THE CULTIVATOR. 
Improved Mowing Machine- 
The Scientific American speaks in pleasing terms 
of an improvement in mowing machines, for which a 
patent is being received by Martin Hallenbeck, of this 
city. It consists in placing the sickle or cutter at the 
back of the driving wheel, and attaching the draft pole 
to the machine out of line with the driving wheel, and 
at the side of the driving wheel towards the sickle. By 
this arrangement the line of draft is made to counter¬ 
act the resistance which the grass offers to the sickle; 
the sickle consequently moves forward in a steady man¬ 
ner, keeping in the same line; the machine thereby 
being made to proceed with a very steady motion. The 
fingers of this machine for holding the grass are pecu¬ 
liarly constructed, so as to prevent the grass from be¬ 
ing forced out from them when acted upon by the 
sickle; the recesses in the fingers are also prevented 
from being clogged or filled with dirt. The sickle is 
also secured above the fingers by a metal plate in a 
very superior manner. 
Field Beets. 
A notice of the mode of raising field beets and of 
using their leaves for soiling cattle in summer and au¬ 
tumn, as adopted by U. E. Dodge & Co., of Dunkirk, 
has appeared in some of the papers lately. The outer 
or first leaves of the root, it is stated, soon begin to de¬ 
cay and drop, and are of no further use to the growing 
root. These outer leaves are therefore stripped off as 
soon as they are fully developed—and of which a man 
will collect a bushel in five minutes—and given to cows, 
constituting for them an excellent succulent food. The 
practice is continued for two or three months, with no 
detriment to the crop of roots. It is added, that the 
food of six cows for three months may be thus obtained 
from the leaves of an acre of beets. This^eems like 
an extravagant estimate, and we give it for what it is 
worth—it may furnish suggestions for future experi¬ 
ments. 
In commenting on the statement, and in allusion to 
the alleged value of the beet leaves as food for milch 
cows, the American Agriculturist says that according 
to his experience they have invariably produced scour¬ 
ing in the animals fed upon them, whether fed to Cat¬ 
tle, sheep^or swine; and that salting, or mixing with 
other food, did not prevent this result. The same paper 
adds, that the roots have been found to keep best \in 
heaps of about 100 bushels each, well ventilated with 
several holes at the top, as they are apt to grow in mild 
weather in winter if kept too close and warm. 
Mechanics vs. Farmers. 
Messrs. Editors —It needs but little discernment 
and research, to arrive at the fact that the farming 
community, as a body, are far behind the mechanical 
profession in making those advances in the calling to 
which they are attached, which its importance abso¬ 
lutely nequires. The mechanic studies to become ac¬ 
quainted with improvements of the day, and the nature 
of his business ; hence he husbands his time to the best 
advantage; he compares and analizes ideas with those 
of his profession. Two dollars a year for a well con¬ 
ducted journal, treating on the arts and sciences, he 
considers is as necessary to his business, as clothing or 
food is to the body; and in addition he must have a 
library of choice reading, its well drawn plates deline¬ 
ating the improvements made from time to time. Thus 
his leisure hours become his study hours, diversifying 
his time and storing his mind with useful and enter¬ 
taining knowledge. 
Now it is not to be wondered at, under such circum¬ 
stances, that the farmer looks upon the mechanic as 
enjoying life in a preferable degree to himself. When 
the farmer looks into the workshop, he sees all regu¬ 
larity ; all goes on with the precision of clockwork ; he 
sees theory based on practice, and knowledge on expe¬ 
rience, growing out of experimental tests which give 
facts as the result. While the farmer sees this, he 
looks with distrust on his own pursuit, and as his eyes 
wander over his farm, he sees that same old hedge 
occupying that same prominent position it did when he 
inherited it from his father, years and years before. 
His fields are covered with stones and rocks, bearing 
abundant marks of the plow and drag, showing to a 
great degree his inexhaustible patience in suffering 
them stubbornly to remain as nuisances, when they 
might be made useful in protecting his crops, and save 
one half the wear and tear in cultivation. Slough 
holes look as unseemly and unpromising as they did 
when he was a boy. Cold and springy places flinging 
up their growth of moss and wildness, when only a 
little trouble in under draining would not only remove 
those disagreeable witnesses of sloth and negligence, 
but render them the most productive parts of the field. 
His crops resemble those seen in Pharaoh’s dream, 
“ withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind.” 
Well says the farmer, as each year gives up its scanty 
return, what shall I do? I delve and work hard, early 
and late ; I economise close ; I neither spend time in 
running about the country, nor my money for worth¬ 
less agricultural papers teeming with Visionary specu¬ 
lations. But the truth says he, may as well come out 
first as last; farming is hard business. Poor fellow! 
And yet how many are to be found of the same kind ; 
living monuments, brooding over their own ignorance; 
exhibiting abundant proofs of the narrow contracted 
sphere in which they move. And yet evidences of this 
kind are neither few nor far between. The fact is, the 
farming community of this country bear a pitiable 
front. Our farmers are in general well read, and well 
informed on other subjects than those connected with 
their own interests, and their own pursuits. The theory 
and practice of politics is well read and understood; 
the relative position of nations one with another are 
strictly canvassed. But in farming pursuits, darkness 
rests like an incubus on a great part of the farming 
community, rendering them almost entirely ignorant of 
the true principles of those agencies that might be 
brought to bear in renovating land, and maturing 
crops. The fact is, the mind of the farmer wants to be 
