1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER/ 



267 



Rotary Cultivator, or American Terracultor, and 

 the other as ComFtock's Rotary Spader. The 

 Evans' Rotary Cultivator (or Terracultor) we had 

 an opportunity of examining during a visit which 

 we made to the farm of E. 5. Wilcox, Esq., who 

 had recently received one of these machines for 

 trial. When we first saw it, it was boxed up ; but 

 in the course of an hour we had it set up and in 

 complete running order. This machine was calcu- 

 lated to work with two horses, and turned up a 

 twenty-inch strip of land to the depth of eight 

 inches. The working machine runs on wheels, on 

 the axle-tree of which is a large cylinder ; behind 

 this is a smaller one ; and over botJi pass chains 

 of a peculiar construction, of (malleable) cast iron. 

 Into the links of these chains, or broad, endless 

 bands, are bolted atfel teeth, chisel-shaped, eight 

 inches long, and which paps into the ground as the 

 cylinder revolves, and dig up the earth, throwing 

 it up behind, and leaving it in complete order as a 

 seed bed. The driver sat on the machine and bad 

 nothing to do beyond keeping his horses moving. 

 There were levers and ratchets, by which the 

 working cylinders were lifted out of the ground 

 and thrown out of gearing, so that the machine 

 could be taken from one place to another as easily 

 as a mowing machine. 



In the trial we gave this new implement, it 

 was run partly on clay land, and partly on a sandy 

 loam. On the clay the soil was broken up very 

 thoroughly ; but to render it complete for seed, 

 would use the roller and fine iron harrow. On the 

 loam, the Evans Cultivater, or Terracultor, did the 

 work of the plow and the harrow, and left it in 

 more perfect order than those two implements 

 could possibly do — the surface being similar to 

 that of a well made garden bed, after it has been 

 dug and raked by a skillful gardener. 



Our readers will compare this with what we have 

 said of Comstock's Spader. 500 acres against a 

 show of work — the last will win. — ^Ed. 



Immense Strawberry Crop. 



The Rochester Democrat says : "A single fact 

 which has come to our knowledge relating to the 

 strawberry crop of the past season will doubtless 

 astonish many of our readers. A prominent fruit 

 grower of Western New York, from a single patch 

 of 16 acres, sent to market 1,300 bushels of straw- 

 berries of the Wilson's Seedling and Triomphe de 

 Gand varieties. The entire crop was sold at an 

 average price of one shilling per quart, realizing 

 the snug sum of $5,200, as the product of 16 acres 

 of ground. We doubt whether any other 16 acres 

 in Western New York have yielded the like sum 

 as the result of a single crop. This may be taken 

 as an instance of the profitableness of thoroughly 

 scientific fruit growing." 



The above yield would be eighty-one bushels per 

 acre, not a very extraordinary yield if planted 

 and cultivated in hills. A friend of ours at Onar- 

 ga, informs us that a person by the name of Gould 

 grew 108 bushels on a single acre, of the Wilson, 

 but they were cultivated in hills and had been 

 mulched with rye straw. They sold for about $900. 

 bringing eight to nine dollars a bushel. The pick- 



ing, boxes, freight and commission cost about two ;: 

 and a half dollars a bushel, leaving a handsome : 

 profit. Our readers will take these for large yields 

 that only now and then occur, and we trust they » 

 will by careful culture lay themselves liable to the 

 same good luck, but not to hope for more than 30 f 

 to 50 bushels, until they get it, so that when the ■:: 

 surplus comes it will be all the more pleasant r ' 



Summer Pruning. 



We have long been in faver of the summer pru- 

 ning of fruit trees, of all sizes Full twenty years } 

 ago we were convinced of its good results. It is V; 

 advantageous in two ways : First, by shortening * 

 in the rapidly growing branches, it produces fruit 

 spars for the following year, and brings the trees ; 

 into any desired form. Second, when larger limbs 

 are removed, the wound, instead of leaving a bare, '■^ 

 protruding and decaying stump, beautifully heals *; 

 up, making a perfectly sound amputatioa 



The period when this pruning should be done, is 

 one of prime importance. We see June recom- " 

 mended, while the trees are in their full first 

 growth. Without having experimented, and look- " 

 ing to the condition of the trees in this month, it " 

 does not meet our assent We do not believ* that, 

 it is advisable to prune before the first growth of . 

 the season is completed, because of the immaturi- 

 ty of the wood, which must produce in the second ";' 

 growth less vigorous shoots, besides losing, to a ' 

 large extent, the yield of fruit the succeeding year, ; 

 which is sure to follow judicious shortening in a 

 later period. 



In our judgment "summer pruning" should take;' 

 place between the fifteenth of July and tenth of ' 

 August — a period when the sap is quiescent an«frf* 

 nature is resting awhile from her labors. We speak 

 from our own knowledge of the value of midsum- 

 mer pruning of trees, large or small. — Iowa Home- 

 stead. 



We prune from June to December, as we have 

 the time and the occasion in the nursery, while 

 o«r orchard gets very little pruning at any time«-^ 

 —Ed. -^ . : --'^^^ 



i 



A Parmer on Agricultural Education^ 



The Atlantic Monthly for July contains the f<d^% ', 

 lowing somewhat satirical view of Agricultnraf •' 

 Education, supposed to come from a conservatives. '' 

 cultivator in the rural districts: -. 



Two words are beginning to be coupled in th<f ' ' " 

 newspapers and to float about in the air, whose 

 juxtaposition is the cause of many a demure chuc- 

 kle among the rural population. — •'Agricultural 

 College." Separately the words command all re- 

 spect ; united, they are a living refutation of the 

 ■well-known axiom that "the whole is equal to all 

 its parts." On the contrary, so far are our farm- 

 ers from believing this, that, while they acknowK . 

 edge each part to be a very serious and important 

 fact, they look upon the whole as the flimsiest of 

 fallasies. ^ 



