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164 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



June 



tlie "bull plow," the boy and borse in 

 the cornfield. We have rode a horse 

 day after day and week after week to 

 plow out the corn, with father or an 

 elder brother holding the old bull plow. 

 It was tiresome work, but not more so 

 than to follow with the Jioe to make the 

 hills. 



But thank fortune those days are 

 past and the boy instead of riding to 

 plow corn, can now attend school or 

 make himself useful in some more easy 

 and pleasant employment. 



We have said that great progress has 

 been made, but we are going to say and 

 to show that another stride must be 

 made in this direction, to ensure all that 

 is attainable ; in fact we are going to 

 write an essay on 



CORN CIILTUKE MADE EASY. 



In the first place, the farmer who has 

 but one team will use the common cast 

 steel clipper plow, if two teams the 

 wheel gang plow, having two twelve- 

 inch plows. With these three horses 

 do good work, plowing four to five acres 

 a day. If the weather is dry, planting 

 should follow, so that at the close of 

 each day the day's plowing is planted 

 and rolled. 



COKJSr PLANTER AND ROLLER. 



It has been a pet notion of ours that 

 the planter and roller should be com- 

 bined, so as to plant and roll at one and 

 the same operation, and for the past 

 two years have written more or less on 

 the subject. Several parties have ap- 

 preciated this idea and have essayed its 

 solution, but thus far without fully re- 

 alizing our idea of what is needed. A 

 few days since we received a line from 

 Mr. Craig, residing about six miles east 

 of our sanctum, who stated that he had 

 the thing in daily operation, working 

 most satisfactorily. Of course we lost 



no time in calling on him. He had a 

 two-section wood roUer, to the front of 

 which his planter was attached. This 

 planter is one of the best, and the work- 

 ing of it as geared to the roller, the 

 most simple and perfect possible. So 

 far we were dehghted with it. Yet 

 two important defects presented them- 

 selves at once, to make the machine 

 combined what it should be. To the 

 planter was attached the usual ninner 

 or marker, by which a hollow furrow 

 was made for the corn, and correspond- 

 ing to this a narrow band of wood, say 

 two by four inches, was placed around 

 the roller to follow the planter, for the 

 purpose of covering the corn. When 

 the soil is a little moist it adheres to 

 this band and the whole thing becomes 

 useless. To obviate this we propose to 

 use an iron roller, and to place a small 

 casteel wheel in front, so as to make a 

 smooth track for the corn, and this 

 planter to be followed with scrapers to 

 cover the corn a sufficient depth, and 

 which is at once pressed with the roller. 

 This will leave the seed well drained, 

 and in case of cold rain save it from 

 rotting. A wood roller is but a poor 

 implement, as the soil adheres to it 



more or less, thus giving to its surface 

 so soft a coating that it fails to crush 

 the clods, while on the other hand, the 

 hard, unyielding surface of the iron 

 roller pulverizes the clods and grinds 

 them to dust. Let us see how much 

 we would save in actual labor by using 

 the planter and roller combined. 



An iron roller and planter will cost 

 about sixty dollars. After plowing the 

 land, the account wiU stand as follow: 



Planting and rotling sixty acres, one man and 

 one span of horses, four days at $2,50 pr. d. $10 00 



OLD MODE. 



5 days' harrowing at $2,50 per day 12 50 



3 " markingoff 7 60 



4 " planting 10 00 



4 " one man to assist at $1 per day 4 00 



$34 00 

 In faror of new mode 124, nearly 40 cents per acre. 



