378 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



These boxes with careful usage will proba- 

 bly last for the term of 13 or 20 years. They 

 should be put under cover when they are not in 

 use ; and it would be well to repeat the oiling of 

 the cloth tops once in 4 or 5 years with train oil. 



;5d. Anotlier thing having been under onr ex- 

 perience lor many years, we find to be \ery 

 beneficial to us in our joint situation ; that is, it 

 saves considerable manual strength and hard la- 

 bour, viz. the taking off hay from the load and 

 placing it oo the mow by a horse, with what we 

 call grabs or hooks, fixed to a tackle, which is 

 suspended to the ridge pole or rafter of the 

 barn, nearly over the centre of the mow ; and 

 to the rope of which (passing under a truck) a 

 horse is hitched and ridden by a small boy di- 

 rectly forward throngh the yard. We frequent- 

 ly take off a ton of hay at four or five draughts, 

 each of which being suspended by a rope, is, by 

 two hands easily swung, as the rope slacks, to 

 any part of the mow. The rope i.'^ held by the 

 loadman, while the horse turns about and com- 

 mences his trip towards the load. However, we 

 could not recommend this method to farmers 

 who cut hay on a small scale, or where but few 

 hands are emplo3'ed. 



At any rate, we should rather prefer the loca- 

 tion of a barn (when practicable) on the side of 

 an hill, so as to facilitate a passage over a floor 

 across the beams. This method we have prov- 

 ed, and tind it an excellent plan. I presume 

 one man in this situation, will get off more hay 

 in the same time, and with less fatigue, than four 

 would in the ordinary way. 



4th. And lastly ; we have a machinc(moved by 

 water) for thrashing and cleaning gram ; which 

 we can, with confidence, recommend to great 

 farmers. This machine will thrash and winnow 

 unusually clean, at least 100 bushels per day : it 

 has done 16 bushels per hour. Thus it not on- 

 ly saves much time and hard labour, but also 

 enables us to secure our grain from vermin and 

 other ivastc, immediately after harvesting. Al- 

 though (as we understand) some s,.giiciou» spec- 

 ulator has copied a model, or nearly a model, 

 from our machine, and obtained a patent for the 

 same, as having been his own invention ; yet 

 we think we are fully able to prove our right of 

 claim to the invention, it being the result of our 

 own mental researches. 



We never saw nor heard of any thing simi- 

 lar, previous to our building the above men- 

 tioned machine for our own use, in the summer 

 of the year ICIO; to the benefit of wliich, we 

 make you and every other man freely welcome, 

 having never intended to make other people 

 tributary to our avarice, by securing a patent 

 for this, or any thing else, that might be of ser- 

 vice to mankind. However, as we have not 

 room here to give a plan, nor even a minute 

 description of tiiis machine, you will please to 

 call and see it the lir.st opportunity, and judge 

 tor yourself of its utility. 



Although water may justly be considered by 

 far the best power of motion, yet 1 presume 

 this machine may be so constructed as to operate 

 by horses. The cost, exclusive of a building 

 to contain the grain, is probably about glOO. 

 I am, with due respect, your friend, 



FRANCIS WANKLEy. 



P. S. One of your former numbers speaks 

 much in favor of fiorin grass; if you think it to lie 

 profitable, we should like to procure means for 

 propagating it I also a small paper of Mangel 

 Wurtzel seed. 



FOR THE NEW E.VOI..*.XD PARMER. 



Mr. EpiTor. — It has become a general prac- 

 tice among farmers to keep Swine shut up in 

 small yards for convenience, and the making of 

 manure. This method I have adopted, and find 

 the advantages to be very great. I still find it 

 necessaj-y that hogs, thus confined, should be 

 constantly fed during the summer season with 

 green food, as their nature is such that they 

 require it, and I am decidedly of the opinion 

 that they do much better for being thus fed. I 

 have sometimes cut clover and other kinds of 

 grass, and thrown it to ray hogs, which they 



died in about six hours. With three spoonful ^ 



of juice I put one of lime ; they died in abou *,„' 



twelve hours. With three spoonfuls of wate ',| 



' one of salt, they lived about eight hour! 



le solution of copperas, a piece as larp'e a i 



a piece as large a 



am 

 In th 



-I robin's egg, and four spoonfuls of water, "the) 

 were lively at twelve last night; I found then 

 dead this morning, June 6fh, at 5 o'clock; thei 

 of course died between twelve and seventeei ' 

 hours. The fifty remaining in the box appea |e 

 lo be in excellent health. I put thirty kernel 

 af corn into each saucer, which I intend to plan 

 this morning, and to put a goodly number o 

 eat very well, but I have more generally prac- worms into each hill, hoping to learn wheihe 

 tiscd feeding them with swamp brakes, which corn will gruxc after such trials, and whethe 

 Ihcy devour greedily, and which I believe do the worm will touch it; whether that will ope 

 them as much good as clover or any other kind rate as the greatest security against his depreda r 

 of grass. I tioH, which in the shortest time will destroy him ,| 



1 go lo a swamp once in three or four days,. This I know not; but these experiments wen ,,, 

 and gather a quantity of brakes, and deposit founded on the consideration, that wild animals »• 

 them in my cellar in order to keep them in a birds and insects, almost universally avoid ever 





green state. Once in a day I give as many of 

 them to my hogs as I think they will devour. 



INIy method of gathering them is to pull them 

 up, being careful lo get the heart or pith which 

 grows in the centre at the bottom. This kind 

 of brakes frequently grows in meadows and 

 sometimes on hard land among grass, and if 



thing poisonous in the natural and simple state 

 It is generally by compounds that instinct is de 

 ceived, but by the juices of some simples man 

 preatures are instantly allured to destruction 

 For example, take a few kernels of the ergot o 

 spurred rye, sleep them a short lime in wateri»( 

 pour it into a plate and set it on the floor in fl- 



pulled in June (taking care to get the heart or ;season ; all the flies in the room in a few minute 



will be found dead at the seducing cup. Thi 

 is probably the most powerful poison found i 

 Maine. I have it from unquestionable authorit 

 that a girl in Topsham, out of banter, imdertoo! 

 Jo eat it, but before she had finished two kernel 

 livas most severely emeticised. The theory i 

 ^ery plausible, that this was the origin of th 

 (Ireadful and sometimes almost uncontroiabi 

 Spotted lever, that took its rise in Worcesfe 

 county. Mass, a rye country, and which extenc 

 m\ through New Hampshire and Maine. Whe 

 the fever raged most, the spurred rye was mof 

 abundant. For myself I always have it picke 

 out of rye before I send it to mill. 1 had rathe 

 give it to flies than eat it myself. 



IMiich, I am told, has recently been writtei 

 on the wonderful powers of the sweet elder, b' 

 men of the lirst science in Europe. One says 

 ' Only whip your tender plants, infested will 

 hsects, with the bough of elder, they instanti 

 disappear ; sprinkle them with its juice, the 

 Mill not return ; lay a leaf at the hole of 'i 

 moose, he will never come out." If so power 

 fU on the surface, may it not have some effec 

 beneath it ? I have induced many farmers t« 

 repljnt their corn soaked at least fwenty-foui 

 hcuis in the elder, after the water is boilei 

 halfaway. Should this succeed, it will be im 

 po-tmt to the country ; should it fail, it wil 

 not hurt the corn. 



Fit should be asked why I intrude unprovec 

 thcarems on the public? 1 answer, it is more t( 

 wan the farmer of his unseen danger, than ir 

 an) way to direct or advise a remedv. The 

 spmg has been late, ^ind in my opinion there is 

 a geat prospect of another cold season. Lei 

 the'armer recollect I80G, 1812, and 1816, whalli,, 

 insets then appeared, what crops he raised, 

 and^hould he be necessilalcd to replant, oats 

 andpotatoes may yet yield a good crop 



1 lave this moment received communications 

 frot two farmers in Durham, with much satis. 

 faclon. One has planted four quarts of corn 

 on 'ubblc ground, not soaked ; one quart soaked 

 in ater forty-eight hours, with half a gill d 



pith) they rarely if ever grow again. 



A FARMER. 

 Worcester, June 23, 1823. 



VOR THE KF.W ENCI.ANI) TABIMER. 



Mr. Editor — Having taken an excursion of a 

 few days into some of the towns in Maine, I 

 have been induced to examine a number of 

 cornfields ; in many of which 1 have found a 

 great number of our secreted destructive ene- 

 mies, the u'lrc or chit u')>rm. This I presume 

 is their returning abundant year. 1 (bund most 

 farmers insensible of the approach of the lurk- 

 ing foe. One farmer in Durham, with great 

 labor and care, opened every hill in a field o' 

 two acres, and found on an average a dozen in 

 a hill. He replanted it on Saturday last with 

 seed soaked in an infusion of the spirits of tur- 

 pentine. I examined a number of hills with 

 him yesterday, the 4th of June, and found on 

 an average seven to a hill ; the last planted 

 kernels as yet unwounded. I took an hunrired 

 of these hardsided destroyers of our prospects 

 of hasty pudding, and gave them a snug birth 

 in a snuff box (being entirely destitute of the 

 comforting powders,) and distributed them as 

 follows : — 1 look out lifty, and gave the remain- 

 der a sprinkling of earth for bedding in the box. 

 Now as I am neither doctor, chemist nor far- 

 mer, I take courage to trouble you with my 

 guessing experiments, solely to awaken the at- 

 tention of the philosopher and thinking farmer 

 to a subject of deep interest lo this country. 1 

 took three spoonfulls of the decoction of the 

 sweet or white elder, that had been boiled one 

 hour; put it into a common white saucer, and 

 then put in a small piece of earth in the centre. 

 1 then put in a number of the worms; they still 

 live, but have lost the power of locomotion ; — 

 they have now been in twenty-four hours. I 

 then put six or seven into another saucer with 

 three spoonluls of the juice of elder only ; they 

 died in eighteen hours. I put in the same num- 

 ber with two spoonfuls of lime, so wetted that 

 water stood round the edges of the cup ; they 



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