58 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
The TJse of the Roller. 
The roller is often made to do more harm than 
good. The purpose for which it is used upon new¬ 
ly-sown grain fields is to break up the clods as well 
as to compress the soil, and the former is the more 
important of the two. Merely to compress a mass 
of hard lumps often injures the crop, as it prevents 
the successful germiuatiou of the seed by burying 
it under hard and impenetrable clods. A roller 
that will break these clods and compact the surface 
will be the most effective. English farmers use an 
implement called a “ Crosskill roller,” which has a 
surface serrated both ways, so that it is cut up into 
points. This is 
an invaluable 
implement up¬ 
on clay soils. 
A roller which 
will answer the 
same purpose 
may be made 
as shown in 
the engraving. 
This consists 
of an ordinary 
wooden roller, 
to the surface 
of which are 
home-made roller. bolted three- 
cornered strips 
of hard-wood. A square strip 4 inches thick is sawed 
lengthwise and diagonally, as shown in the corner 
of the engraving, and these strips being attached 
to the roller, furnish a number of cutting edges, 
which break up the clods and leave the soil com¬ 
pact and in small ridges, which is far preferable to 
the flat surface left by the ordinary smooth roller. 
A Home-made Root Cutter. 
A machine for slicing a small supply of roots 
may be constructed as follows : A box is provided, 
proportioned as shown in the engraving. It is set 
upon four legs, two of which are longer than the 
others, in order to give a proper 6lope to the box. 
At the lower and open end a knife is fitted, at the 
left by a bolt, and on the right playing loose in a 
long perpendicular slot. The knife is made of a 
piece of scythe blade; the box being filled with 
roots, they are held up to the blade with one hand, 
while the cutter is worked by the other. 
To Make Fanning Profitable. —“A Sub¬ 
scriber,” gives the following as the rules that have 
led to his success in farming: “ (1.) I cultivate 
double the area that any of my neighbors do, com¬ 
pared with the size of my farm, and get double the 
average crops per acre. (2.) My rotation extends 
two years beyond the usual course : Hoed and grain 
crops, the first two years, of a character suited to 
the soil and the markets ; third year, clover; fourth 
year, wheat; then three years in hay. (3.) Breed¬ 
ing a large number of pigs as the most economical 
medium for the conversion of grain into money 
and manure. My pigs are always cross-breeds, 
using-a boar of a quickly maturing breed on 
selected sows. They are all killed and sold at six 
to eight months old. (4.) The purchase of rich 
food, such as bran and cotton-seed meal, for its 
manure value, and to be fed in connection ■with 
straw, corn-stalks and swale hay, thus enhancing the 
value of this rather coarse fodder. This enables me 
to mature grade Shorthorn steers inside of two and 
a half years. I also feed clover hay with the coarse 
fodder. The first principles of this system, that are 
essential to its success iu anybody’s hands, are: 
The use of more capital than usual, improved im¬ 
plements, commercial fertilizers, thorough cultiva¬ 
tion, and careful attention to the selection of seed. 
Two Troublesome Grasses. 
Cheat and Darnel. 
The “ Pacific Rural Press,” speaking of the pro¬ 
posed grinding of the seeds of “Cheat”—probably 
winnowed from wheat—as a food for stock, says: 
“ The plant which is commonly called Cheat in this 
State, is Lolium temulentum,''' and urges caution in 
its use. It is strange that the common names of 
grasses should be so misapplied iu California. In 
all the older States, and in all works on grasses and 
grains, as well as in the “Report on the Grasses of 
the State,” in the Transactions of the California 
State Agricultural Society, the name “ Cheat,” or 
“Chess,” is given to Bromus secalinus, and to that 
only. This is a widely different grass from the Lo¬ 
lium, the common uame for which is “ Darnel,” or 
“ Bearded Darnel.”’ Holding it to be of as much 
importance to secure uniformity in the common 
names of weeds as in those of cultivated plants, we 
hope our friends of the “Rural Press” will not 
contribute to the confusion which already exists, by 
continuing this incorrect application of a common 
name. As both grasses are common at the East, as 
well as at the West, it may be useful to point out 
the difference between the two by engravings show¬ 
ing a single spikelet of each. First, as to the 
Darnel, Lolium temulentum, called “ Chess ” and 
“ Cheat ” in California. Fig. 1 shows 
a single spikelet; it sits close upon 
the stem, just as a spikelet of wheat 
does, but with the difference that this 
stands with its edge towards the stem, 
while wheat presents its flat side. The 
engraving shows one of the spikelets, 
and a single joint at the stem, which 
is hollowed out to receive it. Most 
grasses (and grains) have at the base 
of each spikelet, two empty chaffy 
scales (glumes) within which are the 
grains, each enclosed by its two pieces 
of chaff. In Darnel, there is but one 
of these chaffy scales (a), the other pig. j_ 
is wanting. Its position and struc¬ 
ture distinguish Lolium from any cultivated grain. 
Chess, Bromus secalinus, has avery different struc¬ 
ture. Its spikelets (fig. 2) are in an open, loose clus¬ 
ter or panicle, like Oats, and are never, like Darnel or 
Wheat, set down close upon the stem ; 
moreover there are always at the base 
of each, two empty chaffy scales or 
glumes {a, a). The Darnel and Chess 
are as unlike in appearance as are 
Wheat and Oats. In Darnel (fig. 1) the 
spikelets arc always close upon the 
stem like wheat, and in Chess (fig. 2) 
they are always at the ends of long 
and very slender branches, like Oats. 
Darnel has had for generations the 
reputation of being poisonous, and 
has long been pointed out as an 
exception among grasses. Its sp icific name, temu¬ 
lentum (drunken), perpetuates thii idea. Not many 
years ago an English experimenter took the trouble 
to eat only bread made, at first, with flour ground in 
part from Darnel, and finally he partook of only 
pure Darnel-flour bread, and claimed that he ex¬ 
perienced no inconvenience whatever. Chess is 
such a common weed, and occurs in wheat-fields so 
unexpectedly, that many believe that wheat turns 
to chess. A belief than which, to one familiar 
with the structure of grasses, nothing can be more 
improbable or absurd.—N. B.—This need not be 
answered by assertions. When specimens are pro¬ 
duced part wheat and part che6s, we will consider 
them. The last that came, claiming to show the 
transformation were, in the presence of several 
witnesses, put under the hydrant to wash the earth 
from the roots; as soon as the roots were clean, 
they separated. A seed of chess and.one of wheat 
had started both close together, but their roots 
were as distinct as if they had grown a mile apart. 
Important Experiments. 
The Old Theory of Dew Contradicted—Rela¬ 
tions of the Soil to Water and Cultivation. 
Prof. Levi Stockbridge, who himself gave the 
money a year ago for establishing the Massachu- 
sets Experiment Station in connection with the 
Agricultural College at Amherst, has been making 
some interesting experiments at great expense of 
time and labor, that are of value and import¬ 
ance to agriculture. The results are so con¬ 
trary to the universally received ideas that they are 
quite sure to make something of a stir among 
scientists and agriculturists generally, as they have 
important bearings on many questions of cultivation 
and of plant growth. Prof. Stockbridge has found 
that the soil and plants at night are warmer than 
the air, though heretofore the reverse has been 
held. This contradicts the theory that “ dew ” is 
the condensation and deposition of moisture from 
the air by contact with the supposed colder soil. 
This fact and others are brought out in the follow¬ 
ing abstract of the results of the investigations 
from advance sheets of the report of the Experi¬ 
ment Station, which we are the first to publish. 
Temperature of Air and Soil. 
There were over 700 observations on the temper¬ 
ature of the air, and of the soil of a lysimeter, day 
and Dight, taken at the coldest part of the night, 
and warmest time of day, varying with the season, 
and covering the period between May 23d and Nov. 
30th. The average day temperature of the air for 
the period was 72.940°, and that of the soil 
72.061°. The average temperature of the air at 
night was 49.664°, and that of the soil 56.370°. 
These are remarkable figures, showiug the soil in 
the day time to correspond almost exactly with the 
air in temperature, and over 6° warmer at night. 
These night observations were made before day¬ 
light in the morning; others were also made at 10 
P. M., to test this question of difference between 
air and soil. The result was that the average dif¬ 
ference was almost identical; in the former case 
6.705°, in the latter 6.130°. Still other obser¬ 
vations were made at odd times over a range of 
country 4 miles in extent, and in all kinds of soils : 
Description of Soil. 
\ 
Ten 
at 
Air . 
per- 
ire. 
Soil 
Date. 
Hour. 
Garden soil. . 
49 
50 
Junell 
4 A. M. 
Grass land recently mown.. 
49 
54 
tc <( 
4 4 4 4 
Grass land, crop standing... 
49 
54 
44 u 
44 (4 
Garden soil... .. 
44 
48 
“ 12 
44 44 
Grass land recently mown.. 
44 
54 
u u 
44 44 
Grass land, crop standing... 
44 
54 
44 44 
44 44 
Wet. peat swamp in grass... 
43 
53 
44 44 
44 44 
Wet peat swamp, no grass.. 
42 
51 
44 44 
44 44 
Garden soil. 
58 
60 
“ 16 
44 44 
Grass land recently mown.. 
58 
62 
44 44 
44 (4- 
Grass land, crop standing... 
58 
62 
44 44 
44 44 
Gravelly knoll "in grass. 
58 
64 
4 4 4 4 
44 44 
“ “ tilled. 
58 
60 
44 44 
44 k( 
In heavy clover, soil. 
50 
59 
44 44 
4 4 44 
Grass land north of building 
50 
64 
“ 28 
4 4 4 4 
Wet, clay.. 
60 
63 
44 4 4 
44 44 
At brook-side in mud. 
59 
62 
44 44 
44 44 
Wet grass near river. 
56 
71 
July 1 
2:30 A.M. 
Sandy loam in grain. 
66 
70 
44 44 
4. 4. 
In a dense forest. 
67 
66 
44 44 
44 44 
Turf outside of woods. 
66 
70 
44 44 
44 44 
Wood land on hill side. 
66 
66 
44 44 
44 44 
The average of the soil temperature was 66.13°, 
of the air, 60.75° showing a higher average tem¬ 
perature for the general soil of the vicinity than in 
the lysimeter. In only one instance was the air 
warmer than the soil, viz. : in a dense forest, and 
on a night succeeding a day when the thermometer 
had stood at 102’ at 2:30 P. M., and the air at night 
was remarkably still. Then a regular system of 
observations was taken on the 5th, 16th, and 26th 
Fig. 2. 
