1807.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
261 
pair, and bring the off liorse into the furrow. (*1, 
is the furrow; Ji, the land; (7, the ftirrow-slice.) 
In arranging eveners for a horse at one side 
to pull against two, evenly, as in fig. 3, the 
draft-band, or clevis, should be placed exactly 
one-third the distance between the draft-point, 
at which the two horses draw, and that at 
which the single horse is attached; and W’hen, 
as in fig. 1, the middle horse pulls against two, 
the same arrangement should be observed with 
reference to the two unequal eveners. 
Left-hand Plows. 
How true it is, that the mingling of men of 
different habits and different notions is produc¬ 
tive of gootl to all concerned, provided always 
we choose the good and eschew the evil. This 
is one great value of such a journal as ours. It 
touches many people, and stirs them up to 
cast in their ideas into the common stock. It 
is a sort of mill, where ideas are taken in, win¬ 
nowed, screened, ground, bolted, and thrown 
out upon the market in the best shape the mil¬ 
lers can put them. 
We confess, we never have been able to see 
any real advantage in left-hand plows, and re¬ 
garded their use as simply a habit, until a recent 
letter from an Indiana subscriber, Mr. Delos 
Wootl, throws light on the subject. In New 
England and the Middle States, so far as we 
know, the term “ leader ” is applied to the front 
horse, in what we have heard called a “ three- 
cattle team,” that is, either a pair of oxen or 
horses, with one horse before them. So, some¬ 
times since, when a western correspondent ad¬ 
vocated left-hand plows, because the leader 
could go in the furrow, we dissented, saying, 
that in no case should the leader walk in the 
furrow. Mr. Wood shows us that the western 
plowman, who drives with one line, calls the 
nigh horse, (to which the rein is of course at¬ 
tached,) the “leader.” The advantage of driving 
with one line is great. We think this is de¬ 
monstrated by the discussions on driving horses 
to plow, which lately appeared in our columns. 
If then the nigh horse can be driven in the fur¬ 
row, great additional accuracy is secured. 
To illustrate this, we figure a bird’s-eye view 
of a pair of horses plowing with a left-hand 
plow, driven by one line attached to the nigh 
horse; he, walking in the furrow, and the off 
horse being guided by a “jocky stick” from 
the hames-ring of the other, and by a short 
rein between the heads. 
WMther and How to Emigrate. 
We have frequent inquiries as to the location 
of cheap lands, and the best place for an emi¬ 
grant to go to. This depends so much upon the 
character of the man and his circumstances, 
that no one rule can be given that will meet the 
wants of all. The old style 
of emigration was for every 
man tO look out for him¬ 
self. He thought eveiy- 
thing depended upon cheap 
land, and he pitched his 
tent or log cabin in the wil¬ 
derness, without much ref¬ 
erence to neighbors or sur¬ 
roundings. lie left behind 
him tho comforts of civil¬ 
ized life, church, school, 
mills, roads, bridges, laws, 
and with his wife and chil¬ 
dren, lived alone in the clearings for years. 
This led of necessity to much hardship, and 
often to prolonged suffering and death. 
In modern times, we emigrate into new re¬ 
gions in large companies, and if a man is under 
the necessity of going alone, he goes into a 
place where much of the pioneer work has 
already been done, and he will find some of 
the comforts of civilized life. As a rule, it is 
much better for one who wants to emigrate to 
join some good company, and cast in his lot 
with them. This gives, at once, the very great 
advantage of cheap lands without the loss of 
the privileges of civilized life. It provides at 
once for the division of labor, and necessitates 
no violent change of business or of habits. A 
company should always be organized with ref¬ 
erence to the wants of their future location. 
The trades and the professions should be rep¬ 
resented, with a large proportion who draw 
their support directly from the soil. If the em¬ 
igrant and his family are people of social cul¬ 
tivation and refinement, they will find cheap 
lands a iK)or compensation for the loss of the 
comforts of their old homes. “ Man shall not 
live by bread alone.” We want church and 
school privileges, and good neighbors, quite as 
much as food and clothing. There is some¬ 
thing more than acute suffering in the loss of 
these things. There is mental and moral dete¬ 
rioration. There is no doubt that emigration 
upon tho old plan tends to barbarism. Chil¬ 
dren grow up healthy and 
vigorous it may be, but with 
uncultivated minds and 
hearts, ignorant, boorish, 
and often vicious. The 
single emigrant, or a few 
families going together, we 
think, will do better in the 
' older and more densely set¬ 
tled States, than to push out into the wilderness. 
There are still wild lauds in many of these 
States, and cheap lands in them all, waiting for 
willing hands to till them. They have been 
cleared and have some improvements upon 
them, cheap houses and barns, that will answer 
until better can be built. These improvements 
can generally be purchased for much less than 
they have cost, because the owners, for various 
reasons, want to sell and go further. It is an 
expensive process to clear heavily timbered 
land, and still more expensive to settle upon the 
prairie and buy all your fuel and building ma¬ 
terial. In the Northern States, church and 
school privileges will be found within reach of 
cheap lands, by which we mean those that sell 
for twenty dollars and less. At Columbus, Ohio, 
they have a fashion of reporting the destination 
of emigrants who are going west. Of a recent 
company of 610, 163 were for Ohio, 160 for 
Incl., 131 for Mo., 87 for Ill., 39 for Ky., 21 for 
Wis., and 9 for Iowa. In all these States 
there are good openings for emigration. 
The prospects for Emigration to the Southern 
States are rapidly improving. The indications 
now are that civil government will soon be in 
a settled condition, and the people there will 
give a cordial welcome to immigrants from all 
lands. For men accustomed to the varied hus¬ 
bandry of the Northern States, we think the 
prospects in Virginia are exceedingly inviting. 
For those who are accustomed to market gar¬ 
dening, the region around Norfolk, and tho 
mouths of the James and York Rivers, presents 
strong attractions. It is within twenty four 
hours of New York, and “garden truck” and 
fruits can be put into Washington Market, in 
about as good condition as if raised in Jersey, 
or on Long Island; the season is two or three 
weeks earlier, and the prices more than double. 
New Mole, Rat, or (Gopher Trap. 
A subscriber sends us by mail, an ingenious 
contrivance, which we figure, not so much as a 
sure mole trap, for we have some doubts of its 
efficacy, yet, on general principles, as a good 
trap. Moles are much more suspicious than 
other quadrupedal 
vermin, and would 
be quite likely to 
turn their galleries 
around such an ob-* 
ject. We have no 
doubt rats, gophers, 
squirrels, and other 
small animals would 
enter it readily. The 
construction is evi¬ 
dent from the cut. A 
stick is formed or 
made hollow, having 
Fig. 1.—TRAP. a uniform bore, of a 
size to accommodate the animal. (Half a 
2-inch drain pipe would do well). The ends 
are squared, and a groove is cut close to 
each end. On the side which is to be upper¬ 
most, three small holes are bored, one at each 
end, entering the grooves, and one in the mid¬ 
dle. Beneath the middle one a piece is cut out 
of the tube as shown in fig. 1. T^he trap is set 
by placing in each groove a noose of cord or 
wire, passing through the holes in the top, and 
connected by a cord in,which a fast loop, (a com¬ 
mon bowline,) is tied. To this loop a spring 
pole is attached by a cord, which, being contin¬ 
ued down, enters the 
hole in the middle of 
the trap, and is there se¬ 
cured by a tapering 
plug set in from below. 
Tills arrangement is 
clearly seen in section in 
fig. 2. The plug must 
be of such size and so inserted that while it will 
considerably obstruct the bore, and will hold the 
cord firmly, it will be loosened with the least 
touch. The size of the trap must be calculated, 
so that an animal touching the plug will stand 
with its hinder parts beyond the noose, at one 
end or the other. The loosening of the plug 
will spring the pole and draw the nooses— 
while the trap may be jerked out of or off the 
ground, provided it is not fastened down. 
Fig. 3. —PLOW DRAWX BY TITREE HORSES ABREAST. 
LEFT-HAND PLOW—NIGH HORSE IN THE FURROW. 
Fig. 2. 
