126 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
water and draining, it becomes weak, it is used for 
bleaching, &c. 
When the ley cask is emptied, it is filled immedi¬ 
ately with ashes, to be used as above mentioned, so 
that the cask is always in use, by which means it is 
kept in order, and lasts many years. When left 
empty, as some persons practise, it shrinks and soon 
becomes useless. Some quick lime put into the ash 
cask, near the bottom, causes the ley to be more 
caustic. 
Cedar and white pine make the best casks for ley 
or soap. The pine should be free from knots and re¬ 
sin, as the ley will incorporate w T ith the resin, convert 
it to soap, and leave the wood porous and leaky. 
When soap has accumulated beyond the wants for 
soft soap, it is converted into hard soap, by adding 
one quart of fine salt to three gallons of soap, boiled 
and put into a tub to cool; then cut it into pieces, 
scrape off the froth, &c.; then melt it again, (leaving 
out the ley at the bottom,) to a boiling heat, and put 
it into a box to cool, and cut into bars for drying. A 
little resin or turpentine added before boiling, improves 
the color and quality of the hard soap. 
This mode of making soap relieves from the pagan 
practice of boiling soap at a certain stage of the moon. 
If you think the above will be of much use, you 
may give it to the public. Most respectfully, 
J. Buel. DAVID TOMLINSON. 
Fence Making. 
Juliuslown, N. J. July 14, 1838. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Sir—As the expenses of fencing, 
where the locality of farms requires rails, are often 
great, I may perhaps advantage some of your read¬ 
ers, by describing a method which I find to be a sav¬ 
ing of land, timber, and labor, when brought into a 
comparison with what is generally called the worm 
fence. To construct a durable and good fence, on 
what I call the improved plan, requires straight and 
strong stakes, of suitable quality, and some seasoned 
blocks for pins. Trunnels are not wanted. Stakes 
from seven to nine feet long ; pins twelve to eighteen 
inches, suiting the size of the rails. The pins I make 
in wet weather or winter season, and also bore holes 
in the stakes, for a pin on which the bo!tom rails are 
laid ; this is done with an inch and a quarter or larger 
auger, agreeably with the number of rails, and their 
weight or size, as a light or heavily constructed fence 
is wanted. The lower pin is pointed at both ends, 
and should be forced in tight, so as to attach the bot¬ 
tom end of the stakes and keep out wet. If for an 
outside, or fence to turn hogs, the bottom hole in the 
stakes is bored two feet from the end—if inside or 
temporary, where hogs or sheep are not to run, two 
and a half or three feet. To one of these pins, I at¬ 
tach two stakes, and set them in the ground at my 
beginning, firmly, twenty or twenty-two inches, and 
lay on a rail, the forward end ol which will show 
where to set the next pair of stakes, arid thus I lay 
out the foundation. If I am making a tight, stand¬ 
ing fence, I then, on this foundation, lay three or 
four more rails, according to their thickness; if a 
meadow or inside, one or two, fitting them neatly in 
their lap between the stakes, with an axe, so as to 
have the stakes to touch each rail if I can. I then 
begin again at my first joint, and with a rope noosed 
at one end, throw it over the top, and draw the stakes 
tight together, and adjust the joint properly; then 
with an inch or larger auger, bore another hole straight 
through the middle of the stakes as they stand, so°as 
to touch the top rail; here another pin is driven, 
which must have a head at one end, and be fastened 
at the other with a light nail, set a little into the out¬ 
side of the stake; take off the rope when the joint 
is thus firmly pinned up, and thus go over the whole ; 
when you may put above this pin just as many more 
rails as you please; and, if it suits you, put in a third 
pin on the top, or one rail below the top, which will both 
strengthen your fence, and prevent a mischievous beast 
from lifting it. A joint with three pins, not 
set in the ground or railed, has this aspect; 
the proportions between the pins being as 
three to two feet, apart; after the fence is 
made, the sharp ends of the pins should be 
cut off, to prevent mischief. 
The labor of making the improved fence, when 
equally familiarized to the mode, is less, at first setting, 
than cutting and splitting trunnels, and procuring the 
mass of timber required by the worm. To say nothing 
of its better appearance, I will state only the follow¬ 
ing advantages. 
1st. Saving of land. —A worm fence requires from 
five to six feet in width from the foot of each outer 
stake ; the improved fence, only the thickness of the 
rails, say five to eight inches. This will save acres 
in a large farm. 
2d. Saving of timber. —A joint of this, (rails 11 ft. 
long,) reaches over ten feet fiom centre to centre: 
of the first, with a safe lap and the usual worm, quite 
one-eighth less ; so that 100 pannels of the worm will 
make at least 112 to 114 of the improved fence, rat¬ 
ing the same number of rails to each joint: but, I find 
four good rails in a panriel to make an excellent fence 
against horses and neat cattle, thus saving the useless 
bottom rails of the worm. Trunnells also are saved, 
and as my fence never settles into the ground, the 
bottom rail of the old worm which generally comes 
out rotten, when new set, is always saved. I think 
I save more than one-third of my timber by this me¬ 
thod. 
3d. In the highest winds, I have never had a joint 
to blow down in the improved', this rates annually to 
the labor-saving account. 
4th. In cases of altering or moving, the posts are 
taken up without unpinning, and the labor of setting 
them in another place is trifling. 
5th. Hedges and trash, briars, &c. have no room 
for growth in the joints ; mowing is easily performed 
under them, and stopping against very small pigs be¬ 
tween the rails, is easily effected with a few poles of 
suitable length. 
Its duration depends on the material used. I get 
cedar poles six or eight inches thick for the stakes— 
cut them in summer, when the bark slips easily, and 
lay them straight in heaps to season well, and I think 
they will last twenty years. Chestnut is perhaps 
better, and white oak and chestnut oak from heart 
logs are very durable. 
Some may perhaps imagine, that this fence cannot 
be made with crooked rails; I have found by much 
practice, that I can use them better and confine them 
to their places better, than I can in a worm fence; 
straight and even rails, will make the handsomest, 
and perhaps the strongest fence in this, as in all others; 
but I think that any rails that will make other fences, 
may be used as advantageously in this. 
Now, sir, you can, without the risk of offence, try a 
process of “combustion” with the above effusion; or 
give it to your readers, as may seem best to you. 
Your ob’t serv’t, D. ALLlNSON. 
The Centrifugal Disseminator. 
New-Brunswick, N. J. June 13, 1838. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Sir— I observe, in the 2d number of 
this year’s Cultivator, an inquiry of Samuel Howard, 
whether there is any mode of spreading lime, at the 
rate of twenty bushels an acre, other than that of do¬ 
ing it with the hands 1 Mr. Howard’s inquiry is that 
ol every enlightened farmer, anxiously engaged in 
improving the soil by top-dressings. Their difficul¬ 
ties are, the uncertainty of the quantity, the unequal 
distribution, and the very unpleasant labor attending 
the ordinary methods. I have sadly partaken of these 
difficulties, and it is therefore a matter of high satis¬ 
faction to me, that I am enabled to announce to the 
public the important fact, of the invention of an in¬ 
strument that will not only remove the objections to 
the former methods, but enable us to effect the same 
improvement of land with a saving of at least twenty 
per cent of manure. 
Within a few days, we have had an exhibition in 
the city of New-Brunswick, of an instrument that 
may be attached to either a wagon or a cart, patent¬ 
ed by the name of the Centrifugal Disseminator, a 
diagram of which I send you, sufficiently perfect to 
give an idea of its principle. 
[Fig. No. 47.] 
It spreads lime, ashes, composts, marl and plaster, 
wfith almost perfect evenness, and at the rate you 
will, from one bushel to one hundred. It is also cal¬ 
culated to sow grain and grass seed. 
A company in this city purchased the patent right 
for the counties of Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Morris, 
Warren, Sussex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Middle¬ 
sex, of this state; and have appointed Joseph Cast- 
ner, (carriage-maker of this place,) as their agent, to 
sell the right to counties or townships. He furnishes 
the machines complete with hoppers, at twenty-five 
dollars. Respectfully yours, 
W. MYER. 
SPECIFICATION. 
In order to enable a workman to construct one of 
my Centrifugal Disseminators, a frame, A, must be 
made of sufficient strength for the work required; 
and consists of two uprights, with two or more girts, 
placed horizontally, and secured to the cart by bolts 
and screws, B, the upper one of which rests on the 
top rails of the cart, the lower girts being under its 
bed, to support the shafts of the revolving platform, 
C, which may be about four feet diameter, made of 
sheet iron or boards, and has radiating cleats, to 
strengthen the platform, and give additional force to 
the distribution of materials; the lower pivot of the 
upright shafts which pass through the centre of the 
platform, rests on the lower girt, D ; a horizontal driv¬ 
ing shaft, F, is so placed, that a cog wheel, G, there¬ 
on, may work into a pinion, E, placed on the upright 
shaft, the upper part of which is steadied by the frame. 
On the outward end of the driving shaft, is placed a 
friction pulley, H, which is pressed against the peri¬ 
phery of the cart wheel, by means of a lever, I, at¬ 
tached to the frame, by the friction of which pulley, 
the revolving platform is made to disseminate whate¬ 
ver is placed thereon, when the cart is drawn by oxen, 
horses or other means. 
Draining—Dad practices among Dutchess Farmers. 
Judge Buel —Dear Sir—There is an article in the 
June number of the Cultivator,, on the “best method 
of disposing of loose stones,” by a correspondent in 
Ulster county. I think 1 can suggest a better “ me¬ 
thod” than the one he has adopted. There are on 
most farms, at least in this part of the state, wet 
spots, and springy places in hollows at the base of 
hills, and often in the middle of tillage lots and mea¬ 
dows, which it is difficult to cultivate to advantage 
on account of the coldness of the soil, occasioned by 
the superabundance of moisture, near the surface, 
and within the reach of the roots of the plants. Eve¬ 
ry practical farmer knows that the value of land is 
much lessened by the prevalence of such wet and 
cold places, besides the inconvenience of having in 
his fields every here and there a patch that is too 
wet to plough, or if ploughed and sown as is com¬ 
monly done, nothing of consequence is ever reaped 
from them, because in the spring, or freezing and 
thawing weather, the grain or grass is sure to be 
thrown out, and of course dies. Now, to make such 
land dry and suitable for tillage, some means must be 
devised to get rid of the water, which is the cause of 
the evil. Draining must be resorted to in order to 
effect it. 
The common practice is, and has been from time 
immemorial, to drain such wet places where the grain 
winters out as it is termed, to strike furrows promis¬ 
cuously, so that the water may settle in those fur¬ 
rows and run off, so as to leave the surface partially 
dry. This is done after the rest of the field has been 
made as smooth as the harrow can make it. The 
practice I consider a bad one, and but a half way 
method of doing business. It renders the surface 
uneven and bad for the passage of the cart or wa¬ 
gon over it, and if designed for mowing, it mars that 
evenness of surface which constitutes the beauty 
and excellence of such lands, and which is the object 
of every good farmer to obtain, by the use of the har¬ 
row and the roller. Now, on all such wet places as 
above described, and which occur on almost every 
farm of a hundred acres in this country, I would dis¬ 
pose of my “loose stones” by digging trenches or 
drains, and filling them to within a foot or eighteen 
inches of the surface, so as to clear the plough. In 
this way, with little expense, two objects can be ob¬ 
tained, viz: the disposing ofloose stone, and the free¬ 
ing the earth of too much moisture; both of which 
are of the utmost importance in farming. I do not 
conceive that much art is necessary in forming un¬ 
derdrains of this description; all that is required, is 
to have them cut in the right places, and at the pro¬ 
per depths. The filling process is but a short job. 
I fill in this manner: take two of the longest and 
flattest, and set them on end with the bottoms apart 
so as to form a channel in the centre, with .•.* ... •,*. 
the tops leaning together, in this manner, 
and then fill in with others, so as to prevent 
them from falling. Shavings from the carpenter’s 
shop I think the best to put on the stones previous to 
filling with earth ; inverted sods or straw will answer, 
perhaps, where shavings cannot be obtained. In this 
way I have disposed of many loads of “ loose stone,” 
and intend to many more, having just made a begin¬ 
ning, enough however, to test the utility of the plan, 
andfor the knowledge of which I own myself indebt- 
