No. 5. 



Corn-Hauling Machine. 



159 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Coru-IIauling Machine. 



Dear Sir, — Much of the usefulness of 

 agricultural implements is lost to the com- 

 munity in not having a full and proper ac- 

 count given of the manner of using them. 



I am friendly to all labour-saving imple- 

 ments, and would desire to see brought into 

 practical use all such as are economical and 

 within the reach of ordinary farmers. The 

 machine to which I now have particular re- 

 ference, is the one figured at page 73, 5th 

 vol. of "The Farmers' Cabinet," Sir. Coop- 

 er's, for removing corn-stalks. On reference 

 to the letter-press this sentence occurs, " By 

 such, a lad may of himself, clear the heaviest 

 crop in a very expeditious way, and in the 

 most easy manner imaginable." Now the 

 mode of using the machine is not given; if 

 it is intended that it should be backed up to 

 each shock or stack, after having been set up 

 in the tield, and the rope drawn over or around 

 it, and by the lever at the windlass to haul 

 away till the frame — as it appears to be on 

 hinges — together with the shock is brought 

 over on the shafts, then it is easily under- 

 stood. But if so, can but one shock be taken 

 at a load 1 By that mode, I should not think 

 it would be a very expeditious way, although 

 done in the most easy manner imaginable, 

 for if the field of corn is cut up at the ground, 

 and it is designed to carry away stalks, corn, 

 and all together to tiie barn or some conve- 

 nient place to husk, where, may be secured 

 and put away the corn in the house and the 

 stalks at once under cover, as they sliould be, 

 and the field was half a mile oftj or only a 

 fourth, I take it, it would be a very tedious 

 operation. My object, however, is not to cri- 

 ticise nor find fault, but to gain information 

 on the subject, as I am anxious to know the 

 best mode of clearing a field after the corn 

 is cut up, because I think wheat should fol- 

 low corn, and not oats. 



Should it be in your power to give the de- 

 sired information in the next, or some subse- 

 quent number of " The Farmers' Cabinet," 

 it will oblige one, if not 



Many Subscribers. 



Manheim Township, Schuylkill Co., Penn. 

 Nov. 27, 1841. 



Mr. Benjamin Cooper, of Camden, New Jersey, has 

 had the Corn-Hauling Machine in use about fourteen 

 years, and finds that a lad 15 years of age is capable 

 of clearing by it five acres of corn a day, much, of 

 course, depending upon the distance to which it is haul- 

 ed. His corn is always very large, but this makes but 

 little diftnrence in the time requisite in the employment 

 of hauling, the shocks being formed large, say from CO 

 to 30 feet in diameter, closely built and carefully bound ; 

 then the work proceeds very rapidly. 



Our correspondent has described, very exactly, the 

 mode of using the machine, which he has clearly un- 



derstood from the e.Tamination of the print at page 73 

 of our 5tli volume; the very act of hauling away at 

 the windlass bringing over the corn and frame on the 

 shafts, where it is fixed by the rack-wheel, which 

 only requires to be liberated on arrival at the place of 

 destination, when the corn, by being lifted at the top 

 with the lever, takes the exact position it occupied in 

 the field, the weight of the butt-end bringing it quickly 

 to the ground, and leaving it standing perfectly up- 

 right ; and it is only the work of a minute to free the 

 rope and proceed for another load. Thus it is by no 

 means a tedious process to clear a field, especially if 

 two machines are used, when the distance is great or 

 the field very large. 



It is particularly refreshing to find our valued cor- 

 respondent advocating the removal of the crop to the 

 barn preparatory to husking, where may be secured 

 and put away, the corn in the house and the stalks at 

 once under cover, as they should be, and after that, to 

 sow the land to wheat and not to oats! That is the 

 way to raise grain rather than straw, and to protect 

 the crop, as far as may be, from the fly, the mildew, 

 and the rust ; all which advantages might be calculated 

 up<in, even in seasons which, otherwise, would entail 

 upon the cultivators of this most important of all crops, 

 diseases which are frequently incident to an improper 

 course of crops and the injudicious use of unfermented 

 manures. But upon such a light and pulverized seed- 

 bed as is afllirded by a well-worked corn-stubble, we 

 would reconnnend the mode which has so often been 

 found of incalculable benefit to the wheat crop — name- 

 ly, to defer sowing the seed until the land has been 

 ploughed a sufficient length of time to become firm and 

 well-settled, and if rain intervene, so much the better, 

 awaiting, however, the soil to become dry and worka- 

 ble under the harrow, never fearing the delay even of 

 a fortnight on this account. On such a soil, enriched 

 by a heavy manuring for the corn, but not rendered 

 light and over-luxuriant by a dressing of barn manure, 

 coarse and unfermented, with the view of returning to 

 the earth that vigour of which it had been despoiled by 

 a crop of oats — a plant which feeds precisely on the pa- 

 bulum best adapted to the wheat-crop — a larger quan- 

 tity of seed may be sown, and a consequent heavier 

 crop may be reaped, sufficiently strong to stand up and 

 ripen a week earlier in the season, which circumstance 

 alone will often be found a preventive of rust. No 

 wheat need be more than four feet high in the straw; 

 all the growth which it attains above that, is acquired 

 at the expense of the ear. — Ed. 



"From upwards of 20 years' experience, I 

 am of opinion that the best way of sowing 

 clover lands with wheat is, to plough the 

 land ten or twelve days before you sow it, 

 that the land may have time to get dry, and 

 after rain to work well. I am at a loss to 

 account for this, but I have often tried this 

 mode against that of sowing on fresh ploughed 

 lands, and always found the former to answer 

 best." — Macro. 



The humblest and most laborious condition 

 in society needs not be miserable. " To la- 

 bour and to be content with that a man hath, 

 is a sweet life !" 



