58 



G1^EAN1J>JG8 IN BEECULTUKK. 



Jan. 



he has a two-horse cMltivator, he used this. 

 saying it did tlie best work in the cornfield 

 of any thing they ever had a horse hitched to. 

 I liave said so much in favor of the ma- 

 nure-spreader, I will now mention its disad- 

 vantages, so far as 1 can. after having used 

 it part of one season and the whole of anotli- 

 er. First, it needs a good stout team to work 

 it, especially if you have manure in solid 

 hard chunks, or cow-manure, as mentioned 

 above ; and even with a good stout team it 

 is not advisable to puton as lieavy a load as the 

 same team would ordinarily draw on a wagon. 

 There may be some difference of opinion in 

 regard to this matter, but we have tested it 

 pretty tlioroughly. \Ve buy our manure all 

 over the town, and buy it at so much a load; 

 tlierefore it is desirable to get about as much 

 as the horses can draw conveniently. ( )f 

 course, we have a good team : but if we put 

 on as much as the horses can di-aw. it is a 

 pretty severe strain on the machinery. We 

 at first tried tramping the manure down, 

 but this will not answer, for two reasons : 

 It gets two much weight on the machinery 

 when the maniu-e is heavy, and the strain is 

 much more severe on the cyliiuler that picks 

 it up. On a recent visit llirough adjoining 

 counties I noticed that those using manure- 

 spreaders drew their manure to the fields in 

 wagons, and threw it down in heaps at each 

 end of the field, as I have described. The 

 machine was then set so as to spread a load 

 in going once across.* This necessitates, of 

 course, pitching tlie manure on to the ground, 

 and then frcmi the ground on to the spreader. 

 1 remonstrated at this, calling it a waste of 

 time : but they told me J would find it again 

 in the end, and our experience has proved 

 them to be correct. To have the manure 

 spread nicely and rapidl.\ . it must not be 

 packed in the spreader at all. Let it lie just 

 as lightly as you can throw it in ; and al- 

 though you can work it when i)iled above 

 the sitles of the box, especially when the ma- 

 nure is very light, as a rule the stopping ne- 

 cessitated by so doing to run the box forward 

 and pitch the maniu'e back on to the empty 

 space takes more time thaii to throw in jiist 

 what will spread without stopping. Better 

 follow the printed directions the manufac- 

 turers send out with the machines. We 

 have had some repairs to pay for in conse- 

 quence of trying methods of our own. Our 

 friend in the letter above speaks of loaning 



♦Where two teams are accessible, one may draw 

 the manure to the lot, and pitch it directly from the 

 wagon to the spreader, some extra piles being- plac- 

 ed In advance on the g-round, to keep the sprender 

 g-oiiig- until the team g-ets hack. 



the machine to neighbors. It depends upon 

 who the neighbors are. On one occasion a 

 neighbor set his hired man at work with it, 

 and it was run without oil until two of the 

 wheels were cut so as to be worthless. It 

 seems to me the Inciter way would be to liave 

 the man, who is accustomed to work with 

 the machine, go with it. foi- it is necessarily, 

 in some respects, a rather complicated piece 

 of machinery; and. as friend Terry says, it 

 must be housed or it will prove to be an ex- 

 pensive piece of machinei-y. 



SPREADING ASHES, LIME, PI.ASTEU, SAW- 

 nrST, KTC, AVITTI A MANURE-SPKEAOEU. 



I believe it is generally agreed, that ashes 

 are a benefit on almost any soil ; but lime 

 and plaster may be needed only in certain 

 localites; but as they are used quite exten- 

 sively in some places. I presume there is no 

 (luestiou as to their utility. When 1 was a 

 boy, riding a horse for cultivating corn, 

 even to my l)oyish eyes there was a plain 

 difference in the corn that had received a 

 table-spoonful of plaster scattered on the 

 hill, from that which had received none, and 

 it was put on certain rows and not on oth- 

 I ers, so there could be no mistake about it. 

 j This was on sandy soil, however. I have 

 i never seen this tried on clay land. In regaid 

 I to sawdnst. there seems to be a great differ- 

 ence of opinion. I presume, however, the 

 Hnd of sawdust has very much to do with it. 

 Sawdust from hard wood, such as is found 

 in many of our country sawmills, is, without 

 doubt, valuable when it is old and well rot- 

 ted. We fre(iuently get such sawdust in our 

 vicinity as has been so long in the ice-house 

 that it needs replacing. Two years ago we 

 were offered a lot of this kind for hauling it 

 away. We put it around some of onr 

 strawberries for mulching. The plants thus 

 mulched made a much better growth, and 

 made larger fruit in great abundance ; but 

 as the sawdust was put around the plants by 

 hand, the labor of putting it on cost more 

 than the benefit accruing was worth —unless, 

 indeed, the benefit shall continue for a num- 

 ber of years, which is not unlikely. When 

 applied, the vines were covered with green 

 fruit, and it was therefore necessary to hold 

 up the fruit-stems and put the sawdust up 

 under the foliage. The labor cost me about 

 $2.00 for covering only a few rods. Now, 

 had this been done with a manure-spreader 

 at the proper season, the whole would not 

 have cost over .50 cents. It is well to look 

 out about going into any speculation that is 

 going to take such an amount of expensive 

 handwork as the al)o\e. I did it, piincipally 



