1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



325 



maturity thrible the weight of grain obtained in 

 the other case. But tlie kernel contains a very 

 large portion of phosphoric acid and but little 

 silica. You may, therefore, get a good straw 

 with a small, poor berry. We have no doubt that 

 a shrunk berry is often, not always, but often 

 caused by the want of a proper quantity of phos- 

 phoric acid in the soil. 



Now the diSerent crops draw, in general terms, 

 on the same ingredients of the soil, but in ex- 

 tremely different proportions. While the ash of 

 one production will be composed of fifty parts in a 

 hundred of some particular ingredient, the ash of 

 another will show less than one part in five hun- 

 dred of that ingredient, but it will draw largely 

 upon some other element. Hence the great value 

 of changing crops, — rotation of crops. Every 

 farmer should have good tables of the ingredients 

 of the. various productions of the. soil, and make 

 them his councillors in all his operations. — Pitts- 

 field Culturist. 



ANOTHER TRIAL OF PLOWS. 



Stop the Plow, and if it did not stop civilization, 

 it would give it such a blow as to stagger it almost 

 beyond further power of progress. We wonder 

 even now, how people subsist, and on what they 

 subsist, in populous countries, where the plow 

 still remains a rude and unwieldy instrument, or 

 where it is scarcely worthy the name of an im- 

 plement of husbandry, and is too ill-contrived and 

 inefBcifint to remove the soil more than an inch or 

 two in depth. 



We were never more forcibly reminded of the 

 vast importance of the Plow than in witnessing 

 the trial of several of new and most beautiful con- 

 struction on the farm of Mr. Joel Nourse, in Ips- 

 wich, on Tuesday, the 24:th of May. Severalgen- 

 tlemen of great practical experience were present, 

 as well as others acquainted with the mathemati- 

 cal construction of the implement, among whom 

 was Mr. Knox, the Pattern-maker in the large es- 

 tablishment of Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & 

 Co., of Boston and Worcester. 



A plow to possess the necessary strength, and 

 at the same time to lay off, and lay handsomely 

 away, the earth, or furrow, raised by the move- 

 ment of the team, must not only be constructed 

 with mechanical skill, but upon true mathematical 

 principles. The mould board must be so shaped 

 as to roll easily away the furrow, which has been 

 placed upon it, while those shapes must, at the 

 same time, offer the least possible resistance to the 

 progress of the plow. It must combine the prop- 

 erties both of the wedge and screw. Happily, 

 Mr. Kxox seems to understand these wants, and 

 has accordingly given us plows which are models 

 of mechanical skill and whose forms are fashioned 

 by mathematical rules. 



We have space at present to speak of only two 

 of the plows used in this trial, — the Deep Tiller, 

 No. 77, and the Double Mould-board, or Skim 

 Plow, and a few words of a new implement called 

 "TAe Horse Hoe." 



The ground on which the trial took place was a 

 sandy loam, never having been plowed deeper 

 than 8 or 9 inches, free from stones, and altogeth- 

 er favorable for the trial. 



The team, consisting of two pairs ot oxen, was 

 hitched to the Deep Tiller, and set in motion, and 

 never before did we witness such execution with 

 the plow. A trench 12 to 13 inches deep, and 24 

 inches wide, was cut and cleaned out at every 

 round, the furrow being laid over, not entirely flat, 

 but 80 as to cover every blade of grass. What an 

 achievement! And going down, too, some 3 or 4 

 inches where plow had never been before. It was 

 done quietly, and without over exertion to the 

 team, the cattle taking an even and steady step 

 round the land. There was almost a sublimity in 

 this rapid change of the solid earth. In it we saw 

 not only future harvests of swelling fruits and 

 golden grain, but the pioneer of civilization, the 

 triumphs of science and skill over the ' resisting 

 form of the earth! An old observer remarked, 

 that 12 oxen were formerly required to cut such a 

 furrow with a ponderous mis-shapen machine. 



On laying a ten foot pole across the plowed 

 ground and lapping over the unplowcd, it was 

 found that the process of plowing had raised the 

 ground sis inches higher than it laid before. 



The trial with the double plow was no less sat- 

 isfactory. It cut a furrow 9 inches deep, and 12 

 inches wide, first taking off 3 inches of the turf 

 and laying it fairly over, with both edges resting 

 on the bottom of the previous furrow — or, in other 

 words, leaving the centre of the turf a little the 

 highest. It turns up and pulverizes the remain- 

 ii^ portion of the furrow in the most desirable 

 manner, leaving it in such condition that a trifling 

 labor only, is necessary to prepare it for the seed. 

 It appeared to us that the power required to plow 

 a given depth was not as much with the double 

 plow as with a single one. 



But the operations of the "Horse Hoe," a new 

 and beautiful implement, invented by the manu- 

 facturers, added a crowning grace to this interest- 

 ing trial. We shall give a more particular descrip- 

 tion of it hereafter. 



The Horse Hoe is the most attractive implement 

 we have ever seen on the farm, and, after the 

 plow, we shall be mistaken if it does not prove one 

 of the most eiBcient. 



Among others present on this occasion, was our 

 Associate, Mr. F. Holbrook, the farmer of Ver- 

 mont, as graceful with the plow handles as with 

 the pen, and always the cool, sound, practical man. 



The trial was more satisfactory than any we 

 had before witnessed, inasmuch as the ground was 

 more favorable, and the plows in exact working 

 order. 



Our thanks are due all the persons attending 

 for kind attentions, and particularly to the gentle- 

 manly proprietor of the farm. 



