AGEICULTURAL MACHINERY. 435 



garden, the orcliard, and the lowest parts of the farm. In our friable soil, so 

 destitute of stone, one would suppose that the drains for tile could be nearly- 

 completed with finimal power. Several machines for this purpose have been 

 made, but thus far none of them have been fully approved, or have had suffi- 

 cient trial to demonstrate their value. We think such a machine will yet be 

 produced which will enable us to use tile drains at a small cost for the excava- 

 tion of the trenches. 



In the making of open di-ains, we have machines for doing it at a cost of ten 

 to fifteen cents a rod, making a ditch three feet wide at the top, one at the 

 bottom, and twenty-two inches deep. The power is applied to a capstan by 

 two horses, which cut some forty rods at one setting of the capstan. The soil 

 is thrown on one side of the ditch. This could be improved, so that a double 

 ditch, or one of, say, five feet wide, could be cut. One team and two men cut 

 from eighty to a hundred and sixty rods a day with this machine. The cost 

 of the machine, with the necessary chains and rods, is two hundred dollars. 

 The cost per rod is the jobber's price for the work, or ten to twelve and a half 

 cents, including board and feed of team. These machines can only be used in 

 slough land, in a wet condition, so that water will follow the ditch. Without 

 this, the machine will not scour or run free, and the soil must be soft, so that 

 the knives that cut the sides and bottom of the ditch can be easily drawn 

 through it. We do not suppose it would work well in cultivated land even 

 when wet, as it needs the thick, leathery, matted turf of the slough to hold 

 the soil so that it could be carried by the mould board away from the ditch. 



FARM MILLS. 



The cheapness of com, which is the principal feed for animals, both for 

 work and fattening, has generally been so low, and labor, on the other hand, so 

 high, that little efi'ort has been made in this direction. Most of the mills used 

 for this purpose are of cast iron, and are run by the use of a sweep. These, 

 of course, only bruise the grain, and do not grind it so as to rupture the cells. 

 There can be no doubt that thei-e is economy in grinding corn and other grains 

 for feed, when it can be done at a reasonable cost. To haul corn ten or fifteen 

 miles and pay one-fifth for toll, is doubtful policy ; and yet, to pay sixty dollars 

 for a mill that will crush only thirty to forty bushels of corn in ten hours, with 

 two span of horses, has no great promise of gain. If we could have a cheap 

 mill to run with a railway two-horse power that would grind five bushels 

 an hour, and at the same time not require a set of new grinders every 

 other day, we might find it an advantage; but of the hundreds of farm mills 

 that we have seen, not one of them comes within our idea of what such a mill 

 ought and can be made to do. A durable mill of this kind would be cheap at 

 a hundred dollars, and find a ready gale at the west. 



SORGHUM MILLS. 



These are now made strong and durable. Some of them have feed aprons 

 and carriers to deposit the bagasse out of the way, when it can be hauled oft" 

 for mulching or put in the manure pile. As a general thing farmers will do 

 better to haul their sorghum to the steam works, rather than to work it up them- 

 selves ; for, as a rule, farmers should not become manufacturers, as it will be 

 found more profitable to give all such work into the hands of mechanics and 

 skilled workmen than to attend to it themselves. The business of the farmer 

 is to produce and deliver the raw material into the hands of the manufjicturing 

 precess. 



To a great extent the progress of agricultural improvement is due to the 

 mechanical genius of the age. The drain of laborers from the farm to the army 

 during the past three years has been nearly made good by th^ ingenuity of our 

 «^orkmen, who have given us wooden forms with sinews of steel. 



