THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



419 



Mapes' & Gibbs' Rotary Bigger. 



We are very glad to get the following report 

 of the Beech Island Farmers' Club, which we 

 extract from the Southern Cultivator. It is a 

 favourite implement of Prof. Mapes, which does 

 not seem to have progressed from the primaries, 

 to use the technicality of that eminent profes- 

 sor of Chemistry and Chilian Guano. 



Unlike the editor of the Southern Cultivator, 

 we will express an opinion on this subject. — 

 The report of the New York Committee is 

 headed by "H. Meigs, chairman," whose name 

 we frequently see in The Working Farmer as 

 chairman or something of the sort at those 

 meetings of some agricultural club of New 

 York city where Prof. Mapes is in the habit of 

 promulgating his Progression of the primaries 

 and other crudities. Who the others may be 

 we do not know. But we do know that the re- 

 port of the Beech Island Farmers' Club ema- 

 nates from a class of men who are entitled to 

 much higher credit, prima facie, than a simi- 

 lar body from New York city under the auspi- 

 ces of Prof. Mapes and H. Meigs, chairman. 

 But we also Jinow from other authority in New 

 York city, which we are not at liberty to name, 

 that the Rotary Digger is not held in high re- 

 pute there by every body. 



The leading idea of this implement is not 

 new : we have several times extracted articles 

 into the Planter which discussed it. It origi- 

 nated in the speculations as to the application 

 of steam to ploughing ; some very ingenious 

 persons contending, we think correctly, that as 

 the mode of action of steam was rotary in all 

 things else, so must it be in aration ; and that 

 a true steam plough would be a rotating cylin- 

 der armed with projecting teeth, like, say, the 

 teeth of a cultivator, which should be forced 

 into the ground by the weight of the cylinder, 

 and prized out by its forward motion as a spade 

 is prized out by the spadesman, thus pulveriz- 

 ing the earth more completely than the plough, 

 and throwing the dirt behind, as a dog does in i 

 scratching ; whilst the baking of the ground, 

 such as a plough makes at the bottom of the 

 furrow, would be altogether avoided. 



We mention this lest persons should discard 

 the idea altogether from the ridiculous failure 

 of our sugar-house professor. We beg them 

 not to do it, and assure them that if they do, 

 they would make as great a blunder as if they 



should condemn Peruvian guano because the 

 Chilian article had proved worthless. 



Those who are curious on this subject and 

 will consult the pages of Talpa, or the Chroni- 

 cles of a Clay Farm, a delightful little work 

 which every farmer of literary taste should 

 read, will there find it very pleasantly 'discuss- 

 ed. 



Reports of Committees — Mapes' and Gibbs' Ro- 

 tary Digger. 

 The undersigned, committee of the Beech 

 Island Farmers' Club, appointed to test the 

 performances of a " Mapes' & Gibbs' Rotary 

 Digger/' and " Washington Plow, No. 2," re- 

 cently purchased by a member of this Club, re- 

 port : That they have witnessed the perform- 

 ances of these implements in a loamy clay soil 

 in 7 excellent order to exhibit them to the best 

 advantage. 



From the cost of the Digger ($125 at the fac- 

 tory in New York,) and from several notices of 

 it in the Working Farmer, a journal conducted 

 by Mr. Mapes, one of the inventors, and par- 

 ticularly on account of an editorial article in 

 the July number of that journal, in which it 

 was stated that, with a single yoke of oxen, 

 this implement would completely pulverize the 

 soil the width of two and a half double horse 

 plow furrows (assumed to be at least 20, per- 

 haps 30 inches) and 1G inches deep, the Com- 

 mittee expected to see the most remarkable and 

 efficient agricultural implement yet invented — 

 one calculated to create a new era in farming. 



On examining it, they found that it was an 

 attempt to combine the Subsoil Plow, the Roll- 

 er and the Harrow in one. The Subsoil Plow 

 which was attached to the beam in front, had a 

 blade 7 inches wide at its greatest width, and 

 from the bottom of the blade to the beam was 

 15 inches. The Roller, which was immediate- 

 ly in the rear of the subsoil plow, was 10 inches 

 long and 14 in diameter. On each side of the 

 roller were the diggers, small iron teeth 2J 

 inches wide and 6 inches long. The Roller con- 

 sisted of a succession of plates revolving each 

 on a journal of its own, and each digger or 

 tooth did the same ; both the roller and diggers, 

 however, revolving in the rear of the plow on a 

 common axel. We tried this implement or ma- 

 chine first with one yoke of oxen, but finding 

 they could not pull it when made to do its ut- 

 most, another equally fine yoke was added, and 

 the work was more than ample for both yokes. 

 At its best, this machine subsoiled and rolled 

 down (the land being in such condition that not 

 a clod was made) a strip 7 inches wide, the 

 centre of which was 12^ inches deep, and the 

 whole on an average of 10 inches. It could do 

 no more. <*> 



The Diggers at the sides entered the earth, 

 making holes, on an average, 4 inches deep, ■ 

 and scooping out at every 6 inches, a handful 



