284 
AMERICAN AG RIGULTUBIST. 
VEGETABLE CUTTER. 
All who have had occasion to feed turnips, 
beets, potatoes, cabbage stalks, pumpkins, and 
such like articles, know full well how tedious a 
job it is, to cut them by hand sufficiently fine to 
ensure safety in feeding. We have ourselves 
lost more than one good animal by choking, and 
we long since stopped feeding turnips which 
were not cooked soft, or cut one by one with a 
hand-knife. To say nothing of the danger of 
feeding imperfectly cut roots, the time required 
in the old-fashioned mode is an important item. 
Various implements have been constructed to 
do the work with greater accuracy. We pre¬ 
sent herewith an engraving of the best one we 
have seen. It is constructed essentially as fol¬ 
lows : A box or hopper, holding a bushel or 
more, receives the roots. At the bottom is an 
opening upon the side. Against this plays a se¬ 
ries of knives attached to a flat wheel or cylin¬ 
der. These knives shave or plane off slices 
from the roots in the box. The sliced roots are 
forced through the cylinder, like shavings through 
a joiner’s plane, and short knives are arranged 
crosswise so as to cut the flat slices into small 
strips. 
The whole apparatus is simple and works very 
rapidly. One like that here shown costs about 
$10 at retail, and by hard pushing it will cut a 
bushel of turnips per minute. Thirty to forty 
bushels per hour are readily cut as finely as could 
be desired. We believe this implement is not 
patented. It is for sale at most places where ag¬ 
ricultural tools are kept. 
IN DEBT FOR HIS FARM. 
This is the case with many throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. Not having all 
the needful cash on hand to purchase their farms 
at once, they paid what they could, and gave a 
mortgage for the remainder. Very well. They 
now have a powerful motive to industry. Every 
dollar saved is at least as good as one earned, and 
every dollar earned is a new step towards inde¬ 
pendence. From year to year, the incumbrance 
grows a little lighter, and the prospect of a compe¬ 
tence a little brighter. But some tell us that the 
good time is a long while in coming; they do not 
make farming as profitable as they could wish: 
can we help them by any suggestions 1 
We reply that we know of no royal road to rich¬ 
es through agriculture more than in other pur¬ 
suits. But we are assured that much can be gain¬ 
ed by farming in an intelligent and thorough man¬ 
ner. It will not do to work at random, or by rote, 
even though one work like a slave. It will not do 
to work with poor and insufficient implements. It 
will not do to waste time and strength and ma¬ 
nure on wet land,when it ought to be drained. It 
will not pay off the debt, to let the manure heap 
waste its virtues in the sun and rain. In short, 
it will not answer to labor hard and hoard with one 
hand, while wasting with the other. 
But we can not go into details on this subject: 
it would only be rehearsing the lessons we have 
so long and so largely taught in our columns here¬ 
tofore. We can say, however, most truthfully, 
that one of the best ways to learn how to reduce 
the farm debt rapidly, will be to read one or more 
of the leading agricultural journals. They give 
instructions in economy; they teach how to make 
the most of a little ; they abound in facts, notes of 
experience and observation; in short, they teach 
how to farm in the best and most profitable man¬ 
ner. A little money and thinking so invested will 
yield the most ample returns. In our own expe¬ 
rience, we remember a single hint obtained from 
an agricultural paper, in regard to putting in a 
grain crop, which was clearly worth sixty-two 
dollars the same year. This and similar results 
on our own farm and on others, more than any¬ 
thing else, led us to our present field of labor. We 
are confident that no one can take and read even 
the poorest agricultural paper in the country, 
without deriving hints and suggestions therefrom, 
which will in the long run pay him enough to meet 
the expense of a hundred annual subscriptions. 
TREATMENT OF SALT MARSHES. 
We are glad to see the increasing interest in 
this class of lands, indicated by the inquiries of 
our correspondents. There are, as yet, but few 
examples of the successful reclaiming of salt 
marshes in this country, and there has been less 
said upon this topic, than upon almost any other 
branch of farm economy. They are really the 
richest lands we have, and as a class are more 
valuable than the swamps and inland marshes. 
In addition to the inexhaustible supplies of muck, 
common to both, these have unlimited supplies of 
salt and animal matter left upon them 
for ages by the overflow of the tides. Instead of 
being left; as they are, marine wastes producing 
only coarse unpalatable grasses, they ought to be 
reclaimed from the dominion of the sea, and turned 
into meadows. Every one who owns one ofthese 
marshes, has probably thought of shutting off the 
sea water, but has over estimated the difficulty of 
making the embankment, and putting in a tide 
gate. As we have had a little experience in this 
business we will detail it for the benefit of our 
readers. We have now a thick set clover and 
herd’s-grass sod upon land that was, two year’s 
ago, flowed by the tide. The marsh lies inside of 
a railroad, so that the embankment was already 
formed and the only work to be done was the 
ditching, and putting in a tide gate, at the culvert. 
THE EHBANKMENT 
is a matter of the first importance, and where it is 
to be exposed to any considerable depth of water 
at high tide, say two or three feet, it should be 
made of stone'upon the outside, and supported 
with a bank of marsh sods, or gravel, upon the 
inside. It is a good plan to have a cart path upon 
the embankment and to make it solid by travel. 
THE CULVERT AND TIDE-GATE 
should be made in the most thorough manner, and 
of the best material, as upon these the whole suc¬ 
cess of the work depends. The embankment at 
the sides of the gate should be fortified with 
plank, driven deep into the mud, and battened so 
as to compel all the water to pass through the 
gate. The gate should be made of stout plank, 
oak, chestnut or yellow pine, two and a half or 
three inches thick. The bottom of it should be as 
low as low water mark, so that the water can run 
off until the returning tide shuts the gate. The 
hinges should be made of composition or coppei 
to prevent rust. 
DITCHES. 
There should be a broad ditch surrounding the 
marsh to cut off all fresh water springs. The 
other ditches are only wanted to carry off the rain 
that falls. They should be frequent and narrow, 
and cut to the low watermark. The contents of 
these ditches will more than pay for digging them, 
to be used in the yards and stables, as an absorb¬ 
ent. 
CROPS ADAPTED TO MARSHES. 
The only crop we would recommend for the 
first ten years at least, is grass. The sod is so 
thick and tough that it will not rot in years, unless 
lime or stable manure is used in large quantities. 
Clover, herds-grass, and red-top may be sowed 
upon the sod a few months after the tide gate is 
put in, and they will catch much better than upon 
upland. There is not salt enough in the sod to 
injure the seeds after a few heavy rains have 
fallen. We have sown in March, and in August 
and September, and have had good success at 
each sowing, but, on the whole, prefer sowing 
upon the snow in March, to any other time. The 
sod is then wet like a sponge, and the melting 
snows and rains of Spring carry the seed down 
into the little crevices of the turf, where they 
soon strike root. We have cut stout herd’s-grass 
this season, from seed sown last Spring. 
WEEDS. 
These will spring up in great quantity, after 
the first year, especially if the marsh is at any 
time flowed with a fresh water stream. Multi¬ 
tudes of seeds that were formerly killed by the 
salt, now strike root, and multiply with wonder¬ 
ful rapidity. If these are not attended to, they 
will injure the qualify of the hay, as it is impossi¬ 
ble to seperate them at mowing time. The sim¬ 
plest remedy for these is prevention, by mowing 
the reclaimed land, at least twice in the season, 
and thus suffering no weed to go to seed. 
DRESSING WITH SOIL. 
It will be asked if this process will pay 1 We 
have experimented with various soils, such as poor 
yellow subsoil, surface soil of old pasture, gar¬ 
den soil, and with mud taken from the ditches. 
The grass is good where there is nothing, but is 
much better with the subsoil, better still with sur 
face soil and ditch mud, and best with garden 
soil. Owing to some changes in our premises we 
had enough of this last to cover nearly two acres 
with a thin coat, say a half inch in thickness. 
Here the grass is thickly matted and would turn a 
good swath on this 14th of November. Where 
one has available soil near by, we have no doubt 
that it will pay abundantly to dress an inch thick 
or more. It may be done before or after sowing 
the grass seed. 
MUSKRATS 
are a great hinderance to this improvement. They 
will bore the banks of the ditches, and gnaw the 
wood work about the tide-gate. Unless the em¬ 
bankment is made very substantial, they would be 
likely to perforate that, and hasten its destruction. 
The tide-gate where the water passes througn 
should be sheathed with the yellow metal whicli 
is used for the bottoms of ships. This is prool 
against the teeth of these animals. In the ditch¬ 
es, they are readily trapped, and one who is 
skilled in hunting, will soon destroy them. They 
are taken by putting a net-work bag over the 
mouth of their holes, which are always just under 
