12 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
compelled to consume a large quantity in order 
to get its supply of nutriment, its digestive or- 
gans will attain a greater capacity than if it has 
been kept on more concentrated food. I also 
think that when an animal so fed is put on abun- 
dant summer food it will eat more — to fill the 
enlarged stomach — and will therefore produce 
more miilc. The objection that has been raised 
to this theory is, that the stomach which has 
been accustomed to extract its nutriment from 
coarse food, will only get the same amount from 
that which is richer, 
and will eat no more 
of the richer food than 
is necessary to secure 
this amount. This I dis- 
believe, and I think it 
a fair field for experi- 
ment. The result of the 
trial will be valuable to 
all breeders. My stalls 
are ranged on both sides 
of a central feeding- 
passage. On one side I 
shall place all of the 
older cows, andshall feed 
them on cooked food, 
with an extra allowance 
of bran and ground oats. 
On the other will go 
the heifer calves and 
yearlings, and they will 
get only the cooked 
mixture of hay, straw, 
and corn - fodder, to 
which only enough bran has oeen added before 
cooking, to make it palatable. 
On another point concerning the treatment 
of young stock I find my opinion to be at vari- 
ance wilh that generally received. It is the al- 
most universal custom to turn calves into a pad- 
dock or pasture, when two months old or so, 
and to briua; them up in this more " natural " 
way. I have always followed this custom with 
a part of my calves, and have kept the others 
durins the first four or five months — usually 
durinsr. the whole first season — in the stable, 
feeding them on green fodder, oats, and skimmed 
milk. In very rare cases the calves turned out 
artificial animals for the artificial duty of pro- 
ducing inordinate quantities of milk and butter. 
I have this year given a trial to Laue's Sugar 
Beet, which I should not report bad I not pro- 
mised in a former communication that I would 
do so, because I have nothing favorable to sa}' of 
it. The beets have not grown well, nor, if I am 
to judge only from this experiment, should I 
consider them worthy of another trial. I am, 
however, quite certain that the cause of the 
PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR. — (See next page.) 
to grass have done as well as could be desired ; 
but in fully nine cases out of ten those which 
have been kept up have done vastly better, 
aud I am now convinced that my best interest 
will be served by keeping all calves in the stable 
until they are at least five months old. With 
most of them this will carry us so far into the 
autumn, that the weather will prevent their being 
turned out at all If it H objected that this is 
not the natural way to bring up calves, my 
answer is that we do not want natural but highly 
A CHAIN-HARROW. 
failure of my crop lies entirely witli the season 
(for such a heavy soil as mine), and not at all 
with the variety. In the first place, no beets of 
any kind have done well with us this year; and 
in the next, I have seen previously such superb 
crops of Lane's root on other farms, that I con- 
sider it beyond all comparison a better variety 
than any other with which I am acquainted. 
The only result of my experiment, therefore, is 
that I am bound to try them again next year. 
Of one thing this season has fully convinced 
me. That is, that on heavy soil it is useless to 
try to grow roots by flat cultivation, if the season 
turns out to be wet. I shall hereafter plant mine 
on the tops of ridges, after the plan almost uni- 
versally adopted in England, where roots are 
grown by the hundred acres in a body. Had I 
ridged my Lane's beets this year, I have no doubt 
I should have had at least a fair crop. 
Mr. George Geddes, in an article written for 
the Tribune, refers to my remarks in the Sep- 
tember number of these papers, ou the effect of 
fallowing, and he brings to the support of the 
suggestion there advanced items of his own ex- 
perience and observation, leading in the same 
direction. His idea is that the true use of, fal- 
lowing is to pulverize native soils which have 
never yet beeu sufficiently reduced — and that in 
such cases the practice is most judicious. On the 
other hand, he thinks that after the soil has 
been fairly subdued and brought to a pulveru- 
lent condition, once plowing is enough, and 
that too frequent plowing will induce exhaustion. 
On these points his arguments are quite clear. 
He does not go the full length of my suggestion, 
nor, perhaps, ought he to do so, for it is, after 
all, only a suggestion, thrown out to lead to a 
fair investigation. I am myself very far from 
accepting it as entirely true ; but I do think 
that Dr. Voeleker's examination of earth-closet 
manure indicates a very probable source of in- 
jury from the over-cultivation of the soil, espe- 
cially when it is not occupied by a crop. 
A Chain-Harrow. 
The harrowing of wheat in the spring, the 
spreading of manure, the harrowing in of grass 
seed, and the handsome finishing to the surface 
of sowed ground, and equally the harrowing of 
young corn and potatoes, need a peculiar form 
of harrow. The Thomas Harrow for all these 
purposes on some soils is excellent; for some of 
them, on other soils, it has failed. On a late 
visit to the farm of Mr. William Crozier, near 
Northport, L. I., we saw 
and tested a harrow of 
peculiar shape, which for 
many reasons we prefer 
to any toothed harrow 
whatever. One great 
advantage it possesses 
i3 that it has no teeth ; 
repairing and replacing 
teeth, then, is saved 
in using this harrow, 
and it will last a life- 
time without perceptible 
wear. It also has the 
advantage of conform- 
ing itself to every sort 
of surface, aud of har- 
rowing equally hollows 
■ — ~ — and hills. It is also 
Yery light, and one horse 
can draw it. The sur- 
face is left in a perfectly 
handsome condil ion, and 
no lumps or stones are 
torn up or sods left on the surface. It cau not 
possibly clog either with weeds, rubbish, or 
manure, but passes over them and leaves them 
spread evenly upon the surface. 
Finally, it is cheap, and can be made by any 
blacksmith, without any claim for royalty by 
a patentee or the permission of any other man. 
It consists of square links of half-inch square 
iron rod about four inches in diameter, con- 
nected in the manner shown in the engraving. 
Shc^t chains connect it with a draw-bar to 
which the clevis of the whiffle-tree is attached. 
Two iron rods with a forked claw at each end 
are used to keep the links spread in width, and 
PLAN op SECOND FLOOR. — (See next page.) 
bobs of cast-iron or any other similar weights 
or drags arc attached to the rear by short chains 
to keep it spread iu length when in use. In 
the harrow we tested, the links were welded, 
but we do not think this to be necessary. The 
harrow would be much cheaper and equally 
effective if the links were simply bent into 
shape and the ends drawn together after being 
linked. But the joints in the links should not 
be at any of the angles, but on one of the sides, 
half-way between two of the angles. 
