1863. 



- —.^^i-r^- ^-JtSTr^^'SP-^SItt^-r- 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



6t 



to add materially to tlie weight ; this is 

 accomplished in the plows made of cast 

 steel, cast in iron molds. This com- 

 pletes the third proposition, and we 

 have but the fourth left ; that is to re- 

 lieve the bottom of the plow of friction, 

 to make it a wagon instead of a sled — 

 a rolling instead of a sliding implement. 

 Though many attempts have been 

 made in this direction, none have 

 proved satisfactory. Some of these 

 wheel or sulkey appliances work very 

 well, but the cost puts them without 

 the pale of economy, and we must wait 

 for something more cheap and practi- 

 cable to accomplish the desired end. 



The plows and plowing of to-day, in 

 contrast with that of forty years ago, is 

 a wonderful progress in the field of 



genms. 



SPADING AND EOTAET SPADERS. 



The use of the spade on small plats 

 of ground, has been a favorite mode of 

 culture, and is found to be superior to 

 plowing nnder all conditions. With 

 the spade the soil is finely comminuted 

 and lies up loose, permitting the more 

 perfect areation of its particles, • while 

 the plow, in lifting or turning over the 

 furrow, tends to pack the soil more 

 closely, especially if in a moist condi- 

 tion. The nse of the subsoil and trench 

 plov/s have to some extent corrected 

 these evils, but have not fully eradica- 

 ted them. Cultivators knowing these 

 facts, have in some instances adopted 

 the use of the spade in gardening and 

 vineyard culture, but the additional ex- 

 pense has more than overbalanced the 

 increased value of the products, and 

 hence has to a great extent been aban- 

 doned, and subsoil and trench plowing, 

 when admissible, substituted therefor. 



Notwithstanding all this, the idea of 

 spading, instead of plowing the soil is 



a favorite one, and many attempts have 

 been made to accomplish it with horse 

 power, while thousands of dollars have 

 been thrown away on the project, 

 skavering knives, rotary forks, spiked 

 rollers and scarifiers all have had their 

 day, and become matters of history. 



When a thing is needed genius will 

 not be baulked b}^ a dozen failures, nor 

 until every possible effort shall have 

 been expended that would tend to its 

 success. 



After all this labor and money 

 thrown away — after all the discourage- 

 ments and disappointments, success has 

 at last crowned the persevering efforts of 

 genius, and to day the rotary spader, 

 adapted to the use of horse power, 

 stands forth a veritable fact, broad and 

 indisputable — not a single one, but a 

 pair of them — one to represent the.East, 

 cutting and spading twenty inches wide, 

 but the West claimed a richer gift from 

 the hand of genius, and she gave one 

 modeled to her wants, with a width 

 and proportion suited to her mellow 

 soil — a thing of curved spades, of cams, 

 of axles and of springs, composed of 

 cast and wrought iron and steel — sim- 

 ple, strong and durable, and with 

 which three or four horses can spade, 

 from four to five acres a day, doing the 

 work as thoroughly as if done by hand 

 with the laborious spade. 



This invention is just in time for the 

 cheap culture of the new products that 

 will soon make rich the farmers of the 

 prairies — sorghum, tobacco and cotton ; 

 the two former everywhere, and the 

 latter south of the 40th parallel of lati- 

 tude. The close, compact soil (»f the 

 great basin of Egypt will yield to its 

 mellowing influences, and the fields 

 shall be white with cotton, or studded 

 with vineyards and rich orchards. A 



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