1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
53 
The Tumbler Carts. 
At present the handling of manure is the heaviest 
labor on the farm. Every pouud is handled many 
times before it is iinally spread upon the held. 
Some of this work is 
necessary, for it must be 
heaped and fermented, 
and made fine before it is 
fit for use, but with im¬ 
proved implements much 
of the present labor may 
be saved. The tumbler 
cart is an implement which 
will much facilitate the 
handling of manure ; this 
is in common use upon 
English farms, but in this 
country is only seen in 
cities, for collecting the 
sweepings of streets, and 
dumping them upon 
waste heaps or the scows 
which carry them away. 
It is seen in operation in 
the illustrations ; and is a 
cart box suspended upon 
a round axle, which 
either passes through it, 
•or being bent, passes be¬ 
neath it. By means of a 
chain affixed to the bot¬ 
tom, an axle, a pair of gear 
wheels, and a winch, the 
cart may be tipped and the 
load dropped. To work 
with these carts in the 
most economical manner, 
a pair of them should be 
used, or more if ifceessary, and but one extra hand is 
needed at the loading. The driver dumps his load 
almost instantaneously without help, and by partly 
tipping his cart, and using a drag-hook, he may 
■drop his load in several small heaps in less than 
half the time he could do so with a fork from a 
wagon. The method of using the carts is so clear¬ 
ly shown in the engravings, that description is un¬ 
necessary. To handle ma¬ 
nure from the first in the 
easiest manner, it should 
be thrown into one of 
these carts from the 
stable, which should be 
made so that a cart may 
be driven through it from 
end to end, and as it is 
loaded with the fresh drop¬ 
pings, it should be driven 
to the field where the ma¬ 
nure is to be used. There 
it may be piled up by driv¬ 
ing the cart upon the heap, 
and dumping it where it 
Is wanted. By keeping 
the end of the pile sloping 
this may be done. This 
will prevent the necessity 
of piling manure in the 
"barn-yard, and will tend to 
keep the yard neat and 
■clean. When the manure 
Is to be spread, it can 
be done expeditiously, it 
being near the spot where 
it is needed, and thus 
there will be a saving of 
time, when work is hur¬ 
ried and time is valua¬ 
ble. These carts are very 
handy for moving earth, 
and there are many other 
profitable uses for them which will occur to those 
interested. As a general thing carts are not used 
upon farms nearly so often as they might be with 
advantage, and when they are to be made, it may 
be as well to consider whether these tumbler carts 
do not possess some good points which the ordP 
nary carts do not, for some of the heavier labors of 
the farm. One of its chief points of excellence is 
the low body, and the need to lift the material to 
be loaded only a short distance, and this certainly 
is an important consideration. Another advantage 
of a cart is the ease, with which it is turned about 
and handled in narrow spaces; the less cost of 
harness, too, is an item worth consideration. 
Salt Marshes on the Pacific Coast. 
BT ROBERT GUNTHER, HUMBOLDT BAT, CAL. 
In the October Agriculturist is an article on 
“ Progress in Reclaiming Salt Marshes.” As I have 
spent the last fourteen years in reclaiming a salt 
marsh, nothing can interest me more than to see 
articles in the Agriculturist on salt marshes or on 
draining. I am astonished to find that the salt 
marshes along the Atlantic coast still lie waste ; 
on this Bay there are thousands of acres of marsh 
land, and considerable money has been invested in 
reclaiming them, but so far I am the only oae who 
has been partially successful. The fact is, few 
people are in the habit of doing work as it ought 
to be done, and none but thorough work will an¬ 
swer in reclaiming a salt marsh. No dike has ever 
been built high and strong 
enough to withstand the 
pressure of the water at 
high tide on this Bay; even 
my dike, which is at least 
three times stronger and 
higher than any other 
here, broke through last 
winter. People repair 
their dikes once or twice, 
but after they are repeat¬ 
edly broken through, they 
give it up in disgust, and 
I would have done the 
same but for an inherited 
obstinacy. My dike has 
broken through several 
times, and is not safe now, 
but I intend to keep to 
work at it until 1 make it 
what it ought to be. There 
is anothor reason why the 
progress in reclaiming salt 
marshes is so slow. To 
dike on a small scale will 
not pay. The larger the 
tract of land enclosed with 
one dike, the less is the 
cost of diking per acre; 
therefore, in order to dike 
to advantage, capital is 
necessary. If a farmer 
clears a piece of wood¬ 
land he often raises 
a large crop the first year, while it takes several 
years before a salt marsh becomes remunerative. 
You say that there is no well-digested plan for 
introducing the upland grasses. I have experi¬ 
mented for several years upon this point, but I 
have come to no conclusion as yet. So far as the 
marsh-land on this coast is concerned, it is injudi¬ 
cious to sow grass seed without plowing; the grass 
will take, but the salt 
grass will soon run it out. 
I tried an experiment and 
made a great mistake in 
burning the sod, which is 
easily done in California, 
as we have no rain during 
the summer. I plow'ed 
fifteen acres, and after the 
sod w r as dry I set fire to 
it; the fire not only run 
over the plowed ground, 
but the sod of several 
acres that were not plowed 
was burned. What seems 
stranger is that 1 have not 
been able to raise a decent 
crop on that ground since. 
In the spring the soil is 
sticky, but not tough; 
after it dries, the clods get 
hard, yet during the sum¬ 
mer the soil slackens and 
forms a blackish brown 
powder on the surface, of 
which I send you a 
sample; if you can give 
me any information in re¬ 
gard to it, please do so.— 
[This sample, which was 
an almost inpalpable 
powder, was roughly ana¬ 
lyzed ; 73 per cent of ash 
remained after burning, 
which contained considerable iron. The amount 
of organic matter thus ascertained is so small 
that this will hardly pass for poor muck.—E d.] 
To introduce upland grasses I believe the best 
way is to first bring the marsh in thorough cultiva 
tion. To do this on this coast I plow the marsh In 
Fig. 1.— TUMBLER CART—LOADING. 
Fig. 2. —TUMBLER CART—DUMPING. 
