200 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



to correct a trifling error wiiich in some way liad 

 crept into the calculation of product of tip field 

 alluded to. As some salvo, however, to the pride 

 of veracity and oC con nthis; of "Rivanna," he has 

 at command data which establish the yield per 

 acre on a fraction less than sixty, to have been 

 twelve barrels, one bushel, and one peck — making 

 the whole (juantity, as before reported, 740 barrels 

 of shelled corn. This result was ascertained by a 

 gentleman of high character and acquirements, 

 from the most accurate measurement of square 

 pens containing about 200 barrels each, built with 

 workmanlike precision of straight pine poles ; and 

 calculated according to the most approved mode 

 of gauging ; which, after corn has settled, (par- 

 ticularly in large pens,) will overrun considerably 

 on being measured out by the tab. 



You will, I hope, Mr. Editor, excuse my hav- 

 ing raked up an old subject, which might have 

 been allowed, like its own stubble, to die a natu- 

 ral death ; but having given to it in the first in- 

 stance "a local habitation," I feel in the spirit 

 which then prompted me to obtrude it on your 

 readers, a resolute determination to aid in rescu- 

 ing this portion, at least, of the stale in which I 

 live, from an opprobrium that has lor more than 

 half a century rested on it — by showing that luxu- 

 riant crops ol'all kinds may be reared on the roots 

 of huckle-hervy, running-brier, and persimmon — 

 meaning no personality to some of my brethren of 

 the plough and pen, and to say nothing of sheep- 

 sorrel, et tnaltis aliis, of the pests which infest 

 our land. 



Most gladly would I redeem the annoyance 

 that this long vaunted crop must have cost your- 

 self and readers, by the promise of another equally 

 good on the same field and with the same work ; 

 but this can hardly be hoped for in so unpropitious 

 a season. The cold and dry weather retarding 

 vegetation, and, in doing so, favoring the ravages 

 of innumerable worms, insects and birds on the 

 seed and plants of this crop, and thus throwing 

 together the working of it with the preparation 

 lor and planting of tobacco, as well as other busi- 

 ness of a larm, on which, under good management, 

 each should have its allotted time, must embarrass 

 exceedingly the mixed operations of farming and 

 planting, which belong peculiarly to our middle 

 remon. Rivanna. 



From tlie Farintr and Gardener. 

 PATENT BANKING AND DITCHING MACHINE. 



We had an opportunity of seeing on Monday, 

 in full operation, a machine lor digging ditches, 

 and at the same time making embankments or 

 dikes, which surpasses any thing of which we 

 had Ibrmed any conception. The contrivance 

 consists of a wooden foundation of about twelve 

 leet in length, at one extremity of which are two 

 uprights. In these uprights an axle revolves, on 

 which are two arms of cast iron, having at the 

 extremity of each a cross-piece furnished with 

 lour or five teeth, as they may be termed. Inside 

 of these cross-pieces are buckets that receive the 

 earth loosened by the teeth, and, as the axis re- 

 volves, deposit their contente on an inchned plat- 



form, fi'ora which the earth passes and forms an 

 embankment on one side of the ditch. The axle 

 IS made to revolve by means of cog-wheels con- 

 necting it with the gearing. This gearing con- 

 sists in part of an iron shaft that passes horizon- 

 tally and a little obliquely in front, and is turned 

 by a capstan. The capstan is provided with a 

 long horizontal arm to which the horse, by which 

 the whole machine is set in motion, is attached. 

 In acting upon this arm the horse walks around 

 the capstan and crosses of course the line of the 

 ditch, but in advance of it. In order to give di- 

 rection to the machine and prevent it from being 

 drawn aside, there are two guide wheels with 

 sharp edges in the forward portion of the founda- 

 tion, that cut the sod to the depth of about eight 

 inches. The ditch on which the machine was em- 

 ployed when we saw it, was three feet deep, and 

 three feet and a half wide at the top. It was ex- 

 cavated in an uncommonly hard virgin clay soil, 

 such as is found on the high ground between 

 Fell's Point and the Canton race course. 



We were much surprised at the rapidity and 

 perfection with which the excavation was formed, 

 one foot of finished ditch of the breadth and 

 depth mentioned, together with the dike, being 

 formed in a minute, or sixty feet in an hour. It is 

 calculated that a single horse of ordinary strength 

 can propel the machine during ten hours of each 

 day, consequently the extent of trench formed 

 would be six hundred feet. To give an accurate 

 description of this surprising process within the 

 limits of a paragraph, cannot be done, and we 

 must therefore request such as may wish to form 

 a just conception, to witness the performance. In 

 ditching and draining low lands, or dividing prai- 

 ries where wood is scarce and the soil light or 

 moist, the machine will prove invaluable. The 

 inventor is Mr. George Page, of Keene, N. H. 

 who, as we are informed, undertook to make 

 something answer the purpose at the suggestion 

 of a gentleman at Washington, whose residence 

 is where much draining is required, and but little 

 wood grows. Mr. Edwards, agent for the Sand- 

 wich and Boston Glass Company, will lurnish 

 any information required. 



The above machine has been made for Col. S. 

 D. Wilkens of this city, for the Territory of Wis- 

 consin, in the prairie parts of which it must prove 

 invaluable. 



from ilic Genesee l''armcr. 

 MANUFACTURE OF BEET SUGAR. 



The German improvement over the French 

 method of making beet sugar, a patent affair in 

 Europe, consists simply in drying the beets, which 

 are then reduced to a powder by grinding, and 

 changed into a decoction by adding water. The 

 experiment has been thoroughly tried by Mr. 

 Zachariah Wilder, of this town, which resulted 

 in complete success. Mr. W. by this process, 

 which, we understand, is as simple as that of 

 making a cup of tea from aromatic herbs, has 

 succeeded in extracting ten per cent, of sugar 

 from the crude beet— and he is confident that at 

 [easi twelve per cent, can be obtained at another 



