428 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



surface absorbs its ray?, and tbus heats Tip the soil so as to lorce the plants. 

 We caunot too warmly commend the U!>e of the rolkr on all prairie soils. 



We have purposely omitted the common and hill cultivators, one-horse 

 ploughs, clod-crushers, (not rollers,) horse hoes, &c., as no longer of much 

 value on the prairies. 



BROAD-CAST SEED SOWERS AND DRILLS. 



Grain drills, except in clean, well-pulverized prairie soils, are of little value. Of 

 their value on sandy and gravelly land we know nothing personally. For 

 winter wheat and rye grain drills may have some value, but of this we have 

 doubts. For spring-sown grain we have serious objections to the use of the 

 drill. The seed is buried too deep, and the surface is left too uneven ; in ad- 

 dition, the weeds spring up between the rows, and thus crowd out the grain in- 

 stead of having the grain crowd out the weeds. Until it will pay to hand- 

 weed the grain crops we should never think of using a grain drill. At one 

 time it was supposed the use of the drill would insure a crop of winter wheat, 

 and that its use was indispensable, but this theory has given way, and now the 

 grain drill is little used in prairie farming. 



Another advantage of the drill was the saving of labor in sowing by hand 

 and in the economy of seed. This has now given place to a new invention for 

 sowing by horse-power and by hand. With a good hand machine a man will 

 sow from twenty-five to thirty acres a day, as much as can bo done with the 

 best two-horse broad-cast sower. Seed drills and cultivators are combined, 

 but these succeed only in clean, level lands, and are too expensive and liable 

 to get out of order to be profitable. They are only used for a few days in a 

 year, and the interest and deterioration amount to more than the cost of a hand 

 sower and the labor of sowing a hundred aci-es ; hence they cannot, if suc- 

 cessful, prove profitable on small farms. In our soil the seed need have but a 

 slight covering if the land can, as it should, be rolled. With a hand seed-sower 

 the work is done better than that by hand, and equal to the best broad-cast 

 sowers, and, on the whole, it will be found the most economical. The popiilar 

 demand is for the horse-power seed-sower, but farmers will gradually make a 

 change. The hand sowers are generally sold at ten dollars each, but if kept 

 for sale in stores a good profit can be made on them at five dollars, as the shop 

 cost is less than three d( '^ars each. 



MACHIMES FOR THE MEADOW. 



We have never, as yet, seen a good combined reaper and mower, and would 

 never recommend them thus made. If a farmer can afford but one, let him 

 have either a reaper or a mower, and hire the use of the other. Our harvests 

 are very short at the west, generally only two weeks ; as the heat of the sea- 

 son hastens the late sown grain, making the crop lighter, of course, but bring- 

 ing it forward nearly at the same time Avith the early sown ; neither can we 

 cut grain in the dough state, as in the more northern and eastern districts. 

 The same is true of the hay crop, which is usually so far advanced as to make 

 immediate cutting necessary, lest its rapid maturing injure it for food. A 

 common reaper will cut ten to twelve acres a day of twelve hours, the usual 

 time of harvest work, and a mower will cut eight to ten acres in the same time. 

 To cut grass the motion of the sickle must be greater than to cut grain. If 

 this is applied in the same machine to the long sickh; and heavy gearing of a 

 six-foot reaper, the strain on the machine is very great, and it soon gives out ; 

 whereas, in mowing, the gearing is much lighter, as the sickle, which is but a 

 trifie over four feet, can be easily drawn by two horses, and is much more 

 durable. The six fet^t combined reapers and moM'ers require four horses, and 

 are much heavier, and will do but little more work in a day, at best, as there 



