1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
159 
be adapted to carriages, wagons, &c. 
On the axles are cast also the cylin¬ 
ders, three on each, in which inden¬ 
tations or holes are drilled to carry 
the grain through valves out of the 
hopper, a box extending the width of 
the machine into tubes, through which 
it is deposited in the furrow. It has 
a lever by which all the teeth can be 
lifted out of the ground for the pur¬ 
pose of turning in the field, or passing 
over a rock, or packing to remove to 
and from the field by a single opera¬ 
tion, and two others to close the 
valves and shut off the feed at the 
same time. It has a graduated in¬ 
dex, by which it can be set to pass 
any given quantity of seed per acre, 
or altered from one quantity to ano¬ 
ther in a few seconds. The teeth 
are long to prevent cloging, and can 
be easily cleared by the operator in 
case they should gather grass, See. 
They are bent something like culti¬ 
vator teeth, and are made to cut a 
furrow three inches wide at the bot¬ 
tom, where the seed is deposited at any required depth 
through the tubes which are fastened lo the back of the 
teeth, six in number, and the furrows are cut nine in¬ 
ches from centre to centre; the depth can be adjusted 
by a regulator, in which the end of the pole is inserted. 
After the seed is deposited, the earth falls back and 
covers it. With this machine, a boy and pair of hor¬ 
ses, ten acres per day are readily planted, and five 
pecks of seed are equivalent to two bushels per acre 
sowed broadcast; with the drill machine the seed is 
distributed evenly, and is buried at a uniform depth, and 
every sound seed vegetates. 
Management of Manures, 
As economy in the accumulation and application of 
manures is a subject of almost paramount importance 
to the farmer, permit me to offer a few thoughts, as it 
is by an interchange of views that the farming interest 
is most likely to be promoted. In the first place, the 
dimensions of the barnyard should be adapted to the 
amount of stock to be wintered. The barn being suffi¬ 
ciently capacious, I would advise that all the products 
of the farm be housed. The farmer can then consult 
his interest, either to thresh his grain in the fall or 
winter; but supposing a part at least to be threshed in 
the fall, the overplus of straw, after littering the yard 
to the depth of a few feet, should be nicely stacked. 
This littering lays the foundation for the absorption of 
all liquids consequent upon the yarding of stock. As 
the winter advances recourse should be had, as occa¬ 
sion requires, to the straw stack, that a clean bedding 
maybe provided for the stock; and then if suitable 
sheds are connected with the barn, sufficient protection 
is afforded during the inclemency of winter. The ad¬ 
vantage arising from this mode is, all is saved, and 
this mixing up of straw with the manure of animals, 
makes an excellent compost for hoed crops the ensuing- 
spring. 
Now to its application. I very much doubt the pro¬ 
priety, on the score of economy, of some who heap up 
the manure in the yard to rot, or of others who draw 
and stack it in the fields for the same purpose, and are 
subjected to the additional expense of shoveling and 
carting it twice; it also having been ascertained that 
a good share of its fertilizing properties escapes during 
fermentation. My plan is to let it remain until just 
previous to plowing my ground for corn, which, by the 
Smith’s Patent Lever Drill —Fig - . 44. 
by, I do not do until about the time for planting, and 
then haul, and spread and plow it under—plant my 
corn, and by time the corn is up the manure passes 
through the stage of fermentation, which greatly ac¬ 
celerates its growth. By adopting this method in the 
first place, you not only save all, but in the second 
place you have the full benefit of its fertilizing and en¬ 
riching properties. And then by planting the early 
varieties, if in a wheat growing district, the corn can 
be taken off when the ground is in a fine condition to 
be sown to wheat. If otherwise, it will be in the best 
possible condition for any spring crop. W. Ansley. 
Potter , Yates Co., March, 1848. 
Book-Farming—Potato Disease—Large Pigs. 
People may say as much against Book-farming as 
they please, yet I think it is a fact,, (and I am not the 
only one that thinks so,) that the town of Cheshire is 
worth thousands of dollars more than it would have 
been if there had never been an agricultural paper 
taken and read by the inhabitants. Since the Agricul¬ 
tural Society of New Haven County w 7 as re-organized, 
some ten or twelve years since, Cheshire has taken 
more than double the premiums on farms of any other 
town in the county; it has taken the first premium on 
five different farms, the second and third on two or 
three others. And as for stock, dairy products, grain, 
vegetables, fruit, &c., there is not a town in the county 
that can go ahead of Cheshire. And why is it? I 
will tell you. All the principal farmers in the town 
read the Cultivator or some other agricultural paper. 
Why, there is one piece in the February number, I 
think worth more to each reader of the Cultivator in 
all New England than the volume costs—I mean the 
article entitled “ unenclosed lands/’ by William Bacon. 
I wish the Legislature of Connecticut, at the next 
session, would pass a similar law to the one mentioned 
by Mr. Bacon. I have suffered serious inconvenience 
and loss by cattle straying at large over the highways, 
breaking into my fields and door yards. 
Last season I planted four different kinds of pota¬ 
toes, all in one field, applying to each hill a handful of 
a compost of ashes, lime and plaster, in equal quanti¬ 
ties. The tops kept green till late in the fall, and the 
potatoes were large and fine when dug. The land was 
tilled, the potatoes were planted, hoed^ dug, and 
housed in every way similarly to F. Holbrook’s method 
