THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



299 



thoroughly. In England, four or five plonghings are con- 

 sidered an essential preparation for a good crop of turnips. 

 In America, where labour is more costly, and products 

 usually cheaper, we the more need some more aids to om- 

 husbandry. Twig says that Romulus, in his distribution 

 of the land, allotted two acres to each citizen ; and that, 

 after the expulsion of the kings, it was increased to seven. 

 Columella tells us that the patrimonial estate on which 

 Ciucinnatus employed himself, consisted of four aci-es •* 

 Yet we, whose single farms are larger than the city of 

 Eome, with her seven hills, are plodding along, bound to 

 the old notion that the plough used by the Eomans — or, 

 at least, its principles of operation — must be for ever pre- 

 seiTed. 



" Every one knows how much better is the preservation 

 of the garden by forking up and raking, than by turning 

 with ploughs, and harrowing ; and the implement desired 

 now, in place of the plough, is a forking or digging ma- 

 chine that shall, at one operation, stir the ground to suffi- 

 cient depth, leaving it as nearly as possible in the condition 

 of a garden-bed prepai'ed with a fork. 



" Such a machine has been attempted by Smith of Wool- 

 ston. The idea which has thus been advocated by Mv. 

 Smith, seems at about the same time to have possessed 

 some ingenious agriculturist on the other side of the 

 Channel. In a walk near Paris, in July, 1857, I acci- 

 dentally came upon a steam cultivator, or digging machine, 

 in full operation. It waa a locomotive engine, with (I 



think") twelve spades, or forks, working in pairs, on bent 

 axles, from which the spades, if they may be so called, 

 projected at right angles. My impression is, that each 

 pair of spades struck the ground and entered it sepa- 

 rately, each of the six pairs successively doing its work as 

 the locomotive traversed the gi'ound, and thus forking up 

 the soil to the depth of sis or twelve inches, at the will of 

 the operator, and four-and-a-half feet wide. The machine 

 was under examination by some commission at the time; 

 and I was informed that no report had yet been made 

 upon it, no patent secured, and that no description or 

 drawing of it could be obtained. I took a great deal of 

 pains afterwards to obtain information, and, from my in- 

 ability to do so, inferred that there were reasons why the 

 inventor desired at present that his machine should not 

 be made public. I was told, upon the ground, that the 

 engine, was only of three-horse power ; but its perform- 

 ance indicated far more. It moved upon broad wheels 

 over the soft ground, which had been before stirred by it 

 and turned without difficulty at the end of the furrow. 

 The spades, I think, were upon three or four independent 

 axles, and worked between the wheels of the engine. With 

 my inability to converse on a technical subject in the 

 French language, I could not understand its details, and 

 find it impossible to convey more than a general impi-es- 

 siou of the working of the machine." 



Some details with regard to American steam cultivators 

 remain yet to be given. 



THE ROT IN SHEEP. 



tFrom the article ou •' Sheep," by the late John EUman, Esq., in Baxter's Library of AgricuUural Knowledge.'] 



A great difference of opinion prevails respecting the nature 

 of this disease, but I am inclined to believe it is produced by 

 the sheep feeding on wet pastures during the months of June, 

 July, August, September, and October ; wheu if one night's 

 hard frost occurs, unaccompanied with snow, it destroys what- 

 ever causes the disease. The ravages made among sheep dur- 

 ing the last two or three years, ought to be a sufficient induce- 

 ment for every flock-master to endeavour to discover the cause 

 of this disease. 



It is more easy to prevent than to cure, and with respect to 

 the rot, I believe there is no remedy : it may, however, be ar- 

 rested in its progress for a short period, but it must ultimately 

 destroy the animal. 



The supposition that a ewe will not take the rot while suck- 

 ling her lamb, is altogether erroneous; and I believe that any 

 ewe suckling her offspring during the months before-mentioned, 

 and put upon land calculated to cause rot in other sound sheep, 

 will become rot also. 



As wetness of land causes the rot, I strongly recommend all 

 breeders who have wet lands to have them thoroughly 

 drained, which will materially act as a preventive. Some 

 have contended that salt will cure the disease ; this I do not 

 believe, but I think it will act as a preventive, and have there- 

 fore given it to my sheep in troughs. I know some farmers 

 who have used rock salt, which has been placed in the field, 

 where the sheep are feeding, between three sticks fixed firmly 

 in the ground, at the height of from eighteen inches to two 

 feet from the surface. This the sheep will be frequently seen 

 to lick. 



Sheep, when kept oa turnips, should have hay, and pea or 



bean straw, well harvested, to counteract the excessive mois- 

 ture of the turnips. 



About forty or fifty years back, Mr. Fleet, from the neigh, 

 bourhood of Farnham, advertised a discovery he had made to 

 cure rotten sheep. I informed him that I intended to make a 

 trial, and requested him to meet me at my farm at Glynde. 

 The season was wet, and numbers died. I therefore had no 

 difficulty in collecting one hundred sheep from my neighbours 

 in a very diseased state, having none myself but what were 

 perfectly sound. Many of these were in a most wretched 

 state, and three or four died before any medicine could be 

 given. A drink was given to the remainder in the morning 

 by the directions of Mr. Feet, which consisted chiefly of tur- 

 pentine; some died that day and in the night following. 

 The next morning another dose was given of about a large 

 wine-glass full, and the dose repeated on the third morning ; 

 several, however, died after the second dose. I examined 

 those that died, and I believe that many of the flukes were 

 dislodged from the liver and driven to the intestines, and 

 some were even voided. After the third dose several more 

 died, but upon examination most of the flukes were dis- 

 lodged from the surface of the liver, and completely driven 

 from the ducts, but they evidently were either too large to get 

 through the gall-duct, or else the medicine did not reach 

 them ; after three days more, I returned all that were alive 

 (about seventy in number) to the different owners, with a re- 

 quest that they would not keep them as store stock, but fat- 

 ten them, and report to me the state of the livers when 

 slaughtered, which they accordingly did. The livers were 

 found to be very pale, but perfectly free from flukes, and thfe 

 sheep fattened very well. 



