252 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
soil we brought to tlie surface. I am now 
struggling to get it clown to grass and clover, 
with some prospect of a fair catch. If we could 
once get it iii good clover, the battle would be 
won, but how or when that can be done jet re- 
mains to be seen. As the case now stands, I 
might better have given $100 per acre, and kept 
the plowing within six inches of the surface. 
This means, understand me, that deep plow- 
ing on that soil is a failure. It does not mean 
that on your soil and your neighbor's it would 
not be a most brilliant success. Horace Greeley 
and Paschall Morris believe in it thoroughly, and 
they are right. The farmers in Salem Co., 
N. i, disbelieve in it most thoroughly, and they 
are right too. Circumstances alter cases, and 
we have here only a striking illustration of the 
fact that in farming, more than in almost every- 
thing else, there are few rules of universal ap- 
plication. It is this fact that has brought so 
much popular discredit on what is known as 
book-farming, and it shows that the discredit 
has not been altogether unmerited; but the 
trouble is, not that the art of agriculture may 
not be reduced to writing, but that the efforts 
thus far made in that direction have been in- 
complete. Soil, climate, seasons, and all their 
endless changes, have so much to do with suc- 
cess and failure in every case, that he is a bold 
man who, knowing theexteut of their influence, 
would attempt to lay down rules for anything 
like general application. Yet, with all the dis- 
credit that lias come upon it, merited or not, 
nothing has gained so sure a foothold, has 
wrought within a short time such marked results, 
and promises for the near future to meet with 
such general acceptance, as book-farming. Little 
by little we are learning vital truths, and we are 
learning to apph r them in practice. "Whenever 
we strike the right track there are thousands to 
follow us who will never turn back. If we hit 
upon a wrong road, there are thousands to hoot 
at us and to warn us away. The hooting is 
not amiable, nor pleasant to hear. It is neither 
kindly meant nor judiciously administered. It 
comes from the meanest and most churlish of 
our guild, but in spite of that it does good, and 
we end, unless we are foolish enough to be dis- 
couraged, by establishing some new truth or 
demonstrating some old one, or setting some 
good example that shall win to its way all 
those better men of our profession whom the 
worser ones inevitably follow. 
A Farm Gate, 
"F. R. S." sends a drawing of a farm gate, 
which lie says can not sag. It is suitable for a 
field or barn-yard gate. As will be seen by the 
engraving, the back of the foot of the gate-post 
is braced by means of a block of wood wedged 
up tightly against the earth, and a sill being 
placed just beneath the level of the ground 
between the posts, and also wedged tightly, 
there can be no sagging. This, though by no 
means new, is a very simple and cheap gate. 
A Cist«rn for Liquid Manure. 
The preservation of the liquid refuse of sta- 
bles and cow-sheds is of more importance than 
is generally supposed. In the vast majority of 
CISTERN FOR LIQUID MANURE. 
cases this is allowed to run to waste, when, if 
means of saving it were applied, a large amount 
of very valuable fertilizing matter, in a conve- 
nient shape, could be procured at a trifling ex- 
pense. This material, when fermented, con- 
tains a large proportion of ammonia, so much 
so, that it is necessary to largely dilute it with 
water, or to mix dilute sulphuric acid with it to 
prevent its evaporation. A simple system of 
drains, with a receiving tank, is all that is neces- 
sary to preserve it, and if the drains are ex- 
tended to the neighborhood of the kitchen, the 
liquid refuse of the house might profitably be 
saved as well. The construction of the tank, or 
cistern, is the principal item of expense and 
consideration. In reply to a subscriber, who 
requested a plan of such a cistern, we give the 
one here represented, as being cheap, substan- 
tial, and of a permanent character. It is built 
of brick (the wall is half a brick thick), laid in 
cement, with the bottom cemented. A cistern 
12 feet deep and 10 feet in diameter, holding 
6,500 gallons, may be built at an expense of $50. 
Will Draining injure Lowland Timber 
and Grass ? 
A singular lawsuit is now pending in North 
em New York. By authority of an Act of Le 
gislature, a commission has removed an ob 
struction in a river for the pur- 
pose of preventing the over- 
flow of a large tract of swamp 
lands, and facilitating their 
drainage. The law provides 
that the cost of the work shall 
be assessed on the lands in pro- 
portion to the benefit received. 
Singularly (or naturally, accord- 
ing as the owners of these lands 
are honest or dishonest) those 
whose swamps are reclaimed, 
set up the pica that the drainage 
is a positive injury to the wood 
and grass grown on them. In 
the trial of the case the evidence 
has very clearly shown that, as 
was to be inferred, the benefit of 
such withdrawal of surplus moisture is marked 
and decided. Swamp-maple, Black-ash, Elm, 
Tamarack, etc., are all demonstrated to have 
been materially improved by drainage. There ' 
was produced in court a cross-section of a Black- 
ash tree, having 42 .yearly rings. The first 14 of 
these — produced before the drainage of the 
ground on which it grew — measured only an 
inch and a half in diameter, while the remain- 
ing 28 rings — produced since the drainage — 
added nine inches to the diameter of the tree. 
The change from the stunted to the vigorous 
growth was immediate, the very first ring after 
the improvement measuring three times as much 
as the last of those before it ; and this propor- 
tion was maintained during the whole 28 years. 
The evidence was equally conclusive in the 
case of all the trees under consideration ; they 
were all immensely improved by being allowed 
to grow under the more favorable conditions 
consequent on draining. The fact is that these 
trees do not grow on wet lands because they 
prefer excessive moisture, only because, having 
more power to withstand it, they are not crowded 
out by other varieties as they are in dry land. 
Another point set up was that over-wet. lands 
produce better grass than drained lands. This 
is too absurd to merit discussion, and we can 
not doubt that the decision of the court will be 
such as to indicate the usefulness of what the 
best farmers regard as the most important im- 
provement in farming — that is, draining. 
■ i -»»— — ■ » 
A Eake-Cultivator. 
" L. McC." writes us about corn cultivation. 
He has had a long experience as a farmer, 
which has shown him that corn needs only 
shallow cultivation. The destruction of weeds 
and the mellowing of the soil are all that is 
needed; any deeper stirring interferes with and 
injures the roots. He has abandoned the double 
shovel-plow or cultivator, and has changed it 
into the implement here figured, which he calls 
a rake-cultivator. After removing the shovels, 
he fixes in their place two blades of saw-plate 
fourteen inches long. These are attached to 
heavy tire-iron shanks, which are bolted to the 
standards. The rake- heads are made of 2 x 4 
in. oak, with teeth of one-inch iron, sharpened 
at the point, and are hinged to the standards 
by bolts passing through and fastened with a 
nut. Cords are fastened to the rakes, by which 
they may be raised from the ground if any ob- 
stacle is in their way. The implement cuts off 
all grass or other weeds at two inches below 
the surface, and the rakes pulverize the soil and 
render it fine and mellow. "When corn is plant- 
ed in check-rows, and such an implement as this 
is used to cultivate it, weeds have no chance, 
Sz* 
A RAKE-CULTIVATOR. 
and the knives may be made b)' going twice in 
a row to cut them out close to the corn, and 
render hand-hoeing unnecessary. For root 
crops it would be found equally serviceable. 
