114 
THE CULTIVATOR 
casting's decidedly superior to those described a year or 
two since in the Cultivator and N. G. Farmer; a very im¬ 
portant improvement consisting in a<to«bfeledge running 
round the edge of the bottom plate of each drum, form¬ 
ing a trough, which when fllletl with ashes, and the up¬ 
per part of the drum placed upon it with its edge in this 
trough, renders the whole perfectly smoke tight. The 
drums are also made as thin as practicable, ahdcostless, 
at the same time- they transmit the heat more readily. 
The weight of the whole castings, including ten drunife, 
is about 1,000 pounds; the price, 5 cents per pound; con¬ 
sequently the whole would cost about $50, though some¬ 
thing less is charged for the cash in hand. The drums 
Weigh 40 pounds, and cost $2 each. 
J. J. T. 
EXPERIMENTS IN VARIOUS MANURES. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —I have been testing 
the last six years, a few articles .as manures; should the 
result, being made known, etiify or proiit a few of your 
numerous subscribers, I shall feel myself compensated 
for this humble exertion to enrich the field of practical 
agriculture. The lots acted on were near a salt water 
, creek,a dark and stiff clay soil of six inches, resting upon 
a bright yellow clay bottom or substrata. 
Plaster —I have sovved yearly upon clover, from half 
to six bushels to the acre, leaving out occasionally a few 
lands; have sowed it upon fallow for corn and tobacco: 
have used it mixed with ashes upon the hill for to¬ 
bacco. I feel sorry to recant my former opinions, but 
upon repeated comparative trials, I have not seen enough 
to induce me to join at this time, in the general praise 
of gypsum; nevertheless, I shall still give it a farther 
trial. 
Lime. —From the great quantity of oyster shells, the 
cheapness and ease of burning and spreading, I promised 
myself to make my land as rich as it could be; after 
using it in various ways and quantities, to my great dis¬ 
appointment, I am at present impressed with the itlea 
that the smallest dust, (to my stiff soil,) will do the most 
good and the least injury. Some of my neighbors have 
used it by the thousand bushels, who are slow to praise 
it. I admire the binding quality of lime, plaster arul 
ashes, and I am a great stickler for liming in the way of 
whitewashing, and do my full part in that line; the ad¬ 
vantage is both perceptible and beneficiaU To those 
whose ability is not commensurate with their pride, I 
would recommend the adhevise, the whitening, the pre¬ 
servative effect of a smearing of lime (color that for the 
roof to suit taste with red ochre,) to your buildings of 
u'ood, to close the pores anil form a covering, and not your 
stiff clay, but when and where you may wish a bed of 
cement. 
Marl. —From an old oyster shellbank hundreds of 
loads have been hauled out; but slight, if any benefit 
where spread; but some to the bank, as it is more easily 
worked. 
Ashes _From coal and wood, I have and shall con¬ 
tinue to use, though it is really a poor manure, and de¬ 
cidedly injurious when plentifully spread. Oak leaves, 
and the scrapings of the woods, but of little value. 
Salt—I have found injurious in my few trials. 
Ho3 Hair _In corn hills, not a word in favor of; hog 
manure around tobacco plants, not worth applying; in 
the potatoe hill, giving a vine half an inch thick, over- 
five feel high, and a half bushel of potatoes—no, not a 
tuber or a sign of a potatoe, save the outlines of those 
planted. 
Chicken Coops. —^The manure from, the farmer’s best 
droppings; but like hen’s teeth, it is a scarce article. 
When applied in the potatoe hill, it produced a delicate 
vine a foot high, and gave from fifty to sixty potatoes to 
the hill. 
If I have failed in discerning virtue in the manures be¬ 
fore stated, I have not experimented in vain, inasmuch 
as I have applied an article (of little estimation with 
farmers hereabouts,) upon my tobacco lots, (whether the 
cause or medium, be it with the chemist—all the same to, 
the practical man,) whose verifying stimulating effects 
were astonishingly visible several hundred yards distant,, 
and this article is neither more nor less than chaff. I have 
• founil it great plowed in for tobacco;, good for corn when 
put in the hills; and the best crop and the finest potatoes 
I ever raised, were a shovel of chaff to the hill, when 
both corn and potatoes were planted in the same hill; 
the chaff was hauled from a neigbor’s yard; he loaning 
me his cart to move it out of his way, in addition to giv¬ 
ing it to me. Would you not take this as a proof that I 
have a kind neighbor, when I tell you his farm was hun¬ 
gry enough at the same time. Our lands have advanced 
in price and value over a hundred per cent in the last 
twenty years, and the action of plaster upon and with 
clover, receives unlimited praise for it; but my humble 
opinion, formed upon experience and observation, is that 
the greatest improvements are consequent upon the fair¬ 
est and fullest growth of clo ver before grazing, (and that 
not done too meanly,) so as to shade and mellow and re¬ 
turn much to lighten the soil; but all the close grazing 
and budding, with as much plaster as you will, will not 
improve my stiff soil. If to the above plan of vegetable 
manuring, you establish in your barnyard a regular place 
to deposit all vegetable articles proper for decomposition, 
and let your stock be the directors, or workers, (and it 
will be found your interest,) and the value of the bank 
• will be in proportion to their deposits. 
D. G. Weems. 
Tracey's Landing, Md., May 10, 1843. 
Soak yaiar ruta baga seed in dinner's oil.— N. E. Fat. 
GARDEN PLOW.—(Fig. 54.) 
Explanation of the Figures, 
1. Handle, 4 feet 2 inches long. 
2. Beam, 2 feet 2 inches long; breadth, 4 iflcffes. 
3. The two handles of the plow with the traverse j the 
handles 1 foot apart. 
4. The iron hoop of i^e wheel, 1 foot in diameter, 1 
inch broad, half thick; th.s rest in wooil. 
h. piece of wood, 2 feet long, 1 inch broad, and 
half an inch thick. 
A. A Coulter, ll inches long, 3 inches broad to the 
middle point. 
B. Coulter, 4 inches. C. do. of 6 inches; the pro¬ 
portion is not kept in the figure, being made to indicate 
the elevated part that runs along the plants in the rows, 
and thus turns the soil from them. 
D. A Coulter of 7 inches in its greatest length; 2 inch¬ 
es broad to the point. 
E. An Iron screwed above the pivot of the wheel. 
F. A wedge as represented in No. 2, fastening each 
coulter. 
10 inches distance of the mortice from X. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —I have thought that 
the plan of a small garden plow which I have been using 
these 25 years past, might be acceptable and useful to 
those who make a large market garden. The ground 
being plowed and harrowed, the beds made, the line 
stretched, the iron B. is put in the garden ploAV, which 
is then pushed along the line; if for peas, the rows may 
be eight inches apart, until there are three rows in each 
bed, all made by the plow and line. I have found that 
the peas planted in that manner were more easy to stick, 
and wanted less sticks to do it. The distance is large 
enough to cut the weeds with the little plow and the iron 
marked D., until the peas are large enough to be plowed 
with G., annexed. to the plow in the subjoined plan. 
All vegetables planted or sowed in rows, may be thus 
plowed and tendeil. The iron C. is for little onions, car- 
rots, parsneps, garden oysters or salsify, beets, &c. This 
iron goes very near the plant, and throws off the soil 
fi'om it when needed. All those irons are made of old 
“ hand-saw blades,” and must be kept as sharp as possi¬ 
ble. The iron A. is to be used to clean walks; then t,wo 
small wheels must be adapted as pointed in the plan ; 
they keep the plow steady. This iron must have, a curve 
that may keep the heel about two inches from tlje ground, 
while the point enters it deep enough to take up the roblS 
of the weeds.* Experience can best teach ’oest ^"eah'S-of 
using the instrument. All the pieces of che plow should 
be screwed so as to take it apart, if needed, to transport 
it elsewhere, or to replace what migiit break. 
Yours, &c. W. Mentelle. 
Lexingion, Ky., May 15, 1843. 
AN EP,SAY 
ON THE MA’NAGEMENT OF 
DAIRY COWS AIifD CHEESE DAIRIES. 
BY ALONZO L. 
Ft.SH OF HERKIMER CO., N. Y. 
the poorest fodder is first ffed, as if the cows could then 
Lye best upon mg—such eows? pf .meatment, will 
r-.ituce the liesh of g-ood milch cow, ami leave tfee; 
blood in g Veak unhealthy state, ami snake tb® animal 
predisposed to horn distemper, hoof-ail, blain, and man 3 f 
other disorders which originate in the blood, and are in¬ 
cidental to COWS after gestation; and require much strong- 
feed to recruit them sufficiently to commence their milk^ 
when they shoulit require the leasts 
If cows are milked after grass^ becomes frozen and lo¬ 
ses its nutrition, they should be sheltered from the cold 
storms and bleak winils, and fed plenty of good hay or 
its equivalent. A profit may also be deriveii from feed¬ 
ing apples, pumpkins, roots, &c. with diseretio-n, on the 
decline of grass; as they increase the flesh and improve 
the milk. If the dairyman has not a supply of those to 
feed, he may substitute ground oatsy corn, barJ»y, 
wheat, or wheat bran, which shouW always be made in¬ 
to a thin slop teed, and scalded or soured several daye 
before it is fed. From two to four quarts of provender 
meal thus prepared, is sufficient per day for each cow. 
With sufficient feed and care.^ the milking season may 
be safely and profitably protracted until 90 days previous 
to the close of gestation. The cows should then bckept 
to dry feed and plenty of salt for ten days; which will 
have a tendency to dry up the milk by reducing the flu¬ 
idity of the system; during which time-they should be 
occasionally milked, as the conditmn of the bag may re¬ 
quire. This may be a profitable time for children to milk,^ 
as they commonly dry up eowsthey are in the habit of 
milking. When regular miltemg seems to b« bo longer 
necessary, and the cows are nearly or quite dry, all the 
fluid should be thoroughly got out of the bag, that it may 
not be taken back into the system in an unnatural and- 
unhealthy state, or remaips to form callus, ■which fre¬ 
quently spoils a good cow. Af er cows become perfect¬ 
ly dry, they should be stabled: in dry warm stables, and 
fed plenty of nourishing food r sufficient to keep them in 
a healthy arid thriving condition. A sheaf or two of 
OsAs, cut and well cured When the berry is soft, and’ 
fed daily to each cow at sneh a season, with plenty of 
good hay and’an ounce of sulphur each, per week, for se¬ 
veral W'eeks, will keep'the bowels in a proper condition^ 
and restore the blooffto a healthy state, which is very 
riecessafy atTbis crisis. 
GeStati'dri produces the heaviest draft Upon the system 
the last three months, during-Which time cowssheuldbe 
kept thriving if possible, wiihorit grain feetl, as this is 
more conducive to muscle' than fluid. The fluency of 
milk depends much upon the fluidity of the system being 
kept up through gestation;' SM I have never found this 
object accomplished easier or cheaper than by feeding,' 
plenty of good hay, with some roots, as the comlition of 
the cow may require. 
A healthy cow will thrive sufficiently upon pod 
if well stabled and tended. If hay is not 
mow', cows should be saltc't 1 -- —..led in the 
,, ... -■-'gntly,and often. In win¬ 
ter, the mildest weather should be chosen to sa t ’ 
and an opportunity given them to drink soon -c, ' 
salted. ' 
The good success of a Cheese dairy through the year, 
depends much upon the treatment of cows during the- fall 
and winter preceding the milking season, and on the kind 
and quality of food given them. I shall therefore .com¬ 
mence my observations about the middle of Octobeir, re¬ 
lative to the proper articles of food, and the best nuinner 
of producing them, according to my practice and expe¬ 
rience. 
Cows that have been well kept through the summer, 
are now in good flesh, and should not be allowed to 
shrink from their present condition. If they are milked 
late in the fall, and left out to consume old dry corn stub, 
ble and frozen grass, (which is too common a practice 
to save, fodder,) and to add to this mode of treatment, 
* The small wheels are not wanted except for the iron A. 
tcr being 
Milch cows should never be allowed to stand ant 
trembling m the winter’s blast, as it will tendto eSmS 
the muscles and reduce the fluidity of th® system. ' 
btables with stanchions are the most convenient and „„ 
equ..ly .afe ami eaay for ,h, if prop,," 
objection to this mode of sfabling cows 
IS the ihffleultym raising, rvhen in stanchion, but this 
may be obviated by placing the plate or top of the sfan! 
ehion aslimt from the sill and from the body of the cow 
punches from a perpendicular sfandaTd 
of 5 to 5, feet in engtb, which is a proper hei-ht for 
the plate or top piece, thus accommodating the forward 
motion of the animal as she raises upon the floor S 
out pressing the shoulders. ^ 
Cows should not be out in severe weather lono^er than, 
necessary to get dripk, wd if their hair gets filled with 
