518 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



qnire more or less labor ■vrith the hoe, but the 

 general truth still stands, that an immense 

 amount of labor formerly performed ^vith the 

 Hoe either is or may be saved. Doubtless, im- 

 plements will yet be invented, improving on the 

 plows and cultivators now in use, which %vill 

 greatly diminish the amount of human labor 

 still requisite in the culture of planted ground. 



Saving Grain on tolerably smooth grotmd is 

 a process which the slightest consideration must 

 commit to the proper domain of machinery. 

 Sowing by hand is not only a slow process, 

 but so imperfect and capricious that far more 

 seed is required than would be if each grain 

 vi'ere placed just where one should be and none 

 elsewhere. Accordingly I observe a statement 

 in the papers that a machine has been invented 

 in England whereby half the seed is saved, 

 ■with still more of the labor of sowing, whUe the 

 work is far better done and the yield conse- 

 quentiy greater. It is a shame to our farmers 

 that they have waited for this invention to be 

 made across the ■water. Our Western prairies 

 are naturally the finest grain-fields in the world, 

 and afford the fuUe.st scope for the inventive 

 genius of the husbandman. There the greatest 

 improvements in Grain Culture should originate 

 or at least be promptly adopted and improved 

 upon, and this among them. It seems to me 

 practicable to construct a machine \vhich will 

 combine the processes of Sowing and Harrowing 

 in. so that each seed shall be placed at proper 

 distance from every other, covered to the proper 

 depth and no more, and all be accomplished 

 ■vrith less labor than is now required merely for 

 covering, so as to save altogether the labor of 

 sowing and half the seed usually sown to the 

 acre. And even this should not satisfy the cul- 

 tivator of the spacious, fertile, mellow prairies. 

 WTiy should not Com be dropped and covered 

 by a similar process ? We might thus give to 

 each kernel a due distance from every other in 

 the hill, which is but occasionally effected now, 

 could plant the five or six kernels in a hill in 

 the precise form of a cross, a square, a circle, or 

 any other that might be deemed best, and place 

 every row and hUl at exactly equal and the 

 proper distances from every other. I am confi- 

 dent there is a chance for improvement here, 

 whether my hint toward such improvement be 

 worth anything or not 



The substitution of the Cradle for the Sickle, 

 the Threshing-Machine for the Flail, the intro- 

 duction of the Fanning- Mill, &c. into universal 

 ase. have effected similar savings. The labor 

 required to produce a thou.sand bushels of the 

 various grains is probably a third less than it was 

 forty years ago. Yet improvement has been 

 made slowly and with difficulty, in the face of 

 obstinate prejudices and a more culpable indif- 

 ference or incredulity on the part of most Farm- 



ers. Even now, with the trophies and substan- 

 tial fruits of past tritmiphg all around them, the 

 mass of farmers hardly believe that their calling 

 is susceptible of farther advancement, though to 

 the observing mind it mttst be evident that the 

 work has just begun. 



Breaking Flax and other fibrous plants was 

 formerly one of the most toilsome and tedious 

 pursuits of the farmer, and at last, owing to im- 

 provements in the culture of Cotton and the con- 

 sequent cheapening of the product. Flax has al- 

 most ceased to be raised here for the fibre. I know 

 that good farmers have so\vn and harvested ma- 

 ny acres of it in years past for the seed only. — 

 Yet there was exhibited at the last Fair of the 

 American Institute a combination of machinery, 

 patented bj- a Mr. BiUings of Missouri, whereby 

 Flax or Hemp may be thoroughly broken and 

 cleaned at a cost of one cent per pound, and with 

 an immense saving both in the quality and quan- 

 tity of the fibre. The rotting is performed in two 

 days in vats of learm water, heated from the fire 

 under or about the steam engine which propels 

 the machinery, and no man need be told that 

 the fibre is stronger and brighter than where 

 months of exposure to the caprices of the ele- 

 ments are devoted to the rotting process. The 

 saving in quantity is estimated at twenty per 

 cent — the woody substance being detached from 

 the fibre with a slight and uniform application 

 of force instead of the hacking and mangling of 

 the old " flax-break." I do not see why this ma- 

 chinery should not work an industrial transform- 

 ation equal to that effected by its predecessor 

 the Cotton-Gin, especially as the spinning of 

 Flax by machinery is no longer deemed impos- 

 sible. It is now done regularly in Connecticut 

 as well as over the water, and doubtiess -will be 

 brought graduallj' to a state of efficiency and per- 

 fection equal to that attained by the Cotton manu- 

 facture. 



And this naturally leads to the reflection that 

 every new achievement in Labor- Saving sug- 

 gests farther and still farther triumphs. If one 

 of these Flax-dressers were conveniently lo- 

 cated in each town.=hip where Flax might be 

 advantageously cultivated, I cannot doubt that 

 its operation and primary use -svould speedily 

 suggest many other uses of the same or similar 

 machinerj-, to some of the neighboring farmers. 

 The steam-power, the rotting-vats. the breaking 

 and dressing machinery, would either be ap- 

 plied directly each to some other desirable end 

 in farming economy, or it would suggest ma- 

 chinery based on similar principles and em- 

 ployed to produce different but equally desira- 

 ble results. Thus a machine invented to dry 

 Cane Sugar by a rotarj' blowing process, having' 

 proved deficient in power for that purpose, has 

 yet been applied to other purposes with de- 

 cided success. I have seen it employed to dry 



