170 



<£l)c .farmer's i1lont l)l|j Visitor. 



Paragraphs from the Albany Cultivator. 

 Useful Farm Implements. 

 Seed-sowers or Drills.— The introduction 

 of these implements among the farmers of this 

 country, is comparatively recent. In England, 

 they have been known for many years, and their 

 use has been constantly extending, till it is now 

 considered a maxim there, that " the drill is the 

 sheet-anchor of husbandry." We see no reason 

 why the system of drilling wheat or other grain, 

 may not be attended with equal advantages here 

 as in Europe— in fact, so far as it has been Hied, 

 we think its utility has been demonstrated. 

 Drills of English and Scotch manufacture have 

 been imported, and several have been made here 

 by our own mechanics ; and we understand that 

 farmers who have tried both, are inclined to give 

 the preference to those of " home manufacture," 

 on account of their simplicity and cheapness, 

 while they are equally as efficient and precise in 

 their operations. 



Horse Powers. — Horse-powers of various 

 kinds are used for threshing grain, and for vari- 

 ous other purposes. They are differently con- 

 structed according to the amount of force to be 

 applied. Where only the strength of one or two 

 horses is required, and especially where a porta- 

 ble power is wanted, some of these, properly made, 

 on the "endless chain " principle, have several 

 advantages. Where it becomes necessary to ap- 

 ply several horses, a sweep or lever power is es- 

 sential, in order to make the proper attachment. 



Hat and Manure Forks.— The contrast be- 

 tween implements of this kind in use th'uty 

 years since, and the best made at the present 

 day, is very great, and exhibits a striking im- 

 provement. It may be safely assumed that a 

 man will accomplish a third more work in a giv- 

 en time, with one of our modern, light, spring- 

 steel forks, than could have been done with the 

 old clumsy articles used by our fathers. It is 

 probable that the improvement in this article is 

 attributable, in a greater degree to Henry Par- 

 tridge, of Massachusetts, than to any other man. 



Straw and Corn-stalk Cutters. — A dis- 

 tinction has latterly been made by several socie- 

 ties, in offering their premiums between ma- 

 chines for cutting straw and those for cutting 

 corn-stalks. Circular cutters, or those in which 

 the knives are placed in the form of a cylinder, 

 which is turned by a crank, and cutting by the 

 edges of the knives being brought in contact 

 with rollers made of hides, lead, paper, &C, are 

 much more expeditious in their operation, and 

 perform more work in proportion to the force 

 applied than any other kind we have known ; 

 and for cutting straw and hay, we think they are 

 generally preferred by persons acquainted with 

 the different kinds. 



Harvesting Machines.— The trials which 

 have been made with various machines for cut- 

 ting grain, have, we think, demonstrated the 

 practicability of their success. They will, un- 

 doubtedly, be still further simplified and im- 

 proved, and we confidently anticipate their being 

 brought into extensive use on smooth hinds, in 

 the course of a few years. We are not prepared 

 to decide which of the different kinds .should 

 have the preference. Ilussey's, manufactured by 

 O. Hosset, Baltimore, Md., has been more gene- 

 rally used than any with which we are acquain- 

 ted, and we believe has worked very satisfactorily. 



Veterans of the War of 1812. 



Among the many pleasing incidents of our 

 last summer's travel was a renewed interview, 

 after the lapse of eight years, with our old friend 

 Major John W. Weeks and his accomplished 

 and still youthful wife, at whose home upon the 

 Coos meadows from an anticipated call of five 

 minutes we were tempted to make all our in- 

 tended tarry of twenty-four hours in Lancaster. 

 The veteran warrior, retired from public life, en- 

 joys an easy affluence mainly from the income 

 of an excellent Connecticut river farm, every 

 day's labor on which may be expected to give a 

 future profit of four for one when passing near 

 or over it the Concord and Montreal railroad 

 continued shall unite with the Maine and Mon- 

 treal railroad above it. Maj. Weeks has had a 

 farmer tenant bringing up and educating a family 

 with whom the produce of his farm has been 

 divided twenty-five years, the laborer having 

 every thing all the lime his own way. If any 

 fault can be found with the arrangement, it is, 

 that the owner while at home has been too much 

 at his ease. It will be recollected that Maj. W. 

 was four years in Congress, and had been much 

 absent in public life. More than twenty years 

 ago with the Hon. Mr. M'Intire of Maine, he 

 perambulated the line and fixed the boundary 

 along the whole easterly and wilderness line of 

 the State through the yet uninhabited region up 

 north. On the line between the unincorporated 

 town of Cambridge, N. II. and " Letter B." in 

 Maine, going out of the State, we found upon 

 the stone on our side the chiselled markoflWW ; 

 and again down some one hundred and fifty 

 miles south re-entering our own State at Wake- 

 field, we found a renewed monument with the 

 remnant of the old stone beside it, prepared by 

 the same well known hand. 



Maj. Weeks of late years has not labored and 

 observed so much abroad as he has read and 

 studied at home : on the subject of the earth's 

 formation, its geology and its origin, we struck 

 our flag to him at once. If his theories were not 

 better than ours, he was abundantly more able 

 to establish and defend them : besides, we found 

 no time to dispute : — he was enthusiastic on the 

 events of by-gone days, and so we were our- 

 selves. 



Since the war of 1812 we had been twice 

 along the Canada frontier and marked the 

 grounds of some of the interesting battles of 

 1812-15. Never until he described it, did we fully 

 understand at what odds and with what success 

 the gallant men of our own neighborhood fought 

 the battle of Chippewa plains, July 5, 1814. Sat- 

 isfied are we beyond all dispute that it was the 

 glorious Eleventh regiment under Maj. M'Neil, 

 who succeeded Col. Campbell in the command 

 after he was wounded, who did the main impor- 

 tant work of that day : it was the fire of the first 

 company of the eleventh, brought into position 

 by its gallant captain in the interval between 

 Campbell leaving and M'Neil assuming this com- 

 mand, which turned the fate of the action. The 

 Eleventh of 500 men came up to the centre for 

 the relief of the 9lh and 25th exposed to the 

 most galling and destructive fire. Gen. Scott in 

 his report to Gen. Brown confirms fully the 

 statement of Maj. Weeks when speaking of the 

 fire upon the enemy he says—" that of Major 

 M'Neil was most effective from the ohlique position 

 which his troops judiciously occupied." 



So much of interest did we feel in this thrilling 

 statement of the battle in which the captain of 

 the first company, wheeling his command into 



the ohlique position on his own motion and re- 

 sponsibility, bad fifteen men of his company 

 shot down, that we wrote Maj. W. after leaving 

 Lancaster requesting a diagram of the action. 

 After much delay in procuring the engraving, 

 we now present it, such as it is, hoping it will be 

 made intelligible to the reader. 



Maj. Weeks entered the army on the 12th 

 March 1812, and was disbanded with the army 

 on the 15th June 1815. In the battle of Chrys- 

 ler's fields in Canada, Nov. 13, 1813, his second 

 platoon having been that day detached on an- 

 other service, he had shot by his side thirteen of 

 thirty-four men in about twenty minutes. This 

 was fighting about equal to that of Buena Vista 

 or Cerro Gordo : his command was there drawn 

 up and received the concentrated fire of the ene- 

 my. Four regiments there, wanting the proper 

 command, were in perfect disorder. The Major 

 is of opinion that every man of them would have 

 stood fire, properly directed by a competent high 

 officer — they would, as he expresses it, have 

 driven the enemy into the St. Lawrence. The 

 "oblique" attack which did so much execution at 

 Chippewa was made by about seventy men : 

 Capt. Bailey, a relative of Maj. W. was shot 

 down while leading up : this well directed 

 oblique fire so crumbled the main body of the 

 enemy's rank and file, that four hundred muskets 

 were picked up on the field. Of Maj. M'Neil, 

 who commanded the eleventh after Col. Camp- 

 bell was wounded, Gen. Scott says in his report 

 that "he deserves every thing which conspicuous 

 skill and gallantry can win from a grateful coun- 

 try." This praise, after a lapse of thirty-five 

 years, sounds no worse now that the gallant wri- 

 ter has since performed wonders, and the sub- 

 jects of his praise yet live to enjoy the more 

 complete success of American valor prompted 

 by their great example. 



Answering our request, we received the fol- 

 lowing letters with the diagram nearly as given 

 in the accompanying plate : 



Lancaster, Sept. 16, 1848. 

 Hon. I. Hill — Deal Sir: The diagram which 

 you requested, is herewith enclosed. Please to 

 remember, it was laid down from recollection 

 after a lapse of more than thirty-four years: 

 consequently the distances and points of com- 

 pass may not be accurate, but all the material 

 facts are. 



Very respectfully, 1 remain 



your friend and servant, 



JOHN W. WEEKS. 



Lancaster, Sept. 21, 1848. 

 Hon. I. Hill— Dear Sir: The other day Maj. 

 Weeks of this town called upon me to ride down 

 to his house and make a map of the battle of 

 Chippewa, which I accordingly did. The situa- 

 tion and distances upon the sheet are no doubt 

 very correct, as the Major ha3 a remarkably re- 

 tentive memory. The draught was made very 

 quickly, but you can no doubt obtain a very clear 

 idea of what was done on that day by the seve- 

 ral regiments tber.e encamped, and which en- 

 gaged in battle upon the plain between the 

 Creeks. I have been acquainted with the Major 

 all my life, and have conversed with those en- 

 gaged in the battle of Chippewa with him. The 

 universal testimony is, that the wheeling on the 

 right the first company of the eleventh regiment 

 and flanking the British troops, was the crown- 

 ing work of the day ; and but for that the Amer- 

 ican troops had been defeated. The British 

 troops had run from line into column of attack, 

 and were preparing for a charge upon the 9lh 

 and 22d which were fast melting away. There 

 was no field officer in sight upon the field near 

 the 11th regiment. The oldest captain wheeled 

 his company on the right, and in twenty minutes 

 the British troops were flying for Chippewa 



