1878.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
19 
the needs of farmers for all kinds of work; for 
smoothing the ground after plowing, for covering 
seeds, for gathering weeds and roots from the soil, 
for stirring summer or fall fallows, and for culti¬ 
vating growing crops in the manner above men¬ 
tioned. To meet all these needs, the device of 
movable teeth has been adopted. When these har¬ 
rows are drawn one direction, the teeth slope, and 
they can then be used as cultivators, for covering 
seed, or harrowing lightly-turned sod without dis¬ 
turbing it. When they are reversed, the teeth are 
upright, and perform the ordinary work of the 
common harrow. In principle, both these harrows 
.are similar, but in construction they differ. That 
Fig. 2.— BRADLEY HARROW. 
of which one-half is shown at figure 1, which is 
made by the New York Plow Co., of New York, has 
.a wooden frame, and the teeth, of elastic steel, are 
loosely hung or attached. This device gives the 
harrow a peculiarly easy motion over growing crops, 
so that no inj ury is done to the plants, and the teeth, 
in passing over the slight depressions in all plowed 
soil drop down and do their work in those low spots, 
that would otherwise be passed over without being 
touched, unless the harrow should run so deeply as 
to injure the young plants. The illustration shows 
•only one-half the harrow, which is very broad, 
•covering 10 feet in width. A separate tooth is 
shown, which illustrates it3 peculiar structure. 
When the harrow is reversed the teeth are straight 
and rigid. At figures 2 and 3 are shown the 
'“ Bradley Harrow.” This is also reversible, aud 
acts in each of the methods we have described, as 
Fig. 3.— BRADLEY HARROW REVERSED. 
it is drawn in one direction or the other. This has 
an iron frame, and is so hinged that it bends and 
conforms to the surface of uneven ground. It is 
made by the Bradley Manufacturing Company, of 
Syracuse, N. Y., for whom Messrs. R. H. Allen & 
Co., of New York, are the sole agents. 
The use of these harrows is one of the modern 
improvements in agriculture. Good farmers esti¬ 
mate the increased yield of grain from harrowing at 
5 bushels per acre, and upwards. This is a moder¬ 
ate estimate, but it does not include all the advan¬ 
tages gained. Perhaps the destruction of weeds, 
which is not only a present benefit, but a permanent 
improvement to the soil, is of greater value than 
the increase of crop. A clean field is not only a 
pleasant thing to see, but the absence of weeds 
brings money to the pocket in enlarging our crops 
and in saving labor. A weed killed is so much 
gained, with the addition that an immense progeny 
is prevented from following it. Those who have 
harrowed their grain crops will always continue the 
practice; those who have never done it, should by 
all means make the experiment the coming season. 
The Trial of Farm Steam Engines at 
Syracuse, IT. Y. 
The New York State Agricultural Society, with 
commendable enterprise, held a competitive trial 
of portable farm Steam Engines, at Syracuse, N. 
Y., on the 12th of November last. The rapidly ex¬ 
tending use of steam engines on the farm makes it 
very desirable that the peculiar merits of the many 
good engines now in the market should become 
widely known, and a public trial is an excellent 
means to this end. The trial took place at the large 
foundry room of the Bradley Manufacturing Com¬ 
pany. The trial was under the superintendence of 
a Committee composed of James Geddes, Esq., Vice 
President of the Society ; Prof. Green, of Troy, N. 
Y., and Henry Waterman, of Hudson, N. Y. The 
engines subjected to trial were the “ Economizer,” 
10-horse power, made by the Porter Manufacturing 
Co. ; the “Mills,” 10-horse power, by the Fish- 
kill Landing Machine Co.; the “Westing-house, - ” 
“Birdsall,” “Eclipse,” “Mansfield,” “Oneida,” 
“Watertown,” “Payne & Son’s,” and a G-horse 
power “Economizer,” engines. The test applied 
was the driving of a double-acting pump. Records 
were made every 15 minutes of the velocity of the 
engines, the revolutions of the pump pulley, the 
pressure on the pump, and temperature of the feed 
water. The water and coal used were accurately 
weighed. Each test occupied 4 hours. Each of 
the engines seemed to work well, but the actual re¬ 
sult cannot be ascertained with exactness until all 
the recorded data are figured out and compared. 
This will require some time, and the report cannot 
be had until the Committee have concluded their 
labors. A number of farmers and thrashers were 
in attendance, aud closely watched the proceedings. 
Poultry-Keeping—How to Begin. 
There is a very general desire to engage in keep¬ 
ing poultry. The business does not require hard 
work; aud is attractive and agreeable. It also 
promises to be profitable, and profit is the chief in¬ 
ducement to the majority of the novices who desire 
to attempt it. A few general cautious are needed 
by those who would undertake this business. 
A novice can not, by the mere use of money, take 
up poultry-keeping and make a success. On the 
contrary, he will be more than likely to lose all the 
money he invests, if he supposes that the business 
consists only in buying some fowls and feed, and in 
selling eggs aud chickens, by simply permitting the 
hens to produce eggs while he gathers them. Suc¬ 
cess only comes to the long-experienced poultry 
man who knows precisely what is to be done to 
secure this result. It is best to begin with a few 
fowls, making their keeping a secondary business, 
until these can be managed with success and profit. 
Then the number may be increased, and when the 
business pays sufficiently, then sole attention may 
be given to it. It is more profitable to purchase 
fowls than eggs. This is a simple matter of figur¬ 
ing. If a dozen of eggs of choice fowls are procured 
at a cost of say $5, a year will elapse before any 
profit can be gained from the three or four pullets 
that may probably be hatched from them. If a trio 
of birds are purchased at a cost of say $20 now, a 
number of eggs will be procured before setting 
time arrives, and then each hen may bring out a 
brood of eight or ton chicks. After these are 
raised, more eggs will be laid, and if good care is 
given, there may be on the whole 20 dozen of eggs, 
ten pullets and ten cockerels, as the produce of this 
trio within the same time that it would have taken, 
from the dozen of eggs first mentioned, to produce 
three or four pullets. There is an obvious differ¬ 
ence in favor of beginning with birds, both as to 
profit and time. 
Cheapness oe Production.— In every depart¬ 
ment of industry the tendency is, to reduce the cost 
of production, by means of more effective methods 
and more skillful work. We are even nowsecuring 
many foreign markets for produce, and for manu¬ 
factured articles of many kinds, merely because we 
can produce them cheaply. We are exporting iron, 
steel, and tools of various kinds, as well as ma¬ 
chinery, from locomotives and other heavy engines, 
to plows and apple-parers. We are sending off 
cutlery, cotton goods, leather, boots and shoes, 
clothing, as well as a vast amount of small articles 
of hardware, “ notions,” and rubber goods, with 
agricultural and other raw produce. Generally, 
agriculture is beaten in the competition for cheap¬ 
ness of production, and the export trade does not 
satisfy farmers as to the prices realized. We shall 
soon mend this in other produce, as we have already 
done as regards the production of beef, which is 
exported at a satisfactory profit to the stock men. 
They have cheapened their product by the use of 
improved stock, and a similar course of improve¬ 
ment must be pursued in all departments of agri¬ 
culture, by the use of the best methods and the best 
stock, seeds, machines, and implements. If by the 
use of these we lessen the cost of our products, we 
add to our profits to the same extent; and if we in¬ 
crease the amount of our products at the same time, 
we can afford to sell cheaper, and yet make more 
profit than we now do. 
A Promising Forage Plant—“ Egyptian ” 
or “Pearl” Millet. {Penicillaria spicata.) 
One’s knowledge of a plant sometimes comes in 
a very roundabout way. Several years ago, at one 
of the meetings of the American Pomological 
Society, we found that one of the members from 
Tennessee, in anticipation of meeting us, had 
brought a bundle of grasses to be named, among 
them was one, which, under the not very elegant 
name of “ Horse Millet,” was highly esteemed in 
his neighborhood, but of which he could give 
us no history. Taking the specimen home, we, 
upon exmination, determined it to be Penicillaria 
spicata. Some botanists do not consider the genus 
lenicUlaria as sufficiently distinct from Pennisetum 
but this is not the proper place to discuss this point, 
aud the name Penicillaria will answer well enough 
at present for the grass. Sometime last winter, 
Mr. A. S. Fuller, the accomplished agricultural 
editor of the “N. Y. Weekly Sun,” received a 
specimen of the same grass from one of his South¬ 
ern correspondents, of which he kindly gave us a 
share, and we intended to cultivate the plants and 
thus get specimens for an illustration and materials 
for an article, on what we supposed was an entire 
novelty. Illness at just the time when spring opera¬ 
tions begun upset this and other experimental plant¬ 
ing, and though we failed to sow the seeds, our friend 
Fuller did sow them, and obtained a crop of the 
Millet, concering which he gave a full account in 
his department of the “Weekly Sun.” But the 
strangest thing of all is, that the plant is compara¬ 
tively an old one, and was tested long ago in Con¬ 
necticut. The knowledge that we were seeking 
concerning it had already been acquired, and in 
good part recorded by our former associate, Col. 
M. C. Weld, who, before he was connected with 
the American Agriculturist , edited that excellent 
paper, “The Homestead,” at Hartford, Conn. 
Col. W., without knowing that the plant had been 
under investigation by us, sent an article giving his 
experience with Penicillaria, which he had tested 
some twenty years ago, and which he had at that 
time given some account of in “The Homstead.” 
Col. Weld’s article was written last spring, but we 
did not publish it then, as we wished to accompany 
it with an engraving. This we are now enabled to 
do through the courtesy of Mr. W.H. Carson, seeds¬ 
man, No. 125 Chamber St., N. Y., who has secured 
a limited stock of the seeds. We saw Mr. Fuller’s 
plants, and think that, on account of its short 
joints, the amount of foliage is greater than that 
of any forage plant we have seen, not excepting 
Indian corn. Col. Weld’s account closely agrees 
with that given by Mr. Fuller. Col. W. says: 
“ I had sent to me the seed of a tall, leafy, lux¬ 
uriant, rapid-growing grass, that was highly v alued 
in Florida, under the name of “Egyptian Millet.” 
We distributed a good deal of seed from our office, 
and the following results were very uniformly ob¬ 
tained: (I have refreshed my memory from files of 
“ The Homestead,” especially from the volume for 
1857-8.) It would not mature in Connecticut, 
hence we obtained our seed from the South. It 
often attained the hight of six to eight feet before 
showing' a head. It was very small and unprom¬ 
ising at first, but finally “tillered” enormous¬ 
ly, producing a great many suckers, or rather 
