

THE ILLIjNTOIS FARMER. 



117 



as m common to all stacks close to tlic ground. 

 It Was' a #efc season. 



Many of our /hrifterg will have the opportu- 

 nity of seeing this machine in the field. Mr, 

 Van Doren and Mr. Glover are now Siomic 

 from South to North with one of the machine-^ 

 along the line of the Centi-al Railroad. They 

 take it into the field of a farmer, work half a 

 day ty the ^>de of machines in use, and then 

 go ten or twenty miles either by rail or ''by 

 land," and enter^the field again. It is worth 

 while for farmers to ride twenty miles and 

 spend half a day to know for themselvos if 

 all that is claimed for this machine is true. 



Ancient Farming. 



This is a subject of some interast. Farm- 

 ing commeueed isoon after man appeared up- 

 on the earth; but we have few details of the 

 processes by which he made his bread : and 

 what we have are contained in the oldest book 

 of which we have any knowledge. These 

 were gathered and made a portion of several 

 "Essays on Agriculture," written and pub- 

 lished many years ago by one of the fathers 

 of New England, Rev. Mr. Elliott. His 

 essays have been reproduced by the Home- 

 stead, of Hartford, Conn. • 



It will be recollected that in the early set- 

 tlement of the New Haven Colony, when the 

 people had not time to frame a code of laws 

 for the government of the colony, on account 

 of the two-fold necessity of raising of crops 

 for food and fighting the Indians, — they re- 

 solved to be governed by the laws found in 

 the Bible until they had time to make bet- 

 ter; — so Rev. Mr. Elliott gathers what wis- 

 dom he can find in the Bible on the subject 

 of agriculture, but is careful to bring in his 

 own experience and speculations when he 

 thinks they can subserve the purposes of 

 those for whom he writes better than what 

 he can cull for them from the Bible. 



Mr. Elliott goes on to say that "The only 

 rules of husbandry, I have met with, I find 

 in the Bible," not professedly taught, but by 

 way of comparison and illustration, showing 

 us what the practice of farmers was in those 

 days, and suggesting the methods of ancient 

 husbandry. 



"The first I shall mention gives an account 

 of the profit of goats, spoken of in Proverbs : 

 'Lambs are for clothing, and goats for the 

 price of the field.' They are excellent to 

 subdue rough uncultivated lands," fitted by 

 nature to serve this purpose, — destroying 

 bushes, briars, and weeds : "by their tread, 

 dung and urine, which is very hot, they 

 sweeten the ground so in a little while, that 

 the land will be clothed with grass," thus 

 doubling the value of the land in a little 

 time. 



"In Ecclesiastes we read : 



'In themorning 



sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold 

 not thine hand : for thou knowest not wheth- 

 er shall prosper, either this or that, or whether 

 they both alike shall be good.' The true in- 

 tendment and mond improvement, is not ir.y 

 present business or design. I remember a 

 farmer of good credit told me, that being for 

 some reason obliire<I to be earlv, he sowed 

 oats at break of day, and had harrowed all in 

 before sun risinir; he observed that the oats 

 sowed thus early, out-stripped the oats sowed 

 the same day after the day was coTne on, — 

 <2;rcw six inches taller, had larger head.^, and 

 appeared every way better, aithougli the land 

 was poorei'. It is agreeable to reason it 

 should be so, for tlie dews are impregnated 

 with nitrous salts, and is the principle thing 

 which enriches the ijrround when it lies fal- 

 low; this dew being harrowed in with the seed, 

 may have promoted the growth ol" the crop. 

 If the seed were sown in the evening, j^o as to 

 lie all night, to be soaked and softened with 

 the dew, and then harrowed in the morning, 

 tliou ktwivcst not ichetlirr slialJ pro><p<'r, tJtix 

 or that ; it may be best to try both. I per- 

 suaded one of my neighbors to try this method 

 in sowing mesling," [a mixture of griiins, as 

 rye and oats, or rye and wheat.] 



"Another piece of ancient husbandry we 

 have in Isaiah; 'For the fitches [chick peas] 

 are not threshed with a thrcshlno- instrument, 

 neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the 

 cummin, [an annual, whoscseedshaveawarm 

 bitterish taste, and an aromatic flavor; Cum- 

 mia rijm>rnihi\: but the fitches are beaten 

 out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.' 

 The wheel was used for those sorts of grain, 

 hard to separate from the chaff; but the fitches 

 and cummins, were threshed with a little 

 stick." The wheel was used only for the 

 sorts of corn hard to thresh, time and labor 

 being saved by the cart-wheel. 'Bi-ead corn 

 is bruised; because ho will not ever be thresh- 

 ing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, 

 nor bmise it with his horsemen.' "There is 

 no doubt a wheel miiilit be contrived to thresh 

 out a great deal of grain in a day." [How a 

 modern threshinir machine would iiiivc juadc 

 the venerable clergyman stare'] Threshing 

 with horses was practiced, and .still is by the 

 Dutch, at the rate of sixty bushels a day. 

 "At present we arc more concerned how to 

 raise wheat and r^'e, than to devise expedi- 

 tious ways to thresh them : if ever we should 

 be blessed with large crops, such an invitation 

 might be of use." 



There are various ways of cleansing clover 

 seed both red and white, so difficult to separ- 

 ate from the chaff; "the way has been a secret, 

 mysterious business," and slow at that. Take 

 your clover hay to a tanner's bark mill, where 

 a stone-wheel is used, grind it, and clear it 

 from chaff with a corn-pan, grind again if 



necessary and fan as before; in this way a man 

 will clean a bushel a day. For the want of 

 a stone-mill use a cider-mall. This is an im- 

 portant article) and will I hope be more so; 

 for I believe it will not be well with New 

 England, till every farmer shall have a bushel 

 or two of clover seed to sow every year upon 

 his land." [This was a sound conclusion.] 

 I informed a gentleman who raises much clover 

 seod every year, and he said "he was obliged 

 to me, for it would save him -£25 a year in 

 cleansing seed.'' 



"In Kings we read of 'Elislia who was 

 plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him.' 

 This was a mighty team : it must he a plow 

 of a very different stmcture from what are 

 more in u.se; but some imagine the text is to 

 be understood of twelve difierent teams and 

 plows, from what follows, 'and he was with 

 the twelfth.' His twelve yoke of oxen brings 

 to mind what Mr. Ellis, says of a minister in 

 England, who had l^ecn over sea, and brought 

 home with him a plow with which one yoke 

 of small oxen plowed twelve acres in a day. 

 We know not what sort of a plow it was, that 

 cither the prophet or the minister used. It 

 is a pity l^Ir. ]''llis did not explain the twelve 

 acre plow." [We apprehend that Elisha 

 must have had a gang-plow, probably after 

 the fashion of Mr. Fiye's. Perhaps Mr. F. 

 took Ills his idea from Elisha's plow! If so, 

 he certainly is not entitled to a patent.] 



"One rale more of husbandry from Scrip- 

 ture, 'but this I say, he thatsowcth sparing- 

 ly, shall reap, also, sparingly; and he which 

 soweth bountii'ully, shall, also, reap bounti- 

 fully.' " Reason, use, prudence, and discre- 

 tion are to direct. Wc are not to cover the 

 ground with seed, for this would diminish 

 the crop; neither are we to spare. In Eng- 

 land they sow two and a half bushels of wheat 

 per acre, anxl the same amount of flax seed 

 per acre; but this is a waste of seed, if not 

 prejudicial to the crop : in strong laud more 

 seed than we use would be best. I saw last 

 summer flax on strong drained land choaked 

 with weeds for want of more seed. Thick 

 seeding such land would have kept down the 

 weeds, rendered the harle finer, [the filaments 

 of fliix or hemp,] and would have increased 

 the crop. 



However much Mr. Elliott's Es-saj's may 

 interest the farmers of Xew England; wc arc 

 quite sure that our farmers can very much 

 improve on his suggestions, — c^uite as much 

 as the Xew Haven colonists could on the 

 Hebrew code of laws, — whereof wc have 

 spoken. 



—— 



13^3Iorriirs Laud Bill, for the benefit of 

 Agricultural Colleges in the States, which 

 passed the IIou><e, was not token up in the 

 Senate. 



