86 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



SEPTEMBER 19, 1S38. 



pendents can render <in explanation, it will niucli 

 oblige A SUBSCRIBER. 



[The fine warm weather with which we have 

 been favored the past summer, has made a differ- 

 ence of about three weelis in the ripening of corn 

 aid seeds of various kinds, The severe drought, 

 lias of course accelerated the ripening ; but has 

 been the cause of diminishing the quantity of the 

 crop in many cases. _. J. B.] 



AND gardener's JOURNAL. 



Boston, Wednesday, September 19, ' 



AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

 No. II. 



In a preceding number vvc spoke of tliree different 

 classes of agi^cultural improvements ; tliose which are 

 merely for sake of appearance, for purposes of ornament 

 oi' embellishment ; those which are useful and necessary, 

 but not in the proper sense of the term productive; and 

 those, which come under the denomination of produc- 

 tive. ^ 



We said some things about lalior-saving raacliinerj- ; 

 gave some cautions in regard to tiie expensiveness of its 

 construction; and the multiplication of implements class- 

 ed under that head. Mistakes in this matter are so com- 

 mon and often so expensive and ve-xatious, that we shall 

 ask indulgence for dwelling longer on this subject. We 

 have often been in the sheds and out-buildings of some 

 of our friends, who are certainly entitled to much credit 

 for their enterprise and their patronage of genius, where 

 are stowod away one upon the other, labor-saving nia- 

 cluncs of extraordinary variety and construction, thresh- 

 ing machines, fanning machines, straw-cutters, drill-bar- 

 rows, turnip slicers, cultivators, plooghs, hoes, barrows, 

 and other implements of agriculture too numerous to be 

 mentioned. These having been purchased at considera- 

 ble expense have perhaps upon the first trial been con- 

 demned for incompetency, and with severe chagrin and 

 vexation have been consigned to this general repository 

 of useless lumber. There they remain a source of un- 

 ceasing mortification, and perhaps at last, when repeated 

 disappointments and downright deceptions have chafed 

 the [spirit, they call forth an eternal and indiscriminate 

 anathema against all patent labor-saving machines what- 

 ever. Having been througli this same mill ourselves, 

 and not simply scratched but with the whole skin torn 

 off, we confess that the very name of a newly invented 

 patent labor-saving machine brings over us a kind of 

 shudder. 



It would be wrong however to pronounce in such case 

 a sentence of indiscriminate condemnation. Improve- 

 ments and discoveries have been made in labor-saving 

 machines in agriculture of the highest utility ; and it 

 proves only gro.ss ignorance or prejudice or want of judg- 

 ment or a miscalculating parsimony to neglect orrefu.se 

 to avail ourselves of them. Improvements have been 

 made in ploughs, the great instrument of agricultural op- 

 eration, which have been of immense benefit. In the 

 c«nstruclion of the mould board, in the material of which 

 the mould board and points arc made (cast-iron when 

 polished occasioning less friction than wrought iron, and a 

 worn-out or broken point being easily supplied) in the 

 position of the beam, in the form of the coulter, in the 

 addition of a wheel to guago the depth of the furrow- 

 slice, in a revolving cutler, and in the form of the clavis 

 or hook by which the plough is diawn, the most valuable 

 and useful i^n)roveuients have been nuulc. 



Wc might go on to particularize other improvements 



n implements of agriculture by which great facility has 

 been given to its operations, and a large atnount of toil 

 and time has been saved. But there are some important 

 rules, which ought to govern the farmer in this matter. 

 Whatever labor-saving machine offers itself for his ex- 

 amination, let him first fully determine that it is compe- 

 tent to effect the object, which it proposes to accomplish ; 

 that it will do it in the cheapest inanner; that it will do 

 it in the best manner ; that it is an object of so much im- 

 portance that he can afford to incur the expense of the 

 machine for the sake of having it accomplished. Let 

 him weigh well its first cost ; the probable expense of 

 using it, and of keeping it in repair ; its strength and sub- 

 stance, and how long it may be expected to last. Let 

 him examine its construction, and inspect its liability to 

 get out of repair, and ascertain his means, in case of its 

 derangement or injury, of putting it again into repair; 

 and especially let him settle the point, how well, at what 

 expense, in what time, with how much more or how 

 much less difficulty the same work could be effected by 

 the usual process, or by means already in his possession. 

 We have seen so much waste of money, and so much 

 vexation growing out of mistakes in this matter that we 

 cannot too strongly urge it upon the farmers " to look be- 

 fore they leap ;" and to weigh the case most thoroughly 

 before they involve themselves in a needless expense. 

 Labor-saving machines are in some measure like patent 

 medicines. In reading the advertisements of these nos- 

 trums and catholicons in the public papers, what they 

 can do, what they have done, the cures already effected 

 and the threatened lives which they have saved, one is 

 almost induced to conclude that sickness may be banish- 

 ed at our pleasure, and that man need never die. So 

 likewise in looldng at many of the labor-saving machines 

 which are offered to the public, one would be led to in- 

 fer from what thoy profess themselves able to accomplish 

 that there would be scarcely any longer occasion for bend- 

 ing the back or soiling the hands. But while we admit 

 that many of these machines are of decided and aibuua- 

 ble utility, yet, in some other cases, it costs more time 

 and labor and trouble to put and keep the machine in 

 operation than it would do to perform the work itself 

 with our own hands. 



Suppose that in this case, by way of illustrating these 

 positions, we relate the experience of an intelligent far- 

 mer, a friend of ours, as we received it from his own 

 mouth. A threshing machine of an improved construc- 

 tion and of great promise was offered for his purchase. 

 A horse-power and a thresher composed the machine. 

 He saw it operated, and it worked to admiration. The 

 other farmers, who witnessed its operation, were loud in 

 its praises; and promised in case he would purchase the 

 macbuie and the right of use for the town and vicinity, 

 they would hire it for their work and thiw alleviate the 

 expense. It was warranted to thresh one hundred bush- 

 els of? wh'eM and one hundred and fifty of oats per day; 

 and in the cleanness with which it performed the work 

 to make a saving of nearly one bushel in ten over the or- 

 dinary mode of using the flail. With these bright and 

 Haltering visions floating before his mind he was induced 

 to purchase the machine and the right of using it in his 

 own town and several towns in the county. Now mark 

 the result. The machine was heavy and difiicult of 

 transportation. It required ordinarily five persons and a 

 horse to operate and tend it to advantage. It was diffi- 

 cult to find a horse that would go in it ; and it was cer- 

 tain to injure his gait or his temper. Then it was con- 

 stantly getting out of order; the band would slip off ; the 

 chain would break ; the teeth would be bent or forced 

 out of their jilaces. Accidents as they were called would 

 happen continually, and the men employed would feel a 

 pleasure in such delays and misfortunes, and frequently 



through their own willing or designed mismanagement 

 or carelessness produce them, first because there is among 

 the ignorant an almost universal and inflexible prejudice 

 against all improvements, and second because such de- 

 lays favored their indolence. Then again, in the best 

 cases, it always came out that not more than half was 

 done that was usually promised to be done ; the speci- 

 luen of an hour's work was found to be no rule for the 

 day. Then what was the warranty worth of a wandering 

 vender, wlio like a yankee pedlar was barn at sea, and 

 had neither fixed residence, nor character, nor responsi- 

 bility i To complete lus mortification not a farmer in 

 the vicinity, earnest as they were in recommending its 

 purchase, would use it afler it was purchased, unless they 

 could have the use of it without charge ; and then they 

 would show. their gratitude for the kindness of tke loan 

 by abusing the machine and sneering at the folly of the 

 purchaser. To complete the whole series of vexations 

 comes the agreeable discoverj- of the invention of some 

 new machine, which is sure to supersede it, because it 

 will do much more work in the same time and at half 

 the expense. 



Now this is a faithful picture of what, we do not say 

 always but what often happens, a picture drawn from 

 real life, and fact ; and which we have been at pains to 

 delineate for the special benefit of whom it may concern 

 We are far from passing any sweeping condemnation 

 upon all labor-saving machinery. We know that great 

 improvements are yet to be made, and many are to be 

 desired. We believe that agriculture is as likely to be 

 benefited by the invention of labor-saving machinery as 

 any of the manufacturing or mechanic arts. But we 

 deem it as much for the inte.est of the inventors of ma- 

 chines of real value and utiliiy as of the farmers them- 

 selves, that we should caution the farmers, especially the 

 young, who are disposed to make important experiments 

 and improvements, to move with great deUberation and 

 inquiry in the purchase of expensive machinery. 



See in the first place, that the object to be answered by 

 the machine is important ; that the machine will certainly 

 effect it in the best and the least expensive manner. See 

 that the machine is well made ; is likely to be kept in 

 repair at a moderate expense. See that it is simple in its 

 construction and does not propose to do too many things 

 at one time. And lastly see that it is a machine, whose 

 operation you can in general superintend yourself; and 

 the care of which you will not be compelled of necessity 

 ordinarily to entrust to persons, who will feel little in- 

 terest in its success, who will use it with carelessness, 

 and it may be take a mean pleasure in its failure and in 

 your disappointment. H. C. 



PLUMS. 



We have been highly gratified with a short visit to the 

 garden of Mr Samuel Pond of Cambridgeport, who is 

 well known to the horticultural community as a success- 

 ful cultivator of the Plum. His garden contains about 

 one and a half acres, and mostly filled with plum trees 

 from the seedling plant up to those of a large size in full 

 bearing. He has a goodly number of fine thrifty trees 

 for sale, one, two, and three years from the bud, many of 

 them we observed were bearing fruit. The soil of his 

 garden, seems to be well adapted to the culture of this 

 delicious fruit. Mr Pond assured us, that le had already 

 picked and marketed 40 bushels for which he had ob- 

 tiuned the high price of S to 10 dollars ;)er bushel. A 

 number of trees of later sorts were beouiug under the 

 weight of their luxurious and abundant crops. Amon"" 

 the varieties cultivated we noticed Duane's jiurple, Bol- 

 mer's Washington, AVliite and Green Gage, Corse's Field 

 Marshal, Smith's Orleans, and other fine varieties. 



The young plum trees are all worked on plum stocks, 

 which is of much importance to the health of the future 

 tree, and Successful cultivation of the fruit. It is a bar- 

 barous cusloni to bud the plum upon the peach slock, as 

 is oftcutinics the case. Disappointment will surely follow, 



