132 



FARMERS' REGISTER— REAPING WITH THE SCYTHE. 



A CHEAP AND USEFUL WATER-CART. 



From tlie British Farmers' Magazine, [of February 1834.] 



I subjoin a description of a very cheap and use- 

 ful water-cart. A barrel, holding 100 to 200 gal- 

 lons, is placed on a pair of wheels and shafis in 

 the usual way. A pump, three inches in diame- 

 ter, is placed close by the side oi' the ban-el, and to 

 the under end of the pump is made fast a leather 

 pipe of indefinite length, with a rose copper end, 

 and in the pipe small copper or tin rings are placed, 

 two inches distant, to prevent the external air from 

 pressing together the sides of the pipe, and thus 

 excluding the water. The cart being placed on 

 the bank of a river, brook, or pond, and the pipe 

 thrown into the Avaterwith the rose end immersed, 

 a man will pump 150 gallons in 10 minutes, with- 

 out the trouble of having a road into the bottom of 

 the river, and with the great advantage of the 

 horse standing dr\', and not plunged into three feet 

 of cold water in a winter day, in the usual way of 

 filling by ladle and standish." A stop cock is fixed 

 iaehind for discharging the water. When the cart 

 is travelling the leather pipe lies over the barrel, 

 fastened by two iron catches. 



The barrel being filled, and driven to the place 

 required, the leather pipe is immersed in the ban-el 

 by a hole in the top, sutficient to admit the rose 

 end. A small iron rod screws down by the side 

 of the piston rod, upon the upper valve, and shuts 

 it fast. A rising main, with a check valve, is 

 opened between the two buckets in tlie pumji, upon 

 which is screwed fast a leather pipe with a copper 

 tube on the end. One man directing this pipe, 

 and another pumping, converts the cart into a sort 

 of fire engine, that may be very useful in cases of 

 emergency, throwing the water 40 feet horizontal- 

 ly, and over any house of two stories, any hay 

 Black or corn rick, and also very useful for garden 

 Avails and fruit trees. By increasing the size of 

 the barrel, and by applying more power, a very 

 sufficient engine may be made, and answering 

 other purposes at the same time. The above de- 

 scribed is very simple and cheap, and is very use- 

 ful. JOHN DONALDSON. 



ON REAPING WITH THE SCYTHE. 



[ It is not only interesting, but profitable, to compare 

 our own opinions and practices with those of other 

 farmers having the same general object in view, but 

 placed under very different circumstances. For want 

 of making such comparisons, we fall into one of two 

 errors, which are directly opposed to each other. We 

 sometimes refuse to copy a plan adopted in England, 

 for example, because we consider the difference of ex- 

 isting circumstances renders it altogether unsuited to 

 our use: and in other cases, we assent without dispute 

 or examination, to the superiority of some process 

 in that country, because the operations of agriculture 

 there are in general so much more perfectly performed, 

 when perhaps in truth, our own labor saving substi- 

 tute is preferable, and would be adopted by English 

 farmers, if the same want of means for comparison 

 had not kept them even more ignorant of our improve- 

 ments than we are of theirs. 



The piece which we will present below, furnishes 

 a strikhig illustration of tlie ignorance of both countries 



of the practices of each otlier. The cradled scythe 

 which the scarcity of labor, and the former general 

 li'^htness of our crops of wheat, forced us to adopt in 

 the United States, instead of the English sickle, or 

 reaping hook, and which has become so perfect an im- 

 plement by successive improvements, has never been 

 known in England. But, it has been supposed by us 

 that this rejection of this implement so indispensable 

 here, by British farmers, was a proof that their mode 

 of reaping wheat was still more perfect than ours; and 

 that if we could command enough hired labor in har- 

 vest, and at as low wages compared to the value of 

 the crop, that we would profit by exchanghig our scythe 

 and cradle, for the English sickle. But it seems that 

 our mode would have been preferred by English farm- 

 ers if they had known it, and that they are now be- 

 ginning to adopt, as a new and valuable improvement, a 

 mode of reaping similar to ours, but (as we infer) still 

 gi-eatly inferior. The Hainault scythe (alluded to be- 

 low) which Sir John Sinclair saw used in Belgium, 

 and tlie inhroduction of which he strongly urged in 

 England, was formerly used in New York, where it 

 had been brought by the early settlers from the Neth- 

 erlands, but was abandoned for the scythe and cradle. 

 The scythe described in the following article is con- 

 nected with a sort of a cradle, but certainly very in- 

 ferior to ours. We omit the plate, but can make its 

 form perfectly understood by referring to our cradle, 

 which is familiar to every reader. The sued (or snead) 

 has a handle for the left hand, as well as one like oura 

 for the right. The blade is perfectly straight except 

 at and very near the point, in which short distance 

 the curve is much greater than in our blades, which 

 curve gently throughout, and mostly towards the point. 

 To our eyes, the English blade would seem totally un- 

 fit for its pui-pose. The fingers are only three in num- 

 ber, and would be precisely represented by tlie three 

 fingers next the blade of one of our cradles being cut 

 off, so that the lowest was left only one third tlie length 

 of the blade, the next something longer, and the third 

 (and most distant from the blade,) about half its length. 

 They are all straight. They are unfit to catch and 

 hold the cut wheat as do our cradles of five or six 

 curved fingers nearly as long as the blade. But even 

 this addition is objected to in another and later article 

 which is in the succeeding No. of the Quarterly Jour- 

 nal of Agriculture. This states that — 



"About 30 years ago an attempt had been made, (in 

 'Aberdeensliire ) and persisted in ibr two years, to cut the 

 'corn crops with the scythe; but as a notion had been then 

 'entertained, that it was indispensable, for laying the 

 'ears even, to attach some sort of additional machinery 

 'to the common scythe, and which was attempted in the 

 'form of a comb or heckle projecting above the blade, 

 'the scheme became abortive, owing, as experience 

 'now teaches us, to that veiy notion; and all thought 

 'of employing the scythe for harvest work passed 

 'away, till it was again revived at the time above 

 'stated. The implement now employed is just the 

 'common scythe, universally in use over the kingdom 

 'for cutting grass and clover-hay. No change whate- 

 'ver is made in it for cutting heavy or lodged grain- 

 'crops; but for light standing crops, a very simple ad- 

 'dition is found of advantage. Tnis consists of a small 

 'rod or shoot, nearly an inch in diameter, of green 

 'willow, or row-an or broom, or any other flexible and 



