34S 



FAliaiERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 



of the Shallows, though the connexion is pretty 

 numerous!, and some of them wear fine linen, and 

 Bit in hiffh phices, 



Mr. liussey, the patentee, had Iiis wheat-cutter 

 in this neighborhood during the harvest, which 

 did its work perfectly. I saw the performance, 

 and do not think it left one head in a thousand. 

 The only objection (which is a serious one) is, 

 that it does not do enough. 1 understand that 

 from fifteen to eighteen acres is as much as it can 

 cut in a day; and you well know that a protracted 

 harvest is olien attended with serious loss. 



RUSTICUS. 



Eastern Shore, Md. July 28, 1838. 



[The genera! practice' in lower Virginia, is to catch 

 the reaped wheat from the cradle in the left hand, and 

 then to throw it, (two or more such handfuls together,) 

 to be picked up by the binders. This usage could not 

 have been commenced, except where the growth was 

 Hght and thin ; and nothing but the difficulty of 

 changing the old practices of laborers, has prevented 

 this mode being abandoned, on good lands, for that re- 

 commended by our correspondent. — Ed. Far. Reo.] 



From the Cultivator. 

 AGRICULTURE IN FRANCE. 



There are at present in France 123 agricultural 

 societies, and 303 agricultural committees, where, 

 before 1803, there were scarcely ten, and they are 

 constantly increasing. Every thino; has been done 

 by the present government to encourage agricul- 

 ture in a pecuniary way, as well as by the differ- 

 ent societies. The sum of 500,000 francs — nearly 

 100,000 dollars — has been placed at the disposal 

 of the French minister of public works, for the 

 encouragement ofagriculture during the year 1838. 

 There have been also several gentlemen travelling 

 in Scotland, at the expense of the French Society 

 of Agriculture, in order to examine the system of 

 farming in that country. 



From the Cultivator. 

 A HINT TO CATTLE BREEDERS. 



T. A. Knight, the very distinguished horticul- 

 turist, publishes in the Farmers' Magazine, a 

 communication on the ill effects of overfeeding 

 young stock. Young cattle thus brought ujd^ 

 when taken into other districts, have been found, 

 with their offspring, incapable of thriving upon 

 common pastures.^ Animals, he thinks,°which 

 have been overfed fi-om their birth, and whose an- 

 cestry have been subjected to the same treatment, 

 acquire a power of eating and digesting a much 

 larger portion of food than others. He admits 

 that the improved Durhams are brought to market 

 at a very early age, oxen of very great weight 

 and excellence ; yet he says it is well known that 

 all those young animals come to market deeply in- 

 solvent, the sums for which they are sold beinfr 

 greatly less than those expended in fijeding them. 

 In illustration of their expensive keep, he cites the 

 lijllowing facts: 



" Three Herefords and three Durhams," says 

 he, " were put into stalls, to be fiitled on the third 

 o^ November. The weight of the Herefords was 



then 33 cwt. and that of the Durhams 38 cwt. and 

 14 lbs. Between that period and the 30th March, 

 when all were sold in Smithfield, the Duihams 

 consumed 12,755 lbs. weight more of turnips, and 

 1,714 more pounds of hay, than the Hereford ; but 

 the Durhams, notwithstanding the larger size 

 when put to fatten, and the greatly larger quantity 

 of food consumed, sold lor only twenty shillings 

 more than the Herefords ; and such I believe will 

 ever be the result of similar trials, when one class 

 of animals has been properly led, and the other 

 overfed, the merits of the breed being equal." 



This reasoning is true in regard to perennial 

 vegetables — trees for instance. If the nursery 

 from which they are drawn, and in which they 

 have been raised, is very rich, they will not thrive 

 so well in a common soil, as those which are taken 

 fi'om a soil of an inferior quality. If the habit of 

 gormandizing is established when the plant or 

 animal is young, neither will thrive so well after- 

 wards upon spare food, as if they have been; 

 brought upon more moderate fare. 



From tlie Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 

 EXTENDED USE OF MACHINES FOR SOWING 

 GRAIN. 



The extended use of sowing-machines, both 

 drill and broadcast, will most probably supersede 

 in a short time the practice of sowing grain by the 

 hand. We own we should not like the idea of 

 abandoning this ancient practice, though for no- 

 thing else than for the many pleasant associations 

 by which it is endeared to every lover of field la- 

 bor. These associations can never be recalled 

 whilst using any sort of machine. Hand-sowing 

 is also an accomplishment, and confers a superi- 

 ority on the possessor. The season of the year in 

 which it is most usually practised, inspiring the 

 mind with the lively hope of a manifold produce ; 

 the measured step marking the lime, and remind- 

 ing of the progress of the work ; the simultane- 

 ous action of the limbs, inducing the regular ex- 

 ercise of the muscular frame ; the steady eye di- 

 recting the flight of corn with a rainbow-like 

 sweep to its destined place in the earth : all these 

 tend to interest the sower in the continuance of 

 the operation. Sowing by the hand, too, is a 

 quick operation, one man keeping two pairs of 

 horses, two men, and a woman in constant occu- 

 pation. In this respect it is doubtfijl that ma- 

 chine is cheaper than hand sowing. It is, howe- 

 ver, a difficult art, and can only be exactly per- 

 formed after much practice; and as a proof of the 

 difficulty of its acquirement, there are many men 

 who never become neat, expert, and safe sowera 

 all their lives. Being thus a difficult operation to 

 acquire, and at all times performed with much la- 

 bor, machine-labor will no doubt supersede it on 

 all large farms, and, indeed, on all farms on which 

 the grass-seed sowing-machine is used. The 

 precision and beauty with which the broadcast 

 sowing-machine distributes the grass-seeds on the 

 ground, in all states of dry weather, in compari- 

 son with the hand, and the easy adaptation of that 

 machine to the sowing of corn, has already sub- 

 stituted it for the hand on many farms. The 

 quantity ol seed to be sown can be regulated 

 with much greater precision by any machine than 



