20G 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



with the proper information derired from the oe-[ should be gathered in June or July, and both kinds 



cupant, by personal inquiry, he might be soon as 

 competent to give advice as to the culture of the 

 land about him, as the doctor to prescribe for the 

 sick, or the lawyer to advise his client. No phy- 

 sician vi'ould dare prescribe for a dangerous dis- 

 ease, upon the description of it given by an un- 

 skilful informant, and no agriculturist, however 

 learned, can give much valuable advice about the 

 culture of afield, from information derived through 

 unlearned sources. 



An analysis of a pound of earth, from a farm, 

 would perhaps give a somewhat better idea to a 

 chemist of its requirements for fertility, than would 

 the examination of the paring of a finger-nail of a 

 patient whom he never saw, give to the physician, 

 of the physical ills of the sufferer. But as a gen- 

 eral thing, it would seem, that the specimen sent, 

 must be quite too small, and quite too uncertain, 

 to be the means of much valuable information. 



No man can take from a cultivated field a pound 

 of earth, and feel any confidence that it fixirly rep- 

 resents the condition of the whole, while our chem- 

 ist of the county, who had analyzed perhaps twen- 

 ty specimens of soil in the neighborhood, of simi- 

 lar character and position, would be able to judge, 

 without a new experiment, with great accuracy, 

 by a superficial examination merely, what must be 

 its chemical constituents. 



I repeat what I have often said, that I have the 

 fullest faith in the advantages to be derived by the 

 farmer, from the aid of chemistry, and it is, be- 

 cause I desire that all men should charge their dis- 

 appointments, in attempting to avail themselves of 

 her services, to the right account, and not always 

 to the science itself, that I have ventured to make 

 the foregoing suggestions. h. f. f. 



Ecceler, N. II., April &, 1853. 



are easy to cultivate. I set 14 rods of white birch 

 hedge last week, at an expense of less than one 

 dollar, the trees averaging 2 feet high, and got 

 them in in good order; so you see it will not cost 

 me much to try the experiment. The Silver or 

 River Maple would grow on good land the quick- 

 est of any tree tliat I ever cultivated, and may be 

 easily obtained by seed or seedling trees. The 

 seed may be gathered in June or July, and sowed 

 the same year. B. F. Cutter. 



Pelham, N. H., April 4., 1853. 



EMERY'S REAPING- AND MOWING 

 MACHINE COMBINED. 



We lay before our readers this new labor-saving 

 machine, in order that it may be seen and exam- 

 ined, before the busy season arrives, when it may 

 be called into use. 



^or the jyew England Farmer. 

 HEDGES. 



Mr. Editor : — I propose to write a few lines in 

 answer to your correspondent from Hollis, on the 

 subject of the hedges, that will stop cattle. Al- 

 most any kind of tree properly managed will make 

 a fence, but the tree should be adapted to the 

 land where it is to be grown. In looking about for 

 some tree for a hedge, on poor pine plain land, I 

 asked myself what tree would grow on this kind 

 of land and be the least objectionable, and with 

 the least care and expense, and have come to the 

 conclusion that the White Birch and the White 

 Pine are the best. These trees will grow and 

 flourish without cultivation almost anywhere, and 

 may be had for the taking up; or the seed of either! key 



As will readily be seen, it is provided with a 

 driver's seat and wheels, independent of the ma- 

 chine itself, but attached by hinges in such a man- 

 ner as to allow an easy action and adjustment, 

 while this method does away entirely with all the 

 side draft. 



The machine itself is provided with a large main 

 wheel, being about forty inches diameter and eight 

 inches face, with the necessary projections on its 

 surface. This wheel is cast with an internal gear- 

 ing at one side of the spokes, the teeth of which 

 are protected from dirt and strengthened by a 

 deep flange of nearly three inches. The main 

 frame is suspended from this wheel, by means of 

 adjustable pinion boxes, the boxes being hung in- 

 side of hangers attached to the frame itself. By 

 applying a kind of wrench to the box, (which pro- 

 jects far enough beyond the hangers, and is made 

 square,) it may be turned ; thus by the action of 

 its teeth on the corresponding teeth on the hang- 

 er, the frame itself is raised or lowered to any de- 

 sired point, where it is confined by a simple iron 



may be easily obtained, and sowed where they are 

 wanted to grow. The seed of the birch can be 

 gathered in November, and the pine in August or 

 September. 



There are hundreds of miles of fence|on the lines 

 of railroads, where hedges might be raised much 

 cheaper than rail or board fence can be built, and 

 if the older roads had been hedged when they were 

 first built, the hedge would before this time have 

 l>een large enough to turn cattle, and the piae 

 trees in many places kept the snov/ from drifting. 

 J think the river birch, or the canoe birch, would 

 be very suitable for river intervale on meadows, 

 where rail fence is liable to be taken up by ice and 



A small pinion is placed inside of this large 

 wheel at the forward part, and its shaft confined 

 to the under side of the frame itself, this shaft ex- 

 tending far enough outside to receive an eccentric 

 close up to the frame. 



The motion of the cutters is obtained by eccen- 

 tric straps and connecting rod, passing along the 

 outside of the frame to the fore end, where it con- 

 nects with an elbow or knee iron, as shown at A, 

 in Fig. 1. This elbow extends its other end 

 through to the front of the main frame, as seen at 

 B, and is confined in position by a heavy substan- 

 tial bed-plate of iron. The end of the cutter bar 

 itself, connecting with the elbow at B, has its mo- 



carried off by freshets; the seed of both these trees tion simply and directly from the main wheel, all 



