1869.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
253 
A Fallow Ground Harrow. 
One of the subscribers of the American Agri¬ 
culturist, a large Western farmer, who has no 
doubt paced many a weary hundred miles be¬ 
hind a harrow, commends very heartily a large 
light double harrow, which he uses, and of 
which he sends us the drawing and description 
here given. The harrow is obviously not in¬ 
tended for heavy clays, stony land, or for tear¬ 
ing sods to bits, but for light fallow ground, as he 
states, and for this purpose it seems admirably 
adapted, for its sweep, as ordinarily drawn, 
must be about ten feet. We let the farmer 
make his own statement: “ I send you the 
rough draught of what I consider the best har¬ 
row in use—better than the one given on page 
172. The more ground you can ‘ strike ’ on a 
day, the better. To have a large harrow, use 
three horses, and put both horses and men 
through. This harrow has handles, which are 
a great convenience, not for men to go to sleep 
on, but to use in freeing the harrow of corn stubs 
in harrowing oats, of briers, sticks, weeds, and 
dead clover, in harrowing fallow land. After 
once going over, you can collect the rubbish in 
piles, haul in, or burn on the field. Two of 
these harrows can ‘strike’ (harrow in) forty acres 
of oats in one day, if the horses are fresh, and 
the men keep their harrows free. I have heard 
of fifty acres being gone over in one day,” It 
and farmers are shy about adopting even the 
practical ideas, for fear some patentee will be 
down upon them for fees. So, as we publish 
none of this sort if we know it, we are the more 
happy to give what appears to be so ingenious 
and well-tried a plan of fence as the one figur¬ 
A FALLOW GROUND HARROW. 
is made of S'^-inch square stuff. The heads are 
mortised together, the tooth-bars being 7’| 2 inch¬ 
es apart, or 10 inches from the centers, and the 
cross-piece at the rear is notched out to fit upon 
the bars to which it is bolted. The teeth are 
of three-quarter-inch iron, the first row being 
set 4’ls inches from the heads, in each tooth-bar, 
and the other rows 10-inches apart, which 
brings the teeth equally distant all over each 
half of the harrow. We think it would be bet¬ 
ter if the hinges were long enough to make 
those in the middle no exception. The clevis 
or hook of the evener may be shifted to right 
or left, to regulate the evenness of the work. 
Portable Fence.—'Unpatented. 
Many of the forms of portable fences 
which have merit are covered by some sort 
of a patent. These patent-rights are usually 
unprofitable to their owners, and after a few 
years all attempts at selling farm rights or in¬ 
troducing the use of the fences are given up. 
Still, the fact that the plan is patented remains, 
bachtel’s portable fence. 
ed. Our correspondent, Isaac Bachtel, Stark 
Co., 0., writes thus: “ Enclosed I send you a 
plan for a portable fence ‘untrammeled with a 
patent,’ invented by H. Bachtel, Esq., who has 
used it on his farm for the past sixteen years. 
He has one now about one hundred rods long 
which stands the storms as well as if set in the 
ground. You will observe that the boards are 
narrower and the spaces wider than in ordinary 
board fences. The ends of the uprights may 
be sawed off after the fence is set up, and this 
gives it a neater appearance.” We suppose the 
panels are made of thirteen-foot strips. Mr. 
B. states they are of inch stuff, four inches 
wide. Pine would be best, probably; spruce 
would do. The uprights are of l'| 4 -inch stuff, 
cut 4 feet 10 inches long, and the 
fence when done is 4 feet- 8 inches 
high. The lower rail-strip is nail¬ 
ed on G inches from the end of the 
uprights. The first space is 5 inch¬ 
es wide; the second, 6; the third, 
7 ! |2; the fourth, 10; and 2 inches 
are left above the upper rail to be 
removed subsequently. In nailing- 
on the strips they are made to pro¬ 
ject beyond the posts alternately 
on either side. (The extent of this 
projection is not stated, but we 
conclude 4 or 5 inches would be 
enough, though in the sketch sent, 
which we have in a measure cop¬ 
ied, the length appears greater.) 
The end uprights are on different 
sides of the panel, and all the panels 
are exactly alike. To secure uni¬ 
formity, Mr. Bachtel uses a frame, 
which he calls a “tressel,” to make 
them on. This consists of three 
4x4 scantling, 4 ft. 8 in. long, fastened together 
by two boards nailed upon the ends. Five sets of 
cleats or “stops ” are nailed upon the scantlings 
upon which the lower edges of the rail-strips 
are to rest, and the board against which the lower 
ends of the uprights rest is l 1 1 2 inch above the 
scantling. This tressel is 12 feet 9 inches long. 
The uprights lie over the scantling, which makes 
a firm support to nail against, and the whole 
thing stands upon legs two feet high. It will 
be seen that in each panel two rails extend 
beyond the post on one side and three on the 
other. When set up these lock together, and 
to prevent any motion they are secured firmly 
by iron clamps, one of which is shown enlarged 
in the foreground. They may be made of old 
wheel tires, or of 5 [ 8 -inch round iron. If the 
strips and posts are of the dimensions given, 
the clamps should measure 12 inches from in¬ 
side to inside of the end angles. A portable 
fence is a great convenience to many who raise 
sheep, as the pasture may be fed off to much 
greater advantage by its use than when the sheep 
are allowed -to roam at will over the whole. 
Permanent Foundations.—Dry Cellars. 
Men build houses on all sorts of ground, in 
fact, sometimes in the water. A good part of 
the houses in many of the large seaports of 
the world stand upon piles driven into the soft 
mud, below the surface 
filling, which is dry. In 
the country we generally 
have considerable choice 
of location; and if we can 
choose the kind of ground 
upon which to set a dwell¬ 
ing, it should be dry sand 
or gravel, sufficiently ele¬ 
vated to have the sur¬ 
face water as well as the rain which falls 
upon the roof naturally flow off. On such 
ground we may dig the cellar, lay the founda¬ 
tion, and put up the superstructure, without 
fear that there will be any settling or heaving 
by frost, or annoyance from water in the cellar 
or in the wall. On springy ground, on tenacious 
clayey subsoils, or even on soils of ordinary te¬ 
nacity, it is always best, and often absolutely 
necessary, to provide the most thorough drain¬ 
age. There are several common ways for ac¬ 
complishing this. One is to dig a trench wider 
than the wall, fill it with small stones, and place 
the brick or stone wall upon it. This does very 
well, provided there is a sufficient outlet for the 
water which may collect in the trench. It is 
far better, however, to place a drain beneath 
the foundation wall. This may be of tile, which 
is best, or of stone, if more convenient. It 
makes little or no difference in regard to the 
desirableness of having the ground beneath 
well drained, whether the foundation walls are 
of stone or brick. But the ease with which 
different materials absorb water is an important 
consideration, and makes stone always prefera¬ 
ble to brick if it can be procured. The founda¬ 
tion shown in figure 1 is supposed to be laid up 
of rough, irregular stones, in cement mortar, 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 2. 
which is good, sharp mortar, made with thor¬ 
oughly slaked lime, to which water lime is 
added to the extent of about one-sixth. This 
wall is laid upon a base of cobble-stones, thrown 
into a trench, the largest and flattest of the 
stones having been placed on edge, and inclined 
together like a roof, so as to form a channel for 
