THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
39 
happily in our power. It is already settled to a 
certainty that science can be applied with abso- 
lute profit to agriculture. Recent experiments 
have demonstrated the vast value rt an accurate 
analysisol soils, of plants, and the peculiarele- 
menls required by the various kinds of vegeta- 
bles lor their complete and perfect growth. — 
But, however valuable this discovery is, the 
grand art remains where it was. It is tilling 
the soil. By deep and frequent plowings, by 
harrowing and hoeing, the soil obtains from the 
inexhaustible resource of the atmosphere its 
elements, its dews and rains, the everlasting 
renewal of its fertility. No art will ever ren- 
der this constant stirring ofihesoil unnecessary. 
Man’s labor is bound to be forever mixed up in 
the products of agriculture. Bain says that ag- 
riculture is a manufacture — that the yield of the 
earth is almost without any preparation fit for 
consumption. This is true of almost every 
fruit. It is so true, that to the be't specimens 
of Nature’s own confectionary in the fruit line, 
man can scarcely do any thing to alter it for 
the better. 
The products of the farm are honest. Who 
canlorgea bushel of wheat? an ox? a straw- 
berry? Perfect from the hand of God, they 
cannot be forged by man. Their profit, Bain 
says, is direct, for every seed you plant you 
have many in return. 
What interest have you like that from one 
pound of turnip seed, giving you twelve hund- 
red bushels of turnips? 
We rejoice to see so great a numberofthe 
best men of our country earnestly engaged in 
the cause of agriculture. On such men and 
their well-tilled farms; on such men, of temper- 
ate and vigorous bodies; on such men, of calm, 
cool heads, the vast fabric of this republic rests 
secure. They are the mighty pillars on which 
the great edifice proudly inclines its vast weight. 
— N. Y, Morning Neios. 
Plows and other Farm Tools. 
From the New Orleans Commercial Times 
In nothing does the Southern Planter show 
so great a want of economy as in the imple- 
ments he uses, and especially the Plow. Im- 
portant improvements have been annually made 
by our Northern neighbors, by which time, la- 
bour, and money are sa ed; yet we plod on 
with the same inefficient and expensive tools 
that were in use twenty years ago. Nothing 
during our tour struck us so forcibly as this — 
and we had considerable opportunity for obser- 
vation in this way— the contrast between the 
economy of labor in Northern and Southern farm- 
^ing, by the ?we of good and of indifferent imple- 
ments. In other items of good larming, we do 
not lag far behind. Indeed, it may be said with 
truth and saleiv, that, with the exeeption named 
above, we have as great a proportion of good 
and careful farmers, in this region of the South, 
as in any part of the Union; and as few bad 
managers. 
Within the last ten years the improvements 
made in plows has added millions to the wealth 
of the country, by the saving of wear and tear 
to plow, team and hand; besides the vast bene- 
fit to the lands and crops, by the deep and tho- 
rough pulverization of the soil. Few planters 
think of this as they ought to do. From the in- 
efficif'ncy of our breaking plows, the small 
amount of work Lhey perform in a day, scratch- 
ing along with a pair of good mules, in a fur- 
row seven or eight inches by three or four, cov- 
ering up the seeds of weeds and grass so lightly 
that they grow off more readily than the crop, 
and fresh supplies are brought to the surface 
each time the crop is tended ; forming a glazed, 
hard-pnn, as it is termed, under the shallow cov- 
ering of loose soil, '\ hich resists the absorption 
of water, so that every heavy rain that falls, 
runs off, carrying with it large quantities of 
what little soil is stirred in plowing. The fa- 
vorite plow is usually one that is light, cheap, 
of such a size as to do for one or two horses, and 
consequently unfit lor either, and is a pretty 
good article, if, after an outlay for laying and 
sharpening its wrought-iron point, equal to two- 
thirds its original cost, it will last a second year. 
They are generally made for the Southern mar- 
ket, as I was told by a New York dealer, and 
of course got up cheaply, to enable the dealer 
to make his profit, and the commission mer- 
chant his, from whom the planter orders them; 
few of whom know more of the plows in use 
on their plantations, than that their overseers 
want so many new ones of .some particular 
make, about which they profess to be very pa.’’- 
ticular — they could not possibly make crops 
with any others! So much indifference has 
been felt on the subject, that we believe the first 
exhibition and trial of plows and other imple- 
ments in Adams county. Miss., took place there 
at Ingleside, some three years ago. By using 
great exertions, and incurring all the trouble 
and expense ourselves, w'e gathered together 
nine owners of plantations ! ~ Since that time 
there have been some large gatherings; and we 
have enjoyed the gratification of being assured, 
by experienced planters, that during the few 
hours they had passed, at a trial of this kind, 
they had learnt more of plows and plowing, 
than they ever knew before. 
Many would try implements they see recom- 
mended in their agricultural papers, but know- 
ing nothing of the sizes from the numbers giv- 
en, they are at a loss what to get; and, ordering 
two-horse breaking plows, they have heavy 
sward plows sent them, such as are used, per- 
haps, in the stiff, rocky soils of the North ; which 
proving too heavy for their teams in this warm 
climate, and being, moreover, needlessly heavy 
for our light, friable soils, they are rejected and 
the experimenter discouraged. This was our 
own case, until having procured, some three 
years ago, a plow made by Me.'srs. Ruggles, 
Nourse & Mason, ol Boston, we found it, though 
unnecessarily heavy, perfect in every other re- 
spect. At least, so we then viewed it, and we 
have had no reason since to change the opinion 
then forrred. 
And here let me remark, before going farther, 
that I have nc> interest whatever in this more 
than in any other good implement; that I spoke 
as highly of this plow belore I eversaw or knew 
anything of the makers, as 1 can possibly do 
now; and that I speak of it again merely be- 
cause it has stood the lest of two years’ constant 
use, and has been in nothing found wanting; 
and because I would persuade my neighbors to 
reap the advantage from the use of an excellent 
implement, that I have done. 
The results of the trials, held there, have been 
that no other plow offered could, in any thing, 
compete successfully with the plows made by 
Ruggles & Co. There were many excellent 
ones exhibited at different Fairs in the North, 
this fall, none of which were offered there for 
trial — though inducements were held out to the 
makers to send them, and we were assured that 
at the trial which we hope to see take place early 
this next spring, in Washington, a great major- 
ity ol the best Northern plows will be forth- 
coming. Ruggles & Co. have exhibited so of- 
ten, and that successfully, that they now gener- 
ally decline competing for the premiums offer- 
ed; but where exhibited, this season, they re- 
tained their deserved position. At the State 
Fair at Utica, New York, they were exhibited, 
but much to our regret did not comnete at the 
trials. Nor did Prouty’s Centre Draft. Of 
those we saw at work, one marked “ J. B. Gay- 
lord, Auburn, No. 5,” made by Comstock & 
Brainard, was decidedly the best. All of their 
make were capital plows, as was also one 
marked “Wilson.” The trial, however, was 
in sod land only — by no means a fair test, as a 
different implement is needed for that, and lor 
stubble and light mellow land. For stubble 
there was an excellent plow on the ground; 
large, light, and effective — the only objection 
being its cost, the mould-board being a plate of 
steel — it would suit our soil just as well it of 
cast iron. We regret having lost the address 
of the maker. Those trials, at the time of a 
great gathering of this kind, when no one is 
willing to give their attention to one object for 
any length ol time; and when different kinds 
and conditions of soil cannot readily be had, 
must necessarily be partial and defective. 
Having a strong desire to visit a lar,ge facto- 
ry of agricultural implements, and having but 
one day to spare, we determined to devote it to 
that of Messrs. Ruggles & Co., at Worcester, 
Mass, A day more fraught with pleasure and 
profit we have rarely spent. 
Half a dozen columns would scarce afford 
space enough to tell of all the wonders we saw 
— the pattern-making, casting, polishing and fit- 
ting the castings; the limbers all sawed out, 
planed, dressed, turned, bored, morticed, etc., by 
machinery ; the apparatus for stocking or fitting 
each plow together, so that all are perfectly 
alike; the extraordinary rapidity and complete- 
ness with which the whole was done; and the 
careful economising of labor in every depart- 
ment — all was one succession of surprises. — 
The machinery is driven principally by water- 
power, assisted, when needful, by a powerful 
steam engine. The timber used seemed parti- 
cularly fine — all choice and carefully selected; 
and when any piece, in the working up, proves 
to be defective, it is at once thrown aside. The 
metal is so superior that an inch and a quarter 
cast bar, submitted to us, required repeated 
blows from a heavy sledge hammer to break it ! 
The surface of each casting, where exposed to 
wear, is chilled, by which, for about one-sixteenth 
of an inch of its depth, it is-rendered excessive- 
ly hard. The timber is all worked up by ma- 
chines— the morticing, cutting tenons, etc., is 
all, of course, perfectly exact; no bungling, no 
loose fitting, and irregularity or difference in the 
running of any of the plows. Ni merous other 
implements are made here — cutiingboxes, plant- 
ing machines, cultivator.s, harrows, etc., and all 
put together, apparently, with like care. All 
connected with the concern are ingenious, prac- 
tical men, ready to hear, weigh and act upon 
any suggestion for the improvement of the im- 
plements they now make, or that will adapt 
them to any particular region of country, and 
for making altogether new ones. We left them 
engaged in preparing sundry new patterns, to 
lessen the weight of metal in those plows in- 
tended for the light lands of the South, without 
lessening the work done by the plow; and this 
especially in the breaking plows of that size 
found to suit us best, and in their side-hill plows ; 
also, getting out patterns for new cultivator 
teeth, on a plan suggested by us; a trench plow 
and some other implements. T. A. 
Hay and Fodder Crops. 
Fiom ttie New Orleans Commercial Times. 
Hay is now quoted in New Orleans at S26 per 
ton. In the river towns above, it is still higher. 
The hav crops in the North and West were very 
light this past season; so light were they, in 
man\ places, that distress amongst the stock 
must have ensued, had not their agricultural 
journals pointed ouc to the farineri the means 
of remedying the evil— by sowing corn and oats 
mixed; drilling corn alone, so thickly as to cov- 
er the ground; sowing millet, and other fodder 
crops ; and by cutting up all the fodder they feed 
out, by running it through a cutting box. Until 
the next year’s crop comes in, hay will continue 
to rise in our markets. 
W e can do much to regulate the price, by do- 
ing as ourNorlhern neighbors have done — sow- 
ing oats, millet, etc. It is the extreme of lolly 
in any planter to buy hay, or even corn. Ber- 
muda grass will cut double the weight of hay 
to the acre that any grass in the North or West 
will. Crab-grass makes excellent hay, and a 
great deal of it; and a good crop can be had af- 
ter cutting a crop of oats or millet. Even bit- 
ter coco makes good hay. In no part of the 
world do oats succeed better than in Mississip- 
pi; the Egyptian (winter) oats, when sowed in 
Beptember, afford capital grazing all winter, 
and will yield, if »he ground is suitable, and 
they have been well put in, forty to sixty bush- 
els per acre of oats, weighing thirty-eight to 
forty-two pounds per bushel. Millet is an ex- 
cellent fodder crop. t. a. 
