210 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



Russia, was shipped on board the Barbara ^ at 

 Middlesbro'. This engine is constructed on an 

 improved principle, and finished in the best man- 

 ner. She has been tried on the premises, and pro- 

 pelled at the rate of seventy-two miles per hour! 

 It is said that this machine, and the similar one 

 built at Newcastle, will, on their arrival at St. Pe- 

 tersburoh, have cost the Emperor upwards of 

 £2,000 each. Who, a kw years ago, would 

 have dreamed of the exportation of machinery 

 from the river Tees I This engine is for travel- 

 ing on the rail road from St. Petersburgh to Paw- 

 lowski, where stands one of the country places of 

 his Imperial Majesty. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 

 ITEMS OF ECC:iOMY, &C. 



Long rows. 



As all cTood agriculturists are remarkable for 

 their attention to small things, and as all good 

 general management may be resolved into suc- 

 cessiul attention to minutife, I have determined to 

 give you a chapter of items on economy in small 

 matters, believing that the Virginians, generally, 

 are remiss in their attentions to little inatters. 



On most of the large rivers in the state, there is 

 a declivity from the bank of the river to tbe first 

 draining ditch — the river banks being almost uni- 

 formly higher than the adjoining flat land. This 

 circumstance has induced many ii^rmers to run 

 their corn or tobacco rows up and down, Irnm the 

 ditch to the bank, and then back to the ditch, for 

 the purpose of effectual drainage. Where the 

 distance is short, from the bank to the draining 

 ditch, this practice is productive of much loss oi' 

 labor, and other inconveniences. When I came 

 in poss;>ssion of the plantation on which I now 

 reside, the flat land had been for many years 

 ploughed in the manner above described — Iron) 

 the river bank to the ditch — and I continued to 

 plough it in the same direciion the first year. 

 The rows were from seventy-five to one hundred 

 yards long, and about half of the upper part of 

 them were sandy, and the lower part stiff pipe- 

 clay. I found that the ploughmen uniformly 

 consumed more time, by a third, (at least,) in 

 ploughing this field, than any otlier field of the 

 same extent on the plantation. I ascertained too, 

 that when the samly part of the flat was in frood 

 order to plough, that the lower and stiff part was 

 not. The growth of the corn, cultivated upon it, 

 was so irregular, that when the corn on the sandy 

 part was sufficiently larire to lay by, (or receive its 

 last ploughing,) ihat on the stiff' clay loam was too 

 small. These observations induced me to plough 

 parallel with the river bank, and run the rows a 

 distance of four hundred yards. When the chancre 

 in the direction of plouirhintr was first made, the 

 flat was flushed up in beds of twenty feet width, 

 with a three-horse ploush. Very deep wafer-fur- 

 rows were thrown out between them, and cross 

 furrows, or grips, were run at the distance of fifty 

 yards from each other, which conveved all the 

 superfluous water of the flat in the draining ditch. 

 I think the field is better drained than it was be- 

 fore the change in the direction of the ploughing. 

 A great saving in ploughing; has been effected, and 

 the stiff parts of the field are in better preparation 



for the growth of vegetation, than I have ever seen 

 them before. 



I have fi)und, from observation, that a horse will 

 walk twenty orthirty yards during the time another 

 is turninrr; and that the operation of turning is fre- 

 quently lengthened out, more than is necessary, by 

 a lazy pliiuirhman. In ploughing an acre, then, of 

 the bre.idih of eii^hty yards, thirty yards in every 

 eighty would be lost in turninir, or more than one- 

 third of the time required in plouijhing the acre; 

 while in ploughing rows of lour hundred yards 

 in lenirth, only thirty yards, or one-third as much 

 time is losL 



Crossing in the step. 



There is a considerable gain, in di'itance, by 

 (what is usually tern)ed,) crossing in the step, in 

 hilling for tobacco, or in planting corn. Ft is a 

 desideratum with the planter, that each tobacco 

 plant should have sm'Iicient room for its own 

 frrowth, without crowdinn; against its neighbors; 

 which object is much promoted, by making each 

 hill opposite to the interval between the two near- 

 est hills in the adjoiniuir row, instead of making 

 them immediately opposite to the hills in the ad- 

 joining rows. Or, in other words, by making the 

 hills in oblique angled parallelograms, instead of 

 squares. 



Let A, B, C, D, represent a section of a tobacco 



A L 



DC 3 



field, where the rows A B, e f, &c., are straight 

 and parallel^ and each hill, e, o, is opposite in 

 right lin'->s to A, L. If the hills are made a fool 

 apart, any hill, (o,) would be equidistant from the 

 lour nearest hills, e, L, R, s. But when the hills 

 are m:ide in oblique parallelograms, as in the 

 figure, 1, 2, 3, any hill, (4) would be one toot from 

 the hills 5 and 6, and more than a foot each, from 

 the hills 8 and 9; which may be seen from a bare 

 view of the figure. There are the same number 

 of hills in each of the figures A, B, C, D, and I, 2, 

 3, which are paraIlelogran)s of" e(|ual bases, and 

 between the same parallel lines; and consequently 

 contain equal areas. Any field, however irreirular 

 its form, may be hilled in oblique angled parallel- 

 ograms, as conveniently as in squares, and a real 

 advantage, as regards distance, gained. 



The manure prong. 



Decidedly one of the greatest labor-saving ma- 

 chines I have ever seen on a farm, is a manure 

 prong, lately introduced into this county, from a 

 northern manufactory. It is formed precisely like 

 a spade, except that in the place of the blade ot" 

 the spade, there are four prongs, considerably 

 curved upwards, so that the most projecting part 

 of the curve, serves as a fulcrum to loosen the 

 manure, when the instrument is stuck into a ma- 

 nure heap. This instrument is decidedly prefera- 



