1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



559 



long train of rail-cars. The State Agricultural! 

 Museum should, if possible, preserve specimens 

 of these relics of fifty years ago. 



And yet, in many particulars, the improvement 

 of farm implements is yet in its infancy. Ihe 

 most finished cast-steel plow of the present day, 

 perfect as it may seem, consumes five-sixths ottiie 

 moving force to overcome friction and cohesion. 

 For, in ordinary work, a horse will do the same as 

 lifting 700 lbs. seven inches high per second ; 

 while a good two-horse plow, in turning the soil, 

 lifts only about 200 lbs. of the earth seven inches 

 high on an average, per second. Here is an op- 

 portunity for inventors to exercise their ingenuity 

 m overcoming this 500 per cent, of cohesion and 



friction. ' , , , , , 



The English agriculturists have been lately 

 much occupied in endeavoring to devise some 

 other way of loosening and pulverizing the soil, 

 besides plowing. They have not yet been very 

 successful, although some of their^ newly intro- 

 duced machines, in connection with the plow, 

 have accomplished wonders. The two most effi- 

 cient of these are perhaps CroskiU's Clod-crusher 

 and the Norwegian Harrow, both of which we 

 described some months ago, and which might be 

 introduced into our clayey districts with great 

 probable advantage. A recent number ot the 

 English Agricultural Gazette described a new dig- 

 ging inauiim, which has lately been tried with 

 some success. It is rather a forking than a dig- 

 gincr machine, acting by prongs, not by cutting 

 flat surfaces and edges. Drawn by six horses, it 

 pulverized the soil of a field, consisting of a fria- 

 ble loam plowed the previous autumn, so that in 

 walking over it the feet sank three inches, and a 

 stick could be thrust down eight or nine inches. 

 Every circle of its twelve teeth revolved on a sep- 

 arate rowel, of which there were seven, six inches 

 apart, strung upon one axle. The rowels con- 

 sisted of heavy cylindric blocks of iron, one foot 

 in diameter, and four or five inches wide, from 

 whose surfaces project teeth ten or twelve inches 

 long, curved in such a manner as to enter the 

 earth perpendiculariy as the machine revolves. 

 Between the blocks are heavy washers ,_ which 

 keep them asunder, and facilitate the motion and 

 cleansing of the whole. Such a machine as this 

 may in some cases pulverize the earth more per- 

 fectly than the plow andi*arrow, but otherwise 

 appears to possess no advantage on the score of 

 economy or expedition ; for the six horses required 

 to draw it, pulverize a strip only three and a half 

 feet wide, and get over only about four acres a 

 day ; an amount easily plowed and harrowed by 

 the teams separately. Still, however, it is not al- 

 together impossible that such a machine may be 

 th° germ of something fitted to a single two-horse 

 team, and working the earth more economically 

 or more efficiently than the common plow. In, 

 this respect an important step may have been 

 taken. ^ 



More recently, we observe a notice of a new 

 subsoil plow, lately invented in the north of Eng-j 

 land, which certainly proposes to accomphsh won- 

 ders. In the first place, it " skims the surface ;" 

 secondly, trenches the land ; thirdly, subsoils the 

 ground to any required depth ; fourthly, it will 

 perform either of these operations combined or se- 

 parately ; fifthly, it requires no skill in holding, 

 and no " balks " can ever be made ; sixthly, it 



buries all vegetable matter and weeds ; seventhly, 

 it may be used on land wet or dry ; and eighthly, 

 it trenches land at one quarter of the ordinary ex- 

 pense by hand. This plow appears not to have 

 been tried as yet, although commended by arf 

 English agricultural journal of high character ; 

 but we confess, so many wonderful quahties par- 

 take largely of the marvellous, and remmd us ot 

 the extraordinary quack medicine, which not only 

 cured the different diseases, but possessed many 

 other very useful properties, such as restoring a 

 rent boot, doubling the milk of cows, causing hens 

 t) lay with great rapidity, preventinj^ decay in 

 fence posts, preventing horses from balking, ren- 

 dering railroads proof against collisions, makmg 

 steamboat boilers safe from explosion, besides in- 

 creasing the speed of the boat, &c. 



Another •attempt, not so successtul as tms 

 claims to be, was made some years_ ago, at the 

 Bristol exhibition of the English Agricultural bo- 

 ciety, of a digging machine, constructed simply ot 

 a wooden roller, set spirally with spoon-shaped 

 spikes, so as to dig up the land when dra,wn oyer 

 it. Unfortunately, the first trial was made on the 

 fair ground, and instead of digging,_it gathered 

 soil among the teeth as it proceeded, till the whole 

 became an immense cylindrical ma«s of earth in 

 which the teeth were buried and hidden, ihat, 

 of course, ended the history of this digger. 



Tho"'""nds of vor" in"'enio\is n^en nave labnrea 

 for yelrTTn improving the old-fashioned soil- 

 inverter, the plow ; and possibly nothing better 

 than this implement will ever be contrived ; but 

 ingenuity in other directions is certainly worthy 

 of encouragement. At the present time a trench- 

 ing machine is greatly needed, that shall not re- 

 quire six or eight horses, as the largest subsoil and 

 trench plows now do, but where one or two horses 

 may be set to work and turn up the subsoil and 

 throw under the surface, with all the perfection 

 of finish accomplished by hard labor, and with 

 one quarter of the expense.— ^Zten?/ Cultivator. 



For the New England Farmer. 



EXHIBITION OF FRUITS. 



The display of fruit at Cattle Shows and Hor- 

 ticultural Exhibitions is an opportunity embraced 

 by many to make a selection of varieties for culti- 

 vation. This is an uncertain method, unless the 

 kinds are recommended by some one perfectly ac- 

 quainted with them, and on whose integrity and 

 experience the utmost confidence can be placed. 

 It is not uncommon, at these fruit shows, to notice 

 persons with pencil and paper taking the names 

 of the largest and finest looking specimens, and 

 passing over varieties of first rate excellence which 

 were deficient in size or beauty. Who would se- 

 lect the Seckle pear, that is unacquainted witli the 

 variety, from its outward appearance and insig- 

 nificant size T And yet the world boasts not a 

 finer pear among more than a thousand varieties 

 under cultivation. Being at the Worcester Ilor- 

 ticultaral Exhibition last autumn, in examining 

 ' the apples I noticed four kinds, which from their 

 larc-e size and great beauty attracted attention 

 from all ; they were the most splendid samples m 

 the hall. Meeting an experienced nurseryman and 

 fruit-grower, I inquired of him respecting them, 

 as they were varieties with which I was unac- 

 quainted ; he informed me there was not one of 



