THE CULTIVATOR. 
235 
LETTERS FROM MR. HORSFORD—No. VI. 
Mr. Tucker —The annexed diagrams will enable 
your readers to form a tolerably correct idea of the 
plow generally used in the vicinity of Giessen. Fig. 75 
Fig 75. 
represents the various parts in connection. Fig. 76, 
the part corresponding with the mouldboard. Fig. 77, 
the share of the plow, from above. A crotch, of natural 
growth, furnishes the 
handles and uprights 
ior me reception and 
support of the beam 
—a round pole of the 
u$i>a! diameter. These 
m-o connected with an 
imperfectly squared 
block at the bottom, which occupies the place of the 
landside, and is plated on the sides and below with iron. 
The cutter fits loosely a mortice in the beam; and im¬ 
mediately below, or perhaps 
more generally a little be¬ 
hind, the share. Fig. 77 is 
bound to the landside. Those 
portions included within the 
dotted lines of Fig. 77, are 
wrapped around the termi¬ 
nation of the block. A frame work of eight or ten 
inches square, supported by the wheels, gives free play 
to the beam, and permits elevation or depression by 
means of little blocks, regulating thereby the depth of 
the furrow. The whiflletrees are fastened to a short 
tongue, which passing through the axle is attached to 
a chain, extending to the middle of the beam, and there 
secured by a clevis. 
It will be seen that thus far, the plow is as well 
adapted to turn furrows to the right as to the left. The 
addition of the mould-board, Fig. 76, determines the di¬ 
rection. This is changed in plowing, from one side to 
the other, so as to turn all the furrows the same way. I 
have seen this plow in use with one horse, with two 
horses, one ox, and with two cows, though not yet with 
two oxen, though I presume it is in difficult plowing. 
In JBaden, near the Heidelberg, another kind of plow 
is employed. The annexed diagram, (fig. 78.) was 
the furrow, many were furnished with pairs of wheels. 
The mould-board consists of a single sheet of iron plate 
about the eighth of an inch thick, to which the requisite 
form is given in a kind of press. 
Other plows, consisting of modifications of this and 
that of Fig. 75, are, as I am informed, in use both in the 
vicinity of Heidelberg and in other parts of Baden. 
The harrows that I have seen, are simply the quad- 
• vangnhu* frame much in use upon farms in Mew-York, 
except that they are generally very much lighter. A 
convenient mode of transporting the plow and harrow 
has, for the last four weeks, been illustrated each morn¬ 
ing, as the peasants go from the town to their fields in 
the adjacent country. The plow turned down upon the 
side, is supported by a crotch, the two prongs of which 
trail at some distance behind upon the ground. Upon 
the plow the harrow rests securely. This troop of 
peasants going from the cities and villages every morn¬ 
ing, and returning at evening, is unlike any thing the 
new world affords, or ever will. There can be no de¬ 
sire that it should, for in the course of a year, an im¬ 
mense sacrifice of time, through this feudal inheritance 
of residing in hamlets and towns, must be inevitable. 
That improvement in agricultural implements should 
be slow in Hessia and Baden is not difficult to explain. 
Modes and practices that have received the sanction of 
centuries, and are positively known to be connected 
with certain invariable results, will naturally be more 
warmly confided in by a peasant of moderate means, than 
jnew and untried schemes, though they may furnish much 
jlarger returns. With the burthen of taxes, which I was 
|told amounts in this rich Duchy of Baden, to about one 
tenth of the income of the agriculturists, the peasant 
with his whole family must work most industriously, 
and live most economically, if he would be prepared for 
advanced age or illness ; and above all if he would 
make the condition of his sons, at their entrance upon 
active life, better than that of their fathers had been. I 
am inclined to give this explanation to the want of en¬ 
terprise in general, and of course to the hesitation in the 
adoption of improvements. 
In a conversation with the Director of Agriculture, 
connected with the University of Heidelberg, I men¬ 
tioned the extensive use of threshing machines in the 
United States, and inquired if they might not profitably 
be introduced here. He thought not, and gave the con¬ 
dition of the peasantry, their moderate means, and gene¬ 
rally small fields of grain, as reasons. I remarked that 
more recently, few individual farmers, comparatively, 
owned machines, but that most of the wheat in particu¬ 
lar sections was threshed by movable machines, to which 
a portion of the horse-power and most of the men were 
supplied by the owner of the wheat. This gave him a 
new view of the matter; stillhe seemed to think it 
would be difficult for a manufacturer to find purchasers. 
And the gentlemen to whom I mentioned the subject 
and of whom I made the same inquiry, remarked that 
without threshing with the flail the peasants would have 
nothing all winter to do. 
I commenced this letter more than a fortnight since, 
and in the interval, the gardens, fields, and woods have 
assumed a new dress, as beautiful here as I have ever 
iseen it any where, and the more grateful that the winter 
'has been so prolonged. In November, the hedges, fruit, 
shade, and forest trees, all seemed to me dwarfish, and 
altogether of indifferent development. But now they 
have been through the hands of the Forest master, and 
display a neatness and prettiness of appearance that ena¬ 
bles them to approximate their natural brethren of Ameri¬ 
ca. Apple trees have been engrafted anew, bowers and 
ornamental shrubs trimmed and trained, and these with 
the groves in bloom and leaf, make Giessen, to one at 
all disposed to a generous consideration of good quali¬ 
ties in objects about, a very pleasant place of residence 
One feature of the landscapes in the vicinity, at first im¬ 
pressed me unpleasantly. It was the abrupt cutting at a 
height of from twenty to forty feet, and close trimmings 
of the trees along walks, and particularly throughout the 
valley of the Lahn and its tributaries. I was nonetheless 
gratified that no object seemed apparent in what seems 
me, this strange taste of the Germans. At length, a pupil 
ol the Forest Instruction Department of the University, 
explained it fully. The close trimming in the spring sup¬ 
plies from the willows, the basket manufacturers;—of 
jthe larger and harder woods, materials for controlling 
the channels of the streams, by filling up the elbows, of 
'making partial dams, and a variety of other uses: an > ! 
the trunks becoming exceedingly hard from the abitnd- 
lance of knots and curvatures in the grams, furnish a val¬ 
uable kind of timber 
Fig. 77. 
