1877.] 
AMERICAlSr AG-RICULTURIST. 
139 
of the AniericaTi Agriculturist to place it on their 
premium list, thus enabling farmers and others to 
procure it without an outlay of ready money. 
At figures 3, and 4, we illustrate a new plow which 
ofEers some special advantages. When exhibited at 
the fair of the American Institute, last season, it 
attracted much notice, and the prize of a silver 
medal was awarded to it. It is known as 
The ** Adamant Plow," 
made by the New York Plow Co., of Beekman St., 
New York. Its title of ''Adamant" comes from 
the material of the mold-board and share, which 
Fig. 3. >T HM4X T PLOW. 
are of a metal so hard, that a fragment of it will 
scratch glass, is not subject to any appreciable 
wear, will resist rusting, and it takes a very high 
polish. From the use of this metal are gained the 
advantages of great strength, which secures it 
against breaking ; great durability from absence of 
wear ; ease of draft, from the highly polished sur- 
face, and this also gives it perfect freedom from 
clogging in any soil. From the start the plow clears 
perfectly. The ease of draft is also increased by 
the peculiar form of the plow, which is shown at 
figure 4, and by which 
a truly central draft 
is secured. The draft 
is from the center, 
and the point of at- 
tachment being mov- 
able, the central draft 
can always be kept 
perfect by adjusting 
the attachment. This 
may be done while 
the plow is working 
in the furrow. The 
shape of the land- 
side, shown in the 
engraving, makes it evident that there is no pres- 
sure on the land-side of the furrow. When in use, 
this plow glides through the soil with great ease, 
and with such steadiness that when properly ad- 
justed a child might hold it. A small size, for one 
horse, and for use in cultivating, or on fruit or 
market farms, is made as well as the two-horse 
plow which is the pattern here shown. 
Fig. 4.— FOKM OF PLOW. 
Prize Farm Management. 
We may often learn much from observing what 
our neighbors are doing. No one head holds all 
the wisdom of the world, and there is no one who 
may not sometimes learn from others. Where 
every man is experimenting and trying new ways 
and things, some will be sure to hit upon improve- 
ments, and this is especially the case in agriculture 
of all kinds. In no other business is it more ne- 
cessary to know what other people are doing than 
in this. Hence it is sometimes useful even to look 
abroad into other countries, and observe the w.aTS 
of farmers there. We have recently read a report 
upon an English prize farm, in the "Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society," which is ver)' inter- 
esting. The farm consists of 333 acres of arable 
land, and 150 acres of permanent pasture, which is 
never plowed. The method of cultivation, which 
is as follows, is very instnictive and suggestive. 
The rotation Is a six-year one, viz. : roots, barley, 
clover and grass, wheat on the sod, beans or peas, 
wheat or barley. Mangels are drilled in, l!3 inches 
apart, 8 pounds of seed is used per acre ; iOO pounds 
of nitrate of soda is sown upon tliem, immediately 
after they have been singled, and the hoi-se-ho.! Is 
used as soon as the nitrate has been sown ; the 
crop averages 47 tons per acre. With barley, 14 
pounds of clover and a peck of grass seed, are 
sown. Fifteen 2-horse loads of manure, per acre, 
are spread for the wheat. The wheat is always 
harrowed in the spring. The ground is again ma- 
nured for peas or beans, (this crop is equivalent to 
our com crop), with 12 loads per acre of barn-yard 
manure ; and wheat follows this crop and completes 
the course. The apportionment of crops last year 
was : wheat, 93 acres ; barlej', 40 ; oats, 19 ; beans, 
31; peas, 14; lirst year clover, 60, (of which 33 
were mown, and 38 grazed) ; second year clover, 
grazed, 20 ; mangels, 12 ; Swede turnips, 31, and 
Ineern, 8 acres. The effect of so much cultivated 
cropping was to keep the land perfectly free from 
weeds, and to furnish a very large amount of fod- 
der for stock. Seventy head of cattle are fed, 140 
ewes are kept, and 40 beeves are fattened every year; 
ISO lambs were raised last year by the 140 ewes ; 
500 to 600 sheep are bought every year and fed for 
the butcher, and 9 horses are kept. The horses are 
purchased when two years old, and worked until 
they are seven, when they are sold off at a good 
profit. The quantity of food purchased for feeding, 
averages per annum 10 tons of linseed-cake, 12 tons 
of other cake, 5 tons of meal, 320 bushels of oats, 
80 bushels maize, and 3,900 bushels of brewer's 
grains. Of artificial manure only 1,700 lbs. nitrate 
of soda was purchased last year for the fnangels. 
Nearly 83,000 worth of purchased and home grown 
food is used each year. The labor employed con- 
sists of 15 men, 3 boys, and 6 women. There are 
nine neat comfortable cottages for laborers upon 
the farm, each of which has a garden attached. 
The laborers employed have all been on the farm 
many years, and have never joined any strike, or 
exhibited any dissatisfaction, during all the recent 
popular excitement among the English laborers. 
The labor biU averages from 84,000 to 84,500 annu- 
ally. The general management is characterized as 
a business-like system, economy and thoronghness 
being visible everywhere ; the men are well paid, 
and made comfortable; the owner superintends the 
smallest detail of the farm, and the production of 
meat and grains, with the consequent profit, is 
rarely rivaled elsewhere. Lastly, but not least, the 
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PLAN OF DAKOTA BARS 
farm accounts are strictly and accurately kept, so 
that any information as to costs, outlays, incomes, 
and profits, relat ing to any i)art of the business which 
was sought by the prize awarding eoniraittee, was 
immediately forthcoming. Thotigh in some respects 
the details of this arrangement could not well be 
copied by an American farmer, every one might 
gain somethins; by adopting the principles upon 
which the system is founded, and many might 
profltaWy adopt much of the system it«cU. 
A Dakota Bam. 
The accompanying plan of a barn, built in 1875, 
upon a prairie farm in Dakota, was sent by a cor- 
respondent, accompanied by a very succinct de- 
scription. The barn is SS feet long, and 54 wide, 
is framed with oak timber 10 inches square, and 
covered with boards, battened at each joint. The 
posts of the central part are 16 feet high, and those 
of the wings are 8 feet. The floors are all of 2-inch 
plonk ; there are racks and mangers to each stall. 
The cattle can be fed from the driving floor and 
hay-shoot at each end of the bay, and there is no 
waste room. At A, A, at each end, are loose boxes 
or sheds, 15x14 feet, for sheep, pigs, or calres ; at 
.B is a 7-staUed horse stable, 38x14 feet : at C, V, C, 
are three cattle stables, each 33x14 feet, each with 
11 stalls ; at Z>, D, is the hay bay, which, with the 
lofts above the stalls, will hold 100 tons of hay ; at 
E^ E, are hay-shoots, and the driving-floor is at F, 
The whole cost was .82,000. This is a plain, useful, 
roomy barn, and has been found convenient in use. 
It has features, which make it useful in localities 
similar to the one in which it was built. We are 
always glad to get plans of barns that hare given 
satisfaction to their owners in different States. 
A New Potato— The Superior. 
The first question with many will be, " why 
more new potatoes, have we not already 
enough?" To which we answer that we have 
not enough, and more are welcomed becauEe 
we need more— i. e., more that promise to be 
of jiermanent value. We have not reached 
that point in potato culture where we can say 
there is no room for improvement. The iutro- 
duction of the Early Kose was a great thing for 
the agrict;lture of the country. The money 
value of this variety itself can never be known, 
but If expressed in dollars, we should have to 
write millions. Besides this, its consequences 
were equally valuable. Those who can recol- 
lect the condition of potato culture at the time 
the Early Rose appeared, know that potatoes 
had so " run out," were so few and so poor, 
that it seemed probable that the crop must be 
abandoned. The Early Rose gave encourage- 
ment; it showed that potatoes, and good ones, 
could be raised. It led the \va_v in a series of 
new varieties, and each year brought more new 
potatoes, some iSt which' are not now to be 
found, while a few are still valuable. It in- 
duced many to experiment in raising seedlings, 
some working in a ctireless, bap-hazard way, 
and others making careful crossings. As a re- 
sult of all these experiments, scores of new va- 
rieties have been oliered that should never have 
been presented to the i)ublic, but out of the 
whole we have perhaps a dozen, or at most 20 
varieties of great excellence. It may bethought 
that this is a sufBcicnt number; perhaps it 
would be, were we sure of holding them all in 
their best condition for all future time. Un- 
fortunately new varieties are at their best when 
they are new. The varieties so much esteemed 
a quarter of a century ago, were excellent in 
their day, but tbey gra lually dcterioraled, and 
we must accept this as one of tlic characteris- 
tics of the plant, that the varieties will degener- 
ate—some much more rapidly than others, but 
it is an inherent tendency in all. Being propa- 
gated by eutlingsiu all sorts of soils, and in the 
most careless manner, generally without a 
thought beyond the immediate crop.any plant so 
treated will, after a series of years, go backward. 
Our only hope for successful potato culture, 
is in the occasional renewid from seed, and the 
inlrodnclion of new varieties, which, after tbey 
have served their purpose, through a greater or 
