labour, at 

 one dollar per day, for a week or two, in clearing a crop 

 of wheat. They are not yet good enough farmers to 

 see that their interest lies in doing just as you do, and 

 they never will see it until they feel the same pressure of 

 circumstances. The horse-hoe used here for cultivat- 

 ing between rows of Indian corn, potatoes, and other 

 crops having spaces of three feet between rows, is a 

 very simple and yet efficacious tool. Its component 

 parts are : alight wooden beam, a pair of handles, a 

 pair of very small ploughs, attached to side-wings from 

 the beam, a scimitar-shaped coulter on the former part 

 of the beam, just behind the wheel and clevis, and at 

 the rear end of the beam, and under the handles, a 

 V-shaped edge of steel, with three fingers on either side 

 of the standard, projecting backwards. The action of 

 the tool is thus : The coulter in front steadies the 

 motion of the tool, the little ploughs at either side throw 

 a furrow towards the centre, or if you choose to reverse 

 them, throwing a furrow at either side towards the row, 

 the V-shaped paring edge cuts surface weeds, and at the 

 same time spreads the ridge made by the side ploughs, 

 whilst the fingers projecting from the back of the cutting 

 edge comb out the loose weed in the disturbed soil, and 

 leave them on the surface of the ground to wither in the 

 sun. The tool costs but 32s., and will do as much hoeing 

 in a day as twenty men. 



The inventor of this horse-hoe is Samuel A. Knox, a 

 Massachusetts mechanic. He has also, after a life-long 

 attention to the manufacture of ploughs, discovered and 

 patented a principle for the construction of breasts, the 

 application of which has been attended with a largo 

 measure of success. Like all other plough-makers 

 here and in other countries, he observed that a certain 



definite curve of breast would wear more evenly, and 

 accomplish the desired work with the least possible 

 expenditure of force, and that this curve or twist should 

 vary with the soil and the manner of laying the furrow- 

 slice. A series of observation laid the foundation for a 

 theory, and the theory he reduced to practice. It is 

 essentially as fellows: — Upon a good plough, while the 

 breast is susceptible of any variation uf curve in the 

 direction of its height, still lines passing from any part 

 of its rear to certain fixed points will be found to be 

 straight. It is claimed by the inventor, and admitted 

 by users, that in the forward travel of the implement, 

 its propelling force results upon each particle of the 

 soil as a momentum, and not as a continued force ; for 

 wiien stricken, each particle is thrown off at a tangent 

 from the curved breast, which bears a strict relation to 

 its elevation ; but in no case is the particle rubbed con- 

 tinuously by successive portions of the breast, and there- 

 fore the furrow-slices are not compacted on their 

 abraded surface. The principle is supposed to do away 

 with the compaction of the furrow-slices in wet clays, 

 and by equalizing the wear of the plough-breast, and 

 exercising its greatest intensity at the flattened portions 

 near the point, to maintain the figure in place of a con- 

 tinued retrograding variation, the abrasion going on 

 equally over every part of the surface, and not being 

 concentrated in parts to such an extent as to wear holes. 



In justice to the inventor and patentee, I cannot enter 

 more circumstantially into detail of the principle, but 

 thus much I give to show that our peculiar mode of 

 plough-building is not a mere crude experiment, but 

 actually founded upon geometrical principles. 



This mode of construction of course admits of all the 

 variations necessary to produce longer or shorter breasts, 

 of gentle or more abrupt curvature, with straight, or 

 more or less convex or concave lines, laterally, as dif- 

 ferent soils or practical uses may require ; and hence is 

 as applicable to English ploughs as to American. 



To such of your readers as are desirous of studying 

 the statistics of American agriculture, I would particu- 

 larly recommend a learned paper on this subject, read 

 before the American Geographical and Statistical Society, 

 by John Jay, Esq., of this city, which has been issued 

 in book-form by Messrs. Appleton and Co., of 16, 

 Little Britain, London, and may be had for a trifling 

 sum. Taking the official returns of our Census as the 

 basis for his arguments, the author, with signal ability, 

 sketches the causes which have produced the rapid 

 growth of the American Republic, and points out its 

 future destiny as a food-producer for the continents 

 which lie on either side of it. He gives suggestions for 

 the preparation of the tables of the Census of 1860, 

 which, if adopted by our Government, would tend to 

 make our statistics almost as complete and instructive 

 as those obtained by England, France, Belgium, and 

 Austria. He justly remarks that ''in the absence of 

 official returns, the most accurate statements and ap- 

 proximation are to be found in the Mark Lane Express, 

 and the London Fanner's Ma/jazine ; and are thence 

 transferred to the columns of American newspapers, for 

 the information of American farmers. Thus does ia- 

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