336 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
The Beater Press for Hay, etc. 
There stands at the door of the American Agri¬ 
culturist half a bale of hay which has been 
sawed in two, and a slice which was sawed from 
a bale of straw. The saw leaves a smooth clean 
surface which is so hard and firm that the words 
"Beater Press Co., Troy, N. Y.,” are deeply and 
sharply carved on one of the faces. Hay and 
straw are put in this form by the “Beater Press,” 
the operation of which we witnessed a few days 
since on 10th Avenue, where ha}' is being re 
baled for the Government. The working, of this 
press is very simple. By means of a horse 
power, a heavy weight (1,200 to 1,500 pounds) 
is lifted to the top of the machine (15 feet) and 
thence falls upon the hay, which is thrown, one 
or two forkfuls at a time, into a strong box. 
This effectually takes the “spring” out of the 
hay, and when a sufficient quantity has been 
pul in, the horses are turned and driven in the 
opposite direction when by means of a pair of 
powerful screws, operating Upon the beater as a 
follower, a pressure of 300 tons, as we are told, 
is brought to bear upon the hay, which easily 
takes the position into which the blows of the 
beater pressed it. It is then bound with hoops 
or wires, and possessing a lower degree of elas¬ 
ticity than other pressed hay, the hoops are less 
liable to burst. The bales contain 400 to 500 
pounds of ha} r and measure about 3 feel 9 inch¬ 
es long, by 22 inches wide and deep; they are 
very square edged and pack like bricks; they 
do not seem likely to burn, and are but to a very 
slight degree penetrable by water. Ilay or 
straw in such bales is as good freight as flour 
on our railroads and canals. Box cars can be, 
TIIK BEATER PRESS—Showing the perpendicular guides of the beater, which is raised by a rope passing from the horse¬ 
power over the wheel at the topthe box above the mould, into which the hay is thrownthe mould, represented open, 
containing a bale of hay—and one of the screws on the side of the box and mould, by which the Anal pressure is applied. 
loaded with it, and not merely half loaded as is 
the case with other hay. Vessels trading with 
foreign countries which often leave our ports in 
ballast will find this a profitable lading, for not 
only is it more easily handled than ballast, but 
very valuable at their destination. Thus we an¬ 
ticipate a foreign market maybe opened for our 
hay as soon as the rebellion is put down. 
The application of the beating principle is 
very wide. The pressing of cotton, hemp, flax, 
oakum, hops, husks, corn fodder, sorghum, 
leaves, rags, wool, etc., will suggest itself to 
every one. Spent tan bark, saw dust, shavings, 
etc., have been successfully experimented with, 
and a compact fuel thus formed; besides, we 
have suggested to the proprietors its applicabili¬ 
ty to pressing peat , which abounds in some 
parts of the country, into a compact and mark¬ 
etable fuel, a.' another means of affecting the 
present extortions of the coal monopolies 
At present all the presses madn oy the Com¬ 
pany are in the employ of the government; 
about two bales of hay are put into one, which 
operation increases the value at least 5 dollars per 
ton. The danger from fire, and injury from wa¬ 
ter are so decreased, that it is confidently assert¬ 
ed that hay thus baled will neither burn, nor 
will soaking in a river wet more than a couple 
of inches into the bale. It is also asserted that 
it does not require housing; that it may be 
pressed in the field even less dry than would be 
deemed necessary for stacking or housing, and 
that it does not mould. Several railroad com¬ 
panies have already announced that they will 
soon adopt a rule that hay and straw shall only 
be transported in box cars. This will amount to 
a refusal of hay pressed in any other way, and 
some assert that they are only induced to trans¬ 
port hay, pressed in the common way, now, on 
account of the necessities of the Government. 
We give our readers the facts and statements 
which are present,ed to us in relation to this 
very interesting invention, which seems likely 
to have a marked influence upon our agricul¬ 
ture. Further information may be had of the 
“ Beater Press Co.,” addressed for the present, 
care of Cornish & Congdon, 538 Pearl-st., N. Y 
Irrigation. 
The art of irrigating gardens and more exteii 
sive fields of grass, grain, and roots, is almost 
unknown in this country east of the Great 
Plains, and it is a fact to-day, that in the oldest 
States, the richest lands—these which a little 
labor will make most productive, namely, 
those best adapted to irrigation—as a general 
rule, are considered the poorest lands of the 
farms; and if such a piece lie so that it may be 
conveniently detached from the main body of 
a farm, it may commonly be bought cheaper 
than any other land on the farm. The kind of 
land we refer to is low ground, skirted by 
brooks, often overflowed, swampy in spots, 
given up to reeds and rushes, possibly difficult 
to drain, but usually this point uninvestigated. 
Brooks that do not dry in summer, or living 
springs on one’s farm, are, and will bye and 
bye be considered the greatest boons of nature. 
We are happy in possessing a country the great¬ 
er part of which is “ a land of hills and valleys, 
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven;” so 
that those fields which can not be artificially 
watered, may still be made as we see at the 
present time very fertile. Draining, deep plow¬ 
ing, and good tillage, will make almost all the 
arable land east of the Mississippi, produce 
good crops. By proper investigation and use 
of the facilities for irrigation, an immense area 
now liable to damage from drouth, though yield 
ing average crops, might become almost incon¬ 
ceivably productive; a great area of dry and 
unproductive land might be made very fertile 
and the capacity of the country to sustain a 
dense population, vastly increased. In time, 
we venture to say, many of the hills of New- 
England and the older States will produce more 
than the wildest dreams of their present owners 
imagine; and it is not too much to anticipate 
that these States will yield enough to feed the 
present population and a good deal more, 
though now they can only balance their debts 
to the West for food, by the products of labor 
in their factories and machine shops, and by 
the enterprise of their merchants and seamen. 
The first kind of irrigation likely to be under¬ 
taken extensively in this country is the forma¬ 
tion of “water meadows.” When these are 
w r ell made, they are laid out in “ beds,” which 
vary in width and length according to the “ lay 
of the land.” One of these beds we will say is 
two rods wide and six rods long. Through the 
center is a ridge running from one end where the 
water supply is, to within 10 feet of the other. 
This ridge is a foot higher than the sides of the 
bed, from one end to the other it is nearly 
level, and a shallow water channel runs the 
entire length. The channel is so arranged that 
when filled with water, it overflows uniformly 
from one end to the other, equally on the differ¬ 
ent sides, distributing the water uniformly 
over the entire surface of the bed. A gate con¬ 
sisting of a bit of board made tight with sods, 
etc., closes the end of the ditch or regulates the 
flow. Many of these beds are often arranged 
together, fed by water from a main ditch or 
leader, from which the distributing ditches all 
lead. A ground plan of such a series of beds is 
shown in fig. 1. A , is the main ditch, and B , 
a distributing ditch. Fig. 2 represents rather 
