1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
207 
A Cheap Horse Power. 
The admirably constructed endless-chain powers of 
Emery, Wheeler, Pease, and others, have proved ma¬ 
chines of great convenience to moderate farmers, who 
do not wish to be dependent on itinerant eight-horse 
power thrashers, requiring several extra horses and ex¬ 
tra hands. It is both independent and economical to be 
able to thrash grain within doors, in winter, or during 
stormy weather. The chief objection to the endless- 
chain power is their cost. We have lately examined 
a horse-power manufactured by Hildreth & Eharles of 
Lockport, N. Y , and furnished much cheaper, or at less 
than half the price of the endless-chain powers. The 
accompanying cut, (fig. 1.) gives a fair representation 
of this .power, needing little further explanation. It is 
Fig. 1. 
best secured to its place and kept solid by wedging into 
mortises in two logs, set in the earth, across which 
it is placed. 
It is usually for two horses, but strong enough for 
four. In addition to thrashing, it may be employed in 
sawing wood, pumping water, driving straw-cutters, 
cap-augers, slittling saws, for turning grindstones, or 
churning. 
The “ tumbling rod” revolves about a hundred times 
in a minute—a suitable velocity for a cross-cut saw, for 
cutting logs into stove-wood. 
A larger, more durable horse-power, manufactured 
at the same establishment, is figured below. It is 
wholly iron, very neat and compact, and so durable 
that some have been run for years without the expen¬ 
diture of a dollar in repairs. The whole gearing is cov¬ 
ered with a cap, so that the driver cannot be injured, 
and the wheels are protected from dust. It is adapted 
to eight or ten horses, and the cost is $110. 
•-o—e- 
Tucker’s Annual Register for 1858, Albany, N. 
Y. Luther Tucker & Son. Sent for 25 cts., 144 pp., 
130 engravings. Affords more useful information for 
a farmer than can be anywhere procured for an equal 
amount of money. And if any farmer had to lose one 
meal a day for a week, to save a dollar to purchase the 
vols. for 1855, 6, and 7, bound in one vol., and sent for 
that dollar, he and his family would be life-long gain¬ 
ers—440 engravings, treating of over 500 different sub¬ 
jects, in reference to gardening, farming, and domestic 
appliances. We believe it to be the most variously 
useful book to all persons who live in the country, we 
have ever noticed —HalVs Journal of Health , N. Y. 
Advantages of Draining- 
Much as has been written on this subject, its impor¬ 
tance is not yet fully appreciated. We do not assert 
that all lands absolutely require draining, yet full one- 
half do, and nearly all would be benefitted by it. Here 
and there, a new farm, whose soil is full of the partly 
decayed roots of trees, is drained more or less by them. 
But when these roots shall have perished, the soil will 
settle compactly together and render artificial draining 
important. On some farms the subsoil is gravelly, al¬ 
lowing the surface water to pass off easily ; and here, 
of course, no other drainage is necessary. But more 
frequently, the subsoil is a cold, stiff clay, preventing 
the escape of water, and making draining essential to 
good husbandry. Travel where we may, we see thou¬ 
sands of acres, abounding in all the natural elements 
off fertility, yet of little practical value because sur¬ 
charged with surplus water. We see this, too, in por¬ 
tions of the country, where the farmers are intelligent 
and industrious, and might be presumed to be awake 
to whatever concerns their real interests. Is there not 
room for improvement, here, in American agriculture 1 
Instead of urging farmers to u plant one acre more,” 
we should first exhort them to drain one acre more. 
And this we would do, not as a mere echo of Scotch 
and English notions, but as a principle which live Yan¬ 
kees have worked out for themselves, and proved to be 
of great importance in American husbandry. 
It is easy to ascertain what land needs draining. In 
case of doubt, dig several holes in different parts of the 
field or garden under consideration, at a time when the 
surface soil is moderately dry and fit to plow. If water 
collects in the course of a day, and stands in these pits, 
it may be taken for granted that the land would be 
benefitted by draining. 
It is a weighty argument for draining, that it relieves 
the ground of surplus water early in the spring, and 
so enables the work of the farmer and gardener to 
commence earlier than, it otherwise could. It also 
makes that work easier and pleasanter. When the 
ground is undrained, it cannot beeome dry except by 
evaporation, or by the oozing away of the water, par¬ 
ticle by particle, through a long reach of stiff soil into 
some natural outlet. Meanwhile, the farmer must sit 
with folded hands in comparative idleness, knowing that 
by the time his land had become dry, his work will ac¬ 
cumulate and press upon him with a burden he can 
hardly bear. It would not be strange if some of that 
work should be left undone, or be slighted. Let but 
suitable drains be cut through that land, and the melt¬ 
ing snows and drenching rains would speedily find their 
way in these channels and leave the groufid dry and 
warm, and ready for tillage several weeks earlier than 
fields not so treated. It would tend to relieve farm 
life of a great objection to it, in many minds, viz : that 
it imposes such hurrying and exhausting labors at par¬ 
ticular seasons, and especially in spring. It would 
enable the farmer to get certain crops into the ground 
earlier, and so make sure of a vigorous growth before 
the drouths of mid-summer, and of maturity before 
the frosts of autumn. The farmer at the extreme 
north, who sometimes repines at the shortness of the 
growing season, and the coldness of his soil, would thus 
practically gain almost a degree of south latitude with¬ 
out the necessity of selling his farm and moving his 
household gods. 
