1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



543 



A KIDE ON A PATENT CAKRIAGE. 



Several years ago, while passing among the ag- 

 ricultural machinery at the State Fair in Vermont, 

 our attention was attracted to a winnoioing ma- 

 chine of singular construction and power, and we 

 immediately sought out the inventor, who set it 

 in operation and explained what he considered its 

 advantages over other winnowers. The notes 

 then taken of that and some other articles were 

 lost, and no opportunity until now has since oc- 

 curred for us to speak of it. He calls it a "Fan- 

 ning and Assorting Machine," for separating all 

 kinds of grain, seeds, and pulse, dividing the 

 large and earliest ripened for seed, from the small- 

 est and medium-sized. It is as remarkable for 

 its velocity of operation as a loinnower, as it is 

 for its accuracy as a separator". 



One of our neighbors having a quantity of bai*- 

 ley in the chaff, we are told that Mr. Nutting, 

 •with one of his machines only three feet and two 

 inches long, winnowed it up for him at the rate 

 of seventy-two bushels per hour, and that, at the 

 recent State Fair at Manchester, he winnowed 

 rye at the rate of 100 bushels per hour, and at 

 another place, India wheat at 78, and oats at 120 

 bushels per hour ! As a winnower and separator 

 combined, we have seen nothing equal to it. 



But we have almost lost sight of the patent car- 

 riage, as we had of its inventor, until he gave us 

 a call the other day, and invited us to ride with 

 him, which was accepted, and proved an agreea- 

 ble one. The peculiarity of this carriage consists 

 in the novel construction and arrangement of the 

 springs and draft-rods, whereby the usual rocker, 

 perch, reaches, braces and hinges, with their con- 

 necting plates, bolts and rivets are wholly dis- 

 pensed with, thus diminishing the weight about 15 

 per cent., and the cost about 10 per cent. 



The motions of the carriage were decidedly 

 easy and pleasant. While it seemed more elastic 

 than the common carriage, it also appeared to 

 be more firm and steady in its motions, and re- 

 tained its position better, scarcely swaying over 

 at all when making the shortest turns, or having 

 all the load on one side. 



The inventor states that these improvements 

 have been in use more than four years, and judg- 

 ing from this trial, he believes the carriages con- 

 structed with them more durable than any other 

 in use. The improvements are applicable to any 

 kind of carriage, with two or four wheels. 



We noticed, also, that he has a simple, yet ef- 

 fective method for retaining the tugs upon the 

 whilfletree, instead of the leather string usually 

 in use. 



Thomas' Draining Plow. — An interesting ac- 

 count of the Draining operations at "The Mead- 

 ows," the residence of C. S. Wainwright, Esq., 



lately appeared in the Tribune. Mr. W. has al- 

 ready, it appears, put in five miles of tile drains, 

 in addition to an equal extent of stone drains laid 

 down before tile could be had in this part of the 

 State. He is constantly extending his system of 

 drainage, having now 10,000 tiles, it is stated, as 

 a first installment in a new portion of the meadow; 

 and, remarks the writer, "the opening of the ditch- 

 es is greatly expedited by the use of a surface 

 plow and Thomas' draining plow — a simple but 

 effective subsoiler that disturbs the soil at a depth 

 of twenty inches or so beneath the surface. In 

 half a day, with two men and two pair of horses, 

 Mr. Wainwright started drains for 9,000 tiles, one 

 spit deep, leaving the remainder to be dug with 

 the draining spade.'' 



PALIj AISTD EARLY- winter CARE OF 

 SHEEP. 



Probably no part of farm stock pays so liberally 

 and promptly for care and attention as do sheep. 

 The difierence of one pound of wool per head, at 

 shearing time, would be regarded as an item of 

 no small importance in figuring up the value of a 

 years' clip from a large flock ; yet there is often 

 a much larger difl'erence than this in the income 

 of flocks, resulting from the manner of feeding, 

 housing and tending. Sheep may have good pas- 

 turage in Summer, and good attention after the 

 winter season has fairly set in, and yet suffer for 

 want of proper care during the cold storms of Fall 

 and early Winter, and from an insufiiciency of 

 food "between hay and grass." The follovving 

 remarks which we extract from the Michigan 

 Farmer, are timely, and to the point. 



There is no season of the year when sheep are 

 more liable to lose nearly all they have gained, 

 than during the Fall and early Winter ; and if they 

 do, there is an end to the hopes of a crop of wool. 

 For the want of food has the efiect of stopping the 

 gi'owth of the wool, and the moment the growth 

 is stopped, the end of the fibre is completed, a 

 change takes place, it becomes dead, in a manner 

 analogous to the stem of ripe fruit, and a renewal 

 of good feed after these months, and after the 

 growth of the wool has been once stopped, only 

 prepares the skin to send forth a new growth that 

 pushes oft' the old Heece, and causes it to be lost 

 before shearing time. The cases are not unfre- 

 quent, when we have been told by the owners of 

 flocks of sheep, which were shown in a very tat- 

 tered condition in the spring, that they did not 

 know what had got into their sheep, they "had 

 fed them grain ever since February, or perhaps 

 since New Year's ;" it could not be poor feed that 

 had caused the loss of the fleece. But in fact 

 the harm was done perhaps before Nev,- Year's. 

 The sheep had been allowed to lose their condition 

 in November and December, the growth of the 

 fleece had been arrested, and the interior works 

 of the skin that produced the pile of wool had 

 been stopped for want of supplies. When the 

 works Avere again set in motion by sufficient sup- 

 ply of food, they produced a new crop, which did 

 not connect Avith the old one. Nothing is more 

 evident from this than that the economy of the 



