14:2 
[April, 
AMERICAN AGrRTCC LTURIST. 
MACHINE FOR CUTTING FODDER FOR ENSILAGE. 
sufficiently promising to attract the attention of 
every farmer in the country. The process has been 
explained and described already in the American 
Agriculturist. (See June, 1875, and Sept., 1877.) 
To those who may not have read this account, we 
will say that the process consists in packing away 
the cut fodder, alternated with straw, in large tanks 
or “ silos” of mason work, where it is covered with 
named, one acre will supply one cow for 625 days, 
or nearly 2 years. Half an acre of fodder will then 
keep a cow for one year in a stall or yard, and no 
other food is more productive of milk or more 
healthful than this. It is plain, then, that if this 
method can be introduced into our farm practice, a 
great economy will result, sufficient perhaps to en¬ 
title it to be called a revolution in our agriculture. 
Market and Farm-Garden Implements, 
It is a fact, and the sooner it is admitted and 
acted upon the better, that farming in thickly 
settled localities in the older States—except dairy 
farming—in order to be profitable, must be garden¬ 
ing rather than farming. So long as a farmer within 
reach of a good market for cabbages and carrots 
will try to compete with cheap land and railroads 
by raising Indian corn, farming will be a poor busi¬ 
ness for him. We hardly know where to draw the 
line between market-gardening and farm-garden¬ 
ing. If one raises such perishable articles that 
they must be sent to market daily, he may be re¬ 
garded as a market-gardener, while the farm-gar¬ 
dener produces crops that require less haste in 
disposing of them. If asked what, after and 
always an abundance of manure, a farm-gardener 
needed in his operations, we should answer a good 
seed-drill,. and a good hand-weeder. To sow 
enough carrot, onion, or similar seeds in the 
kitchen garden by hand, is not much of a task, but 
let the garden bed be extended to acres, and help 
will be needed. One of the first helps required by 
those who would sow largely the seeds of root 
crops, or other 6inall seeds, is a good seed-drill. A 
good drill must be readily adjusted to sow seed of 
THE MONITOR SEED-DRILL. 
different sizes ; it must sow regularly—not failing, 
through any clogging, to discharge surely ; it must 
not waste seed ; it must open the ground to the 
required depth, and cover the seed evenly. As a 
machine to meet all these requirements we have, 
among the various styles we have tried, found 
none to be superior to the “Monitor Seed Drill.” 
We give an engraving of the machine, which, while 
it does not show all the details of construction, ire- 
dicates some of the important points ; it has two 
wheels, which give a more regular motion than 
one, and these are movable upon the axle to adjust 
them to any desired width. The drill, to open the 
ground, and the coverer, to close it, are both ad¬ 
justable. The seeds are discharged from little 
cavities or cups in the circumference of iron rolls, 
several sizes of which are shown near the machine. 
Certainty of operation is the first requisite in a 
seed-sower—the work can not be verified until days 
—in some cases weeks after, and blanks caused by 
a failure to deliver are sometimes past remedy. In 
this respect the machine has not disappointed us. 
Some very useful seed-sowers are so arranged that 
they may be converted into efficient weeding im¬ 
plements, but where operations are on a large scale 
and varied, we prefer separate implements, as it 
often happens that weeding must be done just 
when seeds should be sown. The number of de¬ 
vices in the way of liand-weeders is now quite 
large, and while in many crops we can not do away 
with thumb and finger work altogether, the amount 
of this has been so lessened that it has ceased to be 
formidable, and a good hand-weeder is essential to 
success with many crops. We give an engraving of 
a new hand-weeder, the “Johnson Hand-Weeder 
and Cultivator.” The shape of the blade allows 
it to be run very near the rows of young plants, 
and it is readily adjustable to different widths of 
rows. One of our associates, who tried this imple¬ 
ment last season, writes: “ The cutters work be¬ 
low the surface, severing the roots of the weeds, 
while the wings scrape the parts of the weeds that 
are above ground and leave them to wit.herand die; 
some improvements have been made since Mr. H. 
first tried the implement at my place, and it now 
mellows the ground in a surprising manner . K 
soil to exclude the air and kept down by means 
of heavy weights. There have been great im¬ 
provements in the method, and more may be 
looked for so soon as American farmers take 
hold of it. Mr. Morris, a large farmer of Mary¬ 
land, has the past year put away in silos several 
hundred tons 
of corn - fod¬ 
der cut into 
and is 
now feeding 
it to his stock 
iv i t h per¬ 
fect success. 
We have al¬ 
ready noticed a book translated from 
the French, and recently published 
by Mr. J. B. Brown, in which the 
process is fully described, and we here refer to the 
methods of growing and cutting the fodder for use. 
It is unnecessary to describe the manner of growing- 
corn, but there are methods by which unusually 
heavy crops, equal to 40 tons per acre, may be pro¬ 
duced. This is done by planting the tall, heavy 
growing Southern or Western corn very closely 
in rows 3 feet apart. Ears are not looked for— 
only a heavy growth of tall stalks, and this can be 
forced by the use of highly nitrogenous fertilizers, 
such as Peruvian guano, dried blood, or fish guano. 
When the com is in tassel and fully grown, it is 
cut down and carted at once to the silos. There 
will be a large number of immature ears, and these 
add to the value of the fodder. The stalks should 
then be cut up into chaff, and upon the thorough¬ 
ness with which this is done the success of the 
process of curing very much depends. A power¬ 
ful machine is needed for this purpose, which 
is shown in the engraving. This machine is 
much like an ordinary fodder-cutter in construc¬ 
tion, but is very heavy and compact, aud is pro¬ 
vided with a spiked feed roller, which carries the 
stalks to the knives and crushes them at the same 
time. The rapidly revolving knives cut the stalks 
into slices one-sixteenth of an inch thick, and an 
elevator takes the chaff and deposits it in the silo. 
The fine chaffing of the fodder is very important, 
as it enables the mass to be packed so closely as to 
exclude the air ; upon the thoroughness with which 
this is done, success wholly depends. 
The economy of this process must be evident on 
very little consideration. The yield of an acre of 
well grown corn-fodder may be 25 to 40 tons. The 
ration of one cow per day is 60 to 80 pounds. With 
the least yield and the largest consumption here 
THE JOHNSON HAND-WEEDER AND CULTIVATOR. 
A good loam where water never stands is desirable. 
Heavy clay will not do well without a good deal of 
preparation. If not naturally dry, underdraining 
is desirable, but even an open ditch around the plot, 
and one or two through it if needed, may answer 
for the present. Plow and harrow fine, working iu 
a liberal supply of the best well rotted manure that 
can be obtained—half a wagon load on every square 
rod will be all the better, but much less can be got 
along with. The directions for planting, cultivation, 
etc., are given in our “ Hints for Work,” from time 
to time, beginning back to the February num¬ 
ber. For the best varieties of vegetables, see ar¬ 
ticle on page 84 of March American Agriculturist. 
Preservation of Green Fodder. 
There have been so-called revolutions in agricul¬ 
ture, and it is not at all improbable there may be 
others in store for us. The introduction of clover 
and of root-growing were worthy of being called 
revolutions, and it may be that the new process of 
preserving green fodder will bring about such a 
change in our methods as to become a revolution. 
This, however, remains to be seen. It is certainly 
ries, Blackberries, not to mention Grapes, Pears, 
etc.—We do not accept the standing excuse, “ I 
am too poor, too hard driven, too much to do iu my 
fields, to bother with the garden.” We repeat, 
with emphasis, that every farmer can have most, if 
not all the above pleasant and healthful variety 
with less labor and less expense than the table can be 
supplied in any other way. Every- day’s work in the 
garden will produce several dollars’ worth of good 
things. One quarter of an acre, more or 
less, according to the size of the family, 
■will suffice. Select the best soil avail¬ 
able, as near the house as possible, but 
at a distance if absolutely necessary. 
