188G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



407 



He thought tlie price was next door to swin- 

 dling. Well, I presume the teamster did 

 not want jobs of plowing village gardens, 

 even at that price. Terry takes up this 

 matter with great vehemence in a chapter or 

 two of his Potato-book ; and this little book 

 has been the means of making a reform in 

 this very matter. The objection to plowing 

 land in long strips has been urged, that 

 many farmers want to plow their land in one 

 direction one year, and at right angles to it 

 the next year, to keep the ground level. 

 Well, if this must be done I would have my 

 fields ^alf a mile square — if I could. I have 

 sometimes thought I should like a field so 

 long that I could start down one row after 

 breakfast and get back on another just about 



easier for the team to make half a turn than 

 to make a complete turn clear around ; and 

 when horses are tired I can see from their 

 very looks and actions how they dread being 

 pulled right squarely about while some awk- 

 ward piece of machinery has to be pulled 

 and hauled around also. Within the last 

 few days we have had a pair of wheels put 

 on our Acme harrow, so that, whenever we 

 have to turn abruptly, we can, by means of 

 a lever, raise the knives clear out of the dirt, 

 so it turns as easily as a cart ; ancfl tell you 

 it is a relief to me, I am sure, and a relief to 

 the horses. This Acme harrow on wheels, 

 or with a sulky attachment, as it is some- 

 times called, pleases us so much that I Avill 

 give an engraving of it. 



CME IIAIiUOiV AVITH SULKY ATTACHMENT. 



dinnertime. 'I'iiL- horses would have to turn 

 around Ijut onco in the forcn( on. I do not 

 know but 1 could alTord to stop and get a 

 drink of water, and give tlic horses some, at 

 this one turning; and if I turned near a 

 public road, and a neighbor should come 

 along, it might not be out of place to chat 

 with him, say five or ten minutes before I 

 started on the back track. On our ten acres 

 here at the Home of the Honey-Bees I have 

 been greatly tried and vexed because so 

 many of the men I hire would want to stop 

 and visit every time they came to a place to 

 turn around— especially if that turn-around 

 happened to be near a public road. I do 

 not like turning arouiul, any way you can fix 

 it. It is vexatious and trying to the horses 

 as well as to the driver, and it is a shameful 

 waste of time. Wc almost always plow 

 around our piece of ground, and harrow 

 around it, in order to avoid, as much as pos- 

 sible, turning stjuarely about. It is much 



Tiie wheels can be attached to any Acme 

 harrow already in use. I prefer the Acme 

 harrow to any other I liave ever used, be- 

 cause of the cutting motion of the knives, 

 which chop every thing up, but never catch 

 and break the machine, or jerk the horses 

 unmercifully. You can run it over roots or 

 stones or brush, long manure or corn-stalks, 

 and it cuts them to pieces like taking a long 

 butcher - knife and slashing it repeatedly 

 across the article to be worked up fine. You 

 will see tliese knives will run over soddy 

 ground, and work it up fine without turning 

 up the sods or turning them over. It sim- 

 ply cuts them in pieces, and lets them lie 

 where they are. By means of the lever rigJit 

 before the driver, the knives are instantly 

 pulled clear off from the ground, sa that you 

 need not cut up the soilWhen you don't 

 want to. By moving the lever either way 

 you raise the wheels clear off the ground, 

 thus putting all the weight on to the knives, 



