436 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



pleted. Both tliepe trials were, undertaken at 

 our requeist, and we are confident that both the 

 individuals used every care to have full and lair 

 trials made, and the facts and the results ac- 

 curately noted. It is onneces?aiy to add that no 

 where could such confidence be better placed. — 

 Ed. Far. Reg.] 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Kegipter. 



Sandy Point, July 23d, 1841. 

 The wheat reapinir machine of Mr. Ohed 

 Hussey, which the inventor was to accompany 

 and piil into operation, did not, owing to his pre- 

 vious en'TRO'ement, reach me until I had nearly 

 completed my hurvpst. I had not therefore as 

 good an opportunity as I desired to let-i iis efficien- 

 cy, and to ascertain with accuracy the actual 

 amount of manual labor that the machine would 

 be equal to. From the very short inal wiiich 

 I made of il, however, I feel satisfied that the 

 principle is a good one, and may be eucccsjslully 

 applied 10 the objt-ci intended, and that the ma- 

 chine is destined, when the inventor shall have 

 belter perlected iis mechanical arranffements, 

 which he can with his greater experience easily 

 do, to be an invaluable acquisition to the the farm- 

 ers of the wheal-ffrowinij region of country. 

 With three mules, a man to drive and one on the 

 machine to rake the wheat (i-om the platlorm upon 

 which, as it is cut, it fdls, we estimated that 

 rather more than one acre per hour was reaped. 

 By Mr. Hussey's calculation the machine must 

 cut one acre, in every two miles which it travels 

 through the wheat ; 15 acres therelore by this 

 calculation may l)e reaped in a day with one ma- 

 chine, pulled by three mules with two men only 

 to drive and rake, by travelling thirty miles, a 

 distance not too great on level land, through larae 

 fields, where there would be but lew turns. The 

 cutting of the marhine where the wheat was 

 rankest was the best, leaving not a straw scarce- 

 ly standing after it, and renderinsj gleaning en- 

 tirely unnecessary. The wheat lor the " pickers 

 up," or binders, ivas deposited more evenly and 

 in much larger quantities together, than afier the 

 cradle, and wiih these advantages to the pickers 

 up, eiuht were not always able, when the wheat 

 was rank and abundant, to gather, tie and remove 

 the sheaves from the track of the machine, as it 

 passed around the square. The machine does 

 not cut well early in the morning, when the 

 wheal is moist ; it cuts best where and when a 

 cradler woidd do least — in rank wheat and in the 

 hottest period of the day. I have concluded to 

 procure two for the next harvest, satit^fied that 

 much manual labor thereby may be saved, at a 

 critical and important season to the larmer, when 

 labor is always scarce, and especially on the lower 

 James River at that time. I am, very respectfully, 

 yours, &c. R. B. Bolling. 



GARLIC. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Mr. Editor— \ have been a careful reader of 

 your valuable and interesting pafier for some lime 

 past, and have been much gratified to find therein 

 the productions of so many able writers on many 

 Bubjecta of much irriporlance j but there is one 



subject on which I do not recollect ever having 

 seen any thing published in the Cabinet. I mean 

 in relation to that noxious p'ant, garlic, as to the 

 best mode of conducting a roiation ol crops on a 

 garlicky Ifirm, so as to be tlie most profitable to 

 the atjiiculiurist, and at the same time keeping the 

 growth of it under, in such a manner as to pre- 

 vent one being annoyed with it in the grain. 



I will here nieniion a system which I have found 

 to be tiie best calculated lo retard its growth : it 

 is, to plough it under early in the s[)rini^, thereby 

 preveniint; it from growing during ihe following 

 summer, which* causes much ofii to decay ; and 1 

 am inclined to think that all that had come to ma- 

 turity dies, by being [ploughed under at. that sea- 

 son, but inasmuch as the earth is filled with its 

 seeds, there is o-reat difficulty in cxierminatinL' it 

 entirely. The best course, ilien, is to plouifh it 

 under late in Ihe fail or early in the spring, and 

 culiivate ttie land in corn the fillnwing summer; 

 then plough it again the lo!lowin<? spring, and 

 seed it with oats or any other summer crop; ma- 

 nure it in the (i^ll, and seed it with wheat, and in 

 the sprinir Ibllowini? sow clovcr^on it. This mode 

 enables me to realis^e a crop ol corn, a crop of oats, 

 a crop ol vvhpai,an('. a cropofc!u\er,all without gar- 

 lic; and by lettiim the land remain only one year in 

 clover, I gcn(Mally can have anothprcrop of wheat 

 wilhoui much gurlic : liul afterwards it generally 

 comes thick agiin. Now, as my principal o^^j^'ct 

 in view is, to elicit inlormalion on the best mode 

 to exterminate it entirely, I conclude by iioping 

 ihat some ol' your able correspondents will oblige 

 us with instructions how to culiivate garlicky landsi 

 so as to exterminate the noxious plant, or to keep 

 its crrowth tinrier, and enable us to cultivate our 

 lands [irofiiabiy. A Practical Faraier. 



LOCALITY OF THE CAKKER WORM. 



From the New Genesee Farmer. 



The Nashville Acrriculturist (as quoted in an ex- 

 chantre paper) recommends taking up the earth 

 round fruit trees to the depth ol six or eitrlit inches, 

 and to the distance ol eight or ten inches, lor the 

 purpose of burning il, in order '• to destroy the 

 germ of ihe canker worm."' Is the canker worm 

 an inhabitant ol 'I'ennessee? Perhaps some of 

 our readers can inliarm us in regard to this particu- 

 lar ; and also the boundaries of that district on 

 which the genuine canker worm (^Phalena ver- 

 natn) is j'uund. 



Deane, in his New England Farmer or (ieorgi- 

 cal Dictionary, says, '• It is not less than about j 

 fifty years since this insect began its depredations ■ 

 in New England, in the pans which had been a 

 longest cultivated. But perhaps there is some 

 reason to hope that Providence is about to extirpate 

 them : /or a little bird has lately made its appear- 

 ance in some parts of the country, which feeds 

 upon the canker worms. Should these birds have 

 rapid increase, the insect will be thinned, so as to 

 be less formidable, if not wholly destroyed. 



The second edition of that work was issued in 

 1797," soon afier the first," and perhaps we may 

 set the lime of their first appearance about one 

 hundred years ago. It will be sale to conclude 

 they were not newly created about that lime, 

 however; and we may ask whence they came ? 



