358 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
A “Rafter” Level. 
“X. Y. Z.,” Wahe Co., N. C., writes : “ In 
this land of sand and violent rainstorms, we 
are compelled to resort to some means to pre¬ 
vent our land from washing away. The 
present accepted plan is to run terraces, which 
ore perfectly level rows, about 30 or 40 yards 
apart, for which the ‘ rafter ’ level is used. 
This level is very easy of construction, and 
can be used on the roughest ground. It is 
made of three pieces—two are 10 feet long, 
ay a inches broad, by l'/a inch thick, and one 
piece is about 4 feet long, of the same mate¬ 
rial. The two long pieces are joined together 
like the rafters of a house, and the short 
A HOME-MADE LEVEL. 
piece is mortised into them about four feet 
from the joined ends. A common spirit- 
level is fixed on top of the short piece. To 
determine the accuracy of the instrument, 
take a perfectly straight-edged plank, 14 feet 
long, and make it perfectly level. On this 
put the feet of the rafter with the level in 
place, and if the bubble in the level stands in 
the center, the instrument is correct; other¬ 
wise shave off a little from one foot, and con¬ 
tinue the trials until the level is perfectly ad¬ 
justed. To use this instrument, put one foot 
of the rafter on the ground, and keep moving 
the other foot about until the instrument 
stands level; then move the rafter and put 
the ‘ hind ’ foot exactly where the ‘ fore ’ foot 
was, and ‘ level ’ the instrument in the same 
way as before. Continue in this way until 
the whole distance is levelled. Where it is 
desired to get a fall, a block of from one to 
three inches is fastened under the ‘ fore ’ foot. 
The foot with the block attached must always 
be placed down-hill. 
“To fasten the level on the cross-bar we 
use a metal notch ; this is let into the wood 
and screwed down. For the security of the 
level it is best to tie a string around the level 
and the bar, thus fastening them together. 
The feet of the rafter must be made broad, 
to prevent their sinking too much when 
used on plowed or other soft ground.” 
A Fence Wire Tightener, 
Mr. “G. H.,” Fayette Co., Texas, sends a 
simple method by which fence wire may be 
tightened at any point from the end. “The 
A DEVICE FOR TIGHTENING WIRE FENCES. 
appliance is as follows: Take two boards, 
about 24 inches long, lay them together and 
make three holes in them with a one-inch 
auger; three wooden pins are made to fit into 
the holes; one of which is driven through 
the hole, A, so that the boards will stand about 
one inch apart, which are now put on the 
wire and another pin is inserted in the hole, 
B. The boards are turned until the wire is 
as tight as desired. To prevent the boards 
turning back, the third pin is inserted in the 
hole, C, which then comes against the wire. 
Relation of Railroads to Agriculture, etc. 
BY MR. EDWARD ATKINSON. 
Permit me to submit a second letter on the 
Railroad Question, as there is another aspect 
of the case that is not touched in my first : 
Nearly every line of new railroad construct¬ 
ed, leads to some part of the country that had 
no railroad service before. Hence the saving 
compassed by the new construction is the 
saving of the difference between any rail¬ 
road service at all as compared to the service 
by wagons. The farmers themselves can 
compute what that means better than I can. 
I had occasion, however, not many years 
since, to see how much the Government of 
the United States had saved in the transpor¬ 
tation of its supplies over the great plains of 
the West, and through the interior country, 
by the construction of the Union Pacific and 
the Central Pacific Railroads. The previous 
cost of this transportation of mere govern¬ 
ment supplies was all tabulated in the public 
documents and was easily ascertained ; and 
it appeared, and was ultimately proved, that 
the Government of the United States had 
saved in a very few years after the comple¬ 
tion of the Pacific Railroads, a sum far more 
than equal to the entire amount of Govern¬ 
ment bonds issued to the corporations that 
built those roads, in order to aid in their con¬ 
struction. In fact, the difference between 
what the Government was obliged to pay 
before the construction of the Pacific Rail¬ 
road, as compared with the rate it has paid 
since, if applied to the service that had been 
done for it since the completion of that road, 
would amount to a sum greater than the en¬ 
tire cost of building the railroad from Omaha 
to San Francisco. 
The act granting aid by the Government to 
the Pacific Railroad declared its purpose to 
be “to secure the use of the same for Postal, 
Military, and other purposes.” As soon as 
the road was opened it began to do the work 
of the Government at from one-tenth to one- 
twentieth the rate that had been paid for the 
service by wagon teaming ; saving at once 
more than the interest upon the bonds, and 
in the aggregate, up to the present time, 
saving a sum far greater than the principal 
of those bonds. 
This railroad question cannot be justly de¬ 
termined unless this side is presented, and this 
side can only be presented without prejudice, 
by one who, like the writer, has almost no in¬ 
terest in their stocks, and who studies their 
case merely in its social aspect, and not as an 
advocate or counsel. From these consider¬ 
ations it may appear that even if there are 
grievances connected with the railroad ser¬ 
vice, that ought to be remedied, they ought 
to be remedied without appeal to legislation; 
lest in the attempt to cure the lesser evil a 
much greater one would happen. The vari¬ 
ous attempts to secure equality in rates, that 
have been made by State Legislatures up to 
this time, would have inflicted vastly greater 
harm by their enforcement, even to those who 
appealed for them, than could have happened 
without them; and this has become so ap¬ 
parent that they have been inoperative from 
the time they were enacted. 
Any such vast change as that which has 
been effected by the railroad system cannot 
happen without some individual hardship; 
but there are compensations even to the 
farmers who think they suffer. Here are 
new forces now coming into action that will 
presently render the dependence of farmers 
upon railroad service much less than it has 
been. For instance, this new fact called 
“ ensilage" may be as potent as the railroad 
itself in altering the condition and position 
of the farmer. If the re-discovery of the 
method of saving green crops in pits (which 
appears to be about two thousand years old, 
but which yet had the aspects of novelty 
when Dr. J. M. Bailey, of Billerica, called 
attention to it in his excellent little book upon 
the subject), will do half the service that it 
purports to offer, the condition of the farmer 
will be very greatly altered. If it is to be¬ 
come possible to substitute four cows to one 
acre in place of one cow to four acres, the 
effect of sucli a force must inevitably be to 
make each compact neighborhood almost 
self-sustaining in respect to every article of 
food, with the exception of the coarse grains.. 
Corn and wheat may continue to be manu¬ 
factured by machinery on the great fields of 
the Western States. But man does not live 
by bread alone, he needs meat, potatoes, tur¬ 
nips, cabbages, the small fruits, and all the 
luxuries and comforts of life, besides milk,, 
butter, and cheese. Dr. Bailey was almost 
called a “ quack ” for promising that all 
these good things could be made in great 
quantity on a little farm close to the city or 
town in which its market might be found; so- 
near as to be almost independent of the rail¬ 
road. But it begins to be apparent that he- 
only will be the quack who, without having 
tried the method, pronounces it one that will 
not succeed. 
The outside observer, who is neither farmer 
nor railroad manager, but who can weigh 
testimony, finds ample evidence that the- 
farmers of the East will not be subject much 
longer even to what they believe to be the 
abuse of railroads, and ‘ ensilage ” is one of 
the great forces that may make them inde¬ 
pendent. In fact, if practical men may ever 
be permitted to indulge in visions, the visions 
that may soon become accomplished facts, of 
vast increase in the productive power of 
land ; quick transmission of persons; if we 
can send light over a wire ; if we can attach, 
to the same posts another wire by which to- 
transmit power by electricity, so that each 
farmer may perhaps keep a power on tap in> 
his barn to cut his own fodder, churn his 
butter, and do all the heavy work ; if we are 
to accomplish here what is now being actu¬ 
ally done in France, that is, operate an elec¬ 
trical machine by a small water-power on 
the farm and run the plows by the power 
developed by electricity ; if, I say, all these 
things begin to be apparent, that are so be¬ 
wildering that one even gets mixed up in at¬ 
tempting to describe them, and is not quite 
sure what relation his parts of speech bear 
to each other—why then perhaps the millen¬ 
nium of the economist is nearer at hand than 
it has been supposed to be ; the time when 
intelligence and integrity and a very moder¬ 
ate amount of labor, will insure so good a 
subsistence that it will not pay to be rich. 
Trusting that these large figures, and distant, 
but perhaps very near visions, may serve to> 
