1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
249 
best seed and prepare it with brine aud lime, 
and sow early, and put it in with a cultivator 
two or three' inches deep. Upon soil, naturally 
or artificially, well drained, it will stand the 
winter and give you a good crop. There is 
great satisfaction in growing your own wheat. 
You get it in the best condition ; you can have 
it fresh ground, and not be troubled with sour, 
musty flour, aud poor bread. You can have it 
unbolted for Graham bread and biscuit, and 
furnish the raw material for the enamel of your 
children's^ teeth. The dentists may suffer for 
lack of custom, but you ''will put money in 
your purse" and health in your bones. 
Fatal Accidents from Mowing Machines. 
The great number of serious and fatal acci- 
dents which are reported every year as arising 
from carelessness in handling mowing ma- 
chines, or from drivers being thrown off from 
their seats iu front of them, has led to much 
thought, both on the part of conscientious man- 
ufacturers aud others, to prevent such occur- 
' rences. Some mowing machines are peculiarly 
liable to throw the driver off on going over 
rough ground, or when the cutter bar strikes a 
fixed obstacle. They should be avoided by pur- 
chasers, as one would any treacherous danger- 
ous thing. When accidents occur and are re- 
ported in the papers, the name of the machine 
should always be given. We should like to 
publish a list showing the number of each ma- 
chine in use, and number of accidents to those 
using them, could a fair one be made out. 
Some years ago a lady of Burlington, N. J., 
invented an arrangement for throwing the 
knives out of gear the instant the driver's 
weight was taken from the seat. "We never 
knew of its being put to use. There have been 
several other guards contrived, generally, how- 
ever, not applicable to all machines. 
We have received a suggestion in a letter 
from Mr. J. S. Hammond, of Scarsdale, which 
we regard as eminently practical and sensible, 
aud believe it will be the means of saving 
many lives aud limbs. He writes: 
"As the mowing season is rapidly approach- 
ing, I desire to make known a simple device, 
which I have employed during two seasons, to 
prevent being thrown from my mowing ma- 
chine. It is well known that serious accidents 
have been thus produced. It is this : I take a 
strong leather strap, about 30 inches long, and, 
passing one end between the bars on the left 
side of the seat, (generally of open iron work,) 
buckle, so as to make a loop. Put the left arm 
through this loop. Let the loop be long enough 
to allow free use of the arm in driving, and at 
the same lime to steady the body. The right 
arm must be free to work the machine. Should 
the machine strike any hidden obstacle, the 
sirup will prevent the rider from being thrown 
to the right side, or forward, upon the knives, 
and will in most eases enable him to keep his 
seal. Properly adjusted-it will not interfere with 
the management of the team or the machine. 
Animals as "Weather Guages. 
"A. S. B.," writes: "I have observed this 
spring that the robins aud some one or two oth- 
er birds, (but especially the robins), seem to be 
building their nests higher than usual, aud more 
on the outside of the trees, or further out on 
the limbs. The robin, as a general thing, builds 
its nest close to the trunk or main body of the 
tree, and I have known them not to build more 
than 8 to 10 feet from the ground, and I may 
say generally they are not inclined to build 
much above the center of the tree, but this 
year the contrary seems to be their habit. I 
have noticed this fact to one or two others, and 
to a Doctor to whom I have noticed it, told me 
he had observed some two or three robins bnild- 
ing higher and nearer the tops of the trees 
than he had ever noticed their doing before. 
I would ask, does it indicate a warm or cold 
summer, a wet or dry one, heavy or light winds *? 
I had thought, perhaps, it indicated a cloudy, 
cold, wet, summer. I would like others to 
make some observation of this in their part of 
the country, and see if it is so with them." 
It is quite common to forecast the season 
from certain indications among animals, and 
many people, intelligent in other respects, have 
abiding faith in these signs. Thus, when par- 
tridges and quails have their feathers very low 
down on their legs, it is said to indicate a se- 
vere winter, and when muskrats build their 
nests very high, it will be a wet winter. These 
signs are very numerous, but being of a skepti- 
cal turn, we do not believe them. If our corre- 
spondent's observation is correct, it might indi-. 
cate that the cats iu his neighborhood had been 
more active than usual, and the birds were 
anxious to get out of the way. It has always 
seemed to us that the robin was very loose'in 
its notiousof locating its nest, and studied small 
fruits rather than the weather. If a strawberry 
bed were near, we have noticed that cock-robin 
aud his bride pitched into the first red cedar, 
apple tree, or fence corner, at hand, where there 
was a little screen from observation. If the 
cherry trees were tall, the}' would not object to 
a tall berth in the neighboring spruce or maple. 
Men know very little about the coming seasons, 
and birds and beasts still less. We shall be 
glad to receive any facts in regard to the loca- 
tion of birds' nests this season — whether they 
sustain our theory or magnify bird forecast. 
Large vs. Small Cotton Plantations. 
We have received from a gentleman iu 
Georgia, a communication to prove that cotton 
cannot be grown profitably henceforth upon 
large plantations. The argument, condensed, is 
this : It cannot be done, first, because under the 
slave system, the planter's chief profit was the 
increase of his slaves. This being gone, no 
money can be made with free labor. Second, 
compulsory labor was more reliable than that of 
freedmen. Third, cotton was grown at a loss 
last year. Fourth, capital invested in tools, 
stock aud machinery is loo insecure to tempt 
large capitalists. Fifth, the freedmen will be a 
tax upon the production of cotton. They will 
be henceforth full consumers and only partial 
producers, instead of full producers and partial 
consumers. Sixth, the small farmer will have 
an advantage in laboring with his own hands, 
and in the more intelligent direction of the few 
hands under him. He corroborates his own ar- 
gument by the detailed cost and profit of work- 
ing two cotton plantations iu his vicinity, which 
we give in full : 
PLANTATION NO. 1, BAKNWKl.l, DISTRICT, S. I'. 
Employing IS laborers, cultivating 820 acres, 
viz. : ISO in com, 140 in cotton, Hie planter fur- 
nishing land, stock, implements - , etc., etc., and 
furnishing each laborer with shelter, 1 ~> < > pounds 
of bacon and 12 bushels 6*f, corn, and allowing 
the laborers one-third of the produce raised. 
This plantation overlooked by the proprietor. 
140 acres may yield 50 bales cotton. weighing 50OU>s. 
each, and may yield the planter 20 cents per tt>., 
free of charges, makins §5,000 00 
ISO acres In corn may yield 10 bushels per acre, worth 
$1 per bushel 1.SO0 00 
22,400116. blades, worth St per lOOas 230 00 
1,500 bushels cotton seed, worth 20 cents per bushel.. 300 00 
Gross yield $7,320 00 
Deduct one-third, beins laborers' share 2,140 00 
> - - - ' i i ; i 
Deduct 2.7008.5. bacon at 17 cents £459 00 
Deduct 210 boshels corn at §1 65 356 00 
Provisions furnished laborers S15 00 
84,075 00 
Deduct for interest and insurance of 9 mules, 
costing S150 each, equal to 81,350 at 20 per 
cent, per annum §270 
Deduct for wear of jtin, sin house and sear, 
screw, implements, wagon, cart, etc., at 20 per 
cent.on§.00 140— 410 00 
§3,665 00 
Deduct planter's share of corn, blades and cotton 
seed, which must be reserved as outfit for nest 
year 1,547 00 
§2,11S 00 
Deduct rent of land, or interest on its cost, estimated 
as equal to one-sixth of what it will produce 1,220 00 
Planter's profits §S9S 00 
Being his return for his individual services, 
and with this sum he must pay State and local 
taxes, purchase flour, coffee, sugar, clothing, 
etc., and pay the doctor's charges. 
PLANTATION NO. 2, BURKE COUNTY, GEORGIA. 
Employing 15 label-el's in number, regarded 
by proprietor as equalling 10 good operatives ; 
cultivating 225 acres, viz. : 100 in corn, 125 in 
cotton, -and overlooked by an agent. 
Cotton §5.000 oo 
Corn 1.250 00 
Blades 250 00 
Cottonseed 300 00 
Gross yield §6,800 00 
Deduct wages jjaid in monev . .. §960 00 
Do. provisions furnished laborers 662 00 
Do. interest on stock and implements.. 431 00 
Do salary and rations of agent 491 00 
Do. outfit of corn, blades and cotton 
seed for next year 1,900 00 
Deduct rent of plantation, estimated at one- 
fifth of its production 1,360 00— -5,804 00 
Proprietor's net profit JOltf 00 
1. As to the first argument, it is what the 
logicians called a mm sequitur. There is so 
much difference between slave aud free labor 
that it is quite difficult to reason from one to the 
other, especially in a community where free 
labor has not yet had a fair trial. 2. When 
this trial has fairly been made, we have no 
doubt that planters generally will concede that 
free labor is both more reliable and more eco- 
nomical. At present the freedmen labor under 
two very great disadvantages. The carelessness 
and idleness resulting from their former slaving, 
aud insecurity of payment. When the dollar is 
made certain, the work will be. The stimulus 
of the dollar is much more effective than that of 
the lash. Labor in the free Slates is much more 
secure, and more profitable, than it ever was in 
the South, and it is owing to this facl, mainly, 
that land is worth so much more in llie North. 
Under the working of freedom a reliable class 
of laborers will be trained in the South. If the 
planter has the capital to pay his hands every 
week, there will be little trouble aboutjhe 
work. 8. Last year was exceptional, as all ad- 
mit, yet, with all its disadvantages, nearly two 
millions of bales of cotton were raised. Had 
the season been favorable, the product would 
have been double, or fully up to the average of 
cotton production before the war. This is quite 
as much as could have been expected. We 
think the results of last year, under the circum- 
stances, arc encouraging, both to the large and 
the small planter. We may fairly prophesy 
from it five millions of bales', as the annual crop 
within three years. 4. The insecurity of capital 
invested does not arise from the use of free 
labor. On the contrary, it is made more secure 
by it, as the history oif all free labor communi- 
ties proves. The only hesitation that capitalists 
now have in investing in cotton plantations, 
arises from the unsettled state of the country. 
There is a fear of mobs, of regulators, of social 
