1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
447 
NEW METHODS OF CUTTING FODDER. 
The “Blizzard" or Tearing System. 
We have heard questions about, the Blizzard fodder cut¬ 
ters. How do they operate? Will they work satisfac¬ 
torily with a two or four-horse tread power? The fol¬ 
lowing description by Mr. R. M. Welles will answer these 
questions: 
The main frame or case of the machine, in some 
respects, resem’bles a foundry blast-blower, with the 
cutting apparatus inside of it. The hollow case— 
which encloses the fly-wheel, knives, shredder bars 
and fans—is all cast in one piece and provided with 
suitable openings for adjusting knives, shredder bars 
and fan flights. These openings have convenient 
plates for closing same. The cast case to machine 
numbered L 14 is 46 inches in diameter and 10 inches 
in thickness, outside measure. It has wood sills and 
forms the frame of the machine. The feed-works and 
box are attached to it. At the left edge or rim of the 
case is an opening for the cast-iron pipe outlet, and 
three plates in addition, to admit of the pneumatic 
conveyor being set up or down at four different an¬ 
gles, from 40 to 90 degrees, to allow the pipe being 
adjusted to varying positions. The fly-wheel is a 
solid disk or plate wheel, so arranged that the two 
straight-edged 17%-inch knives alone, or knives and 
two shredder bars, or four shredder bars alone, can 
be conveniently bolted to its face, and the fan flights 
to its rim, the latter strongly braced. The knives and 
shredder bars are all adjustable. The four shredder 
bars have 32 steel knives set in each. All of these 
parts are strongly made, prepared for the heavy work 
and high speed of the machine. All fodder can be cut 
alone, or shredded and cut, or shredded alone. In 
cutting green corn silage the shredders are not needed, 
for the knives do good work and power is saved. The 
gearing is arranged to cut four lengths, one-quarter, 
one-half, three-quarters and 1 V 2 inch. A conveniently- 
placed lever controls the safety valve at the bottom of 
the case; by a second lever the feed rolls can be stop¬ 
ped, started or reversed instantly. The power for the 
L 14 Blizzard should be from eight to 12-horse steam 
power, and the speed from 900 to 1,100 revolutions per 
minute, varying according to length of conveyer pipe, 
number of bends in same, nature of material, etc. 
While an eight-horse j power engine will do good work, 
yet a 10 or 12-horse-power is better, because it will 
allow of crowding and heavier work. The cut or 
shredded material is forced by air pressure through 
the pipe attached to the fly wheel case up into the 
silo, or where desired. The pipe is made of galvanized 
sheet-iron and usually made into three-joint sections, 
for convenience, and secured at their joints by quick¬ 
acting straight or angle gripe joints or clamps. It will 
elevate dry material to a height of from 60 to 70 feet, 
and green silage in proportion—from 40 to 50 feet. 
“Does it do effective work?” Yes, decidedly. The 
cut material, after passing the knives or shredders, 
seems to be more or less softened or battered by the 
concussions produced by the high speed of the plate 
wheel and its attachments in the iron case. Even dry 
kernels are much cracked. “Capacity?” The throat, 
at the feed rolls, is 14 inches wide, which is often ex¬ 
ceeded in low-speed cutters—but it has a capacity of 
from five to 10 tons of corn silage per hour; with 
plenty of power and evenly fed I believe the Blizzard 
capable of doing very much more. At the average 
rate of speed—1,000 revolutions per minute—the two 
knives make 2,000 cuts per minute. In cutting three- 
quarter-inch cuts, 1,500 inches, or 125 feet in length 
per minute of green corn, with the large ears on, pass 
through. At that rate it will be seen that it will re¬ 
quire active feeding to keep the cutter well supplied 
with silage corn. In cutting dry cornstalks, the 
shredders split the stalks just ahead of the kni f e. the 
knife then cuts the split stalks and they fall to pieces. 
“Power required and quality of work?” The straight- 
edged knives upon the fly-wheel cut the fodder at 
right angle at much less expense of power than is 
required by the spiral knives or shredder knives upon 
the common cylinder-head cutters, which are much 
more difficult to sharpen and set properly to the shear 
or ledger plate. The cylinder cutter knives cut but 
a very small part of the feed at right angle to the 
shear plate, being that only resting upon the plate, 
the greater part is jammed as well as cut off at 
oblique angles, at an extra expense of power. In the 
Blizzard the two straight-edged knives are easily 
sharpened and adjusted evenly to the shear plate. 
While I am satisfied from experience that the cutting 
and shredding is done at much less expenditure of 
power than is required by the common cylinder cut¬ 
ters, yet the high speed required to produce the needed 
blast to elevate the heavy cut silage, more power is 
required than to run ordinary carriers. The Blizzard 
works equally well in green or dry fodder; though, as 
is well known, any cutter will cut green fodder more 
easily and rapidly than dry. Any cut material that 
can pass the knives or shredders will be sent up the 
pipe. In cutting soft corn ears the milky fluid is not 
wasted, but saved by being smeared upon the cut ma¬ 
terial, and thus carried into the silo. With the car¬ 
rier cutters this is largely lost. The advantages of 
the pneumatic conveyor are readily seen:—It is sim¬ 
ple, cheap, light, easily handled and erected, easily re¬ 
paired, any good tinner can make it, it saves all the 
fodder, is not troubled by winds, and avoids the use 
of the heavy, expensive, complicated carrier, which is 
frequently needing repairs and is liable to breakage in 
handling. While the pipe can have bends in it so as 
to deliver the cut feed in any desired direction, the 
fewer bends the better. The longer the pipe and the 
more bends, the more power is needed. For the best 
working a perpendicular pipe is better than if inclined. 
PIT AND PUMP IRRIGATION. 
An Iowa Plan for Saving Water 
The following account of a plant for saving irrigation 
water was written several years ago. There are doubt¬ 
less similar situations in other localities whero some such 
plan could be carried out. 
FILLING A WASHOUT.—My place consists of six 
acres, on the edge of the town, mostly devoted to 
fruit. The place is 25 rods wide from east to west 
Two ridges run across the lot, sloping each way. 
There is, between these ridges, a low place, or swale. 
The ridges are about four feet higher than the swale. 
The whole slopes evenly towards the west, there 
being about six feet fall. When I bought the land 10 
years ago there was a washout all the way across 
along the swale, so deep that a cow could travel 
along it and not be seen. I put a four-inch tile along 
this gorge, and have filled up the washout until I 
cultivate across. The land to the east, consisting of 
about three acres, mostly town streets, slopes to¬ 
wards my lot, so that at every heavy rain the water 
A FERTILIZER DISTRIBUTOR. Fig. 147. 
all flows through or over my tiles. Several thou¬ 
sand barrels of water flow across in this way during 
the year. Much of this is melted snow, which goes 
washing across my land. For years I have seen this 
waste of these barrels of water, while all Summer 
long my fruits are drying up for want of water. 
There is another condition I should mention. If I 
dig a pit four feet deep I find clay that will hold water 
nearly as well as india rubber. 
IRRIGATION PITS.—I have given the conditions, 
now note the plan I have adopted. It so happens 
that in paths little used there are convenient places 
to dig pits, and so at three places across the field I 
have dug pits five feet deep to hold the water. Also, 
I have had no place to deposit the brush cut from 
the place, and these pits make a convenient place to 
deposit brush, asparagus tops and vine trimmings. 
On the east side at the end of the tile I have dug a 
pit 20 by eight feet, five feet deep. This will hold 
about 100 barrels of water. If the pit is filled full, it 
goes off slowly through the tile, and is caught in the 
two pits farther on. When an inch of rain falls, I 
catch about 50 barrels of water; 22 inches was the 
rainfall of our year of drought, 1894. Perhaps one- 
quarter of this from the three-acre watershed flows 
on to my land. In one corner of this last pit I have 
set up 10-inch sewer pipe, six feet deep, for a well 
in which to insert the movable pump. Each way 
from the well 100 feet of board troughs will take the 
water to the center of the ridges spoken of before. 
From these centers there is a gentle fall all the way 
across the place. I make a small open ditch across 
to the crop I wish to water at any time, when, after 
a rain, the pit has a supply of water. I pump the 
water by hand, letting it run through the troughs to 
the open ditch. This, of course, is irrigation on a 
small scale, but if it works well, and I get a good 
supply of water, I shall enlarge the plan. If needed, 
I shall dig larger and deeper pits, and probably an • 
other year shall put in, along the center of one ridge, 
mostly given to strawberries, three-inch tile about 18 
inches deep and send the water across in the tile, 
instead of the open ditch. I should also say that 
on these ridges there are 18 inches of loose soil. At 
that depth- there is an impervious yellow clay, so that 
when the water reaches this clay it passes out across 
and down the ridges, so that no water is wasted. 
WINTER IRRIGATION.—As much of the water 
caught in the pit comes from melted snow in the 
Winter, and as there is much warm weather when we 
can pump, I am getting the water into the soil during 
the Winter. This is necessary, for in these seasons of 
drought our driest times are in April, for the Spring 
opens with the soil as dry as an ash heap. To get 
water into the soil in Winter, I have dug small pits 
along the open ditch. I bore a hole with a post auger 
in the bottom of these holes, and fill them with a 
hand-cart load of manure. This prevents freezing, so 
that all Winter long water will soak into the soil in 
these holes. The tile I propose to lay along the ridge 
will be an improvement on this plan. I put the pic 
to another use. I can get all the manure I want for 
almost nothing. I cover the brush in the pits with 
manure, so that we can pass over them with a hand 
cart. I throw in ashes and all the refuse of the place, 
so that the water with which I irrigate is diluted 
liquid manure. Anyone can see that I can stop the 
water along the open ditch anywhere I want it. The 
west side (or end) of one ridge is planted to straw¬ 
berries, the east side to raspberries. When the straw¬ 
berries are ripening all the water goes across to 
them; after they have finished bearing, the water is 
stopped at the raspberries. The other ridge is cov¬ 
ered mostly with blackberries. When the raspberries 
are well out of the way, the troughs are changed, 
and the water is pumped to the blackberry ridge. 
THE PUMPING SYSTEM.—There is not a spot on 
my six acres but what can be reached by pumping 
water 100 feet from the pump and four feet high. At 
the end of the 100 feet the water can be run in open 
ditches to any part. The ditch leads along through 
asparagus, currants, gooseberries, grapes, etc., that 
are always in need of water. My land is well tiled 
along all low places, so that in wet times all surplus 
water flows away. To anyone who thinks these pits 
are dangerous places, I would say that the brush and 
trash thrown in them makes them safe. If this trash 
and manure rots all I will have to do is to empty 
them and fill again with brush. In the driest seasons, 
as 10,000 barrels of water have passed over my place 
on its way to the Mississippi, I purpose to save some 
of this and put it to good use. As most of the three 
acres of watershed is city street, the washings of the 
streets are valuable, and I not only save the water 
in my pits, but all this valuable fertilizing material. 
Warren Co., Iowa. a. d. field. 
MACHINE FOR SCATTERING FERTILIZER. 
I have just been reading Hope Farm Notes in the 
issue of June 2, and was much amused with the de¬ 
scription of sowing fertilizer. I could feel sympathy, 
for I have been there; but I don’t do so now. I take 
it easier, and do it more rapidly and far more com¬ 
fortably. Fig. 147 will tell you how it is done, either 
in drills or broadcast. It is a machine I got up my¬ 
self. I now have a good machine to let to my neigh¬ 
bors, and also the satisfaction of feeling that I have 
overcome a difficulty, and am now able to do rapidly 
and with comfort a job which formerly was very 
difficult, slow, and extremely unpleasant. The fer¬ 
tilizer is put into the hopper, from the bottom of 
which it drops into a central opening in the spreading 
disk. This disk is very obtusely conical, and has 
chambers running from the central opening to outer 
edge. It is given a rapid, rotary motion, which makes 
it in effect a blower, a strong current of air passing 
in at the central opening and being discharged at 
edge. This current of air blows the fertilizer with 
considerable force in all directions, scattering it with 
the greatest evenness over the surface of the ground, 
sowing a strip about 6 y 2 feet wide. Over the bottom 
of the hopper an agitating arm rotates slowly, keep¬ 
ing the material in the hopper thoroughly stirred, 
and, as the bottom of the hopper is conical, the ma¬ 
terial always moves towards the central opening in 
bottom. To regulate the flow, or feed, this opening is 
controlled by a conical-shaped valve or stopper, hav¬ 
ing a vertical motion. The conical valve has a base 
just large enough to fill the opening in bottom of 
hopper when it is raised so its base is in the open¬ 
ing. When it is lowered an annular opening is left 
for the fertilizer to pass through, and this annular 
opening is greater or less according as the valve is 
lowered much or little. This valve has also a rapid 
rotary motion, and two pins projecting up through the 
outlet of hopper. The rapid, rotary motion of the 
valve, with pins attached, make it impossible for the 
outlet of hopper to get choked, and the feed is very 
uniform m. m. 
Medway, Mass. 
