A Hint to the Publisher and Friends of the 
Cultivator. 
Lake C. H. Ia. Oct. 20th, 1839. 
Hon. J. Buel— Dear Sir—I have adopted a plan with 
the Prospectus of the seventh volume, that promises 
much usefulness. You offer agents from 10 to 25 per 
cent upon subscriptions obtained. All wrong—wrong 
to offer a greater premium for a large number than a 
small one. One may exert himself more in one place 
to obtain ten subscribers than another would in another 
place to obtain a hundred. But more than all, it is 
wrong to offer any per cent. What? am I to believe 
that the spirit of agricultural improvement is so low, 
that the friends of such a paper as the Cultivator are so 
much more beset with the love of money than the good 
cause that we are engaged in, that they must be paid 
for asking their neighbors to read and be enlightened? 
I will not believe it. And as for your “ per cent,” for 
one, I will have none of it. But I tell you what I will 
do, since you can afford to pay it, I will take it, and 
PAY THE POSTAGE ON THE VOLUME WITH IT. TllUS, I 
endorsed upon the prospectus, as follows: 
“ Take Notice —As I charge no commission, one 
dollar in advance will pay the subscription, and the post¬ 
age, upon this volume of the Cultivator.” 
Are there not hundreds who are as willing as I am to 
help the good cause along, and “charge no commis¬ 
sion?” I assume to answer in the affirmative. The 
“ hint,” then, that I would make to you is, that you 
should say to every person in whose hands a prospectus 
may come, whether they obtain a greater or less num¬ 
ber of subscribers, to take enough out to pay the post¬ 
age. And the “hint” that I wish to give the friends 
of the Cultivator is, to practice upon my “no commis¬ 
sion” principle. Thousands will take the paper upon 
these terms, that would not take it and pay the postage, 
extra. Try it, I pray you ; I am sure I cannot he mis¬ 
taken. To every gratuitous agent who obtains such a 
number of subscribers that you can afford him a gratui¬ 
tous paper, no doubt he will accept it with pleasure. 
But the grand object must not be lost sight of by the 
conductor and friends of the paper, that is, to increase 
the circulation as far as possible, and no better plan 
than the one I have adopted, I believe can be adopted. 
I remain, as usual, your friend, &e. 
SOLON ROBINSON. 
Advertising. 
Judge Warner has my thanks for his kindness in giv¬ 
ing publicity to the preventive he has so successfully 
used for bloody murrain; I have used ashes for horses 
and hogs all my life, but not for cattle; I am now try¬ 
ing it, and will, God willing, try it effectually. 
You have deprived me of an argument that I have 
hitherto used in favor of your valuable paper, in order 
to get subscribers; and that was, that it was indeed and 
in truth what it purported to be, not an advertising sheet, 
but devoted to the cultivation of the mind and soil. Now, 
sir, we wish to bind our numbers as a book of future 
reference, and we have no wish to bind a bundle of ad¬ 
vertisements; besides, the advertisement of “A Splendid 
Country Seat in the Highlands, on the Hudson River,” 
and such like, must be of little importance to a vast 
majority of your readers. I would not, sir, by any means 
be considered as marking out the course of the Cultiva¬ 
tor or its able editor; but instead of one page of each 
number being nearly filled with advertisements, would 
it not be better for those wishing it to pay for a quar¬ 
terly extra sheet, to be styled the “Cultivator Adver¬ 
tiser?” Indeed, it seems to me they might very well 
afford it, seeing that your valuable paper is read in 
nearly all the States and Territories of the Union, and 
in the British Provinces of North America. 
The above is, sir, submitted to the consideration of 
your superior judgment, and hope it will be received in 
the same spirit that it is written, and from the sole mo- 
tive of benefitting mankind in general, and your readers 
in particular, by the perusal of “ many valuable essays 
from other periodicals,” instead of such advertisements 
as the above. Yours most respectfully, 
AUGUSTUS H. F. PAYNE. 
Black Locust Grove, Sept. 21, 1839. 
We would inform our correspondent, that in order to re¬ 
medy the evil complained of above, in our next volume we 
intend to dispense with advertisements, and probably print 
a semi-annual or quarterly advertising sheet, which may be 
done with as our subscribers think proper, providing suffi¬ 
cient encouragement is given to warrant us in so doing. — 
Cond. 
On Hay Making. 
Clinton College, \7lh Sept. 1839. 
Hon. J. Buel —Dear Sir—In the August number of 
the inestimable Cultivator for the present year, p. 121, 
I see a revolving horserake recommended by Mr. Dex¬ 
ter. Of the advantages of this rake I am not informed, 
such improvements in the implements of husbandry not 
having yet reached this western country; but if my 
view be correct, of the best and most economical mode 
of making hay, we have, perhaps, no need of a rake of 
any kind. I therefore write for information, and am 
willing at the same time to benefit others as far as I 
can. I shall detail briefly my plan, with the hope that 
if any of your numerous readers have a better, they 
will favor me and the public with theirs, through the 
• Cultivator. I have travelled some, and read a little, for 
agricultural information, and have practised, as circum¬ 
stances would allow, upon those plans which my oppor¬ 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
tunities have taught me are the best. Hay making has 
been, with me, a subject of close attention: and my 
plan, as taught me in Kentucky and elsewhere, and con¬ 
firmed by experience, is this: As fast as the grass is 
cut, (when there is no dew or moisture on it,) as many 
hands follow the scythes, as can keep close up to the 
scythes, in shocking or cocking the hay in its perfectly 
green state. If the sun does not shine on or wilt the hay 
at all, so much the better, and for that reason it must 
be shocked as fast as it is cut. The shocks are made 
about six feet high and six feet wide at the base, and 
tapering like a cone to the top, and then dragged down 
with the fork to make them turn rain. All this can be 
speedily done with the hay fork, one hand being able to 
gather and shock three acres, or six tons, per day. The 
rake spoken of may do better than this, but I doubt it, 
and should like for Mr. Dexter, or some one else, to 
specify the amount a hand can rake and shock per day 
with that instrument. 
As you remark, I never spread the hay, but proceed 
to shock after the scythe as fast as it is cut, by follow¬ 
ing along the swath, and with a fork, rolling the hay 
till I get as much as I can raise on the fork, when I 
pitch it on the shock. Thus I continue to carry as 
many swaths to a row of shocks as will complete them. 
I always roll towards the shocks to save walking with 
the hay, which is laborious. This plan of collecting 
the hay will be more approved, when you understand 
an improvement I have made in the mode of cutting hay. 
I do not mow with the scythe, as is common, but I cra¬ 
dle the hay, (as will be explained,) which throws all 
the grass into swaths double as large as those made in 
the usual way, and hence the hay is already collected 
into sorts of winrows by the cradle, so that the rake is 
not needed. 
For cutting hay, make a cradle with two fingers only. 
Let the one nearest the scythe be 7 inches shorter than 
the blade, and so arranged as to let its point nearly 
touch the blade; let the second finger be 7 inches short¬ 
er than the former, and arranged so that its point may 
come in one inch of touching the first finger, and you 
are now ready for business. In cradling, do not mow, 
but give the usual stroke of cradling grain, only take 
care to set your cradle in no further than you can carry 
out with ease. In cradling grain close to the ground, 
you have to squat a little in making the stroke, proceed 
the same way in grass, and you shave it to the ground. 
I know that the farmers of the old states, who have 
made hay all their lives, will laugh at this plan, and 
particularly at the idea of a Tennessean proposing to 
show them something new in cutting hay. They will 
argue, that a cradle will be too heavy, and that it will 
tangle, and cannot work in dense hay. Let them try it. 
The denser the grass the less you must cut at a stroke, 
and your cradle will go easily through, thick and thin. 
But the great advantages of the improvement remain to 
be told. They are no less than three. 1st. In this way 
you cut twice as much in a swath as in the common 
way of mowing, and then the grass is all collected into 
a winrow as you proceed, and not left scattered as the 
scythe would do it. Thus the labor of raking is saved, 
and less of the hay is left on the ground at the end of 
the process, Besides, the cradle cuts it perfectly clean 
under the swath, which few hands will do with the 
mowing scythe. 
2d. The process is less laborious than mowing. No 
man who ever cradled hay would mow, if you gave him 
his choice as to the mode of cutting. 
3d. A hand can cut double as much in the day as he 
can do with the mowing scythe. If a hand can mow one 
acre per day, he will cradle two acres of the same grass 
with less labor. 
I have tried this plan but one season, having cradled 
about fifty acres of timothy alone, and of clover and 
timothy mixed. The cradle does so well in these kinds 
of grass, that I expect to have no use for mowing scythes 
hereafter in making hay, unless the plan should fail in 
herdsgrass or redtop. I have not tried it in that grass, 
as I have grazed my herdsgrass this year, instead cf 
cutting it for hay. I wish my brother farmers to try 
this plan effectually, with a strong cradle blade, and let 
me hear from them next summer, in the Cultivator. 
But to return to the process of curing hay. Having 
shocked as before described, (I mean timothy or herds¬ 
grass,) I let it remain for six days, when I run my hand 
to the centre of each shock ; if I find them still cool, I 
do not disturb them, but if any are warm, I put the 
left hand on the top of the shock, while the right is 
thrust to the centre, and turn the upper half down to the 
ground, so carefully as not to disturb its form, and leave 
it inverted. In an hour or two, the whole is cool, and 
I then take hold in the same manner and place it back 
on the shock as it was before. Not more than one 
shock in twenty will ever get warm at all, (most of 
them curing fine and green without heating.) and none 
will need turning down more than once. In this way, 
your hay has three signal advantages over that made 
by spreading and curing in the sun. 1st. It costs not 
more than half the labor of spreading and shocking re¬ 
peatedly till dry. 2d. You run no risk of getting any 
injured or lost by rain. 3d. You get more hay both by 
weight and measure, and the quality of it is far better 
than can be made in the sunshine and open air, both of 
which dissipate much of the nutritious virtue of the 
hay. Yes, much more of the virtue of most of the 
products of the farm is lost by exposure to the air, than 
is generally believed. You have to be particular to cut 
and shock ychen there is no dew or rain on the grass, 
(for if wet it will heat)-^-examine it once in six days— 
and be sure to let it be well cured before you stack it, 
181 
and you cannot fail to make the best of hay, in any sea¬ 
son, without injury or loss. 
When I make clover hay, I follow the foregoing plan 
in all respects, till it is shocked. Then I haul and stack 
it perfectly green, in large stacks, taking care to salt 
and tramp it well while stacking. I use about as much 
salt as the cattle would require while eating the hay, 
say 50 lbs to a stack 16 feet high and 14 feet at the base. 
In five or six days the stack becomes hot and smokes 
profusely, but in two or three weeks it will have “gone 
through the sweat,” and be found perfectly dry and 
sweet. The less wilted before stacked, the less it heats 
and the better the hay it makes. By this process the 
hay is of a dark green color, and all kinds of stock will 
eat it greedily and thrive upon it. It shrinks but little 
in curing and looses no leaves, and is in all respects bet¬ 
ter for cattle, horses or sheep, than clover cured in the 
open air. Respectfully, 
FRANCIS H. GORDON. 
P. S. In your March number, page 13, Mr. Brewer 
recommends Robert Rittenhouse & Co.’s Patent Clover 
machine. From his letter, I admire Mr. B. as a farmer, 
and should be glad to learn from him or yourself, 
1st. What amount of seed the machine will clean per 
day? 
2d. Is it worked by horse or human power? 
3d. How many hands are required to attend it? 
4th. Does it get all the seed out of the chaff? 
5th. What is its weight? how large or what space 
does it occupy? 
6th. Can a common farmer keep it in order, or does 
it require a workman ? 
7th. Can one be had in Philadelphia, Baltimore or 
New-York city, and to whom should I apply. 
Last year I made one hundred bushels of clover seed, 
but the process of tramping with horses is so tedious 
and so disagreeable, that I feel discouraged, and should 
be pleased to learn a better plan ; I therefore shall be 
happy to learn the particulars of this machine. 
Flan for Drawing Water. 
[Fig. No. 45.] 
Yankee Chapel, Posey Co. Ia. Sept. 16, 1839. 
Mu. Buel —Sir—If you think the within plan for 
drawing water of any public importance, you would 
confer a favor by publishing it in the Cultivator, as 
there are many situations where it could be used to ad¬ 
vantage, and its cost would be less than a pump, and 
not so likely to be rendered useless in frosty weather; 
and its being above ground renders it more easily re- 
(paired, when out of order, than either pumps or pipes; 
and may be used either in a well or spring, brook or 
river, and the fact that a person may stand within doors 
and bring the water is an agreeable circumstance in 
stormy weather. The above plan was suggested to me 
by an intelligent Frenchman, who informed me that he 
saw it in use in Naples. The figure 1 denotes the well 
or water; 2 the bucket; 3 the sheth block, which should 
be of cast iron, with 3 sheths or wheels in it; those at 
the ends, marked 10 and 11, should be 2£ or 3 inches 
diameter; the one in the centre, marked 9, about 2 in¬ 
ches diameter; 4 is a post, which should be vei 3 r firm, 
and an arm in it, to which a strong wire is made fast, 
and so arranged as to be tightened or strained by a screw 
in the arm of the post; the wire, marked 5, is made fast 
at the other end immediately over the spot where the 
water is to be brought; No. 6 is a cord made fast at one 
end to the bucket, passed through the block and over 
the wheel No. 10, and then over a wheel in a block No. 
8, which block is made last near the point where the 
bucket is to stop; then the end or fall of the cord may 
be put to a windlass or drawn by hand; the wheel No. 
11 runs on top of the wire, and that marked 9 runs un¬ 
der the wire; there should be a small notch directly 
over the spot where the bucket is to stop, into which the 
wheel No. 11 drops, and renders it stationary, while the 
bucket descends; and a spring or lever is brought to 
act on the wheel No. 11, by pulliug a cord for the purpose 
of raising it out of the notch, when it is desired to have 
the bucket return to the well or water, which it will 
immediately do the moment the wheel No. 11 is lifted 
out of the notch, when it will continue to descend until 
it comes in contact with a projection at the end of the 
wire, over the well, when it becomes stationary, and 
the cord gently passes over the wheel No. 10, and lets 
the bucket fill; then upon drawing the cord until the 
bucket comes up and in contact with the lower end of 
the block, all begins to ascend the wire to the desired 
spot; the block should be bent as shown by figure 7, 
as the wheels will work much better than if it was 
