138 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



KOV. 2, 1842- 



The following report on Plowing, by a commit- 

 tee of tlie Kennebec County Agricultural Society, 

 we copy, thinking that its fullness makes it a good 

 model for other committees to adopt.— Ed. N. E. F. 

 ON PLOWS. 



Your committee report: That there were no 

 plows presented for premiums, but there were four 

 to which the attention of your committee was 

 called, and the qualities of each were tested at the 

 plowing match, viz : 



Ist. The Eagle plow, manufactured by Ruggles, 

 Nourse & Co., a neat and handsome finished arti- 

 cle ; it laid the furrow very flat and smooth, giving 

 to the work a handsome finish, and to those who 

 approve of having the furrow laid perfectly flat, we 

 can recommend this plow. 



2d. Manufactured by Doe, of Augusta. This 

 plow has the quality of lapping the furrows in such 

 a msnner that it entirely covers all the grass, not 

 leaving any to turn tip from the edge of the lap. 

 Mr Doe's plow is made with a coulter which adds 

 to the strength, and is far preferable for breaking 

 rocky or rooty land. It did not give that smooth 

 and handsome finish to its work that Ruggles & 

 Co.'s plows did, but your committee are of the opin- 

 ion that the work was every way equal, if not su- 

 perior, for all the purposes of tillage, and they do 

 not hesitate to recommend it as equal to any plow 



Opinions vary as to the benefit of lapping the 

 furrows, but we think that where the furrow is 

 lapped so as to admit the air underneath, decompo- 

 sition takes place much sooner than where the fur- 

 row is laid flat, and of course is better for vegeta- 

 tion. 



3. Barnaby & Mooers' double-mould board plow 

 from New York. This plow is made in such a 

 manner as to turn the furrow either way ; what 

 was the land-side passing one way, becomes the 

 mould-boaid returning. It possessed the quality 

 of lapping the furrow, but left the grass projecting 

 from under the lap. This plow is a decided im- 

 provement in side-hill plowing, but we are nut pre- 

 pared to say whether it will be an improvement on 

 level trround. Your committee were informed that 

 it took less strength of team to plow with this plow, 

 but we did not see this tested. 



Of the new plow from Hallowell, made by Cyrus 

 Putnam, we cannot give an opinion. It has not 

 been in use long enough to obtain a character. 

 Probably it has some defects which may be reme- 

 died. We hope it is not out of place to remark 

 here, that if as good plows can be made here as 

 those brought from other States, our own mechan- 

 ics should have the preference. The amount of 

 money carried out of the State for plows and other 

 agricultural instruments, that could as well be 

 made here, is quite large, and would furnish busi- 

 ness for many men, and support for many families. 

 'I'he nearer the mechanic and farmer can be brought 

 together, the more profitable to both and the less 

 nioney is wanted to efl'ect their exchanges, at the 

 same time we should bo willing to pay to paten- 

 tees from other States the just rewards of their in- 

 ventions. 



LUTHER SEVERANCE, 

 JOHN VEATON, 

 CHARLES LITTLE, 

 Oct. 1842. Committee. 



The number pledged to the VVashingtonian cause 

 in Portsmouth, N. 11., is said to be about 5000, out 

 of a population of 8000. 



WORCESTER TEAMSTERS, JUST LOOK 

 AT THIS! 



We see the following account of the drawing 

 match at the Worcester Cattle Show, in the Boston 

 Cultivator : 



" At the drawing match, 22 teams entered for 

 the prizes. The loads drawn consisted of two tons 

 of stones, and the way they were handled by these 

 young teams, did great credit to the enterprising 

 farmers of Worcester, while this conclusively prov- 

 ed how much the value and usefulness of the ox 

 may be improved by proper care and training." 



Two tons I ! why that is n't a load for a pair of 

 Kennebec calves. We saw Peleg Haines, of Read- 

 field, at the drawing match at the Kennebec Cattle 

 Show the other day, hitch his single yoke of oxen 

 on to a load tliat weighed six tons Jive hundred and 

 mW/iy, and walked them up a hill just as easy as 

 you would a wheelbarrow. When he got in the 

 steepest part of the way, he. stopped them a mo- 

 ment, just to show the spectators how easy they 

 could start it again. At the word, they started 

 forward as readily as they did at the bottom — no 

 wringing or twisting, or any fuss about it. None 

 of the oxen drew up less than 8.500 lbs.— (four tons 

 five hundred.) J. W. Haines, of Hallowell, had a 

 yoke there that would probably have hauled the 

 same load that Peleg !:3ines' did, had they been a 

 little more used to the road and less shy of the 

 great concourse of people that surrounded them. 

 We understand that they afterwards started a lar- 

 ger load on a drag th ai Peleg's did. 



If the Worcester boys want to see cattle haul, 

 they must come to Kennebec. — Maine Far. 



25='Shame upon yon, Kennebeckers. We 

 thought you had more mercy for your beasts, than 

 to hi'tch ihem to such loads. True, we] used in 

 Massachusetts once, to work in that way, but we 

 have grown wiser. We now take a two ton load, 

 and let the cattle take it up hill and down, and 

 back it, and turn it in various directions, and thus 

 learn which are the best trained — not the strongest 

 —Ed. N. E. F. 



which seemed to be the farmer's glory, I remarked 

 to a farmer of the old school that our Cattle Shows 

 and Fairs were calling forth much emulation among 

 his brethren of the plow — that I believed more in- 

 terest was felt by them to improve their mode of 

 cultivation ; and I thought it a fair presumption 

 that a spirit and energy were awakened, which 

 would lead to immensely beneficial results, &c. 



"I don't know," said he, very coldly, and evinc- 

 ing neither interest nor animation. 



" Are many of your neighbors in with their cat- 

 tle ?" 

 " No." 



" Ha ! I am surprised — yours is a large town." 

 "Yes ! and we might produce as many fine cat- 

 tle as any other. But we do n't think the gratifi- 

 cation pays for the troulle." 



"Have you ever tried any experiments on youi 

 land— manuring it with lime, plaster, asl.'.s, swamj 

 mud, sea-weed, shell.^, bones, &c. ?" 



II No — it costs more to drag out swamp mud, nn( 

 make such manure than it is worth." 



" Do you take an agricultural paper ?" said I. 



iiN o!" 



Oh ! ho! thought I — what's the use o' talking 

 Yours, truly, Y. 



From the Conn. Farmers' Gaielte. 



AGRICULTURAL PAPERS. 

 Mr Wood I have often thought, while a sub- 

 scriber to the Albany Cultivator, that the contents 

 of either number, well repaid me for the amount of 

 my subscription ; and though my pursuits are not 

 those of a farmer, still my taste leads me to feel 

 much interest, and to make much inquiry, on every 

 subject connected with the welfare, and improve- 

 ment of that worthy class of my countrymen. One 

 thing has always surprised me— how any farmer, 

 having a nut-shell full of brains, and an ounce of 

 sense'to enlarge ihem, should be contented in these 

 days, without taking an agricultural paper. Why, 

 i look for mine as anxiously as for a much esteem- 

 ed friend, and devour its contents without fear of 

 repletion. But, Mr Editor, there are men— and 

 farmers, too— who do not take any paper devoted 

 exclusively to their interests— men who, even at 

 this day, scout the idea of deriving any benefit 

 from book farming, as they call it ; and who eeem 

 as much alarmed at the bare name of science and 

 practical experiment, as if the one had teeth like 

 Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the other claws to 

 match. 



Yesterday, the delightful exhibition (of the New 

 Haven County Agricultural Society) on the Green, 



From the same. 



NEW METHOD OF GRAFTING APPLE 

 TREES. 

 Plant the seed in rows at a suitab'- distanc ; 

 from each other, and the hills say abc.iit five fe« j 

 apart in each row. But one tree should lio sutTore 

 to grow in a place. Now when the young tree 

 sufficiently grown, in the spring of the ,ocond ( 

 third year, any quality of fruit may be ;;i ifted inl | 

 it in the following manner: First, hei;.: the tre ^ 

 over and obtain for it a firm resting place, either ( l 

 a block or a board resting on the knee, (after it h; 

 been divested of its branches) and with a sto 

 sharp-pointed knife, pierce holes directly throuj 

 the centre of the tree, about five inches apart, in 

 which the scions are to be introduced — leavii 

 above, two or three buds. A trench is then to i 

 dug, in a direct line between the trees, about fo 

 inches deep, and the whole tree bent down a 

 buried, leaving the tops of the scions above grout 

 In this new condition, the scions become uniform 

 thrifty young trees, supported and nourished fr( 

 the buried tree, from which issue, in due time, roi 

 from its entire length. The second year from tl 

 operation, the whole parent tree may be dug i 

 the new growth sawed apart, and transplanted, 

 will thus be seen that if the tree is five feet in heig 

 ten or twelve young trees, of whatever quality 

 chosen, may be obtained in this way, whereas 

 the ordinary method of grafting, there could bet 

 one, provided the graft lived. The young sci 

 will bear fruit, thus transplanted, in the same tii 

 it would had it been grafted into a tree fifte 

 years old. 



I know not whether this process is new amo 

 your agricultural community at the North ; bu 

 have repeatedly witnessed it in Georgia and A 

 bama, and I have been informed by some of r 

 best horticulturists in those States, that it is alwi 

 successful. Yours, respectfully, 



HENRY LEE 



The foregoing communication of Dr. Lee, < 

 serves the attention of every farmer and garder 

 —Ed. Far. Gaz. 



