1846. THE CULTIVATOR. 317 
an l( offender.” But we hope his neighbors will be 
considerate enough to wait till the truth of their 
charges is clearly made out. 
FEEDING WORK HORSES. 
We have long been convinced that the best mode of 
feeding horses that are kept in the stable, is to mix the 
grain in a ground state, with the hay or straw, after the 
latter has been cut with a machine. Experiments have 
demonstrated that a considerable saving both of hay and 
grain may, in this way, be made. We have lately met 
with an account of a method of feeding said to be prac¬ 
tised by Dr. Sully, of Somerset, Eng., which, it ap¬ 
pears to us, may be worthy of adoption, to some extent. 
He has no racks for haj T , as he deems it wasteful to feed 
uncut fodder. The horses are fed in mangers, over the 
top of which, to prevent the horses from tossing out 
food, cross-bars are nailed at about a foot apart. The 
cut hay and straw, and grain are regularly weighed out. 
The food is sometimes varied: but thirty pounds of 
food is given to each horse every twenty-four hours. 
The following shows the articles of food given, and the 
different modes of preparing it, as well as the quantity 
which each horse daily receives: 
No. 1st. 2d. 3d. 4th. 
1. Farinaceous substances, consisting 
of bruised or ground beans, peas, lbs. lbs, lbs. lbs. 
wheat, barley, or oats, .......... 5 5 10 5 
2. Bran, fine or coarse,. 0 0 0 7 
3. Potatoes, boiled or steamed, 
mashed in a tub with a beater,. ..5 5 0 0 
4. Fresh grains, (boiled barley,)... 6 0 0 0 
5. Hay, cut down into chaff,... 7 8 10 8 
6. Straw, ditto,... 7 10 10 8 
7. Malt-dust, or ground oil-cake,... 0 2 0 2 
With 2 oz. of salt in each class. — —- — — 
30 30 30 30 
Of the four classes into which the ingredients are di¬ 
vided, Dr. S. most recommends those two which con¬ 
tain the steamed potatoes. 
RECENT AMERICAN PATENTS. 
Reported for u The Cultivator,” by Zenas C. Robbins, 
Mechanical Engineer, and Attorney for procuring 
Patents, Washington, D. C. 
For an Improvement in Fanning Mills —Daniel 
Clow, Port Byron, Cayuga Co., New-York, July 16th, 
1846. 
The principal novelty in this invention consists in 
combining two cylindrical screens of different textures; 
the one placed within and concentric with the other, 
with the vibrating screens of a fanning mill; so ar¬ 
ranged that the mill can be operated in the usual man¬ 
ner, with the vibrating screens alone, or in combina¬ 
tion with the double cylindrical screens. 
Mr. Clow exhibited one of his improved fanning 
mills at the late National Fair, in this city, and it gave 
universal satisfaction. To illustrate the excellence and 
superiority of his mill for cleaning grain, Mr. Clow 
brought on wiih him a bag containing a mixture of 
wheat and every impurity that is ever found intermixed 
with it, one-half its contents only being sound wheat. 
By passing this mixture once through the mill, the 
sound wheat was perfectly cleaned and separated from 
every impurity, and from the light and shrivelled 
wheat. 
CLOVER HULLING MACHINE. 
Mr. Tucker —In a a letter lately received from Mr. 
M. H. Mansfield, the inventor of the “ Clover Seed Hul- 
ler,” reported in the Cultivator for August, he informs 
me that one of his improved hullers, with a cylinder 
twenty-two inches in length and fifteen inches in dia¬ 
meter, is capable of hulling forty bushels of clover seed 
per day. Z. C. Robbins, 
Attorney and Ag'tfor Patents, Washington, D. C. 
IMPROVEMENT OF WORN OUT SOILS. 
Mr. Tucker —As every one has his own peculiar 
notions, I have thought I would give you my experi¬ 
ence on the improvement of poor land. About twelve 
months ago, I read a work on calcareous manures, by Mr. 
Ruffin, of Virginia. As well as I recollect, the author 
lays it down as a fundamental axiom, that poor land 
cannot be permanently improved by putrescent manures 
alone. While mounted on a favorite hobby, especially 
if he ambles pleasantly and willingly, we are too apt, to 
spur and flog the beast to death. Such is the enthusi¬ 
asm with which this very respectable author has got 
astride of his hobby of calcareous manures, that he is 
disposed to undervalue all others. It is an amiable er¬ 
ror he has fallen into, and without at all underrating the 
true value of his favorite manure. I give you the result 
of my own experience. 
About eight years ago, I began to practice the en¬ 
closing system on an old field containing some 50 acres 
of barren sand, nothing else appearing in the composi¬ 
tion of the soil. I should say that five bushels of corn 
to the acre would be the maximum under the best cul¬ 
tivation. I ordered stock to be rigidly kept off*. It 
clothed itself the first year in a few sickly weeds. I 
then cultivated it in corn, and after husking on the land, 
cut down the stalks and shucks and chopped them in 
three pieces, giving it twelve months rest; result, a 
manifest improvement in the growth of weeds. I again 
cultivated in corn—the crop much better, but still pro¬ 
ducing not more than seven or eight bushels per acre. 
1 then followed the same plan of cutting down and 
resting. The growth of weeds increased very percepti¬ 
bly; towards the last of winter I plowed in the weeds, 
and in the spring planted in corn, the crop yielding ten 
bushels per acre; again cut down the stalk's, &c., which 
were succeeded by a dense growth of weeds; plowed 
them in as heretofore, and planted one half in Baden 
corn, the other half our common corn. Produce, Ba¬ 
den corn, 24 bushels per acre; common do., 12 bushels 
per acre. Again cut down the stalks, which afforded an 
unusual parcel of litter to spread over the land; and 
while l am now writing, I never saw a more luxuriant 
growth of rich weeds. I intend planting again in corn 
the ensuing spring, and may reasonably calculate on an 
increase of one-fourth of the crop. And here you will 
pardon me for a little moralizing, which I deem, while 
on a subject of this kind, not at all out of place. 
Here you see is land reclaimed from utter sterility 
and made productive, and this too by no extraordinary 
exercise of skill or industry, for I know that I am yet 
in my horn-book in the science of agriculture, which 
is as much a science as any of the learned profes¬ 
sions; but while I survey even my unskilfully cultivated 
fields, and enjoy the happy feelings which it inspires, I 
am overwhelmed with gratitude to my Maker who has 
so clearly indicated that true felicity consists in obe¬ 
dience to his will, in acts of benevolence, in subduing and 
cultivating the soil, and in such avocations as are calcu¬ 
lated to make us wiser and better men; pointing to the 
gardens of Epicurus and of Shenstone, rather than the 
bloody fields of Arbela and of Austerlitz. 
John D. Jones. 
Topsail, New-Hanover Co. N. C. 
POTATO ROT. 
Mr. Tucker —As every thing in relation to this 
vegetable must be of interest to you? readers, I commu¬ 
nicate the following as the result of my observations. 
August 1st, examined my potatoes. Hill's Early and 
Chenangoes; they appeared all right. Within a week 
afterwards I found they were diseased very much. I 
dug them out and put them back in the drills, when the 
disease stopped. My late potatoes I found sound, and 
they have remained so. Last year my early ones were 
sound, and my late potatoes only were diseased. I wit¬ 
nessed, in a tour through a part of Maine, to the White 
Hills, and back to Massachusetts, what I took to be a 
general disease; but I have learned that in New-Hamp- 
