144 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
decay takes place first in the heart wood. In further 
support of the new theory, reference is made to the 
fact, that chesnut rails, which are usually made m 
summer, last a great number of years,whilst posts made 
of the same materia], which are generally prepared in 
winter, rot in seven or eight years. As a mode of 
ascertaining the season at which the ancients cut 
their trees, it is suggested, that on examination of an¬ 
cient timber it will appear, that the powder post, as 
it is called, and the dry rot, will be found in the albur¬ 
num, and that the interior of the heart wood will be 
found perfectly unaffected. The following experi¬ 
ment is mentioned as illustrative of the effect produc¬ 
ed on the outer or inner portion of the wood, accord¬ 
ing to the season of cutting. Take two saplings, one 
of which has been cut in June and one in December. 
By placing a piece of each in the garret, and a piece 
of each in the cellar, it will be found in about three 
years, that in the garret the powder post will have 
appeared in the alburnum of the one cut in June, and 
in the heart wood of that cut in December, whilst, in 
the cellar, the dry rot will exist in accordance with 
the same rule. The conclusion to which the waiter 
comes is, that June is the best time for cutting ship 
timber, and that in proportion as we recede from that 
month will be its liability to decay. The subject is 
one of vast practical importance, and there is reason 
to believe that the perishable character of the wood 
of our country used for ships, is to be attributed, in a 
very great degree, to the fact of its being cut in win¬ 
ter.” 
On an Economical mode of Furrow-Draining. 
[From the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.'] 
Every attempt at the introduction of economy in farm¬ 
ing operations, if founded on practice, deserves com¬ 
mendation. On this ground, the following economical 
mode of making furrow-drains claims especial attention 
from those whose locality affords flat stones. 
Suppose a piece of land containing two ridges, of 15 
feet each, one whole ridge and two half ridges, divided 
by two furrows. The drain is made in this manner:— 
Gather up the ridges with a four-horse plough, to make 
these furrows wide and deep. If gathered from lea, a 
crop may be taken the year previous to the commence¬ 
ment of the drainage. This ploughing leaves the fur¬ 
rows 16 inches wide at the bottom, and if the furrow- 
slice a a, fig. 52, on each side, has been ploughed one 
foot deep, and laid over at an angle of 45 degrees, their 
tops will be 32 inches apart. A line stretched from the 
crown of one ridge to that of another, will give the depth 
of the ploughed furrows 22 inches below the crowns of 
the ridges. This ploughing is only a preparation for the 
ultimate making of the drain. The drain is then made in 
this manner, on strong clay soils, which alone can re¬ 
sist the abrading effects of running water. Leave a 
scarcement of one inch on each side of the bottom 
of the furrow left by the plough. Cut out the earth 14 
inches wide, perpendicularly, with the common spade, 10 
inches in depth, b b. Then throw out the bottom of the 
drain with a narrow-pointed spade, 5 inches more in 
°ver with plough and spade, like any other drain. The 
Expense of the spade-work is about the same as of fig. 
52; the stone- work will of course be more, but how much 
more has not been so accurately ascertained as to be 
confidently given to the public. Even at £2 per Scotch 
acre, this would be a substantial and cheap method of 
furrow-draining. 
T. S. 
depth, e, and 4 inches in width, leaving a scarcement of 
5 inches on each side of the spade; and the cutting of 
the drain, whose bottom is now 37 inches below the 
crowns of the ridges, is then completed. The drain 
thus made is filled in this way:—Take thin stones, such 
as strong grey slates, or thin flags, and place them upon 
the 5-inch scarcements left by the narrow spade, as d; 
they need not be dressed at the joints, for one stone can 
be made to overlap the ends of two others. They form 
the top of the conduit through which the water in the 
drain flows under them. The drain then may be filled 
up in the usual manner, with the plough and spade. 
The expense of making this kind of drain is, for spade¬ 
work, 6 d. per rood of 36 yai'ds in length. A Scotch 
acre contains 32 roods of furrow, at 15 feet apart, which 
gives 16s. for spade-work; 12 tons of flags, of an inch 
thick, will cover the 32 roods, which, at 4d. per ton, is 
4s. more.—in all 20s. per Scotch acre, including the lay¬ 
ing of the flags, which is estimated in valuing the spade- 
work. Fig. 52, will give an idea of this drain, after 
the above description. 
Fig. 52. 
Fig. 53. 
FT 
e 
The drain represented in fig. 53, is thus made, and it 
is applicable to every species of soil. After ploughing 
the furrow, as already described, the spade takes out a 
trench from the bottom of the ploughed furrow, 8 inch¬ 
es wide at c, 16 inches deep/ - , and 3 inches wide at the 
bottom g. The depth will thus be 38 inches below the 
crowns of the ridges. This drain is filled with flags h 
h, set on edge, meeting at the bottom of the drain, re¬ 
clining against the sides, and kept asunder by a stone 
of any shape, acting like a wedge between the flags, as 
represented in the figure. The remainder of the drain 
is filled with riddled stones, the riddlings being kept on 
the top, and covered with any matter, and then earthed 
On Making Draining Tiles of Peat. 
[From the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.] 
An ingenious spade has lately been invented by Mr. 
Hugh Caldarwood, Blackbyres, Kenwick, Ayrshire, 
for cutting draining tiles of peat. The instrument is 
worked very easily, and forms the tile with one cut of 
the spade ; the tiles being cut one out of the other expe¬ 
ditiously, and without waste of material. Their shape 
is something like clay tiles, but more massy. They are 
dried in the sun during summer, lying flat on the ground, 
and may be stacked like peats, ready for use when requir¬ 
ed. When properly dried and hardened, wetness will not 
soften or decompose them. Peats are frequently found 
in mosses which have been buried long ago by accident, 
still hard and fresh; and those that have been used for 
draining upwards of thirty years ago, have been taken 
out of the drains unimpaired and solid. It has even 
been asserted, that a well dried peat has been boiled for 
six months in a boiler at Catrine Cotton-works, which 
was taken out after that period solid and uninjured. 
There is no doubt, however, of the capability of dried 
peat to resist moisture. The large stacks of peat form¬ 
ed for the use of families in Ireland, where coal is un¬ 
usual or scarce, are never thatched. The invention 
of this spade tends to render the draining of moorish 
lands more practicable than hitherto, as with it a farm¬ 
er may cast two or three thousand tiles a day, within a 
very short distance of the ground he intends to drain, at 
one-fourth or one-fifth less expense than he could fur¬ 
nish himself with the same number of clay tiles; the 
frequent want of clay in such districts rendering the 
manufacture of clay tiles at hand impossible; and the 
cartage of them from the kiln to a great distance to the 
land is at all times an expensive operation. When laid 
in the trench, the peat tiles are placed with their groov¬ 
ed faces opposite each other, one of them serving as a 
sole, as in the figure. We understand 
that a considerable number of Calder- 
wood’s spades have been working this 
season in Ayrshire; and if experience 
prove their utility, they will no doubt 
get into general use in peaty districts. 
Specimens of the tiles and spade have 
been lodged in the museum of those en¬ 
terprising friends of agriculture, Messrs. 
Drummond, Stirling, and we believe 
they may also be seen in the hands of 
Messrs. Samson and Company, seeds- 
Fig. 54. 
men, Kilmarnock. 
The article which follows goes to prove three facts, of 
primary importance to the farmer, which we have 
strenuously endeavored to inculcate, viz : 
Fhst, That the resources for manure, on almost every 
farm, are sufficiently abundant, when properly hus¬ 
banded and applied, to keep up, or improve, its fer¬ 
tility ; 
Secondly, That blending unfermented dung with earth, 
or the soil, accelerates its decomposition; while, 
Thirdly. A vast amount of fertilizing matter is saved 
by such admixture being made, before fermentation 
has taken place —the earth “ absorbing and retaining 
that excess of putrescent fluids and effluvia which is 
otherwise lost by filtration and evaporation; that is, 
by soaking away and drying up.” 
[From the Farmer’s Cabinet.] 
Manure. 
WHAT IS THE GREATEST QUANTITY OE MANURE TO BE 
OBTAINED FROM GIVEN MEANS ? 
Mr. Editor —There are in agriculture, as perhaps 
in every science, some leading propositions, calculated 
in a particular manner to arrest attention by their pro¬ 
minent importance. Such I hold that of a “ Subscriber” 
in your May number—“ What will an acre of land pro¬ 
duce and also the question which heads this article. 
Were it possible at once to afford a complete and pal¬ 
pable solution to these two propositions, what mind can 
calculate the vast increase of treasures that would in¬ 
stantly become accessible to humanity ? As, then, we 
cannot inquire too strictly, or know too much regarding 
them, I propose, after recapitulating a few of the prin¬ 
cipal statements of a “ Subscriber,” concerning the latter 
question, to furnish my own experiments upon the for¬ 
mer. 
He informs us that a single acre of his land, with 
abundant manuring and superior cultivation, was made 
to produce the sum of $348.40 per annum, for five suc¬ 
cessive years, besides the vegetables used in a small 
family. He further states, in substance, as his present 
conviction, that the quantity of soil cultivated has nothing 
to do with the secret of gathering money out of it; that 
“ this altogether depends on a judicious selection of soil, 
on the facility of obtaining manure, and on the proper 
application of it as food for plants,” &c.;—that he found, 
by actual experiment, made upon a large scale, “ that 
the profit of capital laid out in land produced an inter* 
of only five per cent per annum, the capital laid out 
manure upon the same land produced twenty per cen 
Now, my own experience, as I shall presently shoi 
abundantly comfirms the probable accuracy of all the 
statements. Let us distinctly understand, then, that 
is not the great quantity of land, but the abundance■ 
manure upon a little, that is alone required to give weai; 
and independence; that the man who owns five or 
acres, may (according to the above data,) with the . 
of manure and good management, draw from $1,800 
$2,000 from them each year, while he of a hundr 
acres may scarcely obtain half of it upon the comm 
plan. 
But where is the requisite manure to be obtained till 
shall so suddenly and surely enrich the farmer? In ] 
ply to this, I will simply give my own experience, e 
by it endeavor to convince the reflecting farmer w 
amount can, and in fact has been made from means 
comparably more limited than is generally imagined p 
sible. 
Previous to 1829,1 had followed in Philadelphia a 
dentary occupation, which, by excessive application 
it, had so enfeebled my constitution, that I was oblig 
to seek in the country for that measure of health whi«: 
I might no longer hope for in the city. So I bouglj 
with my scanty savings, a small place of ten and a hi 
acres, and moved upon it the same fall of 1829. 
Not being acquainted with farming, I hired a man „ 
plough two and a half acres, and sow it in rye. TJ i 
cost of seed and labor, in putting in, gathering ais ; f 
thrashing the said crop, was $8.56. The crop yield#; 
five and a half bushels of very poor black rye, fit on j 
for hay feed—say at forty cents per bushel, (as goo 
rye was then selling at fifty and fifty-six cents p 
bushel,) was worth $2.20, and the nett loss sustainc j 
upon farming the ground was $6.36. The season we in 
moderately good for grain, and the two and a half acr< 
rather a favorable specimen of the rest of my lane 
I planted a potato patch the following spring, (1830,) 
about the fourth of an acre, 
hills with one load of marl 
but three and a half bushels! 
which I manured in tl fi 
and the crop yielde j. 
Being a total stranger to : the nature and character c 
i 
soils, but having previously, from some cause, entel 
tained the notion that land in general produced abo» 
twenty-five bushels of wheat, or forty bushels of cod 
or four or five loads of hay to the acre, the conviction « 
had now received of the absolute worthlessness of ir , 
land fell upon me like the shock of a thunder-clap. DI 
couraged by the greatness of my disappointment, bil 
not quite confounded, I determined that manure, in f | 
ture, should be every thing ti me, and stand in th 
stead of both land and crop. Being greatly improved 1 y 
health, by the change of situation and exercise, I plie 
my avocation with increased diligence for the maint 
nance of my family, and made it the amusement of mi 
leisure hours and leisure moments to collect from ever ! 
corner, and pannel of fence, every thing that I imagine J 1 
could furnish a vegetable nutriment, and placed it i 
the cow yard, so combined with the litter as to absor j 1 
and retain every thing of the putrescent character thd 
might be deposited there. By such means I have got] 
on, every year increasing the quantity of my manure, 1, 
an extent that I believe astonished most of my neig^ 
bors. The following is a sketch of the means I posses: 
ed, and the methods I took to obtain manure for the prt t! 
sent year. 
I commenced last summer by collecting into the outf 
part of my hog pen every thing of the weed kind I coul 
find about the place, till I had a layer about twelvl 
inches deep, which I covered with a layer of earth abor 
five inches thick, continuing the process till the pen w» 
filled to about two and a half feet deep. In the fall I 1 
littered my loose corncobs and the principal part of tht 
buckwheat straw into the pen, interspersed with layeK 1 
of earth in the same manner. The two stalls of mysts 
bles I served also the same, taking care to save thereie 
all the chaff and refuse straw after thrashing. In thes 
stalls I poured weekly, through the fall and winter, (fd 
I had no cattle in them except in bad storms,) the soap 
suds and such putrescent fluids that might be obtainew 
keeping the corners and outsides, and under the man 
gers carefully saturated. 
As soon as my corn was gathered in the fall, I cut th: 
stubs close to the ground, and wheeled them immedi 
ately, while yet heavy, into the barn-yard, where I pack 
ed them in every part of it, and also under the shed, b<i 
ing an area of ground about forty feet by twenty, and i 
a few days covered them also with a layer of eartlU 
from a fence-row, close by, to the depth of about eigh; 
or ten inches. Upon this earth I foddered my thre - 
cattle during the winter, occasionally depositing mon 
earth upon the litter as it collected there. 
Your readers will readily judge, that the object of all 
this preparation was not so much for the sake of savinii 
the materials collected there as to obtain a menstruuim 
or rather sponge, if I may so call it, calculated to absorb 
and retain all the urine deposited in the yard during th) * 
winter. The compost masses, however, or layers, thui 
collected together, are not to be considered as manurt 
prepared for the soil, but only as materials that require 
to be thoroughly mixed, in order to reduce them to i 
state fitted for a rapid and complete incorporation with 
the soil. Accordingly, with this view, I commenced lati 
in April the operation of turning it, which, from its hasi 
ing become closely packed to the depth of twenty inchess 
with the stalks at the bottom, could only be done with 
the aid of a grubbing hoe, turning it in strips about t 
foot wide, reaching across the yard, and throwing th! 
