194 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



APKIIi 



regular or one-sided in figure. Skin at first pale 

 green, but at maturity, rich yellow, a good deal 

 sprinkled and mottled with light russet, on the 

 exposed side. Stalk an inch and a half long, 

 obliquely planted, sometimes under a slightly 

 raised lip, sometimes in a narrow, somewhat 

 plaited basin. Flesh white, exceedingly buttery 

 and melting, with a rich, very saccharine and vi- 

 nous flavor. Last of September and middle of 

 October." 



A HAY SPEEADING MACHINE WAETTED 



The farmer has found valu"jb le assistance in se- 

 curing his hay crop in the mowing machine, and 

 horse rake ; they enable him to get more hay, to 

 get it better, in a shorter time and at a cheaper 

 rate, than he ever did without their aid. 



The mowing machine spreads the hay very 

 evenly on the ground where it grew, leaving it 

 in a condition to dry rapidly, but not to be easi- 

 ly turned, unless it is done by the slow process 

 of using the hand rake. 



AVhat is wanted now, is, some light, cheap im- 

 plement, to put into the fields about ten or eleven 

 o'clock, A. M., with a boy and horse, to pass over 

 the hay rapidly and fling it to the air, so that it 

 ■will be sufficiently dry to go into the barn on the 

 same day that it is cut. The process of haymak- 

 ing might then be, — cut the grass with a mowing 

 machine just at night, or early in the morning 

 and by ten or eleven o'clock the top would be 

 nearly dry ; then, between eleven and two o'clock, 

 pass over it rapidly with the "tedding machine,' 

 or hay spreader, keeping it in motion while the 

 men are at dinner, and by two o'clock, the hay 

 will be ready to go to the barn, provided the day 

 is bright, attended with a drying wind. 



Hay made in this way may be secured at a cost 

 of about one dollar per ton less than where it is 

 raked, cocked, partially spread again the next 

 day, and then tumbled up and got in. To any 

 person keeping a dozen head of stock, this saving 

 ought to be sufficient, in one or two years, to pay 

 the cost of the machine. 



The Massachusetts Society for the Promotion 

 of Agriculture, purchased an English Tedding 

 Machine last year, and introduced it into Middle- 

 sex county. We saw it on the farm of Gen. Ly- 

 man, at Waltham, who had given it a thorough 

 trial, and who expressed a decidedly favorable 

 opinion of its merits, and of its adaptation to the 

 same fields where the mower has been used. This 

 machine is all iron, too heavy by one-half, and 

 too expensive. Yankee ingenuity can devise one 

 more simple in its construction, lighter, and 

 cheaper, and yet strong enough to be durable, 

 and do all the work required of it. Who will de- 

 vise and construct it, and make $10,000 out of 

 it ? Here is a fine opening for inventive genius. 



Make a machine, and allow us to test its merits 

 by the 25th of June. 



For the Netp England Farmers 

 COAIi AS^HES AS A MANTJKB. 



But few experiments have been made by Amer- 

 ican farmers to test the fertilizing properties of 

 coal ashes. While we are importing guano and 

 other manures from foreign lands in enormous 

 quantities, and at great expense, it may be well 

 to employ some substances nearer home, which 

 are now neglected and cast aside as useless. 

 Thousands of tons of ashes might be obtained ia 

 cities, where coal is extensively employed for fa- 

 el, which, when applied to the soil, would doubt- 

 less greatly augment its productive powers. It 

 is stated in '"Faulkner's Farmers' Manual," an 

 English publication on manures, that coal ashes 

 contain sulphate of lime, with some potash and 

 soda, all of which are known, when separately 

 applied, to produce a good effect on clover crops, 

 and to constitute an important part of the food 

 of all grasses. 



The following experiment by an English far- 

 mer, may shed some light on the subject ; the 

 ground selected contained three perches of clo- 

 ver ; the first had no manure, and produced thir- 

 ty-eight pounds when cut in full head ; the sec- 

 ond, where four quarts of sifted coal ashes, which 

 had not been exposed to the weather, were ap- 

 plied, the produce was fifty pounds ; on the third 

 perch, one quart of plaster was sown, and the 

 crop weighed fifty-four pounds. It will be seen 

 that the ashes increased the clover nearly one- 

 quarter above that on which no manure was ap- 

 plied, which goes to prove that this substance is 

 a valuable fertilizer. Coal is said to be of vege- 

 table origin ; therefore, we can see no reason why 

 its ashes should not contain the food of plants. 

 Experiments on various soils and crops might be 

 made by any farmer at a small expense, as coal 

 is employed as fuel in nearly every town. 



O. V. Hills. 



Leominister, Mass., Feb., 1859. 



UNIVEKSAL PLOW FOB STONY LAND. 



Since replying to the inquiry of a correspon- 

 dent recently, in regard to the value of the Uni- 

 versal Plow on stony land, we have taken pains to 

 call on one of the best plowmen in New England 

 who was among the first to use it, and with the 

 various mould-boards before us, had a long 

 "plow-talk" over them, and could not fail to 

 come to the conclusion that the upland mould- 

 boards of the Universal Plow adapt the instru- 

 ment peculiarly well to the plowing of rough and 

 stony grass lands. 



They have a short and powerful curvature or 

 twist, which enables them to turn the sod well 

 among stones. 



They are quite broad on the bottom and at the 

 heel, so that they spread the furrow-slice well, and 

 prevent stones from rolling back into the chan^ 

 nel and bringin g the furrow-slice back with them, 

 grass-side up. Whatever the share enters un- 



