A-ME RICAN AGRICULTURIST 
35 
sented, the show was said to be very good. I 
was on the ground but a small portion of the 
day, as my time was limited. I availed myself 
of the offer of my kind host, Mr. Joseph Wasson, 
(whose hospitality, by the way, was meted out 
to me with a liberal hand during my stay in 
Lexington,) to take a drive about the adjoining 
country, during which we visited the farms of 
Messrs. W. & B. Warfield, where I had an op¬ 
portunity of seeing their stock in undress, hav¬ 
ing seen a portion of it before, slicked up for the 
show. They looked equally as well in their 
grazing grounds as in the arena. I again here 
saw Chilton , and also the bull Renwick, the 
sire of a number of prize animals at the show. 
He is now eight years old, and one of the finest 
bulls I have ever seen. The farms of the 
Messrs. W. appear to be judiciously and pro¬ 
fitably managed, and the owners to be of the 
true Kentucky stamp. 
The whole country surrounding Lexington is 
beautiful and lovely beyond description. I 
passed Ashland, the late residence of Mr. Clay. 
The old mansion is levelled with the ground to 
arise again in a more beautiful and enlarged 
form. The farm is a most choice and lovely 
spot. I had many invitations from gentlemen 
in the neighborhood to visit their places, but 
being obliged to leave on Saturday morning, I 
was unable to accept. E. H. S. 
ODE FOR AN AGRICUTTURAL CELEBRATION. 
BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 
Far back in the ages 
The plow with wreaths was crowned, 
The hands of kings and sages 
Entwin’d the chaplet round; 
Till men of spoil 
Disdain’d the toil 
By which the world was nourish’d, 
And blood and pillage were the soil 
In which their laurels flourish’d, 
—Now the world her fault repairs, 
The guilt that stains her story ; 
And weeps her crimes amid the cares 
That form’d her earliest glory. 
The proud throne shall crumble, 
The diadem shall wane, 
The tribes of earth shall humble 
The pride of those who reign ; 
And who shall lay 
His pomp away; 
The fame that heroes cherish, 
The glory earn’d in deadly fray, 
Shall fade and perish, 
—Honor waits, o’er all the earth, 
Through endless generations, 
The art that calls the harvest forth, 
And feeds the expectant nations. 
Seed Corn. —Now is the time to select ears 
of corn for seed. Go into the fields and pluck 
off the earliest ears, and such as are well filled; 
and you will gain something by selecting from 
stalks that have two ears on them. It is impor¬ 
tant that you select in the field, and before all 
the ears are hard, for thus you will gain several 
days in the ripening next year. 
We think it probable that a majority of our 
farmers neglect to select their seed ears till the 
time of bushing. But then they cannot deter¬ 
mine certainly whether they take the earliest 
ears. 
Corn is so important a crop, and so much of 
it is often lost by early frosts, that it is of much 
consequence to plant that which will ripen early. 
We cannot urge the planting of the small 
Canada corns in our latitude, for it is better to 
lose occasionally part of a large crop than to be 
always limited to a small one. W e need not go 
north for seed ears, if we will take a little care 
at the right time, and select the ears which first 
come to maturity. Many farmers know the im¬ 
portance of taking for seed what ripens earliest, 
but they are apt to forget and neglect. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
IS CLOVER INJURIOUS TO HOGS 1 
Will you, or some of your correspondents, 
inform me whether or not young clover is inju 
rioustohogs? I have lately heard it said to 
be, and in proof of it, was told of some instances 
in which several hogs had died immediately 
after being put on clover in spring. I should 
be glad to know more about it, without trying 
it , as I design next spring to turn my hogs on 
clover. ~ Thos. R. Jaynes, Jr. 
Accomac C. H., Va., Aug. 27, 1854. 
REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES. 
These machines are becoming of so much 
interest to the agricultural community, that we 
deem it proper to lay before our readers the 
number, description, and date of invention of 
a •portion of them ; for we have no idea the in¬ 
defatigable chronicler has ennumerated all the 
inventions of this machine, which were in use 
during the Roman Empire, and may have had 
its origin in ages previous among the Greeks, 
Egyptians, or their 'predecessors in civilization 
and the useful arts. 
One thing we think highly probable, to wit., 
that the improvements hitherto made in these 
machines, have pretty much covered every one 
possible to me made; and we much doubt if 
those discovered many years ago, have not em¬ 
braced nearly every thing that is valuable in 
such as have been since patented. 
In the publications of the Patent Office, Ben 
net Woodcroft, brings before us at one glance, 
in a tabular form, no fewer than 69 examples of 
drawings of “the cutters of reaping-machines,” 
illustrative of their modes of action ; and since 
that date about 30 new patents have been taken 
out, in many of which alterations have been 
made in the cutting apparatus; and besides 
these, numbers are noticed, of which no draw¬ 
ings are given. The following table without the 
drawings will, with the observations w'hich fol¬ 
low, give a general conception as to the pro¬ 
gress of ideas, and the different channels in 
which they have run : 
RECTILINEAR MOTION. 
Advancing only, - 4 
Sidelong and ad¬ 
vancing, - - - 2 
Reciprocating and 
advancing, - 25 
Cutters worked by hand, 
CIRCULAR MOTION. 
Continuous and ad¬ 
vancing, - - 31 
Continuous and al¬ 
ternate, - - - 2 
Such is the state of things at the date in 
question ; and our readers will perceive how 
nearly to be equally balanced, so to speak, are 
the above two classes under rectilinear and cir¬ 
cular motion, there being 31 of the former and 
33 of the latter. 
The progress of ideas, however, is still more 
interesting; for up to the introduction of Am¬ 
erican machines, although reciprocating and rec¬ 
tilinear motion was invented in Bedfordshire, by 
Mr. Salmon, as early as 1807, the general pur¬ 
suit appears to have been after circular; for we 
only find two examples of the former in this 
country, viz., Ogle’s in 1822, and Bell’s in 1826; 
and three in America, viz., Manning, 1831 ; 
Hussey, 1833; and M’Cormick, 1834; while 
we have twenty-ore of the latter, viz., Pitt, 
1786; Boyce, 1799 ; from Walker’s Philosophy, 
inventor unknown, one in 1799; Plucknett, 
1805; Gladstone, 1806 ; Plucknett, 1807; 
Smith, 1811 ; Ken, 1811 ; Cuinming, 1811 ; 
Dobbs, 1814; Smith, 1815 (two examples); 
Mann, 1820; Baily (United States,) 1822; Bud¬ 
ding, 1830 ; Chandler (United States,) 1835 ; 
Springer, 1839 ; Duncan (United States,) 1840; 
Phillips, 1851; Gibson, 1846; and Whitworth 
in 1849 (two examples.) 
Subsequently the tide of invention has run 
more strongly in favor of the reciprocating ac¬ 
tion of the knife, there being seventeen exam¬ 
ples on this principle, viz., M’Cormick, 1850 ; 
Stacey, Dray, Ridley, Randell, M’Cormick, 
Poole, Crosskill, Dray, Fowler, Newton, Wray 
and Son, Harkes, Hussey, Johnson (two exam¬ 
ples,) and Gompertz, all in 1852; and eleven 
on the circular, viz., Fairless, Winder, Beckford, 
Gosling, France, Mackay, and Trotter, in 1851; 
and Mason, Smith, Gompertz (two examples,) 
and Burch, in 1852. 
Of American patents the following are no¬ 
ticed:—French and Hawkins, 1803; Adams, 
1805; Comfort, 1811; Claiborne, 1811; Gail- 
lard, 1812; Baker, 1814; Bailey, 1822; Wads¬ 
worth, 1824; Cope and Hoopes, 1825; Eyck, 
1825; Pleasants, 1827; Lane, 1828; Ingersoll, 
1830 ; Manning, 1831; Heath, 1833 ; Anderson, 
1833; Schrebly, 1833 ; Hussey, 1833 ; Jackson, 
1834; M’Cormick, 1834; Ambler, 1834; Run- 
dell, 1835; Stfirdivant and Holmes, 1835; 
Chandler, 1835; Badlam, 1835; Ashmore and 
Peck, 1835; Wilson, 1835; Briggs and Car¬ 
penter, 1836 ; Allen, 1836 ; Moore and Hascall, 
1836; Drummond, 1836; Greenleaf, 1836 ; 
Lewis, 1838; Wheeler, 1838; Brittain and Sil- 
nens, 1838; Trask and Aldrich, 1839; Lamb, 
1840; Hinds, 1840; Churchill, 1841; Church, 
1841 ; Cooch, 1841 ; Read, 1842 ; Brown and 
Crans, 1842; Reeder, 1843; Peck, 1844; Es- 
terly, 1844; Ketchum, 1844 ; M’Cormick, 1845 ; 
West, 1845; Woodward, 1845; Ketchum, 
1846; Darling, 1846; Foster, 1846; Owen, 
1846; Wilson, 1846; Land, 1846, Cook, 1846; 
Foster, 1847; Church, Obert, Willoughby and 
Willoughby, 1847 ; Dunlap, 1847; Ketchum, 
1847; Hussey, 1847 ; Butts and Church, 1847; 
M’Cormick, 1847; Pease, 1848; Boone, 1848; 
Goble and Stuart, 1848 ; Cushing, 1848 ; Barr, 
1849; Haines, 1849 ; Fountain and Fountain, 
1849; Hinton, 1849; Penviance, 1849; Platt, 
1849; Mann and Mann, 1849; Manny, 1849; 
Forbusb, 1849; Krauser, 1849; Adkins, 1850; 
Heath, 1850; Knowles and Bemngton, 1850; 
Pierson, 1850; Danford, 1850; Bowerman, 
1850; Herndon, 1850; Hunt, 1850; Quincy, 
1850; Baily Coates, 1850; Watson, 1850; 
Neely, 1851; Hurlbut, 1851; Watson, Sabine, 
and Watson, 1851; Allen, 1851; Stardt, 1851; 
Palmer and Williams, 1851 ; Jones, 1851; Sey¬ 
mour, 1851 ; Miller, 1851; and Manny, 1851- 
Total, 99. 
No description is given of a number of the 
first machines ; so that the difference between 
first ideas there and here cannot be known ; 
but Bailey’s (1822) and Ingersoll’s (1828) have 
cutters fixed on the periphery of a horizontal 
wheel, the latter 8 feet in diameter, forming a 
complete circular knife or scythe, similar to 
Plucknett’s (1805) of this country. Revolving 
hooks and scythes appear to have been a com¬ 
mon idea, even after Mr. Manning produced his 
reciproeating-knife, which has been so success¬ 
ful. He also proposed fixing lance-shaped cut¬ 
ters or blades on the periphery of a horizontal 
wheel, sharp only on one edge. Two other 
ideas are deserving of special notice, viz., to 
cut and thrash the grain at the same time, and 
to cut and bind it. As yet both are compara¬ 
tively failures, but the object at issue is worthy 
of our transatlantic cousins. Our Australian col- 
nies have pruduced a successful example, both 
reaping, threshing, and dressing at the same 
time. Many of the inventions, again, are 
