THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



119 



plete, at least two experiments on some one or more sub- 

 jects of practical agriculture, on some doubtful or dis- 

 puted questions, and designed to throw light thereon; 

 which experiments shall be conducted carefully and ac- 

 curately, to the best of the ability and the means of the 

 experimenter, and the circumstances noted minutely, 

 and, with the results, be reported in writing, as simply 

 and concisely as may be, but minutely and fully, at the 

 next annual meeting — and whether the result be deemed 

 successful and valuable, or discouraging, or the whole 

 experiment be deemed a failure. And in default of 

 such reports either of progress or of completion, of two 

 experiments by each member, at each animal meeting, 

 the defaulter shall pay to the Treasurer $ for each 

 experiment wanting, 



9. Of the annual income of the Society not less than 

 one-half of the whole amount shall be appropriated as 

 premiums offered for careful and well conducted expe- 

 riments on subjects of practical agriculture. 



10. The Executive Committee shall prepare a list 

 of practical agricultural matters deemed question- 

 able, and important to be investigated by the ex- 

 periments of members of the Society, from which, 

 or from other sources, each member may choose 

 subjects for experiment. ' And the experiments of 

 members shall be arranged and condensed by the 

 Executive Committee, and the facts shown by the re- 

 sults published in the manner deemed most suitable. 



11. The Society will cooperate with each and 

 every other Society having similar objects and 

 general action, for the purpose of better forward- 

 ing their common and important object of in- 

 ducing accurate investigation, eliciting useful facts, 

 and exchanging and diiTusing the knowledge thus 

 acquired. 



EXTIRPATING WIRE GRASS. 



Below is the statement of our friend, Mr. Staples 

 of Henrico, who is induced by us to become a com- 

 petitor for the Corbin Premium of fifty dollars for 

 the extirpation of wire grass. 



He publishes his plan now, that others may try 

 the same thing, and verify it as far as it can be 

 done in one season by actual trial. 



How it may do with others we cannot say, but 

 we know Mr. Staples, and if he says it has answered 

 with him we are willing to swear to it. 



F. G. Rufpin, Esq.. 



Dear Sir, — Your note of the 8th instant, came to 

 hand a few days ago. I had no idea of contending 

 for the premiums you speak of for fear my mode 

 ••of exterminating wire grass should be ridiculed, 

 but such as it is I will state to you, as I believe I 

 have already done. It is this : about the first of 

 May the land should be well ploughed and one 

 bushel and a half of buckwheat and one hundred 

 pounds of guano, well raked (harrowed) in. As 

 soon as the buckwheat is in full bloom, the crop 

 should be ploughed in, and one bushel and a half 

 of black-eyed peas, well put in, either by cultiva- 

 tors or rake ; and when the pea vines are in full 

 bloom— which I think will be about the middle of 

 September— plough them in. Then put in your 

 wheat crop; and I think with a little lime, say 

 twenty-five bushels per acre, you may kill three 

 birds with one stone, viz. secure a good crop of 

 wheat, exterminate the wire grass, and, by clover- 

 ing, get your land in an improving condition. 



Fras. Staples. 



From 'the American Farmer. 

 ATKINS' SELF-RAKING REAPER. 



A CHALLENGE. 



We publish by request of Mr. Wright, the 

 following article, though we must candidly say 

 that we doubt the practicability of carrying 

 into effect the plan suggested by him. Our 

 experience has shown the difficulty of obtain- 

 ing the services of committeemen for a single 

 day on trials of machinery, and it would re- 

 quire a degree of public spirit rarely to be met 

 with, for any number of gentlemen to devote 

 as much time as Mr. W.'s project calls for, at 

 such a season of the year — and no security can 

 be offered, that their labors will not be in vain, 

 and their decisions as unsatisfactory as those 

 which have preceded them. 



We have already, some months ago, through 

 an able correspondent, presented to our readers 

 a description and favorable notice of Atkins' 

 Self-Raking Reaper, to which we refer all per- 

 sons interested. 



Chicago, February 7, 1854. 



Dear Sir, — As a manufacturer, I desire to 

 enter my protest against any more petty trials 

 of reapers. They cost a great deal and amount 

 to nothing. The decision at one trial is re- 

 versed the next week at another, perhaps with 

 the same machines, and often the competitors 

 can show their defeat was owing to some ex- 

 traneous circumstance, as not having a suitable 

 team, bad driving, or unfortunate management 

 in some way. 



A reaper trial is not like a horse-race, where 

 the sole object is to beat, regardless of every 

 thing except the coming out ahead; it is, or 

 ought to be, to ascertain surely which is the 

 best machine, and not so much to benefit the 

 owner as the farmers, who wish to know what 

 kind to buy. 



How absurd is it for any set of men — I 

 care not how great their experience and judg- 

 ment — to take from three to a dozen reapers, 

 perhaps all of acknowledged merit, and by the 

 cutting of two acres each, as was done at the 

 Wooster, Ohio, trial, where mine was defeated : 

 or even by cutting five or six acres, as at the 

 Richmond, Indiana, trial, where mine was vic- 

 tor, decide positively and absolutely that one 

 reaper is better than all others. 



Such a trial might show whether a reaper 

 would work or not, but to judge between rival 

 reapers, of which there are over twenty of es- 

 tablished reputation, each having its points of 

 excellence, a long and thorough trial must be 

 requisite, to see how they work in different 

 kinds of grain, and under varied circumstances, 

 and how they wear. A trial, to be decisive, 



