18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
are thrown all kinds of animal and vegetable 
matters, together with such cheap alkaline sub¬ 
stances as tend to hasten their decay. A stream 
of air is forced in at the bottom of the tank, 
which keeps the water in commotion, and thus 
further aids the process of decay. Between 
these two decomposing agents, the process, as 
I understand, is very rapid; so much so, that 
Mr. Mechi assured us he can put into the tank 
any substance, large or small—as a dead horse, 
for instance—and in a few days all will have 
disappeared. From the tank, three-inch iron 
pipes are run, under ground and below the 
depth of the plow, to all parts of the farm. A 
hydrant, on which a long gutta-percha hose may 
be screwed, is fitted to these pipes, once in eleven 
acres. When he wishes to manure a field, the 
engine is fired up ; a stream of air is forced into 
the bottom of the tank; the water is forced, by 
a sort of forcing-pump, through the pipes; all 
the hydrants, except the one where the manur¬ 
ing is to be done, are closed ; that one is open: 
the hose is screwed on, and a man, having hold 
of the end, and carrying it about as occasion 
requires, directs the liquid manure high into the 
air, whence it falls like rain upon the soil. When 
the eleven acres adjacent are manured, that hy¬ 
drant is closed, another is opened, and the same 
operation is performed on the adjoining eleven 
acres; and so on till the whole field is gone 
over. 
I will mention here that I have since been 
over the farm of Mr. Littledale, of Liverpool; a 
farm much larger than Mr. Mechi’s, and ma¬ 
naged much in the same way; and I may add, 
by much the same sort of man : that is, by a 
noble-minded, generous-hearted merchant-farm¬ 
er, who, like Mr. Meciii, has a capital money¬ 
making farm in town, and a farm on which he 
loves to see the crops and stock grow, a little 
out of town. Almost the only difference which 
I could perceive in the procedure of the two, is, 
that instead of forcing a stream of air into the 
tank for the purpose of mixing and decomposing 
the manure, as Mr. Meciii does, Mr. Littledale 
has a sort of rack suspended in the tank, which 
is turned violently by the engine, at the same 
time that the liquid manure is forced out. Both 
of these men are full of generous enthusiasm; 
both believe that they have made a valuable 
improvement, and both, I have not one doubt, 
sincerely desire that every body may profit by 
it. It should be understood that these engines 
are not limited in their use to the cleansing the 
premises, and throwing the manure over the 
land, but are made to do all the threshing, saw¬ 
ing, grinding, straw-cutting, and other heavy 
work of the farm-house. The application of 
steam to agricultural purposes in this country is 
becoming common. 
Many farmers now have either a stationary 
engine, like the ones just spoken of, or locomo¬ 
tive engines, (on wheels, to be drawn by a cou¬ 
ple of horses wherever wanted,) and they suppose 
they have fully settled the fact that steam is 
much cheaper than horse-power. I yesterday 
asked Mr. James Williams, a large farmer near 
Abingdon, in Berkshire, whom I found grinding 
corn for three hundred hogs by steam-power, 
if it was really cheaper than horse-power. His 
reply was : “ Tt does not cost near half as much.” 
As we followed Mr. Mechi (there were two 
hundred and fifty of us) over the Tiptree farm, 
(every farm here has its name,) the engine was at 
work; men, here and there, were at the hose, 
directing an artificial shower. The crops looked 
well, and one could hardly resist the conclusion 
that all farmers should do as Mr. Mechi does. 
But the thought of the cost obtruded itself: 
and there are many, I have no doubt, who con¬ 
cluded that it will be best to wait a little longer, 
and to see more fully the results of such prac¬ 
tice, before making a general push for iron 
pipes and steam engines. Indeed, the ground 
which Mr. Mechi takes is nearly in accordance 
with this view. He is enthusiastic; but he is 
reasonable. He says : “ Gentlemen, here is my 
farming; I have made these experiments at my 
own expense; they have cost you nothing; if 
there is any good to come from them, I want 
every body to share it; if there is loss, I wish 
to bear it all myself. But, when you consider 
what a miserable farm this was, and then see 
the crops and the stock now on it, I think you 
will have some evidence that the system of 
liquid manuring is the true system. Neverthe¬ 
less, the whole thing is before you ; make such 
use of it as you will.” Such was the substance 
of his remarks, as presenting the attitude in 
which he wishes to stand before the public. To 
me, at least, it seems a generous position ; and, 
whatever one may think of the practice, I see 
not how we can fail to honor the man. 
Mr. Mechi showed us Mr. Cormack’s reaper 
in operation. It did its work beautifully. Many 
present seemed to think well of it. Others said 
it would break down before noon, and could not 
be relied upon. He also exhibited Samuelson’s 
digging machine—a huge roller, with crooked 
teeth and long bars of steel, so placed as to clean 
the teeth as the machine rolls on. It dug up the 
ground in excellent style, and would, no doubt, 
increase the crop, but would be far too expen¬ 
sively worked for our country. Seven very 
powerful horses were employed to draw it, and 
had to work hard at that. 
At three o’clock the company were entertained 
in what Mr. Mechi’s friends say was his “ usual 
style of hospitality.” Fie presided with great 
animation; called it “ a plain farmer’s dinner;” 
and did every thing to make the hours pass 
pleasantly and usefully. After hunger and thirst 
were satisfied, or, as I think, should have been, 
the health of the Queen was proposed, as I find 
is usual on all such occasions; then, the health 
of Prince Albert ; next, that of the bishop of 
the diocese ; and so on down. Suitable responses 
were made to each toast. Occasionally a song 
was sung by a professional comic singer, whose 
services had been procured for the occasion. 
There was enough of “ the droll,” but still all was 
in very good taste. What pleased Englishmen 
apparently more than any thing else—and, know¬ 
ing what I do of the royal family, I could enter 
into it almost as heartily—was a little song, of 
which this was the substance: “ The Prince 
loves the Queen, and so do we ; the Queen loves 
the Prince, and so do we ; the Queen and the 
Prince love each other, and we love them both." 
The entertainment over, Mr. Mechi invited the 
guests to go below, where Mrs. Mechi would 
serve them coffee. The invitation was accepted 
by a few, after which the company dispersed, 
feeling, I have no doubt, that we had had “ a 
grand time.” I have seldom been at an enter¬ 
tainment where more good things were provided, 
or where they seemed to have been more ra¬ 
tionally enjoyed. 
If you ask m 3 ' opinion of this liquid manuring, 
I can only say, the philosophy of the thing is 
good, undoubtedly. It is too expensive for ordi¬ 
nary farmers. Possibly American ingenuity may 
devise a cheaper w T ay of effecting essentially 
the same object. I partly think I can see how 
it can be done, and may possibly write you on 
the subject another time. 
A NEW DIGGING OR FORKING MACHINE. 
We have long entertained the opinion that 
the plow would ultimately be superseded on all 
lands free from large stones, roots, and other ob¬ 
structions. We have consequently been studi¬ 
ously alive to ever}' movement of the kind in 
Europe, and have from time to time, in our 
periodical, given engravings and descriptions of 
all newly invented and improved implements 
calculated to supersede the plow' and hairow, 
with the hope of drawing the attention of our 
ingenious countrymen to this subject. The 
principle of such a machine is extremely sim¬ 
ple : it consists merely of a revolving shaft, 
w'ith curved teeth of a greater or less length 
set in at proper distances. These teeth are 
shaped somewhat like the coulter of a plow, 
or they may be round or eight-square, gradu¬ 
al!}' lessening to a point, like a California pick. 
They must be of great strength, and steel-point¬ 
ed. The shaft gearing should be extra strong, 
and the rims of the wheels broad and thin. 
With these ideas before him, any ingenious 
mechanic may construct a digging machine. 
The advantages of such an implement over the 
plow are thus stated by the Marie Lane Ex¬ 
press, after giving the one invented by Mr. 
Samuelson a couple of trials : 
“There are a great many elements of inquiry 
opened up by the two trials we have alluded to. 
The machine itself is quite the reverse of the 
plow. The latter is a pressing, the former a 
lifting operation; the one consolidates the sub¬ 
soil, the other fractures it; the one plasters like a 
mason’s trowel, the other lightens like a fork. 
The one is the operation of a w'edge, the other 
of a lever ! Hence the result is not only dif¬ 
ferent, but we may say opposite, on the soil. 
“ Let it not, how'ever, be thought w r e say that 
this machine has exactly answered all its pro¬ 
fessions. We say not whether this individual 
implement is calculated for general use or not; 
but we do say, most unhesitatingly, that the 
principle of a digging or forking machine — 
which this is more particularly—is fully esta¬ 
blished. We leave it for others to work out that, 
principle, and to adapt details to the circum¬ 
stances of each case of soil and crop ; but it ap¬ 
pears to us that the circular motion is calculated 
to break up, to pulverize, and especially to leave 
the root-w'eeds near the surface in a satisfactory 
manner. And what of the draught, after all ? 
Diminish the surface covered, and fewer horses 
will answer; only it must be borne in mind 
that the wfider the area, the greater the proba¬ 
bility there is of all being covered; and if 
seven or eight horses will take a three-feet wide 
implement, a pair will be master of one with a 
cover of one foot. 
“We have seen five letters from as many prac¬ 
tical men in different parts of the country, all 
written about the same time, which quite agree 
in speaking favorably of its operation from day 
to day on their farms. We, however, do not 
wish this to be taken for more than it is worth, 
namely, that there are other trials, which, to 
say the least, proffer to act well, and to confirm 
the two more public experiments at Gloucester 
and at York. 
“We mentioned in a previous article that the 
idea was embodied before. In 1842, a spade 
plow -was exhibited at York by Lady Vava¬ 
sour, which was, in fact, a roller studded with a 
complete armor of round-pointed knives, which 
described so many tangents from the centre 
motion. We never saw it in operation, but 
could venture to predict, with all the certainty 
imaginable, that it would clog either in tenacious 
or foul land of almost any description. The 
digger of 1853 has great advantages over this, 
because it has a clearing apparatus, the tines 
are far more distant and better disposed, and 
thus many of the tendencies to clog are clearly 
remedied. 
“We hope the idea will be carried out, and 
