234 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June. 
A Home-Made Root Cutter. 
BY ROBERT C. GRKINER, KENT CO., MICH. 
I herewith send you drawings and descrip¬ 
tion of a Root Cutter, which I made some 
years ago, but did not wish to bring the ma¬ 
chine before the readers of the American 
Agriculturist until I had given it a fair trial. 
The frame of the cutter, figure 1, should be 
of oak, and the hopper of pine. The cylinder, 
figure 2, on which the knives are fastened', 
may be made of pine turned to a diameter of 
ten inches, and fourteen inches long with 
a s / 4 -incli iron shaft running through it. 
Fig. 1.— THE ROOT CUTTER. 
The sides of the hopper, shown in dotted 
lines in figure 1, should be of 3 / 4 -inch 
stuff, firmly nailed together. The whole 
may be lifted out of the frame. The knives 
should be made of sheet steel, well sharpened. 
It is well to first put on thin sheet-iron knives, 
as by experimenting with these, one is able 
to determine their proper location, inclina¬ 
tion, shape, and size. The form of the piece 
for the knife is shown in figure 3. The ends, 
c, c, are bent as seen in figure 4. The curved 
edge is sharpened with a file, when the knife 
is ready to be placed upon the cylinder, by 
means of four screws. 
The seven lines around the cylinder, figure 
2, are determined by taking two knives and 
setting one at each end of the cylinder, far 
enough for the edge to clear, and dividing 
the space between them into six equal parts. 
Revolve the cylinder on its axis, and by hold¬ 
ing a pencil at each one of these equidistant 
points, consecutively, the lines will be formed 
which give the base of location one way for 
the knives. Draw equidistant lines length¬ 
wise of the cylinder, and the crossing of 
the two sets of lines determines the points 
on the face of the 
cylinder where the 
knives are to be 
placed. It may be 
necessary to move 
the knives a little to 
the right or left that 
a clean cut may be 
obtained. A few 
hints with regard to 
hanging the cylin¬ 
der may be accept¬ 
able. After finding 
the center of each end, bore inwards first 
from one end, and then from the other, until 
a hole is made through the center, which 
should be a trifle smaller than the shaft. 
Next place the cylinder and shaft in some 
TOP OF CUTTER. 
proper bearings and revolve them ; if no os¬ 
cillating motion is observed, the work is 
complete. By pressing a board gently against 
the cylinder as it is 
being revolved, the 
amount necessary 
to be taken off may 
be readily seen. The 
size of the knives 
Fig. 3. —the steel piece. * s t> e detei mined 
by the fineness with 
which it is desired to cut the roots; the 
smaller the knives the finer will be the pulp. 
Those made of '/ 16 - 
inch sheet steel, cut 
in l'/j-inch pieces 
of the shape shown 
in figure 3, are not 
far from the right 
size for general use. 
A root cutter of the Fig. 4.— the knife. 
size above given will cut 30 bushels of man¬ 
gels, turnips, or other similar roots, per hour. 
A Rein Holder in Fly Time, 
A horse will switch its tail in fly time, and 
there is very good reason for the action. If 
in the switching the tail catches the rein, it 
becomes a source of annoyance to the driver, 
and sometimes of danger, especially should 
it “hugthe rein,” as some horses persist in 
doing. Mr. Benj. F. Pierce, Worcester Co., 
Mass., has a device .for keeping the reins out 
of the reach of the horse’s tail, which he de¬ 
scribes as follows : “ Fasten two light pieces 
of wood to each shaft so that they meet at a 
point about one foot above the horse’s back or 
rump. Connect each pair with a light roller 
and the device is complete. With the reins 
passing over this roller the horse can switch 
at flies and the driver will not be annoyed, 
besides the work will go on without frequent 
interruptions that would otherwise occur.” 
Ileus and ^hickrns in Hie Fruit 
Yard. —Poultry get a good part of their 
living from insects, provided they have the 
opportunity. The fruit .yard, to our sorrow, 
is often too much frequented by noxious in¬ 
sects. By a bringing together of the fowls 
and vermin, double good is accomplished, the 
former are fed and the latter destroyed. 
Chickens are very fond of fruit, and will de¬ 
vour it soon after it drops from the trees, and 
in this way both the worthless fruit and the 
insects usually contained in it, wall be con¬ 
sumed. One of the most successful fruit 
growers we are acquainted with keeps poul¬ 
try under his trees at nearly all times, and 
feels that they do much to make his fruity 
what it is—fair to the eye, pleasing to the 
taste, and filling to the pocket-book. 
Condense Your Freights. 
BY A. S. WELCH, LL. D , PRESIDENT OF TUB IOWA 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
It is well known that the products raised 
on most American farms are sold in a dis¬ 
tant market; that for each article the farmer 
receives the price paid in such market less 
the cost of transportation and expenses of 
sale. The expense of selling remaining about 
the same, it becomes a question of great mo¬ 
ment how to reduce the cost of transportation 
so as to leave a larger margin of profit to the 
producer. Is there any method of production 
on the farm by which freightage may be re¬ 
duced and profits thereby increased ? Such a 
result can be reached pretty uniformly by 
condensing the most value into the least bulk. 
This fact is recognized in a general way, but 
has been by no means tested by nice calcula¬ 
tion. Hay, for instance, being bulky, cannot 
profitably be sent to any great distance, and 
that the freighting of potatoes 500 miles or 
more will use up the profits of the crop. 
The superior economy of condensation here 
in the West may be fairly shown in the com¬ 
parative values of corn and pork, and the 
diminished expense of carrying the latter to 
market. I am assured by excellent authority 
that, with hogs of good breeding and in 
thrifty condition, a bushel of corn will make 
ten pounds of pork. At 25 cents a bushel for 
corn, and 4 cents a pound for pork, live weight, 
reckoning the labor of feeding, etc., at 5 
cents, there is a profit of 10 cents on every 
bushel fed. Moreover, the cost of freighting 
ten pounds of pork from Des Moines, Iowa, 
to Chicago, is 3.7 cents, while the cost of 
carrying a bushel of com is 11.2 cents. 
These figures vary within certain limits at 
different periods, and on different Railways, 
but the general fact they indicate holds good 
with every step in the process of condensation. 
It is an interesting fact that nearly all the 
processes of productive industry are only 
successive steps in the process of condensa¬ 
tion. Thus we turn soil into grass, grass into 
milk, milk into cream, and cream into butter, 
which is the final product in the series. Oats 
are condensed into oatmeal; sorghum into 
sugar; apples into cider ; barley into beer, 
and so on. Every step advances the price, 
diminishes the weight, and saves cost in 
carrying to market. The ordinary forms of 
condensation on the farm begin with the 
coarser crops, and end in the various animal 
products. Sheep, cattle, hogs, and horses are 
condensed from the grasses and grains, and 
every step of the series all the way up from 
the soil to the thorough-bred, if rightly man¬ 
aged, brings its legitimate profit, the final 
gain being the comparatively inexpensive 
conveyance to market which comes from 
large values packed into small spaces. 
This crowding of value into smaller 
dimensions is shown not only in the trans¬ 
portation of the coarser into the finer com¬ 
modities, but also in the improvement of our 
domestic animals. A well shaped Poland- 
Cliina sow comprises within herself the worth 
of half a dozen long-legged and long-snouted 
porkers, and a Duchess cow is an instance of 
the values of a score or two of ordinary mon¬ 
grels compressed into one. The entire results 
in breeding animals up to a high excellence 
by selection, and feeding, and treatment, 
consist in the dwarfing of parts that have no 
market value, and the full development of 
