234 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



lolerably offensive and noxious stench whioh such 

 places constnnlly generate, and which none but 

 Flemish or Chinese noses could be forced to en- 

 counter without severe compulsion. This objec- 

 tion may, perhaps, appear somewhat too fastidious 

 to those whose olfactory nerves are less sensitive 

 than my own, and therefore I will not urije it any 

 farther than ir concerns the health of the laborers 

 who are fi-equently exposed to such odors. An 

 almosphete fully impregnated wiih them cannot 

 possiblv be wholesome, either lor man or beast, 

 and, consequently, it should be our study rather to 

 prevent than to create them. 



On the subject of culture my remarks will 

 relate chiefly to root crops, and are desjtrned prin- 

 cipally as a reply to your correspondent's assertion, 

 that, " in the United States, narrow intervals" (by 

 which he means less than three feet) "are inad- 

 missible." Now it is a fact, witnessed by many 

 of my neighbors, that /, who live, as I before re- 

 marked, in latitude about 37^°, have ventured to 

 admit these "inadmissible intervals" several 

 times, and have had ocular proof, not only that a 

 well broke horse or mule could easily walk between 

 rowsofruta baga two feet apart, without treading 

 on the plants, while it was proper to use the 

 plough, but that there was no discernible smother- 

 ing whatever of the roots, even of plants whose 

 leaves were three feet long; nor was there any 

 perceptible difference in the quantities of rnols 

 produced by the two and three feet drills. The 

 implements used were a single coulter, small 

 enougii for one horse, and a small double mou'd- 

 board plough of cast iron, made for the purpose, 

 which throws the dirt to the right and left at the 

 same time, and thereby aids the hand-hoe in earth- 

 ing up the plants to the requisite height of five or 

 six inches. For the culture of all plants in drills 

 less than two feet apart, the implements which I 

 prefer to all others that I have yet tried, are the 

 three-pronged hoe, and the common weeding hoe 

 with a narrow blade. The first pulverizes, while 

 it gives the proper depth of tillage ; the latter ef- 

 fectually kills the grass and weeds, at the same 

 lime that it draws to the roots the necessary quan- 

 tity of earth. The pronged hoe is so fiir superior 

 to any thing else I have ever seen, for two other 

 very common operations on every farm, that I 

 think it may probably be useful to give a sketch of 

 it ; for it is not used, I believe, nor even known in 

 many parts of our state, although common in 

 others. The operations to which * allude are, the 

 throwing of coarse manure into carts or tumbrels, 

 and the cleaning out the bottoins of ditches or 

 drains, wherein any kind oftrash has accumulated. 

 In those matters it will do more than double the 

 work of the implements commonly used, and with 

 less effort to the laborer who handles it. The eye 

 of the hoe should be made like that of a grubbing 

 hoe, and attached to the centre pronsr, which 

 should be about 8 inches long and one inch wide 

 next the eye, tapered to 5-8ihs width at the point. 

 The thickness should also be 5-8tha reduced at the 

 point, to a sharp edge. The outsiile prongs should 

 be of the same size as the centre prong, and weld- 

 ed to that on the inside close to the eye, and all of 

 them should be slightly curved inward. Let the 

 intervals between the prongs be about 2 inches.* 



* If the hoe were laid with its back on the gronnd, 

 and a line traced around it, by the outside of the outer 



This very useful implement, Marshall says, has 

 been ufsed from time immemorial in several parts' 

 of Eiii>land, and is called a " haul-to." Col. John 

 Taylor of Caroline, I believe, first used it in our 

 state ; at least I never heard of' them before I saw 

 tlietn on his liirin, some thirty-odd years ago, and 

 I have never been without them since. 



So much for root-culture in drills, and the im- 

 plements which seem to me best calculated lor the 

 purpose. When hills are used, either for roots or 

 other plants, let me earnestly recommend ihat^ 

 instead of making them as usual, at right angles 

 v/iih each other, they should be so made, as for the 

 hills in every other row to be opposite the inter- 

 vals of the row last made. In this way, although 

 the hills will be the same distance from each other 

 as when they were made at right angles, the rows 

 themselves will be so much nearer in the mode re- 

 commended, as to make a difference in its favor of 

 many hundred hills in every acre. This diffe- 

 rence will exceed 500 per acre, if the hills be made 

 three feet apart each way, as any person who may 

 doubt my word may easily prove to himself, if he 

 will take the trouble to make the calculation. To 

 those who prefer saving a little extra trouble, ta 

 making the most of their arable lands, I would 

 say — "go on, good, easy, self-satisfied souls, as 

 many of your procenitora have been going on for 

 centuries past ; far be it from me to presume that 

 you will condescend, even to listen to any thing I 

 can say in the form of recommendation. I ven- 

 ture not upon any attempt so utterly hopeless." 

 My humble efforts are addressed to those only, 

 who, like myself, believe that the bept informed 

 among us will always have something to learn ; 

 and may always be benefited by the free inter- 

 communication of each other's knowledge and 



prongs and the eye, and straight across the cutting 

 ends of the three prongs, the plane surface so marked 

 would be in size and shape much the same as those of 

 a common hilling (or digging) hoe. The slight curve 

 of the prongs is about the same as is most snitaWe for 

 a common grubbing hoe. The angle which the prong- 

 ed hoe makes with its handle, is that which suits best 

 for the operation of digging, or which serves to make 

 the prongs strike into the manure or earth precisely in 

 the line of their direction. This useful implement is 

 described in Taylor's 'Arafor,' and also in the account 

 of the farming of Fielding Lewis, at page 17, vol. i. 

 Farmers' Register. 



The description given above by our correspondent 

 was accompanied by a drawing, which we have takerj 

 the liberty to omit; because to wait for an engraving 

 of it to be executed would probably compel us to keep 

 back the pubhcation two months ; and, moreover, the 

 figure not being exactly represented by the drawing, 

 it would not have served as a perfect guide for the 

 construction. We never object to the cost of illustra- 

 tive engravings, and, on the contrary, would be pleased 

 to have them whenever requisite ; but the difficulty of 

 obtaining them, and the dtday and disappointment in 

 their execution, constitute one of the many drawbacks 

 to the exertions of publishing an agricultural journal 

 in Virginia, where there is no support afforded for ar> 

 engraver — and very little for a publisher of any thing 

 — except despicable party political writings. -Ed. F. R- 



