176 
SOUTHER NCULTIVAT OR 
HARRIS’ PATENT SUBSOIL AND TURNING PLOW. 
We present, above, a very rough and imperfect cut of 
“Harris’ Patent Plow.’’’’ It will be seen that it is intend- 
ed to perform at one and the same operation, the work of 
a subsoil and turning plow — the lower and forward point 
entering the earth deeply, and loosening the subsoil; 
while the upper turning-share following, reverses or turns 
over a furrow-slice of surface soil upon that portion of the 
lower strata which has previously been moved and ele- 
vated. It is in its action somewhat similar to the “Michi- 
gan Plow” of the North and West, though the forward 
merely lifts and stir without turning nt'cr the sub- 
soil. The turning-share of the Harris Plow performs the 
same office as the rear mould-board of the Michigan; 
though, of course, being much lighter, it does not require 
the heavy draft of the latter. 
From a somewhat cursory examination and trial of the 
A WOODEN MILE FOR THE CHINESE SUGAR 
Cane. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I am a planter and 
take the Southern Cultivator, and Cotton Planter rp Soil, 
but do not find any directions given in either to construct 
a wooden sugar mill. Many of us are experimenting (in 
a sm^ll way), with the Chinese Sugar Cane, and are not 
willing to go to the expense of an iron mill for the amount 
of cane we have to grind. The wooden mills are, I un- 
derstand, used extensively in the lower counties of this 
State and Florida to crush the sugar cane, for which 
ithey answer a good purpose. 
The obj( ct of this hasty scroll is to ask the favor of you 
to call the attention of someone acquainted with the con- 
struction of di good wooden mill, and ask them to give a 
minute description of one, at an early Abl\.q, in the Chronicle 
eSg Sentinel. I ask the publication in that paper because 
of the Cultivator being a monthly, and if delayed to be 
published therein, the information would come too late for 
many of us. Yours respectfully, 
'■ John Bass, 
Sheffield, Newton Co., Ga., April 1857. 
[An article for our July number will be early enough 
for all practical purposes ; but if we receive it sooner than 
the issue of that number, we will publish it in the Chronicle 
Sentinel, as. our correspondent requests. — Eds. So. 
Cult.] 
Harris Plow (above represented) we came to tne conclu- 
sion that it is in many respects a really practical and use- 
ful Plow for moderately light soils, and that such further 
improvement as is necessary to strengthen and render it 
efficient, will naturally suggest itself to and be added by the 
inventor himself. The South stands sadly in need of 
Agricultural implements adapted especially to negro use 
and to our peculiar methods of culture, and all the efforts 
on the part of Southern men to give us improved plan- 
tation tools should be warmly encouraged. 
Mr. A. E. Chilton, P. M., Byhalia, Miss., informs us 
thac he has bought from the Patentee the right of this 
Plow for Georgia, and many of the Eastern and Western 
States, and that he will be here about the first of June to 
dispose of county and individual rights. Our Farmers and 
Planters should give the Plow a careful examination and 
trial, and adopt it if found valuable. 
Barometer for Farmers. — In one of his letters, Hum- 
boldt says that a barometer should be considered as necee- 
sary on a farm as a plow ; but farmers generally prefer to 
trust in the moon and other exploded nonsense, rather 
than invest thirty dollars cash in a reliable instrument that 
would repay them tenfold. A substitute, called Lecni’s 
Prognosticator, is sold for ten dollars. It consists of a 
phial full of a clear liquid, in which swims a snowy sub- 
stance ; in fine weather that substance lies on the bottom, 
but before a storm it rises to the surface, with a tendency 
to the side opposite the quarter from which the storm is 
coming. The substances used are kept secret. An or- 
dinary barometer indicates the density of the atmosphere. 
Leoni’s instrument evidently indicates its electric state, 
and for that reason we are of opinion that it is better in* 
strument to prognosticate the weather. The following is 
a substitute that will not cost more than a shilling, and 
for aught we know it may be the identical thing itself. 
Dissolve some camphor in alcohol and throw into the so- 
lution some soda; the camphor will be precipitated in 
snowy flakes; collect these by passing the mixture 
through a filter, and put them in a phial with clear alco- 
hol in which as much camphor as it would take has been 
dissolved. Cork it, place it where it will not be dj^tarbed 
e.xamine it every morning and night. 
