344 
THE CULTIVATOR 
HALL’S HORSE POWER—(Fig. 94.) 
Above we give figures of the celebrated Horse Power and Threshing Machine, to which is attached Pitt’s Grain 
Separator, manufactured by Joseph Hall, at Rochester, in this State. These machines are made of two sizes, and 
sufficiently strong for six or eight horses, though usually worked with four or six, threshing and clearing 200 bush¬ 
els per day with ease. Of the cost of the machines, we are not informed. Any information respecting them, 
may be obtained by addressing the manufacturer at Rochester. 
IMPROVEMENT OF LAND. 
It is always very gratifying to hear of the improve¬ 
ment of old worn out or naturally poor lands; because it j 
indicates the addition of solid wealth to the country, and 
sets a good example to others. It is a question well 
worthy of consideration, whether a good farm may not ! 
be made out of the poorest (t old field” in the old States, ! 
at an expense much less than that involved in the emi¬ 
gration to, and purchase and preparation of, a rich one, 
in the western country; more especially, if the sacrifices 
incident thereto, be calculated in the account. Be that 
as it may, however, the improvement of poor land in all 
the old States, is an object of the first importance, both to 
individuals and States, to farmers and towns-people. Let 
any one look about the environs of the city of Baltimore, 
for example, or of Washington, or indeed any where in 
the middle and southern States, and see the large tracts 
of waste land that meet his view at every turn, and then 
ask himself whether individuals, cities, towns and States, 
would not all be benefitted by the improvement of these 
es old fields,” and their conversion to profitable uses. But 
the thing is so self-evident, that no argument can be re¬ 
quired to illustrate it. The how, not the u'hy, it should be 
done, is the great point. How can this poor old field be 
made to produce thirty bushels of wheat, forty of corn, 
fifty of oats, or two tons of hay to the acre, at a cost that 
will enable the aforesaid crops to yield a fair interest on 
the investment and a fair compensation for the labor ? 
That is the frequent question; and ten thousand echoes 
answer, e: aye, how!” It is not intended now to answer 
this question, but to make a few remarks applicable to it, 
for the purpose of preparing the way for the answer at a 
future, but not distant day. We often hear of this and 
that case of improvement by this and that man, and of 
the wonders they have performed in the still more won¬ 
derfully short time of so and so many years. These an' 
Jiouncements are always very gratifying to every body; 
they are eagerly sent forth to all the world in the news¬ 
papers, and are returned in grateful echoes upon the im¬ 
prover’s delighted ears. And this is all right. It acts 
as a most powerful excitant upon others that had been 
more dilatory; it stimulates and encourages them to do 
likewise. But, unfortunately, they are always, or al¬ 
most always, if not quite, accompanied by the well known 
fact, that the improvers were in possession of wealth, 
and that that enabled them to accomplish the wond’ers 
spoken of. They were not obliged to earn the bread 
they were eating, by the sweat of the brow, at the very 
time they were making the improvements. They were 
not obliged to raise the interest on the debt incurred in 
the purchase of that very piece of land, by hard work, at 
the very time they were ditching and draining and lim¬ 
ing. They had the means wherewith to improve, and 
the time wherewithal to do it in. And is it wonderful, 
that with these attributes of ability in full possession,they 
made the improvements ? Would it not have been won¬ 
derful if they had not ? Still it is a good thing, no mat¬ 
ter by what means it is accomplished; it is an act that de¬ 
serves praise; just as does the proper appropriation of 
any and every other faculty or means any of us possess, 
and no more. Such improvers have simply performed 
an act of duty, which they owed to themselves, their fa¬ 
milies and their country—what else ? But show to the 
world a farm once impoverished or naturally poor, that 
has been made fertile and productive, out of its own re¬ 
sources, by the judicious management and industry of the 
farmer, and that has in the meantime maintained that far¬ 
mer and his family, besides paying some interest, and 
possibly principal of the purchase money, and all in the 
course of five or even ten years; then the world will 
have something to hold up to its rural inhabitants as an 
example that they all can follow. However commend¬ 
able the former class of improvers may be, the latter is 
infinitely more so. The former has 'purchased a valuable 
property, the latter has made one. Farms may be found 
