AMEEIOAN AGRICULTURIST. 
357 
Tor thb American Agriculturist. 
BENEFITS DERIVED FROM GUANO. 
Gases, is unusually short— few pieces being long 
enough to bind in bundles. 
One month ago I sowed my buckwheat. A 
small part of it came up immediately, and for 
want of moisture, soon dried up. Most of it has 
not come up at all. Some of it has remained 
for two weeks, about three inches high. We 
cannot reasonably expect to reap any thing at 
all, where we have sowed buckwheat this sea¬ 
son. Many pieces of corn were plowed up, and 
the ground sowed with buckwheat; and the 
probability now is, that buckwheat will, in most 
cases, be plowed under, and the ground sown 
with wheat. I intend to plow mine under soon. 
Even if we should have rain, within a few days, 
there would be but little hope that it would es¬ 
cape the frost in autumn. 
Potatoes are like every other crop; indeed, 
there is nothing but tops, in many places, and 
they are drying up rapidly. Where they were 
planted very early, and on a deep rich soil, they 
are of the size of hen’s eggs; but, in most of the 
hills, they are about the size of peas. We have 
but little anxiety this season respecting the po¬ 
tato rot. Carrots, even where the seed came 
up, will not amount to much. Beets and other 
vegetables fail. We had made some calcula¬ 
tion on turnips, but the soil is so dry, it was 
useless to sow the seed. 
You will probably get a better idea of the 
damage done by the drouth, when I tell you 
that most of the farmers will lose from one to 
five hundred dollars this season. Many will 
not be able to raise enough from their farms, 
for home consumption, to say nothing of groce¬ 
ries, &c. I shall be obliged to look to some 
other source this season, than the productions 
of the farm, for means to defray necessary con¬ 
tingent expenses. But all things are ordered 
in infinite wisdom. S. Edwards Todd. 
- 1*1 - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
HOEING WHEAT. 
Beaufort, South Carolina, July 19,1854. 
I see in your number for the 5th July, that 
you copy a short article from the Loclport 
Journal , describing the hoeing of wheat as a 
novel thing. At the South, among all of the 
best planters, small grain crops, not only early 
rice and wheat, but even oats, are regularly hoed, 
and found too to pay handsomely for the extra 
labor. We never drill our grain crops less than 
15 inches apart, which distance allows a small 
hoe to work easily between the rows. The 
usual day’s work is half an acre, and it is easy 
work. That as good, if not better crops, are 
made per acre at this distance, is easily proved 
by the crops of rice, &c., where 30 to 100 
bushels per acre of rice is the crop, and the 
lands are worth from $30 to $200 per acre, be¬ 
sides a very expensive preparation ; therefore 
the drills are not put thus far apart because 
land or labor is cheap, but because it is found 
to pay best. On high land, a plow might very 
advantageously be substituted for the hoe. This 
plow might be called the ground-mole plow, as 
it turns no furrow, but lonsens the soil about 4 to 
6 inches deep, something like a sub-soil plow, 
for which it was intended, but did not answer 
well. Could not some apparatus for sowing 
oats, &c., be adapted to the plow, when it would 
prove an admirable grain-sower to sow single 
rows ? R. C. 
Attaching seed-sowers and potato-planters to 
plows has often been attempted, but proved so 
troublesome, that they were soon discarded. 
Plowing, planting, and sowing should be done 
by entirely distinct implements. 
-- • • - 
Inconsistency.— To see a delicate woman rub¬ 
bing bed-clothes over a washboard from morn¬ 
ing till night, and a herculean gentleman meas¬ 
uring out rolls of lace and delicate ribbons, 
would make a Pawnee Indian laugh at our as¬ 
sumptions of chivalry. 
FARMING AND CROPS IN ORANGE CO., N. Y. 
In your paper, you ask farmers to send you 
the results of their experiments. I send the 
following experiment made by me with Guano 
on wheat, which you are at liberty to publish. 
I plotted out three pieces of ground, of an acre 
each. The ground was an oat-stubble, plowed 
and cross-plowed about the 1st of August, and 
sowed about the 15th of September. To one 
of these pieces, I applied 300 lbs. of Guano, 
with an equal quantity of Plaster of Paris. 
The latter I think necessary in order to retain 
the ammonia, and should always be used on 
compost heaps. On another I put 15 loads of 
barn-yard manure, well rotted by lying in heaps; 
while the third had no dressing at the time of 
sowing. I intended to have weighed the grain 
on each acre separately, but there was such a 
marked difference in it, that I have not done it. 
The guanoed acre produced the best wheat, the 
manured the next best, while the third was 
poor. 
It is my opinion, that by sowing 300 lbs. of 
Guano to the acre, it will yield a double crop, 
provided the land is of a warm nature and 
rather poor. Every farmer knows, that fertil¬ 
izers pay better on poor land than on rich. On 
land not easy of access, and neglected, I would 
recommend farmers to try Peruvian Guano. I 
have found some of the mixtures called fertil¬ 
izers entirely useless. The best article is the 
cheapest. It gives a rapid and vigorous growth 
to corn, potatoes and the sugar-beat, and shows 
marked advantages in every way in which I 
have used it. My custom is to manure my land 
well. I think it pays all extra expense on the 
first crop, and besides, is quite perceptible years 
after it is laid down to grass. We think the 
grass crop here is better than wheat. Our 
town cannot be excelled in butter making by 
any other in the State of New-York. My neigh¬ 
bors tell me they have averaged 68 lbs. to the 
cow, taking the herd together, and from the 
way they keep their cows, I have no doubt of 
the truth of the statement. 
We have had a severe drought, which still 
continues. We have no green fields except 
corn fields, and they wear a brown complexion. 
There will not be more than half a crop. The 
oat crop was very light. Buckwheat is hardly 
up. Our hay crop was good having got its 
growth before the drought set in. Wheat crop 
was light. 
Our County Show will be held on the 20th and 
21st of September. E. Sherman. 
Searsville, Orange Co., Aug. 8, 1854. 
Carriage of Eggs. —It may be interesting to 
some of our readers to know of an attempt to 
send eggs from here to America to be hatched 
there; and as it has been pretty successful, it 
may induce others to try the same mode of pro¬ 
curing poultry of the finer breeds. By one of 
the New-York steamers, which left this in the 
end of April, I sent a box containing 61 eggs of 
different selected breeds; they were 12 or 13 
days in reaching New-York, and on being landed 
they were sent on 80 miles further by steam¬ 
boat, and were placed under hens on the following 
day. Of the number sent four were broken on 
the journey, and of the remainder one-half were 
hatched and were alive on the 26th of June— 
the date of my last communication—a very good 
result considering both time and distance, espe¬ 
cially as all but one dozen had been brought to 
Liverpool by Railway,— D. ,/., in Agricultural 
Gazette. 
-- * 
Great Men’s Dancing.— We read that Napo¬ 
leon was a very awkward dancer. On one oc¬ 
casion he danced with a very beautiful countess, 
who could not conceal her blushes at his ridi¬ 
culous postures. On leading her to her seat, 
he remarked: “ The fact is, madam, my forte 
lies not so much in dancing myself as in making 
others dance.” This reminds us of an anecdote 
of Daniel Webster who being present at a ball 
in Washington during his incumbency as Sec¬ 
retary of State, was asked by an effeminate, fop¬ 
pish sort of a chap, who thought a good deal of 
his own dancing, “Don’t you dance Mr. Web¬ 
ster? I never see you dancing.” “No,” said 
Mr. Webster, as he only could say and look 
such things, “ I never had the capacity to 
learn how, sir.” 
CLAIMS OF AGRICULTURAL PATENTS, 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUG. 1 1854, 
Plows. —J. S. Hall, of Manchester, Pa,; I do 
not claim the mere hinge joint of the mold board 
formed of similar sized stubs, as that is the sub¬ 
ject of a former patent. 
I claim the dissimilar sized hinges, as described, 
causing the wings of the mold to rise in propor¬ 
tion to their expansion in connection with the 
curved hinged braces, sustaining said wings at 
their expansion, and admitting of extreme con¬ 
traction, without destroying the requisite form 
of the mold board under all its changes, a re¬ 
quisite hitherto not attained, for the purpose of 
adapting the plow to a variety of uses. 
I also claim the effectual securing of an iron 
beam to an iron standard by means of the in¬ 
clined segmental slot, bolt and nut, or their 
equivalent, operating in the manner described. 
Seed Planters. —William Bullock, (assignor 
to B. G. Morss,) of Bed Falls, N. Y. : I claim, 
first, the seeding wheels formed as described, 
so that the seed pass in at or near the center of the 
wheels, and out at the periphery. Second, the 
arrangements of one of the same wheels for sow 
ing in drills or planting in hills. Third, arrange¬ 
ment of the tubes as herein described, and for 
the purpose set forth. Fourth, the guards in 
combination with the seeding, and Fifth, the 
marker, for the purpose of indicating the posi¬ 
tion of each hill, thereby enabling the operator 
to plant in hills, forming rows both ways across 
the field. 
Harrows. —Wm. Anderson, of Ulysses, N, Y. 
I claim inserting a tooth in each hinge, so that 
no part of ground escapes being pulverized, 
whereas in the harrows with hinges a large 
space in the centre of the harrow escapes. 
Cultivator. —D. W. Shares, of Hamden, Ct.; 
I do not claim of themselves the expanding and 
contracting wings, as such have before been 
used in corn plows and cotton scrapers. 
But I claim providing the expanding and 
contracting wings on either side, with cultiva 
ting teeth, projecting downwards on the inside 
of the hoeing wings or scrapers, as set forth. 
Cultivator. —C. K. Farr, of Auburn, Miss. : 
I do not claim the mold board, ground plate, or 
any parts of my implement, which are found in 
the cotton scraper patented by W. C. Finney, 
April 24,1849. 
But I claim the hollow standards, cast with 
the ground plates for firmly uniting the beam 
to the implement by means of bolts passing 
through said standards, as set forth, 
Threshing Machine. —W. M. Palmer, of Pal¬ 
myra, Me.: I claim the combination of the 
screens, with the shutes, for screening and sep¬ 
arating the grain, as set forth. 
Screens for Hulling Clover Seed and 
Cleaning Grain. —M. H. Mansfield, of Ashland, 
O.: I do not claim constructing a screen in two 
or more parts. Nor do I claim merely adjust¬ 
ing them to insure their proper action. 
But I claim constructing a screen for cleaning 
clover seed and the various kinds of grain, in 
several sections jointed together when made in¬ 
dependently adjustable at each joint, for the 
purpose of facilitating or retarding the passage 
of the straw, chaff, and other impurities over it, 
according to their nature or condition, as set 
forth. 
Cleaning and Drying Grain.- —-H. N. Black, 
of Philadelphia. Pa.: I claim the employment 
of the inclined perforated cylinder for drying 
grain by the action of centrifugal force, in com¬ 
bination with the described apparatus for clean ¬ 
ing the grain.— Scientific American , 
