AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. 423 



that alongside, but tliis might have been the same by the use of the plough. 

 Four horses will spade the soil to the depth of eight inches and three feet wide, 

 or at the rate of five or six acres a day. In this it promises to be a labor saving 

 machine, but itvS great cost (two hundred dollars) is against it for the small 

 farmers. The' idea that the soil must be inverted with the plough is fast losing 

 ground, as it is found, in practice, that a thorough stirring or forking up is 

 equally as valuable, if not more so, without the objection of having a hard, 

 compact bed under the plough. It is well known that the potash in the soil 

 becomes fixed when below the influence of the air, and in turning deep furrows 

 the free or aerated potash becomes buried, and is in turn fixed, while the crop 

 must await the slow process of the atmosphere in aerating a new supply. In 

 spading, the free and fixed potash becomes mixed, hence the plant has a good 

 supply at the start, with more in process for assimilation. Another objection 

 to spading is the bringing of the seed of weeds to the surftice to be ready to 

 start with the seed sown. This, at first sight, might look like a serious objec-^ 

 tion, and, to some extent, is true. In old lands the seed of weeds becomes 

 pretty thoroughly mixed with the soil, and however one may plough or spade, 

 a good supply will be found near the surface to fill the whole space. In the 

 case of a very weedy piece of land the plough will be found desirable to place 

 the seeds of the weeds so deep that they cannot sprout up with the cultivated 

 crop. We may then safuly consider in practice, in all well cultivated land, 

 that it is immaterial whether we stir up the soil or reverse it, a.s far as the weeds 

 are concerned, while, as a mode of culture, the stirring is most decidedly 

 the best. 



Should steam be applied to the tilling of the soil, we predict it will be by the 

 use of the rotary spader rather than the plough. The experiment thus far is to 

 spade to the depth of eight inches. How tlie implement will work to the depth 

 of sixteen or twenty inches we cannot say, but at this depth it is not probable 

 it will be found capable of so thoroughly comminuting the soil. In ploughing it 

 is sometimes difficult to make the plough scour, but in the spader in question 

 no such objection appeared in the way." 



Should this new mode of stirring the soil ultimately come into popular use it will 

 be by slow degrees, as has been the history of all new and valuable labor-saving 

 implements. Nothing short of the most decided testimony will induce farmers 

 to change an implement costing ten to fifteen dollars for one costing two hun- 

 dred, with which to do the same work. The advantage must be largely in its 

 favor to accomplish this. 



TRIAL OF IMPLEMENTS. 



Here is a point at which we can i;rge Congress to institute experimental 

 grounds for the Department of Agriculture. Their value would be great, if for 

 no other reason than to try all newly invented implements, and to carefully 

 compare them with the old. This would save farmers a vast expense, and be 

 the means of rapidly disseminating the really valuable imjdements throughout 

 the country. This of itself would largely occupy the attention of practical 

 men. Let us look at this a little further. Take, for instance, the steam plough, 

 which has, up to this time, cost individually more than two hundred thousand 

 dollars in the various attempts to make a traction engine do ploughing ; nor do 

 we believe the idea fully abandoned, for, unless the various implements and 

 failures are published, the diseiise will break out in a new place, or, in other 

 words, the same failures will be reproduced. 



On such a farm the gang plough and rotary spader could have a thorough trial, 

 and their respective merits be fully ascertained. But now we must await the 

 slow process of individual experiment, or be at the mercy of interested parties, 

 who send forth fancy sketches of imperfect trials to deceive us into the idea of 



