1853 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
139 
Clod Crushers. 
Last summer, when witnessing the trial of agri¬ 
cultural implements at Geneva, and the ineffectu¬ 
al attempts of the harrows and cultivators to re¬ 
duce a very cloddy field to a suitable condition 
for the wheat-drills, we could not help thinking of 
the magical effect which would have been wrought 
by a good clod-clusher. We have already fur¬ 
nished our readers with a figure and description 
of Croskill’s implement for this purpose, but as 
the cost is some $70 or upwards, it is beyond the 
reach of small farmers. Since publishing that ac¬ 
count, we have examined a very simple, cheap, 
and effective clod-crusher, which has been used 
to great advantage on a heavy and cloddy soil by 
Davio Thomas, near Aurora, Cayuga co., N. Y. 
A similar implement has been formerly described 
in some of the agricultural journals, but a de¬ 
scription of this, and of its construction, use, and 
effects, will certainly be acceptable to our read¬ 
ers. 
It is nothing more than a modification of the 
drag-log or drag-roller, and consists merely of a log 
dragged or drawn side-foremost over the ground, 
reducing or grinding to powder, in its progress, 
every clod over which it passes. The greater the 
diameter of the log, the more easily, as a matter 
of course, it will be drawn over the ground, and 
the less will be the liability of its clogging by 
gathering the clods before it. 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 1 represents the ordinary two-horse imple¬ 
ment. It is made of a hollow log about six or 
seven feet long—hollow, because it will be much 
lighter for the same diameter. Two pieces of 
scantling are inserted and fixed near the middle, 
which serve as the hounds for the reception of a 
common two-horse wagon tongue, which may be 
used for the occasion. This constitutes the whole 
of the machine, and may be made in two hours 
by a man accustomed to the use of tools, the hol¬ 
low log having been already provided. When one 
side of the log has become worn by long use, half 
a minute’s work in changing the tongue will in¬ 
vert it. It often happens that the weight is not 
sufficient, when the man who drives the team 
mounts and rides upon the log. 
As a single instance of the value of this clod- 
crusher,—it was used upon a piece of tenacious 
soil after a good coat of manure had been spread, 
and which had been so repeatedly cropped as to 
produce almost nothing. It ground both clods 
and manure so intimately together, that after a 
repetition of the operation, with an intervening 
harrowing, no trace of the manure was visible— 
the whole had become one homogeneous mass. 
D. Thomas gave it as his opinion, and as the re¬ 
sult of careful observation,' that one load of ma¬ 
nure thus treated, is worth at least five loads ap¬ 
plied on such land in the ordinary way. The crop 
was very luxuriant, and so complete “was the pul¬ 
verization, that the man who hoed it said it was 
the mellowest ground he ever worked. 
Fig. 2 represents a similar implement, about 
Fig. 2. 
three feet in length, which was made for working 
between the rows of a crop of corn. The spring 
had been unusually wet, plowing had been delay¬ 
ed, and when performed, had left the field not 
unlike a mass of mortar. On this the corn was 
was planted, but during the early part of the 
season made very little growth. The clod-crusher 
was then run between the rows, after plowing and 
cultivating, making the whole, as the hired man 
said, as mellow as ashes. As soon as the roots 
extended into this bed of powder, the growth be¬ 
came very luxriant, and the field yielded a crop 
.of over forty bushels per acre, where, without the 
crushing operation, not over ten would have been 
obtained. Both of these crushers were roughly 
made, and did not cost over fifty cents each, after 
the log was procured. 
Where a hollow log cannot be had, and a solid 
one of sufficient size would be too heavy, it may 
be split through the middle, and one-half or less 
taken and used with the rounded side downward. 
Making and Saving Manure. 
I saw an article in the February Cultivator, 
under the head of Making and Saving Manure, 
the sentiments of which I cannot fully endorse. 
That the making and saving of manure, is all im¬ 
portant to the farmer, all will admit; but as to 
the best mode, is another question. In the first 
place, I do not agree with “ Composter,” in manu¬ 
facturing horse manure in the manner spoken of 
by him, by the aid of the animal manure, because 
the process of scattering the corn in the yard 
to induce the animals to turn the manure, is a 
piece of work they do not understand, and con¬ 
sequently would not be likely to be well done. 
2d. Because by thus turning up the manure, the 
ammonia will naturally escape to a greater or less 
extent, which ought if possible, in every barn or 
hog yard, to be retained, and which can be done 
by the frequent application of plaster over the 
yard, and which also facilitates the process of de¬ 
composition, and also benefits the crop to which 
the manure is applied. 
The best plan, in my opinion, is to scatter the 
stable manure, which is more likely to heat and 
evaporate than almost any other kind, over the 
barn-yard; treating it as above stated, and haul¬ 
ing the manure out in the spring upon the corn 
ground, instead of leaving it in the barn-yard ex¬ 
posed to the sun and rains, causing loss bj r evapo¬ 
ration, &c., making an open fallow for wheat, 
dressing with what manure can be gathered du¬ 
ring the summer from various parts of the farm. 
These ideas were suggested, upon reading the ar¬ 
ticle headed as above; if you consider them of 
any value, you can dispose of them as you think 
best. D. B. K. Ringoes, N. J., Feb. 7, 1853. 
[0 s " The horse te , warranted to stand without tying,” 
which a man .bought at an auction the other day, is of¬ 
fered for sale by the purchaser, with the guarantee that 
cc he will not move without whipping.” 
