NEW YOKE, AUG. 1881 
[Entered according to Act of Congress. In the year 1881, by the Kura] New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
into the sheaf. The first loop slips down the 
handle to the pointed end, and the loop B, 
caught there in the notch, Is drawn through 
the loop on the Btick, which is then withdrawn, 
allowing the knot to be drawn through to 
catch on the loop, held by the swelling of the 
Bheaf. These cords are five feet long, and in 
with tar and are smoked to render them inde¬ 
structible by dampness and disagreeable to 
insects and vermin, so that they can be used 
in many successive seasons. The price is about 
$14 per 1,000. In Europe where cereals are 
dear in comparison with their prices here, 
it pays to save any avoidable waste ; while the 
A SELECTION OF IMPLEMENTS FROM 
THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 
Your correspondent “C. E. F.,” page 466, 
speaks of the Rough-leaved Dsutzia (D. Bcabra) 
so plausibly, that many may be inclined to 
consider it as a common shrub, whereas the 
fact is that there are very few scarcer shrubs 
in cultivation. I know It Is advertised in 
many catalogues, and plants are sold for it, bnt 
in every instance that has come under my ob¬ 
servation, D. crenata, and not scabra, was the 
species handled. If “C. E P." is satisfied he 
has the true Scabra would he please tell us re¬ 
garding its distinctness from Crenata ? 
* * 
Schools for female farmers (page 470) are 
not what we want in America. Out-of-door 
farm work or any other legitimate employ¬ 
ment is no disgrace to a woman any more than 
to a man, but our wives, our sisters and our 
daughters can find more becoming work in¬ 
side than outside. I believe in educating 
women as thoroughly as men—not for orna¬ 
ment but foruae, and there Is no work so hon¬ 
orable for women, in my estimation, as house¬ 
work. School-teaching, shop-tending, factory 
work and the like may be good enough as a 
means of subsistence, but surely no woman 
can regard such work as the climax of her 
ambition. Do not all women yearn for a home 
of their own, and when they get it how can 
they enjoy it unless equal to the task of caring 
for it. American women throughout have a 
business inclination, are intelligent and edu¬ 
cated, and those brought up upon a farm have 
an inborn knowledge of its working, so that 
should an emergency occur they need but little 
prompting in its management. 
* * 
I have had some experience with women as 
farm hands, and fully appreciate their value 
in that direction, bnt out of consideration for 
the women themselves I disadvise their em¬ 
ployment in the field except in the interest of 
of their own families; then it is often their 
duty. Many a day of my boyhood have I 
worked in company with the women in the 
field, cleaning land for crops, putting out and 
spreading manure, carrying seed to the sow¬ 
ers, harrowing, planting potatoes, hoeing and 
storing potatoes and turnips, hsylng and har¬ 
vesting, milking ami the many other kinds of 
light work incidental to the farm and for 
which we found women more enduring than 
boy6 and more nimble than men. Again in 
nurserywork, behold how useful women are, 
still I do not like to see them at it. In my 
earlier years I was employed m large nurser¬ 
ies where firs and larches were grown by the 
million, and other trees and shrubs in propor¬ 
tion, according to the demand. The seeds 
were sown broadcast in long, narrow beds 
which were cleaned by weeding only. The 
weeding was all done by women ; they were 
more expert at It than men and more particu¬ 
lar than boys ; they also did the light hoeing, 
counting plants, etc. In the Fall and Winter 
they went into the woods and lanes for miles 
around to gather cones, acorns, elm and other 
seeds, which they carried to the nurseries upon 
their backs, and we bought them from them 
by measure. Those women seemed happy and 
contented, bnt that ambitious nature, progres¬ 
sive intelligence and domesticated capacity so 
visible In the women of to-day were greatly 
'lacking in them, 
* * 
Gardening is peculiarly woman’s outside 
sphere ; she takes a pleasure in it; it does her 
good—mind and body. It is not labor but exer¬ 
cise. It has an elevating influence upon her¬ 
self and family and, too, upon the neighbor¬ 
hood. It induces in the commnnity that noble 
contention or rather emulation of who the 
most and prettiest flowers can grow, and who 
The display of agricultural implements and 
machinery at the Paris Exposition of 1878 was 
unusually large and interesting. Edward H. 
Knight, A. M., L L D, member of the United 
States Commission at the Exposition and editor 
of the United States Official Reports, has just 
favored us with a copy of the illustrated re¬ 
port on agricultural Implements, and from 
the great variety of exhibits therein repre¬ 
sented we have selected and re-engraved for 
presentation to our readers, a few which 
either are not made in this country or have 
some peculiar features not usual in imple¬ 
ments of the same class made here. 
A Mole Plow.—D raining plows are con¬ 
structed for either of two purposes—to make 
an underground passage for the water, or to 
excavate an open drain or ditch. Among us 
a plow constructed for the former purpose 
is known as a mole plow, from the round, 
tunnel-like channel it makes in the ground. 
The implement is not at all adapted for gen¬ 
eral use, however, as it will only do good 
work in strong, clay soils, and even there It 
does not always give satisfactory results, and 
it should not be nsed in the expectation of 
obtaining permanent drains; for where it 
does ils beBt work the drains keep open only 
a few years, as they are apt to cave in from 
the top and Bides and thus prove useless. For 
a poor man on the clay soil the use of such 
an implement may be advisable as a make¬ 
shift until the means for making a more sub¬ 
stantial drain can be obtained. The accom¬ 
panying cut, Fig. 370 represents one of sev¬ 
eral forms exhibited. The method of " work¬ 
ing” the plow is evident, and in its passage 
through the ground it leaves a conduit of its 
own diameter for carrying off the water. 
Trenching Plow.—' The other class of drain 
plows follow the ordinary plow and lift the 
subsoil to the surface, forming an open drain. 
In practice the subsoil to the depth of from 
15 to 20 inches is thrown out upon the earth 
raised by the precedent plow. The trenching 
plow here illustrated, Fig. 371, is that known 
as Billot’s plow, which is intended for cutting 
drains in natural prairies. The sloping cutter 
and the carved share cut the sod which is 
lifted and thrown in two equal partB, one on 
each side of the ditch. The plow has an or¬ 
dinary coulter not 6hown in the figure. 
Steam Draining Plow —The plow shown 
at Fig. 872 is a steam draiuing plow, which is 
used either as a mole plow or to put in pipes, 
and it may be worked to a depth of 42 inches. 
It is worked by a winding engine and rope, 
and when the wire rope passes over the pulley 
the speed of the plow, at great depths, is only 
half what it would be were the wire simply 
connected to the front of the carriage, while 
the speed of the engine remains the same. 
The price of a machine like this in Europe is 
about $250; here the owners of large farms 
could well afford one, or several owners of 
smaller farms, each contributing a part of 
the price, might profitably obtain one for 
their own use, and to be hired to their neigh¬ 
bors. 
Sheaf Bands. —Of the numerous forms of 
sheaf bands exhibited, Fig. 374 represents a 
hand band composed of two cords knotted to¬ 
gether, forming loops, and tightened round 
the sheaf by means of a stick furnished with a 
handle, shown at fig. 3. The point of this 
tool is introduced through a loop at or near 
the end, and Is thrust as far as the hand per¬ 
mits, as shown at fig. 2. The band being then 
pressed around the sheaf, the point is again 
thrust through the other loop, and the handle 
end of the stick is then carried over, describing 
an arc of a circle on the point which has sunk 
MOLE PLOW 
comparatively low price of labor renders it 
economically possible to expend a considera¬ 
ble amount of work in making small savings, 
snch as that of the grain mildewed or lost by 
6traw binders aB well as the preservation of 
the cord binders from year to year, which 
can be done the more readily inasmuch as a 
great deal of the grain is still thrashed by 
hand. 
Tree Seed Planter.— The planter, Fig. 373, 
is a sheet-iron tube, with an enlarged bell¬ 
shaped mouth at the upper end and a sharp 
iron spud with a steel point which is thrust 
into the ground. The seed is dropped in the 
France they cost from $5 00 to $7 00 per 1,000, 
according to their thickness. 
In economical France much attention has 
been given of late to substitute something else 
for the bunch of straw taken from the sheaf to 
form a band. It is estimated that the grain 
crops of that country amount yearly to 4,000,- 
000,1100 sheaves, and that 50 straw bands con¬ 
tain one franc’s worth of grain,* the whole rep¬ 
resenting 80,000,000 francs or about $15 000,000; 
most of which is lost by shelling ont on the 
ground or mildewing under the band. Add to 
this the loss in time in making and applying 
the straw bands and the injury to the grain 
STEAM DRAINING PLOW 
and permits a certain quantity to escape. It 
1 b used with both hands and the stroke of the 
plunger rod is adjustable to regulate the ex¬ 
tent of valve opening and to limit the amount 
of seed discharged at each impulse. 
the sheaf to compress it, while the other hand 
draws the cord through the ring. The expan¬ 
sion of the Bheaf pinches the cord between the 
ring and the block and makes a perfectly tight 
fastening. The cord and block are treated 
