240 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
August. 
Hickok’s Improved Portable Cider Mill. 
(Under one existing patent and Hoo pending applications.) 
The accompanying figure represents a complete and effective machine—the whole being contained 
in one frame 2| by 3 teet and 4 feet high, the whole weighing 300 lbs. This mill will, attended by 
two men, when properly worked according to directions, make 6 to 12 barrels of cider a day. 
The peculiar arrangement 
of the cylinders is such that 
no description of apple will 
clog it up, but it will at all 
times work free and fast— 
qualities that are indispensa¬ 
ble, and it is believed no other 
machine possesses. 
The press is provided with 
a heavy wrought iron screw, 
and the pressing-box or tub 
is so arranged that soon as the 
pressing is accomplished it can 
be opened in an instant, and 
the pomace taken out, and it 
closed as quickly and another 
charge put under the screw. 
No straw or bag is needed, 
and the cider comes out fast 
and clear. Any boy 14 years 
of age can press as readily as 
a man. 
While it possesses all the 
advantages of the old style rsvy 
press, it has none of its objections. One quart or one barrel can be made any time the owner chooses 
to use it, and he can work up the apples off of each tree to suit his convenience. The mill is worked 
either by hand or horse power, and goes very easily. 
For list of agents, see advertisement in this paper. Manufactured by W. O. Hickox, Karris- 
burgh, Pa. 
fifty bushels. Ten bushels per tree, then, for sorts 
especially cliosen for productiveness, must be a 
moderate estimate—amounting to 400 bushels per 
acre annually. If fifty dollars is paid for an acre 
of ground, ana ten dollars for forty young trees and 
transplanting, the crops from the ground will pay- 
interest and cultivation till the frees themselves 
begin to afford remuneration. Sixty dollars, 
therefore, will pay for a bearing orchard • but ad¬ 
mitting its cost to be eighty dollars, and the an¬ 
nual plowing, harrowing and manuring, to be ten 
dollars annually; the whole yearly cost of the ap¬ 
ple crop will be fifteen dollars and sixty cents, at 
seven per cent, interest. That is, it will be a lit¬ 
tle below four cents per bushel, on the tree. No 
other crop can be-raised with so little labor—an 
important consideration for a country where 'wages 
are so high, where no annual planting is needed, 
and where the annual cultivation, entirely dispens¬ 
ing with hoeing, consists only of a single plowing, 
and a few subsequent dressings with the harrow 
or two-horse cultivator, in order to produce the 
very moderate crop we have supposed, and which 
we believe would in many localities and seasons 
be doubled, and be afforded at one-forth the cost, 
or not over one ednt per bushel. It must not be 
forgotten that all these estimates are made on the 
supposed basis of thorough annual cultivation, 
giving an immense advatage over the more com¬ 
mon practice of entire neglect. 
An Example of Ingenuity. 
Those who witnessed the trial of reapers last summer 
at Geneva, were struck with the extraordinary inge¬ 
nuity displayed in Atkins- Automaton Raker, which, 
although failing in its first trial from a defect of mate¬ 
rial, afterwards, when repaired, performed admirably. 
J. S. Wright, of Chicago, the proprietor of that in¬ 
vention, gave us at the time, some account of the in¬ 
ventor and of his achievements, and in the last Prarie 
Farmer we find some additional particulars showing his 
extraordinary ingenuity and perseverance under adverse 
circumstances. 
J. Atkins was a millwright; and about ten years 
ago was so seriously injured by a fall, that he has ever 
since been wholly confined to his bed, and has been un¬ 
able to sit up more than two or three minutes at a time. 
Two or three years ago, a reaper was brought into his 
neighborhood, and an opportunity given him to ex¬ 
amine it from his bed for a few minutes. A farmer 
present, knowing his great inventive skill, told him ie if 
he would only attach a raker to it, ft would make his 
fortune.” Being a son of poverty as well as affliction, 
his friends also being pool’, the remark awakened his 
thought and determination. Various plans were succes¬ 
sively formed and abandoned without trial further than 
a small model, till a year last winter, he struck upon a 
wholly new arrangement. Having mentally studied 
out the details, he ascertained by mathematical calcu¬ 
lation, before making any part of his model, the size, 
movement, and effect, of each separate piece.; and when 
the model was completed and put together, every move- 
