292 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
muck with which to cover his manure yard. 
A neighbor of ours made a practice of clean¬ 
ing out some forty rods of old ditch, where 
the water was accustomed to stand during 
the wet part of the season every year, thus 
securing the sediment and other accumula¬ 
tions for his barn-yard. The result was, 
that he had more and better manure than his 
neighbors, and raised on forty-five acres 
more than others did on one hundred and 
fifty. 
Mr. Johnson has commenced composting 
muck with lime, say ten loads of the former 
to one cask of the latter, with what suc¬ 
cess he is as yet uncertain, inasmnch as 
the experiment has not been fully tried. He 
also uses large quantities of ashes, which he 
pronounces—when mixed with muck which 
has been exposed in his farm-yard—of great 
value. Indeed our own experience has 
proved that one hundred bushels of ashes 
mixed in the spring with twenty-five loads 
dug in the fall, will form a compost equal, if 
not superior, to stable manure. 
If every farmer in New-London County 
would bring into use his swamp resources, 
in five years the agricultural product would 
be doubled. H. L. R. 
Remarks. —The time for digging muck 
will soon be upon us. Let every spare day 
and all the available force of the farm be put 
upon this work until twenty loads for each 
horse or head of neat stock, and ten loads 
for each hog kept, be secured. The muck 
improves by exposure to frost and rains, 
and a year’s supply should be thrown out, 
and a muck swamp is a mine of wealth to 
every farm. Let the mines be opened this 
summer, and farmer’s grow wise and rich by 
Mr. Johnston’s experience .—Norwich Exam¬ 
iner. 
THE STEAM CULTIVATOR. 
BY A PRACTICAL FARMER. 
The most absorbing topic now before the 
agricultural world is steam cultivation. The 
liberal prize ($1,000) offered by the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England for the best 
steam cultivator has awakened great interest 
will be still more excited as the time ap¬ 
proaches for its adjudication in July next, at 
the Carlisle meeting. We hope and believe 
it will form one of the most interesting fea¬ 
tures of that meeting; and as it appears des¬ 
tined to supersede both the plow and spade, 
the public will not be satisfied unless the va¬ 
rious implements to be put into competition 
are subjected to the most comprehensive 
and severest tests, comprising, as it must, 
their applicability to every variety of soil and 
circumstance of cultivation, in order to 
prove their superiority to the plow or the 
spade. 
It is not alone the best steam cultivator 
that is wanted, but a cultivator worthy of re¬ 
commendation by that great society, as a 
substitute for that very ancient and long- 
established implement the plow, and that 
still more ancient tool the spade ; and to ad¬ 
judicate aright on the comparative merits of 
these implements to perform the various 
works of tillage required from them, is the 
great question for decision. That of econo¬ 
my is secondary, and would ultimately be 
achieved; so that we shall undoubtedly 
have “an economical substitute for the plow 
or spade,” if the efficiency of the implement 
itself can be fully proved. 
The spade .—The spade in the hands of a 
clever workman is of universal applicability 
for tillage purposes. It will “ turn the soil ” 
at any required depth designed by the work¬ 
man, and he can further by its aid pulverize 
or comminute it to any given purpose or ex¬ 
tent. Perhaps no implement, under such 
auspices, can execute all the desired works 
of tillage in such perfection as the spade. It 
turns the soil by complete inversion ; it can 
throw up perfect trench-work; it can effect 
thorough subsoiling, together with all inter¬ 
mediate and ulterior processes ; but all this 
mainly depends upon the clever workmen, and 
although it may be all done—“ never so well 
done”—yet it is very expensive ; so that we 
repeat, that if an efficient implement can be 
found, the question of economy will be sec¬ 
ondary. 
The Plow. —The plow, in all its phases and 
gradations, is a most useful and effective im¬ 
plement, and to find for it an efficient and 
economical substitute is no ordinary task. 
Its adaptation is all but universal for pur¬ 
poses of tillage. True, it can not roll or 
harrow, but it prepares the soil for these 
processes with admirable facility and at little 
cost; neither can it so thoroughly invert the 
soil as is done by the spade; but its con¬ 
struction in variety is such that it is applica¬ 
ble to every kind of soil, and to every cir¬ 
cumstance of culture. It will turn up the 
most retentive soils at great depth, and may 
with great equality in depth turn up the shal¬ 
lowest. Its trench-plowing and common 
plowing are admirably performed. It is a 
most useful implement for ridging for tur¬ 
nips, &c., for setting potatoes, for row cul¬ 
ture generally, and the many other uses to 
which it is applied, and for which no cultiva¬ 
tor could be made applicable—this it does by 
aid of horses and attendants, and at great 
cost unquestionably ; so that here again we 
would say the question of economy is sec¬ 
ondary. 
The Cultivator. —“ The steam cultivator 
that shall in the most efficient manner ‘turn 
the soil’ and be an economical substitute for 
the plow or spade,” must then be a most ef¬ 
fective, powerful, and comprehensive imple¬ 
ment. 
1. It must turn the soil in a manner equal 
to the almost perfect turning up of the spade, 
and far superior to the partial inversion of 
the soil as performed by the plow. This de¬ 
partment of its work it must do in all its va¬ 
riations, from the roughest, “ horse’s-head”- 
sized clods to the finely-comminuted dust; 
thus providing for plentiful aeration, and 
completing the pulverization by its varied 
appliances or alterations in its machinery or 
working parts. 
2. It must perform this work at every re¬ 
quired depth as suited to all soils, and with¬ 
out injury to the land by pressure, more than 
equal to the tread of the horse. In this de¬ 
partments of its work, it will necessarily be 
required to act as efficiently as-the heavy 
land plow for heavy lands, and to modify its 
powers to the requirements of light lands 
and soils of every kind, as well those abound¬ 
ing in stone as those of loose sand or gravel; 
in fact, to be equal to the plow in all its va¬ 
riations or adaptations, for every description 
of soil and its requirements for working it. 
3. It must be qualified to travel over loose 
fallows, and perform the usual work of fal¬ 
lowing as commonly done by the plow, with 
equal efficiency and without greater pressure 
or consolidation than made by plowing. Nor 
must it fail to cut up weeds and turn them 
on to the surface in an equal degree, not 
tearing or subdividing them injuriously, but 
leaving them in a proper state to be caught 
and brought up to the top by harrowing, &c. 
4. It must be able to dig or break up in a 
business-like and effective manner grass or 
seed lands; so that the sods may be suffi¬ 
ciently turned down to rot and decay, as 
done by the plow, and thus to prevent much 
vegetable fiber below for the food for the 
growing plants. 
5. It must be of a convenient and portable 
size, capable of ready adaptation to farm 
service; free from complication, either in ma¬ 
chinery or arrangement of parts, and well 
suited to the management of an ordinary 
farm laborer. 
6. The original cost must not exceed that 
of a proportionate number of farm horses, 
plows, and accoutrements, except inasmuch 
as the steam apparatus may be made appli¬ 
cable to other farm uses in which horses are 
not employed ; neither must the cost of daily 
working exceed that proportion, except in 
the better performance of the work and the 
greater facility in its execution; i.e., steam 
horses do not become weary. 
These are some of the considerations 
which ought to influence the minds of the 
judges at the forthcoming meeting. 1 should 
hail the advent of a cheap and effective im¬ 
plement for steam culture as one of the great 
est boons to agriculture, and I conscien- 
ciously believe its introduction is not very 
distant. However, come when it may, let 
us only sanction the invention which can not 
fail to be practically efficient. 
THE GAIETIES OF THE INSANE. 
The last grand “ hop” of the season, by the 
inmates of the Insane Retreat in this city, 
was given last evening, June 1st. These so¬ 
cial parties are usually confined to the Re¬ 
treat family, and are not intended for the 
pleasure of the public. This being the last 
one of the winter series, however, his Ex¬ 
cellency Governor Minor and lady, and sev¬ 
eral others, were invited to be present. 
One hundred and eighty-four of the inmates 
were assembled in the hall. They were of 
all ages and conditions in life, from the grey 
hairs of sixty and seventy winters, to the 
blooming youth of fourteen summers. An 
hour previous several of them were raving 
maniacs, tearing their clothes, or attempting 
to do so, and require the closest attention. 
Now brought into the hall, under the influ¬ 
ence of music, and impressed with the idea 
that they were among a social party, bear¬ 
ing a part of the responsibility of its general 
conduct, their deportment was unexception¬ 
able. Of course all of them did not join in 
the dance, but full disposed, and they in¬ 
dulged in cotillions and contra dances. 
Following each figure, the party were fa¬ 
vored by singing, and music on the piano. 
Several of the patients have excellent voices, 
and one of them especially, an old lady of 
Spanish descent thoroughly educated in Pa¬ 
ris, moved the keys with a delicacy of touch 
that equalled the most popular performers. 
Finally, refreshments were served ; and 
then the “ Elephant Jupiter,” was marched 
through the hall, to the great amusement of 
the spectators. It was an admirable person¬ 
ation, and a practical eye could not readily 
distinguish it from a “real live ” monster of 
trunk and tushes. Jupiter bowed to the Gov¬ 
ernor and his lady, raised his trunk grace¬ 
fully in salutation to the audience, and 
“ spoke to ’em ” in that hoarse voice, rarely 
heard save in the jungles of the East. 
At ten o’clock a grand march to music 
concluded the festivities of the evening, and 
the large family retired in order, to their re¬ 
spective apartments. 
Dr. Butler informs us that they have had 
two such parties every week during the win¬ 
ter, and the results have been most gratify¬ 
ing. The nights following these parties are 
the most quiet throughout the institution of 
any in the week. The gloomy are inspir¬ 
ited, and the frantic are interested, quieted, 
and made tractable. The attention of all the 
patients is drawn away from the set channel 
of thought, or unhealthful imagings which 
unbalance them, and a better tone is given to 
both body and mind. 
Dr. Butler is also introducing many pic¬ 
tures, engravings, and paintings in the halls 
and parlors. These interest and attract the 
attention of the patients, and are found to be 
